Random Picture Thread

There are a number of variant painting of this scene, which can be seen here. This is an enlarged view of one of them, showing the "winch" detail. Looks to me like a horizontal capstan, with two off-set holes for inserting the staff you mentioned, which allows the man to twist the log, winding the chain, thus lifting the sluice door.

 

I'm pretty happy that that's a sharpening wheel, as Angelique has suggested. It looks right, and the size of the structure looks too delicate to be a pump big enough to drain the lock quickly, or handle the lock gates. You can see a lever arm on the lock gate to the right of the barge, and it is huge in comparison. Looking on bing maps, which gives you both the OS 1:25000 maps and the satellite photos, you can see the big new gates/sluice where the A137 crosses downstream. Looking at the nature of the land either side of the river, I think Angel is (as usual!) right about the Stour being tidal further up in days gone by. I read about the dry dock at Flatford being drained to the culvert the other side of the Stour, which again is visible on aerial photo and map. The culvert appears to drain into the Dedham Old river, below the Judas Gap Weir. The water courses are complex here, but this would all support the idea of the lock being able to be flooded at high tide and drained at low.

Here's a wiki article about early locks; there's a photo of an early windlass used to drag vessels upstream through a flash lock. Its a very different device, and heavier duty than the mystery item in the painting.

Flash lock - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_lock

here's the Flatford mill website:

Flatford https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/flatford

 

These images may be clearer.

 

With the lock gate closed I would expect the lever arm to be parallel to the main river. But maybe it depends on which way the gate opens? Or maybe I'm not seeing the same timber that you're seeing?

Google Earth "suggests" that the elevation on the Stour at Flatford is about 18' . It appears that currently there are locks downstream of the building site, suggesting some sort of a falls or rapids. Does it make sense that 200 years ago that area would have been tidal?

I'm having trouble imagining how the dry dock could be drained by a culvert located on the other side of the river?

Here's some more photos of the dry dock, suggesting it can flood or drain -- depending. Not sure if the water in the drydock is rain water or river water. And who knows if either the river or the dry dock is at the elevation it was 200 years ago?

 

I think you're right about the tidal range, IN - the maximum range at Manningtree is 12.8 feet, and the mill is very close to the 5m contour. Looking at it again, the land that looks like saltings either side of the river only extends up to about the Judas Gap Weir, so perhaps this weir, and the H Ram (hydraulic ram?) lock (allowing navigation past the mill leat) maintained the depth of water for the Stour navigation upstream. The levees/dykes seem to correspond. In the far corner of the painting, it certainly looks like what could be a lock structure corresponding to what is marked as H Ram lock today.

If the culvert on the far side of the river drains below the Judas Gap Weir, it would be feasible to run a wooden pipe across the river bed into the culvert, which is dug down to a lower level than the river, to drain the dry dock.

This still leaves the matter of a pump, though, which would surely have been needed to maintain a dry dry dock. (though there appears to be some water around the dry dock gates in both the painting and the photos). I'm still convinced that the thing we've been looking at is a sharpening wheel, though I agree it is in the right sort of position for a pump. Looks a bit like it has been placed on a mound of freshish dug earth...

The timber I was thinking was a lever for the gate is at 90 degrees to the gate, pointing out of the picture towards us, to the right of the barge. However, its not in the most convient place to lean on, and in your photo, it appears to be part of the wall of the lock.

 

I think you are right, yes.
Looking up locks, I came across an explanation of early methods of locking "flash locks" where the boats were impounded in a dam where the water level was allowed to rise. Once full, the dam was quickly removed and the boats were carried down stream on the resulting flood! Apparently it was unpopular with millers as it took days for the water levels to re-establish.
Here is a flash lock from as late as 1925 from the wikipedia references. If I have understood the explanation, the poles on the left are the handles of the dam paddles which have been pulled out.

 

From reddit r/evil buildings

 

I'm trying to understand what it is? The buildings look too small to contain processes that would require so much air flow so I imagine they contain filtration elements? The smaller brick building may separate particulate of different sizes on different floors? The larger tin building contains the fan assembly and there is possibly a large cyclone filter behind it, just visible to the left?
What industry is it? A foundry? A mine?
I like the Artists discrete labelling which looks like it belongs.

 

Blood And Iron: Photographing The 'End Of The Industrial Revolution'

 

Amazing collection of foundry photos, thanks.

 

Abandoned mine buildings at Gilman, Colorado. I skied down an abandoned railroad to get there.

 

Thank you! I had no idea where the photo came from, the others are just as awesome.

 

Underwater waterfall, Maruitius island nation in the Indian Ocean.

 

Earth → Absolutely Stunning Illusion of an Underwater Waterfall in Mauritius​

And with X-mas coming up, some Reindeers from the first above link, Rare Albino Animals Prove You Don’t Need Color to Look Spectacular​

Note this one too ↑

 

Possibly leucistic, not albino.

Leucism - Wikipedia

Leucism (/ˈljuːkɪzəm/;[1] or /ˈluːsɪzəm/[2][3]) is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes.[1] Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigment, not just melanin.


Leucistic white lions owe their colouring to a recessive allele. Note the eyes and lips remain the normal colour.


This white horse owes its colouring to a dominant allele (dominant white).


A leucistic rock pigeon. Both the eyes and legs are still of the normal colour.