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Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017611
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017611
This horse engine-house, situated 1.6km NW of Kirkton village and 6·5km N of Dumfries, is among the last to retain much of its driving-mechanism, although the threshing machine itself no longer survives. Adjoining the outside wall of a barn, which formed one side of an original courtyard layout of farm-buildings, the octagonal shed-rubble built with sandstone dressings and a handsome slate roof secured by pegs on battens-contains a 12 ft-radius (3.66m) horse-walk and overhead draught-gear for three horses. Well-executed throughout in dressed pine, the 13 principal mechanical parts consist of a wooden horsewheel, measuring 7 ft 6 in (2.29m) in diameter and built up in laminated segments. From this extend three radial arms framed by horizontal braces and supported by radial struts. The square upright iron shaft turns in a thrust-bearing and is secured at the top in a split-bearing fixed to a heavy cross-beam supporting the roof-structure-commonly the only feature of extant horse-mills left in situ. The drive transmission from the horse-wheel is by means of a bevelled iron 'rack-ring' and pinion, the latter being attached to a twelve-sided wooden lay-shaft, whose outer end, now sawn off at its bearing-point within the barn wall, would formerly have turned a spur-wheel. The yoke-bars and draught pulleys are about 3ft 6 in (1.07m) above the walk and incorporate a system of upper pulleys which allow free running of the draw-chains and thus equalise any uneven strains exerted by the pulling action of the horse.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
