Barns

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Notes from: Old Barns In The New World, Reconstructing History, by Richard W. Babcock and Lauren R. Stevens, Berkshire Publishers, Lee, Massachussetts, 1996.

 

"The Bull wheel, related to the capstan on a ship, can help take up the slack.  It is a drum, fastened to something solid, that can be rotated horizontally by a pole inserted through the central shaft. The bull wheel can be turned by animals, as the name suggests, or by human beings. Richard rediscovered the device in the writings of the eighteenth century french encyclopedist Diderot, rather than learning this from Clayton Babcock. The use of nautical devices in barn construction reinforces the historical relationship between barn building and ship building." page 52

"RIGHT ANGLES...The old builder (and now Richard, to demonstrate the old ways) used a compass to set the lines to hew. He flattened an area at each end of the log and inscribed two circles, snapping the charcoal line between their perimeters near the outer edge of the log.  The builder set the compass to whatever setting was appropriate and walked it down the black line, first one foot of the compass on the wood and then the other. Thus distances were measured in numbers of turns of the compass.  Richard believes these circles, moved outside, are the origin of hex marks - the builder in his pride leaving his mark." page 58