the handle would be entirely removed. I had already arrived at this conclusion before seeing, in Mr. Kirwan's paper, the views of a "skilful practical turner" on this point; but it may be well to describe the simple instrument known as a pole-lathe, with which most of the constituent parts of a Windsor chair are turned at the present day.[1]
On the bed of the lathe, which usually consists of two pieces of squared wood nailed to two standards fixed in the ground, are two wooden "heads," both furnished with pointed screws passing through them, to form the centres on which the piece of wood to be turned revolves. This, after having been chopped into an approximately cylindrical form, is placed between the two centres, and above the lathe is fixed a long elastic pole of wood, to the end of which a cord is attached, connecting it to the end of a treadle below the lathe. The cord is hitched round the wood, and adjusted to such a length as to keep the treadle well off the ground when the pole is at rest. When the treadle is pressed down with the foot, it draws down the pole, and the cord in its passage causes the piece of wood to revolve. When the pressure is relieved, the elasticity of the pole draws it back in the opposite direction, so that the workman by treading causes an alternate rotary motion of the wood. He turns this in the ordinary manner, except that his tool can cut only intermittently, that is, at the time when the revolution is towards, and not from him. If now, a projecting stop were attached to the object in the lathe, so as to prevent its making a complete revolution, it is evident that a portion like that forming the handle of the cup might be left unturned. Still, in the case of these cups, something more than the ordinary pole-lathe with two "dead" centres must have been used, as with such a lathe, it would be almost impossible to bore out the hollow of the cup. It appears probable, therefore, that a mandrel-head with a "live" centre, like that of our ordinary lathes, must have been used; though probably the motion was communicated by a pole and treadle, and not, as with modern foot-lathes, by a large pulley on a cranked axle.
We shall subsequently see that the waste pieces of Kimmeridge shale, to which the unwarrantable name of "coal-money" has been applied, testify to the use of such a lathe. Whatever may be the date to which the manufacture of this shale into bracelets and other objects was carried down, it seems probable that, assuming this cup to have been of home manufacture and not imported, the use of the lathe was known in this country in pre-Roman times. In the Broad Down barrow no other object accompanied the burnt bones, and in the trunk-interment in the King Barrow, Stowborough,[2] near Wareham, cited by Mr. Kirwan, where a somewhat similar cup appears to have- ↑ The pole-lathe is also still in use in the manufacture of metallic cocks in which the revolution of the barrel being turned has to be stopped before the complete circle has been gone through.—See Timmins's "Birmingham and Mid. Hardware District," (1866), p. 291.
- ↑ Hutchins' "Dorset," vol. i. p. 38. Gough's "Camden's Brit.," vol. i. p. 70, pl. ii. Warne's "Celtic Tumuli," § 3, p. 4.
