The Editor’s Flotsam and Jetsam Just recently I was struggling with a lock gate single-handed, and not being 20 stone, I was having some difficulty (you may guess where it was, choose from many). To solve the problem I fetched out of the back of a boat locker an ancient device, and managed to start the reluctant beam. At this point someone arrived from the other direction and offered to help, as boaters do. However he was surprised to see my gadget, the like of which he had never heard nor seen. In the hope that it might be of help to other weaklings like me who may not have come across it, here it is; it’s called a Handy Billy. You need one double and one single block, with thimbles; about 12 metres of decent 6mm rope, not the nasty polypropylene stuff they sell as clothes line, and two separate bits of rope, preferably a bit thicker and about 2m. long. These are to go around the end of the lock gate beam and some other sturdy fixed point, if you can find one. The arrangement goes like this, with the double block end towards the part required to move. A gentle pull, and you get a 3:1 mechanical advantage, which will shift most things.
Journals Received We are very pleased to acknowledge copies of journals from various canal and river societies and trusts. They include “Endeavour” from Northampton Branch; “The Portal” from Friends of the Cromford Canal; “The Cuckoo”, from the Chesterfield Canal Trust; “The Bridge”, from Grantham Canal Society; the “Melton and Oakham Newsletter”; and “The Wharfinger”, from Louth Navigation Trust, as well as “Navigation” from our regional neighbours at West Midlands. Anyone interested in receiving a copy of one of these journals should contact the relevant address given in our page 4 directory. For “The Cuckoo” contact the editor John Lower at 92a Tapton View Road, Chesterfield S41 7JY. Aegre 129 - July 2011 Page 20