I spent a couple hours running this machine over the weekend:


It is a line shaft and belt driven hoist at an 1895 textile mill. It is located on the ceiling of the fourth (top) floor of the building and is used to raise and lower a hook up and down the exterior of the building in front of large doors on each floor. Since the elevators in the building no longer work, we had to use this hoist to lower loom parts bound for the museum. The mechanics are really neat. First, you have to press a start button which turns on the motor, so that the belts and pulleys start spinning. The motor only turns one direction and uses one belt to drive a line shaft. This shaft is then connected to the hoist by two belts, one of which is twisted so the opposite end rotates backwards, which is necessary for the hoist to run in reverse. To operate the hoist, you stand at the edge of the door (4 floors up) and pull down on one of two ropes. The left rope raises the hook and the right rope lowers it. This is so because when the ropes are pulled, they physically shift the belts from loose (free spinning or neutral) pulleys to tight (engaged) pulley on the hoist. Because of the push-button operation, the hoist only has one speed, which was actually pretty slow due to the gearing. Here is a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE0wHfcUxJI
and some more photos. It was more exciting in person than it is on film.





And a shot of an abandoned one that ran an elevator:

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wow, thats cool mike, it looks old!

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mike you sure that "elevator shaft" isn't something you found in the woods in Schuylkill County?

Thats wild.. I assume they are cleaning out this old plant? Are you taking the old hoist for the museum?

Miner Greg

I’m sure the elevator shaft was in Philadelphia. You can tell because the cars it carried don’t look like the ones in Schuylkill County

Yes, the building was sold and has to be cleared out. We saved enough vintage machinery to have a production line capable of making a rug. We couldn’t take the hoist because it is still an operating part of the building's infrastructure, so the next owner might want to use it.