Ever wonder what the difference is between a capstan and a windlass?
Yeah, me neither.
Then I happened upon this abandoned Lidgerwood capstan.
A capstan is a rotating winch with a vertical axis, used with boats and barges, often powered by a motor.
Lidgerwood makes motorized capstans, although this particular one lost its motor years ago.
A windlass is also a winch but the axis is horizontal. A waterwell uses a primitive windlass to bring the bucket of water up.
The Lidgerwood Company was founded in 1873, about a dozen years before our ClockTower. It had been headquartered in the New York metro area for much of the 20th century and sold motorized capstans for use along our city’s docks.
This is on an abandoned loading platform in the east river at 111th Street.
GoogleEarth
A Sanitation Garage is nearby so this loading assembly probably dates back to the 1970’s when our garbage was poured into barges, floated out through the harbor and dumped into the ocean.
Seems hard to believe now, doesn’t it?
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