Friday, February 22, 2013

What Is It? Where Is It? (February): The Door Counterweight



We kicked off last weekend with the February edition of "What Is It? Where Is It?," our monthly guessing game where readers attempt to guess what is featured in the photo and where it is located at Graeme Park, by posting the above photo. One reader guessed a fence post with a bullet in it, which was a good guess, considering we did have Revolutionary soldiers encamped here back in the day. I almost  posted the below photo for the clue, but at the last minute decided to crop it, thinking the yellow rope made it too obvious to anyone who was a regular visitor here at the park. Would you have been able to guess it if I had?


It is the counterweight on the Visitors' Center door.

 

The rope attached to the weight runs through a pulley at the top of the door frame,


and is then attached at the far side of the door so that (in theory anyway) when the door is opened, the weight pulls it back closed. I say in theory because the latch tends to get caught up and prevents the door from fully closing and the weight is not heavy enough to pull the door closed if it is opened much more than half way, but still, a pretty neat little feat of engineering that generally catches the attention of our visitors.


We'll be back some time in March for another exciting edition of "What Is It? Where Is It?" To review January's edition on the marriage marks in the barn framing, see our post here.

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