Middleport Pottery - paternoster lift
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Middleport Pottery - paternoster lift by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Middleport Pottery - paternoster lift
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 11 Sep 2022
This was installed in 1920 to move wares from one floor to another. The chain of open shelves revolve in a loop continuously. A similar device is used in the mangle tower where glazed wares are slowly revolved on shelves over hot steam pipes. Paternoster comes from the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin (Our Father) as the continuous loop resembles rosary beads that are counted when reciting a prayer. I remember travelling in a passenger carrying version in the now demolished library at Birmingham University.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.040697
Longitude
-2.209656