(Vol. v., p. 173.)
In pursuance of my recommendation I now send to "N. & Q." the following
provincial and technical words, as taken from the published evidence
given before the coroner at the inquest on the Holmefirth catastrophe.
Technical names have been there used, which are either strange or
unknown even to many engineers, and which no dictionary that I am
acquainted with contains. The inquiry is, however, one of such general
interest at this time, as connected with the recent fearful loss of
life, and enormous destruction of property, that I also give some words,
the meaning of which is not so obscure. The names of the reservoir which
was bursted, and of the village which suffered most damage, may be taken
first.
_Bilberry Reservoir_: Bilberry is the local name of a berry
growing on a heath shrub; a species of _Vacci'nium_: the
genus consists of about fifty species. This berry, in England,
is known as wimberry, blueberry, blaeberry, blae, whortleberry,
whort and huckleberry; Saxon--_heort-berg_, hartberry;
German--_heidel-beere_, heathberry; Dutch--_blaauwbes_, blueberry.
The reservoir, no doubt, covered a site on which _Vacci'nium
Myrtillus_, the common _bilberries_, grew.
_Holmefirth_: this name may be from _holm_, the _Ilex_, the evergreen
oak; or _holm_, a tract of flat rich land on the bank of a brook or
river. _Frith_, a passage or narrow channel; or _frith_, a kind of
"_weir_" for catching fish.
_Greenhowlers_: the name of a place where one of the witnesses resides.
_Howler_, or Owler, _Alnus glutinosa_, the common alder, a tree or shrub
growing in damp places, in plantations and hedges, mistaken by the
ignorant for the hazel. To send a boy "nutting amongst the _howlers_,"
is to put him upon a fool's task. This word is common in Lancashire and
Yorkshire.
_Fall_ is applied to a number of trees cut down.
_Fresh_: a flood of water from heavy rain.
_Drift_: a small tunnel made for mining or engineering purposes.
_Drift_, in mechanics, a piece of steel or iron used to _back_ a bolt,
or to widen a bolt-hole.
_Dyke_: a small water-course or river.
_Dyke_, in geology, a protruded wall of basalt or whin rock.
_Goit_: a small artificial water-course leading to a mill or reservoir.
_Runs_: small dykes.
_Bye-wash_: an artificial water-course, to allow of the escape of flood
waters from a reservoir.
_Rag_: a term for _shale_. In geology, thin-bedded, slaty strata.
_Sludge_ or _Sludgy_: mud or muddy.
_Puddle_: prepared clay, tempered to form a wall in a reservoir bank, or
a lining to resist water.
_Puddle-bank_, _Puddle-wall_, and _Puddle-dyke_ mean the same.
_Culvert_, _Sewer_, and _Sough_ mean almost the same; an arched channel
of stone or brick for water or refuse to pass through. The first belongs
more properly to water-works; the two latter are synonyms applied to
town drainage, "_Sough_" being Lancashire.
_Shuttle_, _Sluice_, _Valve_, _Clough_, _Paddle_: these five names are
synonyms; they mean that portion of the apparatus which _slides_, or is
drawn up and let down, to inclose or let out the water of an artificial
stream or reservoir.
_Swallow_: the inner portion of the culvert, or _the throat_ which leads
from the inner side of the reservoir to the "_shuttle_," the outer
portion being the supply-culvert.
_Valve_: an apparatus to retain or let out water, steam, &c. A valve may
slide as the _shuttle_, _paddle_, or _sluice_ must do; or it may rise
with a spindle, vertically, as in the safety-valve of a steam boiler; or
may move on spindles or a hinge, as in some large pumps; or be in the
form of a ball, and play loose in a case, as in a fire-engine pump:
there are other forms of _valves_. _Throttle-valve_, a valve fixed in
the steam-pipe of an engine, to which the _governor_ is attached, to
_throttle_ or reduce the supply of steam to the cylinder. In some
engines, as the locomotive, there is no governor motion, and the
_throttle-valve_ is consequently used by hand.
_Waste-pit_: a vertical pit or well, leading from the "_overflow_" on
the embankment into the supply; or, in this case, the "_waste culvert_."
_Drawer_: the man employed to draw water from the reservoir by raising
the "_shuttle_."
Such is a brief explanation of some of the provincial and technical
words used in the Holmefirth inquiry; and I think some of the readers of
"N. & Q." will have a right to say that a process of desynonymising is
required. So many names for the same thing, unless they are all
understood, generally lead to confusion.