Monday

Re: Monday

If I posted an answer this early I might get hit with a beam.

You have three of the

five points of one star as it is indeed a beam. I'm looking for where placed in a building? Also, where did you get that info? I found but one source but failed when I went for confirmation in two dictionarys - German, Dutch. Compact OED no help.

Hint. All are found on farm outbuildings

Re: Monday answers

Monday answers:

All are found in a barn. Mostly stone barns on the east coast.

Schpriggel is a stout wood beam (3� x 4� or larger) that is fitted to pockets across from one another in a stone wall on either side of a barn's door frame. There can be multiples of these beams, but usually one placed at cow or horse chest height is sufficient. It works like a pocket door except it is friction pulled to the opposite pocket. The source is Eric Sloane (�An Age of Barns��next to last page, as the pages are not numbered.) This word may be from the Old German �sprieBe� meaning beam or brace, or �sprieBen� which means to sprout or shoot up (out?) or can be a PA German bastardization of the English word �sprig� (shoot).

A loop is a narrow usually vertical ventilation slit in the barn wall. If in a thick stone walled barn it is splayed to the inside and painted white. These are a direct descendent of arrow slits on European castles. The splaying allows for wider fields of view from inside and the white paint provides more illumination in the barn. There are many ways and designs for barn wall ventilation and range from circles, hearts, Christmas trees, hour glasses, or turned 90 degrees for butterfly shapes. But the simple slit is called a loop.

A peg lock is a simple wedge that is placed on top of a bar lifting latch for outbuilding doors. It is placed before the pivot point and fits between the lifting portion of the latch and a stop. When the peg lock is placed correctly (wedged in) the handle cannot be lifted to open the door.

Re: You have three of the

Gary,

I wasn't sure about the Spriegel(sp), but I'm somewhat a fan of old barns, historical construction methods esp post and beam construction. Peg locks are very common in old buildings. So this was partly stored trivia and partly wag.

John

Ooops. Correction

I mistook what part of the question you responded. The peg lock works with a beam too. As that is the section you were responding to--One gold star. Wear it proudly.