Lathe and plaster, old mill

[Craig]

Hi - I know you all like this kind of thing.

As I had so much fun getting the lathes to stick to the ceiling, I thought I should get more involved and so have acquired an old mill. If anybody has any tips about the care of old mills, they would be very welcome...

http://www.anglo-swiss-tools.co.uk/Resources/ASTmainimages/AcieraF1.jpg

 

[Nemesis]

Heavy though those lathes - don't they intrude into the room height too? Are they still able to be operated up there? Or are they purely decorative?

 

[piper]

In the two years or more I've been enjoying this Forum, the pedants (among whom I certainly count myself) have frequently made jokes exploiting a confusion between lathes (heavy machines for turning wood, metal or other materials into a circular cross-section) and laths (lengths of riven or sawn oak, chestnut, or other hard or softwood, advocated by period house enthusiasts as a substrate for lime plaster on walls and ceilings)
All well and good, and I yield to none in my desire to see English used and spelt correctly. However I pose this question to the company; is it indeed perfectly acceptable and traditional occasionally to spell "lath" as "lathe", when one means the plaster-supporting artefact? I have seen both spellings used very freely, and although personally I prefer the former, in order to avoid confusion with the afore-mentioned machinery, I submit that the latter IS a traditional spelling, and that the context will usually (though perhaps not always) enable one to acertain the intended meaning.
I further propose (with great respect to all concerned, and no offence intended, Nemesis) that the Forum henceforth apply a voluntary moratorium on such jokes, in order to avoid any implied criticism of the educational attainments of the poster who committed the alleged solecism.

And incidentally (referring to another current thread) while on the subject of vaunting one's (excessive?) education, "hagiography" literally means writing about saints, or writing about the holy - from Greek. Oh all right, I'll shut up.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Why do people get in such a lather about this?

:wink:

 

[Nemesis]

But but - I think Craig meant it as a joke. So that's OK. And anyone foolish enough to post here has to put up with the pathetic sense of humour displayed by so many posters.


And then there are laithes...

 

[biffvernon]

All well and good, and I yield to none in my desire to see English used and spelt correctly.

Excellent. So perhaps you would like to check the spelling of 'artefact' and 'acertain', as used in this context:

However I pose this question to the company; is it indeed perfectly acceptable and traditional occasionally to spell "lath" as "lathe", when one means the plaster-supporting artefact? I have seen both spellings used very freely, and although personally I prefer the former, in order to avoid confusion with the afore-mentioned machinery, I submit that the latter IS a traditional spelling, and that the context will usually (though perhaps not always) enable one to acertain the intended meaning.

As for

I further propose (with great respect to all concerned, and no offence intended, Nemesis) that the Forum henceforth apply a voluntary moratorium on such jokes, in order to avoid any implied criticism of the educational attainments of the poster who committed the alleged solecism.

Nochance

 

[Nemesis]

Back to the original post - SPAB Mills Section, of course.

 

[piper]

Excellent. So perhaps you would like to check the spelling of 'artefact' and 'acertain', as used in this context:

Oops. It's a fair cop, guv.
Well, it was very late when I wrote it.

 

[Craig]

Of course, there are mills and mills but is it a solecism as they both mill...?

Anyway, please accept my apologies for my poor jokes.

 

[Nemesis]

Well, no worse than any of the rest on the site Craig!

:lol:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Of course, there are mills and mills but is it a solecism as they both mill...?

These mills don't mill.

 

[Craig]

If those mills dont mill, are they still mills?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

If those mills dont mill, are they still mills?

If yer a reel ol naarfick bor, them's drainage mills.

If you hent, them's (poosibly) windpumps

 

[Nemesis]

Then there are laithes as they say oop north:

http://www.wildyorkshire.co.uk/naturediary/docs/2002/10/10.html

 

[MdB]

If those mills dont mill, are they still mills?

Only if the wind stops blowing...

 

[Moo]

from World Wide Words :

Both spellings may be found in both [UK and USA] countries. In Britain, the preferred form given in dictionaries is artefact, though the other often appears as an alternative. The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors firmly suggests spelling it with an e, as does Bill Bryson in The Penguin Dictionary for Writers and Editors. However, the style guide of The Economist, with a large international circulation, suggests using artifact, since it is acceptable, it says, both to American and British readers. Americans prefer the i form by a large majority, but not exclusively so — newspaper practice seems to vary considerably, some insisting on the i form, others being more relaxed about it.
The spelling with i seems to have been around for rather more than a century, though my impression is that it only started to become common in the US from the 1920s on, and in the UK much more recently still (American usage has had considerable impact on British, one reason why I didn’t spot my inconsistent spelling).
The form in i was obviously influenced by artifice and artificial, both of which contain the same Latin word arte, by or using art, which is also the basis for artefact. So, if we’re arguing from etymology, artefact wins without a contest, but then to be consistent we would have to write arteficial and artefice. The confusion of spelling actually goes back to classical times, since the direct ancestor of artifice and artificial is Latin artificium, a thing made by skill or art.

 

[Nemesis]

Aye reet lass - but is it lathe or lath?

 

[Craig]

I liked Laithe. Somewhere to keep my laths but not my lathe - it would rust!

 

[chuckey]

Nay lad, oop ere' thems lats.
Frank