293 



COUNTY KATE. 



COUPLING. 



294 



The nature and jurisdiction of this court have been described thus 

 fully, in consequence not only of the recent erection of these tribunals, 

 but of the extent and variety of the powers vested in them, and the 

 important position they have taken in the estimation of the people. 

 (Blackstone's ' Commentaries," Dr. Kerr's edit., vol. viii., p. 38.) 



COUNTY RATE. County rates are taxes levied for the purpose 

 of defraying the expenses to which counties are liable. They are 

 levied either under the authority of acts of parliament, or on the 

 principle that as duties are imposed upon a county there must be a 

 power to raise the money for the costs incurred in the performance of 

 such duties. 



The ancient purposes of the county rate " were to provide for the 

 maintenance of the county courts, for the expenses incidental to the 

 county police, and the civil and military government of the county ; 

 for the payment of common judicial fines ; for the maintenance of 

 places of defence (sometimes, however, provided by a separate tax 

 common to counties and to other districts, called bunjbote), prisons, 

 gaols, bridges (when these were not provided for by a separate tax 

 common to counties and to other districts, called brukbote], and occa- 

 sionally high roads, rivers, and watercourses, and for the payment of 

 the wages of the knights of the shire. Additions to these purposes, 

 ome occasional and some permanent, were made from time to time by 

 statutes. The king's aids, taxes, and subsidies were usually first im- 

 posed on the county, and collected as if they had been county taxes. 

 But the first statute defining any of its present piirposes (though now 

 repealed as to the mode it prescribes for imposing the tax) was passed 

 in the 22 Henry VIII. From that time up to the present new pur- 

 poses have constantly been added, and new and distinct rates were 

 constantly created for purposes of comparatively little importance, 

 and to raise sums of money quite insignificant in amount." (' Report 

 on Local Taxation,' by the Poor Law Commissioners.) 



The assessment and collection of separate county rates was not only 

 very inconvenient and troublesome, but so expensive that the charge 

 of collection and assessment frequently exceeded the sum rated. For 

 remedying this evil the 12 Geo. II. c. 29, was passed, whereby justices 

 of the peace at general or quarter sessions were enabled to make a 

 general rate to answer the purpose of the distinct rates previously 

 leviable under various acts of parliament for the purposes of bridges, 

 gaols, prisons, and houses of correction, such rate to be assessed upon 

 every town, parish, and place within the county, to be collected by the 

 churchwardens and overseers, along with the poor rates of every parish, 

 and paid over to the high constable of hundreds, by them to treasurers 

 appointed by the justices, and again by them to whomsoever the 

 justices should direct. 



Various acts amending the above statute were passed, but the whole 

 law was consolidated, and the former statutes repealed, by the 15 & 16 

 Viet. c. 81. Under that statute, courts of quarter sessions appoint a 

 :ittee of justices for the purpose of preparing and altering from 

 time to time, a basis or standard for fair and equal county rates, 

 founded on the value of property rateable to the relief of the poor, 

 returns for that purpose being laid before the committee by overseers 

 and other parish officers. The basis, being approved by the committee, 

 is laid before the court of quarter sessions, who, after public notice, 

 may confirm it with or without amendment, or refer it back to the 

 committee. Overseers have a right of appeal against the basis on the 

 ground of inequality. The basis being settled, the court of quarter 

 sessions from time to time directs a county rate to be made according 

 to this basis, for all the purposes to which such rate is made liable by 

 law, expressing the amount on each parish, and against this rate 

 parishes and individuals may appeal. The rate is collected by the 

 overseers under precepts sent by the justices to the guardians of every 

 union, or to the high constable of a hundred, and the amount is paid 

 over to the county treasurer (or by the 21 ft 22 Viet. c. 33, to the 

 divisional treasurer), who is required to publish an annual abstract of 

 his receipts and expenditure. This act extends to all places having 

 separate commissions of the peace, and to all rates of the nature of 

 county rates. Rates in the nature of county rates in boroughs are 

 provided for by the Municipal Corporations Act (5 ft 6 Will. IV. c. 76, 

 as amended by subsequent statutes), and in boroughs not within the 

 provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, the rate is provided for 

 by the 17 ft 18 Viet., c. 71. It is to be observed that the police rate, 

 although collected with the county rate, is made a distinct rate. (3 & 

 4 Viet., c. 88 ; 19 ft 20 Viet. c. 69.) 



The county rate is levied on the same description of property as the 

 poors' rate, that is, on lands, houses, tithes impropriate, propriations of 

 litli.'s, coal-mines, and saleable underwoods: the term "lands" in- 

 iin]>rovement8 of lands, by roads, bridges, docks, canals, and 

 works and erections not included under the term "houses." 

 houses are comprehended all permanent erections for the 

 shelter of man, beast, or property. Mines, other than coal-mines, are 

 md the exemption extends to limestone and other stone 

 i to other matter that is obtained by quarrying. The 

 i be assessed upon parishes " rateably and equally 

 i tain jH.und rate," upon the basis or standard above 

 '' of the full and fair annual value of the property, mes- 

 suages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, rateable to the relief of 



, in machinery, is, in a limited sense, the name given to 



the i 



L OvJi JjINlr 



various contrivances for effecting the longitudinal connection of shafts ; 

 though, in a more general sense, it may be extended to embrace the 

 arrangements by which the parts of a machine may be connected or 

 disconnected at pleasure, or by which a machine may be disengaged 

 from, or re-engaged with, a revolving wheel or shaft, through which 

 it receives motion from a steam-engine, water-wheel, or other prime 

 mover. 



When it is required to communicate motion to a considerable distance 

 from the source of power, as in the distribution of power to the various 

 apartments of a cotton-mill, by gearing such as that represented under 

 WHEELS, it is frequently necessary to construct the long shafts by which 

 the motion is distributed in several pieces, not only owing to the 

 impossibility of making them accurately of the required length, but 

 also because, if they were so made, their expansion and contraction 

 would occasion much inconvenience. It is further desirable, in many 

 cases, to have the option of detaching one portion of a shaft from the 

 moving power without stopping the adjacent portion. 



In such cases, each distinct shaft, or portion of shaft, may be perfectly 

 supported by bearings of its own, near each end; or, under certain 

 circumstances, the coupling may be so constructed as to render one of 

 the bearings unnecessary. 



The simplest mode of connecting shafts which are supported by 

 bearings near each eud, is to make that portion of each shaft which 

 projects beyond the bearings of a square shape, and to unite the adja- 

 cent ends by means of a coicpKng-box, which may be described as a 

 square collar fitting the ends of the shafts, and capable of sliding along 

 them in such a way that it will either embrace the ends of both shafts, 

 in which case they must turn together like one piece, or that, when it 

 is required to disconnect them, it may be slid fully on to one of the 

 shafts, leaving the other entirely free. Holes are provided in both the 

 coupling-box and the shaft, by which a pin may be inserted to hold 

 the coupling-box in whichever position it may be required to retain. 

 Sometimes, instead of the coupling-box being in the form of a sliding 

 box or collar, it is formed in two halves, which may be sepur.iU-cl at 

 pleasure, and secured, when put together, by bolts or keys. On account 

 of the greater facility of making them perfectly true, round couplings 

 and coupling-boxes are occasionally used ; but as their efficiency in 

 transmitting power depends wholly upon the connecting pins, of 

 which there should be two, passing completely through the shaft 

 at right angles with each other, they are not so strong as square 

 couplings. 



Couplings are often effected without coupling-boxes, by the use of 

 what are termed clutches or glands, in which projections of various 

 forms from arms or discs attached to the ends of the shafts, are 

 employed to lock them together, in some cases only while the 

 machinery is in motion ; while, by the removal of one of the engaging 

 members, by sliding it back upon the shaft, the connection may be 

 broken at pleasure. Such contrivances admit of infinite variety, and 

 may be made to disengage themselves whenever the moving power 

 ceases, by fixing one of the engaging members upon a pivot in such a 

 manner that, when the pressure upon it is relaxed, it falls out of the 

 way. This is especially the case with such clutches as act on the prin- 

 ciple of the ratchet and click. Fiy. 1 represents a clutch with pro- 

 rig. 1. 



jecting arms, which engage with each other by mere contact, and will 

 turn in either direction. As the engaging members of this clutch are 

 not attached to each other, it affords scope for expansion and contraction 

 without occasioning the straining and injury which might be occasioned 

 by a more rigid connection ; and it also obviates the difficulty of throw- 

 ing all the machinery into motion at the same moment, since one shaft 

 may have to turn nearly half round before it has to impel the adjoining 

 >one. Sometimes, however, a similar coupling is so constructed that 

 the connection is made by pins passing through the two anns. In 

 some couplings the arms or glands are single, so that the connection 

 may be compared to a common crank, instead of being double, and 

 forming a double crank, as in /.'/. 1 ; and when it is desired to prevent 

 the machinery from turning the wrong way, the anns may be jointed 

 with a kind of hinge-joint, similar to that of a common two-foot rule, 

 which will cause the bar to be quite stiff to resist a strain in one 

 direction, although, if the motion be reversed, the joint will give way, 

 ami the connection will be broken. 



When each length of shaft lus only one bearing, the coupling must 

 be of such a construction as not merely to compel one shaft to turn 

 with the oilier, but also to cause the supported end of one shaft to 

 sustain, by a scarfed or mortice and tenon joint, or by some similar 

 contrivance, the unsupported end of the Adjoining shaft, 



