Sketch of the Gear of an Old Bell Clapper.
A. Crown Staple.
B. Bawdrick or Baldrock of old Churchwarden's books, viz. stout white leather straps, shewing how fitted with intervening piece of hard wood and pin.
C. Clapper, with stirrup top.
D. "Busk Board" which at the lower end is tied round the stem of the clapper, and by the pin above keeps the wood and leather all steady together, and the clapper works or swings on the crown staple, having leather on the upper side, and hard wood under.
H. T. E.
Turnbuckle and Latch.—The figure you have engraved on p. 91 of your December "Notes," as a Turnbuckle, is the common casement latch of the 17th century; which may be found attached to the iron frame of casement windows in many old farm houses.
A latch is not a turnbuckle, and no ironmonger's apprentice would confound the two. A latch is a bar moving up and down in a limited space—or, if backwards and forwards, as in some locks—it is called the latch-bolt. A turnbuckle, as its name implies, turns round, and is only limited by the notch, &c. by which it holds. They are chiefly of two kinds: one is a spindle, with a knob or ring at one end, and a tongue or buckle at the other; another is a handle with a tongue attached, moving together freely round, upon a pin or rivets. This latter kind has taken the place of the casement latch represented in your "Current Notes" in present use.
One who has been an Ironmonger's Apprentice.