[Ads-l] "come-a-long", engineer's jargon

[George Thompson]

>From an article in today's NYTimes on a malfunctioning footbridge that is
undergoing repair.

"Last week, through a chain-link fence that prevents access to the bridge,
one could see an elaborate system of chains that crisscrosses its
eight-foot-wide deck. In the middle of each chain was a hand-operated winch
with a ratchet, known in engineering parlance as a “come-a-long,” which is
used to pull objects together."

This term seem not to be in the OED.

NY Times, May 4, 2015, section A, p. 19, col. 1 (story "Slow Rebound for a
Bridge Whose Bounce Became Worse" starts on p. 15)

GAT

-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

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