
Human-powered cranes and lifting devices (2010) - codezero
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/03/history-of-human-powered-cranes.html
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dredmorbius
Charles Singer's _A History of Technology_ is an interesting read for similar
concepts. Published 1954-58.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Singer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Singer)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-
technology/oclc/22...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-
technology/oclc/221020285&referer=brief_results)

~~~
tdeck
For a shorter read I recommend The Medieval Machine by Jean Gimpel. It's a bit
old now but tells an interesting story, turns out there was a lot more
industrial machinery in the 13th century than we tend to think.

~~~
dredmorbius
Definitely not the shortest read, my suggestion. Though it turns up on LibGen.

James Burke's _Connections_ traces much of this historry, as does Vaclav
Smil's _Energy and Civilization_.

The Singer ref should reward multiple interests, and can be dipped into at
leisure.

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Animats
The picture shown is of the moving of the Vatican obelisk from one side of St.
Peters to the other. Took 5 months and far too large a crew for the job. The
Romans had previously moved that obelisk from Egypt to Rome.

~~~
mschuster91
> The Romans had previously moved that obelisk from Egypt to Rome.

I wonder how many people died during this job. I mean: stuff is easier to do
when you have a ton of expendable slaves no one cares about when they die or
get injured.

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Erlangolem
The same logic applies to the pyramids of Egypt in antiquity, and tragically,
much of the UAE today.

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marci
Maybe less than you think (deaths & slaves).

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/11/great-
pyramid-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/11/great-pyramid-
tombs-slaves-egypt)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_techniques)

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tdeck
I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be a mention of the ingenious Chinese
windlass. This was the best article I could find on it:

[https://makezine.com/projects/make-25/the-chinese-
windlass/](https://makezine.com/projects/make-25/the-chinese-windlass/)

~~~
sandworm101
They aren't as great as often claimed. Since they rely upon potentially slight
differences in diameter, any layering of cable on either side radically alters
things. You have to be religious about policing the rope as it rolls onto the
cylinder. This also limits the amount of cable that can be used to whatever
can wind on without layering. So ya, it can raise an extremely heavy bit of
bridge a few feet, but it isn't suitable for anything resembling a crane or
hoist. It is great for lifting an engine block off its mounts, but not for
lifting lumber up the side of a building.

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tyingq
Unusually well reseached and written. I'm sure pedants might find a few
issues, but I feel like I learned something new, and significant from this.

~~~
ethagknight
Well written _as usual_ for lowtechmagazine! I suggest you dig through their
website. Great stuff all around.

~~~
helb
Exactly! One of my favorite sites. There's also "No Tech Magazine" with a bit
different scope (and, sadly, less consisent quality) –
[http://www.notechmagazine.com/](http://www.notechmagazine.com/)

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dougk16
I was under the vague, easily mind-changeable impression that we as modern
humans would not be able to build the largest pyramids* in any reasonable
amount of time (or even at all) using modern technology. This article makes it
sound like cake. Just take a few guys with a big crane and in a couple years
bam there you go.

Can anyone explain the dissonance?

*or maybe it was some other monolithic stone structure.

EDIT: Found some legitimate-sounding estimates here (first answer):
[https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006042514514](https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006042514514)

~~~
maxerickson
The Hoover Dam is a similar amount of material to the Great Pyramid. Took 5
years to build.

Three Gorges Dam is about 10 times the material.

~~~
outsideoflife
Then there was the London to Birmingham railway line, built largely by hand,
which was supposed to be more work by less people in less time.

"Peter Lecount, an assistant engineer of the London Birmingham railway,
produced a number of - possibly hyperbolic - comparisons in an effort to
demonstrate that the London and Birmingham Railway was "the greatest public
work ever executed either in ancient or modern times".[4] In particular, he
suggested that the effort to build the Great Pyramid of Giza amounted to the
lifting of 15,733,000,000 cubic feet of stone by 1 foot (say, 450,000,000 m3
by 0.3 m).

The railway, excluding a long string of tasks – drainage, ballasting, and so
on – involved the lifting of 25,000,000,000 cubic feet (say, 700,000,000 m3)
of material reduced to the weight of stone used in the pyramid. The pyramid
involved, he says, the effort of 300,000 men (according to Diodorus Siculus)
or 100,000 (according to Herodotus) for twenty years. The railway involved
20,000 men for five years. In passing, he also noted that the cost of the
railway in penny pieces, was enough to more than form a belt of pennies around
the equator; and the amount of material moved would be enough to build a wall
1 foot (305 mm) high by one foot wide, more than three times around the
equator."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_and_Birmingham_Railway#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_and_Birmingham_Railway#Construction)

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ncmncm
This is a very interesting article, but many of the numbers are off.

The three foundation stones at Baalbek are estimated at 800 to 1100 tons each.
The Romans never managed to move anything much over 300 tons -- one of the
Egyptian obelisks had to be broken up so they could bring the top part to
Rome.

Nobody knows who moved the stones at Baalbek, but they are much more deeply
weathered than the Roman temples built on top. It is considered important that
they did not need to be lifted, as they were quarried from higher than their
final resting place.

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outsideoflife
> to lift weights that would be impossible to handle by most power cranes in
> operation today.

TlDr;

Modern construction techniques do not require lifting heavy blocks of stone,
so no-one makes a machine to do it.

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agumonkey
video of one in use

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJTm9aKuvs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJTm9aKuvs)

youtube also has a segment saying they were used in modern prisons as
"torture"

I feel it's coming back to slow climate change

