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Stone shifting 4
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Steve Gray
Steve Gray
931 posts

Re: Stone shifting 4
Sep 07, 2003, 11:29
"is it practicable/useful to row the stone to make it "walk the plank"?"

Ooooo, no. If you're saying what I think you're saying it would topple while it's being lifted because the lever nearesst to the centre cannot be as close to the centre of gravity as the edge of the tower was. Very, very dangerous.

Gordon, I think you idea may work. I hadn't appreciated that you meant to have 5 men per rope (silly me - see how the practical man, even with a skinful, has the advantage over the sober intellectual).

We need to exert about 7 tons on the stone initially. A man can exert about half his own weight when pulling horizontally on a rope and all his weight when pulling vertically. So we can assume an average of at least 40kg per man of pulling power. Multiply that by your 11:1 lever advantage gives 440kg. Multiply that by 6 levers we get 2.5 tons with only one man per rope. Therefore 3 men per rope should be enough.

Your horizontal timbers attached to the tower can extend either side of the stone and be supported beyond it with uprights, braces and a transverse log at the point where the stone will be vertical. Thus they will act as guides and the transverse log will act as a stop to prevent the stone from going too far.

The main problem is the 7 ton side load exerted on the fulcrum log and on the tower, which will have to be built up to as high as the stone (24 feet). That's one hell of a torque - 168 foot-tons. Although diagonal braces are effective at resisting such a load when the weight of the stone was pressing down on the tower, they will be almost useless in the absence of vertical loading. Any ideas?

I was trying to think of a way to keep chocking the stone so that we could use intermittent pulling. Packing chalk rubble behind it is nice and simple. We could use this with a weighted rope. The procedure would be:

1. Fasten a long rope to the top of the stone and fasten the other end to a suitably large anchor stone.
2. Lever a 3 ton block up on a wooden crib close to the middle of the rope.
3. Fasten the 3 ton block to the rope and then lever it back down, thus raising the monolith.
4. Pack chalk rubble behind the monolith.
5. Jack the 3 ton block back up and retension the rope.

Repeat as necessary.

Advanteges:
1. It's easy.
2. It uses your "levering and crib" method on the 3 ton stone.
3. It's safe (as long as the rope is strong enough).
4. It's nice simple technology that is likely to have been known.
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Re: Stone shifting 4 (nigelswift)		 Replies:
Re: Stone shifting 4 (GordonP)
Re: Stone shifting 4 (nigelswift)
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