An amazing ‘must see’ for builders…
newbuilder
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
This guy has discovered, on his own, a way to move concrete blocks weighing several tons by himself and without hoists, pulleys or machinery. After a year of playing with it he moved his son’s barn, weighing over 10 tons and braced with 5 tons of support over 200 feet in 40 man hours. He believes that he has discovered how the ancients moved stones for the pyramids and stonehenge.
Take a look — here’s a web page which is ok:
http://www.gizapyramid.com/wallington.htm
And here is a short uTube video which is really quite amazing as it shows more than the web-page does:
http://i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=20157
nb
Replies
great video !
i saw a bunch of scientists do the same technique in a British video to prove the stonehenge theory... same technique as Wally
Neat-o!
I concur, watch the video if you can.
That's what retirement is for, I tell ya!
Adventures in Home Building
An online journal covering the preparation and construction of our new home.
That must be how the guy in Florida built what he did "for his Sweet 16". He had a door made of something like a five ton block of rock that you could open by pushing it with one hand. I've always wanted to see the place, but don't even remember what city it is in.
coral castle , in homestead fl , south of Miamihttp://www.coralcastle.com/home.aspIve wanted to see it also but it always seems like theres other things going on when I get down that way
Thanks--that's the one. I remembered "castle," but didn't trust my memory.
that was pretty awesome thanks...
wow. Thank you for that
Great stuff!
Thanks nb.
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
When I bought a travel trailer back in 1971 I found a tongue jack thing that had two swiveling pads with the jack post sitting in the middle. It had a long handle and you alternated it and I moved a 25'- 750# tongue wt trailer with one hand. Same basic principle.
Neat find, thanks for sharing. There are some very practical ideas there.
Dang, next you're gonna tell me that aliens didn't build the pyramids!
;)
jt8
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." -- Goethe
He believes that he has discovered how the ancients moved stones for the pyramids and stonehenge.
He went to a lot of trouble.
Ya know, he coulda just asked Piffin how he did it.
_______________________________________________________________
"Don't rush me, sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles" -
Miracle Max
Absolutely amazing, low-tech research!!!
Gary W
gwwoodworking.com
That is super!
I've rotated a building on two sheets of plywood with Ivory Snow Flakes between the sheets (a trick used by millwrights to move heavy machines), but never moved anything using his technique.
Also moved buildings by putting them on iron pipes on top of planks and then turning the pipes with a pipe wrench. (learned from an old carpenter)
His jacking technique is brilliant.
oldfred
Edited 10/24/2006 3:33 pm ET by oldfred
Edited 10/24/2006 4:00 pm ET by oldfred
Time to raise the bar...
From a physics standpoint, it takes "work" to raise a 10 ton slab of concrete in the air. Gravity's force is always down but he's lifting the slab up. What is the upward component of the "work" that is completed?
“The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds..” – Hume
I will try on this one.
Looking at the video clip on Utube, I saw Wally put a massive hunk of stone balanced on a fulcrum. at that point gravity is pulling down on it, and the fulcrum is pushing up against it.
Work is defined as force * distance and Force is mass * acceleration
So, by wally moving all of the weight to one end of the fulcrum, he increases the mass at that end, and the acceleration of gravity is pulling down on the ends, so it gives us force (and lots of it) and since the force is unbalanced (more mass on one end) the lever/ beam of stone tilts, and goes in.
So, to sum up
the end going down has more force and distance, so I would argue the work is taking place on the end dropping into the hole. I think there is no upward component of work in this example, its all going down.
Yikes
my two cents.
is it good for a milkbone though?
Edited 10/24/2006 6:29 pm ET by jerseyjeff
You're right, standing the slab upright is just a controlled fall into a pit.
But how did he get the slab up in the air in the first place? I was thinking about it after I posted my first message. When he walks the weights from one end of the beam to the other, that's where the work is. Every time he walks the weights uphill, he gets the slab the width of a 2x4 higher in the air (or 1.5").
So to raise the slab 8 ft in the air, he has to take 64 trips across the slab with enough weight to cause it to tip the other way. “The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds..” – Hume
How does he get his little stones or whatever he uses as a fulcrum under these huge slabs to move them? I get spinning, but how do you get a barn or slab lifted and onto a pivot point (or two sheets of plywood)?
How does he get his little stones or whatever he uses as a fulcrum under these huge slabs to move them? I get spinning, but how do you get a barn or slab lifted and onto a pivot point (or two sheets of plywood)?
Ahhhh yes. I think that this may remain the unanswered question. There's GOT to be a 'starting point' that has to do with originally lifting the slab onto a pivot-point or a fulcrum. He doesn't publicly address that ... not that I've seen. The guy is clearly an 'underground genius' though. Would love to just go camp out and watch him work for a few days!
nb
this is the same video ... but may be a better link for some:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0
n
How does he get his little stones or whatever he uses as a fulcrum under these huge slabs to move them? I get spinning, but how do you get a barn or slab lifted and onto a pivot point (or two sheets of plywood)?
"give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the world" Archimedes
I suppose he could have dug out under the center, put down a pad with a stone on it, and then dug out the rest of what was under the load till it settled on the stone.
I have some big railroad jacks that have a lifting lip at ground level allowing me to get the jack under something with about two inches of clearance. If there is no way to get under the load, it becomes a matter of finding another place to position the jack, sometimes even attaching an angle iron or beam to the side of the load so a jack can push up under the angle iron or beam.
Building movers sometimes cut holes in the sides of the buildings and then slide long I-beams through the buildings. Then they can place their jacks under the beams and lift them enough to put rollers or wheels under the beams.
Lots of factors involved when moving heavy objects - center of gravity, condition of the path of travel, obstructions in the path of travel, change in elevation, safety, etc.
good point! I was thinking about the big oof.... it looked like each 5 gallon bucket was filled with concrete (call it 70-80 lbs) about 20 feet.... about 20 buckets, so that is about 32,000 ft pounds of work.... which kinda seems to make sense. my gut wants me to convert it all to metric, but then someone will get upset...
You're right, standing the slab upright is just a controlled fall into a pit.
How come the fulcrum didn't crumble?
blueOur Skytrak is for sale. It has 500 hrs on it. We want 50k (you pay the freight) and we'll finance it. Drop me an email; it's a good buy.
How come the fulcrum didn't crumble?
Two important steps. First, the fulcrum is eleventy-fifty-seven 2x4 under a stout bit of 4x8 or 5x8. Force on the fulcrum is trying to smoosh all the individual fibers longways out of the lumber--the hardest direction.
Second, he's tipping in two steps. The first tip is really only from elevated end of the stone to jsut below the lip of the "post hole." It's then held there with sand. Total "swing" is a bit more than 20º, less than 30º or so. Then, he takes a hose and washes away the sand. Stone slides, slowly, to the bottom of its pit. There it finds yet another balance point, so it can be "fulcrumed" to plumb.
None of the movements is more than 3-4' over all. Which, from the "lessons learned" bit at the end, is a "good" (he mentions being tossed off the beam, and being konked o nthe concrete--likely from trying too great a movement; mass wants conservation, no matter how bad your grades in Physics <g>).Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
When I lived in Wales, I toured lots of castles. The place is running over with them. They're so common that many are just old ruins out in a field, no road no access, no curiosity seekers.
Anyway, I learned that the way the laid stone floors for the second and sometimes third floors in the towers and buildings, as well as the stone roofs of some, was to fill the lower floor completely with dirt or sand, then lay the stone floor carefully with keystones, wider at the top than at the bottom. Then they'd remove the dirt, lewaving the floor "hanging". Makes sense when you think about it. How else would they do it ?
Greg
Thanks for the explanation Cap. I'm still a tad confused and will have to take another look at the movie.
blueOur Skytrak is for sale. It has 500 hrs on it. We want 50k (you pay the freight) and we'll finance it. Drop me an email; it's a good buy.
will have to take another look at the movie
Yeah, watch that utube video where he's "walking" the stone up--you can tell he's a tad cautious as he moves his concrete-filled buckets to get the stone to tip up the 2" it needs at the fulcrum (which is about 12-14" wide).
Once his stone moves, it's moving mui pronto--something a person with a larger, ah, captive, work force could mitigate if jsut by brute force. Tho- my first thought was to use water, as you could pump water from one end to the other, and then counter-pump to help decelerate the swing a bit (the way the submariners use trim tanks and dive planes).
Now, the other thought that occured to me late last night, was that a person could also use two fulcrum points, which would be an interesting way to use leverage to advantage, but that's using strength-of-materials knowledge not available in Celtic times.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
You can also go right to the Wally Wallington website, at http://www.theforgottentechnology.com/. It may or may not be faster for people with dialup connections.
Thanks for putting this up.
Has anyone purchased the tape? It's always fascinating to see how people apply physics to solve problems especially using the most basic means available.
Tha's kind of how we move safes and heavy equipment. Only differnce is we use steel rollers and pry bars. Works pretty good.
http://www.hay98.com/