Playing with blocks

[JCF350]

Compare this to all them college boy experiments on "ancient construction techniques" that you see on the "knowledge channels".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Playing with blocks

where there is a will, there is a way.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Playing with blocks

Keeps him busy and out of trouble. My FIL is a stone mason and uses many techniques to move big stones.

 

[dave11]

Re: Playing with blocks

Back to the future.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Playing with blocks

So simple. I love how it uses a pebble to move them along the ground, meanwhile college boys are trying it with elephants and logs and saying there's no way they could have done it. LOL

The barn move was amazing btw

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Playing with blocks

So simple. I love how it uses a pebble to move them along the ground, meanwhile college boys are trying it with elephants and logs and saying there's no way they could have done it. LOL

The barn move was amazing btw

This "college boy" is wondering two things:

Where did the ancient British builders of Stonehenge find a concrete slab to move their blocks around on? Notice that he isn't moving those beams across a dirt plain.

How did they get the cross-beams on top of the uprights? Three feet was a lot to ask. The tops of the lintels are 16 feet off of the ground. Thirteen feet of teeter-tottering? Then shifting it off of the teeter totter onto the uprights? Seems like you'd get a lot of smashed Picts before you got a monument.

The barn thing looked impressive until you realize that the barn was set up on what looked like a steel pivot anchored to the ground. I may be wrong about that, but it sure looked that way to me. It's impressive, but so is a dog and pony show.

Believe me--there's stuff you learn in college that makes you skeptical of things like this, and it's stuff I'd consider to be "common sense." I'm impressed with what he's able to do, but I don't think it's anything to put "college boys" in their place.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Playing with blocks

You have to be shown????!! You just saw the techniques.

Reason I posted it in the first place.

Your limiting your thinking.

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Playing with blocks

You have to be shown????!! You just saw the techniques.

I've seen a lot of videos of David Copperfield too, but if I want a statue removed, I'll call someone with heavy lifting equipment rather than a magician.

I saw what he did. He moved a smooth-sided concrete pillar across a concrete slab using a stone bearing. He made a barn move using a steel pivot mounted to a solid wooden platform. He stood a pillar up on end using leverage techniques. He rolled some perfectly rectangular pillars across some sawn planks. It's interesting, but it's hardly proof that "college boys" have their heads up their rears.

Your limiting your thinking.

As are we all. Kind of part of being human, don't you think?

I appreciate what the guy has done. However, this thread's repeated implication that it's worlds ahead of what "college boys" could imagine is just wrong. People have been testing out theories about Stonehenge for centuries. Some are plausible, others aren't. His theory accounts for a few things, but it's far from a conclusive theory about how Stonehenge was built.

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Playing with blocks

Somebody seems a little overly defensive....

 

[oddjob]

Re: Playing with blocks

Somebody seems a little overly defensive....

LOL...Well..he(Wally) flat out demonstrated (how to) on stone-hinge. He raised a stone, then rotated it 90 degrees into the ground. I wont be waiting for the science journals and crew to catch up. The real experts are executing and theres really not a dedate about it.

BTW the original stones at stone-hinge were near perfect when first assembled. Global Weather has taken a toll sadly.
AND columns laid horizontally in soft earth makes nice self adjusting base to roll more columns (placed accross 90 degrees) over easily. You can also raise a load ( as wally demo'd) and place it on the roll columns and move it.


Far from conclusive? NO.....that would work if the subject was about "Man-made GW".

 

[i386]

Re: Playing with blocks

I to am skeptical. 5gal buckets full of concrete weren't invented 'till thousands of years later.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Playing with blocks

I've seen a lot of videos of David Copperfield too, but if I want a statue removed, I'll call someone with heavy lifting equipment rather than a magician.

I saw what he did. He moved a smooth-sided concrete pillar across a concrete slab using a stone bearing. He made a barn move using a steel pivot mounted to a solid wooden platform. He stood a pillar up on end using leverage techniques. He rolled some perfectly rectangular pillars across some sawn planks. It's interesting, but it's hardly proof that "college boys" have their heads up their rears.




As are we all. Kind of part of being human, don't you think?

I appreciate what the guy has done. However, this thread's repeated implication that it's worlds ahead of what "college boys" could imagine is just wrong. People have been testing out theories about Stonehenge for centuries. Some are plausible, others aren't. His theory accounts for a few things, but it's far from a conclusive theory about how Stonehenge was built.

He wasn't trying to prove a theory he was demonstrating HOW to do things.
With just ONE person.

He just demonstrated every technique that would be needed to construct a Stonehenge. With no hocus pocus.

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Playing with blocks

He wasn't trying to prove a theory he was demonstrating HOW to do things.
With just ONE person.

He just demonstrated every technique that would be needed to construct a Stonehenge. With no hocus pocus.

I really don't think so. He showed how to move an object with a semi-spherical bearing. For a spheroid bearing to work, you need two solid surfaces. I don't see how rolling a block on a bearing on top of a concrete slab is anything like moving a block over a hundred miles over a dirt field. For that, you need a roller bearing, and that's what the "college boys" currently see as the most likely way these slabs were moved. He showed how to raise a column three feet in the air. He'd have to do four times that plus. Maybe he can. The thing is, right now it's just another theory. And as a theory, it needs to account for other problems.

The ground between the place where the lintels were quarried and the site of Stonehenge is not flat. Rotating a stone in the way he describes while moving it uphill presents a huge problem. I don't see anything in his demonstration that shows how a stone pillar could be moved uphill. Again, perhaps he can figure it out, but he's still in the same camp as the "college boys" who currently tend to believe that rollers and barges were used. Elephants? Never heard that one.

Laying the columns out end to end as a roadway? That's 100 miles of column, laid out perfectly level (tunnels through the hills?) and somehow, the columns being rolled on top are kept from taking the path of least resistance and sliding off the edge. Somebody's got some 'splainin' to do. I really don't see how his theory is superior to theories of wooden rollers. It also has a lot of problems that the wooden roller theory doesn't.

And R.F.--you bet I'm defensive. I doubt that I'm the only college educated person on this forum, but the crap a couple of these guys have been spewing about "college boys" is offensive. To me, it's kind of like in the tech forums when some shade-tree mechanic starts trashing on all career techs saying that they don't know how to fix a boat because they haven't discovered the magic of duct tape.

I like what this guy has done. It's interesting, and it may say something about how Stonehenge was built. However, that doesn't mean it's OK to start saying nasty things about people with college educations.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Playing with blocks

Tunnel vision.

Combine the techniques where appropriate.

And yes you are not the only "educated" person in the iboats Fora.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Playing with blocks

Me-thinks tis time to leave this one lay. MODS? any opnion?

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Playing with blocks

Tunnel vision.

Combine the techniques where appropriate.

And yes you are not the only "educated" person in the iboats Fora.

I'm not going to escalate this. Just looking for a little less attack and a little more discussion. It's fine to talk about what someone has accomplished. It's not fine if you can't do so without trashing on someone else's reputation. I think we can discuss Stonehenge without having to make fun of people with college educations. Don't you?

So what about it? How would you combine the techniques he shows to get a three ton column over the top of a hill? How would that be superior to using a series of roller bearings?

I think people get caught up in the showmanship of the video and don't look at it critically enough. His point of balance trick is pretty cool, but I don't think it's the holy grail.

Nova did a show on Stonehenge. In the Q&A section afterward is the following exchange:

Question: Have you considered using a series of sliding fulcrums where each end of the 40-ton stone is pulled in turn, and in effect walking it balanced in the middle? I have done this with large 18th century logs for a log house with only one helper. ~Willard

Answer:Although the walking method of moving large weights can be used and was used to move some of the Easter island statues, we felt that stones of 40 tons could not be moved in this way over relatively soft ground with any degree of safety.

It's clear that archaeologists are aware of the methods being used in the Youtube video. They used a similar method to place uprights, but they used compacted earth ramps to put the lintels in place. Archaeologists aren't ignorant of these point of balance methods. They just don't seem to think that they answer any existing questions.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Playing with blocks

There is only one person here that perceived an attack. It was posted to open minds, because of the negativity of the shows on the tube as to why they didn't think (opinion) it that it couldn't be done with what was at hand (technology, skills and the capacity to resolve problems). Nevermind that worker safety was non issue then, and still is (worker safety is only a recent concept in this country as it is).

This was just one man accomplishing what whole teams were doing. That was the comparison.
I'll just let it lay as is.

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Playing with blocks

There is only one person here that perceived an attack. It was posted to open minds, because of the negativity of the shows on the tube as to why they didn't think (opinion) it that it couldn't be done with what was at hand (technology, skills and the capacity to resolve problems).

I guess I never saw those shows. I've seen ones that try to duplicate the act of building Stonehenge using technology available at that time, and they're kind of interesting. Lots of different techniques used, and each has the potential to work, but each one presents its own problems.

I've also seen shows that imply that it must have been aliens, but I don't put much stock in them.

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Playing with blocks

And R.F.--you bet I'm defensive. I doubt that I'm the only college educated person on this forum, but the crap a couple of these guys have been spewing about "college boys" is offensive. To me, it's kind of like in the tech forums when some shade-tree mechanic starts trashing on all career techs saying that they don't know how to fix a boat because they haven't discovered the magic of duct tape.

You gotta relax a little. You're right, you're not the only college educated person on here. We have professors, doctors, lawyers, economists, accountants, engineers, etc. I didn't see any of them getting offended.

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Playing with blocks

We have professors, doctors, lawyers, economists, accountants, engineers, etc.

Huh? Are you sure it's not just a few that spend a lot of nights in a Holiday Inn Express?