CRANE EQUIPMENT (MACHINE HISTORY)
ORIGINS OF THE MODERN DAY CRANE
The principles of
operation of today's CRANE EQUIPMENT is taken for granted, however, we
thought you might be interested in learning a bit about the history of
the Crane and its development into the modern age of technology.
CRANE EQUIPMENT ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
TECHNOLOGY
The problem of lifting heavy objects has preoccupied mankind since
ancient times. The earliest representation of CRANE EQUIPMENT appeared
during Ramses’ reign in Egypt in 3000 B.C. Although rudimentary, the
principles of leverage to lift heavy weights had been mastered!
 The
SHADUF consisted of a long, pivoting beam balanced on a vertical
support. A heavy weight was attached to one end of the beam and a bucket
to the other.
The user pulled the bucket down to the water supply, filled it, then
allowed the weight to pull the bucket up. The beam was then rotated to
the desired position and the bucket was emptied.
When correctly balanced, the counterweight can support a half-filled
bucket, so some effort is used to pull an empty bucket down to the
water, but only the same effort is needed to lift a full bucket.
The Shaduf was a water lifting device used by the early Egyptians,
particularly in the Nile River Valley civilization. The Nile River
flooded every year from July to October but people started preparing for
it in May. This time was called Ahket. The floodplain was
4,250 square miles long and the ecology of the River heavily affected
whether or not the civilization was thriving. The flooding took care of
soil enrichment for the next year but during the harvest season, an
irrigation system was needed. That is why the Shaduf was invented.
Farmers from ancient Egypt would turn the the stick, then drop the
bucket in the water, lift it up when it was full, and then turn the
stick again and set the bucket on land. The shaduf was then used
to carry water from the riverbanks to plots of farm land.
The shaduf was originally developed in ancient
Mesopotamia, and appears on a Sargonid seal of c.2000 BC.
Though rudimentary, this early lifting device was
the forerunner of what was to become thousands of years later, a
sophisticated technology developed over many centuries into the
crane equipment used in industry today.
It has been suggested that the massive stones used in building the
pyramids of Egypt were raised by an ancient variant of this device.
It is still used in many rural areas of Egypt, India, Africa and Asia
today to draw water for
land irrigation.
In India the device is called a denkli, or paecottah.
It is estimated that a shaduf can raise over 2,500 litres of water per
day. Shadufs can be used in a series where it is desired to raise
water to a height exceeding the range of a single one.
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AUSTRALIAN
CRANE &
MACHINERY
PTY. LTD.
42 Glenbarry
Road,
CAMPBELLFIELD.
Vic. 3061
AUSTRALIA |
Tel:
+61 (03)
9357 7524
Fax: +61
(03) 9357
7521 |
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CRANE EQUIPMENT - CRANES (MACHINE HISTORY) |
