Comments on: Stonehenge Revealed!

Stonehenge Revealed!

ObscureReferenceMan — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:21:17 -0800

A former carpenter/construction worker has figured out the secret to Stonehenge and The Pyramids. Discovery Channel Canada has more (WMV, sorry). [via MoFi]

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:28:47 -0800

Wow. I went to a brewer's guild meeting, and they were showing the movie that this guy made on a projector. I'm not sure what it had to do with brewing, but it was really interesting... (Not sure if I'd call it THE secret to Stonehenge...)

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:32:08 -0800

One year ago today MeFi discussed a retired construction worker's plan to build a stonehenge replica.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:46:33 -0800

Slack- Now that is freaky. The stonehenge thing, meh; the recurrence as an FPP after exactly a year, very wierd.

By: ObscureReferenceMan

ObscureReferenceMan — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:50:26 -0800

Dang! I did a search, but didn't find. I throw myself on the mercy of mathowie. Feel free to remove this FPP, and place me in the penalty box for as long as you see fit. *slinks away under rock*

By: nixerman

nixerman — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:54:27 -0800

I don't think the Old Gods would be pleased by the removal of this FPP. The year gap is a message and mathowie would do well to heed it. Also, it's pretty damn cool. Good post, ORM!

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:01:07 -0800

orm, I was just joking around. I think it's a cool post, and I missed it when I was lurking a year ago.

By: Enron Hubbard

Enron Hubbard — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:06:43 -0800

I remember this from a year ago. There is new material on the website and I'm glad to see it.

By: NekulturnY

NekulturnY — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:08:03 -0800

Seems interesting, pity I can't read a damn thing on that site because of the crappy lay out. Anyone care to explain it to me in layman's terms? It's something with a heavy weight, two things underneath it and a thing on top of it, judging from the drawings.

By: sriracha

sriracha — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:12:59 -0800

Some forgotten technology, like the marquee tag and the animated GIF, is better left that way.

By: beagle

beagle — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:29:31 -0800

I'm not sure what it had to do with brewing Moving barrels around, maybe?

By: bingo

bingo — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:29:33 -0800

I think maybe he's moving a heavy thing by digging a hole under the heavy thing and then tilting the heavy thing into the hole. No?

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:30:16 -0800

I lived with my octogenarian, retired engineer grandfather the summer after I finished college. One evening after I returned from a long day at work, he told me that he needed my help with a project. Years before, he had removed an entire patio in one slab to build a septic tank underneath. The large concrete slab he had removed (I assumed with heavy equipment) and moved to another remote place on his farm where it sat until he was ready for it. Now that he had another set of hands, he wanted to move it back. I was thinking the last thing I wanted to do after working hard all day was manhandle a several ton slab of concrete the mile or so back to the house. My grandfather grabbed a small pvc pipe leaned against the door and said, "come on." Out back the slab was already nearly in place, all he needed me for was for me to tilt the slab up so that he could get some ropes out from under it. I asked him how he'd done it all by himself. Not being a man of many words his one word reply was, "leverage." I still have no idea how he did it, though I do know it involved a small pvc pipe, some ropes and his riding mower.

By: Mid

Mid — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:32:21 -0800

That guy's website reads like Time Cube.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:32:53 -0800

Blue-collar geniuses make my punkrock bosom swell with joy. Glad for the repost. Obscure Reference Man, trying to live up to your name with the 1 year to the date to the hour thing?

By: signal

signal — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:37:25 -0800

That website design needs to be taken out back and shot.

By: beagle

beagle — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:40:13 -0800

I did a search, but didn't find For future reference, try Google "Search Site": Result number three

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:40:23 -0800

Secret? What about the ramps/burial theory?

By: Satapher

Satapher — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:49:54 -0800

what about the coat hanger electrocution theory?

By: Satapher

Satapher — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:52:01 -0800

i cant believe that guy doesnt hire some emo kid to make a site for him so you all can browse in the same sterile pastels.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:56:11 -0800

It's something with a heavy weight, two things underneath it and a thing on top of it, judging from the drawings. That looks to be one of the several techniques he's using. If you take a heavy thing, get it resting on two pivot points, then put something else heavy on one of the top edges of the larger thing, you can balance it on one of the two pivots. Then, you can rotate it, and set it back down on the other pivot and repeat the process. This way you walk it from place to place. One of the other techniques he seems to be using in concert with the above is the Square Wheel concept. This comes in very handy with the above walking technique because it allows you to move your counterweight from one side of the block to the other just as easily as rolling a marble. The sled technique shown here is a particularly clever one for a reason he doesn't seem to mention (or maybe I missed it). Once you pull that block up, you can put a stop behind it, then reverse the process and pull a block nearly twice as large up the other side using the weight of your body in addition to the smaller block. You could repeat this as many times as you wanted, lifting heavier and heavier blocks in sequence. I'd be interested in seeing his video. I'd be willing to pay 15$ for it, too, as long as it wasn't as crappy as the website. Has anyone seen it, and could recommend whether it's worth the cash?

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 06:58:25 -0800

i cant believe that guy doesn't hire some emo kid to make a site for him so you all can browse in the same sterile pastels. Most construction workers I know wouldn't know what an emo kid was, much less where to hire one to do his web design. Most of the ones I know wouldn't realize that the pansy with the earring that hangs around his daughter trying to get into her pants, is really his best hope for reaching the masses in the ether-world.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 07:04:41 -0800

I actually only stumbled upon the original MeFi post because I was looking for a different Stonehenge tidbit. I was wondering if anybody had posted about the recent discovery of what is believed to be the quarry that the Stonehenge stones were cut from.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 07:31:46 -0800

i saw one of those stonehenge blocks in a hotel once

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:08:16 -0800

That's interesting... I had to skip ahead though as I was worried I'd go through the long-winded introduction and find his magic "Ring of Isis" is what moved the blocks.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:11:51 -0800

I'm more curious how they transported the stones 240 miles from Wales.

By: voltairemodern

voltairemodern — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:39:48 -0800

240 miles? The extraterrestrials did that part.

By: banished

banished — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:58:24 -0800

Who was it... Tesla maybe?... who said, you can move anything, even the earth, if you use a long enough lever.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 09:25:07 -0800

That was Archimedes, banished.

By: signal

signal — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 09:36:20 -0800

Satapher: “i cant believe that guy doesnt hire some emo kid to make a site for him so you all can browse in the same sterile pastels.” Wow, so many stereotypes, so little time.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 09:59:24 -0800

*dusts off hands* Well, that takes care of that, huh? Thank goodness such complex engineering feats can be solved by one guy. It's kinda like all those crop circles made by two old men with some rope and a wooden plank. Gullability goes both ways. I'm more curious how they transported the stones 240 miles from Wales. And I'm even more curious why they transported the stones 240 miles from Wales.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 10:18:45 -0800

"And I'm even more curious why they transported the stones 240 miles from Wales." Same reason currency is fixed to something or the meter had an agreed upon length until recently, etc. You can't always just use the king's foot. ...well, you can, but it's stupid. Probably was an agreed upon chunk of turf where you could send some guys to find out about when you need to plant or get ready for whatever change the stars said were coming up. /star change in the astronomical not astrological sense.

By: uni verse

uni verse — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 10:21:15 -0800

How could they go 240 miles? The probability of that happening is nil. This is the real engineering feat.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 10:48:00 -0800

The probability may be nil... except that, uh, it happened?

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 10:59:03 -0800

How could they go 240 miles? The probability of that happening is nil. That's certainly an odd thing to say. Do you understand what probability actually means? It's fairly easy to understand how they went 240 miles. If you can move the stone forward horizontally by flipping it around and around, then you just do that over, and over, and over. Yes, it would take a long time. It did take a long time - that's why it's impressive - that's why we know the people who built it were extremely dedicated. It has nothing to do with probability, because we're not talking about the chances that one block will vanish from one site and reappear in another site, we're talking about the feasibility of moving it by force.

By: uni verse

uni verse — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 11:10:44 -0800

Do you understand what probability actually means ? Woah ... I was just exaggerating a bit. Anyway, I dug a bit and found most agree the bluestones were dragged and floated down the river. Whats funny is the "Millenium bluestone project" in 2001 failed to succeed in replicating their efforts, even with a 'light' stone of 3 tons. An article reads: The bluestone was the centre of a controversial project to replicate the 4,000-year-old journey of the giant stones from the Preseli mountains in Pembrokeshire, which make up the inner circle of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. But modern man was unable to achieve what his Neolithic ancestors did. Although the stone was successfully dragged 17 miles from the Preseli Hills to the Cleddau River, a series of mishaps, culmin-CERI JONES ating in a watery grave, meant that it never left Pembrokeshire. For the past two years it has been gathering barnacles on the quayside at Milford Docks as the Heritage Lottery Fund, which bankrolled the project to the tune of £100,000 and Pembrokeshire County Council decided what to do with it.

By: uni verse

uni verse — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 11:19:47 -0800

"culminating in a water grave" sorry.

By: kurumi

kurumi — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 11:58:38 -0800

Spinal Tap had no problem transporting their bit of Stonehenge.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:43:51 -0800

How could they go 240 miles? The probability of that happening is nil. This is the real engineering feat. "I found that I, working alone, could easily move a 2400 lb. block 300 ft. per hour with little effort, and a 10,000 lb. block at 70 ft. per hour."

By: centrs

centrs — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 01:40:22 -0800

my brain hurts.

By: sic

sic — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 17:15:53 -0800

Interesting post, thanks.

By: uni verse

uni verse — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:13:32 -0800

Kirkaracha: Any links or is that some obscure reference?

By: obloquy

obloquy — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 11:08:15 -0800

uni: it's from page 2 of the first link.