At the beginning of the 20th century, newsreels and photographs were already actively used in order to capture certain events. However, there are usually no photographs of the stages of building construction. for some reason, they did not like to photograph grandiose construction sites. Buildings built in the colonial style, a style that has been preserved over time for thousands of years and whose buildings are present on all continents.
One of the largest libraries in the world, built in Brazil between 1905 and 1910, contains photographs of the construction and commissioning of the same library. However, they not only reveal the secrets of the construction of that time, but, on the contrary, confuse everything.
On the one hand, everything is quite detailed in them, on the other hand, many processes are missing.
The scope of the construction is amazing, hundreds of tons of metal were used for such a construction. The production of rolled metal reached an industrial level in the second half of the 19th century. However, in the hands of the builders in the photo there are no drills or grinders. There are not even wrenches.
There was a period of technology failure in history, when the production of rolled metal disappeared all over the world and was restored only in the second half of the 19th century, when rolled products began to be made instead of forging. the technology of making columns and vaults also disappeared. Will the secrets of building such buildings be revealed in these photos?
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There are no lifting mechanisms in the photographs. How these tons of metal frame were raised to such a height and mounted in the photographs is not clear. But it is clearly shown how meticulously assembled the frame with bolts. To build such a building requires a project and calculations.
What is needed today to build such a dome? Today, all elements of the stadium domes are drawn with the help of computer programs, taking into account deformations under load. Now the question is - who could calculate the elements of the metal roof of the library so that all the bolt holes in the elements of this structure match?
Pouring floor slabs using conventional technology, which is done today. Technology has not changed over the years. They make a screed with a metal mesh - I would have expected to see a twisted wire mesh, which was in the 80s, but spot welding was used here.
A vertical post of two beams with a 90-degree profile. It can be seen that it was processed (cut off) with a non-mechanical cutter. Melted edges. Metal smudges are visible.
The result is beauty, but there are no utility structures in the yard. However, there are places where they could be located in the building itself. Place for utilities. When the fourth floor is fully ready, the porch masonry has not been completed. Even the molding of the cornice is already ready.
This means that something will be done in this place that needs to be erected after the building is ready for construction.
In the photos there is no answer what exactly was placed there. All that remains is to get into these technical floors and see. And to understand how this system worked.
The process of plastering the fourth floor has been completely missed, at least by half, although this was clearly not done in a single day. Only a photo of the finished plastered fourth floor.
In the same album there is no photo of the interior decoration. What is the secret of the finishing work of that period. The finish is impressive though.
Despite the fact that photos of the construction were found, questions remained. How was the interior decoration, vaults, columns made? How did the heavy structures go up? Zero cycle? Equipment installation? Installation of communications? Etc.
We see several builders with trowels in their hands, photos of finished structures, scaffolding.
It turns out that we have buildings built using technologies that did not exist at that time in official history. And all these historical photos look more like the restoration of the building.