Two young architects, 246 years apart, did the same job. Auguste Montferand installed the Alexander Column, Domenico Fontana - the Byzantine obelisk. The first weighs 600 tons, the second 330 tons. Both published books with detailed descriptions, pictures and drawings of the work done. It would be better if they didn’t do it …
Auguste Montferand described in detail how the monolith for the Alexander Column was mined, how it was delivered. Descriptions of these processes themselves are easily accessible (for those who have not read, I recommend that you familiarize yourself first) and we will not increase the volume of the article. We will postpone the issue of breaking off and turning over the monolith, but with the transportation of the column itself, we will make several comparisons.
The average person is aware of the weight of 10, 20 kilograms. He perceives 100, 200, 500 kilograms as something very heavy. And the weight of 100, 300, 500 tons is "already very heavy", but does not realize how difficult it is. Therefore, let's make a comparison in order to understand how the 600-ton convoy was transported on a wooden ship?
Modern railway platform. Length - 13.3 meters. Its own weight is 23.5 tons. Loading (cargo) - 71 tons. Nowadays, 9 platforms are needed to transport the Alexander Column! The total weight of the platforms is 211.5 tons!
Modern heavy-duty vehicle. The average weight of a semi-trailer is 7 tons. The average weight of the transported cargo is 25 tons.
We already need 24 of these machines! The total weight of the semi-trailers is 168 tons!
Promotional video:
And wood is not iron. Its strength is much less. Now imagine what a ship made of wood must be to carry such a weight.
Now let's see the origin of the Vatican Obelisk.
According to Pliny's description, his origin is from Heliopolis (a city in Ancient Egypt). Later, the obelisk towered at the Forum of Julia of Alexandria in Egypt. They brought him to Rome from Egypt during the reign of Emperor Caligula (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus) in 37 AD.
Wait, wait … In a thousand what year? No, we weren't mistaken. Just AD 37.
330 tons (now we can start from the Alexander Column about the weight category) were transported from Egypt to Rome in 37 year. Our ancestors never cease to amaze me with the ease of transportation of such huge weights, and even on ships made of wood!
If we don't make a wooden spaceship and send it to a nearby galaxy, only then we won't fall face down in the mud.
So, since Fontana only installed the column, Auguste Montferrand receives a point for the manufacture and transportation.
Montferand: Fontana - 1: 0
I have already said that both architects left us with drawings and drawings for the installation of the columns. Since Domenico Fontana was the first to install the column (in 1586), we give him the column on the left, and Auguste Montferand, who installed the column in 1832, on the right.
Domenico Fontana was the first to paint. But Auguste Montferand … Have you noticed that the drawings and drawings are like a blueprint? The foreshortenings and lifting stages are the same. It looks like I sketched it.
Montferand: Fontana - 1: 1.
Now let's see how the installation process went. Both went almost without a hitch. Just one annoying misunderstanding.
When installing the Alexander Column: at the moment of its separation from the cart, 3 capstans, almost simultaneously, stopped due to the confusion of several blocks; at this critical moment one of the upper blocks burst and fell from the height of the scaffold into the middle of the group of people standing below.
During the installation of the Vatican obelisk: during the ascent, the ropes supporting it weakened, and this threatened the obelisk to fall. Everyone froze in horror and deathly silence … and at that moment, in violation of the prohibition, a voice came from the crowd: "Water for the ropes!" It was the captain of a ship named Domenico Bresca from San Remo. He knew very well from experience that when the ropes get wet, they pull together.
For strong nerves, for carefully planned work with such huge weights, problematic even in our time, each one a point.
Montferand: Fontana - 2: 2.
Equal Score …
This means we assign an examination of the drawings and their descriptions.
Lifting equipment and people for lifting:
Domenico Fontana (Vatican Obelisk, 330 tons): It took 900 workers, 140 horses and 44 winches (capstans).
Auguste Montferand (Alexander Column, 600 tons): it took 2,400 people, 60 capstans.
Stop! In the description of Montferan it is indicated that there were 16 people for one capstan. 60 capstans * 16 people = 960 people. Only 960 people were spinning the capstans directly, lifting 600 tons.
Let's translate into modern things to make it easier to evaluate. Vaz-2109 (our Russian national nine) weighs 950 kg. So we need 632 cars to get the same weight. And now we will divide 960 people into teams to lift 632 machines. And we get that one person and a fifteen-year-old child have to lift one car on ropes, without modern winches.
Not an argument? We look further.
I specially drew only 2 ropes - to make it easier to explain. To lift the column, both ropes must be wound on winches. Rope A must be wound faster than rope B, since the part of the column tied to rope A rises faster. If we do not follow the uniform load and the load on one of the ropes exceeds its strength, then it will break. Question: how to find out the load on the ropes? For this, dynamometers are used. According to Montferrand's description, there were 480 ropes. So there should have been 480 dynamometers and a well-coordinated team that monitors their readings and informs in time which ropes to wind slower and which faster. However, neither Montferrand nor Fontana had these devices. And look at the rope as much as you want (as the architects describe), blow the pipes, beat the drums - without dynamometers, by eye, do not provide a uniform load.
Also not an argument? Well then, we're still looking.
Now it will be a little difficult. But do not worry too much I will explain everything. If there was at least a triple in physics at school, you will understand everything!
According to this scheme of Montferand, the ropes were wound through the blocks on the capstans. Two forces act on the block: the first upward (F1) - proportional load from the column weight and the second (F2) - from the capstan tension. When calculating "one rope - one block", with the column already suspended, with a uniform load of the ropes (we do not want them to break), the first force will be created from the part of the column weight equal to 1.25 tons per one rope (600 tons divided by 480 ropes). The second force must be at least equal to the first force, so that the column at least hangs in the air (not to mention the rise). And after carrying out the corresponding elementary calculations, we find that this block (with its own weight of 30, maximum 50 kg) should be fixed so (so that it does not fly into the sky from such a load), as if it weighed 1767 kg (and this is the weight of another Russian folk car - Gazelle).
Feel the difference: 50 kg and 1767 kg. Naturally, the blocks do not have such a weight or counterweight. So you need to fix them so powerfully. The tools and technologies of those years. And now the question is what to fix something? A more problematic question is how to fix it? The platform is made of wood.
But even if a block system was used, and the load was reduced on the lower block, there are no miracles in physics - there remains a load that cannot be changed - on the upper blocks. I added this part later, when I realized that many are in a hurry to comment, without even thinking about all the design elements. If we carefully study the drawings and description of Montferrand, we find out that the blocks were attached to the crate of 11 wooden beams (each consisted of 4 logs and had a total size of 45 cm by 45 cm (I emphasize - this is the description of Montferrand)). 44 logs and weight 600 tons.
Domenico Fontana even drew a diagram in detail.
It's the same story with the capstans. They also need to be fixed. Or a counterweight of 10 tons each!
But now I'll show you a global miscalculation. Even global calculations are not needed here. You will see and understand for yourself.
Task. Given 14 capstans, respectively 224 people.
Run: a column weighing 600 tons, roll it in along the slope.
Errors. I won't even take into account the friction of the rope against the column itself, but this is a serious additional problem. And so the load is not small, and even it interferes. But due to this friction, the "weight" of the column will increase by at least 10% (even with a friction coefficient of 0.1) - by 60 tons.
But we have a serious slope. And now the calculations:
I have already given an example with our Russian folk nine, so we will apply it here.
632 cars and 224 people. With a slight rounding, it turns out that one person must roll a locomotive of 3 cars up the hill. And this is without modern winches. Who can among you? I'm sure no one will even try, because it is already clear that this is not real.
Therefore, Auguste Montferand - cheating is not good! This is how it turns out when you don't understand it and redraw it under a carbon copy. And even without checking.
And who is the author of this wonderful project? Domenico Fontana. The same mistakes. In fact, he has even more.
It turns out that neither Domenico Fontana nor Auguste Montferand installed the columns in these ways.
And for such a forgery - disqualification for both.
Summarize. If some questions about the installation of columns will be discussed for a long time, then one fact crosses out this legend: without dynamometers it was impossible to track the load on the ropes and make it uniform. And there should have been 480 of them.
P. S. The Montferrand lifting mechanism itself was also checked for overturning, when with its help the column was pulled up (check so check). There we got a very confident margin. But, an amazing fact was formed: if you believe the description and the accuracy of the calculations, then the weight of the lift was about 300 tons. If we estimate by eye the weight of the platform relative to the lift, then the entire structure weighed about 1500-2000 tons.
Second postscript. Considering that the crane must have a counterweight, the columns were not lifted to the upper colonnade of St. Isaac's Cathedral in this way (I have already explained the calculation algorithm).