• rc__buggy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    381·
    2 days ago

    That’s just way too simplistic. There’s no lock, there’s no block and tackle, there’s no apparent way to get the stone to the wall once it’s lifted. Dude spends a day’s calories to hoist that cut stone 30 feet in the air and then what? It just dangles there while he’s not allowed to go have a pee break?

    • ExhaleSmile@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      2 days ago

      And where’s the donut dangling in front of the guy in the hamster wheel? Horrible representation…

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
        13·
        2 days ago

        The dangling donut was actually an innovation of the Dutch (who invented the donut); before that, hamster wheels had to make do with only 12% the efficiency of later hamster wheels.

    • Nate Cox@programming.devEnglish
      15·
      2 days ago

      Also with no ratcheting preventing backspin every once in a while that poor sap in the wheel would miss a step or something and then go for one hell of a ride.

        • Nate Cox@programming.devEnglish
          41·
          2 days ago

          No. Ratcheting stops are one form of winch break (and definitely the most common in modern winches) but it’s not a mandatory inclusion. A winch is just a rope around a drum.

    • _druid@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      There’s a gentleman over there with a dry boat hook, to pull the block stage left. As far as a lock, perhaps there’s a slot and a peg going into the floor beneath the wheel?

      • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        31·
        2 days ago

        Ah, I saw it wrong. I thought that was dude on the ground but this block is already 50ft in the air. Thanks.

    • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      2 days ago

      Oh I see it. The guy with the hook is on a wall, and you can see lower down the even smaller guy. Guy with the hook pulls it toward him and the wall.

    • mmddmm@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Dude spends a day’s calories to hoist that cut stone 30 feet in the air

      Hum… 4000kcal is ~16MJ, what would lift about 160 thousand kg by those 10m.

      But yeah, it’s missing all the components. Also, isn’t the wheel supposed to be on the ground? What lifts the wheel into the top of the wall?

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        2 days ago

        They would just build it there. Same way that nobody would lug siege weapons all the way from home - engineers build them onsite.

      • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        24·
        2 days ago

        OK yeah, hyperbole about the work required but can you imagine stepping a 500 pound stone into the air with no mechanical advantage? I’m not sure that a human can even exert that force with their weight.

        They would just haul the lumber up and build the machine at the top of the wall

        • EvacuateSoul@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          He’s walking in a big wheel with a rope wrapping around a small wheel on his axle. That’s the mechanical advantage.

          • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            Ah, yeah.

            So would that work? Can that dude treadmill stones to the top of the apparently 50-60ft wall with that mechanical advantage all day?

            Would it help if I whipped him while he did it?

  • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    I read that the person in the wheel was often blind. It was one way for them to make a living.

    • EtnaAtsume@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      That’s just a misunderstanding. He’s a known womanizer, does lots of wenching, but, well, spelling hadn’t been standardized at the time the illustration was depicting, so they got the wrong vowel intentionally so as to maintain peak historical authenticity.

    • gnu@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Depends whether you think it has the rope coming in on the far side (to the viewer) or the near side. If it’s wrapping from the far side then old mate is raising the block, otherwise he’s lowering it. The picture is ambiguous enough that it could be seen either way IMO.