The Thunder Stone - From 1,500 tons down to 400 RuneSpider   posted on Oct, 23 2011 @ 08:28 AM link to the whole discusssion at AboveTopSecret.com "The heaviest stone moved by man, starting out at 2000 tonnes and was carved down to 1500 while being moved. Now down to 1250 tonnes as it serves as the pedestal for the statue of Peter The great called the Bronze Horseman. Pulled from marshy ground in 1768 by Russian workers under the command of a Greek Lieutenant -Colonel in the Russian army moved the stone 150 meters a day. It took nearly nine months to move the massive stone the 6 km. to the Gulf of Finland. To this day it remains the largest stone moved by man, with the 6 km it was moved, done completely with man power. No machinery or animal labour was used to move the stone. " The above quote is representative of what one finds when doing an internet search on the subject. It shows a lack of critical thinking, and willingness to cut & paste untruths as long as they conform to the agenda of belittling ancient achievements. Fortunately, the same search provides visual documentation which conflicts with such buncombe claims head on. The reader is invited to inspect a sequence of images which shows the granite stone in progressive stages of the work. First, the drawing below shows that the stone was being reduced in size before ever being moved.  The initial measurements of the stone in meters, 14 x 7 x 9, would translate to about 2,400 - 2,500 tons in weight. However, since the stone is not rectangular but rounded  - the starting weight is less - ascribing  a value of 1,800 tons to it seems fair although sources generally cite 1,500 tons. The picture below is dated  January 20th, 1770. In my opinion, it must have been the day when the stone was set in motion. That would explain the alleged presence of Catherine II, the empress, and the throng of onlookers. It is evident that the shape of the stone has changed a lot by then -starting from the base on the left, which instead of protruding outwards, now slopes inwards. Its width on top is now only around four meters instead of seven, and the base itself now looks no more than five meters wide, but let's say that it is six meters wide. Even so, forty percent, or so, of its bulk must be gone by now (so it must be down to 1,200 - 1,300 tons) - and still, workers hammer away at it.  The red line roughly approximates the change which had occurred prior to any attempts to move the stone; however, it doesn't show the whittling down done on the sides.  Below: a larger, black & white version of the same image provides good view of some important details. The stone, loaded on a metal sledge, rolled on ball-bearings - a century before the official date of their invention - pairs of tracked iron rails with six inch brass balls in the tunnel formed between the top and bottom rails. The stone was pulled  by two capstans, each capstan in tandem with a pulley, each capstan turned by a team of thirty men.

A question arises -  how much more weight did the stone lose in the following days, before it travelled any significant distance? This is an important question because the stone weighs less than five-hundred tons presently. I suspect that the stone hardly budged from its place on that first day, if at all; the nobility thought that they saw it move an inch and went back to Petersburg happily, and then its transport didn't really get underway until further substantial weight reduction. Was it cut down to less than 600 tons while still in situ?  It would make sense to concentrate on making the stone lighter first; it could be moved along much faster at 600 tons than at double the weight. That's how Falconet had first proposed the project; after the empress went back to Petersburg, he might have done just that. If I were in his shoes, for the sake of efficiency, that's what I would do, and argue with the empress later.                           Thunder Stone Sailing A higher resolution specimen of the image below is needed - what is that mysterious big square on the far side of the stone? This way, seen from afar, the stone reminds me of a merchant ship in drydock. The big square cannot be part of the Thunder Stone because the preceding image shows how the stone sloped a lot already when getting underway. It seems to me that the stone loaded upon the barge closely does resemble its final form; the higher front protrudes forward as it does today, and the stone slopes down towards the rear. Therefore, its weight must also be nearer the final tally. Comparisons to what the stone looks like today This photo of the Thunder Stone has a man standing close by it, thus providing a reference. If he were a two meters tall basketball player and stood up straight - he'd take up one-third of the stone's height. It seems realistic to estimate that the stone is no more than six meters tall;  it lost one-third of its original height. Of course, if our man turned out average in height - a more likely case - the stone's size would diminish corespondingly. The stone then appears approximately twelve meters long at the base, and just over five meters tall.

A stunning vistal!

    



 
 Which is bigger - the megalith above or the one below?




 

© Jiri Mruzek  -  May 2016, Vancouver, B.C.
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