Thursday, October 19, 2006

FLINT MAN SOLVES THE MYSTERY OF STONEHENGE


The question of how the ancients stood 26-ton stones on end to create
Stonehenge more than 5,000 years ago has puzzled scientists for millennia,
but a retired carpenter from Flint may have cracked the case.

Wally Wallington has been single-handedly moving incredibly large objects --
we¹re talking 10-ton concrete blocks -- with very little effort for years.
In 2003, using only sticks, stones, rope and gravity, he began building on
his own Stonehenge in his backyard.

It works like this: Wallington uses a homemade wood fulcrum to turn a giant
stone block into a lever. Using counterweights, he maneuvers thin pieces of
wood underneath the block until it¹s hoisted off the ground. Then he takes
the counterweights off the block and allows gravity to take over. Within
seconds the giant block is vertical. Wallington stood his first
Stonehenge-sized block, 19,200 pounds, by himself in only two days.

It¹s been hypothesized that the original Stonehenge took about 2,000 years
to complete. Even though Wallington doesn¹t have a scheduled completion date
for his Stonehenge, we¹re pretty sure it will take a lot less time than
that.

Wallington first started leveraging heavy objects during his carpentry days.
³I had to remove some 1,200-pound saw-cut concrete blocks from an existing
floor,² he explains on his web site. ³The problem was that we did not have a
machine that could reach some of the blocks. The only obvious answer was to
break the blocks into smaller pieces with a sledgehammer and load them into
a wheelbarrow. To me, this seemed to be too much labor at the time, so I
improvised.²

University of Michigan physics professor Michael Bretz agrees that the
effort is pretty impressive. While he notes that no one can prove how
Stonehenge was built, ³it seems entirely plausible that ancient blocks could
have been moved via his rock pivot and rocking/rotating technique.²

...........

Amazing Video Of Wally Wallington Moving Massive Concrete Slabs:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0

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