James Murphy demonstrates how a small version of his Murphy Mover works. He’s looking for help to write a technical article on the invention to get more serious study of it.
Posted on 02/01/2007 3:57:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv
James Murphy said his Apex Delivery and Lifting System - or Murphy Mover - is more than just an explanation. It's a nearly energy free way of lifting and moving large objects. It doesn't take much power and doesn't need any major outside energy - just gravity... While no one calls it an unqualified success, no one has laughed it off either... He's trying to get a scientific paper on the Murphy Mover published to attract the attention that could lead to a grant to demonstrate his theory and models. Murphy is looking for someone with an engineering or technical background to help him write an article for publication in a robotics magazine... He said that the size of the mover can be increased to move stones or blocks weighing thousands of pounds just as easily as the small model he demonstrates with only a piece of a brick swinging in it... Paul Backes, the JPL professor, told Murphy "he'd never seen anything like it before." Murphy's invention is something unique - like a four-sided pyramid, somewhat reminiscent of the swing set that originally inspired him. He can demonstrate how the concept operates with a small model he has, using a piece of a brick suspended in the Murphy Mover, he swings the brick, which starts the lifting system moving.
(Excerpt) Read more at taftmidwaydriller.com ...
James Murphy demonstrates how a small version of his Murphy Mover works. He’s looking for help to write a technical article on the invention to get more serious study of it.
Pyramids were built with concrete rather than rocks, scientists claim
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Posted on 12/01/2006 6:55:23 PM EST by Rodney King
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1747201/posts
Riddle Of The Great Pyramids Of Giza:
Professor Finds Some Building Blocks Were Concrete
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1751121/posts
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This will work for horizontal movement. Once it gets moving it ought to be easy to keep it going, although steering might be a problem.
“I would swing so high that the back legs would come off the ground, then the front legs would come off the ground.”
Years later, as he looked back on it, he realized what was happening - gravity acting on his weight made the swing set walk.
He mused on that thought and ended up with his invention, the Murphy Mover.
Clever. Putting blocks under the lifted legs must be an exciting job...
In the Fall 2002 issue of KMT Anthony P. Sakovich showed his systematic approach to estimating the number of stones (some larger, some smaller) in the Khufu pyramid, arrived at a figure of 4 million, and Zahi's response was to say that Khufu's consisted of perhaps one million stones, and each was, on average, less than 2 tons each.Great Pyramid's Stones CountedA new study conducted by the Supreme Council for Antiquities in Egypt has determined that the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza consists of one million limestone rocks.
by Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
December 2002
The number is under half of the previously estimated amount of 2.3 million stones, indicating that the Egyptian pyramid builders were even more organized and efficient than previously thought.
Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council, said that the Great Pyramid was considered to be a national project that all Egyptians took part in, according to an Egyptian State Information Service report last week. The report also mentioned that Hawass and his team analyzed the administrative organization and work scheme used in the construction of the 450-foot tall monument.
> This will work for horizontal movement. Once it gets moving it ought to be easy to keep it going, although steering might be a problem.
I think this Murphy guy is onto something. As to steering, prevent one of the four legs from shifting (or even impede one of them from shifting as much as the other three) and this neat little device would turn on a dime around the impeded leg...
(Figures that a guy named Murphy would figure this one out!)
While somewhat interesting, it doesn't answer the question of how the stones were cut, transported to and from the barges (plus the trip by water), and set with such accuracy at the rate of more than one stone a minute (one estimate I've read is one stone every ten seconds) for twenty years.Pyramid Construction Riddle Solved?Osvaldo Falesiedi, an amateur Egyptologist has shaken the Italian scientific community with his hypothesis on how the pyramids were built. He bases his theory on cradle-like objects discovered by archaeologists in the 19th century under the foundations of the Thutmosi II and Hatshepsut temples in Egypt. Bolstering the cradle theory are ancient 5th-century B.C. writings, in which Herodotus mentions "machines made of small woods."
Discover news brief
There are ancient docks on the Nile, and there's a causeway leading up toward Khafre. There is a distinct lack of documentation on the construction techniques, which I guess is understandable given the age of the 4th Dynasty pyramids at Giza. :') There's also a lack of agreement on the source of the stones, as well as whether the stones are actually quarried stone in the first place.
> One question I'd have is, how much time does it take for this to work?
Excellent question: one which favors some form of significant mechanical efficiency about moving them. I can't imagine it being done "Moses" style, with a few hundred Israelites pushing huge rocks against the unaided force of gravity. I've no doubts that the Egyptians would make Israelites do it, mind: but I think they'd probably be clever enough to find a more efficient use of their resources.
Let's say one Israelite per leg, one on either side of the rocker, and say four managing guy ropes to ensure the entire contraption didn't spill over. Ten guys per stone: the only trick would be to get the stone aloft so it could Murphy-Moved, and that could be done easily enough with a block-and-tackle...
No, in my mind's eye, I think Murphy might well be onto something pretty clever. Even if it wasn't what was actually used, it could almost certainly work just fine for moving big rocks.
(Maybe it was a Murphy who built Stonehenge...?)
I saw the Murphy Mover being demonstrated on TV the other night.
Ron Popeil could sell these things.
He's looking for help$
Contact Myth Busters, they just did one on swings.
Speaking of Stonehenge, someone sent this youtube link to me the other day along the same lines as this thread.
Engineering help too, he said.
It's all in the timing.
;-)
I posted this on another pyramid-building thread once before...
I read a fun book about along those lines. The ancient Egyptians may have built simple cranes for the purposes of transporting limestone blocks. The book title, which is the first difficult bit to swallow, is:
"HOW TO BUILD A FLYING SAUCER: AND OTHER PROPOSALS IN SPECULATIVE ENGINEERING"
by T. B. Pawlicki
includes sketches for cranes that could have transported the pyramid stones to Giza as well as some investigation as to what might have survived thousands of years later, such as large rounded stones with holes in them that are currently used as grinding/millstones.
Interesting!
Some of those pyramid stones were several tons. How would you keep a wooden frame from collapsing?
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