Omaha daily bee., 1897-06-13
MARVELLOUS MOVING SCENES
Remarkable Feats Of the Modern House
Moving Engineer,
SMILE INSTRUMENTS LIFT MANY TONS
How Enormous Structures Are Lifcu
from 1hctr Foundations nhd
Moved Great niSf"nccs
without Damage.
FILE INSTRUMENTS LIFT MANY TONS

There are certain men working quietly IN
various pcrts Of the United states who could
Il they chose to do 1t move the Pyramids,
pick up the Egyptian obelisks or lift mod
EN- skyscraper from It's Caisson bed and carry
1t across the street There are not many
such men. yet few, II any, pondctous OBJ
jects exis; in the world which they will not
attempt to II owe intact for consideration.
IT, the directory these men are called
housemovcrs but they are entitled to
designation Of far greater dignity, for some
OF their achievements are numbered among
the great engineering fests Of the world.
Within the past few months the house
movers have experienced an unwonted ac-
tivity. Scmc really creditable and in some
cases sturcn6ous feats have been performed.
TIE moving Of Lowering hall at Johns Hop
kins university wes one of these feats the
moving Of az upper New York house six
teen blocks along the public highway was
another, and the very recent moving and
reset; ing of a tall smokestack at Manhanset
was a third
One OF these housemuvers declares that
there is no building. however heavy, how
ever bulky which cannot be lifted from its
foundations and conveyed any distance. This
means, OF cnurse, without any damage to the
building Itself, that the very ornaments on
the mantel pieces the bric-a- brac in the cab
inets will in no way be disturbed; that the
window glass will not be even cracked that
tho home life OF family occupying the NOV
ing house will be undsturbed. Such is alb
sOutely the fact. 1t Is not necessary for the
occupants Of the building to temporarily
change their quarters; to take the castors off
the bedsteads nor to pack up all the perish
able articles in the house. 1t is on record
that an old tall clock which was in a house
that was moved in Westchester county New
York, never stopped running all during the
progress of removal. On the other hand,
there seems to be no limit to the movers
capabilities as far as weight is concerned.
The Brighton Beach hotel. which was placed
en- $50 fiat GERS and moved 600 feet, weighed
1000 tons. The weight of the recently moved
railroad station at Mott Haven, N. Y, is
100 tons This building composed en-
tiTely of brick and stone and the weight Is
very unequally distributed central tower
alone weighing 500 tons. To be frank, these
feats take all the wonderment out of the
raising of the pyramids and obelisks, mas
much as the most primitive tools are used
by the engineers. One housomover put the
case very graphically when he said, 81 think
the recent moving of that smokestack at
Manhanset a far more wonderful feat
than the raising or moving of an obelisk. The
obeIsk you know, is in one solid piece and
all you have to do is to keep it balanced,
but the smokestack IL built of thousands of
bricks held together Sy cement, which might
break apart under the least strain. The diff
ference should be apparent to everybody"
BUILDINGS EASY TO MOVE.
Inasmuch as the housemover is not con-
founded by size or weight it is pity that
his services have not been called into action
when many of our historic structures have
been razed to make way for the march of
modern Improvement. Had they been, pos
terity would be the weather. for many q
monument OF memorable events, the remem-
brance Of which is, after all, the founda-
ton of national honor and pride. The
mechanical end of the business is governed
by curious laws, of which the mover must
take account For instance, a difference in |
level of one inch between two sides at the |
basement Of building may mean a differ |
ence of one foot at the top. Now, although |
this is a fact, and although moved build /!
ing rests seri's of planks crossing and !
recrossing one another underneath, yet the |
building is in no way secured to the planks !
nor the planks even chained together |
The weight of the house, which may seem
like obstacle is really in this case an as
sisance, nasmuch it steadies and presses
on the timbeTs until the latter are almost
held together by the attraction of cohesion
and move with the building a unit The
lifting OF building is really easy and
simple that child could perform the feat, II
his efforts were Systematically directed by
an experienced man. The jackscrews used
by building movers will, a rule. lift ten
tons. If the screw turns hard a heightened
lever would put the feat within the scope of
a child's strength The moving of a build
ing after il Is on the ways Is equally simple
Sometimes house Is drawn by horses come
times by engine power and sometimes by
hand that Is, it Is lacked along in exactly
the same way in which 1t is lacked up. One
farmer took advantage OF circumstances and
used steam thresher as motive power
THE GREATEST FEAT ON RECORD.
Undoubtedly the greatest feat of house
moving ever performed was the moving of
Brighton Beach hotel. This huge caravan
sary, opened at Coney island In 1878, orig
inaly stood 600 feet back from the water.
At cost In the aggregate 5000 600 and weighed
nearly 5000 tons. But while 1t seemed to be
well out of the oceans grasp, 1t was not
long before the encroaching actiVn OF the
waves brought 1t TO the waters edge. The
band stand, which originally occupied po-
siton on dry land in front OF the hotel had
to be removed. Finally the hotel itself was
placed spiles, but this was only tenn
po:ary precautiOn, and the water ate its way
far up under the hotel Then it became ap-
parent that the hotel must be moved back
or it would be waehed away. 1t was some
thing of n task to find practical man who
would even agree to the fact that 1t could
be moved b. c. Miller, who performed the
feat. was an engineer with plans of his own.
He proposed to the railroad company which
owned the hotel to raise IL up from its spiles,
run fiat cars beneath It, and draw 1t 600 feet
up the beach, Every person except the
engineer was skeptical, but he was told to
go ahead as 1t must amount to that. or the
loss OF the hotel. During the winter of 1855
he worked and though his efforts were some
what retarded by the memorable blizzard OF
that year, he ready for the crucial test
by May /, Twenty-four tracks had been laid
under the building, and 112 fiat cars etood
waiting to receive their load of hotel The
cars were lacked apart as far as their coup
lings would fllow. Then came the work OF
shifting simultaneously the weight of the
hotel from the spes to the cars. 1t was
accomplished by means of hydraulic Jacks
each capable of lifting from sixty to ninety
tons. With these the hotel was lacked up
and held while cross timbers were placed
under it. When the weight of the hotel
finally rested on the timbers the latter formed
a continuous framework. so constructed that
no part OF 1t could move except in conjunc-
ton with the whole.
The great problem was the uniform ap-