page_title: Block-setting crane
section_title: Hercules
hierarchical_section_title: Block-setting crane / Development / Hercules
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Beschrijving Titan of kraan voor het stellen van betonblokken op het Zuiderhoofd, herstel van stormschade, storting in den golfbreker De havenhoofden bij IJmuiden in aanbouw. Kraan Titan IV, voor het plaatsen van betonblokken op het Zuiderhoofd bij herstelwerkzaamheden na stormschade. Dit is nummer 12 in een reeks foto's die Pieter Oosterhuis maakte van de aanleg van het Noordzeekanaal. Serie: Oosterhuis, Aanleg van het Noordzeekanaal Documenttype foto Vervaardiger Oosterhuis, Pieter Collectie Collectie A.M.J. Hendrichs Datering 1871 t/m 1872 Inventarissen http://archief.amsterdam/archief/10017 Afbeeldingsbestand 010017000007 English: Titan or crane for placing concrete blocks on the Zuiderhoofd, repair of storm damage, deposit in the breakwater The harbor heads at IJmuiden under construction. Crane Titan IV, for placing concrete blocks on the Zuiderhoofd during repairs after storm damage. This is number 12 in a series of photos that Pieter Oosterhuis made of the construction of the North Sea Canal. Series: Oosterhuis, Construction of the North Sea Canal Generated with Dememorixer
context_page_description: A block-setting crane is a form of crane. They were used for installing the large stone blocks used to build breakwaters, moles and stone piers.
  The mid-Victorian age was a time of great expansion in industry and shipping. Better protected harbours were needed, with man-made breakwaters extending beyond natural bays or coasts, in order to enclose safe harbours for the new generations of sailing ships and iron steamships being built. This time also coincided with the availability of large-scale ironworking with which to build cranes, and portable steam power with which to drive them. In contrast to the navvies who had built the earlier canals and the first railways mostly with human and animal muscle power, these new ports were built by powered engines as well.
context_section_description: In the mid-1880s, a further development of the crane design took place, the Hercules crane. A crane was needed which could set larger and heavier blocks, up to 30 tons.
  The Hercules design combined aspects of the Manora and the Port Alfred cranes. A horizontal jib was used, with the ability to slew sideways. As it was not possible to adapt the kingpost bearing and full-circle slewing of the Port Alfred crane to this new load, the design reverted to the Manora type where the lower frame of the crane allowed blocks to pass beneath it on wagons. The jib was now separate from the lower frame though, supported on two carriages which could move sideways, thus allowing the jib to slew over a small angle. For building linear breakwaters, this small slew angle was enough. Although the mechanical design of the jib was as a kingpost truss, this kingpost was now part of the jib and rotated with it, rather than fixed to the frame beneath it. The kingpost was also placed further outboard, at the edge of the large ring bearing, making the most of the truss' span for increasing the reach of the jib.
  Early examples were built by Stothert & Pitt for the Breakwater Crane Railway, Douglas Harbour, Isle of Man and by Alexander Shanks & Son for Liepāja in Latvia, then part of Russia, and a 50 ton crane for Roker Pier, Sunderland. At Roker, a second separate Goliath (gantry) crane was provided at the rail head, for loading the granite blocks from the railway to the tramway along the pier.
caption: Placing concrete blocks in the breakwater at IJmuiden
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