page_title: Block-setting crane
section_title: Coode's crane for Port Alfred
hierarchical_section_title: Block-setting crane / Development / Coode's crane for Port Alfred
caption_attribution_description: Stothert &amp; Pitt 15 ton horizontal jib block-setting crane for Sir John Coode's harbour building at Port Alfred in South Africa
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 1881, Stothert and Pitt constructed a horizontal jib crane for Sir John Coode's harbour building work on the Kowie River at Port Alfred in South Africa.
  This was a rail-mounted steam crane, with a fixed horizontal jib carrying a movable trolley or 'crab'. The crane, including the steam plant, could slew on a central king post bearing. This represented all the main features of the fully developed block-setting crane, although at a small scale as yet. The fixed horizontal jib extended far enough to place the hook 45 feet from the king post, and the trolley could move 20 feet in from that position. This level carriage was copied from cranes already in use in foundries. Compared to a jib crane, this allowed blocks to be moved sideways precisely, without them also being moved up and down. The crane ran on a railway carriage of 15 feet gauge and could be powered by the crane's engine. When lifting, the rail carriage was wedged underneath to take the load. Slewing was possible all around the crane, which allowed a block to be picked up from a wagon behind the crane and moved to the front of the breakwater. The lift capacity was 15 tons, and there was enough wire rope to allow the hook to descend 26 feet below rail level.
  The crane was highly successful in use. The ability to move blocks rapidly from the wagons bringing them, and to put them in place accurately, was better than any other crane types yet used for this work.
caption: Stothert & Pitt's 15 ton crane for the Port Alfred harbour works
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