reinstalling the windmill
Reinstalling the windmill was an arduous affair.
All the components were disassembled in their entirety
so that they could fit into the freight elevator to the third floor.

The next step was to secure sufficiently large I-beams
which could support the 35,000 pound weight of the
windmill plus the 20,000 pound weight of the stone block to be
lifted. All suspended out in thin air over a three story space!
Here we are loading a 66 foot long, 30 inch high
I-beam which weighs 6000 pounds.
When the crane lifted up the I-beam a mother skunk and a whole
family of little babies walked single-file to the next pile of iron.
This should have been construed as an omen of future dealings with City Museum.
loading i-beams
To get the I-beams up to the third floor,
a window had to be removed and they were lifted up by a large crane.

After the I-beams were installed, the windmill components
were reassembled (gears put back in gear boxes etc.)
and jacked up on wooden caissons so they could be
rolled into place.
up onto caissons
The main gearbox as seen in the above photo
weighs 8000 pounds! It was lifted one-half inch at a time
by four railcar jacks (seen on each corner).
This took an entire Sunday!

rolling the gearbox into place
After each component was raised to the height of the I-beams,
it was rolled over onto them.

windmill gearbox
Here it is possible to see the gearbox and generator
plus the low-speed shaft and bearings in the foreground.
The low-speed shaft was converted into the take-up reel
for the 20,000 pound granite block.

all windmill components
Here are all the windmill components installed, waiting for paint
and waiting to be connected to the granite block.

installing granite block
Here final adjustments are made to the switching mechanism
for the granite block which is already in the air.

underneath the lifting stone
Here is a view from beneath the stone showing it
being lifted up to the third floor from the first floor.

windmill index button

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