Block Making

This question is more appropriate to past books in the Safehold series, but I thought I'd just toss it out there and see what comments it would elicit.

What was the state of blockmaking in Charis (and elsewhere) when they were building all those galleons? (by blocks I mean the wooden pulleys that were used with the running rigging on sailing ships. According to pp. 199-205 of Rosen's book, "The Most Powerful Idea in the World", a single large galleon could require as many as 1000-1500 different blocks for all it's running rigging! If these were made by hand (as they were up until about 1800 in the "real" world) they represented a huge amount of time and labor (the largest size blocks could take two months of skilled labor, the smaller ones proportionately less) Unless you had a huge labor force, if you were building 6-8 galleons at a time, it would take longer to make the necessary blocks than to build the ships themselves!
In the "real" world, the British solved this problem by hiring Henry Maudsley to set up an assembly line of powered block-making machinery in Portsmouth. Did Ehdwyrd Howsmyn set up a similar assembly line in Charis? . . . and if he did, why wasn't it mentioned when he was talking about setting up other assembly lines later in the series?
Just asking . . .
Philip Stanley

Wouldn't blocks also be used by stevedores to load and unload ships, be used by galley's, move stone blocks to build walls etc. In a muscle (and wind and water) powered society being able to mass produce something that doubles your effective strength would be essential from almost the dawn of creation.

Blocks are used for mechanical advantage in moving sails, and yards. A sail full of wind is not something you move with your little pinky A double and triple block multiplies the force on rope five times and one can increase the force multiplier much more than twice Running rigging is divided into sheets lines controlling sails, and halyards lines moving yards, or gasketed sails up and down masts or in the case of jibs fore stays. Most lines use several blocks both for mechanical advantage and to guide the ropes to a convenient control point, you need a lot of blocks.

Generally sheets are belayed on the gunwales and halliards at the base of the mast. The standing rigging stays ratlines are like guy lines and are not generally adjusted although many have a pair of dead eyes so tension on the stay can be adjusted.

Poker

bigrunt wrote:Wouldn't blocks also be used by stevedores to load and unload ships, be used by galley's, move stone blocks to build walls etc. In a muscle (and wind and water) powered society being able to mass produce something that doubles your effective strength would be essential from almost the dawn of creation.

At this point of tech advancement, I can see several ways to manufacture them quickly. If they so chose to keep making them mostly out of wood, then I would expect them to use two or more pieces of wood, mill out the slot for the inner wheel(s) drill a hole for a metal rod to be used for the spindle, at least two holes on the bottom for rivets, three holes on top (two for rivets, and one for some form of mounting bracket. Then assemble the block by placing the wheel between the two pieces of wood, insert spindle, insert mounting bracket and pin, then rivet it all together like a big sandwich. Adding wood layers and wheels as needed for larger blocks.

It would be fairly simple to make a pneumatic, belt, or hydraulic powered mill that runs off of a pattern set in cams. This would permit quick production of these.

Alternatively steel or iron castings can be used instead of wood, though that seems a bit costly to me considering everything else that needs steel, and would need constant maintenance to keep them from corroding.
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RunsInShadows wrote:At this point of tech advancement, I can see several ways to manufacture them quickly. If they so chose to keep making them mostly out of wood, then I would expect them to use two or more pieces of wood, mill out the slot for the inner wheel(s) drill a hole for a metal rod to be used for the spindle, at least two holes on the bottom for rivets, three holes on top (two for rivets, and one for some form of mounting bracket. Then assemble the block by placing the wheel between the two pieces of wood, insert spindle, insert mounting bracket and pin, then rivet it all together like a big sandwich. Adding wood layers and wheels as needed for larger blocks.

It would be fairly simple to make a pneumatic, belt, or hydraulic powered mill that runs off of a pattern set in cams. This would permit quick production of these.

Alternatively steel or iron castings can be used instead of wood, though that seems a bit costly to me considering everything else that needs steel, and would need constant maintenance to keep them from corroding.
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I would expect that iron or steel is not necessary for any but the top strap where the block is attached to a hook, and the axle. The sheave in many older blocks was made from wood (likely formed on a lathe in batches from one log), and there is no reason they could not be made from brass of bronze. Today most arborists use blocks made of aluminum for cost and weight. I would expect that most shops making blocks had a set of jigs for all of that shops standard sizes (which were not interchangeable with anyone elses).

Philip Stanley wrote:...snips...
In the "real" world, the British solved this problem by hiring Henry Maudsley to set up an assembly line of powered block-making machinery in Portsmouth. Did Ehdwyrd Howsmyn set up a similar assembly line in Charis? . . . and if he did, why wasn't it mentioned when he was talking about setting up other assembly lines later in the series?
Just asking . . .
Philip Stanley

Wood lathes have been in existence since well before the 18th/19th century. Not quite sure about the strictures of the church, but the potter's wheel & wood lathes (and other rotary machinery) have been around a while.

While Maudslay did have a major impact on machine tools, machine tool accuracy, and machine tool productivity, it is not necessary to have this machinery to make blocks (as in block-and-tackle, or pulleys for those of us who prefer avoiding sailor jargon )

It is not necessary to have matched pulleys (blocks ) for mechanical advantage.

It is very helpful to have good bearings, though.

I would assume (a more careful reader than I can probably cite book, chapter, and paragraph) that Safehold has a wooden equivalent to Lignum vitae--a very hard wood that is also oil bearing, and until the latter part of the 20th century, was still used as journal bearing material for ships.

The stress on the journal is higher than the stress on the shaft, so if the wood is expensive, you make the journal out of Safeholdian ironwood, and make the rest of the hardware out of less expensive woods.

Iron & steel tools (or other metals) are used to machine the wood. Stone tools or ceramic tools could be used, but re-sharpening is a pain.

Colloquially, "ironwood" can be used to describe a variety of very dense and strong woods, used for tools or for high wear applications.

Good discussion, thanks!

hdtran wrote:

Philip Stanley wrote:...snips...
In the "real" world, the British solved this problem by hiring Henry Maudsley to set up an assembly line of powered block-making machinery in Portsmouth. Did Ehdwyrd Howsmyn set up a similar assembly line in Charis? . . . and if he did, why wasn't it mentioned when he was talking about setting up other assembly lines later in the series?
Just asking . . .
Philip Stanley

Wood lathes have been in existence since well before the 18th/19th century. Not quite sure about the strictures of the church, but the potter's wheel & wood lathes (and other rotary machinery) have been around a while.

While Maudslay did have a major impact on machine tools, machine tool accuracy, and machine tool productivity, it is not necessary to have this machinery to make blocks (as in block-and-tackle, or pulleys for those of us who prefer avoiding sailor jargon )

It is not necessary to have matched pulleys (blocks ) for mechanical advantage.

It is very helpful to have good bearings, though.

I would assume (a more careful reader than I can probably cite book, chapter, and paragraph) that Safehold has a wooden equivalent to Lignum vitae--a very hard wood that is also oil bearing, and until the latter part of the 20th century, was still used as journal bearing material for ships.

The stress on the journal is higher than the stress on the shaft, so if the wood is expensive, you make the journal out of Safeholdian ironwood, and make the rest of the hardware out of less expensive woods.

Iron & steel tools (or other metals) are used to machine the wood. Stone tools or ceramic tools could be used, but re-sharpening is a pain.

Colloquially, "ironwood" can be used to describe a variety of very dense and strong woods, used for tools or for high wear applications.

Good discussion, thanks!

Wood lathes have been round since before the Babylonians (and yes stone tools will work on a wood lathe and are harder and sharper than steel tools (but hard to resharpen)).
The major new addition Henry Maudsley made was the milling of the slots for the sheaves (which in a large sailing ship typicality ran to five or more). This is an incredibly time consuming task with a drill (particularly with a traditional spoon bit, as the pilot holes cant be too close together) and manual wood chisel.
The other line of automation is a a copy lathe which uses a template object and copies it with a rotary bit, to create objects that are not necessarily round. Important for blocks that need roughing out, and really useful for rifle stocks and pick handles too that are traditionally whittled by hand with a knife and sanded smooth.

A copy lathe (I don't recall the actual name of the machine at the moment, though I generally think of it as more of a mill than a lathe) is certainly an interesting way to go. Having worked at a gun manufacturer, I have seen these in action making stocks, and I have to say they are ripe for early automation and manufacturing, though there are better, more efficient ways to do the job. #leanManufacuting #onePieceFlow

As for bearings, I'd think that a good hardwood would suffice for blocks, though I'd guess that the further advancement of tech in marine and industrial applications would mean that the use of wood over the next several years will be phased out in favor of more robust materials. I'm not sure of when oil empregnated brass was invented, or how it's made, but it is an excellent material for bearing bushings, then maybe you can start thinking about good ways to make ball bearings, etc.

Just an errant thought, does anyone know the status of concrete making during this time, or how it compares to the U.S. Production around the time of the civil war? I'm thinking of applications for bunkers, shop floors, roads, etc.

RunsInShadows wrote:A copy lathe (I don't recall the actual name of the machine at the moment, though I generally think of it as more of a mill than a lathe) is certainly an interesting way to go. Having worked at a gun manufacturer, I have seen these in action making stocks, and I have to say they are ripe for early automation and manufacturing, though there are better, more efficient ways to do the job. #leanManufacuting #onePieceFlow

As for bearings, I'd think that a good hardwood would suffice for blocks, though I'd guess that the further advancement of tech in marine and industrial applications would mean that the use of wood over the next several years will be phased out in favor of more robust materials. I'm not sure of when oil empregnated brass was invented, or how it's made, but it is an excellent material for bearing bushings, then maybe you can start thinking about good ways to make ball bearings, etc.

Just an errant thought, does anyone know the status of concrete making during this time, or how it compares to the U.S. Production around the time of the civil war? I'm thinking of applications for bunkers, shop floors, roads, etc.

Lignum vitae timber bearings are still used for some applications. This is basically a very oily, very dense wood. It has been displaced in many applications by nylon and teflon bearings but has a higher temperature capacity and is stiffer.
Sintered bronze bearings require serious hydraulic pressure and the ability to make fine closely controlled composition metal powders, which in turn requires inert atmospheres, a technology the Charisians barely realize even exists yet.
Rotary cement kilns are a relatively modern development. Earlier kilns were vertical, similar in structure to a lime kiln and required the output clinker fine to be ground before use. Good high temperature bearings are essential to get a rotary kiln working (and the firing is a black art too, about 10% of the rotary kilns built never make cement due to various firing and composition issues)

AirTech wrote:

RunsInShadows wrote:A copy lathe (I don't recall the actual name of the machine at the moment, though I generally think of it as more of a mill than a lathe) is certainly an interesting way to go. Having worked at a gun manufacturer, I have seen these in action making stocks, and I have to say they are ripe for early automation and manufacturing, though there are better, more efficient ways to do the job. #leanManufacuting #onePieceFlow

As for bearings, I'd think that a good hardwood would suffice for blocks, though I'd guess that the further advancement of tech in marine and industrial applications would mean that the use of wood over the next several years will be phased out in favor of more robust materials. I'm not sure of when oil empregnated brass was invented, or how it's made, but it is an excellent material for bearing bushings, then maybe you can start thinking about good ways to make ball bearings, etc.

Just an errant thought, does anyone know the status of concrete making during this time, or how it compares to the U.S. Production around the time of the civil war? I'm thinking of applications for bunkers, shop floors, roads, etc.

Lignum vitae timber bearings are still used for some applications. This is basically a very oily, very dense wood. It has been displaced in many applications by nylon and teflon bearings but has a higher temperature capacity and is stiffer.
Sintered bronze bearings require serious hydraulic pressure and the ability to make fine closely controlled composition metal powders, which in turn requires inert atmospheres, a technology the Charisians barely realize even exists yet.
Rotary cement kilns are a relatively modern development. Earlier kilns were vertical, similar in structure to a lime kiln and required the output clinker fine to be ground before use. Good high temperature bearings are essential to get a rotary kiln working (and the firing is a black art too, about 10% of the rotary kilns built never make cement due to various firing and composition issues)

Learn something new every time I come to this forum. Excellent info.
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