Fairbairn cranes on Flickr

Computers & Mobile Energy & Sustainability Science
Fairbairn cranes on Flickr

Fairbairn-Crane.jpg

A reader who saw last night’s post about human-powered cranes and lifting machines e-mailed me to point out that many of the Fairbairn hand-cranked cranes featured in that post’s title image are still around, and that there is in fact a Flickr group that collects photos from enthusiasts. At least one of the cranes has been converted to steam power, but a couple appear to be still operable using their original hand cranks, such as this recently-refurbished example in Seville, beautifully photographed by Flickr user Sevillano. [Thanks, anachrocomputer!]

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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