2-888-576 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Exhibition Building in Hyde Park - Unloading Girders, 1850. View of '...the large crane, by which the cast-iron girders are unloaded from the waggon - one of Pickford's in the present instance. A girder is seen, suspended by the chain, in the act of being moved round to be placed between the jaws of the hydraulic testing machine. In order that the progress of the works might not be impeded, at their commencement it was found absolutely necessary to test the girders by night as well as by day, for which purpose artificial light was required...A lamp, with flexible tube, by which the gas is conveyed from the main, is suspended from the jib of the crane, with which it can therefore be moved round in any required direction, and also be raised or lowered according to circumstances. In the foreground is one of the sappers and miners men waiting to test the strength of the girder'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.