Moving buildings and other large objects was a specialized trade that required a surprisingly small variety of “gear” (the term used to describe the equipment required for this activity). The basic techniques and devices used in this trade might be traced back to Roman, Greek, and Egyptian times.
The “gear” items that were made of metal consisted of “house jacks”, “toe jacks”, and “pot jacks”. These were manufactured screw devices designed for lifting heavy loads quickly and efficiently. In fact the pot jacks could be arranged as “trip jacks” when one wanted to rotate a building. The wooden portion of the “gear” consisted of blocking, timbers, shoes, rollers, planks, block and tackle, and a capstan (see Figures 1,2,and3.). Except for the block and tackle, my grandfather (John William Canning (1856-1934) and my father (Everett Imbert Canning: 1894-1979) were able to make the wooden items. The rollers and the capstan drum were made on a large woodworking lathe and the timbers (or sticks) were cut in the woods and then shaped with a broad axe. On the broadaxe photograph (Fig.1) the timber is being “squared” on all 4 sides. For moving buildings the timber was only squared on 2 sides to form a flat top surface and a flat bottom surface. The large woodworking lathe used by my father and grandfather was driven by a windmill located on the roof of the family barn (See Fig. 2 and the image of Wards Brook at the top of this web page).
As a young man my grandfather (1856-1934) worked for a period of time for a company in Boston that moved buildings.This company was actually formed by former Nova Scotians who, as far as I know, learned their trade in Boston. When my grandfather felt that he had learned enough to start his own business he returned to Wards Brook.
The commercial “house jack” used by my father and grandfather was possibly the screw jack designed by Frank Henry Sleeper. See the following quote from the web site.
Power-Jacks-The-Screw-Jacks-Story
Quote
“During the early 1880’s in Coaticook, a small town near Quebec, a 24-year old inventor named Frank Henry Sleeper designed a lifting jack. Like da Vinci’s jack, it was a technological innovation because it was based on the principle of the ball bearing for supporting a load and transferred rotary motion, through gearing and a screw, into linear motion for moving the load”.
Figures 4,5,and 6 below show the role played by the capstan.
