Object data
wood, brass, iron, ivory and rope
height 18 cm × width 32 cm × depth 8.2 cm
anonymous
Model of a Crane
? Netherlands, United Kingdom, c. 1750 - c. 1807
Inscriptions
- label, top: 39 former inventory label
Provenance
...; collection Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1765-1837), Amsterdam, 1807;1 Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, 1837;2 transferred to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-39
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Table model of a crane, consisting of a gear train under a small roof and a boom with tackle and weight. The mechanism, operated by means of an ivory handle, is unstable. The cord is broken and the pulley block is missing. The tackle can run in two different ways: from the winch to a sheave, through the hole in the base and back to a hook, or from the sheave to a second sheave at the end of the boom and back to the hook end of the boom. The model specifically demonstrates the double brake mechanism invented by the British engineer John Padmore (active before 1729). The ratchet preventing the wheel from running back when loaded, was separate from the friction brake controlling the rate of descent of the load.
This demonstration model is first mentioned as part of the private collection of Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) in 1807.3 According to Obreen this crane was used on construction sites for tall buildings.4 It is different from the ones in the collections of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem5 and the University Museum Utrecht.6
Literature
J.T. Desaguliers, ‘Some Observations on the Crane, with Improvements on that Machine’, Philosophical Transactions 36 (1729), no. 411, pp. 194-204, pp. 197-204; J.T. Desaguliers, A Course of Experimental Philosophy, vol. 1, London 1734, pp. 179-81, figs. 5-7; P. van Musschenbroek, Introductio ad Philosophiam Naturalem, 2 vols., Leiden 1762, vol. 10, figs. 2-3; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 39; H.J.M. Bos, Descriptive Catalogue: Mechanical Instruments in the Utrecht University Museum, coll. cat. Utrecht 1968, no. M83; G.l’E. Turner, Van Marum’s Scientific Instruments in Teyler’s Museum, in E. Lefebvre and J.G. de Bruijn (eds.), Martinus van Marum: Life and Work, 6 vols., vol. 2, Leiden 1973, pp. 127-401, no. 67
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Crane, Netherlands, c. 1750 - c. 1807', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.242764
(accessed 19 April 2024 10:31:34).