Ancient and medieval cranes

For thousands of years, cranes were powered by people and animals. They were built mostly of wood and rope, yet they raised stone for temples, harbours and cathedrals.

Greek cranes

Lifting machines appear in Greece around the late 6th century BC. Marks left on surviving building blocks suggest that builders used cranes with ropes and pulleys, rather than only ramps, to lift stone into place. This helped them build with large stone blocks at greater heights.

Roman cranes

The Romans developed the crane further. The architect Vitruvius, writing in the 1st century BC, describes lifting machines with a mast, ropes and sets of pulleys. Names for the designs reflect how many pulleys they used, for example the trispastos with three and the pentaspastos with five.

Human power

Workers hauled on ropes or turned a winch, and more pulleys meant less effort for each worker. A Roman carved relief shows a large crane driven by a treadwheel, a big wheel that people walked inside.

Animal power

Some lifting work used animals to pull ropes or turn machinery, which allowed heavier loads than people alone could raise.

Treadwheel cranes

A treadwheel is a large hollow wheel. One or more workers walk inside it, like a hamster in a wheel, and their weight turns an axle that winds up a rope. Because the workers walk a long way for each short lift, the wheel gives great force, and the load can be held safely while it is raised.

Cathedral building

In the Middle Ages, treadwheel cranes were common on building sites for churches and cathedrals. They stood on the scaffolding or the walls and lifted stone, timber and later roof materials as the building rose. Some were moved up as the work progressed. A medieval treadwheel crane can still be seen in the roof space of Salisbury Cathedral in England.

Harbour cranes

Ports used large treadwheel cranes to load and unload ships. The wooden harbour crane in Gdansk, Poland, dating from the 15th century, is a well-known example.