http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_crane_in_Bonn.jpg

1. Roman crane in Bonn http://www.iaw.on.ca/~jspirko/gallery/roman_crane02.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_crane_in_Bonn.jpg A crane is a machine that is capable of raising and lowering heavy objects and moving them horizontally. Cranes are distinguished from hoists, which can lift objects but that cannot move them sideways. Cranes are also distinguished from conveyors, that lift and move bulk materials, such as grain and coal, in a continuous process. The word crane is taken from the fact that these machines have a shape similar to that of the tall, long-necked bird of the same name. http://www.answers.com/topic/crane-machine

2. Human beings have used a wide variety of devices to lift heavy objects since ancient times. One of the earliest versions of the crane to be developed was the shaduf, first used to move water in Egypt about four thousand years ago. The shaduf consists of a long, pivoting beam balanced on a vertical support. A heavy weight is attached to one end of the beam and a bucket to the other. The user pulls the bucket down to the water supply, fills it, then allows the weight to pull the bucket up. The beam is then rotated to the desired position and the bucket is emptied. The shaduf is still used in rural areas of Egypt and India. As early as the first century, cranes were built that were powered by human beings or animals operating a treadmill or large wheel. These early cranes consisted of a long wooden beam, known as a boom, connected to a rotating base. The wheel or treadmill powered a drum, around which a rope was wound. The rope was connected to a pulley at the top of the boom and to a hook that lifted the weight. http://www.answers.com/topic/crane-machine http://www.walterruffler.de/shaduf.html

3. The SHADUF consisted of a long, pivoting beam balanced on a vertical support. A heavy weight was attached to one end of the beam and a bucket to the other. The user pulled the bucket down to the water supply, filled it, then allowed the weight to pull the bucket up. The beam was then rotated to the desired position and the bucket was emptied. The shaduf is still used in rural areas of Egypt and India today. http://www.australiancrane.com.au/crane_history.htm

4. The heyday of crane in ancient times came under the Roman Empire, when construction activity soared and buildings reached enormous dimensions. The Romans adopted the Greek crane and developed it further. The simplest Roman crane, the Trispastos, consisted of a single-beam jib, a winch, a rope, and a block containing three pulleys. Having thus a mechanical advantage of 3:1, it has been calculated that a single man working the winch could raise 150 kg (3 pulleys x 50 kg = 150), assuming that 50 kg represent the maximum effort a man can exert over a longer time period. Heavier crane types featured five pulleys (Pentaspastos) or, in case of the largest one, a set of three by five pulleys (Polyspastos) and came with two, three or four masts, depending on the maximum load. The Polyspastos, when worked by four men at both sides of the winch, could already lift 3000 kg (3 ropes x 5 pulleys x 4 men x 50 kg = 3000 kg). In case the winch was replaced by a treadwheel, the maximum load even doubled to 6000 kg at only half the crew, since the treadwheel possesses a much bigger mechanical advantage due to its larger diameter. This meant that, in comparison to the construction of the Egyptian Pyramids, where about 50 men were needed to move a 2.5 ton stone block up the ramp (50 kg per person), the lifting capability of the Roman Polyspastos proved to be 60 times higher (3000 kg per person). However, numerous extant Roman buildings which feature much heavier stone blocks than those handled by the Polyspastos indicate that the overall lifting capability of the Romans went far beyond that of any single crane. At the temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, for incidence, the architraves blocks weigh up to 60 tons each, and the corner cornices blocks even over 100 tons, all of them raised to a height of ca. 19 m above the ground. http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Crane-(machine) Greco-Roman Pentaspastos ("Five-pulley-crane"), a medium-sized variant (ca. 450 kg load) Ancient Greek Crane Model Working on the Parthenon. From Pentelicon to the Parthenon, Manalis Korres, Athens 1995

5. Archimedes Claw, Military Technology p 225) Invented by Archimedes used to move large ships but also to destroy these as Plutarch describes in Marcellus Chapter XV: "... when Archimedes began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all sorts of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down with incredible noise and violence; against which no man could stand; for they knocked down those upon whom they fell in heaps, breaking all their ranks and files. In the meantime huge poles thrust out from the walls over the ships and sunk some by great weights which they let down from on high upon them; others they lifted up into the air by an iron hand or beak like a crane's beak and, when they had drawn them up by the prow, and set them on end upon the poop, they plunged them to the bottom of the sea; or else the ships, drawn by engines within, and whirled about, were dashed against steep rocks that stood jutting out under the walls, with great destruction of the soldiers that were aboard hem. A ship was frequently lifted up to a great height in the air (a dreadful thing to behold), and was rolled to and fro, and kept swinging, until the mariners were all thrown out, when at length it was dashed against the rocks, or let fall." Plutarch, Marcellus http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/InventionsC.htm