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Coral Castle (Edward Leedskalnin; Homestead, Florida)

That's an interesting and logical view of the whole thing. It certainly makes sense that it was in Ed's best interest to promote a sense of mystery about how he did it all. In my mind there's still a piece to the puzzle that needs further understanding, and I'm sure it's nothing too astounding...I remember seeing a man on TV saying with a straight face that he was a truck driver and he personally witnessed a huge stone having been moved onto his flatbed truck in the space of a minute or so while his back was turned. He said there was no heavy lifting equipment. It would appear, then, that the man was telling a bald faced lie. People tell lies every day, and it doesn't help in a quest for truth. It's sad commentary on human nature.
 
slight correction.

the stones were carved from coral...not bedrock, hence the name coral castle. so while they were undoubtedly still heavy, they were nowhere near as heavy as the equivalent sized pieces of bedrock would have been. ed was an "outsider artist" who had a broken heart, he lived alone, an immigrant in this country, and he took his angst out on the coral and created an amazing place. i believe he used nothing otherworldy to move the stones into position, just moving them through a simple balancing technique...how do i think i know this you may well ask...well, once in a fit of housecleaning frenzy, driven by the clock and necessity, i moved an entire massive 12 piece sectional sofa that was built like a battleship and weighted just as much by tipping the sections onto their corners and edges and spinning, rocking and flipping them around. it was amazingly easy, no lifting...and i astounded my family when they returned, as to how a mere slip of a thing, such as i am, could have accomplished something like this... no fatigue, no back strain and no smashed toes. im sure that with chains pulleys and levers like ed had i could have shifted the entire house.
 
Re: slight correction.

thenumenorian said:
the stones were carved from coral...not bedrock, hence the name coral castle. so while they were undoubtedly still heavy, they were nowhere near as heavy as the equivalent sized pieces of bedrock would have been. ed was an "outsider artist" who had a broken heart, he lived alone, an immigrant in this country, and he took his angst out on the coral and created an amazing place. i believe he used nothing otherworldy to move the stones into position, just moving them through a simple balancing technique...how do i think i know this you may well ask...well, once in a fit of housecleaning frenzy, driven by the clock and necessity, i moved an entire massive 12 piece sectional sofa that was built like a battleship and weighted just as much by tipping the sections onto their corners and edges and spinning, rocking and flipping them around. it was amazingly easy, no lifting...and i astounded my family when they returned, as to how a mere slip of a thing, such as i am, could have accomplished something like this... no fatigue, no back strain and no smashed toes. im sure that with chains pulleys and levers like ed had i could have shifted the entire house.
Click to expand...

You should have told them you know the secrets of the pyramids. A masonic emblem on the wall would have added to your legend.
 
Here's an In Search of episode about Coral Castle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-b609_uaBg

Not great quality, but interesting for the bit where they carve a large block out of the coral stone to replicate the Latvian's methods and find it incredibly difficult.

Also, if you have an interest in this and also like bare naked ladies, you get a very good look at the place in the 1961 Doris Wishman film Nude on the Moon (with the castle a stand-in for the moon, well obviously).
 
As per the title, can anyone point me in the right direction as to who the chap was who moved massive objects around his land with the mysterious black box atop the wooden tripod..... 1920's America iirc? cheers all
 
I seem to remember watching some sort of weird Discovery Channel documentary about some man who people claimed had made an anti-gravity machine and moved huge amounts of stone around. I'm not sure that the name was Leedskalnin though.

A quick search reveals John Ernst Worrell Keely but that's from the middle of the 1800's. His machine was used "sympathetic vibration" using sound and harmonics to vibrate objects. The theory was to make them then hover/float. His machine was a brass ball thing on a tripod.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ernst_Worrell_Keely

More here in the middle of section 4 about Anti-Gravity and Levitation. It names Leedskalnin as well so Myth was probably right.

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_gravity02.htm
 
An interesting man.

..Edward was a sickly boy who often spent time reading books, which helped him to develop an inquisitive mind and life-long yearning for knowledge..

Strange how this seems to be the story of a lot of these genius people. Maybe not so strange. Their will to beat down adversity is admirable.

Was he the cause of that old Russian saying 'Beware of Latvians bearing anti-gravity machines' ?

INT21
 
thanks Myth, thats the chap, i remember reading about him and the coral castle a while back but couldn't remember his name, cheers
 
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Beat me to it, NF! I've recently listened to that episode - definitely one of their best, not that there are many duff ones.
 
The article linked in post #31 includes some photos you won't readily find elsewhere - such as these pics of Leedskalnin's big tripod and rigging that are often cited as evidence he built the 'castle' using known tools and techniques.

Castle_Tripod_lower_300.jpg


Castle_Tripod2-300x225.jpg


Castle_Tripod4-221x300.jpg
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned yet that the castle is not built from coral after all, but oolitic limestone.
 
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