How to haul goods from one place to another is an age-old problem.  Even in ancient times it was necessary to move a large amount of goods over many miles of terrain.  This is especially true of armies of ancient times.  As you can imagine it was quite a feat to keep an army equipped and fed throughout a campaign.  Much thought had to be given to how to move the goods that they soldiers needed to the places that they were going to. 

The Original Oversized Load Haulers

The pyramids of Gizeh were built during the period of the Ancient Empire, by the Pharaoh of the fourth dynasty (2613 to 2498 BC). The motive for using the triangular form in these constructions is not known, though it could be a way of reproducing the form of mountains where, for the ancient Egyptians, the Gods lived, or they could also be understood as staircases by which the spirit of the Pharaoh would reach the skies. For our purposes though, why they did it is not important it is how they did we should concentrate on. 

The pyramid blocks were hewn from quarries using stone and copper tools. Each block would weigh between 2 and 15 tons. There are examples of each stage of block extraction at existing ancient quarries. Granite was quarried using pounding stones of dolerite, some of which have been found laying about the quarries. The blocks were transported to the pyramid site from remote quarries using barges, and from local quarries using wooden sleds. The Egyptians did not use the wheel during the Pyramid Age, an invention that would have been of limited used on softer ground under heavy loads anyway. The sleds were dragged manually, sometimes with the help of beasts of burden, over smoothed roads. Some of the existing pathways were equipped with transverse wooden beams to lend support to the sled. A lubricant may have been poured upon the road to reduce friction.

Cedar Sled From Lisht.

The heaviest known blocks to be brought from Aswan to Giza were the massive granite stones used for the roof of the King's Chamber in the pyramid of Kufu. Each weighed about 50 tons. 5th and 6th Dynasty pyramids included gabled roofs with blocks weighing up to 90 tons. The mortuary temple of Menkaure included limestone blocks weighing 200 tons. In the 18th Dynasty, two colossal statues of Amenhotep III (the "Colossi of Memnon"), each weighing more than 700 tons, were moved an overland distance of 700 km. Fragments of statues in the Ramesseum (built under Ramesses II) suggest an original weight of 1,000 tons. How was it possible for objects of this size to have been moved?

How the massive blocks were raised to the height of the rising pyramid is not understood for certain. Earthen ramps were used at least in the initial stages of construction. Extant ramps have been found at the pyramids of Amenemhat I and Senwosret I at Lisht (see photos below), as well as at several other sites. Traces of disassembled ramps at pyramid sites are even more common. The ramps were made of brick or earth and rubble dressed with brick for strength. They were built up as the pyramid progressed upward, and removed as the pyramid was finished downward.

Inclined brick construction ramps with transverse timbers at the pyramids of Amenemhat I and Senwosret I.

Hatshepsut's Obelisk Barge.

Herodotus described moving the 580 ton "Green Naos" under Nectanebo II: "This took three years in the bringing, and two thousand men were assigned to the conveying of it ..." (History, 2.175) Pliny wrote of the transportation of an "eighty cubit" obelisk under Ptolemy II:

According to some authorities, it was carried downstream by the engineer Satyrus on a raft; but according to Callixenus, it was conveyed by Phoenix, who by digging a canal brought the waters of the Nile right up to the place where the obelisk lay. Two very broad ships were loaded with cubes of the same granite as that of the obelisk, each cube measuring one foot, until calculations showed that the total weight of the blocks was double that of the obelisk, since their total cubic capacity was twice as great. In this way, the ships were able to come beneath the obelisk, which was suspended by its ends from both banks of the canal. The blocks were unloaded and the ships, riding high, took the weight of the obelisk. (Natural History, 36.14)

The ramps likely took the form of an inclined plane at the beginning of work, but the configuration in later stages has long been a matter of conjecture. Some Egyptologists propose a straight, gently sloping, linear ramp, some propose a steep staircase ramp, and others propose a ramp that spiraled up the four sides of the pyramid. In most ramp scenarios, the volume of the ramp exceeds the volume of the pyramid structure itself, raising the possibility that the stones of the upper reaches were placed using levers, or perhaps a modified ramp of some sort. In the case of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the upper half of the total vertical pyramid height represents only 12.5% of the mass of the entire pyramid. The mass of the top quarter of the pyramid's height is a mere .0386% of the whole. Thus the mass of the ramp is in inverse proportion to the mass of building material it is meant to convey. Extending a ramp to the upper reaches of a pyramid to service such a small volume of stone would appear to be inexpedient.

Moving a statue in 12th Dynasty Egypt.
	Moving large stones over land was more involved. Sledges and rollers (the latter being of a more limited value) were available in pharaonic times, and workers were in great supply. Friction was the main obstacle. An 800 ton block measuring 4x4x20 m would create a ground pressure of 1 kg over each square centimeter of its base. A force of at least 400 tons would be required to overcome the friction. Modern engineers working under primitive conditions found that, while moving blocks weighing 6 tons on a sledge, friction could be reduced to nearly zero by wetting the track with a lubricant (in this case, water). In the relief pictured above, from the tomb of Djehutihotep, a man can be seen on the leading end of the sledge pouring a liquid on the ground in front of it. Modern reenactments also demonstrated that a friction "seal" is formed beneath a static load that is broken when the load begins to move. An Assyrian relief (below) shows the use of a lever at the back of the sledge, possibly used to break such a "seal," or perhaps to propel it forward. It has been estimated that a ratio of two men per ton would be required for moving loads over flat surfaces; nine men per ton would be required for moving loads up a 9° slope. Practical experiments moving loads on a sledge over a lubricated track have shown that one man could pull one ton. Thus, the 1,000 ton colossus of Ramesses II could have been moved by 1,000 men (or 200 oxen).
Moving a stone in Assyria.
The "Stone of the Pregnant Woman," at the quarry near Baalbek. The movement of large stones was not confined to Egypt in ancient times. The Romans moved the so-called Trilithon, weighing 800 tons, from the quarry to the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek (in eastern Lebanon) in the first century AD. Another stone weighing 1,200 tons, the Hajar el Hibla ("Stone of the Pregnant Woman"), was never separated from its base and lays abandoned. Though the Romans left no record of their methods, it is obvious that the Egyptians did not have a monopoly on any "secret" technique of moving large stones.
The fact remains that the Egyptians successfully completed the most massive building projects in all of history.  Part of this was due to the fact that they were able to overcome problems of size and weight.  They had oversized loads that they needed to deal with and little equipment to work with except a lot of manpower and inventiveness. As heavy haulers the ancient civilizations were the first and perhaps the greatest.

Heavy Hauling in Ancient Armies

Since the Bronze Age, the standard means of transport for the Egyptian army was the donkey. In Sumer, the solid-wheeled cart drawn by the onager was used very early in the period. At the Battle of Kadesh, Ramses II revolutionized Egyptian logistics by introducing the ox-drawn cart, which quickly became the standard mode of military logistical transport for almost a thousand years. The normal pack load for a single ox-drawn cart in Greek armies was 25 talents, or approximately 1,450 pounds. Studies from World War I by the British War Office note that a mule could carry about three hundred pounds, and the camel just slightly less. The Persians used teams of oxen to haul their large wooden siege and mobile towers. 16 oxen were required to pull the tower, which weighed approximately 13,920 pounds!  It seems to be then that the Persians were the original oversized load specialists.

A siege tower being moved.

As armies grew in size, the problem of transporting goods threatened to reduce drastically their rate of movement and operational flexibility. The ox-cart could move a thousand pound load only 10 miles per day. Therefore if the supplies that were on the cart were needed this was the extent of the armies movement for one day. The introduction by the Assyrians of the horse to military operations allowed a slight increase in logistics capacity, as did their innovation of using the camel as a military beast of burden. Five horses could carry the load of a single ox-cart but could move the load at four miles an hour for 8 hours. Equally important, the horse could move easily over all types of terrain, and five horses required only half the amount of forage required to feed a team of two oxen. Thus, the ox-cart could move a thousand pound load only 10 miles per day while a horse team could move the same load 32 miles per day at twice the speed on half the forage. The Assyrians never really reduced their primary reliance upon ox-carts, however.

The Persian army introduced a major innovation in logistics. While the Egyptians had sometimes used small coastal vessels to supply their armies, the Persians were the first to introduce a large-scale navy used primarily in support of ground operations. The Persians were not much as sailors themselves, but they took full advantage of the shipbuilding and maritime skills of the peoples of their coastal provinces. They closely supervised the design of special ships to transport infantry, horses, and supplies, including shallow-draft vessels for use on rivers. Herodotus recorded that during Xerxes' expedition against the Greeks in 481 B.C., the Persians deployed 3,000 transport ships to sustain the army. Coupled with their extensive use of the horse in the supply chain, the supply system of the Persian army was more effective than anything the world had ever seen and allowed the world's largest armies to remain deployed far from home for months on end.

By the time of Alexander the logistical trains of ancient armies had matured to the point where they could regularly supply large armies for longer periods; however, the problem of speed and flexibility of movement over rough terrain remained. The Roman supply system was qualitatively different from that faced by the empires of the past. The great distances encompassed by the Roman empire required speed of movement even more than Alexander did. Philip of Macedon was the first to solve the problem.

Philip increased rates of movement by eliminating the ox-cart as the standard logistics vehicle and replacing it with a mixture of horses and mules. A few ox-carts were still used to transport the wounded and disassembled siege engines and artillery pieces. This innovation more than tripled the army's rate of movement and increased its ability to maneuver over rough terrain. Like the great Roman military reformer Gaius Marius some 200 years later, Philip gained even greater speed and mobility for his logistics train by turning his soldiers into beasts of burden.

The Romans knew that they had to move a great amount of goods a great distance and that they had to do so quickly.  They were highly organized and when the went into and captured a territory one of the first things that the soldiers did after the fighting had died down was to build roads.  After in the four years after the conquest of Britain for instance the Romans had laid over 1000 miles of good roadway.  Some of these roads are still in use today.  It is partly do to this and the Roman ability to haul supplies and material from one place to another, that Centurion Heavy Hauling is such a fitting name for our company.

The Centurion was the backbone of the army's professional officer corps.  It is difficult to draw an exact parallel to modern ranks, but they can be thought of as sort of a cross between a company first sergeant and a captain, and holding ranks as high as a colonel.  The centurions were the skilled professional soldiers who would be relied on to run a legion on campaign and in battle. We at Centurion Heavy Hauling are also professionals.  We have not fought our way up the ranks of companies with swords and shields as the Roman centurions did, but our drivers are also skilled professionals that know how to get the job done.

Early Modern Techniques of Moving Oversized Loads

Methods of hauling heavy things over land did not develop much more after the Romans.  There was horse drawn carts, some times with teams of up to six horses.  These were able to move heavy materials for long distances and at greater speeds than the ox cart. Yet it is not really too much of an innovation.

Steam Power

The first great innovation came in the eighteenth century with the invention of the steam engine. The man who first put steam engines on rails was a tall, strong Cornishman described by his schoolmaster as “obstinate and inattentive”. Richard Trevithick (1771-1833), who learnt his craft in Cornish tin mines, built his “Penydarren tram road engine” for a line in South Wales whose primitive wagons were pulled, slowly and laboriously, by horses.

On February 21, 1804, Trevithick’s pioneering engine hauled 10 tons of iron and 70 men nearly ten miles from Penydarren, at a speed of five miles-per-hour, winning the railway’s owner a 500 guinea bet into the bargain. He was 20 years ahead of his time – Stephenson’s “Rocket” was not even on the drawing board but Trevithick’s engines were seen as little more than a novelty. He went on to engineer at mines in South America before dying penniless aged 62. But his idea was developed by others and, by 1845, a spider’s web of 2,440 miles of railway were open hauling never before dreamed of loads all over Britain.

The steam-powered "fardier" Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built in 1769 is considered to be the first truck that could be used to haul things around.

Ferier’s First Steam Truck

However, steam trucks were not common until the mid-1800s. The roads of the time, built for horse and carriages, limited these vehicles to very short hauls, usually from a factory to the nearest train station. The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a De Dion steam tractor. Steam-powered trucks were sold in France and the United States until the eve of World War I, and the beginning of World War II in the United Kingdom.

Internal Combustion

Gottlieb Daimler built the first internal combustion engine truck in 1896. On October 1, the following was entered in the production records of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt near Stuttgart: "Motorised goods vehicle, order no. 81, vehicle no. 42, four hp two-cylinder engine, weight of the complete vehicle: 1,200 kilograms for carrying a load of 1,500 kilograms, invoiced to British Motor Syndicate Ltd. London." Ten years after the invention of the first car, Gottlieb Daimler had built the world's first truck.

The first internal combustion ‘Heavy Hauler’

 

The world's first truck looked like a horse-drawn cart without a drawbar. The driver was seated on the coach-box ahead of the front axle, out in the open air. Hence the truck was a cab-over-engine unit.

The engine was installed in the rear – a Daimler "Phoenix" two-cylinder engine which developed 4 hp from a displacement of 1.1 litres. Engine power was transmitted to the rear axle by a belt system, a design resembling that of the planetary hub reduction axles introduced decades later.

 According to the first brochure, Daimler supplied the truck in 4, 6, 8 and 10 hp versions, with payload capacity ratings between 1,500 and 5,000 kilograms and top speeds of up to 12 km/h. However, Gottlieb Daimler and his collaborator Wilhelm Maybach were not content with the rear engine configuration. In the next models, the engine was installed in the frame underneath the driver's seat and the rear axle was driven by means of a chain. Power was conveyed by a gearwheel transmission, the engine was cooled by Wilhelm Maybach's tubular radiator and started by means of low-voltage magneto ignition. In the next generation, the engine was placed under a bonnet above the front axle – and the conventional truck was born.

Others, such as Peugeot, Benz and Renault also built theirs. Trucks of the era mostly used two-cylinder engines could have a carrying capacity 1500 to 2000 kg. In 1904, 700 heavy trucks were built in the United States, 1000 in 1907, 6000 in 1910 and 25000 in 1914.

Early trucks were relatively heavy and had crude mechanisms. They were confined to city deliveries and hauling, because they could not manage the mud and potholes of outlying roads. In 1903 the Automobile Club of America staged the first U.S. commercial-vehicle contest to test the economy, reliability, durability, speed, and carrying capacity of the truck--the newest mode of freight transportation. Stimulated by the results of that contest, the manufacture and use of motor trucks flourished. By 1908, 4,000 trucks were in use in the United States, transporting goods of every type wherever streets and roads were passable. By the start (1914) of World War I, 300,000 trucks were in use, and by the war's end (1918) there were more than a million.

By 1915 most manufacturers had settled on a conventional construction in which the engine was located ahead of the front wall of the cab. Early trucks resembled horse-drawn wagons of the 19th century. They lacked roofs, doors, and windshields; nothing protected the driver from the elements. The vehicle was driven on the right side. Tires (see TIRE) were of solid rubber. The ride was uncomfortable but bearable because the top speed was only 32 km/h (20 mph). Then came roofs, roll-down curtains, windshields, doors, and side windows. By 1930 most truck cabs were fully enclosed.

Few modern (as opposed to steam-engine-hauled) trailers were built before 1915. The first type of modern trailer used was the full trailer, defined as a towed trailer whose entire weight rests on its own axles.

 After World War I, several advances were made: pneumatic tires replaced full rubber, electric starters, power brakes, 6 cylinder engines, closed cabs, electric lighting. The first modern tractor-trailers also appeared. Touring car builders such as Ford and Renault entered the heavy truck market.

By 1920 the semi trailer, whose front end rests on the rear portion of the hauling truck tractor, was gaining in popularity. In a semitrailer the truck tractor usually has a disk, known popularly as a fifth wheel, located on a horizontal platform over its rear wheels; a pin located under the front of the trailer locks into this disk, thus attaching the trailer to the tractor and furnishing support for the front end of the trailer. A semitrailer can therefore quickly be detached from a tractor, so that the tractor can be used to haul a second semi trailer at the same time that the first is being unloaded.

Diesel Power

All early trucks were powered by either steam engines or internal-combustion engines. Diesel engines burned fuel oil instead of gasoline and ranged in power from 125 to 500 hp. Although it had been invented in 1890, the diesel engine was not common in trucks in Europe until the 1920s. In the United States, it took much longer for that type of engine to gain acceptance: gasoline engines were still in use on heavy trucks in the 1970s, while in Europe they had been completely replaced 20 years earlier. Following World War II the diesel gradually became accepted in most heavy trucks and in some smaller trucks as well.

The first modern tilt-cab, or cab-over, truck was built in 1935; in this truck type, the cab is placed over the engine and can be tilted up and forward to gain access to the engine. This allows a great savings in the length of the tractor, so that trailers can be longer and hence carry larger payloads.

Trucks were used extensively by the military during World War I, which gave a major boost to the trucking industry. The U.S. Army had a fleet of 2,400 trucks in 1917 and added another 230,000 vehicles in 1918. Trucks also made a major contribution to the transportation of supplies during World War II.  Like the Persians, Greeks and Romans, the U.S. needed a fast and efficient way to supply their troops.

The states and provinces have traditionally regulated truck weight and size limits on interstate and provincial highways. In 1983, however, the United States federal government enacted legislation that established the limits on interstate highways and on thousands of miles of local highways that serve as access to interstates or to major trucking terminals. The new law, which was challenged in court by several states, permits double-trailer trucks measuring up to 19.9 m (65 ft) in length, excluding cabs, to travel the nation's highways. The maximum width is 2.6 m (102 in), and the maximum weight, 36,287 kg (80,000 lb).  In the U.S. and in Canada these are the standard limits.  There are times however, when these limits need to be stretched.  When the objects to be moved exceed these limitations.  That is what Centurion Heavy Hauling specializes in.  We pride ourselves in being able to deliver out sized and awkward loads.  Like the Persians who moved a 14, 000 pound siege tower, or the Romans who made roads that last thousands of years.  We will take on endevours that push the limits of modern technology.  We are experienced professionals and we pride our selves in our ability to deliver.

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Modern Feats of Heavy Hauling

In closing it should be said that though technology has changed, and we are able to move loads hundreds of kilometers in a day, there are times when we realize that those people in ancient times still had the best ideas.  This light house is an example of this.
The use of cranes was impractical, and the actual technique used was very similar to that ascribed to the ancient Egyptians.
First, the lighthouse was undercut and shored using timber (see photo below). One hundred hydraulic jacks were installed on rollers to slide along steel track beams placed beneath the lighthouse. A road was made by compacting the natural sands, overlaid with crushed stone, and finished with steel mats. Five hydraulic push jacks slowly shoved the lighthouse along the track beams in five-foot increments. The track was lubricated with soap shavings to reduce friction. The move, from start to finish, took 23 days.

 

Making History Today

Centurion Heavy Haul made modern history in heavy hauling on Sept 09 and Sept 12 2005 by successfully moving a wind power section from Cap de La Madelaine Quebec to a wind farm in Shelburne Ontario using their custom designed transporter. Shown is a photo of the inaugural run.