I find it interesting that even after 17 or 18 years, the paint used by Hawley to center his lift-cradles is still visible on Lintel-107 (Picture 1) and Lintel-102 (Pictures 2 & 3). Good paint!
Paint or dead Lichen caused by the cradles ? http://www.sarsen.org/2014/07/white-lines-at-stonehenge-experiment.html?showComment=1405944584601#c3151069475209588051
Hi Tim, Obviously we've both been thinking about this for a while ... On one hand is might seem silly for Hawley to have used paint to mark the cradles' positions before hoisting, since they would have only been in the air for a very short time. (But even centered, managed to chip the bottom outside corner of L-101!) On the other hand, would the clasping pressure of the cradles be enough to kill the lichen so evenly?
One clue might be found in Gowland's work 20 years before. As we both know there seems to have been some kind of cloth material between his baulks on -56 and the stone itself. The stone was held by the baulks for a couple of weeks, and the cloth might have been enough to kill the lichen. We see the impressions of it for years after.
A younger Hawley had worked with Gowland on the project and perhaps took his cues from that procedure? As we know, Gowland was asked by the Ministry of Works to perform the work in the early 1920s, but being quite aged by then, declined. He recommended Hawley and the rest is history ...
So then it comes back to: Did Hawley use paint? Well, it looks like paint, and I don't see evidence of cloth in extant pictures.
You know the texture of sarsen far better than I do, so then, back to my original point. Wouldn't the killed lichen fall away from the surface much faster than 15 or 20 years? And why does it look like fading paint over the same term?
I find it interesting that even after 17 or 18 years, the paint used by Hawley to center his lift-cradles is still visible on Lintel-107 (Picture 1) and Lintel-102 (Pictures 2 & 3).
ReplyDeleteGood paint!
Neil
Paint or dead Lichen caused by the cradles ? http://www.sarsen.org/2014/07/white-lines-at-stonehenge-experiment.html?showComment=1405944584601#c3151069475209588051
DeleteHi Tim,
ReplyDeleteObviously we've both been thinking about this for a while ...
On one hand is might seem silly for Hawley to have used paint to mark the cradles' positions before hoisting, since they would have only been in the air for a very short time. (But even centered, managed to chip the bottom outside corner of L-101!)
On the other hand, would the clasping pressure of the cradles be enough to kill the lichen so evenly?
One clue might be found in Gowland's work 20 years before. As we both know there seems to have been some kind of cloth material between his baulks on -56 and the stone itself. The stone was held by the baulks for a couple of weeks, and the cloth might have been enough to kill the lichen. We see the impressions of it for years after.
A younger Hawley had worked with Gowland on the project and perhaps took his cues from that procedure?
As we know, Gowland was asked by the Ministry of Works to perform the work in the early 1920s, but being quite aged by then, declined. He recommended Hawley and the rest is history ...
So then it comes back to: Did Hawley use paint?
Well, it looks like paint, and I don't see evidence of cloth in extant pictures.
You know the texture of sarsen far better than I do, so then, back to my original point. Wouldn't the killed lichen fall away from the surface much faster than 15 or 20 years? And why does it look like fading paint over the same term?
Neil