Sooner or later, most people need to move something too heavy to lift or too awkward to handle. This little book presents the basic physics, tactics, and best moves. Lift that piano without fear of hernia. Get your truck out of the ditch without calling for help. Stand that 500 lb. 55-gallon drum up on end with a flick of the wrist. Here are the tools, knots, and safety precautions you'll need. The formulas and tables for calculating the capacities of ropes, chains and cables are here, too, all described in the proper lingo (e.g. "swigging" and "parbuckling " - very useful moves) and illustrated with the author's classy drawings. Long out of print, and really missed, this classic book is now available again.

-- J. Baldwin

Moving Heavy Things
Jan Adkins
2004, 48 pages
$11
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

Precept Two: The Geezer Ploy
When the old fellows didn't have diesel cranes to pull their fat out of the fire, they were obliged to be fiendishly clever. Ask yourself how they would have set up for your problem in 1900, in 1800, 1700, and so forth.

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Precept Five: Applied Sloth
As stated in the stagehand's axiom: "Never lift what you can drag, never drag what you can roll, never roll what you can leave." Creativity germinates in indolence, and the cleverest people are often the laziest: they are always looking for an easier way. The easiest way is often the simplest, most direct, and the best way.

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