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After the digging started under the house it was evident that the floors would need help getting rid of the bounce in the center of almost
every room. This was true for both the first and second floors. The ground floor is easy. As we excavated the dirt out, I started placing
a great galvanized beam system under each room. This photo shows half the kitchen beams.
I found a scrap iron place where I could buy these great galvanized channel beams for less than I could buy wood ones. I decided on a double
beam that is four feet apart down the center of the kitchen. There would be three cross connecting beams to hold everything rigid.
In this photo you can see how I connected the corners. Big heavy 1/2 inch bolts hold everything together. I needed to make the structure
dismantle in no more than eight foot pieces so I could wrestle them under the house by myself. Once in place, assembly would start just like
a giant
Erector Set
I would jack them up to the floor with
hydraulic bottle jack
until I heard this start creeking. I could then figure out where to dig the footer holes for each upright screwjack. There are a total of
six screwjacks in just the eating area of the kitchen. There is enough steel to support ten times the room. Did I mention I love overkill?
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As the story goes, Alfred C. Gilbert invented the Erector set by observing the steel work along the New York, New Haven Railroad,
in 1913. Although there were other metal construction toys available, the most prominent of which was Meccano made by Hornby in
England. Gilbert along with John Petrie had started the Mysto Magic Co. in 1909. Gilbert, a graduate of Yale Medical School, had
won a gold medal for pole vaulting in the 1908 Olympics in England.
Bottle or hand jacks, came into wide spread popularity during the early part of the 20th Century, paralleling the boom of the automobile
industry. They filled the immediate need of a small convenient device requiring only one person to operate that could lift an automobile
off the ground for servicing - It quickly found hundreds of other uses in the modern world, as well.