In encouragement to anyone who would have come up with a device for transporting the Thunder Stone, they promised a prize of 7,000 rubles - a huge amount for that time. And while the Office of Buildings was collecting proposals, they dug a stone from all sides, marked out the future road (which was supposed to bypass swamps and hills), and built barracks for 400 "working people". Falcone examined the stone and decided that it should be turned on its side. So he was more in line with his plan. The masons began to level the "underside (lower) side", and Karburi began to prepare the levers and jacks.
“Six cubic fathoms were knocked off the side of the stone, which had to be turned downwards,” wrote Academician Buckmeister. - A grate was made, consisting of four rows of crosswise laid logs, on which the stone, when it turns, had to lie … In February 1769, the matter was already brought to the point that it was possible to start lifting it. For this, levers of the first kind were used. Each lever consisted of three interconnected trees … There were 12 such levers …
In order to add even more strength to the action of the levers, four gates (winches) were placed against them, with which they pulled ropes … threaded through iron rings poured into the stone with lead … the grating was covered with hay and moss … so that the stone from a strong fall would not break or split by itself would be the logs on which it was supposed to be put.
On March 12, it was finally put on the grate … The stone remained all summer in this position, since the unstable earth in this year's time did not allow further work to be continued.
… The piece, which was beaten off by a thunderous blow, was split into two parts, in order to attach them later to the front and rear end of the stone."
The fact is that when the Thunder Stone was completely cleared, it turned out that its length was slightly short for the finished pedestal to exactly match its model. Therefore, it was necessary to build up its central block both in front and in the back with two fragments, hewn them with the help of a volumetric pattern. Modern photographs of the pedestal clearly show that they have a lighter shade. Alas, the rock is rarely the same even in such stones.
For transportation, they decided to transport these fragments together with the main stone, so that, according to the testimony of the secretary of the Russian Historical Society, Alexander Polovtsov, "to maintain the balance of the entire mass, which, without such precautions, could easily overturn when moving to high places."
Falconet here, on the spot, also intended to hew out the stone block, “until the stone came close to the dimensions indicated for the pedestal by the model; but he was answered that the final chipping off of the surplus parts of the stone can follow in the workshop and that the larger the stone, the more noise its transportation will make in Europe. Falconet, who was not responsible either for the serviceability of the transportation entrusted to the Count of Carbury, or for the unnecessary expenses, could not, and did not have the right to insist on his opinion."
Referring to Polovtsov's notes, you can try to calculate the weight of the stone by taking the weight of a pound at 0.4 kg. "According to Falconet, this stone was originally supposed to weigh between four and five million pounds (1600-2000 tons), about two million pounds (800 tons) were chipped off while the stone was in place."So, by the time of loading, the weight of the stone was 2-3 million pounds or 800-1200 tons (albeit without taking into account the weight of the "thunder-knocked off" piece, which was transported together) - "and after that the transportation of the stone was started."
Meanwhile, there were many proposals for the transportation of stone using logs, iron rollers, etc. but none of these suggestions seemed to merit attention.
As a result, Betsky was presented with Karburi's "machine", which consisted of troughs lined with copper, along which balls, again made of copper, would roll. That is, in fact, it was a huge ball bearing. Logs with grooves had to be shifted as the stone moved, that is, it was not required to pave the entire way to the water in this way.
Unfortunately, the road along which the stone was to be carried "was not completely straight, but went with different curvatures." She skirted swamps, river floods, hillocks and other obstacles. Therefore, it was laid in the form of a broken line. In those cases when it was necessary to turn, the stone had to be lifted with jacks, the "rails" had to be taken out, a "circular machine" was placed under it (two flat oak wheels lying one on top of the other, all with the same grooves and balls), all this had to be turned on required angle and again set on the "rails" laid in the desired direction.
Transporting the Thunder Stone. Engraving by I. F. Shley after the drawing by Yu. M. Felten, 1770s. The process of transportation is clearly visible on it: the gutters lying under the stone, and in them the balls, the workers on the capstans and the laying of the gutters in front of the stone. Even such a trifle was not missed by the author: a smithy is smoking on the stone and stonemasons are working on it in motion.
Although Carburi is considered the author of all these mechanisms, there is an assumption that "this cunning Greek" simply appropriated the invention of the locksmith Fugner - the master who also made the iron frame for the statue.
“During the intertime, we tried to strengthen the road along which the stone was to be carried as much as possible,” Buckmeister wrote. - In the swamps, which, in reasoning of their depth in winter, do not completely freeze out, it was ordered to break the piles; moss and silt, with which the earth is covered in these places and that prevents it from freezing deeper, cleaning it, and filling it with brushwood and rubble, believing these in layers. " The stone was lifted with iron screws-jacks of the design of the "skillful locksmith" Fugner, the grate was removed and the "sleigh" was placed. “On November 15, they actually set him in motion and dragged him to this day by 23 sazhens … On the 20th of January, Her Imperial Majesty was pleased to see this work, and in her presence, a stone was dragged away by 12 sazhens. To prevent all disturbances, two drummers, who were on the stone, had to first give the workers a sign by beating the drums, so that they would suddenly either start the work shown, or stop continuing it. Forty-eight stone-cutters, who were near the stone and at the top of it, were constantly crossing it in order to give it its proper appearance; at the top of one edge there was a smithy, so that you could always have the necessary tools immediately ready, other devices were carried in a sleigh tied to a stone, followed by a guardhouse still attached to it. Never before had an unprecedented disgrace that attracted a great many spectators from the city every day! On March 27, the last miles and fathoms were passed, and the Stone froze majestically on the shores of the Gulf."
It is interesting that Buckmeister uses the word "disgrace" in the description, but it is clear that his meaning was not at all the same as it is now. Its meaning was: "a spectacle that appears to the eye", according to the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language" by Vladimir Dal.
“Almost all Russian soldiers and peasants are carpenters,” Karburi noted. "They are so dexterous that there is no work they cannot do with one ax and chisel."
Interestingly, the "ingenious method of the Earl of Carbury" was subsequently used to transport the 200-ton granite obelisk "Cleopatra's Needle" (installed in New York) in 1880.
Supervision of the sea movement of the stone was entrusted to Admiral Semyon Mordvinov, who appointed Lieutenant Commander Yakov Lavrov and rigging master Matvey Mikhailov to supervise the work. The "galley master" Grigory Korchebnikov developed a project for a unique cargo ship. Semyon Vishnyakov (the same peasant who found Thunder-stone) and Anton Shlyapkin with an artel of carpenters began its construction in May 1770 according to the drawn up drawing and the testimony of the master Korchebnikov.
“For this new operation, a vessel was built 180 feet (55 m) long, 60 feet (18 m) wide and 17 feet (5 m) high … In the middle there was a solid deck on which they wanted to put a stone. But for all that, the weight had to be placed so that the vessel could not touch the bottom of the Neva, which is only 8 feet deep at the mouth (2.4 m).
In order not to shake the vessel under load and not to drop a stone into the water, the vessel was flooded at the dam itself and the side was dismantled; by means of spiers (winches) on several ships, anchored not far off, they dragged the stone to the designated place, after which they repaired the side and began to pump out water with pumps. But, despite all the efforts of the pumps, the weight was so great that only one ends of the ship began to rise out of the water … The Admiralty could not think of anything to save the stone. Minister Betsky, in the name of the Empress, ordered Carburia to take measures to pull the rock onto the dam …
Karburiy began, with his characteristic energy, to carry out the will of the Empress, and this is the position in which he found this business. The bow and stern of the ship rose when pumping out water because the weight was unevenly located throughout the ship … Carburius ordered to prepare simple strong supports of various sizes and intended to impose a rock on them so that they rested with their ends against the distant parts of the ship and, supporting the scaffold of the stone, carried would thus severity throughout the ship. The ship was flooded again, they pushed the rock onto it, raised it with jacks and lowered it to the supports, and the rock fell with all its weight equally on all parts of the ship. Work with pumps resumed, and the ship soon rose out of the water with all its parts absolutely exactly."
When the ship, so happily rising out of the water, “was made for the train,” explains Buckmeister, “they reinforced it on both sides with the strongest ropes to the two ships, with which it was not only supported, but also protected from the impact of shafts and winds; and in this way they carried him up the small Neva, and down the big one."
History has preserved to us even Mordvinov's parting words to Lavrov before sailing: “A stone at a considerable height is … when escorting to the place, have the utmost caution, but continue the work with all haste."
And finally, “on September 22, the day of the coronation of the Empress, the rock, having made 12 miles of voyage, sailed past the Winter Palace, arrived safely at the place opposite which it was supposed to erect a monument on the square. In the evening, brilliant illumination illuminated the city; and the gigantic stone, such a long-awaited guest, was a universal subject for conversation of the inhabitants of the capital,”noted Anton Ivanovsky.
“Now all that remained was to put it in a certain place,” writes Buckmeister. - Since the depth of the river on the other bank of the Neva River is very deep and the vessel could not be sunk to the bottom, it was ordered to drive piles in six rows and chop off these by eight feet in the water, so that the ship, immersed in water, could be put on them … When the stone had to be dragged to the shore along one side of the ship, so that the other would not rise up, they attached six other strong mast trees to the lattice through which the stone had to be dragged, laid them across the ship and tied their ends to a nearby loaded ship, which is why the weight of the stone neither on the one nor on the other side was outweighed.
With this precaution used, one could not hesitate in successful success. As soon as the last supports near the stone were chopped off and pulled on the gates, then with the help of balls he rolled from the ship onto the dam, with such a speed that the working people who were at the gates, found no resistance, almost fell. From the extreme pressure that the ship underwent in this instant, the above-shown six mast trees broke, and the boards on the ship bent so much that the water ran into it with an aspiration."
Unloading the Thunder Stone on the Isaac's Coast (fragment of a painting by the artist Louis Blaramberg).
“The procession of the rock from the coast was truly solemn,” adds Ivanovsky, “in the presence of many thousands of residents … The Empress, in memory of the feat of bringing a stone mountain to St. Petersburg, by means of mechanics, deigned to order a medal to be minted … From fragments of beautiful granite, in memory of this event, many inserted small stones into rings, earrings and other adornments that have survived to this day. After the completion of the work for the delivery of the stone, they immediately began to set up a rider and a horse on it."
“The Thunder-stone delivered to the Senate Square was reduced to the size stipulated by the model of the monument,” says art critic David Arkin. - First of all, the excessive height of the stone was cleaved: instead of the original 22 feet (6, 7 m), it was reduced to 17 feet (5, 2 m); the stone was further narrowed from 21 feet (6.4 m) to 11 feet (3.4 m). As for the length, it turned out to be insufficient, 37 feet (11 m) instead of 50 (15 m) according to the model”, in connection with which, as we have already said, two additional blocks had to be pressed against the monolith.
This is how they spoke about the pedestal then: “It seemed to me too correct and too similar to a sketch of a lying animal or a sphinx, while I imagined a much larger stone, as if detached from a large mountain and shaped by wildlife” (astronomer Ivan Bernoulli).
“We see … a granite block, hewn, polished, the slope of which is so small that the horse does not need much effort to reach its top. The effect of this pedestal, of such a new design, has completely failed; the more you study it, the more you find it unsuccessful”(Count Fortia de Pil).
“This huge rock, intended to serve as a pedestal for the statue of Peter I, should not have been trimmed; Falcone, who found it too big for the statue, made it shrink, and this caused trouble”(Baron de Corberon).
“This is a small rock crushed by a large horse” (poet Charles Masson).
“The trimming of this stone, upon its delivery to the place, served as a new subject of the ever-growing discord between Falconet and Betsky,” complains Polovtsov. - The first insisted that the foot should have a shape proportional to the monument itself, the second especially valued the enormous size of the stone and wished to keep these dimensions as inviolable as possible.
Interestingly, Falcone reacted in a rather unusual way to criticism. The answer was his … books! So, when Betskoy, for example, said that the monument to Peter I, together with the pedestal, was simply copied from the antique statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, Falcone wrote a book - "Observations on the statue of Marcus Aurelius", where he defended his authorship of the idea of "a hero overcoming the emblematic rock ".
Another answer of Falcone to criticism in connection with "arbitrary belittling of the stone" has turned into a separate book. He cited in it arguments that did not allow people far from art (but having considerable power) from distorting the essence of his plan. Its main idea was the following words: "they do not make a statue for a pedestal, but make a pedestal for a statue."
And this helped, but the author himself did not wait for the grand opening of his creation - and the final processing of the pedestal and the installation of the statue on it were carried out by the architect Yuri Felten.
Senate Square in a painting by artist Benjamin Patersen, 1799.
“The monument testified precisely to its complete independence from all previous samples, to the extraordinary expressiveness of thought in it, to the completely unknown simplicity and naturalness until then, - it was written in the Russian Biographical Dictionary. “However, only after Falconet's departure from St. Petersburg in August 1778 and after the opening of the monument, envy and slander in relation to his creator ceased, great praises began to him, and his equestrian statue to Peter the Great received worldwide fame”.
Well, now a little about money. Money was paid regularly for all the work on the monument. "Issued-received", where, for what - all these documents are intact. And from them you can find out that when Falconet left St. Petersburg in September 1778, he received 92,261 rubles for his work, and his three apprentices another 27,284 rubles. Foundry cannon master Khailov 2,500 rubles. And the total amount paid by the office since 1776 at the time of the completion of all work on the monument amounted to 424,610 rubles.
The poet V. Ruban, who lived at that time, composed the following eight-verse, dedicated to the delivery of the stone:
“Colossus of Rhodes, now humble your proud sight!
And the Nile buildings of high pyramids, Stop being considered miracles anymore!
You are mortals made by the hands of mortals.
The Ross mountain, not made by hands, Heeding the voice of God from the mouth of Catherine, She passed into the city of Petrov through the Nevsky depths, And the foot of the Great Peter fell!"
