Geojunggi, Jeong Yak-yong's pulley crane
Geojunggi, grúa de poleas de Jeong Yak-yong
- Date
- 1792 · confidence high
- Place
- Suwon, Gyeonggi, South Korea
- Credited to
- Jeong Yak-yong
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A crane with fixed and movable pulleys designed by the Silhak scholar Jeong Yak-yong to lift the stones of Hwaseong Fortress. It notably reduced the effort and cost of the work.
It drew on European mechanics treatises translated into Chinese (the Qiqi tushuo of 1627, by Terrenz and Wang Zheng), so its merit lies in the adaptation and integration into a specific project rather than in inventing the pulley.
What it led to
- construction of Hwaseong Fortress (World Heritage, 1997)
- spread of pulleys and Silhak engineering in Joseon
- recording of building methods in the Hwaseong Seongyeok Uigwe (1801)