How One Man Created a 1,000 Ton Coral Castle in 1923

Between 1923 and 1951 , a diminutive Floridian single - handedly and without heavy machinery moved 1,000 tons of limestone , make out of it a castle . This is his story .

The Builder

Very little is known of the mysterious creator of the Coral Castle , Ed Leeskalnin . Born in Riga , Latvia in 1887 to a family of stonemason , Ed immigrated to the U.S. sometime around 1913 after his fiancée broke off their engagement ( and a orotund piece of his heart ) . During a bout with tuberculosis around 1919 , he moved to Florida , where magnets were apparently used to regale his condition . This experience seems to have had a life - changing effect , as you ’ll see later .

After he bought a parcel of land in Florida City , Florida , Ed began to work on the Castle . A lone wolf , one hundred hammering , five - ft tall Ed refused to let anyone even watch him work , and no one is lie with to have helped him move , carve or place the monumental stones . When asked how he manipulated such big blocks alone , Ed wouldexplainthat he had “ discovered the secret of the pyramids . ”

The Castle

primitively appoint Rock Gate Park , the Coral Castle was first raise at Ed ’s remoteFlorida Cityhome . Fearing the departure of privacy as developing moved nearer , Ed transported his castle , with the aid of a truck , tractor and house trailer , 10 air mile northerly to itspresent locationin Homestead , Florida .

Not really coral , the huge Isidor Feinstein Stone that comprise the castle are frame of oolitic limestone ; the coral designation came about later when visitors noticed fossilized precious coral and casing in some of the rocks .

The average weight unit of the stones is about 14 tons each . With these huge rocks , Ed work up wall , erect a tower and a 22 - short ton dagger . He made a variety of “ piece of furniture ” include beds and rocking chairs , as well as a fountain , mesa , well , sundial and throne .

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plain hypnotised with astronomy , Ed cut up a stone scope , and even erected tumid stone line drawing of Jupiter , Saturn and the moon from blocking weigh as much as 23 tons . For the most part , each carving and piece is made from a single gem . The tallest stones extend to 25 feet , while the heaviest rock music weigh nearly 30 tons .

Using no joint chemical compound or mortar , the massive stone , when combined together , are held in place by their own weight .

They are so well construct ( and heavy ) that during the Category 5 Hurricane Andrew in 1992 , none of the Stone shifted and the 8 ft . wall was not effected and remains to this solar day of undifferentiated summit around the wall .

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Perhaps the most spectacular social system on the grounds is the eight - invertebrate foot improbable revolving logic gate . carve to exacting specifications , it clears the walls next to it by a simple after part of an in . Before it postulate stamping ground in 1986 , it was widely account that the swivel was so well design that the logic gate could be open with just the thrust of one finger .

When it broke in 1986 , the nine - gross ton gate required six men and a Hart Crane to polish off and re - install what Ed put up alone . What they discovered when they did the repair was that he ’d used a metal shaft placed in a hole drilled through the gemstone , positioned to poise the logic gate absolutely . The ray itself sat on a truck bearing . What had caused the logic gate to break was simply that the bearing became corrode . They replaced the posture and shaft , and again had to fix it in 2005 , but today it is no longer quite so easy to give and close as it once was .

So, How Did He Do It?

Ed trust that the animate force out in the macrocosm does not issue forth from the proton and negatron in the mote , but rather from lilliputian attraction of unlike and paired polarity that interpenetrate all matter . In his Koran , Magnetic Current , Ed excuse his canonical principle :

[ Because ] the magnet can be wobble and concentrated . . . you could see that the metal is not the real magnet . The real attractive feature is the substance that is circulating in the alloy . Each particle in the substance is an individual magnet by itself , and [ arrest ] both North and South Pole individual magnets . They are so small they can pass through anything . In fact they can occur through metallic element easier than through the atmosphere . They are in constant motion . . . run one kind of attraction { sic } against the other variety , and if guide in the right channels they own incessant force .

It is this “ perpetual ability ” that Ed claim to have harnessed to move , carve and localise his humongous stones . The exponent itself came from a motorcar he dub the Perpetual Motion Holder ( PMH ) . He built it on his theme that electricity is made up of two magnetic forces that move opposite each other in a forked coil apparent motion . Ed ’s machine was composed of two coil wires , each deliver its own depot and current , and connect to each other nozzle to tail in a electric circuit . This completed circuit set aside single attractor to shape into one of two currents , and the currents to “ chase ” each other in a never ending loop .

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Ed claimed that by directing this “ eonian electromagnetic energy ” , he could easily manipulate the large Harlan Fisk Stone . According to unverified write up , the massive rocks would then be floated into place like “ hydrogen balloons . ” deride the theory of ceremonious archaeologists , Ed is quoted as tell he had “ set up out how the Egyptians and the ancient constructor of Peru , Yucatan , and Asia , with only crude tool , raised and coiffure in spot blocks of stone matter many long ton . ”

Is Ed’s Machine Real?

Several hoi polloi have claim to have successfully constructed a PMH , includingRussell Martin , Nornd , Chris SykesandMatthey Emery . But as you might imagine , hard , document , well - vetted grounds of a full size machine that can float endocarp around as he said is hard to come by , which is unfortunate because such a engineering would lastly presumably give us a viable flying car .

In realism , one someone with the proper expertness could have achieved this without any such machine . And , indeed , Leeskalnin had tripod of various sizing , pulleys , winches , etc- things he presumptively would not have ask if he was but blow stones around .

But whether he truly did use some such astonishing machine of his own creation , or just the much more probable common construction implements and recognize - how , the scope of the “ castle ” , as well as the craftsmanship imply in building it , is exceedingly impressive .

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