Imagine if the ancient Egyptians had modern technology. Using computer design software, they would plan out their pyramid elements and dimensions; then, they’d use large excavator trucks and massive hydraulic cranes to do the job. If this were the case, they might have finished the pyramids in a number of months, instead of about 30 years.

While the ancient Egyptians lacked the technology that is available today, they still had the brainpower and manpower to create some of the largest and most familiar historical structures in the world. Still, it has always been a mystery as to how the pyramids were physically constructed.

A group of students in ME 470, a mechanical engineering senior design class, spent the spring semester creating a device that could have helped the ancient Egyptians haul tons of stone blocks up to build the pyramids. It is a simple pulley without an axle, which they call the Egyptian Pulley.

“Certainly a lot of people tried to solve this (question of the pyramids’ construction) for several years, so it kind of fascinated me,” said Stephen Blakely, the group’s sponsor and a 1969 University graduate. “So I essentially invented, or re-invented, this Egyptian pulley, knowing … that the Egyptians could have done it because it was so rudimentary and simple.”

Its functionality is relatively straightforward: a rope fits into a groove in a smooth, cylindrical rock. Once the rope is pulled along the groove, the rock rolls in its lubricated cradle as it lifts the excess weight.

The Egyptian Pulley group is made up of Gabe Gaeta, Neal Jacobsma, Caleb Gray and Yi-An Liou, all seniors in mechanical engineering.

“It was something that was a little different than any of the other topics,” Jacobsma said. “We were just kind of intrigued by the idea and wanted to see it out.”

The device is made up of two granite parts, weighing over 400 pounds. The stone cylinder is 12 inches in diameter by 12 inches in length, while the stone cradle is 14 inches long, 11 inches high and 18 inches wide. The stone parts were sealed and lubricated with olive oil. All of these materials would have been available to ancient Egyptians at the time.

“Our projects (in ME 470) require us to outline a plan of action, including setting goals and objectives, and working with our sponsor and mentors or TAs,” Gaeta said. “Essentially it’s just supposed to test and apply our engineering knowledge to real life problems.”

Other ME 470 projects have corporate sponsors, like Bosch and John Deere, but the Egyptian Pulley group has a private sponsor. Blakely produced the idea and prototype and worked directly with the students to plan and build a working model. They set goals and objectives, then began the design process.

“We had to determine what kind of analysis we were going to have to do,” Gaeta said. “We had to identify that logistics were an important part because just because you have this technology, and it may work on a physical level, it doesn’t mean that logistically Egyptians would have been able to accomplish their construction requirements with it.”

After they analyzed the dimensions, logistics and possible problems, the students had to obtain the physical parts and assemble them — all within their $1,000 budget.

“It’s taken a while to actually get the parts ordered,” Gray said. “(The stone parts make up) almost half of our budget, between the material cost and the machining, so we needed to make sure that what we ordered was going to work.”

The students have written their final paper and will present their pulley in class on April 30. On Monday, they tested it out at Marcal Rope & Rigging in Alton, Ill.

“(The tests) will at least demonstrate that it will stand up to the forces that would have been applied to this if it was pulling a 5,000-pound rock up a 52 degree incline,” Gray said.

According to the website, www.egyptianpulley.com, the ancient Egyptian pulley would have lifted one of these stones up the pyramid every three minutes for about 30 years straight. This is how the entire pyramid structure would have been completed from 2649 to 2150 B.C., Blakely wrote on the site.

Three posters are currently on display to the public on the second floor of Spurlock Museum. They outline the goals and describe a general overview of the Egyptian Pulley.

“(Working on the pulley) involves a lot of different aspects,” Jacobsma said. “It’s using things that you learned in multiple classes to create this project.”

At the end of the day, the group’s overall objective is “testing the plausibility” of the pulley, Gaeta said.

While it is difficult to know for sure what the ancient Egyptians used to build the pyramids, Blakely and the group ultimately wanted to provide a possible answer to this age-old mystery.

“This is a problem that has been looked at for hundreds of years and remains unsolved,” Gaeta said. “So it’s cool that we have an opportunity to take another look at it.”

Reema can be reached at [email protected].