This weekends discovery would be this monstrosity, found by ever-loving dog on the shore of Beaverdam Reservoir near Bramblton VA. When I first saw it, I thought it was a steam shovel scoop, but the huge flywheels and concrete pad on a slope suggest it had a different use: I'm pretty sure it's a rock crusher. Basalt is mined through out the area for use as gravel, and there's the old Luck Stone Quarry to the north.
Bearings made from a different material. Soft iron or ceramic? Unclear.
Snakes molt in the strangest places. This one found a stub on the end of a twig at the top of the flywheel to get started.
This flywheel was attached to the shaft using a giant pin. In 2014, having a rusty metal shard spinning round and round looks like mutilation hazard.
Tension spring for the crusher.
Did I mention the snake was 3 feet long?
It looks like the flywheels were packed with concrete to give them more rotational mass.
Bearing plates where put together with gaskets.
Grease holes? It looks like they were cast in after the main pour.
I saw this yesterday. It is an OLD jaw crusher for making crushed stone out of boulders. Here's a pretty similar one on a reservoir bottom: https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/84842454-steam-powered-acme-stone-crusher-bank-mississippi-river-wind . Here's one in action: https://youtu.be/7dVOGpTwR4A . If you look around in the woods near the Beaverdam Reservoir crusher, many of the outcrops are missing blocks that may have been quarried for building stone or fed into the crusher. It is surprising it was never removed for scrap, especially during WWII.
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