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Pointing Machines Ready to Measure Up Article

December 17, 2014

At the end of July, just less than a year from the date of the original sketches, the new Crazy Horse Pointing Machine arrived at the Memorial. It will be used for detail measuring during the finish carving of Crazy Horse’s hand and the horse’s mane areas of the Mountain Carving. This will allow the Mountain Crew to accurately locate points on the Mountain based on measurements from the latest one-sixtieth model.

The morning after its arrival, Mountain Crew members transported and securely mounted the base rail above where the outstretched finger of Crazy Horse will be. They then positioned the base trolley and measurement boom on the rail and learned its controls and operation, which included a compass for reading the horizontal angle of the boom, and counters for reading the length of the extended cable.

Once mounted on the Mountain, verification was done between the Crazy Horse Global Coordinate System and the Pointing Machine Coordinate System. The Pointing Machine was placed to provide maximum coverage for pointing on the hand. A one-sixtieth scale model of the Pointing Machine, is in place on the one-sixtieth scale model to assist with utilization.

The new Pointing Machine may sound familiar to those of you who have followed this Dream for years. The Machine follows the design of its predecessor, the Pointing Machine atop of Crazy Horse’s head that was an integral part of the carving of Crazy Horse’s face. The face Pointing Machine was included in a detailed three-book set of plans that Korczak and Ruth Ziolkowski had prepared. Ruth carried out its creation based on that outline, after Korczak‘s death. The first Pointing Machine, due to its unprecedented use, was designed and constructed in-house.

The present day Pointing Machine plan was dictated by Ruth Ziolkowski and daughter Monique, based on Mountain needs as finish-phases approach in several areas. The project was outsourced to TEI Drills of Colorado based on the quality work they had done on other equipment. Glenn Patterson, Vice President of TEI Engineering, keeps in contact with the Mountain Crew from afar and onsite.

Pointing Machines Ready to Measure Up