Deadly Lifts
Vagabonds story reminded me of my yungin days building our awsum treehouse. It had everything including two floors all that it was missing was an operating lift system. We sat round and brainstormed what would be the most effective method of ascension.

We decided on a counterweight system which would haul us up. We gathered the biggest logs we could find and stuffed them into a coal bag and attached a rope (securely mind) to the top of it. We then slung the rope over a higher branch and it was ready for testing. My friend stood above me on the top floor of the treehouse holding the rope.

I gave the thumbs up and he leaped. The bag was nowhere near heavy enough and as my friend descended like a rock through cream the bag ascended crashing into him. I thought the worst was over as he smacked into the ground in a heap but of course he let go of the rope and the bag of logs came crashing down onto him.

We built a ladder in the end.
( dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Mon 27 Sep 2010, 13:31, 8 replies)

reminds me of that episode of "some mothers do 'ave 'em"
with the rope pully and a dolls house i think.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Mon 27 Sep 2010, 14:06, closed)

Mythbusters...
...tested a similar myth regarding a builder with a barrel of bricks and a pulley system. It's beautiful in how it worked!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGDbP5F0a8 - see about 11:45 into the video.

Barrel full of 500lb of bricks goes down, taking buster with it. It hits wooden board and splits open.
Barrel, now empty, weighs less than buster, so buster rapidly returns to earth.
And proving that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, or to be more exact, that buster is no longer attached to the barrel, the barell now also returns to earth, narrowly missing buster.
( Alex Save a Tree, Eat a Beaver!, Mon 27 Sep 2010, 14:50, closed)

I heard this story
as an Irish song called "Why Paddy's Not At Work Today."
( Wanderer, Mon 27 Sep 2010, 15:07, closed)

I heard it
On an old record of Gerard Hoffnung addressing the Oxford Union in 1958. Google is great:

www.bluegum.com/Humour/Assorted/bricks.html
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Mon 27 Sep 2010, 15:26, closed)

Just goes to show how, if we as youngsters had access to google this tradgedy could have been averted.
( dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Mon 27 Sep 2010, 15:37, closed)

You're not the first to have this accident
and I doubt that you'll be the last.
( Wanderer, Mon 27 Sep 2010, 15:52, closed)

i think it's actually called
"Murphy and the Bricks", but it is a cracking song
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 27 Sep 2010, 19:54, closed)

Is your friend named Wile E. Coyote?

( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Mon 27 Sep 2010, 19:19, closed)