Al G. Barnes Circus #3
Posted By thecircusblog on June 19, 2012
In this photo the center pole wagon is loaded on the flat car to the left and to the right side of the photo is the quarter pole wagon. These wagons are called flat stake beds. You can see the wooden stakes holding in the quarter poles. These wagons carried nothing but tent poles. However in this photo, extra equipment is loaded on top of the center poles. Some might be the dollies used in moving the heavy poles to their locations..? I think I see center pole jacks loaded on top as well. The center pole jacks were used to raise and support the center pole’s top ends to the height of about 3 or 4 feet from the ground. These jacks were placed at one end of each pole. This would allow the workers to dress the poles with all the necessary rigging cables, safety guy cables, bull cable and the tent bail ring with block and falls. The bail ring is where the canvas is tied in with rope and steel clevises. The block and falls that were attached to the bail ring were used to pulled the tent up the center poles highest peak. There is much more than what I have written trust me much more. I suggest if you ever have the opportunity to watch a circus tent set up, do so it is an experience you will never forget. If you happen to see an American circus tent already in the air, you will see a difference between it and a European big top. You will notice that the American circus tent runs in a straight line of four center poles. This would be a three ring circus. There has been circuses with more than three rings. The true European style circus has only one center ring. It dose have four center poles but they are set up in a square.
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