… and so I thought I knew a thing or two about cranes. I grew up around them, and as a young man, I worked for several summers as an “yard hand” (that is, the guy who helped string the wire ropes around things that the crane operator would pick up–so I worked with a lot of cranes.)

But I was surprised when I went past a nearby construction site and saw number of cranes (or things that look like cranes)–with wheels on the top!

The obvious question is “What are these things?” Here’s the original picture, and a closeup of what look like big bicycle wheels at the top of several of the vertical posts.

This is my original photo, taken on a run past a large Google construction site.

Closeup of the wheeled things.

(I’ll try to get a better picture tomorrow, but this will have to do at the moment.)

The “wheeled poles” seem to have cables running down the sides but that’s all I can see. They’re mysterious, and therefore perfect for the SRS Crew.

Can you do it?

1. What are these mysterious wheeled poles called? Why are there wheels on top? What do they do?

That’s it for this week.

Just so you know, I don’t have any idea what they are either. All I know is that they’re about 20 meters high; each of the wheels seems to be about 3 meters in diameter (but I’m guessing). Beyond that, I can’t see any identifying marks or logos.

Tell us what you find… and HOW you figured it out!

Search on!