Modern cranes look under-engineered precisely because they are properly engineered.
We have the ability today to do much better structural analysis than in the 19 century so a device can be built with much less material than required then. We can build a mechanism with just enough material to provide a known 10x safety factor. Back then they had no choice but to overbuild to be sure that there was adequate margin.
We have the ability today to do much better structural analysis than in the 19 century so a device can be built with much less material than required then. We can build a mechanism with just enough material to provide a known 10x safety factor. Back then they had no choice but to overbuild to be sure that there was adequate margin.