The chandelier was installed at the Kodak Hall of Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York, when it was built in 1922. The 15 x 35ft chandelier contains 750 lights and over 20,000 pieces of glass and crystal.
Aloi supplies robotic work station cranes, workstation bridge cranes, jib cranes, vacuum lifting systems, heavy cranes, and hoists and intelligent lifting systems.
“We install hoists and lifting equipment all the time, but never have we had such a specialized job,” said Jeff Gambrill, president of Aloi.
The chandelier was previously lowered and raised using a hand crank system, with Aloi brought in to transfer it to a new electric hoisting system.
This required Aloi engineers to install a Columbus McKinnon Lodestar electric hoist system and connect it to the same hook system used by the hand crank system. The old cable was then cut, transferring the weight of the chandelier to the new cable and hoist.
“You need to handle it very gently, using only expert craftsmen, and, just in case, have lots of liability insurance,” said Gambrill.
“The new hoist system worked just as we knew it would. The chandelier didn’t budge, not even a tiny nudge.”
Gambrill said that once the electric hoist system was installed, the chandelier was lowered into scaffolding for the first time so workers could vacuum all the dust off and begin replacing its 750 bulbs.
