the.com/crane
the bird that dances for love and the machine that hoists cities into being
means A crane is either a tall long-legged wading bird, a towering machine for lifting heavy loads, or the act of stretching out your neck to see better.
from From Old English 'cran,' the bird, going back to a Proto-Indo-European root imitating its harsh cry — a cousin of Latin 'grus' and Greek 'geranos.' The lifting machine borrowed the name in the Middle Ages from the bird's long, reaching neck, and the verb 'to crane' (to stretch the neck) followed the same logic.
- courtship dance
- leaps, bows, and flings sticks to win mates
- flight ceiling
- crosses Himalayas at 26,000 feet
- name borrowed
- machines named for the long-necked bird
- loud calls
- trumpets carry miles via coiled windpipes
- paper origami
- folding 1,000 grants a wish in Japan
whooping crane — north american bird species with population recovered from 15 individuals in 1941 to over 800 today
red-crowned crane — east asian crane species sacred in japanese and chinese culture, fewer than 3,000 wild individuals remain
demag cc 8800 — world's largest mobile crane, can lift 900 tons, used in heavy industrial construction