Excerpt from Popular Mechanics Shop Notes, Volume 6, 1910.

Cutting Through a Building with Wire

Severing buildings with a wire cut.

An extraordinary piece of engineering has recently been accomplished in cutting a building like cutting a piece of cheese. The building belonged to a company that wished to install heavy machinery, and fearing that the neighbours might complain of the vibration, the directors resolved to sever all contact with the adjacent buildings. The house was sawn apart by a spiral wire. Scaffolds were built on the outside of the building to carry the pulleys over which the spiral wire runs like a belt. Tension devices were placed at intervals through the building to keep the cutting wire under pressure. A motor furnished the power to drive the twisted wire and this motor, with the necessary wheels and shafts for reducing the speed, were mounted on a truck having flanged wheels. The truck carrying the power plant was drawn with a weight to keep the wire tight at all times.