Meaning of galamander | Babel Free

Definitions

A customized horse- or ox-drawn stoneboat or wagon once used for hauling stone from quarries, with smaller front wheels and larger rear ones, and a derrick to lift blocks of stone on and off the vehicle.

Maine, historical

Examples

“Down at Vinalhaven, Me., which has just been celebrating its sesquicentennial, they used to use what they called a "galamander" to carry heavy stones from the granite quarries. The "galamander" is a combination stone-boat on wheels and a derrick.”

“Galamanders, drawn by oxen or horses, transported the blocks to the cutting sheds, which were usually located near the wharfs. Galamanders were elongated four-wheeled wagons equipped with derricks and the wheels of these locally made wagons were eight or nine feet in diameter. Maine galamanders are few today.”

“One hundred years ago, when Granite Hill was being mined, Peter Cain imagines a galamander was used to haul the stone blocks to the docks in Hallowell. The galamander – no one's quite sure where the name came from – was a cart-like contraption made of wood and wrought iron that could transport a block of granite weighing 20 tons. […] [T]here were two abandoned galamanders in the island's quarries at one time.”

“"I think so too. And this is a galamander. You know this is the Galamander District?" / "So that's a galamander. Why it's just a cart, and I thought a galamander was some kind of animal, you know like a salamander."”

“A relic of the island's quarrying days, the galamander was a massive oak and iron wagon with nine-foot rear wheels. It had once been used to carry slabs of granite from the quarries to the cutting sheds. […] Since then, the galamander had been set up as a memorial to the industry―long since gone―and had doubled as a kind of jungle gym for generations of island kids.”

“Until the use of railroad cars, teams of oxen and horses hauled stones, often in a special wagon equipped with a derrick or crane called a "galamander." […] It is reported that well into the twentieth century there were as many as six galamanders working in the Sands Quarry on Vinalhaven during an average day. Four teams of horses drew the largest galamander, named Jumbo. Today, a restored galamander sits on Vinalhaven's village green, a symbol of an era when granite was king.”

CEFR level