What is the name of this masonic device?

What is the name of the Masonic device that is basically a tripod with a stone dangling from it? I think there is supposed to be one in each lodge - masons keep small versions of them on their desks and whatnot. I can't google it for the life of me...

I know there's a specific name for it but I can't remember it or find it.

Thanks in advance.

Zip

Its called a LEWIS.

Thank you very much, I knew it was something like that - I was thinking Frank or George or something.

Zip

The term Lewis also refers to the son of a mason...

Oh, and by the way, not every lodge has one of them... In American lodges I have yet to see one, though I have not been in every American Lodge, nor even a significant percentage of them outside of California.

Perhaps my brother masons could address this?

How do the tops of the Lewis tripod connect to each other, and to the rope? I can't find any information on the construction of a Lewis.

Zip

Originally posted by Zipdot

What is the name of the Masonic device that is basically a tripod with a stone dangling from it? I think there is supposed to be one in each lodge - masons keep small versions of them on their desks and whatnot. I can't google it for the life of me...

I know there's a specific name for it but I can't remember it or find it.

A tripod or a bipod or even a string with a weight at the end of it is called a plumb, or a plumb level.

The thing that looks like a triangle which makes up part of the some of the masonic symbols is actually called a protractor. The other triangular thing, on the bottom of the symbol is called a square

These are construction tools.

This is a Lewis Tool...




[edit on 20-9-2004 by DeltaChaos]

This may or may not be the device you are interested in, but it is a Lewis.

Lewis.

My bad.... he was referring to the tripod with a stone hanging below the apex and between the legs of the tripod... I was always told that was called a Lewis... the suspended stone... I see you are right, it is the gripping tool that holds the stone...

Mirthful Me is, again, right. Sorry...

pic from www.freemasonry.bcy.ca...

from a tracing board.

I always wondered about this myself and what it was for, or the symbology behind it.

[edit on 20-9-2004 by amike555]

[edit on 20-9-2004 by amike555]

Originally posted by amike555

[img] members.shaw.ca...[1].jpg [/img]

pic from www.freemasonry.bcy.ca...

from a tracing board.

I always wondered about this myself and what it was for, or the symbology behind it.

[edit on 20-9-2004 by amike555]

Yep, that's it. I want to build a little one to put on my desk. Not to pretend to be a mason or anything, just because I think they're neato... The perpetual levitation of a stone as an ornament.

Zip

EDIT - Corrected a typo in "pretend"

[edit on 21-9-2004 by Zipdot]

Originally posted by amike555


pic from www.freemasonry.bcy.ca...

from a tracing board.

I always wondered about this myself and what it was for, or the symbology behind it.

From the previous link I provided:

The lewis is mentioned in the catechisms of speculative craft freemasons in England from the eighteenth century, when it was said to denote strength and to be depicted in a freemason's lodge as a cramp of metal dovetailed into a stone. The catechisms define the duty of a lewis as being:

"To bear the heavy burden of his aged parents, so as to render the close of their days happy and comfortable."

The catechisms also define his privilege for so doing as being:

"To be made a mason before any other person, however dignified by birth, rank or riches, unless he through complaisance waives this privilege."

From these old catechisms are derived the references in modern rituals. In modern speculative craft lodges, as well as being depicted on the tracing board,a lewis is often displayed inserted in a perfect ashlar suspended from a tripod. The perfect ashlar is customarily raised from its base when the lodge is opened and set back on its base when the lodge has closed, respectively signifying that the lodge has commenced labour or that it has ceased labour and is going to refreshment.

Hope this helps.

UK Lodges usually have a small tripod on the SW pedastal as depicted in the tracing board.

www.mastermason.com...

Emulation Lodges, the perfect ashlar has a lewis set into its upper from which the stone is suspended from a tripod-crane. This crane is located about midway between the East and the West. In some Lodges, the suspended perfect ashlar is lowered to the bottom in the first degree, raised half up in the second degree and to the top in the third degree. In other Lodges, the two ashlars are placed in the N.E. and S.E. angles of the Lodge, sometimes on the level at the corners of a square pavement and sometimes off the floor in the East or at the corners of a tracing board on trestles in the N.E. In our present-day rituals not too much is included about the moral geometry of the ashlars. Perhaps this is because so much of our teaching is so eloquently depicted by the two ashlars and particularly in the symbolic transition from the rough to the perfect. We start in Freemasonry as rough ashlars and by the repeated efforts of the gentle persuasions of its teachings, we may progress through our lives toward that ideal stone of true die - the perfect ashlar.

I think you will find everyone was half right. I did not know the answer without looking.

That is interesting, especially the part about raising and lowering the stone to indicate the lodge is open at labor or closed at refreshment. In California Lodges, there are two pillars, one on the Junior Warden's Station and the other on the Senior Warden's Station, which are alternately raised upright or lowered to indicate the same thing. They are opposed, the two pillars, so when we are at labor, the Seniors is Up and the Juniors down, and vice versa when the lodge is closed.

Even our differences are similar... I just love masonry.