This excellent video from 1979 is an interview with a man hired for £7,000 to dismantle a huge industrial chimney one brick at a time, from the top down! I'll never worry about taking on a big project as a solo developer again!
Andy Lagzdins describes how he converted an air compressor that run tools in his workshop to be powered by human power, using a bicycle to recharge a 10 gallon air tank and an 80 gallon tank.