I know who completed the Donkey Wheel!

[gromitsdad]

I believe DHARMA completed the donkey wheel after 1974. In the season 5 premier when Daniel goes down the lift into the Orchid, remember they are trying to drill into a 'pocket of exotic matter'. They took a sonar image of what was behind the rock:

images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090124000544/lostpedia/images/5/5d/SonarImage.png

If you look at the image above, the wheel is standing up vertically just like it was when MiB was still working on it. The numbers on the side of the printout are vertical measurements. If it had already been installed, it would've been seen from the side, not like this:

images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100512184513/lostpedia/images/d/db/6x15_AWheelToTheFuture.jpg

And thus, DHARMA had to have completed the wheel after 1974, and sent a polar bear in to turn it first:

images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080208073909/lostpedia/images/1/18/SkeletonPolarBear.jpg

The reason it is now cold near the donkey wheel (from Lostpedia):

"Recent scientific literature suggests that the bridge of traversable wormholes of exotic matter can have negative temperature [1], as well as zero for the asymptotic exit in a certain model [2]"

I think this is a very viable theory...what do you guys think?

[witheyesclosed]

I like it considering I don't think they're gonna start introducing more people to the story. Dharma did want to change the world. I just want it to be Sunday already. Gonna make my own wheel outside.

[spinaltumor]

I thought the sonar pic was taken from above, so it was already in the rock. Hmm.

[LockeRulez]

i like it.. but...

i always assumed the pic was taken from the front like you're taking a picture of someone standing in front of you... standing and pointing the sonar in front of you. so as the sonar is 15 feet away, it hits the first part of the donkey wheel, and 17 feet away hits the end. so that would put the FDW in a horizontal position as the Sonar gets further away from you.

i think they were drilling forward, not down (from above).

[gromitsdad]

That's the point, the measurements shown on the sides are vertical measurements.
They're looking at what is exactly behind the wall, the wheel in a vertical position.
They are definitely not drilling downward.

[LockeRulez]

i think something isn't coming through about your description.

I think you're thinking of this like an X-ray, where you see in essence a single plane on the other side of the wall.

but you can see a "cone" of the sonar extending out away from the camera.. so that means the numbers represent "depth". meaning the wheel is horizontal. but you're saying its vertical behind the wall then the numbers would represent "height".. that doesn't seem consistent with the "cone".

of course, maybe i'm overthinking this.

[gromitsdad]

Ugh.

[LockeRulez]

yup.. i'm gonna try to photoshop my explanation of this tonight to visualize it.

[cucumberjones]

I'll spare you (and myself--I made an ugly rendition in 2 minutes) the time (hopefully) of having to do that:

i50.tinypic.com/9lfhwn.png

Think of this as an overhead shot, as if a helicopter took it. The D.I. circles are people. The black inside the circles represents their hair. This is how the image represents depth and not height, showing that the wheel is in fact already in its horizontal position

[spinaltumor]

Hehe, the people.

But yes, that's how I always imagined the shot was.

[LockeRulez]

there you go.. that's what i am thinking. thanks cucumberjones.

[jacksonjessop]

awesome theory. That is totally right

[jacksonjessop]

However. When Ben moves the Island the wheel is horizontal. This totally disproves your theory. D'oh