Posted on 07/29/2010 3:50:42 AM PDT by Daffynition
Professor John Burland has spent the last two decades striving to save - and understand - the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After defying gravity, Italian bureaucracy and accusations of corruption, it seems he’s finally cracked the case.
[snip]
Via his data analysis, Burland unlocked the 800-year mystery as to why the tower leans south not north: namely, a fluctuating water-table on the upper layer of silt. By a quirk of local geography, Pisa’s water-table rose higher on the tower’s north side, often reaching within one foot in rainy season, and this gave the tower an annual ratchet southward.
Armed with this vital information, in 2003, Burland introduced a new drainage system beneath the piazza’s north side, one that lowered and stabilised the water-table, so there’s no kick in either direction. Problem solved.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If the problem is solved, will there be any attempt to correct the tilt to the upright position the designer intended it to be centuries ago?
Or is that too risky?
Well heck just bring in “evil Superman” to fix it again.
They’ve been working on ‘correcting’ the tilt for decades.
The tilt was noticed almost immediately during construction.
When they say Italians are stubborn, they aren’t just kidding.,
Instead of halting construction they just kept on keeping on with the tilting more and more serious with every section
Was fortunate to climb to the top back in the 80’s.
I don’t care what makes it tilt. I wanna know what keeps it from falling.
Moleeds.
Read the article. It did indeed change to the point of nearly toppling over, and has since been restored to 4 meters off-center.
If the problem is solved, will there be any attempt to correct the tilt to the upright position the designer intended it to be centuries ago?
Again, read the article. Now that the reason for the tower's lean has been identified, it has been stabilized. They could straighten it anytime they want. But, it won't be straightened, because then it wouldn't be the Leaning Tower of Pisa any longer.
How many tourists would visit the Formerly Leaning Tower of Pisa?
I think if you read the article you'll find the answers to your queries. I doubt if it will ever to totally righted. ;)
The street vendors would revolt!
They enacted a law in Italy to forbid it from falling.
Thanks for that pic - that is the funniest thing I’ve seen/read all week!
‘There were 14 egos at work and little common ground between people from such different disciplines,’ says Burland. ‘As opposed to rational, British-style discussion, meetings were emotional, with polemical speeches in Italian for hours on end. Often my translators struggled to keep up and I hadn’t a clue what was going on.’Broadly speaking, the structural engineers disagreed with the geotechnical engineers over whether the key lay in the tower itself or in the earth beneath it, while both were at odds with the art historians, who feared intervention of any kind and demanded the belfry’s ‘character and integrity’ be observed. A permanent prop, for instance, was a definite no-no.
‘It was a constant impasse. I often doubted we’d ever reach a resolution,’ recalls Burland, one of only two non-Italians on the committee. The other, an American geotechnical engineer, died of a heart attack in 1996, partly brought on by the stresses of working in Pisa.
Daffy, I must disagree that this article has *eyes glazing over* content. It is both informative and funny. Everyone should read the whole article. Members of this secret committee should receive Italy's highest honor for working diligently for more than 10 years to solve this problem. Read the article.
Certainly the Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of Italy’s major attractions. Too bad. The cathedral and the baptistry are two of the most impressive structures of their type in Europe, but they’re overshadowed by the architectural anomoly next door.
Oh, I agree ...but it isn’t exactly *6th* grade reading level either...and in addition has that inimitable Brit wit.
Just get *someone* to help prop it up.
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