The Royal Albert Hall in London, an oval-shaped concert hall with a wrought iron and glass dome, was built in 1870. It looked spectacular, but the acoustics were terrible. The glass dome was so expensive and so heavy, replacing it with something else was out of the question, so they started adding features to dampen the echo. Here we get a rundown of how the roof was outfitted to fix the sound, which is totally worth it to see Tom's vertigo as he walks across the air vent at the top of the hall, 40 meters above the floor.
Tuesday, September 06, 2022
London's Most Unusual Ceiling
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2 comments:
Just a correction, Miss C, as well as an observation.
Correction: The air vent, or corona, is 40 meters above the floor, which would be more like 130 feet. Forty-six feet isn't much more than the height of the 10-meter platform used in Olympic diving. 130 feet is more like diving from the La Quebrada cliffs in Acapulco.
Observation: It was also noted that the dome is held in place by its own weight; it is not permanently bolted, welded, or even duct-taped into place. This is also the same technique used with the turrets of battleships (they just rest on the rotating rings in the casemate, held in place by gravity) as well as most railroad cars in North America. This is why, when you see pictures of derailments, the trucks or bogies have almost always separated from the car itself.
-"BB"-
Ah, sorry, I thought he said 14 meters.
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