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The Statue of LibertyUnit 8 Historical Monuments Restoration 1 Introduction 1.1 Read the text title and hypothesize what the text is about. Write down your hypothesis.
1.2 What do you know concerning this issue? List your ideas in the table left column I know.
1.3 If you know answers to these questions write them down in the space given after each question.
1.4 Circle in the list the words and expressions you know. Write down their translation in the table and calculate the percentage of your lexical competence.
Restoration of monuments is a way to preserve our history and maintain the beauty and value of a place. Old building and monuments are the living evidences of the events of the past. With the restoration of monuments, we can preserve our traditions and culture. Preservation of monuments can enable us to conserve our cultural heritage. Historical structures, like churches, castles, bridges, and period buildings, give cities and villages their distinctive look. Preserving historical monuments and renovating old buildings are sensitive activities that require great expertise and also involve complex issues.
Building restoration can be thought of as that set of activities which are greater than year-to-year maintenance, but which by retaining the building are less than a demolition and the construction of a new building. Restoration of buildings is very important in order to maintain the beauty and grace of the older monuments; there have been developed a system of cleaning and restoring buildings that is completely environment friendly and gentle on the old monuments, particularly sandstone and the marble monuments.
In the process of monuments restoration all monuments are cleaned with water and a mild detergent. Sandblasting is never carried out on these beautiful and very fragile monuments. Every effort is taken to make sure that the stone is preserved to as near its original condition as possible. Restoration of stone is done after the monument or building has been cleaned properly. Monuments are designed to endure, but time and exposure to the elements takes a toll. Tending to small repairs and maintenance needs as they arise may increase the longevity of a structure. The Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa may be the most instantly recognizable building in the Western world, with the possible exception of the Eiffel Tower. It is a part of a complex of three buildings, consisting of a baptistery, a church, and the bell tower that form the Cathedral of Pisa.
For years, however, anxious city fathers measured the tower and found it leaning a fraction of an inch further every year. Nevertheless, the tower has withstood several mild earthquakes and extensive bombing in World War II. Benito Mussolini tried to have it straightened entirely in the 1930s, but the concrete poured into its foundation only made it sink further, thus perpetuating Pisa's claim to tourist fame.
In 1964, the government of Italy requested aid in preventing the tower from toppling. A multinational task force of engineers, mathematicians and historians gathered to discuss stabilisation methods. Many methods were proposed to stabilise the tower, including the addition of 800 tonnes of lead counterweights to the raised end of the base. The structure was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1987. In January 1990, after over two decades of stabilisation studies, the tower was closed to the public, when it was found to be nearly 15ft off the vertical. The bells were removed to relieve some weight, and cables were cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred meters away. Apartments and houses in the path of the tower were vacated for safety. The final solution to prevent the collapse of the tower was to slightly straighten the tower to a safer angle, by removing 38 cubic meters of soil from underneath the raised end. The tower was straightened by 45 centimeters, with the angle of the tilt being decreased from 5.5 degrees to about 3.99 degrees. On December 15, 2001, after a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the public.
When the works began restorers took out the concrete used in past restorations and cleaned up the pigeon dirt, graffiti and hand-prints left by tourists. They injected chemicals into the marble to strengthen it. Then they cleaned the surface with water sprays, solvents and even lasers for delicate spots.
Mountaineers scaled the tower and attached hanging, aluminium platforms. Traditional scaffolding couldve unsettled the soil under the newly stabilized tower. The mountaineers were tied to an upper level and linked by ropes. As work progressed from level to level, the workers would hand each other the pieces to construct a new level of scaffolding while taking apart the scaffolding below, all the while suspended in the air. This scene fascinated tourists who were basically watching these crazy people spinning around and climbing up and down.
And there was interior work too. For an entire winter, restorers toiled on the towers internal staircase during chilly nights, to allow tourists to visit during the day tourists who bring in receipts of up to $30,000 a day funds needed for the restoration and upkeep. In May 2008, after the removal of another 70 metric tons of earth, the Italian engineers announced that the Tower had been stabilized and that it had stopped moving for the first time in its history. They stated it would be stable for the next 200 years. The Statue of Liberty
By the early 1980s, the Statue of Liberty required major repairs. A major part of the restoration of the statue was the replacement of the torch. Originally intended to allow the statue to serve as a lighthouse, the previous flame was largely made up of amber-colored windows, which were lighted from within. Those windows, though, had openings that allowed in rain, which corroded the raised arm's support structure. The old one was removed and a new torch fashioned, duplicating Bartholdis original design and construction methods. The new torch has no windows. Its flame is covered with gold leaf and glows with reflected light.
The structural framework that supports the copper covering was designed by Alexandre Gustav Eiffel, the French engineer who later built the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. His support system for the Statue of Liberty consists of a central tower of four vertical columns connected by horizontal and diagonal crossbeams. Iron girders leading up and out from the tower support the raised right arm. When the statue was erected in 1886, workers attached the statues head and right arm to the framework about 2 feet (61 centimeters) to the right of where Eiffel had planned their attachment. This caused a weak connection at the right shoulder that was strengthened during restoration. The observation platform at the crown level was also replaced.
The Statue of Liberty many corrosion problems were associated with: · Thousands of holes pitting the copper surface caused by a century of salt-air exposure · Distortion of the iron framework produced by continuous stress and fatigue · Previous repair attempts that created different problems and more deterioration.
The restoration also included a thorough washing of the Statue of Liberty's copper skin, which has a naturally oxidized, green coating called a patina - a protective coating that the copper creates for itself. So the statue had to be washed with a combination of crushed walnut shells, baking soda, and pressurized water, but the familiar greenish colour of the exposed copper was preserved. In addition, layers of dirt, paint, and tar were removed from the inside surface.
A new passenger elevator was installed in the pedestal and an emergency elevator was added that reaches to the shoulder level. The ventilation system also was improved, and a new lighting system installed.
Official celebrations marking the opening of the newly restored Statue of Liberty were held on July 4, 1986. Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1055
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The Tower of Pisa was constructed in three stages over a period of almost 200 years. The construction began in 1173, but by the time the third level was finished, it was already tilting badly, because of the soft sand and clay beneath its foundations. Fortunately, however, the construction of the tower was halted for almost a century due to battles between Pisa and its nearby regions. The standstill let the soil settle and keep the tower for the following centuries. After a long interruption, construction was resumed in 1272, with engineers building subsequent floors with one side higher than the other to compensate for the tilt and was completed between 1360 and 1370.
Yet there was more work to be done. There were cracks so large in the top of the columns that a person was able to put an entire hand inside them. The stones were in an appalling state, mainly due to air pollution, though tourists and pigeons played a part. The columns of the tower are decorated with capitals: flowers, ghoulish faces, fantastical animals, but sea salt carried on the wind and rain water that collects in certain areas because of the tower's tilt had damaged many stones.
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is a figure of a robed woman representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, holding a torch. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an icon of freedom and of the United States.
The statues many ribs that link the skin to the frame were replaced. The original ribs were made of iron, and many were badly rusted. Restoration workers shaped new stainless steel ribs to replace those made of iron. Workers also replaced many rivets that had pulled loose from the copper skin.