The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-09

| One pauses startled by the sight.
As though the hand that put 1t there
Had reached out of eternal night.
Denver Republican.
why Pisa Tower Leans.
| why is the Leaning Tower of Pisa
out of the perpendicular" Because
SO constructed" is the wonted reply.
Now, however, an investigation by a
royal commission of experts has not
only demolished this antique legend,
| but moreover. has revealed the star
ting fact that unless immediate meas
ures are taken to prevent it the cele-
brated campanile, with its glorious
eight-tiered structure of marble colon
nades, wherefrom Calico made his ia
nous experiments on the law of gravi-
tation, is likely to follow the fate of
ST. Marks campanile in Venice.
| "Our explorations" say the experts,
lied to the wholly unforeseen and dis
tressing discovery that, instead of be-
| ing founded upon massive spacious
base, as was generally believed since
lGrassi, in 1881, and Rohault de
Fleury, in 1859. published their col
lections Of plans. the actual founda-
tion simply consists of shaped
masonry exactly corresponding in
1 girth to the huge cylindrical mass
|
! diameter of the inner ring foundations
| is Z meters 40 centimeters. which is
precisely that of the space inside the
two. This discovery, taken together
with the further astonishing fact that
| the foundations are merely meters
| GO feet inches) beneath the surface
constitutes henceforth incontrovertible
proof that the campanile was original
| ly built perpendicular, and that its
leaning propenSitieS, which are becom-
| ing more and more accumulated, are
due to other causes than the intention
| of it's constructors"
4 In 1929 it was 4 meters 3S5 milli-
meters out of vertical line, but during
the last eighty years the commission
affirms that the tower leans an addi-
tional 5.5 millimeters for every meter
of its 81 meters in altitude. The rea-
son given for this dangerous state are
principally that the base of the tower
| has always been immersed in water
and that deep cistern dug quite near
seventy years ago with the unsuccess-
| full object of draining a basin around
| the foot of the tower made matters
worse.
! The tower had already been consid-
| erably weakened by earlier excava-
| lions for a basin for mensuration pur-
poses. Later in 1884 the severest
shock of earthquake ever felt at Pisa
| left the Leaning Tower some thirteen
centimeters more out Of the straight.
Another main source of responsibility
| is undoubtedly the oscillation from its
magnificent peal of seven bells.
Cardinal Mafi, archbishop of Pisa,
| himself an illustrious mathematician,
HAS straightway offered to cooperate
with the Italian government in every
possible way for the preservation OF
this fifth among the seven wonders OF
the world. The cardinal has already
given orders to suspend the ringing OF
the two biggest bells, called the As
sumption and the Crucif1ed Christ,
which though fixed on the non-in-
c1ined side of the campanile, weigh
together over $4,000 pounds. AS for
1.-The smaller bells, they are to be forth
with beaten simply with the hammer.
| The commission reports that a
most insiduous danger arises from the
| underground springs and currents that
are undermining the ADJACENT sou;
The leaning tower of Pisa was be
gun in ITO. and took nearly a couple
Of centuries to complete.
The celebrated essayist. John Eve
Ign, who visited Pisa in 1914, fell into
the popular error about the cause OF
the leaning. He says, writing of the
tower: cit stands alone. strangely re-
marIxable FOR this, that the beholder
would expect it to fall. being built ex-
! ceedingly decliningly, by rare ad-
dress of the architect; that and now II
is supported from falling L think
would puzzle good geoInetrician. A
learned Frenchman of the eighteenth
century suggested that the architect
was hunchback, and made the tower
! crooked to resemble himself
The Companies of St Mark and
Pisa were built or begun in the same
| century, viz, the twelfth The leanlns
tower is 179 feet high and 81 feet and
/ 8 inches n diameter. cylindrical in
form, the exterior entirely built OF
white marble, and the interior or YER
| y,1ca stone The basem ent Is paneled
| into half columns and supports six
open arcades of round arches with
slender shafts, and varied and beautt-
| full capitals, antique and medieval
The first architect Bonano, had hardly
reached the height of 40sfeet from the
ground when it was discovered that
the Campanile was sinking down on
one side. and was considerably out OF
the perpendicular owing to subsistence
of the foundations. 1t was. therefore
continued with great difficuity.-Chl-
cago Record Herald.