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Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

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Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#21

In (I think) the first edition of Zumdahl's chemistry textbook, there was a great summary of some of the things they had to do to preserve the statue, and it went beyond just repairing the skin. The wiki article ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation-restoration_of_th... ) has a lot of it, but IIRC after they installed stainless steel, at some point they passed electricity through it, which had the effect of ma…

One of the NYT articles at the link mentions the stainless steel.

This WaPo article talks about it more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/07/02/b...

This article suggests that the DC current treatment was to avoid corrosion (also has some nice illustrations of the support framework for the skin):

https://copper.org/education/liberty/liberty_reclothed2.php

A related blurb just says they built some equipment (probably the equipment to do the DC annealing, but who knows):

https://www.romanmfg.com/roman-manuacturing-helps-restore-th...

The Wikipedia article mentions the annealing and then sand blasting to remove iron from the surface (contaminants on the surface of the stainless can compromise the oxide layer that forms).

Maybe something in there will jog your memory.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pulitzer fundraiser wasn't for the statue but for the pedestal on which it was to be placed. The statue was a gift of the people of France. That being said, crowdfunding campaigns were also a part of the the fundraising for the statue (that is, in France), together with a wide mix of other sources: state money, cities, chambers of commerce, and several other groups, huge donations by companies, banquet events, op…

> The statue was a gift of the people of France. with "reparations" from the people of haiti

That’s what the broken chains on the bottom are for

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pulitzer fundraiser wasn't for the statue but for the pedestal on which it was to be placed. The statue was a gift of the people of France. That being said, crowdfunding campaigns were also a part of the the fundraising for the statue (that is, in France), together with a wide mix of other sources: state money, cities, chambers of commerce, and several other groups, huge donations by companies, banquet events, op…

> The statue was a gift of the people of France. with "reparations" from the people of haiti

[flagged]

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#24
post #9

I feel like it might look quite cool if it was patched with new copper (at least if it was done well). A bit like kintsugi pottery.

Often the kind of thing people hate for a while, and then with enough time becomes iconic and you'd probably end up with an article about how they were debating whether to preserve it or not as it aged. I think about this a lot when it comes to "eyesores", particularly wind turbines. When you think of how windmills are considered picturesque, it always makes me a little surprised when people moan about modern wind ge…

Yeah I don't understand why people hate them so much either. I think they look nice too. Better than old-fashioned windmills.

Where I'm from in the Netherlands there's is much less resistance to them anyway because we know the alternative is for our country to be under the sea ;)

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#25
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like a single windmill, standing picturesquely in the middle of the village. I don't think anyone would ever have gone for a field of tens or hundreds of them.

I kinda wonder what is gonna happen to them when they reach end of life. Knowing the history of these kinds of things, they will be left to rot and dangle in the fields they were planted.

They're replaced obviously because we really need the electricity they produce.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#26
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often the kind of thing people hate for a while, and then with enough time becomes iconic and you'd probably end up with an article about how they were debating whether to preserve it or not as it aged. I think about this a lot when it comes to "eyesores", particularly wind turbines. When you think of how windmills are considered picturesque, it always makes me a little surprised when people moan about modern wind ge…

As a kid that grew up on the south plains (Texas panhandle). I have a love hate relationship with those windmills. On the one hand it's neat seeing all that green power generation. On the other, it does ruin the landscape to some extent, it can be visually jarring to be driving some back road, go over a rise that, and be smack in the middle of a wind farm. It also can be a little distracting at night, where the darkn…

I think the red lights make them more mysterious at night.

Especially when you drive over a hill and it's all foggy, and there's this big field of red dots flashing. It's like the robots are coming :) I like it.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#27
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often the kind of thing people hate for a while, and then with enough time becomes iconic and you'd probably end up with an article about how they were debating whether to preserve it or not as it aged. I think about this a lot when it comes to "eyesores", particularly wind turbines. When you think of how windmills are considered picturesque, it always makes me a little surprised when people moan about modern wind ge…

Yeah I don't understand why people hate them so much either. I think they look nice too. Better than old-fashioned windmills. Where I'm from in the Netherlands there's is much less resistance to them anyway because we know the alternative is for our country to be under the sea ;)

Some of them kill a lot of birds and bats.

On top of that, they of course need access roads for maintenance crews to come do their thing once in a while, if located in a former pristine environment that isn't ideal. To say nothing of when the construction actually takes place, again, if it all happens in a pristine location then it's not ok.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#28
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often the kind of thing people hate for a while, and then with enough time becomes iconic and you'd probably end up with an article about how they were debating whether to preserve it or not as it aged. I think about this a lot when it comes to "eyesores", particularly wind turbines. When you think of how windmills are considered picturesque, it always makes me a little surprised when people moan about modern wind ge…

People like a single windmill, standing picturesquely in the middle of the village. I don't think anyone would ever have gone for a field of tens or hundreds of them.

Tell that to the Dutch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmills_at_Kinderdijk

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid that grew up on the south plains (Texas panhandle). I have a love hate relationship with those windmills. On the one hand it's neat seeing all that green power generation. On the other, it does ruin the landscape to some extent, it can be visually jarring to be driving some back road, go over a rise that, and be smack in the middle of a wind farm. It also can be a little distracting at night, where the darkn…

I think the red lights make them more mysterious at night. Especially when you drive over a hill and it's all foggy, and there's this big field of red dots flashing. It's like the robots are coming :) I like it.

Everybody likes to tell their "...and that's what inspired me to go into a technical field" story.

We had several radio masts in an opening near our home growing up. I'm going to start incorporating those into my story. "It was then, gazing at those red lights as a two year old, that I knew I was destined to spend my life writing YavaScript."

Probably some truth to it, tbh. That and locomotive engineers honking when we'd drive by making the universal "honk the horn" sign.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#30

I feel like it might look quite cool if it was patched with new copper (at least if it was done well). A bit like kintsugi pottery.

See this recent artwork by Danh Vo which plays with the idea of fragments of the copper skin. https://www.publicartfund.org/exhibitions/view/danh-vo-we-th...
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