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  #1  
Old 17 July 2007, 07:41 PM
jason13
 
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Default Vatican Library Sinking Due to Weight of Books

Vatican Library closure irks scholars

The Vatican Library is closing for the first time in its 500 years in order to do repairs:

Quote:
One wing of the 16th Century building which houses the library was found to be structurally unsafe earlier this year. The accumulated weight of books was simply too heavy for the foundations of the building.


Looks like some of the pieces from That Sinking Feeling came true, although 16th century engineers could never have predicted the building to hold 1.5 million books.

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  #2  
Old 18 July 2007, 04:20 PM
matches
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jason13 View Post
Vatican Library closure irks scholars

The Vatican Library is closing for the first time in its 500 years in order to do repairs:

Looks like some of the pieces from That Sinking Feeling came true, although 16th century engineers could never have predicted the building to hold 1.5 million books.

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Of course is it really the weight of the books, or the age of the building materials the building is made of.

Forexample, if I have an old worm eaten bookcase and my encyclapedia britanicas fall through the shelves, I would blame the age of the book case not the weight of the books, though obviously they are complementary issues.

In that sinking feeling the idea is that the weight of the books, not being factored into the engineering leads to the sinking, where as here it seems that when it was first built the building was fine, and the current problems are derived from the age of the materials.
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Old 19 July 2007, 12:00 AM
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ganzfeld ganzfeld is offline
 
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Originally Posted by matches View Post
Of course is it really the weight of the books, or the age of the building materials the building is made of.
Or even the number of visitors. Books weigh a lot but they don't walk around much.

In any case, there're a number of things that make this story "not quite true". Even though removing the books from a section has been one remedy, that doesn't mean the books caused the problem or that the engineers didn't calculate the weight right. Whatever 1.5 million books weigh, it is much less than the building itself. The problem is that the books are on old floors that are supported by old walls and beams so removing them is simply the first step in reducing the strain on those materials. And, well, I haven't had my coffee yet so maybe I missed something but I didn't find the place in the article that claims the building is sinking.
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Old 19 July 2007, 01:28 AM
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Mateus Mateus is offline
 
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Maybe it's all that pornography!
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