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hibis   Curiosity.
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French
this page, technics. big works - epoch audacities

St Michel subway station buried of a sole block. ..
In this industrial delirious, where nothing seems anymore impossible, one entirely builds outside the subway station St Michael... and descends it in the hole as a unique solid part ! and it is deep, because the river Seine must be crossed underneath, not too far. For this reason, there were elevators.

Dismountable caterpillars cars..Auto chenillettes démontables.
As for Michelin, it had organised a terrestrial expedition in China with dismountable vehicles to cross passes and mountains with porters. Poor porters and other mebers. Assembling, dismounting, reassembling..

A canal above the Loire.
Impulse of Mr Eiffel led to built everywhere in France consequent works like the viaduct of Garabit (Cantal), but especially the canal-bridge of Briare (Loiret), because at the time, canals were very much used, ensuring the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Paris junctions. This bridge, which is in fact a viaduct, makes it possible the barges to cross... the Loire Valley. Nowadays beautiful small cruising in boat can allow you enjoying the work and the environment in Briare, particularly well arranged for yachtsmen and walkers.

The "Eiffel Tower" four feet  (Tour Eiffel).

Originally, each foot was set onto a hydraulic cylinder ? The hydraulic process uses an oil transfert technology between a small cylinder (pump) to a large one, so that a small amount of oil transferred at high pressure obtained by a large movment, produce a tiny elevation at high pressure but bigger force into the big cylinder. One call that "gear" for the car or the bicycle ! why the oil? the two cylinders can be very far from each other, without mechanics, just a simple tube.   in order to carry out adjustments in the event of modification of level (the Seine river is nearby).
The Eiffel tower was to be demolished at the end of the exhibition.
This century knows a true technological outburst, with its incredible audacities and its dramas (mines, blast furnaces). 		Elevators.
Likewise were for long actuated the elevators, with hydraulics, which get power and flexibility of operation ; but how the employee, placed in the cabin could command with great precision and softness, the stop of the cabin on the floor ? and that without a flexible feeding tube ? they were genius.

Wind turbines. Year 2010. The current wind turbines are more than 100 meters high and have blades of 60 meters long! the generator they operate (an alternator), is up to the situation, so to speak! see a technician installed at the top makes realize the enormity of the thing. 10 years later, those that are under study or installation at sea, floating offshore, could do better. They will compete with hydraulic newcomers.

Greek mill; on blue sky background. An optical illusion can occur by looking at the picture: we see disordered blue slats! the body of the mill (building), is at the bottom left. focus on the small white triangles to distinguish the wings.. Original, How to reduce the aerofoil surface when the wind is too strong ? by spinning the mast so that the sail is rolled up. Obviously, the system is not very simple on the hub !. This rolling sail of the Greek mills is really interesting for it has been taken by the modern sailing ships.

The Dutch mills pumped the water in stages to wind it up and throw it back into the sea, because that country is partly below its level


Expansion . Expansion, due to changes in temperature, is an effect that can not be neglected under penalty of serious consequences, enen in day to day life : a metal beam firmly sealed on two opposite walls will crack them.
- BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS.  
All bridges and viaducts, and more generally all metal constructions, must be able to lengthen or shorten freely!  Indeed, the volume of materials in general, mainly iron and steel, varies with the ambient temperature
Rollers are placed at their ends, and there are joints that cut the pavement, clearly visible. To see the rollers, you have to go under the first pile, on the embankment.
- RAILS OF TRAINS. Given their length, they have to be cut. On former times, we heard these "tada, tada", "tada, tada"..each set of wheels passing on the gaps. Then, the rails were welded on a greater length and each length connected in bevel to the following, able to slide of one next to the other. No noise, but yet dilation, absorbed by the bevel.
- PIPE-LINE.
The pipeline that crosses Siberia are arranged in zigzag, which allows to absorb the variations of lengths related to the temperature. The variation of the length of the work under the effect of the temperature difference reaches several hundreds of meters !   Welded in a straight line, it would have to break.
- TRAIN of the EXTREME.
The Chinese train which now allows access to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, climbs to 5000 meters. It is a jewel of technology because it is the only pressurized train in the world, but it is not the most remarkable of its characteristics; it includes 293 tunnels and viaducts including one of 12 kilometers. As it can be very cold and very hot, viaduct columns are of type "thermosiphon" because they raise the cold of the ground to the rails to limit temperature variations. "World Match" ;, 09 2006.

Only remarkable works of art are told here (Dams).    We must not look for an exhaustive list of innumerable books sometimes just as spectacular. I will start with the dam of "Malpasset ", infamous for its rupture and its many victims, whose remains can be seen near Fréjus It is a beautiful walk to do, from the bottom or from the top (scrub). see "physics, densities" to understand how water carries such big rocks.

There are thousands of large dams in the world, classified by height, length, power output, surface lake etc. Here, according to " the Quid ", the most famous ones (some of which are already old): Cabora Bassa, on Mozambique - Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri (USA) - Itaipu , on Paranâ (Br &sil) -   Aswan (Egypt) - Ertan , on Yalong Jang (China) - The Three Gorges (China), the most gigantic - Tarbela , on the indus (Pakistan) - Yacireta on the Paranã - (Argentina).


boat lift locks..
formerly at Saint Omer and without energy !  Nut case : the elevator of Fontinettes was a very incredible work.
Elevator for which ? for barges ! two vats supported by hydraulic pistons assembled in communicating tubes (when one goes up, the other goes down), could be adjusted at the end of the two levels of the canal. Valves were closing both ends of the upper and lower branch of the the canal. Once a vat was filled with water, the valves were opened and the barge entered inside, Well, that leaks a little. Solids brakes maintained the vats at level, but by releasing them, by the law of gravity, the barges changed level, towards opposite ones. 
Physical problem : the mechanical losses do not make it possible the barges to go up (or go down), exactly at the opposite levels : so, between the two barges, in the medium, is an operator in an open cabin : this one nimbly hangs a weight on the vat which goes down to make... good weight ! (with barge or not, the weight of each vat is about always the same one). The weights, of different sizes, were selected according to the case, and automatically given back to him. hibis 		In Scotland, and rotary !

Between Glasgow and Edinburgh (Scotland), a cant of 25 meters separates two rivers ; a tourist attraction, Falkirk Wheel, kind of large wheel with barges, brings successively the vats to level in a rotational movement. Two containers receiving the barges (like the elevator of Fontinettes), contain 300 m3 of water. The axis (about the middle of the enlarged photograph) is 25 meters long and the diameter of the arm supporting the vats, makes 35 meters in diameter. Locate: the arms are cut out in a peak shape on a side.

In Belgium.   Ship lift number 3. With this futuristic Scotish version, one could believe that the elevator of the Fontinettes is over (Northern France). But not ! the Belgians have just built a new one (2002 ?), benefitting from a more recent technology, but on the basis of the same principle : two vats which go up and go down vertically, as for Fontinettes !! 

IN China !   In China ! monstrous, obviously because linked to the dam of the Three Gorges, it will be the biggest of the world with its 113 meters of difference in height and the bins being able to receive the boats of tourism.
Internet.There are locks also but but the elevator will allow six million more tons of cargo to cross the dam every year (due to quikness) 27 sept. 2016.
WHERE DOES GIGANTISM START?
QUESTION OF TIME, TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE, AND EGO! !


Vue en cours de travaux.

The Dutch fight permanently against water since the majority of its large city are under the sea level. The famous mills had as a function only to pump water (the mills are laid out so that they raise water towards the sea by stages, because the power of each mill was quite limited. But the storms and the rise in the sea level make fear serious flooding. In north, a giant dam was built since a long time. In the south, a mobile stopping was built on 2800 metersat the mouth of the Scheldt. The unit is conceived to limit the salinisation of the lands, to develop the businesses and tourism (boats) and to largely improve circulation thanks to the new ways

It comprises 66 pillars high as a building of 10 floors which will let go up or go down 63 steel valves according to needs. These pillars, have a 50 by 25 meters section ! they lie on foundations not less gigantic, 15 depth meters, the sea-bed itself being papered with a thick coating intended to stabilize it. Floating cranes were built to pose these giant pillars.  


Venice. The problem of Venice is undoubtedly different bus it acts of a lagoon which must be preserved. It is known that the business lasts since decades, with its Utopias, but a project of foils articulated by the bas, semi-floating and adjustable in height from the bas are in the mood for the moment in spite of the opposition.


  works of art, technology and gigantism


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