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Or perhaps multiple periscopes? I had to leave after investigating one of them.
1. Lying on their sides on blocks in the corner of an RV/boat storage yard. I didn't see them in the Google Maps aerial view, so they must be recent arrivals.
The next few pics are a bit confusing. I'm not sure at which end the viewer was meant to be. Let's say it's the end in the next picture.
2. Looking in the inlet, where an oval mirror shows a reversed image of the rest of the tube.
3. The fence and road of #1, seen via the mirror from inside the tube.
4. Another mirror at the outlet, and a window. That mirror is covered with bird dung, so it's not very effective.
The purpose of the periscope(s) is a puzzle. They seem too big and expensive for any practical use. Although there is a ladder, the outlet window is sealed; it isn't a hatch. I couldn't tell whether it's watertight.
My guess; relics of a seaside aquarium. Yours?
"The beauty of mediocrity is that anything can make you better." -Jeff Mallett | |
Hell, your guess is as good as anything I can come up with. Maybe nautical applications?
Neat pictures either way.
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Man, this is a weird one. I tried to do some Googling, but was unable to figure it out. I wonder if it might have been intended to bring natural light underground into some sort of facility or tunnel system. It seems too big and bulky to use in a situation where it would be expected to rotate and provide a 360 degree view. And my first thought, that it might have some sort of military application, seems less likely the more I think about it: you would think that it were used in that way, it would be more... precise, not just two big mirrors and a shaft, without some sort of optics or imaging magnification or whatever.
Pretty interesting, anyway.
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire... Tunnelrunner33! | |
Natural light-a skylight. That does make sense.
Except, why two mirrors? I'd expect a tunnel or a height-challenged building to have a skylight, not a wall-light. It would need only one mirror--or none, just a pipe with a translucent cap to keep the birds out. This had a clear window.
The other pipes might have attached to the open end of the one I went into. So there could be an enlarging lens. But it would be huge. A webcam and a flat screen monitor would be better and cheaper. Tho the light from it wouldn't be natural then.
I'm thinking about calling the RV yard and saying "Hey, when I was sneaking around your place I found this amongst the property you're safeguarding; what is it?"
"The beauty of mediocrity is that anything can make you better." -Jeff Mallett | |
They look to be about the right size for power-generating windmill masts, but that wouldn't explain the mirrors.
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. | |
I can't shed any light on your particular periscope, but I know of a building in Minneapolis that has something sorta like that.
The U of M's Civil & Mining Engineering building was built reeealy deep in the 1970s as an efficient earth-sheltered design. It has several levels of cut and cover basement, with the lowest levels mined out of the soft sandstone under the city.
Full size drawing: https://lh4.google...o/s1600/img323.jpg
The elevator actually goes in reverse, you enter the building at floor 1 and hit the button for floor 7 to go to the deepest level. It's so deep that the steam tunnels and sewers come in on floor 6. Here's an (off topic) video of us fucking around in one of the stairwells: https://www.youtub...atch?v=HQNUiCMoj1U
Anyway, when constructing this experimental hippie-conscious save-the-whales building, they realized no one wanted their office 7 stories underground (even the mine engineering faculty  ). To compensate, the bottommost hallways have "windows" at the ends with mirrors up a utility shaft to a periscope on the roof. There is also a fancy sun-tracking mirror array in a tower on the roof that is supposed to link up via fiber-optics to diffusers in the lowest levels, providing nice natural light... None of that has ever worked though, and the basement is totally depressing
Crappy 1970s diagram:
More info on the design:
http://www.subsurf...thaLightTouch.html
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 | |
What an interesting inverted building! And the most logical explanation for the Seattle periscopes; "windows" or window like natural light diffusers for an underground space.
The spiral stairwell descent was a huge bonus. I've always been fascinated by such stairwells. It was cool to see passers-by enjoying the scene.
"The beauty of mediocrity is that anything can make you better." -Jeff Mallett | |
Interesting!
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Posted by /-/ooligan
They look to be about the right size for power-generating windmill masts, but that wouldn't explain the mirrors.
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Actually, if I'm right, the mirrors would provide light in the interior as the poor tech was climbing up/down.
/-/oolie
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. |
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