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Thread: The Miraculous Staircase
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17th January 2014, 08:04 PM #1
The Miraculous Staircase
Loretto Chapel miraculous staircase - Santa Fe, New Mexico
Two mysteries surround the spiral staircase in the Loretto Chapel: the identity of its builder and the physics of its construction.
When the Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft twenty-two feet above. Carpenters were called in to address the problem, but they all concluded access to the loft would have to be via ladder as a staircase would interfere with the interior space of the small Chapel.
Legend says that to find a solution to the seating problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Months later, the elegant circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. After searching for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him, some concluded that he was St. Joseph himself, having come in answer to the sisters' prayers.
The stairway's carpenter, whoever he was, built a magnificent structure. The design was innovative for the time and some of the design considerations still perplex experts today.
The staircase has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support. Also, it is said that the staircase was built without nails—only wooden pegs. Questions also surround the number of stair risers relative to the height of the choir loft and about the types of wood and other materials used in the stairway's construction.
Over the years many have flocked to the Loretto Chapel to see the Miraculous Staircase. The staircase has been the subject of many articles, TV specials, and movies including "Unsolved Mysteries" and the television movie titled "The Staircase."
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17th January 2014 08:04 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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17th January 2014, 09:00 PM #2
It was just a bored forum member looking for something to do on holiday.
Hugh
Enough is enough, more than enough is too much.
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17th January 2014, 09:05 PM #3
Very interesting - thanks for posting. If you go to Google Images and search for "staircase loretto chapel" there are some great pictures of it.
Nathan.
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17th January 2014, 09:20 PM #4
loretto chapel staircase.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjjspf2tN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvid_KnFq7s
"Architects say that ... it should have crashed into the floor the minute someone put a step on it.
Yet it has been used daily for over 100 years.
The staircase railing was not part of the original construction, but added 2 years later."
Loretto-Chapel-Staircase.jpg
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17th January 2014, 09:21 PM #5
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=t...2F%3B236%3B165
Now for the realists/sceptics to have their say ...
The Mysterious Staircase (Analysis)
Helix to Heaven - CSI
snopes.com: Mysterious Staircase at Loretto Chapel
The Loretto Chapel staircase: A lesson in physics, not miracles
"Spiral and other winding staircases reached a high point in development in sixteenth-century England and France, with several “remarkable” examples ("Stair” 1960; “Interior” 1960). To appreciate the architectural and other problems such stairs present we must recognize that builders use turns in staircases to save space or to adapt to a particular floor plan. The simplest is the landing turn which is formed of straight flights joined at the requisite angle by a platform. A variation is the split landing which is divided on a diagonal into two steps.
Instead of a landing, the turn may be accomplished by a series of steps having tapered treads. Such staircases are called winders and include certain ornamental types, like that which takes the shape of a partial circle (known as circular stair) or an ellipse. An extreme form of winding staircase is a continuous winder in the form of a helix (a line that rises as it twists, like a screw thread). This is the popularly termed “spiral staircase” like the example at Loretto Chapel.
Helixes — unlike, say, pyramids — are not inherently stable weight-supporting structures. They require some kind of strengthening or support. Therefore, in addition to being secured at top and bottom, the spiral staircase is usually also braced by attachment along its height to a central pole or an adjacent wall.
Unfortunately, spiral and other winding staircases are not only problematic in design but are also fundamentally unsafe. Explains one authority, “For safety, any departure from a straight staircase requires careful attention to detail in design and construction.” Especially, “Because people tend to travel the shortest path around a corner, where a winder’s treads are narrowest, the traveler must decide at each step where each foot falls. This may be an intellectual and physical exercise best practiced elsewhere. In short, winders are pretty but inherently unsafe”.
Other experts agree. According to Albert G. H. Dietz, Professor Emeritus of Building Engineering at MIT, winders “should be avoided if at all possible. No adequate foothold is afforded at the angle [due to the tapering] and there is an almost vertical drop of several feet if a number of risers converge on the same point. The construction is dangerous and may easily lead to bad accidents”. As a consequence, winders are frequently prohibited by building codes. That is especially true of the spiral stair, which “contains all the bad features of the winder multiplied several times”.
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17th January 2014, 09:32 PM #6Senior Member
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I am reliably informed that if you whip around fast enough you can see your own back in a mirror or, disappear up you own spiral staircase. Where it is claimed you can hear celestial choirs singing and immense amount of dollars clinking as wide eyed, well heeled punters line up to experince mysteries and miracles performed by simple, mexican? carpenters who specialise in building unsupported structures and carving Madonnas that weep blood in tourist destinations.
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17th January 2014, 09:39 PM #7SENIOR MEMBER
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18th January 2014, 12:03 AM #8
I know who did it, it was I'm sworn to secrecy..
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18th January 2014, 03:51 AM #9
Going on from the quote above about safety ... I remembered seeing a drawing (but forgotten the link) that said that the inner radius should be no smaller than twice the width of the stairs.
The same thing is repeated in many places ... https://www.google.com.au/search?q=r...m=122&ie=UTF-8
I'm guessing that has to do with the problem stated of the tread width reducing to nothing if the tread is the full shape of a sector of a circle.
Hasn't affected these guys, 'tho it would seem ... http://www.duvinage.com/files/public...rs_Catalog.pdf
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18th January 2014, 09:33 AM #10well aged but not old
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I don't know what all the fuss is about. I have knocked up a couple of those on a Sunday afternoon.
My age is still less than my number of posts
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18th January 2014, 10:30 AM #11Jim
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18th January 2014, 11:57 AM #12
Paul
That's absolutely amazing and thanks for posting it. If it orginally was minus the handrail it would have looked like something out of "Lord of the Rings."
Perhaps that's it. There was one ring to bind them!
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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18th January 2014, 05:34 PM #13
I agree with the miracle being both the tradie turning up when needed...and the fact that he apparently accepted no payment for his work!!! That in itself is probably enough to create a new saint!
However, the staircase has been closed to foot traffic for several decades, so it sounds like it was one of the more fly-by-night tradies!
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18th January 2014, 08:06 PM #14
Now enough slagging tradies off
Some off us may take offense
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
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19th January 2014, 12:32 AM #15
Only closed to the public Splinter. It's a 'Flying Order' that runs Loretto, they just keep breezing up and down.
I'm particularly offended for the craftsman François-Jean Rochas who is documented as the builder. What do you want to bet that 'disappeared without asking for payment' was really 'gave up chasing payment'. Why else did he leave it without a banister? It's not like a bannister is a new invention....I'll just make the other bits smaller.
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