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Vermont City Almost Encased In a 1-Mile Dome
destinyland writes "A Vermont city once proposed a one-mile dome over its 7,000 residents. (They paid $4 million a year in heating bills, and HUD seriously considered funding their proposal.) The city's architectural concept included supporting the Dome with air pressure slightly above atmospheric pressure. (Buckminster Fuller warned their biggest challenge would be keeping it from floating away...) There would be no more heating bills, fly-fishing all year, and no more snow shoveling. And to this day, the former city planner insists that 'Economically it's a slam dunk.'"
A couple of buildings in the Beijing olympic park (Bird's nest, water cube) uses ETFE as roof and/or wall covering. It's pretty much as they state, very light, very clear (if you want it to) and it shrinks in close proximity of severe heat, like fires, so it'll retreat itself away from a flame, so it doesn't light up in a fire.
Manuals are your last resort only
Absent the proper climate controls, under the right conditions: it can rain inside a huge dome like that, as water vapor collects near the roof.
It'd be nasty rain though, polluted no doubt.
The Eden project in Cornwall, England contains the world's largest greenhouse (panorama), and it's made in a buckminsterfullerene-like way with ETFE.
It's definitely worth seeing if you're in south west England (relative to the rest of England it's quite remote area).
There is a similar idea which actually carries some currency, though; put a greenhouse below a house and vent it into the house, then vent the exhaust from the house through a chimney. [...]
Pot growers have been already been testing this for decades. You use HPS for overheads and fluorescents on the side. Solar panels on the roof. See, this certain crop isn't exactly "legal" in most states yet.
It would work on Mars, because you can reasonably outlaw combustible gases.
But, wouldn't you want to test it out on earth first before you built one on mars?
music lover since 1969
There's a cool book out by Bill Fawcett called "It Looked Good On Paper" that gives a lot of good (and generally unpublicized) information on Biodome II. Some of the issues:
- Failing air supply (almost immediate). Some outside air had to be pumped in. The levels reached 14% 02 enough to cause brain damage.
- Food shortages.
- Animal extinction: 19 of the 25 vertebrae species became extinct in the BDII.
- Infighting among the crew.
According to Fawcett, the scientists "acknowledged making 10,000 mistakes."
You should check out the book. It's a highly entertaining read that covers disastrous designs from a wide number of areas.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
A real "nerd" would recognize that the distinction between city and town is essentially a nebulous one, and do more research to determine what the distinction would be before calling something an "elementary mistake" or labeling people they don't know a "sensationalist manipulator".
For example, in the US, the designation of "city" is controlled by state laws, and as such is determined by any of a number of factors, such as type of government or incorporation status of the community. Vermont has nine cities, the smallest of which has fewer than 3000 people.
Absolutely not true. Here in Quebec, the roof of the Olympic Stadium is a similar deal, and huge hot-air guns are needed to try to melt the snow - and when it's not fast enough, it has to be removed mechanically, or the roof fails (and then they have to get out these huge mechanical "clothespins" to hold the edges together until it can be fixed.
Go by any ice rink in the summer and look at the pile of snow outside from the Zamboni ... snow just doesn't melt as fast as you think, even in 80 degree heat. Also, snow's a half-decent insulator (trapped air), so good luck melting a foot of snow.
Not on your life my Hindu friend.
For most of New England, perhaps. In New Hampshire, (from my High School civics 1982), City means there are elected officials running the government. Town have town meetings where *everyone* votes on the issues.
NH has 13 cities: Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Dover, Franklin, Keene, Laconia, Lebanon, Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth, Rochester, Somersworth.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_town#Cities "Most cities are former towns that changed to a city form of government because they grew too large to be administered by a town meeting."
FWIW, I'm originally from Lebanon, NH which is on the border with Hartford, VT.