An aerial photograph of the sound mirrors at Denge. Just how close these structures were to disappearing into the flooded mineral extraction workings can be clearly seen
.
Archive for the ‘Sound mirrors’ Category
Aerial view of Denge sound mirrors
Sunday, August 9th, 2009Panoramic photos of Denge sound mirrors
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009Geoff Mather has made some wonderful panoramic photos of the three Denge acoustic mirrors, as well as lots of other panoramic pictures.
Sound Mirror Denge 200 Foot in England
Sound mirror open day 19 July 2009
Friday, July 17th, 2009Just a reminder about this weekend’s open day at the Denge sound mirrors, organised by the Romney Marsh Countryside Project:
Due to the overwhelming popularity of last years Echoes of the Sky tours we are making a few changes this year. We will be holding a new open day on Sunday 19th July. The island will be open from 10am in the morning until 5pm. Dr Richard Scarth, an expert on these structures, will be present to answer any questions. The Sound Mirrors are located on private land and this is the only way in which they can be accessed. We will have a number of staff stationed at key places to help direct people to the island. There will a member of staff on the bridge asking for a £2 donation per person to cover costs. Parking is available at Lade car park, opposite Taylor Road on Coast Drive (halfway between the Pilot Pub and Romney Sands) (TR 085 208). This will be a non-booking event, you just need to turn up on the day. The walk will be across shingle. For anymore details contact the Romney Marsh Countryside Project
The Geek Atlas
Sunday, July 5th, 2009The Geek Atlas is a new book by John Graham-Cumming published by O’Reilly, the people who do those techie books with animals on the covers (and as a result made me want to slash and burn any East Indies jungles where tarsiers might live).
The reason for mentioning the book here is that one of the sites listed is Denge, for the three sound mirrors.
The history of science is all around us, if you know where to look. With this unique traveler’s guide, you’ll learn about 128 destinations around the world where discoveries in science, mathematics, or technology occurred or is happening now. Travel to Munich to see the world’s largest science museum, watch Foucault’s pendulum swinging in Paris, ponder a descendant of Newton’s apple tree at Trinity College, Cambridge, and more.
Each site in The Geek Atlas focuses on discoveries or inventions, and includes information about the people and the science behind them. Full of interesting photos and illustrations, the book is organized geographically by country (by state within the U.S.), complete with latitudes and longitudes for GPS devices.
Destinations include:
Bletchley Park in the UK, where the Enigma code was broken
The Alan Turing Memorial in Manchester, England
The Horn Antenna in New Jersey, where the Big Bang theory was confirmed
The National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland
The Trinity Test Site in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was exploded
The Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, CaliforniaYou won’t find tedious, third-rate museums, or a tacky plaque stuck to a wall stating that “Professor X slept here.” Every site in this book has real scientific, mathematical, or technological interest — places guaranteed to make every geek’s heart pound a little faster. Plan a trip with The Geek Atlas and make your own discoveries along the way.
The Geek Atlas. ISBN: 9780596523206, 542 pages, £22.99
Abbot’s Cliff hum and gusts
Sunday, June 21st, 2009A 75 second recording of the wind at the Abbot’s Cliff sound mirror on 2 April 2009 by Steven Rowell. Evident in this recording, with mic placed directly on concrete mirror concave face, is a noticeable, resonant hum below 150Hz. Wind gusts on the cliffs were quite strong.
It is from radio aporee ::: maps
an open project about the creation and exploration of public soundscapes. it collects and organizes recordings of daily surroundings and other sonic habitats from all over the world. the sounds are organized within a mashup system of mapping software, databases, telephone networks and the Internet. sites and sounds can also be explored and accessed in situ by recent GPS-enabled mobile devices.
Yorkshire sound mirrrors
Sunday, June 7th, 2009Zeppelin Early Warning Sound Mirrors at the Yorkshire – God’s Own County blog.
Between a messenger with a stick in Marathon or a Beacon on top of a hill but before Radar and electronic surveillance there was a humble invention the ‘Sound Mirror’.
Though I’m not sure why they have chosen a picture of the Sunderland mirror, rather than one actually in God’s own county!
Denge photos
Sunday, May 31st, 2009Michael Rich has a slideshow of photos of Denge taken in April 2009.
Peter King photography’s Sound Mirrors Photos were taken on 13 July 2008, and Echoes In The Sky Dungeness & Sound Mirrors are from 19 August 2007.
Conservation of the concrete mirrors
Sunday, May 24th, 2009When I went on one of the guided walks to the Denge sound mirrors, one of the other vistors was a construction worker who was somewhat critical of the quality of some of the original concrete on the mirrors. I’m not qualified to comment, but Rowan Technologies has some experts on the conservation of concrete.
Case Study #1: Dungeness
English Heritage has commissioned a series of investigative repairs on the mirrors – which are now scheduled as monuments (legal protection specifically for archaeological sites) – that will explore treatments that might be transferable elsewhere. The richly patinated surface of the mirrors is a complex amalgam of weathered aggregate and many varieties of lichen. Chris Wood from English Heritage’s building conservation team is also experimenting with yoghurt to encourage lichen reinstatement. The works were carried out by Rowan Technologies.
Source: The Architects’ Journal, 2008-11-24
Rowan Technologies has this to say:
Conservation Case Studies
The Listening Mirrors, Kent
Like-for-Like Concrete RepairsThe three early warning sound mirrors [at Denge] on the Kent coast were built using reinforced concrete in the late 1920s and the early 1930s to detect the distant sounds of enemy aircraft approaching from over the English Channel. The reinforced concrete has deteriorated in the marine environment and many parts of the structure are suffering from corrosion of the reinforcements and the delamination of the concrete cover.
Rowan Technologies undertook a series of trials of various repair and rehabilitation methods to assess their suitability for these monuments. This included ‘model’ patch repairs of the damaged concrete on a like-for-like basis, to achieving a similar texture and surface finish to the original
Source: Rowan Technologies Ltd
Abbot’s Cliff sound mirror photo
Sunday, May 17th, 2009A photograph of the Acoustic Sound Mirror, Abbot’s Cliff, Dover, Kent, UK taken by Mike Franklin on 15 March, along with other photos of sights between Dover and Folkestone.
‘Hidden things to see and do’ from the Observer
Sunday, May 10th, 2009The sound mirrors – and this website – got a mention in the Observer’s travel section on 5 April 2009. The piece formed part of the Military sites” category in a series about Secret Britain – “All around us lie overgrown and forgotten sites with fascinating stories to tell, says Iain Sinclair”.
Acoustic mirrors, various locations
In the middle of a field in Kilnsea, Yorkshire there is a 15-foot-high concave concrete structure resembling a satellite dish. It’s actually an acoustic (or sound) mirror, used during the first world war to detect enemy engine sounds. They are a common fixture along the British coast, including at Kilnsea (OS map ref: TA 411167), Hythe in Kent (OS map ref: TR138344) and Denge on the Dungeness peninsula (OS map ref: TR070215), which recently featured in the new Prodigy music video, Invaders Must Die.
Source Observer
