Night climbers of Cambridge
Тема использования ажурных каменных украшений на зданиях г.Кембриджа для перемещения в преимущественно вертикальном направлении давно волновала умы.
Наиболее известная иллюстрированная публикация на эту тему - книга "The Night Climbers of Cambridge", которая недавно была переиздана.
Слайд-шоу иллюстраций из этой книги.
Книга написана захватывающе вкусно, но при этом с научной детальностью, достаточной для воспроизводения опыта.
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Кстати, история про два британских флага, развевающихся на башнях церкви Кингс Колледжа, которую рассказывают почти все годольеры, описана именно в этой книге:
In 1932 the chapel was climbed on two successive nights. On the first, two climbers affixed an umbrella to one of the pinnacles. They took a rope, and a ten-foot stick with a hook on the end, to belay the rope over the projections above the climber. The rope was paid out from inside the turret; the stick was never used.
On the way home they met another climber, who had watched the performance from the roofs of Trinity. Upset at missing the fun, he persuaded one of them to go up again, and they decorated the other pinnacle at the same end with an umbrella stolen from Trinity. The next morning the porters took a young man who possessed a shot-gun up on to the roof, and the offending umbrellas were shot down. A considerable amount of publicity attended this exploit, even finding its way into the correspondence columns of The Times.
But one group of climbers was not pleased to see the new ornamentations on the chapel. This group had planned an assault of the chapel, and now found itself forestalled. So armed with money and grim faces they went off and bought two Union Jacks. These were duly affixed over the umbrella stands during the night watches, and in the morning the dean again sought out the young man with the gun, to send him up with the porters. The young man, known to his friends as "The Admiral", demurred against firing on the British Flag. The dean, with the steeplejack's fee of twenty pounds in his mind, tried to uproot these feudal scruples, but the Admiral was loyal to the core. He drew himself up to his full height. "Sir," he said, "I cannot fire on the Union Jack." For self-conscious drama this scene must have rivalled the famous meeting between Stanley and Livingstone. The steeplejacks were sent up from the roof, and the flags were brought down.
Наиболее известная иллюстрированная публикация на эту тему - книга "The Night Climbers of Cambridge", которая недавно была переиздана.
Слайд-шоу иллюстраций из этой книги.
Книга написана захватывающе вкусно, но при этом с научной детальностью, достаточной для воспроизводения опыта.
* * *
Кстати, история про два британских флага, развевающихся на башнях церкви Кингс Колледжа, которую рассказывают почти все годольеры, описана именно в этой книге:
In 1932 the chapel was climbed on two successive nights. On the first, two climbers affixed an umbrella to one of the pinnacles. They took a rope, and a ten-foot stick with a hook on the end, to belay the rope over the projections above the climber. The rope was paid out from inside the turret; the stick was never used.
On the way home they met another climber, who had watched the performance from the roofs of Trinity. Upset at missing the fun, he persuaded one of them to go up again, and they decorated the other pinnacle at the same end with an umbrella stolen from Trinity. The next morning the porters took a young man who possessed a shot-gun up on to the roof, and the offending umbrellas were shot down. A considerable amount of publicity attended this exploit, even finding its way into the correspondence columns of The Times.
But one group of climbers was not pleased to see the new ornamentations on the chapel. This group had planned an assault of the chapel, and now found itself forestalled. So armed with money and grim faces they went off and bought two Union Jacks. These were duly affixed over the umbrella stands during the night watches, and in the morning the dean again sought out the young man with the gun, to send him up with the porters. The young man, known to his friends as "The Admiral", demurred against firing on the British Flag. The dean, with the steeplejack's fee of twenty pounds in his mind, tried to uproot these feudal scruples, but the Admiral was loyal to the core. He drew himself up to his full height. "Sir," he said, "I cannot fire on the Union Jack." For self-conscious drama this scene must have rivalled the famous meeting between Stanley and Livingstone. The steeplejacks were sent up from the roof, and the flags were brought down.