The uttermost far Frederick North ( or south ) is n’t the only seat on Earth that spends the winter put away in unending darkness . Beginning in September and terminate in March , the Norwegian town of Rjukan is honk into a everlasting tincture . But no longer : This month , engineers are completingThe Mirror Project , a arrangement that will shed winter light on Rjukan for the first clock time ever .
A few day ago , chopper go down on the 3,500 - person town to instal three vast rectangular mirrors on the facial expression of the mountains that immobilise Rjukan in on either side . Technically , these areheliostatic mirror , which are controlled by a central computer that tilts their positioning to ruminate the sunlight onto a specific , static location . ( It ’s more common to see them on solar farm , for good example . )
The “ blistering spot , ” in this instance , is a 2,000 - solid - human foot traffic circle on the Ithiel Town foursquare — shortly to be converted into an chicken feed rink ( apparently , the reflected lighter still wo n’t be abominably warm ) . When Rjukan begin to fall into tincture roughly a month from now , the mirrors will begin their first test . “ The project will lead in a permanent installation which , with the help of the 300 hearty foot mirrors , will redirect the Sunday down into the vale , ” explained town reps . “ The square will become a cheery meeting stead in a town otherwise in shadow . ” The entire operation , amazingly , is arrange to be less than a million dollar bill .
As lovely as it is , the Mirror Project forces us to wonder : Why was Rjukan built in the first place ? In fact , it was settle around the tour of the century , when a noted Norse industrialist named Sam Eyde built a hydroelectric factory in the vale . It turn out that Eyde had the mirror idea first — but had no fashion to implement it . agree toTIME , his choice was to work up a cable motorcar that workers could use to escape the valley story for a few hours on weekends .
It may be the most extreme model , but Rjukan ’s mirror wo n’t be the first hokey Dominicus in Europe . In 2006 , a small Italian town in the Alps call off Viganellainstalleda 26 - foot - all-embracing mirror atop a neighboring mountaintop . Viganella , like Rjukan , sits at the bottom of a valley , and for 82 days of the class it receives no direct sunlight . Their mirror — which is still in use today — even became the subject of a documentary film calledLo Specchio(“The Mirror ” ) . Meanwhile , the Austrian town of Rattenberg also installed its own heliostatic systemaround the same time .
Builders and engineer have been using mirrors in similar ways for decades , of row . Shipbuilders would use wood - embedded prisms to reflect light belowdecks on early trading ships , for example . And even today , architects use mirrors to light heavy - to - hit interior courtyards . It ’s the scale that ’s really remarkable here — along with the fact that for the first time since the tidy sum around Rjukan took form , this small patch of vale will experience an entirely unknown type of luminosity . [ Popular Mechanics ]
Images good manners of Karl Martin Jakobsen viaVisit Rjukan .
3D printingpatents
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
