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Show Vatican Engineers Making St. Peter's Basilica Safe ROME.-Vatican engineers are working to make St. Peter's Basilica, Basil-ica, Christendom's largest church, completely safe for the thousands of visitors expected during the 1950 holy year. The task is complicated by two factors peculiar to the great basilica, basil-ica, he 'said: Part of St. Peter's is built on a shaky foundation and the structure, struc-ture, made mostly of porous limestone, lime-stone, sops up underground moisture. mois-ture. This moisture rufts the iron clamps which, along with mortar, bind together the Umestone, marble and clay blocks. The structure holds an enormous throng. When 50,009 persons are in it. they may raise the temperature tempera-ture as much as 10 degrees. This causes a peculiar reaction on the mortar. Two huge chunks one weighing nearly 200 pounds and another 600 pounds, crashed into chapels in 1947. Engineers were replacing the iron clamps with bronze and "forcing the mortar as well as the basilica's basil-ica's foundation. The first basilica on the site was built by Constantine in 32b. it was torn down in the 16th century. |