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Show THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA. Recent examinations of the leaning tower of Pisa show that it was the intention of the builders of that massive pile to have it straight, and that its leaning is an accident. It has been the belief of architects for a long time that it was the intention inten-tion of the builders of that campanile to have it straight, chiefly because no rational reason could be put forward for building it out of plumb. The fact that it leans, however, has given it a place among the "Seven Wonders of the World," and the respect held for the ancient builders for many years seemed to forbid the belief that its leaning was anything but intentional. The wonder of the tower is not so much in the fact that it leans as in the fact that it has not fallen down. When the campanile of St. Mark's at Venice collapsed, col-lapsed, attention was again directed to the tower of Pisa, and is was discovered that the tower had departed considerably more from the perpendicular perpendic-ular than when the last scientific measurements were made. It is the theory that water below the foundation had destroyed its stability and that the tower has for years gradually settled in the direction direc-tion of the greatest weakness. It is also pretty well established that the foundations were inadequate inade-quate to hold the weight of the superstructure, or at least that no building of comparable size today would be built on foundations of the same size and depth. The suggestion has been made that the tower be taken down and rebuilt as it was evidently the intention of the builders to have it. If this is done, the "leaning" of the tower would be eliminated, but the value of the great pile as showing the artistic concepts of the medieval builders would be unimpaired. |