This
summer, Londoners have been shielding their eyes from the intense
blinding glare, whenever they have to pass through a patch on the
street known as Fenchurch Street in London's financial sector. This
glare is coming from a 37 storey glass facade building under
construction, which has been nicknamed as “Walki-Talki” because
of its peculiar concave flared shape.
Last
week, when a local businessman, Martin Lindsey parked his “Jaguar”
luxury sedan, alongside a pavement on this street, he had no idea
that within a short interval of time his gleaming beauty of the car
is going to face the so called death rays coming from this building.
When he returned, he could not believe that the the door handles,
Jaguar emblem and wing mirror on one side of the car had melted and
interior panels along one side of the car had buckled. The situation
looked as if someone had sent a burst of death rays to the car.
There
have been more complaints too. Angry local shopkeepers from the area
also say that these so-called "death rays" have blistered
their paintwork, singed holes in doormats and caused their tiles to
smash. When news of the car damage broke, sweating reporters gathered
near the skyscraper. City AM journalist Jim Waterson managed to fry
an egg in the glare of the skyscraper by placing a frying pan in
direct sunlight. When the temperature was measured at that spot, it
turned out to be 92.6F (33.7C).
The
origin of this patch of intense heat has been traced to the newly
constructed building by Land Securities and Canary Wharf. Physicists
say that the concave shape of the "Walkie Talkie" is
focusing sunlight into a concentrated beam on the pavement and is
responsible for the problem. The builders however blame the Sun and
say: "The phenomenon is caused by the current elevation of the
sun in the sky. It currently lasts for approximately two hours per
day, with initial modelling suggesting that it will be present for
approximately 2-3 weeks.” This means that every August-September
this problem would crop up. The builders have put up cladding and
scaffolding to cover the area of pavement on Eastcheap where the
Jaguar had melted. They have also liaised with the City of London to
suspend three parking bays in the area which are affected.
The
builders have paid $1700 to Martin Lindsey as compensation for
damages to his Jaguar and claim that they would be consulting with
local businesses and the City to address the issue in the short-term,
while also evaluating longer-term solutions to ensure the issue
cannot recur in future. It is however any body's guess, what would
happen in future. Most likely, this mega solar cooker, which can be
considered as London's newest attraction, would start cooking the
city every year in August-September. The tower has now been
unofficially renamed, as "Walkie Scorchie" , or as
"fryscraper" (HaHa)
5
September 2013
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