[NT73]

I was watching a TV programme two nights ago about a steeplejack/steamengine buff called Fred Dibnah.
He was saying that some steeples are made with a bulge in the middle somewhere, to counter parallax in our vision. It will then make the steeple look to have straight sides, and not bow in a bit.
Anybody else hear anything about this. It is new to me.
Fred passed away a couple of years back but he was a very infectious character.

[shuttertalk]

Link to wikipedia entry on Fred Dibnah...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Dibnah

Interesting about the bulge - I did a google search but didn't find anything on steeples, but I did find this about how the greeks built their columns:

Ionic shafts were taller than Doric ones. This makes the columns look slender. They also had flutes, which are lines carved into them from top to bottom. The shafts also had a special characteristic: entasis, which is a little bulge in the columns make the columns look straight, even at a distance [because since you would see the building from eye level, the shafts would appear to get narrower as they rise, so this bulge makes up for that - so it looks straight to your eye but it really isn't !]

http://www.cmhpf.org/kids/dictionary/Cla...rders.html

Interesting, eh?

[NT73]

Clever those greeks. The TV crew were showing pics from inside a steeple, and looking straight up you can see it bow out and in again.