Hoover Institution Tower Observation Deck Closed Until Mid-April 2002.News Editors STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2001 The Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded by Herbert Hoover at Stanford University, his alma mater. The Institution was founded in 1919 and over time has amassed a huge archive of documentation related to President Tower observation deck is closed until April 15, 2002, as construction is under way to build the support structure for the Institution's carillon carillon, in music: see bell. carillon Musical instrument consisting of at least 23 cast bronze bells tuned in chromatic order. Usually located in a tower, it is played from a keyboard. Most carillons encompass three to four octaves. bells. Visitors to the Stanford campus and the Hoover Institution will not be able to go to the 14th-floor deck until all work is completed. During that time, however, the public may continue to visit the two exhibit rooms in the Tower rotunda rotunda In Classical and Neoclassical architecture, a building or room that is circular in plan and covered with a dome. The Pantheon is a Classical Roman rotunda. The Villa Rotonda at Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio, is an Italian Renaissance example. , one of which is dedicated to Herbert Hoover and the other to his wife, Lou Henry Hoover. The 35 carillon bells were removed in late 2000 and sent to the Royal Eijsbouts Bellfoundry in Ostend, Belgium, for recasting and retuning. The restoration project includes adding nine large and four small bells to the musical instrument, bringing the total number of bells to 48. This will increase the carillon's range to four octaves; the largest new bell weighs about 2.5 tons. In addition, the carillon's mechanism, frame, keyboard, and bell clappers clap·per n. 1. One who applauds. 2. The tongue of a bell. 3. Slang The tongue of a garrulous person. 4. are being replaced. The carillon's automatic-play drum, the only one of its kind in the United States, is also being restored. (The drum was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake The Loma Prieta earthquake was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989 at 5:04 p.m. The earthquake lasted approximately 15 seconds and measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale (surface-wave magnitude 7.1). and hasn't played since.) The drum rotates in a manner similar to that of a music box, activating hammers located on the outside of about half of the carillon's bells. Part of the project includes constructing a cabin on the Tower observation deck to house the carilloner. Previously, the keyboard and the automatic-play drum were located one floor below the observation deck. The carillon -- built in 1938 by the Michiels Bellfoundry of Belgium -- was part of the New York World's Fair There have been two World's Fairs in New York City:
At the end of the fair, the Belgian American Educational Foundation purchased the carillon and presented it to the Hoover Institution in appreciation of Herbert Hoover's famine relief efforts during and following World War I. Had the bells been returned to Belgium, which had by then (1940) been taken over by Germany, they may have been melted down and made into weapons. The Hoover Institution, founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the 31st president of the United States The head of the Executive Branch, one of the three branches of the federal government. The U.S. Constitution sets relatively strict requirements about who may serve as president and for how long. , is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic public policy and international affairs. |
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