Reuse, Recycle
The original polar shaft of the 140-foot (43-meter) telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia was a welded steel unit delivered in 1959. A 22-foot wide welded steel bearing was meant to attach to the end to form the spin axis of the telescope; however, small cracks were discovered throughout the sphere. By 1962, and after many heated debates and re-evaluations, these welded steel designs were abandoned. The steel from the sphere was taken to Long Island to shield the particle accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and this shaft was installed as a culvert under one of the roads at our observatory.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
