Amazing Boston Landmark: Mapparium
At the mention of the United States, images of the conservative White House, fabulous Las Vegas, the amazing Statue of Liberty, vibrant Hollywood and the stock exchanges involuntarily flash through my head. Together with us you can take a virtual tour of Boston.
Many tourists prefer to use car rental services in the United States. The average cost of renting a car in New York is 20 euros per day, in Los Angeles - 18 euros per day.
This city can hardly be called popular among tourists. But it is definitely worth a visit to see an unusual little-known monument called Mapparium. Thanks to it, you can go on a journey to the "center" of the Earth.
The appearance of the Mapparium monument
Mapparium was created by the architect Chester Lindsay Churchill. He was a staff member of the Christian Science Publishing House. At first, the building was called the “Glass Room” or “Globe Room”. Then it was renamed to Mapparium or "place for maps", translated from Latin.
The idea of creating the largest copy of the globe came to Churchill's mind after he visited the offices of the New York Daily News. At the entrance to the building was a huge ball. Its diameter was approximately more than 3 meters. The layout impressed the architect, so he wanted to place a huge globe in the building of the Science Publishing Society. According to his plan, the exposition was to embody the world consciousness.
The committee members liked the extraordinary idea of the architect. Work on the construction of the glass sphere lasted for 3 years from 1932 to 1935. It was in May 1935 that tourists and citizens had the opportunity to visit the Mapparium. In order to be in the very "center" of the globe, it was necessary to go over the bridge.
Churchill planned to design the ball in such a way that the panel walls on the glass ball could be changed. But in the 1960s, it was decided to recognize the Mapparium monument as a historical value and not change its appearance.
Unusual Characteristics of Mapparium
The monument has strange acoustic effects. This is due to the special structure of Mapparium. If you talk near the center of the glass ball, then the voice will be louder than usual. This feature is due to the fact that the curved glass walls do not absorb the sound wave, but reflect it back to the sound source.Globe rooms were nicknamed "whispering galleries" because of the sphericity of the room. Mapparium has a very complex acoustics and a peculiar sound transfer. The sound starts from the center of the ball and returns back to its source.
Sound waves "revolve" around the ball and are simultaneously on the opposite side.The unusual structure of Mapparium allows a person who is at one end of the bridge to clearly hear the whispers of other people who are located at the other end of the bridge. At this time, visitors standing near the center of the ball may hear an unintelligible sound.First of all, Mapparium must be visited by those who wish to get acquainted with the natural effects created by human hands. The monument arouses curiosity with its uniqueness and originality among many other attractions.