The Unispere

 


The symbol of the New York World's Fair 1964/1965 is this 12-story-high stainless steel model of the earth designed, built and presented to the Fair by United States Steel. Dedicated to "Peace through Understanding," the Unisphere will remain on its site when the Fair is over, as a permanent gift to the City of New York for the improved Flushing Meadow Park that will be created on the fairgrounds. It is located at the Fountain of the Continents, near the center of the Fair. Seen from the edge of the pool, it shows the world as it appears from 6,000 miles in space.

THE STATISTICS

The Unisphere is the largest representation of the earth man has ever made. It is 140 feet high and 120 feet in diameter, and—with its tri-pod-like base—weighs 900,000 pounds. The sphere is formed of an open grid of meridians and parallels. Laid on them are curved sheets of stainless steel representing the land masses; the capital of every nation is marked by a light.

THE DESIGN. Unprecedented problems had to be solved in constructing the huge model. Because the continents are not evenly distributed on earth, the Unisphere, which stands on three slender prongs, is an unbalanced ball. Furthermore, the metal landmass areas act as sails in the wind, building up enormous and unequal pressures against the curved surfaces. The structure required the solution of mathematical problems so complex that without high-speed computers planning, engineers estimate the Unisphere would have taken 10 years to build.

FURTHER INFO FROM THE SOUVENIR BOOK:

THE 12-story-high stainless steel Unisphere, built and presented to the Fair by U. S. Steel, is one of the world's most complex structures. Nothing like it had ever been built before, so every construction problem was new, and every one demanded a new solution. Consider the stainless steel land masses attached to the globe frame. They act like giant sails that catch the wind and exert enormous forces on the structure. But, because exterior bracing would detract from Unisphere's appearance, the framework was designed to be self-bracing. 

To determine all the stresses in the structure, high-speed computers solved thousands of problems. One problem required the solution of 670 simultaneous equations. A mile and a half of meridians, parallels, and orbit rings frame his stainless steel planet. All told, more than 500 major structural elements were assembled to mount 120-foot diameter sphere on a 20-foot base, at a total weight of nearly 900,000 pounds. The pedestal is made from USS CORTEN Steel. A product of U. S. Steel research, COR-TEN Steel is bout 50% stronger than structural carbon steel. The structure is anchored to its foundation with special bolts made from another U.S. Steel development, USS T-1 Steel, which is about three times stronger than regular carbon steel. The land masses, parallels, and meridians are stainless steel; and the 3-ton stainless steel orbital rings are held in place with an almost invisible spider web of super-strong stainless steel wires, much as a bicycle wheel is anchored to the hub. From beginning to end, Unisphere demanded entirely new techniques to solve entirely new problems. At no point could U. S. Steel engineers go to the book for their answers. There wasn't any book. But when the time came to put the pieces together, they fit. They fit each other, they fit the theme of the New York World's Fair, and they fit the modern notion that no structural design problem is too tough to solve, given the right technical know-how, and the right facilities, and the right steels. U. S. Steel, 525 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230. 

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The Unisphere still stands today and can be seen in several movies, including "Men in Black."

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