Loretto Chapel Staircase Wood Used

A brochure by a forestry service wood technologist describing an analysis of the of the wood used in miraculous starcase in the loretto chapel.

Loretto chapel staircase wood used. Loretto chapel staircase author and historian mary j. Three mysteries surround the spiral staircase in the loretto chapel. Easley a degreed forester and wood technologist in december 28 1996. The staircase is built mostly out of wood and is held together by wooden pegs and glue rather than nails or other hardware.

It was written by forest n. It comes to us from richard lindsley who managed the loretto chapel which is now in private hands from 1991 to 2006 and says at one point he took a sample of wood from the staircase and gave it to a scientist named forrest n. And the result was exquisite. Loretto chapel is best known for its miraculous spiral staircase which rises 20 feet 6 1 m to the choir loft while making two full turns all without the support of a newel or central pole.

Carpenters were called in to address the problem but they all concluded access to the loft would have to be via ladder as a staircase would interfere with the interior space of the small chapel. You can take a piece of flat wood get it wet and then twist it. The winding stairway that the old man left for the sisters is a masterpiece of beauty and wonder noted st. When the loretto chapel was completed in 1878 there was no way to access the choir loft twenty two feet above.

Think how a piece of licorice candy is a twisted stick. You can do the same thing with a piece of wet wood. The microscopic technical characteristics of the speciman wood smple from the staircase in the loretto chapel in santa fe new mexico were examined under a variable power hand lens for general characteristics and under a compound microscope at the magnifications varying between 50x to 450x both macroscopic and microscopic views of the cross sections and longitudinal samples were observed and the intracellular characteristics were ccompared to other similar genera and species in an effort to. Only wood pegs no nails were used.

This is because there has not been a large enough sample taken to determine the exact species. Wood the wood used in the construction of the loretto staircase has been a subject of contention for years now. Easley who worked at the naval air weapons station at china lake california. However the wood has now been identified as spruce but which of the ten spruce species in north america remains a mystery.

This two page brochure is a technical analysis of the wood used to make the miraculous staircase. The only difference with the staircase at the loretto chapel is these beams or stringers have been twisted into a helix. As for the wood used in the stairway s construction it has been identified as spruce but not a large enough sample has been made available for wood analysts to determine which of the ten. It makes two complete 360 degree turns.