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This site hosts articles, studies and other informative works by Domenico Lanera.
Following are short descriptions.
An extensive collection of studies and material on Castel del Monte.
A key study is the geometric design of the castle plant. The study defines a new model for this geometric design process, a subject that many scholars have grappled with.
The study identifies the design rationale by medieval architects, one that reproduces the design forms in all minute details. Much like an algorithm, this design process is used to predicate the actual measurements with uncanny accuracy, evidence that this must be the process followed by the medieval architects.
The study starts from the religious precepts that guided the designers in the Middle Ages, and retraces the thinking process by the architects of Castel del Monte as they proceeded step-by-step with the geometric design, defining along the way the forms and calculating their dimensions.
Many scholars have tackled this difficult quest, to decipher the geometric design of Castel del Monte. It is a natural response as the visitor to Castel del Monte is struck by the recurring geometric forms and the perfection of the edifice. Heinz Götze called Castel del Monte the geometric marvel of the Middle Ages.
This new study provides the answers. It shows that the plant design was more than an origami-like procedure; it was a rational engineering endeavor within the context of the culture and scientific knowledge of the Middle Ages.
The proof is in the results: the geometric forms of the plant design are replicated in all details; the form dimensions are predicated to a precision of less than 0.5%.
Castel del Monte is a window in the science at the height of the Middle Ages, the period of Gothic architecture.
A web-based archive of works, pictures, data and other facts from Domenico’s (aka “mimi”) lifelong profession as an engineer, as well as his other interests, and family. The archive is naturally focused on recent decades, when digital technology has enabled and produced permanent detailed records.
The archive includes engineering works, most significantly from Domenico’s 33-year career at IIT Research Institute (“IITRI”) [1], a multidisciplinary research facility on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology (“IIT”) in Chicago. The core of the engineering work is from the U.S.Navy ELF project [2] to which Domenico contributed for about 25 years.
The archive includes other works, such as web projects, family memorabilia such as a virtual family cemetery, family genealogy, who-is recollections, photos, and much more.
The archive is an important resource to prserve recollections fading with time and rekindle and share memories as life advances toward uncertain times.
[1] IIT, the school, established a research facility called Armor Research Foundation (“ARF”) in 1936. The company’s name was changed from ARF to IITRI in 1963. IITRI’s engineering core, which formed the majority of the assets, was spun off in 2002 to form Alion Science, a new company that moved to McLean, VA. It was an employee buyout orchestrated by the school (IIT) that received about 30 million dollars. The transaction excluded the Life Science section that retained the name IITRI and continues to operate in Chicago as an independent, contract facility for preclinical research. [Back]
[2] ELF is the extremely low frequency communication system that the U.S. Navy developed and operated for a while in the 1990s to communicate with deeply submerged submarines. The Navy decommissioned the system in 2004. [Back]
Stray voltage deals with small voltages found on the grounding wires of electric power systems and all interconnected appurtenances, such as metallic water pipes. They are very low and innocuous to humans, except in rare circumstances.
The study of stray voltages was directed at dairy cows, which are more sensitive than humans because of their living environment on the farm. The research reached its highest interest in the 1990s, at the same time that the related concern for potential health problems from ground currents on power line grounded conducors became a subject of intense studies, an issue more broadly known as EMF (Electro-Magnetic Fields).
Much of the EMF health research has abated since; some research has continued, such as cell phone EMF.
The stray voltage presentation was prepared around 2001 to unravel the misconception about dairy cow stray voltages, providing a layman explanation.
The stray voltage presentation uses gif-animated figures. It also makes use of pop-up windows, which requires that the browser pop-up blocker be turned off.
