How big to you think the poles are in this photo? 20 inches? 24 inches?



This is the magnetic silencing facility at Kitsap Naval Base in Bangor, Washington. I want to build it in 1/700.

Well, Kenny, bear in mind that the poles appear to taper, and since the side-to-side frontage on an average man is about 24 inches, I'd say the poles are more like 18-20 inches...

--Karl

Hello mate, by my dodgy carpenters eye (a skill for spotting small detail) the poles on the left, although they could be American (sorry I'll get to question in a moment) I'd say 36 inches apart, the people on the right are a lot further up and therefore appear closer together, a standard door here in the U.K is 2.5 foot across, and no pun about it, the people in the left hand side are not skinny looking people, I'd say a lot more then 24 inches.

Thanks guys. Alec, this photo will help me get the spacing for the post.



Of course, the magnetic silencing facility at Kitsap is ancient compared to the one at Kings Bay:

Kenny, to my untrained, and totally ignorant eye they look like standard telephone pole size. I'd bet you could measure a telephone pole and be pretty close.
(I was trying to come up with some kind of joke about size not mattering but it's too early and I've had too little sleep.)

They look about 20 inches to me. They do look like they have a slight taper at the top as well. For some reason sanded bamboo skewers come to mind if I were making them. I suppose that or sanded dowels would work just as well.

at the bottom those poles look as big around as th people standing near them. I would go for 24 or greater. But in 700 probably a toothpick or one of those wooden skewers should do the trick.

Here's a close-up with the workers:



I'm leaning towards 24 inches. The standard telephone pole is 8 to 10 inches (already measured one). 24 inches in 1/700 is 0.034 inches, a bit small for a tooth pick. I'll probably have to go with styrene or brass.

I think your right 24 inches looks about right in the closeup. I'd still experiment with the toothpicks or some other wood product a bit even if you had to sand them to scale. A taper would be easier to acheive if there is indeed one and the texture of the wood would be worth it IMO. The wood is cheap and you could always go back to the styrene and brass if it isn't working out.

So what does a magnetic silencing dock do? The same thing degaussing cable did on the old IJN?

From the US Navy's website:

Due to magnetic fields that are constantly being encountered during normal ship operations, ships and submarines build up a magnetic signature. The earth's natural magnetic fields between the North and South poles are being crossed routinely while the vessels are underway. The traversing of these natural fields, and vessels lying dormant for extended periods of time during scheduled maintenance, result in changes to a vessel's magnetic signature. Correcting those changes requires a thorough treatment process to minimize the level of permanent magnetism.

I think it's still called Degaussing in the UK?