Popular Mechanics magazine offers scientific how-to guide to safely tearing down statues as anti-racism protesters continue to topple figures across the world
- The Popular Mechanics article, which was published on Monday, gives a guide to taking down statutes ‘using science’ and ‘without anyone getting hurt’
- Protesters have been tearing down statues across the country as part of anti-racism demonstrations fueled by George Floyd’s death
- The article breaks it down into two processes – a physical and chemical approach – and provides advice from a mechanical engineer and chemistry professor
- The article immediately drew criticism on Twitter with some slamming the outlet for informing people how to vandalize or go ‘full Taliban’
Popular Mechanics magazine has offered a how-to guide to toppling statues as anti-racism protesters continue to tear down figures across the United States.
The article, which was published on Monday, gives a guide to taking down statutes ‘using science’ and bringing that ‘sucker down without anyone getting hurt’.
‘Should you happen to find yourself near a statue that you decide you no longer like, we asked scientists for the best, safest ways to bring it to the ground without anyone getting hurt—except, of course, for the inanimate racist who’s been dead for a century anyway,’ the article says.
Protesters have been tearing down statues across the country as part of anti-racism demonstrations fueled by George Floyd’s death.
Lawmakers in some cities have moved to take down the statues, while others have erected concrete barriers to protect them.
The Popular Mechanics article, which was published on Monday, gives a guide to taking down statutes ‘using science’ and bringing that ‘sucker down without anyone getting hurt’
Popular Mechanics is a science and technology magazine that has been in circulation since 1902.
The article breaks it down into two processes – a physical and chemical approach – and provides advice from a mechanical engineer and chemistry professor on both scenarios.
For the physical approach, mechanical engineer Scott Holland is quoted in the article giving specific instructions on how to bring a statue down.
The engineer says it would likely take about 70 people to pull down an average-sized 3,500 pound statue of a person.
Holland suggests using a 4×4 recovery strap and putting it around the head and neck of the statue for leverage.
He also goes into detail about breaking the statue from its base and how to heat it up so it’s not hard to topple.
Protesters have been tearing down statues across the country as part of anti-racism demonstrations fueled by George Floyd’s death
The article breaks it down into two processes – a physical and chemical approach – and provides advice from a mechanical engineer and chemistry professor on both scenarios
San Diego State University chemical professor Chris Harrison weighed in on how to tear down statues using a chemical approach.
Harrison said the melting the statue’s ankles should result in it falling over.
He said the melting point of a bronze statue would be 1,742 degrees Fahrenheit and can be done using thermite.
The article immediately drew criticism on Twitter with some slamming the outlet for informing people how to vandalize or go ‘full Taliban’.
It comes as the the anger over racial injustice broadened to target colonialists, monarchs and explorers, who in some cases destroyed or enslaved local populations across the world in the European scramble for empire and treasure.
It has also reignited debate in the United States over symbols associated with the South’s pro-slavery Confederacy.
As recently as this week, California lawmakers decided to remove a Christopher Columbus statue from the state Capitol and concrete barriers were installed around a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue in Virginia.
