PE - Structure tents

[Corun MacAnndra]

Master Terafan wrote:
> 
> 1) About safety:  I have personally *seen* FAR MORE people hurt by ropes and
> stakes, than I have ever even *heard* about being hurt by pavilinos falling
> over.   I am not sure the comparison is consistent.  Safety is a very
> important aspect and ought to be considered in all the things we do.

Stakes and ropes are a big danger. A proper tent stake (i.e. one that has
a ring or hook on the end onto which the guy rope catches) should be
pounded down nearly level withthe ground. Your are then more likely to
trip over the rope rather than a sharp stake. This will also put mor of
the stake into the ground and help keep you tent up. For those who use
rebar, please form a ring or hook on the end and pound it in properly. Too
often I have seen people get hurt by rebar stakes because there were
several inches (sometimes a foot) sticking above the ground. This is
DANGEROUS.

> 2) About wet ground/stakes pulling out:  Tents with ropes have the same wet,
> soggy ground as tents without ropes.  The issue here is the intelligence of
> the person putting up the tent and their CHOICE OF STAKES.  The only thing
> the tent really has to do with it is how much wind it catches, and therefore
> how much force it puts on the stakes.  

At Pennsic this year it rained a lot during the first week and just prior.
This made the ground muddy and loose. Even eighteen inch stakes pounded
down to the ground were easily pulled out by hand, much less by the wind
that took out several tents, including my household's 18x25 rectangle.
(Yes Terafan, the 4Ps is no more. The roof was cut to ribbons).

I must say, however, that the yurts onsite all fared pretty well. But then
I have a bias to living in an open room that has no center support poles
and is as stable as a house. ;-)

As for research, all too often we only have paintings to look at. We must
be careful that when we extrapolate how a thing is constructed (whether
it's a tent or a piece of clothing) that we consider the physics of the
thing. Terafan makes a good point about how the ropes in a painting of a
tent are set, or about how a tent wall looks. And though he admits that
the Basel tent is "slightly" out of period (By what Terafan, 20 years?
30?) it is highly likely that people were building tents just like the
Basel tent 100 years before. Or more. For proof I point you again to the
yurt, which is still used in Mongolia, Tuva, Kazakhstan and various other
Turkic nations where nomads live to this day. And this tent has been used
for at least a thousand years. Probably longer. I think the same can be
said of the type of tents used by the Bedouins and other desert dwellers,
but that's not my field of expertise. Cariadoc is better suited to answer
that one. Or Mira, who is a font of all knowledge pertaining to tents.

So in the end, be circumspect, be cautious, but don't be closed minded.
You're not going to get hard evidence because it doesn't exist. But you
can make a logical, scientific extrapolation by applying knowledge of
construction techniques, materials to be had at the time and simple
physics.

In service,
Corun



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