Libenský plynojem / Liben Gasometer (Prague - Liben) - Gasometers on Waymarking.com

Silver sphere of Liben Gasometer (Libenský plynojem), nowadays protected technical monument and aerodynamic tunnel, is one of the most popular landmarks of former industrial Prague's district Liben. Gasometer, standing on a hill above the Palmovka intersection, is housing the largest aerodynamic tunnel in the Czech Republic. Local people are calling it "Koule" (Sphere).

Liben Gasometer was built in 1932 by leading Czechoslovak industrial companies Vítkovice metallurgical works and Ceskomoravska-Kolben-Danek (CKD) for Prague municipal gasworks. The original design is work of civil engineer Tomáš Keclík. The reason for the construction of this facility was particularly fastly growing industry in Prague's districts Liben, Karlin and Holesovice. The gasometer was serving for original purpose only 10 years and after WWII was converted to vacuum aerodynamic tunnel of Aeronautical Research and Test Institute.

In the thirties of 20th century, the gasometer was the first facility of its kind in the Czech lands and technical innovation in a European and global scale. Spherical pressurized gasometer with a diameter of 20 m has the total weight 270 t. The structure stands on eight double-walled steel legs anchored in a massive concrete basement. Gasometer's body, made from rivetted 14 mm thick steel sheets, was sprayed by aluminium to reflect sunlight. Its volume was 4188 m³ and useful content 12564 m³ of gas at pressure of 0.3 MPa.

Liben Gasometer, as a significant human intervention in the landscape, immediately attracted the interest of painters, photographers and other artists. The gasometer appears in the work of filmmakers of Group 42 (Miroslav Hak or Frank Gross) and was also photographed by leading Czech photographers: Josef Sudek, Josef Ehm, Tibor Honty, Eugene Wiškovský or Dagmar Hoch.