A tower is a tall building that is significantly taller than it is broad. Towers can also be created for observation, recreation, or communication. A tower can be self-contained or supported by neighboring structures, or it can be a feature on top of a larger structure or building. The word "tower" comes from the Latin word torre, which means "small hill."
Towers have been built for many reasons over the years. Some towers are simply used as markers to indicate ownership of land or other properties. Others serve as watchtowers, hiding places, or shelters for people living in remote areas. Still others are used as prisons, temples, or churches. Even today some countries use towers for defense purposes.
There are many different types of towers used for various purposes. Some towers are much taller than others depending on their intended use. For example, a flagpole is usually not more than 50 feet high because if it were to be higher then it would be difficult to see it from far away. But a radio tower can be up to 365 feet high.
People have been building towers since ancient times. Some examples include the Pyramids of Egypt, the Tower of Babel, and the Tianmen Mountain.
Towers have also been used in wars since they were first invented.
A tower castle is a tiny castle composed mostly of a fortified tower or a tower-like structure erected on natural land. These castles were common in Europe during the 11th century, especially in France and England. They can be seen as an early version of the modern fortress.
Tower castles are usually small structures with only one floor below ground level. The walls often include several towers, some of which may be quite large. There might be just one such castle in a region, but there can also be many within easy driving distance of each other.
They generally stand alone, on a hill or promontory, with no other buildings around them. This means that they would not be able to escape attack if the kingdom or state that built it went to war.
In fact, war was something people lived with at this time, so attacking another kingdom would be foolish unless you knew what you were doing. A tower castle would not offer much protection against weapons of the day, so these castles were used primarily as symbols of power - to intimidate enemies and keep them away from your territory.
The people who built them did not have armies; instead, they hired warriors to protect their interests while they stayed inside the castle.
There is no universally accepted definition of what makes a "tall structure." Instead, multiple distinct criteria are often used to decide whether a structure may be called tall. The word "skyscraper" refers to tall, continuously inhabited skyscrapers with 40 or more stories...
The first skyscrapers were built in the late 19th century in New York City. They were mainly used for housing and included such buildings as the Singer Tower (1899-1908) by William Waldorf Astor, who owned the luxury clothing company that became known as Balenciaga; the Tribune Building (1901-6) by Richard Morris Hunt with Henry Hobson Richardson; and the Times Square Building (1907-8) by William Van Alen with John McEwen. These early skyscrapers were all less than 100 meters (328 feet) high.
In Chicago, Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett were the architects who created the first true skyscraper when they designed the Home Insurance Company building at 150 South Wacker Drive. It was completed in 1909 and had 48 floors. This made it the tallest building in Illinois until the Chrysler Building was completed in 1930.
The next year, 1910, another major skyscraper was built in Chicago: the Marquette Building by Henry Ives Cobb with Alfred Waterhouse. It has 72 floors and is 656 feet high.
The tower stores all of the computer's physical components, such as the CPU, motherboard, RAM, hard drives, and so on. A tower is often constructed expressly for the type, or form factor, of motherboard that it holds. For example, a PC built around an ATX motherboard will need a tower that fits in an ATX chassis.
Towers are also used to provide mechanical support for the computer. For example, many towers include space for installing multiple fans to increase the air flow through the system to remove excess heat. Some computers use hot air to keep their components cool; others may use liquid cooling.
Towers are usually designed to be mounted to the wall using screws that penetrate the base board of the computer. The weight of the computer pulls the mounting holes in the baseboard housing into tight contact with the screw heads, securely fastening it to the wall.
The top of the tower should have openings or "slots" for the optical disk drives, power supply, audio jacks, and network connectors. Many towers have provisions for additional internal storage devices, such as drive bays for adding more RAM or secondary hard drives. Other types of expansion cards may be inserted into special slots on the side or back of the case.
Towers are most commonly made from steel, aluminum, or plastic.
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