When pistols were fired in St Paul's

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On a winter's night in December 1951, the halls of St Paul's Cathedral echoed with gunfire. But this wasn't a gun fight. Rather, a team of architects and scientists had fired the Colt revolver beneath the dome in a dramatic demonstration. The purpose? To quantify the cathedral’s acoustic fingerprint. In fact, the pistol-fired test was the culmination of half-a-century of acoustic experiments across Britain. (Image credit: Getty Images)