Robert's urban climbing career has been characterized by an ever-expanding list of famous landmarks which includes the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House and the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, as well as the world's tallest skyscrapers. In the 1990s, as his exploits brought him worldwide media exposure, speculation began as to whether or not he would attempt the tallest building in the world at the time: the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Although Malaysian authorities were expecting his attempt, they were still astonished when one day in 1997 he suddenly appeared several floors up on the side of the tower. He was eventually arrested at the 60th floor, 28 floors below the top. While scaling the Sears Tower, now called Willis Tower, in Chicago in 1999, he encountered the most challenging climbing conditions in his career. Near the top of the 108-story building, a thick fog set in that covered the glass and metal wall of the last 20 floors with moisture, making it dangerously slippery. He overcame the difficulties and reached the top. Alain Robert was the second man to scale the Sears Tower. In 1981, Dan Goodwin, using suction cups, battled building security guards and the Chicago Fire Department for seven hours before successfully completing the climb.
In June 1999 Robert also climbed the 170-metre (558 ft) Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Poland.
In 2000, Robert climbed the 23-metre (75 ft) high Luxor Obelisk in Place de la Concorde, France.
In February 2003, he legally climbed the 200-metre (656 ft) National Bank of Abu Dhabi, UAE, watched by about 100,000 spectators. It became more frequent for Robert to be paid to scale buildings as part of publicity efforts. In May 2003, he was paid approximately $18,000 to climb the 95-metre (312 ft) Lloyd's of London to promote the premiere of the movie Spider-Man on the British television channel Sky Movies. On 19 October 2004, he scaled the 187-metre (614 ft) headquarters of the French oil company Total while wearing a Spider-Man costume.
Robert scaled Taipei 101 on 25 December 2004, a few days before its grand opening as the tallest building in the world. The 508-metre (1,667 ft) climb was legal, part of the week's festivities. The skyscraper's outwardly slanting sides posed no apparent difficulty for him, but heavy rain resulted in a climb lasting four hours—double his estimate.
On 11 June 2005 he climbed the Cheung Kong Centre in Hong Kong, scaling 283 metres (928 ft) to reach the top of the 62-story tower.
On 1 September 2006, he climbed the tallest building in Lithuania and the Baltic States – Europa Tower, 148 metres (486 ft), in Vilnius. Wearing a black suit and using a safety rope, which he detached several times, he reached the observation deck of the building, 114 metres (374 ft), in 40 minutes. In 2006 he also climbed Torre Vasco da Gama in Portugal as part of an advertisement for Optimus, a national mobile operator. He finished the year climbing the Santa Fe World Plaza in Mexico City on 7 December 2006. On 23 February 2007, he legally climbed the headquarters building of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) on the coast of Abu Dhabi.
On 20 March 2007, he again climbed the Petronas Twin Towers, marking the tenth anniversary of his previous ascent of this building. Upon reaching the 60th floor, he allowed himself to be apprehended. He flew the Malaysian flag and drew applause from waiting police, fire crew, and media representatives before handing himself in. He was handcuffed and escorted off the premises before being driven to a police station.
On 31 May 2007, he scaled the 88-story Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, China's then tallest skyscraper, once again wearing a Spider-Man costume. He was later arrested and jailed for five days before being expelled from China. In November 2007, Robert was invited by the local government of Zhangjiajie, a scenic region in the southern province of Hunan, to climb the 1,518-metre (4,980 ft) Tianmen mountain to boost the profile of the region and bring in tourists.
On 4 September 2007, he climbed the 244-metre (801 ft) Federation Tower office building in Moscow, (Russia's tallest skyscraper). Detained by police, he could face a fine for violating safety norms at a construction site.
On 18 December 2007, he climbed the 29-story Portland House office building in London (Westminster's tallest building). It took him just over 40 minutes. Police taped off the area and later arrested him for criminal damage and wasting police time.
On 15 April 2008, he climbed the 60-story Four Seasons Place in Hong Kong. The police and four fire engines were standing by and it took him almost 1 hour to reach the top. Robert encountered difficulty at the top when he found that the last 5-metre (16 ft) were impossible to climb. He had to climb sideways until he reached a corner and managed with difficulty to reach the top. He almost fell when a woman on the other side of the glass screamed and almost fainted. Witnesses said that he was detained upon completing the climb. He stated that his climb was intended to increase awareness of global warming.
On 5 June 2008, he climbed the New York Times Building in New York. He unfurled a banner with a slogan about global warming and was then arrested by police on the roof. The banner read "Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week."
On 17 February 2009, he once again climbed the Cheung Kong Centre in Hong Kong, taking 40 minutes to reach the top of the 62-story tower. "He unfurled a banner reading "onehundredmonths.org" near the base of the tower before climbing."
On 2 April 2009, during the 2009 G-20 London summit he climbed to the 9th floor of the Lloyd's building and unfurled a 100-foot banner declaring that there were 100 months left to save the planet.
On 2 June 2009, he climbed to the 41st floor of the RBS Tower in Sydney Australia before returning to the ground; he was arrested as he finished his descent.
On 1 September 2009, one day after Malaysia celebrated its 52nd Independence Day and after two arrests in 1997 and 2007, Alain Robert finally made it successfully to the top of the Petronas Twin Towers. He started at 6:00 am local time and reached the top at 7:40 am local time without attracting the attention of the public. He celebrated his climb by standing with his arms outspread on the pinnacle of one of the Twin Towers.
On 8 October 2009, Robert climbed the 33-story building of the Ariane TV station in Paris. He was arrested at the top of the building but was soon released.
On 30 August 2010, he climbed the Lumiere Residential building in Sydney, Australia, which was a 57 story building. The climb took about 20 minutes as officials were waiting at the top for his arrest.
On 5 November 2010, starting at 6pm, he took 35 minutes to scale the Singapore Flyer. It was the first time he climbed a circular, moving structure and became the first person to climb around the world's tallest observatory wheel.
On January 26, 2011 he completed a morning climb of the Hang Seng Head Office building in Hong Kong finishing at midday.
On March 29, 2011 Robert climbed the tallest building in the world, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, taking just over six hours to complete the climb.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Robert
With Bare Hands: The True Story of Alain Robert, the Real-life Spiderman
he new laboratory building was also supplied with gas. The laboratory required heating from the gas as well as illumination. For heating, it was desirable to maximize the temperature and minimize the luminosity. Previous laboratory lamps left much to be desired regarding economy and simplicity, as well as the quality of the flame for a burner lamp.
While his building was still under construction late in 1854, Bunsen suggested certain design principles to the university’s mechanic, Peter Desaga, and asked him to construct a prototype. (Similar principles had been used in an earlier burner design by Michael Faraday as well as in a device patented in 1856 by the gas engineer R W Elsner.) The Bunsen/Desaga design succeeded in generating a hot, sootless, non-luminous flame by mixing the gas with air in a controlled fashion before combustion. Desaga created slits for air at the bottom of the first cylindrical burner, the flame igniting at the top. By the time the building opened early in 1855, Desaga had made fifty of the burners for Bunsen's students. Bunsen published a description two years later, and many of his colleagues soon adopted the design. Bunsen burners are now used in laboratories all around the world.
Now you know.
