Dolosse – a South African invention used over the world

(thisbugslife.com)

26 points | by andsoitis 2 days ago

3 comments

  • duggan 58 minutes ago
    Interesting. Been to South Africa a bunch but never clocked that they were different from the more common antecedent, the tetrapod[1].

    1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapod_(structure)

  • walski 55 minutes ago
    In Germany (on the island Sylt) they recently removed all of these structures again after decades of them being a staple on Sylt's beaches. They were found to have no positive effect on protecting their shores.

    I'm having a hard time to find a good source to quote but look for: "sylt tetrapoden" if you want to dive deeper.

    • walski 54 minutes ago
      Ok I stand corrected these are NOT tetrapods. Sorry for the confusion
      • gilleain 24 minutes ago
        Well, confusingly, the last picture on the blogpost look (to my untrained eye) to be tetrapods. Those are 'tetrahedral' (ish) shapes.

        In contrast, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolos (plural 'Dolosse') are two tapering cylinders at right angles to each other. They have the same symmetry, but a different structure. Does that make any difference to how effective they are? No idea!

        edit: When I said the "same symmetry" of course I should have said the dolos has some of the symmetries of the tetrapod (subgroup?).