A tornado that saves lives

On Monday, October 15, 2007, the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart purposely created an indoor tornado measuring 34.43 meters (113 feet) — large enough for the museum to claim the tallest artificially produced tornado in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.

The record was certified by representatives from Guinness World Records, who were present in the museum to witness the test. Michael Bock, director of the year-old museum, said “This award is related to safety; that’s why it’s so important to us.”

The tornado was the result of the building’s unique fire prevention system. When a fire breaks out in the museum, the 144 air nozzles of the smoke extraction ventilator at the top of the 42-meter-high atrium are automatically turned on and designed to quickly suck smoke out of area.

“The air is blown in from the sides and sucked out in the middle from the ventilator,” the ventilator’s designer Rüdiger Detzer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “That’s how you get the vortex.”

It’s probably one of the coolest fire prevention systems I’ve ever seen or heard of. One more photo inside.