A pinnacle (from Latin pinnaculum, a little feather, pinna, compare panache) is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly used in Gothic architecture.

The pinnacle had two purposes:

1. Ornamental - adding to the loftiness and verticity of the structure. They sometimes ended with statues, such as in Milan Cathedral.
2. Structural - the pinnacles were very heavy and often rectified with lead, in order to enable the flying buttresses to contain the stress of the structure vaults and roof. This was done by adding compressive stress (a result of the pinnacle weight) to the thrust vector and thus shifting it downwards rather than sideway.

History

Some have stated that there were no pinnacles in the Romanesque style, but conical caps to circular buttresses, with finial terminations, are not uncommon in France at very early periods. Viollet-le-Duc gives examples from St Germer and St Remi, and there is one of similar form at the west front of Rochester Cathedral.

In the 12th-century Romanesque two examples have been cited, one from Bredon in Worcestershire, and the other from Cleeve in Gloucestershire. In these the buttresses run up, forming a sort of square turret, and crowned with a pyramidal cap, very much like those of the next period, the Early English.

In this and the following styles, and mainly in Gothic architecture, the pinnacle seems generally to have had its appropriate uses. It was a weight to counteract the thrust of the vaults, particularly where there were flying buttresses; it stopped the tendency to slip of the stone copings of the gables, and counterpoised the thrust of spires; it formed a pier to steady the elegant perforated parapets of later periods; and in France especially served to counterbalance the weight of overhanging corbel tables, huge gargoyles, etc.

In the Early English period the small buttresses frequently finished with gablets, and the more important with pinnacles supported with clustered shafts. At this period the pinnacles were often supported on these shafts alone, and were open below; and in larger work in this and the subsequent periods they frequently form niches and contain statues. About the Transition and during the Decorated Gothic period, the different faces above the angle shafts often finish with gablets. Those of the last-named period are much richer, and are generally decorated with crockets and finials, and sometimes with ballflowers. Very fine groups are found at Beverley Minster and at the rise of the spire of St Marys, Oxford. Perpendicular pinnacles differ but little from Decorated, except that the crockets and finials are of later character. They are also often set angle-ways, particularly on parapets, and the shafts are panelled.

In France pinnacles, like spires, seem to have been in use earlier than in England. There are small pinnacles at the angles of the tower in the abbey of Saintes. At Roullet there are pinnacles in a similar position, each composed of four small shafts, with caps and bases surmounted with small pyramidal spires. In all these examples the towers have semicircular-headed windows.

See also

• Gothic architecture
• Cathedral architecture

References

Origin

Terminology

Pinnacle

• Generates a higher level of military action.
• Causes a national reaction.
• Affects international relationships.
• Causes immediate widespread coverage in news media.
• Is clearly against the national interest.
• Affects current national policy.

All of the following reporting terms are classified Pinnacle, with the exception of Bent Spear, Faded Giant and Dull Sword. AFI 10-206 notes that the flagword Pinnacle may be added to Bent Spear or Faded Giant to expedite reporting to the NMCC.

Bent Spear

Broken Arrow

• Accidental or unexplained nuclear detonation.
• Non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon.
• Radioactive contamination.
• Loss in transit of nuclear asset with or without its carrying vehicle.
• Jettisoning of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component.
• Public hazard, actual or implied.

An example of a Broken Arrow event is the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident in which four thermonuclear devices were accidentally dropped on Spain after a collision during refueling between a B-52 strategic nuclear bomber and a KC-135 refueling aircraft.

NUCFLASH

• Accidental, unauthorized, or unexplained nuclear detonation or possible detonation.
• Accidental or unauthorized launch of a nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable missile in the direction of, or having the capability to reach another nuclear-capable country.
• Unauthorized flight of, or deviation from an approved flight plan by, a nuclear armed or nuclear-capable aircraft with the capability to penetrate the airspace of another nuclear-capable country.
• Detection of unidentified objects by a missile warning system or interference (experienced by such a system or related communications) that appears threatening and could create a risk of nuclear war.

This term (Pinnacle Nucflash) is a report that has the highest precedence in the OPREP-3 reporting structure. All other reporting terms such as Broken Arrow, Empty Quiver, etc., while very important, are secondary to this report. (Reference Air Force Instruction 10-206, dated 4 October 2004)

Emergency Disablement

Emergency Evacuation

Empty Quiver

Faded Giant

Dull Sword

Popular culture

• The John Woo action film Broken Arrow initially involves an apparent Pinnacle-Broken Arrow event, as the nuclear weapons are supposedly jettisoned in an emergency, but as this is a ruse to steal the weapons, it actually depicts a Pinnacle-Empty Quiver event by the above definitions.
• ROGUE SPEAR is supposedly a means of flagging incidents in which nuclear weapons come under the control of non-governmental groups, but the term is the invention of American thriller writer Tom Clancy, for the computer game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear in place of Pinnacle-Empty Quiver.
• Men of Honor involves a possible Pinnacle-Empty Quiver event as the main character, Chief Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is tasked to locate a lost nuclear weapon underwater.
• The Stanley Kubrick black comedy Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb depicts events that would have been considered a Pinnacle-Nucflash, as the orders and actions of the US Air Force bomb wing are unauthorized and created a risk of nuclear war.
• In the Tom Clancy novel The Sum of all Fears, the term Empty Quiver is used in reference to loss of an Israeli nuclear weapon, which falls into the hands of terrorists.
• In the 2008 miniseries version of The Andromeda Strain, a "Pinnacle-NUCFLASH" event occurs when a nuclear weapon is detonated when a military aircraft is destroyed by the Andromeda bacteria.
• In the 1994 film True Lies, Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Harry Tasker calls a "Bright Boy Alert" for the impending detonation of a stolen Russian warhead on U.S. soil by terrorists, although this presumably should be termed a "Broken Arrow" event since it involves a nuclear incident unlikely to result in nuclear war.
• The novel Fail Safe and related 1964 film and 2000 television film depict a Pinnacle-NUCFLASH incident when a United States Air Force bomber group accidentally receives an order to attack Moscow.

See also

• List of nuclear accidents
• The United States and nuclear weapons

Sources

• Department of Defense directive 5230.16
• AFMAN 10-206