The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1877-10-19

q
ateness in placing uunerous obe!isks in
Heliopolis the Cit of the Sun" Their
position there and elsewhere was al
ways in front of TEMPLE. Evidence is
not wanting that they were objects Of
religious veneration. One of Egypts
Kings, in raising al obelisk, took a
precaution which might serve sc hint
in modern undertakings; be ordered
his own son to be bound to the upper
end of the monument during the oper-
atiop. PJRch's plan for preventing
railway accidents by fastening a direc-
tor on the front of the engine, was not
move sagacious. The obelisk had come
a distance of 500 miles, using the labor
of 120. 900 men, and was certainly de-
serving of care, if not of reverence.
Pictures found in the tombs show the
ancient method of transporting obe-
lisks on land. They were moved on
rollers, being pushed and pulled by a
vast crowd of workmen, who were
stimulated by the lash of task-masters.
The old plan of floating an obelisk to
the river, was to dig beneath it wide
bitches, put RATS in them under the
obelisk, and fill the bitches with water.
The RATS were afterwards connected
into one, and the bitches enlarged into
a canal.
The method by which CIeopatra's
Needle has just been fioated is novel
and ingenious. A hollow iron cylIn
der with wedge-shaped ends now in
closes it. The cylinder was built up
and riveted together around the stone
the iron thus used weighing sixty
tons. The air spaces of the cylinder
were so calculated as to be sufficient to
float the whole. Two months were
occupied in this part of the work,
which included digging away the sand
beneath the stone with hydraulic jacks
till it was parallel with the wa'er's
edge. and constructing a sloping road
of broken rock down to the water.
The dimensions of the stone are prob
ably similar TO those of the companion
obelisk, of which the shaft is 67 feet
long, tapering in width from s feet 2
inches to feet 2 inches. The iron
cylinder is 90 feet long, and Is feet
in diameter. All around this
iron box, wood planking was
fitted and strapped fast, and
then the whole contrivance was rolled
sideways down to the water. To make
1t roll, ropes were passed around it. and
wound upon witches fixed on vessels
in the water. Other ropes also passed
aronnd it, which unwound slowly from
wincbes OF shore behind the stoUe. pre-
venting it from rolling too fast. When
tn strain was first put on to start it,
the vessels moved instead, dragging
their anchors; steam tugs were substi
tuted, and when they put on full steam
to go ahead, the great cylinder rolled.
Its movement was so slow as scarcely
to be peroeptible, and the greater part
of two days was occupied in reaching
the water. Then a disappointment
awaited the toilers; the cylinder filled
with water, and a powerful pump
could not empty the air spaces. Divers
at first failed to find the leak, but at
last one in submarine armor discovered
1t Notwithstanding the casing of
planks, a stone had broken a hole
eighteen inches across, into the cylin-
der, and the stone was wedged in the
hole. So the cylinder had to be rolled
back till the hole was uppermost: the
hole was then patched, the cylinder
pumped out, another downward roll
was effected, and the strange craft was
afioat. 1t draws from eight to ten feet
of water, and has a displacement of
$50 tons; bilge pieces, or wings have
been attached to prevent rolling. 1t
will be towed slowly on its long voy-
age; and. though ungainly, it is not
If there are sermons in stones, there
is certainly text in this obelisk, trans
ported from a heather temple to the
capital of Christian land, over a
thousand miles of sea. The slaves |
whose labors brought it TO Heliopolis
thirty -four centuries ago. worshipped
a deity that had no temple in his hon.
or in all that land of ancient shrines. |
To day those temples are ruined and
deserted, and the deity of that subject |
race is the God of ChristeDdom. |