, 1880-01-24
CLE0PsTEs'S NEERLE.

some Mysteries Of Inejest Engineering.
/ Cleop5.rl's Needle has a. last been safely
removed f.om the pedestal which has sap
I ported Il Tor eighteen hundred and ninety
one Years. This pedestal Is 0i the same kind
: Of granite as the o5elisk itself aaG must have
/ been broa-a: from the quarry 81 Syeae, near
! tie frs. ea,aract OF the Nile. Il Is remark
( abe that :he oNistcace OF this pedestal,
measuring uIBe Zee: iIga aIG s:S feet Square
and weighing forJy-three toHS, was unknowa
/ previous % the present excavations. The
obeiisk g,as formally esdod 10 Commander
Goyfiuge aad Lieu;eaant SehweieE by the
governor OF Alexandra, OF October 22i By
tie lGsh Of November the earth was re-
moved to some twenty feet below the pres
eut level Of the soil, and the base OF the OBJ
el;Sk and the large pedestal resting on three
marble slabs were made visible. The base
OF the Needle IS rounded by age. 1t origi-
nally rested upon four bronze crabs. each
a6oat three feet long by one wide. One OF
thes. crabs was GEder each corner. firmly
liked to both obeiIsk and pedestal by two
bronze bars an inch in diameter and over
Zoo, iu length. one Of these bars, project
ing peTpeudle.laE!y from the back Of the
crab, is fitted into hole in the base Of the
obe.isk. The other bar, descending perpea-
dIcularly from the crabs belly. Is iitted into
similar hole in the pedestal Both OF ;iese
bars were firmly s0ldered with lead.
aoNAX ENGINEERING.
How the Roman engineer ever got The
melted lead into the holes in the obelIsk Is =
mystery II the lead was put in and the
crabs attached before the erection of the ODE
lis&, then II Is equally puzziing how the
under bars we're ever fitted and soldered iGtO
the pedestal At all events, as Commander
Gorriuge's Yankee foreman remarked, The
fr!!ers that stood up this 'e.e needle kinder
cs!c lated they'd fixed 1t to stay" Of these
four crabs two only now remain. They
were under two diagonaliy opposite corners
Of the obe!isk, and are badly mGtil2;ei. All
the large claws are gone but one. On TIE
remaining claw which beloags 70 the crab,
under the south-S0uthweSt corner, are found
Inscriptions in Greek and Latin which tel
rs that Barabus, the Project oi Egypt,
cauSed the obeliSk 10 be erected by the en-
gineer Poatius In the eighth year OF the
reign OF Augustus Cesar-that Is, Ia the
year b. {. 81.
\ rough piece OF iron was found wcJsed
under third corner, and the fourth corner
was not supported az all The TWO missing
crabs must have been taken away IT some
comparatively recent date-within L feW
hundred years-for the marks OF their claws
i'll the granite pedestal are deep and unmis-
taxable.
INTERESTING DISCOVERIES.
During the excavations made By COM
mauder GorFinge all ancient Greek coin, =
Greek bust, the capital Of a small column
and the head OF an asp In marble have been
found. These are OF 10 great value III them
selves, but their discovery, together with
the appearance OF the pedestal and marble
slabs, has led to lively controversy among
the Egyptoiosists at Alexandria. 1t is con
tended on the one hand that when the huge
pedestal is removed many Objec.s OF the
greatest value viii be found, and one sayant
Is quite saneuine that the remains of Cleo
patra or of CiesariOu, her son by Caesar, will
be brought to light This question viii re-
ceiye 4 definite solution in few weeks by
the removal of the pedestal and slabs. The
Italian who owns the land has III the mean
time taken time By the foreicck and regis
tered his claim to al relics that may be
found, demand which Commander Cor
ringe denies, saying that whatever may be
under the pedestal belongs to the obclisk
and must so with 1t.
\ TUSSLE WITH THE 0EELI>H.
At nine o'clock on Saturday morning.
the 9th. the visitors were again assembled
TO see the Yankees have another tussle
with the obelisk, As the Britishers expressed
it. Everybody was present except the GOV
ernor of Alexandria, who probably thought
that as he had waited long time on Thurs
day for the obelisk the Obelisk might now
wait for him. His Excellency arrived at
half-past ten and Just as he was usheTed to
his seat the base OF the Needle was pushed
by means Of hydraulic jacks. \ slight pull
on the rope attached to the top ot the Needle
and the huge mass of granite turned slowly
uponi its axis. As soon as the obeliSk
reached an angle OF II degrees its top end
fell heavily upon the pile Of timber built TO
catch it. 1t rebouuded from the pile about
nVe feet. 4 second rebognd OF 4 ie" inches
and il came to 4 rest IN horizontal position,
amid the hearty cheers of all present, and
Commander G0rringe and Lieutenant Schru-
der were most warmly congratulated upon
their success The Obeiisk at this stage was
supported by the pile OF timber under the
tor end and by its :runnions which, as be
fore explained, sre placed at point little
below the centre OF gravity OF the o5elIsH.
AZ the present writing the needle rests upon
the two piles Of tImber-One under each end
and the machinery Is beng removed The
next important step Will be the removal OF
the pedestal. which viii he effected by sim
p!v rolling it over into I hole dug Tor 1t, SO
as not to prevent the joining OF the two
sections OF the float or case. Tie launching
OF the needle on this float cannot take place
before . month. For, besides the work oI
constructing the float, rocks must be removed
for a considerable distance from the shore, so
as to give a sufficient depth OF water Tor
successful launch.-Let,er 10 " l. HeI''id-
"THE SUx AS \ SOURCE OF POWER, Is
the title of an interesting paper by Prot
Langley, well known American astronomer,
recently published in the .ScirHi;Fc AmelTc0A,
in which We find very striking example
given TO illustrate the magnitude Of the work
performed by the sun on the earth's surface,
which receives only an ininitesiinal fraction
of the floods OF power that the central BODY
of our system IS constantly radlatlng into
space He puts the case IN this way: lax
ING the area OF Manhattan Island % be ID
square miles, and the quantity OF rainfall II
receives 10 be 30 inches annually, he shows
that this speck of the earth's surface receives
1893, 92O, 600 cubic feet or IS, Isl, 600 tons
of water IN year Comparing this quantity
of water with the pyramid OF Cheops, winch
weighs less than .,000, coo tons, he makes II
appear that this amount of water III the form
Of ice would many times replace the largest
pyramid OF Egypt. To transport 1t would
require 3,02l, 500 cars, carrying II tons each,
and these, assuming an average length OF 30
feet to the car. - would make SIX trans
reaching in one continuous line across the
continent, 50 that the leading locomotive oi
each train would be at San Francisco before
the rear car had left Ne= York Estlma-