Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-11-21
PRESERVING THE OBELISK.
The Method in Which the Work is Being
Done-Extent of the Damage.

The New York Tribune says; The bare
poles of the scaffold that has been built
around the obelisk in Central Park over
look the pyramid that forms the top of the
shaft. The colossal size of the obelisl
shows to better advantage with the scaffold-
ing around ii. Three sets of poles, each
twenty-five feet long, were bound securely
together for the framework of the scatfold.
They rest on the broad limestone base,
which was brought from Egypt. The
plinth on which the shaft rests is a solid
block of granite eight feet high, and weighs
over forty tons. The obelisk rises eighty
feet above this, and weighs AS 600 pounds
Park Commissioners Borden and Cum
minis, Professor Doremus, DR.. Arnold
Hague of the United States Geological
Survey, Superintendent Parsons, and r. NJ.
Catfall, who has the work of placing the
parattine on the stone for its protection
from the weather, and other gentlemen
made a careful examination of the face of
the stone on the Sd inst Mr. Caffall found,
while the scaffold was constructing, that
the real condition of the obeliSk is much
worse than was feared. The entire outer
surface has been largely affected by the
weather, and is beginning to scale Dr.
Hague, who has devoted much attention
to the different kinds of granite, was much
interested in the examination. The process
of disintegration, he concluded, has been
developing for many years in Egypt, but
has been fastened by the exposure to the
frosts in this climate. The result is a decay
not unlike that seen in the great boulders
on the Western plains. The pores of the
stone absorb the water to a considerable
depth, and the frost has loosened immense
scales.
1t is easy to pick off with pocket-knife
pieces as large as the palm of the hand and
a quarter of an inch thick. These pieces
crumble readily, showing how rotten the
surface has become. In one instance, a
scale nearly yard in length, and in some
places an inch in thickness, was pulled
from the stone. A new fracture was found
at the southeast corner of the base that
must have developed within a year. This
will be cemented, and the entire surface
will have to be treated with chisels before
any paraffine can be used Where the
scales are removed, patches of soil, moss
and vegetable formations are disclosed In
five years 1t was the opinion of the party
who made the examination yesterday, the
shape and appearance of the shaft would
be almost ruined, at the present rate of dis
indignation.
" Very little idea existed of the condition
of the obelisk,' said Ma Caffall q have
had considerable experience in this country
and Europe in treating monuments for
their preservation, but was not prepared
to find the obelisk so badly affected by
the climate. President Barnard, of Column
bia College, in an article published in
October 1888 ridiculed the idea of this
rapid decay. 1t would take thousands of
years, he thought, to waste away single
centimeter of the surface; but the decay is
really now ten times that, as any one can
see. The carvings are two inches deep on
the east side of the shaft they are all gone
on the west side. The stone was originally
polished and on the east side very little
decay has occurred"
viii any of this carving be destroyed
by the process of repair ?n asked a reporter.
a. shall take the greatest care to prevent