Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-07-16
The Tunnels Of the Ancients.

1
quarters of mile long, and cut right
through mountain eight hundred feet
| high. This tunnel is driven through a
volcanic tufa. This tunnel of Posilippo,
as it now exists, was cut through only
twenty-seven years before Christ. Angus
tus Csesar's great minister Of public works,
Marcus Agrippa, made the present tunnel,
or he may have enlarged it from smaller
one that answered the commercial commu-
nlcations and necessities of the days be-
fore the Empire. This tunnel is to-day
the great highway to the heart of Naples,
as it has been for more than 1900 years.
| The great Appian way ran to Capua, with
j in thirty miles of Puteoli. then this mag
nifcent Roman high road, under the name
of the Consular Way, was continued to
| Puteoli, and the then Consular Way
pushed on through Neopolis, Herculane-
UNI. Pompeii, Stabia, Nucera, Salernum,
Paestum, down to Rheum. This tunnel
4 of Posilippo was formerly called the
grotto or tunnel of Puteol. The ancients
/ began their perforations at each end, and
also from above, in two places equidistant
! from the termini of the tunnel. The guide
books, both Murray and Baedeker, tell
that the shafts from above were made by
Alfonso l., in the fifteenth century, which
/ is altogether wrong. No less than four
| tunnels of Roman construction existed in
the vicinity of Naples, and they, all them,
even the latest rediscovered and open in
1742. have shafts from above.
| The Romans were great road, tunnel
and bridge builders, and we have never
given their engineers half the credit which
we should for their great science and
skill. Nowere, not even in the city of
Rome or on the Roman Campagna, are
there SO many evidences of their engineer
ing skill as are to be found in the vicinity
of Naples. At the recent meeting of the
British Association of Science held at
| Aberdeen, Scotland. Mr.. B. Baker, an
eminent British civil engineer read paper
| recalling certain engineering feats of th>
ancients. Mr.. Baker, says: II have no
doubt that as able ard enterprising engi-
neers existed prior to the age of steam
as beneficial to mankind, though different
in direction. In the important matter of
water supply to towns. indeed, doubt
| whether, having reference to facility of
execution, even greater works were not
done 2,0OQ years ago than now. Herodotus
speaks of tunnel eight feet square and
nearly mile long. driven through the
mountain in order to supply the city of
Samos with water; and his statements,
though long doubted, was verified in 1882,
through the abbot Of a neighboring clois-
ter accidentally unearthing some stone
slabs. The German Archaeological Society
sent out Earnest Fabrlcus to make com.
plete survey Of the work, and the record
reads like that of a modern engineering
undertaking. Thus, from a covered res
ervoir in the hills proceeded an arched
conduit about 1000 yards long partly driv-
en- as tunnel and partly executed on the
cut and covert system, adopted on the
London underground railway. The tun-
mel proper, more than LOO yards in |
length, was hewn by hammer and chisel |
through the solid limestone rock 1t was
driven from two ends like the great AL |
pine tunnels without intermediate shafts |
and the engineers of 2400 years ago might |
we'll be congratulated for getting only |
some dozen feet out of level, and little |
more out of line. From the lower end of |
the tunnel branches were constructed to |
supply the city mains and fountain, and |
the explorers found ventilating shafts and |
side entrances, earthenware socket pipes |
with cement joints, and other interesting |
details connected with the water supply |
of towns"
This tunnel of Posilippo is also a fac
specimen OF ancient engineering. Millions |
of human beings have each year passed |
through it. Roman chariots and other |
ancient vehicles have left their autographs |
scraped and scratched into the ling stone,
and modern wagons and carriaged still |
rub their hubs against it. leaving their |
traces for generations to come. Strabo |
wrote about this tunnel. Seneca describ- |
ed his passage through it. Petronius sat
irized it, and Petrarch, Boccaccio, Jap |
paccio and more modern writer's have told |
us their thoughts about it; and it seems
good for thousand years to come. Vir-
gil's tomb is just above its eastern en-
trance, and his farms (wh ere he wrote
part of both the ''Georgics'' and "lEneid')
are over it.-Scientifc american.
A Month with only Nineteen Days.
Prof. ~ r. Webster.-Daar Sir-Ona