The Opelousas courier., 1889-09-07
1t Reveals Various Proportions
and Distances in @ way
That Imparts New Ideas
Of Geography.

tering many difficulties. LII meant tne,
building up a sphere the diameter OF
which is very nearly forty-two English
feet, and painting on it all the details OF
the surface of the earth, followed by its
erection under a domed building in such
a way that every portion of its surface
can beeasily seen and examined. The
globe is built upon a framework or skele-
ton of wrought iron, forming a number or
meridianal ribs attached at the poles to a
central vertical axis or shaft. The out
side surface of these meridians is covered
with wood, to which are fixed the panels
upon which the geographical surface is
painted. The panels are formed of sheets
of a special kind Of handmade millboard
Of the requisite spherical curvature, and
are covered with a hard coating of plaster
The spherical surface is divided into
forty segments, each of nine degrees of
longitude, and these are each made up of
tapering bands or panels, the width Of the
equatorial band being exactly n metre
along its horizontal centre line; there are,
therefore, 400 of tBRese panels Of different
sizes, and the geographical painting upon
them was done before they were fixed in
their places, which was effected in such
q manner as to facilitate their removal
and replacement when the globe lie taken
way at the close Of the Exhibition. J:
This building which surrounds the
globe is a twelve-sided iron and glass
structure, surmounted by a dome, the
globe being supported from below on a
vertical axis. The building is entered by
a lift, which lands visitors on a platform
near the top, somewhere opposite the
latitude of Spitzbergen, but the north
polar regions may be examined h pass
ing over the north rcls Wy means OF three
light iron 6hi-bridges or stairways,
uniting radially at the centre Immediately
over the axis. Except at the part oppo-
site the door Of the lift the platform is
not level, but is SO constructed as toform
q SPIRAL gallery descending by an almost
lmperceptible slope until it reaches the
ground after making a number Of turns;
thus every portion of the earth's surface
can be infinitely examined, and moreover,
Rs the globe is capable Of being turned on
Its axis with the greatest ease, the whole
circumference of any parallel of latitude
may be looked at without the observer
changingehis position, and SO perfect is,
tho centring AID balancing OF the gasbbe,
that although j weighs nearly thirteen
tons, a boy cal with ease rotate it by.
means Of a handeheel attached by bevel
and intermediate gearing to the south.
polar end Of the axis.
The execution of the autographed
portion of the work is extremity beautk
full, and it must be remembered that the
surface is of such a size (no In than 225.
square feet that very considerable detail
can be well shown upon it. Not only
the forms Of countries and the contours
of large districts easy to be depicted, but
cities NAV have their general form
and size drawHto scale and some OF the
principal thoroughfares represented. For
example, the city of Paris on this globe
is very nearly a centimetre long, and oc-
cupies d space large enough for the Seine
and even the Exhibition, to be fairly
marked, as well as some of the principal
streets and buildings. Thus the actual
proportions between the areas of great
cities and those of continents, oceans and
the earth itself are for the first time &C
curately shown, and as every a is fairly
familiar with the size Of the city in which
he lives, he is enabled by this model to
form q tolerably accurate estimate Of di-
mansions Of the great divisions Of the
earth.
Perhaps the most striking illustration
of this, and proving tho great value Of
the model as an educational object, is the
fact that not only are the dimensions Of
the seas and continents altogether differ
emit from the mental estimate onefs accus-
toned to make. but their very positions
seem to take one BY surprise. This is
easily accounted for by the fact that the
maps In an atlas are oil necessarily of the
same size, their scale being chosen 50 a
TO reduce each country or continent TO thf
| dimensions suitable for the size of the
plates. Again, It IS customary to place .
continent in the middle Of the map, the
ocean being represented only BY d very
small portion TO theright or left Of it, as
the case may be, and few people havean
clear conception, for example, Of how
very small OF how very far north Europe
is, how far north Is the Indian Peninsula,
81 how far south are Australia, New Yea
land, and Cape Horn. The great globe q
Paris, hswsver, reveals these things at !
glance. When the observer is at . leyel
considerably shove equatorial regions
81 Africa, Europe i altogether III