Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-29

plelSuu that tRey KNOW every law OF ma
ture which applies in such case. But
very few would listen patiently if it were
urged that the ancients knew some laws
with which they were unacquainted.
So 1t appears, however, to the disinter-
ested student, and we can bring forward
evidence enough. If it be true that the
Colossus of Rhodes is really proved Sim
possible" according to the best modern
authorities, this is good illustration to
begin with, for its existence is as well
authenticated as the Temple at Delphi
and the statue of Olympian Ceus, or the
Tower of London, for that matter, to one
who has never seen it. By some means it
was set up, and by adaptation of some
natural laws it was made to stand until an
earthquake overthrow it. One is embar-
raised by the number and variety of the
illustrations to the same effect which
crowd upon the mind. Since the Colosse-
UNI has been mentioned we may choose
examples of this class. Is NJ. Eiffel pre-
pared to put an awning over Trafalgar
Square when the sun shines, and re-
move it promptly without the aid of a
central support or steam engines, or even
chains? The arch of the Colosseum is
certainly not less. This may seem a
trihing matter to the thoughtless because
they have never considered it. Roman
engineers covered in that vast expanse
with some wooden material, and they
worked the pcnderous sheet so easily and
smoothly that it was drawn and with
drawn as the sky changed The bulk of it
must have weighed hundreds of tons, all
depending by ropes from the circumfer-
ence. But the ancients thought SO little
of this feat that they have left us only one
trivial detail of the method.
Julius Caesar stretched an awning above
the Forum Romanum and great part of
the Via Saera in the space Of single
night. Have any of our modern engin-
GERS pondered the contemporary descrip-
tions of Alexander's dubar tent before
Babylon? That, again, appears to have
had no central support. 1t was upheld.
says Phylarchus, by eight pillars of sold
gold. OF the glorious plenishing within
we have not to speak, since out theme is
mechanics. Around that throne and the
great courtiers stood 500 Macedonian
guards; in circle beyond them 500 Per-
sian guards; beyond these again 1000
archers. To fix tent which held 1000
soldiers on duty, with arms and accouter-
ments, surrounding, in successive circles,
the most gorgeous oriental Court that ever
was, with hundreds of satraps, Councillors,
Generals, eunuchs and slaves, would per-
pick mechanician of the nineteenth GEN.
fury. He will reply that the story is
false-must be because he could not match
it. Happily the awning of the Colosseum
stands beyond dispute, and Alexanders
tent is small matter compared with that.
But we undertook to deal with the engin-
eering of the ancients in connection with
the theater, having CHANGED on that class
of ILLUSTRATION.
Pliny tells how Metellus Scaurus, eddie,
built wondrous edifce, which stirred his
rival, G. Curio, to frantic jealousy. 1t may
be worth while in passing-since we are
all so much interested in the theater now
adays, and think so much of our new ones
Ito tell what sort of building that was
which Curio set himself to Guido. 1t had
300 marble columns, each 36 feet high and
SO feet apart. About 1000 bronze statues
stood among them. The stage had three
floors, as was usual, the lowest paved and
fitted with marble, the second with glass,
the third gilded, boards and all. 1t held
$4,000 people. This account will seem so
fabulous to steady-going Britons that it is
prudent to give chapter and verse; The
description will be found, with curious de-
tails and passionate reflections on the
luxury of the day, in "Pliny's Natural
History" xxxiii., "a. Such was the Won
der which Curio resolved to beat, and, feel
ing himself unable to vie in outlay, he
summoned the engineers of the period to
design something which would "fetch" the
public. They built two enormous theaters
of wood, each to contain an audience of
$4,000, which stood back to back.
When the spectators were assembled in
the forenoon Curio was chaffed, no doubt,
on the issue of the attempt to excel Scau-
rus. But the audience returned in the af-
ternoon, for these entertainments were de-
voted to the names of Curio's father, and
last month. In the place of two the
aters back to back, they found an amphi-
theater holding $4,000 persons, wherein
gladiators and wild beasts contended until
dewey eve. The two great buildings had
been swung around and united and day
by day for the month following this colos-
sal trick was repeated. The perfervid in
dignation of Pliny could not make him
altogether Indifferent to the ingenuity of
the thing. The fact is, in brief, that
those who know what the ancient engineers
did, with their imperfect means, feel a
qualified admiration for the works of the
moderns If Archimedes or Stasicrates
had been acquainted with the forces and
the laws with with which every old woman
is familiar in these days, they would have
changed the face of the earth and the des-
TIMES of mankind