The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-09-11
ANCIENT ENGINEERS,
Their Feats Of Skill Which Moderns
Cannot Equal.

Cannot Equal.
The bumptiousness of the modern
engineer gives little offense, because
it is honest and guileless.
1t is waste of time to ask him
how the powders of Stonehenge were
conveyed to their resting place, how
the walls of Fiesole or Mycene were
built; these marvels represent the
power which lies in the brute force of
multitudes, and there's an end of the
question. Engineering now is an
art and science, with which the
rude work of the savages has no sort
of connection. One must not in
quire why he takes it for granted
that Stonehenge, for example, was
built by savages, where the brute
multitude came from how they sub
sisted on Salisbury Plain, or why it
it is necessary ito assume that they
were unacquainted with mechanics.
All that is chosejugee-beyond dis
pute. Ifyou cite records of antiqui-
ty which tell of works he cannot RI
val that fact alone is proof that the
record is lie: for how can it posi-
BILE be that mere Greeks and Romans
should have been able to do what
the builders Of the Eiffel tower and
the Forth bridge cannot accomplish?
We had an amusing instance of this
feeling lately. The ingenious M.
Eifel and the artistic NJ. Bartholdi
bave been gravely bordering the
Colossus of Rhodes-measuring it
and weighing it as per description;
and they conclude that the thing
was simply impossible.
THE COLOSSEUM.
1t could not have been set up, to
begin with, and when set up it conld
not have stood the pressure of the
wind. This is demonstrated by all
the rules of modern science, and he
who does not admit the demonstra-
tion must be prepared to show that
two and two do not make four.
Those antiqne personages who pro-
fessed o have seen the Colossus were
victims of an ocular delusion or fsat
story tellers, and that greater num-
Der who mention it incidentally, as
we might mention the ruins of the
colosseum, were credulous gossips.
The fact is that Messrs. Eiffel and
Bartholdi argue in the fashion usual
with engineers. Not all of them
would pretend that they knew anv
law of nature which applies in such a
case. But very few would listen pa
tlently If it were urged that the an
clients knew some laws with which
they were unacquainted. '~
SO it appears, however, to the dis
interested student, and we can bring
forward evidence enough. If it be
true that the Colossus Of Rhodes is
really proved impossible" accord
ing to the best modern authorities.
this is a good illustration to begin
with, for it's existence is as we'll au-
thentlcated as the temple at Delphi
and the statue of Olympian Zeus, or
the Tower of London, for that mat
ter, to one who has never seen il. Rv
some means it was set up, and bV
adaptation ofsome natural laws it
was made to stand until an earth
quake overthrow it, One is embar.
rassed by the number and variety of
illustrations to the same effect which
crowd upon the mind.
Since the Colosseum has been men
TONED we may choose examples of
the class. Is NJ Eiffel prepared to
put an awning over Trafalgar square
when the sun shines, and remove it
promptly without the aid of a CEN
trail support Of steam engines or
even chains? The area of the Colos-
scum is certainly not less. This NAV
seem trifling matter to the thought
less because they have never consid-
cred it. Roman engineers covered
in thatvast expanse with some wool
en- material, and they worked the
ponderous sheet so easily and
that it was drawn and
Withdrawn as the sky changed. The
bulk oft must have weighed hun
dreds of tons, all depending by ropes
from the circumference. But The
ancients thought so little of this feat
that they have left us only one triy-
al detail of the method.
ALExANDER's GIGANTIC TENT.
SO Julius Caesar stretched an avn
ng above the Forum Romanum and
great part of the Via Sacra in the
'pace ola single night. Have any Of +
'ur modern engineers pondered the I,
contemporary descriptions Of Alex
Inder's dnrbar tent before Babylon?
mat, again, appears to have had no
support. TWAS upheld, says
'hylarchus, by eight pillars ofsolid
old Of the glorious plenishing |
within we have not to speak, since 4
,ur theme is mechanics. Around the Ri
hrone and the great courtiers stood I
10 Macedonian guards; in circle {
'eyond them 500 Persian guards: /
eyond these again 1000 archers. I
% fix a tent which held 2 900 soldiers l.s
n duty with arms and accourtre- t
l1ents, surrounding, in successive t
lrcles, the most gorgeous Oriental /
ourt that ever was, with hundreds Ia