Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-08-09

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When the ship was ready for sea
Hero changed its name to The ALer-
dndrfdn, and sent it with cargo OF
corn as a present to Ptolemy.
One can imagine the vast excited
crowds that gathered to see 7hs AIer.
/ dndrian under way. One follows it as
it churns up the blue brine with Its
twenty banks of ~ars, and steers for
the temple OF Olymrian Juno on the
1 extreme rocky point of the island.
There boats crew land and pay their
devotions at the sailors shrine They
take back with them a hallowed earth
enware bowl filed with flowers and
honeycomb, uncut frankincense and
spices; and as the huge ship swings
down into the offing, and the sailors
lose sight of the shield on the roof
ridge of the temple of Minerva, the
bowl is cast overheard as an offering to
the sea-gods.
Whether it was on board The ALer-
dndriun that Archimedes made his
first voyage to Egypt it is impossible
to determine; but that he lived for
some time in Alexandria, and travelled
up the Nile, there IS no reason to ques-
tlon. He studied under the celebrated
astronomer, Conon, who no doubt told
Linn with a chuckle how Queen Ber-
enice, the wife of Ptolemy Ill, had
vowed her hair In supplication for her
husbands safe return from his Syrian
expedition; how the beautiful tresses
were stolen the very first night they
were hung mp in the temple; how the
land OF Egypt was in dismay until,
struck by happy astronomical fancy,
he declared they had been waited I'D to
heaven, where they might still be seen
as the seven stars near the constella-
tion Of the Lion. AS has been al eady
mentioned, Archimedes may have met
Iheocritus there and have heard him
read the 1dyll of the Festival of
Adonis. Probably he encountered the
pedantic old librarian Callimachus,
who delighted Queen Arsinoe by dis |
covering that her name was an an |
! agram of the Violet of Hera," !
| charmed Berenice with a courtly |
elegy on her starry hair, and tried to |
snuff out the young epic poets by |
! protesting that "a great book was a |
great evil. 1t may have also hap j
pened that he became ac-
quaInted with some of the AlexanL. fian |
Jews who translated the Septuagint, |
and have even handled copy of those |
| strange scriptures. All these matters |
are however too vaguely known to de
serve any other title than that of con
lectures. Still, whatever the date of |
his sojourn in Alexandria, Achimedes |
assuredly looked on a city of enormous
magnitude, and of such oriental mag
nifcence as the world has perhaps
never beheld before or since. A poem
of Theocritus preserves for us living
picture of its public feasts; a chapter
nf AfbnnunuS raanrlS ha zEl |
Its courtly pageants. In return for its
bewitchIng hospitality he is said to
have left the Egyptian peasants the
water-screw; by the simple turning of
handle they could henceforth lrri-
gate their parched acres with compare
tive case.
When Archimedes was in his seven
tleth year. and Hero was on the verge
OF his nlnetieth, we find the geometer
settled again in his sunpy Syracuse.
During his long reign the unwearied,
nlmble- minded king had frequently
put his great klnsman's ingenuity to
the test. Every one knows the story
OF how in stepping into bath Archi-
medcs discovered the means of demon
stratlng the fraud of the artisan who
had adulterated the gold given him to
make a crown for Hiers and how !
from that discovery sprang the science |
of hydrostatics. And it seems to have
been by the merest chance that the
fraudulent goldsmith was detected at
all, for, according to Plutarch, "being
perpetually charmed by a domestic
siren, that is, his geometry, Archi
medes neglected his meat and drink,
and was so careless of his person that
he had often to be carried by force to
the baths. =" Luckily, as after events =
showed, he was prevailed on by the /
King to invent number of powerful d
but he considered mere S
mechanics az childish trifles unworthy c
of geometer. The construction of an I
orrery, representing the movements of I
the heavenly bodies, or q calculation to v
show that not only can sands of the C
seashore be numbered, but that the
number of grains that would fill the T
sphere OF the fixed stars was to be ex- e
pressed by the figure l, followed by l
50 clphers!-these were, perhaps, legI- Z
innate relaxatIons; but, after all, the q
subjects worthy of consideration were q
say, equlronderants and centres of y
gravity, the quadrature of the parabola, a
the properties of the spiral, the ratios "
between the volumes and surfaces of "
sphere and dcircumscribing cylinder, the y
mysteries of conOids and spheroids the
equilibrium of Floating bodies, and other
lbstruse problems. "He came as near 10
the discovery of the dIferential calcu-
us, says Draper, "as can lie done
without the aid of algebraic transforma-
ions. In his work entitled Psammites' ! .
le alludes TO the astronomical system -
ubse IuentIy established by Coperni- =,
'us. Europe was not able to produce ="
10 naI fnr I
ears" ~ ~
10 his ninetieth year died the good 8.
fIero. Three years later, after a ~ ~
'eriOd of IicentiOus tyranny and civic W
disorder, the Romans were calling a.
syracuse to account for her revolt 10 ~
carthage. The ill-fated city may be -
aid to have been defended by one man. u. =.
"All the rest of the Syracusans," ~ ~
ays Plutarch, "were no more than y.
he body in the batteries of Archimedes =,
7hlle he himself was the informing - -,
oul." The strange war-machines con. Si
tructed years before were ranged along 4"
be sea wall of Achr adins, and as the en- L.,
my's fleet advanced to the attack bur- VI VI
ing glasses we're turned on to them, "a "a
uge blocks of stone were volleyed " "
gainst them, mighty cranes swept ri
yer the battlements, dropped huge ~
,on claws which gripped the galleys, u 60,
nd, swinging them up out of the sea.
'hii led them around and let them drop. u.
IN the landward side the defence was Vi Vi
qually novel and destructive. "At 90 90
sst the Romans were SO terrified that iT
they saw but rope or a stick put ~ ~
yer the walls, they cried out that ~
.rchimedes was levelling some mach hine VI VI
them, and turned their backs and ~ IL
ed" Even Marcellus himself paid in
andsome compliment to "the matbe- 90
latlcal Briareus, who, sitting on the In
lore and acting as 1t were but in Jest, so
ad shamefully bafiled their naval as Th
Iult."
One noble spectacle the old geometer y,
eheld before the close on the blue a.