The St. Johns herald., 1895-10-03
THE TOWER OF BABEL
To Be Reproduced in Miniature
 for the Atlanta Fair.
\ Feature of the Coming Exposition That VIII Be Interesting and Instructive to Visitors or All Ages
 and Cailings.

The Smithsonian Institution is pre- pairing miniature model of the Tower of Babel for the exposition of Atlanta. It will be in all respects, so far as pos siblc, a faithful reproduction of the famous original The latter was the greatest of the many magnificent tenn ples of Babylon, being one hundred and forty feet high. That does not seem much compared with the Washington monument, but people in those days were not accustomed to tall structures, and the ancient capital of Assyria was situated in the midst of vast plain, where there were no natural elevations to serve for comparison. The model in question, says the Washington Star, will be five feet eight inches square on the first story. When 1t is stated that the first story of the actual Tower of Babel was seventy-two feet square, 8 notion will be given of the proportion. The original building was constructed in diminishing stories, each one being a smaller square than that beneath. This was common style ot architect ure in Assyria, and from it evolved the Egyptian pyramid. The stories for the model are square wooden frames of diff ferent sizes, so made that they may be superposed one upon another. These frames, after being put together, will be faced on the outside with a veneer of plaster of paris, which will initiate the sun-dried bricks of which the tower was composed.
 The building of the model is under the charge of Dr. Palmer. The work, however, is superintended by Dr. Cyrus Adler; who has made an exhaustive study of the historic Tower of Babel. Mechanically speaking, the most diff cult part of the job is the casting of the plaster of paris that is to initiate the bricks. Every brick on the exterior of the structure is represented and this is accomplished by making single mold, in which the little bricks are labori- ously indicated. From this mold many casts are made, and so the whole sur face is covered. The Babylonians had no stone, and so they were obliged to employ for all their buildings such sun dried bricks. They did not under stand the use of molds for the purpose. Naturally, structures of such material soon crumbled and did not last very long.
 The Tower of Babel stood upon an elevated platform of earth six hundred feet square. This was surmounted and retained by wall of bricks ten feet high. Both platform and wall will be represented in the model, which will be quite an imposing affair when finished. The stories will be painted in different colors, to initiate the orig inal building, according to descriptions given of it in Assyrian literature. The first story was black, in honor of Saturn; the second story of orange, for Jupiter; the third story red, for Mars; the fourth story covered with plates of gold, for the sun; the fifth story white. for Venus; the sixth story dark blue, for Mercury, and the seventh story covered with plates of silver, in honor of the moon.
 The old Babylonians were worship CTS of the sun, and knew lot about astronomy. The Tower of Babel was an observatory from which the priests gazed upon the stars in the heavens, drawing portents from them, pre- sumably for sale at so much portent. The model will have no windows, for it is not known whether or not the orig inal edifice possessed any. Nobody, as yet, has been able to discover how the houses of the Assyrians were lighted. It may be that all the light required for this mighty temple was admitted from the top, which was presumably open to the sky. The stairs were on the outside, and not on the inside of the building. They also will be shown. In fact, no detail will be omitted that may help to give notion of the exact appearance of this wonderful edifice of antiquity.