The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-02

| Their mathematician figured it out,
| and they decided to quote their tech
| nical language. that the great torsion
which deformed the block beyond the
modulus of elasticity was to blame.
So it was decided to cut the great
| columns for the choir in two sections
one thirty EIGHT feet the other eight
cen feet. With the two-foOt pedestal,
| this makes the column the required
fifty eight feet.
Now. the first pair of these thirty
eight-foot monoliths have come to
town. accompanied by their surmount-
ing eighteen-foot stones and their two
foot DeGeStals. To manage them has
been one of the most ticklish problems
| that ever confronted modern engineers.
1t was hard enough to get them out
of the flinty bosom of Mother Earth at
the Maine quarries. and harder even to
load the six pieces of the first two COL
umns upon the sturdy lighter, Ben
Franklin. But it was done. Here to
New York they triumphantly foated.
Then the moon had to be consulted
not by astrology, but by astronomy
Capt. Sorenson. commanding the light
er, wanted to land his fragile cargo at
the highest tide possible.
He got it by waiting.
Then great steel cables were wound
around the mammothS. Huge ways
were laid of twelve-inch timbers. All
the stones had been previously cased in
a cylinder of wood, so that the highly
polished surface couldn't be scratched
by the mighty machines that were
destined to tackle them.
With the ways laid and ashore at
the foot of West One Hundred and
Thirty fifth street, and the tide at its
highest point, Capt. Sorenson gave the
word. The great crane creaked and
groaned and cried out in vain protest
t110 foe 70 xtfDi0 h hrd
put. But tauter and tauter drew the
steel cable around the drum of the dom
key engine.
"She's off" yelled the captain.
Slowly the mighty thing started
down the ways, while the inch
of steel cable unwound like thread
from a spool Great checks stopped
the rolling thing every few inches. The
workmen feared the rolling stone
might gather such Roadway as it rolled
ashore that even the steel cables might
snap or the donkey engine be pulled
from it's mornings.
Landing the Giant Monolths.
At last the pair of monoliths were
safely ashore, resting side by side
against the day when the great steel
trucks should come TO take them on
their last journey up the steep hills to
Morningstar Heights. Then a tug.
with a great derrick, picked up the
smaller pieces, the eighteen-ton top
pieces and the pedestals, and set them
ashore as gently as you might lay
down an egg.
Now came the work of getting these
giant stones to their places just in
front of the Belmont chapel, that por-
ton of the great edifice given by Au-
gust Belmont Each one must travel
more than mile to its final resting
place.
To transport them a special steel
truck was bull. This truck is forty
feet long, built of the finest steel. Its
wheels have steel tires twenty inches
wide. The axles are eight inches thick
To drag one of the stones required
fifty horses.
Another plan was devised to move
each monolith along Twelfth avenue.
up Manhattan street to the Amster-
dam avenue hill, crowned by the ca
thedral site.
One donkey engine was to do the
work of fifty horses.
I'VE don't expect to have bit or
trouble said John Peirce, the con-
tractor, who has undertaken to cut
the eight great stones and deliver them
safely.