The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-05-11
RECENT DIS
COVERIES
Prove That Steam Engines Were Used
BY the Pharaohs.
New York WORLDLY

Watts, the English inventor, is gen.
orally credited with the first practical
utilization of steam as a motive power,
thereby depriving the ancient Egypt
ians of an honor which properly belong
to them. For the expert engineers
who constructed pyramids and other
wonderful temples thousands of years
ago actually knew great deal about
the power possibilities of steam and
compressed air and knew how to APP
ply them, too, in very astonishing
manner.
In very interesting little volume
by Henry Ridgely Evans on "The Old
and the New Magic just issued by
the Open Court Publishing Company,
Chicago, the details are given of sew
eral most ingenious mechanical appli-
ances operated in Egypt 5000 years
ago.
There was great deal of mystery
about some Of the engines of those
days, so much, in fact, that if they
were set in operation today they would
undoubtedly puzzle most people, even
in these enlightened times.
Try to solve the mystery Of this
ancient engine, for instance: Near
the front of one Of the temples an
altar was erected. A few minutes af-
ter the altar fire was lighted the
| temple doors would open slowly by
some invisible means and remain open
just as long as the fire was kept burn
ing. When the flames died down and
finally expired the temple doors would
swing in again and remain tightly shut
until the altar fire was relighted, when
the mechanical performance was re-
peated.
With not even the most rudimentary
knowledge of the forces of heat and
expansion to guide them, it is little to
be wondered at that the people of
ancient Egypt regarded the mystery of
the altar fire and the temple doors
| VIII lSNGlCuIidl WOHuCI.
The altar was hollow and when the
fire. was lighted the air in the interior
expanded and sought escape down a
pipe leading to a globe filled with wa
ter. The pressure of the air on the
water in the globe forced in its turn
to seek an exit The ancient Egypt
ian engineers provided this in the
form Of bent tube leading from the
top of the globe to bucket into which
| the water fell The bucket was sus-
pended upon a cord which passed along
pulley and was wound around two
vertical rollers forming the prolonga-
ton of the axes upon which the tenn
pie doors above turned. AS the bucket
began to fill with water the extra
weight increased the strain on the pull
ley ropes which in their turn operated
the rollers and caused the temple
door to swing slowly open
When the altar fire died down the
temple doors closed themselves in the
following equally ingenious manner.
The bent tube connecting the globe
ind bucket formed siphon, the long
est branch of which was plunged into
the globe AS the fire was gradually
extinguished the air contained in the
body of the altar and in the globe be-
gan to cool and to diminish in volume.
This act of construction sucked up the
water from the bucket back through
the tube into the globe. AS the buck
ct emptied and became lighter it re-
eased the strain upon the pulley ropes,
holding the temple doors open. A
counterweight closed the doors and
they remained closed until somebody
lighted the altar fire again. when the
very mysterious performance would be-
gin all over again.