A Wonderful Tower.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 60, 12 February 1885, Page 4

A Wonderful Tower.

1 A' project of the' most wondbrftil kind, which, if executed, would; render! the Paris Exhibition of 1889 for ever memoriable, has been pub-" lished by M. EHFeI, the French engineer, and is described m a recent issue of "La Nature." 11 It is' t{> erect m tlie grounds of tlie Exhibition an iron tower 800 metres \ii height, that is, twice as high as. the Great Pyramid, find more than twice the height of the Strasburg Cathedral; 160 metres he considers as the limit height possible m a structure of which stone is the principle material, and hence iron is pro r posed. The base of the tower is of pyramidal shape, and is to be seventy metres high, and the superficial area at this heig;ht will be 8000 square metres ; above' this there are to be three other stages, or stories, m which will be rooms which it is proposed to use for various purposes, scientific and other. The' towers of Notre Dame will be mere pigmies beside this colossal structure, and will not reach to its first 'iftoor. The projectbr points outthat, m addition 1 ' to its monumental character, the structilre will be useful for strate-gical-purposes m war time, on account 'of vast range of view, for meteorologic and astronomical observations, for at such a height the the clearness of the air ah(J the: absence of fogs would render 1 observations possible which canhrit possibly be made on- the ground.' I ""The tower might also be used for the electric light. The whole exhibition and the surrounding neighbourhood might tHus be lighted from a central point. • Many scientific problems, it is suggested, may be investigated 1 from" the tower, snch as tlie resistance of the air to different weights, certain laws of elastisity^ the 'study of the compression of gas or vapours, • and of the oscillation of the pendu-' lam. In shape it is to resemble an enoripofis' lighthouse, : gradually 1 taperijig f\-oin a wide base' 1 to, the ! summit.