RAISING THE OBELISK IN LONDON.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2981, 8 July 1878, Page 3

RAISING THE OBELISK IN LONDON.

The London Times gives the following account of the manner in which the; Egyptian obelisk will be lifted inlo its future position on the Thames embankment :—

"The plan for raising may be very briefly described. The column will be fitted with a powerful iron jacket as near the centre of gravity as is wanted, and this jacket has two irassive iron trunnions, just like the trunnions of a great gun. These trunnions will rest on two wrought-iron girders of great strength, and the whole will then resemble a monster cannon on a slide without wheels. One end of thecolumn being raised by hydraulic presses a sufficient height, say a foot, it will be.kept so raised by a powerful balk of timber slid under it. The other end will then be similarly treated, and thus, slowly but surely, it will ascend foot by foot, shored up with timber at every stage, laid in the way which will best insure the stability of the whole structure.

" The jacket, it is thought, will clip the stone sufficiently tight to hold it in when in a vertical position ; but in dealing with euch enormous weights and a tapering column, it is as well to err on the safe side, so Mr Dixon has wisely decided to have a wrought iron strap, eighteen inches broad and more than an inch thick, which will pass from one side of the jacket under the base of the monolith and up again to the jacket on the other side. Thus, then, during the few minutes it will be suspended vertically before being lowered to its base, it* will stand in the band as if in a stirrup, and the more its weight presses on the band, the tighter it will make the jacket grip. The column, as we have explained, will be hoisted horzontally, but when it has reached the required height the supports under the baar* will be removed, and the base being slightly in excess of the rest (2J ,tons), the whole strne will slowly revolve on the trunnions till it hangs direct over its appointed spot aud about four inches above it. It is then simply turning on the taps of the hydraulic presses, and the column will sink into its base in about two minute,s. "A small gap will be left in the centre of the base, so as to enable the iron band to be removed; but when this is done and the gap filled up with granite blocks all will be completed."