The Works of the Ancients.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 16, 16 April 1903, Page 20

The Works of the Ancients.

When a person wants to silence an engineer v«ho boafts of tbe works o f the preunt day he poiuts to Egypt »» the country where the bierpeftt mgineering works in tn« world have been carried out thousand* of yeurs smo. It is undoubtedly true (*aya ' Engineering ') that Eyypt coi.tains tbe largest strut tines in tr.e world, and probably will for all tine. It is not likely that we i-h 11 again see a building with 7,000.(00 tons of stone in it, an has the Pyramid of Gizeh, and it will be long before we have an irrigation reservoir of gn nter capacity than Luke Moeris, which, accepting the figures of M*jor Sir R. H. Browu, R.E., held 11,800 million cubic metres (tons) of water between high and low water marks What the Labyrintri was like we do not really know, bat Herodotus class- d it as a greater wonder than the Pyramids, although lesser than lake Moeris. We may safely assume that thwre is now nothing in the world that will compare with it in size. Further, there is a tradition that in the dim past the Nile flowed at the foot of the Libyan bills, and tliat it was diverted from that course into its present bed, and, if the account be true, tbe work was of enormous magnitude. Measured by the Btandard of the quantity surveyor, the works of the ancient Egyptian shave never been surpassed, and probably never will be.

The engineers of the past directed the forces of nature on a large scale ; but to compare their work with ours to their advantage shows a complete ignorance of the science of engineering. The matter in which they excelled us wafl the transportation and manipulation of heavy weights — a feat which appeals strongly to the lay imagination, Among the chief examples of such work are the columns of the temple of Karnak. To cut a block of stone in a distant quarry, to work it to a cylinder 12ft. in diameter, float it down the Nile, land it, and place it on the top of a column of similar stones, making a total height of 60ft. waa no small enterprise. A still more difficult undertaking was the great obelisk now standing beside the Church of St. John Lateran in Rome, with a height of 108 ft. and a weight of 450 tons. But the crowning example of Egyptian engineering was tbe colossal statue of Rameses 11., at Thebes. Before it wan broken it waa a single block of red granite, 60ft. in height, and it has been compuied to weigh 887 tons. Tneee were notable examples of engineering work, and a modern ergineer might be proud of executing them. But it must be remembered that they were done very leisurely, and that labor was abundant. With the Bimple appliances that we may assume the Egyptians possessed, Buch as wedges, levers, ropes, and pulleys, great weights may be handled if time is no object. The city of Thebes was in course of building for 2000 years, and in such a place it would excite little comment if a year was spent in putting an obelisk into position. If a weight can be moved at all, no master how little, it can be transported any distance, provided the same conditions persist for the whole route. The Romans moved two obelisks from Thebes, and re-erected them at Alexandria, showing conclusively that the Egyptians had no secrets in relation to mechanics, and that their methods could be imitated by a practi* oal people with perfeot success. Their strong point was the abundance of cheap labor.