Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder. 149 



It has also been stated that several attempts were made to 

 weatherproof this obelisk with the silica treatment. 



As to the present condition of this monolith, Prof. Egleston' 

 .states: "The obelisk in the Place de la Concorde in Paris is 

 reported cracked all over its surface. Both the European obelisks 

 are therefore in danger of being seriously damaged within the next 

 hundred years." 



1 9. Examinalion of Obelisk by Committees of Experts. 



On November 30, 1889, the Commissioners of the Public Parks 

 of the city of New York requested the following persons to act as 

 a Committee of Experts, to make an examination of the Obelisk 

 and report to the Board, as soon as practicable, as to its condition, 

 with reference particularly to its preservation, viz., Lt.-Col. G. L. 

 Gillespie, of U. S. Engineers, Profs. J. S. Newberry, Albert H. 

 Gallatin, and R. O. Doremus, Mr. E. E. Farnam,' former U. S. 

 Consul General in Egypt, and the author. On JNIay 20, 1890, the 

 Committee reported^ that they had found the general surface of the 

 Obelisk "in as perfect a state of preservation, apparently, as when 

 it was treated with the paraffin wax compound, over 4 years and 6 

 months ago," and "in no present need of any additional treatment." 

 They recommended an additional local treatment, by the same pro- 

 cess, of certain spots on the monument, which, before 1885, had 

 become more deeply decayed and yet give a hollow sound to a light 

 blow. Of these spots a full individual description was given in an 

 Appendix to the Report, together with a chart of the four faces of 

 the Obelisk, showing their exact location. It was further recom- 

 mended that the process should be modified for this special purpose, 

 by application of more gentle and longer continued warmth, with- 

 out the use of the blast-lamp ; that no stone should be removed from 

 the surface of the monolith : that a preliminary experiment should 

 be carried on upon a large block of coarse granite, to determine the 

 depth of penetration of the compound into the stone : and that the 

 retreatment of these spots on the Obelisk should take place during 

 the hottest part of the following summer, July or August, when 

 the stone was in its driest state. The recommendation of re-treat- 

 ment of these spots simply meant that, in view of the deep decay 

 and exfoliation which had occurred up to 1885, the process had been 



1 Loc. cit., 84. 2 Report, p. 10. 



