Nov. lb, 1881.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



61 



■ 151.11 u; .ij 



C. ^ '^ =5'151,C16=tlie nnmber which has been called the 



key number to the dimensions of the King's Chamber, and of the 

 I'vramid generally. 

 '„ ,._ 25,000, OOOe 



= 119'37 = height of antc-chaniber. 



11. "'' '•"'"' =3G,52-t-22 = perimeter of base of the Pyramid. 



250t ■' 



12. iiiiIL= 5,813-01 = height of the Pyramid. 



500tn- 



esir* 



13. „ . — ■ '^l,881-59 = lc!igth of Grand Gallery. 



11. g ,- — =-11213 = length of the King's Chamber. 



Among the equations I obtained during the investigation were 



voral which gave a smaller value for the diameter of the sun; 

 lul as I am not awai-e that any sensible difference has ever been 

 i served between the polar and equatorial diameters, this result 



'ined adverse to the theory of a connection between the Pyratnid 

 isures and the diameters of the three bodies, until it occun-ed to 

 that probably one diameter referred to the photosphere, and the 



her to the comparatively dark and solid or liquid body of the sun. 

 his latter diameter is 853,718 Pyramid miles, or 2,220 miles less 

 uiu that of the photosphere, and the following equations, in which 



is represented by the Greek letter a, will show its connection with 

 le Pyramid measures : — • 



15. — J- = 36,52 1-20= perimeter of base. 



16. 2^.= 5,81301 = height of Pyramid. 



17. 100 j = 116'2G = length of ante-chamber. 

 0V5. 



50e" " 



1^- 400;00(V«=l'«81-59- 



18. 



= 11213. 



^- ?27l0i = l'®Slo9. 



21- i;0007' = 51.51C. 



The length of the earth's polar axis is assumed by pyramidists 

 to be 500,000,000 pj-ramid inches, or 7891--11 pyramid miles of 

 63,360 pyramid inches to tlie mile, or 7,899-30 English miles, while 

 the value derived by Col. Clarke, from an elaborate discussion of 

 measurements of arcs of meridian, is 7,899-11 English miles — the 

 difference being therefore, loss than two-tenths of a mile. I was, 

 therefore, much surprised to find that the Pyramid measures would 

 not yield a less diameter for the earth than 7,892-o4 pyramid miles, 

 or more than a mile greater than the generally-accepted length of 

 the polar diameter. The question therefore arose — Can this latter 

 lengtli be in error to the e.vtent indicated, or is the value 1 have 

 obtained connected in any way with some marked feature 

 of the Pyramid ? It seemed to be highly improbable, if not impos- 

 sible, that the results of the calculations of Bessel, Airy, and Clarke 

 could be in error to the extent of more than a small fraction of a 

 mile, and assuming, therefore, that the figure of th? earth is truly 

 spheroidal with major axis = 7,7177, and minor axis = 7,891-41 

 Pyramidal miles, I calculated the gco-centric latitude in which a 

 diameter will be 7,892-54 miles, and found it to be 78° 25' 33" ; and, 

 deducting this from 90°, we have 11° 31' 27". A glance at this 

 result at once suggested that it was the polar distance of the 

 Pyramid pole-atar, a Draconis, multiplied by the quantity jr, and on 

 diriding 11° 3 1.'27 " by tt 1 obtained 3° 41', which is a very close approxi- 

 mation to the calculated polar distance of a Draconis at the time 

 of the building of the Pyramid. Now a section of the earth through 

 the parallel of latitude marked out in so singular a manner has a 

 diameter of 1,5835 1 Pyramid miles, or exactly one-fifth of the 

 earth's equatorial diameter, and an area of 1,969,462 miles, cr one 

 twenty-fifth that of a section through the equator, which is 

 49,236,600 miles. The occurrence of the Pjiamid numbers 5 and 

 25 in connection with the diameter thus indicated in so striking a 

 manner gives a peculiar importance to it, and accordingly I have 



found that expressions in which it is a factor can be formed which 

 give exact] u the various Pyramid measures. Thus, representing this 

 diameter by the Greek letter ij (eta), wo have 



"• ''" 4,000 X 5-151,6 16~''^''-'^^- 



23. 



a' 



-— — - =0 lol.blO. 



4,000q 



S 



■" = 11,626-02 = 100 times length of ante-chamber. 



S'Tr^TT 



.i,0U0q'5,151,646 



^/2e-, 



= 36,521-22. 



= lll'795 = height of granite wainscot in ante-chamber. 

 100 ^ ° 



450(T^n 



149-37. 



5-151,646e^) 



SVy/ff _ 



400,0001,^ 

 .S7r5-151,616 



= 1,881-59. 



32. 



lOOi; 

 ^=9,131-05. 



S 



7^ = 5,813-01. 



= 1,881-59. 



It may be remarked that the diameter >; is exactly one seven- 

 thousandth part greater than the polar diameter, and that the 

 parallels of latitude in which it occurs may bo regarded as the 

 limits of the habitable portion of the globe. 



The results of my investigation haWng proved that a measure 

 corresponding to our English mUe, and containing 63,360 Pyramid 

 inches, was used by the architect of the Pyramid, it became a 

 matter of interest to ascertain, if possible, how it originated, and 

 ultimately I arrived at the folio-wing formula : — 



33. 10*/ ''— = 17,724'5 miles, which is the circumference of a 

 ^ m 

 circle whose area is 25,000,000 miles, or equal to the area of a 

 section of the earth through the parallel of latitude in which the 

 length of a diameter is equal to the mean of all the earth's 

 diameters (7,904-545 P. miles). Tliis area expressed in Pyramid 

 inches, is equal to a square, the side of whicli has a length of 

 316,800,000 inches, and this, divided by 5,000 = 63,360 inches. 



My experience in the development of the theory which has 

 yielded the results given in this paper has convinced mo that there 

 is no feature of the Great Pyramid, or relation of its various parts, 

 which cannot be expressed in terms of the astronomical data 1 have 

 used, and in some cases, as 1 have already shown, two, three, or 

 more equations can be formed, each containing one or more factors 

 not in the others, but gi'ving precisely the same result. It is evident, 

 therefore, that the builder possessed a far greater amount of mathe- 

 matical and astronomical knowledge than it has hitherto been 

 supposed could possibly have been acquii-ed by the ordinary course 

 of observation and scientific investigation in the early age of the 

 world when the Pyramid was built ; and the fact that the values of 

 the diameters and distances used by him are within the limits of the 

 jjrobable errors of the means of the best astronomical determinations 

 of recent times proves that, so far at least as these values are con- 

 cerned, modern science has nmde no real advance upon the science 

 known to the builder of the Great Pyramid 4,000 years ago. 



NEW MODE OF GROWING PLANTS. 



By E. C. 



TO Dr. C. W. Siemens, the celebrated electrician, we are indebted 

 for a series of experiments lately tried by him on the effect of 

 the dynamo-electric light in promoting the vegetation and growth 

 of plants. The idea that the electric current might be utdised in 

 this way first occurred to him by observing that the blistering 

 effect on the skin from this light was very similar to that produced 

 by a hot sun. Without the aid of the sun's rays, chlorophyll is not 

 formed, and this is an all-important element in vegetable life, as it 

 produces the green colour of the leaves, and supplies the plants 

 with carbon and starch for forming woolly tissues, by causing the 

 decomposition of the carbonic acid vapour absorbed from the atmo- 

 spliere by the leaf. The electric light, being, in fact, a sun on a 

 small scale, has been formed to produce chlorophyll and other 

 necessary chemical changes in a similar way to solar rays. 



