18 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
4 
5,000 people who had come to witness the operation; the foundation was then 
removed, and the obelisk left hanging free. The obelisk having been turned over 
to a horizontal position, Captain Gorringe next proceeded to build two piles of 
beams placed crosswise; and, as soon as they reached the height of the stone, 
jacks were used to lift the latter out of its trunnion bearings and block it up. All 
the construction was then removed, and, foot by foot, the obelisk was lowered to 
the ground by reducing the piles, first from one side and then the other. On the 
ground the obelisk was incased in an iron cradle, consisting of a parabolic truss 
on each side, connected by means of heavy channel flow beams and braces. To 
the flow beams two heavy channel bars were riveted, and corresponding channels 
were laid on the ground to form the track for the obelisk to move on, the move- 
ment being effected by inserting 8-inch cannon balls into the grooves formed by 
the channel bars, and the track being laid sixty feet ahead of the cradles, so that 
as the stone was pushed along, the track behind was taken up and placed in front. 
From the base of the obelisk to the sea a trench had been dug, which, at the end 
near the sea, is 95 feet long by 4o feet broad, and 16 feet deep; in this portion a 
float, constructed for the purpose, will be used to transport the obelisk to the port 
of Alexandria, a distance of about a mile in a straight line. In digging the pit 
around the base of the monolith, Captain Gorringe discovered that the shaft stood 
on a pedestal, the existence of which was before unknown. It was 9 feet square, 
7 feet in height, and rested upon three well-preserved marble steps with a base of 
masonry. From the lower surface of the lower step the obelisk rises 81 feet 2% 
inches to its summit, and its estimated weight is about 196 tons. At the port of 
Alexandria the obelisk will be placed on a large ship selected for the purpose, and 
so brought to this country. [This plan is very different from that adopted by the 
English engineer, which, it will be remembered, was to inclose the obelisk in a 
cylindrical vessel formed of wrought iron plates, and provided with water-tight 
compartments. This, after being rolled into the sea, and towed to the harbor, 
was ballasted and provided with a keel, deck, sail, and rudder. The vessel was 
then placed in charge of two or three skilled mariners, for whom a small cabin on 
deck was provided, and towed to England by a steam tug, the sail being simply 
for steadying the cylinder.] Should our obelisk reach port in safety the same 
machinery, with very slight modification, will be used to place it in an erect posi- 
tion, after a proper site has been selected for it. 
There can be no doubt that our citizens, as they pass by this obelisk after its 
erection, will have their curiosity excited by the sight of hieroglyphs which have 
probably been seen and read by the Jews at the time of Moses, or when the Sav- 
ior was taken by his parents to Egypt as a place of refuge from Herod’s rage. 
The following is a list of the more notable obelisks, with their present sites, 
SIZES, (CEC. 
