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KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



the master mechanics who laid the corner-stone of this monument more than 

 thirty-six years ago, and the old watchman of the monument who has been con- 

 tinuously employed in that capacity during nearly the whole intervening period. 

 The flag over the monument floated to-day from the flagstaff-top, which is exactly 

 600 feet from the ground, thus displaying the American colors at the greatest 

 height ever known in the world. The monument itself, with its height of 550 

 feet, far overtops every other structure of human hands. The aluminum apex of 

 the monument is engraved with inscriptions, as follows: On one face 



* ; ; * 



• " Chief Engineer and Architect, Thos. Lincoln Casey, \ 



\ Colonel Corps of Engineers. Assistants Geo. W. Davis, | 

 \ Fourteenth United States Infantry; Bernard E.Green, j 

 : Civil Engineer; Master Mechanic P. H. McLaughlin." : 



* • — •* 



On another : 



* • * 



" Corner stone laid on the bed of the foundation July 

 4, 1848- The first stone at a height of 152 feet, laid Au- 

 gust 7, 1880. Capstone set December 6, 1884." 



On a third ; 



" Joint commission at the setting of the capstone, Ches- 

 ter A. Arthur, W. W. Corcoran, and Chairman M. E. 

 Bell, Edward CI ark, John Newton, Act of August 2, 1876." 



And on the fourth face the words : 



* 



" Laus Deo." 





The capstone is a cuneiform keystone four feet five and three-quarter inches 

 on the outer faces in height, with a shoulder on each side of seven inches to tie 

 the ashler face of the pyramidal cap; below this shoulder the stone is ten and a 

 half inches, making the total length from top to base five feet two and a half 

 inches. The stone at the base is three feet nineteen-seventeenth inches square, 

 and at the cap where the aluminum tip is to be placed, the diameter is exactly 

 five inches. 



The aluminum tip is something new in monumental architecture, and its use 

 is for two purposes. It is freer from oxidation than any other substance that 

 could be used, and it is of exceptional value as a conductor of electricity, serv- 

 ing, in this case, as the tip of both monument and the lightning-rod. It will be 

 secured in its place by a wrought copper rod, leading down through the center 

 of the capstone, and below will connect with each of the four columns that form 

 the elevator frame in the main shaft. At the base of the monument, these lead- 

 ers will be conducted to the well beneath the center of the foundation, thus form- 

 ing the most perfect electrical conductor known to science. 



