Scientific American Supplement, No. 417, December 29, 1883Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 417, December 29, 1883
Various
Science -- Periodicals
In 1854 Mr. Victor Place moved overland, from Nineveh to Mosul, the
winged bulls that at present are in the Assyrian museum of the Louvre,
and each of which weighs 32 tons. After carefully packing these in boxes
in order to preserve them from shocks, Place laid them upon their side,
having turned them over, by means of levers, against a sloping bank of
earth That he afterward dug away in such a manner that the operation was
performed without accident. He had had constructed an enormous car with
axles 0.25 m. in diameter, and solid wheels 0.8 m. in thickness (Fig.
2). Beneath the center of the box containing the bull a trench was dug
that ran up to the natural lever of the soil by an incline. This trench
had a depth and width such that the car could run under the box while
the latter was supported at two of its extremities by the banks. These
latter were afterward gradually cut away until the box rested upon the
car without shock. Six hundred men then manned the ropes and hauled the
car with its load up to the level of the plain. These six hundred men
were necessary throughout nearly the entire route over a plain that
was but slightly broken and in which the ground presented but little
consistency.
The route from Khorsabad to Mosul was about 18 kilometers, taking into
account all the detours that had to be made in order to have a somewhat
firm roadway. It took four days to transport the first bull this
distance, but it required only a day and a half to move the other one,
since the ground had acquired more compactness as a consequence of
moving the first one over it, and since the leaders had become more
expert. The six hundred men at Mr. Place's disposal had, moreover, been
employed for three months back in preparing the route, in strengthening
it with piles in certain spots and in paving others with flagstones
brought from the ruins of Nineveh. In a succeeding article I shall
describe how I, a few years ago, moved an ammunition stone house,
weighing 50 tons, to a distance of 35 meters without any other machine
than a capstan actuated by two men.--_A. De Rochas, in La Nature_.
* * * * *
[NATURE.]
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.
In the address delivered by Mr. Westmacott, President of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers to the English and Belgian engineers assembled
at Liege last August, there occurred the following passage: "Engineering
brings all other sciences into play; chemical or physical discoveries,
such as those of Faraday, would be of little practical use if engineers
were not ready with mechanical appliances to carry them out, and make
them commercially successful in the way best suited to each."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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