The Aswân Obelisk: With some remarks on the Ancient Engineering — John Shaqi
The Aswân Obelisk: With some remarks on the Ancient EngineeringEngelbach, Reginald
History
The Aswân Obelisk: With some remarks on the Ancient Engineering
Engelbach, Reginald
Egypt -- Antiquities; Obelisks
[9] The check the stress in the levers. Referring to figure 6,
(Stress) (Section modulus) = Sum of moments on one side of fulchrum,
_i. e._ (s × .0982 × (25)^3) = (1170 × 2240 × 216)/(30 × 21) = 586
pounds per square inch, which is well within the powers of any wood.
[10] It will be seen that, if the obelisk lies at too low a level
to be rolled _downwards_ to the valley, it can be raised by tilting
backwards and forwards by means of levers acting from the north and
south trenches alternately, as mentioned in section 21. If the butt
were raised even a metre above its present level, it would enormously
reduce the quantity of rock to be removed before the obelisk could be
rolled out.
Then, about Q, the moment of the horizontal force of the ropes round
the obelisk to the moment of the weight will be, from the figure, as 9
to 2, so if _n_ be the total number of men required to pull the obelisk
over, then (_n_ × 100) = (2 × 1170 × 2240)/9 which gives 5824 men as
against the 8000 men which would be required if the levers were not
used. It is an enormous number, but I do not see how they could manage
with less.
A bank of sand just in front of the lower edge of the obelisk would
make the second turn an easy matter, and if from thence the obelisk is
rolled downwards on soft sand, I think that the 5824 men will still be
ample, as the sand can be undercut in front of the edge and so make the
rolling approximate to that of a cylinder.
(24) As to the size of the ropes required for the rolling out of the
obelisk, all we can do is to obtain a very rough idea as to it. If they
spread the men out slightly fanwise, I do not see how they could have
used more than 40 ropes. The strain per rope will be, as we have seen,
(2/9 × 1170/40) = 6.5 tons per rope.
The rope used was probably the very best palm-rope, newly made. The
safe load which can be put on coir rope, which is of about the same
strength, is given by the formula: Load in cwts = (Circumference in
inches)^2 divided by 4 (_Military Engineering_, 1913, Part III A,
p. 49). Substituting, we have (6.5 × 20 × 4) = C^2 which gives a
circumference of 22.8 inches and a diameter of 7 ¼ inches. If such a
rope were used it would require handling loops on it.
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