HOW HOT or HOW } ~ struction of buildings. ba of EGYPT Were BUILT? what means were the enormous blocks of | od were the pyramids of Egypt built? By stone, each weighing many tons, hauled v sto position up to nearly 500 feet above ground Rvel? This isa mystery thousands of years old, Which is still more or less of a puzzle and the lution of which is still today engaging the seri- Jus attehtion of modern engineers. Engineers of the 20th century with their mod- {em high-powered cranes could run up a structure ike one of the Egyptian pyramids with compara- (lve ease. But the Egyptians had neither cranes Bor mechanical motive-power to run them. They @!d have ropes and plenty of men to pull. How, With a great multitude pulling on ropes, may be @xplained the raising of great blocks of stone to a Sight of 500 feet? The usual explanation is that the 'stones were hauled up inclined planes, @r ramps, of earth, built gradually higher as the ork progressed. An engineer of the Orient has a new theory ¥ to how the pyramids were built, which he sets Berth in a journal called the Indian and Eastern Bngineering, published in Calcutta. He says @at the polished coating of the pyramids, now Jeeraly torn away, was not only an ornament t an aid to construttion, and that the big stona Mocks were caused to siide upward on this br hams of ropes passed over rollers at the top. He ieves, from what he kno of the mechanical ilities of the Egyptians and of the way in which Dey solved similar constructional problems, that Sis is far more likely than the use of hugs ®arthen ramps. Another theory is that the great stones used in the construction of the pyramids were rolled to the place of building and lifted into place by the devices pictured 48 the two accompanying illustrations reproduced from illustrations of * Power, by courtesy of the Continental Motors, "In examining the pyramids," says the Ori- ental authority, "the problem which has always confronted the engineer has been the method of their construction. It is one of the peculiarities of Egyptian archeology that among the many thousands of specimens of sculpture work on stone, depicting every possible aspect of early «Egyptian life and many historical events, which have been excavated, not one has come to light depicting any phase in the construction of the pyramids--one of the most colossal works ever undertaken by mankind in that or any subsequent age. There Is evidence to prove that the Egyptians of those days had acute intéllect and power of geometrical calculation and also a sound knowledge of dynamics as applied to the con. The pyramids themselves prove this beyond controversy. But no evidence of any kind has been unearthed to show that they had that profound knowledge of mechanics which would enable the construction and operation of cranes sufficiently large and powerful to swing . blocks of stone weighing several tons and place them in position anywhere up to nearly five hun- dred feet in the air. The absence of such proof is only negative, of course; but, on the other hand, tools of that period brought to light by excava- tion ere of the most primitive kind and alto- gether inconsistent with the theory that the peo- ple who used them had any knowledge of me- chanical appliances. "While several theories have been advanced, none has been propounded Which has met with anything like general acceptance. The most pop- ular (if it can be so called) is the earth (or rather sand) ramp theory, which Rropounds that as one row of blocks of stone was laid, from the founda- tions upward, an inclined plane of sand was con- structed around all four sides until it was level with the top of the row. Up this inclined plane the blocks of stone for the next row were hauled, and when positioned the sand-ramp was length- ened and heightened to the top of*them, blocks for another row hauled up, and so on and so on. In other words, the theory involves a bdlief that the Egyptians constructed one huge earth moup- tain to enable them to construct a smaller stone mountain. it being apparent that to get an angle for haulage over soft sand, the approach rige of the ramp would have to commence from nearly a mile away. "To the writer this idea appears crude in the extreme. Also it gives very little credit to the master-builders of a very extraordinary age." In explaining his new theory of how the pyra- mids were built, the writer says that it is known that the pyramids originally had an outer coat- ing of a highly polished substance, very thick and very hard, like modern cement. This cement covering was stripped off the Great Pyramid in 1867 by the Mohammedans, and embodied in the portant to an airship than to water-borne eraft. Temperature has a great deal to do with the buoyancy of an airship. Here, how- ever, is a paradox; forthe aviator, prior to a flight, carefully shades his thermometer from the rays of the sun before reading it, although his airship is going to be exposed to full sunshine. It is the same paradox that gives rise to in- dignation in the bosom of the average citizen, ex- plains a writer in Popular Science Monthly, when, at the close of a broiling July day, he reads the official weather report, according to which the highest temperature was only 90. He feels positive it was at least a hundred--and so it was over a sun-baked pavement. The universal practice of taking air tempera. tures in the shade is vot sheer perversity on the part of the weather man. He would like to be able to answer the question, "How het is it in ' the sun?" Unfortunately, this question merely prompts another: "How hot is what in the sun?" A thermometer exposed to the sunshine registers the re of the glass and metal of which it is made, not the temperature of the air. The shaded thermometer registers more or fess accurately the temperature of the air, per- haps the'most important factor of weather. An alternative to reading the thermometer in Weriant to observatiqps are even more im- COLD Is the AIR? the shade is to whirl it rapidly in the air at the end of a cord. .The excessive heat which the in- strument absorbs is immediately lost by conduc- tion to the air. . Why Red Means Danger I' is not just by chance or through custom that red is the color used for flags, lights and other signs which indicate the presence of danger. Red has been definitely chosen for the purpose because it is more conspicuous and shows farther than any other color. Many hues--such as blue, gray, brown, grepn and yellow--have a tendency to merge into their surroundings and become almost invisible at a short distance. Hence, of course, the green uni- forms of the old days of forest fighting, and the khaki of later years. But red is always distinctly red and stands out from almost any background. White and green are also quite easily seen, but white would be impossible as a cautionary sign, particularly at night, for obvious reasons, while green is handicapped by the excessive use made of that color by nature. " Given lamps of an equal strength, fitted with colored glasses, scientists have found that where the red light would carry three and a half miles, white and green would carry but two and a half miles, yellow one mile and blue, purple and violet less than one mile. Ze BE very latest post-war discovery is the of certain ailments by means of in. & jections of diluted gold. This very expen- sive method of 'restoring lost health was dis. ~ covered by a French doctor, who has completely cured a thy Parisian of a complaint similar hep. "Although gold is very scarce at present, a - limited supply is available for medicinal pur- E The price for one injegtion of good quality reaches $250, While in one or two gold injections have cost over . $500 each. Consequently, only very rich persons at present undergo this gold treatment, which ow been successful in rescuing several cases of gom| nervous breakdown. should be remembered, however, that the & INJECTION of GOLD as a CURE for FEVERS gold itself is of no real value as a tonic, The idea in making the injections isto liven up the patient and prevent him or her from d too seriously. This done, doctors believe half the battle is won. . It will also be very interesting to know thas t is now being used in several * this gold of the largest European hospitals. Until i only nervous people and those suffering = mental disorders have been treated, but ; ments have recently shown that gold eran. costly though they are, are of great value allaying fever and kindred diseases. 4 Strange to say, the injections are not made through the usual typé of syringe, but generally through a conical-shaped tube of pure platinum costing $450. Crude Crane Supposed to Have Been Used for Lifting the Quarried Stones Into Position. construction of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, where it may still be seen. In the case of the second pyramid, however, a good portion of the original outer covering still remains at the apex. é engineer above quoted says that the gen- eral assumption that the surface coatings were plastered on after the completion of the pyramids is erroneous. "The smooth cement covering," he goes on to explain, "was put on from the bottom upward as the work proceeded. That is to say, when the first row of stones above the founda- tions, i.e, above ground, had been positioned, their outer sides were given the cement plaster- ing. Assuming this to be so, the edifice had a smooth glissade of an ever-rising height as each layer of masonry was added. The object of such a method of construction will at once become ap- parent if we imagine a roller to have been placed at the angle of the flat top and a number of ropes laid over it down the sides. ' "When the word 'ropes' is mentioned we must calculate upon long lengths, spliced into cables, The construction of, say, five such fibrous cables, about three-quarters of a mile in length, replaced as worn out, would have been a small under- taking compared with the manufacture of a colos- sal and totally unnecessary ramp, or huge moun- tain of sand, the erection and removal of which would have been a titanic operation alone. On one end of those gables would have been hitéhed a block, slready faced and angled, with its smooth side against the cement incline. On the othér end, a number of men would have been ranged in lines for hauling. . "The number would have been a great one, but history relates that nearly one hundred thou- sand men were employed in the construction of the pyramids. With regard to the hauling of the blocks into position, therefore, the only limits would have been the length of the cable and of the ridge. In such conditions, 10,000 men divided into five rows of 2000 each, hauling on a 20-ton mass over rollers, against a smooth glissade, _--_.--. MUSICAL BOTTLES VERY good musical instrument may be easily made by hanging eight or mora bot- tles with strings as shown in_the accom- panying illustration reproduced from the Illus- trated World. These bottles are then tuned by~ method of construction is "the extent to which geometry was utilized by the Ascribed to the Ancients of Transporting Huge Blocks of Stone from the Quarries Miles Distant a to the Site of the Building Operations, would have had an easy job. Once up, the blocks would be hauled to the near side of the haulers, and the process of erection would £0 on away from them until the glissade was reached, when the latter would be built up to the new level, and work would begin again positioning another row of blocks. "The theory advanced is supported by several considerations. The modern block-and-tackle system is unquestionably only an evolution of the very plan of handling heavy weights just de- scribed. Both the older and the modern methods required a number of parallel ropes or cables to take off and divide the tension of a ve: y heavy weight, without which division the strain on a single strand would be too much. In each method also there is the division of the pulling force be- tween several strands. The principles involved are the same; only the modern power or hand- driver block and tackle is more scientific and less cumbersome than the ancient cables working over rollers. But--and here is the point---how much less cumbersome is this method than the idea of mountainous sand-rampa, first thrown up and then thrown away? "That the method described was also peca- liarly adapted to the science of architecture as then understood in Egypt, is demonstrated by a study of the grand chamber in the Great Pyra- mid. This chamber is a solution to a problem of statics, apparently founded entirely upon the dis- tribution of forces upon .parallel lines, and its clearly indicative of trained Egyptian architect of the olden days. It is worth while describing how his problem was solved. It is apparent that King Cheops desired two rooms: one lszger, a kind of antechamber; . Is THIS How PYRAMIDS "A Modern ENGINEER'S THEORY May Solve HISTORY'S | Is THIS How PYRAMIDS 4 Ms Cee oe wi Great MYSTERY the other smaller, the sepulcher for the sarco- phagus. It is with the first we are dealing. To make this chamber rectangular in form would, with 200 feet of granite overhead, have been to court disaster. On the other hand, to make it pyramidical in its lateral direction would: have completely destroyed the imposing effect of the space. The problem was solved by the science of applied statics and geometry, by shelving each layer of stone inward, to overlap the last along parallel ridges, while a flat roof was preserved by continuing the process until the builder could close it over with single wide slabs of sufficient strength to support the enormous weight above. The angle of incline is along lines parallel with the exterior sides of the pyramid, to enable the pressure forces exerted tn beé distributed evenly and to be met, and to counterbalance the tendency to cave in. The effect in torchlight, illuminating the deep and settled gloom of the interior of the ' Great Pyramid, was the desired ap of 47 vast rectangular room, fit sntechamber to ths tomb of a Pharaoh. » : "The method followed in the construction of : this chamber has been detailed at some length-- first, to illustrate the knowledge of applied statics' possessed by ancient Egyptian architects, and, secondly, to show the lines upon which the Egyp- tian mind apparently tended to work. "It is contended that with all its ignorance of the long subsequent and varied discoveries (7) of Archimedes and Pythagoras, and of our modern use of power-driven metal cables working over blocks and pulleys, the same powers of: intéllee- tual and geometrical calculation as are evideneed in the grand chamber of the Great Pyramid were brought to bear upon the dynamical problem of constructing the whole edifice." SHORTHAND 2000 YEARS OLD WO thousand years old, and going stronger than ever! Such is the amazing record of shorthand. How much older it is, who shall say? It is known that Mareus Tallius Tiro, Cicero's slave and secretary, was busily taking down his master's orations in a shorthand of his own invention some 11 centuries before a Nor. man soldier set foot on English shores. In fact, the world today would know little of Cicero's ora- tery but for Tiro's ingenuity and industry. And ever since those remote days shorthand kas flourished, with a growing band of devotees which today numbers its millions. It was not, however, until the days of "Good Queen Bess" that nd, as known today, was cradled in England. Then one Dr. Timothy Bright evolved a novel system in 1688, with Peter Bates quick on his heels with another system two years later, Then came John Willis with his diseiples, just in time to take down and immortalize Wiil- iam Shakespeare's plays as they were acted on the Globe stage--for it was largely from the re- porters' notebooks that the plays werefirstprinted. In the 17th century there seems to have been a small epidemic of shorthand, which became quite a popular hobby, adopted by no one more zealously than by Samuel Pepys, who made it the medium for his fascinating diary, to which we 'owe so much of what we know of Stuart times. In the middle of the following came Gurney with "an entirely new and wonderful sys- tem." It was this system that Charles Dickens surreptitiously struggled to' master, perched on his stool in a solicitor's office; and what a strug- gle it seems to have been. No wonder he makes Davia Soppestield declare that shorthand was "about equa the mastery of six a: Ro what Dickens found so ak. ing a task, Thackeray affects to scoff at. "What an accomplishment to boast of |" he exclaims, "Look at this! Nothing could be easier. You don't know what it mgans? Of course not. Neither do I. Neither does it. But what of that? Short. hand, indeed!" But probably neither Dickens nor Thackeray knew Isaac Pitman's wonderful system of short- hand, which was to revolptionize and simplify the art, and to count its devotees in hundreds of thousands. HOW Japanese WOMEN FISH for PEARLS by men, but it is the women pearl oysters by diving in Japan. In the on about Ago bay in the province of Shima, the Bay of Gokasho in the province of Ise, as well as in N Australia and India pear! fishing is conducted | obtain the , other parts of the country, women are almost ex- clusively employed in this work. the boat, help to lift them in, and then return to the shore. can remain under water from one to two minutes. Some of them are so expert that they will gather a hundred oysters in a m . - SINGING and BATHING Pe