A Tall Tower.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 202, 28 August 1886, Page 4

A Tall Tower.

The Monument WMcli Is to Bo Erootcd

In Paris.

A colossal tower 1,000 feet in height will be not only the piiocipal attraction of tho Exposition, but the most daring work ovor undertaken by any engineer. The pyramids of Egypt, St Peter'e, the Washington Monument, all these wonderful elevations will seem the work of dwarfs besido this massive iron construction, on whoso summit will float the French flag. This tower consists of four iron pyramids, placod 300 feot one from tho other, each pyramid being 50 feet square at the base. At the first story, 200 ft above the ground, these pyramids are united by aglass-covorod gallery, 50 feot wide, which makes tho tour of the construction. The gallery will bo used for soirees, etc. At tho second story is a room 100 feot square, covorod by glass.

At the summit ia a cupola with an oxtorior balcony. There will bo placod tho electrical apparatus destined to light tho exposition. Each pyramid will havo an elevator constructed ia the same rosnnor as the SwUs railways. It iB startling to think ot an elevator taking one eevon timoa as high as the Column Vondomo, hut thoro will be no danger. The olevator will bo drawn by a cable, but steol grappling hooks are to be arranged in such a manner that, if the cable breaks, the elevator will remain suspended. Thero has nerer boon an accidsnt on the Righi, and M. Eiffel, who ia the originator of thia stupendous scheme, soys hia elevators will bo even moro Eocure than any yet constructed. A vertical elevator will also take passengers from the tower. When at the top we can admire the night, Paris and the millions of lights. In pleasant weather we can sco the most splendid panorama that human thought can imagine. Above tbo hills which with thoir green foliage surround Paris we shall see Compiegno, Rheims, Fountainoblou, Chartres, Dreux, Creil, tho villages lost in the woods and tho rivers trailing thoir silver ribbon across tho valleys.

But this metallic tower will not bo built expressly for the curious ; it will render service to science In the copula will be installed teleacopoe, pluviomotres, anemometres, etc. Astronomical and meteorological observations will bo made under new conditions, and experiments which have heretofore boen impossible can, for the first time, bo attempted. Atmospheric electricity, tho velocity of tho wind, the transparency of the air, Foucault's experiment to Drove that the earth revolves, all can bo studied. Spectroscnpos for the analysis of the light of the sun and stars will be placed under the dome. A study equally interesting will be that of the variation ot temperature with altitude. For the public a very strange sight will bo the effect of lightning and the deviation of a falling body. The tower will be surrounded by a light-ning-rod, but in itself the tower will form an immense lightning rod, by which will descend formidable quantities of electricity. In a thunderstorm everyone in the tower will be struck by lightning, although unconscious of and receiving no injury fiom this electric shock. When the night is black with clouds, from tho foot of tho tower one can see a continuous sparkling fall of lightning. To produce that effoct a lightning rod will be placed on the summit of the tower, and theconductor will be interrupted for tho space of two yards. The lightning will thus jump from one section to another, with continual explosions.

At tho base of the tower, on immense blocks of marble, inscriptions recalling tho history of the century will be engraved in gilded letters. Thero will be found extracts from the " Declaration of the Rights of Man," the names of illustrious Republicans, etc. The weight of thiß tower will not bo greater than 7.000 tons, almost enough iron to mako a railway from Paris to St. Germain by way of Versailles. The cost will bo about 81,000,000, but tho inventor of thia gigantic work asks only tho admission fees for ton years to pay all the expenses of the building.