ANCIENT INGENUITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

ANCIENT INGENUITY.

FEAT OF JOSEPH'S WELL.

While we marvel at the engineering achievements of to-day, it is well to remember that great engineering achievements are not characteristic solely of the present generation. Considering the materials that the ancient engineer had at his command, his accomplishments i are remarkable. We are often reminded | of the engineering difficulties which must have presented themselves in the construction of the pyramids and temples. We marvel that the problems involved were solved at all in those days. But engineering feats were not all of this nature. . Writing in "Mechanical Engineering, W. H. Holcomb describes an ancient well Joseph's Well, at Cairo. He says: "Probably the most outstanding piece of ancient engineering was Joseph's Well, at Cairo, dug about the time the pyramids were built, in the neighbourhood of 3000 B.C. This well was 18 by 24 feet square and 295 feet in depth; two lifts were used to pump the water, the upper being 160 feet and the lower 135 feet. "The design of pump used was far remote from those in service to-day ana consisted of an endless chain of buckets pulled by oxen. In order to get oxen down to the 160-foot level a spiral pain was made around the upper section of the well, a considerable achievement in itself." We have advanced a king way m mechanical means, but we have advanced [but little in our ingenuity of appneaItion. - '