THE INVENTOR OF THE MONT CENIS TUNNEL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 356, 13 February 1880, Page 19

THE INVENTOR OF THE MONT CENIS TUNNEL.

The unveiling of the monument commemorating that great triumph of science, the piercing of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, was peiformed with great state and pomp in presence of King Humbert, on Sunday, 26th Oct. The monument itself is a noble work, and conveys, as far as such a thing can do, the idea sought to be expressed. The Genius of Science, an angelic figure in bronze, with widespread wings, stands so lightly on the apex of a gigantic pyramid of rude rocks, that it seems about to fly, and that it has only rested there for a moment or two to fulfil its appointed task. That task is the inscribing on a broad slab the names of Sommeiller, Grattoni, and Grandis, the engineers, whose combined genius accomplished the great work of uniting Frasce and Italy by means of the Mont Cenis Tunnel.

Beneath the Genius of Science are seen fine marble figures of Titans, whose huge limbs are distorted as they cling to the rocks, adown which they fall, and whose faces and looks express their defeat and disappointment at the triumph of science. The monument, which is one of the handsomest in Turin, that city of fine monuments, forms an elegant fountain. Other inscriptions tell the names of minor workmen in the great achievement commemorated. But one name has been shamefully omitted ; that is the name of the Jesuit, Father Hall. When the project of the tunnel was first placed under discussion in the Piedmontese Parliament, the plan of employing compressed air as the motive-power presented by the engineer Piatti of Milan, which he claimed to be original, was rejected, because, as the Deputy Gustavo di Cavour, the parliamentary promoter, declared it was not Piatti's invention, but that it "is attributed to a Jesuit professor of the last century, Father Hall." And again, he said that Grattoni, Sommeiller, and Grandis were not chosen because they employed compressed air, " a thing already done by the Jesuit, Father Hall," but because they found a plan of increasing and enlarging this powerful agent. ["These facts may be found in the Piedmontese Parliamentary Ecports for 1857.] And the invention of Father Hall was, in the same discussion, declared to be "most excellent in given conditions, and likewise advantageous in others." Thus, it is evident that the great triumph of science exhibited in the piercing of the Mont Cenis Tunnel owes its origin to a member of that Order which is most despised and persecuted in Italy. That country strives to destroy the living Jesuits, and to rob the dead of the honours that belong to them. No one can hesitate to consider Father Hall the precursor and the master of the three engineers to whom the Turin monument has been inaugurated with such pomp. He was their master, "as Citnabue was the master of Giotto in paintiDg ; as Cimarosa of Bossini in music ; and as Alessandro Volta of the modern scientists in physics."' — Pilot.