FIG. 2.--MOVING THE WINGED BULLS FROM NINEVEH TO MOSUL
IN 1854
Fig. 1 shows the general aspect of the belfry with its stays. This is taken from an engraving published in 1844 by Mr. De Gregori, who, during his childhood, was a witness of the operation, and who endeavored to render the information given by the official account completer without being able to make the process much clearer.
In 1854 Mr. Victor Place moved overland, from Nineveh to Mosul, the winged bulls that at present are in the Assyrian museum of the Louvre, and each of which weighs 32 tons. After carefully packing these in boxes in order to preserve them from shocks, Place laid them upon their side, having turned them over, by means of levers, against a sloping bank of earth That he afterward dug away in such a manner that the operation was performed without accident. He had had constructed an enormous car with axles 0.25 m. in diameter, and solid wheels 0.8 m. in thickness (Fig. 2). Beneath the center of the box containing the bull a trench was dug that ran up to the natural lever of the soil by an incline. This trench had a depth and width such that the car could run under the box while the latter was supported at two of its extremities by the banks. These latter were afterward gradually cut away until the box rested upon the car without shock. Six hundred men then manned the ropes and hauled the car with its load up to the level of the plain. These six hundred men were necessary throughout nearly the entire route over a plain that was but slightly broken and in which the ground presented but little consistency.
The route from Khorsabad to Mosul was about 18 kilometers, taking into account all the detours that had to be made in order to have a somewhat firm roadway. It took four days to transport the first bull this distance, but it required only a day and a half to move the other one, since the ground had acquired more compactness as a consequence of moving the first one over it, and since the leaders had become more expert. The six hundred men at Mr. Place's disposal had, moreover, been employed for three months back in preparing the route, in strengthening it with piles in certain spots and in paving others with flagstones brought from the ruins of Nineveh. In a succeeding article I shall describe how I, a few years ago, moved an ammunition stone house, weighing 50 tons, to a distance of 35 meters without any other machine than a capstan actuated by two men.--A. De Rochas, in La Nature.
[NATURE.]
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.
In the address delivered by Mr. Westmacott, President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers to the English and Belgian engineers assembled at Liege last August, there occurred the following passage: "Engineering brings all other sciences into play; chemical or physical discoveries, such as those of Faraday, would be of little practical use if engineers were not ready with mechanical appliances to carry them out, and make them commercially successful in the way best suited to each."