PAGE FOUR
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN: LAWRENCE: KANSAS
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1949
After 71 Years Londoners Scrub Cleopatra's Needle
Scrubbing off 71 years of London grime, on top of nearly 35 centuries of Egyptian dust, sounds like a housewife's nightmare.
To the workmen who have been cleaning up Cleopatra's Needle beside the Thames, it is not only a tough job, but one that promises them the first look at what is hoped will be the original rosy finish of the historic obelisk. It is almost 70 feet high
Thothmes had the future "Cleopatra" monument, along with others, quarried from solid granite far up the Nile. Brought downstream to his capital at Heliopolis, it was set up at the great Temple of the Sun.
In 23 B. C., Roman Emperor Augustus transferred the obelisk from Heliopolis to Alexandria, There, it was erected before the Temple of the Caesars, scene of Cleopatra's death seven years earlier. Thus came the association with Cleopatra.
Cleopatra's Needle — brought to England in 1878—has no direct connection with Egypt's queen, notes the National Geographic society, Washington, D. C. It was created some 1,500 years before Cleopatra's time by one of the Pharaohs, Thothimes III, who is credited with introducing charlots into the Egyptian army.
The modern story of the monument skips to the end of the 1700's, when the British defeated the Napoleonic forces in Egypt. The victors thought of sending to Englehart a trophy one of the twin obelisks, which long before had fallen into the desert outside Alexandria.
This project failed, as did other proposals by the Egyptian government to make Cleopatra's Needle a gift to England. Eventually, the gift was accepted.
Funds were raised for the difficult transportation. In the life of the famous obelisk, no event was more exciting than the trip by which it reached London.
Since no ship of the time could handle the 200-ton package, passage was arranged by towing operation. A conveyor was built around the monument in the form of an iron cylinder with pointed ends. This was rolled over a specially constructed road to the water's edge. Quarters for a crew were built on top the cylinder, ballast was incorporated, a rudder was set up, and mast and sails added.
After a rough journey from Alexandria, a storm in the Bay of
Farmers Get New Weather Station
Goodland, Kan., Sept. 19.(U.P.) Northwestern Kansas ranchers and farmers, who have long batted severe weather conditions as a major enemy, today had an ally in a new government weather station
The weather bureau and a Civil Aeronautics Administration office are housed in a building at the Goodland municipal airport administration building that was dedicated yesterday.
The weather station was cited as one of the best equipped in the area and the CAA office was proclaimed as a boon to the state of Kansas yesterday in dedication addresses.
A staff of two forecasters and five observers will man the bureau on a 24 hour basis and will supply regional weather forecasts for the entire northwest Kansas area. The Goodland Civil Aeronautics Administration facility is officially known as an interstate airway communications station and operates as part of the federal airways.
The CAA office, under the direction of James C. Bligh and staffed by a crew of six men, will transmit by high frequency radio on range a beam to guide pilots over the airway routed between Denver and Kansas City.
Gov. Frank Carlson, who was present for the dedication ceremonies, recalled that severe losses to livestock and farm crops last winter from weather conditions gave the impetus to a regional drive for the station last winter.
Biscay resulted in the separation of the tug and her strange charge, the Cleopatra, as well as the loss of some of the crew. The obelisk craft, however, was found afloat by a passing steamer and taken to a nearby port. It was later picked up by a powerful tug and taken to England.
Washington, Sept. 19- (U.P.) - CIO president Philip Murray said today that a nation-wide steel strike will begin at midnight Saturday unless the steel companies settle "here and now" on the basis of the recommendations of President Truman's fact-finding board.
Benjamin F. Fairless, president of United States Steel corporation, led the management group, representing more than 70 steel companies.
Cyrus S. Ching, head of the federal mediation service, sat in at a peacemaker. His job is to try to persuade both sides to resume direct communication and so their own dispute without active government intervention.
INDEPENDENT
Steel Peace Talks Begin
Ching called the meeting after university hours and had become hopelessly deadlocked.
LAUNDRY and DRY CLEANERS
Yes, quality cleaning is your assurance of careful handling, individual attention and flawless finishing.
Telephone 432
Lawrence, Kans.
With 1,000,000 CIO steelworkers poised to walk out this weekend, the big question was whether the steel companies would accept as a basis for their own plans the mendations submitted Sept. 10 by a presidential fact-finding board.
740 Vt.
The board threw out the union's demands for a fourth-round wage increase but proposed that the steel companies grant pension and insurance benefits which would cost the companies about 10 cents an hour for each of their employees.
The union accepted the board's recommendation as a basis for negotiations. The steel companies have said they are willing to resume production, but he declined that President Truman, in setting up the board, gave assurances that its findings were not to be binding on either side.
White elephants in Siam are baptized and feted like human beings.
'Most Generous Man' Title To Sandwich Shop Owner
San Francisco—(U,P)-Gerald G. Hahn had a reasonable explanation today for state liquor agents who asked why he kept whiskey in his sandwich shop when he is licensed to sell only wine and beer.
"I keep the whisky for my friends, but I don't sell it." Hahn said. "After all, it's several blocks to the nearest bar and I don't see any sense in walking that far."
"I must say you are the most generous man I have ever met," commended E. A. McDonald, hearer of the state board of equalization.
Lawrence Optical Co.
1025 Mass.
HITS FOR THE HILL
Read the University Daily Kansan—Patronize Its Advertisers.