Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/99

 ARCHIMEDES 61 sepulchre of Archimedes, which the Syracusans had totally neglected, and suffered to be grown over with thorns and briars. Recollecting some verses, said to be inscribed on the tomb, which mentioned that on the top was placed a sphere with a cylinder, I looked round me upon every object at the Agragentine Gate, the common receptacle of the dead. At last I observed a little column which just rose above the thorns, upon which was placed the figure of a sphere and cylinder. This, said I to the Syracusan nobles who were with me, this must, I think, be what I am seeking. Several persons were immediately employed to clear away the weeds and lay open the spot. As soon as a passage was opened, we drew near, and found on the opposite base the inscription, with nearly half the latter part of the v%rses worn away. Thus would this most famous, and formerly most learned, city of Greece have remained a stranger to the tomb of one of its most ingenious citizens, had it not been discovered by a man of Arpinum." To Archimedes is attributed the apophthegm : " Give me a lever long enough, and a prop strong enough, and with my own weight I will move the world." This arose from his knowledge of the possible effects of machinery ; but however it might astonish a Greek of his day, it would now be admitted to be as theoreti- cally possible as it is practically impossible. Archimedes would have required to move with the velocity of a cannon-ball for millions of ages to alter the position of the earth by the smallest part of an inch. In mathematical truth, however, the feat is performed by every man who leaps from the ground ; for he kicks the world away when he rises, and attracts it again when he falls back. Under the superintendence of Archimedes was also built the renowned galley for Hiero. It was constructed to half its height, by three hundred master workmen and their servants, in six months. Hiero then directed that the vessel should be perfected afloat ; but how to get the vast pile into the water the build- ers knew not, till Archimedes invented his engine called the helix, by which, with the assistance of very few hands he drew the ship into the sea, where it was completed in six months. The ship consumed wood enough to build sixty large galleys ; it had twenty tiers of bars and three decks ; the middle deck had on each side fifteen dining apartments besides other chambers, luxuriously furnished, and floors paved with mosaics of the story of the " Iliad." On the upper deck were gardens with arbors of ivy and vines ; and here was a temple of Venus, paved with agates, and roofed with Cyprus-wood ; it was richly adorned with pictures and statues, and furnished with couches and drin king-vessels. Adjoin- ing was an apartment of box-wood, with a clock in the ceiling, in imitation of the great dial of Syracuse ; and here was a huge bath set with gems called Tau- romenites. There were also on each side of this deck, cabins for the marine sol- diers, and twenty stables for horses ; in the forecastle ' was a fresh-water cistern which held 253 hogsheads; and near it was a large tank of sea-water, in which fish were kept. From the ship's sides projected ovens, kitchens, mills, and other offices, built upon beams, each supported by a carved image nine feet high. Around the deck were eight wooden towers, from each of which was raised a breastwork full of loopholes, whence an enemy might be annoyed with stones,