Evening Star Newspaper, April 20, 1924, Page 60

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. Most Important Work Yet Awaits Archeologists at Egyptian Tomb Mu’st Reach Mummy and Other Contents of Coffin BY KARL K. KITCHEN. ¥ Zaghloul Pasha had not become premier of Egypt last January, Howard Carter would still be at work in the tomb of King Tut- ankh-Amen, and the royal mummy would be inview instead of remain- t:5 1aclosed tu its golden coffin be- neath its four protecting shrines. For while, on the face of it, the fight be- tween Mr. Carter and the Egyptian ‘ sovernment over the tomb of King "Tut appears to be for its treasure, the real causes lie much deeper. Since the success of Zaghloul Pasha at the last elections the Nationalist party in Egypt has been demanding the complete independence of Egypt and the Sudan. This means that they want the British to get out—not only the army of occupation, but «British officials of all kinds. And the British are getting out. To be sure, they could remain if they insisted upon doing so. But a roliey of letting the Egyptians run their own country has been adopted, and while it is unlikely that the Brit- ish will leave the Sudan, they are turning over every department of the Egyptian government to the Na- tionalist: who are now in power. Consequently, it is not surprising .that the new minister of public works Morcos Bey Hanna, who was recently appointed by the new Na- tionalist premier. took the first op- Portunity to remind Mr. Carter that the tomb of 'Tut-ankh-Amen was not his private property, but the property of the Egyptian government. And when Mr. Carter felt his rights had been infringed upon, he promptly stopped all work and closed the tomb —only to. wake up and find a fight on his hands that may take years for the courts to settle. . The Bgyptian officials of the an- tiquities division of the ministry of public works have been at odds with Howard Carter for many months, for the reason that all the information about the discoveries in the tomb has been given exclusively to the London Times, which is said to have paid tie estate of Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Carter between ten and twelve thou- sand pounds sterling for the publica- , tion rights. The Egyptian government has taken the position that the dis- coveries of the tomb should be given to the world—and that all newspaper representatives should be treated alike. To that end all duly accredited newspaper correspondents have re- ceived permission to visit the tomb— much to the annoyance of Mr. Carter. Because of his contract with the Lon- . ,don Times he naturally resented the - Visits of correspondents from rival newspapers. He not only refused to talk with me, but his various assist- ants refused to give me any informa- tien about the tomb. * * * % J WAS told rather rudely that Icould find all the information in the London Times, and that if Mr. Carter had anything of importance to impart he would post it in the form of an official communique in the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor. The barrier of silence even extend- ed to the famous Egyptologists who have been co-operating with Mr. Car- ter since the discovery of the tomb, T met Prof. Percy Newberry, who has spent twenty-one winters at Luxor. “Of course, you realize I can not give you any information about the tomb,” Jie said icily. And befdre I could say “nother word he bowed stiffly and took his departure. On the other hand, the Egyptian officials both at Cairo and Luxor went out of their way to give me every facility for visiting the tomb and placing all the information about it in my possession. Their resentment at Howard Carter’s attitude of trying keep the news of his activities ex- “lusively for one newspaper was ob- svious. The Governor of Luxor, Mo- rammed Bey Fahmy, was particularly solicitous for my welfare, as was the local inspector of monuments. When I obtained my pass to the tomb I was not fully aware of the strained relations between Mr. Car- ter and the ministry of public works, and I ventured the remark that per- haps his custodians would not honor it on the pretext that the work could not be Interrupted. “The tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, as , well as every other tomb in the Val- tey of the Kings, is the property of tne Egyptian government,” I was in- formed. “Mr. Carter has no authority to admit or bar any onme without a permit from this department.” A few days later I discovered that this was actually true. The ministry of public works refused to allow him te show the tomb to the wives of ‘WHEN THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT REFUSED TO ALLOW CAR- TER TO SHOW THE TOMB TO THE WIVES OF HIS COLLABOR. TORS. his collaborators, despite the fact that he called upon Mohammed Pasha Zaghloul, the under secretary of state of public works, who was in Luxor, and asked permission to open the tomb for their inspection follow- ing the official opening of the sarcoph- agus. Mr. Carter was reminded that no provision existed in his - cense to show the tomb to such visi- tors, with the result that he became so infuriated that he stopped work on the sarcophagus. Naturally, that did not displease Egyptian officials. And if Mr. Car- ter quits Luxor, as he threatened to do at the time. the Egyptian govern- men will have the work completed by the department of antiquities. There is still much to be done, for while the tomb has been cleared of all its equipment except in the burial chamber, the mummy reached. And the condition of the mummy and whatever is found with it in its golden coffin will probably outrank in Importance the discover- fes already made. * ¥ ¥ ¥ UNTIL quite recently—in fact, un- til the nationalists came into power—the Egyptian government ha: been in the habit of granting ap- proved archeologists concessions to excavate in almost every part of Egypt, with the understanding that such workers were allowed to take half of the antiquities they discov- ered. This plan rewarded successful archeologists, for they were able to take their share of discoveries out of the country, and either sell them to private collectors or give them to museums. However, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings was exclud- ed from the operation of this general rule, for the reason that it is known to contain many undiscovered tombs of great historical importance. Archeologists have been permitted to excavate there on condition that everything they discovered would be turned over to the antiquities depart- ment of the ministry of public works. And much exploring was done there on that basis—the archeologists, who were financed by rich men, being con- tent with the glory they got out of their discoveries. When the late Lord Carnarvon be- £an his excavating in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, under the direction of Howard Carter, he made an agreement with the ministry of public works which gave him certain rights not usually given to archeolo- gists in this section. Mr. Carter had not only carried on similar explora- tions for Theodore M. Davis in the valley for many years before the war, but had served as chief inspector of antiquities for Upper Egypt, and be- cause of his interest in the antiquities in this part of Egypt an_unusuaily liberal concession was obtained for the work he planned to undertake. One of the provisions of this con- cession stipulated that tombs which are discovered Intact, together with all the objects they contain, shall be handed over to the Cairo Museum, whole and without division. Another clause stated that in the case of tombs which had already been search- ed, the antiquities service should re- serve for itself all objects of capital importance from the point of view of history and archeology, including the mummies of the kings, together with s has not been | their coffins and sarcophagi, and should share the remainder with the permittee. * % ¥ ¥ S Howard Carter claims the tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amen had been “searched” before he entered it—and as he now asserts it was not found intact, as was first claimed, he in- sists upon part of the spoils. He frankly asserts that he expects the estate of Lord Carnarvon to reim- burse itself from its share of the contents of the tomb after the anti- quities department has sclected what it is entitled to keep. In addition, Mr. Carter asserts that the funerary equipment of the tomb, which has been sent to Cairo and is now on exhibition in the museum, is not legally a part of the museum col- lection, as part of it belings to the Carnarvon estate. And the fact that the museum has published a cata- logue with a description of the vases, tables, statues;, boxes, headrests and other objects found in the tomb, Mr. Carter considers an infringement cn the exclusive right to publication ae- serted to be held by the Countess of Carvarvon. In short, it is a pretty mess. And how far it will go, nobody can say. The Egyptian government wants to keep the equipment of the tomb in- tact to form a special exhibit in a new wing of the Cairo Museum. and Mr. Carter is just as anxious to earry oft what he regards as his rightful share—to sell to private collecors or museums in other countries. It is really a tempest in a teapot, however, for when it is remembered that the mummy of King Tut, together with his golden coffin and scarcophagi, remains the property of the Egyptian government in addition to all .objects of capital importance from the point of view of history and archeology, half of the remaining objects will not have any great !ntrlnsic value. No matter what the outcome of this dis- tressing controversy may be, the bulk of the so-called treasures of the tomb will remain in Egypt and the mummy of King Tut, after it has been search- ed, X-rayed and photographed, will be kept where it has been lying for more than 3.200 years. If there is any treasure buried with it—which is extremely doubtful—it will go to the Egyptian government. * ¥ ¥ ¥ THIS side of the discovery of King Fut's tomb in no way affects the significance of the discovery. Whether it will deter others from searching for the remaining tombs is proble- matical. In the opinion of the writer, archeologists who have. no selfish ends to serve will not be embarrassed. Egypt, it must be remembered, is now an independent kingdom. Its people have a strong nationalistic spirit, and its officials do not propose to have their treasures, either ancient or modern, carried off to other lands, as they have been in the past. Under British rule Howard Carter would undoubtedly get what he demands for the Countess Carnarvon, who, by the way, remarried a few months af- ter the death of her distinguished husband. But from what I heard from the highest Egyptian officials, Including Premier Zaglul Pasha him- self, Howard Carter won't get much. However, he can “cash in” on his years of excavating in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings by delivering illustrated Jectures on King Tut- ankh-Amen In both England and America. Eager audiences await him, for no living man has been better press-agented. And from an authori- tative source I am able to state that is what he is planning to do when he finishes his work at Luxor. In the meantime the lawyers who represent the Carnarvon estate and the Egyptian government will profit as a result of the controversy. King Tut, I am sure, will not be annoyed by the fight that is raging over his tomb. His sleep cannot be disturbed. (Copyright, 1924.) Queer Pumping Machine. QUEER-LOOKING craft appeared on one of our western rivers and for some time there was considerable { speculation among the local popula- tion as to just what practical use such a machine might be put. A large paddle on one end of the craft | immediately suggested the possibility |of a paddle-wheel ferryboat, but a substantial bridge near which it was anchored made this guess quite absurd. Some thought it might be some new sort of boat capable of pulling itself up the river by means of the current, | but treacherous rapids both above |and below eliminated this theory. The odd-looking boat seemed to have no reason for being. One day the craft was started up by pushing the paddle into the water, and hour after hour the walking beam moved up and down, just as on an old-fashioned ferry boat, but the craft stayed always in one place, pulling at the end of its mooring lines. It then developed that the machine was a new form of pump, deriving its power from the river current, and designed to lift water from the stream for irrigation pur- poses. It worked in the water on the same principle that the windmill works in the air. The upparatus consists of two pon» toons supporting a superstructure on which a walking beam is mounted. On the downstream end of this beam is a large paddle, free to move about the point from which it is hung. On the other end of the beam is a coun- terweight. When the paddle enters the water it is carried downstream, and at the end of its stroke it is raised from the current by the coun- terweight and carried forward to the starting position. The pump is car- ried between the two pontoons and is connected to the paddie by & suitable system of levers. The discharge of the pump is carried to the pipe line on short through a flexible coupling. thus providing for any rise or fall in the level of the stream. This in- genious device is sald to save many hundreds of dollars that would other- wise be expended in the purchase and operation of a stationary engine. e The Violin String. OW does the violinist control the loudness of his tone? It has been stated that while the bow is moving across the string the part of the latter in contact with the bow alternately follows it and springs back from it, causing the whole of the string to vibrate. According to this theory, the loudness may be altered only by changing the posi- tion or speed of the bow and does not depend at all on the pressure. This conclusion, however, does not seem to agree with experience. To each bowing speed corresponds a certain bowing pressure below which the normal Helmboltzian form, as indicated in the theory first men- tioned, cannot be maintained, and this critical pressure varies very nearly as the bowing speed. It can be considered exceeded without changing the nature or magnitude of the vibration, but a violinist would ordinarily use as small pressure as his bowing speed at the moment would allow, because of the scratch- ing which too great a pressure causes. Therefore, even if loudness is determined by bowing speed alone, a greater bowing speed would always be associated by a greater pressure, and this would seem to be the cause of the loud tome. This tends to mask the real issue, which is whether loudness increases with pressure at a constant bowing speed. Some authorities are therefore led to believe that the actual motion of a violin string is usually not of the normal Helmholtzian type, but of the sort corresponding to light bow- ing. Diminishing the pressure of the bow carries the ordinary straight- line form continuously over into one from which the overtones have en- tirely disappeared, the amplitude of the fundamental being also somewhat reduced. This explanation obviously requires that the quality of the tone should change when_its loudness is varied at constant bowing speed, and this seems to be the case, although the effect is not as marked as might be expected, APRIL 20, 1924_PART 5. Easter Lilies Raised From Seeds In Movement to Americanize Flower Washing‘ton Science Agax'n Successful in Enterpr;se EASTER LILIES AT THE HOME OF DR. DAVID GRIFFITHS, IN TAKON BY GEORGE M. DACY. AINTING the lily has long been a favorite pursuit publicity agents science, without this private preserve, has experiment- ed with the Easter lily over at the of flowery and latterly national Arlington (Va) farm and |Gustry | poaching on | PARK, RAISED FROM BUL] FLORIST! ter lily blossoms may cven be put in cold storage and held there for three months without damaging their beauty or stamina. In this era of wastc-prevention and by-product utilization, economy look- cd askance at the Kaster lily in- which annually threw away |now used alm; exclusively for Izaster display purposes in the United | States. As a result of search and research [umdurud by the national Depart- | ment of Agriculture, under the direct | | supervision of Dr. David Griffiths of | | Washington, horticultural science has found that “the white flower of | half million dollars’ worth of bulbs | has ascertained definitely that Easter France" produced commereially as the National Capital can be raised from seed and | After as far north | they had flowered. A score of years ago Uncle Sam inaug- urated lily experiments designed to once |lilies may be propagated from seed. | Each springtime for the last three years, in fact, Dr. Griffiths has grown All of this is evidence that Ameri- | master all the secrcta of lily culture |hundreds and hundreds of flowers in | can floriculture recently has so a|and to eradicate the large annual puzzles as perplexing as the miracle | wastes which dominated the business. of “the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, which sow not, neith- | er do they reap, vet they know when the summer is nigh.” Today this research is still in prog- ress at the finest lily-testing gar- ens in creation, at Arlington farm nd at other national gardens at Most remarkable of all, however, in | Bellingham, Washington state |this way at the mental farm. | These seed-grown lilies are cx-| traordinarily fine specimens. Each | talk bears from five to fifteen blos- | me, while the Washingten florists that four to five blossoms per Arlington experi- say ABOUT TWENTY MONTHS EARLIER THAN THE BULBS IMPORTED FROM JAPAN, this angling of science. which has caught and cracked ail the complex- ities of Easter lily culture, is the fact that the finest springtime flowers ever raised over Arlington way were ob- tained from discarded bulbs salvaged from the dump pile of a prominent Washington florist, who threw the material away as trash after the im- ported bulbs had produced a single crop of lilies, which he sold as Bast- er day decorations in churches and homes. The lily, as most everybody knows, | of | is the floral emblem of purity, loveliness and of resurrection. Tts beauty and fragrance have been the feature of many poems. Its graceful perfection has long been the model for painters and artists. Many peo- ple in all parts of the world have united in acclaiming the lily the queen of springtime flowers, the sym- bol of life's removal, as celebrated at Eastertide. For the last half ocentury Amer- ican florists haye annually been importing lily bulbs from Bermuda. Japan and the Azores to satisfy the keen domestic demand for great quantities of these flowers for home and church adornment during the Easter season. During the current Easter in excess of 10,000,000 lily bulbs, worth more than $500,000, will be used in that manner. The great majority of these bulbs came from far-away Japan. Ly * % X % [JNPER our present system of for- olgn supply Easter lily bulbs are shipped here in July and August. Some of the largest flower stores handje as many as 10,000 to 15,000 bulbs a season. Owing to the scarcity of lily bulbs and the high prices, this means a large investment for each grower and the florist loses no time in planting his bulbs at a tempera- ture which will favor root growth, but will preclude all otler develop- ment of the bulb. A few weeks be- fore Easter the bulbs are examined. The advanced plants are then placed in a cool greenhouse, which will re- tard the opening of the buds, while the backward specimens are exposed ts warmer temperaturs so thag they will be in full bloom by Easter day. At the outset of the experimenta- tion Uncle Sam tried to acclimate the “Madonna” lily of Bermuda to | American conditions of soil |climate, but found this impo !nn account of its susceptibility disease. Then our present Easter lily, “Lilium longiflorum,” was intro- duced from Japan. This variety is District Anglers Ready For Season of Activ ty (Continued from First Page.) time scores of boats may be seen dotting tha water above Aqueduct Bridge. Some mighty fine rockfish have been caught around Stubblefield Falls. The best bait for.white .perch— that is, the larger ones—is softshell crab, although at times they are taken with minnows, bloodworms, night crawlers and shrimp. Some good places to go are off the Vir- ginia shore, below the railroad bridge: off Three Sisters. above Georgetown: off thé “schoolhous: Outlet Lock, Hen and Chickens, Walker's Point, and from Fletcher's boathouse up. to Little Falls in the deep water. The yellow perch is partial to live bait, and is hard to tempt on other kinds. No better place is known for this fish than off Oxen Rum. on the Maryland shore, below the District line. Nothing will be said about bait or methods of fishing for bass. Only fools step in where angels fear to tread. The only statement which can be made upon which all bass fisher- men will agree is that “it's mighty good sport.” Even then the whole bunch of ‘em probably will insist that the statement is not expressive. Like love, there just “ain’t no words to describe” the emotions of a .bass fisherman when he gets a strike. It is safe to say, howevyer, that the waters around Washington” &bound in this species of game fish, and if you only know where to go and how to catch ‘em you can have just as much sport as if you had gone to the famous waters of Minnesota or other equally distant spots where half the fun is I being so far from home. stalk is a good average for the im- ported bulbs. The lily plants raised directly from seed bloom in fifteen to eighteen months after planting, while it takes three years for the for- | eign bulbs to produce blossoms. * ¥ % ¥ | LILT production in America, as the industry now stands, is prolific in paradoxes. Strange to tetl, the lily plants, when raised outdoors, freeze in Florida yet prosper in the climate of northern Virginia and in the lati- tude of the state of Washington. Nur- serymen advertise lily bulb: as hardy as far north as southern Can- ada, while southern producers are pro- voked because their plants succumb in the coastal gardens of the Mexican gulf country. The lily prefers a fairly cold rather than a troplcal climate sometimes visited by frost. In Florida, the lily plants awaken too soon from their winter's sleep, with the consequence that Jack Frost nips and kills them In northern Virginia, the winter rest of the lilles is not disturbed until the ‘When the plants awaken, they are favored by uninterrupted periods of good growing 'weather until cold weather reappears the following fall. At Arlington farm Easter lily plants exposed to temperatures as low as 15 degrees have survived injury, indica- tive of the remarkable hardiness of the lily when grown under favorable conditions. . The development of the lily plants can be so regulated by ag- ricultural science that they will be in bloom at whatever season their own- er decrees. For example, lilies can now be raised as successfully for ;Christmas and New. Year decorations as for Eastes. In fact, the lilies. are now grown commercially for market 365 days in the year.. Of course, about three-quarters of the American sup- ply is consumed during Easter, while the remainder is used . throughout the year at funerals, weddings and simi- lar ceremonies. In spite of the successes that Wash- ington scientists have achieved in de- |3 DISCARDED AS WORTHLESS | building last breath of winter has disappeared. | veloping American strains of the Eas- ter lily and other bulbs under local BY conditions, it will take about a quar- ter of a century to build up adequate stocks of home-raised flowers, so that we will no longer be dependent, part, on foreign bulb importation: The floricultu of the Depart- ment of Agriculture are constantly striving to improve our methods of handling bulbs. They are slowly up stocks of flowers de- sirable for propagation in this coun- Last year more than one bushel of Easter lily seed was harvested at Arlington and is being used to pro- ce is map- ping out a means for America to raise her annual supplies of Easter lilies Ons source of encouragement is ths fact that several foreign firms, grow- ers of bulbs and decorative plants, have emigrated to this country, and have catered busin. with a view to assisting America in produc- ing her supplies of Baster flowers. The main drawback to lily raising in the United States is the need for much costly hand labor at digging time. It is up to some farm imple- ment inventor to perfect machinery to satisfy this need before the indus- try is completely stabilized. Uncle Sam says the number of home-grown lilies on the American market is an- nually increasing, and that it will be only a question of time until the Kas- ter 1lily enterprise is completely Americanized. —— A Monster Clock. v build- te New The the . stands on a facto ing in Jersey City. oppo York, a monster 40 feet 6 inches in diameter and is made up of yellow pine boards half a foot wide and spaced 3 inches apart. The minute hand measures 20 feet from the end of the hub to the tip and weighs, with the counterbal- ance, 640 pounds. The hour hand Is 15 feet long and weighs 500 pounds without the balance The numerals on the dial are 5 feet high and 30 inches wide. The point of the minute hand travels 23 inches every minute, or 3 miles per week. The hour hand proceeds 3 feet inches every hour, or 570 feet in one week. The builders of this clock were be- set by a problem of constructing & pendulum rod that would not be fected by acute changes in temper- ature. This was solved by the entific application of zinc and steel in such proportions as would allow the pendulum to adjust itself auto- matically The unusually delicate compensation was accomplished by testing the rod in the builders’ lab- oratery, where it could be first heat- ed by coils of steam pipes and then chilled to a low temperature. The remontoire train has a main wheel 30 2-5 inches in diameter. This single wheel has 150 teeth and weighs 115 pounds. The drum of the train is 17 inches in diameter and carries on it a steel wird rope 3% of an inch thick, which unwinds at the rate of 44 feet in 24 hours, or 308 feet in a week. . It takes about 3 hours to wind this side of the clock to run a week. The dial works weigh 830 pounds and are equipped With roller bearings throughout. At night the hands are outiined by rows of electric lights, 42 incandes- cent lamps being used In the hour iand and 25 lamps in the minute 4and. The hours are designated by \ row of bulbs extending through each hour mark. The current em- ployed to illuminate the minute hand is carried in wires running through the minute hand shaft, and carbon brushes behind the dial works are used to transmit the current to the revolving shaft from the generator. Contact rings are used on-the face of the dial and oh the inside of the hub of the hand to supply the cur- rent for the hour hand, and here, tco, tarbon brushes are brought into requisition in’ order «to - make the contact ‘as the hand revolves. Travels on Sea Bottom. THERE is in operation a- peculiar terry accommodating traffic at the entrance to the port of St Malo, France. ‘It is electrically propelled, funning on' tracks: During the e tide the ferry travels on dry groush, s0 that one sees the whole odd-look- ing frame,- which looks like a tower. During the fiood tide the tracks are immersed to a depth of twenty-three feet and the bottom of the upper platform just touches the surface of the water, so that nothing of the steel frame is to be seen and the platform scems aflcat. tower clock.