Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Getty Research Institute https://archive.org/details/dailyexhibitorprOOphil DAILY EXHIBITOR, PRINTED AT The Philosophical Society’s Exhibition or MODELS, MANUFACTUEES, NATUEAL HISTOEY, WOEKS OF AET, ETC. ETC., L • r ir . ,. t IN THE CITY HALL, GLASGOW. OPENED, DECEMBER 24, 1846. CLOSED, JANUARY 9, 1847. GLASGOW: PRINTED BY W. G. BLACKIE & CO., VILLAFIELD. MDCCCXLVIJ. STATISTICS OF THE EXHIBITION, Opened on the Evening of December 24th, 1846, by a numerously attended Promenade. Daily Admissiqn thereafter, on payment, from ten a.m. till eight p.m. Admission Pree to the Working Classes on January 1st, 2nd, and 4th, from nine a.m. till six p.m. Visited during these three Eree days by.54,000 individuals. Closed January 9th. Total Number of Visitors,.97,000 „ SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. Contents of No. I. PAOK tddress Introductory, to our Public, 1 ilectro-Metallurgy, . . • “ exhibitions in the Lecture Room, . 2 )uck-billed Platypus, . . “ lodel of the Scott Monument, Edinburgh “ lydro-Electrical Machine, . . 3 itreet Sweeping Machine, . . “ electrical Clocks, . . . “ The Walrus, . . . . 4 kodel of the Royal Institution, Edinburgh ‘ ‘ To Readers and Correspondents . “ editorial Remarks—the Model Journal, “ Watt's Model of the Steam-Engine, 5 ce-boat of Nova Scotia, . . “ Retrospective Review: Jones’s Glas¬ gow Directory for 1787, . 6, 7, 8 Contents of No. II. The Jacquard Loom, ... 1 rotters at Work, . . . - 2 Model of Stephenson’s Patent Locomotive 3 The Penguin, The Editor’s Letter-Box, . . 4 ^Editorial Remarks on a permanent | Exhibition, . . • • “ [Patent Wire-rope Machine, . . 5 (Argus Pheasant, . . • • “ Ball of Hair found in a Camel’s Stomach, “ Paisley Rugs, . • • • “ Retrospective Review: Jones’s Glas¬ gow, Directory for 1787 (Second Notice), . » • • 7, 8 Contents of No. III. The Iron Manufacture, . . 1 Dissolving Views and Chromatrope, 2, 3 Electricity,.4 To Readers and Correspondents, . Editor’s Remarks, • • “ Table of Antiquities :—Autographs of Burns, Nelson, and Franklin, . 5 The Capercailzie, . . . “ Retrospective Review : Jones’s Glas¬ gow Directory for 1787, (Third and Concluding Notice), . . 6, 7 Smeaton’s Turning Lathe, . . 8 Watt’s Epitaph, . . . “ Bast of Berzelius, . . . . “ Contents of No. IV. PAOK Mr. Bain’s Electrical Clock, . 1 Edible Bird’s Nest, ... 2 Foulah Provision Pouch, Ac., . 3 Mandingo Pouch, .... 4 Ancient Stirrups found at Bannockburn, “ Cowrie Purse, . . . . “ To Readers and Correspondents, . “ Editorial Observations on the Botanic Garden and School of Design, . 5 Substitute for the Crank, . . “ Cincinnatus, . . . “ American Washing Apparatus, . “ Stretching and Shower Bath, • “ Relics of the Stuarts, . 6 Spinning Machine of 1704 . . “ Statue of Guttenberg, after Thor- waldsen, ..... 7 Golden Couroucoui, . . . /“ Swiss Carved Vase Wood, . . “ “ Thumbkins ” for ancient torture, Piano Jacquard Cutting Machine, . 8 Farquhar’s Electric Clock, . . “ Whiteworth’s Circular Gauges, . “ Spadix of a Palm Tree, . . “ Contents of No. V. Kelp Manufacture—Iodine, . . 1 Bronze Tazza, by Benvenuto Cellini, . 2 Druidical Sacrificial Stones, . . 3 Indian Drinking Cup, from Calabash, “ Model of a Tide Guage, . . . “ Visitor’s Criticisms on Works of Art, “ To Readers and Correspondents, . 4 Editor’s Remarks on the Free Admis¬ sions, and the Working Classes . “ Archbishop of St. Andrew’s Chair, . “ Popular Description of the Process of Printing :— Composing, . . 5,6, 7 Stereotyping, ... 8 Hand-Press Printing, . . “ Contents of No. VI. The Prussiates of Potash, . . 1 Chinese Curiosities, . . . “ Tussac Grass, . • • • “ Opinions of the Press, . . 2 Coat and Vest of Cardinal York, . “ IV CONTENTS. Contents op No. VI. (Continued.) page Chronometric- Governor, . . “ Death of Archbishop Sharp, . . 3 Stirling and the Links of the Forth, “ Battle-piece, Modelled in Waterloo Clay, “ Model for a River Steamer, . “ Blunderbusses, Vices, Circular Shears, “ Editorial Observations on the Policy of giving Students, in the School of Design, free access to the Botanic Gardens, ..... 4 Popular Description of the Process of Printing (concluded) : Steam-Machine Printing, . “ Copper and Steel-plate, Printing, 5 Drying and Finishing, , . 6 Bookbinding, . . . 7, 8 PA Contents op No. IX. Anderson’s Railway Indicator, Sugar Cane and Specimens, . Chester and Holyhead Railway Bridge, Model of a Bookbinder’s Bench, Editorial Observations : the French Conservatory of Arts, Sculpture :—Child Playing with a Goose ;—Bust of Professor Wilson ; —the Dying Gladiator ;—the Py¬ thian Apollo, .... The Banyan Tree, or Indian Fig, . The Baobab, .... The Discobulus, or Quoit Player, . Carp-Bream and Angel-Fish, Msenura Lyra, or Lyre Bird, . Wooden Pear, .... Contents op No. VII. Ichthyosaurus, or Fish-Lizard, . 1, 2 Specimens of the Tea Plant, . . 3 Editorial Remarks on the Praiseworthy conduct of the Working Classes dur¬ ing the Three Free Days, . . 4 Cotton Plant, . . . . “ Antiquities from Nuremberg : Crest of Albert Durer, carved by himself; —Wrought Iron Work, of Peter Vischer, . . . . . 5,6 Mirrors and Reflectors, ... 7 Owls and Young in Nest, . . 8 Contents op No. VIII. Scott’s Cartoon: Drake on the Quar¬ ter-deck, viewing the destruction of the Spanish Armada by his Fire¬ ships, . The Coffee Plant, .... Model of Law’s Coffee Roaster, Gutta Percha, .... Editorial Remarks, Progress of Public Taste,. The Air Pump, . Rhinoceros Hornbill, Manufactures of Paisley, Tea-brick from Tartary, Upright Book Case, Specimens of Printing in Colours, . An Eccentric Chuck, . Wedgwood’s Copy of the Portland Vase, Pass of Killyerankie, Paintings : Watt’s Portrait, . Patent Wire-rope Machine, . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ii Contents of No. X. Engraving :—Illustrations of the Va¬ rious Styles : Line Engraving, Stipple, (or Chalk-mannerJ, . Mezzotinto, Aquatinta, .... Etching, .... Engraved Copper-plate and Im¬ pression, .... Wood Engravings, Editor’s Remarks on National Expo¬ sitions of Industrial Art, . 4, Plan (in Relief) of Loch Lubnaig, Ac., The Macaw, . Major Weir’s Sword, Case for Growing Plants without Air, The Boa-Constrictor, Dr. Paterson’s Daguerreotypes, Jungle Cock and Hen;—Jew Lizard, Contents op No. XT. Samples of Cast Steel, Cabinet of Medals, . . i The Cacao, or Chocolate Tree, . j Galileo’s Telescope, ... Sea Hedge-hog, .... The Rattlesnake, . . . Editorial Remarks : Close of the Ex¬ hibition ; Botanic Gardens, . 4 Humming Birds, . . . 5 j> Scarlet Ibis, . . . . Patent Guide Screws and Stocks, Branks used to Burn the last “ Witch,” Jeanie Deans before Queen Caroline, Ac ADDRESS INTRODUCTORY. i 3 f all the arts, sciences, and departments f >f knowledge, gathered together in this ‘ nagnificent collection, none is gifted with ;lie power of speech except our own. Our j irothers, the Weavers in the one corner, no < loubt make a noise with their shuttles, and ;he Potters in the other make a whiz with heir wheels, but their noise, and many )ther noises conjoined, do not amount to speech ; and as for the operations of the Chemists, reckoned so subtle and knowing, ’ they frequently end in vapour and smoke. To us alone has been granted speech— eye- speech; and, consequently, by the unani¬ mous suffrage of our brother exhibitors, (we (Typography) have been elected to make known to our Public the merits of each and all. To make profession of our im¬ partiality, and judging everything by its Swn merits, would only be copying the phrase of our contemporaries of the Daily Morning and Evening Press. We say, we t shall describe, and make known, only what pleases us, and that, too, only in our own peculiar way. We have entered upon our functions unpledged, and shall use our pri¬ vilege untrammelled. One great advan¬ tage, by the way, we possess over our con¬ temporaries ; we can never be made the subject of recrimination by our dumb fel¬ low-workers. Whatever may be the opinion of our sayings and doings, existing in their 'own private hearts, be they composed of wood or iron, or any other equally callous Material, they cannot give them expression. Che Chemists may vapour—the Mechanics may beat their drums till they crack our tympanum—and the Naturalists may rus¬ tle among their dried leaves, and send forth '. i odour from their camphorated speci- tate th6 olfactory nerves of our editorial proboscis, in vain ! our self-complacency and composure are not to be disturbed. We have, however, one fear, and we mention it now, to warn the parties interested of what they may expect. We dread lest some reck¬ less limmer, destitute of the proper respect due to our editorial dignity, should gibbet us in propria persona , to the gaze, in broad gas-light, of those whose shins Ave may chance to hit. If any Such limners of man- mops should be so foolhardy, The Daily Exhibitor will exhibit them without re¬ morse, and “ If there’s a hole in a’ your coats, I rede"you tent it; A chield’s among you takin’ notes. And, faith, he’ll prent it.” ELECTRO METALLURGY. (Table D, No. 5.) This beautiful art, first brought into po¬ pular and useful notice, by Spenser, of Liverpool, has for its object the deposition of nearly all the metals from their solu¬ tions in acids, &c., by the agency of gal¬ vanic electricity. The electric fluid is made to traverse the metallic solution, and the object to be coated, or covered, is at¬ tached to one end of the battery. To the other wire from the battery, a plate of the metal which is being deposited is attached, and is hung into the solution. This plate continually and constantly supplies the so¬ lution with metal, as the electric fluid takes it from the solution, at the same time that it carries the current of electri¬ city from the solution. In this way, objects in ltietah Avax, fruit, flowers, Ac., are cov¬ ered, and constitute the exquisitely beau¬ tiful arts of electrotype, galvanic plating and gilding (now successfully rivalling the old Sheffield and Birmingham processes of plating and gilding, the latter of whiclYis so deleterious to the health of the work¬ men ), daguerro-electrotype, or the copying of daguerrotypes by electrotype, and a host of useful and ornamental applications, too numerous to detail. 2 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 24, LECTURE ROOM. The Lecture Room will be devoted to the illustration of various departments of science, particularly Electricity by means of “ Armstrong’s ” Hydro-Electric ma¬ chine, and Optics by the Oxyhydrogen Microscope, the Polariscope, the Dissolv¬ ing Views and the Chromatrope. In these various optical exhibitions, everything novel and gorgeous by which this branch of science is capable of being illustrated, will be introduced. The Mic¬ roscope, revealing the more minute objects of nature, and laying open the perfection of the Divine workmanship, even in those which are altogether unperceived by the unassisted vision, is a well-known source of enjoyment and instruction. The Polari¬ scope discloses these peculiarities of struc¬ ture in transparent objects, which even the Microscope, however powerful, cannot dis¬ cover ; and by the brilliance and gorgeous¬ ness of the colouring with which it invests them, proves not less interesting to the popular spectator, than from its abstruse nature, and the information it has afforded on the physical properties and probable nature of light, the subject itself has been to the scientific inquirer. The Dissolving Views are so called in consequence of the imperceptible manner in which they gradually fade from view and replace each other. They consist of a number of views painted in the first style of art, and represented on a surface of 400 feet square. The Chromatrope, which we believe few of our readers are acquainted with, presents an amazing complication of the most rapid changes of position, figure, and colouring which it is possible to conceive, or rather it is impossible to conceive without witness¬ ing them; and as there will, we doubt not, be very few indeed who will not have the opportunity, we need not dilate upon the subject. Other experiments will occasionally be in¬ troduced, as the Gun Cotton, &c. &c., so as to produce an agreeable melange of scientific information and recreation. Duck-billed Platypus (Ornithomychus paradoxus). “ Out, hyperbolical fiend !” as Sir Toby Belch would say. An animal, “ neither flesh, fowl, nor good red herring.” It seems to be a cross between the aquatic birds and mammalia. The muzzle or snout is like a duck’s bill, as we see; and it is said to lay eggs ! The eyes are small, and there is no external ear, so there was little use in its attending on the concerts of Or¬ pheus or the sermons of St. Brands Xavier. The spur on each hind leg has a canal in it similar to that in the poison-fang of vene- mous serpents. It is, in a word, “no canny.” —-Inhabits similar localities to our otter, in Australia.—(West Galleiy, No. 92.) Model oe the Scott Monument in Princes Street, Edinburgh.— This fine composition is the design, and the model itself the handiwork of the late George M. Kemp. The plan of this national monument is, for j the most part, made up of the architectural details of the collegiate church of Melrose Abbey. That monastery (Carthusian) was founded in 1136, but the style of its existing dilapidated church, belongs to a much later period; namely, The end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century. It is of the Decorated English Gothic, with some slight modifications in it, of the succeeding Florid or Perpendicular style, introduced on occasions of reparation. The monument made up from it is admir¬ able, not only in general effect, but won¬ derful for the well-compacted combination of many separate features, without the least appearance of overcharging, much less confusion. If ever Melrose Abbey Church, now slowly but surely subsiding into shapeless ruin, should ever come to be restored, or its site occupied by a new edi¬ fice modelled on the old, the architect has here all his requisites at hand: he needs neither guess nor invent—he has but to copy and extend, and the thing is done. Fine as this work is, we are sorry to be obliged to remark that there may be seen in it a slight exception to the general char¬ acter we have given. It is to be found in the upper portion, over the third arch in the ascending series. All the superimposed parts belong to the Gothic of a degenerate ; time. We are informed, and inclined to ! believe, that this portion was not Kemp’s. Still, upon the whole, it is a fine work, and an honour to the country; though a hum - dred such memorials, even made of gold instead of stone, would go but a small way , J towards discharging the heavy obligations we ’! all owe, both individually and as a nation, to ■! the patriotic genius of Walter Scott. 1846. THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 3 Hydro-Electrical Machine.— A ma¬ chine of this remarkable kind, for the pro¬ duction of electricity by steam, is to be seen at work in the Lecture Room. “ The production of electricity by steam has sev¬ eral advantages over the common method of obtaining it. An electro-steam apparatus is self-acting, which leaves the operator at perfect liberty to attend to results. Its high temperature renders its action inde¬ pendent of dampness in the atmosphere, which so greatly impairs the energy of an electrifying machine; finally, its extreme simplicity secures it from derangement.” We give here a description of a hydro¬ electrical machine of extraordinary size, we believe the largest ever constructed, made by Messrs. Watson & Lambert, New¬ castle. The steam-boiler, which is insu¬ lated by glass pillars, is constructed upon the locomotive principle, having a fire con¬ tained within, and passing through, tubes, which are surrounded by water, into the chimney. There is a glass guage attached for regulating the proper quantity of water in the boiler; also a safety valve to relieve the pressure of the steam above a certain point. There are two hollow metal arms issuing from the upper part of the boiler, to each of which are attached seventy small iron tubes, the ends of which are furnished with proper jets, and by the passage of the steam through these the electricity is pro¬ duced. There is a junction pipe, fitted with a cock, for the purpose of shutting off one of the arms, and using only one half of the power of the machine ; or, by keeping it open, the whole power. The rows of pipes which are fixed to the metal arms, and through which the steam issues, are enclosed or surrounded by a casing or box, for the purpose of holding water for producing a condensation of the steam in its passage through the pipes, previous to its emission from the caps on their extremities. This condenser, as it is called, is supplied with water as it is re¬ quired, by vessels placed above, having pipes communicating with them; and there are pipes connected with the condensers for collecting and carrying away into the chimney the vapour produced by the water becoming heated, in consequence of the passage of the steam through them. The steam from the jets is blown against four rows of forks placed on framework, and supported by insulated legs. When the machine is in action the positive electricity is rapidly produced, and may be collected at the ball in connexion with the forks, and the negative electricity may be ob¬ tained from all parts of the boiler. Street Sweeping Machine.— “ A friend in need is a friend indeed.” When was ever city so much in want of a detergent engine as Glasgow has been this winter ? There is a class of birds called “ waders,” but they are the only kind of bipeds equipped by nature for that exercise. Men and women were meant to walk—they do try it in Glasgow, and get awfully splashed for their pains. Seriously, it is time something were done to amend our dirty ways. Look at Stirling Road, and many others, after a few hours’ rain. We have never been in the Irish Ballina muck, but if that interesting place be no cleaner than Glasgow, we wonder the inhabi¬ tants don’t swim out of it. Some things are good, considered by themselves—land, for instance, and water—but they give birth to hateful progeny, be it thick or thin. By the way, the Glasgow mud is changed in its nature since the olden time. There was no “greasy” bird-limy mud then; Glasgow mud used to be gritty. Whether this remark be just, or only whim or fancy, may be matter of doubt; but there can be none as to the great want we have of sweepers or sweeping machines. We observed Whitworth’s meritorious ma¬ chine in use, in London, several years ago ; the Edinburgh people, who don’t stand one quarter as much in need of them, have set some to work long ago. Why, then, don’t we ? “ We pause for a reply.”—(No. 67.) Electrical Clocks. —These, as we see, keep time by alternate attraction and repulsion; the movement is similar (to the eye) to the swing of the pendulum. But the principle of the motive power is utterly different. Here we have the pervading Spirit of the material universe made to minister to the convenience of Man. It is one of the marvels of the day. Two or three years ago, Mr. Bain fixed an electri¬ cal clock, with a steeple-size dial to it, in front of the Polytechnic Institution, Lon¬ don. It kept time admirably, as we proved for ourselves ; but we remarked that the long hand moved its minute, not by im¬ perceptible advances, but at one stroke. In lectures we there heard, from Professor Bachoffner, we were assured that Time 4 * THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 24, could easily, and would soon be, laid on, as well as water and gas, in all houses of every city, town, and village of the civilized world; that is, there would be a powerful electrical or galvanic apparatus provided in all popu¬ lous localities, whence wires would run into every dwelling, and even room, conveying the intimation to dials, or some such indi¬ cators ; so that all should know the time of day or night at any instant; and that thus no misapprehension or mistakes could be committed. The first time-measurer was a shadow thrown by an object in the line of the sun’s rays—hence arose the sun-dial. Cock Growings made a poor uncertain Shift in the night season; then came clepsydrae or water-clocks ; then candle or torch mea¬ sured the consumption of time, tallow, and temper; afterwards men had hour glasses; latterly, clocks, watches, and chronometers. The latter have been long “at seathey will now be confined to it, for electricity is about to supersede all wheels, pinions, weights, and levers. What next (No. 1, in Catalogue.) Walrus (Trick ecus rosmarus ), a marine quadruped, and “ no beauty, any how,” as the Irishman truly said. He seems as if he knew that he ain’t captivating, for he is found now only on the icy shores of Spitzbergen and the remotest northern coasts of America. Like many other plain subjects, he is understood to be a good hus¬ band and parent; we are assured he will meddle with none unprovoked. He is a good deal hunted for his tusks and the oil that is in him. His teeth are often palmed upon the public for ivory; but that is no imposition of his. Upon the whole we are rather partial to this animal, in spite of his teeth.—(West Gallery, No. 89.) ROYAL INSTITUTION, EDINBURGH. A Model of this magnificent structure, the effect of which is perhaps seen to greater advantage here than in the actual building, the position of which is much too low. It is from a design by Playfair, and is one of his finest, works. The interior accommodations are a large central hall for exhibitions of pictures, and various lesser apartments devoted generally to purposes connected with the arts. As an associa¬ tion, the Royal Institution was established in 1819, and incorporated by royal charter in 1827, for the purpose of encouraging the fine arts in Scotland. Within the building are the offices of the Board of Trustees—an establishment insti¬ tuted in the early part of last century for the encouragement of manufactures in Scotland : supported by an annual revenue of between £7000 and £8000, the result of certain endowments from government. It possesses and encourages a school of draw¬ ing and "design, the first which was insti¬ tuted in the United Kingdom ; and in con¬ nection with this academy there is a gal¬ lery of casts of the finest sculptures, ancient and modern. It also contains the apart¬ ments of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. On the summit of the building, over the pediment, is a colossal figure of Queen Victoria, in a sitting posture. TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. The figures at the end of our paragraphs refer to the Numbers iu the Catalogue. P. P.’s Poetry (?) won't suit our pages. When a man is in poetry, he is like a “ man in love;" he is sure to bid good bye (for the time) to common sense. Carbon’s criticism on the Chemical contributions is not sufficiently saline. Scalpel’s paper on Anatomical preparations smells abominably of the shop. Poser poses us with the conundrum. Why are orni¬ thologists like gourmands ? We presume it is be¬ cause they are much given to stuffing ! tf3||r Many of the articles exhibited not having arrived until a late hour, it has been found impracticable to complete the printing of the Catalogue until to-morrow (Friday). J liatljj iStfntHtot. THURSDA Y, Dec. 24, 1846. Elsewhere we give our “ Address Introduc¬ tory;” here we shall state more definitely the object of this Model Journal —for model we intend it to be—and to. have it, as far as very tiny dimensions admit, in all respects complete as any of its contempo¬ raries. It being quite evident that the Catalogue of the objects exhibited must be as succinct as possible, a very limited amount of infor¬ mation regarding each object can be con¬ veyed therein. The Daily Exhibitor will endeavour, as far as its limited space per¬ mits, to supply what is wanting. It will give more extended notices of Processes, 1846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR._5 [odels, Manufactures, objects of Natural istory, Ac. Ac., than can with propriety ; inserted in the Catalogue; and will thus, is hoped, become a source both of infor- ation and amusement to those who gra- fy themselves by visiting this splendid Election. It is to be regretted that a number of iteresting contributions from a distance ill probably not be forwarded till after le opening of the Exhibition. As their rrival will form new points of interest, ley will not be neglected in succeeding lumbers of this Journal. We invite the co-operation of all in sup- ort of the Daily Exhibitor. Information sgarding any of the objects exhibited, ddressed to the Editor, care of Mr. ^imister, and left at the Committee- ooms, will be duly forwarded. Remember, }ui cito dat bis dat. VATT’S MODEL OF THE STEAM ENGINE. \ The College authorities have, with great kindness, sent this almost unique historical podel for exhibition, and it occupies a con¬ spicuous place on the tables devoted to the llustration of Engineering and Mechanics, phaf a crowd of interesting associations his model suggtots! It at once carries us lack to the period in the industrial history >f our country, when its manufacturing resources began to be developed; and while his retrospective view is still on our minds, jve have only to look around us to see, in n ini at ure, a palpable history of the prodi¬ gious progress of the industrial arts since hat period. Watt’s model carries us back to the time svhen Chemistry began to assume the form )f a science, and we associate the names of >ur countrymen—Black—Hope—Thom¬ son—Graham—with the illustrious men of )ther nations, who have aided in its ad¬ vancement—its diffusion, as knowledge. While we look around us in triumph at the present exhibition of the material pro¬ gress of the nation, since the time when James Watt, a young philosophical instru¬ ment-maker, protected and fostered by Black and Anderson, and Young and Adam Smith, the professors in our university, in¬ vented what proved to be the very heart of a mighty impulse, we will do well to re¬ member the debt of gratitude we owe to our illustrious predecessors, by the efforts of whose genius, under God’s blessing, the beginnings took place—and to think that it is to this, and not to our superior in¬ sight, that we owe the wonderful advance¬ ments that have been made. The Model of the Steam Engine is that which Dr. Anderson, the founder of the “ Andersonian Institution,” had for illus¬ trating his lectures. It is now probably in as dilapidated a state as when it was sent to James Watt to be repaired; but its interest and historical value depend on its remaining in statu quo. The separate condenser was not fitted to this model—and it is curious to think, that after the dis¬ covery was made, it was several years be¬ fore any application of it was made, and not till 1784, that it began to be generally introduced. At the top of Area A, are a number of models of Steam Engines in operation. Each bears indelibly impressed on it one stamp or other of the fertile genius of James Watt—his condenser—his parallel motion—his governor, or his slide valve. Whilst they illustrate in some respects the variety of talent for contrivance and con¬ struction which have been expended on this mightiest instrument that man wields, for adapting a power of nature to his purposes. Ice-boat used in Nova Scotia. — Our ideas of Ice-boats have hitherto been limited to such as are used for breaking up ice on canals, rivers, harbours, Ac. Locomotion upon ice we were aware was performed in divers manners, by means of skates fitted to the feet of human bipeds, and sledges made fast astern of ?n/r aliuman quadrupeds, Ac. but as to sailing upon ice or skates fitted upon boats, these we left out of our reckon¬ ing. Excepting in the case of balloons and pigeons, we supposed the speed of 30 miles an hour, nay even a much less speed, to have been first attained by those snorting masses of iron and brass generally known as loco¬ motives, but here again we seem to have been at fault. The Ice-boat, of which this is a model, when mounted upon four skates, rigged out with a single sail, and favoured with a good breeze, skims along the ice at the rate of thirty miles an hour, Why, at thirty miles an hour our northern explorers might reach the North Pole and come back again in the time they would cut a chan¬ nel for a ship through ice ten miles long ! 6 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 24 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. Jqnes’s Directory; or Useful Pocket Com -, panion: containing an Alphabetical List of the Names and Places of Abode of the Merchants, Manufacturers, Traders, and Shopkeepers, in and about the City of Glasgow. Compiled as accurately as the time limited would admit. Glasgow: Printed by John Mennons, Editor of the Glasgow Advertiser. September, MDCCLXXXVII. Nearly threescore years "their cloudy wings expand,” and throwus backward here, at a bound, among the men and things of bygone Glasgow days. To many this little hand-book of 84 poor pages’ length will be as dry as a chip. Not so to us. No cat ever fondled to its whiskers a bunch of valerian more lovingly, than we felt inclined to press to our cheek this welcome windfall of a document, which ought really to be treasured in the city archives. The care of this reposit we respectfully throw upon the able shoulders of Bailie Liddell, the Atlas, or chief support, as he may be called—certainly the prime mover—of the present Exhibition. It may some day become a sort of commercial “ Ragman's Roll,” to trace the future pedigrees of our merchant magnates by! Before proceeding to enter upon a review of this (to us) charming tract, (what a pity it in¬ cludes no map!) let us revert to what Glasgow was. What it is, we, most of us, know as much as we care for knowing. It was not always a commercial town, but long a collegiate and cathedral city. In 1730, it was thus flatteringly described by the sagacious Captain Burt, author of the “Letters from a Gent, in the North of Scotland:”—“Glasgowis, to outward appear¬ ance, the prettiest and most uniform town that ever I saw; and, I believe, there is nothing like it in Britain. There is a spacious carrifour where stands the Cross; and going round it, you have, by turns, the view of four streets, that in regular angles proceed from thence. The houses of these streets are faced with ash¬ ler stone; they are well sashed, all of one mo¬ del, and piazzas run through them on either side, which 'give a good air to the buildings. There are some [other] handsome streets, but the extreme parts of the town are mean and disagreeable to the eye.” He says no more, so we are left in the dark as to Glasgow’s popula¬ tion, or other statistics. Was the freedom of the city conferred on Captain Burt? We trust it was. By the Captain’s “piazzas,” an English mis¬ apprehension of the meaning of that Italian term, we are to understand arcades, with corri¬ dors between their piers, and the shops set back from them. Most of these have now disap¬ peared. But we can remember when the lines of them were pretty complete, up and down the Saltmarket and High Streets, and the nearer portions of the southern side of the Trongate. Even yet, there are plain traces of them, as far as No. 53 in that street, withir door or two of the Laigh Kirk Close. No. is a whole pend close, No. 17 a half pend. the intervening shops are a few whole and < pillars, vying in solidity with those of Egyptian mausoleum. In the Saltmarket, thi are some like remains. Lockhart’s old hardwi shop, though “brought out,” still retains t primitive make. In the Gallowgate, we hG carefully sought, but found no roundhead I remnants. In the High Street, however, t i case is somewhat different. At the angle of t first “ land,” opposite the Cross steeple, lo | the location of the Glasgow Courier, the sh (No. 2) is still nearly of the old type; the nr! (No. 4) is quite so. It is, like some of the ( churches, a double-staged place; there being* kind of commercial crypt below, usually ps locked outside. “Fast bind, safe find.” B at No. 25, a little way up on the other side/ the great relic, in full integrity, of old Glasgc i Here we have three perfect arches, one leadi to a “closs;” the old corridor being preserv between the arches and the shop. Antiquar of Glasgow, what Roman remain can vie in i terest with this? The wares, too, in this ( Scots mart, are all in keeping with the featui! of the place—kirns, caups, luggies; and tv sonsy vveel-faur’d lassies to recommend their everything here is refreshing [to the wither: heart, almost smoke-dried by the fumes of N\ Reekie. When last we saw the place, we step’ 1 1 in, not to buy —for what Scotsman does that 1 he’s obliged ?—seemingly to cheapen wares, b really to ask questions. One \ lb. butter stam of quaint device, took our fancy. In the cent were two hearts transfixed, of the tradition gingerbread snap configuration, and around the ran the motto, “ I love you dearly .” Who w dare to say now, thought we, that “ Fine wor butter no parsnips ?” < But in our haste to arrive at this bom bouche of a shop, and to relate the foregoii incident, we have left behind us many remar able traces of the arcaded shops and passag on the opposite side of the High Street. St< into any of them, or the conjoined closses, ai you will plainly see that the old doors of inte communication have been walled or timber* up; in the latter case being covered with d cayed plates of rusty sheet-iron. But beyoi these few “ lands,” there is no further exta; arcading in the High Street. We are, therefor cut short in our researches, and we sigh out “Sic transit gloria mundi.” In no town of Britain, or the Continent, th we have visited, do we meet with this exa feature of old Glasgow. Chester in Englan and Berne in Switzerland (the latter partic larly), come the nearest. The fact is, the go( old towns are spoiled nearly everywhere. Having thus far exerted our privilege of r viewers, of saying what we think fit first, x now proceed to deal with the work which is tl subject of this article. And first of its pro! gomena, or preliminary matters. These ai 547.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 7 posed of lists of Glasgow dignitaries for tember in the year of grace 1787. i page 1, we have the “ Magistrates and ;r office-bearers.” At the top is “John del. Esq. Lord Provost.” At page 62 infra, find re dwelt in “ Queen's Street, 1st house t side.” This was indeed Glasgow’s “Far t, ” with the exception of a few straggling llings and offices in and about Jamaica :et. There was, also, a conglomeration of same about (a now) almost unknown local- called “ Horn’s Court, by St. Enoch are.” But bating these two exceptions, all yet wilderness onward to Anderston. .mougthe other officials, the only noteworthy te is John Orr, Esq. of Barrovvfield, Town rk, &c. &c. l pages 2 and 3, the “Members of the des and Merchant Houses.” All well wn on ’Change, no doubt, but few of them is. In page 3, the Guildry.—P. 4, Chamber Commerce, and Clyde Marine Society. —P. 5, imittee of Forth and Clyde Navigation; also ; of the Monlcland Canal; likewise the ndertakers, &c. for Building the large Ige of the Great Canal across the Kelvin.” '. 6, List of Members of the West Indian b; also the Members of the Golf Club. The e concludes with the “names of the Corn- tee for the Management of the Tontine.” t now all but deserted and gaunt establish- )t was worth the managing then. We wou- jwhat hook-nosed William (or his fat horse) iks of the “ ongoings” hereabout, and the oings westward of later days. He still pre- es his equanimity indeed, as well as the ;r its equinimity ; but the first indignantly is his back, the other its tail, on all such enerations, and looks steadily eastward— olden quarter of Hope. .t pages 7, 8, we have the office-bearers of different Banks in Glasgow, in this order: . Glasgow Arms Bank. 2. Ship Bank, ibert Carrick, Cashier.” Then young Robin rick. 3. Thistle Bank. 4. Merchant Bank. Royal Bank. “D. Scott Moncrieff, Esq. id Dale, Esq. Cashiers.” 6. Thomson’s ak. 7. Paisley Bank. a pages 8,- 9, is an interesting list: “ The tncellor, Rectors, Professors, and other se-bearers in the University of Glasgow.” s headed by “ the Right Hon. Marquis of ham,” as Chancellor, and “Robert Graham, [. of Gartmore, Rector.” Running the eye n the roll, the first great nomen clarum we ve at is that of “John Anderson, Natu- Philosophy.” Next “John Miller, Law:” IMiller; not his far inferior son, who pro¬ ved Mathematics. Skipping two of the ob- Ire, whose venerated name do we arrive at ? r. Thomas Reid, Moral Philosophy.” k only two other names, of any general ac- |ut, are those of “William Richardson, panity. John Young, Greek.” p the end of the list of professors, the com- [r adds the following sentence:—“The above professors’ lodgings are all in the old and netv Courts, and front of the College.” Ah, Mr. Jones! their lodgings have long been (like thine own) in a far larger mansion, the old-new general Earth. Next in order (pp. 9, 10), come “the Reve¬ rend Ministers of Glasgow.” Nineteen gowns in all, of whom only about four are worthy of special mention. These are, 1. “Robert Balfour, East or Outer church.” 2. “Alex. Rankine, Rams- horn church,” author of a now forgotten “ His¬ tory of France:” a dull compilation, which fell dead-born from the press. 3. “Thomas Bell, Relief Meeting House, Dove Hill.” This good man, author of many excellent published ser¬ mons, was as much beloved, and respected, in and out of his owm communion, as the first on our list was in his (Established) church, and in all others. Thomas Bell was the father of James Bell, the geographer. 4. “Dr. William Lockhart, St. Andrew’s church,” the charge of which he first took in the previous year, 1784 . This gentleman we at first mistook for Dr. John Lockhart, minister of the Blackfriars’ or College church; to which charge he was not ordained till 1796. The latter was father of the cele¬ brated John Gibson Lockhart, son-in-law, lite¬ rary executor, and memorialist of Sir Walter Scott —a trifold distinction—any third part of which is equal to a patent of the highest nobility. At pp. 10, 11, we find “ the Faculty of Phy¬ sicians and Surgeons in Glasgow.” Twenty- one gentlemen long. No salient name presents itself among the former but that of “ Dr. Ro¬ bert Cleghorn, Spreul’s Landamong the latter the Scrutons, John and William. At page 11, also, we have the list of Sheriffs, Commissaries, and Justices of the Peace. The latter are headed by “Sir John Stewart of Cas- tlemilk, Bart.” Running the eye down, we find in p. 12, “ Robert Dreghorn, Esq. of Ruchhill” (otherwheres “ of Roughill.” This man, one of the old Glasgow characters (a leading one) was the Bob Dragon of our young days. More of him by and by. At pp. 12—14 we find the black list of the Faculty of Procurators of Glasgow,” headed by John Orr as Dean. It is 52 gentlemen long. The Custom-house staff (two strong ) we find, appropriately enough, located near the Broomie- law; but “where, and oh where,” readers dear, do ye think was the Excise Office? Why, in the Old Yennal! If there w as a little vennality in that office, it was not to be wondered at. The chief officials were 2: the supervisors 2; under whom 40 excisemen—the exact number of the “ Thieves ” concealed in Ali Baba’s casks. We now arrive (p. 16) at “The Post Office, Princes Street.” Staff, 5 strong: viz., 1 post¬ master, 1 head, 1 under clerk, and 2 letter car¬ riers ! The same force as Paisley has now. When we first knew the P. O. it was in the centre land of the Old P. O. Court, No. 114, Trongate. It was long afterwards in Upper Nelson Street. Dugald Bannatyne, for several years P.M. w as in 1787 a member of the Mer- 8 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 24, chants’ House and engaged in general business. -Third door to the right of the 0. P. O. C. was, in our youth, (at No. 108) the entry to Finlay’s, carver and gilder. The view of the prints in the window, and the change, or shift- ings of subjects, on Monday morning, formed one of our great look-forwards to. Mr. Finlay’s (senior) name does not appear in the Directory. In our boyish days he was a soldier in the pri¬ vate corps ( not the Volunteers) commanded by great-bodied and large-hearted Samuel Hunter; Robert Chapman, printer (whose office was over Henderson’s Tavern, S.E. corner Candleriggs), was another member of the same social corps. We have met the party more than once, “plunking the kirk,” on the banks of the Kelvin and other then retired haunts.—But we digress. The next pages, 16—18, contain the official lists of Wilson’s, Hutchesons’, and other chari¬ ties ; which it will be a charity to our readers to pass over. Foot of p. 18 we have two Stamp-mas¬ ters, one for linen only. Next come the Dominies. Of English teachers there are 7; Latin, 4. Among the latter “John Hall, in Ramsay’s land. Prince’s Street,” vulgo Gibson’s Wynd. Who didn’t know, or know of, “Humphy Ha’?'' We “knew him well, and every truant knew.” The Editor of the Quarterly had his first hu¬ manities from him; but that was before our time. Hall was a good, pains-taking, severe teacher. His name had, even within college walls ( cum privilegio), been treated with respect by Professor Richardson; the latter as ripe a Latin scholar as Young was a perfect Grecian. Hall was, though a little man, a great oddity. “ Teachers of Writing, 8fc .” What amount of et cetera may be here comprehended, we pretend not to determine; but one heavy item would be a sufficiency of flogging; an exercise much in fashion, at least, with pedagogues in our time. The number of these gentlemen, of ill-defined functions, was 7.—Teacher of French, 1.—• Teachers of Vocal Music (all precentors) 5 ; of Instrumental, 4, including the “ ringer of the Town’s Music Bells.”—Teachers of Dancing, 5. Contumeliously placed at the bottom of the list is our own “ toe tormentor,” “ William [better known as Mushy'] Frazer, in M‘Nair’s hall, King Street..”—Teachers of Fencing, 2. One of them had apartments in the College; perhaps his courses were as well attended as those of J ardiue, the Logical professor of fence verbal. At pp. 20, 21, we have the “Collectors, Clerks, and Officers of the 14 Incorporations.” (By the way, we forgot to notice the Deacons, but they are all set down.) To them succeed the “Water Engines” and stations, 5 in all.— P. 12, Messengers at Arms; 14in Glasgow, 1 in Greenock.—Prison-keeper, 1; Turnkey, 1.—r Beadles of churches, and other small fry. At pp. 23, 24, “Town’s Officers and Ser¬ geants,” 18 in all. In pp. 24 26, are contained the “ Departures and Arrivals of the different Stage-coaches.” 1. London, “A Diligence sets off from James upon Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, at 12 o’clock at night. Arrives upon Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays, at 9 o’clock at night. —2. Edinburgh, six conveyances, by 3 routes. Time (professedly) taken, in one case, 6 hours. —3. Stirling, “ A fly ” twice a-week.—4. Ayr, ] “A diligence” every lawful day.— 5. Greenock, , Two “flys.” But they don’t fly fast. Time , taken, 6 hours.—6. Dumbarton, Coach thrice a- | week. Time taken, 4 hours.—7. Hamilton, j Coach thrice a-week. Also two “carrivans.”—8 ] Paisley, A coach and stages several times a-dav; j These are all the conveyances mentioned . But the trees may have been planted by this , time, out of which the planking has since been cut to frame the Anderston, Par tick, Po’kshaws, Shettleston, &c. &c. &c. present conveyances pro omnibus* And now have we carefully traversed the ap¬ proaches, and arrived at the main body of our work, as tin civil engineer would say. (To be continued in our next.) * No intimation is given by Jones of the fares of these conveyances ; but for the information of the curious we subjoin the rates on several roads ten years afterwards, viz., 1796-7, ex¬ tracted from Mennons’ Glasgow Almanack. Glasgow to Carlisle, £1 18 0. Thence to Manchester, via Kendal, Lancaster andPrestoq, £2 2 0. Carlisle to London, £5 5 0. , Glasgow to Kilmarnock, 7s. to Ayr, 3s. 6d. more. Do. to Edinburgh (three routes), 10s. 12s. 13s. (Afterwards charges much higher.) Do. to Greenock, 6s. 6d. Do. to Stirling, 6s. Do. to Perth, £1 3s. Do. to Paisley, Is. and Is. 3d. Do. to Hamilton, Is. 6d. (All these aug¬ mented subsequently.) To the foregoing fares, add an imposition of at least 25 per cent, for Drivers and Guards of such slow coaches. Count, too, the cost of living on the road, with sharking innkeepers’ charges and trickery. These calculations made, fall to and rail. JOHN ALSTON, ESQ. The portrait by Graham and the bust by Fillans, of our late friend and universally- j esteemed citizen, have with great taste ' been procured for this exhibition. If we j mistake not, the bust was executed at the . request of the inmates of the Asylum for the Blind, to whose intellect he opened up a new world by his works printed in raised ; character, and who, not being able to see the features of their benefactor, wished to feel them. We have not referred to these j objects by our usual reference Numbers, being persuaded that the benevolent face l of Mr. Alston does not require to be cata- ; logued. _ - Glasgow: Printed for the Proprietors, by W. G' 1 Blackie, (residing at 25, Richmond Street ) at his ; premises. Model Exhibition, No. 19, Area A, City , Hall. —Thursday, December 24th, 1847. No. 2. GLASGOW, DECEMBER 26, 1846. Price Lb. JACQUARD LOOM. Area A. Nos. 1, 2. The Jacquard loom, first invented in 1800 by M. Jacquard, a straw-hat maker of Lyons, is justly reckoned one of the most ingenious of modern inventions. It enables the weaver to produce varieties of pattern which cannot be accomplished by the ordi¬ nary modes of harness-weaving. By means of it the most complicated designs can be I woven with nearly the same facility as | the plainest fabrics. Jacquard’s per¬ sonal story is interesting and instruc- tive, and has fortunately been well pre- | served in all the simplicity of the arti- zan’s own diction, by Dr. Bowring, in his !| well known little work entitled “ Minor | Morals.” We give the substance of the i narrative. M. Jacquard happened during the peace of Amiens to meet with a few other artizans at the house of a friend, to discuss politics over an old newspaper, which contained a translated extract from an English paper, stating that a premium was offered by a Society in London for the application of machinery to the manufac¬ turing of nets. Jacquard, after long medi¬ tation and perseverance, succeeded in solv¬ ing the problem. He made a machine and worked a net by it. The net was shown about for a few days as a curiosity. But having succeeded, the interest was at an end and he soon entirely forgot the matter. After the lapse of a few months, he was not a little surprised by a summons from the Prefect of Lyons to appear at the Prefectal Palace. In those days it was necessary to have both firmness of nerve and a good con¬ science to contemplate such a summons without trepidation; and when the Prefect began to compliment him on his proficiency in the mechanical arts, the mystery of the summons grew still deeper. Jacquard could not comprehend his meaning, and he was scarcely relieved even when the machine- worked net was produced. “I have the emperor’s orders” said the Prefect, “to send the machine by which this net was produced immediately to Paris.” Jac¬ quard could not understand what the em- believing that he had been guilty of no treason in making a net, he pleaded for time to make a new machine, as the original one had been made to serve for fire-wood soon after it had accomplished the invent¬ or’s purpose. The second machine was completed and shown to the Prefect, who, to the straw-hat maker’s surprise, was highly delighted with its performance, and dis¬ missed the inventor with the assurance that he would hear from him. He did hear from him very soon after, and in a way not a little perplexing. It was to order him im¬ mediately to Paris with the machine. It was vain for Jacquard to plead innocence of any evil design; the command was per¬ emptory. A carriage was in waiting, and in a few minutes, without being allowed to see his family, he was off at full gallop to¬ wards Paris. When he reached the first station he opened the door and found him¬ self a prisoner, escorted by a strong mili¬ tary force. Things were so managed in those days and he submitted to his fate with the best humour possible. He reached Paris, a distance of 150 leagues, and was immediately escorted to the Conservatory, where he was met by Napoleon and his Minister Carnot. He was ill prepared for this hasty introduc¬ tion, and as little for Carnot’s abrupt ques¬ tion.—“ What, Sir ! are you the man that can do what .Omnipotence cannot—tie a knot on a string on the stretch ?” But his reception from the emperor in some mea¬ sure dissipated his embarrassment. He spoke to him with kindness, encouraged him to proceed with his mechanical contri¬ vance, with the assurance that he would be both protected and rewarded. In the meantime he was ordered to make a net- producing machine at the Conservatory, under the inspection of the emperor. He completed his task to satisfaction ; and was taken to see a loom which had been constructed at a cost of upwards of 20,000 francs, for the purpose of weaving a superb shawl for the Empress Josephine. The mechanism was new to him, and at first he was overwhelmed by its complex- peror could want with a net machine ; but | ness ; but as he began to be familiarized 2 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR [Dec. 26 . with its details, he conceived it possible that the purpose might be accomplished more simply and with more facility of exe¬ cution. After much persevering study he produced the Jacquard loom. The Em¬ peror expressed much satisfaction at the result, complimented him highly, decorated him with the insignia of the Legion of Honour, and sent him back to his native town with a pension of 1000 crowns a year. But on his return to Lyons his reception was of a very different kind. When he endeavoured to introduce his machine, the workmen broke out into open revolt. He was every where denounced as an enemy to the people, as the man who had been scheming the destruction of their trade and the starvation of themselves and their fami¬ lies. Three plots were laid to assassinate him, and twice he had great difficulty in escaping with his life. So strong was the tide of prejudice and indignation, that his machine was ordered to he openly destroyed by the authorities. It was broken in pieces in the great square of the city. Here was a shipwreck of his golden hopes ; but con¬ scious of the integrity of his purpose he did not despair. A very few years served to dissipate the delusion of his townsmen. The silli-trade, in consequence of the successful competition, principally of our Paisley and Spitalfields weavers, began to decline in France, and Lyons felt the depression more severely than any other town. This state of things had become desperate, when a few of the more intelligent manufacturers began to think of the man whose discovery had been denounced : it might after all bring relief and could not possibly do harm. They had the courage to make the experi¬ ment and it succeeded. Silks of greater beauty than had ever before been produced, were manufactured at a lower cost. Pros¬ perity dawned and soon began to shine, and within a very short period the machine which had been devoted to destruction, and its inventor treated with ignominy, was in .general use, giving labour to thousands of those very men who only a few years be¬ fore had denounced it as a diabolical scheme for their ruin and starvation. Jacquard could now enjoy his honours and pension with a good conscience ; he felt that he had earned them; and no man ever enjoyed prosperity with a better grace. He died only a few months ago at his native place, in a good old age and full of honour. POTTERS AT WORK. (Area A.) That the ancients had attained to the greatest perfection in the Potter’s art the remains of antiquity sufficiently testify. The art is a very ancient one, and the labours of the potter are frequently allud¬ ed to in.the Scriptures,—potters’ vessels furnishing many beautiful similes, more especially in relation to human life, and the ease with which it may be destroyed. The pitchers in which Gideon and his men concealed their lamps are the first earthenware vessels noticed in history. In the Book of Jeremiah (xviii. 2-6.) mention is made of the potter and his wheel, and a de¬ scription given of the process, which must render this department of the Exhibition doubly interesting. No one who atten¬ tively looks at the process, as carried on within this Hall, can fail to recognize the truth of the description given by the in¬ spired writer. Even the marring of the vessel in the hand of the potter, and the reconstruction of the lump of clay into another vessel, may here be seen in actual reality. Having premised so much on the his¬ tory of the art, we add a few words on the practice of it. In the different kinds of earthenware, the different degrees of beauty and costliness depend upon the quality of the raw material used, and upon the labour and skill expended in the operation. The cheapest products of the art are those made of common clay, simi¬ lar to that of which bricks are formed, and which, from the iron it contains, usually turns red in burning. Next to this is the common crockery ware, formed of the' purer and whiter clays, in which iron ex¬ ists only in minute quantities. Procelain, which is the most beautiful and expensive of all, is formed only from argillaceous' minerals of extreme delicacy, united with siliceous earths, capable of communicating to them a semi-transparency, by means of its vitrification. Though the various kinds of pottery and porcelain differ from each other in the der tails of their manufacture, yet there are certain general principles and processes which are common to them all. The first belongs to the preparation of the clay, and consists in dividing and washing it, till it acquires the requisite fineness. The qua¬ lity of the clay requires the intermixture 1846,1 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. of a certain proportion of siliceous earth, the effect of which is to increase its firm¬ ness, and render it less liable to shrink and crack, on exposure to heat. In common clay, a sufficient quantity of sand exists in a state of natural mixture, to answer this purpose. But in the finer kinds, an arti¬ ficial admixture of silica is necessary. The paste which is thus formed is thoroughly beaten and kneaded to render it ductile, and to drive out the air. It is then ready to receive its form. The form of the ves¬ sel intended to be made is given to the clay, either by turning it on a wheel or by casting it in a mould. When dry, it is transferred to the oven or furnace, and there burnt till it acquires a sufficient de¬ gree of hardness for use. Since, however, the clay is still porous, and, of course, pe¬ netrable to water, it is necessary to glaze it. This is done by covering the surface with some vitrifiable substance, and expos¬ ing it a second time to heat, until this sub¬ stance is converted into a coating of glass. Stone ware may be formed of the clays which are used for other vessels, by apply¬ ing to them a greater degree of heat, which increases their strength and solidity. These vessels afford the material of their own glazing by the vitrification of their surface. When the furnace in which they are burnt has arrived at its greatest heat, a quantity of muriate of soda, or common salt, is thrown into the body of the kiln. The salt arises in vapour and envelopes the hot ware, and by the combination of its alkali with the siliceous particles on the surface of the ware, a perfect vitrifica¬ tion is produced. White ware is made of white clay, or of clay containing so little oxide of iron that it does not turn red in burning, but improves its whiteness in the furnace. The names given in the catalogue to the different workmen who are at work in the exhibition, sufficiently explain the nature of their operations. Model of Stephenson’s Patent Loco¬ motive. —■ Stephenson’s is now a great engineering name. The father made the famous primal locomotive “ Rocket,” which' went up so high in the public estimation,' and did not “come down like the stick.”l ^We leave to others, more skilled than we in engineering matters, to point out the merits of this new patent one.—(Table B.,! No. t>9.) THE PENGUIN. (Table' E. Nos. 70, 71.) The Penguin, or rather Pinguin, belongs to a genus of birds ( Aptenodytes ) exclu¬ sively found in the antarctic or southern polar seas. The water is their natural ele¬ ment, and when found ashore it is either to lay eggs, or hatch them. In the latter the male faithfully assists. The legs being so short, its motion on land are slow and ungainly; and even on the water they move with a kind of squattering but rapid step; to fly over it they cannot. The name Pin¬ guin (from pinguis, fat) is given to them from the thick layer of fat found between their flesh and feathers, which, like the blubber of the whale, protects the animal from the rigours of the climate they are confined to. We are indebted to this crea¬ ture, and its congeners, for much of the guano which now fertilises our land. When the earlier explorers of the antarc¬ tic seas first lighted on these gentle ani¬ mals, they were so unconscious of coming harm, that they would allow themselves to be knocked down with a stick. They have since grown a little wary, but by no means yet enough for their own general safety. Captain Crozier, of “ H. M. S. Terror ” perhaps raised little of that uneasy feel¬ ing within the comely breasts of these two fine specimens, when death came upon them through his people. The mere existence of such a heedless kind of creatures in any nook of the ter¬ restrial creation, however remote, plainly points to a time which was the “ golden age” of animals, now become a dim tradi¬ tion in the minds of beasts and birds alike, —a time when they had it “all their own way” over every part of the earth. In those days Man, that Great Seizer, or Perpetual Dictator, had not come to lord it among them, in his usual favourite tyrannical way. Adding mockery to wrong, we find him prating (very philosophically too) of the Hegne Animal ; as if that reign had not ceased almost the moment he appeared I The vulgar, too, babble about the lion’s being “the king of beasts.” Why, Man long since superseded that sovereign in his regality ! This is something like Stephano in Shakspeare’s “{Tempest,” who patron¬ izingly says to Trinculo, “I’ll make you king of this enchanted island, but I’ll be viceroy over you.” And then, the prepos¬ terous tyrant man, grown blase in his op- 4 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Dec. 36, pressions, indites, or causes indite, such absurdities as this— - >) «The beasts that roam over the plain. My form with indifference see; they’re so unacquainted with man, Their tameness is shocking to me.” Ay, poor fellow ! no doubt it is; but how much more “ shocking” must your imtame- ness be to them ? If the abused animals were privileged to quote Shakspeare as we have done, they would use the significantly blun¬ dering speech of one of his absurd person¬ ages thus:—“ Small was our love at the beginning; and it pleased God to decrease it on better acquaintance.” But let us turn (indignantly) from men, to their yet uncorrupt children. And we think we hear some prattler saying, while looking at the comely Penguins, “ Why, I’ve got a picture of «Mr. Nobody,’ but this is Mr. All Body!” An older joker, of the incurable stamp, we think we also hear saying, first pointing out the almost legless feet of the creatures, “ No wonder the Pen¬ guins are silly birds, for, don’t you see, they’ve very little understanding ?” “ The more like you then,” they might retort. THE EDITOR'S LETTER BOX. Non-Content writes that he has seen our Exhibition, and though “ well enough in its way,” he says the Model Department is by no means complete; and in proof of this asser¬ tion says, he had searched there in vain for a Model Speech; and had turned over all the “Specimens,” both cut and dried, but in vain. He is not far wrong: this is a want, and he who rightly removes it will confer a great boon on the speechmaking world, which is widening more and more every day. We used to be able to count our orators, it would be more easy now to make a census of the listeners, awake or asleep. The articles most likely to be wanted are Model laudations. Now if any friend, blether-gifted, would send us a standard public-hall eulogy, or a normal social board complimentary oration, we will take him to our heart of hearts. In the case of oration social, we expect the “ yarn” sent to be of two strands ; i. e. that it include the cornpliment- er’s speech and the complimentee’s response. The public discourse furnished we expect to be equally bistultiform. Charley Commonplace is another com¬ plainant as to the deficiency of Models. He lately got up a “ supper and presentation,” in honour of Mr. Blank Blank, and wishes us to get up a draft of the important proceedings for a public journal. We have, therefore, for his and the-general use, extracted one which we think perfectly en regie, in all points. We took it from the Caw-me-caw-thee Chronicle: “ --. se'nnight * (April 1), a party of admirers of Mr. —-met that gentleman at supper in the Humming Bug Tavern. After ample justice had been done to the viands, and many loyal and appropriate, &c. Mr.- presented to our worthy guest and illustrious townsman a handsome Horn; it having been known to his numerous friends, attached and detached (for many could not attend, but all the absent apo¬ logized) that Mr.- had lately had his old shoes newly soled and heeled; and that from the take in (not of the cobbler, but the shoes) they rather pinched him; and they thought that such a seasonable present as the present would not be unwelcome. Mr.-- in re¬ turning thanks, said, “Words could not express, &c. delicate attentions, &c. expressed as it had been by his eloquent friend, Mr. &c”.. .“The festive scene-the viands_the landlord .... the waiter who showed the party in and was yet to help them out.,.. kept up to a late hour.... all departed highly gratified.” * The se’nnight here (paradoxical as it may seem) was first written “ last.” This change was neces¬ sitated by a delay in the public appearance of the paragraph, which the parties interested in it could not account for in any way creditable to the editor of the C. C. He actually ‘seemed to dodge in the matter to an extent that made “the judicious” think he meant to Jeep the story of the unicorn, (an- glice, keep it) from entering his bounds altogether. The “judicious ” were wrong here as we happen to know. The real fact was (for the truth must be told) the precious article had slipped, somehow, into the office Limbo, or “may stand over” department, and had to be fished up from one of its lowest depths; for in that great ocean, as in t’other, it is there the finest pearls are always found. It looked ill, though, that the anxious parties had to make 13 j calls (the latter a very vulgar-fractious fasten upon the editor at his own stair foot) before such a per- ’ feet Model narration as the above could find its way to an expectant public. TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. Our space being, limited, it were well that all contri¬ butions, previous to being sent in, receive a few strokes of the steam-hammer. maim ISartufittor. SATURDAY, Deo. 26, 1846. We congratulate our public on the aus¬ picious opening of this splendid Exhibition. 1 The pleasure depicted upon every coun¬ tenance while surveying the rich products of mind united to skilful hands, and the beautiful works of nature which load the ( tables and adorn the walls, gave sure indi¬ cation that not in vain has so much expense been incurred and labour expended. Those 1846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. upon whom devolved the great labour of rigidity is less for the same strength of collecting and arranging the numerous ob- ro P e > and on the same „ s j zed P ulle X thai1 . , ... „ , j • i ,,_! that of hempen ropes oi the best manuiac- ,ects will, we feel assured consider them-, ^ ^ are ^ much and Jselves amply rewarded if by this means J som^^at cheaper, than hemp ropes, whilst ithey have contributed to the enjoyment j they generally last two to three 'times and instruction of their fellow-citizens. It 1 longer, at the same work. They can be easy now to predict that they will have easily spliced when occasion requires. lple evidence that their labours are ap-1 , T h e machine appears, at first, a maze of . , , . , . ... wheel work ; but the machinist will easily eclated, m the numbers who will avail; discover that it is in rca lity a series of very themselves of this opportunity of inspect-1 s i mp i e combinations. The great end to be ing a series of objects which cannot be | accomplished was to prevent the individual seen upon any other year. This may be wires being twisted in themselves, and to en- said to be a first trial. We hope it will sure that the wires were laid symmetrically .ir , ., ... . . round a hempen or other soft core. This n °‘ the Iast - We h °P e ltwlU mduce the machine, given here in model, perfectly |the foraiation of a nucleus, at least, of a permanent collection. What city so com¬ petent as Glasgow to form and maintain a collection of models. Were some public- ppirited individual to make such a collec- ftion his hobby, he would get abundant sup¬ port. Might not the Town Council for instance, in the improvements they are making connected with the Bazaar, pro- wide a Hall sufficient for such a purpose. accomplishes. There are numerous speci¬ mens of the work of the large machine on the table. One gigantic rope, fit for the standing rigging of a man of war, but made as one of the suspending ropes of a wire-rope bridge, deserves to be noticed more particularly. The model is on a scale of one-twelfth of the natural size. Argus Pheasant (Argus giganteus ), This superb bird has been by some consi¬ dered as belonging to the Phasianidce; by others to the Pavonidce, or peacocks. Temminck has made it a genus per se. The descriptions in ornithologies were long indistinct and confused, from the early specimens sent to Europe being imperfect. Here we have two noble individuals. “ The Argus pheasant is a native of Sumatra, probably some others of the Indian islands, but principally of Malacca.” . . . . “ The wings, from their unwieldy size, al¬ most entirely deprive the bird of flight, but help it to run fast, aiding like sails.” It is a singular as well as beauti- will not thrive in confinement, tSuch a Hall entering from Candleriggs, dr from Ingram Street, or from both, might Sbe built over the extended market-place, in the same manner as the present City Hall; and if once an exhibition were pro- jperly established in it, there can be no doubt but it would pay. PATENT WIRE ROPE MACHINE. BY R. S. NEWALL AND CO. |At the head of Table B, No. 58 in the [Catalogue, is an exquisitely-finished model J of the machine used by Messrs R. S. Newall ful bird Co. of Gateshead-on-Tyne in the manu- j and we believe has never been brought jfacture of their patent metallic wire ropes. I alive to this country. Habits, incubation, These ropes, in a useful form, are of: and breeding, almost unknown. — (West German origin, but their manufacture has j Gallery, Nos. 84. and 85.) [been greatly improved in every respect Ball of Hair found in the Stomach of since their introduction into this country j a Camel.— An extraordinary instance of in 1840. Their .use has been confined hitherto principally to pit ropes in the coal districts, and to railway ropes on inclines Capillary Attraction. Such balls are formed in camels’ stomachs we suppose in a similar manner as they are formed in cows. worked by stationary engines, of which, in | by licking themselves and their young. [the county of Durham alone, there are j Three Rugs, from Messrs. M‘Farlane & nearly 100 miles furnished with these ropes Co., Glasgow.—If determined “priggers” Constantly at work. Their stiffness is only want a rug, now’s the time. “Paisley apparent in short specimens; for numerous bodies,’ ’ we address this particularly to yoy ,. exact experiments have proved that their —(Nos. 161 to 163.) 6 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 26 , RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. Jones’s Glasgow Directory eor 1787. Table D.— Anliquities. (Second Notice.) We have now arrived at the general list of names in this little Directory. Jones’s was not the first, for JohnTait got one up in 1783. The whole general alphabetical list of miscellaneous names in the one now under notice comprises only about one thousand in all; though, indeed, many of them are repeated elsewhere, as mem¬ bers of firms or functionaries of some kind. The qualification “merchant ” abounds, but many so called were merely retail traders. Of “ manufacturers ” there is not over a hundred; and a score or two, even of these, we find located in Anderston. The names of all the country gentlemen of the environs, and some even of more distant localities (Spiers of Elderslie, for one), also help to swell the weak catalogue; as do likewise those of several manufacturers and traders in Paisley and Greenock. The whole city addresses fall within a radius of from 1 to 2 furlongs from the Cross: The Trongate, Stock- well, Gallowgate, Saltmarket, High Street, &c. —the latter line prolonged up the “Bell of the Brae,”&c. and sending laterals along the Rotten Row and down the Drygate. The population of Glasgow, two years pre¬ viously to 1787, was not quite 46,000; and even that number was probably made up of frag¬ mentary parts; people living at the Green Head were possibly included, for the trading names of such remote localities are comprised in the present list. Our present purpose, however, is not to enter into statistical particulars, for which we have had neither time nor space allowed us in the I). JEx. We shall then confine ourselves to the more pleasant task of copying out names of such parties as we know something remarkable about, and attach to each a notandum: thus making of a list, otherwise dry, a kind of cata¬ logue raisonne, which may chance to be interest¬ ing to surviving “ old stagers,” like ourselves, of Glasgow within the 18th century. And before doing so, we wish to observe, in general, that there is a kind of familiar way of indicating localities in this old Directory, which is now and then not a little amusing. There is far more bonhomie in that, than in the curt and com¬ mercial brevity of the Directory of the current year. We shall note the points adverted to as they occur. To do things in an orderly manner, we recommence where we left off, namely, at p. 26, and go straight on to p. 74. The remaining leaves are merely the same single names, re¬ peated in “ copartneries.” Adam, John, mason and architect, Adam’s Court, Argyle Street.—Q,u. One of the London “ Adelphi ?” Alston, John (and 6 others).—This name be¬ longs to several of the early respectables of Glasgow. Allan, Richard, jun. keeps a callender, Lang’s Closs.—We hope the callender also kept him. Anderson, John, rum merchant, cellar east side Stockwell. “Rum merchant” occurs several times in the Directory, and seems to have been a title acknowledged in those days; as will also be the observation we now make upon it in these days, that there are some very rum merchants in Glasgow yet. Baird, John, Esq. north side Trongate, near the Guard. —In general, indications of lands and courts, &c. are given rather than Nos.; from which we conclude that the numbers were often either absent or not very consecutive: a wee reel ral, like.—“ The Guard ” often does duty in other places as an indicator. According to a drawing of the early Trongate, in the present Exhibition (No. 74, Area E.), what we take to be the Guard is a protrusive edifice diagonally placed north-westward of the Tron Church steeple. Birral, Robert, qualifier of tobacco, Gallow¬ gate.—This was a mysterious craft! The only qualification we would give tobacco, is this— that its use begins in folly with all, and ends in poverty with the many; befittingly commencing in smoke, it terminates in ashes, the middle state being a hateful stench. Black, John, linen printer, Trongate.—There are several linen printers. Blair, Mrs. toyshop. No. 154, Gallowgate. Ah, what wouldn’t we give for a peep at the toys then in request, old fool that we are! Was the de’il-in-the-box, the killie-bill, the tumlin tarn, or the peckin’ bird (with the bullet at hij tail), yet invented? Bogle, Wm, Capt. 56th regt. of foot, Queen Street.—We remember seeing his military fu¬ neral—an early reminiscence—set out from a house in St. Enoch square, close to Surgeon’s Hall. His led horse looked so sorrowful! was the thought of our tender juvenile mind. Such a coarse abomination as a horse laugh, we were then unused to; we have heard a good many since, at things yet more serious. Brown, John, master of work, corner of; Prince’s Street.—A civic functionary? Brydie, Hugh, change-keeper, sign of the ; huntsman, foot of Jamaica Street.—“ Change- keepers” are common in the Directory of 1787; there’s not one in that of 1846. Another puzzle. “ Nous avons change tout cela.” Campbell, John, Esq. of Clathick, west side of Virginia Streep.—'We see, by the Glasgow Al¬ manack for 1785, that this landed-gentleman was provost of the city in that year. And on looking over the lists of provosts for the Scots Burghs in the last century, we find they are generally men of title, or belong to the rank oi! country gentry; not merchants, or even bur¬ gesses in the true sense of the term. This use- and-wont system came to us from the times of that organized anarchy called the feudal system. Upon the boyish plan of “ keep the corhy frae i the craw,” one noble (which in those days was a synonym for public oppressor), generally the THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 7 1846.] nost proximate, was bought off, as it were, from lie general gang, he undertaking to protect “the :ommon guid ” of a municipality from the de- iredations of others of his own prideful class. Sven after the patronizing system had become veak among us, and after it got its final brain- >low by the abolition of “heritable jurisdictions” In 1747, the use-and-wont in the bruglis con- inued, to a very considerable extent, of taking he provost from the landlord ranks. What vas thus adopted in pressing self-defence, would ie continued meekly by the inert regard for ■outine ; occasionally dashed, perhaps, with oadying landlord-worship. In fact, the very ;erm “lord,” adopted to distinguish the chiefs >f our great municipalities, points out the cus- ;om “ in such cases made and” followed, if not ibsolutely provided. Chalmers, Alexander, incle manufacturer, Dovehill.—The inkle factories we remember, vere near Shuttle Street. We could then only get i peep into them, each being a kind of “ secret kork.” The Scots had no incle-ing how tape was made till Dutch workmen were wheedled ;o come over. Coats, seven; 3 are merchants, 2 yarn do., 1 mfr., 1 drysalter. Corbet, James, jun. Esq., Tolcross.—This gen¬ tleman, afterwards a colonel of the Yowes Volun¬ teers, was the “plane-soled Corbet” of the many Almost every public man had a nickname, then. The colonel’s feet were of the plantigrade kind. Coubrough, Archibald, bookseller, and circu¬ lating library. No. 17, High Street.—We rather Ithink old Bauldy’s library was the oldest in Glasgow; the books in it very certainly were. jStill, we would wish to speak respectfully of them and their owner, as from his shelves we had our own first miscellaneous cram. It was so convenient, too, to hire tomes of a man so doited as not to know, latterly, whether you had 'kept a book 3 days or 3 months ! Craig, John, youngest, architect to H.B.H. Prince of Wales.—We did not know that the then unworthy darling of his father’s people had an architect in Glasgow. Was it Craig who ^planned the Brighton absurdity? He must !have been a bright un, whoever he was. Crum, John, cotton and spirit dealer.—The latter found it needful, we suppose, to make the former then heavy article “go off with spirit.” 1 Dale, David, merchant, west side Char¬ lotte Street. His cotton twist wareroom, High 'Street, above No. 18.—This time-honoured I name occurs four times in the Directory, in las many capacities. One of the earliest things I we can remember, is seeing his funeral. Li¬ beral awmous was given to about a hundred beggars, clustered about the doors of the house of mourning. We think his house was the fur¬ thest down, to the right, next the now rusty I gate'of the Green. j Delf-field Warehouse, Broomielaw.—The delf 1 or delft house was a pottery beyond the then short quay, on the Glasgow side of the Clyde. I We remember it, from picking up near it, out-1 1 cast broken potsherds, called wallies. The Broomielaw was then a “caller herrin’” haven. A few argosies, indeed, of from 30 to 40 tons, went to Oban, Tobermory, Balachulish, and some few other foreign ports. Then there were the Greenock flyboats, which were well pro¬ visioned, and sea-stocked for an occasional long voyage of 24 hours’ distance, and sometimes nearly 24 hours’ duration. Dreghorn, Robert, Esq., of Bough-hill. This was one of the Glasgow gouls of our youth¬ ful days. “Bob Dragon” was in reality a miserly old debauchee. His person was spare, even skinny; and his face was deeply pitted with the small-pox; in short, he was very ugly, yet he was a great respectable woman ogler, and low woman seducer. Unlike Thomson’s “ round, fat, oily man of God,” as to his person, he was like him in one of his habitudes; it was amusing to our elders to see, when “ comely damsel chanced to trippen by,” how Bob’s one eye (for he belonged to the Monoculi) would glow like a coal. Terrible things were reported of the doings in his house, Clyde Street (still standing, but now degraded into a broker’s warehouse). Dreghorn, like some other misers, had an occasional fit of liberality, and would do a kind thing in caprice; but ava rice was his prevailing passion. However evil his life was (and we believe, after all, it was far from being so bad as we, in our inexperience, were made to believe), its ending was not that of “ the good man.” Duncan, James, bookseller, facing the Guard, Trongate.—The founder of a highly respectable family, now reduced to scanty proportions, by deaths and other causes. Andrew Duncan, the eldest son, was long in company with his father, and afterwards advantageously known to the world as the University printer. John, his brother, his unthrift brother, was yet in¬ ventor of the Tambouring machine, and a con¬ tributor to the Ed. edit. Enc. Brit. Probably many old Glasgonians may remember his sen¬ tinelling walks for hours daily—great-coated, buttoned up to the throat, and seedy—along the flags of the Tontine piazzas, the urchins mak¬ ing an occasional use of his tall person as a pillar to dodge round. The marks of his foot¬ steps must still be there, like those of Bonni- vard in Chillon Castle dungeon. Dunlops.—Ten of the name, which still de¬ signates many Glasgow respectables. Durie, Thomas, innkeeper, the sign of the Black Bull, north side, Argyje Street.—Very particular direction. ’Tis a wonder the West- port Well was not made to do duty here; but it was probably so crowded with gangs of women, waiting their turn for gangs of water, that it was hid from the describer’s view. Water was water in those days. The hostelry of the Black Bull was erected by, and belonged to, the Glas¬ gow Highland Society. Ewings. Eight.—Some of that Glasgow name have risen high since. Edmund, David, dealer in Scots manufac- 8 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Dec. 26. tures, Saltmarket.—The mention of Scots wares is often recurring 1 . Findlays. Six.—Another thriving Glasgow name. Fife,-, umbrella maker, Trongate, above No. 55. The only one of this calling indicated in the book: note, too, that no dealer in other goods sold umbrellas then. In fact, they were only beginning to be used. Parties who bore them were often hooted at. The chairmen, especially, showed a virtuous dislike of them: in the latter they had a redoubtable foe, who found, like the beleaguered Viennese of old, ready auxiliaries in the poles. Geddes, John, manager of the flint and bot¬ tle glass work, Broomielaw.—All old Glasguen- siaus must remember the ugly brick cone, which sent out its fumes at the S.E. corner of Jamaica Street for many a day. Geddes was rather “bottle-nosed” himself latterly. He was po¬ pularly called “ Pat-fit nose,” when colonel of the Verreville volunteer heroes. The latter were trivially known as “ The Sweeps.” Ged¬ des rode a coal-black Arabian hors'e, on review days. Glasgow, Alexander, manufacturer in Ander- ston. —This seems odd; but it is made nearly even, by there being ten Andersons, traders in Glasgow. [We can’t expect puns to be always done to a f.] Glens. Two. Both dealers in “ Russia goods.” Gray, Hon. Fran., 2d flat, Wilson’s land, Saltmarket.—Wiio could he be? Gray, Robert, jeweller and silversmith, Tron¬ gate, No. 87.—A respectable name, “ et nullus error.” Hamilton, Alexander, tobacconist, Stockwell. Ditto, ditto. Herbertson, John, thread manufacturer, Rot- tenrow.—We hope the thread and the street were not made to match. Hill, John, stays along with his father, James Hill.—A fact which would never have reached us, but for the old Glasgow Directory; Jones states it with the solemnity due to its great im¬ portance. Hoods. Two. Both coopers.—We remember the men. One was a Shaker. Hogg, Silby, & Co., muslin manufacturers. Bell’s Wynd.—Only two makers of that article designated. Ingles, John, linen draper, 1st shop next the Laigh Church, Trongate, No. 24.—When we knew that gentlemanly Tory draper, of the old school, he was located at No. 82, on the oppo¬ site side: a low-browed shop, and a mercer’s still. His sister, indeed, who had been many years his assistant, quarrelled with him some forty years agone, and dared to set up an oppo¬ sition trade at 24. He was an old bachelor; she an old maid, of the real “aunt Dinah” stamp. With what prudish dignity she walked on the Trongate flags, when she deigned to use them ! We admired her high-heeled shoes, long waist ( short were the fashion then), and cork 'rump (that was the name). There is nothing new under the sun, not even hustles. Absurd fashion-followers die, but absurd fashions never. Jones, Nathaniel, keeper of the servant’s j register office, 2nd stair, left hand, Presbyterian Closs, Saltmarket.—Worthy author of the Book , and (indirectly) of this article upon it, you I needn’t be so very particular in the address. | Did not every stone of the city “ prate of your j whereabouts ?” King, John, flesher, corner of Bullock lane, | Bridgegate.—The “unities of trade and place” i are well preserved here. Lapsley, William, grocer and spirit dealer, 1 Argyle Street.—His widow we knew of. She I long kept an old-fashioned, cozy, comfortable j tavern, in Virginia Street, opposite the Black j Bull stable entry. The house is still a tavern, j and was frequented, by gentle Sandy Rodger, i till within a short time of his death. Lockhart, James, hardware merchant. Salt- I market. No. 97.—A shop well known, to town and country. Things good, and therefore cheap, \ though not always low-priced. The terms are not synonymous ; “ quite t’other.” Lumsden, James, engraver, 2nd flat, Craig’s Land, head of the Old Wynd. A name of fame, J especially among the rising generation of those and our early days. The old gentleman (and a fine looking genteel old man he was) had re¬ tired from business with “flying” (no, steady) 1 colours, when we used to see him. His name was associated in the youthful mind, with sources of enjoyment, “New’r gifts,” holiday presents, small prints, and picter byukes of every description. What a goodly array he had! Why every thing in that line was by “James Lumsden & Son.” The latter, in the days we write of, had his house of business in an establishment, up a court in Dunlop Street, • with an iron-gated garden. What great ideas we had, as we used to peep through that iron grille, of the “Paradise of Dainty Devices” ; within. The “Crooked Family,” the “Bloody Battles (by sea and land) of the Rats and Cats,” &c. &c. &c. Oh! what a treasury, thought we. Old James Lumsden had, at least, two other sons, besides the ex-Provost: George, a book¬ seller;* and Lachlan, a lawyer. * We are here brought to a sudden “ pull up.” A youthful experience, in which George Lumsden’s name is indirectly involved, will head our next and , concluding notice. “ The course of true love never does run smooth f neither does that of Science or Art. Circumstances incident to a young Journal ho.ve caused the Publication of No. 2 of the Daily Exhibitor to be delayed a day beyond its time; an irregularity we hope to avoid in future. Glasgow: Printed for the Proprietors, by W. G. Blackie, (residing at 25, Richmond Street) at his premises. Model Exhibition, City Hall .—Saturday, December 26tli. 1846 No. 3. GLASGOW, DECEMBER 28, 1846. Price fi>. THE IRON MANUFACTURE. !of air forced into the furnace by the aid (Table D.) ! of a steam engine. This air in its passage This extensive manufacture is excellently to the furnace is heated to a high temper- illustrated by specimens of the raw mate¬ rials and produce, in all their various stages in the processes, from Mr. Murray ot Monk- land. A few words descriptive of these materials and processes, may not be uninter¬ esting to the visitor, especially when he is told that this manufacture has been the foundation stone of the commercial prosper¬ ity of our city. Glasgow, standing in the midst of a coal, iron, and clay field of great extent, is surrounded with the furnaces and works, for the elaboration of these materi¬ als for the production of the Iron. The strata or layers of earth containing these materials are, by a beautiful and wise provision of the Creator, always associated with each other; thus we find layers of coal, then clay, then ironstone, then clay and coal again, in vast beds, which are easily excavated and brought to the surface. After the ironstone or ore has been exca¬ vated, it is submitted to the process of “calcining;” this is merely burning or “ roasting” in order to free it from the car¬ bonic acid and drive off the moisture. It is the peculiar property of “blackband” ironstone, that it contains coal in itself of quantity sufficient for the “ roasting ;” the others require coal to be added. The roasted ore is then thrown into the blast furnace with certain proportions of coal and lime. The carbon of the coal at the high temperature of the furnace reacts on the iron oxide, and with the acid of lime, which acts as a flux, reduces it to the metallic state, and the almost pure metal being much heavier than the other materials, falls to the “hearth” of the furnace, or in other words, to the bottom of the large cru¬ cible commonly called the blast furnace. The slag, composed of the lime and the impurities previously combined with the ironstone, floats on the surface of the fused metal. The fusion is kept up by the heat of the burning coal, and the reducing action is much quickened by the immense volumes ature. This constitutes the notable im¬ provement of the hot blast, the invention of Mr. Nelson our townsman, and which has effected so much for the iron manufac¬ tures of Scotland. Every 12 hours, and sometimes oftefier, the furnace is “ tapped,” and all the melted iron lying at the bottom of the furnace is run off into moulds, where it is allowed to cool; these moulds or castings constitute the “ pig iron” of commerce. The slag, or the impurities of the iron stone and the lime, is allowed to run off as it accumulates, by a hole at a higher level. The pig iron in this state is fit for all the purposes of the foundry, or for being cast into various forms, but it is not per¬ fectly pure, and contains a proportion of carbon, and is quite unfit for the purposes of the blacksmith, to suit which it must be made “ malleable .” This operation is a most important one. The process is as follows:— The pig iron is melted in a small open furnace called a “refinery;” coke is the fuel used, and the fire is urged by the blast from a steam engine. The melted metal is run off into moulds and formed into thick plates, a great deal of slag being driven off by the operation, and the iron is then much better adapted to the next operation, which is that of “puddling” or of converting the cast iron (for refined metal is still of this nature) into malleable. The puddling furnace is of the reverber¬ atory kind; that is, the material to be melted, instead of being mixed with the fuel, is placed in a separate compartment, and the flame is passed over the surface. Three to four cwt. of the refined metal is put into the puddling furnace at a time, and when melted it is stirred constantly about with iron rods and exposed to the action of the hot air; by this process it is gradually deprived of its carbon and some earthy constituents, and thus rendered malleable. The workmen then divide the THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 28 . mass into large rough balls of from 12 to 18 in. diameter; these are taken and beaten under a large hammer or subjected to the operation of some other powerful machine driven by an engine, which at the same time squeezes out the scoria and compresses the soft porous mass into a compact form, usually of 15 in. long and 4 or 5 in. square or round. The process just described is called “Shingling” The bloom, still red hot, is then taken to large rollers or cylin¬ ders, driven by a steam engine, when it is rolled into flat bars of dimensions varying according to the size of the bar into which the iron is to be finished. These flat bars are then cut into short lengths, and piled on one another, forming a sort of faggot, which is taken to a reheating furnace and brought to a welding heat, after which it is again rolled out by other rollers into the wished for form. The iron is then finished and is the merchant bar iron of commerce. In this way the highest degree of purity, toughness, and elasticity may be obtained, and iron suitable for the manufacture of the most delicate instruments or gigantic machines obtained. The object of the whole of these processes is to separate the iron from its various states of combination. 1st. To free it from carbonic acid, 2nd. from oxygen, and 3d. from earbon ; when these are finally accomplished the iron may be practically said to be pure. To form steel it requires to be again united with a small quantity of carbon; this communicates to the iron greater elasticity, brittleness, and infusibility, and suits it for the manu¬ facture of all cutting instruments, &c. In conclusion we may add one or two statisti¬ cal facts in connection with this manufac¬ ture, to show its rapid growth not only in improvements, but in importance. In Tons, cwt. qr, 1829 1 Ton of iron required 8 1 1 of coal. 1830 „ 5 3 1 „ 1833 „ 2 5 1 . „ From the first to the last period, the yield of iron was doubled from the same furnace, and trebled from the same put. The quan¬ tity of limestone has also been vastly de¬ creased, and also here a great saving effect¬ ed, but the greatest results are from the in¬ creased yields, almost double, of the fur¬ naces. These great advances are due to the introduction of the hot blast, which in¬ deed has created an almost total revolution in the whole manufacture, has given it an impetus in this district, which has expanded it from a comparatively trifling extent into a gigantic and staple manufacture. In proof of this we have only to look back to a few years ago, when very few furnaces were in operation. So late as 1822, there were only 22 furnaces in Scotland produc¬ ing 24,500 tons, which is about 21 tons of metal from each per week ; compare that with the following, which shows the returns for the years 1845—6, when we have 95 furnaces, yielding a produce of 642,200 tons per annum—or about 26 fold in as many years ; this shows about 130 tons of metal from each per week, or 6| fold increase for each. It will thus be seen how enormously this manufacture has increased in production. The quantities of materials are also much decreased; thus three-fourths less coal and one-half less limestone is now sufficient in every point of view ; the savings are enor¬ mous, and the resulting benefits to all our arts and manufactures enormous. DISSOLVING VIEWS AND CHRO- MATROPE. This pleasing exhibition is dependent on that very familiar optical instrument, the Magic Lantern. The construction of the lantern, in its ordinary and popular form, is too well known to need description; but we may be allowed to refer briefly to its elementary principles and properties, in order to render intelligible our explanation of those improvements in the instrument which have rendered it more extensively useful. The purpose for which the lantern was first designed, was to cast highly mag¬ nified images of small paintings on glass, through a transparent screen, or upon a whitened wall; these paintings being either grotesque devices to excite laughter, or dia¬ grams, figures of animals, &c. &c., to culti¬ vate the juvenile mind through the eye. The lantern is so contrived as to emit no light except through an aperture in front, not larger than the disc of glass on which the painting is drawn. The painting is placed across this opening, and all parts of the disc being made opaque save those oc¬ cupied by the figure, the only light that escapes from the lantern is that which passes through the picture. This flight, bearing the colours and outlines of the painting, traverses a sliding tube and passes into the apartment through a double con¬ vex lens (a powerful magnifying glass), and diverges and spreads till it reaches the 1846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. screen, where it forms an image whose dia¬ meter is to that of the painting as the re¬ spective distance of the lens from each. The lantern with one lens was, we believe, the original construction. A second lens was afterwards added, to concentrate the light upon the picture and give greater brilliancy to the image. This additional glass, named a bull’s eye, is plano-convex and very thick, being nearly half a sphere. It was first placed with its circular side towards the light, and between it and the painting; but it was afterwards thought a better arrange¬ ment to have the painting next the light, and the plane side of the lens exposed to _ the front of the picture. To under- I stand the use of this second lens, the reader must be made aware, that a lamp does not send out light in parallel, but in ciple, but much more extensive in its use. The lamp is now superseded by small cones of lime, which are ignited with oxy-liydrogen gas, and yield a light of amazing intensity. And the lenses of the old instrument are exchanged for a combination of achromatic glasses, whose effect is to give a sharp, well- defined outline of the objects. This new instrument is the medium employed for exhibiting the Dissolving Views and the Chromatrope. The exhibition in the City Hall is rather unfavourably circumstanced, having too little length of room to render its exhi¬ bition fully effective. The magical effect of the Dissolving Views cannot be brought out unless a transparent screen be inter¬ posed between the spectators and the ope¬ rator. In the present case, there is of diverging rays ; hence the light falling j necessity a little intrusive and extraneous upon the picture diverges after transmis- j light to mar the illusion ; and moreover sion, and is not all carried to the lens at the spectators will turn their attention the end of the tube, unless by the interven¬ tion of this bull’s eye its rays be caught up immediately and brought from diver¬ gence into parallelism, when they all pro¬ ceed to the second lens, and after passage through it, form an image upon the wall or screen of great brilliancy. It must, not¬ withstanding, be very obvious that the lan¬ tern thus improved was far from being a perfect instrument; for the light of an or¬ dinary lamp, however much concentrated, is greatly attenuated when it diverges from a lens of (say) two inches diameter, to form an image of four feet in diameter. Many contrivances were added to the instrument to overcome this defect. Reflectors were placed behind the lamp, and for the ordin¬ ary lamp one on the Argand principle was substituted. These additional appliances merely rendered the instrument more sat¬ isfactory as an amusing optical recreation; but they did not admit of its being used as an illustration to a large assembly of per¬ sons, or as a means of exhibiting micro¬ scopic phenomena. The image could not be thrown large enough in the one case, and there was too much indistinctness of outline to render it available in the other. Two great defects had yet to be overcome; insufficiency of light, and want of definition. Optical constructions have, in late years, received a large share of attention; and the Magic Lantern has been converted into an instrument named the Oxy-hydrogen Microscope, similar to the lantern in prin¬ from the scene to the operator, in the hope of discovering his secret. Let us not, however, be understood as casting the least reproach on the operator; his exhibi¬ tion is still very pleasing, though under other circumstances it would better fulfil its design. We need not tell those who have visited the Hall, that two lanterns, or microscopes, are employed on the Dis¬ solving Views, since they must have ob¬ served the two tubes. The mystery of the dissolution is simply this; one view is ex¬ hibited for a brief interval, and whilst the aperture of the other instrument is closed j then, another view is placed in this last' instrument, and on opening the aperture, without drawing out the tube to its focus, a misty light is thrown over the former view; lastly, by gradually withdrawing the first view from its focus, and as gradually ad¬ vancing the second view, the first fades away and the second appears, until, at length, the aperture of the first instrument is closed, and the second view in all its brilliancy takes place of the one previously shown. Care is requisite to incline the axes of the tubes so that the one picture may fall accurately on the other; and great delicacy of operating is necessary to make the illusion of the change effective. Of the Chromatrope it is sufficient to say, that its effects are produced by movable diagrams, and that the illusion consists in the varied intersections of straight and curved lines in motion. 4 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 28, Electricity, Table D.— Amongst the very interesting things exhibited under this head, we will now notice what is usually termed the “Shocking Machine;” a few minutes will be spent- here both profi¬ tably and amusingly. This Machine ob¬ tains its peculiar power from the Galvanic Battery. The Electric fluid travels along a thincopper wire (covered with cotton thread, to prevent contact) which is coiled many times round a hollow drum of wood . This is called the coil; the Battery electricity travels along this wire. As yet, however, the machine lias no power of shocking. This power is communicated to‘it by passing a piece of soft Iron of any sort, or a bundle of wire fastened together, into the hollow drum at the extremities. As this is intro¬ duced so is the force.generated, and in pro¬ portion to the length introduced, is the power of this machine. In this way shocks of any degree of power may be given or ob¬ tained, suited either to the delicate nerves of our dear lady friends, or to the more robust and herculean frames of the lords of crea¬ tion. The shocking effect produced-is due to the Electricity travelling through the wires; this Electricity is more properly termed Electro-Magnetic Electricity or Electro- Magnetism, for the iron bundle of the coil becomes a Magnet by the induction or power of the Electricity which is travelling through the copper wire. But we will not trouble the visitor with more explanations of the workings of a power whose effects we can only see and feel, but not see or ieei it¬ self,—and to describe which more fully would neither be understood, nor appreciat¬ ed, unless by savans . The same power pro- duces the beautiful aurora borealis, which charms us during the winter uights, by its beautiful panoramic exhibition, and may not unaptly be termed nature's dissolving views. It is amusing to wait beside this interesting machine, and watch the various shades of feeling and expression manifested towards it—'fear, wonder, delight, and pain, as the passer-by first looks at, and then tries it. It lias occurred to us that it might be made to indicate the strengths of our muscular and nervous systems. We have also thought of an interesting little trick which might be performed by some of our young friends, for example, by a dis¬ tracted swain enraged at the enfuriating treatment of his coquettish sweetheart, by inducing her to catch one of the handles of the machine, slyly taking hold of the other with one hand himself, and then to steal a kiss ; the effect would be magical. Only try it ; we are sure that in such a case it would he truly useful, and we only wish the scheme the* *,, patronage it deserves ; a more effectual plan of smoothing down could not, we conceive, be devised. TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. Sapwood is informed that the pith of the wire ropes is not medullar]] but fibrous, and that the ropes themselves are not exogens but twinogens. Isoceles Triangle lias evidently not passed the pons asinorum. 'mt Eailfi iSxtHbitor. X MONDAY, Dec. 28, 1846. The Exhibition is progressing gloriously in public favour, like a gallant ship sailing- before a favouring wind, with tide and cur¬ rents all propitious. We are like a little boat attached to it. “ We share tlie tri¬ umph and partake the gale.” We fear we begin to grow “ower vogie,” though. Still the indulgence in a little self-complacency ought not Jo be denied us, seeing that we ( are the first of all the Scots Press which , has attained the dignity of being a Daily ■ Paper. Think of that, good readers. • In throwing out the hints contained in 1 our last Number about a permanent Exhi¬ bition, we did not say one word about our¬ selves, a pitch of modesty to which we could scarcely have been suspected to have at¬ tained ! Were such a permanent collection once formed, we do not say our services would not be advantageous; we leave that to others to judge of, and merely throw out the. suggestion for the consideration of all concerned, that when the time arrives we may not be overlooked, which from our Tom Thumb dimensions we might readily be. A permanent Exhibition, such as the present, with a daily exponent of its won¬ ders attached, would be a conjunction hi¬ therto unparalleled. We take no little credit to ourselves for the idea. 1846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. T 1BI E OF ANTIQUITIES I or flaw °I envy. And as for his patriotism, Autograph letters, 1,2,3. These are from !> e '^ed his country, even as (ay, better ni* eminent, men • w„ nlaee them in the than) his own SOul, alas . . Tins short but characteristically kind hree eminent men ; we place them in the irder of the merit of the writers. 1. RobertBurns.—[“Mauchline, 1788,”] 1 —The thoughts which arise on seeing this page, we cannot express. Our friend and ’ellow townsman, the late Thomas Camp¬ bell, shall do it for us :— “ Farewell, high chief of Scottish song! That couldst alternately impart Wisdom and rapture in thy page, And brand each vice with satire strong, Whose lines are mottoes of the heart, Whose truths electrify the sage. Nor skill’d one flame alone to fan: His country’s liigh-souTd peasantry What patriot-pride he taught! how much To weigh the inborn worth of man'! And rustic life and poverty Grow beautiful beneath his touch.” We quote the letter writer’s own words mow :— “ A king can mak’ a belted knight, A duke, a lord, and a’ that.” Ay, Robin, he can ; but we’ll tell thee, Robin,what’s “ aboonhis might:” he canna ENNOBLE A WHOLE PEOPLE, as tJlOU hast done. ‘We’ll a’ be proud o’Robin,” the plough¬ man “lad that lived in Kyle.” Said he not sooth, that older Ayrshire rhymer, in summing up an account of the great staples of his native soil— “ Kyle, for a man, Garrick for a koo, [_cow, Cunningliam for butter and cheese, Galloway for woo’. ” [irool. Lord Nelson. [Date, 1804.]-^Writ¬ ten the year before his death, which took place in the narrow cockpit of “That ship the Victory named. That ship for victory famed,” on the 21st Oct., 1805. We think we see the narrow corner now , where his tspiring spirit leit its poor shattered clay tenement behind. But his peculiar work was finished; he had gathered in the full harvest; none succeeded to him but gleaners. We are no admirers of “ heroes ” generally; hut if aii exception can ever be made in favour of an individual of a had lot, our xception would be Horatio Nelson. He was not a mere fighting tar, of coarse in¬ stincts, as Tait pretends ; he was a man of superior mind. Let those who do not know this, go and inform themselves. But what is better, that mind was pure, as rucK-crystal, from anv taint of selfishness. letter, gives evidence of its being written with the left hand—the only hand left the writer to use. 3. Benjamin Franklin. [Date, 1788.] —This is another manner of man, in all respects. He had virtues which the other wanted; and some vices (no ! peculiarities) which Nelson was free of. Franklin, though full of uncommon talent and of rare saga¬ city, was a hard-minded selfish man. Our own gentle Thomson (poets are double vati- cinators) must have had him in his eye, when peopling his Castle of Indolence :— “ ‘ A penfly saved, is a penny got;* Firm to this scoundrel maxim keepeth he.” Poor Richard was not lower in his estate, than was his author in some of the inner regions pf his mind. Capercailzie, or Cock of the Woods.~^~ This splendid bird was once plentiful in Scotland, but is now no longer to be found there in a state of nature. It is by far the most magnificent of the grouse tribe, and must have been a truly worthy tenant of those splendid primeval forests which oner overspread our country. The male is nearly three feet in length, and attains a weight of about fifteen pounds; black, brown, green, and white, are his predomi¬ nating colours ; and from the hook of his bill, the strength of his limbs, and majesty of deportment, he might rather be supposed to be a bird of prey than even the chief of the grouse family of gallinse. The num¬ bers of the capercailzie naturally decreased in Scotland with the woods which gave them shelter, and it is now about sixty years since the last native individual of tile species ever seen in this countJry was shot in the neighbourhood of Inverness. They are now most plentiful in the forests of Northern Europe, and some parts of North¬ ern Asia, where they feed on the young- shoots and cones of the pine, the catkins of the birch, and berries of the juniper which form the underwood. Several attempts have been made, with what success we have not learned, to restore this beautiful ani¬ mal to our country. The Marquis of Breadalbane, to whom we are indebted for the specimen in the exhibition, lias clone much to further this desirable end.—-(Table E., No. 39.) THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Dec. 28,' RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. Jones’s Glasgow Directory eor 1787. Table D.— Antiquities. (Third and Concluding Noticb.) The Lumsdens (Continued). George Lumsden was a bookseller, and his shop was that now occupied by Macleod, 20, Argyle Street. It was then remarkable for the neatness and beauty of its interior; and still more so for having been the first in Glasgow which was lighted with gas, by means of a pri¬ vate apparatus. Some forty years ago, we used to be terribly puzzled with an inscription in gilt letters, on one of its book-cases. It ran thus:— “A book the stealing hour secures, and marks it down for wisdom.” We could not, for the little life of us, make out what the words meant. Some one'whom we applied to in our distress, said it was merely a warning set up against book stealing! We were at first satisfied with this explanation; but, on reconsideration, irksome doubts began to vex us. By and by, the gas being mismanaged, the shop was set on fire by it; its whole contents were consumed, and with it the unlucky lettered plank. The tallow chandlers and, oilmen considering the “new light ” a rank heresy, looked upon the disaster as a just judgment; and even we were something of the sameimc/ced opinion, fora different reason. Children dislike what perplexes them. We had already been bothered with a pictorial puzzle of Lumsden senior’s publishing; it was a print of three monkeys on ass-back, with the words, “ Seven we together make; count us well, and don’t mistake.” We found out the trick of this, though we thereby had “to make a beast of our¬ selves.” But the other “pons asinorum” we could not get over at all; and had to wait for a solution till of age to read (and relish) Cowper. [Gentle reader, pardon us for reciting this puerile story.] Mennons, John, printer of the Glasgow Advertiser (published every Monday evening) Saltmarket, No. 22. Here we are assured that Glasgow rejoiced in its one paper published every week! John published a “ Glasgow Al¬ manac,” also. That for a.d. 1785 is now lying beside us. Mennons, Senior, was a man who made a fortune in the muck-worm way, and lost most of it after he retired from trade, in unprosperous mining speculations. He had to resume trade for his support, and that of his family. One daughter became a composhrm, another a presswomare. The oldest son (now dead, also), was editor, then became proprietor, of the Greenock Advertiser. Monteith,—Seven, including “ Henry Mon- teith & Co. Anderston.” Moodie, Alex, hair-dresser to the Bull, Tron¬ gate.'—When th eBull (or its gentlemen visitors) wanted no farther dressing ( powdering ), Mr. Moodie being a ruined man, took to living upon others* wrecked fortunes, by setting up as an auctioneer, and a very respectable one he made. t His “ vendue rooms” were opposite the Ton- [ tine. M'Auslan & Ouston, in Co. seed merchants, shop Trongate.—A respectable house, still, in g part, extant. We remember seeing Colonel j, Cadogan eat a quantity of new strawberries in,, their shop (on the south side Trongate then) a i short time before he was killed at Vittoria. Had he lived, he would have been called to the peerage, (perhaps) by the style and title of “ Lord Gallowgate!” M'Donaid, Angus, dealer in silver-plate, hard i ware, and toys, shop Trongate, Nos. 80 and) 105.—No mention is made here of quack medi-1 cines, a kind of soft ware (ware for the soft), j, which Angus (and a proud Highlander he was) i disdained not to deal in. M'Goun’s, Andrew, book, music, and sta¬ tionary shop, head Stockwell.—The only ware-; house of the kind observable. M'Goun hadi afterwards a large warehouse in Wilson street;: but he had competitors then. M'Intosh, George, merchant; “ his dwelling; house is near the Secret Work, near the foot of i the Drygate.”—The arcana of this early estab¬ lishment have ceased to be secret works long j ago; not to mention, that it seems odd thus j to publicly point out a place meant to be “ secret.” MTlhose, James, heritor, north side Gallow -1 gate.—A man whose calling was easy then, and i kills no one who follows it (or rather lets foi low him) even now. Naper and Dun, in Co. watch-makers, head of Stockwell.—Was known as Dun’s only, in our time. It was an old-fashioned shop, up a few steps. The locality (much altered) is now a hat shop, under the Examiner Office. Niven, David, printer, Saltmarket.—This name was reproduced afterwards as “Niven, Napier, and Khull’s;” then that copartnery split up, and each traded on his own bottom, or joined his flag to others’. We could say a good deal about all of them, had we room, and patient readers. Niven was connected with booksellers of that name. It is extant in Glasgow bibliopolisim yet. Paton, Captain Archibald, opposite the Ex¬ change.—This was the “ultimus caudarum,” the last Glasgow wearer of hair-powder and pigtails. When we knew him, he was a collector of cess, and lived in Silvercraig’s Land, Saltmarket opposite East Bridgegate. This respectable edifice was once the temporary lodging of Oliver Cromwell; and upon its wall was cut the mark of the great Clyde flood, March 12, 1782. It was a fine hale building, one of the olden time, and looked much like a French nobleman’s old Paris hotel. What harm had it done to cause its demolition ? It had survived its second century, and might have seen its fourth, if fairly dealt by. Pollocks, sen. andjun.—The last hair-dressefs in Glasgow of the old school. No one prh sumed to make a toupee or perruque after 7 L846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. em. The younger Pollock (an old man when ; knew him), lived in the Laigh Kirk Closs. lere we saw him, when the evil days of itural hair came upon him, often solemnly ake the dust out of his own wig against the eneracy of the times. He despaired, drooped, died. How many fat “Glasgow magi- rates ” he had pouthered in his day ! Riddel, John, surgeon, lodges with his mo- er, Princes Street.—A dutiful son, and, no >ubt, a great comfort to the old lady; who svays, as a matter of course, “ knew when he is out.” Robertson, James and Matthew, printers d booksellers, east side, Saltmarket, No. 17.— Ha, are you there, old Truepenny!” as Ham- t says. Our earliest library was made up of e Saltmarket literature. ” Penny histories,” sre they called: each tract was of 24 duodeci- o pages. The serious department contained, ter alia, “The Seven Champions,” “Life of r allace and Bruce,” &c.: the comic division. Leper the Tailor,” “Lothian Tam,” “The r ife of Beith,” “ George Buchanan’s Tricks,” m multis aliis; which Latin words mean :re, “ wi’ mony ither lees.” Smith, William, tobacco and cotton twist erchant, Lee’s Closs.—These incongruous ma- irials, if ever they became textile together, 3uld, no doubt, take the fig-leaf apron form, ae thing is plain; from this and a preceding ct, cotton was not, as yet, thought fit to go one. Stevenson, Mrs., dealer in sundry vegetables, ’, High Street.—A rather showy periphrasis r hale-wife. Sturrock, John, beef stake house, Laigh Kirk oss.—Sturrock was evidently one who had “ a ake in the country.” Tait, Peter, printer and bookseller.—The under of the old Glasgow Journal, second lasgow paper in order of time, and long pub- shed conjointly with the Herald. jTassie, William, glover and breeches maker, ridgegate.—His shop well-known to hand-ball ayers. They supplied the Avorsted: the latter ways was the wreck of a knitted (not woven) ocking. | Taylor, William, D.D. (the principal), Mrs. twson’s Land, Bell of the Brae.—No man of y principle would live there now. The locality now called High Street. It ought to have ten named Highest Street, if it was right to ange the name at all. Walker, Charles, grocer, Gallowgate Bridge. ■This gentleman was colonel of the “ Gro¬ ss’ ” (alias “ Sugaralli ”) corps of volunteers, le was the hero of one of Blind Alick’s limerous patriotic pindarics, two of the halting les of which we remember: “ The gallant Charlie Walker, i Makes Bonyparty tremble like a Quawker!” ertainly the honest, pacific-looking douce gro- r had the look of a quaker, dressed in mourn- lg square-cut. Judging by appearances (in [is window) he was a Glassite. The shop is No. 87, and is a grocer’s still. Walker himself looked anything but a military hero. He was an honest man, and that’s something better. Wilson, Alexander, type-founder, College.— The Wilsons may be called the premier family of our city. From the year 1740 to 1834, when their establishment was removed (unhappily) to London, their foundry was one of the most dis¬ tinguished in Europe. Within the last few months, they have been rouped, “stick and stow.” We remember the father of the present hapless Marrall Wilson. He was a gentleman of the antique mould. He wore a broad-skirted maroon coat, a cocked hat, hand ruffles, and carried a gold-headed cane—Reader, if you would wish to ruminate on the vicissitudes of commercial fortune, do as we have done lately: -visit a dilapidated mass of buildings in the inner right hand corner of the College Open. Passing the door of a town lying-in hospital, you will arrive at another, a little below, with a small grated opening in it. Peep through, and you will see in to a circular-shaped ruin, once the great metal melting house of the Wilsons, but now a huge cavity of rubbish. Over it hangs a ragged roof, which it is a marvel does not fall in, at the first rough visiting of the winds. This roof is a curiosity in its way. Being cir¬ cular and many-ribbed, and the web-like con¬ nections between each of the ribs having re¬ ceded a good deal, it has all the appearance of a “ shocking bad ” umbrella; such a one as French Robert Maccaire, or English Newman Noggs had in use. The small knob-like lucarrie at the apex completes the resemblance. In the East the umbrella, or parasol, is the emblem of power and dignity; here, where we now stand, no “Emblem” in Francis Quarles would typify half so well the material wreck of a ruined family as this significant tile and timber over¬ hanging canopy does. Among the names and addresses, there are those of several “ chaise setters.” It is more nsual to have bone setters now for sufferers from chaise cowps. But, we remember, it was quite usual in ancient days to anoint the weapon, hot the wound it made : a lucky non-interference with our all-healing and “I-don’t-like-to-be- disturbed ” mother. Nature. Some general notion of the character of the central Glasgow streets in 1787 may be gathered from a consideration of the callings and status of those who dwelt in or about them. All of them have lost caste since then. The eastern Trongate was, then, what Buchanan and Queen Streets are now. Neilson Street has sadly come down in rank. The High Street was of mixed character. When those two huge pretentious buildings were run up opposite the College, we do not know, They were standing as early as we had the intelligent use of olir eyes. That specula¬ tion never paid. Duke Street and George Street w6re, within our ken, in a very rudimen¬ tary state. In the Candleriggs (in 1787) were sugar-houses, “soaperies,” and surgeons. In our early time there were located the vegetable 3 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 28. market, the police-office and the guard house, the two latter in one building, the greens mar¬ ket contiguous—all on the lower or S. W. side. In Bell’s Wynd was a meat market ; and the two greater ones—the Beef and the Mutton—in , King Street, were then in their palmiest days, j The marketing system in household economics,' like that of fairs for districts, is entirely changed I now-a-days. In conclusion, we would observe, that the Glasgow of 1787 gave small promise of ever I becoming tnat of 1847. Its trades, and crafts ,' and callings, were at the former epoch merely such as supply domestic or local wants. Great traders were few, manufacturers fewer. The mineral wealth in its neighbourhood was as yet little known and less disturbed; its port was almost null. It had no advantages in richness of surrounding lands; most of those to thenorth, many to the'eastward, and not a little to the south, were either bleak moor or bogs. In no respect was the district a “ land of promise.” What race but that of Scotland could here have tealised such magnificent results, from means so unlikely, as we have done ?—Esto perpetua. ‘‘ Let Glasgow Flourish.” A. B. A TURNING LATHE, MADE BY JOHN SMEATON. (Table B—No. 6.) John Smeaton, the son of a country at¬ torney at Austhorpe, near Leeds, at the early age of 14 years, had arrived at such Skill in the use of tools, that he had con¬ structed for himself a lathe for rose engine turning, besides many small lathes for his friends. The lathe sent to this exhibition by Mr. Robert Napier, is probably one of those mentioned in a memoir of Smeaton, by his friend Mr. Holmes, in the Annual Register for 1793. Smeaton, though regularly bred for the law, became a mathematical instrument maker, and, with his friend Mr. Ilindlay, of York, occupies a conspicuous place in the history of the improvement of astrono¬ mical instruments. He became a fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed many valuable papers to its transactions ; but his great fame arises from the genius and skill he displayed as a civil engineer. Smeaton, and Brindley, andWatt, were the fathers of civil engineering. While Smea¬ ton was occupied in studying the means of erecting a durable lighthouse on the Eddystone rock, to guide our merchant and other ships through this dangerous part of the channel, Brindley was busied in planning the Bridgewater canals, and Watt was perfecting his idea of the sepa¬ rate condenser for the steam-engine. Is not this a remarkable concurrence of cir¬ cumstances? x\t nearly the same time, the thoughts of these three illustrious men were turned to separate objects, which have each, in its own direction, been developed in the brief period since 1765, so as to have become the characteristics of the age in which we live. Smeaton finished the Eddystone light¬ house as it now stands, “ the light of na¬ tions, ” in October, 1759. It has not only the merit of utility, but of beauty, strength, and originality. Upon its model have been constructed the Bell Rock and Skerryvoro light-houses, in situations equally difficult, by Messrs Stevenson, of Edinburgh. Smeaton’s field of engineering extended afterwards throughout Great Britain. In¬ land navigation, in drainage, the improve¬ ment of water machinery, of the steam- engine, were subjects on which his fertile genius was occupied in the way of business; while the science of astronomy, in his ob¬ servations at Austhorpe, occupied the lei¬ sure of this truly accomplished man. WATT’S PORTRATL Area F. No 56. In Westminster Abbey is the following inscription composed by Lord Brougham: Not to perpetuate a name wliioh must endure while the peaceful arts flourish, hut to shew that mankind have learned to honor those: m who best deserve their gratitude; . j The King, * . Iris ministers, and many of the nobles and commoners of the Realm, raised this Monument to JAMES WATT. Who, directing the force of an original genius. Early exercised in Philosophical research, to the improvement of* the Steam Engine, enlarged the resources'of his country, increased the power of man, and rose to an eminent place among the illustrious followers of Science, and the real benefactors of the world. Born at Greenock, 1736. Lied at Heathfield in Staffordshire, 1819. Bust of Berzelius. — On the chemical table is a bust of the celebrated Swedish chemist Berzelius, attached to which is a label stating that it is Executed in Berlin Porcelain. “Ah!” said a police officer, “ he’s a braw chap that to be hang’d.” Glasgow: Printed for the Proprietors, by W. G Blackie, (residing at 25, Richmond Street) at Iris premises, Model-Exhibition, City Hall .— Monday December 28th, 1846. No. 4. GLASGOW, DECEMBER 29, 1846. Price |d. MR. BAIN’S ELECTRIC CLOCK. Mr. Bain obtains the electricity by which his Clocks are moved from the earth. He buries a quantity of coke in the ground, and at the distance of a few feet he buries one or more plates of zinc. These two ele¬ ments, with the intervening soil, form a Galvanic Battery, from which a uniform current of electricity of very low tension is obtained. It is the constancy of this cur¬ rent, which renders it available as a motive power for time-keepers. The current is led from the coke and the zinc by means of copper wires, the two ends of which ter¬ minate in the upper part of the Clock. To obtain motion from this current Mr. Bain forms a pendulum of fir rod, and in¬ stead of the ordinary bob, he employs a coil or bobbin of copper wire, the wire being icovered with cotton thread. In the centre of this bobbin is a hole upwards of an inch I in diameter, through which is passed a case containing two sets of bar magnets, having their similar poles placed opposite each other, with a small interval between them. .The coil has freedom of motion along the case containing the magnets; and when the pendulum is at rest, the coil stands over the adjacent similar poles of the magnets. From the coil proceed two wires up the back of the pendulum and terminate in brass plates, which are insulated from each other, and on opposite sides of the wooden pendulum rod. To each of these plates a Ispring is attached, by which the pendulum is hung and permitted to vibrate. One of these springs, it will be observed, is in me¬ tallic commmunication with the one end of the coil, and the other with the other. A wire is carried from one spring along the inside of the clock case, and through an aperture in its side, where a binding screw is provided, by means of which it can be jpermanently connected with one of the elements of the battery (say the coke) buried in the earth. From the second spring, a wire also is led down the inside of the clock case, on the opposite side from that occupied by the wire going to ‘the coke. When this second wire has descended to nearly opposite the middle of the pen¬ dulum rod, it is bent across horizontally and terminates in a projecting brass plate, fixed to the back of the clock case, which may be compared to the buttress of a bridge. Another similar brass plate or but¬ tress is fixed into the case, on the other side of the pendulum rod, about three inches distant from the first buttress, and from the second one a wire is carried through the side of the clock case, to the second or zinc plate of the buried battery. A space exists between the two buttresses,-across or through which the pendulum rod moves in the course of its vibrations; and unless a metallic bridge be made to connect what we have called the buttresses, the electric cur¬ rent from the coke to the zinc cannot pass, or the pendulum move. To secure con¬ tinuous vibration of the pendulum, how¬ ever, it is necessary that the electric cur¬ rent should be alternately cut off and let on. To bring about this result, a disc of wood is placed on one of the buttresses, with a wire passing through it, so as to touch the brass of the buttress at the bot¬ tom of the disc, while at the top it ends in a grooved gold plate. On the opposite but¬ tress is a disc of wood similarly perforated by a wire, touching the brass below, and ending in a gold stud above. This stud rises through a semicircular plate of agate, polished and grooved, which covers one half of the disc. A polished steel bridge, supported on two gold points, is laid across between the buttresses, so that the one point shall be in the grooved golden plate in the one buttress, and the other point in the grooved agate plate on the other but¬ tress. When the pendulum moves, it car¬ ries the bridge, by means of a brass edge, attached to the pendulum, which can touch it, first to the one side, and then to the other. The gold points, by* which the bridge is supported, are thus moved along the grooved surfaces on the discs, so that one of the points alternately touches the gold stud on the agate, and is pushed off it, when the point and the stud touch each other, the current passes across the bridge —the opposite end of which is permanently 2 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec. 29, connected with one end of the battery,! by its metallic communication with the grooved gold plates in which it moves. When the current passes, the coil in the bob of the pendulum becomes a magnet, and moves away to the one side, impelled by the permanent bar magnets attached to | the clock case. But in so doing it pushes the gold point of the bridge off the gold stud in the agate. The current is imme¬ diately cut off and the pendulum losing: magnetism falls back, to its original posi¬ tion by its own weight. In falling back, however, it carries back the bridge with it, so as again to make the gold point touch the gold stud. Again it becomes a magnet and moves off a second time; again it pushes off the point from the stud, ceases to be a magnet, and returns by its own weight, always as it returns bringing back the bridge, letting the current pass and making itself anew a magnet. The clock thus possesses in itself the means of main¬ taining constant alternate motion in op¬ posite directions, and is therefore a perfect automaton. EDIBLE BIRDS’ NEST. (Table E., No 60.) The Chinese are so fond of these nests, making of them a favourite dinner course, \ that specimens of them are rather rare in this country, especially in an entire state. Considerable diversity of opinion exists as to the substance of which these nests are composed. According to some, they are formed of a sort of froth of the sea or of the spawn of fish, which is strongly aromatic ; some pretend that it is a kind of gum called Calambone; but the most generally received opinion now, which, however, has by no means been satisfactorily established, is, that they are composed of a kind of sea- ware. The commercial history of these nests is much better understood than their composition. We extract the following interesting account from Crawford’s Indian Archipelago :—“ The best nests are those obtained in deep, damp caves, and such as are taken before the birds have laid their eggs. The coarsest are those obtained after the young have been fledged. The finest nests are the whitest; that is, those taken before the nest has been rendered impure by the food and faeces of the young birds. The best are white, and the inferior dark- coloured, streaked with blood, or intermixed with feathers. It may be remarked, how¬ ever, that some of the natives describe thn purer nests as the dwelling of the cock-bird, and always so designate them in commerce. Birds’ nests are collected twice a-year ; and, if regularly collected, and no unusual injury be offered to the caverns, will pro¬ duce very equally, the quantity being very little, if at all, improved by the caves being left altogether unmolested for a year or two. Some of the caverns are extremely difficult of access, and the nests can only be collected by persons accustomed from their youth to the office. The most remarkable and productive caves in Java are those of Karang-bolang, in the pro¬ vince of Baglen, on the south coast of the island. There the caves are only to be approached by a perpendicular descent of many hundred feet, by ladders of bamboo and ratan, over a sea rolling violently against the rocks. When the mouth of the cavern is attained, the perilous office of taking the nests must often be performed with torch-light, by penetrating into re¬ cesses of the rock, when the slightest trip would be instantly fatal to the adventur¬ ers, who see nothing below them but the turbulent surf making its way into the chasms of the rock. The only preparation which the birds’ nests undergo is that of simple drying, without direct exposure to the sun, after which they are packed in small boxes, usually of a picul, (about 135 pounds.) They are assorted for the Chi¬ nese market into three kinds, according to their qualities, distinguished into first or best, second, and third qualities. Caverns that are regularly managed will afford, in 100 parts, 53 3-10th parts of those of the first quality, 35 parts of those of the second, 11 I-10th parts of those of the third. The common prices for birds’ nests at Canton are, for the first sort, 3,500 Spanish dol¬ lars the picul, or £5. 18s. l^d. per pound; for the second, 2,800 Spanish dollars per picul; and, for the third, no more than 1,600 Spanish dollars. In the Chinese i markets a still nicer classification of the edible nests is often made than in the island. The whole are frequently divided into three great classes, under the commer¬ cial appellation of Paskat, Chikat, and Tung-tung, each of which, according to qua¬ lity, is subdivided into three inferior orders, and we have consequently, prices varying from 1200 Spanish dollars per picul to 4,200. These last, therefore, are more valuable 3 1846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. than their weight of silver. Of the quan¬ tity of birds’ nests exported from the Indian islands, although we cannot state the exact amount, we have data for hazarding some probable conjectures respecting it. From Java there are exported about 200 piculs, or 27,000 lbs., the greater part of which is of the first quality. The greatest quan¬ tity is from the Suluk archipelagoes, and consists of 530 piculs. From Macas¬ sar there are sent about 30 piculs of the fine kind. These data will enable us to offer some conjectures respecting the whole quantity; for the edible swallows’ nests being universally and almost equally dif¬ fused from Junk, Ceylon, to New Guinea, and the whole produce going to one mar¬ ket, and only by one conveyance, the junks, it is probable that the average quantity taken by each vessel is not less than the sum taken from the ports just mentioned. Taking the quantity sent from Batavia as the estimate, we know that this is con¬ veyed by 5,300 tons of shipping, and, therefore, the whole quantity will be 1,818 piculs, or 242,400 lbs., as the whole quan¬ tity of Chinese shipping is 30,000 tons, j In the archipelago, at the prices already quoted, this property is worth 1,263,519 Spanish dollars, or £284,290. The value of this immense property to the country which produces it, rests upon the capri¬ cious wants of a single people. From its nature, it necessarily follows that it is claimed as the exclusive property of the sovereign, and everywhere forms a valuable branch of his income, or of the revenue of the state. This value, however, is, of course, not equal; and depends upon the situation and the circumstances connected with the caverns in which the nests are found. Being often in remote and se¬ questered situations, in a country so law¬ less, a property so valuable and exposed is subject to the perpetual depredations of freebooters; and it not unfrequently hap¬ pens that an attack upon them is the prin¬ cipal object of the warfare committed by one petty state against another. In such situations, the expense of affording them protection is so heavy, that they are neces¬ sarily of little value. In situations where the caverns are difficult of access to stran- | gers, and where there reigns enough of i order and tranquillity to secure them from internal depredation, and to admit of the nests being obtained without other expense than the simple labour of collecting them, the value of the property is very great. The caverns of Karang-bolang, in Java, are of this description. These annually afford 6,810 lbs. of nests, which are worth, at the Batavia prices of 3,200, 2,500, and 1,200 Spanish dollars the picul, for the respective kinds, nearly 139,000 Spanish dollars ; and the whole expense of collecting, curing, and packing, amounts to no more than 11 per cent, on this account. The price of birds’ nests is of course a monopoly price, the quantity produced being by nature limited and incapable of being aug¬ mented. The value of the labour expended in bringing birds’ nests to market is but a trifling portion of their price, which con¬ sists of the highest price which the luxu¬ rious Chinese will afford to pay for them, and which is a tax paid by that nation to the inhabitants of the Indian islands. There is, perhaps, no production upon which hnrnan industry is exerted, of which the cost of production bears so small a propor¬ tion to the market price.” Foulah Provision* Pouch and Powder Flask, Cup, &c. —The Foulahs are a nu¬ merous nation in central Africa. They extend from the Atlantic to the confines of Davfour. They have sfraight hair, some accounts say curled, perhaps both, noses moderately elevated, the parietal bones not so much compressed as those of the negro, nor is their head so much arched. The colour of their skin is a light bronze, and by this characteristic alone can they be classed in the Ethiopian variety of the hu¬ man species. The Foulahs, or Fellatahs, as they are called by the negroes, are a warlike race of shepherds, and have, within a short period, subjugated a considerable portion of Soudan. It was by the order of the Fellatah governor that the lamented Major Laing was compelled to leave Tim- buctoo, and probably to his instigation, or contrivance, is his death to be attributed. Mungo Park also was killed by a party of the same people while descending the Q,uorra. They are all Mahommedans, and extremely fanatical. In their mountains they cultivate rice, maize, millet, and also cotton, of which they manufacture stuffs in pieces only five inches wide. The principal trade of the country is in salt and cotton cloth. M. Mollien says, “ The Fellatahs -will, probably, erect the vast empire in THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Dec. 29, (Table of Soudan; and the influence this power may died in the arms of freedom’s victories, exercise in the great question of African , followed to their- rest by the tears and the civilization gives to them no ordinary im- hurrahs of a nation’s gratitude portance. If Sultan Bello should be in-j Antiquities, No. 11.) duced to abolish slavery, the most efficient ~ ~—-———- means will have been discovered for its en-1 COWRIE PURSE, tire suppression. The example of so great . Aable of Antiquities, No. 5,0.) an empire, or the menace of its chief, would ; Cowries are shells used for coins. They effectually check the inhuman cupidity or are a ^md ma scles, belonging to barbarism of the lesser tribes of. the coast, Such an event would cause a great revolu¬ tion in the commerce of these countries, and the arts of civilized life would speedily be adopted. Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and j pP eam S' the Indian seas, re useful than ever ; and the School of ;sign, by being thus rendered complete, |uld become a still more efficient nursery [ -cultivating the artistic and inventive ent of our youth. Besides the direct vantage which would accrue from the irden being freed from its trammels, we ik to a great indirect advantage which tild be derived from it being more ex- lsively frequented by the inhabitants of r densely-populated streets. Such places resort constitute the lungs of a city. It re well, then, they were rendered easy access to all. Substitute .for the Crank. —Very in- nious if not useful. But substitutes for p crank appear to us very much like glass 3S, very well to look at; but the less we ye to do with them the better.—(Table !No. 51. ) Cincinnatus (Bronze).—Sometimes called St. Cincinnatus ; but what claim, he pos¬ sessed to be inserted in the calender we know not, as he flourished long before the in¬ troduction of Saintianity. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman patrician, equally distinguished by heroism,, magnanimity, contentment, and disinterestedness. lie was chosen consul B.C. 460. The messen¬ gers charged with the information of his election found him at the plough in the fields. He accepted the office, and. only regretted that his little farm would be neglected. He behaved, while in the con¬ sulship, disinterestedly and honourably, but refused it when it was offered to him the following year, and afterwards.received the dictatorship for six months, to terminate the unhappy war with the neighbouring iEqui. The messengers again found him at his plough. He immediately joined and 1 assisted the consul Minutius, surprised the enemies during the night, made prisoners of all their army, and divided the booty amongst his soldiers, only retaining for himself a golden crown, which his army had presented to him to express their gra¬ titude . After having celebrated a triumph, he resigned his office, which he had held only during sixteen days, and returned to his rural retirement. At an advanced age, he was again elected dictator to restrain ! the power of Spurius Mselius, a dangerous 1 and turbulent man : he proposed the most I effectual arrangements, and, after the prin- i cipal mutineer had been killed by a certain j Ahala, dispersed his adherents. Thus Cin- ; cinnatus was twice the deliverer of his country, which revered him as a father. —(Table G, No. 60.) American Washing Apparatus.-— This is a washer woman’s assistant, which we recommend to the attention of economical house-wives. It'loses none of its interest for being Yankee : exotics are often most valued.—(Table B—No. 18-;) 'Stretching and Shower Bath.— We re¬ commend this-model to the attention of hydropathists,'though, in these cold morn¬ ings, we fancy a single bath quite enough for ordinary nerves. It may be well, how¬ ever, to have a choice, unless, indeed, we get into, the predicament of the logician, poor- ass,—and hesitate between the dip and the shower until we slink into our clothes without tasting the pleasures of either.—(Table B. No. 20.) 6 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Dec. 29, I TABLE OF ANTIQUITIES. Relics of the Stuarts. —No. 72 is a' clumsy carved oak cradle, and No. 30 is a j splendid court dress of white and crimson j silk, bedizened with a hundred ounces of, gold lace. These two objects, of such dis- j similar character, are connected with one another by historical associations of great I interest. The cradle was the habitation of i Mary Queen of Scots, when an infant at! Linlithgow Palace. The glittering raiment j is the paraphernalia in which Cardinal York, the brother of Prince Charles, and “ the last of the Stuarts,” appeared at the marriage of Louis XVI. with Marie An¬ toinette. Two hundred years previously, the inhabitant of our cradle had also been present at a royal marriage in France,— her own. These marriages were both of particular note, and were celebrated with the utmost pomp. The bridegrooms were of the highest rank in the world. The brides, both daughters of kings, nurtured in luxury, ignorant of want and of all the common distresses of human life,—young, beautiful, and ardent,—placed on the high¬ est pinnacle of worldly prosperity, no doubt promised themselves long years of happi¬ ness to come. Alas !— The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ [Queens] Gang :a£t a-gee. These magnificent nuptials realised none of the happiness of which they seemed to be the. forerunners. The two Queens, whose maiden days had been angelic, passed troubled lives as married women, and both perished by the hands of the common exe¬ cutioner. The fate of their descendants was varied and romantic. The son of Queen Mary became King of England,* her grandson was beheaded, one of her great-grandsons was restored to the throne, and another was dethroned and expelled from his country. The last of the family, the owner of the embroidered coat, died an exile in Italy. The son of Queen An¬ toinette perished miserably in prison, and the “last of the Bourbons” lives now, as once did the “ last of the Stuarts,” a hope¬ less exile in Italy , So frail and fugitive are the greatness and glory of this visible world. The Queen’s cradle comes from Linlithgow, and the Cardinal’s costume •from Versailles, to tell these wonderful tales, to the Glasgow Mechanics of 1847. If the relics could speak, and were cog¬ nisant of the characters of the persons before whom they have at different times appeared, we wonder whether they would pronounco j the bold old Scottish chiefs, the supple courtiers of Versailles, or the Glasgow peo- j pie of 1846 to he the best men. Time is a great leveller. The Exhibition is indebted for these interesting j relics to Mr. J. N. Paton of Edinburgh, owner of the cradle, and Mr. Peter Aatken of Glasgow, owner of the Cardinal’s costume. My Grandmother’s Spinning Machinery j of 1704.—The primitive spinning appara-l tus by which the. substantial fabrics of our forefathers were twisted is by no means! complicated. It consists of four parts : 1st, The rock (distaff), about three feet long.; and, in this instance, rudely but effectively carved,—to one end of which the lint (flax), 1 ! or tow Is fixed, the other being attached to: the waist of the spinner by a band passing! through a hole near the extremity. 2d The spindle, about nine inches long, o: some thickness in the middle, and tapering! to near a point at both ends, in one of whicl is a notch for attaching the thread. 3d The thorls (nodules of ironstone), of various; sizes, perforated in the centre so as to f ‘ the spindle. 4th, The reel, somewhat an chor-like. The mode of operation of thowi simple parts could not be made very intel¬ ligible by words. The flax being connected) to the notch in the spindle, at first loaded j with the heavier of the thorls, and laid on th< right thigh, received an impulse from tin right hand, so as to make it twirl in mid air till a sufficiency of thread was twisted which being wound round the spindle, t new impulse was given, and so on. As tfit, spindle was filled with yarn the smallei thorls were used, and when of sufficient weight to twirl of itself the thorls were dis¬ pensed with. After being filled the yarr was transferred from the spindle to thy reel, the winder uttering a counting rhyme. —“ thoues ane, and thoues nane, and i thoues ane a oat; thoues twa, and thoues j nane,” and so on. Dames at e’en, in past days, used to assemble in one another's , houses, each taking her rock, Ac., and for few hours the distaff was skilfully handled j By and bye, sweethearts arrived, and aftei a simple meal, merry-making began ^ Shuffle-the-brogue, blind-harry, and othei ^ like amusements filled up the evening : oij when laxness had penetrated so far, a dancf j might eke out the fun. Hence, Rocking ( a word synonomous with our social amuse- i ment, reunion, Ac.—(Table B. No. 9.) L846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. STATUE OF GUTTENBERG, Golden Codroucoui. Trogon pavoninus. (South America.) This beautiful bird be- After Thorwaldsen. The fine work, in bronze, of which iis statuette is a good copy, in Berlin on, was set up in 1837, in the open space >posite the theatre of Mainz, or Mayence : > mean city, for to it “ Europe is in- ;bted for two things, which have had the •eatest influence in effecting human im- ■ovement, free trade (in its most just nse) and the printing press. It was a tizen of Mayence, named Walpolden, ho first suggested the plan of freeing com- erce from the oppressive exactions of the lightly highwaymen ( qy. “ chivalrous” low ay men) with whose strongholds the hole Continent was overspread at the be- nning of the 13th century, by a con- deration of cities, which led to the for- ation of the Rhenish, and afterwards the j ore famous Hanseatic League! Gutenberg’s statue was designed by a ane, and cast by a Frenchman. The :penses, amounting to a total of 26,000 >rins (rather more than £2,000), were* frayed by subscriptions from all parts of i urope. Under the figure, which is fully 8 j et high, are various appropriate rilievi bronze, inserted in compartments of the one pedestal. In one place we find the llowing inscription:— •tern quae Grsecos latuit latuitque Latinos, Germani sollers extudit ingenium: me, quidqnid veteres sapiunt sapiuntqne recentes, Non sibi, sed populis omnibus id sapiunt. f the foregoing we offer the following very ugh translation, which our kind readers II, we hope, accept indulgently for want a better:— “ The Art, which neither Greeks nor omans knew, is due to the genius of a erman: henceforth, the lore, whether of rly or of later times, no longer locked up the breast of its possessor [or known at st only to a few], becomes hereby the eiffal food of all people.” Suing, as we do, for indulgence ourselves, i are content to let our real cousins- Ger- an, the Teutons, indulge in the above little t of self-complacency. It is very pardon- >le ; for to whom are we indebted, besides ;r own art, for that of making clocks and itches, for gunpowder, lithography, and en gun cotton ? Inquiring young reader, any body tells you, “ To Germans,” we )uld not advise you to attempt to contra¬ ct it.—(Table G, No. 54.) longs to the family of Trogons, the mem¬ bers of which are peculiar to the hotter re¬ gions of America and of Tndia, and its ad¬ jacent islands Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, rms, and form immense heaps or beds, lorn these heaps, in the winter season, the |mer draws his stock of manure for his Ids, and what remains is, or may be taken • the production of kelp. The weeds thus rown up are, of course, of great value to 3 farmer, as, with abundance of it alone, is enabled to realize crops, when, per- ps, he could otherwise have little or no >p. It is chiefly during the summer ison that these weeds are collected for lp making. During a large portion of } summer, it, with the exception of fish- \ and occasionally hoeing the potatoes, istitutes the only employment of the ma- ity of the male, and often female popula- n of the north-western islands and shores Scotland. Upon it they have to subsist; d, of course, upon the healthiness of the ide in kelp, and its products, much of their lfare depends. About thirty years ago, ien the kelp brought as high as £20 to !2 per ton, this manufacture was an ob¬ it of great interest to them, and also to i Highland chiefs who possessed what i termed kelp shores—shores upon which eds either grew or were cast up. Pre- ms to this, the shores were entirely value- jjs as productive points ; but, with the e of this manufacture rose the value of shores and lands adjacent, and also the wealth of the proud cateran or chief. Kelp was, at this time, used in the manufactures of glass, soap, &c., and the demand increased with the advances and necessities of trade. Barilla, from the shores of Spain and the Mediterranean, was introduced at a lower price ; and it being found to answer the purpose of the soap and glass manufacturers better, brought down the value of kelp. This, again, in its turn, together with kelp, was forced to yield to the price and value of soda made from common salt, when the duty was taken off that useful article. This may be said to have been the final blow to the kelp manufacture, which, for years, had been upon the de¬ cline. The introduction and substitution of soda from this new source, almost en¬ tirely excluded the use of kelp, as a source of soda. At that time, iodine and its mul¬ tifarious useful applications was almost unknown, and could not affect the stagger¬ ing state of the kelp market. Within, however, the last three years, this curious substance being in great demand, caused the price of kelp again to assume an up¬ ward march, and to lead to the expectation that this trade was again to become an ob¬ ject of interest and value. In this, how¬ ever, we have been deceived, the price having again and again fluctuated and un¬ dulated as the expectations of the specu¬ lator rose, or the demands of the consumer fell. We have neither time nor space fur¬ ther to detail the particulars of a story of great interest to us as a manufacturing people ; we have merely wished to indicate its importance, and to draw the philosophic mind towards a point from which he may see the workings and results of a branch of industry, upon which depends the sub¬ sistence of a host of people, whose existence he scarcely imagined, and far less their oc¬ cupations. A few statistics of this inter¬ esting manufacture will be given in a suc¬ ceeding number of the “Daily Exhibitor.” In the meantime, we will conclude with a few facts. On the Table D—No. 10, will be seen % THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec! 30, samples of various sea weeds used formak- that all that very interesting- substanct ing kelp, and which were brought by Mr. iodine is manufactured. It is obtainec ^ C. Glassford, from the famed Isle of Col- from it by sublimation, after treatment lonsay.; On Table E—Y2, will also be with oil of vitriol and manganese, and noticed some beautiful specimens of sea- being a volatile and easily condensed body weeds, carefully spread on paper, and sent it rises in splendid deep violet purple cob to the Exhibition by Major Martin of Ar- oured vapours, and condenses in the cool drossan; few of these weeds have popular parts of the apparatus as a solid, hard, black names, but those' chiefly employed are crystalline body like iron possessing great f popularly called tangle ware, bladder and weight and acridity. It is much and de} yellow Wrecky and black wreck ; hundreds servedly employed for medicinal purposes; of varieties of small parasitical plants grow and it is only lately that its true 1 merits upon the:stalks of the former, and render have been appreciated, combined with the b c each stemdf the tangle a subject of most de- metal potassium (from Potasto). It forms si ic lightful study; The whole of those in Major white crystalline body, possessing a pecuUoi Martin’s collection are irom this source, liar taste, and all the peculiar medicinal^ Tt.is with these beautiful sea-flowers that properties of the iodine, and in that forrii P the corn and potatoe crops of our High • is chiefly used by the faculty. P land neighbours are cultivated; and my- —-— df 8 finds upon myriads are yearly devoted to Bronze Tazza, by Benvenuto Cellini. p tills and kelp purposes. When these weeds —There is-another sample (one or more) fl ■ ■ ■ in are . collected for kelp making, they are of the Works of this great artist in our Ex spread out and partially dried in the sun; hibition. His works are more eagerly sought, ig they are then carefully burned in kilns and sell higher, perhaps, than any other W constructed temporarily for the purpose, artist’s whatever. He was, at once, a>° and: when a large quantity of the ashes sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith ; distin-y have been formed, and while still hot, they guished particularly by his works in goldi are raked and drawn together and well agi-1 and Silver, which have become very rare, tated; by this treatment the ashes fuse or! and are sold at present at immense prices ! 11 melt, and form into a solid cRke called kelp; He was born at Florence in 1500, and died It this is broken up, shipped, and sent to its; there in 15Y0. Of ahold, honest, and open “ destination for further operations, which 1 character, but vain and quarrelsome, ant P are conducted in our chemical manufacto- j impatient of encroachment and dependence, j* ries chiefly in and about Glasgow; they have lie was often entangled in quarrels, which f for their object the separation of the various frequently cost his antagonists their lives. A 1 ingredients; water is the first 'agent dm-j Ho himself incurred great dangers, was® ployed ; this dissolves out all the saline mat- : put into prison, and was saved only by his ter, and by subsequent operations these! boldness and the powerful protectors whom ■ salts are separated; this is done by the se-! his talents as an artist procured him. At j< cond agent, heat. The liquors are boiledi the siege of Rome (if we believe his own j upy until the salts in solution are ready to! account, given in his autobiography), he I separate by crystallization; they are then: killed, with one cannon shot, the constable >• run out into proper vessels, and are there j of Bourbon, and, with another, the prince a allowed to erj'stallize; in this ivay; by re-1 of Orange. He was afterwards impri- 1 peating this operation upon the sainepor- i soned on the charge of having Stolen then tion of liquor, the various salts held in so¬ lution are separated, and obtained for other: purposes The salts consist? 1 of muriate and sulphate of potassa, employed hi the manufacture of alum Chiefly; muriate, sul¬ phate, and carbonate of soda, employed for making washing soda (a fine sample of which is exhibited) and for making soap ; when 1 these salts have all separated, there remains a thick dark brown liquor, which is called the “ Mother water,” Or the resi jewels of the papal crown, which were in-' 1 trusted to him during the siege, and was 1 released only by the interference of Francis' | I., whose court he Visited, and executed'! there several works. He afterwards re- 11 turned to Florence, and, under the patron- # age of Cosmo, made a Perseus with the: j head of Medusa in bronze, which is Still ait- ornament of the market-place ; also a sta-- tue of Christ, in the chapel of the Pi til ) palace, besides many excellent dies for dual kelp liquor. It is from thisliquor' coins and medals.-— ( Ant, Tab., 15^ al.)■ f 1846.} _ THE BUM Druidic at, Sacrificial Stones.— These e very note,-worthy. There are very few ithentie reliques of the Druids or their wor- ip extant. They were the priests of the elts, or Gauls, and resembled; in niapy re¬ acts, the Bramins of India: they formed distinct caste, possessing the greatest ithority, being the learned men and philo- phers of these people, and having also very eat authority in the government of the ate. Julius Caesar has left more informa- an concerning them than any other writer; ccording to him, they performed all pub- ; and private sacrifices, explained the >ctrines of their religion, distributed all nds of rewards, administered justice at ated times, and determined the punish- ent which should be inflicted on offend- s. Whoever opposed their decisions, was [communicated by them, and thereby iprived of all share in religious worship, hey could even pronounce this curse ;airist a whole people ; and* in fact, their >wer had hardly any limits. They ap-, >inted the highest officers in all the cities, id these dared not undertake anything ithout their advice and direction. They ere free from taxes and all public burdens, Lstruction in religious and all other kinds ' knowledge, the art of war alone ex- jpted, was intrusted entirely to them, jhey gave oral instruction in the form of irses, which often had a hidden meaning, id which were committed to memory, jceording to Caesar, they believed in the mortality of the soul, and its transud¬ ation through different bodies. t They ught, moreover, the nature and motions I the heavenly bodies, the magnitude of e universe and the earth, the nature of Jings, and the power of the gods. They so practised astrology, magic, and sootli- jying. According to Pliny, they were ft ignorant of natural philosophy and (Lysic. They had a wonderful reverence f the holy mistletoe (a parasitica} plant, Jiich grows, not from the earth, but on jher plants, particularly on the oak, and pich, even at the present time, is cele- jated as a remedy for epilepsy). This jey looked upon as the holiest object in iture, and as a panacea : they likewise teemed the oak sacred, from which cir- iinstance they have derived their name, le Druids had a common superior, who is elected by a majority of votes from for own 1 number, and who enjoyed his j EXHIBITOR. _3 i dignity for life. Their principal seat ; was in Britain. The temples of the Druids l>ear a strong resemblance to those of India. Indian Drinking Cup/madefrom Cala¬ bash Trek.—N ature has' here anticipated the art of the turner, as it were. The Calabash tree (crescentia cujetd) ii a pro^ duct ion of the West Indies and the con¬ tinent of America, about the height and dimensions of an apple tree, with crooked, horizontal branches, wedge-shaped leaves, pale white flowers on the trunk and branches, and a roundish fruit, from two inches to a foot; in diameter. The uses to which the fruit in the Calabash tree is sip - plied , are very numerous. Being covered with a greenish yellow skin, which encloses a thitl, hard, and almost woody shell, it is employed for various kinds of domestic vessels, such as water-cans, goblets, and" cups of almost every description. So hard and close-grained are these shells, that, when they contain any fluid, they may even? be put several times on the fire as kettles, without any injury. When intended for ornamental vessels, they are. sometimes highly polished, and have figures engraven upon them, which are variously tinged with indigo and other colours. The Calabash contains a pale yellow, juicy pulp, of an unpleasant taste, which is esteemed a val¬ uable remedy in several disorders, both ex-i ternal and internal. * o m baton I Model of a Tide Gauge.—F rom the Clyde Trustees. This is the nucleus of a good and much wanted apparatus ;; but should our Clyde Trust determine upon having a tide gunge, we expect that it will be something of a more accurate kind— one that will furnish the abscissae, as well as the ordinates of the tidal curve. We. are glad to know that not only can this be done,;but engraved at the same time that the registration is made.—(Table B, 17.) CRITICISES ON WORKS OF ART BY VISITORS. Painting, No. 1.0 i Herodias' daughter j witkithfr Head of John the Baptist .—.A gentlemaniand his son were examining this picture. “What does it mean? ” inquired the boy. “It means Death on the pale horse,” replied the father. “ There is no horse there,” objected the; boy. “ But don’t you see John the Baptist’s head on a charger ? Well, John the Baptist’s head* on a charger and death on a pale horse mean the same thing. They are synony¬ mous words, you know.” 4 THE DAILY TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. Patent Bellows —Not being bellows-makers, we can pass no opinion, unless he comes the first foggy evening, and blows the fire of ou/r sanctum. Sheffield Whistler .—Not required. We get often enough shaved, without the aid of a razor. €fj t usilg isxlnlntor. WEDNESDAY, Dec. 30, 1846. It has been frequently asserted, and pretty generally believed, that our countrymen are a destructive race, and not fit to be admitted promiscuously to any place where their en¬ damaging propensities can be easily exer¬ cised. Those who make this charge have generally limited its application to the working-classes ; and many have been the ill-judged prophesyings of individuals so minded, as to the danger to which this Exhibition will be exposed during the three free davs. In our opinion, such a charge does manifest injustice to the work¬ ing-classes. We entertain no apprehension whatever of their not conducting themselves with perfect decorum upon the occasion referred to. The Open Days of the Botanic Garden are still fresh in our memory, when even the fragile stems of Nature’s greatest beauties were left unharmed by the tens of thousands of this same suspected class who availed themselves of the privilege so gene - rously procured for them. We stand by our own order, namely, that of “ The Working¬ men,” whether by head or hand; and pro¬ claim our belief that the privilege about to be given them will be enjoyed with delight, and used with a discretion which the more luxuriously dressed, though congregated in much smaller numbers than will then be brought together, would sometimes do well to imitate. Who are they, we inquire, that in Campsie and Fin Glen, destroy the seats set up for the convenience of wearied men and weakly women, visiting the beauti¬ ful scenery of the locality ? Who are they, after the kind proprietors, in their endea- EXHIB1TOR. _ [Dec, 30, 1 vours to accommodate the public, have re¬ newed these seats several times, that wrencl them up, and chuck them over precipices ] and water-falls, smashing them to “ cinna- namon-sticks ? ” Well-put-on but ill-nur-! tured Glasgow visitors ! Funny fellows, doubtless, who delight in rendering them-' $ selves ridiculous and contemptible ; and w who, if they get their amusement, care not ^ at whose expense it is purchased. One ^ wrong-minded individual may, however, a bring disgrace upon a whole community, it Westminster Abbey was first closed upon a ] the public in consequence of a small muti- sf lation of the monument of Major Andre ; j f and Carlton Palace, which had previously „ been most liberally shown, was in like J manner closed by George IV., because some (| brainless fellow scratched with a diamond upon one of the mirrors the words, “ Not paid for.” We fearlessly commit the charge of watching such ill-disposed per- i sons to those who are not so disposed, in the firm conviction that everything will be safe under their custody. When a former Queen was upon the throne of this realm,; she was observed by a foreign ambassadoi ! in public, accompanied merely by her atten-1 dants. He expressed his astonishment tha* 1 she should venture out without her guard, j when, pointing to the crowds of passers-by, | she proudly said, These are my guard. In i like manner, respecting those few who, it j may be supposed, may feel inclined to dis- I grace themselves and their order, we would j say, pointing to the masses of hard-work- ' ing, intelligent artizans who will crowd the Hall, These are our guard. The Catholic Archbishop of St. An- '< drews’ Chair. — Whose?—When? No account given,—not even a guess; but whensoever and wheresoever that stiff- backed uneasy was made, the decorative arts must have been in as barbarous a con¬ dition as they are at present among the savage islanders of Polynesia. In fact, we have seen much better sculptures than these done by savage hands. — (Antiquarian Table—[“ another”] No. 73) 1846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 5 A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS OE PRINTING. (Area A.—No. 19.) A vert inadequate idea can be formed of the Art op Printing, or of the labour con¬ nected with the getting up and printing of a book, from what is exhibited in this col¬ lection;—-just as a stone, however beauti¬ fully cut, though a very important part of a building, yet, when seen alone and by itself, conveys a very inadequate idea of the appearance the erection will ultimately pre¬ sent. To supply, therefore, a desideratum, and to diffuse as widely as possible a know¬ ledge of this most important art, to which ill other Arts and Sciences are so much in- lebted, We have prepared a concise account )f the Typographic Art, in all its depart¬ ments, together with the arts of Copper¬ plate Printing and Bookbinding, as car- led on at our own premises. The bricks ornamented with arrow- shaped characters, found in the ruins of Babylon, afford evidence that the art of mprinting or stamping was known and practised in very ancient times. No kind )f printing, however, properly so called, vas known until a comparatively recent leriod. The first approaches to this art vere made by means of devices and char- icters cut upon blocks of wood, which the Chinese are said to have practised prior to -he Christian era; with what truth we ball not stop to inquire. Nor shall we top to settle the much-disputed point to vhom the honour of discovering the Art of banting ought to be attributed. Suffice o say, that whoever led the way, the art vas first brought into a state fitted to secome universally applicable to the re¬ tirements of the times by Johann Guten- >erg, of Mainz on the Rhine, about the rear A.D. 1440. To him belongs the lonour of inventing movable types, and to Peter Schoeffer, the partner and son-in- aw of Faust, the honour of inventing cast -ypes, by means of which the art may in a ense be said to have attained a state of perfection. It was thus, at all events, freed rom the trammels consequent upon using ypes cut singly by the hand, and rendered available for the functions it was destined o exercise as the recorder and exponent of :vents, the furtherer of art and science, and the means of conveying human thoughts from man to man and nation to nation. The Art of Printing having been brought thus far, all that remained was to copy or improve; and this was rapidly done to such a degree, that the books of the first print¬ ers, with their simple means, are yet mar¬ vels of correctness and beauty in the eyes of the modern typographer. Most of the ameliorations since the bright day-dawn of this art have been principally in the direc¬ tion of speed and cheapness of multiplying copies. This it is which gives a complex¬ ity to the machinery and details of a large printing establishment, of which those who content themselves with viewing a man or two at work, on such a necessarily small scale as is shown in this miscellaneous Ex¬ hibition by the printing of this miniature Journal, can form but a very imperfect idea. Few things are more simple in their elements than printing; few more intricate in the combinations required to realise its great results. Having dismissed preliminary matters, we have only further to say, that the ob¬ ject of the present sketch is to give the uninitiated a “bird’s eye view,” as it were, of the various processes connected with the manufacture of books, from the time of the manuscript being produced by the author, to that of the work being sent forth to the world, adorned with all the embellishments that the taste'and skill of the Printer, the Engraver, and the Binder, in their respective branches, can supply. To avoid unneces¬ sary repetition and to facilitate and shorten somewhat the process of description, we shall suppose the reader on a visit to our Printing-office, Villafield, and shall conduct him through the various departments in the order in which they naturally fall to be described. First, then, we proceed to view the operation of setting the types, called COMPOSING. Upon entering a well-lighted room, above a hundred feet in length, the visitor will ob¬ serve a great number of intelligent-look¬ ing artizans, called Compositors, standing respectively before a sort of desk or “frame,” projecting laterally from the wall at short distances on either side throughout the room; each frame being constructed to hold two pairs of “ Cases,” containing the types, and the whole so arranged as to give to each workman the utmost available ad¬ vantage of light. In the centre of the THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Dec: .80, room, there are at intervals large tables; tions contain two sets of capital letters with stone tops, technically called impos¬ ing stones; and in another part a single press, used only for taking off “ proofs ’ ’ for the Reader , or corrector of the press. Having observed that some of the com¬ positors are engaged in picking up and ar¬ ranging the types for bibles, dictionaries, and miscellaneous books of various sizes, we jnoceed to describe the mode in which those iiiultitudinous masses of single types con¬ tained in the “ Cases,” become converted into “ Matter 5 ” that is to say, into words, lines, pages, and books. ooaq gif ea ; bnolr Each pair of cases contains all the letters of the alphabet, whether small letters or capitals, as well as points, figures, all of equal size; and those parti- one denominated “ full capitals,” the othei “ smallone set of figures, the accented vowels, and the marks of reference for notes. The lpwer case is divided into partitions ol four different sizes; some at the top and ends being a little smaller than the divi¬ sions of the upper case ; others nearer the centre being equal to two of the small di- visions; others equal to four; and one equal to six. In all, there are fifty-three divi¬ sions or cells, called boxes, in the lower case. The inequality in the size of these boxes of the lower case is to provide for the great differences as to the quantity required of each letter. According to the language in which it is used, one letter is much more frequently wanted than another, and the proportions required of each for the English language, have been ascertained by long experience to be as follows • PrbportJOii^^of the AlplLdidt; in English'Workst la blVfcl i e f |g li : i f(k 1 m n o P q r "if 11 u 1 V w xlyl z |851C|30|44120 25|H 64.80 48 40 30: 80 80 17 5 62 80 90 3412 20 4 [20| 2 Plan of the Compositor’s Lower Case. The proportion in which a particular letter is required, renders it necessary that the cells of the lower case should be i ar¬ ranged not as the letters follow each other, alphabetically, but that those in most frequent use should be nearest the hand of the compositor. The spaces, or blank types, one of which he wants after every wordy lie close at his hand at the bottom of the central division of the lower ease. Strangers f to the art are often surprised at the accuracy * with which a compositor dips his lingers into the box containing the letter which he requires i This surprise is generally connected with an opinion that the com¬ positor would do his work more correctly if the boxes were , labelled, A very inex¬ pert performer Upon the piano' will, never¬ theless, strike any one of the seventy-eight ® notes without making a mistake ; and in ^ the same way, the youngest boy of a print- ® ing office very soon learns the places of the f letters without any difficulty, -"'H : F Let us now follow the compositor in the * progress of bis work. Standing before the jj pair of cases which contain the Roman le*- 1 ter> be bolds in bis left band what is called a I , Composing-stick. - jo >•; This isa little iron or brass frame, one side * of Which is movable, so that it may lie ad- 1846.1 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. i listed to the required width of the page or xdumn which the workman has to set up. It is made perfectly true and square; for with¬ out such accuracy the lines would be of un¬ equal length. The “ Copy,” MS. or print, rom which the Compositorworks, rests upon .he least used part of the upper case. The practised compositor takes in a line or two it a glance, always provided the author vrites an intelligible hand—which virtue is )y no means universal. One by one, then, he compositor puts the letters of each vord and sentence into his Stick, securing :ach letter with the thumb of his left land, which is therefore continually tra^ selling on from the beginning to the end if a line. His right hand goes moclmni- ally to the box which he requires, but his ye is ready to accompany its movements. In each letter there is a nick or nicks , 5 ndicating the bottom of the letter; and he nick must be placed outwards in his ompo,sing- stick. When he arrives at he end of his line, the compositor has a ask to perform, in which the carefulness f the workman is greatly exhibited. The Irst letter and the last must be at the ex- Iremities o^ the line; there can be no paces left at the end, and no crowding in thers, as we see in the best manuscript. Each metal type is of a constant thickness, s far as regards that particular letter; hough all the letters are not of thq same liickness. The adjustments, therefore, to Omplete the line with a word, or, at any ate, with a syllable, must be made by arying the thickness of the spaces between ich word. 1 When the workman has filled his stick, 3 it is called—that is, has sot up as many nes as his stick will conveniently hold—he fts them out into what is termed a galley, t board with a raised margin along t one nd and one side, by grasping them with le thumb and second finger of ' each and, and thus taking them up as. f they were a solid piece of metal. In- bed the facility with which some com- isitors can lift about what is called a andful of movable type, without de-i inging a single letter, is very remarkable. | ^ben a sheet is complete, the composi -1 irs arrange the pages in proper order Upon ie imposing stone; surround each page ith pieces of wood or metal called fu mi¬ ll's, so as fo leave an equal margin to •ery page; apd. finally, wedge, the,whole tightly together in a Stout iron frame, called a chase. The pages thus wedged up; constituting one side of a sheet termed a form ,.may be earned about With as much ease as if it were composed of solid plates, instead of being formed of many thousand I**Hi oi Ivegfigno exfi asoheoq The business of the printer’s Redder, ok corrector of the press, commences ifrnne- diately' after that of the compositor. The ordinary process of correction is for the reader to look upon the proof, while another person, generally a boy, reads the copy aloud ; as he proceeds, the reader marks all the errors which present themseltes upon a first perusal. The proof then goes hack to the compositor ; and the first cor¬ rections being perfected, the reader has wliat is called a revise. He compares this with his first proof, and ascertains that all his corrections have been properly made. In this stage of the business the proof generally goes to the author; and it is rarely that the most practised author does not feel it necessary to make considerable alterations. The co mplicated process of correction is again to be gone over. The printer’s reader and the author have again 3 *e vises; and the sheet being finally corrected jnor press, tile work of the compositor is for a time at an end ; but when it is printed off, or when a stereotype cast has been taken fiymi the movable type, it is a part of his business, and for; which he is paid nothing additional, to return the types to the cases from which they were taken. This operation is called distribution. It is a most lieautiful process in the hands of an expert compositor ; and probably no act which is partly mental and partly mechani¬ cal offers a more remarkable example of the dexterity to be acquired by long prac¬ tice. The workman, holding ra quantity of the type in his left hand as it has been arranged in lines, keeping the face towar ds him, takes up one or two words between the forefinger and thumb of his right hand, ;and drops the letters, each into its proper places with almost inconceivable rapidity, llis mind has to follow the order of the letters in the words, and to select the box into which each is to be dropped, while his fingers have to separate one letter from another y taking care that only one letter isdropped at a time. This is a complicated act ; and yet ; a good: eoittix)sitor,.i4Uidistri- buteffom 4500 to 0 /)b 0 : lettersanhour. THE DAILY EXHIBITOR [Dec: 30." STEREOTYPING Is a process by which a metal plate is ob¬ tained, being the facsimile of any given page of types. Stereotyping, which is en¬ tirely additional to the process of compos¬ ing, and of course involves a considerable extra outlay, is only adopted when repeated j impressions of a work are anticipated. Its j use, therefore, is to enable successive im¬ pressions of a work to be printed without incurring the expense of recomposing, or setting up the types for each impression, or of incurring loss by over printing. When the form or page of types is ready, the face of it is oiled with a brush; then j burnt plaster of Paris (gypsum), mixed 1 with water to the consistence of cream, is poured upon it. After a few minutes the plaster is sufficiently hardened, and it is then taken off from the types, and forms a matrix or mould in which to cast a fac¬ simile of the types. This mould is then placed in an oven to dry. When perfectly dry it is placed in a covered iron casting- box (the lid of which is screwed down) and immersed in a caldron of melted metal, where it remains immersed for about ten minutes, after which it is steadily lifted out by a crane, and swung to a cooling trough, in which the under side of the box is ex¬ posed to water. Being completely cooled, the caster proceeds to remove the mould from the casting-box. The plaster mould and the plate cast in it are fixed together; but upon the caster breaking off the ledges of the mould and the superfluous metal with a mallet, the stereotype plate comes out bright and well formed. The plate is then taken to the Picking Room, where any defects are remedied. The face of the plate is sometimes defective, from small globules of metal, arising from air bubbles in the mould, having been formed in the casting. These are here removed*by means of a tool similar to that used for engraving on wood, and called a graver. HAND-PRESS PRINTING. The form of the Printing Press was origi¬ nally very simple, and its appearance very primitive. From time to time various im¬ provements have been effected upon the Printing Press, by Earl Stanhope and others, and we subjoin an engraving of one j which has obtained great celebrity, invented | by Mr. G. Clymer, of Philadelphia, and The plates being cast of unequal thickness, the back is turned in a surface lathe, to remedy the inequality as far as possible, and the blank lines being previously lowered by chisels, the plates are ready for press. called the Columbian. The form is placed upon the table, a, and the sheet on the tympan, consisting of a parchment skin stretched upon an iron frame, and furnished with a blanket. A paper frame, called the frisket, is attached to the tympan, and folds down upon it over the sheet, and thus pre- vents the margins of the pages from being blacked with ink during the impression. The tympan being folded down upon the form, the table is brought under the plat-; ten, b, by means of a wheel and belt, moved by a handle called a rounce, c. The Press -1 man then pulls the bar, d, which by acting upon a series of levers, brings the platten down upon the tympan, and by its pres-! sure thus transfers the ink from the types to the paper. (To be Concluded To-morrow.) Printed for the Proprietors, by W. G. Blackie, (residing at 25, Richmond Street) at his premises, Model Exhibition, No. 19, Area A, City Hall. —Wednesday, December 30th, 1846. No. 6. GLASGOW, DECEMBER 31, 1816. Price |d. THE PRUSSIATES OF POTASH. (Table D, Chemistry.) ! Chinese Curiosities.— In these the ex¬ hibition is rich. No. 28 contains a whole What can be more dissimilar in appear-1 case-full; and they abound elsewhere. The ance and in properties than horns, hoofs, 1 Chinese are “great curiosities themselves ’ - ■ 1 ’ i 1 .-. ii i inn That “ pillow of theirs (No. 3) does leather, to his father, denotes, iron cyanogen, and potassium. I sfc w , Hook £ g!ves tb fo]lowi I iVur.no’An iq: tip nnciici at np.in a/nrl . _ 7 ©_ . _ _ o x Cyanogen is the basis of prussic acid, and is found in nature in the bitter almond, but that being too expensive, we have re¬ course to coarser materials in the horns, ur, while four men at two of the ordi- ,ry hand-presses cannot produce, on an erage, more than half that number. But the operation of printing by the ylinder Machine is by far more compli- ted; not only because this sort of ma- ine is calculated to produce considerably are impressions per hour, but on account its capacity to print, by once passing rough the machine, both sides of a news- per, or other work, of a size so large that surface press could accomplish, even if pidity were but a secondary object. One m, and sometimes two men, are engaged what is technically called making ready; d this, with stereotype plates, is a tedious d delicate operation. The plates are se- red upon wooden blocks, by which they 3 raised to the height of movable types ; t then, with every care in the casting, d in the subsequent turning operation, jse plates, unlike movable types, do not 3sent a perfectly plane surface. There } hollow parts, which must be brought up careful adjustment, and this is effected placing thin pieces of paper under any int where the impression is faint. This >cess often occupies many hours, particu- ly where there are casts from wood-cuts. |t us suppose it completed. Upon a ished iron table, at each end of the ma- 'ne, lie the forms or pages which print i side of the sheet. At the top of the ,chine stands a “ laying-on-boy,” before om is a heap of wet paper. [Previous to ng brought to the Machine-room, the per undergoes the process of wetting, eh quire of paper is dipped two or three les, according to its thickness, in a trough water; and is gradually pressed till the isture is equally diffused through the ole heap. If the paper were not wetted, * ink would lie upon the surface. and ear.] The signal being given by the ehinist, the-laying-on-boy turns a small idle, and the moving power of the strap mected with the steam-engine is imme- tely communicated. Some ten or twenty iled sheets are first passed over the >es, to remove any moisture; and, if the ehinist is satisfied, the boy begins to lay the white paper. He places the sheet | on a series of web tapes stretched across a table before him, with its edge ready to be seized by the apparatus for conveying it upon the smoothing drum. At the first movement of the great wheel, the inking apparatus at each end has been set in motion. The steel cylinder attached to the reservoir of ink begins slowly to move; a roller called “the doctor” rises to touch that cylinder for an instant, and thus re¬ ceive a supply of ink; the inking table passes under “the doctor,” and carries off that supply, and the distributing rollers spread it equally over the surface of the table. This surface having passed under the inking-rollers, communicates the sup¬ ply to them, and they in turn impart it to the form which is to be printed. All these beautiful operations are accomplished in the sixteenth part of a minute, by the travelling backward and forward of the carriage or table upon which the form rests. Each roller revolves upon an axis which is fixed. At the moment when the form at the back of the machine is passing under the inking- rollers, the sheet, which the boy has laid to a mark on the table before him, is caught in the endless bands or tapes which pass it over the first impression cylinder, the bands themselves falling between the pages and on the outer margins of the paper. The moment after the sheet is seized upon the first cylinder, the form passes under that cylinder, and the paper being brought in contact with it receives an impression on one side. To give the impression on the other side the sheet is to be turned over, and this is effected by two drums in the centre of the machine. The endless tapes never lose their grasp of the sheet, although they allow it to be reversed. While the impression has been given by the first cylin¬ der, the second form of types at the other end of the machine has been inked. The drums have conveyed the sheet during this inking upon the second cylinder; it is brought in contact with the types, and the operation is complete; for the sheet, which was white paper when placed in the ma¬ chine, comes out printed upon both sides. COPPER OR STEEL PLATE PRINTING. The art of taking impressions upon paper or cloth, from engraved plates of copper or steel. The subject or design (landscape,portrait, or other drawing) is first engraved upon a 6 _THE DAILY EXHIBITOR,_ Dec. 31, plate of steel or copper; with fine subjects, more usually the former. This is accom¬ plished by the engraver making an out¬ line pencil drawing of the subject or design required, which, by means of a copper¬ plate press, he transfers to the plate, pre¬ viously covered with a substance called etching-ground, capable of resisting the action of acids. The markings made by the drawing upon the etching-ground having been traced over with a needle, so as to remove the ground and expose the plate at the places necessary, the engraver applies an acid to the lines thus cleared, for the purpose of biting them in to the metal. By the use of acid, and subse¬ quently of a dry graver, he ultimately suc¬ ceeds in producing what is called an en¬ graving. This process being slow, the cost of fine works is very great, a comparatively small engraving costing frequently, accord¬ ing to the quality of the work, £40, £80, £100, or even a much larger sum. Having now described the process by which the engravings are made upon the plate of metal, we would draw attention to the apparatus for printing from them, consisting of a Press and a Heating-box. The Press is of simple construction, and consists of a frame or stand of iron, formed of two cheeks or sides, connected by cross pieces of malleable iron, with two iron rollers accurately turned on a lathe, their axes working in the side cheeks of the frame. The axis of the upper roller is turned by means of levers disposed like the spokes of a wheel; and a plank of wood or plate of iron, whose breadth is nearly equal to the length of the rollers, is placed so as to slide between them when they are made to revolve by working the levers. After remarking that the upper roller is furnished with a blanket, we turn to the Heating-box. This is a con¬ trivance for providing the workman con¬ stantly with a heated metal surface on which to rest his plate during the process of inking, and consists, in the present in¬ stance, of a metal box, in which gas is burned through a wire gauze, to consume the smoke and spread the flame, and thus give the requisite heat. Copper-plate and letter-press printing are the reverse of each other. In the lat¬ ter the impression is given by the raised surfaces, in the former by the sunk ones. It is for this reason the workman requires so much heat, that the ink, which is simi¬ lar in its composition to that used by letter- press printers, may flow easily into the fine engraved lines. And, for the same reason : it will b e perceive d that he apparently wipes off all the ink and polishes the plate; the workman, however, only clears the ink from the surface, but leaves it in the hollows. The blank portions of the plate must be carefully cleaned and pol¬ ished, to prevent them from soiling the paper during the printing process, which is accomplished simply by placing the plate j upon the table or plank of the press, with the sheet of paper (previously well wetted )\ over it, and then making the rollers of the ] press revolve, so as to draw in the plant j and give the requisite degree of pressure to both paper and plate. In less time than j we have taken to describe it, one of these j beautiful prints has been produced. After being printed, the impressions are | taken to the drying room, where they are; placed between soft pasteboards and sub¬ mitted to pressure. The spongy boards I absorb the water with which the paper is charged, and it is thus dried. This process j goes on during the night, and during the! day the pasteboards are ranged in racks and dried over a series of steam pipes, and thus prepared for being used again next night. The last process through which the im¬ pressions or engravings are put is the clean¬ ing process. Specks of ink or dust are apt, to adhere to the paper, which also becomes r sometimes marked by the fingers. All soil ( marks of whatever description are cleared r away in the cleaning room, and the imple- j 5 ' ments used for that purpose, by the boys ?l employed in this department, are a pen- f knife, a hare’s hind foot, and a piece of f caoutchouc. DRYING AND FINISHING. f When a newspaper is printed off, the copies are at once removed from the ma- f 1 chine to a folding-room, where they are? either placed in covers and directed, for i' 1 transmission by the post, or delivered in ‘J quires to the distributors. But in the ® printing of books, it is important that ’’ every sheet be delivered to the binder per- fectly dry; and the warehouse of a print- ing-office is, therefore, usually a scene of :: considerable activity. When the required "° number of any particular sheet of a book is 1Sl wrought off, the printed paper is transferred ie to a room kept very hot, by means of steam R 1846.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 7 ipes, called the Drying-room; it is here ling upon poles, and in a few hours ac- nires the requisite hardness. The sheets •enext placed singly between glazed boards, id subjected to heavy pressure, to re- ove the roughness caused by the impres- on of the types, and to render the whole 100 th and compact. Formerly this pro- ss was accomplished by means of screw- ■esses and great manual labour; but these ivebeen superseded by the hydraulic press, | beautiful and useful invention of the je Joseph Bramah. The ease and sim- Jcity with which the most surprising |ver can be applied to these presses, will ider a brief account of the process de- ible. The glazed boards, with the printed cts between them, having been laid on I table of the press, the pressure is caused a pump, which, instead of the old down- Jrd pressure, causes the table to rise to- irds the head of the press. Thus when I lever or pump handle is raised, it brings [the piston, which would leave a vacuum Jieath if the pressure of the atmosphere not force the water in through a side ve. The lever is then to be pressed jra, which causes the side valve to shut, l forces the water through a valve at the tom, whence it passes through a pipe p the cavity of the great cylinder, and pes the piston or pressing rammer. A etition of the same process forces more per in, and the pressure may in this man¬ ner be earned to a great extent. One pound at the end of the pump lever, only 15 inches long, will be equivalent to between seven and eight pounds at the piston rod, and this will be equivalent to 120 pounds on the ta¬ ble of the press; so that a man in pumping by a downward pressure can, without diffi¬ culty, apply a force equal to 6000 pounds, that is to say, nearly three tons. No known application of the screw, however fine the thread or long the lever, would afford a pur¬ chase like the hydraulic press, of 120 to one; leaving entirely out of consideration the absence of friction, by the use of water power in lieu of the collision of solid bodies. The sheets having been properly dried and pressed are next collated, or counted into given quantities or sets, and in this state are ready for being sent to the binder. BOOKBINDING. The sheets having been Pressed in the Warehouse as already described, and the engravings having been finished, the book is ready for being put into the hands of the binder, so as to be put together in a form fitting for being sent out for sale. Up the centre of the Binding Shop, are a series of tables, occupied by a number of young women, technically styled Stitchers, some of whom are engaged in the first opera¬ tion of binding, namely, folding the sheets. If the book be folio, each sheet is folded into two leaves; if quarto, into four leaves; octavo, eight leaves; 12mo, twelve leaves ; 18mo, eighteen leaves, and so of all others, to 72mo, the smallest size in general use. The first page of each sheet of all En¬ glish books has, at the bottom, a letter of the alphabet; French books have a num¬ ber. These marks, technically denominated signatures, direct the workmen in the pro¬ per arrangement of the sheets. After the sheets are folded, they are arranged in the order of the alphabet. If the work is a magazine or other periodical, only as many sheets are taken together as comprise one number. These being arranged are intro¬ duced into a simple machine, which makes three holes near the back edge of the. sheets, through which the needle is easily put when stitching on the cover, and thus finishing the number. If the work is a vo¬ lume, and to be bound either in cloth or leather, the process of finishing is very dif¬ ferent. The sheets having been arranged alphabetically, the book is given to one of the men employed at the benches round 8 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Dec. 31. the room, called the binder, by whom it is beat on a large smooth stone, with a heavy hammer, or put through a rolling machine —or both, to make it smooth and solid. After beating, the book is separated into three or four portions, and put between smooth hardwood boards, and pressed in a screw or hydraulic press for several hours; and then sawed on the back, in three or five places, according to the size of the work, in order to admit the cord on which it is to be sewed. When a book has been sewed, it is then secured by a coating on the back of thin glue, care being taken that the sheets be accurately adjusted at the head and back. When the glue has dried, the back is rounded with a hammer, the same as those used by shoemakers ; it is then screwed up very tight in the cutting press, between hardwood boards, bevilled on the top edge, half the breadth of the book; and the boards being kept a certain distance from the edge of the back, according to the thickness of the board. The back of the book is now beat smooth, and the edge of the back being beat on the edge of the boards that compress it, a groove is formed for the pasteboard to rest in. The paste¬ boards are then laced to the book, by the ends of the cords on which it is sewed; after the lacing, the superfluous parts are cut away, and the rest are hammered smooth. The book is then pressed again for several hours, to make it solid for cut¬ ting, which is performed by a machine called a plough. When the book is cut, it may either he gilt, marbled, or sprinkled on the edges, or left white, as all law-books are. In order to gilding, the hook is screwed hard up in the cutting press, between two cutting boards, and scraped perfectly smooth with a small steel scraper. It is now burnished with a bloodstone or agate burnisher; a solution of the white of egg and w T ater being spread over with a camel’s hair brush, the gold is laid on with a piece of paper in the ordinary way, as in sign gilding; after having dried for about twenty minutes, the gold is then burnished. Sprinkling the edges of a book is per-! formed with a brush. Holding the brush in the right hand, and a bar of iron in the left, the brush is dipt in the requisite solu- j tion, and having beat the brush on the ' bar till the colour is nearly out, the residue falls fine, and produces the desired effect The edges of sprinkled books are eith( burnished or not at pleasure. The usu; compositions for sprinkling are a solutio of amber, vermilion, sap-green, or indigo, The head-band is now added, wdiich is a ornament made of cotton cloth, thread, < silk, of two or three colours, placed at tc and bottom of the book, across the leave and woven or twisted about a strip i vellum the width of the square. Whe the book is head-banded, it receives on tl back another coat of strong glue ; on tl top of the glue is laid a piece of eartridc paper the size of the back, and rubbe smooth with a folder , The cover heir damped with a sponge and water, the edg pared off on a marble stone, and the roug side smeared with strong paste made ■ flour, is now pulled on, and doubled over tl edges of the boards. The letters or ornaments on books ar, made with brass tools engi’aved in rilievc Those parts of the leather on which go'' is to be applied, are glazed over two < three times with glair, allowing each coa ing to dry before another is applied, Whei dry, the cover is slightly rubbed over wil oil or hog’s lard, and the gold laid on ; tl brass tools, after being heated to about 20( Fahrenheit, are then impressed; the supe fluous gold leaf is rubbed off with a piece , cotton cloth. An iron tool, called the po isher, heated as above, is then applied, a^ the book, after being pressed for four < five hours in smooth japanned plates, , considered finished. This is the process when books a bound in leather ; when they are done i in cloth it differs somewhat. Boards pr viously prepared of the requisite size, at covered with cloth glued on to them, a put through a powerful press, provided wii blocks of brass, having the desired patter cut upon them in relief, and thus stamp or embossed. In the same manner, tl gilt title or other gilt ornament is product upon the cloth. The sheets are prepare for cloth binding in a manner very simil to what is required for leather bindin. When so ready, they are transferred j the prepared and embossed boards, coven | with cloth, by a process very much tl same as we have described for the leathe Glasgow: Printed for the Proprietors, by W. Blackie, (residing at 25, Kichniond Street) at 1 premises. Model Exhibition, No. 19, .Area A, 0 Hall. —Thursday, December 31st, 1846. I No. 7. GLASGOW, JANUARY 5, 1846. Price |d. ICHTHYOSAURUS, OR FISH-LIZARD. Opposite the east end of Table E, and ecumbent against the front of the gallery, i to be seen a small but beautiful speci- len of this remarkable fossil animal. We re indebted to Mr. De la Beche and the ley. W. D. Conybeare, for first pointing ut and illustrating the structure of this xtraordinary creature. Various others ave since contributed to throw light upon lis being, which has ceased to exist, so lat its anatomy and animal economy are ow nearly as well known as that of the orpoise, which revels in the ocean that ashes the shores of our existing continents nd islands. “If/’ writes Dr. Buckland, in his Bridgewater Treatise,’ “ we examine lese creatures with a view to their capa- ilities of locomotion, and the means of fence and defence which their extraor- inary structure afforded to them, we shall nd combinations of form and mechanical mtrivances which are now dispersed irough various classes and orders of exist- ig animals, but are no longer united in le same genus. Thus, in the same indi¬ dual, the snout of a porpoise is combined ith the teeth of a crocodile, the head of a card with the vertebrae of a fish, and the ernum of an ornithorhynchus with the iddles of a whale. The general outline ' an ichthyosaurus must have most nearly sembled the modern porpoise and gram- is. It had four broad feet or paddles, id terminated behind in a long and power- 1 tail. Some of the largest of these rep- les must have exceeded thirty feet in ngth.” The osteology of the head agrees in many lints with that of the crocodile, but the ■bit of the eye is much larger, and the istril is not, as in that genus, placed near le point of the snout, but near the ante- or angle of the orbit, as in some other sards. The teeth, which in some cases nount to a hundred and eighty, are not cased in deep and distinct sockets as in le crocodiles, though the rudiments of an alveolar separation may be traced in the small ridges between the teeth running along the furrow of the maxillary bone in which they are set. The elongated jaws in which these instruments of destruction are ranged are made up, as in many of the crocodiles and the other lizards, of many thin bony plates, so as to produce a union of lightness, elasticity, and strength. “ It is obvious,” says Dr. Buckland, in the in¬ teresting work above quoted, “ that an under jaw, so slender and so much elon¬ gated as that of a crocodile or ichthyosau¬ rus, and employed in seizing and retaining the large and powerful animals which formed their prey, would have been com¬ paratively weak and liable to fracture if composed of a single bone. Each side of the lower jaw was therefore made up of six separate pieces, set together in a peculiar manner. This contrivance in the lower jaw to combine the greatest elasticity and strength with the smallest weight of materials, is similar to that adopted in binding together several paral¬ lel plates of elastic wood or steel to make a crossbow; and also in setting together thin plates of steel in the springs of car¬ riages. As in the carriage-spring or com¬ pound-bow, so also in the compound-jaw of the ichthyosaurus, the plates are most nu¬ merous and strong at the parts where the greatest strength is required to be exerted; and are thinner and fewer towards the ex¬ tremities, where the service to be per¬ formed is less severe. Those who have witnessed the shock given to the head of a crocodile by the act of snapping together its thin long jaws, must have seen how liable to fracture the lower jaw would be were it composed of one bone only on each side : a similar inconvenience would have attended the same simplicity of structure in the jaw of the Ichthyosaurus. In each case therefore the splicing and bracing to¬ gether of six thin flat bones of unequal length and of varying thickness, on both sides of the lower jaw, aflbrds a compensa¬ tion for the weakness and risk of fracture that would otherwise have attended the 2 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 5, elongation of the snout. Mr. Conybeare points out a further beautiful contrivance in the lower jaw of the Ichthyosaurus, analogous to the cross-bracings lately in¬ troduced in naval architecture.” Hitherto the structure of the skeleton of ichthyosaurus is. as we have seen, sauroid or lizard; but we now come to a part of its bony frame, and a very principal part, which is formed on the ichthyoid or fishy type. The vertebral column, consisting of more than one hundred vertebra?, each of which is hollow and fashioned after the manner of those of fishes, to facilitate the progress of the animal through the watery medium in which it existed, is constructed for a swimming, not a walking animal; and the sauroid type is here departed from in favour of a conformation demanded by the habits of the animal. The mbs appear to be constructed more upon the sauroid type, for they are con¬ tinuous along the vertebral column from the head to the pelvis; they are slender and mostly bifurcated at the end, and many of them are united in front across the chest. Intermediate bones, analogous to the ster¬ nal and intermediate costal cartilages in the crocodiles and the sterno-costal arcs in plesiosaurus, united the ribs of the right side to those of the left. Dr. Buckland is of opinion that this structure was probably subservient to the purpose of introducing into their bodies an unusual quantity of air, the animal being by these means en¬ abled to remain long beneath the water without rising to the surface for the pur¬ pose of breathing. In the sternum we find a combination of bones admirably adapted for resistance. The form of the sternal arch and the broad surfaces of the clavicles is such as to im¬ part great strength to the chest, enabling the animal to breast the most disturbed waters, and affording an extensive surface for the attachment of powerful muscles to assist in moving the anterior extremities ; and the bones composing this arch are combined nearly in the same manner as in the Ornithorhynchus of New Holland, which seeks its food at the bottom of lakes and rivers, and is obliged, like the ichthyo¬ saurus, to be continually rising to the sur¬ face to breathe air. To this sternal arch the anterior paddles are articulated; they are nearly one-half larger than the poste¬ rior paddles, and in this part of the struc¬ ture the cetaceous or whale type appears to have been followed. The short and stout shoulder is followed by the bones of the fore-arm; and these are succeeded by nu¬ merous regularly-disposed polygonal bones, exceeding, in some species, the number of one hundred, which form the paddle or fin. In form these bones differ both from the phalanges of lizards and whales. The bones of the pelvis closely resemble those of the crocodile, and the femoral bone ! and posterior paddle are altogether analo- 1 gous to the shoulder and anterior paddle ; j but, contrary to the development of the ; posterior extremities of quadrupeds in gen- > eral, they are very considerably smaller, , nearly in the proportion of one to two. That the ichthyosauri enjoyed the sense of smelling in a considerable degree can hardly be doubted from the structure and position of the nostrils, nor is there any reason for supposing that they were not gifted with the sense of taste; but their power of vision must have been great, and indeed Dr. Buckland justly speaks of the enormous magnitude of the eye as very much exceeding that of any living animal, and as being the most extraordinary fea¬ ture of the head. An enormous expansion of the jaws, which were so constructed as to bear the shock of the most violent collision, anti were furnished with a constant succession of teeth, formed an organ of seizure weli fitted to the voracity of an animal that nov only preyed upon fishes and other marine animals, but, like the ravenous pike of our fresh-waters, fed upon its own congeners and even species. The prey was transmit¬ ted into a stomach which must have been nearly coextensive with the cavity ol the body, and the contents were thence made to pass through an intestinal canal which appears to have resembled the spiral intes¬ tines of some of the swiftest and most voracious of our modern fishes. The external integument appears to have been a simple naked skin unprotected by any defence ; it probably resembled in some degree the dermal covering of the ce¬ taceans or whales. We have thus endeavoured to give a sketch of the organization and structure of a form blotted out from the catalogue of existing beings. Admirably adapted to its wants, its conformation enabled it either rapidly to pursue its prey, to dive far beneath 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 3 the sea, or to ascend to the surface, and, in short, to execute with precision and quick¬ ness all the motions necessary to its mode of life. Ichthyosauri abound throughout the lias and oolitic formations.— Abr. fromPen. Cyc. TEA (Table E, Nos 30 and 31.) In the case No. 30 are dried specimens of the Tea Plant, Thea Boliea and Thea Viridis, and in case No. 31 are specimens of the tea of commerce from China, Japan, Java, Assam, ur limits and our leisure—perhaps, also, distrust of our own ability to develope the ibject properly—all alike forbid us to ; iter upon it here. We therefore now close ith a thankful Gaudeamus :—Let us re- ice at what has been doing, and yet re- lains to be done, for educating the public ye and guiding the public taste; at the and we have had in leading its footsteps ito the flower-strewed paths of useful and rofitable knowledge, opened up by the Exhibition in the City Hall. AIR PUMP. Many persons may deem it gratuitous iformation to be told any thing about so imiliar an apparatus as the air-pump; but lese individuals must recollect that our eaders are numerous, and that probably a irge proportion of them have seen the in- irument for the first time at the Exhibi- ion ; to these last, therefore, a few gene- al remarks on the properties and effects of he air-pump cannot be unacceptable. We dwell in the midst of an unseen fluid air), which, in the aggregate, forms he atmosphere surrounding the earth, ’his atmosphere varies in density, and be- omes rarer, or more attenuated, the higher re ascend above the level of the earth’s urface ; and even upon the surface, the lensity of the air is not uniform, being ubject to variation from many causes, Persons are sensibly affected by the changes k^hich occur on the surface ; but they are r et more affected by the rarity, or thin- tess, of the air at a great altitude above he ordinary level. Long before the in- ention of the air-pump, it had been ob¬ served that, in certain states of the at¬ mosphere, the animal spirits were de¬ pressed, and the bodily faculties were sub- ect to languor ; and also that the ascent if high mountains was accompanied by a legree of lassitude and weariness greater han the mere toil of climbing could pro- luce. That the inhalation of the air is EXHIBITOR, 5 necessary to animal life, it needed not the air-pump to demonstrate, for this was a truth too obvious to be overlooked ; but a philosophical solution of the phenomena resulting from a more than ordinary den¬ sity or rarity of the atmosphere was first afforded by that instrument ; and to it we are indebted for an amount of knowledge concerning the properties and uses of air which we could not otherwise have ob¬ tained. The air-pump is a contrivance for pro¬ ducing a vacuum; or, in other words, a space emptied of air. It consists of a bell¬ shaped glass, named the receiver, in which the vacuum is to be made ; and of an ap¬ paratus for drawing off the air from the receiver. This last was originally a single piston, which, by successive strokes, rari- fied the air within the bell to a great de¬ gree. To effect a nearer approximation to a perfect vacuum, a second piston was in¬ troduced. The upper part of the piston- rods were of rack-work, and a toothed wheel gave motion to both at the same time, alternately raising one rod and de¬ pressing the other. A few strokes of the double pistons were found to produce a greater effect than many strokes of the single pump. The air-pump now in use does not differ materially from the con¬ struction introduced about seventy years ago, by Benjamin Martin, a London op¬ tician, who added to great skill in the manufacture of philosophical instruments, an amount of theoretical knowledge seldom possessed by artificers. It is necessary to bear in mind that an air-pump of the very best construction can never produce absolute vacuity,—can never draw off all the air from the receiver. After the first stroke, the air remaining in the bell expands and fills its entire volume ; after a portion of this rarified air has been drawn off by the second stroke, a second expansion takes place; and thus every successive stroke draws off only a portion of the air left by the preceding stroke, whence it follows, that there must always be a remainder in the receiver; and though this remainder forms an almost insensible atmosphere within the bell, indeed approaches nearly to a practi¬ cal vacuum, its presence is sufficient to mo¬ dify the deductions we draw from our expe¬ riments upon animal life. We cannot enter into a long detail of the experiments which have been performed with the air-pump, nor is it necessary that we should, since THE DAILY EXHIBITOR [Jan. 6, they have already been presented to the popular mind in pages as readily accessible as our own. The experiments on animals have shown how necessary the ordinary supply of air is to animal life ; how that life languishes when the supply is partially withdrawn; and how all its functions are suspended when the supply is nearly or altogether discontinued. Some animals will live in the exhausted receiver longer than others ; and some few will endure the confinement for many hours, and even after life appears to be extinct, they will recover if brought again into the air. We are not, however, to argue from this, that pos¬ sibly some of the cold-blooded animals can live without air. We must never forget that the vacuum is imperfect, and that whilst some animals die in it almost instantly, other some may find in the attenuated atmosphere, and that for a long period, all the supply of air that is absolutely requisite for their existence. Air is as necessary to combustion as to animal life. A lighted candle placed under the receiver will not burn after it has con¬ sumed the air within the glass ; neither will gunpowder explode in vacuo, but merely smoulder away, and this feeble combustion is sustained only by the air in the nitre of the powder. Bodies give no sound in vacuo. There is a contrivance by which a bell may be rung under the receiver, but though we see the clapper strike the side, the ear can detect no sound if the receiver is properly exhausted of air. All bodies are of equal weight in vacuo. A sovereign and a feather, if let fall from the top of the receiver at the same instant, will reach the bottom toge¬ ther. These are the principal phenomena revealed 1 to us by the air-pump ; and they can be exemplified and illustrated by a variety of interesting experiments. RHINOCEROS HORNBILL. (West Gallery, No. 86.) This bird attains four feet in length, with an expanse of wings of about three feet. The bill is nearly a foot in length; and, stuck on it, as it were, at the base of the upper mandible, is a second bill or' promi¬ nence, which is turned upwards and back¬ wards, like the horn of the rhinoceros. Notwithstanding the formidable appear¬ ance given to this bird by its monstrous bill, it is utterly useless to it as a weapon; and the bird itself is of too cowardly a dis position to make use of it offensively, ever if it were more effective. It advances In leaps, and displays in general every appear ance of cowardice and stupidity, except in p deed when food is offered, which causes i jf to assume a momentary air of confident f e and vivacity by spreading the wings, open ^ ing the monstrous bill, and uttering a cn of satisfaction, feeble indeed for a bird o its dimensions. Levaillant had an oppor 111 tunity of seeing one at the Cape in a vesse which touched there from Batavia. It wa: fed in general with biscuit moistened ii water, and with meat, both cooked and raw and ate also rice and vegetables. It appear; therefore that these naturally very vora¬ cious birds easily accommodate their appe¬ tite to circumstances; though, in a natura state, insects, snakes, lizards, and even car¬ rion, are their usual food. M. Levaillani on one occasion offered the hornbill in ques¬ tion some small birds he had shot, whicl were seized immediately; and after beinc for a short time pressed and rubbed in the bill, were swallowed whole. The sailor? stated that he hunted the rats and mice 111 whenever they came within sight, thougl he never had dexterity enough to catcl them; he swallowed however very readily all that were offered to him. The habit oi l this bird appeared to be to seize everything that was given, and afterwards to reject such as did not suit its taste, to which if never recurred. The true bill of this bird is black at the base, then slightly reddish, and afterward* light-yellow to the point. The false bill e* prominence is red or flesh-coloured on the upper side, and light yellow beneath. A black line marks the contact between it and the true bill; which, rising with the bend of the false bill on each side, gives it the: appearance of a perfect beak, with the two mandibles closed. The eyes are large, and are furnished above with black lashes. The feet are strong, and covered with large brown scales.: and the nails, flatted laterally, have their: points blunted and injured by friction on the ground. The general colour of the bird is black; but the tail, which is slightly cuneiform, isi> tipt with dirty white. The rhinoceros hornbill is found in India as well as in Java and the Philippine islands.— Cuvier. THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 7 1847.] Manufactures of Paisley. — Mr. Ko- ert Kerr's Portrait Loom. —This won- er-working loom rivals any in the estab- sliment of the Gobelins at Paris.—We ave been favoured by Mr. Kerr with a 3W particulars regarding it ; and also ome respecting the companion shawl jac- uard loom :— “ In consequence of the time required ii erecting the complicated machinery f the Portrait Loom, and the cost of fcs materials, not less than two hundred iounds were expended before the first ikeness of the French king could be woven. ?he cost of card -paper alone was not un- er £80, the duty on which amounted to bout £2. Nothing of a similar kind had een previously attempted in Great Bri- ain, excepting the Spitaljields abortion we give the words as they are set down) f the Duke of Wellington. “ The Shawl Loom, which is more simple a its construction, did not cost so much as he other ; but if the price of the pattern e included, the sum expended thereon will ave been neai'ly as great. Only from £40 o £45, indeed, would be required for the rection of such another, including harness nd needful equipments ; but the pattern r ould cost from £80 to £100 more ; in ome eases, even £150. “ Every lb. weight of card paper is charged l|d. duty; and, although that im¬ post may appear to be small, yet the whole ;ost price of each lb. weight, including the jax, being about 6d. per lb., it is but too >lain that such an item in the cost price nust operate most injuriously to the in- erest of the manufacturer.” True, Mr. verr ; and the interests of the public, too, ire thus wounded through your sides— \Manufactures, No. 150, Sfc.) ! Specimens of Teas.—Tea Brick, &c.— We find the following passage regarding he tea used in Tartary in a recent work !>y a French explorer, which we think we hall be gratifying our readers by translat¬ ing for their amusement:— ; “ Among the Kalmouks, tea is prepared n a manner peculiar to the Tartars. Tt omes to them done up in the state of very olid brick-shaped masses, composed of the eaves and coarser parts of the tea-plant. Vfter breaking off some fragments of one I these, and boiling them in water, the lecoction is mixed up with milk, butter, -nd salt. The infusion thereby takes a soupy consistence, and its colour becomes of a dirty rusty yellow. We drank of such a mixture in the dwelling of prince Tu- mdne ; and we are constrained to admit that we found the beverage altogether de¬ testable ; the moment we saw it, we thought of the unimaginable preparation served up, with burlesque solemnity, by Madame Gibou* We were assured, how¬ ever, that in time this repulsive stuff, by use, becomes not merely tolerable, but de¬ licious. It certainly does have this pre¬ cious property, that by favouring perspira¬ tion in the body of the drinker, it saves him from the evil effects of sudden chills after heating exercise. “ The Kalmouks drink their tea out of small wooden vessels, of circular form and shallow make; some kinds of their tea¬ cups are highly valued ; I have seen a few which cost from two to three horses —the constant Tartar measure of value. It is. unnecessary to add, that the Kalmouks, to¬ tally unacquainted as they are with our kettles, necessarily make their tea in earthen pipkins or cast-iron pots. Next to tea, the beverages most in favour with these Tartars are weak alcoholic prepara¬ tions, distillqd from mares’ or cows’ milk.” —“ Les Steppes de la Mer Caspienne, gs, within a foot of the particular spot of I journey it has only to be examined to show he line on which the train is. It also tells I the time when the train started—when it he rate of speed at which the train is tra-1 reached each of the different stations on the elling; and at the same time pointing out j line—the length of time it had been de- he different stations and localities which tained at each—and the precise speed at lie train passes. The dial of the Indica- j which it had travelled on any part of the or, as shown on the drawing which accom-1 journey. And in connection with this anies.this (the model), is fixed, and is in check, and to render the benefits of the onnection with a clock-dial which is made! machine more complete, I would suggest o revolve, and which, as shown separately j that a book for the special purpose should y the drawing, will show how the machine! be kept at the station at each end—ter- 5 adapted to register on the skeleton clock- j minus,—into which the dial should be ial, for twelve consecutive hours, the copied each journey, which could be done mgth of time the train takes to run every | in a few minutes ; and this book would lile. Thus, supposing 12 hours run on a j form a complete and lasting register of the tretch at 30 miles an hour, would be equal j whole working on the line, o 360 miles, every one of which would be j In connection with, and in addition to, egistered. The clock is placed at the back 1 this machine, the invention comprehends a f the Indicator dial, and nothing, is seen ! new plan of a tail signal light, —namely, a ’om without but the moving dial, which is' revolving one of red and white. This is to ne and a half inch broad, and lifts off at' show the rate of speed at night, at a dis- leasure, to show what has been done on the 1 tance of 4 or 5 miles, when one train is fol- purney. The small hand shown on the ! lowing another; so that the engine-drivers pwer part of the drawing, is the mile hand, 1 might be able to keep their respective dis- Ivery revolution of which is equal to a mile; j tances from one another, and regulate their jnd on the end of it is attached a spring speed. When wished to use this light, the ffth a pencil, so that every turn it makes 1 lamp has merely to be fixed to the top of kerthe clock or moving dial, it marks or!the upright spindle of the Indicator, by egisters a mile on the white margin oppo- j which it is made to revolve along with it, ite the minute figures. This hand goes on at the rate of 24 revolutions, and showing joint, and when passing over an inclined 48 different lights, per mile, lane, which will be seen on the drawing, The Indicator represents its full-sized aises the hand so as to bring the pencil in working order in all its parts, excepting the ontact with the minutes at the proper endless screw on the axle wheel, and the lace of marking. The large hand in the i horizontal screw of 28 teeth communicat- THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. mg therewith,—the former of which, in its full size, is much deeper in its thread, and the latter also much deeper in the teeth, so as to afford room for the oscillations or shakings of the carriage, or the pressure on the springs from its weight by being full of passengers or otherwise. The Indicator is placed at the back end of the carriage with the dial inside, near the roof, and the signal light projects above the roof. The working of the machine is seen by every person in the carriage, and is not confined to the use of the railway directors or’officials; thus giving confidence to the public by enabling them to see what the train is performing. It is now nearly three years since the Indicator was in working order ; and in the end of last year it was in actual operation on the Dundee and Arbroath Railway, where it gave every satisfaction, and worked With the greatest regularity for upwards of three successive months. The signal lamp and the mile-marking hand, which accompany the Indicator, are not complete, but mere models to show the workings of the machine. SUGAR. (Table E, No. 15, and No. 31.) On the south front of East Gallery, No. 15, is exhibited a drawing of the Sugar Cane, and on the Table in the case No. 31 are exhibited a variety of specimens of the sugar of commerce. The sugar-cane —saccharum officinarum —must be considered as a native of China, since it has been pretty accurately shown that its cultivation was prosecuted in that empire for two thousand years before sugar was even known in Europe, and for a very long period before other eastern nations became acquainted with its use. Early in the fifteenth century the sugar¬ cane first appeared in Europe. Sicily took the lead in its cultivation; thence it passed to Spain, Madeira, and the Canary Is¬ lands ; and shortly after the discovery of the New World by Columbus, this plant was conveyed to Hayti and Brazil, from which latter country it gradually spread through the islands of the West Indies. The canes have knotty stalks, and at each joint or knot a leaf is produced. The number of joints varies in different speci¬ mens, some having as many as eighty, and others not half that number. [Jan. 7, The sugar-cane varies exceedingly in its growth, depending upon the nature of the’ soil. In new and moist land it sometimes attains the height of twenty feet; while in ground that is arid and calcareous, its length does not exceed from six to ten feet. It is always propagated from cuttings. The top joints are always taken for plant¬ ing, because they are less rich in saccha¬ rine juice than the lower parts of the cane, while their power of vegetation is equally strong. In preparing a field for planting with the cuttings of cane, the ground is marked out in rows three or four feet apart, and in these lines holes are dug from eight to twelve inches deep, and with an interval of two feet between the holes. Where the ground is level, larger spaces are left at certain intervals, for the facility of carting; but there are many situations at the sides \ of steep hills where no cart can be taken,! and in such cases these spaces are not re¬ quired. The ripe canes are then conveyed to the mill in bundles on the backs of mules, or are passed down to the bottom of' the hill through wooden spouts. The hoeing of a cane-field is a most la-; borious operation when performed, as it must be, under the rays of a tropical sun. j Formerly this task was always effected by hand labour, but, of late years, where the nature of the ground will admit of the em-, ployment of a plough, that instrument has been substituted, to the mutual advantage ' of the planter and his labourers. The} planting of canes does not require to be ; renewed annually. The most general plan is for a certain portion of the land in cul¬ tivation to be planted annually and in suc¬ cession, the roots and stoles of the canes of the former year being left through the re¬ maining parts of the plantation- From these, fresh canes, which are called rattoons, j spring up, and are nearly as large the first; year as plant canes. The manufacture of sugar is a somewhat complicated process, requiring for its suc¬ cessful performance not only some degree J of chemical knowledge, but likewise a con¬ siderable amount of practical experience. When the canes are fully ripe they are j cut close to the stole, and being then di- ; vided into convenient lengths, are tied up in bundles, and conveyed to the mill. This j always consists of three iron cylinders, ‘ sometimes standing perpendicularly in a 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 3 line with each other, ancl at other, times placed horizontally, and disposed in the form of a triangle, and so adjusted that the canes, on being passed twice between the cylinders of either kind of mill, shall have all their juice expressed. This is collected in a cistern, and must be immediately placed under process by heat to prevent its becoming acid, an effect which has some¬ times commenced as early as twenty min¬ utes from the time of its being expressed. A certain quantity of lime in powder, or of lime-water, is added at this time to pro¬ mote the separation of the feculent matters contained in the juice; and these being as far as possible removed at a heat just suffi¬ cient to cause the impurities to collect to- j gether on the surface, the cane liquor is then subjected to a very rapid boiling, in order to evaporate the watery particles, and bring the syrup to such a consistency that it will granulate on cooling. The quantity of sugar obtainable from a given measure of cane-juice varies according to the season, the soil, the period of the year, and the quality of the canes ; but it may be calculated, that, taking one state of circumstances with another in these re¬ spects, every five gallons, imperial measure, of cane-juice, will yield six pounds of crys¬ tallized sugar, and will be obtained from about one hundred and ten well-grown canes. ! The fuel used for thus concentrating the juice is furnished by the cane itself,, which, after the expressing of that juice, is dried for the purpose by exposure to the sun. When the sugar is sufficiently cooled in shallow trays, it is put into the hogsheads wherein it is shipped to Europe. These casks have their bottoms pierced with holes, and are placed upright over a large cistern | into which the molasses—which is the por¬ tion of saccharine matter that will not crystallize—drains away, leaving the raw sugar in the state wherein we see it in our grocers’ shops. i With the planters in our own colonies, the process of sugar-making mostly ends ! with the draining away of the molasses in the manner just mentioned ; but in the French, Spanish, and Portuguese settle¬ ments it is usual to submit this raw sugar to the farther process of claying. For this I purpose the sugar, as soon as it is cool, is placed in forms or moulds, similar to those | used in the sugar refineries in England, I but much larger ; and these being placed with their small ends downwards, the top of the sugar is covered with clay moistened to the consistence of thin paste, the water contained in which gradually soaks through the sugar and washes out a farther quan¬ tity of molasses, with which it escapes | through a hole purposely made at the point ! of the earthen mould. It is then called clayed-sugar: the loaves, when removed from the forms, are frequently divided into three portions, which, being of different colours and qualities, arising from the greater effect of the water in cleansing the upper portion, are pulverized *and packed separately for exportation. The molasses which have drained from the sugar, together with all the scummings of the coppers, are collected, and, being first fermented, are distilled for the pro¬ duction of rum. The proportionate quan¬ tity of this spirit, as compared with the weight of sugar produced, varies consider¬ ably with the seasons and management. In favourable years, when the canes are fully ripened, and the quality of the sugar is good, the proportion of molasses and scummings is comparatively small, and the manufacture of rum is consequently less¬ ened: the proportion usually made is reckoned to be from five to six gallons of proof spirit for every hundred-weight of sugar.— Veg. Substances. Salter’s Model of Chester and Holy- head Railway Bridge. By Stephenson. —An example of the skilful daring of our engineers. It is to pass over the Menai Strait, like the Suspension Bridge of Tel¬ ford ; the use of which was asked for from Government by the railway company, but (perhaps well judgingly) refused. The bridge of which this is a beautiful model, will be, if we mistake not, a continuous iron tube, composed of massive plates.of cast iron, bolted together.—(Mechanics and Engineering ; Table B, No. 60.) Model of a Bookbinder’s Bench. By Mr. Bulloch.—What a change has come over the spirit of this trade, auxiliary to our own art, since we first knew it ! or to go still farther back, from the “ bought- borrowed-stolen” projections of book- backs, in the dear school-boy time !—For many a day, there was “ nothing like lea¬ ther now cotton is, almost, “ your only wear.” The material of book-boards passed 1 B THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 7 , 4 from wood, and its bark (liber), to parch¬ ment, then to leather, then to calico. But while the material of the cover has been much altered of late, there has been a de¬ cided reverting—in ornamenting—to the old style of “ table binding,” and to an¬ tique ornaments.—(Mechanics ; Table B, No. 45.—Manufactures; Table C, No. 121, et seq.) cftr iBatig isxfnfltttm THURSDAY, Jan. 7, 1847. In Paris there exists a collection of models called the Conservatoire des Arts et Me¬ tiers. This monster collection is national; and its rapid increase is secured by the French Patent Law, which provides, that of every machine or other apparatus or scheme whatsoever, for which a patent is granted, there shall be deposited a model, drawing, or plan, in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. These models are not placed there for a time only. They remain perpetually, and are open at all times to be inspected. This plan of making a collection of models possesses both advantages and dis¬ advantages ; the latter Qf which, we believe, predominate. One advantage is, that the in¬ ventor of any new apparatus may go to this collection and consult all that has been al¬ ready patented in the same line. He may thus avoid the defects of others, and im¬ prove his own invention. It must, how¬ ever, be a very great disadvantage to have such a heterogeneous assemblage of articles, good, bad, and indifferent. Be¬ cause, let it be remembered, no matter though the machine or apparatus of which the model is here deposited, may never have accomplished the purpose for which it was intended, or any other practical purpose, here it remains in virtue of having been patented. The collection thus to a considerable extent has become a gather¬ ing of useless articles, interesting merely as showing how many abortive schemes may receive a patent in a given time;— we can hardly suppose that it will serve the good purpose of scaring the unwary or not sufficiently skilled. In forming a col-. lection of models for Glasgow or for Bri¬ tain, we trust this error of the French will be avoided. Our Conservatory ought to contain models of no apparatus which has not been found capable of fulfilling its pur¬ pose, or if such were admitted, they should be placed in a section by themselves, a sort of mechanical Limbo, to be entitled Abor¬ tive Schemes. We trust the time is not far distant when a Collection such as we have hinted at will be set a-going in good earnest. Nothing is required but a certain amount of funds, and a few energetic individuals to regulate matters. Every workshop in the kingdom would vie with another in sending models of all they possess of interest to such a de¬ pository and exhibition of the skill of our working, and the fecundity of our inventive, powers. We, however, meantime, leave the matter to the consideration of our readers. A CHILD PLAYING WITH A GOOSE. CAST FROM THE ANTIQUE. (Table G, No. 4.) Wb read in Pliny the description of a child squeezing a goose’s neck, the action of which was admirably expressed ; it had been executed in bronze by the Cartha¬ ginian sculptor Bcethus. Winckelmann thought that the marble in the Capitoline Museum was a copy ; this conjecture is strengthened and acquires additional weight from the recent discovery of two marbles absolutely alike. The group from which the one exhibited is a cast, was found in 1789, at the place called Roma Vecchia, a league and a half from Rome, upon the an¬ cient Appian way; it is in Pentelic marble. Nothing can be more graceful than the action of the child ; infantile mirth and happiness are rendered with rare felicity. The light and easy touch which pervades this work has induced the belief that it was executed in Rome towards the end of the second century. In this group, which is in the Vatican, the child’s head is a modern restoration; whilst in that of the Capitoline Museum, the head is antique. eii pe le; no na ad th el al hi N hi se lo tl lo t( h d b ti e t a l 1 1847.] THE DAILY BUST OF PROFESSOR WILSON, BY JAMBS FILLANS. (Table G, Sculpture No. 8.) This bust, representing one of the most sminent of Paisley’s sons, has very pro¬ perly been executed for the town of Pais- ey, by a native sculptor, and one who lot only does honour to the town of his lativity, but also to his country. This idmirable work sets before us not only the bodily presence of the learned and doquent Professor in vivid reality, but ilso conveys, in its expression, much of lis elevated intellect and vigorous genius. No one who looks on this bust, even though le knows nothing of the individual repre¬ sented, but must feel that such a head be- ongs to no ordinary man. So many are she excellencies of this work in all that is ofty and difficult to achieve in the sculp¬ tor’s art, that we would venture to place it >eside the finest remains of antiquity, and lare the comparison. Had it only been mried for a few years by the margin of she Lago Albano, or in any other locality of slassic interest, and been recently excava¬ ted, and submitted for examination to some tntiquary of authority, such as the Abbe Winckelmann, we little doubt but he would lave pronounced it to be one of the finest Antiques of the beardless Jupiter yet dis- sovered, however much a more modern appearance, and traces of a more modern Style, might weigh against that judgment. THE DYING GLADIATOR. ! A REDUCED COPY FROM THE ANTIQUE IN MARBLE. (Table G, No. 19.) This statue is so generally known by the [lame of the Dying Gladiator, that it is loubtful whether another denomination vould be adopted for it, although it is evi¬ dently proved to have no affinity with the bther figures of gladiators. Visconti justly remarks, that “ the short bristling hair, the moustache, profile of the nose, shape if the eyebrows, the sort of torquis collar iround the neck, and every thing in this jigure, prove it to be meant for a barbarian warrior (perhaps a Gaul or German) mor¬ tally wounded, and expiring like a brave man on the field of battle, which is strewed with arms and warlike instruments.” The noble posture of this figure, a great purity in the forms of the trunk, an ad- EXHEBITOB, 5 mirable expression in the head, render this statue deservedly admired ; and it excites astonishment, by the side of such eminent perfections, to find other parts feeble, and even a hand* badly formed, although it is incontestibly antique. The whole of the right arm, and the extremity of the feet, are restorations of the sixteenth century. This statue in Luni marble comes from the villa Ludovisi; it is now in the Museum of the Capitol at Rome. If erect it would measure 6 feet 11 inches. The copy of this statue exhibited scarcely conveys an adequate idea of the original, the delicate markings of the ana¬ tomy not being rendered with sufficient spirit and precision. THE PYTHIAN APOLLO. CALLED THE APOLLO BELVIDERE. (East Gallery, No. 5.) When the waters of the deluge had sub¬ sided, a monstrous serpent appeared in the marshes of Phocis ; but Apollo delivered the earth from the terrible Python. A sculptor choosing for his subject this bene¬ ficent action of the god of day, represents him the moment after he has shot his ar¬ row : his limbs still quiver from the action, the hand that holds the bow is yet stretch¬ ed out; satisfaction beams upon his brow and in his eyes, whilst the nostrils and lips retain some traces of the god’s anger. This master-piece of antique sculpture deserves the most minute attention to scan its numerous beauties, while such an exa¬ mination exalts the soul of him who is thus engaged ; and as M. Cemeric David justly observes—“ The unlearned who survey it are affected, excited, and as they admire j it, feel within themselves an indescribable sensation. The connoisseur, each time he looks at it, perceives with astonishment that he had not yet embraced all its per¬ fection : the more he knows it, the more he discovers in it, truth, delicacy, grandeur, and beauties ever new.” This statue, in Luni marble, was dis¬ covered towards the end of the fifteenth centuiy, near Capo d’Anzo, formerly An- tium ; it was purchased by pope Julius II., then a cardinal; who, on his elevation to the pontificate, had it placed in the Belvi - dere gardens : the two hands which were wanting, were then supplied by Fr. Jean- Ange de Montorsalo, a pupil of Michael Angelo. 6 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 7, BANYAN TREE, OR INDIAN FIG. On the south front of the East Gallery there is a drawing of this remarkable tree (ficus indica) which belongs to the family of figs. It is a native of India.; and it and another species (f. religiosa), are held in spch veneration by the Hindoos, that if a person cuts or lops off any of the branches, he is looked upon with as great abhorrence as if he had broken the leg of one of their equally sacred cows. Some specimens of the Indian fig tree are mentioned as being of immense magni¬ tude. One near Mangee, twenty miles to the westward of Patna, in Bengal, spread over a diameter of 370 feet. The entire circumference of the shadow at noon was 1116 feet, and it required 920 feet to sur¬ round the fifty or sixty stems by which the tree was supported. Another covered an area of 1700 square yards ; and many of almost equal dimensions are found in dif¬ ferent parts of India and Cochin China, where the tree grows in the greatest per¬ fection. The fruit is small, not exceeding the size of a hazle nut, and is of no use. The common fig of commerce is obtained from quite a different plant. The fig tree (ficus carica) is a native of Asia, Africa, and the south of Europe, and has been culti¬ vated from remote antiquity in the coun¬ tries surrounding the Mediterranean, where it forms a principal article of food in many places. The stem is from fifteen to twenty- five feet high, with a trunk sometimes two feet in diameter,-giving out a great num¬ ber of long, twisted, pliant branches, which are grayish and rough when young; the leaves are deciduous, of the size of the hand, having three to five rounded lobes ; the flowers are very small, unisexual, con¬ tained in great numbers in a common re¬ ceptacle, which is fleshy and connivent at the summit, where it is almost closed by a series of little teeth; the male flowers oc¬ cupy the superior part of this receptacle, and the female, which are the most nu ¬ merous, the bottom, and all the remaining part of the cavity ; each ovary becomes a seed, surrounded with a pulp, which, toge¬ ther with the receptacle, forms the fruit. The fruit is solitary, generally of a pur¬ plish colour, has a soft, sweet, fragrant pulp, and is much esteemed, being con¬ stantly brought upon the table, during five months of the year, in the south of, Europe. THE BAOBAB. The fruit of the Baobab, commonly called Monkey-bread (Table E, No. 81), and elsewhere on the same table, the produce of Adansonia digitata. This tree is a na¬ tive of Western Africa, and is likewise said to be found in Egypt and Abyssinia ; it is cultivated in many of the warmer parts of the world. There seems to be no doubt but that it is the largest known tree, its trunk being sometimes not less than thirty feet in diameter. The height of its trunk by no means corresponds with the thick¬ ness which it attains. Thus, according to i Adanson’s calculations, at one year old its j diameter is one inch, and its height five j inches ; at thirty years old it has attained i a diameter of two feet, while its height is ! only twenty-two feet, and so on; till, at I 1000 years old, the baobab is fourteen feet j broad, and fifty-eight feet high. It often happens that the profusion of J leaves and of drooping boughs almost hide j the stem, and the whole forms a hemisphe- j rical mass of verdure, 140 to 150 feet in diameter, and sixty to seventy feet high, j The wood is pale-coloured, light, and soft; ■ so that in Abyssinia the wild bees perforate j it and lodge their honey in the hollow, i which honey is considered the best in the > ! country. The negroes on the western j coast, again, apply their trunks to a very - extraordinary purpose. The tree is liable i to be attacked by a fungus, which, vege- j tating in the woody part, without changing J the colour or appearance, destroys life, and j renders the part so attacked as soft as the <1 pith of trees in general. Such trunks are i then hollowed into chambers ; and within j these are suspended the dead bodies of those to whom are refused the honour of burial. ; There they become mummies, perfectly ! dry, and well preserved, without further preparation or embalming, and are known j by the name of giuriots. The baobab is ! emollient and mucilaginous : the pulverised j leaves constitute lalo, a favourite article ' with the natives, which they mix with their J daily food to diminish excessive perspira- |i tion ; and which is even used by Europeans j in fevers and diarrhoeas. The flowers are ji large, white, and handsome ; and the fruit j is from nine to twelve inches long, and t about four in diameter, of a brownish co- j lour, and rather pointed toward the ex- ! tremities. The pulp is a little farinaceous, mixed with fibres : when recent, it has a | 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 7 very refreshing acid taste ; and eaten with sugar, it is both pleasant and wholesome. It retains its cooling qualities when dry ; and, on that account, the physicians of of Cairo administer it in fevers and other diseases._ THE DISCOBULUS OR QUOIT PLAYER. (East Gallexy, No. 10.) Lucian and Quintilian mention a bronze statue of a discobulus or quoit player, by Myro. It is believed that this marble statue is a copy of it; but the sculptor de¬ serves the highest praise for having so cor¬ rectly given the expression of all the parts. There were two ways of playing at quoits: the one consisted in throwing the discus, or quoit, vertically ; the other in hurling it forwards, which was the more usual, as the intent was not to reach an aim, but to pitch the quoit as far as possi¬ ble. In whatever manner it was cast, the discobuli held it so that its lower edge was within the hand, and supported by the four fingers bent inwards ; whilst its hinder surface rested against the thumb, the palm of the hand, and part of the fore-arm. When they intended to use it, they ad¬ vanced one of their feet, upon which the I whole body rested; then balancing the arm, they whirled it several times, almost circu¬ larly, to drive the quoit with the more im- petus,—it being thus thrown, not only by the hand, but by the arm, and, in a manner of speaking, by the whole body. This statue, which was found in the Villa Adriana, at Tivoli, towards the end of the eighteenth century, was purchased by pope Pius VI,, and placed in the Vatican Mu¬ seum : it was brought to Paris in 1797, And returned in 1815. The name of the statuary is engraved, in Greek letters, on j the trunk of the tree by which the statue is supported ; but this indication is the work of the modern restorer. Carp-Bream (Abramis brama), East | Gallery, south front, No. 4. A short ac¬ count of this not uncommon fish may ! be interesting to our readers. The speci- [men exhibited is from Lochmaben. The ! Bream is an inhabitant of many of the lakes and rivers of the continent of Europe generally, even as far north as Norway and Sweden. In this country it appears also ■to thrive best in large pieces of water, or in the deep and most quiet parts of rivers that run slowly, being found in many counties, and particularly in some of those that con¬ tain lakes and canals of considerable ex¬ tent. The lakes of Cumberland, and some of the most extensive lakes in Ireland, pro¬ duce large quantities of Bream of great size. Bream swim in shoals, feeding on worms, and other soft-bodied animals, with some vegetable substances; and if the water they inhabit suits them, which is generally the case, as they are hardy in their nature, they grow rapidly, and spawn in May. The flesh of the Bream being generally considered insipid and bony, they are not in great estimation for table, though the breeding of them is cultivated, or rather permitted, as useful to feed Pike, and other voracious fishes. It may be inferred, from a couplet in Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, that the feeding and eating of Bream was more in fashion in the days of Edward the Third than at the pre¬ sent time:— “ Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe, And many a Breme and many a Luce* in stewe.” * Luce, a Pike. Angel-Fish (Squatina angelus), East Gallery, south front, No. 7. This fish, cer¬ tainly more remarkable for the singularity of its form than for its beauty, is called Angel-fish in England, France, and Italy, and is said to have acquired that name from the extended pectoral fins having the appearance of wings; it is also called Monk¬ fish, because its rounded head looks as it enveloped in a monk’s hood. It is also called Shark-Ray, from its partaking of the characters of both Shark and Ray, though in some respects distinct from either. It is most numerous on the southern coast of our island; but is occasionally taken in the Forth, and some other parts of the east coast, particularly about Cromer and Yarmouth. This fish is very voracious, and feeds on the smaller flat-fishes, which, like itself, swim close to the bottom; occasionally, like them also, hiding itself in the loose, soft soil that floats over it. The .Angel-fish sometimes attains a large size. Cuvier, Pennant, and others, mention having seen specimens that would have weighed one hundred pounds. The flesh is now consi¬ dered indifferent and seldom eaten, but is said to have been formerly held in high estimation. The skin is rather rough, and is used for polishing, and other works in the arts ,—Yarrel. 8 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Jan. 7. M/ENURA LYRA, or LYRE-BIRD. (West Gallery, No. 93.) Notwithstanding the sombre hues, of this extraordinary bird, the magnificence and peculiar structure of the beautiful tail of the male, which imitates the form of an ancient Grecian lyre, give it a superb ap¬ pearance. Locality —New South Wales, princi¬ pally in the forests of Eucalyptus and Casaurina, which cover the Blue Moun¬ tains, and in their rocky and retired avenues. Habits —Lieutenant Collins says that “ the following particulars relating to these birds were observed by persons resident in the country, and who were eye-witnesses of what is here told. They frequent re¬ tired and inaccessible parts of the interior; have been seen to run remarkably fast, but their tails are so cumbrous that they cannot fly in a direct line. They sing for two hours in the morning, beginning from the time when they quit the valley, until they attain the summit of the hill, where they scrape together a small hillock with their tail spread over them, imitating succes¬ sively the note of every bird known in the country. They then return to the valley. ’ ’ If dependence could be placed upon this account as far as relates to the singing, it would assist the views of those who would place Mcenura near the Thrushes; among the gallinaceous birds, singing, in the com¬ mon acceptation of the word as applied to birds, is not known. But this sort of statements, taken as they mostly are from the relation of those who are not very care¬ ful as to the truth of their communica¬ tions, if they can only surprise and please their auditors, must be received with many grains of allowance. The “song” is not corroborated by subsequent observers. These birds have their young in De¬ cember, the season when all the wild ani¬ mals in the colony are produced, and can be then procured with facility. “It is,” says Mr. Bennett, “a bird of heavy flight, but swift of foot. On catching a glimpse of the sportsman it runs with rapidity, aided by the wings in getting over logs of wood, rocks, or any obstruction to its pro¬ gress ; it seldom flies into trees, except to roost, and then rises only from branch to branch: they build in old hollow trunks of trees which are lying upon the ground, or in the holes of rocks ; the nest is formed merely of dried grass or dried leaves scraped together; the female lays from twelve to sixteen eggs of a white colour, with a few scattered blue spots ; the young are diffi¬ cult to catch, as they run with rapidity, concealing themselves among the rocks and bushes. The Lyre Pheasant, on descend¬ ing from high trees, on which it perches, has been seen to fly some distance ; it is more often observed during the early hours of the morning, and in the evenings, than during the heat of the day. Like all the gallinaceous tribe, it scratches about the ground and roots of trees, to pick up seeds, insects, &c. The aborigines decorate their greasy locks, in addition to the emu fea¬ thers, with the splendid tail feathers of this bird, when they can procure them.” Mr.Bennett laments the rapid disappear¬ ance of the races of animals found in a new country, and which are pursued, whether useful or dangerous, even to extermination. He states that in the settled parts of the ! colony, the harmless kangaroos and emus J are rarely seen, when they might easily be I domesticated about the habitations. “ The j same remark,” he adds, “ applies to the ; Lyre Pheasant. Why are they not do- j mesticated, before, by extermination, they are lost to us for ever ? We trust that this may meet the eye of | some spirited individual who will not suffer I the loss to take place, but bestir himself to ! import these magnificent birds. That they I would live in this country, as well as the I emus and kangaroos, with ordinary care, there can be little doubt; and they would j form a striking addition to our aviaries,— ; perhaps even to our homesteads.— Penny : Cyclopaedia. Wooden Pear.— A curious instance of ; deterioration in fruit. In this specimen j the fibrous tissue of the fruit has so greatly i increased, that the cellular or parenchy¬ matous tissue has become wholly ligneous | or woody. This deterioration is not un- j common in the pear, though it seldom pro- j ceeds so far as in the specimen before us. Every one must at times have remarked I gritty particles between his teeth when j eating pears. These are the incipient nu- ! clei of the ligneous formation.—(Table E, j Case 32.) Glasgow: Printed for the Proprietors, by W. G. | Blackie, (residing at 25, Richmond Street,) at Ins j premises. Model Exhibition, No. 19, Area A, City Hall, —Thursday, January 7th, 1847. No. 10. GLASGOW, JANUARY 8, 1847. Price |d. SERIES ILLUSTRATING THE VA¬ RIOUS STYLES OF ENGRAVING. BY ROBERT BLACKIE, ESQ. action of acids. The drawing is placed in its position on the plate with its face to the etching ground, and by passing them to¬ gether through a copperplate printer’s press, a reverse of the pencil drawing is Wall E —Nos. 96 to 109. This series of prints has been exhibited distinctly transferred to the surface of the that persons possessing little knowledge of etching ground. It is necessary that the engraving might, by seeing specimens of subject be in reverse on the plate, other- tlie different styles placed side by side, be-1 wise the impressions from it would be a re- come so acquainted with their charaeteris- ( verse of the copy. The engraver now tic differences as to be able to tell in what ( refers to his copy, by the reflection of it style any print is executed. We shall en-1 in a mirror instead of directly to the deavour shortly to describe the process picture ; as, by this means, he obtains pursued in the various methods of en- an image of it in the same reversed graving. LINE ENGRAVING. This is considered the highest and most position as he has already got it by trans¬ ference upon the etching ground. The , outlines are now gone over with an etching difficult branch of the profession. Engrav- needle, merely cutting through the etching ings in this style have the forms almost J ground and slightly scratching the surface entirely produced by lines. Etching, No. 96.—There are two varie¬ ties of line etching. The one intended for of the plate. In a similar manner all the other lines seen in the specimen exhibited, are drawn or scratched upon the plate, the prints to be completed by the etching pro- j subsidiary forms being copied direct from cess, and the other for the preparatory pro- the original without the assistance of pre- cess to finished line engraving. We de- vious pencil lines. The plate is now sur- scribe the latter. rounded by a ledging of shoemaker’s wax, In producing a line engraving an outline after which diluted nitric acid is poured pencil drawing is first made the exact size upon it, which bites, or corrodes into hol- the subject is to be engraved. If the ori-1 lows, all the parts of the metal that have ginal be a large picture, it is reduced by' been laid bare by the etching needle re¬ dividing its surface into a number of moving the etching ground. The acid be- squares, of equal size, by means of threads ( big poured off, the lines that are intended fastened to pins in the edges of the canvas, to print lightest are stopped up with var- passed over it vertically and horizontally. The paper on which the reduced outline is to be made is divided into a corresponding number of squares, drawn by a pointed in¬ strument. In reducing his subject, the engraver takes care to put exactly the nish,and the acid again applied to the parts intended to be darker. This process of stopping out and biting in is repeated as often as the engraver considers necessary. If, on removing the etching ground, he finds any part where the lines are not suf- amount that is contained in one square of i ficiently deep, that portion is re-coated with the large picture into the corresponding! etching ground, taking care not to fill up small square on his paper. If the copy be! any of the lines, and the acid is again ap- the same size as the intended engraving, j plied, while the portions of the plate con- the engraver makes his outline by placing ; sidered completed, are protected from the a semi-transparent paper over his copy and j action of the acid by being thickly coated tracing it through. The outline in pencil | with varnish. This is called re-biting. Im- being finished, the plate of steel or copper is thinly coated with etching ground, a waxy composition capable of resisting the pressions from a plate in this stage are called Etchings, or Aquafortis Proofs. Finished Proof, No. 97.—The opera- THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 8, 2 tion of engraving, properly so called, now commences. It is done by an instrument called a graver, which is either square or lozenge-shaped, according to the work for which it is used. The figures in the print exhibited are entirely produced by cutting the lines with the graver. The principal lines are at first cut delicately. This is termed laying in. They are after¬ wards entered, or gone through with the graver, to make them wider and deeper ; the cross lines are then cut, and subse¬ quently the whole of the lines are repeat¬ edly entered by the graver. Each time they are gone through they approach nearer to the smoothness and delicate appearance which they have in the finished work. Where great depth of line is required, the parts alter having been laid in are sub¬ jected to the operation of re-biting, by which, in large plates, an effect maybe given in the course of an hour or two, which would require some days, or even weeks, to produce by using the graver alone. In the landscape parts, many of the lines which were left unconnected in the etching are now joined, parts are again re-bit, and the whole revised and perfected by the graver. In the operation of cutting the lines, small portions of the metal are thrown up, which form a roughness or burr upoii the edges. This must be from time to time removed by the scraper. If the engraver makes a mistake, or changes his mind respecting any part of his work, this can be remedied by burnishing and scraping it out ; but should the lines that are to be taken out be deep, the plate is placed with its face upon a smooth anvil and the part struck up from behind with a punch or pointed ham¬ mer. While the engraving is in’ progress, the engraver takes a proof of his plate, from time to time, that he may know exact¬ ly the progress of his work. ENGRAVING IN STIPPLE, CALLED ALSO THE CHALK MANNER. NO. 98. The principal difference between this and the line manner is, that the forms are al¬ most entirely produced by dots of various sizes instead of by lines. The process of execution is very similar to that employed for line engraving, but admits of a greater portion of the work being done by the ac¬ tion of acid. If engravings of this kind are examined by means of a lens, it will be found that what appears a single dot to the naked eye, consists of several dots joined together or nearly so. It is this that im¬ parts the beautiful softness so pleasing in this style. In the coarser kinds of work, an instrument has been devised for pro¬ ducing dots in a more expeditious manner than by the point and graver, called a roulette, which is a small wheel moving on a pivot, and having very fine sharp teeth. By using a firm pressure, and running it along the face of the plate, a large sur¬ face can be dotted in a very short time. This, however, is quite inapplicable to the finer kinds of work, as the mechanical re¬ gularity of the dots cannot be concealed without much labour. The stipple en¬ gravers of the present day are in the habit of mixing a considerable portion of line en¬ graving with the dotted work, thus impart¬ ing a richness and variety of texture which could not be produced by the dotted work alone. ENGRAVING IN MEZZOTINTO. NO. 99. The principal characteristic of pure mez- zotinto is the entire absence of either lines or dots, and its perfect resemblance to drawings in Indian ink. It has, for many years past, been a favourite style of en¬ graving for large portraits and historical subjects. The tools required for this rapid and easy mode of proceeding are, the grounding tool, the scraper, and the bur¬ nisher. A delicate outline is first etched, in the manner already described; the sur¬ face of the plate is then gone over with the grounding tool, which has a number of fine sharp teeth. This tool is held perpendi¬ cularly upon the plate, and rocked back¬ wards and forwards with a moderate pres- sure till it produces a rough furry surface; care being taken never to allow the tool to cut twice in the same place. The light i forms and gradations of shading are made j out by scraping with a sharp instrument j which removes a portion of the rough sur¬ face ; this is done to a greater -or less ex¬ tent according to the brightness required. Any large part intended to be perfectly . white is not gone over with the grounding tool. The deepest shadows are grounded with a coarser tool, giving it greater pres¬ sure, while the more delicate parts are grounded with a finer tool, pressed lightly. When completed, the rough surface retains the ink, and furnishes it to the paper. The parts that have been much scraped print nearly white, owing to the roughened surface being almost entirely removed. 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 3 parts which have undergone less scraping we have a solid ground, and whatever lines print darker, and those which have not j are to be acted upon by the acids must be been scraped print positively black. The scratched through the ground, to admit of principal objection to this method of en- its reaching the plate. In aquatinta we graving is, that the plates soon become have a porous ground, and all the parts that worn, and produce a comparatively small are not to be acted upon by the acid must number of good impressions. To remedy be stopped up, to protect them from its this defect, modern engravers are in the influence. habit of commencing their plates with line etching on soft ground, no. 101. etching and stipple work, thus laying a 1 p] a t es executed by this method have firm foundation for the mezzotinto ground- ver y miic h the appearance of drawings in ing, and causing it to wear much longer. 1 chalk or rough pencil sketches. Common The French engravers are in the habit of etching ground is taken, and rendered soft biting in all the strongest darks of the pic- by the admixture of oil and tallow. A ture with aquatint, which produces a firm ground is then put upon the plate, in the ground, and wears much longer than mez- same manner as for common etching, zotint. In all kinds of engraving the ex- When cold, a piece of silk is stretched treme darks are the first parts that become j tightly over the surface of the plate, and woru - I above it is placed a piece of white paper. engraving in aquatinta, no. 100. ; The subject is drawn on this paper with a Aquatinta somewhat resembles mezzo- hard pencil, while strong pressure is used, tinto, but has not the same mellow soft- By this means the ground adheres to the ness, the tints having rather a granular silk, and thus leaves the plate exposed; so appearance. An outline being etched in the manner already described, the plate is properly cleaned with whiting. The ground for aquatinting is composed of resin reduced to powder, more or less fine, ac¬ cording to the kind of subject to be repre¬ sented, and mixed with spirit of wine. The plate being placed in a sloping position, this composition is poured over it in a slow and uniform manner, taking care to cover the face of the plate without requiring to r.epeat the operation. The spirit of wine runs off or evaporates, leaving a beautiful and uniform surface of the particles of resin, which adhere firmly to the copper. The etched outline can be distinctly seen through this transparent ground. All the places where there is to be no work or shading are covered with a thick black varnish, on which acid does not act. The nitric acid is now poured on, and acting bn the uncovered portion of the plates between the granules of the resin produces the lightest shade. The acid being poured off, the light shades are now stopped out with varnish, and the acid allowed to act a second time, and this stop¬ ping out is continued till the deepest shades are come to, which are bit in last. When this operation is completed, the parts which require softening must be done by the scraper and burnisher. Aquatinting is in a great measure the reverse of the process that, by being bit with acid, a picture is produced having a soft appearance. De¬ fects that sometimes occur in the biting are remedied by stipple work, but this is used to a very limited extent. This kind of engraving is mainly suitable for large subjects that have not much detail, and especially for those in a sketchy style. AN ENGRAVED COPPERPLATE, WITH AN IM¬ PRESSION FROM IT. NOS. 102, J OS'. No. 102 shows the lines produced upon the plate by the combined action of acid and the graver. In taking an impression from it, the surface is daubed over with ink till the lines are all filled up ; the sur¬ plus ink is then wiped off', and the plate polished with chalk till its surface is quite bright, no ink remaining on any part of it but in the lines. The plate, with a piece of damped paper laid upon it, is now passed between the rollers of a copperplate prin¬ ter’s press. The pressure causes the ink to leave the lines in the plate and adhere to the paper, producing an impression, No. 103. The process of copperplate printing is shown in operation in the Hall, Area A, No. 18, and is described in No. 5 of the Daily Exhibitor. no. 104. ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, Engravings on wood may generally be distinguished from line engravings on steel of etching, already described. In etching, | or copper, by the light parts being unusually 4 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 8, large and free from work, and the shadows more intense and abrupt. The lines which produce the picture, instead of being cut into the substance of the wood, are left in re¬ lief, like the letters of printing types, and printed in the same manner. Boxwood is used for this purpose, and is cut across the grain (into pieces of the height of common types), that the engraving may be made upon the end of the grain, it being impossi¬ ble to cut lines running with the grain or thread of the wood. The surface being planed smooth, the design is drawn upon it in reverse, with a black lead pencil, with all the shadows hatched or laid in as they are to appear in the impression of the wood-cut. The graver is then used, and all the inter¬ stices which are left between the lines of the drawing are picked out; the parts which, in the impression of the cut, are to be pure white have the surface of the wood completely cut away, and the parts to be positively black require no engraving. The tools made use of besides the graver are chisels, gouges, and knives of various forms and sizes. On account of wood-cuts being printed from the raised surface, it is much more difficult to execute cross lines on wood than on steel or copper. In the former, the small white spaces that appear between the lines must be picked out separately ; while in the latter, the black lines are cut con¬ tinuously as they are seen in the impres¬ sion. The great advantage of wood engravings is, that they can be printed in the same page, and at the same time as types ; thus allowing the illustration to be introduced exactly where it is wanted, and saving- much tedious reference to plates and figures. The printing of engravings on wood, in the best manner, requires much time and ingenuity. This process involves so many technicalities that our limited space will not permit of our entering upon its description. Wail# 25*f)t&ttor. FRIDAY, Jax. 8, 1847. given. In the experience of the Highland Agricultural Society, we have an excellent example of the improvement that may be effected by means of Exhibitions and Pre¬ miums. Looking at the results obtained by that Society in regard to agriculture, and sundry other branches of industry con¬ nected with it, we wonder why expositions, which would include all branches of indus¬ try, have never been yet tried in this country. The French, to whom we gen¬ erally esteem ourselves superior, are ahead of us in this respect. They commenced Expositions of industrial art in Paris so far back as 1798, since which time nine have taken place—the last in 1844. These Ex¬ positions have greatly increased in repute j and efficiency since their first establish- j ment. Much of the jealousy existing usu- 1 ally, among manufacturers, artizans, &c., has subsided, and much improvement has been effected. Parties are no longer so unwilling to divulge the secrets of their | craft. Each feels, while he gives, that he also receives, and thus a counterbalance is effected beneficial to all. The number of contributors to the first French exposition, in 1798, was 110; to the eighth, in 1834, 2447; to the ninth, in 1839, 3381; and to the tenth, in 1844, 3969 ; showing an in¬ crease over 1834 of more than a half. All parties are eligible as contributors; but every article any one may choose to send is not admitted. In each Department of France a local jury is appointed, to whom the articles must be submitted, and who judge which of them are suitable for being sent to the Exposition. The expense of carriage to and from Paris to the chief town of the Department is defrayed by government. Parties at a distance from the capital, who may have erected estab¬ lishments, within the prescribed period, calculated to further the progress of the Why have we no Exposition of industrial arts and manufactures, or who may have art? This question has been frequently j invented objects not susceptible of being asked, but has not received any answer ;; sent to the Exposition, are judged of by the and that, just because none suitable can be local jury, and reported upon, and partake 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR 5 1 in the distribution of rewards according to > their merits. A central jury is appointed 1 by government, which, of course, must ex¬ ercise its functions chiefly at Paris. This l jury, comprising the names of many of the first manufacturers and men of science in the kingdom, adjudicates the prizes. And here, be it remarked, the directors of the Exposition do not encourage the exhibition of the single elaborated specimen of the individual. Their object is utilitarian; the real progress of the arts and manufactures of the country, not to feed the vanity of individuals, however skilled. Consequently, in awarding prizes, the jury is guided by a consideration which, we are afraid, even the Highland Agricultural Society has never fully realized; namely—is the article exhibited, not only good in itself, but is it a fair sample of the article which the manufacturer exhibiting it exposes for sale in his place of business ? It will thus be apparent, as already adverted to, that the French Expositions do not favour the production of individual elaborated exam¬ ples of any manufacture. They seem to I have no sympathy for a plaything-model, on which the inventor or maker may i have expended years, in order to give it extra finish, and bring it out a non-such article, to be the seven-days wonder of a ; gazing public. We do not by this mean ! to underrate the importance of such la- i hours—they are beneficial in their way, that is, in tending to the greater perfection of the individual workman. A collection of such works would be highly interesting, [■ and rewards for the best executed produc¬ tions might stimulate workmen on to still greater mechanical perfection ; but it could only indirectly subserve the great practi¬ cal end, kept in view by the French Expo¬ sitions. A prize, obtained under the cir¬ cumstances above described, becomes dou¬ bly honourable, as well as doubly valuable, being obtained for what is good in the mar¬ ket, as well as good in the show-room. So highly are such rewards esteemed in France, that the successful competitors regularly mention their prize in their advertisements —some even have it stated on their sign¬ boards. It is, therefore, not uncommon to see the gold medal, the silver, the bronze medal, or even the honourable mention of the contributors’ works, with the date of the exposition, fully stated, and with great effect, in public advertisements. The French have already had their imitators almost everywhere but in Britain. In Belgium, Prussia, Austria, &c., Expositions of the same description have been instituted, and are in high repute. In this country, almost the only similar exhibition which we believe ever took place, was the League Bazaar. Its object, however, was totally different, being sales, and not the improve¬ ment of the arts and manufactures. In it, however, we have an earnest of what could be done, were proper means adopted. Co¬ vent Garden Theatre, large as it is, was found much too small for properly display¬ ing the articles sent in. Such an exhibi¬ tion would require a pavilion erected for its own special use, upon a plan suited to the end in view, namely, to let every article be well and easily seen. This is the plan adopted in Paris. The last Exposition Was held in the Champs-Elysees. It was open two months, and the building, named the Palace of Industry, erected to contain it, covered twenty thousand square yards, and the avenues between the stalls or tables, where the articles were exhibited, extended to between five and six miles. An Exhibi¬ tion, chiefly of textile fabrics, took place in Manchester last winter, which was emi¬ nently successful, as far as it went. It was, however, as we understand, merely an Exhibition; there was no competition for premiums connected with it, and, therefore, it did not fulfil the desired conditions. Many conflicting interests tend to prevent such an Exposition being commenced in the metropolis of our country ; but any of the great manufacturing cities might lead the way. We ourselves might begin in Glasgow. Success is certain. And if, after showing the thing to be practical as well as practicable, the Exposition became National in place of local, the honour of being the first to commence it, would be so much the greater. • G THE DAILY Plan in Relief of the Basin of Locnj Lubnaig, Lochs Voie and Doine, the j Pass of Leni, & o . The river Lnbnaig, the general drainer of these fine sheets of pure water, is a tri¬ butary of the Teath, or Teith. This plan will surely interest all Glasgow visitors, as they there see before them the sources of their future supplies of water. The Clyde is a cow which will bear no farther milk¬ ing.—This whole mimic scene is further interesting for two reasons more. The braes around are Tannahill’s “ Braes of Balquhidderand Benledi is close by (not in the plan though). The half of Locli Lubnaig is in Callander parish; and Callander town is a few miles be¬ low the extreme south point of the lower lake. The distance that the water has to be taken for our use is therefore great; about 30 miles. The water-course, as pro¬ jected, will be mostly a covered one. The largest water-course in Britain (which is an uncovered one) for the supply of water to a community, is that of the New River, from Hertfordshire to London, 40 miles long. But some of the Roman aqueducts, carried on arches, were yet longer. One, still extant, is about 42 miles long, and ends at the Eternal City itself. The greatest modem aqueduct is that which conveys water to the city of New York, the Croton, lately finished and opened, of which we are tempted to give a description from the United States Gazetteer for 1844 : “ The most splendid and expensive pub¬ lic work undertaken by the city is the Cro¬ ton water-works. The aqueduct com¬ mences at the Croton river, 5 miles from Hudson river in Westchester county. The darn is 250 feet long, 70 wide at bottom, and 7 at top, and 40 high, built of stone and cement. It creates a pond 5 miles long, covering 400 acres, and contains 500 millions of gallons of water. From the dam, the aqueduct proceeds, sometimes tunnelling through solid rocks, crossing valleys by embankments, and brooks by culverts, until it reaches Harlem river, a distance of 33 miles. It is built of stone, brick, and cement, arched over and under, 6 feet 9 inches wide at bottom, 7 feet 5 inches at the top of the side-walls, and 8 feet 5 inches high, has a descent of 13| inches per mile, and will discharge 60 mil¬ lions of gallons in 24 hours. Tt will cross Harlem river on a magnificent bridge of EXHIBITOR, [Jan. 8, j stone, 1450 feet long, with 14 piers, 8 oi ;80 feet span, and 7 of 50 feet span, 111 ' jfeet from high tide water to the top, and 51 which will cost 900,000 dollars. The re tJ ceiving reservoir is at 86th Street, 38 miles s from the Croton dam, and covers 35 acres, 11 and contains 150 millions of gallons. The c water is conveyed to the distributing reser- v voir on Murray’s Hill, 40th Street, in iron ( pipes. It covers 4 acres, and is built of ] stone and cement, 43 feet high above the street, and holds 20 millions of gallons. Hence the water is distributed over the 1 city in iron pipes, laid so deep under ground ! as to be secure from frost. The whole cost i- of the work will be about 12 million dol-! lars. The water is of the finest kind of river water. No city in the world is now ! more plentifully supplied with pure and j wholesome water than the city of New! York ; and the supply would be abundant if the population were five times its present j number.”—[It was, however, not before it ! was wanted. When we were in New York it j was deplorably off; and a few weeks after j Ave left it, Dec. 18, 1835, the richest part i of the city was consumed, and not a drop | of water was to be had to stop the ravages j of the flames.] In the city of Paris, water is still carried j up the different floors of its high houses by j pailsful ; just as in Old Edinburgh it used to be similarly taken in stowps. The j French price for the not too high floors is - about the same as the former Scotch ; , namely, a bawbee (sou) one measure full, or a penny a gang. In nearly every house j there are filtering cisterns belonging to the I tenants. These cost from 12s. to 40s. or 50s., according to capacity and equipment. In a paper read before the Academy of Sciences, on the 20th February 1843, by M. Dureau de Lamalle, it appears that the municipal authorities of Paris received in 1842, 890,000 francs from the inhabitants for supplying the public fountains with water. Even the water-carriers are charged about one penny for every twenty-five gal¬ lons they take thence; and when the ex¬ pense of its carriage into the house is ad¬ ded, the total expense of water to the Pari¬ sians considerably exceeds four millions of francs. In his elaborate paper on this sub¬ ject, M. Dureau gives the result of some curious researches on the manner in which ancient Rome was supplied with water. It would appear that the expensively con- 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. tructed aqueducts, several of which remain o excite our admiration till this hour, tretching their astonishing and apparently terminable length further than the eye an reach along the Campagna di Roma, rere most profitable concerns for those who onstructed them. Their waters were sold ery dear to the rich and voluptuous Romans, for few else could obtain them. 5oth private houses and public baths, ac- :ording to Vitruvius, paid an onerous im- >ost for the use of the water nominally sup- died to the public ; it was named vecligal x aquceductibus, or else vectigal forma. The common people of Rome must have >een a most uncleanly race, seeing that the irst requisite for purification was scarcely btainable by them ; no wonder they were uch frequenters of public baths, where, we uspect, the common fluid was none of the mrest. According to the authorities cited >y M. Dureau, a few rich men (those who lad gardens nearest to the chief public ountains), paid annually to the general reasury for their irrigation 250,000 ses- ,erces, or about 2,7007 sterling. The total sums paid by the city on account of the mblic conduits have not come down to us. 4n estimation tolerably exact, however, sould easily have been made, had the his- orians of the city furnished us with indi- sations of the medium contents of the vater-ducts. One thing, however, is cer¬ tain ; the aqueducts were in all the Roman xwns sources of public revenue, not of ulti¬ mate loss; and we have every reason to relieve that, as populations increased, pri- ate speculators turned the public wants to account, then as now.—In early times, Paris, like London, was wretchedly sup¬ plied with water. For most of the inhabi¬ tants, the open streams of the river Seine were nearly the only resource; and what state these were usually in we may gather way for the most part.—(“ Model of the Lochs chosen by the Glasgow Water Com¬ pany as the Source from which the City is to be supplied with Water by their New Works.” — Antiquarian Supplementary Table, west end, No. 67.) MACAW. (Table in front of East Gallery.) These magnificent birds belong to the parrot tribe, and are distinguished by hav¬ ing their cheeks destitute of feathers, and the feathers of the tail long. They form the sub-genus ara. They are only found in the tropical regions of South America. They prefer moist situations, from the palm growing in such spots, of the fruit of which they are very fond. They usually go in pairs ; sometimes, however, they as¬ semble, in the morning and evening, in great numbers. Although they fly well, they seldom wander far, except in quest of food, and regularly return in the evening. They build their nests in the hollow of rotten trees, and lay twice in the year, generally two eggs at a time. The male and female share alternately in the labour of incubation and rearing the young. When young they are easily tamed, and soon grow familiar with persons whom they frequently see. But like all the parrot tribe, they have an aversion to strangers, and particularly to children. In a domes¬ ticated state, they will feed on almost every article, but are especially fond of sugar, bread, and fruits. They do not masticate the latter, but suck them by pressing their tongue against the upper mandible. Like the other parrots, these birds use their claws with great dexterity, though, in climbing, they always begin by taking hold with their bill in the first in¬ stance, using their feet only as a second point of their motion. When they were state tnese were usuauy m j « | t carried E grea t beauty [from a proclamation issued in 1388, by \ ^ ^ tQ bfi £ much re _ Charles VI promoting an persons, unuer j were considered as valuable P^n of imprisonmeni) from throwmg water 1^^ bet J en sovereign princes. This out at window into the streets, and from {. , , f depositing filth in the Seine, which had « was spoken of, by Akhavamlos, as then notoriously become a (riviere remplie, e&l ^ as ^ !?, _' d'ordures) perfect cloaca of impurity. | Sword found in Major Weir’s House, And the same observation might, in some ; Edinburgh.—The Major would have been measure, be applied to our Clyde now. As, held “no conjuror,’ had he lived in our it will daily get worse, it was high time day. His celebrated staff would have been [that we looked about us for other sources a much more curious article to show than of supply. We believe the Glen Lubnaig any sword in “ all his aught.” Bombastes !limpid will be conveyed in a covered water- Paracelsus, indeed, professed to keep -a THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. Jan. 8 little demon shut up in the pommel of his; which gave his enemies a handle to say that Bombastes w r as a humbug. Most of these fellows became the victims of their vanity ; they allowed, encouraged even, the vulgar to take them for what they were not. From credit they passed into discredit; and so got strangled or burnt. Curious par¬ ticulars of the Major may be had by pe¬ rusing Sir Walter Scott’s Demonology, Chambers’ Traditions of Edinburgh, &c. —(Antiquarian Table, No. 24.) Ward’s Plant Case, for growing Plants without contact with external air.—Talk of a “self-contained house,” indeed ; here is a self-subsisting “ vegetable world! ” It has its own sky even ; and although the clouds of it are not visible — everything being on so infinitesimal a scale—fairy eyes may be able to see rainbows in them, when the gas light falls favourably upon them. The processes of evaporation and absorption are continually going on in this microcosm of Mr. Ward’s, as surely as on the great globe itself. Few things are more curious than this case, and yet few things in the Exhibition are less looked at.—(Natural History, No. 76.) The Boa Constrictor.— We have a well-authenticated account of the voracious appetite of a serpent of this species, which was brought from Batavia, in the year 1817, on board a vessel which conveyed Lord Amherst and his suite to England. This serpent was of large dimensions, though not of the very largest. A living goat was placed in his cage. He viewed his prey for a few seconds, felt it with his tongue, and then, withdrawing his head, darted at the throat. But the goat, dis¬ playing a courage worthy of a better fate, received the monster on his horns. The serpent retreated, to return to the combat with more deadly certainty. He seized the goat by the leg, pulled it violently down, and twisted himself with astonishing rapidity round the body, throwing his principal weight upon the neck. The goat was so overpowered that he could not even struggle for escape. For some minutes after his victim was dead the serpent did not change his posture. At length he gradually slackened his grasp, and having entirely disengaged himself, he prepared to swallow the lifeless body. Feeling it about with his mouth, he began to draw the head into his throat ; but the horns, which were four inches in length, rendered the gorging of the head a difficult task. In about two hours the whole body had disappeared. During the continuance of this extraordi¬ nary exertion the appearance of the ser¬ pent was hideous ; he seemed to be suffer¬ ing- strangulation ; his cheeks looked as if they were bursting; and the horns ap¬ peared ready to protrude through the monster’s scales. After he had accom¬ plished his task, the boa measured double his ordinary diameter. He did not move from his posture for several days, and no irritation could rouse him from his torpor. —Happily the appetite of these gigantic snakes bears no proportion to their means of gratifying it, as a full meal is uniformly succeeded by a state of torpor, which fre¬ quently lasts for a month or six weeks, or, during the cold season, even for a longer period.—(West Gallery, 105.) Daguerreotypes. —By Dr. Paterson, St. Enoch Square.—We have seen happier j examples of the doctor’s skill, in his own j laboratory, than these : this observation applies more especially to the doctor’s copy j of Mr. Andrew Shanks’s daguerreotype of ! the Place du Carrousel, Pails. There- ! produced portraits are a shade better ; but after all, what are these, or any da- j guerreotype, or any other type of man’s physiognomy, compared with a life-like | portrait of him—mind and body—done by a skilful limner, in colours ? This is all but flesh and blood ; that is “ the hu- : man face divine,” done in a dish of dirty i water on a dull day.—(Chemistry and Manufactures j Table D.) “Jungle Cock and Hen; GallusBank- iva, Java; the origin of our domestic fowls.” ! —We are glad Mr. Ker has settled here a long-disputed question, so as to leave us nothing to say on the matter; except that, whatever may be the origin of our domes¬ tic fowls, their end is usually a violent one. All “go to pot,” literally or figuratively.— (Natural History, Table E, Nos. 67, 68.) Jew Lizard, Australia.—This looks a very rum fish, rather; he’s a genuine “ figure of fun,” and really not badly named, so far as the semblance of a beard goes.—(Natural History, Table E, No. 48 .) _ ^ Glasgow: Printed for the Proprietors, by W. G. ; Blackie, (residing at 25, Kichmond Street) at his premises. Model Exhibition, No. 19, Area A, City Hall. —Friday, January 8th, 1847. No. 11. GLASGOW, JANUARY 9, 1847. Price Ad. SAMPLES OF CAST STEEL, Manufactured at Avon Steel Works, near Linlithgow. Of all the stages in the manufacture of iron, steel is the highest, the most expen¬ sive, and the most useful. We know of no substitute for this valuable article that could produce the same effect, and have the same important bearing upon the arts and manufactures of our country. To insure a superior quality of steel, it must be made from Swedish iron. The iron, in alternate layers with charcoal, is laid into a furnace, called a converting furnace, and kept at a strong heat for six days and nights. The fire is then allowed to go out, and in other eight days the workmen can enter the fur¬ nace and put out the bars of iron, which by this time are covered over with small blisters; hence its name, blistered steel. The internal appearance of the metal is also much changed. From a strong fibrous blue texture, it has now assumed a bright granulated appearance, which has been produced by the iron taking in a portion of the carbon from the charcoal. In this state it is used for facing hammers and many such purposes, where steel requires to be welded upon iron. It is also in this state used for making cast steel; for which pur¬ pose it is broken up into small pieces and put into a crucible, and exposed to an intense heat in an air furnace for four hours, by which time it becomes melted and fit for pouring into cast-metal moulds of various forms, according to the size of bars into which it is to be drawn under the hammer. It is now called cast steel, and the mould¬ ed pieces are technically named ingots. The cast steel is next taken to the forge, and re-heated and drawn under the ham¬ mer, which strikes about 500 blows per minute. When it has undergone this ope¬ ration it has assumed the form of the sam¬ ples exhibited in the room; and in this state is fit for the market, and for the ma¬ nufacture of all kinds of edge-tools, cutlery of the finer descriptions, graving-tools, and all kinds of engineering-tools. In short, there is scarcely a single piece of ma¬ chinery, from the delicate and beautiful movements of a watch, to the mighty steam- engine itself, to which the aid of cast steel is not indispensable as an essential element in its manufacture. When we take into account the large consumpt of this article in the shape of coach springs and all kinds of land and marine engineering, we have often wondered that its manufacture has not been established amongst us before this time. MEDALS. The Cabinet of Medals (Table G, Sculptures and Bronzes, No. 64,) is one of the objects in the Exhibition likely to be passed by with too cursory a notice. In¬ deed it is scarcely possible that, amidst so many objects of interest, this one can claim such an amount of patient investigation as is necessary to ascertain its value. The cabinet is contained in an octagonal re¬ volving frame, and its eight sides are covered with copies of an extensive series of medals illustrating important periods of history, &c. The obverse and reverse of each medal is shown ; and the whole num¬ ber exhibited amounts to three hundred. One side is occupied by the Napoleon Me¬ dals, consisting of medallion portraits of the Emperor and his family, and comme¬ morations of the leading incidents in his career. Two sides are filled with copies of Mudie’s Series of National Medals, of which the obverse sides exhibit the like¬ nesses of eminent personages, and the re¬ verse sides display some incidental or em¬ blematic allusion to the history of the individuals, or to the national events in which they took an important part. Four sides are occupied by medallion portraits of monarchs, statesmen, philosophers, paint¬ ers, sculptors, literary men, &c., &c., of all countries and of all ages. And the re¬ maining side contains exquisite copies of gem sculptures, together with portraits of distinguished men, and a miscellaneous va¬ riety of rilievos exhibiting many of the choicest remains of ancient art. 2 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 9, In connection with the Cabinet of Me¬ dals, we may notice the'Hllustrations of Die-Sinking and Medal Engraving (Nos. 46, 46*, and 47). The objects exhibited require little to be said in the way of ex¬ planation. The spectator sees several ex¬ amples of perfect medals, pieces of un¬ stamped metal ready to receive the impres¬ sion, and the dies and necessary apparatus for producing a medal. Every medal re¬ quires a pair of dies, on one of which the obverse side is engraved, and on the other the reverse. A ring fits closely upon the lowest die, and by confining the metal pro¬ duces the edge ; and the other die fits also into the ring, and by the force with which it is struck conveys its own impression to the upper side of the metal, whilst the lower die impresses the under side. Medals are struck by a power ranging from steam machinery down to the simple operation of a stroke with a hammer. CACAO. I" ' (Table E, No. 32.) The cacao, or chocolate-tree, is known to botanists by the name of Theobrorna, signifying “food for a god,” and which name was bestowed upon it by Linnseus, to mark his opinion of the excellent qualities of its seeds. Benzoni, who travelled in the sixteenth century, formed a very different estimate of its merits, and declared that chocolate was a drink “ fitter for a pig than for a man.” The cacao-tree is carefully cultivated in many of the settlements in Spanish America, and particularly in Mexico, where, we learn from Humboldt, it was ex¬ tensively reared so long ago as the time of Montezuma; and whence, indeed, it was transplanted into other dependencies of the Spanish monarchy. The seeds of the ca¬ cao were made use of as money in Mexico, in the time of the Aztec kings, and this use of them is still partially continued, the smaller seeds being employed for the pur¬ pose, six of them being reckoned the value of one halfpenny. The cacao-tree seldom rises above the height of twenty feet; its leaves are large, oblong, and pointed. The flowers, which are small, and of a pale red colour, spring from the large branches ; they are suc¬ ceeded by oval pointed pods, that contain a white pithy substance, which is sweet, but disagreeable, and surrounding numerous seeds : these are the cacao of commerce. These seeds are oval formed, and about as arge as a moderate-sized almond-kernel, but not so slender; they are internally of a very dark brown colour, approaching to black, and are covered with a thin skin or husk, of a light reddish brown colour. Cacao is principally used after having been made into cakes, to which the name of chocolate is given. The method an¬ ciently employed by the Indians in making these cakes, was simply to roast the seeds in earthen pots, and after clearing them from the husks, which, by reason of the heat employed, could be easily removed, the naked seeds were bruised between two stones, and made up with the hands into cakes. The process at present used by Europeans does not differ greatly from that just described : more care is taken in grinding the seeds after they are roasted, so as to convert them into a paste which is perfectly smooth, and some flavouring ingredients are added, according to the taste of the people who are to consume the chocolate. Cloves and cinnamon are much used for this purpose by the Spaniards ; other aromatics, and even perfumes, such as musk and ambergris, have sometimes been added ; but the principal flavouring ingredient used with cacao is vanilla. The intimate mixture of these substances hav¬ ing been effected, the whole is put, while yet hot, into tin moulds, where it hardens in cooling ; and in this form, if preserved from the air, it will keep good for a con¬ siderable time. Galileo’s Telescope (fac simile of). (Table B, No. 69.) The invention of the telescope is usually attributed to Galileo, but not correctly ; for so early as 1590, a Dutch optician ac¬ cidentally hit upon a mode of arranging two magnifiers in such a manner as to ex- j hibit distant objects under an enlarged : visual angle. It was not until 1609 that ! Galileo directed his attention to the instru- j ment; although we must admit that he set to work without having seen the rude con- ; structions existing in Holland, and, that 1 the telescope in his hands was raised from ; a mere toy into a means of enlarging the j then narrow limits of astronomical science, j It is difficult to convey a popular idea of the construction and action of the telescope without illustrative diagrams. The end to 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 3 be attained by a telescope is this: to bring an image of a distant object nearer to the eye, and thereby enlarge the angle of vision. Take a simple illustration: sup¬ pose two pillars of equal height and dimen¬ sions to stand, the one at the distance of twenty yards, and the other at the distance of one hundred yards, from the spectator. In this case, the most distant pillar, when compared with the one nearest to the eye, is lessened in all its dimensions. Consider, therefore, the distant pillar as the object , and the nearest pillar as the image of that object formed by the telescope, and thus a general idea is obtained of telescopic power. Every person is familiar with the exterior of the telescope, and knows that it is a tube of a certain length with a glass at each end. Most persons also know that the end containing the largest glass is di¬ rected to the object, and that the smallest glass is brought to the eye. Now, the ob¬ ject glass gathers up the rays of light from every point in the object, and forms of these rays so many corresponding points within the tube of the telescope, thus form¬ ing a perfect image of the object within a few inches of the eye ; and the eye-glass merely gives to the rays which issue from the points composing the image, such a direction that, on entering the eye, they produce distinct vision. This general ex¬ planation must suffice. The telescope of Galileo consisted of a plano-convex object-glass, and a plano¬ concave eye-glass. This construction had the advantage of exhibiting the object erect; whereas the earlier constructions, in which both the glasses were convex, re¬ versed the object. The employment of the concave eye-glass, however, limited the field of view considerably, and rendered the instrument of little service for terrestrial purposes, though it answered well enough, for the time, for astronomical uses. Ga¬ lileo’s first telescope was merely a tube of lead with the glasses fixed into the ends. Yet, with this rude instrument, he ob¬ served the surface of the moon, and de¬ termined the height of its mountains; resolved a nebula into stars; noticed the varying phases of >Mercury, Venus, and Mars; and discovered the satellites of Jupiter. Before we can form anything like an adequate idea of the patient industry of the old astronomers, we must compare their | telescopes with those now in use. For a | long period the refracting telescope was the j only instrument known; the reflecting tele¬ scope being comparatively of modern in¬ vention. Now, it is one of the great dis¬ advantages of the refractor that its magni¬ fying power is dependent on its length; and to obtain a high power, a ponderous length of tube is required. The early astronomers finding it impossible to get the power they desired, with a manageable length of tube, hit upon the expedient of elevating their object-glass upon the top of a high pole, and looked through it standing at a great distance with the eye-glass held in the hand. By this means they formed telescopes of one hundred and two hundred feet in length. But what a serious matter it must have been to effect an observation with such an instrument ; what patient perse¬ verance was necessary to direct the object- glass, and after this was done, what steadi¬ ness of hand was required to preserve the eye-glass in its position. One smiles to read that the celebrated Huygens was granted, as an especial favour, the use of the May-pole in the Strand to raise his object-glass to a sufficient elevation. Such were the instruments with which the first giants in astronomical science laid the foundation of our knowledge of the heavens. Turn from these cumbrous constructions to the elegant, effective, and portable instru¬ ments of the present day. A reflecting telescope of a few feet in length reveals more than the two hundred feet contriv¬ ances of the old observers; and to its manifold superior qualities in all respects, is added a facility of management that renders telescopic research a mere philo¬ sophical recreation. The model of Galileo’s telescope is doubly interesting ; first, as being the original of that instrument by which the architecture of the heavens has been brought within our view; and secondly, as the reminiscence of a man not less celebrated for his scientific labours, than for the persecutions he en¬ dured from the ignorant bigots of his day. Sea Hedge-hog. —We doubt very much whether this is a sea hedge-hog ; but as we never examined any of the hedges of, the ocean, either fish-nesting or otherways, we cannot positively say. Till the point be determined, we call this chap the marine bashaw-of-three-tails.--( Wegt Gallery, 90.) 4 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 9, Rattlesnake.— This serpent has a very bad character, and he appears to deserve much of it. The rattling noise he makes, however, while in motion, gives a useful premonition of his approach. It is some¬ thing like the roll of coaches or omnibuses, which warn one to keep out of the way of being crushed with their wheels. Now, cabs and minibuses, wriggling vipers that thej^ are ! give little of such needful warning. The venom of the rattlesnake, also, it would appear, grows weaker the more and oftener it is called into activity. For Mr. Bell, in his history of British Reptiles (a work little less entertaining than scientific), relates, as a proof that the effect of wounds inflicted by venomous serpents subsequently to the first, is greatly lessened, either by the diminution of the quantity of venom, or of some deterioration of its strength, the following anecdote :—A gentleman of his acquaintance had received a living rattle¬ snake from America. Intending to try the effect of its bite upon some rats, he intro¬ duced one of those animals into the cage with the serpent, which immediately struck the rat, and the latter died in two minutes. Another rat was then placed in the cage, and ran to the farthest corner from the snake, uttering cries of distress. The ser¬ pent did not attack it immediately; but after about half an hour, on being irritated, struck the rat, which exhibited no symp¬ toms of being poisoned for several minutes, nor did it die till twenty minutes after the bite had been inflicted. A third rat, re¬ markably large, was then introduced into the cage, and exhibited no signs of terror, nor was it apparently noticed by its dan¬ gerous companion. After watching for the rest of the evening, Mr. Bell’s friend re¬ tired, leaving the rattle-snake and the rat together. He rose early the next morning, and visited the cage : there lay the snake dead, and the rat had supped upon the muscular part of its back. Mr. Bell does not remember at what time Iff the year this took place, but he expresses his belief that it was not during very hot weather. The length of time during which a man will linger after being bitten by one of those deadly snakes, was manifested in a very distressing case, which will perhaps be re¬ membered by many of our readers. Some years ago, a carpenter came to see a rattle¬ snake which was publicly shown for money in London. The man endeavoured to ex¬ cite it, probably to hear its rattle, with his rule, which he dropped into the serpent’s cage. As he was trying to recover it, the snake bit him in the hand. He was taken to one of our hospitals (St. George’s, if we recollect right), and bore up so long that hopes were entertained of his recovery; but his constitution gave way at last, and after many days he fell a victim to the poison.— (West Gallery, No. 104.) Ctjr Hails iSstnfcitor. SATURDAY, Jan. 9, 1847. This day the Exhibition closes, and with it also close the labours of “ The Daily Exhibitor .” The race of both has been somewhat short, but we trust neither in¬ glorious nor useless. We look back with feelings of unmingled satisfaction on the events which have occurred since the open¬ ing of the Exhibition, on the evening of the 24th December. Those hard-working individuals who had used such praiseworthy exertions in collecting and arranging the objects, were that evening relieved of any doubts that may have beset their minds re¬ garding the reception their labours would meet with from the public. Every day the Exhibition has been rising higher in public estimation, as evidenced by the daily in¬ crease of visitors, many of whom regret they are so soon to be deprived of the mine of intellectual improvement they had com¬ menced to work within these walls. All classes of the community have been fur¬ nished with opportunities for enjoying the treat of a visit to this Collection, and most extensively have these opportunities been made use of. We believe that before the close of the Exhibition this evening, the immense number of nearly 100,000 will be found to have visited it, exclusive of the frequent re-visits of those possessed of Sea¬ son Tickets. The universal satisfaction which has been expressed was scarcely to be hoped for, and must therefore be the more gratifying to every one who has 1847.] had his hand in the work. As men¬ tioned on a former occasion, we look upon this as the first of a long series of Exhibi¬ tions. Like the wizard who met Lochiel,! we can see, dimly, into the future. Our second sight, however, reveals not scenes of death and destruction, but a long vista of years, with here and there an Exhibition among them. Nevertheless, though palpa¬ ble enough so far, the shadowing forth of I the vision is too dim, the objects waver too much before the eyes, to enable us to per¬ ceive whether the Exhibitions descried will be of a permanent or of a periodical cha¬ racter ; whether got up for temporary en¬ joyment and instruction, or for the ad¬ vancement of our Ai'ts and Manufactures. Time will test the accuracy of our foresight! In our own humble capacity, we have endeavoured to instruct; and, failing that, somewhat to amuse those who frequented the Exhibition. What has been the mea¬ sure of our success we leave to others to judge. To our supporters, the numerous purchasers of our Journal, are due our cor¬ dial thanks. Our warmest acknowledg¬ ments are also willingly given to those who aided us in our editorial labours in the capacity of contributors. What a pity truth compels us to add, regarding the helps we have had in this respect— Apparent ran nantes in gurgite vasto! Meantime we do not, like Prospero, break our wand; we only bury it, holding it in readiness to be exhumed whenever circum¬ stances may require its exercise. On a former occasion we threw out a few hints regarding the Botanic Garden. Be- ' fore finishing our editorial labours, w& wish to throw out one more in reference to the establishment of an Herbarium in connec¬ tion with it. Were the Garden placed in the position it ought to occupy (we mean as to freedom from burdens, which weigh it down), we believe that a proper Herba¬ rium would constitute an admirable ad¬ junct. In building the Lecture Room, 5 j which we expect to see erected there ere long, suitable accommodation ought to be provided for this purpose. A sum of money | would also require to be vested, so as to secure a certain amount to pay for the salary of a curator, who must of course be a thoroughly scientific person. As the whole time of the curator would not be occupied, the office might be conjoined ’| with some other already existing; thus rendering a large salary unnecessary. Were such a scheme fairly commenced, an excellent Herbarium might soon be formed. For, independently of the contri¬ butions it would receive from kindred In¬ stitutions, and from the numerous private herbaria existing throughout the country, the Foreign Merchants of our City could easily obtain, at small expense to them¬ selves, and great advantage to science, multitudes of specimens from every quarter of the globe. A few copies of printed di¬ rections, regarding the drying and preserv- ing of plants, would effectually remove any hinderance that might exist in the mind of any one, from not possessing a proper knowledge of how to set about what is required. The method of drying plants is no mystery. It can very easily be ac¬ quired. We venture to affirm, were some plan like this energetically followed up, Glasgow would soon be possessed of an Herbarium such as few cities can boast of. HUMMING-BIRDS. (Various specimens. Table E.) The family of humming-birds ( Tro- chilidce) is divided into numerous genera. Upwards of 100 species are now known to naturalists. Recent discoveries have proved that their range of habitation is more ex¬ tended than was once imagined ; for though they chiefly abound in the intertropical latitudes of America, many visit the tem¬ perate and colder portions of that conti¬ nent. The ruby-throated humming-bird (Trochilus Colubris ), passes north as far as the interior of Canada, migrating like the swallow. Nor is this the only species which extends into a colder climate. Still, however, the central regions of the conti- THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 6 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 9, nent, and tlie islands adjacent, are their chief resort. There they people the woods and the gardens, glancing in the sun like meteors as they flit by with inconceivable rapidity, or, suspended on their burnished and quivering wings, explore the nectary of some scented blossom. These birds may be almost said to live upon the wing. There is no bird that equals them in power of flight, and they are quick as lightning in their motions. Their wings are of extra¬ ordinary length, and this, with their shape and the character of the feathers com¬ posing them, contributes to their efficiency. The feet and legs, on the conti'ary, are small and feeble ; they are, in fact, of merely second-rate importance in the eco¬ nomy of the humming-bird. The ground and the trees are not its element. It sometimes, indeed, settles on a twig, while it preens its plumage of glittering scale¬ like feathers, or arranges the moss and down of its nest; but the air is its abid¬ ing place, where it feeds and passes the whole of its active existence. With re¬ spect, then, to the shape of these powerful organs of flight, we may notice that they are narrow-pointed, and more or less curved inwards, a good deal resembling those of the swift,—and are mainly composed of the primary quill feathers, beautifully gra¬ duated, the first or outer one being the longest. Of the immense strength of the pectoral muscles by whose actions these long pointed wings are thus rapidly agi¬ tated, we can scarcely form an adequate conception. Next to the wings, the tail is the most important agent as an organ of aerial pro¬ gression. It is not only the rudder by which a bird directs its course, or turns and wheels, but it adds to the superficies of the body without increasing its weight. In this group the tail is ample, but varies ex¬ tremely in shape; in some species it is square, in others forked, in some pointed, but in all it is composed of feathers closely resembling those of the wing in texture. Thus is the humming-bird constituted for flight; nor is this extremely rapid merely, but it is capable of long continuance. The flitting progress of the humming-bird from flower to flower resembles that of a bee,— but is infinitely more quick. When, how¬ ever, the bird is journeying, it sweeps through the air in long undulations, rising and sinking alternately. It has been supposed by many that the nectar of flowers constitutes the sole food of this charming race, but such is not the fact. Nectar is no doubt a part of their diet, but by no means the whole; they feed on the small insects which lurk in the nec¬ tary. or wander over the petals,—nay, they even take insects on the wing, as was ob¬ served by Wilson, who also found their frag¬ ments in the stomach of such as he exa¬ mined ; and Audubon states, in confirma¬ tion, that insects, especially those of the coleopterous order, are the principal food of the humming-bird. The bill, fitted for penetrating into the recesses of flowers, is long and slender, but varies in shape. Ac-, cording to Brisson and others, the tongue consists of two muscular tubes. This organ, which in the humming-bird is mainly in¬ strumental in procuring food, is capable of being protruded to a considerable distance, as we see in the wry-neck, wood-pecker, &c. Audubon says, that the double-tubed tongue of the humming-bird is covered with a glu¬ tinous saliva, so that the insect adheres to it when touched; hence the bird has only to dart its tongue at its prey, and retract it into its mouth. Diminutive as they are, these beautiful creatures aye bold and intrepid, and defend their nests against intruders with the greatest spirit. Their powers of flight give them every advantage in these aerial com¬ bats over birds much larger than them¬ selves, at whose eyes they tilt with their sharp-pointed beak, uttering, at the same time, a shrill piercing shriek. Two males seldom meet without a battle; and while the female is sitting her mate attacks in¬ discriminately every bird that approaches, exhibiting the utmost fury. The nest of the humming-bird varies in different spe¬ cies. Some are built on the branch of a tree, others attached to the extreme twigs, so as to wave in the breeze. The mate¬ rials with which they are constructed are, for the most part, the cotton or down of various plants, beautifully interwoven; some species add an outside layer of moss or lichen. It appears that the number of eggs laid by the female is usually two, and their colour pure white. That these beautiful and elegant birds should not be kept in captivity will not surprise those who know the difficulty of preserving them, even in their own regions, for any length of time, in imprisonment. 1847.] THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. 7 Several attempts have, however, been made ; and, on one occasion, two nestlings of a species termed the Mango humming¬ bird were actually brought alive to Eng¬ land, and lived for a short time in the pos¬ session of Lady Hammond; they were very docile, and fed on honey, but we do not know whether insects were offered them or not. Audubon states that he has seen many humming-birds in partial confinement; and that, when fed with honey or syrup exclusively, they soon died in a state of emaciation, but that, when duly supplied with fresh flowers (abounding with insects), and surrounded with gauze-netting, through which insects could enter, they lived in health and were active. Indeed, he men¬ tions an instance in which several were thus kept for the space of twelve months, when they were restored to liberty, the person who attended to them having a long voyage to perform. Scarlet Ibis.— This beautifully coloured bird is a native of America. These birds live almost always in flocks, and the old ones most frequently form distinct and se¬ parate bands. Their flight is rapid and sustained, but they do not put themselves in motion, except in the morning and evening, for the purpose of seeking their food, which consists of insects, shell ani¬ mals, and small fishes, collected in the slime along the sea-coast, or at the mouths of rivers. During the greatest heat of the day and at night, they remain in sheltered places. The broods commence in January, and are concluded in May. They deposit their eggs, which are greenish, in large tufts of grass, or on little piles collected in the brush-wood. These ibides are spread throughout the warmest countries of Ame¬ rica, and being not at 'all wild they are easily accustomed to live in houses. M. de la Borde mentions his having kept one for more than two years. It was fed with bread, raw or cooked meat, and fish ; but it gave the preference to the entrails of fish and fowl. It would frequently occupy itself in seeking for earth-worms around the house, or following the labours of a negro gardener. In the evening, this bird would retire of itself into a poultry-house, where it reposed in the midst of a hundred fowl. It would perch on the highest bar, awake very early in the morning, fly round I the house, and sometimes proceed to the sea-snore. It would attack cats with great intrepidity. It would have lived longer, had it not been accidentally killed, by a fowler, who mistook it for a wild curlew, when it was on a pond. All this shows the possibility of rearing in the warmer cli¬ mates of Europe a bird which, according to the testimony of Laet, has already pro¬ duced in a domestic state, and may, per¬ haps, one day be turned to good account.— (Table E, Case No. 64.) Patent Guide Screws and Stocks.— The irregular pitch and cut of die-screws issued by the different engineering esta¬ blishments throughout the country is a source of great annoyance, and is particu¬ larly felt in repairing machinery. In the locomotive shops of the railway companies, where engines manufactured at different establishments are to be repaired, it is un¬ bearable. From want of uniformity in the pitch and threads of the screws, it has been necessary to maintain a complex and costly variety of screwing apparatus, and withal a vexing waste of bolts and nuts cannot be avoided. The magnitude of the evil has, however, at length wrought its own cure ; and the dies and taps of Messrs. Whitworth Co. have been acknowledged as the stan¬ dard at the Admiralty Dock Yards, and in nearly all the railway shops throughout the country. In all machinery made for the Admiralty, and for railways, the bolts must be screwed with these dies, and no other will be received. This is as it ought to be; for we are fully confident that the standard could not be entrusted in better hands, or be associated with a name which will give more confidence. A very casual examination of the specimens in our Exhi¬ bition is sufficient to convince every me¬ chanic of the correctness of this opinion. In respect of proportion, durability of thread, and beauty of cut, it would be diffi¬ cult to imagine any system of screwing more perfect. To the non-mechanical reader we would observe, that only a few years ago the screwing of a bolt by hand was an operation which required the appli¬ cation of a large amount of muscular energy: the process consisted in crushing the solid iron until a thread of the required depth was raised; with the apparatus un¬ der notice, the thread is formed by cutting, as effectually as if the process were per¬ formed in the lathe. There is no cressing of the iron whatever; and to give an idea 8 THE DAILY EXHIBITOR. [Jan. 9. of the difference of the two processes, we are within the bounds of truth when we assert, that with Messrs. Whitworth’s dies and taps, one man can do with ease more work than ten could have done with those in use in our young days, and produce work incomparably better and more dur¬ able. In a few years hence we expect to find no other screwing apparatus in use than that made according to Messrs. Whit¬ worth’s standard. We are no advocates of monopoly; but this is one of those cases in which monopoly may be beneficial, and therefore commendable.—(Mechanics and Engineering, Table B, No. 42.) Branks in which the last woman was burnt for the imaginary crime of witchcraft in Fife.—The executions among the “ folk of Fife” usually took place in the ancient city of St. Andrew’s, near the sea cliffs of whose iron-bound shore to the N.W. is a kind of bight, still called “ the Witches’ Hole,” where “trial by flotsom ” was en¬ tered upon. If the witches and warlocks (being hand-and-foot tied) sank, they were considered innocent, and only got drowned; if they floated, they were tortured and burnt. The branks were merely a species of gag; and the term is thus defined by Dr. Plott, author of the “ History of Oxford¬ shire,” “ In some parts of England and Scotland a scolding bridle ; an instrument for correcting scolding women. It consists of a head-piece, which encloses the head of the offender, and of a sharp iron, which en¬ ters the mouth and restrains the tongue.” The branks of the present Exhibition differ from the description in this, that the sharp iron is a ribbed-edged wheel, a good deal like the rowel of a spur.—The rationale of the restraint thus imposed upon the sufferer was founded upon the axiom, that as the Deity spoke by the mouth of his prophets, so the devil spoke by that of witches and warlocks; ergo, the sooner a stopper was put upon these unhallowed communications the better, q. e. d. The real “pvactick ” of the matter was simply this, that as the poor victims, when not absolutely lunatic, or driven crazy by their tormentors, would naturally wish to appeal to the compassion or right human feeling of the people ga¬ thered around the blazing pile,—this ac¬ cursed device of the branks effectually pre¬ vented the poor creatures from uttering an intelligible word ! j In Haydns Dictionary of Dates, we | find these words under his article “ Witch- J craft— “ The last sufferer in Scotland was j burnt in 1722, at Dornoch.” This is a j mistake. In Burt’s “ Letters of an English j I Gentleman in the North of Scotland to his friend in London,” an almost contemporary ‘ and usually excellent authority, Ave fin'd the following passage at Letter XII_“ In the beginning of the year 1727, two poor Highland women (mother and daughter) in the shire of Sutherland, were .condemned before the sheriff depute (!) to be burnt. The young one escaped from prison, but the old woman Avas burnt alive in a pitch bar¬ rel, in June, at Dornoch.” Scotland has the sad distinction of being the last of these realms which practised such immolations, and Paisley (we believe) the last town Avhere such an auto da fe was offered up. If we misremember not, the i last witch burnt in these realms was shortly before 1736. Tn that year the laws against this factitious crime were repealed, by the statute 10 Geo. II.—(Antiquarian Table, No. 35.) _ Jeanie Deans interceding with Queen Caroline for the Pardon of her Sister. By J. G. Middleton.—As a work of art, this painting has its merits; but, as a work of nature (if we may use that word here), it is naught. A short criticism we heard upon the picture, this very day, from the lips of a sonsy auld leddie, expresses much of our sentiments upon the work. Asking us Avhat the subject was, and being told that the kneeling figure was meant for Jeanie, Deans, she said, “ That’s no like a Scots lassie ava.”-Then the face and figure of Queen Caroline,’ at the time the scene was laid a middle-aged and. plain¬ looking woman, represented by a perfect young Peri! This reverses the meta¬ morphoses of the stage ; where the parts of young beauties are often played by anti¬ quated demireps.—(Area F, Paintings and Works of Art, No. 18.) Portrait of Peg Woffington. —How gay the painter has made Peggy; and how Avell, too, he has painted her! That actress never laid the rouge on her cheeks, with her own pet hare’s foot, one half so skilfully. —(Area F, No. 81.) Glasgow: Printed for the Proprietors, l)y W. G.. Blackie, (residing at 25, Richmond Street,) at his premises. Model Exhibition, No. 19, Area A, City Hall.— Saturday, January 9th, 1847. 'XUA b ! 4. ft- " A correspondent, who classes himself a^“one *** j * § » * w / ' A correspondent, who classes himself arf“one of our too many unemployed, who has no hoie,' k ‘" T '"» been ejected for vi r ant of rent,” wr->s< what is the money value of a little book | in his possession. He does not mention its title, though his description would lead one to suppose that it is a complete set of the “ Daily Exhibitor,” an eight-page paper printed at an industrial exhibition held under the auspices of the Glasgow Philosophical Society in the City Hall from December 24, 1846, to January 9, 1$47. The exhibition was open for fourteen days, but only eleven numbers of the i paper were issued, the diurnality of the | paper being interrupted for the first three davs of the year, for 60 years ago New Year- t tide was given up to holiday, so much so that on these three days working men who wero presumed to be idle were admitted to the exhi¬ bition free. Afterwards a title-page and table ; of contents was provided by the publishers [ (Messrs Blackie), and the complete issue was | sold as a booklet. The importance of the pub- i lication lies in its claim to be “ the first of all the Scots press to attain the dignity of being a daily paper,” anticipating the appearance of the “ North British Daily Mail ” by fully three months. It is a volume which some Glasgow : collector would surely like to possess, though \ the price that is likely to be offered for it would ^certainly disappoint the would-be seller. A B,cop y was sold recently for a few shillings.