DHlfiraQnfWflU ■ ■ Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. DlrstOld York Library / S i fit* I THE WORLD OF SCIENCE, ART, AND INDUSTRY ILLUSTRATED FROM EXAMPLES IN THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION, 1853-54. EDITED BY Prof. B. SILLIMAN, Jr., and C. R. GOODRICH, Esq. AIDED BY SEVERAL SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY MEN. WITH 500 ILLUSTRATIONS, UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF C. E. DOPLER, ESQ. NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM AND COMPANY. M.DCCC.LI V. -M — Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by G. P. PUTNAM & CO, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New- York. JOHN F. TKOW, Plllf II AND eTKEKOTVl'Ilt 49 Ann Stroet, New-York. t PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. rpHE Editors of this work will give, in the preface, a statement of the plan and purpose of their labors ; but the Publishers may be allowed to speak with some pride of their own part in the production of a volume, unique in this country, and upon which they have expended an amount of time, care, and money, which, if devoted to other objects, would certainly have produced a much greater pecuniary return. Few, indeed, not familiar with the details of a publisher's business, the difficulty of procuring competent artists and engravers, the high price which must be paid for the labors of such needful assistants, and the apparently inevitable and costly mistakes which always occur in the progress of a large illustrated work, can have any adequate conception of the laborious details, the continued anxiety, and the large expense attending such a publication ; and it would be difficult to give a just idea of it within the proper limits of such a notice as this. The work was undertaken with the determination that it should be carried on impartially, thoroughly, and independently; that the best artists and engravers in the country should be employed on their own terms; that no partiality should be purchased by those whose works are criticised or illustrated; that the best accessible information and assistance should be obtained for the editorial department ; that the whole work should be prepared with reference to its general and permanent value; the present Exhibition being used merely to furnish a text and examples for the illustration of general principles. This plan has been conscientiously adhered to. Without any aid or favor whatever from the government of the Exhibition, or from the Exhibitors them- selves, — access to the articles only excepted, — the undersigned have caused whatever was deemed worthy of illustra- tion to be daguerreotyped, drawn and engraved, (excepting in one or two trifling instances,) solely at their own expense. The whole cost of the volume thus produced, exceeds Forty Thousand Dollars. But the publishers have at least the satisfaction of knowing, that whatever degree of favor it may meet with, it has been prepared carefully, impartially, honestly, and without fear or favor ; and that its criticisms cannot have any the less weight or value, from the fact that they have been beyond the influence of merely selfish considerations. Of the 504 engravings on Avood contained in this work (one hundred, by the way — costing about $3,000 — more than our prospectus promised to subscribers), four-fifths have been engraved in New-York, and chiefly by American engravers. It could not be supposed that this art, any more than others, has yet had time to attain perfection in this country ; but many of the specimens in our volume indicate a respectable progress, if, indeed, they surfer in comparison with those of the admirable work which was partly our model — the Lon- don Art Journal — to the accomplished editor of which, S. C. Hall, Esq.,- we take the opportunity of returning thanks for practical courtesies and friendly suggestions. PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. Of these 504 Illustrations, 64 are devoted to Sculpture, Bas-Kelieis, and the savage rep- tiles. The just retri- bution of a flagrant crime — the wrath of the gods symbolized in the coils of the snakes — the despair and torture of the damned, in the dis- torted features and writhing bodies of the victims, all conspire to produce unity out of complexity, and teach the high moral lesson of the supre- macy of virtue, and sure punishment of . transgression. Com- pared with this stand- ard of Art, it is plain that Kiss's Amazon, fine as it is, holds a secondary place. THE NEW YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. To those who know the power of Art to educate and refine the taste, the social life and character of a peo- ple, it has always been a cause of regret that the ap- preciation and enjoyment of it should, hare been confined to the few whose wealth was equal to the purchase of its costly pro- ductions. For this reason, works of high Art have been almost un- known in this country and in Europe, they have been the exclusive pos- session of na- tional galleries, or of an heredi- tary aristocra- cy. Neither the middle nor thf lower classes have been brought under its influences. It has never developed a- mong the ma- jority of any people that love of beauty and symmetry, native in every one however rude and un- refined ; it has not brought the passions of mankind under its control, and therefore has not yet accom- plished its des- tined purpose as a means of civilization. We believe that Art is capable of accomplishing all that is claimed for it by .its most enthusiastic friends, when our life in all its pursuits is brought into daily contact with its productions : when its works are no longer a monopoly, but an every-day possession, within the reach of the mecha- nic and tradesman as well as the opulent and noble. If the beautiful were daily placed before us, surely We would not confine the influence of Art to works purely ornamental, to statues, vases, and pic- tures. The rudest household furniture, the ordinary service for the table, and the houses themselves may possess artistic and symmetrical beauty, and be none the less usefuL We are not convinced by the homely reasoning attributed to Socrates, that what- ever is useful is therefore beautiful. Such sentiments, our social life could not fail to be ameliorated and ex- alted by its silent eloquence. u W' 1 : which have too widely prevailed, in our own country, especially we are glad to believe, are yielding to a [Top. 12.] THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. 10 that in the facility of every mechanical detail, the rapidity and precision with which hooks of high average quality are now manufactured (we use the word literally), is such as to form an era in the world's progress. . "We will not anticipate what we have to say elsewhere, and in more detail, upon the interesting subject of typography, but will simply add that this Record is printed upon two power presses, in the building of the Exhibition, moved by steam power supplied from the engines,, whose duty it is to drive the machinery of the mechanical de- partment. Thousands of visitors will thus be able to see, probably for the first time, the rapid movements of these seemingly intelligent operatives, whose one sole requirement appears to be an insatiable appetite for fair white paper. The illus- trations are printed upon the press of Isaac Adams & Co., of Boston, while the letterpress side is worked upon that of A. B. Taylor & Co., New-York. FINE ARTS. It is encouraging to mark the great progress made in the United States during the last ten years, in the general appreciation and patronage of the various Arts of Design, including Architecture. The public mind is now somewhat impressed with the importance of these subjects, and is moving in the .right direction. It needs, however, constant watchfulness to guard against the errors growing out of a tendency to admire what is overwrought or extravagant, and to substitute splendor of color, and costliness of material, for beauty of form, and elegance of design. The false taste of Venice grew out of immense and suddenly acquired wealth, seeking to ally itself to Art. The parallel thus suggested may teach us in America a useful lesson. Convinced as we are, that sound taste, based on and growing out of good models, is more wanted in our country, and needs more encouragement and developing, than mere constructive or mechanical talent, we shall take pains, without neglecting the last named departments, to seize every legitimate opportunity to enforce and illustrate, what, in our humble judgment, are sound principles and honest examples in the various Arts of Design. The masses in the United States have no knowledge of Art, for the plain reason that they have had no opportunity to instruct themselves in it. Here no noble memorials of the past chronicle the great deeds of an illustrious ancestry. No well-bestowed * wealth has founded long galleries of sculpture, painting and antiquities, and opened their doors to the gratuitous access of all visitors. That obvious and imperative duty of all enlightened Governments, to provide such places for the use of their citizens, remains thus far unfulfilled, almost, we fear, unthought of by our General Government, and by the Administrations of the several States. The only historical memorials which we do possess, in our National Capitol, are so few, and, in general, so poorly disposed for inspection, that they form no exception to the gen- eral truth of our remark. Even the poor tribute of a Gallery and Museum com- memorative of the various Aboriginal Tribes of North America, is withheld, and the treasures of ethnological research and pictorial skill gained by the adventurous exposure and individual expense of a Catlin, are suffered to seek an asylum in a foreign land. Meanwhile the rapidly moving sunlight of a progressive civilization is passing over the western forests, and sweeping from the face of the globe the last traces of a noble and deeply injured race, whose chief crime was to possess a land which the Anglo-Saxon coveted. One of the. results which we hope may follow this Industrial Exhibition, is the growth in the popular mind in the United States, of a determination to establish museums of Antiquities and the Fine Arts, of Natural History, the Mechanical arts, and manufactures, in all our principal towns, and to sustain them out of the public purse, in the most liberal manner, free at all times to the access of all classes. "We are sure, that as soon as the public mind is properly informed upon these subjects, that it will act with rigorous decision. A most important means of imparting such information, consists in the assembling together of objects of interest in all depart- ments of human industry, skill and taste, and inviting all classes to come and inspect them. Such a movement is now, for the first time, made in the United Slates, and wo sincerely trust that it will prove to be one productive of permanent results. So far as our humble endeavors can avail, we are determined it shall be so. As the choicest fruits and the loveliest flowers spring only where culture has elal i< i- rated, and toil prepared a genial bed, and sown the choicest seed ; so can we hope for the truest and finest developments of human skill, only as the results of refined culture and the attentive study of the best models. The Oil Paintings form a novel feature in the American Exhibition. These were excluded from the London building, chiefly, it is presumed, because of the difficulty of finding room for their display. The same objection might seem to apply with more force to the present case; but it must be remembered that we have comparatively few living Artists, and almost no Galleries, as sources of supply ; while the number of works in this branch of Art, likely to cross the Atlantic, will be comparatively small. We have from the artists of Dusseldorf, from sixty to seventy original easel pictures, mostly painted for the present occasion. From France there are seventy, and from Switzerland ten Artists exhibiting paintings. The cartoons of a few, which we have seen, are of high merit, and the names of the Artists are themselves a guarantee for their works. We intend to present one or more specimens of the style of each school in these pages — selecting those subjects, which, while they are of general interest, will, at the same time, admit of heing rendered an wood with justice to the artist. The other modern schools of European Art are also to be well represented, if we may judge from the lists, and the American painters will not be wanting. Prikoe Albert is a contributor of several oil paintings, while from Sardinia and' Tuscany, works of Art in all departments form the chief part of the objects contributed to the New-York Exhibition. But as these objects, at this present writing, have not been taken from their cases, we shall advert to them 'more de- finitely upon another occasion. The art of Glass Painting has been much revived of late years, and numerous exhibitions of works of this description are on the lists of the Association. This beautiful art loses more than any other branch of pictorial representation, by absence of color, and we shall, therefore, be necessarily very restricted in our efforts to reproduce its designs. This, however," will be no reason why we shall not gladly take occasion to present its principles and practice in a proper essay. The public taste has become, of late, much directed toward fhe chromatic decoration of interiors, both in churches and in private houses. It is, however, the fashion for a certain class of writers to decry all attempts of modern Art to reproduce the stained glass of the Middle Ages. It is sometimes even asserted, that we no longer possess the secret of the rich colors, whose unfaded glories still dye the light-beams from the oriel of old churches of the time of the eleventh century. Such assertions can be founded only in ignorance of the resources of modern chemistry, whose list of metallic oxyds, capable of producing every tint of the spectrum, was never so complete nor so fully under the control of the operator, as at the present moment. If we have failed to equal the compositions of Ai.breciit Durer, it is because modern artists of equal talent have thought it not worth their while to engage in an occupation, which, by* some strange perversion, has been considered as in some degree unworthy of the attention of men of genius. "We cannot expect to see the finest results of Art, in all departments, until artists abandon the silly notion, now quite too prevalent, that easel pictures in oil, and works in marble, are the only objects worthy of their attention, and that all other forms of Art are, in their nature, somewhat menial. Benvenuto Celi.ixi was not ashamed of the craft of a goldsmith, although he dared to treat the Pope and his Cardinals with deserving contempt. Eaphael and Micfiael Angelo, and a hundred other glorious names, had no 'fear of being mistaken for plasterers, because they lay whole days upon their backs working up their immortal designs in fresco, upon the very mortar which their own artistic hands had spread. Nor did any of the great masters of ancient Art disdain to design a carpet, the fashion of a water jug, or to apply their talent in any 'direction in which it was wanted. It will be a happy day for modern Art, when the genius of the artist, and the skill of the artisan, are again, as of yore, found in one person. Such a union would be most congenial with the practical spirit of the present time, which demands of every class useful results applicable to the wants of our present life. It is not easy to say why an artist is not as worthily employed in decorating a set of porcelain, with original designs, in producing his effects in colored glass, or in modelling the forms of beauty for whatever purpose, as when he is starving behind a canvas, on which, in his devotion to so-called high Art, he has reproduced the allegorical or mythological notions of a gone-by age and of a heathen religion. GIFTS OF SCIENCE TO THE ARTS. AN EXHIBITION which shows the present state of the "World's Arts and Manu- factures, furnishes also a convenient stand-point to review their history and the means and elements of their progress. In» doing this, wo have no expectation of adding to the knowledge of an expert in any art or science. Our humbler, and more widely useful task, will be to recall popular attention to the origin of capital inventions, especially those which are the gifts of science to the arts. Many of these are so interwoven with our daily life, that they have ceased to excite either our curiosity or admiration ; and we find it difficult to conceive the woield's con- dition before these familiar discoveries, creating new arts or new developments of old ones, changed the place and aspect of the world's industry. It has becomo too much the custom, in quarters where a better spirit might be looked for, to ridicule the claims of science, and deny the obligations it has con- ferred upon industry; but it needs only a slight investigation to discover how groundless such denials aro in reforence to the past; and elsewhere in the Record we shall point out the necessity of a future liberal cultivation of pure science, with a view to its useful applications. In the present age, when invention succeeds invention with startling rapidity, no nation can neglect such sources of improve- THE NEW- YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. 11 ment as, known or latent, exist in science, and hope to retain its manufacturing or commercial wealth and importance. On these, political influence is based with no remote dependence, and the instances are not unfrequent in which a new industry has changed, or materially modified, the international balance of power. An in- vention of this order of excellence, is the one with whose early history we com- mence this series of notices. WHITNEY'S COTTON GIN. The growth of cotton, its manufacture, and the commerce to which it gives rise, constitute the most extraordinary industry recorded in the world's history. In Great Britain, the chief and wealthiest seat of its manufacture, its humble com- mencement dates from the beginning of the eighteenth century ; its complete development has been the work of the last fifty years; and in 1851, it employed one-eighth of the population of the United Kingdom ; its exports were valued at £30,000,000, and its taxes contributed one-fourth part of the whole national revenue. The raw material which supplies this vast industry is obtained chiefly from the United States. Of the whole amount consumed in England, this source furnishes 84 per cent. ; about 10 per cent, comes from India, 4 per cent, from Brazil, and 2 per cent, from the Mediterranean. The cultivation of cotton has followed the course of empires. From India, where it has been used from time immemorial, it advanced through Arabia, and after lingering on the shores of the Levant and Northern Africa, it crossed the ocean and rested on our Atlantic coast. Here it has found its permanent and most extensive seat ; it has occupied the whole of the Southern States, and without deserting the old, still seeks new fields in the virgin West. American cotton has two principal varieties ; the sea-isl- and, the finest and longest in the staple, is grown only on the sandy islands of Georgia and Carolina. It is easily cleaned by simple mechanical means ; but the shorter staple of the upland variety is so firmly entangled with the'seed, that its separa- tion by hand labor involves an expense exceeding the value of the product. This, however, was the onLy available means previous to 1793. In that year the genius of Eli Whit- ney did for the planters of the South, what "Aekwright, CROMPTOX,«md Watt had al- ready done for the manufac- turers of England. He in- vented a machine by which the seeds and impurities were separated from the cotton with the utmost facility, and thus gave to American planters the practical monopoly of . cotton growing. There is nothing to be compared with the increase in its cultivation subsequent to Whitney's invention, except the corresponding extension of its manufacture in England. The absolute dependence of the cotton trade upontHis single cause is shown by the fact that the States which, in 1785, exported five bags, and in 1793 three hundred and seven bags, were able in 1794. the year when the Cotton Gin came into general use, to produce a crop of 17,777 bales, of which over 3000 bales were exported. In 1849, the export rose to 1,500,000 bales; which amount must*be largely increased in 1852 and 1853, the whole crop in the United States being about 3,500,000 bales. Blustrations of the original, as well as present construction of a machine, which has exercised so striking an in- fluence upon the value of the staple that clothes the million, cannot fail to be acceptable to our readers. The Cot- ton Gin received several improvements from the inventor up to 1805. In the two years following, Mr. Whitney manufactured, at New Haven, seventy or eighty of his improved machines to fulfil a contract with the Sjtate 0 f S ou th Carolina. He was assisted by Mr. Joseph Smith, who is still living in New Haven, and has recently testified in a court of law, that the Gin described below is one of those made at that time, and that it has all of Whitney's improvements. This Gin is now in possession of Bates, Hyde & Co., manufacturers of the Eagle Cotton Gin, at Bridgewater, Mass., and from this the following drawings have been made. Ullllillllillllllllllljiiiu/' — FU.3. U Fig. 1, represents the frame supporting an iron form, upon which the saw- cylinder and brush are hung. Fig. 2, gives an end view of the machine, which shows the mode of boxing the journals and retaining them in place. The seed-board of the hopper A, is connected with the upper part by hinges, and may be placed at any re- quirecL^distance from the saw. The back of the hopper B de- scends nearly to the saws just behind the grating. The rear branch of the grating makes the "bottom of the moting- t rough C; it also -contains a to two fig. 3, movable false bottom of tin, which catches the motes. The cylinder contains 40 saws, 6f inches in diameter, each hav- ing 106 teeth; they are sepa- rated at distances of \ of an inch by block tin, or pewter castings. The 7-inch cylin- der brush has 6 wings, each extending from one inch below inches above the surface, where they receive oblique tufts of bristles. In a longitudinal section of the brush is shown ; its wings are seen to extend beyond the heads, and form what are called projecting lags. The machine has a large open- ing against the ends of the brush to admit the air freely to these lags, and thus prevent the cotton from winding upon the axis of the brush. The mote-board, made of slats two or three inches wide, is indicated by the dotted lines in fig. 2. The hopper, moting-trough, &c. forming one part of the Gin, and the top and ceiling back of the openings, are each hung upon the upper bar of the iron form, and may be turned back at pleasure. In the first Gin rows of pointed wires were used, from which the transi- tion to circular saws was natural. The cast- [2 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. [From p. 9.] Ulster appreciation of the true place and uses of Art. We are no longer contented with the plainness that was once satislactory. A de- mand for decoration hag arisen in every branch of manufactures ; and al- though ornament has some- times been used to excess, and inappropriately, it is still a movement in the right direction, and shows the ne- cessity of an art-education among the people by fa- miliarity with the works of the best masters. With- in a few years this has be- come possible by the dis- covery of new methods and materials capable of re- producing works of high art, with beauty unimpair- ed, and at a price which makes them accessible to all. In ceramic manufac- tures, such improvements have been numerous and important Parian, a comparatively new material, has given to these manufactures a feel- ing of Art and a power of expressing it unknown in other materials. Sculpture is rendered by it more faithfully than pictures by engraving. The rich, trans- parent tone, and semi- opaque shadows of marble preserve all their softness in Parian. The introduc- tion of Parian into general use for statuettes, vases, and other ornamental works, is due to the enter- prise of Mr. Alderman Uopeland, whose exten- sive manufactories a t Stoke-upon-Trent, Stafford- shire, produce every va- riety of pottery of unsur- passed excellence. We have enriched several pages of the Recobd with engrav- ings of the more artistic of the specimens displayed in the Exhibition by the agent of Mr. Copeland, Charles C. Leigh, of New- York. The first of the exam- ples selected, commencing the ninth page, is a group of Pillars, Vases and Seats, for the garden and conser- vatory. Among them is the celebrated Warwick Vase, twenty-two inches high and thirty inches wide, surmounting the cen- tral column. The beauty and fitness of these objects must commend themselves to every one who can ap- preciate Art or excellence of workmanship. Imme- diately below, on the left, is the Garden Vase, twenty- six inches high, from the Townly Collection in the British Museum. On the right of the last is a Gre- cian Vase, five inches in height, with a top perfor- * ated to receive cut flowers. Next follows a Vintage Jug, produced in several sizes, with a troop of boys gathering the clusters from encircling vines. On the right, occupying the whole length of the page, is an original ornate Pilaster Panel, painted in encaustic or wax, in the Raffaelesque style of Arabesque. The medallion in the centre re- presents a personification of the United States award- ing a crown to Industry. This beautiful decoration is the production of Eugenio Latilla, an eminent artist- of this city. We continue the illustration of the works contributed by Mr. Copeland upon this page with an name implies, of the somniferous plant The base is formed of expanded leaves, whose steins coil about the The introduction of | engraving of the Poppy Candlestick, composed, as its handle, while the socket is made of an open, and the ex- tinguisher of a closed capsule. Underneath it is a Vintage Pitcher, ornamented with a wreath of vines and grapes, and bearing on its side a design of the infant Bacchus holding the thyrsus, and borne in the arms of two boys. The Hanging Basket, executed in Terra Cotta, is intended for the parlor cul- tivation of Orchidaceous and other trailing plants — an elegant pastime which we should be glad to see introduced amo/ig our coun- trywomen. The cultivation of beautiful flowers is an employment most fit for beautiful women. That their fair hands should tend, and their watchful care "assist in developing the floral emblems of their own purity, and grace, and love- liness, accords with all we like to know or think of the daughters of Eve. A cultivated taste for flowers ranks with connaissance in the Fine Arts, as indicating intelligence and refinement. 'Tis a pity that any one should wait for expensive greenhouses to gratify that taste. A few vases and hanging baskets are all that is requisite for the cultiva- tion of the rarest and sweet- est of the floral kingdom, and to realize as much plea- sure as may be gained from the princely gardens at Chatsworth. The statuette, 9J inches high, placed on the right, represents a Ne- reid, one of the lovely di- vinities to whom the beau- tiful mythology of ancient Greece assigned the Medi- terranean as their abode, in distinction from the Naiads, who were nymphs of streams and fountains, and the Oceanides, who dwelt in the great ocean* The remainder of the- page is occupied by an Etagere, profusely and elegantly carved in rosewood. This fine specimen of American THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. 1?, cabinet-work, is from the establishment of T. Brooks, Brooklyn, N. Y. The demand for richly carved furniture in the renaissance style which began a few years ago, keeps pace with the in- crease of wealth and the prevalence of orna- mental architecture. We again recur to the productions of Mr. Copeland. The Parian sta- tuettes, placed on either side, are modelled after the designs of Cumber- worth, and represent the inseparable Paul and Virginia, with the story of whose romantic love and friendship every child has been made familiar by the charming tale of Bernardin de St. Pierre. The Lily Flower Vase is composed of the leaves, and decorated with the delicate drooping bells of the lily of the valley, the loveliest of the flowers that bear that lovely name. Upon the opposite side is a Gothic Vase, thirteen inches in height, whose sides are pierced to show its glass or enamelled lining. The engraving which occupies the centre of the page, represents the bust of Proserpine, by Powers. The head is ideal, and we may receive it as embodying our great sculptor's conception of female beauty in repose. The wreath of leaves and flowers which encircle it, allude, perhaps, re- motely to the legend, familiar in the poets, of the field Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis - Was gathered. The learned Germans who regard the whole Grecian mythology as person- ifying natural phenomena, interpret the legend as follows: Proserpine,. who is carried off to the lower world, is the seed corn that for a time is buried in the ground ; Proserpine, who returns to her TV mother, is the corn which rises again to support mankind. The Proserpine is exhibited by Sidney Brooks, Esq., of New- York. The rosewood horizontal grand Pianoforte, engraved I William Stodart & Son, of Golden Square, London. The I its simplicity, efficiencyi and durability, and these sterling on this page, is from the well-known manufactory of | mechanism of Messrs. Stodart's pianos is remarkable for | qualities are united with exterior beauty. If THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. brass grating model is shown in fig. 4. The improved grate, fig. 5, must have been the fruit of skilful research. It will be seen that the forked grate is no recent novelty. The Eagle Cotton Gin, of which an engraving is horo given, although modified by improvements of various details and workmanship, still remains substan- tially the same as in the original invention. It is a theory much in favor with inventors and the public, and often enforced by many plausible instances, that brilliant discoveries are made by accident; and, indeed, it is easy to collect examples where chance has apparently given birth to very wonderful realities. But if we could instituto more careful inquiries, wo should learn that the fortunate accident only set in motion a train of thought in a mind already prepared to receive it. Such accidents never happen to fools. A majority of cases show us the new discovery elaborated by repeated trials, and each improvement won at the cost of unremitting experiment and thought. Such ■was the case with WniTNEY. In the year 1792j while residing in Georgia, he had often exhibited his peculiar talents, by various inventions to gratify the lady in whose house he was a guest. By her he was introduced to several planters as a fit person to give value to their cotton crops, by inventing an expeditious method of cleaning it. He saw how desirable the object was, and felt that he could accomplish it. Having provided himself with a quantity of cotton in the seed, which, until then, he had never seen, and, making his own tools, he shut himself up, until, after several months of seclusion, he emerged with the Cotton Gin to testify to the success of his prolonged exertions. THE BRITISH COMMISSION. TIMES are changed, surely, when Great Britain thinks it worth while to send a Commission of her Nobles and her distinguished Men of Science, to report upon the arts and industry of the United States. The World has certainly in these latter years advanced in catholic and liberal sentiments, and nowhere more signally than in Great Britain. We have formerly welcomed to our shores the Government Commissioners of France, of Prussia, and even of despotic Austria and Russia, to look into our systems of prison discipline, of popular education, and our various industrial arts. The Turk has so far yielded his Asiatic torpor to the impulse of progress, as to send»to the w r estern world for his cotton-growers, geolo- gists and engineers, and has subsequently dispatched an agent to make a reconnais- sance of the various States of his Republican friends. But Great Britain, confident of her own strength, has heretofore rested in careless disregard of the progress in arts of her transatlantic scions, and has amused herself with Jonathan's self-love and fondness for vaunting his own performances. If she has been sometimes startled in her dreams of political economy, by the alarming dependence of her manufactur- ing population upon a single great staple of American agriculture (an alarm not diminished by the unsuccessful experiments to force a supply of cotton from India), she has always consoled herself with the comfortable reflection that the United States were, and must continue to be, her best customers for the products of her looms and forges. This conservative and self-sustaining sentiment has been par- ticularly strong in the minds of the agricultural population, who have been ready to sneer at the thought of competition from American skill in any department of industry. The Great Exhibition was a noble step, worthy of England's place among civil- ized nations, but not a final one ; it was a means to an end, and not the "end itself. The Commission whose appointment it is our gratifying duty to record, shows one mode by which the Exhibition will be the world's permanent benefactor, by stimulating nations to mutually investigate their resources, and supply their mutual deficiencies. In England, it has shown manufacturers that they were weakest in many points where they thought themselves strongest. The reports of the Juries assure us of the superiority of nearly all the continental manufactures in the adaptation of the arts of design to the purposes of utility and ornament; and it was found, besides, that English iron and steel were returned from the United States in the form of agricultural implements, which were sold in London, all expenses paid, at little more than half the cost of such tools of her own manufac- ture. In spite of all the deeply-rooted prejudices of her agriculturists for the ponderous and misshapen implements of toil, which they had for generations been accustomed to use, the American tools have pushed their way into general favor. With such arguments as these, more conviction was carried in a day into the minds of Her Majesty's subjects, of the existence of a people in the western world, able to compete with them, than all our vainglorious boasting could have accom- plished in a thousand years. And this too in spite of our acknowledged short coinings, greater by fur and more crushing to national pride than can be well understood by those who were so fortunate as not to see them. Indeed, thcro was for Americans, at the London Exhibition, more cause for mortification, that we had so sadly misrepresented ourselves, than for tho indulgence of self-con- gratulations. Like England, we too learned on that occasion, that we were in some points strongest when we made no boast, and weakest where we laid our strength. It is not possible accurately to estimate the results of the London Exhibition upon the future of the world's progress — one of those results we may safely say is seen in the present Commission. The American Exhibition of New-York has served as the occasion for sending it at the present time. We are assured, however, that the powers of the Commission are not confined within the walls of the building on Reservoir Square, but that they are to investigate all that can be seen of American skill and progress in every department of industry. The delay in the opening of the building has been, therefore, of some advantage, as it has furnished the British Commissioners with an opportunity of seeing, meantime, many things in the neighboring States which they might have otherwise missed. The Commission is composed as follows, viz. : — The Earl of Ellesmere. Sir Cuaules Lyell, F. R. S., F. G. S. &c, &c. Mr. Charles Wentwokth Dii.ke, London. Mr. Thomas WniTwoRTii, of Manchester. Mr. George Wallis, of Birmingham, Prof. John Wilson, F. R. S. E., F. G. S., F. C. S. The three first are Royal Commissioners, that is, they are members of a perma- nent Commission, emanating from the Queen, in 1851, for the London Exhibition, and continued as a permanent chartered Board, charged with the custody and direction of the surplus fund, accumulated on that occasion. Hence the propriety of naming these distinguished gentlemen upon the present Government Commis- sion to the United States. The three last named gentlemen are simply j Commissioners appointed for this special duty, and whoso office will cease when they have rendered their report. The Earl or Ellesmere (formerly Lord Francis Egerton) is one of the wealth- iest of the English Peers, and is distinguished for his devotion to literature and the fine arts. He came to America in the Frigate Leander, accompanied by his family. The Earl was born in 1800, and is the second son of the late Duke of Sutherland. As an author, the Earl is respected for his excellent rendering of the poems of Schiller and Kdrner, for his spirited version of Goethe's Faust, and for his Guide to the Study of Northern Antiquities, published by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen. His "Mediterranean Sketches," was the result of a pleasure jaunt in his own yacht in 1840, when ho visited the shores of the Levant, to enjoy its classical and picturesque associations. Bis lord- ship has also figured in political life. As Lord Francis Leveson Gower, he was a member of Parliament in 1830. Under Lord Anglesey, he was Secretary for Ireland, and Secretary at War under Lord Wellington). His magnificent gallery of paintings, inherited from his grandfather the Duke of Bridgcwater, and greatly enriched by his own purchases, is one of tho few private galleries in England which is kept open at all times for the public. Among other valuable works of Art contributed by the Earl to the American Exhibition, is the original Chandos portrait of Shakspeare. This unique memorial of the groat Dramatist is of itself attractive enough to draw throngs of visitors to the picture gallery. It is understood that the Earl of Ellesmere will devote himself particularly to the Fine Arts Department of the Exhibition. • Sir Charles Lyell is quite too well known in America to need any introduc- tion at our hands. This is his fourth visit to • the United States, where he can probably count nearly as many personal friends as in England, and as many readers for his truly classical works on Geology. His two series of published travels in the United States arc models of fairness in their views of society, in America, and permanently valuable for the great stock of geological observations they embody. It is certainly not very creditable to us in America, that the Geolo- gical Map of the United States, appended to the first series of his travels, and nt tho date of its compilation, . a very creditable production, still remains the best, if not the only general map of the kind which we have. Mr. Dilke was one of the three Executive Commissioners who had entiro charge of the London Exhibition. His labors upon that occasion were constant, various, and most ably performed, and are tho more honorably remembered, inas- much as ho has steadily declined receiving any consideration or reward cither from his Government or from the Commissioners. He is known as a distin- guished critic in literature and art, and has been long connected, as proprietor, with the London Athenanim, one of the ablest literary journals in our language. Mr. Whitwoeth is what we in America understand by a practical man — he is England's great tool-maker, and is known wherever in the wide world Manchester tools are used. His niicrometic dividing engine, for measuring the millionth part of an inch, excited tho greatest attention among the mechanical wonders at Hyde Park. This apparatus is among the other curious and valuable machines which Mr. Whitworth shows in New- York. • Bis new method of obtaining perfectly plain surfaces in hard materials, was the subject of an able paper which was read by him some years since before the Mechanical Section of the British Association. Lately he has made important suggestions to the Government of Great Britain upon an improved method of fixing the length of the standard yard measure — suggestions which have received THE NEW - YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. If* the support of Sir John Hersohel, and other distinguished physicists in England. He has also an important plan respecting a uniform guage for ships' screwbolts, which he is urging at present upon the attention of the English Admiralty, and also upon our authorities at Washington — the adoption of which will be a great blessing to all maritime nations. The readers of the London Art Journal have not forgotten the admirable paper of Mr. Wallis on "Art, Science and Manufacture as a Unity," an essay in four chapters, which elicited from Mr. Hall, the distinguished editor of the Art Journal, a complimentary prize of one hundred guineas. Mr. Wallis is Head Mas- ter of the Government School of Design at Birmingham, to which situation he was advanced by his merits from the same post in the Manchester School of Design, which he had formerly held. It is to be hoped, that one result following our American Exhibition will be the establishment of similar schools of design for, the benefit of our manufacturing districts, in which all who choose may have an opportunity to study the principles and practice of Art. The Agricultural interest of Great Britain could not have been confided to a bettef representative than Prof. John Wilson. His long experience as a writer and teacher, fit him peculiarly for this department. Formerly Principal of the Eoyal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and Chairman of the Commis- sion on Juries at the London Exhibition, he has enjoyed rare advantages for making himself thoroughly acquainted with all that relates to the great depart- ments of Agriculture and the Raw Materials generally. He will give his special attention to our resources in produce, and in agricultural tools and implements. A glance at the various Juries and Commissions in the "Report of the Juries" of the London Exhibition, will show that all the gentlemen upon the present Com- mission are men of large experience in their several departments, and quite familiar with the detail of management upon such occasions as the present. Much of the success of this Commission, in forming a correct estimate of the resources and relative position of the United States, will depend upon the treat- ment they meet, at the hands of the various parties to whom they must resort as the reliable sources of information, in the several departments to which their Com- missions refer. We cannot for a moment question that they will find every where the greatest willingness to forward their views. We hope that they may be able to say that they have found no doors closed against their entrance, and no narrow- minded withholding of the various information sought. Such unwillingness, where it exists, is generally a proof of weakness ; and it is certainly true that we have, in nearly every case, more to gain than we have to impart, especially in the various arts of applied science. INTERIOR DECORATION". INTERIOR decoration has been practised in different countries from the most re- mote periods, and it has assumed national and marked characteristics, as among the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hindoos, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, and Saracens. From the greater freedom of intercourse in later periods, the peculiarities of the art have been less decidedly pronounced, yet there has always been in each style sufficient to render it national and unique ; as the Renaissance, the Raffaelesque, and the Ara- besque. The latter, whose beauty and suitability to modern times, has caused it to be so widely diffused, commenced, and was invented by Ludius, a painter of the time of Augustus Cesar. The exquisite frescoes of the Baths of Titus, buried for centuries in the devastations of the Roman wars, were resuscitated in the sixteenth century, and the sight of them revived the style of the Arabesque, which was brought out and perfected by the prince of painters, Raffael d'URBiNO, since whose time it has received the name of the Raffaelesque style of decoration. Greece and Italy have been foremost in all the arts of design, and the orna- ments of their dwellings and public buildings have remained as examples and au- thorities of taste, down to our own age. The Greeks carried the arts into Italy, and the paintings at Pompeii and Ilerculaneum are the works of Greek artists. The Italian houses are still decorated, from the abode of the artisan to the palace of the noble: the former in tempera (distemper, or size-color erroneously called fresco in the United States), the latter in genuine fresco, which is painting on a wet stucco. The colors of genuine fresco become permanent and indelible; distemper, on the contrary, is easily obliterated, and has none of the high qualities of fresco. Germany, in the present day, is following Italy in interior decoration, and has pro- duced some of the finest works of modern times under the patronage and direc- tion of Louis I., ex-king of Bavaria. In England, where wealth might be expected to minister to taste, the uphol- sterer, not the artist, is consulted by the nobility ; there is therefore abundance of paper and gilding, but little art, or genuine taste, in the disposition of ornament in English mansions. New- York, in this respect, bids fair to surpass London, for al- ready there are several buildings that show specimens of good taste and judgment in artistic decoration. It is true, they are not in fresco, though called so, but in distemper; yet when this fact is generally known, proprietors and societies will demand the real fresco done in the stucco, instead of that which has only its name, since the difference between the two is more than nominal. Much has been done here in chiaro-oscuro (brown and white), but these decorations seldom go beyond ornament, and may be executed chiefly by mechanical means, while fresco requires a combination of all the highest excellencies of art. Interior decoration, as practised by the Egyptians in their temples and palaces, though abounding in fine examples from which to learn principles of grandeur, is not calculated for adoption, owing to the exclusively national character pervading it, cir- cumscribed still more by peculiar religious laws. The best specimens of decorative pointing among the Egyptians, are to be found on the coffins of their kings and nobles. These are in tempera, or size-color, afterwards varnished ; burnished gold also forms parts of these elaborate decorations which resemble in some degree the highly wrought illuminations of the fifteenth century. The Egyptian mural decorations painted on stucco, and modelled or incised into form, were inverted, representa- tions like a seal engraving, and painted simply with local color ; the flesh is reddish, without shadow or lights, chiaro-oscuro forming no part of Egyptian painting ; red, green, yellow, and black were used for the draperies, and blue, sometimes studded with stars, for the ceiling; while the walls were covered with histories, legends, and ceremonies, painted' on a white ground. Without perspec- tive, anatomy, or light and shade, Egyptian painting possesses dignity and eleva- tion. Its. simplicity and severity of outline form the true elements of the sub- lime, and these high qualities characterized all their architecture, as \tell as decoration; vulgarity and commonplace were utterly excluded from both. The interior decorations of Assyria and Babylon (with which the excavations of Botta and Bayard have made us acquainted), were based on nearly the same principles as those of the Egyptians, except, that' instead of being colored intaglios, they were bas-reliefs in alabaster, showing motion and action, while in the former all' is passive. The eye, like that in Egyptian painting, is always full, even in a profile view of the face. Many of the historic subjects are on a blue ground, and must have had a charming effect when first painted ; the gorgeous chariots, with prancing horses, and the winged deities of colossal proportions, possess a de- gree of grandeur that compensates for the absence of all lesser excellencies, and are well worthy of observation and study. The Greeks, unlike the Egyptians and Assyrians, called into exercise all the agen- cies of art ; though they gained rich stores of power from those nations, the Greeks were untrammelled and free to use every appliance that nature in her infinite variety presented. Egypt served as a firm basis to the Greek, while Assyrian art supplied him wit!) materials for a superb superstructure, which he carried to a height that still makes men wonder and admire. The Greek temples and edifices, public and private, were decorated with infinite taste. Phidias sculptured their ex- teriors, Polygnotus and Micon painted interiors in encaustic, as is recorded of the Poecile, where, among many exciting subjects, the triumph of Theseus and the victory of Marathon, were executed by the public desire. The Greeks were the inventors of encaustic and fresco painting for decora- tion, and these are the two most valuable and durable modes for that purpose, The Romans eagerly adopted Greek art, for they discerned its pre-eminent excel- lence. The cities of Pompeii and Ilerculaneum, originally Greek colonies, show Greek painting exercised under Roman influence and adapted to Roman customs. The encaustic and fresco paintings of Pompeii are models of mural decoration ; and the best we possess in modern times, is but a distant imitation of them. The beauty of the polychromatic style is there seen, transcending all the false pse- tensions of gilt, papier-mache and mirrored walls; and when exhumed after a burial of seventeen centuries, it reappears to instruct the eye. of this enlightened age, and to put to shame the gewgaws and tinsel that are miscalled taste. Ephe- meral fashions, however good for trade, should be excluded from the arts, espe- cially in mural decorations ; for want of observing this rule, there are numerous palaces and churches, even in Italy, that exhibit all the defects and corruptions of the period of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., and these, now that the fashion is past, are seen in all their native deformity ; those on the contrary that combine fine taste with excellent workmanship, please now, as at first, and are esteemed by all nations. It is to be regretted that cultivated Americans who enjoy the luxury of art abroad, should be content with whitewashed walls at home. If any attempt is made to decorate mansions here, it is generally in distemper (brown and white) only, without figures, and this, though often costly, adds little to the value or in- terest of a house. Encaustic is a method of painting with wax and color. The wax is dissolved in naphtha, or some essential oil, and with this the wall or canvas is well saturated, and the preparation driven in by the application of heat. The ancients, as we see in specimens from Pompeii, frequently used a coat of black, upon which they painted the subject with wax in a liquefied state mixed with gum-mastic, or any adhesive resin. After this a coat of wax varnish was given, and the whole submitted to a sufficient heat to amalgamate and incorporate the painting and varnish together. In this state it is without glare, but a polish may be afterwards given by mere friction, if desired. When properly done, it is very durable, exceeding even the durability of fresco, as may be seen by the works that still exist. Any, and every color, may be employed in encaustic, for wax possesses the quality of pre- Hi THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. We introduce upon this page engravings of two Silver Jugs, which we have selected from the contributions of Mr. Joseph Angell, of Lon- don, designer and manufacturer of silver ware. The first is ornamented in relief with a vine bear- ing clusters of grapes, and we presume that it is intended for a claret jug ; the special object of the other we have not ascertained. In articles which, like these, are designed to be useful not less than ornamental, greater regard should be had to the fitness of the vessel's shape and ornament to its intended purpose. A jug may have all the ele- gance within the power of art to bestow, but, at the same time, the fact should not be forgotten that a fluid is to be contained in it, and poured from it, and its shape should be moulded with re- ference to these essential uses. Its mouth must be capacious enough to admit the hand in cleans- ing its interior, and to permit its contents to be poured out without the necessity of inverting it like a bottle, and the handles should be placed so as to facilitate this operation. In articles of utility, symmetry and elegance must not be con- sidered apart from use, but in connection with it, since what is abstractly graceful may beeomo less or not at all bo, when it is obviously misapplied to foreign or incompatible purposes. A design which would be noble and beautiful on the frescoed walls, or sculptured frieze of a temple, becomes ludicrous and vulgar if perpetrated in paper-hangings or wrought in a carpet. These principles are general in their scope and application, and the not infrequent violation of them which we shall have occasion to comment upon in the Re- cord, shows how necessary a wide-spread aesthetic culture is, before we can become a really civilized anl polished people. The Ganymede of Tliorwaldsen, the original work of that great sculptor, is exhibited by Edward Beoii, Esq., the Danish consul for New-York. In that beautiful mythology which, in every age, has furnished to the sculptor the finest subjects of his art, the son of Tros and Callirhoe is said to have sur- passed all mortals in beauty, for which, by command of Jupi- ter, he was carried off to heaven, where he was endowed with immortal youth, and made cup-bearer of the gods in place of Hebe. The sculptor, following the customary ex- ample of ancient art, represents a beautiful youth, with a Phrygian cap, kneeling, and giving food to the eagle from a patera. The ornamental Fire Grate here engraved, is exhibit- ed by George Walker, of New- York. The body, and the scroll-work with which it is profusely decorated, are excel- lent examples of fine castings in iron. The arched mould- ings surrounding the fire, and the horizontal moulding above, are covered with a brilliant varnish or enamel, and the space between them has Inndscape vignettes painted in colors and covered with plate-glass. THE NEW-YOI^K EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. 17 We fill another page with the beautiful statuettes and rases in Parian, exhibited by Mr. Copeland. The first in order is Undine, the water nymph of German romance, modelled after Pradier. The Vintage Vase, underneath, cotta commences the second column, and is follow ed by an antique VASE*with a design from the is ornamented with appropriate symbols — cluster-bearing vines which twine around the edge. That which follows, called the Georgian Vase, is eleven inches high; and is de- signed for the conservatory. A Hanging Basket in terra- Elgin marbles. The statuette, modelled after the Sutherland, represents Apollo when he was the shepherd boy of Admetus. The finest of all these productions is the poetical Saisri- na, modelled after Marshall, who represents her listening to the invocation of the brothers in Milton's Masque of Comus. Sabrina fair, Listen where thou art sitting Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, In twisted braids of lilies knittiDg The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair. original by Wyatt, in the gallery of the Duke of The page concludes with a statuette of Psyche. 18 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL RATIONS. — — L serving even the most evanescent. Encaustic painting shows great softness and delicacy, and does not, like an oil picture, become darker by time. It also reflects, instead of absorbing light, and on this account it is well seen by artificial light. Fresco painting is altogether a different process from that of 'encaustic. It is also, as remarked in the commencement of this article, far removed from what is called fresco in the United States, where this branch of art is almost entirely un- known. Fresco, as its name implies, is painted while the mortar is wet. A piece of stucco, composed of lime and sand, or lime and marble dust, is laid smoothly on the wall, when the artist marks out his design, or as much of it as he can com- plete (luring the day, for real fresco docs not admit of retouching when dry. But few colors are admissible in this process, as the causticity of the lime destroys all vegetable ones; the earths are used, aud some few oxides and minerals; the French Guimet blue (the artificial ultramarine) is very valuable, as it affords a substitute equal in appearance to the ultramarine, which formerly could only be obtained from the costly lapi?-lazuli. FreSfco is acknowledged to be the finest variety of decorative painting. Michael Anoelo said, that, compared with it, oil was fit only for women and children; and Vasaki calls it, "veramente il piu virile, piti sicuro, phi risoluto, e durabile, di tutte gli aitri modi." Great knowledge and skill are re- quired in each department of fresco, for no defects can be supplied, no mistakes remedied ; the higher qualities of art, as composition, accurate drawing, and har- monious arrangement of color, are the points to be aimed at ; grandeur and sim- plicity take the place of prettiness alid detail, a\l must be masterly and decided ; hence fresco is fitted to make great artists, and great designers, and we find that wherever it has taken deep root in a country, the arts have held a high position, as in Italy, and in our own day in Germany, where the great frescoes of Cornelius, OvEitBECK, Kattlbacii, Lessing, Hess, and Sohnoe, have rendered Munich illus- trious, and the resort of all who study or esteem the fine arts. The United States, at a distance from the great examples of European art, should endeavor to form a high standard of taste, both as a means of elegant cultivation, and in order to advance their manufactures, for it is impossi- ble for these to flourish where the arts of design are uncultivated. Take away taste and art from France, and what would become of her commerce ? Every branch of design, but more especially mural decoration, has a decided influence upon the manufactures of a country. It is natural to admire and study what is before and around us, and good taste, as well as sound judgment, is thus unconsciously promoted. THE NEW CRYSTAL PALACE. IT has always been a subject of deep regret with all who saw the London Crys- tal Palace that it should have vanished like a beautiful dream, almost before their eyes. It is known to all that the fairy-like structure of Hyde Park has been removed, that the ground which it covered is again *a verdant sward, and that no trace remains to remind the inhabitants of Eotten Row that the most wonderful structure of modern times once stood upon their inclosure. It may not, however, be so generally kjiown — and certainly not in the United States — that the removal of the Crystal Palace from Hyde Park has been only the prelude to its erection in a new and more beautiful form in the immediate vicinity of London. Many persons have affected to sneer at the Exhibition of 1851 as an ephemeral show, which made no more impression on the world's industry, than the^assing shadow upon the landscape. We do not envy such people either, their logic or their per- ceptions, nor do we propose to waste words upon them. It is sufficient to say that they forget, that as shadows cannot nowadays expect to escape if they fall upon the sensitive surface of a photographic paper or of a daguerreian plate, so the public mind by its peculiar preparation for the scene in question, received from the brief exhibition of 1851, an enduring impression, a daguerreotyping of new ideas — the leaven of whose vitality will continue to work long after the heads that planned and the hands that realized them, have ceased to be. One of the great lessons taught on that occasion, was the capacity of the masses to appreciate and enjoy the pleasures which flow from refined culture in whatever direction. This lesson was so palpably plain, that a company of enter- prising and most intelligent gentlemen was formed in London, who purchased the Hyde Park building of the Commissioners, with a view to erecting it in a new and more favorable situation. This they ha^e accomplished by securing a tract of ground, of over three hundred acres, in an inclosure known formerly as Penge Park, near Sydenham, in the county of Kent, about ^x miles from London. This company possesses a paid up capital of nearly four millions of dollars (£800,000), and the real estate on which the building is now re-erected, cost more money than the whole structure as it stood in London. Although the estab- lishment is as yet «ly in embryofit already gives promise of a new species of enjoy- ment, refined and elevating in its character. There on the brow and summit of a lull, which commands a panoramic view of surprising extent and loveliness, the New Crystal Palace is rising in loftier and more beautiful proportions thajj before. With its magnificent surroundings, and the treasures of Art and Nature contained within its transparent walls, it will be worthy to represent to present and to com- ing time, the wealth of that nation, and that vast and imperial sway, which Daniel Webster once thought a corresponding magnificence of language fitting to describe. The arch of the central transept is now two hundred and ten feet from the ground, and a transept of proportionate dimensions is erected at each end. By these changes the interior capacity of the building has been materially increased, although the length has been diminished in consequence of them from 1,848 to about 1,500 feet. In place of the flat, ridge-and-furrow roof, which covered and disfigured the nave in the original building, a curved roof of glass has been sub- stituted — whose light and graceful arches blend harmoniously with the aerial effect of the great transepts. Sir Joseph Paxton is fully empowered to convert the surrounding grounds into an Eden of rural delights. The form and situation of the property are admira- bly suited to the highest triumphs of landscape gardening. The sloping hill-side attains an altitude so commanding, that a panoramic view is obtained on all sides. The parks and fresh fields of the luxurious vale of Kent in the foreground, and London and the misty hills beyond, open like a map beneath the spectator. Here the weary artisan, the pleasure-seeking, or the toil-worn citizen may share in all the newness and joy of the country, within sight of the mighty capitol, — the .great throbbing heart of Christendom, — whose cloud of murky smoke which ever- lastingly hangs over it, speaks of wealth and power derived from a thousand work-shops of industry. For eighteen pence (about 35 cents), visitors are taken up and back to London, the visit to the Crystal Palace and its grounds being included. That is to say, a ride of twelve miles, and an enjoyment ad libitum in all the pleasures of the phice, may be had for a little less than the sum else- where paid in England, for twelve miles of railway travelling alone. The gentlemen who have formed this gigantic scheme to gratify and instruct the public, have done well to remember that its success depends upon its being perfectly accomplished, and that a restriction of expenditure which should mar any of its attractive features, would make the whole a magnificent failure in place of a triumphant success. Thus a million of dollars are devoted to the hy- draulic arrangements alone. Water is pumped by very powerful steam engines to supply fountains and jets d'eau of every variety and of surprising height, while cascades and lakes and streams are all created by the same illimitable power. Statues, temples of roses, and architectural decorations lend their power to embellish the rural attractions. The arrangement of the plants and trees, and floral decorations of the grounds, is made with reference to their geographical distribu- tion and character, as well as their beauty and picturesque effect. '.The principle everywhere prevails of uniting pleasure with instruction. Within the building there will be an epitome of the great world without. The visitor in wandering down the nave, will pass in succession the characteristic vegetation of every zone, represented by the choicest and most perfect specimens of its living plants and trees ; for under the lofty vaults of this new structure, the most ambitious palm-trees may rear their tufted heads. The immense collection of exotics formed during th£ last fifty years by the Messrs. Loddiges, near London, has been purchased for the sum of twenty*five thousand pounds, to adorn the establishment 'at Sydenham. These are disposed in the main entrance, hall, and porticoes, and are interspersed with statues and fountains, and at intervals, with aviaries of birds remarkable for their brilliant plumage or exquisite song. As the great original works of art can be seen only by a long and careful study of numerous museums scattered' over the whole of Europe, and the wonders of ancient architecture only by still more laborious and costly explorations of countries now not always civilized or easily accessible ; it is plain that such pleasures must be restricted to the few, who may possess the wealth and leisure required for such undertakings. It has therefore been the design to group toge- ther at Sydenham models — copies of exact size and color— of all the most noted statues and groups which have come down to us from ancient Greece and Rome. For this purpose alone some sixty thousand pounds sterling have been applied, — and many unique pieces ofsculpture have been thus reproduced for the first time. As, for example, the renowned equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, at Rome, upon the Capitoline Hill, which w.as never suffered to be modelled before. Numerous similar objects have been procured from the Museo Borbonico at Naples, and from other museums. The arrangements to exhibit ancient and foreign architecture, decorative arts and manners, both public and domestic, are upon a scalo of corresponding com- pleteness. Across the grand entrance transept, four largo and distinct courts are provided, — "one devoted to the exhibition of ihe Italian and revived classical styles of art in various branches; another to the Elizabethan, French; and Flem- ish renaissance; a third to the Mediaeval style, from its cloisters and tombs to its ivorjes and enamels; and a fourth to the Byzantine, Romanesque and Norman works of Decorative Art. On the opposite side the visitor will wander through an Egyptian Ball, with its multiplicity of columns all richly painted with deities and hieroglyphics, and pass into side courts constructed under the direction of Mr. I.avard, after the fashion of the palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis. From thence he finds his way into the less gorgeous, but more exquisite halls of Greoce, where vases of the finest contour, statues of faultless proportions, and models of the most THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. 19 beautiful public Jhonuments of this most polished nation of the ancient world will court his study. Thence the Roman Court is reached, filled with specimens of the arts of those old masters of the world ; less pure than Greece in their tastes, but perhaps more real." A Roman house, copied in all its details from Pompeii, and of actual size, about two hundred feet front, will convey a vivid impression of the interior life of a wealthy Roman, at the commencement of the Christian era. Adjoining this, Owen Jones lias reconstructed the famous Hall of Lions of the Alhambra. Here, then, for the first time will it be possible to contrast, by actual examples of each, the characteristic styles of all ages aud countries. The various raw materials, gathered from the surface, or torn from the bosom of our planet, the products of primeval creation, or of annual growth, are ar- ranged under the supervision of Prof. John Wilson, (one of the British commis- sioners to the American Exhibition.) The elements of civilisation will be dis- played in such a manner as to show the various stages, and as far as practicable, the various processes of their manufacture under chemical or mechanical treatment, by which science combines theiu to minister to the comfort of life and the grandeur of nations. Models of mines, and of mining machinery — maps, plans, and sections of works, will be fully supplied. In Geology, under the direction of Prof. Ansted, the structure of the earth, and of its various tribes of extinct animals and plants, will be represented in a style and with a completeness never before attempted. For instance, the monsters which inhabited our planet at epochs infinitely remote, and whose forms it is the glory of the distinguished palaeontologists, Cuvier, and Mantel], and Owen, to have built up by induction from fragmentary, and often a soli- tary relic of them, — these tyrants of the Age of Reptiles, will be exhibited in lifelike and colossal reality. In the lake there will be two islands, of which one will represent the tertiary, and the other the secondary epoch, and each reptile will stretch or coil his huge length on the rock, wealden, or chalk, or lias, which was characteristic of the time of his existence. Here the astounded student will see Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, and all other saurians of whatever imaginable name, or shape, or size, as they looked while they were still gambolling in the flesh, in the morning of that antique world, from whose ruins we dig their bones. They are not the only inhabitants of these novel islands. Beneath the appropriate vegetation, mostly coniferous trees, may be seen the Labyrinthodon, a frog twelve feet long ; the Megatherium, a huge sloth fifteen feet high ; Dr. Mantell's gigantic Iguanodon; and lastly, that monument of Prof. Owen's anatomical skill, the Dinornis, a bird twenty feet high, or thereabouts, a sort of antediluvian ostrich. The department of Zoology is under the direction of Dr. Edward Forbes, and Messrs. Gould and Waterhouse. It is not their intention to repeat the ridiculous caricatures of the animal kingdom so common in ordinary museums. Both the living and the stuffed examples in their charge will be distributed geographically, and surrounded witli the plants and other accompaniments peculiar to their native haunts, whether in caves, or in jungles, or forests. In pursuance of this ad- mirable scheme, aquatic vivaria, huge tanks of fresh and sea water are provided, in which fish that once " through groves of coral strayed," or in osier-fringed streams, will again, under the delighted eye of the spectator, , "Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold." And witli them, mollusks and crustaceans, polypi and corallines, and all the off- spring of the sea, will display to the public gaze their infinite variety of curious forms and brilliant colors, hitherto unseen in their living beauty, save by the pa- tient naturalist in remote islands and on solitary shores. Dr. Latham, well known in the United States for his thorough scholarship and excellent philological writings,»is the director of the department of Ethnology. Like Prichard, he prefers to make moral and mental peculiarities the basis of his study and division of mankind. Whatever we may think of this, it is impossible not to admire the energy with which he addresses himself to the task of forming a museum. Whatever can illustrate the different types and varieties of mankind, whatever can throw light upon their moral, mental, or physical characteristics, is a tonne louche to Dr. Latham. Trinkets, weapons, and utensils, specimens of cloth- ing, of language and traditions, specimens of hair, skulls, and plaster-casts, are gathered and arranged with vivacious zeal. Foreigners, of either sex, coming to London from beyond the sea, are coaxed or bribed, to submit themselves ait naturel to Dr. Latham, who forthwith models them at full length in plaster. The upper galleries will be entirely devoted to the exhibition of the Industrial Arts. These, overlooking the transept, will be apportioned to works in the precious metals, china, porcelain, and glass. Cloths, furs, leather, &c — will find their places in the northern galleries ; substances, used as food, in those opposite. Philosophical and musical instruments, and all miscellaneous manufactured articles, have also their localities. • We hane dwelt somewhat particularly on this subject, drawing our informa- tion from the Art Journal, and from private sources, partly for the sake of an- swering in some sense the inquiries of those who are more fond of asking, what good comes of such exhibitions — than of appreciating what is so plain to others — and partly for the suggestions which so naturally flow from it as to the future of our own enterprise. Speaking of this new phase of the London building, Mr. Hall says — " It was fitting that so vast and interminable a city should have its palace for the people, great as itself, and like itself, an epitome of the world; that its structure should be novel, and not hacKneyed ; that its contents should rank higher than the amusing, and should reach such a pitch of excellence, that instruc- tion and knowledge of the most refined kind should be conveyed through the me- dium of the eye to all visitors ; in a word, that the eye of the sight-seer should never weary of looking, while the mind should almost unconsciously imbibe knowledge, and that of a kind fully equal to the standard of modern excellence. Here many "long in populous city pent," will recreate themselves in body and mind as effectually as a nobleman used to do by any European tour. Nay more ; for here -\jill the wonders of the Old and the New Worlds unite to show twice their beauties. Nature woos him in the gardens, and Art within the walls of this Temple of Fame." •We seem to see, in the plan of the new Crystal Palace, and in the grand ideas embodied in its arrangement, the germ of something likely to bud and bear fruit in the United States. We would add, before closing, that the funds accumu- lated as the net profit* of the Exhibition of 1851, which amount to £170,000, are about to be invested in the establishment of an Industrial College, for the benefit of all who may choose to become its pupils. We soon expect to receive a copy of the report upon this subject, prepared by Dr. Lyon Pi.ayfair, who has visited, in its preparation, all the establishments of a like character on the continent. Dr. Playfair's appointment by the Crown to the office of Royal Commissioner for science is one of the fruits of the Exhibition of 1851. This is the first official recognition of the claims of science on the part of the Government of England — the incumbent of this office taking rank with the other high officers of. State. When the report alluded to reaches us, we shall take care to lay its main features before the readers of the Record. BIRAM'S ANEMOMETER. THE instrument figured below, is designed for the purpose of registering the current of air in mines. The importance of having some ready method of 1 measuring and registering the quantity of air circulating through the galleries and shafts of coal mines, is fully admitted by coal-viewers. In the recent report of the committee appointed by the British House of Commons, for inquiring into the causes of accidents in coal mines — the adoption of some mode of measurement and registry, is strongly recommended. In the United States, the same degree of necessity for such precautions has not yet been reached, partly because our mines of bituminous coals are as yet comparatively shallow, and more because anthracitic coals (which are more, extensively wrought in Pennsylvania than the bitumin- ous) yield comparatively little of the combustible gases so abundantly exhaled from the bituminous coals. In order to displace by fresh air these poisonous gases, as also the smoke of gunpowder, of lamps, and the products of respiration, it is re- quisite to build a fire in one of the shafts of the mine, and to keep it up at all times; the air passages of the mine being so arranged with doors and openings, that the draught of the furnace shall cause a movement of the stagnant air in the galleries. Biram's Anemometer is designed to register these movements of the air, which it does by a combination of wheels with indices, similar to a gas meter. It is only twelve inches in diame- ter, and weighs about 2^ lbs. Any slacken- ing of the furnace or inattention in the fur- nace man, will be at once detected by the registry of this simple apparatus. The observ- er has only to record the position of the sev- • eral indices at the first observation, and deduct the amount from their position at the second observation, to ascertain the velocity of the air which has passed during the interval ; this mul- tiplied into the area in feet of the passage where the instrument is placed, will show the number of cubic feet which have passed during the same period. 20 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. Within a few years articles in terra-cotta have come into extensive use for architectural and other ornaments, and this brunch of art-manufacture has been carried to ' ' • iiiid great excellence and beauty. The materials used are the finest clays, free from oxyd of iron, which are mixed with calcined flints and crushed pottery, and baked at a temperature but little below fusion. Modern terra- cottas are quite different from the articles known among the ancients under that name, and are much more dura- ble. The beautiful examples engraved upon this page are exhibited by Henry Doulton & Co., of Lambeth. They consist of an ivy-wreathed Vase, a Vink Basket, a Water Cooler, with decorations in the- medieval style, and a group of Grecian and Gothic vases for a terrace or conservatory. The models are graceful, and the ornaments are applied willi excellent taste and effect. In an industrial point of view, the Staffordshire pot- teries are one of the most interesting localities in Eng- land. From thence come the fine porcelain services, which at the tables of the noble and wealthy are ad- mired as triumphs of artistic and manufacturing skill, and the coarser varieties of earthenware for everyday use, which are produced by hundreds of thousands, and may be found in every cottage the world over. The I Service, exhibited by Messrs. Ridgway & Co., one of the group at the top of the page is an elegant porcelain Tea | largest of the Staffordshire manufacturers. THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. We engra* e upon this page two stained cuss win- dows, which are creditable specimens of this beautiful art. They are contributed by Mr. Holland, of St. Johns Warwick. The one on the left is eight feet and nine inches in height, by two feet and two inches wide. It repre- sents St. John holding in one hand the emblematic cup, and standing beneath a perpendicular canopy. The other is on a somewhat larger scale, being ten feet in height, and three feet two inches wide. The design of this presents Christ, holding the symbols of universal em pire, and surrounded with the twelve Apostles, whose figures are placed in the shafts of the canopy. The Terra Cottas on this page are contributed by Messrs. Tolman, Hathaway & Stone, of Worcester, Mass. They consist of a Corinthian Capital and Modil- lion, and a Gothic Pinnacle. The manufacture of Terra Cotta is yet in its infancy in this country, and the ex- amples, though creditable to the enterprise of those who 21 have commenced this business, cannot be compared with the artistic works in this material found in other quar- ters of the Exhibition, especially the Italian. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. We have elsewhere alluded to the extent and import- ance of the Staffordshire potteries, among whose pro- ductions, those of Messrs. J. Ridowav & Co., have a high rank for their beauty and general excellence. From the numerous contributions of this firm, we engrave upon this page a Porcelain Fountain, whose elegance will at onco commend it to the reader. The ground color is an orange red, bearing white rosettes, while the remaining decorations are gilt. Its height is about four feet. The Shakespeare Cup, executed in gold, is the produc- tion of Mr. Thomas Sharp, London, by whom the same design in silver was exhibited in the Palace of Hyde Park. The cover of this beautiful work is surmounted by a figure of the immortal poet, and scenes from his plays decorate the sides. The subjects are from Lear, SIP Julius Cassar, The Tempest, Othello, Hamlet, and Mac- beth. In the divisions on the foot are emblems which refer to the groups above. The group, representing part of a Porcelain Service, is exhibited by Messrs. Sampson, Bridgwood & Sons. The articles of this service, both in their contour and the simplicity of their decoration, are examples of good taste and refinement. An exquisite specimen of the goldsmith's art is seen in a Casket, exhibited by Mr. Joseph Angell, of London. I The design represents Anthony and Cleopatra, and in I matic of love and war. The casket is seven inches by It is executed in raised silver, with the medallions gilt. | harmony with such a subject, figures are added emble- | five, and seven high. 22 THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. The silver Centre Dish here engraved, is exhibited by Mr. Joseph Angell, Strand, London, manufacturer and designer of silver ware. It is executed in solid In bookbinding, the true purpose of the art — to pro- tect the volume within it — is so often overlooked, or rather, so systematically neglected and set at defiance, that we are glad to illustrate a contrary instance which has our entire approval. This notable exception to the general rule is exhibited by Mathews ik Rider, of New- York. It will attract attention and praise, but whe- ther so much as it deserves is doubtfuL For there is no glare or tinsel about it, no uncomfortably red sheepskin morocco, with gaudy bronze gilding, the baser metal outfacing genuine gold; no deceptive stamp- ed-woi k, whose endless repetitions of even a pretty pat- tern become wearisome, and can never hope to rival the exquisite finish of an accomplished workman. It has none of these popular passports to favor, but is a solid, substantial, and honest piece of work throughout, exe- cuted at an expense of time and labor, which the most of our readers would think fabulous, and therefore we shall say nothing about it. The design is beautiful, ap- propriate and rich — as it is befitting that the cover of silver and heavily gilt, found on another page. The companion piece will be The Chandelier, profusely furnished with prismatic glass pendants, is contributed by Hi. J. T. Hall, England. Owen Jones's Illustrations of the Alhambra should be — and withal as modest as rich. This example will show that the art of bookbinding is not unknown, though, we confess, not often practised among us. 1 ■lllllll THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. Thokwaldsen's Christ and his Apostles is the subject to which we consecrate this page. This group is ex- hibited by its proprietor, Edward Bech, Esq., Danish Consul for New- York, and has been arranged under the special superintendence of Messrs. Carstenben & Gilder- meister, the Architects of the Crystal Palace, and J. T. Elnnewekr, artist of Thorwaldsen's Museum, Copen- hagen. The statues now exhibited are Thorwaldsen's originals, once standing in the Metropolitan Church in Copenhagen, where they were replaced by marble. In the Metropolitan Church they are so placed that the figure of Christ stands about fifty feet distant from the Apostles, and elevated three or four feet above the altar. This arrangement was impossible in the contracted space as- signed to the group in the American Exhibition, and hence the Christ appears unduly gigantic, when brought into the same circle with the statues of the Apostles. The grouping in our engraving differs from the actual ar- rangement, and has been devised by the designer to bring all the figures of thi8 august assembly within the limits of the page, while the size of the Christ has been purposely reduced to conform to the original intention of the artist. It is impossible by any engraving, unless it be on a very large scale, to convey any proper notion of the impression made by this wonderful group upon the spectator. Christian art has reached, in this immor- tal work of Thorwaldsen, its noblest expression. It is un- doubtedly the great artistic feature of the Exhibition, a subject of universal and eternal interest, touching the springs of deepest feeling in the human heart. Ancient Art, while it has left us nothing nobler in execution, never handled so sublime a theme. We proeeed to enumerate the figures as they stand in the exhibition, as the characteristic marks of each will enable the reader at once to recog- nize the corresponding figure in our engraving. Christ, the arisen Saviour, appears in the midst of his assembled Apostles, greeting them with the words, " Peace be unto you." The expression of the whole figure is exactly such as meets the most lofty conception of his appearance before his " terrified and affrighted " disciples, when he said unto them, " Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" In the beautiful countenance the artist has reproduced in their best form those features which Christian art has handed down from generation to generation as peculiar to Christ. The hair is parted on the middle of the head, and flows curling in rich abundance over his shoulders. The breast, the partly elevated hands, and the feet show the seal's of the lance, and the laceration of the nails, convincing even the incredulous Thomas that it was, indeed, his Lord. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles (1st statue on the right of Christ), holds a sword as the symbol of his martyrdom, while, with his right hand raised to heaven, he appears to exhort his companions to new faith in their Master's service. His countenance bears the expression of that deep thought which distinguished him as the most learned among the "glorious company of the Apos- tles." This Apostle is substituted for Judas. Peter, the first statue on the left of Christ, holds in his hand the keys of power. Simon Zelotes (2d statue on the right), holds in his right hand the saw, in testimony of the mode of his martyrdom ; the left hand resting on the right wrist. Matthew (2d statue on the left), the publican, with the emblematic money-bag at his feet, holds a tablet in his hand, and appears lost in meditation upon the great theme which, in his office of Evangelist, he is about to commit to record. An angel, emblem of his evangelical mission, kneels at his side. 24 Bartholomew (3d statue on the right), holds in his right hand the knife, emblematic of his death, inflicted according to tradition by the orders of Astyages, the Armenian King. John (3d statue on the left), raises his face in adora- tion, full of that sweetness of expression which we ever associate with "the beloved disciple." By his left side is seated an eagle, the emblem of his angelic mission. James (4th statue on the right), the brother of John, is about to set out on his apostolic journey. He carries the pilgrim's staff on his right-hand, and on his back the broad-brimmed hat of the Palmer. James, son of Alfheus (4th statue to the left), sup- ports his left-hand on a staff. The right-hand rests on the left arm. Beneath his flowing locks is seen the mild countenance, bearing that resemblance which this Apostle is said to have had to his divine Master Thomas (5th statue to the right), holds in his left hand the square, as a symbol of his doubting mind. His right hand supports his head. Philip (5th statue on the left). This aged Apostle, borne down with cares and years, carries in his right- hand a cross of cane. Andrew (6th statue to the right), holds in his left hand a scroll of parchment, bearing on his right arm the cross of his martyrdom. Lastly — Thaddeus (6th statue to the left), joins his hands in ador- ation. His left arm supports the executioner's axe, by which he bore testimony to his Lord in the death of a martyr. Of the Apostles, those of St. Peter and St. Paul were alone entirely modelled by Thorwaldsen himself. The Christ and all the others were modelled from Thorwald- sen's sketches by his pupils, and only finished by himself. The St. James was, of all the group, the great Sculp- tor's favorite. THE NEW-YOKK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. The open space beneath the dome of the Crystal Palace is occupied, in the centre, by an equestrian statue of Washington, by Baron Marochetti, of pied- mont, but now, we believe, resident in London. It is a model in plaster of colossal size, and proposed to be executed in bronze. Baron Marochetti has designed other equestrian and colossal statues ; one of the Duke of Orleans, which formerly stood in the square of the Louvre, and another of Richard the L'°n-hearted king of England, which was exhibited at the Worlds Fair, and was honored with a Council Medal. The Washington has received the place of honor in our Crystal Palace, in deference, we believe, to the ad- 25 miration universally enterta.ned for the character of our most illustrious countryman, and out of respect o the love for him which every American mstinctn ely cherishes. As a work of Art it has not met the appr* elation gratifying to an artist. Our own opinion and criticism we defer to another occasion. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. In the manufacture of textile fabrics of every description, there is a wide field for the exercise of taste in the application of orna- mental designs. The beauty and richness of a fine fabric receive a double charm from the ex- cellence of the design that adorns them, while a bad or inferior one detracts from whatever good qualities may belong to the manufacture itself. In employment of the floral ornaments especially, it is a serious and common fault to aim at reproducing the flowers naturally, to repre- sent perfect fac-similies of them, in a strong and vivid coloring. Nothing can be more erro- neous, and essentially vulgar, as would be evi- I THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. We give an engraving in outline of The Dancing Girl Reposing, by W. C. Marshall, A. R. A. The sta- tue was executed in marble for the Art-Union of London, reproduced in statuary porcelain, and issued as prizes to It is seldom that we meet with fine workmanship and beauty of dtsign united so harmoniously as in the Clock Case, contributed by Mr, Thomas Sharp. London. The design is highly poetical. Time, with his aucieut their subscribers. The figure is well modelled, and the attitude and drapery indicate very completely the idea of repose. The First Whisper of Love is another characteristic work. The young girl who bends her head coyly, but not unwillingly, to hear what Cupid has to say, evidently does not know what manner of guest it is she entertains, or see the arrow which he holds ready to pierce her unsus- pecting breast. symbols, sits above and watches the evolutions of morn- ing and night. The former is symbolized by a winged figure crowned with flowers, who bears in one hand the torch of Aurora, and with the rosy fingers of the other, scatters light upon the dewy earth. The figure of night bears a sleeping infant in her folded arms. Beneath is perched the cock, whose clarion With lively din, Scatters the rear of darkness thin. Opposite is the solemn bird equally consecrated to night and to Minerva. The Upright Piano, engraved here, is exhibited by William Stooart & Son, London. ST THE INDUS THY OF ALL NATIONS. Tlie Boar's Head, in bronze relievo, and the casting beneath it, from a specimen of Crassuln portulacoides, are exhibited by Clemente Pa.ppt, of Florence, Tuscany. The moulds of these castings were formed directly from the natural objects which they represent, and have We again recur with pleasure to the attrac- The centre piece which we cngrnve represents the tive contributions of silver ware by Mr. Angel. Halt in tue Desert of a party of Arabs beneath not been subjected to any finishing process. They exhibit great skill in the management of the materials. the grateful shade of a Date palm. It is thirty I is valued at $1,750. At the foot of the page inches high, contains 400 ounces of silver, and | we engrave a Silver Basket, contributed by the same house. It is beautifully wrought, and pierced in imitation of antique silver ware, and surrounded with a chased edge. 23 THE N E W • Y O R K EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATE I > . ART. IIE Department of Fine Arts in the Exhibition will do us the great service of showing us our position in relation to that of the rest of the world. Genius, history proves, is not hereditary. TJie children of a king are not necessarily kings: nor the heirs of a painter, artists. Nor has Art any preference for particular times or countries, being a universal fact of human development. But the aspects and forms of Art are as different as the spirit of different ages and climates. It need be - no shame to us that we have not originated a style of architecture, nor a school of paint- ing. For Art is strictly related to the circumstances of life that surround it. It is the application of beauty to use. The per- ception of beauty, indeed, is quite independent of use. But, since there is nothing superfluous in nature, use will always be found beneath beauty. That Art, therefore, will have its proper place in our de- velopment, is not a matter of speculation, but of science. It is not proved by the erection of Greek temples for banking-houses, or of ameliorated Gothic cathedrals for Protestant churches, but it is to be found in the thousand new aspects that belong to our new life. The Greek temple arose naturally from the study and combination of the architecture of an earlier people. It bears the same relation to the Egyptian, that *rft Greek character bore to that of its elder neighbor. It is, perhaps, the best, as it is the most permanent material monument of that character. The inexperienced mind would instantly infer the poetic har- mony of the religion and of the intellectual development, which presided in the Construction of those temples. It would be sure that no barbarous fetish rites, but a high poetic worship, had place there. It is this strict relation of Greek Art to the Greek character that makes that Art so eminent and complete. The same thing is true of Gothic Art in Germany, which is equally the elaborate and appropriate expression of a peculiar sentiment and form of life. The essential point seems to be, the existence of some characteristic and national life. The national Art will be the expression of that life in the various moulds into which it casts itself. A maritime nation, the soul of whose prosperity and interest is commerce, will build fine ships. An inland people, who depend upon safe and prompt intercourse with others, will show magnificent roads, bridges, and aque- ducts. Each country and century will work in its own way. In the degree that the composition of the people is eclectic, so will be the spirit of their career, and so necessarily must be their Art. The Art of France, for instance, is bijouterie. French pictures, French statues, French architecture, are merely copies and echoes of others. They are infected by what we call " Frenchiness," by which we mean that they are works indigenous to another feeling and development than the French, which the French has merely touched, without essentially changing — cer- tainly without improving. But the case is very different with the matter of bijouterie. Now this department is peculiarly French, and therefore it is France that gives the name to it. The American character partakes of the same eclecticism, and we must look for it in American Art. It will show works of every spirit and age; but its dis- tinctive works of Art will belong rather to the department of the useful than of the fine. Scarcely in GreeW sculpture are there finer works than some of Poweks' busts' and statues ;. yet, just in proportion as his work is excellent, it is not American but Greek. We may erect bronze figures in memory of our great men ; but neither the idea nor the execution are peculiarly our own. But a yacht that outsails all other yachts, a caloric engine, and a magnetic telegraph, are achievements not possible in Rome, or Greece, or mediaeval Europe. We do not mean to decry every thing but the spinning jenny and the locomotive. On the contrary, it is in an eclecticism, or the union of various excellencies that distinguishes our national character, that we find the best reason for believing that we shall in time exhibit not only what is peculiar to ourselves, but what is best in many developments ; that as a rich mind borrows from all times and countries, the graces of their genius, and yet does not sacrifice to them the integrity of its own, so we shall incorporate what is characteristic of others with what is essentially our own. Because we build ships well, it is a pity we should have no pictures; and because the Gothic architecture is not indigenous with us, there is no reason why we should have unhandsome houses. We look to this Exhibition, therefore, to indicate the quality of our genius for the Fine Arts, as distinguished from the useful — terms which are more convenient than accurate, especially in a country where, as we apprehend, the useful will be the fine. As civilisation advances, the sphere of Art enlarges. It regards not only the exterior form of the house, but the details of the interior. It is to be sought in the harmonious blending of the whole. The forms of the furniture, of the name- less devices of comfort and luxury are all considered by it, and all in reference to a general effect. The quality of the influence thus exercised, is much to'o subtle to be exactly appreciated. It is not possible to determine just how much it benefits a man to see an exquisite vase, or to hear a fine strain of music. But it is very easy to perceive that he who is subject to the constant influence of beautiful forms, is in a fair way to have beautiful feelings. There are few spots more pleasantly remembered than the gallery of vases in the Vatican. It is a region of purity, and grace, and exquisite thought : an air of cool repose pervades it. But the visitor, as he hurries toward the cartoons of Raphael beyond, pauses amid these lyrics of grace, and finds that they are only the forms of useful objects. The form feasts his ?ense of beauty as the vases them- selves served other and more material uses. And when he has left them, and confronts the cartoons, he finds that they, also, are but curtain-designs drawn by Raphael. So, in what we are accustomed to call the highest and most rigorous Art, is the plainest use hidden in beaut}'. How then can we doubt of our own proficiency, if we see that Art itself is, really, not a whim or a caprice, but a necessity ? It will be our duty in recording the Department of the Fine Arts in the Exhi- bition, to insist rigorously (where we do more than describe) upon the obvious principles of simplicity and truthfulness. Irrelevance in a work of Art, as in all other modes of expression, is deformity. It destroys the force of the effect by distracting the mind. Simplicity may be as rich as imagination can make it. A superb queen in diamonds, who is so beautiful an. jfT f> \iu^?4 urAt °^^ rt ' n fcne Crystal Palace, and such objects UH^t ^ jl^P comprise about nine-tenths of the articles ex- ^^^ 6s /^uJ^' v^^^^\_ hibited, but the benefit to Art will depend ■^f^^C^Cr C^^^^V ®M vel ^ mucu ll P on tue d e g ree of intelligence with (2 wuMfrnX ^f) ffi\f<$^k^^' w ^" cn tnc Exhibition is examined. If those »3v ^fc \ ^rm Wrnu ifBSMSlLi who visit the Crystal Palace, with tin.- hope ^BS^«^f-V/ ssrs. Garrard. It was modelled by Edmund Cotteril, and re- flects credit upon his artistic talent and skill. The aeeue is thai famous inter- view in which the Duchess meets the renowned Don Quixote and his squire, with whose laugh- able knight-errantry all Spain had become fa- miliar through the genius of Cervantes. The characteristics of the knight and his Rosinante, of Sancho and his Dapple, as they live in the gra- servingof particular attention. A great variety of tints are produced, from the green peculiar to bronze, to the rich and mellow shades of phie descriptions of Cervantes, are faithfully rendered in the silver. The remainder of the pasre is occupied with two Bronze Vases and their details, exhibit- ed by Lerolle, Freues. We can hardly speak in terms of too high praise of the French golden-brown. The bronze alloy is usually made iu the following proportions: copper, 82 parts; zinc, 18; pewter, 3; lead, 1$. Six bronzes, a branch of art-manufacture that has become eminently Parisian. For these beautiful works the most celebrated artists furnish the designs, and they are executed l>y workmen whose taste and manipulative skill entitle them to the name of artists also. The color of the French bronzes, which depends on peculiar processes, both in the first and final operations, is de- Si thousand workmen arc employed in Paris in the manufacture of bronzes THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. One of the most effective works of art exhibited in the Italian department of the Exhibition, is that which we engrave upon this page — the Eve after tub Fall. The WHIlNEi- lOCiLVU sculptor, Pietko Pagaxi, of Milan, lias admirably succeeded in representing the an- guish and horror which filled the bosom of Eve, when the voice in the garden pro- nounced the sentence for her fatal act, and revealed its inevitable inheritance of ills. is in the Norman style of decoration. The subjects are from the life of Christ: The Raising of Lazarus, and of the Widow's Son. The Baptismal Font, cut from Piototl stone, in the style of the early Gothic, is the chaste production of Felix Moroan, of Quebec. The Stained Glass Window, contributed by Mr. Holland, of St Johns, Warwick, A Cottage Piano, which is tastefully carved, decorated with the national flaee of England and the United States, is exhibited by the Earl op Carlisle. N E W - Y 0 K K CRYSTAL PALACE — I S T B K I O 11 VIEW SO. I. THE NEW -YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. MOSAICS. HERE are few objects of art more entirely novel to American visitors at the Crystal Palace, than the Roman and Florentine mosaics — in the Italian apartment. This is one of the few branches of art in which modern skill and taste have shown themselves equal, and, indeed, su- perior to the ancient. The Florentine mosaics in hard stones are almost exclusively of modern origin. We allude of course to the employment of various natural minerals cut and inlaid in a solid basis of black or other mar- ble, in such a manner as to produce the eftect of a fine paint- ing. The ancients were well skilled in a method of their own for producing mosaic pictures on walls and pavements, but their mode of the mosaic art was, as we shall presently show, quite distinct from the modern pieire dure, or hard stone mosaics. As this art in all its branches is quite unknown in the United States, we propose to give some account of it for the informa- tion of the general reader. Mosaics are imitations of paintings and of natural objects, by means of colored stones, pieces of glass, and even of wood of different colors, cemented together with much art. The Italian musaico and the French mosaique originated from the word musaicon of the Byzantine Greeks, who reintroduced the art into Italy in the 13th century, after it had been driven out in the fifth century by the distracted state of the country during the fall of the Roman Empire. Little is known of its early history. It probably originated in the East, was improved by the Greeks, and was conveyed to Italy during the time of Sylla, a century before the Christian Era. Some writers have amused themselves by tracing the origin of this art to Moses, and from him its name. A more probable conjecture regarding the origin of the name is that which refers it to the Greek word iiovvetov, (museum) the original meaning of which was a grotto consecrated to the Muses. From the circumstance that mosaic work was often used for the decoration of the interior of grottoes, the name of* these rural retreats came to be applied naturally enough to the work itself! In Italy, and indeed in all countries occupied by the ancient Romans, many pavements and floors ornamented with mosaic work have been discovered. More ancient, probably, than these, are the mosaic pavements discovered in the ruins of Carthage. The ancient Roman mosaic was formed almost exclusively out of small square bits of various colored marbles, serpentines, porphyries, and other colored stones set in a lime cement. These stones were arranged in various regu- lar patterns to form fretted borders — white and black being frequently the sole colors — while the central space was decorated either with geometrical figures, or with copies of various natural objects. The Romans were, however, by no means confined to the use of fragments of natural stones to produce their mosaics, but they also employed brilliantly colored enamels similar to those in use in the mosaics of modern Rome. Among the most celebrated of the ancient Roman mosaics which have come down to our times is " Punt's Doves " in the Capitol Museum at Rome. This exquisite work is very perfectly preserved and represents four doves standing on the lip of a vase of water ; one is drinking, while the others are pluming their feathers. A beautiful border surrounds the composition, which was designed and used as a pavement in one of the apartments of a Roman house. It was found in Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, in 1737, by Cardinal Furietti. Natural stones alone are used in its composition, and these are so small that 760 have been counted in a single square inch of the surface. This is believed by antiquaries to be the same work of art which so excited the admiration of Pliny that he describes it in his 35th book. He says, " There is at Pergamos a wonderful specimen in mosaic of a dove drinking and darkening the water with the shadow of her head, while on the lip of the vase others are pluming themselves." This beautiful antique is so constantly reproduced in modern copies, both in mosaic and in sculpture, that it is probably familiar to all. The excavations at Pompeii have brought to light numerous examples of an- cient Roman mosaics, and some of them are exquisitely beautiful, both in execu- tion and design. Such is the noble composition known as the " Battle piece," found in the house of the Fawn, and now in the Museum at Naples. It contains over twenty figures of mounted horsemen in close conflict — some are fallen and trampled underfoot, while others are fiercely engaged hand to hand in deadly combat. The gay costumes of the warriors — the polished circular shields in which are seen reflections of the combatants — and especially the ancient war chariot with four horses abreast, and containing apparently the leader of the onset with his charioteer — all combine to produce a most spirited picture, and to con- vey a vivid impression of the arms and mode of ancient warfare. The figures in this remarkable mosaic are nearly of life size, and the colors are produced by glass enamels as well as by natural stones. The chained dog with the inscription " Cave Canem" (beware the dog), is a most life-like and startling mosaic which formed the floor at the entrance of the house of the Edile, Glaucus. Another well-known and beautiful example from the same city, is a casket of jewels, from the open top of which two doves are drawing a necklace of pearls. This last-named mosaic has been suffered to re- main where it was found in the pavement of one of the apartments in the so- called house of Sallust. It is formed entirely of small squares of various natural stones. The only representative of the ancient Roman mosaic pavement found in modern Italy is the Scagliola, in which irregular shaped fragments of various sizes of colored marble are imbedded in a calcareous cement, sometimes in symmetrical patterns, and afterwards polished down to an even surface. Such are the com- mon floors of modern Italian houses— so well suited to the climate and habits of the country. It has been suggested that the mosaic pavements of the Romans were formed by arranging the separate pieces in an inverted position on a flat surface upon which the design had been traced in outline, and then covering the back or underside of the whole system of pieces with the cement which was to secure them in place. Afterward the whole mass being turned over and secured in its destined position, a perfectly level surface could be secured without the trouble of grinding or polishing down the irregularities which would certainly exist if the mosaic had been formed in the position in which it was to remain, owing to tho impossibility of inserting such minute fragments in a soft and yielding basis to a perfectly uniform level. This explanation is probably the true one. The Modern Roman Mosaics are exclusively of glass enamels. The prepara- tion of the pastes or colored glasses (always opaque), forms a separate branch of industry ; they are made of very fusible materials, colored by oxyds of metals and tempered to every possible shade of color. It is said that the magazines of the papal manufactory of mosaics in the Vatican, embrace not less than 10,000 shades of the various colors. These enamels are drawn into rods or sticks like sealing-wax, of various sizes, according to the work to be done, and are skilfully arranged in a series of compartments to facilitate the artist in the rapid prosecu- tion of his work. From the ends of these colored rods, bits are broken oft' by the artist, who then sticks them upon a bed of soft cement, formed of quicklime, pulverized limestone and linseed oil. This cement is evenly spread upon a sur- face of metal or a slab of stone, and upon it is traced an outline of the picture or work to be copied. Following this tracing, and with the original pictures placed on an easel beside him, the artist proceeds in the most laborious and patient manner to select and arrange the shades of color necessary to form a perfect copy of the work. These tints must not only be skilfully selected for color, but the individual bits must also be made to fit each other, leaving no spaces between themselves. For this purpose he has frequent recourse to the blow-pipe lamp, in whose flame the enamel easily melts, and may be drawn out to the required size and form. When the whole surface has been thus covered, some weeks or months are required for the cement to become hard and firm enough to withstand the last process. This consists in grinding down by emery powder the uneven surface of the mosaic, until a perfect level and a beautiful polish are produced. It is only after this last step that the beauty of the design and the perfection of the work can be judged of. Before polishing, the surface presents only a dull, rough appearance — seemingly a very imperfect copy of the original. The time consumed in producing by this method copies of large pictures is very great. For example, the transfiguration by Raphael, copied in mosaic for the decoration of St. Peter's (a mosaic probably 30 feet high), occupied several men over twenty years. When once, however, a grand work is produced in mosaic, it is as nearly immortal as it is possible for man to make any thing. The materials employed are liable to no change from the causes which render oil paintings and even frescoes so destructi- ble. Undiminished in the brilliancy of its colors and untarnished by time, it goes down to posterity exactly as it came from the hands of the artist. Fire may de- face and violence may destroy it, but from all other causes of decay and injury it is exempt. We well remember the feeling of amazement with which we gazed for the first time on the mosaics of St. Peter's and of St. Mark's at Venice. It is only by close inspection that the observer detects that the beautiful copies with which St. Peter's is lined are not either oil paintings or frescoes, so perfectly are the forms and tints of the originals reproduced in so unmanageable a material as glass enamel. For works to be seen close at hand as in tables, brooches, and small copies of works of art, the size of the individual pieces composing the mo- saic is very small, so that the several parts can be detected only by a close inspection. On the other hand, for works to bo placed in the domes of churches or on lofty side-walls, the pieces employed are of considerable size. The dome of St. Peter's for example, is entirely lined with gold mosaic, in which are set mosaic medallions of cherubs, angels, and other appropriate figures. From below, at the dis- tance of 400 feet, these have all the softness of paintings, but the observer is astonished on coming close to them to find the pieces of enamel so large that not more than four are required for a square inch of surface. The size of the mosaic pieces selected for a given work must be the same for the whole surface, any material change in this particular in the different parts of the same picture being productive of bad effects on the harmony and beauty of the whole. The gold 83 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. mosaic surfaces are of a very ancient origin, and were largely employed by artists of the Byzantine period in imitation of the then prevalent taste of painting in oil upon a gilt background. The effect when seen in such masses as we find in the domes of St. Mark's and of St. Peter's is very gorgeous, and speaks of its oriental origin. The gold mosaic is produced by employing any convenient enamel for a basis over which the gold is spread in a thin and perfectly even film, by means of some adhesive size or varnish. It is saved from destruction by time, and the brilliancy of its effect heightened by a covering of very thin and transparent glass, which being pressed upon the soft surface at the gold size adheres perfectly. Thus the gold surface is plated or veneered by the thin glass. The art required to produce good mosaic pictures in the Koman method is far from being mechanical in its character. It certainly requires more skill to excel in this branch of art than to produce good copies in oil, and probably quite as much as to execute a fine engraving. Cav. Luigi Moglia is one of the most celebrated mosaicists in Rome, and his well-known work representing the temples of Paestuui on a scale of seven feet, is not surpassed by any mosaic of modern times. The works in Roman mosaic in the New-York Exhibition, are a head of St. John, from Guerchino, by the artists of the Papal manufactory in the Vatican, his Holiness Pio Nino being the exhibitor; a copy of " Pliny's Doves" in the adjoining court, in a circular table by Francesco Betti, of Rome ; and a large pavement slab of coarser work by Idoardo Prebbi, of Rome, representing fish and dead game in a rich border. The head of St. John is much the most signal of these works. It is of the same sized mosaic pieces as those composing the famed copies of St. Peter's before mentioned, and to see it well the observer should stand upon the opposite side of the nave. The work was never designed to be seen so near as it may be approached in its present position. There is a fine geometrical table in the Austrian department by J. Giracomenzzi, of Venice, which may be named in this connection since it is formed entirely of enamels, al- though these are joined in the Florentine manner. It is a copy of a well-known pavement in the church of St. Mark's of Venice. In this work may be seen fine miens of the celebrated goldstone or aventurine glass, for which Venice has long been celebrated. It has been proposed to multiply copies of the Roman mosaics by employing the enamel rods of such length, or depth, that successive sections could be cut from the surface, each section being cemented to a separate basis, as several thin slices of valuable stones are cut from one slab. The Florentine Mosaic. — The present Exhibition embraces several very beautiful examples of the hard stone mosaics, for which the Florentine artists are so celebrated. "We name particularly a beautiful oblong table four feet by two inches by Sr. Francesco Betti, Florence. An engraving of this design is given in the Recobd, but without the lively colors and brilliant polish of the original — want- ing which, the engraving gives but a feeble idea of the beauty of the original. Numerous other works in the same style will be observed in the Italian gallery, of which we name particularly eight tables of various forms by Enrico Bossi, and five by Gaetano Bianchini, both of Florence, the workmanship of which will bear the closest examination both for taste and skill. In the French department are two tables by Faqueson Cie, formed of small squares of various colored marbles arranged in Saracenic patterns after the style of the ancient Roman mosaic. We should also be very remiss if, in speaking of this subject, we failed to advert to the abundant display of hard stone mosaic in the English department of the Exhibition. John Tomlinson, of Ashford, near Bakewell, Derbyshire, and John Valance, of Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, have both a number of black tables inlaid in the Florentine manner with various ornamental stones. Beautiful as those works are, however, it is plain that there is in them all a decided inferiority both in taste and workmanship to the Italian. The Florentine mosaics, as before remarked, are formed exclusively of various hard minerals, which are cut in thin slices, and the colors so selected as to produce the effects sought by the artist. To do this, it is necessary to have a very extensive stock of specimens of various minerals sliced to the proper thickness, from which the selection is made. The selected pieces are then to be cut for the outline with the greatest accuracy, so that the joinings will be invisible. And, lastly, the several pieces forming the design, are to be inlaid in the body of the slab which forms the basis of the whole. The chief establishment for the production of this description of mosaic work, belongs to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. It requires regal wealth to enable the artist to devote years of time to the completion of these exquisite objects which form the material of princely gifts. There are, however, numerous private establishments in Florence which produce good Florentine mosaics, of whose skill the specimens already named are examples. The usual basis in which the Florentine mosaic is inlaid, is a beautiful jet black marble — although white and various other colors are occasionally employed. This basis is not of great thickness — since the labor and difficulty of perforating its sur- face for the insertion of the mosaic pieces, is much diminished by its being moder- ately thin. The requisite strength is afterwards obtained by backing it with metal 84 or stone cemented on. The means employed for cutting the intricate openings in the basis, to receive the mosaic patterns, are as wonderful for their simplicity as the result is admirable for its beauty. A thin soft iron wire is stretched like a bow- string, and being armed with emery and water, the artist sets himself patiently to saw with this simple but most efficient instrument. He follows with perfect cer- tainty the most tortuous and intricate lines, and with a degree of rapidity which is remarkable, if we remember the nature of the material to be cut. A drill fur- nishes the means of obtaining the first perforation, and the same instrument is the only other aid the artist requires in his work, as when, for example, hemispher- ical cavities are to be formed for the reception of transparent amethysts, if a bunch of grapes is to be produced. A beautiful example of this fruit in Florentine mosaic, is to be seen in the Exhibition in the first specimen cited above. Far more laborious and artistic is the other portion of the task in this art. To select and adapt the various hard stones, whose lively and natural colors are to reproduce in life-like beauty — the olive branch, the forget-me-not, the crimson cherry, half hid in its green leaves — the gay and fluttering bird, or whatever other object of nature it may be proposed to copy. To secure success in this part of the art, all the hidden treasures of the mineral kingdom have been searched and brought to light. It is here worthy of remark, that Nature with her customary simplicity in complexity, has placed at the artist's disposal a single mineral species, whose varieties in color, transparency, and purity, have furnished the Florentine artist nearly every thing he could ask. This protean mineral is quartz, or silica, whose varied names exceed the loftiest reach of Spanish patronymics. The varied tints of the agate, the bloody carnelian, the purple amethyst, the liquid sea-green chryso- prase — the various tints of opaque prase, from the light foliage of the olive to the deep green of the ivy — the banded onyx, the chalcedony transparent and seeming- ly tremulous as jell} - , or opaque, and spotless as milk — jaspers, opaque and of every hue, of a single tint, or banded, and imitative like the Egyptian pebble — the gold- 1 spangled aventurine, and many other varieties of the same parent stock go far to furnish the magazines of the Grand Duke, from which are drawn the soft or rain- bow hues whose grouping produces so charming a result. Add to the family just named, the soft blue of the turquoise, the inimitable tint of the lapis-lazuli, the rich green of the malachite with its exquisite bands of concentric layers — theverd- antique porphyry, and all the nameless tribe of porphyries and marbles, and for rarer and more costly works, the emerald, the garnet, the sapphire, the topaz, the peridot, and even the diamond, and we have some notion both of the resources and the difficulties of the Florentine mosaic. The cutting of the hardest of these minerals into thin slabs, is accomplished by the lapidaries' wheel, armed with diamond dust, while to shape the selected pieces to fit the adjoining parts, requires the bowstring of wire armed also with the powdered diamond. It is only in Italy that the highest triumphs of this art can be seen. In the Pitti Palace, and in the Chapel of the Medici, as well as in the private chapels of some of the wealthy families, are found tables and tablets in Florence mosaic, whose value is untold. Such very elaborate and costly products of artistic skill, are certainly not to be looked for in a youthful country like our own, even if they were to be desired. It is not, however, the less instructive or delightful, that we have now, for the first time in America, the opportunity of refreshing our eyes by looking upon some examples of "this beautiful art, and we rejoice that there is that in every human soul which answers to the sentiment of beauty however it may be expressed. THE CHROMATIC DECORATION OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE. IT is not our intention in the present article to add to the numerous treatises on Decoration, which subject has been already most thoroughly investigated by very able writers ; but in noticing that of our Crystal Palace, to call atten- tion to the fact, that this style which is usually left to the experience of the house-painter, or the fancy of the proprietor, is subject to fixed natural laws, and may be so carried out in its execution as to constitute a work of art. This stylo may most properly bo termed Chromatic, or a decoration arising from the harmony of the colors used in painting the building. The German terms ?)!y the introduction of inoro brilliant and compound tints in small quantities. This combination was selected as being peculiarly adapted to the interior. Sky-blue, which is confined principally to the dome and ceilings, serves to give an appearance of loftiness and airiness; while its complement, diluted orange or cream color, not only balances the blue harmoniously, but throws a cheerful tint of sunshine over the whole of the interior. It has the further merit of being of a subdued hue seldom occur- ring in manufactured articles, and therefore serving as an excellent background to the mass of objects exhibited. The power of blue to give an effect of loftiness to the building was strongly exemplified during the progress of the painting, by comparing one of the naves which had been decorated with another which remained unfinished. The former seemed more than double the height of the latter, although they are all of the same dimensions. It was equally interesting to observe, that the intro- duction of a variety of colors, into large spaces, has the effect of magnifying the apparent dimensions to a wonderful degree. Space and grandeur are elements of so much importance in architecture, that we cannot afford their loss. If a building of great dimensions appear small, it is to be attributed, not to its fine pro- portions, as is sometimes alleged, but to a neglect of its projector to avail himself of one of the most effective instruments of his art. In accordance with the general character of the building, no ornament of clas- sical forms has been introduced. The only attempt to decorate by means of design, has been in the use of mere geometrical lines and figures of a very simple character, which have been executed by common workmen, assisted only by the use of 6tencil patterns. The ceilings of the four lean-tos are all different, those of the galleries are of a fifth pattern, and the four naves have still another design in common. Thus the lean-tos, which can only be viewed separately on account of their remoteness, offer a variety among themselves ; but to the spectator looking upward, a perfect uniformity in the galleries and naves is presented, above which rises the dome, still varied in design but harmonizing with the rest. This portion of the decorations, which is of the florid Moorish character, rich in color, and flashing with a profusion of gold and silver ornaments, when viewed by the favorable light of gas, forms a crowning grace and beauty to the Palace, imparting a fairy-like and magical effect to the whole. The treatment of the exterior requires very few words of comment. It is painted of a uniform bronze tint or olive, enriched by gilding all ornamental features, such as the quatre-foils, the pinnacles and railings. Where large surfaces occur, a rich orange tint, in imitation of gold, has been substituted for gold-leaf, as more economical. We have heard it objected to the decoration of the ex- terior; first, that by it the real material of construction is concealed; secondly, that the imitation of a more costly material constitutes a deception. In answer to this, we claim the benefit of a distinction between counterfeiting the appearance of a material and borrowing an arrangement of color suggested by it. In the present instance, no attempt to deceive has been made, but, on the contrary, the use of bronze powder and all other expedients, by which painters endeavor to make a perfect imitation of real bronze, have been expressly avoided. Since con- structions of iron require paint to preserve them from rust, we can conceive of no consideration affecting the choice of color, other than the character of the building itself and its relation to surrounding objects. ULTRAMARINE. THE artist and the decorator are indebted to the science of chemistry for three of their best and most permanent colors, and of one of these — artificial ultra- marine — the present paper contains the history. At the same time it is a striking illustration of the manner in which scienco continually aids the progress of the useful arts. For many centuries, the beautiful stone called lapis-lazuli, has been known and valued for its rarity and for its color, a rich, deep azure-blue, such as no other mineral possessed. It was brought from China, Siberia, and Persia ; and it was also found on the banks of the Indus, disseminated in a grayish limestone. Its richly colored varieties were employed in the manufacture of mosaics, and spe- cimens of it thus used, may be seen in the mosaics of the Italian department of the Exhibition. When it occurred in masses of sufficient size, it formed the ma- terial of vases and similar ornaments, whose beauty was enhanced by their cost- liness. Magnificent slabs of lapis-lazuli still adorn some of the cathedrals of Italy. The fragments of lapis-lazuli were scarcely less valuable than the masses. When pulverized and mixed with wax, resin, and linseed oil, and kneaded with water, the mineral deposited a powder free from impurities, and of a blue color unequalled for beauty and permanence. This blue received the namo of ultra- marine, and was sold for its weight in gold. Its manufacture remained in this condition for many centuries, and its use therefore was very limited. In 1814, Vauquelin, a distinguished chemist of France, found an unknown blue 86 substance in a furnace, used for the manufacture of soda. Upon analysis, he ascertained that its composition was the same as that of lapis-lazuli. Alumina, silica, soda, sulphur, and iron, the constituents of the precious mineral, had met, by accident, in the proper proportions, and formed it artificially. From this ob- servation, Vauquelin predicted the future manufacture of artificial ultramarine, by synthesis, or the combination of the substances that compose it in their proper proportions. The predicted discovery was made in 1828, by Guimet, also a French chemist. The prize which had been offered for it by the Societe a" 1 Encouragement, was given to him on confidential communication of his process to Gay-Lussac. Guimet has never made his process public, but the attention of other chemists being drawn to the subject, other processes, or perhaps the same, were discovered and published by Gmelin, Robiquet, Persoz, Koettig, and Brunner. The process of Robiquet, which seems to be the simplest and most practical of those published, is as follows : — A mixture of two parts of porcelain clay, three parts of sulphur, and three parts of dry carbonate of soda, is gradually heated in a close earthenware vessel until it ceases to give off vapors; the resulting green porous mass is washed with water, and the blue powder, which remains undissolved, is again heated to redness to expel the excess of sulphur. (Annalen der Pharmacie 10, 91.) The manufacture of the artificial ultramarine on a large scale, dates from this time, and has since rapidly increased, and this product will ultimately become as important an article of commerce as vermilion or white-lead. The price has already actually been brought down by competition between manufacturers and the rapid increase in the demand, to something like half a dollar per pound, being just one six hundred and fortieth part of the cost of the natural ultramarine, formerly made from lapis-lazuli. At the London Exposition in 1851, there were a number of exhibitors of this product, among whom, Guimet, the first discoverer of the process, was judged worthy of the highest prize, a Council Medal. Guimet is also an exhibitor in our Crystal Palace, but it remains to be seen whether two years of improvement have not enabled some of the great number of other exhibitors whom we have, to surpass him in the art. It is very possible that the credit naturally attached to a first discoverer may have had some weight with the jury of the London Exhibi- tion, but it would seem as if the non-publication of his process by Guimet should annul any claim which he may have on that ground over other independent dis- coverers. There are certainly many specimens on exhibition at present, which, on superficial examination, seem to be of a much deeper and purer azure color than Guimet's, but in such a delicate point as this none but the highly trained eye of an artist can be trusted. There are other tests which must also be applied in deciding the relative values of ultramarines, besides the mere impression upon the sight. Thus the degree of opacity, or the body, as it is technically called, when mixed with oil, is an important point. The artist's practical test for deciding the relative values of two or more samples, is to mix each with about equal quantities of white-lead and oil, and compare the resulting tints. The sample which has the greater body will of course exhibit the darkest color. Ultramarine may be distinguished from Prussian blue, smalt, cobalt-blue, and all other blue substances whatever, by the following test : when diluted sul- phuric or muriatic acid is poured upon it, it is decomposed, with total loss of color, and evolution of a fetid smell, due to the formation of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The presence of ultramarine in any substance which has been dyed or col- ored with it, may be easily detected by this test. The ordinary bluish-colored letter paper answers to this test. On being wetted with the diluted acid, it is immediately decolorized, and the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen gas in the surrounding air is readily manifested, not only by the strong peculiar smell per- ceived, but also by holding over the paper a common glazed card, moistened with water, which is immediately turned brown, a brown snlphuret of lead being formed by the action of the sulphuretted hydrogen upon the white-lead with which the card is glazed. The property of ultramarine mentioned above, of being decomposed by diluted acids with loss of color, is taken advantage of in a process recently proposed by a German chemist for determining the relative values of ultramarines ; but the process is one which is not susceptible of elucidation to the general reader, and which cannot be executed with precision, except by the educated chemist. The best practical test for tho use of the consumer, is that by mixture with oil and white-lead, as before described. It would be useful also to the artist to keep some diluted sulphuric acid at hand, and ascertain whether his ultramarines are completely decolorized by being drenched with it, which would indicate the absence of adulterations, such as Prussian blue, smalt, indigo, etc., because none of these latter substances are at all affected by tho acid. There is another application of ultramarine, besides its use by the painters, to which we must give some attention. The dyers and calico printers, whose arts have been advanced so wonderfully during the present century by the application of chemical science, and who, taught by experience, are always upon the qui vive, and eager to seize any new application, must have seen, as the artificial ultra- marine cheapened in price, the advantage which would accrue to them if they THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. could succeed in imbuing their fabrics with its rich blue color. But here a colos- ( sal difficulty immediately occurred. All their colors had been previously applied to their fabrics in the form of solutions, or by precipitation from solution. But no one could succeed in discovering any means of dissolving ultramarine : and, in fact, from the nature of the substance, the discovery of any solvent for it was to be despaired of. Under these circumstances, there was apparently as little pros- pect of success in fixing ultramarine upon cloth in such a manner that it could not be washed off, as of fixing in the same way powdered charcoal or any other per- fectly insoluble substance. The aid of the chemist, so often invoked, was again solicited, and the use of albumen suggested. Albumen is a liquid substance, soluble in water, which, upon the application of heat, becomes solid, and perfectly inso- luble in water. The white of eggs consists principally of albumen, and the white of eggs mixed with water was accordingly the substance used by the calico printers and dyers. The ultramarine in fine powder was diffused through this solution, the mixture then applied to the cloth, and the albumen afterwards co- agulated by the application of heat. Every particle of ultramarine which adhered to the cloth, is thus enveloped and bound fast to its fibres by a coating of insoluble albumen, which wholly prevents it from being washed off by water. Modifica- tions of this process have since been invented which cheapen it very much, and which are now used very extensively in England and Scotland. The albumen of milk is now substituted for that of eggs, and the buttermilk of the dairies, which was once wasted or fed to animals, is now sold to the calico printers. Ultramarine has one property which gives cause of complaint to the manufac- turers of ornamental paper and others. This is its incapability of being polished or glazed, as they term it, its peculiar structure being such, that a reflecting sur- face cannot be produced upon it. This property may be accounted for, by sup- posing the granular particles to possess an uneven vitreous fracture, like that possessed by the natural mineral lapis lazuli, so that the more a surface covered with ultramarine is rubbed for the purpose of polishing it, the greater the number of minute irregular faces produced, which reflect light in all directions, and con- sequently the duller and less reflective the surface becomes. At the same time, it must be remarked that the beauty of ultramarine for most of its uses is due in a great measure to this very property of producing a dead surface like deadened silver. There is a variety of ultramarine called ultramarine green, which seems not to have been introduced into the market to nearly so great an extent as the ultramarine blue. There are on exhibition in the Palace several specimens of this product, which present, nevertheless, a very good color, and when we consider the economy which must eventually be found in the manufacture of this substance above all the other green colors at present in use, such as Paris green or Scheele's green, the main constituents of which are two costly substances, arsenic and cop- per, verdigris, which is also a copper compound, and chrome green, we may reasonably expect ultramarine green to become in future an extensive article of commerce. The various processes which have been proposed for making ultramarine green, are essentially the same as those for the ultramarine blue, except that the last roasting, to drive off the excess of sulphur, is dispelled with, so that the sole difference between the two colors appears to be, that the green ultramarine con- tains more sulphur than the blue. Certain precautions are of course necessary to produce a fine color, which are of interest only to technologists. The ingredient or ingredients, in the natural and artificial ultramarines, to which the color is to be attributed, is a question which has occupied the attention of several chemists and given rise to considerable discussion, without, however, a definite settlement up to the present time. At first it was attributed to the presence of sulphuret of iron formed by the action of the sulphur upon small quan- tities of iron present in the mass and derived from the materials employed. This hypothesis derived support from the fact that sulphuret of iron may be obtained, by chemical precipitation, diffused through a liquid in excessively small quantity, in such a manner as to impart to the liquid a deep green, or even bluish-green color by transmitted light. This is a phenomenon frequently encountered by chemical analysis. Brunner and others, however, have stated that they have prepared blue ultramarine from materials entirely free from the smallest trace of iron, and if Brunner's authority is received, the coloring matter of ultramarine must be considered a substance mi generis, having no analogue whatever among all known chemical compounds, being in fact a compound of sulphur, silicon, alu- minum, sodium and oxygen possessed of a blue color, whereas no two more of these five elements are known to form any other compound possessed of the smallest tinge of blue or green color. On a thorough consideration of the subject, however, the last hypothesis seems hardly credible, and it appears probable that those chemists who have prepared ultramarine from materials free from iron, have accidentally introduced traces of this metal during the process. Thus it is almost impossible for a chemist who knows the affinity of sulphur for iron to suppose that they can coexist in the mass, together with soda, during the process, without the formation of some highly colored compound, and the belief that ultramarine can exist, which is free from iron, involves the necessity of supposing that the highly colored sulphuret of iron existing in ultramarine which does contain iron, has little or no effect upon the color. It is certain that some who have tried to obtain a blue-colored mass from materials containing no traces of iron have failed ; but such negative results are, of course, of comparatively small value, and on the other side of the question may be brought forward the well known fact that the presence of more than an exceedingly small per centage of iron injures or ruins the color, and also the sin- gular fact, that if potash is substituted for soda, no blue or green color can be produced under any circumstances, the corresponding potash compound being white. This last fact distinctly connects the color with the sodium which is present, while the effect of dilute acids in destroying the color with simultaneous expulsion of a portion of the sulphur in the form of sulphuretted hydrogen, indi- cates a probable, though not a necessary dependence of the color upon the sulphur. The whole subject, in fact, needs reinvestigation, and may be urged as being decidedly one of the most interesting subjects with which a chemist could occupy himself, and one which promises important practical results. In conclusion, a few applications of artificial ultramarine may be pointed out which may be seen exemplified in the Exhibition. Thus great quantities of sta- tionery in the American department may be seen, which are undoubtedly colored with ultramarine. Ornamental paper for walls and other purposes, among the colors of which ultramarine forms a prominent ingredient, may be seen in various places. Soaps and leather, colored with ultramarine, are on exhibition. Signs and placards composed of gilt letters, upon an ultramarine ground, are very com- mon. The backs of many of the show-cases are colored with ultramarine, its azure color appearing to be a favorite tint for such backgrounds ; and, lastly, it is an important auxiliary in the decoratiou of the Crystal Palace itself, a light- colored ultramarine having been largely employed in painting the roof and columns, as well as the canvas which covers the interior of the dome. NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. TT would be foreign to the objects aimed at in the Record, to attempt more than J- a mere popular elucidation of the principles of the science of naval architec- ture, in which the results of the last few years have established tlie United States in an eminent position. In the infancy of the republic, a happy preservation of neutrality in the European wars, placed her, in connection with England, then the most powerful maritime nation, in possession of the carrying trade of the world. The English merchantmen were compelled to sail in company, under the protec- tion of a convoy, and the movements of the entire squadron being regulated by those of the dullest sailer, superior qualities of speed were of no benefit, and the skill of her builders was centred upon attaining the greatest possible capacity from the measured dimensions. Her absurd tonnage laws afterwards sustained the evil until the system was too deeply rooted to be readily cast aside; and even at this day, so superior are American ships, that British merchants prefer them as invest- ments, and own a large portion of the stock of the American transatlantic liners and packet ships. The mathematical solutions of the various problems involved in ship building, are so largely modified by practice, that there is no necessity for following them further than to enable us to establish with certainty the effects of the different proportions, and by experimenting understandingly, avoid a repetition of error, and expand to their fullest extent those principles which may prove advanta- geous. A convincing demonstration of the solid of least resistance is of little bene- fit ; but while records of mere facts of much less complexity than those involved in this science have proved a facility for error in observation and omission, it bo- comes necessary to reject all that conflicts with the known laws of natural philo- sophy, and cautiously receive whatever may not be in accordance with reason. Pure theory is perfect ; but, unfortunately, too often becomes so only when the science to which it is applied has been perfected. With the other dimensions and conditions remaining constant, the immediate effect of length is to decrease the direct resistance of the water to the passage of the hull, and to diminish the leeway and violence of the rolling and pitching motions. As, in the passage of the vessel, a distance corresponding to its length, the water is divided and separated a distance equal to the breadth of the section, it follows that a vessel, 200 feet long, will transmit no more motion in passing 200 feet, than one of half the length will in going half the distance; the longer vessel would displace double the quantity of water, but would communicate to each particle only half the velocity which it would have received from the smaller one ; and as fluid resistance varies as the squares of the velocities, the resistance to ships, other things being equal, varies in an inverse ratio with the squares of their lengths. The length being doubled, theoretically considering this element alone, it would require but one quarter of the power. The benefit derived from the superiority of acute angles for cleavage, is practically limited by the friction of the immersed surface and insufficient buoyancy of the ends. The retardation occasioned by the friction of the water has been too generally disregarded, and its importance is only realized by making a calculation on a sea-steamer, where the power is known 8T THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. 1.DIAG0NAL. 28 from mi indicator, and which will show that nearly one-half the power utilized in propelling the vessels is absorbed by the friction of the water on its immersed surface. The ex- , periments of Col. Beaufoy estab- lish the friction of a square foot of smooth sur- face moving on the water at the rate of ten feet per second, to be sis- tenths of a pound ; and at deep immersions it must be great- er. The failure of the steamboat Rainbow, built in New- York about twelve years ago, to make the trips on the Hudson River in some incredibly short time, exemplifies the evil effect of excessive length. Breadth affects the stability, and when carried to an injurious extent, endan- gers the safety of the spars ; and by enlarging the midship section, increases the direct resistance to motion. It is £=°!aspnal. difficult to upset a shingle, and the excessive breadth giving it Q this quality, is also the cause of the sluggish mo- tions which ad- mits of its being washed over by every sea. It is highly advan- tageous for ocean steamers to possess a large amount of buoyancy at the load lines for the purpose of lessening the difference of drafts and variable action of paddle-wheels, which in leaving port deeply immersed, frequently dissipate twenty-five per cent, of the power of the engines in oblique action, and after burning six or eight hundred tons of coal, close the voyage with so little hold on the water, that nearly the whole power is extended in dashing the wa- ter backward. In a fast - sailing ship, intended to beweatherly, the draft is deter- mined by the ne- cessity for a hold on the water to prevent leeway: in steamers, and particularly in river steamers, where the power is applied paral- lel to the keel, and there are fewer disturbing forces acting up- on the hull, the depth of hold and draft of water may be made much less. The midship section of a ship is a cross section at its widest part, and as the gradation to the ends is gradual, it represents generally the figure of the body of the ship, and the qualities given by its peculiar shape, determine the character of the vessel. A cylinder floating in the water, has no stability, because the shape of tho immersed portion remaining unchanged, the centre of buoyancy, or centre of gravity of the hollow made in the water by the floating body, and in which the whole upward or sustaining force of the water may be supposed to be concentra- 88 _WALE. TOP HEIGHT. G-W. LINE. ' — " 5 4 3 1 2 1 j 6 4 4 ted, remains in any position of the cylinder in the vertical line passing through its centre of gravity. In a flat, rectangular figure, the centre of buoyancy is directly under the centre of gravity when floating on its side, but when inclined by the application of a force until the water line is no longer parallel to the side, but cor- responds with a diagonal of the figure, the centre of buoyancy ia one-third of the width from the immersed edge, and operates as the whole weight of the displace- ment at the end of a lever, whose length is the horizontal distance between a vertical line passing through it and the centre of gravity of the body which remains as before. As this latter figure is difficult of inclination, it will not meet the force of waves by rising readily and quickly, and when the difficulty of motion is overcome, the bearings or limits of inclination are so suddenly reached, that the motion is abrupt- ly checked. Should it be load- ed in such a man- ner, that a verti- cal line passing through the cen- tre of gravity of the mass falls outside of tho centre of buoyancy, the forces of gravity and buoyancy will act in concer and turn the body over until the displace ment becomes such that the two centres are in vertical line. The midship section is shaped with reference to tho disturb- ing force, and should be so nicely adjusted that there is no wide difference bet ween the solid lifted from the water by the rolling of the ship and that immersed by the same process — the preponder- ance of the latter determining tlie ease and smooth- ness with which the vessel recov- ers her upright position. The greatest breadth is above the load water-line, and there is no very good reason why tho sides should fall in or " tumble home '' above, as is usu- ally practised. Custom or fash- ion sanctions it, as it once did the heavy bowsprit, rakish :-heer, and overhanging stern, which were deemed essential to at least a shipshape appearance, but are now discarded. Theoretical considerations alone will warrant the use of hollow lines as tho readiest way of moving the opposing water, but friction and other disad- vantages attendant upon a long, thin bow, with insufficient buoyancy to sup- port itself, will probably more than compensate for the diminished direct resistance. In the American ocean steamers, the gradual flare and easy rise of the bow, with no superfluous weight, has given them a world-wide reputation for freedom from pitch- THE NEW - YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED ing and facility in meeting the -waves. The same considerations of pitching and 'scending apply to the stern, which should possess the requisite fulness ahove the water graduated to avoid the occurrence of violent and sudden shocks, and he re- lieved of all unnecessary weight, which, in such a place, is renderedmore injurious by its leverage. The water filling into the vacuity left by the passage of a vessel, does so with a rapidity proportioned to the pressure or depth, and consequently with a velocity decreasing towards the surface where it should be quiescent. To facilitate this action, the upper water-lines require to be full, and the lower ones finely tapered, so that the diagonal lines representing the probable course of the quick, but require a ready eye and hand to meet the seas on either bow, which would cause her to fall from her course. A great difference in the draft for- ward aud aft, is objectionable on account of the necessity for deep water, but is necessary in vessels of this class to counteract the effect of the preponderating after sails. A beautifully executed model of the clipper-ship, N. B. Palmer, as constructed by Jacob A. Westervelt & Co., shows the disposition of the timber and bracing, and forms a complete study. If a ship were divided in its length into a number of sections, those in the middle would rise, and at the ends would sink from the water, have a quick ascent from the keel and approach the horizontal at the surface. It was found that the steamboat John Neilson, which has a peculiar flat floor gradually rising aft, for the purpose of retaining a stratum of air pumped under her bottom to lessen its friction, is improved by an application of false stern in conformity with the principle above recorded ; which is not a generally recog- nized one, although carried out to some extent in the yacht America, and other recently modelled clippers. By the courtesy of her modeller, George Steers, Esq., we are enabled to furnish a drawing of the after-body of the "America," exempli- fying the various water lines and diagonals used in the draught of a ship. The calculations of the size and position of the sails require a knowledge merely of the simple problems of resolution and com- position of forces, and may be ea- sily examined in detail ; but, as in those of the hull, although the ab- stract principles are simple when examined singly, their combina- tion to produce the desired result involves a sagacity and powers of observation, analysis, and ap- plication, not surpassed in any other profession, and not at all lessoned by the fact that they are not made to apply to particular cir- cumstances, but must correspond to the varying requirements of trade and travel frequently in- volving an antagonism of princi- ples. Take, for instance, the con- sideration of steering qualities : — It is desirable on account of safety that a vessel should carry a wea- ther-helm to counteract a ten- dency to come nearer the wind, and there is no doubt but it ma- terially assists the progress of the vessel by diminishing the leeway ; but when the sails and hull are so badly adapted, that they require a constant and material correc- tive action of the helm, the retarding effect of the rudder must be very considerable. A model of the pilot boat Enchantress, by D. D. "Westervelt, is the best in the common level, producing the effect termed " hogging : " again, when a ship is heeled in a wind, the action of the water on the inclined surface of the bow occa- sions a lateral curvature, amounting, in an English man-of-war, where provision was made for observing with accuracy, to a departure of one inch and a half from a straight line, or a variation of three inches on the two tacks. These, and various other strains, and the necessity for discarding useless material, require a scientific disposition of timber. The tendency to hogging is guarded against by solid floors to resist the compression below, and direct connections above, extending the whole length, to sustain the tension which obtains there as in a beam loaded at the ends and supported in the middle. The iron braces which are frequently used to strengthen the hull, and when double form a lattice work crossing on the sides at right angles, might be more advantageously disposed as an arch springing from the un- supported ends and rising as high as possible amidships. : i_ . Clipper ship Whirlwind, mod- is^ elled by Kobert Underhill. jj SBfc jfe -, Length 200 feet; breadth 40 feet and depth 20 feet. Clipper IPHB MBfcfef^ V, s ^ip Vision, of 750 tons custom- house measurement. Length on deck, 150 feet; moulded breadth '^S^BIIIIIISJSJ^ of beam, 32 feet 4 inches, and aj jj§ depth 20 feet; modelled by An- gfljgp(ij||§Et -/ anias Dekke, of Boston. Tho "Vision" has full water-lines aft, hut is also full below, and is in this respect inferior to the . "Whirlwind." The latter has steamboat ends, and being pro- — - portionably longer, has more 'J- acute angles. . . . TJ. S. Mail Steamer Blinois, • • . _ ..• built by Smith & Dimon. The " - midship section of this model is placed aft the middle of the length, and it is likely the bo.dy would be improved by shifting a portion of the buoyancy at the foremast to about the mizen. She has something of the English full after-body, but not carried Exhibition to illustrate the steering qualities of a ship. With a light, buoyant bow to rise readily over the waves, and a deep, lean stern, she will steer easily and out so completely as in the " Georgia" by the same builders, and would be more easi- ly steered and propelled had the rise of the lower after-lines been earlier commenced 89 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. There is also a model of a steamship proposed by Darius Davidson, which demands attention, on account of the magnitude of its dimensions. The length of keel is 700 feet, and of deck 500 feet ; beam 80 feet, and depth 60 feet. It is to be propelled by sixteen engines, indicated in the model by eight sets of smoke pipes placed along the deck; and her time in crossing the Atlantic, it is antici- pated by the sanguine Mr. Davidson, will bo inside of five days. The pointed ends, projecting 100 feet from the body of the hull, would make capital adjuncts to a machine for diving purposes. A false bow, similar to the above, was tried on the steamboat Albany, in 1838, and discarded. William A. Sillen exhibits a good model of a ship, to which he has attached a card, stating that having discovered a diversity of opinions as to the proper shape for insuring the desired sea-going qualities in a ship, he concluded there was some mistake in the ordinary theory, and was led to institute a series of peculiar exper- iments, by which {mirabile dictu) he was convinced that the water does not pass along the ship's sides and bottom in lines parallel to the surface. Diagonals, or proving lines, havo been employed in laying down a ship's lines ever since draw- ings were used in their construction. Proposed plan for a yacht Petrel, by F. S. Copley. At the load water-line this vessel will possess no stability, and the motion easily induced will abruptly cease on the immersion of the broad, flaring side to leeward. Place her in an inclined position, and the motion of the water upward and backward, passing under its surface around the angles and irregularities, will be very varied, and, as may be readily conceived, not particularly conducive to speed. The double keel will not oppose twice the resistance of a single one to leeway, but will offer its full proportion of friction. A keel, at any rate, is of no use in running with a free wind, and when on the wind a centre-board will answer the purpose equally well, and may be raised or lowered to suit the varying requirements. Small vessels may be made as strong without them, and the handling of the weight, with the assistance of counterbalance springs, as applied in the yacht Maria, is a very simple matter. The U. S. Schooner Onkahye had a section similar to that of the " Petre," (with the exception of the double keel), and was indebted to it for constantly endangering her spars and ultimate loss by capsizing. The French department of the Exhibition contains a model of a steamer pro- pelled by submerged wheels, precisely similar to those known in this country as Hunter's patent. A pair of ordinary radial wheels are placed horizontally in the vessel below the water-line, with the paddles projecting from the sides. Restrict- ed as they necessarily are in size, an engineer would at once anticipate an enor- mous slip, amounting, in the applications of this plan, made by the United States Government, to about fifty per cent. Even to the most unprofessional, one would think this proposition of carrying wheels and wheel houses (the latter, moreover, filled with water) inside the hold of the vessel, would be preposterous. LIFE-BOATS. IN consequence of the exertions of the National Shipwreck Institution of Great Britain, much attention has there been devoted to the subject of life-boats ; and a collection of the best, comprising no less than fifty-four specimens selected and contributed by the Duke of Northumberland, the President of the Institu- tion, formed one of the prominent features of the London Exhibition. The encouragement of these valuable productions, furnished by the private munificence of the distinguished President, was so splendid an example of liberality in the cause of humanity and practical science, that the jury having cognizance of the subject, reported him worthy of a Council Medal. The importance of the subject will be recognized without a statistical exhibit here of the numerous shipwrecks and frightful loss of life, which it is too frequently the duty of the daily journals to record. The Steamboat Law, passed by Act of Congress, on the 30th of August 1852, provides that every steamer shall carry a number of life-boats, proportionate to her size, amounting in the case of a vessel exceeding fifteen hundred tons to six ; and a number of life preservers otherwise specified. Besides the buoyancy requisite to carry a heavy load of passengers with its crew, a life-boat should be formed to pull easily and be readily managed, and in the event of being upset, should be able to right itself. A sad experience has shown in more than one instance that the want of this last quality may occasion the loss of a brave crew. The form best adapted for the purposes of a boat to be chiefly employed under the exigencies of a storm in which ordinary boats are unable to live, is that usually given to whale-boats, but with more breadth of beam to furnish the stability required by the incautious movements of frightened passengers, and the necessity for rescuing them from the water and dragging them in over the gunwale. That this valuable property may, however, bo carried to excess, seems to be demonstrated by several recorded instances of life-boats having a proportion of beam, exceeding one-third of the length, in conjunction probably with full terminations, being turned end over end in a heavy Bea. To enable a boat to right itself when upset, it should be ballasted along the bottom, and have air- tanks at the ends carried up as high as practicable by sheer of gunwale. Water ballasting to be admitted at pleasure, has been used in a tank extending along the keel ; and although the attainable variation in weight of ballast is useful when under sail, at which time, however, the unemployed men may sit to windward and answer the same purpose, yet, in more ordinary circumstances, and par- ticularly at the moment of launching, when accidents are very likely to occur, the advantages of permanent ballast are superior to those attendant on that which can only be taken in when the boat is afloat, and the chief merit of which lies in the diminished weight for transportation ashore. Probably the best man- ner of ballasting a boat is to give the bottom an inner lining of common cork, covered by an ordinary flat floor; thus reducing the internal capacity and enabling it to rise when swamped under a sea, and still sufficiently heavy to insure stability. With the buoyancy occasioned by the use of air-tanks, a boat heavily laden and filled with water may be able to swim, and, indeed, rise a few inches above the surface of the water : now, if in this latter case, there was an outlet or hole in the bottom of the boat, the water inside and outside would endeavor to reach a common level, and that inside would run out, and the boat being lightened, would continue to rise until the general buoyancy and weight corresponded — self-acting valves opening outwards, therefore, are valuable adjuncts to a life- boat. The Act of Congress, which has been referred to, specifies that the life-boats must be made of metal. Where a wooden boat would be crushed amid the fragments of a wreck, or stove by a projecting rock, a metal one will escape with an indentation which may be easily repaired, and at any rate interferes but little with its useful properties. In the case of fire they are pre-eminently superior. Their tightness, freedom from worms, and immunity from warping by exposure to the sun, has occasioned the employment of metal as the chief material of con- struction, to be regarded as one of the prime elements of a life-boat. A wooden Whitehall boat, built and exhibited by one of the best builders in New-York, illustrates the superiority of metal as a material. During the short time which has elapsed since it was placed in the Exhibition, the dryness of the atmosphere has already sprung several of the planks and fastenings and opened some of the seams. Francis 1 Life-Boat. — It is to be regretted that the owners of Francis' patent, who have manufactured over twenty-five hundred metallic boats, have not ex- hibited a fair specimen of their life-boats — considering the term in its definite meaning and per se. The one furnished is a copper, man-of-war-cutter, thirty-one feet long, of the ordinary model, and furnished with air-tanks at the ends. The chief and most valuable pecu- liarity is the corrugations of the metal, resembling external- ly a clinker-built boat, and ma- terially enhancing the strength with but little addition to the weight. The sheets of which the boat is formed, are struck into shape between dies operated by a hydraulic press, and the variations from the original plane superfices are chief!}' taken up by the corrugations. The gieat increase of strength is exemplified by the exhibition of examples of similar sheets, in which the corrugated one supports a heavy load without appreciable flexure, and the other and plain one sinks under its own weight. Galvanized iron is cheaper, but slightly inferior to copper, and is more generally used. In storms of such violence, that it is impossible to manage a boat, communi- cation may be instituted between the shore and a wreck, by means of a hawser drifted ashore by a barrel, or thrown from the shore with the assistance of a rocket or a ball. On this hawser a close car, conveying passengers, repre- sented in the accompanying draw- ing, may be traversed backward and forward by the lines attached to its ends. Lewis Raymond, of New- York, furnishes a galvanized iron life-boat, of the whale-boat model, with air-tanks at the ends and along the sides, and fitted with self-acting bailing valves, the uses and advantages of which have been adverted to. In the English department is exhibited a model of an iron boat, or car, with no name attached. It has no rowlocks or thole pins, and is shaped like a car without a top. Its distinguishing peculiarity is an arrangement of buoyant fen- ders placed on each side, about the width of the boat distant from it, and nearly equal to its length — they are placed on a flexible beam fastened to stanchions extending to the boat, the centre one of which is stationary, and the end ones allowed to slip into recesses or cases built in the boat and extending under its seats. 90 THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. The three groups of Statuettes in terra cotta, are exhi- | bited by Andre.. Bom, some of whose contributions have I been given on previous pages of the Record. **J/HI - flEV _ *" , l£' 1R- AINU SC ■ — ■ The Fisher Bov of Powers, inadequately represented I statues that stand near it, the Eve and the Greek Slave, iu our engraving, is not, in our judgment, a rival of the | and falls far short of the admirable truth and beauty of, 91 Wie- the Justs, in which our great sculptor is confessedly un- rivalled. The sentiment of the statue is expressed in those finest lines of Landor, describing the murmuring shell : Then apply Its polished lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there. The Fisher Boy is exhibited by Sidney Brooks, Esq. TJtiK INDUS 1' It Y OK ALL NATIONS*. The group of sculpture with which this page com- i entitled Hagar ani> Isiimael, and the circumstances of niences. is exhibited by 1.. Caselij, of Florence. It is | the scene chosen by the artist, are well known in the simple narrative of the Scriptures. The bov, weary and exhausted by unaccustomed hardships, haa sunk down in the desert to die; but Hagar, sustained by the measure- I form of her son, .and seeming to have just put aside the | gazes upon his face, while in her own, hope still lingers, less affection of a mother's heart, supports the fainting | cup now drained of its last, precious drops of water, she j before yielding to the unutterable anguish of despair. In the manufacture of carriages our countrymen have sueceoded better than any other nation, in combining the essential qualities of lightness, beauty, and strengt h. The large and elaborately finished Pleasure Carriage, en- graved here, comes from the manufactory of Messrs. Lawrence ) rests upon the impelling cylinder, and prevents the paper from being lifted. The roller is grooved near the extremities, so that the conical points may not come in contact, with the wood. The cylinder (R 4 ) is urged forward by the weight E', and the cylinder R is held back by the smaller weight E, so that the paper may con- stantly be kept well stretched. The excess of the weight E' over E is sufficient to overcome the friction of the system of rollers, so that tho clock has merely to regu- late time. Upon the axle of the impelling cylinder is a clamp screw (S), by which it may be detached from the clock. To put the machinery in motion, the pencil and one of the conical points being brought accurately in the same vertical line at any exact hour, the cylinder is then fastened to the clock by means of the clamp screw, when, as it moves with the clock, it completes a revolution in twelve hours ; the conical points will consequently mark exact hours and half hours, whilst the line traced by the pencil will show the corresponding heights of the tidos according to the scale to which the machine is adjusted. The following points require attention in adjusting this gauge : — I. The coun- terpoise should be rather more than sufficient to balance the chain or wire, taken as they will be, at lowest tide. The strain upon the pencil is very slight, but when the rise and fall is great, the chain or wire should be as fine as possible that the counterpoise may not be inconveniently heavy. II. The chain or wire to which the float is attached, should be so adjusted upon the large wheel that the curve of rise and fall will be traced on the paper midway between the lines of dots. One or two days' trial will locate this curve of rise and fall suffi- ciently well for the chain or wire to be permanently pinned. III. A conical point should be brought accurately in aline with the pencil, and the clock started at an exact hour or half hour. IV. That the gauge may be disturbed as little as possible, at least one full month's supply of paper should be wound upon the receiving cylinder at the beginning of the month. To guard against accidental disturbances and jars, the structure upon which REAR KLEVATION. 80ALE=;. tho gauge is erected should be as firm as possible. The superstructure for protec- tion against the weather and other disturbing causes, need only be large enough to allow free access for attendance on the gauge. The box for containing the float should be water tight, below water, except an adjustable orifice, which may be made by a series of holes about an eighth of an inch in diameter, covered in THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. part by a slide, and it should extend up to the floor on which the gauge rests, that the free action of the float and its connecting wire or chain may not be endangered by obstructions falling into the box. Having so adjusted the wire or chain as to give the midway position on the paper to the record curve, particular care should be taken to prevent its being altered, since any change in its length or points of attachment to the wheel will vary the relation of the record curve to the permanent Zero. All gauge records should be carefully referred to some permanent Zero, or bench mark well cut into the stone, or reference mass, and this Zero or bench mark should be fully and precisely described in the file of tide records, as also all changes in the mark and in the Zero of the gauge itself, as referred to the mark. A common staff guage should always be erected in connection with a self-registering gauge, and as near by as convenient ; it being then simply necessary to obtain by careful levelling, the reading of the bench mark on the staff, when it reads Zero at its own reading level, and then to compare the simultaneous indications of the two gauges, for the starting point of the record curve readings. These gauges should have such positions as to receive the full effect of the tide, and when from freez- ing or other causes the registering gauge ceases to work, the staff gauge must be used for hourly and high and low water observations in the usual manner. The record sheet should always bear upon it the names of the station and observer, the number and scale of the gauge, the dates of beginning and end of the record, the 12 M. dot of each fifth day clearly dated, and full notes of the time and causes of all breaks in the record, and of all new starts, with the interpolated staff guage readings during the record gaps. After taking these precautions and getting the instrument well started, each Coast Survey Observer is required to visit his station every day until he is sure all is going right, when it is deemed sufficient for him ordinarily to visit it every other day, observing the following directions. "1. The steel rod to which the recording pencil is attached, should always be kept perfectly clean and free from rust ; for this purpose it may be rubbed with oiled cloths every week, care being taken that no oil be left on the rod, or allowed in any way to touch the arms which support the pencil resting upon it. 2. If in consequence of a continuation of storms, the tide should fall so low as to render the counterpoise insufficient to keep the chain well stretched, a small additional weight may be added. When the rise and fall is great, or very much influenced by the winds, this may some- times be necessary ; but as there is little strain upon the pencil, the person locating the gauge should in the first place, make the counterpoise sufficient to embrace all but very extraordinary tides. Proper attention to the two foregoing para- graphs will insure an unobstructed motion of the pencil. 3. The clock should be made to keep mean solar time, being corrected to this effect, whenever it is neces- sary, by a sun-dial or a meridian mark with the equation of time applied, or by such other means as may be found available. 4. Should the clock become disor- dered, it is not desirable for the observer to disturb its mechanism. Timely notice may always be given to the assistant in charge of the office when any re- pairs are needed. 5. The clock should never be stopped unless from absolute necessity, or from some unavoidable accident. "Whenever it is so stopped, the time and corresponding hour dot upon the paper should be distinctly marked. "When it is again set in motion, the first hour dot, together with the corresponding time, should be noted in like manner. 6. The hour dot corresponding to 12 o'clock M., upon the fifth day of every month should be marked. The observer's attention is particularly called to the last two paragraphs. A failure to comply with them will cause much confusion, and must inevitably be detected when the record sheets are sent to the office. 7 The sides of the sheet corresponding to the high and low water should be marked respectively, H. W. & L. W., at the beginning and end of the month. 8. When it is necessary to change the paper at the beginning of the month, this should be done without stopping the clock, and not near the time of high or low water. The time corresponding to the first hour dot after the paper is changed, should of course be marked. 9. The records sent to the office should bear the observer's name and the number of the gauge. This number, together with the scale, is branded on the instrument. 10. In case the clock stops and cannot at once be started, observations with the staff gauge of the time and height of high and low water must be made by the observer, and recorded on the registering sheet, with the date and reason for making the note. 11. When any such difficulty occurs, the observer will in all cases telegraph to the office." The record sheets are read in the office by the aid of a special table, the sheet being run between two overlapping guides and under a reading scale fixed trans- versely. A small transparent scale of radiating lines is used for subdividing the half hours, thus giving the means of very close readings about the high and low waters. In reviewing this description, it will be apparent that this instrument requires care and skill on the part of its attendant, but that with these its records must be of the most perfect kind. Such is the fact, and numerous record sheets already give perfect pictures of a month's tides which are very suggestive of the varying elements concurring in their production. Curve records are much easier to inter- pret than numerical readings, for the natural continuity is presented to the eye. The record curves are also much more delicate exhibitors of minute quantities than the simple gauge readings. On the whole, the introduction of automatic tidal records cannot fail to promote a critical study of tides, besides saving the drudgery of mere unintelligent watching for the hours. Self-registering tide gauges have been for some years in successful use at some of the British tide stations, and Mr. Saxton's machine is not original in its general idea. It is, however, exceedingly perfect in its details and nice in its operations, with several important points of originality, especially in the arrangements for using a long record sheet and for marking the time on it. These reasons well entitle it to a pre-eminence greater than we have given it, a pre-eminence which we anticipate it will fully vindicate by its prospective share in the work of eluci- dating the tides of our two ocean borders. GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS OF ORNAMENTAL ART IN ENGLAND. ALL countries whose industrial pursuits have arrived at that point at which they are enabled to supply the necessaries of life, seek in any further development to add the ornamental element to that of utility. To do this successfully, art-edu- cation is required, not merely that of the designer or originator of the forms to be wrought out, but also of the workman, by whose skill it is to he fashioned, and by whose intelligence or ignorance it is to be made or marred, in regard to the higher qualities of art. It is only within the last twenty years that attention has been practically directed to the importance of education as applied to art-manufacture in Great Britain, and institutions founded in which the artisan, as well as the artist, may obtain systematic instruction in the principles and practice of art as applied to his particular pursuit. Nor has this latter point been sufficiently at- tended to until very recently, and perhaps, even now, there is much more to be done than has been imagined. Under the singular misfloiner of schools of design,* the early promoters of the institutions whose title has been lately changed to that of schools of Ornamental Art, proceeded to take the initiative in a system, which properly carried out, was calculated to produce results of the most satisfactory character, and even with all the mistakes, blunders, and perversions to which these schools have been subjected, has done more than could have been expected. Convinced of the importance of such institutions to the future well-being of the manufacturing interests of England, as well as the advancement of the people in a higher grade of intelligence, a few earnest men, at the head of whom stood Mr. W. Ewart, then M. P. for Liverpool, obtained the appointment of a parliamentary com- mittee on "arts and manufactures." This committee sat, and examined witnesses, amongst whom were men the most eminent in Europe for scientific and artistic at- tainments, manufacturing skill, and commercial knowledge. They finally reported in 1836, that measures for the promotion of artistic education amongst the manufacturing classes ought to be at once taken, and that the government ought to assist by grants of public money and the organization of a central establishment in London. Accord- ingly the Government School of Design, Somerset House, was founded for the pro- motion of the latter object, and as a model establishment. A council of gentlemen, all of whom were eminent either as patrons of art, artists, men of science, or manu- facturers, was appointed by the Board of Trade, under which the experiment was to be carried out, and a sum of money having been granted, with the free use of the rooms formerly occupied by the Royal Academy, the new institution commenced its career. Its progress was very slow. The title of the institution perplexed matter- of-fact-people, and it was supposed that none could attend but those who had previously learned drawing; and that its object was to teach those who could draw already, to design. The establishment of a school in Spitalfields, the first branch establishment, did much to make the matter better understood — inas- much as it took the weaver from his loom, an:', the youngest boy who assisted f\un, and proposed to teach them drawing as applied to the silk manufacture, nt>t so much with the expectation of making designers of them, as to make them more intelligent and reliable workmen in the execution of the designs of others. Stim- ulated by the movement in London, a few leading men at Manchester took up the question, and established a school in that city, not, however, in connection with the government, but as a local experiment. Here the instruction had no reference whatever to industry. It was simply a cheap academy of art in its more general forms of study, and the student was left to apply his knowledge, or blunder in his ignorance as he might, when desiring to apply his art to practical purposes in manufactures. Of course this system failed, and the school at Manchester event- ually became one of the government schools subsequently established in the great provincial towns. The progress of the school at Somerset House, under Mi-. Dyce, appointed * The founders of the English schools took the French title, "Saile de Desain," and translating it literally, forgot that in English ''design " meant much more than "dessin"in French. By designing is really meant originating. 101 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. director in the place of Mr. Papworth, who was first selected, caused the Board of Trade to sanction a plan for establishing schools in all the large man- ufacturing towns and districts in England. Scotland had been provided for many years before by the establishment of the Trustees' School, at Edinburgh. This institution is supported by an income decreed from the investment of certain property confiscated at the rebellion of 1745, and vested by the English govern- ment in the hands of trustees for " the promotion and encouragement of arts and manufactures in Scotland." The school is probably the oldest school of design, using the latter term in the popular sense, in Europe ; but prior to a change which was made after the movement commenced in England, it had done less for the manufacturing arts, than for the department of fine arts ; nor can this be regretted, since Wilkie, Stanfield, Roberts, Dyce, and many others of the leading artists in Britain, received their professional education within its walls. The last-named gentleman, now W. Dyce, Esq., Royal Academician, was for a period one of the professors, and was selected to visit the schools of art in France and Germany, and report to the government thereon. This report, an admirable document, formed the basis on which it was proposed to erect the English system. Its author was placed at the head of the schools, and his knowledge of his subject, his experience and attainments ought to have secured for his plans a fair trial. Such, however, was not the result. Attempts were made, and in many instances successfully, to hamper the working of an enlightened system of art-education with absurd re- strictions, to suit the narrow views of professional artists on the one hand, and the equally mistaken notions of manufacturers on the other. No one seemed to see that to make the artisan, and especially the designer, really useful to himself and others, it would be a waste of time to keep him down simply to the points of practice he had to grapple with, and that to do a thing thoroughly well in art, the power to do much more than the immediate work is necessary. If progress is to be made beyond a given point, this becomes pre-eminently imperative. A parliamentary grant of about £5,000 per annum having been made, together with a grant of £10,000, to purchase examples of art for the use of the schools, those cities and towns the inhabitants of which desired the establishment of schools, applied to the council in London. If the place was of sufficient importance as a seat of manufactures, and the inhabitants, or the committee or corporation acting for them, guaranteed to raise, by subscription, a sum per annum, equal to the amount of the government grant, which the estimated cost of the school seemed to indicate as desirable, the latter grant was made for three years as an experi- ment, and in no instance has it been subsequently withdrawn. On the contrary, the grants have been increased in the case of the larger and more important towns to three times the original sum, while in too many instances, the local support has not been equal to the sums raised at the commencement. This pro- vision of pecuniary means, however, did not meet the whole question. In the midst of so many artists, there were very few competent to undertake the man- agement of the schools, who were also willing to submit to the drudgery and toil, and too frequently uncertain results. Art, as applied to manufacture, had to be made popular, not only with the public, but with the artist. Every man who could paint a picture, or model a statue, considered it " infra dignitatem " to meddle with the utilities of life, unless "high art," as it was called par excellence, could be im- ported wholesale into decoration and manufacture. Haydon, a clever painter, and a lecturer of singular power, one who did much to promote the present popular taste for the fine arts in Britain, by his able exposition of principles, took a pervert- ed view of this question from the beginning. The early system pursued at Manches- ter was adopted at his suggestion, and he lived to see it fail most signally, though he still adhered to his doctrine, that if a student could draw and design the hu- man figure, he could draw and design any thing. Of this fallacy he was himself an example : for with wonderful power in the former, he failed whenever he attempted any thing approaching to ornamentation in its best forms as applied to the utilities of life. Thus it became evident that teachers must be first educated before the public could be taught, and by Mr. Dyce's advice, a normal class was formed in 1841, in the Central School at Somerset House, and six exhibitions of £30 per annum each were offered to the six best students who were willing to devote their future professional attention to the schools as masters. The masters of the provincial schools first established were selected from this class. It was soon dis- covered, however, that an unpaid and irresponsible body, like the council of the Metropolitan School, could not work a great and practical question like this with success. Out of twenty-four numbers, very few attended regularly, and the man- agement fell into the hands of some two or three of the most energetic, whose personal predilections and crotchets rather than sound principles ruled the management. With Mr. Dyce's resignation in 1843, commenced a series of changes which ended last year in the consolidation of the whole management into a new department of the Board of Trade, now finally constituted as the Department of Practical Science and Art: Henry Cole, Esq., 0. B., and Dr. Lyon Playfair, C. B., F. R. S., being the responsible officers. The radical defect of the system attempted subsequent to Mr. Dyce's director- ship, was an unmeaning centralization of power, and dictatorial tone as to the system, or rather modes of applying the system of education, on which all were pretty well agreed, irrespective of the wants and peculiarities of the various man- ufactures and local requirements. Mr. Dyce's successor was Mr. O. H. 'Wilson (now head-master of the Glasgow School), a gentleman possessing many of the requisites for the office, and whose long residence in Italy, and subsequent experience as a teacher in the Trustees' School at Edinburgh, gave him many advantages. Unfortunately, there appeared little fixity of principle in the modes in which the schools were henceforth to be conducted. Changes were made, or attempted to be made in the provincial schools, because they were supposed to be required by the circumstances of the head school, the success of which under repeated altera- tions was rather problematical. At length this spirit of dictation and unmeaning direction was resisted in one of the most important and successful schools, that of Manchester. The head-master, Mr. George Wallis,* remonstrated against im- politic changes in regard to the school over which he presided, and which had progressed in an unexampled manner during the two years he had managed it. Its success Mr. "Wallis felt ought not to be endangered by alterations in the system of instruction, which had no real reference to the wants of the pupils, and which abnegated the necessity for teaching anatomy as the basis of drawing the human figure. The ground now taken was firmly kept, until, by the yielding of the Manchester committee, Mr. Wallis found he could not retain his post with honor to himself or advantage to his students, and he thereupon resigned his posi- tion in a somewhat indignant fashion ; for he resorted to the very unofficial mode of informing the public of the whole circumstances of the case, defended his own views, stated why he resigned, and worst of all, foretold the results to the insti- tution, and all others which were subjected to the same law of misrule. For three years subsequently, the Manchester School fell in usefulness and popularity, and but for a large increase in the government grant, must have become bank- rupt. It was only on a recurrence of the former modes of management and principles of instruction, together with the appointment of the present head-master Mr. Hamersley, whose success at Nottingham pointed him out for promotion, and as the most likely man to redeem the important school of the cotton metropolis, that the classes rallied in numbers, and became once more successful, and this too in the face of a debt accumulated during the emasculating process, which changed a large balance at the bank into a considerable liability on the other side. Nor was it long before the system, against which such " heavy blows and great discouragements" had been hurled from Manchester, began to shake at head quarters. Mr. Herbert, R. A., a most eminent artist and successful teacher of the figure, resigned his appointment, and indignantly repudiated the management. In the end, after some eighteen months of uncertainty and inquiry, the Council at Somerset House was abolished, and a Commissioner of the Board of Trade was appointed to superintend the general management of the schools, while three emi- nent artists were appointed to the entire direction of the educational department These were Mr. Herbert, R. A., Mr. Redgrave, R. A., and Mr. J. H. Townsend. Mr. Wilson, the late Director, took the superintendence and inspection of the Pro- vincial Schools ; but this arrangement existed only for a short period, and he was subsequently appointed Head Master at Glasgow, a post in which his talents were well fitted to secure him success. It is now time to say something about the Female department of these schools. This had been first commenced in 1842 under the direction of Mrs. Mclan, a lady whose pictures are an honor to her country, and whose devotion to her duties, and the success which has followed that devotion, notwith- standing the many difficulties in which she has been placed from time to time by the apathy, and often opposition of the management, deserve the highest consideration. This Female school was intended to give instruction to fe- males desirous to devote their time to the pursuit of those industrial depart- ments of art, for which their sex might fit them without degradation. Drawing and engraving on wood, lithography, china painting, designing for lace, printed goods, silk, silver work, even to the modelling of the latter, were suitable branches of industry. Mrs. Mclan visited Sevres and the Staffordshire Potter- ies, made herself practically conversant with the various methods of painting chi- na, and this, too, as only one part of her duties. In fact, an intelligent and earn- est mind was at work on a suitable subject, and success was the result, even un- der all the difficulties to which we have alluded. Of the present state of the Fe- male School, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. The result of the utter want of systematic management in London re-acted upon the Branch Schools, and the extreme of a stereotyped course of study, with- out regard to the varied requirements of each manufacturing locality, resulted in another extreme, in which each master did what was right in his own eyes, and most profitable or convenient for his own purposes. The abolition of the nor- * It may not be uninteresting to state, that Mr. Wallis, who has recently visited the United States, as one of the Royal Commissioners from Great Britain, had advocated the cause of art-education for the artisan, long before ids connection With the schools. His experience as head-master at Spitalflolds. and his success there and at Manchester, gave his opinions great weight, though this was not felt at the time. They were made of more and more value by his untiring attention to the practical questions of art-manufacture, and his efforts as a writer and lecturer, from the period at which he threw up Ids post at Manchester, until his unsolicited reappointment as head-master at Birmingham In 1851, after five years absence from I official duty. THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. mal class for training and qualifying masters, rendered it necessary to select stu- dents from the Royal Academy — clever painters of small pictures, or incipient sculptors, who, valuing the appointments from the convenience they afforded of living whilst executing unsalable, works, cared little for the schools, and still less for their real purpose, that of applying art to manufacture. Upon the latter, they either looked with contempt, or were content to remain in ignorance of the very thing they had undertaken to teach. As might be expected, the Schools of De- sign, originally intended as schools of ornamental and industrial art, became nei- ther more nor less than drawing-schools, chiefly for the children of the middle classes. Nor was drawing taught upon a scientific basis. The examples of the ordi- nary drawing-master were used, and conventional landscape took the place of se- vere outline, prettinesses usurped the place of true art, and the artisan, neglected and disheartened, found little to attract him to devote his leisure hours in learn- ing that which was useless to him when mastered. In one school young ladies of good family and ample means were getting instruction in drawing as an ac- complishment at three cents per lesson, the rest being paid out of the public funds, whilst the wants of the class of workmen and their sons, for whose especial in- struction this school was founded, were all but neglected. Such a state of things could not go on for any length of time, and accordingly, in 1849, Mr. Milner Gib- son, the member of Parliament for Manchester, obtained the appointment of a Committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the whole system of manage- ment. The result of this inquiry was the full proof that the schools had not done their work, that they never would do it without a more distinct system of direc- tion and supervision, and that the wants of each district in its own special manufac- tures, should be consulted in the direct application of the system of instruction pursued, whatever that might be. The Government, for the time being, resisted any change emanating from the report of the Committee ; but, that report once disposed of, a desire was shown on the part of the Board of Trade, to render the schools more efficient in the plans indicated by the evidence given before that Committee. The Great Exhibition of 1851 intervened, and those who had agi- tated the question were engaged in carrying out that undertaking to its conclu- sion. Early in 1852, however, a new department of the Board of Trade was or- ganized, to be called the Department of Practical Art, at the head of which Mr. Henry TCole, 0. B., one of the most active members of the Executive Committee of the Great Exhibition, was placed as General Superintendent, with Mr. R. Redgrave, R. A., as Assistant Superintendent. To their care and management, as heads of the department, the whole management of the schools was to be confided. Here there was a real tangible beginning of a system of responsibility, which had been so long advocated. As a beginning of the new organization, the Queen granted the use of that part of Marlborough House, formerly the residence of Queen Adelaide, and the future residence of the Prince of Wales, which was not occupied by the pictures of the Vernon Collection. These unoccupied rooms presented many conveniences for the purpose, and were at once fitted up and adapted for class and other rooms. A lecture theatre was formed out of the kitchen of the palace, royal bedrooms became suddenly useful as libraries and offices, but above all, a portion of the building was devoted to the formation of a museum of manufactures, in which art as applied thereto, could be illustrated in its best forms, and the choicest exam- ples placed before the manufacturer, the artisan, the student, and the public ; thus teaching all, by the best of processes, an appeal to the sense of pro- priety and fitness, whilst contemplating the beautiful. Fortunately for this movement, the Great Exhibition had brought together the choicest pro- ductions of modern times. By the advice of Lord Granville, who, as Vice-Presi- dent of the Board of Trade, was the ministerial head of the schools, the govern- ment had determined to apply £5,000 sterling in the purchase of examples for the use of the schools about to be so thoroughly reformed. Four gentlemen were appointed as a committee to select them, Mr. H. Cole, Mr. Pugin, Mr. Owen Jones, and Mr. Redgrave, R. A. The whole of the grant was not expended, but a fine selection of articles was, on the whole, made by them. These, together with a very fine collection of works of a similar character, purchased at the Paris Exposi- tion of 1844, but which had been scarcely ever seen by the public, having been placed in out-of-the-way corners in the school at Somerset House, formed the nucleus of this new and practical museum of modern skill and industry. In addi- tion to the articles thus purchased for the nation, the Queen has lent many excel- lent specimens of ancient and modern art in gold, silver, china, and in decorated armour and furniture, the nobility and collectors generally following so excellent an example. This museum is free to the public on Mondays and Thursdays, but on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, it is open to students of the Department only and those of the public who go for study, and the value the latter set upon this privi- lege is tested by a fee of sixpence. This museum, though not yet very extensive, has become a point of attraction to all intelligent visitors to the Metropolis. The formation of special classes for instruction in Art, as directly applied to manufactures, having been determined upon, the higher departments of art hitherto taught at Somerset House, were removed to Marlborough House. A change was thus made in the character of the former, which became simply a preparatory school for the latter. More recently it has been or is to be abolished altogether, as the public service requires the departments for offices, and the func- tions of this single school are to be performed by a number of elementary schools spread over the London districts at convenient distances from each other. In connection with so rational a mode of meeting the wants of a large city, by a number of small establishments rather than a solitary great one, ele- mentary schools are proposed and are now in course of establishment in many provincial towns, whose claims to a grant for a school of Ornamental Art would be more than problematic, while the means of supporting one by local means would be totally inadequate. These schools, commencing with the ele- ments of drawing, prepare the student to take advantage of the higher and more advanced classes in the larger schools. In connection with this movement also, there is a plan for extending instruction in drawing into any primary school which receives State support. This is of a very elementary character, but the teachers, male and female, are expected to qualify themselves to give such instruc- tion, and classes for teachers are found in nearly all the large schools of Orna- mental Art, in which instruction is given free. Eventually there can be little doubt that the power to draw, and teach its elementary practice and principles, will be an indispensable requisite in any teacher applying for a certificate. Of course a most important point in the successful management of these schools, is a proper provision for a constant supply of good examples at a cheap rate, and also the supply of good and cheap materials. The old management made grants of examples to the various schools, free of cost ; such examples, however, were still considered to be the property of this government, in the event of the school in which they were deposited being abandoned, or being prevented from its legitimate use. The examples usually consisted of an admirable series of ornamental casts, from the best antique specimens deposited in the various museums of Italy, France, Germany and England, and also of full size plaster casts of the more celebrated antique statues, such as the Apollo Belvidere, Venus de Medici, Discobolus, the Fighting Gladiator, or Agas, as it is sometimes called, the Theseus and Ilissus of the Elgin Marbles, and others. Examples in color were also furnished, but owing to their cost but very sparingly. In the elementary departments of the schools an abundant supply of excellent lithographs were fur- nished as examples for crayon practice, and an admirable series of outlines, prepar- ed expressly for the use of these schools, by Mr. Dyce, during his directorship. Nor should the works by Grunez be forgotten, since they also contain some admirable examples in the midst of much which might have been better done. This work was published under the sanction of the Council of the School of Design at Somerset House, an undertaking being given that a certain number of copies should be purchased for the use of the schools, as some guarantee to the publisher against loss. In the matter of materials, nothing was done until the present department was organized, and in this important point samples of materials, with the prices and the address of those who make or sell them, are now given at the cost price of the samples only.* Examples are no longer supplied, or perhaps it would be more correct to say lent, free. It was found that in too many instances the examples supplied were not useful to the locality to which they were sent, or their use was neglected. The plan now adopted, is to supply whatever examples any school may require for absolute use, at half the cost price, the other half being defrayed out of an annual grant of money made for that purpose. The fact of paying half price, proves that the examples are wanted, and therefore that the remaining half may be safely calculated upon as well spent from the public purse. In addition to the examples requisite for study, grants of valuable works on art were made to the largest of the provincial schools, thus forming a library of reference in each district, whilst the wants of the students, as regards the history of art and all matters connected therewith, were provided for by well selected lending libraries, from which students of proper age and standing were privileged to borrow works bearing upon their pursuits in art. From the floating character of the population, it was found, especially in London, that the lending library required renewal very frequently ; and it is now abandoned at Marl- borough House, the new centre of the schools. In most of the provincial schools, however 1 , lending libraries still form one of the many advantages offered to students, but the dilapidation of the books, frequent losses, and no source of further supply, must ere long tend to the same result as at head-quarters. The libraries of reference are kept up with great care, and most of them afford excel- lent means of correcting the taste of designs and manufactures, as in most in- stances they are freely open at proper hours to all who wish to examine or con- sult them. At Birmingham, for instance, the school prospectus concludes with an invitation to all persons interested, to avail themselves of the library under certain orderly regulations. At Marlborough House, London, the library has been thoroughly classified, and where defective, renewed. Additional works are con- stantly being bought, and any student of art, manufacturer, or designer, can have any work upon any style of art, if in the library, handed to him to consult, or to make sketches and memoranda from it. * A collection of these examples and diagrams is now exhibited in the Crystal Palace by the Depart- ment of Practical Art. 103 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. With regard to t he kind of instruction given, it would occupy too much space to go into all the details. Without attempting a minute account, it will therefore bo sufficient to say, that it comprises a course of geometry and per- spective, simultaneously with n rigid course of free-hand outline drawing from a selection of ornaments of pure styles, and of the human figure. When this course is gone through in a satisfactory manner, tho student is taught shading in crayon or chalk, first from the flat, to give him a true method of handling, and then from the cast; and his subjects may be either antique ornament, or the human figure. A course of anatomy, illustrative of the latter, is also pur- sued. In the study of color, the practice is first in monochrome from the cast, and then from the smaller objects of nature, such as flowers, prints, shells, etc., which are usually grouped as compositions of color. In modelling, which is prac- tically taught in most of the schools, the students are carried from the first efforts in clay from the cast, to modelling from nature, and to the realiza- tion of designs for manufacturers. The technical instruction, given in these schools, beyond that which applies to artistic practice, is very limited, and how far it shall or shall not, can or cannot be carried, has been a principal source of dispute, amongst those who have the greatest interest in the schools and their projects. One thing appears quite certain, that to make them into centres for supplying the actual designs for manufactures, supposing this could be done, would be to bring them down to the level of the manufacturers' taste, while the one great purpose for which they were originally established was to elevate that taste, as also that of the artisan and general pnblic. In short, the functions of these schools is to make designers, not designs, but in doing the former there must of necessity be more or less of the latter done or aimed at. After all, how- ever, the real technical knowledge can only be attained in the workshops or in the factory ; and the most practical, as well as the most practicable view, is to seek to give the artisan such an amount of artistic knowledge as shall enable him to become an art workman, apt at realizing the designs and inventions of others with accuracy and taste, while, should he possess originality himself, his artistic practice and technical skill will go hand in hand, and render him more fitted for his position as a leader. The first thing, however, is to make a good and orderly follower of him, alike in art and in manufactures. The Schools of Ornamental Art at present in operation in Great Britain and Ire- land, are located at Belfast, Birmingham, Cork, Coventry, Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds, Limerick, Macclesfield, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Paisley, Staffordshire Potteries (Stoke), Sheffield, Spitalfiekls, Stourbridge, Worcester and York. To this, it should be understood, are now added a considerable number of elementary schools as the commencement of others of a more extended character, whenever the wants of the respective localities in which they are situated become apparent in the uses made of the instruction provided. The latter, however, have no absolute grant of money. The department provides a properly trained master, and guarantees his stipend for the first year, if the fees of the students do not amount to the sum required. The necessary accommodation as regards class-rooms, furniture, gas-fittings, care-taking, and half the cost of examples, must be absolutely undertaken by the locality ; and there can be little doubt that this is the correct policy now to pursue in relation to these institutions. Still, had such a system been adopted at the outset, it is more than questionable whether many of the Schools of Art now in operation would have had an existence, and there can be little doubt that many of them would have been abandoned by their provincial promoters, had so serious a binder been thrown upon them as the responsibility of rendering them, self-supporting ; for, strange to say, the majority of the manufac- turers of England are exceedingly apathetic upon the subject, and while they com- plain that the instruction given is not as practical as it ought to be, they neither use their influence nor their money to assist in making it so. Hence many of the schools, until the recent changes in the central management, had fallen into mere dilettanti drawing-classes, from the fact that those who directed them had little or no perception of their true uses ; and the public found it pleasant to get in- struction in making pretty drawings at a few cents per quarter, instead of paying an equitable number of dollars. But while this system has, so far at least, been put an end to, there is yet the difficulty to overcome of showing the great manufactur- ing houses that self-supporting Schools of Art which will do their work in the right spirit, are practicable; for the popular drawing-class element may be carried to such an extent as to completely absorb the more essential quality of pro- viding'for the wants of the artisan. Here lies the difficulty. Art, as applicable to manufacture, Ls one thing; w hilst art, as a mere accomplishment, is another. Hundreds will be found to pay the requisite fees, and go through such a course of study as may answer very well for manufacturing pretty pictures ; but for the pur- poses of the loom, the casting shop, the potter's wheel, the printing machine, and the glass furnace, another, and by no means popular course, is necessary. Severe forms can only arise out of the application of severe principles, and in working out severe courses of study, and to this none but the professional student will sub- mit; because it is thought that the mere amateur can succeed without the know- ledge required by the artist or the art-workman. Thus we conclude, that to have the requisite work done, the government must pay for it, since the popular draw- ing-class is the only thing the public care to pay for, in the shape of fees. But we also hold, that whilst the government is called upon to pay for the suitable instruc- tion, it ought also to see that such instruction is given. This was a matter of minor importance with nearly all the previons managements, but it is to be hoped sufficiently understood by the present one to insure success, provided the self-sup- porting principle, based on the popularity-seeking system, is not carried so far as to make the wants of the manufacturer secondary as compared with the self-support of the schools. On analyzing a table, published in the first official report of the new depart- ment, we find that the grants to the various provincial schools before enumerated amount to £7,500, and that the fees received from students are £2,788 4s. 4d. The local subscriptions, donations, &c, amount to £5,146 18s., thus giving a total in- come of £15,347 12s. 9d. for the year ending 31st December, 1852. The expendi- ture shows a total of £13,118 2s. 3d. For this expenditure, 3,762 males, and 1,106 females are receiving artistic education, or at least are so reported. The kind and degree of this instruction is, as we have shown, open to grave exception by the earnest advocate of a thoroughgoing system as applicable to really useful purposes. In the returns from nearly all the schools, the occupations of the students are given ; but when we see the great city of Manchester neglecting to give this most important item of information, and returning round numbers of portentous amount as the number of students on the books (a most equivocal mode of return), we naturally seek to see what further impression is given from this important locality. On turning to another table, in which returns are made from the date of the establishment of each school to 1851, the same school returns, strangely enough, less than half the number as the average ; thus the difficulty of giving the occu- pation of the 700 is shown by the fact that 322 is nearer the mark, whilst the amount of fees received in the year 1852, always a good test, since the money must be accounted for, is only £262,1 6s., which clearly gives even less than 300 students. Now this example of an official return is quoted to show, how little dependence a government can place upon the expenditure of grants for the results of the application of which it does not clearly hold the administrators responsible, by seeing that the work undertaken to be done is actually accomplished; a point about which, until recently, officials at head-quarters scarcely troubled themselves. It is only right to say, however, that the returns from all the other schools" appear to be fairly given, the lists of the occupations of the students being curiously illus- trative of the trades of the various localities. The ages, too, are given in groups, and show that the greatest number of those who attend are between fifteen and twenty, a large number being also between twenty and thirty, and many above thirty years of age. The average period of attendance, however, would appear not to be above two years and a half, and this too, irrespective of the many who do not attend a whole year. In London a great change is now in the course of being effected. Instead of a single school at Somerset House, several elementary schools are estab- lished, whilst the rooms, previously occupied in that great centre of govern- ment offices, have been given up to the registrar-general, and its business transferred to Marlborough House, where all the advanced classes are conduct- ed. The female school being located in the neighborhood of College University, goes on much as it has done, as regards its elementary course of instruction, but is now being made more extensively useful than formerly. There is one point in connection with the support of these schools, which appears to have been a fruitful source of discussion wherever the pecuniary ques- tion has been raised. In the provinces large subscriptions are required to assist in their support, in the metropolis ibis is not done. Even Spitalfiekls, e branch school, received the whole of its support from the government, except some £40 or £50 per annum, until lately. The provincials maintain, that while London possesses innumerable advantages for the study of art, in nearly all its forms, provincial towns have rarely any except such as may be afforded by the estab- lishment of a school of ornamental art; and yet a provincial town is called upon to bear half the cost of an institution so much needed, but the me- tropolis gets the government grant without any conditions. The reply is, that a central institution is essential for the proper training of masters for the provincial schools, and that a great portion of the expenses of the metro- politan schools, ought to be set down to the provincial ones. The line of con- tention, however, still exists, and promises to form no unimportant point in the final question as to how far tho provincial schools are to be self-supporting. Under any circumstances, it is the policy of a wise government to encourage such institutions as these, the working of which in Great Britain we have been en- deavoring to illustrate. Their influence, imperfectly as they have been as yet worked, has been very important. Under a more earnest and stringent system of supervision, with the experience of the past to rely upon, their future career cannot fail to be marked with beneficial results alike to the artisan, the manufacturer, and the general public. For, in an age like the present, in which the ingenuity of man is so strikingly manifested in the rapid development of means of manufac- ture, by which the useful can be made ornamental, in some instances at even less cost than it can be constructed without decoration, it is not too much to say, that that country which pays most attention to a matter becoming daily of more im- THE NEW - YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. portance, must take the lead alike in commerce as it does in the arts, and apart from the ripening influence of the latter, must realize advantages of no mean im- portance to its future progress in civilisation. We have devoted so considerable a space of the Reoohd to the history of the foundation and vicissitudes of the schools of Ornamental Art in England, and to an explanation of the course of study pursued in them, not only because we thought the subject a highly important one, but, in the hope that onr article might attract attention here, and induce wealthy, influential, and liberal citizens to pro- vide similar schools for the instruction of our own artisans. ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. AMONG the many applications of electricity to the arts and requirements of civilised life, there is none which plays so admirable and so important a part as the Electric Telegraph. Its power is a perpetual miracle, and its consequences, political and social, might be the theme of the grandest prophecy. It is one of those immortal discoveries that give character to an age, and would make our own for ever memorable, though it stood alone, the solitary achievement of the time. The capabilities of the Electric Telegraph have already far exceeded the hopes of the most sanguine of its early friends, and what it now proposes to do, without a knowledge of its past history, would be pronounced most extravagant and chimerical. It no longer confines its operations to individual countries and continents, but is stretching its bonds of intelligence and amity across the wastes of oceans, and preparing to make every man a Prospero, with a far swifter and more accomplished Ariel to serve him. Our Atlantic steamers bring us intelligence from all parts of Europe up to the moment of their departure, by means of the electric link, which, lying deep in the arm of the oeean between England and France, silently conveys the news of revo- lutions upon which hang the fate of nations. A company has been formed tc connect Cuba with Florida, and another has fairly entered upon the work of spanning the Atlantic. Now that it is the most prominent scientific application of the age, old inventions and ideas, which, at the time of their con- ception, had only vitality enough to find a place in the record of history, and had since slumbered for years, have again come to life, and deriving strength and importance from their antagonists, have urged a competition for honor with those inventions which first converted an abstract idea into a practical fact, and brought it forward for the benefit of the world. In the first experiments of Francis Ronalds, of England, who proposed and built, in 1823, a telegraph extending over a distance of 175 yards, operated by Motional electricity, the wires were enclosed in thick glass tubes carefully joined with wax, and placed underground in wooden troughs lined and covered with pitch ; and it is now a well established historical fact [PA il. Trans., vol. XIV., 1848], that more than one hundred years ago Dr. Wat- son extended his experiments over a space of two miles near London, and used a single wire, the ground forming the return and completing the circuit. And in the year 1748, Dr. Franklin set fire to spirits by means of an electric current sent across the Schuylkill on a wire, and returning in its circuit by the river and the earth. In 1837 it was again discovered by Steinheil that the conducting power of the earth could be advantageously substituted for one of the wires, and that it was unnecessary to connect each pole of the battery with the telegraph apparatus at the distant station. The saving of the cost and repairs of one out of every two wires is not the only advantage derived from this discovery. The conducting power of the earth is so supe- rior, that it adds nothing to the resistance, and acts too as the return connection to any num- ber of distinct wires and batteries, without affecting the independent action of any of them. It is believed that in the year 1825 Mr. Sturgeon, of England, constructed the first electro-magnet, by coiling a copper wire around a piece of iron of a horse-shoe form, the turns being kept apart to prevent the transmission of the electricity between them. He found that when the electricity was passing through the coil, the inert mass of iron enclosed was endowed with all the wonderful properties of a magnet, and lost them again on the instant the current was interrupted. But it is not our intention to write a history of the ideas and discoveries which reached their consummation in the Electric Telegraph. We have only to explain the methods mostly in use upon the fifteen thousand miles of telegraphic lines now in operation in the United States, and which are illustrated by the working machines exhibited in the Crystal Palace. Grove's batteries are most generally used in this country, and consist of a series of glass cups or ordinary tnmblers, in each of which is placed an unglazed porcelain cup. In the glass cups, which contain sulphuric acid diluted witli water, are immersed cylindrical pieces ot zinc, connected witli slips of platina foi' which dip into the diluted nitric acid tilling the porcelain enp in the adjoining tumbler. The decomposition of the zinc is rendered less rapid by amalgamation, or coating it with mercury rubbed into its surface. The platina at one end of the row or series, or its wire connection, is called the positive pole, and the zinc at the other is the negative pole. The circuit is closed and the current established by connecting the wires or terminating them in the earth ; and it may include any number of machines for telegraphic purposes. The chief difficulty experi- enced is to keep the wires unbroken and to avoid the disturbing action of at- mospheric electricity and the destructive effect of lightning. The wires in this country are hung from glass or porcelain insulators on poles, and in some parts of Europe they are incased in gutta percha and buried in the ground. Various combinations of telegraph wires insulated with gutta percha, and protected with wire rope and vertebrated iron chains, have been used in crossing rivers and the sea. Almost every effect by which the presence of electricity is manifested, has been enlisted for the purpose of transmitting ideas to a distance. The electro- chemical telegraph of Bain records by means of the decomposing power of electricity. It consists of an iron point connecting with the positive pole of the battery, and quietly resting upon a circular brass disc, with which it forms part of the circuit. If paper moistened with a solution of prussiate of potash, slightly acidulated with nitric or sulphuric ucid, is placed between the point and disc, and a current of electricity passed through, an oxydation of the iron and combination with the prussiate is induced, forming prussian blue and depositing a dark blue mark. The disc is revolved by clock-work, and the iron point is guided by an arm resting in a groove in the central portion of the plate, and traces dots and marks or blanks in a spiral direction on the paper as the current is closed or broken. The discoloration is effected instantaneously, and it has the additional advantage of being performed with a much more feeble current of electricity than would be required to produce a mechanical result. There have been several mod- ifications proposed for the purpose of transmitting fac-simile copies. The princi- ple involved is to break and close the current by writing with dissolved sealing wax or other non-conducting material on the surface of a cylinder included in the circuit. The cylinder revolves slowly by means of clock-work, and as the fine point of the style passes over the writing, the current is broken, and there is a blank left on the prepared paper wrapped upon a similarly conditioned cylin- der at the other terminus, which the electricity would otherwise cover with a finely traced helix. The axes of the cylinders are cut with screw threads, so that a revolution shifts them endways a slight distance, corresponding to the fineness of the screw. When this machine becomes a quick-working and reliable instru- ment, it will be an important acquisition in business operations, and might be found useful in transmitting an outline picture or likeness of a fugitive rogue. The first application for a patent for an electric telegraph, by Samuel F. B. Morse, was made in 1837 ; and the first line in the United States was built by him, in 1844, between Wash- ington and Baltimore, in which enter- prise he was assisted with thirty MORSE 8 ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH thousand dollars, appropriated for the purpose by Congress. In the recording instrument represented above, there is a piece of pure, soft iron, of the ordinary horse-shoe magnet form, wrapped with many hundred convolutions of fine copper wire carefully insulated by a covering of silk. When the circuit is closed, and the current of electricity flows through the wire, the iron becomes magnet- 1 ized, and attracts the armatures attached to one of the arms of an axis, which car- ries on its opposite side an arm furnished with a steel point, regulated by a screw, and pressing through the interposed paper into a groove cut on one of the rollers 105 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. of a pair which are moved by a system of wheel-work, and carry the paper from its spool regularly forward. If the circuit is kept closed any appreciable time, the paper is marked with a line corresponding to its motion. So soon as the current is interrupted, the iron becomes demagnetized, and the spring attached to the ver- tical arm extending downwards from the axis, throws the armature up and disen- gages the point from the paper, which continues to move forward without further impression. If a mere momentary impulse is given to the curreut, the point im- presses only a dot upon the paper. The current is broken and closed by the fin- ger key shown in the annexed figure. The operator presses upon the button, and the point on the key is brought in contact with the corresponding point on the base piece, and, as they both form parts of the circuit, the current is established, and a dot or line traced on the paper of the recording machine according to the time of contact. On removing the finger, the spring attached to the key throws it np, and breaks the circuit. The various combinations of dots, lines, and spaces FINGElt KEY. are arranged to represent letters or words. At first, Professor Morse proposed to use what he styled a port-rule, consisting of types of dots and marks set as they were to be recorded, and traversing an instrument similar to the finger-key, and giving to it a corresponding motion. This mechanical contrivance was soon superseded by the finger-key, with which the dexterous manipulation of a practised operator determines the lengths of the marks and spaces with sufficient accuracy for practical purposes, and, although a single letter sometimes requires three or four motions of the finger, transmits them at the rqte of one hundred a minute. It is found that in passing through a long wire the electricity becomes dissipated, and reaches the distant terminus in too enfeebled a current to perform the mechanical execution required. To obviate this, relay magnets are used, similar in principle to the recording instrument, but dispensing with the wheel-work, and using the point to break and close the current of an additional set of batteries, which is thus brought into operation, and sends its power as far as may be prac- ticable to employ another battery; which, in its turn, may perform a similar duty, or merely work the recording machine at the terminus. . The imperfect drawing of the beautiful and ingenious machine invented by Eoyal E. House, serves the purpose of a cursory glance at the instrument itself, by suggesting the idea of an exceedingly complex arrangement of parts, which require a careful examination to be understood. The cylinder shown on the left contains a helical coil of fine copper wire, well wrapped and insulated with silk, and forming the circuit with the telegraph wire. A brass tube, of about half an inch in diameter, is placed in the coil and has disposed inside its length eight short iron cylinders. A small brass rod extending through the tube, and carrying eight iron discs, is sus- discs, and causes them to attract one another and draw the rod downward. On the cessation of the current, the rod is drawn up by the spring of the horizontal wire ; and thus the closing and breaking of the circuit occasions a vibration of the brass rod and a small piston valve carried by it in the air-chamber in the upper part of the cylinder. This chamber is supplied with air from a pump attached to the frame of the machine, through the vertical pipe ; and the oflBce of the valve is to alternately supply the two horizontal pipes connecting with the opposite ends of a cylinder situated under the upper plate of the instrument and containing a piston governing the motions of an escapement, in a manner similar to that by which the escapement of a clock is governed by its pendulum. The motion of a type wheel, with the twenty-six letters of the alphabet and a period and blank engraved upon its twenty-eight projections, is regulated by this escape- ment. The air governs the motion of the type wheel, and is in its turn regulated by the electricity. The machines are built in pairs, comprising the above par- tially described recording instrument, and the composing instrument ; each con- nected when in operation with its fellow at the other terminus. The composing machine consists of a cylinder situated under the lettered keys and carrying at one end a brass wheel called the circuit wheel, with one end of the telegraph wire in contact with its side. Its periphery is cut with fourteen slots, and has pressing against it an end of the telegraph wire fashioned into a spring, so that as the cylinder and wheel are revolved the circuit is broken or closed by the passage of the spring over a slot or projection. A detent on the lower side of each key catches a pin in the cylinder and arrests its motion, and also that of tho type- wheel in the recording instrument. Now suppose the letter A to be opposite the slip of paper placed to receive the message to be transmitted, and the key marked A detaining the cylinder and its wheel, with the circuit closed by the conducting spring resting upon one of the projections. On putting the machine in motion and releasing the key, the current is broken by the spring passing over the slot in the circuit wheel corresponding to B, and the escapement adverted to in the recording instrument, allows the type wheel to revolve the space of one detent and present the letter B. The spring again closes the circuit with the next pro- jection on the circuit wheel, and the type wheel presents the next letter ; and these operations are repeated in rapid succession until the motion of the cylinder is arrested by pressing down one of the keys, and causing the type wheel to stop with its corresponding letter opposite the paper. When the type wheel of the record- ing machine is put in motion, a second peculiar escapement is detached and held in abeyance until a cessation of the motion allows it to act, and, by means of an eccentric connected with it, draw the paper against the type wheel and produce the required impression. The motion of this escapement also releases the paper from the type after impressing it, and causes it to unroll from its spool and ad- vance a slight distance to present a blank for the next letter. A blackened strip of paper is also drawn against the type and causes' the letter to be fairly printed, at the rate, in ordinary communications, of two hundred a minute. The motions of the type wheel and its two escapements, and of the air pump and the circuit wheel, are all communicated through pulleys and bands from a treadle, worked by the foot of the operator. The letter A in the illustration is one of the letters of an index wheel, corresponding to the type wheel, and enables the operator to perceive at a glance IIOHBK'8 KI.KOTBIO PRINTING TEI.KORAPn. pended from the horizontal wire seen stretched by set screws between the stand- ards above the cylinder. The electricity traversing tne coil magnetises the little iron cylinders and 106 the condition of the instrument, and allows the letters to be read as they are presented, if it should be desirable to remove the type wheel or paper and pre- vent the recording operation taking place. THE NEW - YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. The magnificent Service of Gold Plate, which we engrave upon this page, deserves the particular regard of every American. It commemorates an event of national importance, one that added distinguished honor to our country, and materially enhanced our reputation for en- terprise and power. It hears the following inscription : — "This Service of Plate 18 PBKSEKTED BY THE CITIZENS OF NEW-YORK to Edward K. Collins, " In testimony of the public sense of the great honor and advantage which has been conferred upon this city and the whole country, through his energy and perseverance in the successful establishment of an American Line of Transatlantic Steamers. "August, 1851." 10T The Collins' Plate was manufactured by the eminent goldsmiths of New-York, Messrs. Ball, Black & Co., by whom it was exhibited in London, an,d is now displayed in the Crystal Palace of New-York. It is entirely com- posed of California gold, and is valued at $?000. Its workmanship is highly creditable to the skill and taste of the manufacturers. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. Among the mean9 and appliances of civilised life which the ingenuity of man has appropriated from na- ture, or has himself invented, there is scarcely one which holds a more important place than glass. It would be beauty which it assumes at the will of the artist and artisan. We have engraved on this page numerous specimens exhibited by J. Maes, Gallerie de Clichy, admired ruby glass, colored with suboxyd of copper, or with gold. Most of the specimens are "cased," a term applied to articles which are made of several successive easily than the other, and by dextrous manipulation distributes it over the whole surface ; or he dips the ball into a pot of colored glass, and repeats this operation difficult to find another material that could supply its place with advantage in domestic economy, and the vari- ous ornamental articles of elegant luxury, while in the most important branches of scientific research, it is of in- Paris, which illustrate some of the useful applications of glass, united with ornament of unexceptionable grace and propriety. They are made of that variety of glass layers of glass, each of a different color. The casings are united into a homogeneous mass in the following manner. The workman collects upon the punty rod a until all the casings of different colors have been ap- plied. The mass is then blown and manipulated in the usual manner, and the successive casings arc exposed as dispensable use. It were needless and foreign to our present object, to enlarge upon its perfect applicability to the purposes for which it is designed, or attempt to do more than refer to the thousand forms of use and called Bohemian, a double silicate of potash and limo with a minute quantity of alumina. The Vase and Toilet Service at the top of the page, are of the much ball of glass of whatever sort he chooses to form the body (usually colorless), and while the ball is still red hot, he applies a cake of colored glass which melts more the decorat ion requires, by cutting through them with the engraver's wheel. Many of the beautiful articles in M. Maiis' collection THE NEW -YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. are gilt. To do this, metallic gold is precipitated in the form of a very finely divided brown powder, from a solu- tion of its chloride ; the precipitate is washed, dried, rubbed up with a proper flux, mixed with oil of tur- pentine or gum water, and applied with a delicate brush. The vessels are now heated in a muffle, the volatile oil escapes, and the flux melts and attaches the gold firmly to the surface. When first removed from the fire, th gold is dull, yellowish brown, and lustreless, but ac- quires its peculiar color and brilliancy by friction of an I The last Group of Toilet Bottles and Vases upon the I an extensive collection in the Austrian department, which agate or Dlood-stone burnisher. | opposite page, and the Vases, &c, upon this, are from | has the name of E. Staineb attached to it. They are also I sssitt - - - «** i , soma* ttSftESfter 109 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL, NATIONS. The Guardian Angel, a statue in marble, is exhib- ited by L. I in mime, a sculptor of Rome. This is one of the most pleasing of the contributions of Italy. The good angel, in whose existence and controlling power there is scarce any one so rude as not to believe, is here visibly represented attending the young boy, who looks reverently upwards to heed the monitions of his celestial companion. manufactory at Limoges, France. We engrave upon this page a pair of Candelabra, gaily painted and decorated in a style most unmistakably French. The The adjoining statue is exhibited by G. Mannetti, an I A rich and attractive display of porcelain is exhibit Italian sculptor, resident in Dublin. | ed by Messrs. Havhand, Brothers & Co., from their Vase, encircled with vines, and with a foliated bor- der, though abundantly authorised by a multitude of examples, does not meet our views of appropriate 110 beauty. Ornaments in high relief that break the outline, and obscure the form of the objects to which they are affixed, arc always objectionable. The truth THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. of this remark will be apparent on comparison of this with the Sevres vases. The vignette upon the vase is beautifully painted. The Covered Dishes are also to be found in Messrs. Haviland's collection. The figures upon the covers are in Parian, and are examples of imitative decoration. Messrs. Rochefobt [Oontimud on page 181. THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. The specimens of ceramic manufactures which are illustrated on this page, are contributed to the Exhibi- pect a higher beauty and excellence both of design and manufacture than in private establishments, whose pro- The Tea Service which follows is faulty both in form, which is quadrangular, and in decoration, the articles being entirely covered and concealed by gilding, except- ing only the gaudily-painted vignettes. The second Tea Service is better modelled, and hag a very dark-colored ground, upon which there is a pleas- tion by the Royal Prussian Porcelain Manufactory, through the agency of the Prussian Consul. ductions arc chiefly regulated by the element of price. The Vases, at the top of the page, are excellent in This, like other royal and national establishments in Europe, is under the control of the "government, and respect to form and decoration, especially in the manner in which the latter has been applied. The colors of the is supported by its funds. Its works are produced with- I vase on the left are neutral, with a prevailing tint of out reference to sale, and we are therefore entitled to ex- | grayish blue. 128 ing decoration that indicates but does not imitate foliage A Tea Cup, prettily ornamented with sprigs imitat- ing red coral, is noticeable for unsuitable construction, its shape being such that it could scarcely be emptied of its contents without completely inverting it. The design and decoration of the massive Cup which concludes this page, are far from satisfying the require- ments of propriety and taste. It is almost covered with gilding, and without sharing in the vulgar prejudices against the serpent tribe, we must protest against the use of reptilian ornaments on table furniture, especially such as peep curiously into tea-cups. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. Mr. Carl Muller, a talented German sculptor, residing, we believe, in New-York, exhibits the group in marble which commences this page. It is called the Minstrel's Curse, and represents the bard imprecating vengeance for the death of bis son, whose drooping form he supports with his left hand. We are not acquainted with the legend which the statuary is designed to embody 124 A statue of St. Jobs with the conventional symbols attributed to him by the monks, is exhibited by Eugenio Barratta, of Carrara. The statue of Columbus, the " world renowned Genoese," is contributed to the Ex- hibition by Del Medico Staffetti, of Carrara. We understand that it is copied from a model in plaster by Costa, a sculptor of Florence. The statue called Caritas is the work of J. Ernst von Ba.vdel. It was sent to the Exhibition from England, but was executed in Hanover. THE NEW-YOKK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. Switzerland is rich in the number of her forests, the wood from which is turned to account by her frugal and industrious people in every possible manner. In the win- ter season, in the mountainons districts, and particularly There are few who have passed through Switzerland and have not brought away some of these pretty souvenirs of I their tour. We engrave some of these articles, a Knii^e, | Fork, and Spoon, exhibited by Kehrli, Brothers; and The Console Table, very richly and elaborately sculp- tured in wood, in the quaint Raffaelesque style of deco- ration, is exhibited by G. Da Fieno, of Genoa, Sardinia. The Extension Table is exhibited by C. F. Hobe, of New-York. It is made of oak, and is a substantial and excellent piece of furniture. The carving is kept within the proper limits of decoration The last engraving on this page represents another of the carved ivory Umbrella Handles of Messrs. Sang- ster, of London. THK INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. The visitor in the English Department of the Crystal Palace will not fail to be attracted by the magnificent display of silver plate, exhibited by Messrs. Hunt & Roski ii, the eminent silversmiths and jewellers, of Lon- don, whose reputation and transactions aro co-extensive with the world of luxury and fashion. We are happy to introduce on this and the two following pages of the Record, several choice examples of plate, remarkable in this country for costliness and artistic merit. The Centre Ornament and Plateau, showing the ap- plication of silver to ornamental sculpture, is designed to be used as a stand for flowers, and as a candelabrum. On each corner of the plateau are groups which repre- sent the four seasons. Of these our engraving brings prominently into view, Flora attended by her Nymphs playing with wreaths of flowers, and personifying Spring ; and Winter represented by the aged Saturnus, who is seated on a leafless tree, and spreads his mantle over shivering nature ; he is attended by an allegorical figure representing storms and tempests. The figures not fully in view are Summer, a female crowned with wheat and carrying a sickle; and Autumn typified bj the figures of Silenus, Bacchus, and Pomona. The signs of the zodiac are placed beneath the groups. 126 At the foot of the central ornament arc placed figures which typify the quarters of the world, each of which is attended by characteristic animals. On the column an alto-relievo represents the evolu- tions of Day and Night, attended by the Hours. The stem, supporting the basket, has standing at its base four figures representing the Elements. The whole piece is decorated with ornaments in the cinque-cento style. The design wis made and modelled by Alfred Brown, in Messrs. Hunt & Hoskell's establish- ment. THE NKW-YOKK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED, A tall silver Vase terminated with three dolphins, is embossed with the quaint female figures and an allegorical design, and has it* sides pierced to show the ruby Mtd fanciful ornaments of the Elizabethan period. «=7 The Vine Vase is composed, as its name indicates, ot the stems and foliage of toe vine. These rise from the base, and form a beautiful openwork and border of the vase through which the ruby glass lining shows its brilliant color. It is followed by an Ice Pail or Wine Cooler in silver, which is decorated « itli The Coffee Tot, in silver gilt, is an example of rich and beautiful decoration. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. We continue our illustrations of Messrs. Hunt 4 RoiKKLL's contributions by engraving an ErattKl or Fruit Dish, which forms part of a dessert service. The graceful basket of which is supported by a female figure, and resta form of this piece is in keeping with the elegant uses for in a frame of vine branches with clusters of grapes, which it is designed. The next article is a Cake Basket | The page is concluded with two figures in ■ very which has the usual form, and is not overloaded with ornamental workmanship. It is followed by a Coffee Pot of a similar general character. The form of this piece, and the relative place of the handle and spout deserve commendation, as showing that use has not been neglected to secure some fancied elegance. light colored bronze. They are exhibited by Adolpb Leconte, of New-York, and represent American Indian warriors executing the war-dance in their peculiar cos- tume, and with the weapons of their savage warfare. We have placed between them a Plateau and Ewei: modelled by Guinet after the designs of Benvenuto Cellini. It is executed in Parian, and forms part of the The hist piece of this collection is a Fruit Dish, the 128 handsome collection of Messrs. Minton A Co. THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. We continue our illustrations of the porcelain goods contributed by Messrs. Haviland & Oo., of Limoges, with The rich Vase adjoining, is chiefly noticeable for the richness and beauty of the purple color, forming the the two illustrations which commence this page. The I ground. The vignette represents a girl with a tambourine Wine Cooler is in every respect a beautiful production. | dancing with a goat. Its decorations of vines and grapes are at once appro- I The remaining illustrations have been selected from priate and well executed, and the vignette on the side, | the goods exhibited by Messrs. Haughwout & Dally, of The designs are chiefly copies from works executed abroad, and present, therefore, no point worthy of par- ticular remark. A Presentation Vase, from the opera- tives to Mr. William Woram, a former partner in the establishment, bears this gentleman's portrait. Two Plates, with the cipher of the President and the arms of HCStfilS.jr. representing girla bathing, is painted with exqui- I New-York. These gentlemen are engaged in decorating site art, | porcelain which is imported or manufactured for them. 129 the United States, form part of a service for the use ol that functionary. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. a Reaper, as is indicated by his sickle and sheaf of grain. Two beautifnl Statuettes in Parian, gilt and colored, are exhibited by Messrs. Lindslet, Powell jj le rcsu ]ts of the Exhibition to have here some condensed memoranda upon Light-Houses ; the modes of illuminating them ; and the development which these essential aids to navigation have received in modern times. For in ancient times, commerce, chiefly carried on by land, stood less in need of them, and the mariner with his unfrequent freights clung closely to the shore. The light-houses there- fore, of which industrious antiquarians believe they find a trace, could hardly have been more than beacon marks to assure the voyage by day, and by their very size, to loom large and dark by night; and even if lighted at all, they could not have surpassed the rank, if they at all equalled the efficiency, of our harbor lights of the present day. Such, for instance, was the Colossus of Rhodes, familiar to our school-days as a marvel ; such the tower at Alexandria, whose locality (the island of Phra, or Pharaoh or Pharos), has been perpetuated to this day in the classic epithet for structures of more undoubted purpose and effect ; that of Corunna, consecrated in Milesian tradition ; and that of Capio, on or near the Andalusian Tartessus. Other structures of smaller size appear to have been placed at several prominent points on the coasts of Gaul and Britain, probably to guide the transport of Roman invaders and colonists ; and Flamborough Head on the East Coast of England, seems to preserve in its name an allusion to a luminous beacon that stood upon it. But it was not until after the use of the compass and the improve- ments (or rather discoveries) in Nautical Astronomy of the 15th and 16th centuries, that lights in aid of navigation came to be systematically demanded, or formed part of the policy of even the most commercial people. When this occurred, and as the towers, to answer their purpose best, had generally to be placed on points of land, salient or otherwise exposed to the winds and fury of the sea, cases often would arise where difficulties had to be encounter- ed and outlay made, either of money or of skill on the part of the engineer, or of both. Some such cases, from the bold ingenuity exhibited or the happy nar- rative of the steps of the undertaking, have come to mark classical epochs in the history of Light-Houses. Among these may be mentioned (first in point of date, and as having been kept up sedulously ever since, abreast or ahead of all its class, so that a detailed account of it would be also a tolerable index of the improvements in the archi- tecture and illumination of lights), the Tower of Cordouan, at the mouth of the Gironde on the Bay of Biscay. Begun in 1584, the troubles and tumults of the League of France, and the often anxious counsels of Henry IV., pre- vented its completion until the death of that monarch in 1610. More than fifty years afterwards, in the magnificent period of Louis XIV., additions were made to it, and the structure partly rebuilt. Its cost would be equivalent to nearly or quite a half a million of our money. Its historian is Belidor. Great Britain has always contributed most largely to these provisions of com- merce ; and the Eddystone Light, remarkable for its vicissitudes ; that of the Bell Rock, whose seat is hardly ever dry even for a few hours ; and that of Skerry vore, the latest triumph of the art, are places of pilgrimage for engineers who wish to note how apparent impossibilities may be overcome. The first of these, built on a rock in the English Channel, opposite the mouth of Plymouth Sound, and some ten miles from land, goes back originally as far as 1698, when a light was shown from a wooden tower. But the water which rages there at times, and can submerge an object sixty feet in height, soon render- ed an enlargement indispensable, and, after that was made, a fresh repair. It was upon a last occasion of this sort, deep in November, 1703, that the Engineer Win- stanley, and all hands employed, and all visible preceding prints of their labor, were swept away at once. Five years afterwards it was replaced, still of wood, and so continued until 1755, when a new agent, fire, destroyed afresh what the wind and waves for nearly half a century had failed to move. Immediately after, and now almost a hundred years ago, the real Eddystone of mason work, artificially and curiously designed and laid, and which reciprocally immortalizes, and is immortalized by the name of Smeaton, began to be built, and was shortly after finished. It is to be hoped that art has now triumphed over nature, and that care will exclude accident, so that in a distant future the inquirer into the history of Light-Houses, more fortunate than ourselves, may have an existing and un- doubted specimen of the art as it was with us. The Bell Rock, a lonely and never long uncovered reef, some twelve or fifteen miles from land, opposite the firth of Tay on the East coast of Scotland, testifies in its name to the honor of the monks of Aberborthwick, whose pious charity devised a floating bell tolled by the moving waves, and rung with more appalling energy the higher rose the storm, to warn the mariner of what he was approach- ing. But with the decay of the Abbey went also the bell. Twice afterwards private beneficence provided there a wooden beacon that speedily followed the bell; but about the beginning of this century (in 1811) after nearly four years dangerous labor, Robert Stevenson (of a family whose members have to be de- signated by their Christian names, since it has furnished so many names of eminence), under the authority of the Commissioners of Northern Lights, com- pleted the present stone structure. In this the old tradition is revivified ; and the song of the Bell, now moved by the revolving machinery of the'lamps, is still heard, — a warning adjunct in foggy weather. Skerry vore, the last that need be mentioned, is on a reef of rocks lying on the western coast of Scotland, and among the Isles celebrated in one of Sir "Walter Scott's metrical romances, the materials for which, in fact, he gathered during a reconnaissance in 1814, when he accompanied the Northern Light-House Board and their Engineer, Alan Stevenson, for the object, among others, of examining this very site. So difficult, however, appeared the work, and so faint the chance, that twenty years had passed by before the question of placing a light there was seriously taken into consideration. Then, in 1834 a minute survey was begun, and in 1838, the work of building was commenced, and the tower lit up in 1844. This Light-House is remarkable not only for its dangerous position, and for its size, in which it more than doubles that on the Bell Rock, and nearly quintuples the one on the Eddystone, but also for the extreme theoretical and practical skill in both its architectural and optical relations developed there by the distinguished Engineer, Alan Stevenson, who may justly be regarded as among the very first authorities, living or dead, on the subject of Light-Houses. In building a Light-House, these two relations, optical and architectural, or its brilliancy and its permanence, are the chief things to be considered. In re- spect to the latter, both theory and practice seem to agree in showing that it is to be obtained by the weight or inertia of the insisting building, with an external shape, of course, the best calculated for presenting the least resistance to the waves, and for allowing them the soonest to expend themselves, rather than by any complicated mechanical framing, which, in some other works, is the most approved mode of obtaining the required strength of resistance. Hence stone, which is twice and a half as heavy as w T ater, has been found of far more success- ful application than wood, which last material, indeed, has become only tradi- tional in dangerously exposed situations. Lately, a substitute has been pro- posed of broken stone coi.creted with crude iron, which claims also this advan- tage, of being moulded in any form, and especially with the Smeaton dove-tails and joggles, that render the various parts of the building incapable of being moved by any force short of what transcends the tensile strength or cohesion of the material. Wrought iron has also been proposed and used; but in general with a sacrifice of the idea of inertia to that of a mechanical fastening to the rock foundation of a tripod or multiple-legged frame, bearing the necessary lantern and chambers above and beyond the reach of the sea. Cast iron, whose weight is nearly triple that of stone, and seven times that of water, would, in cases where the risk is great, and the expense at all considerable, be most likely the best resort both for economy and permanence. The use of this material in plates however, as has been proposed, does not appear to be the most eligible; it should rather be cast in solid rings, or in segments to be bolted together, and thus form the entire periphery of the tower. Suggestions of this kind, however, although they relate to what must be admitted as the most important point in Light-Houses, namely the maintenance of the building, and so its very existence as a Light, do not constitute the most attractive speciality of the subject. This is rather the optical part, and what concerns the mode of illumination and the light itself. Down to nearly the beginning of the present century, the only illumination known, was from the combustion of wood or coal in suitable grates or chauffers. Next to the glare of this open fire, which was as expensive and troublesome as it was variable and inefficient, came the light from tallow candles. For forty years after so much thought and labor had been expended in erecting the Eddy- stone, the light it gave was from no other source than these. Other lights else- where, it is true, used the flame of an oil lamp at an earlier date, but the wicks of the lamps were all solid, and the combustion of the oil, or rather of the inflamma- ble gas from it, very imperfect, as is seen in the quantity of smoke evolved. And even when an improvement was made by flattening and thinning the wick, the supply of atmospheric air essential to combustion, was only external, and a con- siderable quantity of carbonaceous matter on the inside necessarily went off without contact of air, and therefore unconsumed. It was reserved for Argand, about the year 1784, to invent the well-known lamp with a circular hollow wick and burner, that still bears his name. In this the wick is thin, and the air supplied on both sides, without and within. The addition of the glass chimney to the burner makes the combustion nearly per- fect; and to this day, although there have been some slight modifications of arrangement, nothing has been devised to supersede his original idea. The effi- ciency of the double current thus furnished, any one may easily test, who has 145 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. an Argand burner, by closing tbe apertures over tbe drip-pan, tbrougb winch the interior current of air is supplied. The lamp instantly smokes terribly, while on opening the apertures again, the smoke ceases, and the flame falls and becomes white. Tlio oil used for these lamps was at first spermaceti oil, or olive oil. Latterly, in England, but especially in France, oil of Colza, obtained from a species of wild cabbage and similar to what is known here as rape-seed oil, has been extensively introduced, and is preferred on account of giving a more intense brilliancy, steadier flame, and less charring of the wick, as well as on account of its greater cheapness in the market than any other oil in use. Other materials for illumination have been, it is true, proposed at various times in the last twenty-five years, but none that appear, on a consideration of all the circumstances, superior to oil. Thus the use of carburetted hydrogen gas distilled from coal, rosin, or oil, such as is used for street-lighting, has been sug- gested ; but the greater risk of irregularity in the manufacture and supply, as well as the inconvenience of feeding with it those lights that are intended to re- volve (at least on the reflecting system), have been judged to render it inexpedi- ent. The voltaic light of Mr. Gardner, produced by a current of electricity between two nicely adjusted charcoal points ; the Drummond light, arising from the ignition of lime in the flame of an oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe ; and the Bude light of Mr. Gurney, in which oxygen (instead of the dilution of that gas in atmospheric air), is furnished to support the combustion of oil, all afford a flame of great brilliancy and intensity, but are so comparatively complicated and uncer- tain as to be of disadvantageous, or at least doubtful application, in a system whose purpose requires every arrangement to be simple, uniform, and unfailing. But whatever may be the material for producing the flame, it is manifest without any particular investigation of the laws of light, that of a mere naked flame, a large part (probably 7-8 of the whole), will be diffused without serving any useful purpose. This useful purpose in the case of great sea-lights, is, to be visible at as great a distance as possible ; hence, with these, the rays or beams of light require to be nearly horizontal. In smaller lights, such as for harbors, channels, &c, the purpose is, to be visible close at hand ; for which a greater divergence or throwing down of the beams upon the surface of the water is requi- site. In either case it is obvious that the whole of the upper part of the flame above its centre, from which the beams are virtually radiated, is useless, for it strikes above its horizon where it could not possibly be seen, unless some auxiliary contrivance be adopted for catching, as it were, those stray rays, and diverting thein in a proper direction. As it happens in many instances that only a part of the horizon is seaward, and therefore needs the illumination, the earliest used of such auxiliaries would be a flat reflecting surface, like the plate of brass which, so late as the beginning of this century, was to be seen on the landward side of the flame at some of the English Light-Houses. But a flat surface would soon be found inefficient, and, in point of fact, would not collect more than 5 or 6 per cent, of the otherwise lost light. A spherical one would be better, and we may suppose followed next in improvement, yet leaving much to be desired. Geometers had long known the properties of another curved surface, which they term paraboloidal, in the capa- city which it has of transmitting in a direction parallel to its axis, all beams that radiate on it from a particular point called its focus ; but the mechanicians were either not properly invoked, or else shrunk from the practical difficulties of executing a reasonably correct surface of the form required. Small panes or facets of looking-glass were tried, set in paraboloidal moulds of wood or plaster, but at last, stimulated by the improvement in the light of Argand's lamp, the genius of Borda, about 1784, triumphed over the obstacles, and caused the erec- tion in the Cordouan Tower of really paraboloidal metallic reflectors. Since then, the immense advantage of this method has caused it to be adopted every where under various modifications, and as every system, to be known must have a name, this from the Greek word expressive of its most remarkable feature, is designated as the Catoptric system. It is clear, nevertheless, from the form of this curved surface (which is most like tho larger end of an egg-shell broken transversely about one-third of its length from that end, and with a luminous point placed about two-thirds of the depth inside), that the efficiency of the light within is laterally very much restricted by the sides of the reflector, beyond which the flame would be of course masked. In point of fact, a single lamp and reflector is only brilliant over about 4 per cent., or the fjth of the horizon, to extend which arc of efficiency, it is of course necessary to place the lamps and reflectors themselves in an arc, or where the whole hori- zon requires to be illuminated (as in great sea-lights situated off the mouths of ostuaries) in the circumference of a circle. In order to obtain the requi- site quantity of light, lamps so arranged are placed tier above tier, until found sufficient. Another resort was had by Borda, which, as affecting another point of great importance in the distinctive character of lights, is of immense interest, while it answered also the immediate aim of being visible over the whole horizon — in making the frame that carried the lights revolve. In this arrangement, the lamps and reflectors are set, instead of in a circle, tier above tier on the sides of a square or polygon ; and, as they turn on a central vertical shaft, each set of lamps successively throws its light over every point of the horizon. Ab the rate of revolution is quite rapid, the intervals of greatest brilliancy at any given point are very short, not exceeding a few minutes. In this way, both because the impression on the eye of the observer from the first beam, for instance, is augmented by that from tho quickly following second beam, and because the lamps can be more conveniently adjusted on a plane than on a curved surface, revolving lights are, witli the same number of lamps, burn- ing a uniform quantity of oil, virtually more luminous than if the frame were fixed. Besides, by altering the rate of revolution, the intervals between the greatest and least brilliancy (the first occurring when the observer is directly opposite the lamp-bearing face, and the last when the dark angle of the frame is in line with him), may be altered too, so as to give within certain limits quite a marked and distinctive character to the light in question. Various other modes (some of them of extreme ingenuity, and among these that of Bordier Marcet, the pupil and successor of Argand) have been proposed for illuminating an entire horizon at once, by cutting away the closed end of a reflector, and thus retroverting the rays. But none of these appear to have com- manded an undoubted preference, and therefore need not be spoken of here, where the object is more to indicate the actual, than to speculate on the possible. Perhaps one of the most efficient obstacles to the success of these contrivances, which with all their geometrical profundity are rather complicated and fatiguing to be considered, has been in the adoption of another system, proceeding upon an opposite principle ; and which, instead of reflecting the rays by a polished surface, causes them to pass through glass, and to be, as it is called, refracted. In the nomenclature of this, as of the other system, the classic language of Greece has been resorted to, and from the old word in that country signifying to be visible through, it is termed the Dioptric System. And as in the progressive improvement towards economy of light, reflections of the wandering rays were produced by special contrivances, it has also seemed proper to designate it as a compound system by the title Cata-dioptrio or Dia-oatoptrio. This alternative epithet is, to be sure, used more accordiug to the taste of the person employing it, than according to any established rule. This system, however entitled, is due to Augustin Fresnel, a Frenchman by birth, but a cosmopolite by genius, whose name will ever be recorded among the highest of those whose researches in pure science have been applied by them- selves to the vast practical benefit of mankind. And it was with the severe logic grown familiar to him in such researches, that he was enabled to sweep aside from the practical problem the vague crudities of those who had preceded him, and to go at once, unerringly and unfailingly to his well-defined and bene- ficent aim. The principle of this dioptric system is easily intelligible to any one who has ever amused himself with a burning-glass, or sun-glass, or magnifier. In that, the rays from the sun, which from the great distance traversed may be assumed as being parallel, are bent from their rectilineal course both on entering and on leaving the glass, so as to be converged to a point or focus, which is brilliant and heating in proportion to the size of the glass, and therefore the number of parallel rays falling on it. Now if we consider the condition reversed and the luminous point or light at the focus to be pre-existing, it is evident that the rays diverging from it towards the glass, will be bent in passing through, and must como out parallel on the other side. This geometers and opticians knew, and they also knew, before Fresnel, how to calculate the amount of bending or refractiou which must take place in a piece of glass of a given convexity. So, a hundred years ago, lenses were actually applied in several light-houses in England and Ireland, but the practical conditions conformed so badly to the theoretical, that the implements became consumers instead of economizers of light. The princi- pal difficulty seems to have arisen from the great thickness at the centre given to a uniform lens cut from one piece. Buffon conceived the idea of cutting away a great part of this superfluous thickness, and of cutting the lens in concentric echelons. The keenness of this conception was more than neutralized by the mechanical difficulties of the execution, and except the two glasses of Rochon and Cookson, no one has been bold enough to try the experiment again. The idea of Buffon seems to have been that the lens, to work satisfactorily, must be of one homogeneous and continuous piece ; and this seems to have pos sessed him, although he saw so clearly that breaking up the curved continuity of surface would not embarrass the result, and was therefore just upon the right track. Condorcet, who, in his capacity of Secretary to the French Academy of Sciences, pronounced tho eloge of his illustrious fellow-member, and who there- fore had studied connectedly and dispassionately the progress of discovery in Science and Art, was not thus pre-occupied, and at once seized upon and hap- pily expressed the idea of building up a lens in separate pieces. But neither he nor Brewster, who, in 1811, spoke judiciously (as he always does) in relation to the same suggestion, followed it up ; and it was reserved for Fresnel, in 1822, both to describe the theoretical principles, and to give the practical formula) for what he termed annular lenses. In this we hardly know which most to admire — * THE FEESNEL LENS — ELEVATION. 147 THE NEW YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. his mathematical logic or his mechanical intuition ; the accuracy with which he defined the abstraction, or the comprehensive self-possession with which he knew how, in certain particulars, to concede something of the rigidity of that abstrac- tion to the incomplete resources of the mechanician. Yet he was fortunate too in his mechanical assistant ; and the name of Soleil still lives in significant con- nection with an apparatus capable of making an oil lamp of man's construction, to rival the same situations, and indeed, replace the Sun. A similar good fortune seems to have attended his design ever since, and the several improvements of Leonor Fresnel, Alan Stevenson, and Reynaud, have been skilfully met and carried out by Soleil, Jr., Lepaute, and Letourneau. A con- siderable part of the success is owing to the superiority of the manufacture of the glass, in which the French (thanks to the judicious and liberal aid afforded by the government) excel all other nations. The superiority of the French glass, in fact, has rendered the Paris workshops the only resort for Light- House lenses, and until an equally good material can be produced elsewhere, any competition is both needless and hopeless. The main improvements just now mentioned, consist in dispensing to a con- siderable degree with metallic framing for the separate elements of the lens, and above all, in making the horizontal section of the lens annular instead of polygonal, as it was first built. But these particulars are more artistical than normal, and the most approved form, which the lens that these notes are intended to illus- trate may be taken to exhibit, is yet substantially the apparatus of Fresnel. As constructed, then, the lens may be described as consisting in the middle part of a cylinder of glass, composed of a plano-convex hoop in the centre, and above and below of a number of hoops having each a triangular section, which, when united, present the appearance of a number of right and inverted hood- mouldings. All these hoops are in segments connected together, and finally secured by an upper and lower rib and staves of gun-metal. Above this cylinder is a truncated none of triangular hoops of glass as before, compacted vertically by a staircase bracing of metal. This cone takes the place, and more, of the plane mirrors that were at first applied to catch and collect, and suitably distribute the rays that would otherwise be lost upwards from the flame. And in like manner similar hoops are arranged below in an inverted sense, to serve the purpose of the earlier small paraboloidal mirrors that received the rays, all wasted else, below. The operation of the lens when the light is to be fixed, is readily intelligible. The lamp being lit, diverging rays striking any part of the central plano-convex lens, are bent in passing through it, and come out in a direction parallel with the horizon. The same happens with rays of greater angular elevation or depression which transcend the plano-convex rib, and fall upon any of the hoops ; they are bent in their passage and transmitted horizontally like the former. Those rays, however, which reach the conoidal hoops either above or below the cylinder, undergo a more complex action ; the alternating refraction and reflection in which justify the epithet before given of cata-dioptric. Taking one of the hoops of the upper conoid, for example, a ray from the lamp striking upon the convex surface of one of the sides adjacent to the obtuse angle of the triangular section, is re- fracted upwards so as to strike within a particular angle (that of total reflection, as it is called), the curved surface of the longer side of the hoop's section. If it struck this last surface at some other arbitrary angle, instead of being reflected, it would pass through the surface, be beat in passing and thrown out vertically upwards. But the proper angle having been attained in the section of the hoop, and its position in respect to the focus (and thus the limits of possible rays), the aforesaid ray does not pass at all through the surface, but is thence reflected downwards, to the remaining surface of the hoop, where it has to endure one more bending that allows it then to escape horizontally and parallel with all the rest. With the hoops below the cylinder, the action on the ray is just the same, only the path is inverted ; and, in both cases, the divergent rays from the lamp go round a corner, as it were, in order to fall into the line of proper horizontal direction. "When the apparatus is a revolving one, the behavior of the rays is the same ; their optical effect and appearance, however, is different. Instead of presenting a steady light of nearly equal luminousness to every arc of the horizon, they show successive flashes or blazes of light, succeeding one another at intervals, which are regulated by the rotation of the apparatus, by the sectional form of the hoops, in a measure, and their angular position with respect to the focus. Varia- tions in this particular may be arranged to alter, within certain limits, the respec- tive durations of the flashes and the intervening obscurity, and to make at given distances even positive eclipses of light. These flashes and eclipses are, in the s particular lens here catalogued, uniform for the whole vertical height of the apparatus ; a property not so fully enjoyed by any other one before, and which therefore entitles it, and its duplicate, now being made for the Cordouan Tower, to the epithet, among others, of ?iolypsal. Each one of the horizontal elements or hoops, in number above forty, requires its own special calculation for its particular form on all its sides, varying accord- ing to its distance from, and angular relation to, the focus and the size of the lamp there. The section of these hoops has been called just now triangular ; but the triangle is in fact spherical : the reflecting surfaces and the inner refracting ones towards the lamp being convex, and the outer refracting surfaces towards the horizon being concave, with radii of curvature varying for each. One who iooks at the result only in the lens as built, can form but little idea of the extensive arithmetical apparatus preliminary to determining what the elements shall be; or of the vast demands for patient and intelligent labor in forcing a refractory, yet fragile material, like glass, to adapt itself to these deter- minations. And after all this has been done, it is no small task to arrange the elements conformably together ; or even to test when entirely finished the accu- racy of their adjustment. The lamp of the apparatus has already been several times referred to, and is one of the most important parts of the arrangement. In fact, upon it depends, in the first place, the whole efficiency of the apparatus, and as it is single and stands alone, upon it falls, too, a great part of the responsibility. > As devised by Fresnel, it consists, for the first order of lights, of an Argand burner of four concentric wicks, each, of course, having its appropriate currents of air outside and in, and its proper rack for regulating its height, which is in general i inch. This assem- blage is supplied with oil by a pump, as in the well-known Carcel or Mechanical lamp. Of course, no contrivance like a fountain lamp, such as is proper for reflec- tors, could be applied here without cutting off a portion of the light; and besides, the pump answers the purpose, even better, of supplying uniformly the excessive quantity, (about three times the actual consumption), that is requisite to prevent the partial combustion and coaling of the wicks themselves. Such is the uniformity attained in this part of the apparatus, that but three cases are reported as having oc- curred in the Scottish light-house establishment, during a period of nearly ten years, calling for a replacement of the lamp, by the spare one, during the hours of burning; and such the efficiency, that in the same establishment, lamps are known to burn with colza oil for seventeen hours, without any necessity for trimming the wicks. The quantity supplied by the pumps (worked by a weight and a train of clock work) is per hour 6{| lbs., or about f of a gallon of oil ; of which, one-fourth is burned, and the rest flows over the wick and is caught in a dripper below, to be strained and used over again. The volume of flame maintained by this supply is nearly a cylinder about 4£ inches in diameter and about 4 inches in height. The difference between a luminous mass so large and the mathematical point of light, infinitely small, which lies at the bottom of the theoretical conceptions of the subject, might at first sight appear likely to cause uncertainty and error in the arithmetical determinations. But this is much more than compensated by the advantageous physical effect which results. In fact, although the uniform distribution of rays of equal intensity over every part of the horizon, belongs only to such a mathematical point as has been mentioned, aided by forms de- duced from rigorous geometrical laws, yet this is attainable nearly enough other- wise; while the overlapping, as it were, of the reflected and refracted beams, which arises from a focal flame of large volume, is essential to the prolongation of the flashes to a degree that will answer the purpose of the mariner. The duration of these flashes belongs to the divergence, owing to the great volume of the flame. Such, then, is the Fresnel lens of the present Exhibition, which, though it does not hold the costly charms of the Koh-i-noor, yet offers in this a work of art far more valuable than any diamond that ever gleamed in Golconda : for it concerns, not human pride and ornament, but human life and hopes and fears of almost countless hearts dependent on that life. It must not be supposed from this apparently exaggerated eulogium of the Lens-Light, that the catoptric sys- tem is depreciated. There are circumstances, on the contrary, .in which the appliance of reflector-lights upon the old system, would be undoubtedly judicious and economical. Indeed, no system could be otherwise than partial in successful result, which does not combine (as the Fresnel lens, in its measure does) the phenomena of both refraction and reflection. It is upon this conclusion that the improvement of Alan Stevenson rests, in placing a spherical mirror behind a Fresnel lens, in locations where only part of the horizon is required to be illu- minated, to catch and return the landward rays that would otherwise be useless. And with this accords too, the valuable suggestion of Jwloj/Jiotal arrangements by another Stevenson — Thomas, the last who will be named here, which consists of a curved reflecting surface, or surfaces that throw forward all the posterior rays, and of a refracting series which does the same for the anterior rays, which in the common catoptric system are left to go off as ordinary divergent rays, and are therefore uesless for nautical purposes. But leaving those improvements which certain circumstances would sometimes render very appropriate and desirable, and leaving also the exceptional cases in which the ordinary catoptric system would be all-sufficient, and the most econo- mical, the relative merits of this last, and of the lenticular arrangement for general purposes, and as a normal feature in a national establishment, have been long since ascertained, by photometric and financial comparison, to be largely in fa- vor of the lens. It is true, that a reflector from its nature receives and trans- mits about ten per cent, more of the actual luminous cylinder than the lens ar- rangement can do ; but this greater quantity is distributed over a larger arc, and therefore so diluted, as it were, that the space-penetrating power, or range of equal volume of flame (other things being equal), is less. Also, the THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. equal distribution of light over different arcs of the horizon at eqnal dis- tances, is much less nearly approached in reflecting than in a catadiop- tric arrangement. Finally and conclusively : in an administrative point of view, the quantity of light obtainable in the combustion of equal quantities of oil in the same time, is four times greater in the lenticular than in the reflector system. And this verdict of experts is every year more and more being accepted and conformed to in the great National Light-House Establishments of the world. Since 1822, when the Cordouan Tower first received a Fresnel light, these lenses, of different sizes to suit circumstances, have becomo universal along the coast of France. Holland was the next government to follow the example of France; and, after some efforts to manufacture the apparatus for its own national use, abandoned the attempt, and gladly reverted to the French workshops. The other maritime nations also throng those shops ; so that for some years it has been diffi- cult to have the various orders filled as promptly as they are wanted. Thus in tin live years, from 1846 to 1851, to go no lower than the 3d order lens, which has an inside diameter of nearly forty inches, there have been constructed of those great sea lights upwards of one hundred and twenty. In these every mari- time power has had a share. Russia only, at St. Petersburg, manufactures for herself under the guidance of the younger Soleil, by which the number may be increased to about one hundred and forty, or more than one half, it is supposed, of all the stations where lights of the powers included would be considered ne- cessary. The whole number of lens lights in the world was estimated in 1851, apparently upon authentic statistics, at three hundred and sixty-eight ; a number transcending all the lights, stationary and floating, existing upon the immense ex- tent of coast of the United States. In this country, where the Light-House Establishment had been placed under an accounting instead of executive control, not much activity has been, until lately, displayed. The discussions in Europe since 1830, however, did not fail of attracting attention here ; and at length, in 1838, an appropriation was made by Congress for the purchase of two lenses from Paris. These, one of the first and the other of the second order of Fresnel, were, after some time, placed at the Highlands of Navesink, near the entrance of New-York Bay, where they are still, and might seem to have been long enough, in spite of imperfections in their manage- ment, to have stimulated a more general acceptance of the system. Some time after, in 1845, the then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Walker, took the subject up with his characteristic ability, and obtaining the detail of two officers of the Navy, Messrs. Jenkins and Bache, despatched them to Europe for the purpose of examining and reporting on the Light-House systems there. This duty they performed to the entire satisfaction of the Department. But at that period, several causes, and principally the absorption of the Go- vernment in the military operations that were then being carried on, prevented the interest that was felt in the subject from being effectively exercised ; and it was only in 1851 that Congress authorized the creation of a provisional Board, to examine into and report upon the condition of the Light-House Establishment of the United States, upon a plan somewhat in accordance with the recommenda- tions of the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury in 1846. Early in the following year (1852), this Board presented a voluminous report of inquiries, considerations, and recommendations. The plan of re-organization submitted by it was approved by the then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Corwin, and, mainly by the lucid explanations of the Hon. Alexander Evans, of Maryland, whose name will always deserve to be mentioned in any notice of the Light- House system of the United States, was accepted and authorized by Congress. By this authorization a permanent Board has been constituted with powers sufficient, it is believed, to carry out the aim and intention of Congress. It can hardly be amiss to add, that the character of the members composing it, offers a safe pledge of the judicious energy with which the necessary rectifications and improvements will be carried out. To their courtesy is owing the opportunity of showing the present Lens which stands among the chiefest objects of enlightened interest in the Exhibition. GLASS. ALTHOUGH the display of glass in the present Exhibition is very far short of what it ought to have been, to satisfy public expectation and the inherent in- terest of the subject itself, still there is enough in this class to convey much instruction, and to excite a praiseworthy curiosity to know something more of the art of glass making than is commonly the share of intelligent people. We pro- pose in this article to present a concise and untcchnical account of the art, drawn from the most reliable sources* » The article Glass in the Encyclopedia Mctropoiitnna ; that in Knapp's Chemistry applied to Manufac- tures, Vol. IIL; the Essay In the London Jury lioports, 1851, p. 621 ; and tho chapters in Dumas' Chem- istry on tho same subject, form tho most Important and accessible paporeupon glass. 150 The origin of glass making is lost in the shades of an antiquity so remote that it is not easy to distinguish fable from history. To the former most certainly belongs the absurd legend so often quoted from Pliny, that glass was first formed accidentally by Phoenician dealers in native soda, who, halting on the shores of the river Belus, and resting their kettles over the fire upon lumps of soda, caused the sand of the shore to form glass with the alkali. A single fact is worth all the speculation which ingenuity can invent, and such an one is supplied by the researches of Layard among the ruins of Nineveh, where he found a perfect and beautifully formed vase of glass, now in the British Museum. It bears the marks of having been turned in a lathe, a process never attempted in our times. The maker's name is also engraved on its foot, and the circum- stances attending its discovery authorize the belief that it dates at least seven centuries before the Christian era. The same indefatigable antiquarian has also discovered in the ruins of the same city a convex lens of rock crystal, proving that the ancient Assyrians were, to some degree, familiar with the properties of light, as well as with chemistry. The inference seems well sustained also, that Archi- medes was acquainted with the scientific uses of glass, whether he used it or not for the purpose of setting fire to the fleet of his enemies, as is usually related of him. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson (V ol. iii. p. 88), copies from a painting of Beni Hossan the representation of two glass blowers inflating by hollow rods a mass of molten glass. This Theban monarch reigned about 3500 years ago (1647 B. C.) and long before Moses became a pupil in the schools of Pharaoh. Wilkinson adds that " Glass vases, if we may trust to the representations in the Theban paintings, are frequently shown to have been used for holding wine as early as the Exodus, about 1490 years before the Christian Era." We are led by numerous facts to entertain the conviction, that the Egyptians were well acquainted with many chemical processes, and that they attained considerable proficiency in the practice of the chemical arts. This empirical knowledge was with superstitious care con- fined to the order of the priesthood, and was probably involved in the same mystery that shrouded their religions rites with the design to magnify the holy office, and to inspire the people with a belief in the divine origin of the sacerdotal powers. Pliny in his chapter on this art (lib. 36, cap. 25), gives a curious and very interest- ing account of the glass houses in Sidon and in Alexandria, which proves not only the early knowledge of the art of glass making, but also that the ancients prac- tised the modes now in use for cutting, grinding, gilding, and coloring. However uncertain, therefore, may be the date of discovery of this most useful art, it is certain, not only from what has been quoted, but also from all the other accounts from antiquity that have come down to us, from Herodotus, Strabo, Theo- pbrastus and others, that the art was very early known, and carried to a high de- gree of perfection. It is, however, equally certain that its use in early times was much restricted, and that even as late as the reign of Tiberius, after the know- ledge of Egypt had been transplanted to Rome, goblets and vases of glass were regarded only as decorations for the tables of the Emperor and his wealthy patricians. The Portland vase is the most beautiful specimen extant of these ancient goblets. It was found in the sarcophagus of Alex- ander Severus, who died A. D. 235, and is now in the British Museum. It is curious as showing the perfect state of the art at that time, being formed of a deep cobalt blue body, covered by a white enamel, in imitation ob- viously of the onyx agate. The exquisite relievo figures upon it are the result of cutting away this white surface, and exposing the dark ground, as was the cus- tom in the hard stone seal engraving of the ancients. It has been doubted whether glass was ever fashioned by the ancients in sheets for admitting light in windows, but we remember to have seen in Pompeii a circular disc of glass 12 or 14 inches in diameter, filling its original place in a circular window in one of the recently excavated houses of that ancient Ro- man city. It should be borne in mind also, in forming an opinion on this subject, that the style of architecture in those days excluded windows, in accordance with the climate and the habits of the people, which rendered them needless unless in rare cases. The antiquarians assert that the circular opening in the dome of the Pantheon at Rome, was originally filled with one immense sheet of glass, but this may well be doubted. According to the local tradition of Venice, the manufacture of glass is cOeval with the existence of the city itself ; and a series of decrees of the Republic, com- mencing at the latter part of the 13th century, show that the art was carefully pro- moted until a change in the public taste deprived Venice of her profitable mono- poly. In the 13th century, glass houses became so numerous as to expose the city to danger by fire, and in 1291, all the establishments were ordered to be re- moved to tho separate island of Murano. The skilled Greek workmen who escaped the taking of Constantinople in 1453, taught the Venetians to enrich their productions by coloring, gilding, and enamel- ing. Early in the 16th century they invented a delicate and enduring mode of enrichment — the introduction of threads of colored and opaque white glass into the substance of tho vessels. For two centuries tho Venetians monopolised the glass trade of Europe; but at the commencement of the 16th century, heavy cut glass became fashionable, and the trado being dispersed to Bohemia, France, and England, tho manufacture of filagree glass lost its importance, though THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. it has always been continued on a limited scale. Indeed, the Bohemian glass, and the Venetian with its slender, graceful forms, and curved spiral stems, parti-colored, engraved, or plain, have never been surpassed either in beauty of form, or excellence of materials, nor have they even been successfully imitated elsewhere until a very late period. Such is a brief historical sketch of this art. Let us now attend more parti- cularly to its details. Glass is, essentially, a compound of silica (tho flint is nearly pure silica), ren- dered fusible by an alkali, as soda, potash, or lime. Sometimes one of these, but more commonly two of them, and occasionally all three, enter into the constitu- tion of glass. The oxyd of lead, is also an important constituent of what is called flint glass. This metallic oxyd has the remarkable property of dissolving large quan- tities of silex, and of giving to the colorless glass which it forms a peculiar brilliancy, such as can in no other way be procured. Such glass is also peculiarly heavy, and to its density owes the high refracting power which it possesses. In a chemical sense, glass is regarded as a salt, and belongs to the large family of silicates, of which numerous examples are to be observed in nature. Glass is, however, peculiar in this respect, by which it is distinguished from nearly all natural compounds of silex, namely, that it is entirely without any crystalline structure. Its particles on cooling assume no regular internal arrangement, they are homogeneous, but are without form, or amorphous, as it would be expressed in mineralogical language. Silica by itself is a very infusible substance, and by no means could it alone be formed into vessels by aid of heat. In its most pure form it occurs in beauti- ful transparent colorless crystals, called rock crystal or quartz, exceedingly hard, and not easily reduced to powder. Silicious sand is found, however, in many places remarkably pure, and some sandstones exist that are quite pure enough to answer the purpose of the glass house. Flints found so abundantly in the chalk cliffs of England, are also nearly pure silica, and being heated and quenched in water, they crumble easily, and form the material of a large part of the English glass. The term flint glass came thus into use. In this country fine glass sand is found in the county of Berkshire in Massachusetts, at St. Genevieve in Missouri, and at St. Paul's in Minneso- ta, on the Mississippi River. A specimen of the latter (which is asyetonly imperfectly known to the manufacturer) exists in the Mineralogical Cabinet of the Associa- tion (No. 181 Mineralogical Catalogue). M. Le Due, the Minnesota Commissioner, who deposited this specimen, has placed beside it a specimen of flint glass made from it, which is remarkable for its purity of color. The flexible sandstone from North Carolina (No. 163, Class. 1), would also, no doubt, prove a good glass material. The existence of a very small quantity of any of the compounds of iron, destroys the value of the sand in which it is found, from the color which it imparts to the glass made from it. The heat required to fuse glass depends very much on the quantity of flux (alkali or oxyd of lead), which is used in forming the compound, but the good qualities of the glass require that no more flux should be employed than will ren- der it easy to fashion the vessels in the process of blowing. In badly compound- ed glass, so much alkali is sometimes used that the resulting glass is soluble in water, thus destroying one of its most essential qualities, and rendering it valueless, and where a much less excess is used it still causes the glass to sweat, or attract moisture to its surface, and finally to become rusty or opaque. In the strictest sense all glass is somewhat soluble. The very hardest chemical glass when finely pul- verised and moistened with water, yields an alkaline reaction to tests, and water which has been boiled for some time in a vessel of glass is found to contain ap- preciable traces of silica. Soda when employed alone, or in connection with lime, gives to the glass made from it a greenish color, more or less decided, while potash salts give a yellowish tint. To correct this color in soda glass, and to re- move any tint of a similar color from small quantities of iron present in the sand, it the custom of the glass blower to use some metallic oxyd, which will aid in decolorizing the product. This is accomplished either by a change which the oxyd produces in the chemical compounds present (e. g. as by reducing the per- oxyd of iron to the condition of protoxyd, which forms nearly colorless compounds when cold), or by supplying another color complementary to the offensive one, thus rendering the product colorless. Black oxyd of manganese is such a sub- stance, and has been long used by the glass makers for this purpose, and as it seemed to the uninformed workmen to wash out the color of their material it was familiarly called glass maker's soap. It requires to be used, however, with great caution, as it possesses the power of giving a pink, amethystine, or deep violet color to the glass, when present even in slight excess. Its power to neutralize the green color of soda glass is probably owing to the optical effect of the red color of the manganese compound, which, when not in excess, would prove exactly complementary to the green, and white glass would result. It is, however, quite common to see in glass articles of common use, a violet tint in the thicker parts (as in the bottoms of tumblers), due to the manganese. The white oxyd of arsenic is another substance constantly used in the glass house to decolorize glass, as well as to render it, when used in excess, opaline or opaque. Borax and nitre, more costly substances, are less often employed as decolorizing agents, although they possess this property in an eminent degree. It is thus plain that a good deal of science connects itself with the glass maker's art, and that it is indeed truly a chemical art. To its improvement the first chem- ists living have devoted much attention, and the scientific principles involved in the selection and compounding of the materials of glass, and of the pots in which it is fused, are perfectly understood, and the success of the art depends on the skill and good judgment with which these principles are applied in practice. Colors are given to glass by the use of metallic oxyds, whose combinations result in the production of various transparent colors. Some foreign substances also, as carbon and oxyd of iron, produce also various shades of coljr, from me- chanical suspension in the fluid glass. Yellow is produced in cheap ordinary glass by smoke soot, or any other form of finely divided carbon, which in greater quantity renders the glass dark brown or black, but of a dirty and lustreless aspect. Glass of antimony produces a fine yellow in glass, and cheaply. Oxyd of silver, applied in a peculiar way, also forms a delicate orange in glass containing alumina, and most costly of all is the beauti- ful yellow green formed by the oxyd of uranium. Red. — This color is produced cheaply by the addition of finely pulverized red oxyd of iron, which, being mechanically suspended in the glass, produced a brownish red color of no great beauty. The sub-oxyd of copper, (the scales which are thrown off when metallic copper is quenched in water,) produces a red of great beauty and depth of color. The metallic oxyd was also employed by the ancients to produce red glass, as the analysis of some of their specimens has shown most conclusively. It was used likewise by mediaeval artists in coloring the glass of church windows, and its employment for the same purpose in modern times is but the re-discovery of an old fact. Singularly enough, this metallic oxyd produces its appropriate red color in perfection only after the glass has been cooled and heated a second time. It is in the first instance, on leaving the crucible, nearly colorless, with a slight tinge of green, and becomes deep red on reheating, a change which has not been well explained. Should any decolorizing material be need in connection with sub-oxyd of copper, the glass will be colored green instead of red, the sub-oxyd (Cu 2 0) being converted into the oxyd (CuO) of copper, which produces green tints. Its coloring power is very intense, and any considerable mass or thickness of glass containing it appears black. Hence it is almost invariably used only to flash or cover one surface of vessels to be colored red. Gold in the form of the purple of Cassius, (a compound of gold and metallic tin, produced by cautiously precipitating a solution of gold by one of tin.) will pro- duce a brilliant red color in glass, which may be graduated to produce scarlet, car- mine, rose, or ruby tints. This color is very powerful as well as expensive, ono part of gold, it is asserted, producing a decided rosy tint in 30,000 parts of glass. The same peculiarity obtains in this color also that was mentioned of the copper red, namely, that glass colored with gold is nearly colorless or slightly yellow, until it is cooled and heated a second time, when it assumes its proper tint. The Bohemian ruby glass is a peculiar color prepared in special manufactories, and sold in cakes to the manufacturer ; but the essential thing is after all gold in one of its forms of combination, (viz., fulminating gold.) The Bohemian ruby contains no tin, which probably, by its tendency to form opaline or milky glass, may have an unfavorable effect on the rose color, while a small quantity of oxyd of antimony added in the Bohemian red glass, heightens the brilliancy of the ruby tint. Man- ganese, as already stated, produces an amethystine tint in glass, a peculiarity belonging to the peroxyd only, as the protoxyd of manganese gives no colors. Green. — This color is produced cheaply in common ware by the use of protoxyd of iron, but this color is feeble and of little brilliancy; but mingled with protoxyd of copper, it forms a beautiful emerald color. A grass or yellow green is produced by using the sesquioxyd of chromium, a substance abundantly obtained from the chrome iron ores of Maryland and Pennsylvania, (No. 137, class I.) In Bohemia, the " modern emerald green," as it is called, is produced from a mixture of the oxyds of nickel and uranium. The preparations of antimony mingled with oxyd of cop- per, also produce a fine green color. Blue is produced almost solely by the use of oxyd of cobalt, a metal associated with nickel, and whose oxyd possesses the power of imparting a decided bluish tinge to at least twenty thousand times its weight of glass. The exquisite blue color produced in glass by oxyd of cobalt was known long before the separate existence of cobalt as a metal was suspected ; and the manufacture of glass colored with it, under the name of smalts, and used for giving color to pottery ware or glass, has been carried on in Germany for centuries. Zaffre is another name by which the impure oxyd of cobalt thus prepared is known in commerce. Cobalt and nickel are found at several places in the United States, and specimens from Connecticut and Maryland are in the present Exhibition, (Nos. 23 and 135, class I.) The admixture of the primary colors just enumerated gives to the glass-maker the power of producing an almost endless variety of tints. The effect of opal- escence is gained by the use of arsenic, of oxyd of tin and alumina j and bone earth (phosphate of lime) is added to produce opacity or milkiness. Black is usually produced by using some coloring matter in excess; not being a color, but only its absence, black is inconsistent with transparency. Enamels are formed by the use of the colors already named, with a lead glass 151 THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. rendered opaque cither by oxyd of tin or antimony, and 60 fusible as to be easily managed by the heat of a table lamp. The manufacture of glass is divided into a great number of distinct branches, founded on differences of composition and of use, from which is derived the follow- ing classification : A. 'Window glass, including sheet glass, crown glass, and colored sheet glass. This glass is composed of silica, soda or potash, lime, and alumina. B. Painted and other kinds of ornamental window glass. Composition much tho same as section A. C. Plate glass, whether cast, pressed, or rolled. Composed of silica, soda or potash, lime, and a little alumina ; and differs from section A only in the greater purity and colorlessness of the materials employed. D. Bottle glass, including, a. Ordinary bottle glass, consisting of silica, potash or soda, alumina, and oxyd of iron. b. Medicinal bottle glass, composed of silica, potash, lime, some alumina, and a trace of protoxyd of iron. c. White bottle glass (in a limited sense,) for bottles, tumblers, tubes, and chemical glass, &c, and composed of silica, soda or potash, and lime, very infusible. E. Flint glass, or crystal, usually composed of silica, potash, and oxyd of lead ; and used for ornamental table glasses, chandeliers, lamps, beads, Venetian glass ■weights, aventurine, glass mosaic, and when peculiarly pure, for the basis of imi- tative gems. F. Optical glass, both flint and crown, the former composed of silica, or bora- cic acid, potash, and more lead than is usual in flint glass ; the latter composed of silica, or boracic acid, potash or soda and lime, these materials being of the great- est purity. The limited use of glass for windows both from its greater rarity and cost in olden times has been already alluded to. Sheets of transparent gypsum, and plates of mica, have been used for windows in countries where these minerals are found in pieces of sufficient size. It appears that as late as the close of the 17th century, common houses in Great Britain were unprovided with glass, and even in the palaces of nobles it was regarded as an article of splendid luxury. The venerable Bede, in his history of the planting of the church in Britain, gives a particular account of the ornamental glazing with painted glass of the churches and monastic houses of Yarrow and Wearmouth, by artists whom the Abbot Benedict brought over from Italy for that purpose in the latter part of the seventeenth century (see Howitt's Visits to remarkable Places, article Bede). This is probably as early as this art was practised in any part of Europe. In the sixteenth century the diamond was first employed to cut glass, and this circumstance has probably exercised a controlling influence upon the general use of glass for architectural purposes. Indeed, it is hard for us to imagine how the manufacture and use of window glass could be carried on at all without the diamond to cut it with ease and certainty to a required size. Window glass is chiefly of two sorts, named, in allusion to the mechanical processes employed in their manufacture, viz., 1. Sheet-glass formed by the flat- tening of blown cylinders, and 2. Crown-glass, formed from a blown sphere by the effect of centrifugal force. Before describing these two processes and their results, let us briefly advert to a few facts, familiar to all who are acquainted even slightly with the pro- cesses of the glass house, but which may not be so generally known as to ren- der some allusion to them unimportant. The materials of which glass is formed are mingled in weighed quantities, and in a dry state, upon a floor prepared for the purpose. The melting pots, which are designed to hold from 500 to 2000 pounds of materials, are formed of the most refractory fire clay, to which is added a cer- tain quantity of the pulverized fragments of old pots. They are fashioned with the greatest care, tho clay being tempered for months, and have the form of a cylinder or frustum of a cone. Several of these pots are set in a circular fur- nace heated by wood or bituminous coal, and sustained on strong flat arches. Tho opening of each pot is directed outwards for convenience of charging the raw material, observing the progress of the fusion, and withdrawing the product. It is also important that the products of combustion, and the smoke of the fire should have no access to the materials in the pots, hence their tops are arched, and the fire plays only on their exterior. The heat is raised until the pots are fully red hot before the charge of weighed materials is introduced. This is accomplished in several small portions added successively, an interval being allowed after each addition for the mass to become fully heated before another is made. The chemical action of the materials upon each other under the influence of heat is very simple. The alkali employed is almost always in the form of carbonate of soda or carbonate of potash. Silica has the property at a high temperature of acting the part of a powerful acid, and when the proper degree of heat is attained it drives out the carbonic acid before combined with the alkali, while the silica and alkali unite to form a salt (glass). This action is by no means soon over. The viscid mass lias so pasty a consistence at first, that tho expelled carbonic acid escapes very nlowly, filling the whole mass of materials with numberless cavities and air 152 cells, so that even at the end of 24 hours the glass in the pot resembles rather a loaf of light bread than the transparent material we are wont to see. When the mate- rials are incautiously added, or the heat raised too suddenly, this escape of carbonio acid sometimes occasions the frothing over of the pot. From time to time the workman withdraws a portion of the glass upon the end of his iron blow pipe rod, and fashions it into some form from which he can judge of the progress of the fusion. The glass blower always speaks of the melted glass as " metal." The tools which are used to fashion glass are of wonderful simplicity, the art of glass blowing being chiefly one of manual dexterity. The blow pipe, a hollow rod of iron, protected by a wooden covering over part of its length, a pair of rude scis- sors, with a spring back like the sheep shearing scissors, a knife, a flat surface of iron (the marver) on which to roll the molten glass, and a solid rod of iron (the punty rod or pontil). are the chief implements required by the glass blowers. Of moulds, now so much used to fashion vessels of all sorts in flint glass, we shall speak more particularly by and by. When by trial the metal is found to be sufficiently refined, the heat is some- what reduced to permit the glass to assume that pasty consistence, resembling thick honey, which is essential to enable the blower to manage it with ease. We we will suppose that sheet glass for windows is the object to be formed, and that of the best quality, perfectly white. The materials that have been found best fitted for this purpose are 100 lbs. sand, 52£ lbs. of purified potashes, 14J- lbs. of chalk, £ lb. of peroxyd of manganese, and 125 lbs. of broken glass of a former oper- ation. The lime is required to prevent the glass from corroding when exposed to the atmosphere. The most colorless window glass when seen edgeways has always a yellowish tinge. The workman now introduces his pipe into the pot of metal, and collects a sufficient quantity to form the cyliuder he is about to blow. The ponderous globe of solid glass thus withdrawn is rounded on the marver, and pushed forward on the rod by means of a knife, so as to be attached to it by a grooved neck. He is aided in this process by placing the glowing mass in a globular or pear-shaped cavity in a block of wood kept moist by water. The mass, reheated at the fur- nace, is now inflated until a considerable cavity is formed, and the mass has a pear shape. By a rapid motion the workman next raises the mass over his head, still inflating it. Gravity causes the plastic metal to assume a flattened form, and the pressure of inflation, which now distends the sides only, is continued until the diameter of the flattened bottle is equal to that of the intended cylinder. Another rapid downward movement lengthens the heated and now pendulous mass with- out diminishing its diameter, and now the workman swings his pipe from side to side like a bell clapper, inflating from time to time, until under the united influ- ence of gravity, inflation, and incessant motion, a perfect cylinder is formed. Often it is requisite in the course of these operations to reheat the glass several times, but sometimes an adroit workman will carry forward the operation to its present stage at one heat. Next he presents the end of the newly formed ves- sel to the fire, resting it in a crotch, on which he can revolve the work before the flame. A strong blast, or even the expansion of the air imprisoned by the thumb closing the opening of the pipe, will occasion the heated end to puff out, and thus to form an irregular opening. The cylinder thus opened, the aperture is made regular by an assistant who cuts the ragged edges with scissors, while the work- man fashions the still pliant glass with the edge of his scissors, revolving it all the time into a perfectly symmetrical form. The blow pipe and its attached cylin- der is then revolved adroitly over his head, and with great speed through an en- tire circle several times, by which it is cooled before it loses its regular form. The application of a thread of red-hot glass to the cooled surface of the cylinder near the end of the blow-pipe, occasions a neat separation of the parts by cracking. We have now a cylinder of glass open at both ends, uniformly thick, and of a fine lustre. Good specimens of these may be seen in the Holland Court of the Exhibition, Class 24, No. 2. It now remains to open the cylinder and flatten it into a square sheet. For this purpose it must be carefully reheated in a furnace of peculiar construction. At the moment when the cylinder has been brought to the proper temperature, it is opened lengthwise by applying a drop of water or by a cold iron, and the workman adroitly opens the cyliuder, and spreads it upon a hard table, by gently pressing against its sides with a rule. The surface of the pliant glass is then flattened with a polisher of iron or wood, and the sheet is passed into another chamber where it is slowly cooled and tempered. Such is a brief account of the method of blowing cylinder, spread, sheet, or broad glass, for it has all these names. It is afterwards cut up by the diamond into any required sizes. This sort of glass is recommended by its cheapness and uniform thickness, &c. As the process is now conducted it is equal to any blown glass. When carelessly made, however, it has a very wavy, uneven surface, and a deficiency of lustre. We have dwelt with more particularity on the steps of this process, as they are essentially the same with the operation of blowing vessels of every sort. Thus the cylinder of glass in its various stages of progress represents a variety of vessels, and should the operator stop at one of them he would form a bot- tle, at another stage a chemical vessel or air bell ; and it is only the last operation of opening the cylinder which distinguishes it from the usual glass blowing pro- THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. cesses. The shades so much in use for covering clocks and small articles of vertu, are made by the cylinder process of blowing. Crown Glass. — As gravity and inflation are the simple means by which cylin- der glass is blown, so in crown glass resort is had to the effect of centrifugal force to produce a wheel of glass out of a globe previously formed by inflation and gra- vity. The metal employed for crown glass may be the same already described, or any other hard glass material. The workman gathers the glass upon his pipe with the same precautions which are adopted when cylinder glass is to be blown, but he proceeds to blow a sphere or hollow globe, with walls as evenly thick as possible. The furnace before which he operates has a circular opening called the glory hole, from which a powerful radiation and flame pro- ceed. This fire is fed by powdered rosin thrown in from time to time in small doses by a boy stationed near by. The globe being formed is brought before this hole and rapidly revolved on a crotch conveniently set for the purpose. An opening is made in the apex opposite to the point of attachment, as in cylin- der blowing, but the process afterward is entirely different. By the exposure to the flame of the glory hole, the revolving and now opened sphere, becomes flat- tened at the pole by centrifugal force; the opening, at first small, gradually en- larges ; and the whole vessel flattens under the rapid revolution of the pipe, the workman approaches the flattened surface nearer and nearer the flame, the open- ing still widens, the original globular form is exchanged for that of a flat vessel with contracted edges; the heat and revolution are now at a maximum, when sud- denly the whole mass, flashes into a regular wheel, nearly six feet in diameter, of which the pipe is the nave. Hence this process is technically termed " flashing." The wheel still glowing with fervid redness would at once collapse and fall into a useless mass if the revolution was suddenly checked ; hence the workman gradu- ally withdraws it from the tire, which is also reduced in fierceness until the glass has become cool enough to retain its form. It is then detached from the pipe by the touch of a cold iron at the point of contact, and the wheel still very hot is passed into an oven called an annealing kiln, where it cools very slowly, in order to temper the glass and render it tough. The wheels thus formed are never quite flat, but are always a little arched, or crowning from the edges to the centre. Hence the term crown glass. If the process has been skillfully per- formed, the sheets cut from the wheel are remarkably uniform in thickness, but there is always a bulge at the centre called the "bull's eye," and this limits the size of crown glass to about 36 inches in its largest dimension. The lustre of crown glass is always superior to that of cylinder glass, which is owing to its being exposed to the high temperature of the flame during the flashing, and also to the fact that it is completed, so to speak, at one operation, while cylinder glass is several times cooled and reheated, a process which tends to devitrifica- tion, and would if often repeated render glass nearly opaque like porcelain. Colored sheet glass for church windows, &c, is rarely colored in the pot, but a good quantity of hard glass is selected and colored of the desired tint by one of two processes. The first consists in dipping the pipe into a crucible of molten glass of the desired color, and gathering a small quantity on the end ; it is then dipped into the pot of hohl glass, and the requisite quantity for the cylinder oper- ation accumulated as usual. The process of blowing already described, must, as will be easily understood, result in spreading the colored glass all over the extend- ed surface of the cylinder in a thin film, like a transparent veneer. This is the nsual process on the large scale, and is the mode before alluded to as practised in giving the Bohemian ruby to vessels of that color. The other process employs the enamelling furnace in which the glass to be colored is heated until a fusible paste, with which its surface has been previously covered, is melted and flows over, adhering to the glass, and acquiring at the same time the desired color from the mineral oxyds which had been added to the paste. That paste is always of fusible lead glass, ground to a fine powder and laid on the glass surijace with a brush and water. This last process is employed to produce painted glass, on which it is designed to show more than one color or tint. Cast Plate Glass. — Plate glass is made by a process entirely distinct from those employed in producing window glass. So far as we are informed, this division of the glass manufacture has not been as yet established in the United States; nor is it by any means a common branch of the business in the Old World, where :f is comparatively a modern art. Abraham Thevart is regarded as the origina- tor oi •'•e idea of casting the molten glass from the fusion pots upon a table of metal. This was ai the close of the seventeenth century (1688) and the St. Gobian establishment, still so celebrated for its plate glass, was founded by him. The Venetian plates were ground down from blown glass preparatory to silvering, a process still in use for cheap mirrors. In England the first company, " The British Plate Glass Company," was established in Lancashire as late as 1773; al- though the second Duke of Buckingham, who imported his workmen from Venice, had previously met with much success in making plate glass for mirrors and coach windows at Lambeth. Plate glass is a soda lime glass, soda being preferred because of the much greater fluidity which it gives to the molten metal. The proportion of materials used at St. Gobian are 100 parts of pure sand, 35 pure carbonate of soda, 5 of air-slaked lime, 100 of cullet or broken glass, and such decolorizing materials (ox. manganese) as are needed. The furnace employed is peculiar, it being ne- cessary to ladle out the melted glass from the fusion pots into quadrangular cis- terns called cuvettes, formed of the most refractory fire-clay. The materials are fused in the circular pot in about 16 hours, and the metal is then carefully skimmed with a copper blade, taken out in copper ladles, and turned into the cuvette. Care is taken not to disturb the unfused particles of sand and various impurites which have settled at the bottom of the pot. In the cuvette the glass remains 24 or even 48 hours, until it is perfectly fined ; the heat is then somewhat abated for three or four hours, that the glass may fall to the proper temperature for casting. Preparatory to this, one of the movable walls of the furnace is taken down, and a pair of strong quadrangular tongs are attached to the cuvette, and by their aid the glass is poured out upon the casting table. This table is of cast iron 10 or 15 feet long, half that breadth, and 6 or 7 inches thick to prevent its warping when heated on one side. The surface of the bed-plate is first heated by hot coals, so as not to chill the melted glass too suddenly, and while one set of workmen are again preparing this surface quite clean, another set have removed the cuvette and hung it in a crane. Being brought into this position, its contents are turned out in a fiery cascade, which is kept within certain bounds upon the table by iron guides, while, at the same time, a heavy iron cylinder is drawn for- ward on its axis, and pressing upon the molten surface, produces a plate of uni- form thickness and solidity. The lower surface in contact with the bed is not so smooth, but is more accurately level than the upper surface. In five minutes from the time when the cuvette left the furnace, the cast plate is slid off from its bed by a proper tool into the annealing arch, where it rests on a bed of sand for 12 or 14 days before it is considered safe to remove it. Next comes the la- borious process of grinding after a selection has been made of those plates which are judged to be most perfect. This is accomplished by coarse sand and water strewn over the upper surface of the plate, the lower being firmly bedded in plaster of paris. A smaller plate of glass attached to a stone, and heavily weight- ed, forms the muller, and this is moved either by machinery or by hand. After the coarse sand has reduced the surface to one plane, emery in different grades is employed to make the plane surface smooth, and finally the polish is given by red oxyd of iron (colcothar or rouge) applied on cloth backed by wood. Now, when it is remembered that 7 grades of sand, and 15 of emery are used, besides the colcothar, and that this series of processes is to be repeated for each side of the plate, it will readily be understood that the preparation of large mirror plates must be a very costly and time-consuming affair. Moreover, it is only after the fine grinding that the blemishes in the substance of the glass appear (air bubbles and discolorations), requiring the plates to be cut into smaller ones to save them from total loss ; and added to all other sources of cost is the danger of fracture in such repeated handlings and so many mechanical opera- tions. There is need, too, of the most scrupulous care in the choice and compound- ing of the original materials as well as in the casting, that blemishes of color, and irregularities in the inherent structure of the glass, or stria;, may be avoided ; since the first and last requisite of a perfect mirror is the power of rendering an exact reflection, both in color and form, of the objects before it. The same care is therefore needed in the manufacture of this description of glass as in the prepara- tion of glass for optical purposes. It is not wonderful, then, that large mirror plates should be very costly, nor that a heavy capital should be required to con- duct the manufacture with advantage. We trace the history of our modern silvered mirrors (i. e. tin amalgam) to Venice, where they were produced by the present process in the 16th century. The ancients employed small metallic mirrors, highly polished, the form and con- struction of which we see perfectly in the specimens from Pompeii preserved in the Museo Borbonico, at Naples. The process of " silvering " glass mirrors is very simple. The sheet of tin foil, somewhat larger than the mirror, is laid upon a smooth table, and quicksilver poured over it until it covers the tin foil with a thickness of one-tenth of an inch or more ; when the mercury has been swept by the edge of a stick to clean oft' the drops from its surface, the glass plate scrupulously clean is brought even with the edge of the table, and pushed gently forward side- ways, so as to slide over the bath of mercury, its edge just dipping beneath its surface, so as to push before it all impurities, and to exclude all air bubbles. Weights are then evenly applied over the back of the mirror, and the whole table inclined to such an angle as to favor the drawing off of the superfluo '"renry. This requires some days or weeks, according to the size of the plate, Jj.v»«. additional risk and cause of cost in large mirrors, since the time consumed is not small, and the danger of fracture imminent. The amalgam sometimes crystal- lizes, producing imperfections which require the renewal of the whole process, and the health of those engaged in it also suffers, and is finally destroyed by mer- curial salivation. Sihered Globes. — It must have attracted the attention of the most casual ob- server, that within the last few years spheres of glass, sometimes of large dimen- sions, have appeared in our shops, brilliantly lined with a silver coating. These globes obviously cannot be covered on their interior by the amalgamative process just described for mirrors, and the reflecting surface is really what it seems to be, a film of metallic silver. This is put on by an extremely simple process, known . THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. as Drayton's process. The silvering fluid is composed of one ounce of nitrate of silver, three ounces of alcohol of 87 per cent., and 20 or 30 drops of oil of cassia. Metallic silver is deposited from this fluid upon the addition of a reducing liquid composed of one part of oil of cloves dipped in three parts of alcohol. The silver begins immediately to bo thrown down, but the experiment succeeds best when the process goes on slowly, and from the addition of a few drops (say six or eight drops) of the reducing fluid, which suffice to precipitate the silver of 4^ oz. of solution. The film of silver does not exceed 15 or 20 grains in weight for a foot of surface. Flat mirrors can be thus silvered as well as globular vessels, and the cost of silver upon a mirror 5 feet by 10 would not exceed two and a half dollars. There are, however, it is said, practical difficulties in the ways of employing this process on a large scale, but for the silvering of the interior of glass vessels it is invaluable. The precipitation of the silver in this process is due to the deoxydizing influence of the volatile oil, and many other organic compounds possess the same jtower over the oxyd of silver. Bottle Glass is extremely various in its composition, since these vessels maybe blown from any description of metal. For wine bottles cheapness and strength are the great requisites, and as color is of no moment in this case, materials wholly unfit for otber uses may be employed. Thus black bottles are made of 100 parts of sand, 20 lbs. dry glauber's salts (sulphate of soda), 18 soap boiler's waste, 200 of refuse glass, and 45 of basalt. For ordinary green glass bottles, 100 parts sand, 72 of lime, and 280 of lixiviated wood ashes. Champagne bottles require 100 ports sand, 200 feldspar, 20 lime, 15 common salt, and 125 slag from the iron furnace.* White bottles for medical and chemical use are blown from any good quality of hard glass, but those for chemical use should contain neither lead nor arsenic, and no more alkali than is requisite for fusion. Insolubility and power to resist chemi- cal action, are indispensable qualities in chemical vessels. No glass is absolutely insoluble, as even the hardest Bohemian white glass (a lime-potash glass), when pulverized and moistened with water always yields an alkaline reaction to test papers. Tubes of glass for chemical use when intended to resist a high tempera- ture, as in organic analysis, are formed of the most refractory metal, such as has been made in perfection only in Bohemia and some other Austrian provinces. This glass is composed of silica 73, potash 113, soda 3, lime 105, alumina, &c, 2=100. The usual glass for chemical use is formed from 100 lbs. white sand, 41.4 potashes, and 17.5 of lime. Glass of this composition is not easily fused, and is more difficult to work than that which contains more alkali. In comparing the composition of the coarser sorts of bottle glass, one is struck with the resem- blance, between them and some other natural products, like obsidian and lava, which are fusible silicates of alumina and iron, with variable proportions of lime, magnesia, and the alkalies. We may in fact regard these volcanic products as nature's glass.* Flint Glass or Crystal. — Some confusion exists in the use of these terms, ow- ing to the fact that flint glass is a term usually restricted to that description of glass of which oxyd of lead forms an important constituent. This . is not, however, strictly true, as the Bohemian flint glass contains no lead at all. We may define flint or crystal glass to be that description of glass which is fitted from its comparative softness for easy grinding or cutting on the polishing wheel, and which also has a high refracting power, and is thereby best adapted for articles of beauty and luxury, in which brilliancy of lustre is desired. It was remarked at the opening of this essay that the oxyd of lead had a most re- markable power of dissolving silica, and that the glass formed by it was distin- guished by its brilliancy, easy fusibility, and weight. The use of oxyd of lead in this art was first resorted to in England in the 16th century, as an expedient to procure a more easily fusible glass, in order to avoid the waste of fuel required to heat close or arched pots to the proper temperature by means of coal, the only- fuel available in England, and one incompatible with the use of open pots. It was soon discovered that the lead was not only an excellent flux, but that the glass made by it had superior beauty from its high refracting powers. Subsequently the use of lead was adopted in France, but in Bohemia and Venice they still make crystal glass without its use. The Bohemian crystal for grindingis composed of 100 parts white sand, 00 pure potashes, 8 chalk, 40 broken glass, and If manganese. The English flint glass is composed of sand, minium, and potashes, all pure as possible in the proportions of about 3, 2, 1. In addition manganese or arsenic is used as a decolorizing material ; if the former is selected, care is taken that it is pure, and especially that it is free from iron. Minium, or red lead, (Pb 0 2 ) in the process of fusion parts with one atom of oxygen to form that oxyd (Pb O), which unites with the silica, and this liberated oxygen acts to decolorize the glass. With the same object a part of the carbonate of potash may be advantageously replaced by its equivalent of nitrate of potash (saltpetre), which acts favorably by the large volume of oxygen it parts • We may mention here the specimens of " Lava Ware," manufactured from the slass of iron reduc- ing furnaces, exhibited \>y Dr. Win. A. 8in|th, of Philadelphia, l'enn., (U. 8. Class 27, No. 19). Dr. Smith claims that he has found Important uses for the slass of the iron furnaces which have here, tofore been waste prod n ets. He exhibits black bottles, tiles and square slabs moulded from this material, which, as we understand, Is -ubject to a second fusion, although It ispcihaps possible to work It from the original heat of the furuu-e. 164 with at a high temperature. More silica can be used with wood fuel than with coal. Thus the composition of flint glass is stated : With coal as fuel. With wood as fuel. Sand washed and calcined, 100 lbs. 100 lbs. Minium (oxyd lead), 70 " 45 « Purified Potashes, 30 " 35 » Cullet, or broken glass. The fusion of these materials occupies six or eight hours, and the fining as much more, during which the glass must be protected from the smoke and pro- ducts of combustion, the action of which would reduce the oxyd of lead to me- tallic lead, and so blacken the product. Eight crucibles or pots are usually set in one large circular furnace all heated by one fire, which is conducted by the flues so as to surround the pots on all sides. In England and the United States it is usual to commence the found or fusion of the materials on Friday night, and to leave the metal until Monday morning before commencing work, during which time it be- comes perfectly fined. It is in this department of glass manufacture that more progress has been made than in any other in the United States, and the best results obtained. The Brooklyn Flint Glass Co. (Class 24, No. 1, U. S.), and the New England Glass Co., Boston (Class 24, No. 4, U. S.), are the largest manufacturers, and their display in the present Exhibition of dioptric lenses, and signal lamps, and of plain, pressed, cut, and decorated glassware, is decidedly creditable to this country. The American flint glass is distinguished by its brilliancy and the purity of its color, and that of the New England Co., is the best pressed glass probably ever manufactured. The composition of the New England Glass Company's wares is as follows : Best colorless sand, ... 300 Minium, .... 200 Refined Pearlash, ... 100 Cullet and manganese, or arsenic. When requisite, a part of the pearlash is replaced by nitre. The art of mould- ing or pressing glass in metallic moulds as asubstitute for blowing and cutting, it is believed, is entirely of American origin, and although adopted to some extent in Europe, the products there are very inferior in beauty. Indeed the process of mould- ing glass, so far as we can learn, is used in Europe only as a preparation for cutting, the labor of which process is thereby very much reduced. But the New England Company have brought the process to so much perfection, that their drinking ves- sels are made by it of such finish and beauty as to deceive the eye, except on close inspection, with the idea that they are cut. We have taken some pains to ascer- tain the history of this branch of glass making in the United States, and have been obligingly furnished with some facts relating to it by Mr. Jos. N. Howe, the Agent of the New England Company. It appears that moulded glass has been made for a long time in a certain rude form, but that in 1826 Mr. Enoch Robinson, then in the employ of the New England Company, took out letters patent for the invention of a process by which furniture knobs, door handles, &c, were made of pressed glass. The validity and originality of this patent was fully tested by a closely contested lawsuit in Philadelphia, carried on against powerful parties in Pittsburgh. In 1827 Mr. Robinson, against the ridicule of the craft, succeeded in moulding a salt stand, and various other articles for table use, and from that time the invention, as one of general applicability, may be considered as established. In 1832 about £100 sterling in value of the Boston pressed ware was taken to London by Mr. Ryan, an Englishman, where the articles in question excited much curiosity and sold profitably. But it was only so late as 1837 that a thin vessel like a drinking glass was fashioned by the pressing process, which branch of the manufacture has since steadily increased. The show of pressed articles in flint glass by the New England Company in the present Exhibition is particularly creditable to the high reputation of that establishment, and the more so, that, as we are assured by the agent, the articles shown were not made for this occasion, but were selected from saleable goods on the shelves of the warehouse. Mr. Howe states that the art of pressing glass, as now carried on in the United States, has worked an entire revolution in the business of flint glass manufacture with us, from the increased facility it affords in making the great variety of articles and patterns susceptible of being thus produced, while the diminished cost of produc- tion therefrom resulting, has wonderfully increased the competition among rival companies. From flint glass are formed all the numberless and nameless articles of glass, which are employed as objects of utility or ornament for the table, the toilet, the parlor, or the cabinets of the curious. To attempt the most summary sketch of the numerous processes by which these objects are produced and ornamented, would be hopeless in any reasonable space. A glance at the Austrian and French Courts in the present Exhibition will convey an idea of what modern art has ac- complished in this department of manufacture. Our illustrated pages have also been enriched by designs copied from many, of these objects. We trace to Venice the origin of all ornamental and colored glass blowing, a"nd the processes still in use at Murano are believed to be the same which have been practised there for centuries past. Among the objects thus made which most excite the wonder of those uninformed in the steps of the process, are the THE NEW-YORK EXHI BITION ILLUSTRATED. spirally colored drinking vessels, the letter weights with interior clusters of flowers and other colored ornaments, beads, aventurine, &c. We will briefly describe some of these processes as we have seen them practised in the ancient glass houses of Murano. Nowhere is the art of pro- ducing numerous and brilliant tints of colored glass better understood than in Venice. The pot metal is employed is the flint glass without lead, although lead is used to render some of the colored enamels more fusible. To take the simplest case, that of a drinking glass whose tall stem involves a graceful spiral of several threads of white enamel in colorless glass. Cylindrical rods of glass about the size of a pen stalk are drawn, and of any convenient length ; these are colorless, and also of every tint of color which can be named, transparent, opaque or opaline, as the case may be. A mass of colorless pot metal is taken from the furnace, and fashioned on the marverinto a cylindrical form ; while this is being reheated, ano- ther workman has broken several white enamel rods to the same length as the glass cylinder, and has also heated them to the softening point in the mouth of the furnace. The first workman now brings his heated cylinder of colorless glass, parallel to the enamel sticks, and one by one attaches them to his cylinder by simple contact, accurately dividing the space by his eye so that the enamel sticks are equally distant from each other. He now rolls the compound and still soft mass upon the marver until the white cylinders are incorporated into the sub- stance of the colorless glass, but the relative distances are still accurately pre- served. Another assistant with a small mass of hot glass on the end of his punting rod now approaches and fastens it to the fore end of the cylinder of glass still hot enough to yield to pressure ; and as soon as the attachment is made the two work- men twist their rods in opposite directions, which has the effect to give a special twist to the glass cylinder and its attached filaments of white enamel. This pro- cess is continued until the spiral is judged to be sufficiently close, when the mass is again heated, and drawn out by the ordinary process of drawing glass rods, until it has acquired the desired size. A section from this spiral rod forms the stem of a wine glass, or several bits of equal length, placed side by side and reheated, may be made the means of a new and more complex spiral column by a repetition of the process just described. In this manner rods are found of vari- ously colored spiral threads most tastefully intertwined, every color that can be nam- ed being in turn selected and heated in the same manner, alone, or in combination with others. The spirals are now from left to right, and again the reverse, and both are often seen in the same stem or rod. Parallel threads of color are pro- duced with more or less ease. Conceive, then, all the prismatic colors, transparent, opaque, or opaline, combined in an almost endless series of snch rods as have been described, and placed at the command of an adroit workman — what wonders can he not produce by their skilful combination ? Placed side by side upon a plate of iron in the heat of the furnace, such a series of rods can be brought to the softening point, when they will adhere like so many sticks of sugar candy in warm weather. When they are in this condition a workman approaches with a disc of hot glass upon the end of his rod of such diameter as will measure in one revolution exactly, the breadth occupied by the softening spiral rods. He gently rolls the edge of his disc over the hither extremity of the soft rods, which are imme- diately gathered by it into a fluted open cylinder. Tiiis he further softens at the furnace, and by rolling it on the marver he gathers in the open end until he closes it entirely, then applying himself to inflation he blows whatever form of vessel he will from it, fashioning it by his turning tool and scissors at his pleasure. Thus in much less time than it has required to describe his steps, we have a curious en- twined and various colored vessel of oriental grace, a perfect miracle of com- plexity when we recall the simple elements comprising it. It is easy to understand that out of the same pliant and parti-colored rod, those ornaments of infinite variety may be formed, whose presence in letter weights has puzzled so many. It is only requisite to a better understanding of this curious product to remember that the white glass forming the transparent mass of the ornament is composed of much more fusible materials than the colored central florets. The latter are fashioned at the blow-pipe table, out of the very spiral and colored rods whose origin has been already described; and be- fore they are inclosed in their crystaline refracting mausoleum they have no special beauty. A mass of soft glass sufficient for the lower half of such a letter weight is now prepared, and upon its hot surface the colored floret or ornament is applied, while immediately another workman approaches with a second hemis- pherical mass of colorless glass which he applies upon the upper surface of the ornament. Thus one compound mass is produced having the ornamental glass in its centre, and after being duly fashioned, and annealed, and cut, forms the wonder which we see. We have already described the mode in which the surface of the Bohemian crystal is flashed over with a film of ruby or other colored glass. It will be readily understood that the cutting away of a part of the colored surface will leave the colorless ground in bold contrast. The engraving of glass is a distinct art and requires the same kind of skill as that requisite for the production of cameos and intaglios, which was so well understood by the ancients. Very good diagrams of the processes of glass grinding and engraving will be found in Knapp's Applied Chemistry, Vol. II., article Glass, from which we have made large drafts already. Among the curious things of ancient Egyptian art in the collection of Dr. Abbott, so long on view in New- York, was a glass ornament with a chromatic interior floret resembling so nearly the Venetian letter weight of modern times as to leave no doubt (granting the genuineness of the object) that all the processes of the modern glass house were then in use. Glass beads have been made from very ancient times in Venice where the art is still practised. It will readily be understood that the variously colored rods already described may be as easily formed tubular as solid. One of the peculiarities of glass is, when heated, to round itself on the sharp edges. When beads are to be formed, colored tubes of glass drawn down to the proper diameter are cut up into pieces of the proper length, and a large number of these are cautiously heated, when their edges contract and become rounded into the form of beads. This operation is per- formed in a revolving cylinder of iron, in which the glass fragments are tumbled about by the revolutions of the cylinder, mingled with dry lime and charcoal, to pre- vent them from agglomerating when softened. A fine collection of the Venetian beads, mosaic glass enamels {millefiori) and aventurine, may be seen in the Austrian court. The Venetian Aventurine owes its spangles of gold color to the presence of small particles of sub-oxyd of copper (or as some chemists say, of metallic cop- per), in an opaque ground. Among the modern uses of glass which are most pro- mising of future usefulness are the adaptation of large and strong pipes or tubes of glass for the conveyance of water and other fluids ; and also casting of rough plates of strong cheap glass for roofs and floors of buildings. As glass is, in reality, one of the cheapest of manufactured products, and also one of the strongest, when formed of the more common materials, and when used for conveying fluids its color is a matter of no moment, it is easy to believe it may easily take the place of lead in conveying water, and thus avoid all the risk of injury to health which is confessedly inseparable from the use of that metal. Optical Glass. — The demands of physical science have not been easily met by the glass maker, who, until a very recent period, has been unable to supply with any certainty even moderately large masses of faultless glass. To be faultless for optical purposes, glass must have a uniform density, a high refracting power (if flint glass) colorlessness, freedom from strise, and lastly, an absence of air bubbles. To meet these requirements has staggered the resources of the whole scientific world, who have by the most able commissions investigated this subject with the greatest care both in England, France and Germany. For some time Frauenhofer was believed to be the only person who, by a process secret with himself, could make large lenses for refracting telescopes free from strias and other imperfections. This was early in the present century, and long before Faraday had made his celebrated researches as hear! of the Commission of the Royal Society for inves- tigating the subject. We will not repeat the history of this interesting subject, which has been so often discussed, and may be found in all the standard works. Suffice it to say, the difficulty has been overcome, and glass discs of any required dimensions may now be made with considerable degree of certainty that they will be free from serious imperfections. The difficulties which so long stood in the way of perfecting this branch of the glass maker's art, were chiefly, the existence of strias from inequalities of density in different parts of the mass, the presence of air bubbles, which were given off in a late stage of the process of fusion, and the deterioration of color from the implements and means employed in stirring. Guinard, a pupil of Frauenhofer, introduced the practice of stirring the molten mass in the pot by means of a stirrer composed of the same materials as the pot itself, in place of an iron rod before used. This simple expedient, combined with great skill, especially in the construction of his furnace, and in the process of an- nealing, has enabled M. Bontemps to produce and exhibit in London in 1851, a disc of faultless flint glass of 29 inches diameter, and weighing over 200 pounds. The jury of Class V. have in the Jury Reports rendered a most interesting account of this remarkable flint glass disc, which was ground and finished in such a manner that it could be submitted to all the most searching optical tests, not omitting the use of polarized light. When we remember that the joint efforts of Frauenhofer and Utzschneider of" Munich produced only lenses of 9 inches diameter, and that in 1828 M. Bontemps was regarded as having produced a true marvel of optical art in turning out a lens of 14 inches diameter, it will readily be under- stood that the late achievements of the same gentleman in the well known estab- lishment of Messrs. Clance, Brothers & Co., in Birmingham (where he is now per- manently connected), should have received the unqualified approval of such men as Sir David Brewster, Sir John Herschel, Lord Wrothesley, Prof. Miller, Mr. Simms, and Mr. Ross. The density of this mass was 3.56 to 3.58, and its thickness about 2i inches. The composition of Bontemps' flint glass is 200 lbs. of pure sand, as much pure minium, and 60 lbs. of calcined soda. The metal is stirred during thirty-three hours, and until the stirrer is moved with difficulty. The furnace is then closed, and suffered to cool for about eight days, when the cold mass of glass is broken out of the pot and its opposite faces ground to determine its quality. Subsequently it is cut up into discs of such size as may be required, which are then softened by heat and pressed in a mould into the rough form of the future lens. This can be accomplished without injury to the glass. M. Bontemps offered, some time since, to the French Institute, through M. Arago, to furnish lenses for a telescope 22 inches in diameter, at the following rates : — 155 THE INDUSTRY O F ALL NATIONS. Francs. Dollars. Flint glass disc 22 inches in diameter, and weighing 80 pounds, at 6 francs per lb., 400 80 Softening and moulding the mass, 140 28 640 108 Crown glass disc, weighing 50 lbs., at 5 francs per pound, . . 250 50 Softening and moulding, 200 40 450 90 Such a flint glass disc as the above would at former rates have cost more than twenty-two times as much, or about $8000, and, if furnished at all, would have been in all probabilty of inferior quality. The chief cost of refracting tele- scopes has formerly been in the object glasses. The Cambridge object glass (one of the largest in use) is about 10 inches in diameter, and its cost is understood to have been about $15,000, the whole instrument costing about $25,000. It seems reasonable to hope that hereafter refracting telescopes of larger size may be finished at a greatly reduced cost, although we must remember that the process of grinding, and of giving an exact figure to the lenses, still remains a great and difficult work. Very few specimens of optical glass are seen in the present Exhibition, and none of remarkable size. See Nos. 12 and 19, Class 10. Artificial Gems. — The visitor at the Crystal Palace must have noticed in the Austrian Court the collection of artificial gems shown by A. Pazelt, of Tuman, Bohemia (No. 2, Class 24, Austria). These pastes, as they are usually called, rival in color and lustre the natural gems, and are in fact inferior to them only in hardness (except the diamond whose adamantine lustre cannot be imitated). The material from which these artificial gems are made is a very colorless and limpid Hint glass, called strass, after its inventor. Its peculiar limpidity and lus- tre is due not so much to the great quantity of lead it contains as to a portion of the silica being replaced by boracic acid. Its composition according to Wie- land is : — No. 1. No. 2. No. 8 Ground rock crystal, . 100 100 100 Pure minium, . 156 154 White lead, . . 171 Purified caustic potash, . 54 32 56 Boracic acid, or its equivalent of borax, 7 9 6 Arsenious acid, ...... i 1 i The colorless limpid glass thus obtained is the bar is of all the artificial glass gems, and may be colored by the metallic oxyd already noticed. Thus topaz is imitated with glass of antimony and purple of cassius or oxyd of iron ; ruby with purple of cassius; emerald with oxyd of copper or chromium; sapphire with oxyd of cobalt; garnet with purple of cassius, glass of antimony and peroxyd of manganese, and so on. The principles of glass painting have already been discussed in an article to which the reader is referred. BANK-NOTE ENGPvAVING. THE specimens of this art in the Picture Gallery have excited the admiration of every visitor who has given them a careful examination. Nothing is rendered more familiar to us by habitual use than a bank-note; yet, of the thousands who handle them daily, there are very few who bestow even a passing glance upon their vignettes and other designs, or who are acquainted with the mode of their produc- tion. In truth, the value of a bank-note as the representative of the precious met- als, takes away all idea of its worth as a work of art, and yet in this latter respect it is entitled to notice. Not only has this branch of engraving been carried to the highest perfection, but it is interesting to us to consider that this perfection is due exclusively to American invention. The prevention of forgery in bank-notes, bonds, certificates, and similar prom- issory paper, is chiefly due to the costly stylo of their execution. If the very best artists are employed in drawing the designs, and the best engravers in executing them, forgery becomes not only difficult, but unprofitable — a bank-note plate at the cost of one thousand dollars is much less likely to be imitated than one that costs one hundred. And this consideration, evidently a correct one, has furnished one ex- ample of the valuable alliance between business and art which is common in highly refined communities ; though it must bo confessed that in this case the union is not due to taste only. But whether due to taste or economy, the result is the same, and the lover of art will find his curiosity amply repaid if ho will study the beauti- ful specimens of bank-note engraving in the picture, gallery, exhibited by Messrs. Itawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co., 48 Exchange Place, New- York city, and by Dan- forth, Wright & Co., also of New-York. The present style of bank-note engraving originated in the discovery, by our ingenious countryman Mr. Jacob Perkins, of the method of engraving on steel which gives to the productions of this art a durability never before known. By means of this method the works of the artist may be reproduced and multiplied indefinitely. A steel plate properly prepared is engraved or etched in the usual way. A cylinder of very soft steel, of from two to three inches in diameter, is made to roll forwards and backwards on the surface of the steel plate, which in the mean time has been hardened, until the impression of the engraving is seen upon the cylinder in alto relievo. The cylinder is then hardened, and is rolled in the same manner upon the surface of a copper or soft steel plate ; the result is a perfect copy of the original plate. This style of engraving is very economical where a great, or an indefinite number of impressions are to be used — more than half a million of impressions have been printed from a well-hardened steel plate, while a copper plate is deteriorated by printing six thousand impressions. A hardened steel plate will in fact print more proof impressions than six copper plates will give common impressions. At the very lowest estimate, the relative values of the two kinds of engraving are as one to four, apart from the consideration that of the cop- per plate impressions many are imperfect. On the other hand, it must be remem- bered that this method of engraving is only employed where a number of impres- sions is required sufficient to wear out three copper plates; a less number would not warrant the cost of making a steel plate. From this it appears that much tho largest proportion of the plates now in use must be of copper. The art of steel engraving is very extensively applied to the embellishment of standard works, and to the illustration of books of instruction and science. But, to return to bank- note engraving; besides the medallions and vignettes on the notes, there are other forms of engraving consisting of a variety of circular, oval, and rectilineal shapes, exceedingly variegated and interlaid, and exhibiting a most curious, beautiful, and symmetrical intermingling of geometrical figures. All these are produced by an ingenious and remarkable machine invented by our countryman Mr. Asa Spencer. This machine has been justly compared, in its power of presenting an infinite diver- sity of patterns, to the far-famed scientific toy, the kaleidoscope. It possesses this peculiarity of the kaleidoscope, that the turning of a screw, like a change in the po- sition of Sir David Brewster's instrument, gives rise to an entirely new pattern, such as has never been seen before, and may never recur again. This pattern, however, may be preserved and perpetuated by the transferring process. The forms produced by this machine, which is called the geometrical lathe, will be found on inspection to contain an intricate and mazy concretion of lines and dots, which to the practised eye constitutes the best practicable means of identification. And to these forms is given the effect of a beautiful combination of copper-plate and letter-press printing, by making the lines which in one scroll or block are white, in the next black, and so alternating through the whole series, in which the figures themselves are, except in the shading, precisely alike. It is worth mentioning, as an example of the illiberal jealousy which merit has often to encounter, that Sir William Congreve employed an artist of the first talents to attempt an imitation of some of the specimens ex- hibited by Mr. Perkins in England in 1820, when he was endeavoring to bring his invention into use. The attempt was pronounced by his own countrymen a total failure, particularly in the small writing and engine work ; though Sir William main- tained the opposite opinion, and published a pamphlet for the purpose of impressing this opinion on the public. This " Record " which has for its high object to pro- mote the knowledge and diffusion of art among the nations, and to remove those narrow national prejudices which have interfered with such diffusion, is the proper place for holding up to public rebuke the conduct of Sir William Congreve. In the making of plates, cylinders, circular or other dies, the best cast steel is used. For the purpose of transferring fine and delicate engravings, a surface stra- tum of the steel plate or cylinder, descending to about three times the depth of the engraving, is decarbonated, by which it is softened and rendered fit either for transferring or engraving designs. This is a process demanding great expertness. After any piece of steel has been decarbonated, whether a plate, or cylinder, or die, it must, previously to being put under the press, be again carbonated, or re- converted into steel capable of being hardened. This carbonization, or reconver- sion into steel, is effected by means of animal carbon. Here again is a process which can only be safely attempted by the most experienced workmen. It would be impossible to describe by words only, the two criteria of color and sound on which tho successful execution of this delicate task depends. They are only to be learned by actual observation. They are among the mysteries of art. Before con- cluding this brief notice, we will venture once more to ask the curious in the fine arts to look at the vignettes on the specimens of bank-note engraving in the gal- lery of paintings in the Crystal Palace, however familiar they may seem to him. lie may be surprised to discover in them some unexpected beauties, lie will not only admire their correctness in perspective, in drawing, and in shading, but also the rare finish of their engraving. He will derive pleasure, moreover, from the varied and ingenious representations of the pursuits of industry on the land and on the ocean ; and may be led into an agreeable train of thought by contemplating the pictorial views of that labor and art which supply " TIio fireside enjoyments, homc-born happiness," of many millions of freo and happy people on both sides of tho Atlantic. MINTON & CO. 's Tiles, No. 22. No. 24. V ran jVsFZrS& Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. No. 23 A.. HfcA*AuAuA H^AfcAuAfcA *A*A*AmA ^1 BTS S3 £3 £2 ^•I^AmA^Am ^"is sria Brn srH No. 25. SCALE :--HALF-INCH TO A FOOT. ni.LEK, COA.TES, & YQULE, 279, Pearl Street, New York THE NEW -YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. The fine silver Centre Piece, of which we here give an illustration, is exhibited by Mr. J. Angell, of the Strand, London. The scene and the charac- ters are thoroughly and characteristically English, and both are familiar as household words to every reader of English literature. The precious metal is not too precious to give visible form to a scene in which Sir Roger de Coverley figures, that exqui- site creation of the inventive genius of Steele and Addison's refined taste, which embodies all our no- The Gas Bracket is exhibited by Messrs. Cornelius, Baker . The small dimensions of the tazza, the complicated nature of its ornaments, and the exquisite sharpness and fidelity of their outlines, indicate an unusual degree of fluidity ot not, open to public inspection. We are informed by an officer of the United States Navy who visited Europe on a Government Scientific Commission, that he was denied admission here, while every other establishment in Ber- lin was open to him. This tazza also deserves attention the metal, and unusual skill in the manipulation of it. The cause of the superiority of the Berlin castings is for its artistic merits; in particular, for the skill with which the graceful forms of nature have been modified to satisfy the requirements of decorative art. In this respect it. will serve as a useful study to our American readers. variously referred to peculiar qualities of the iron and to the excellence of the moulds. But whatever the secret may be, it is jealously guarded, and the works are The Lace Handkkrcimef, of which we give an illus tration, embroidered in lace-stitch, is exhibited by Susan G. Waring, of New Paltz Landing, New-York. 171 The Casteb engraved on this page, is manufactured and exhibited by Jamks T. Ami-, Chicopee, Mass. The stand is silver gilt, and the bottles are cut glass. The workmanship of this piece is excellent, and the orna- mentation is tasteful and appropriate. The concluding engraving represents a very elegant dress Sword exhibited by the Amies Man UJ/autu&ING Com- pany, of Chicopee, Mass. This sword was presented by the President of the United States, according to a resolution of Congress, to Brigadier General Worth, for his gallantry and good conduct at the storming of Monterey. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. The elegant porcelain Vase, which we here introduce, comes from the Royai. Porcelain Mam-factory of Her- turers, Messrs H. 2 THE NEW- YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. graceful! v from their tripod bases, are midway encircled by bas-reliefs of figures from the antique, and their flat tops supports esquestrian groups, designed by Prof. Fischer. Above the bas-reliefs the dark color of the iron is relieved and gracefully ornamented by an inlaid thread of silver, wrought into the chaste and simple forms of antique decoration. exhibit the finest workmanship and most graceful de- coration. Three examples are introduced on this page — a Canuei.mjrim °f bronze gilt, with painted porcelain As examples of the miscellaneous manufactures of France, we engrave two Caxk Heads, very richly and tastefully wrought in gold. They are exhibited by MM. vignettes; a glass Vase encircled with a gilt vine; and a Flower Vase of glass, the centre being cut crystal, and the top a delicate green, mounted in gilt bronze. Theodorn sweet and fair. It is no unworthy rival and companion of the Proserpine of Powers, of which we give here :i new engraving. An Aciifis iN Carpet, meritorious for iis workmanship and harmony of colors, is | exhibited l>y the manufacturer, M. Amex \m>kk Braquexte, of Paris. ion THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. The genius of Hiram Powers is represented in the New- York Exhibition by four of his works — The Fisher Boy and bust of Proserpine already engraved, and Kve and the Greek Slave which adorn this page of the Record. Ihe latter is still the property of the sculptor; the Eve was placed in the Crystal Palace by the courtesy of CoL John L. Preston, of Columbus, South Carolina, and until now has never been exhibited to the public. So many of the works of Powers were never before assembled except in his own studio; and in respect to sculpture generally, the collection is one of unexampled richness and extent in this country. That it has had, and will continue to have its appropriate influence in forming and directing the public taste cannot be doubted. For obvious reasons Americans have enjoyed very few opportunities of seeing sculp- tures of real merit. Probably, Italian image boys are the only missionaries of art The Eve, like the Greek Slave, is a reproduction of the antique. Con uoisseuis. whose judgment we respect, sav that "our sculptor's great power resides in his imitative faculty, and the patient skill with which he manipulates the surface of the marble. So modern artist has succeeded so perfectly in giving to his statues the peculiar and indescribable look of flesh, equally removed from the roughness of stone and the glossy polish of porcelain. li s elastic muscle seems as if it would yield to the touch." The marble has that delicate softness, w hich after all, is the peculiar and most imperishable charm of the most beautiful woman. The imagination or creative who have found their way to the majority. To thousands, then, of his countrymen these works of Powers have been a revelation of beautv, not less instructivethau delightful. We may be sure that af*< r this practical acquaintance with art, they will have clearer notions of its capabilities, and appreciate better the skill, enthusiasm, and genius of the artist. The Greek Slave has been frequently described, and we need not repeat here the familiar story which she is designed to represent. It was this statue that first intro- duced the name ami merits of Powers to the Knglish public, and it has probablv con- tributed most to his popular fame. faculty in Powers i- far inferior to his manipulative skill. While this is perfect, his invention is only mediocre. The deficiency is apparent in each of the four works ex- hibited, but is most striking in the Eve. The face has no meaning. The body, the limbs are the perfection of physical beauty, but the beautiful soul that should animate so much loveliness is wanting. She is not the mythological Eve. She is not the "fairest of her daughters " whom Milton sung. But failing in imaginative works. Powers surpasses all other sculptors in re|n-oducing nature. His, portrait busts are perfect — the features and the character are given by him with all the fidelity of life. THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. The illustrations upon this nnd the opposite page of the Record, have been selected from the small but choice collection of SEVRES PORCELAIN, contributed to the Exhi- bition by the Government of France. The varied na- ture of these articles, their graceful forms, and the per- fect propriety as well as beauty of their decorations, are represented, as far as unculored illustrations can repre 6ent them, by our engravings. The porcelain of Sevres is the perfection of the cera mic art, and while it would be superfluous to praise works which have so long been the acknowledged stand- ards of excellence, it may be useful to state how that enviable distinction has been obtained. In 1710, the successful experiments of Bottcher, in Saxony, stimulated the manufacturers of France to attempt the production tu"t\7!f li f°™ ° f °r !ental China> Their eff0rts re ' I ,ain ' called V^-^dre, or Old Sevres. It was first manu- suitea in the discovery of a new composition for porce- | factured at St. Cloud; afterwards at Chautilly, by work- men trained at the former place; and in 1745. the pro- I the Minister of Finance. In 1753 Louis XV became pnetor, M. Gravant, sold the secret to the Marquis d'Orry, | one third owner of the establishment, and gave it the Wi/W'-' ';i|iir 1 ' * • vi. title of Royal Manufactory; in the following year the I other shares being bought by the king, it was placed un- factory was transferred to S6vrcs, and six years after, the | der the sole direction and patronage of the government. THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. During all subsequent public changes and revolutions it France, that they have uniformly encouraged public in- has continued under the same fostering care ; for it is dustrial institutions with a free and efficient liberality, the peculiar honor of the successive governments of and by employing tne best artists and scientific men to T ^ le m - a i f 0 U ? Ct "i re °{ P orcelaine dure at Sev res was be- I tirely superseded the tender variety already mentioned jun in 1/68 by the chemist Macquer, and in 1805 en- | All the articles in the Exhibition are of the hard porce- lain. Its composition is usually, Kaolin (China clay), 48 parts ; sand, 48 parts ; and chalk, 4 parts. These ma- terials are ground to very fine powder with water, and, the excess of water being removed, the slip is passed through the mill, and is ready for turning, moulding, and casting, by which operations, single, or combined, all direct and improve them, have made the workshops of France the schools of taste and excellence for the work- men of the world. the objects must be produced. Handles and other or namental parts are cast separately, and afterwards at- tached. The vessels after being baked are termed biscuit, and are opaque, porous, and absorbent. They *re then dipped into a liquid glaze of feldspar and alkali, and exposed to the intense heat of the glazing kiln, from which they emerge milky white, and with a surface like polished marble. The glaze is a true glass which flows into pores of the biscuit, and forms with it a homogeneous 199 War body. The colors used in the painting are all metallic oxyds, ground up with a flux of red lead, borax, and flint, which are vitrified and made imperishable by another firing TH E INDUS T K Y OF ALL N A TIONS. The beautiful engraving which commences this page, is a faithful copy in every thing except rolor, of one of the Gobelins Tapestries exhibited by order of the French Gov- ernment. Though possibly it may not be the most meri- torious in nn artistic and technical point of view, it appears to ns the most pleasing of the tapestries that grace our Crystal Palace. The subject is taken from .Esop's apo- logue of the The Wolf and the Lamb, a favorite in the boyish days of every one, and none the less popular, when a mature experience has confirmed its truthful pic- A WoBK Table, carved in Ebony, with the rich and grotesque ornaments invented by the fertile fancy of incdia val decorators, is exhibited by the designer and manufacturer, Caul Hjlof.u, of Diisscldorf. ture of the pretexts which tyranny invents, when it wishes to trample upon defenceless innocence. This piece was executed in 1842 by Thiers, after a painting by besportes. The group of sculpture called Cfi'in Captive, is the work of an eminent Belgian sculptor, M. Fralkin. The composition of this group, especially the upper part, is very graceful, and is deserving of high praise. THE NEW-YOKK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED. I A bas-relief in plaster, designed for an architectural ornament, and called a Lyric Centre, is contributed to the Exhibition by the designer and manufacturer, Thomas Heath, of Philadelphia. It consists of two cir- lain exquisitely painted, and set in a gilt border. It is supported by three curved and foliated gilt stems which rise from a metallic triangular base. They sup- port at the centre a globe of rich blue porcelain set eles of portrait busts interspersed with decorative de signs having reference to music. In the larger circle wi recognise busts of Jenny Lind, Anna Bishop, Miss Hayes,