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'ir,.,/,;r .' r ■>-: -/'<■■' W -,:l-';..'-^ -.ii;..; i ,Ji]-l ■-i^r'i.i^wi'H >i i.i/'fy.'; ■'"?■,(.' PREFACE ■■•^ ■di'J' JUiv ' ■'r?.:7 ..■ :Vi, The accompanying volume contains a series of tracts each complete in itself, and containing an amount of valuable and useful information never before presented to the public within the compass of so small a work. Each tract contains a detailed and concise account of the principal branches of scientific discoveries, arts, manufactures, &c., with the appliances of skill and labour attached to each, which have rendered them so useful to modern society, both at home and abroad ; , they also embrace a general and elaborate view of the productions which bountiful nature has been so lavishing upon us year after year, until, by the continual and constantly increasing improvements and, inventions what a few years ago were thought to be nothing less than the chimerical fancies of a few interested parlies, have now become, by the aid of the above, means essential, and in some measure , absolutely necessary, for our every day existence, besides forming an important branch of commerce in the supplying other countries not so highly favoured as ourselves, with every variety of manufactured articles, which we import from them in the form of raw cotton, wool, silk, &c, &c. The chief object of the compiler has been to place wilhin the reach of a largo majority of the public a collection of sub- jccts which hi\8 hitherto only been attainable in the shape of large and expensive mmmm ■r works; and although some people might imngine it to be on very ordinary and co.nmon-place matters, a perusal will, it is hoped, entirely dispel this allusion, as it may be read to advantage both by those classes of the scientific and mechanical professions, who are either engaged or who take an interest in everything con- nected with the trade and commerce of our country, and also by the public in gene- ; ral, whom it is hoped will respond to the exertions of the author, who has been at a great outlay, both of time and expense, in order to render it acceptable to all classes of society. i.ji^j. ■■' ;f?i?^f k tmfti^r.^': , ^s*iw^-' *3 !. ■M ''-■''Iii- #: :'i:--' r:t!A; Ki :v... . .. y and 3n, as « mical con- vene- eo at /I :o all <-■': ' ■■ ,. V V 'V*.. Ini;*?; t... GOLD : IN THE MINE, THE MINT, AND THE WORKSHOP. A' In September, 1847, one Captain &^^ or Sutter was a bold, prosperous enterprising, intelligent settler in tTpper California. Ho was a Swiss by bii'th ; he had served Charles X. as one of the Swiss Guard at the Tuileries ; he emigrated to Missouri after the Bourbon revolution of 1830; he removed thence to the Oregon territory in 1836 ; he made a farther advance in 1839 to California, where he built a fort named New Helvetia on the river Sacra- mento; he gradually accumulated around him 4000 oxen, 1500 hoi'ses and mules, 2000 sheep, a vast acreage of land imder grain crops, and two ti'ading vessels in the river ; he had his fort supplied with twelve pieces of artillery, and defended by a garrison of seventy men ; and he was thus, in all proba- bility, the wealthiest and most influential man beyond the Bocky Mountains. The month above named was an important one to this bold captain, and to the world at large. He contracted with a Mr. Marshall to construct a saw- mill near a pine forest. The supply of water to this mill was so situated as to wash down much mud and gravel from the higher course of the stream ; and Mr. Marshall, watching the progi'ess of his works one day, saw some glittering particles in this mud. He formed his own conclusions of the natui'e of these shining morsels ; and having shown some of them to the Captain, it was agreed to keep the matter a secret for a time. Such secrets, however, do not keep ; they ivill not keep : it was soon noised abroad that gold had been discovered at the American Fork of the Sacramento, and a gold fever there- upon sprang up. A few labom'eis collected some of the gold-dust, and took it for sale to San Francisco, at which town the Sacramento enters the Pacific ; hundreds flocked up the river ; Indians were hired, soldiers and sailoi'S deserted, shopkeepers closed their shops, and San Firancisco became almost abandoned. Two men, employing a hundred Indians, got 17,000 dollars' worth of gold in a short time ; another party, 12,000 ; and another, 16,000. In two or three months, one store-keeper at Suter's Fort sold goods for 36,000 dollars' worth of gold-dust. Such was the opening scene of the Califomian drama, which has since set the whole world in commotion. It is to this gold, and to gold generally — its obtainment and its application, its uses and its " curiosities " — tliat tlie present sheet will be devoted. • The Gold Mines of Past Ages. The world has never known a period (within historic limits, at least) when gold was not cherished and valued highly. Whether it is because this beau- tiful metal presents a brilliant colour and lustie, or because it is little affected H Jl GOLD : IK THE MINE, THE MINT, AND THE WORKSHOP. by external agents, or because it is easily wrought into useful and ornamental forms, the evidence is cleai* enough that gold has hud a widely-spread and a long-continued reign. We are told of an age of iron, and an age of bronze, and of the golden ages, jaor excellence: and these metaphors are founded on certain characteristics of certain periods in history ; but, in one sense, the golden age never dies, if we judge from the estimation in which this one metal is held. Wliether a countiy possessing u'on mines is not richer Uiau one which boasts of its gold, is quite another question, which must be dis- cussed on a much wdder basis. As difierent centuries in past history have exliibited differences in the supply of gold, so does the geographical distribution differ greatly. All tlie fovu" quarters of the world (what to designate Australia is now a puzzle : a " fifth quarter " not being quite orthodox) contain gold mines, tliough in vexy unequal degree. For a considerable number of yeai-s before the discoveiy of the mines of Califomia, the world was chiefly supplied with gold from Siberia and the Indian islands in Asia, from Hungary and Transylvania in Europe, from a few scattered places in Africa, from Brazil in South America, and from Carolina in North America. Taking the average of many years before 1847, the annual produce was supposed to be about 80,000 lbs., having a money value of somewhat less than £5,000,000. Many have been the eager hopes and anticipations that our own little island may be a golden land. It is certain that the Irish of early times had abundance of gold ornaments, the material for which seems to have been derived from their own " green isle." But there is now very Uttle reason to expect that the age of gold will supersede the age of iron, so far as regards the mineral wealth of tiie British Isles. There are traces of gold in Ireland, in Wales, at Leadhills, at Glen Turret, at Cumberhead near Lanark, and in other places; sometimes they occur in quartz veins, sometimes in alluvial deposits. The most notable attempt yet made in this department of mining among us has been in Wicklow. On the boundary line between Wicklow and Wex- ford counties is a moimtain called Croghan Kinshela : many streams descend from this mountain, and in tlie muddy bed of tliese streams gold was dis- covered about half a century ago. It was not merely fragmentary morsels which thus presented tliemselves, but the eye of tlie gold-seeker was tempted by pieces or lumps up to twenty-two ounces weight. The gold was accom- panied by other metals, and was generally found several feet below the surface. This discovery made, we may be sure, no little stir at the time. One of the stories connected with the subject tells how an old schoolmaster, about the year 1770, was wont to talk about the riches of the district ; how he wandered out at night, imtil his neighbours thought he was a little touched in his intellect ; how he married a young wife, and communicated the Hccret to her ; how she gossiped about it to her neighbours ; and how the good news thereupon spread. But the matter was not seriously taken up till 1796, when a man, while crossing a valley-brook, picked up a glittering fragment which proved to be nearly half an ounce of gold, at least as pm'e as that of standard coin. The news got wind ; young and old, male and female, hale and infirm — all hied to the valleys, and groped about for the precious -treasure ; it was not a hoax nor a day dream, for the peasants gathered several thousand pounds' worth in two months. It was at once thought that a bright day had arisen for poor old Ireland ; that she had the means of (golden) regeneration within herself; but alas, the hopes were 'too bright to last." The Govern- oold: in the mine, the mint, and the workshop. 1 ment took the subject in hand, and appointed a Mr. Weaver to superintend the operations. He instituted a search into the various modes in which the gold had deposited itself, with a view to establish a systematic mode of ex- traction ; he engaged diggers and collectors and labourers ; and he esta- blished the necessaiy commercial machinery for carrying on operations. It was calculated that the country people had collected £10,000 worth of gold before the Government had taken possession of the works ; and the Govern ment collected 945 ounces, valued at £3676 ; but when the accotmts came to be balanced, it was found that the expenses had exceeded the receipts. The bright vision was dissipated, the scheme was abandoned, and the Government has never since taken part in the matter. The Wicklow gold mines have still an interest to the minds of some, but the golden particles are too " few and far between" to render the collection a very profitable employment. Quitting our own islands, and directing a glance to the continent of Europe, we find that Hungary and Transylvania are among the chief gold countries ; the precious metal being found in the sands of some of the rivers. There are also two or three Bohemian rivers which yield a small supply. In one part of the valley of the Rhine, between Mannheim and Basle, gold is found in a sand-bank in the river, but not in sufficient quantity for working. There are many parts of Europe whence gold was once obtainable in profitable quantity, but where the search is now abandoned : such are the banks of the Ebro, tlie Bhone, and the Danube. Africa is said to yield about 5000 lbs. weight of gold annually — from the district between Abyssinia and Dai*fur; from the region south of the Great Sahara ; from the Mozambique coast ; from the sands of the Gambia, the Senegal, and the Niger ; and from that portion of the Atlant'ic sea-board which obtains tlie name of Gold Coast. Asia contributes small supplies from some of the rivers in Asia Minor, from the Indian islands, and from certain parts of India, China, Cochin-China, and Sumatra. But of all the contributions which the Old World produces, in this depart- mef*t of mineral wealth, none equal those of the vast Russian Empire. The qu/intity has been rapidly increasing within t'^ last few years. In 1842 the qi^antity was about 33,000 lbs., and this has since risen to 60,000, 60,000, fthd even 80,000 lbs. There are two groups of Russian gold deposits, near the Ural and the Altai Mountains respectively. The eastern group, near tlie Altai, is said to comprise a district as large as France, over the whole area of which " not only are considerable quantities of gold found mingled with sand and gravel on the surface, but even the rocks themselves, when pounded up, are found to aiford a percentage of that valuable metal." It is curious to observe how varied are the aspects in which the gold presents itself. In the Ural district, for instance, it occurs in minute frag- ments imbedded in coai'se gravel, somewhat like that at Woolwich ; it also occm's disseminated in veins of quartz in hard rocks, which are worked by regular subterranean mining operations ; and it occm'S associated with pla tinum, and one or two other rare metals, in detached fragments of rock. The processes adopted by the gold collectors vary according to these varied modes of deposit. If the sand of any river contains a few grains of gold to five poui\ds weight of sand, it will pay for the expense of gold-washing. In the Altai district the gold appears disseminated in a quartz sand, not merely in river valleys, but sometimes even to the summit of a motmtain. There has been one mass obtained, weighing no less than 78 lbs., and valued at £3000. Crossing the Atlantic, we find tliat Brazil, until the recent discoveries in There is a chain H » California, has been the richest of American gold countries » I gold: in IHB MINE, TUE MINT, AND THE WOUKaHOr. of mountains running parallel with the coast, some distance inland ; and in the rivers which flow from these mountains, gold is found in considerablo quantity. There is much hard rock in tho river valleys ; in this rock is a stratum of gravel and rounded pebbles, and in this stratum tlie gold is met with. In the province of Minas Geraes, gold occm's also in veins in the hard rock, and mining operations have recently commenced there. The Brazilian produce gi-adually rose in annual amount till 1763 ; it maintained a very high position till 1763, but smce that time it has been declining. This decline is attributable to the exliaustion of the auriferous sands ; the gold veins in hard rock have only recently begun to bo mined, owing to the want of capital. Other districts of America yield small portions of the precious metal. In Mexico the silver (which foi-ms the chief wealth of tho country) frequently con- tauis gold, but not often in sufficient quantity to pay for tlie separation ; there are also a few veins in tho rocks. In Pern and in New Granada there are gold veins and washings in small quantity. In Central America there are washings which have become neai'ly exhausted. The Appalachian chain in North America gives rise to many rivers which flow into tlio Atlantic ; and in the sands of a few of these rivers (chiefly in Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia) gold occurs in sufficient quantity to pay for working ; the whole are said to yield about 3000 lbs. of gold annually, and there has been laiown to occur a mass weighing 28 lbs. But the north of tlie American continent is " looking up," as gold specu- lators would say. Not only has California (of which more presently) suddenly acquired a golden reputation, but Canada, our o^vn British Canada, has made a humble stai-t in the same line of wealth. Within the last year or two, gold has been found in tliat colony ; and no sooner was this discoveiy announced, than adventurers were found to flock thither, as they probably would to Spitz- bergen, or even to the North Pole, if they were told that gold existed there. The latest accounts from Canada state that five hundred Americans have, during tlie summer of 1861, been roaming on the banlis of a river hi Lower Canada, where a little gold had been before found ; and tliat others from New Brunswick were also in the same field of entei-prise. Their success, however, has not been very encouragiiig. Still, as it is known tliat indications of gold have appeared over three thousand square miles of countiy in Lower Canada, there is quite sufficient to whet tlie appetite of gold-seekers. The gold is found in the beds of the streams, and in small pieces with quailz attached ; but no auriferous vein of quai'tz has been yet found. ■ - . Caufoknxa and its Treasuhes. The wonders of California are, however, those which most press for notice"; excepting, perhaps, Uie still more recent outburst in Australia. If we look at a modem map of California, such as that which accompanies Mr. Bryant's NaiTative, we see a veiy tempting yellow patch between the Bocky Mountains and the Pacific. If that patch is not real gold, it is at least intended to symbohse gold ; for it mai'ks the limits within which gold has been obtained. Between the Eocky Mountains and the ocean there is another mountiiin ridge, parallel with the coast ; there is Uius fonned an oblong basin or valley between the two ranges, nearly north and south ; and for a distc .:ce of neai-ly 600 miles (35° to 42" N. lat.), the rivers of this valley have no outlet whatever except at San Francisco, where a gap occurs in the coast ridge. It is thus that nature has made San Francisco an impoi1,ant place, independent '/, gold; in the mine, TH£ mint, and the WOBKailOP. ,*• of the guld question. Tliis harbour (one of the finest in the world) is abou' in latitude 38° ; the Sacramento Hows southward along the basin or valley to this point; while the Sa:i Joaquim flows northward to the same meeting place — the two rivers having numerous tributaries which drain tlie Rocky Mountain region. The San Joaquim and its feeders have been found to yield gold, to a point about one degi'ee south of San Francisco ; but the Sacramento and its tributaries, north of the harbour, form the gold region proper. Here we find the American River, Bear River, Yubah River, Feather River, Butte River, Antelope Creek, Mill Creek, Deer Creek, Chico Creek — all flowing into the Sacramento, and all yielding precious returns to the gold-seekers. Such is tlie region whither emigi-ants have for four years been wandering. It is remarkable that the political relations between the United States and Mexico had shortly before given Upper California to tlio former nation ; and that other negotiations with England had given to the latter a more restricted possession of territory on the Pacific coast than had before been claimed ; ec that the United States, by these two political causes, and by the Califomian discoveries, became suddenly possessed of gold mines, which she is earnestly endeavouring to bring under the operation of a system. Would we know how El Dorado presents itdelf to tlie view of an overland traveller to California, we may take Mr. Kelly's recent ' Excursion to Cali- fornia,' as an informant. This gold-seeker left Livei-pool per steamer, landed at New York, travelled by rail to Albany on the Hudson, thence by rail to Buffalo on Lake Erie, crossed Upper Canada by coach to Detroit, thence by rail and by waggon to the southern point of Lake Michigan, then on by steam conveyance tlirough a canal to the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. AiTived 8t St. Louis, tlie " Queen of the West," he steamed four hundred miles up the Missouri to Independence ; and then, witli a large party, made a waggon jomney of two thousand miles to the gold region — over wide prairies, rapid rivers, nigged crags, snowy peaks, through the Mormon settlement at the Great Salt Lake, and through perils er lugh to wear the heart out of any but a determined man. After these two thousand miles of waggon travelling, which occupied a hundred and two days, the weary adventurers suddenly " encoun- tered some Chilians on the banks of a little stream, all but dried up, looking for what we came thousands of miles in quest of. It is scarcelv necessary to state that we halted to noon (tlie " noon " is the mid-day rest in those regions) in their neighbourhood, to have our long day-dream interpreted, and see with mortal eyes the process of picking and washing gold from the common clay. The operations just there happened to be on a hmited scale ; nevertlieless, little as it was, it appeai-ed marvellous to us to see pailsful of mud and dirt gathered, and, after a very short and simple species of washing, to find in the bottom of the basins a deposit of the veritable stuff itself; after which the doubts and fears, which, like the misty vapours of a simimer's morning, hovered and floated over our brilliant expectations, rolled away and vanished as the golden sun became revealed. It was now no longer an exaggerated fiction about the treasures of California." A few miles onward they came to some " dry diggings," where miners dig in the diy soil, picking out pai-ticles of gold from amongst the clay witliout the agency of water. " Of com'se it must be plentiful, and in good sized grains, when the eye can detect them mixed witli the red clay ; and much that is in mere dust must necessarily' escape in the first instance ; but in tlie wet season many of them (the diggers) wash the heaps over that they had diy-picked before, and with very great success. I sat for half an hour by the side of a digger, watching how he gold: in the mxne, the mint, and the workshop. worked, during ■which he frequently pointed out particles in the earth before he picked them out that would certainly escape an unpractised eye. He ad- mitted he averaged one and a half ounce per day, working only about six hours." This spot was about forty miles from Sacramento city, and nearly two himdred from San Francisco. The account which Colonel Mason, an officer dispatched by the United States government to report on the capabilities of California, gives of a scene which met his view, will fittingly illustrate the earlier operations of gold find- ing in that land of promise : — '* The day was intensely hot ; yet about two hundred men were at work in the full glare of the sun — some with tin pans, some with close-woven Indian buckets, but the greater part had a rude ma- chine known as the cradle. This is on rockers, six or eight feet long, open at the foot, and at its head has a coarse grate or sieve ; the bottom is rounded with small elects nailed across. Four men are required to work this machine : one digs the ground in the bank close by tlie stream ; another carries it to the cradle and empties it on the grate ; a third gives a violent rocking motion to the machine ; whilst a fourth dashes on water from the stream itself. The sieve keeps the coarse stones from entering the cradle ; the cmrent of water washes off the earthy matter ; and the gravel is gradually carried out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold, mixed with a heavy fine black sand, above the first elects. The sand and gold mixed together are then drawn off through auger holes into a pan below, are dried in the sun, and afterwards separated by blowing off the sand. A party of four r^en thus employed at the lower mines averaged a himdred dollars a day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans or willow baskets, gradually wash out the earth and separate the gravel by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is sepa- rated in the manner before described." Another scene well illustrates the mode in which a solitary imassisted adventm'er — ^without companions, sen^ants, machines, or capital — often acts. A person without a machine, after digging off one or two feet of the upper groimd near the water (in some cases they take the top earth), throws into a tin pan or wooden bowl a shovelful of loose dirt and stones ; then, placing the basin an inch or two imder water, continues to stir up the dirt with his hand in such a manner that the ninning water wiU cany off the light earth, occa- sionally with his hand throwing out the stones ; after an operati.m of this kind for twenty or thirty minutes, a spoonful of small black sand remains ; this is placed in a handkerchief or cloth and dried in the sun, and, the loose sand being blown off, the pure gold remains. By such roxigh processes has much of the golden wealth been procm'ed. In some cases a gulley or gutter, a hundred yards long by four feet wide, has yielded a thousand ounces of pure gold, disseminated in fine grains among the sand and mud. But the Anglo-Saxon race was not likely to leave matters in such a primi- tive state as California presented m the first paroxysm of the gold fever. Various machines have been from time to time introduced, calculated to expedite proceedings and to economise labour. Various machines for this purpose have been recently introduced. Prince Demidotf sent one for deposit at the Great Exhibition. A Califoniian gold-winnowing machine, of a neat and ingenious kind, was invented in Franco about a year ago, for the use of such of our Gallic neighbours as wish to try then- fortime in the " diggings." In any such machine, to be effective, there must be a mode of sup- plying water to the auriferous mud, and a means of agitating the mixtiure thus produced. Now the French machine effects these two purposes by one movc- ■i 1 >/■ i gold: in the mine, the mint, and the workshop. 7 ment : there is a kind of hopper or receptacle into which the sand is shovelled, and from which it descends into a cylinder or barrel ; this cylinder is made to rotate by a winch handle, which handle also works a pump for raising water into the cylinder. The mud and sand are washed out by the continual agita- tion of the cylinder, and the golden pai'ticles are left behind. California has taught us a few strange things, and none stranger than the effect of the gold discoveries on prices. The relative value which gold bears to other commodities depends on the same law of supply and demand as com- mercial value generally. This was never better shown than in the exti-avagant quantities of gold-dust (or its equivalent in silver doUai's) paid in California for eveiy-day commodities and services. Mr. Kelly, in one of his rambles through the golden land, came to a spot where many diggers had congregated, and where a few stores were opened for their accommodation. The state of the roads and rivers rendered it improbable that new supplies could be obtained for many days ; and the store-keepers therefore combined to raise their prices to a most extravagant pitch. "Flour jumped up from 50 cents, per lb. to 1 doUar 50 cents. ; pork, from 40 cents, to 1 dollar 25 cents. ; beans, coffee, sugar, mackarel, and aU other indispensable necessaries, in the same propor- tion ; together with boots, which were in great demand, and for which tiiey charged two ounces for the commonest pegged manufacture." These " two ounces " refer to gold, so that common shoes were five or six guineas per pair ; while flom* was six shillings per poimd. There was a violent commotion among the diggers ; but, as they could not help themselves, except by actual robbery, they not only acquiesced in tliese prices, but witnessed another rise of 100 per cent, a few days afterwards. A single additional boat-load of pro- visions drove down prices nearly to tlieir original level. On another occasion Mr. Kelly hud a cuiious illustration of the value of domestic service. He came to a settlement formed by a Mr. Hudspeth, where a young English girl was engaged as housekeeper ; she had left the Mormon settlement at the Great Salt Lake, and joined an emigrant party to CaUfomia. She was, as our informant describes, *' an admirable cook, and made the nicest butter I ever used, for which services she was requited by the liberal salary of 1000 doUars per year, and tlie right to dispose of, as her proper per- quisites, all the milk, butter, cheese, and eggs that remained after supplying tiie wants of the household. Those, she admitted to me, according to tlie amount they then realized weeldy, would increase her yearly income to iJ500 dol- lars : this, on explanation, did not surprise me, as she obtained twenty-five cents. a piece for eggs, which sometimes got so high as fifty ; one dollar per quart for milk; four dollars for butter ; and I forget how much for cheese : then the overplus of each must have been immense, from tlie legions of hens about the premises and the incredible number of calves I saw in the con-al ; while the constantly passing waggons, pack companies, and whale-boats, never suf- fered a stock to accumulate or spoil in her hands. Only think," exclaims Mr. Kelly, " of £500 a year, ye cooks and daiiy-maids of Old England ! " It would carry us out of our path to dilate fm-ther on the relative value oetween gold and otlier commodities in California ; but we may state that Mr. Kelly saw, at San Francisco, a fine merchant vessel, of a thousand tons bm'den, fitted up as stores, warehouses, and counting-houses ; the owner had found it utterly impossible to procure a crew to navigate the vessel, all the seamen having scampered off to the diggings ; and, to prevent tlie vessel from uselessly rotting, he let it out, in the way above noticed, at rents so high as to far overbalance any profit derivable from ordinary freight. V T i GOLD : IN THE MINE, THE MINT, AND THE WORKSHOl'. Will California yield gold for ever ? If not, will it, for ages to come, present a profitable field for gold-seekers ? Some of the writers on California indulge in the most exti'avagantly glowing pictures on this subject. But let us hear what a deservedly great authority says. Sir Roderick Impey Murchison has examined with great attention the gold deposits of Russia, and all the cir- cumstances connected with their geological position ; and he has also studied all the accounts which have been given of similar deposits in other countries. In 1849 he gave an outline of his researches to the British Association, at Birmingham ; he told that learned body all about the Ural Movmtains, and the gold tiberein contained ; he compared the Russian with the Califomian regions ; and he expressed the following conclusion : — ^A periodic discovery, like that in California, may, in the hands of adventurers and unbridled specu- lator, force a considerable quantity of surface gold so suddenly upon the mai'ket, that a momentary apprehension of a great change in its relative value may be entertained ; but, looking to the mineralogical and geological stnicture of America, and seeing how large a portion of that continent is made up of rocks precisely similar to those which have afforded the gold shingle and sand of the Sacramento; and, knowing that all the other far-famed gold districts of the New World have had assignable limits in their productive capacities, and that many of their sources have disappeared or become value- less, he believes that the time will come when the rich soil of the valleys of California, like the banks of the 'Rhine, the Guadalquiver, and the rivers of Bohemia, will be tmned up by the plough alone, or serve as pasture land, to the entu-e abandonment of gold hunting. 1 TriF, Recent AusTnAUAN Discoveries. If this sheet had been written a few weeks ago, the name of Australia would, perhaps, not have been mentioned in it. But a new gold-fever has sprung up. Wliile England has been glorying in her Great Exliibition, Australia has run mad after tlie diggings which nature has vouchsafed to her. It was in September, 1851, that tlie news reached England of gold having been found in Australia — that is, gold in large quantities : a golden region. Early in May the announcement was made at Sydney, by letters from Bathurst, and the effect was quite electric. A mining mania seized every one. On the Monday morning after the Sydney papers announced the discovery, " groups of people were to be seen," we are told, "at eveiy coiner of the streets, assem- bled in solemn conclave, debating botli possibilities and impossibilities, and eager to pounce upon any human being who was likely to give any mformation about the diggings. People of aU trades, callings, and pursuits, ware quickly transformed into miners ; and many a hand which had been trained to kid gloves, or accustomed to wield nothing heavier than the gray goosequill, be- came nervous to clutch the pick and crow-bar, or 'rock tlie cradle' at our infant mines. The blacksmitiis of the tovvn could not tm"n off the picks fast enough, and tha manufactm'e of cradles was the second briskest business in the place. A few left on Monday equipped for the diggings ; but on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, tlie roads to Summer Hill Creek became literally alive with new-made miners from eveiy quarter; some armed with picks, others shouldering crowbars or shovels, and not a few strung round with washhand basins, tin pots, and colanders : garden and agricultural imple- ments, of eveiy variety, either hung from the saddle bow or dangled about the persons of the pilgrims to Ophir. Now and then a respectable tradesman, I ' gold, or of silver, or of silver coated with gold, are appliea to numerous ornamental purposes, of which abundant illusti-ations have been displayed at the " World's Fair." There v/as gold-lace, in a foi-m fit to be applied to embroidery and other purposes, from a London firm, from our neighbours across the channel, from Belgium, from the Zollverein States, and from Russia. The woven productions, embroidered with gold-lace, were richly illustrated by the archiepiscopal vestments contributed by Belgium. The employment of gold-lace, when woven with other materials, was shown (among other examples) in the sumptuous Russian gold brocade, valued at about four guineas a yard. The exquisite filagree-work, from Genoa, Spain, and other countries, showed how delicately gold wire can be twisted and wrought into elegant forms ; and the well-filled and well-arranged Tunis Court demonstrated how widely the use of gold tliread and gold wire has extended among the wealtliier denizens of northern Africa. i • •IS I I- SHOP. ickly as to conceal nost singular me- T prepwes a solid applies upon the another coating, le-hundredth part ;rain of processes, ed through holes ;old never deserts ions : it was one and it maintains can be brought, s most wondrous Vollaston, a man iample of a solid ver, bored a hole nallest gold wire drawing process^ , in fact, a silver I isolate this gold lid, by which the th of an inch in man has yet pro- an any employed gold on the sur- the gold on the i of one-millionth ness of ordinary -actions : but we imagine that a )on, one inch in tn a girdle corn- re." 1 with gold, are ant illustrations lace, in a foim ndon firm, from oUverein States, gold-lace, were id by Belgium, ials, was shown )caQe, valued at Genoa, Spain, be twisted and ed Tunis Court re has extended 'oold: in the mine, the mint, and the wobkshop. M GojiDEN Trinkets and Small Wares. These delicately-minute applications of gold are but a few among many. If we look at that delicate but perfect film of gold which covers buttons and cheap jewelleiy, we shall find that it is not less curious than those examples [ just treated. Here the gold is neitlier a sheet nor a wire ; it is a tvash or liquid. The buttons, when completely formed (by processes which need not be here described), are cleansed with an acid liquor ; then biunished, to level all irregularities ; then shalien in a vessel with a mixture of quicksilver and nitric acid ; and aftenvards drained from all the mercuiy except a thin film which adheres to each button. Next comes the gilding process ; gold and mercury are melted together in an iron ladle, and the mixture is poured into cold water ; it forms a paste-like substance, which is squeezed in a leather bag until nearly all the quicksilver is expelled, leaving only a little combined with the gold. This amalgam of gold and mercuiy is mixed with nitiic acid, and the buttons immersed in it ; a careful application of heat drives off all the mercury from the buttons, leaving a delicate but uniform film of gold on the buttons. There are other modes of gilduig buttons, but we need not stop to notice them here. Now this golden garment, which gives to a button a bril- liancy nearly, if not quite, equal to that which a button of solid gold would exhibit, is so exti'emely thin that ten pennyworths of gold would gild a hun- dred coat buttons of ordinary size ; and in some of the cheaper kinds of work the film is less than one two-hundred-thousandth of an inch in thickness. As it is in buttons, so it is in cheap jewelleiy: tlie thickness of the gold is small almost beyond belief. Finger-rings, ear-rings, chains, clasps, brooches, tweezers, buckles, pencil-cases, pen-holders, bodkins, thimbles, toothpicks, bracelets, studs — all such ai'ticles may be of real solid gold, and sometimes are ; but the BuTningham trade mostly presents them simply with a golden surface upon commoner metals ; and there seems hardly any practical limit to the thinness of the gold so applied. In proportion as the age of cheapness advances, so do the manufacturers of that extraordinaiy town show how large a surface they can cover with a given weight of gold. Down to about the time of Charles II. Birmingham had chiefly to do with iron and tlie coarser metals ; but she now began to turn attention to more showy productions. William Hutton, in his quaint ' Histoiy of Birmingham,' thus notices the change Avhich ensued : — " Though we have attended her through so immense a space, we have only seen her in infancy; compara tively. small, in her size, homely in person, and coarse in her dress ; her ornaments wholty of iron, from her own forge. But now her growth will be amazing, her expansion rapid, perhaps not to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in all tlie beauty of youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the notice of the conunercial world. She will also add to her iron ornaments the lustre of eveiy metal that the Avhole earth can produce, witli all their illustrious race of compounds, heightened by fancy and garnished with jewels. She will draw from the fossil and vegetable kingdoms ; press the ocean for shell, skin, and coral. She will also tax the animal for horn, bone, and ivoiy ; and she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil." .Hutton was perfectly right ; Birmingham has done all this. Her beautiful steel toys and ornaments; her fine productions in stamped brass; her bronze and brass lamp furniture ; her painted and polished japan and papier-mache good,. ; her '' 11 M O0LI>: IN THE MINE, THE MINT, AND THE W0BK8H0P. Britannia metal and white metal table luraiture — all speak well for the industry and taste of her artizans. But as our subject here is simply gold, we must not wander to other departments of Birmingham industry. The gold-trinket ti'ade of Birmingham is carried on rather by humble ti'adesmen — " garret masters" — than by largo manufacturers. Many a work- man who has saved five or ten pounds, leaves his master, buys a little gold anrl other metals, and employs his wife and childi^ii as his aids in producing tho veritable " Brummagem " goods, which have somewhat damaged the repu- tation of the to\vn — in the eyes of those, at least, who are not familiar with the really fine productions put forth by the better firms. Let not purchasers complain if the gold-clad trinket loses its external atti'actions rather too f oon ; , Birmingham, like London, can produce good goldsmithery if properly paid for it. One small garret master makes buckles, another brooches, another clasps, and so on. Buttons, it is curious to observe, are differently treated ; they occupy some of the largest establishments in Bimiingham. In gilt toys, mere toys, France now beats Birmingham, partly on account of the superior taste shown, and partly owing to the lowness of wages. Glass, pebble, and cameo ornaments for Birmingham cheap jewellery are mostly imported from the Continent. The great display in Hyde Park, of which we have lately seen the close, was a cyclopaedia of information on the subject of gold, as on almost all other subjects. We have had opportunities of mentioning this in many previous pages ; and we will now ask the reader — if he happens to possess the "Alphabetical and Classified Index to the Official Catalogue" — to glance at the various aspects which gold there presents to his view. He will find gold and gold ore from no less than eight different countries ; gold leaf, and gold-beating machines, and gold-beaters' skin, from England, and France, and Turkey, and the United States, and Australia ; a series of specimens to illnij- trato the processes of the gold-manufacture ; gold pens from half a dozen makers; engraved gold plates from Switzerland; specimens of gold-plating from France ; gold lace and gold brocades, not only from English finns, but from foreigners who rejoice in the names of Stai-chikoff, Troeltsch, and Sapognikotf; goldsmiths' work from about sLxty English finns, and from almost every other country in the world; and if we change from tlio word gold to the word gilt, we have stUl other items to add to the list. The " curiosities " of gold in respect to the cmrency question may be veri- table curiosities indeed; but as they launch the cmiosity-hmiter upon tlie stormy sea of politics, we gladly avail ourselves of a good excuse for keeping clear of them. i I V SHOP, ell for the industry iply gold, we must •ather by humble :s. Many a work- , buys a little gold aids in producing amaged the repu- not familiar with let not purchasers s rather too f oon ; , y if properly paid brooches, another iiflferently treated ; lam. In gilt toys, it of the superior jrlass, pebble, and tly imported from ly seen the close, as on almost all ng this in many ippens to possess ogue" — to glance ew. He will find es ; gold leaf, and , and France, and jecimens to illv\^- •om half a dozen is of gold-plating English firais, but Troeltsch, and firntis, and from fi'om tlio word ist. >APER : ITS APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIES. The " Fourth Estate " has paper ^or its domain, its scene of government, field of action. The wonderful newspaper pres^' though more depeiident ki improvements in printing than in jiaper-making, is yet so largely indebted the latter, that it becomes a problem whether tlio ' Times ' could have risen its present wonderfvd circulation without the invention of machine-mado iiper. And that which is applicable to newspapers is, in an analogous way, 'Sipplicable to books and pamphlets of all kinds. The renowned " Shilling tJntalogue " of the Great Exhibition, containing as it does something like hree quarters of a pound of material, Avould probably not have been attempted in the days of hand-mado paper. Not that the baud method is abandoned: :|far from it ; but the mass of printing-paper, the ' broad yheet ' which linds its '"Ivay into every corner of tlie kingdom, and more or less into almost every iiccnmtry in tlic world, is for the most part the product of that beautiful tiachine which the talent of Fourdrinier and Dickinson has brought to such erfection. Besides the lowering of price and the expediting of the manu- fiicture, the paper-machine has wrought an astonishing revolution by showing /i^iow to produce paper of any length. It matters not — a mile or a yard ; tho ''^lachine will make a sheet of paper such that, when coiled up, it may be as Ithick as a man's body. This imniense increase of size may be productive of iresults yet unthought of. Papeu and its Pkoducts at tue Great Exiiidition. Never before was seen such a display of fancy paper goods as tlie recent lExhibition contained. Omitting mention of thcj plain printing and writing %apers,.the paper hangings, and the papier mache, there was an assemblage ;()f papeterie quite dazzling. AVlio does not recollect the compartment over |which 'PAPER' was inscribed? The envelope-cases, the writing books, the ^blotting books, the tinted papers of every liue which the colour-maker could connntuid, the scented and the enamelled papers, the opalescent and tlie gilt tion may be veri- hunter upon tlie ipapers, the embossed and t^ie embroidered papers, the spangled and the :cuse for keeping Sstarred papers, the roll of paper a mile or two ui length, the sheet of brown Jpaper eight feet wide by more than four hundred in length, the sheet of t pottery paper two miles and a half long, the fine tough paper made of old y^yo\m, the thin tissue paper so strong as to bear a heavy weight suspended from it, the delicately painted and colour-printed papers — all were there, decked out in most tempting array ; and our foreign neighbours were not slow to contribute specimens of their skill in analogous departments of / J industry. Some of the specimens of bank-note paper exliibited were so \ ■f astonishingly tough, that a sheet weighing only half an ounce bore a strain 't of 230 lbs. It was hiteresting, too, to see the fragment of rope which had I 'I been fished up from the poor ' Iloyal George,' and by tlie side of it a sheet of i coarse paper made from some of its hempen fibres. But it was yet more I instractive to study tlie series illustrative of tho paper-manufacture, from the duty unbleached rags to the delicately white sheet of paper. PAPEB: its APPLIOATIOKS AND ITS NOVELTIES. ru ISInny visitors were, however, disappointed that tlaere was no paper-making . machine to be seen in action. When the eager eyes looked roimd at the mighty ' lUustrated News ' machine, at the various printing-presses, at the ho!^iei7 frames, at tlie cai-ding and spinning and weaving machines, at the envelope muchines — ^when these were seen actually producmg the arti- cles for which they were intended, a wish did certainly often arise that the really beautiful operation of paper-making could be seen in process. It is true that a paper-machine of great magnitude was exhibited in tlie French department, and that a model of beautiful construction was contributed by Messrs. Donkin ; but the former did not and the latter could not work at paper-making, and tlie spectators were left to wonder how so many cylinders and troughs and endless aprons can be brought to beai- upon this branch of industiy. It is possible that the manufacture is beset with difficulties of too formidable a character to have been sumiounted in such a place ; and it is at any rate certain, tliat nmch delicacy of adjustment and of temperature and of moistm'e has to be obsei-ved. Although there was no actual papei'-machine at work, we had nevertheless many items of infomiation rendered by parts of machines. There were, for instance, Messrs. Brewer's rollers and moulds for paper-making; there was Brewer's collection of endless brass-wire cloth, wire-rollers, &c., for the same manufacture; there was Messrs. Cowan's "patent paper-pulp meter;" there were Sullivan's rollers for producing the water-mark in- machine-laid paper ; there was Watson's paper-pulp strainer ; and there were Makin's various com- ponent i^arts of a paper-maliing machine, exhibited as specimens of manufac- tures in metal. And though we ai'e not at tliis moment speaking of tlie application of paper, it may be well to bear in mind how varied were the illus- trations of all such applications at tlie Exhibition. The paper-folding niachines, the paper-cutting machines, the paper-ruling machine, tlie very ciu'ious paper-shade-making machine — all were wortliy of attention, and some of tlieiii more than they received. But, besides tlie English contributions, our continental neighbours did not neglect the opportunity of putting forth their best skill on the occasion. The trade bills, circulars, cards, lists, catalogues, &c. (a complete collection of which would form one of the most interesting records of tlie Great Exlii- bition), set forth the merits of the French paper as well as of other depai't- monts of manufacture. We find, for instance, in M. M. Odent's nankeen- coloured bill, an announcement of " Animal paper, incombustible, and very strong, for the preparation of cartridges for the marine ; " " parchment paper, morocco 'd for book covers and binding ; " " nankeen paper, very combustible, for the manufacture of cigarettes ;" and "white paper, sized and unsized, for printing, engraving, and copper plate." These announc .aents, like many others in the Exhibition, were printed in three languages; and the chief partner neglected not the opportunity to state that he had been " invested with the Order of the Legion of Honour," in 1833. Another firm, MM. Obey and Bernard, with " two silver medals," in 1844-9, announce, similarly in tliree languages, " violet-paper, a preservative from rust, for needle papers and envelopes ; " " coloured and tinted papers, for drawings, pamphlet covers, and book-binding purposes ; " " black papers, for packing cam.brics, linens, &c. ; " "white writing and printing papers;" "endless webs, tlioroughly sized, for drawings and i)lans ; " and " endless webs for paper hangings." Then came tlic linn i)f Bequin, whose "carton" or pasteboard manufacture is advertised and described. But tlie most remarkable of these French paper advertise- 1 n n al ■, AV 1 ll 1 e< 1 111 "A 'i 1' bi X tr '■^ ai r-' 111 w] cJ oj mm ^mmm r PAPKU: ITS APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIES. 8 making at the sses, at achines, the arti- [le really ae that a lent, and Donkin ; and tlie I endless possible (jharacter tain, tliat las to be rerthelcss were, for there was the same sr;" there id paper; •ious com- manufac- ng of tlie . the illus- 3er-folding , tlie very and some irs did not ision. The illection of }reat Exlii- her depart- s nankeen- e, and very nent paper, ombustible, ansized, for like many d the chief ivested with MM. Obey similarly in ) papers and i covers, and inens, &c. ; " Ly sized, for Then came IS advertised er advertise- ments was tliat put forth by the Paper Malting Company of Essonne, in tlie depai'tment of Seine-et-Oisc. The sheet coiitaiiihig the announcement of this fimi has seven large wcll-exi-ciHed wood-cuts, illustrative of the successive processes of paper-making. There is first a general view of the factory, with a canal, tramways, and a multitude of buildings ; then comes tlie sorting of the rags, by Avomen ranged in a row at tables, and having tlie handkerchief liead-dresses which French Avovkw(mien mostly wear at their labour; next is represented the room in which the rags are being chopped up into pulp ; then the bleaching i>rocess ; next the actual manufacture by two complete machines ; then a press-room for finishing the paper ; and two other views of subsidiary character. It might be wortli 'vhilc for our British manufacturers to consider whether this is not a somewliat atti-activc mode of advertising. This factoiy, we may here remark, appears to be on a veiy extensive scale. Ft was at Essonne that Louis Holicrt, a Avorking paper-maker, invented the first paper-machine in 1790 ; but, although the English brought the invention to a practical issue in 1809, the French had no paper-machine at work till 1815 ; they had four in 1827, twelve in 1801, and now have upwards of two hundred. These two hundred machines work up daily about 200,000 kilogrammes (4.30,000 lbs.) of rags into paper, which, if formed into an endless strip five feet wide, would extend 2000 kilometres (1250 miles). It was in 1840 that a Company (cf.llcd in France a Societe Anompnc) was formed for establishing a paper factory on the spot which had witnessed the birth of the paper-machine. The factory stands close to the Corbeil Railway, about an hour's run from Paris. It has tliree complete machines for making paper, and twenty-six triturating machines for making the pulp. The rag warehouse is said to contain a store of 400,000 kilogrammes (870,000 lbs.) of rags ; and contiguous to this is a large building in which women spread out and sort the rags. In another building the rags are beaten to expel mechanical impurities and dust, washed to get rid of dirt and grease, teazed 01' torn into shreds, and bleached. The washing is effected in monster cojipers, which hold three or four thousand pounds of rags. The various machines are set in motion by an abundance of motive force, supplied by six water-wheels, a turbine, and a steam-engine. The works occupy an area of nearly fifty acres ; but this includes accommodation for the work-people. The mode in which these work-people are treated des(?rves attention. They are about three hundred in number, of whom two hundred take up their abode Avithin the estabUslmient, and have a garden at their disposal. The remaining Inmdred, who live out of tlie establishment, have a ccmifortable refectory or eating-room ; tliere are warm badis for the gratuitous use of the operatives ; a medical man calls eveiy day and gives advice and medicine to any who need liis aid ; Avhile a mu'sery and a primaiy school are established, Avith fires, tables, books, maps, &c., for the young children of parents engaged in tlie factory. There is much thoughtful kindness in all this. But this establishment at Essonne has taken us aAvay from the Great Exhi- bition. We need not, however, stop to dilate on the various productions con- tributed by other countries. Switzerknid sent her music paper, plate paper, and Avi'f pping paper of excellent quality ; together Avith writing and tissue papers of various kinds. Home, the land for artists, showed Avhat good draw- ing paper she can produce. France is said to produce better thin tlian thick Avriting paper ; England better thick than thin ; and it is not miAvorthy of consideration Avhether the French postal system may not have some influence ou the thinness of the paper made for lettcr-Avriting. Belgium, Bussia, luid 1 f> ] y \ 1^- 4 papkh: its Arri,icATioNs and its novelties. Holland, all showed their present degi-ee of skiii in the art, but evidently occupying a lower position than France. The ZoUverein collection was veiy numerous ; and one gi'oup was especially interesting, inasmuch as it displayed in juxtaposition specimens of the papers produced at one mill in Pnissia through the long period of ninety years — thereby affording materials for tracing a progressive rise in excellence. There was a series of calico-print patterns, in tlie English department, which gave tlie same kind of instnictive testimony to the chronological progress of that art. Of the paper hangings and the stationeiy and the papier mache at the Exhibition, we shall speak further on. The Materials for Paper. Many have been the attempts to employ other materials for paper than those customarily used in this country. Rags would seem to be cheap enough ; but tliere may be times, and places, and circumstances, in which rags would be eitlier imattainable or too costly. All these attempts, however, have met with singuliu'ly little success — so fai", at least, as our own countiy is con- ceraed. Yet it may bo useful to glance at a few of the substitutes Avhich have been proposed. The paper of tlio ancients, as most readers are aware, was not properly paper at all ; that is, it was not a prepared pulp cast into the form of sheets and dried. Fapyrus is the botanical name of a certain species of plant; papyiTis is the name given to the paper made from tlie soft cellular flower- stem of this plant ; and papyrus is also the name generally given to the ancient writt<;n scrolls made of this material — just as we give the name of tea to a plant, to the dried leaf of the plant, to the infusion of tlie dried leaf, and to the meal at which Uais infusion is drunk. The papynis is a very common plant in Egypt, Syria, and Abyssinia ; the stem is from three to six feet high ; and it was from the thin concentric coats or pellicles which surround this stem that the ancient Egyptians made their papyri or ^vriting-papers. The mode of building up a long strip of writing- paper from such elementai'y materials seems to us, in our day, wofully clumsy. The narrow slips of fibre, six or eight inches long, were laid side by side and another layer pasted over them crosswise, so as to foi-m a coherent double sheet. This sheet was pressed, dried in tlie sim, and polished with some hard sraootli substance. Several others were pasted to it end to end, until a roll twenty or thirty feet long was fonned, with only a few inches of width ; and it is on such rolls or scrolls that many extremely valuable Egjptian and Greek manuscripts, still extant, ai-e written. It is curious to trace how our words jiaper and Bible have been derived from Uiis plant-stalk ; from the Latin name, i /'«i'i/»««, has sprang the modem words papier and paper; while from the name \ for the same ]tlant given by Herodotus, byblos, is supposed to have sprung \liblion, Bible, and other words and names relating to books. The Chinese — tliat most extraordinary ' self-contained ' nation — make a filamentous kind of paper much superior to ancient papyrus ; it obtains in England the name of rice-paper; but sufficient is now known of it to show that this is by no means a correct designation. Dr. Livingstone introduced Chinese rice-paper in England about half a centuiy ago ; it had immense '' favour as a material for ai'tificial flowers, and gossips say tliat Pruicess Char- - lotte paid seventy guineas for a bouquet made of tliis material. It was many years afterwards that information was obtained conceniing the mode adopted but evidently ition was veiy as it displayed lill in Prussia materials for of calico-print of instructive mache at the or paper than to be cheap , in which rags however, have 30untiy is cen- tos which have not properly form of sheets cies of plant; cellular flower- •ally given to i we give the e infusion of drunk. The nia ; the stem centric coats ns made their rip of writing- ol'ully clumsy. by side and erent double th some hard d, until a roll width ; and it and Greek w our words Latin name, om the name have sprung jn — make a obtains in bf it to show je introduced lad immense l-incess Char- jlt was many lode adopted PAriiR: ITS AITLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIKS. 5 by the Chinese in making these small but vciy expensive sheets of paper. There is a leguminous plant growing in China and India, the stem of which is cut into pieces eight or ten inches in length ; and those are cut by the Chinese into one continuous spiral film, on Uie same principle as the modern mode of veneer cutting, but by tlio dexterous use of hand-tools. These la- minte, being spread out and pressed flat, form thin sheets, which, after being dyed and otherwise prepared, constitute the rice-paper of the Chinese. The same ingenious people make paper of bamboo. The bamboo stems, when about tlu'ee or four mches thick, are cut into pieces four or five inches long. These, when softened in water, are washed, cut into filamonts, dried and bleached in the sun, boiled, beaten to a puli), and made into thin sheets of paper. This is truly paper, which the former examples are not ; and tlie art must have made a notable advance before such a method could have sug- gested itself. Most nations in the early ages, and rude nations in the present, have looked rather to vegetable than to any otlier substances as the materials for paper. Palm-leaves, the iimer bark of the elm, the maple, the beech, the plane, and the linden tree, leaves of various plants — all have been employed. But tlio animal khigdom has not been neglected by experimental paper-makers. We have heoi'd of skins, and silk, and leather, and waxed tablets ; while every one knows tliat vellum and parchment, essentially animal substances, still play a very important part as substitutes fur paper. Nor have mineral substances failed to be appealed to. There is a very puz/ling substance, called asbestos, which has extraordinaiy power in resisting the action of fire, and the source of which was for many yeiu's unknown in this country. Both clotli and paper have been made from it. The original material is a greenish-gray fibrous stone, found in great abundance in Corsica ; and by processes of pounding and sifting, moistening and mixing, it is capable of being wrought into sheets of a kind of paper. Professor Bruckmann of Brunswick, some years ago, bethought him that it would be a good way to exhibit asbestos paper by making it up into a book ; he therefore wrote a treatise on asbestos and its qualities; and printed a few copies on asbestos-paper — rough, coarse, but said to be incombustible. Bright hopes were entertained some years ago tliat good paper might be made from straw. One of the principal tanneries in Bermondsey, called Neckinger Mills, was originally a straw-paper manufactory. It appeals that the straw was cut up into pieces two or tliree inches in length, steeped in cold lime-water, and cut up into infinitesimal fragments in a paper-mill ; tlie pulp thus produced was made into paper by the usual train of pro- cesses. But the eutei'prise failed in Bemiondsey, and a second time failed at Thames Bonk ; tlie paper produced was harsh and ill-coloured. A further attempt was made to brave the difficulties ; additional processes were adopted to free the straw from knots, to extract the colouring matter, to dispose it to become fibrous, to free it from mucilage and from siliceous particles, and also from the odour of many of the chemicals employed in the former processes — all means were adopted, in short, to coax it to become a good paper-maliing material ; but these numerous processes became at length very costly, and tlie straw-paper was neither fine enough nor strong enough to command an adequate price. So it died a commercial death. There is in tlie British Museum a remarkable book, treating of the manu- facture of paper from various kinds of bark, leaves, and fibres, and printed on leaves of paper made from the vai'ious substances described. It is a 'i 6 PAl'KU'. aT8 applications AND ITS NOVELTIES CJiviosity, and a useful one, in so far ns it bears testimony to the capabilities of snntlry materials ; but it nuist honestly be confessed that the specimens vould not pass muster veiy satisfuctorily if tried by the ordinary tests m respect to iininess, colour, and smoothness. Kags, however — the fragments of woni-out linen and cotton gannents — are the great store house of material for paper making. There are abundant reasons for thinking that the Chinese, who were the first to make paper from pujp of any kind, were also the first who converted old gannents into now sheets of paper. The art travelled somehow from China to Samarcand, whence the Saracens transferred it to Spain; and from Spain it spread tlu'oughout Europe. One Tate is said to have been the tirst to practise tlio art and mystery of paper-nialiing in England, at a mill which he established in Iloitfordshiro in the early part of the sixtoentli ccntuiy. The next we hear of was a (Jerman, who stationijd himself at Dartford in 1588, and who was knighted by Queen Ehzabeth. In the time of Eullcr the manufacture had made but little progress in tliis countiy, the chief supply being obtained from abroad. He quaintly tells us that " Taper participates in some sort of tho character of the country which makes it ; tho Venetian being neat, subtle, and court-like ; the French light, slight, and slender ; and tho Dutch thick, corpu- lent, and gross, sucking up the ink with the sponginess thereof." Sweynheim and Pannartz, two Germans who settled at Eome soon after tlie invention of printing, and who were the first to introduce the art in that city, printed many works, but did not lind an adequate sale for them ; and in a petition which they presented to the Pope, they drew his Holiness's atten- tion to the difficulty of obtaining rags ; they said " If you peruse the catalogue of the works printed by us, you will admire how and where we could procure a sufficient quantity of paper, or even rags, for such a immber of volumes." Many a reader may have marvelled, as these old printers thought the Pope might marvel, whence or how tho supply of rags for paper-making can bo kept up. If any one country were depended on, the supply would certainly fail; but by appealing to the rag-bag of c(w»/ countiy, a continuous store is maintained. The Hungarian shepherds frock or tunic-shirt, the blue shirt of a weather-beaten sailor in the IMediterranean, — all such garments, as well as those of finer texture, arc welcome. The material for a sheet of paper may, as has been remarked, " have constituted the coarse covering of tlie flock bed of the farmer of Saxony ; or once looked bright in the damask table-clotli of the bui'gher of Hamburgh ; or may have been swept, new and unworn, out of the vast collection of the shreds and patches, the fustian and buckram, of a Lon- don tailor ; or may have accompanied every revolution of a fashionable coat in the shape of lining — having travelled from St. James's to St. Giles's, from Bond Street to INIonmouth Street, from Hag Fair to the Dublin Liberty — till man disowned the vesture, and the kennel-sweeper claimed its miserable re- mains." These " kennel-sweepers " pick up a considerable quantity of linen and cotton fragments — not so much, probably, now as in past times, on ac- count of the more frequent and complete sweeping of tlie streets. In Paris the bone-grubbers or chijfhnien form (juite a fraternity, who have not failed to play their part in the numerous cineutes which have disturbed that excitable capita. rArEn: its APrucATioNs and its novelties. The MANUFACTi'RiNa PnorEssEs. To detail foiTnally llio vnrious operations in the manufa(!turo of papov is no part of tho present oltjcct; but a gliincc may bo tidien sulliciont to sliow the relations between the several stages of process. The paper-mills are mostly in pretty valleys where abundance of clean water can be obtained — water to turn tho machinery, and water to make the pulp. Many a paper-mill can bo seen by railway travellers as they whirl along — in Hertfordshire, in Kent, in Somersetshire, and elsewhere. For tho most part good water-power is the desideratum ; but in some cases a mill is established near the spot v.here a paiticular kind of paper is nmch demanded. Messrs. Fourdrinier, fbr instance, have a mill in Staffordshire, where they make tho thin but tough paper so largely used in printing blue and white earthenware. Wherever it may be, near or distant from London (there is no paper-mill in London), the first care of tho manufacturer is his rags. From Trieste, from liOghorn, from Hamburgh, from liostock, and from other ports, the I'ags of various countries are brought to Englroid ; and the ca])rtbilities of each have to be determined. English housewives have the reputation of being very cleanly ; those of Italy are far otherwise ; and the linen and cotton rags alYord striking jiroof of this difference. ]\Iany continental countries positively pro- hibit the exportation of rags at all, and wo have therefore to be content with such as are accessible. Tho rags are packed in bags of three or four hundred- weights each ; and these, when opened at tlie mill, are jilaced under the caro of women, whose duty it is to sort them, to shake out the loose dust, to cut them into moderately small pieces, and to separate tho seams and hems from the otlier pieces. A keen cyo and a dexterous hand are reciuired in this preliminaiy operation. Then comes the truly chemical process by which the dingy, dirty, disco- loured rags are brought as purely white as a delicate sheet of paper. Some of the English rags are so clean that they require no bleaching ; but tho whitey-brown, or worse than whitey-brown, rags of otlier countries have to pass through an ordeal in which chlorine exhibits its wonders. They arc placed in a close chest, chlorine is admitted to them through a pipe, and in a few hours every vestige of colour is removed; a strong chlorine odour is imparted, it is true, but a good washing removes this. The boiling, and tlie washing, and the bleaching differ in degree according to the state of the rags ; but the comminution, the dissection, the severance into infinitesimal fragments, is required alike for all. In one machine the rags are dravii between sharp knives on a roller and sh'irj) knivc^s on a plone, and are unmistakably braised by the transit ; while in another machine, which works more rapidly, and has its knife-edges more closely together, they are so thoroughly tossed about and cut up, as to fomi, with the water in which tliey are immersed, a smooth cream-like pulp. Blotting paper derives its peculiar property from having no size in it ; printing and writing paper are always sized ; and some kuids receive their quota ef size when in the state of pulp. From this pulp, kept agitated in a vessel, sheets of paper are made. The dexterous manipulations of paper-makers on the hand method are veiy re- markable. The pulp is transferred to a steam-heated vat, where it is kept waim and well agitated. The workman has two moulds, consisting of slight wooden frames covered with wire-gauze, and having moveable deckels or ledges. The length and width of the deckel determine the size of the sheet to be made. The vat-man dips a mould into the pulp, takes up as much as his 7 ■-\\ , A 4r- ■5 *..»?-/ d pArF.n: iia ArrLicA-noNS and its novet.titis. experience tells him will nmko one sheet, places it on one side in the hands of uiiothor workman called the couclwr, takes off the deckel, places this deckel on another mould, and makes another dip into the vat. Tlie coucher neatly turns over the mould, and empties the thin layer of pulp upon a piece of flannel or felt, through which tlio moisture may filter or drain. Thus the two men proceed — the vat-man supplying new sheets as fast as Uie coucher can build up a pile of felts to receive them ; and the coucher liberating the moulds as quickly as the vat-man requires tliem. When one or two hundred sheets, •with felts intei-posed, are tlius accumulated into a pile, the pile is heavily pressed ; this gives the fdm of pulp sufficient coherence to maintain its fonn unsupported ; the felts are removed, the sheets arc placed one on another, and a second pressure flattens them, and to some extent smootlis them. They are now essentially sheets of paper ; and these sheets, after dicing, sizing, drying again, pressing, examining, and other processes, are finally made up into quires. But how shall we describe the paper machine ? It is one of the most com- plete of mod(!rn inventions — so many processes does the machine successively peiform in a short space of time. The parts of tlic machine appear veiy numerous to a spectatoi*, and the machine itself one of great length ; but when we consider what it has to do, wo cease to marvel at all this. A creamy pulp flows into a machine at one end ; the same imlp comes out in tlie form of made and dried paper at the other, in the course of two minutes ! How the pulp changes its form and state is wonderful to look at. It flows from a huge vessel or chest into a vat ; it flows from the vat upon a narrow wire frame called a sifter ; it flows through this sifter upon a flat surface, and then falls over a ledge in a quiet stream equal in width to the paper about being made. It falls upon a flat surface of wire-gauze, where it is shaken from side to side, drained of much of its moisture, and converted into something like a vciy wet sheet of spongy paper. This sheet is pressed by a wire cylinder and by a felted roller ; it passes on an endless cloth, nnd becomes furtlier drained ; it is seized between rollers and squeezed ; it is furtlier drained and further squeezed by other cloths and other rollers ; it passes over a heated cylinder, then over another still more heated, and then over a third heated to a yet higher temperature ; it is pressed, too, between whiles ; and it reaches the remote end of the machine in the state of diy and smooth paper. And this is not simply a quadrangular sheet, having a definite number of inches in length — it is an eiuUess tveh. ^^^nle one portion of the jmlp is a creamy liquid, another ncai* it is a thin wet layer, another a wet but coherent film, anotlier a l)artially dried film, and so on ; all the portions alike reach the last cylinder, and all are alike perfect paper when tlicy reach it. The paper is wound on a reel as fast as it is made ; and there may be thus formed a roll miles hi lengtli. In the earlier machines the roll of paper was removed, and cut into sheets by a sepai'ate machine ; but modem ingenuity has shown how to make the paper- machine cut the paper itself. Some of the modern machines, too, have an ar- rangement by which an air-pump sucks away Ihe moisture from the pulp, and converts it into a coherent film with extraordinaiy quickness. Eveiy year brings out its patents for new improvements in paper-making. Sometimes they relate to mixing the jiulp ; sometimes to regulating its flow ; sometimes to the formation of ' water marks ' by wire cylinders ; while the drying, or the polishing, or tlie cutting are tlie subjects of others. The master-difficulties were surmounted many years ago, when Fourdrinier showed how to produce a long roll of well-made paper ; all tlie subsequent improvements have related to minor points. ! ,-^ PArKn: its ArrMCATtoNS and its novelties. 9 As to the paper itself, its varieties are too well known to need much descrip- tion. The ' iJath,' the ' post,' the ' laid,' the ' foolscap,' the ' yellow wove,' the ' hluo wove,' the ' satin,' the ' cream,' the ' ivtiiy ' — all these designations of writing pajter, though partly unmeaning, and partly exaggerated, relate either to the existence or non-existence of lines in the paper (produced hy wire- web cloth), or to some particular modes of finishing. Then printing papers differ in their thickn(!ss, their fineness of surface, and their size. The brown, whitey-brown, and wrapping papers of all kinds fomi another large class, in which coarse and strong fibres take the place of white and delicate. Next como tlio varied group of coloured papers, some of which receive their colour in the pulp, while others are painted with or steeped in colour aftenvards. Another large supply is taken otf by paper-stainers, whose wall-decorations require paper in large surfaces but of inferior quality. But we shall be better able to understand the ever-varied forms in -which paper is presented to our notice, if wo glance at some of the numerous sub- sidiaiy manufactures which depend upon its use as a material. And first let us see what a celebrated London firm has to show us. Die LA Ruk's MANUFACTUnES. Of all our manufacturing establishments, that of Messrs. De la Hue is, per haps, the one wherein paper is made to undergo the gi-eatest variety of artistic transfomiations. Paper-stainers in one direction, and printers in another, doubdess cover a larger surface of paper with the results of their handiwork ; but where j.'nper, to the extent of tens of thousands of reams annually, is con- verted by four or five hundred workpeople into dainty envelopes, note-paper, cards, coloured papers, and other tasteful productions, the diversities exhibited must be very notable. In few, if any, departments of industry has the union of machinery and fine art been more obsen'able than in the branches of Uie paper trade now imder notice. A shilling packet of envelopes, or a half-cro^vu's worth of papeterie, or the coloured labels and wrappers for piece goods in the manufacturing dis- tricts, are dependent botli on the one and the other. Even the artistic fea- tures themselves are largely indebted to machinery for their development. The artist and the mechanic are pulling at different strings ; but the strings mecit at one point, and work conjointly towards one object. Witliout any formal description of the factoiy or its manufactures, let us jot down a few of the notable "curiosities" in the application of paper at De la Rue's. And, fust, let us summon a pack of cards before us. Never, perhaps, did fashion cling to absurdities more oddly than in respect to these instruments of play. The fine staring figurCs which appear on the wrappers of the several packs are pretty nearly the same ' Moguls,' and ' Hariys,' and ' High- landers,' that they used to be, and still give names to different qualities of cai'ds. This may be forgiven ; but the outrageous ' court cards ' are sm-passing strange. !Messrs. De la Piue have more than once attempted to beat into the heads of card-players the simple truth, that kings and queens and knaves may be the same efficient "trumps" as before, and yet have something like artistic gi-ace about them. But no; the old whist-players will not refonu, and humbler players cannot take the lead ; so we have tlie court cards dressed nearly as of yore. The queens arc still wrapped up in a costume which equally defies the feminine and the " Bloomer" systems ; the king of spades I 3 ,J 10 PAPEn: ITS APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIES. ' 1 I il f still thrusts out his leg in a way most indopondent of all anatomy ; and the knaves, in thoir blue and yellow hair, their thick knees and small nnkles, then- coats of many colours, and their indescribable flat hats, still continue to form the most extraordinaiy knavish party ever known. And, as we live in an age of alleged utilitarianism, we have not scrupled to double the heads ot' these court personages in order to view tlicm either end uppermost ; each one has a head where his feet should be ; each is his own antipodes ; each is a Siamese couple, joined in a most original manner. But if card-players have refused to listen to reforms in this matter, they have been more pliant ia respect to other improvements ; they have consented to ' coloured backs,' and to oil-printed faces. Some card-maJiers still employ the old method of water-colours ; but the modern system, introduced by Messrs. De la Hue, produces a coloured impression much more lasting. So ' self-contained' is tliis establishment, that the stamps and plates for printuig cards, tlie dies for embossing fancy stationery, and moulds and devices of every description, ai'c made and engraved on the premises ; nay, even the various macliines, of which we shall presently have to ?pcak, are similarly managed. The colouring of paper is n trilling matter in an establishment su'ih as the one now under notice. There is a colour-grinding mill ; tliere is a labora- tory of chemicals ; and there is a whole army of bottles and boxes and drawers filled with drugs and colours and oils. These colom-s, when mixed to a proper consistency, are applied to large sheets of paper ; for the reader nmst know that tlie colour is not applied to the cards themselves. A sheet of paper, large enough (say) for forty cards, is printed at a jiross, with ink or print of one colour, from an ei. graved plate of copper or brass. One plate is for spades, another for hearts, and so on. Some packs, for players of weak sight, have four different colours for the four suits; but the old system of two black suits and two red is mostly acted on. In respccl t. ine court cards, they re- quire as many ditferent engraved plates, and as many su ^-cessivc processes of printing, as tluire are colours. The coloured backs, too, are printed in a simi- lar way ; for these are 'lOt merely coloured, but printed also. Sheets of paper are coloured (by a process which we may find an opportunity to notice pre- sently) of almost every imaginable tint ; and one of these being selected, it is printed with any device and in any colour which may be chosen. IMeanwhile otlier hands have been labouring to fashion the material from which the cards are to be made. A card is built up of numerous layers of pa})er ; and tlie paste-brush is an impoilant agent in making it, Sheets and ';;'nres and reams of paper are selected, of such quality as may meet the object in view ; and a workman — witli tliese sheets on one side of him, and an abundant supply of paste on another— proceeds to paste these sheets two and two togctlier. The pasters do nothing else ; and the paste-makers have to provide hundreds of gallons tcedJij. The j^asted couples are piled in heaps, the heaps are placed in hydraulic presses, and u good squeeze effectually unites each pair. "When tliis pasting has been carried on till the cai'dboaid is thick enough, the printed face is pasted on, and also tlie coloured back (if any). The finishing processes to which the cards are subjected are more numerous tlian would generally be siqyposed. The boards, each the size of forty cards, ai'e dried in steam-heated vaults ; then equalized in surface by a kind of revolv- ing scratching brush ; then passed between rollers, of which one is made in a remai'kabie way by discs of paper placed face to face ; then rolled again : and then subjected to enormous preseure to flatten them. All this time ' lit 'L_ PAPEn: ITS APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTJES. U the forty cards form one piece of cai-dboanl, but now the process of separa- tion ensues ; a cutting machine, of simple but effective action, cuts tlie boards first into strips and then mto cards ; nd thus some forty thousand a day can be fashioned by one man. The f drs then examine every cai-d singly ; and according as it hr^s one or other of three degrees of faultiness (or perhaps wo should say faultlessness, so admirably are they now made) each card takes rank as a ' Mogul,' a ' Hany,' or a ' Highlander.' The paper roller just mentioned is one of the singular modem applications of this material. Ten or twelve thousand circular pieces of paper have a hole formed in the centre, through which a spindle runs, and they are pt-cssed to- gether with such enomious force that, when turned in a lathe, they form a cylindrical roller of singular density, evenness, and smoothness. A jioculiar degree of slipperiness — very impoitant for tlie ' shuffling' process — is given to one sm-face of each card by the pressure of thi^ paper cylinder; for it is a curious fact, tlaat in order to make cards shuffle and deal well, it is ft)und neces- sary to give the faces a slightly different kind and degree of smoothness i'rom tlie back. And now, laying aside the thousands of packs of cards thus made at this establishment, we may talk awhile of the coloured j)cipers made for so ninny fanciful purposes. In the show-room devoted to such matters, there is a bla^jing stai* of a hundred and thirty-two radii, formed of strips of i)apcr, no tvo of which present the same colour — this represents the chromatic power at the command oi the manufacturers; whether we take Newton's system of soA'en colours, or Brewster's of three, here we have them all, and all the gradations produced by varying combinations of them: the blending, the hai'mony, the contrast, the complement of colours, are well shown. All such papers are coloured on one suifaco only. The pigment is mixed to the desired tint and consistency; and a colour machine of very peculiar con- stmction applies an even layer over the surface, feeding itself with paper and with paint as it works. The long sti'ip — some hundreds of yards in length — travels onwards over tlie platform, submits itself patiently to the paint-brush, then passes over heated plates, and leaves tlie mr ^hine coloured and dried. It is one of tliose operations in which nothing less than a veiy large de- mand could waiTant the use of a machine ; but in which, the demand being created, machinery at once finds itself at home. Tlie (jIkclI and varnished papers, too, receive their acquirements in a similar way. The emtmcUed cards are examples of those productions in which a wash is so applied to card or paper as neorly to equal real enamel in smootlmess, whiteness, and delicacy of appearance. The old-fashioned marbled paper, still extensively used by bookbinders, is made in a remarkable way. A viscid kind of paint-liquid is prepared, on tho surface of which different colours ai*e intermingled ; and the shec ., of paper is dexterously laid on tliis surface, from which it draws up a film of the inter- mingled colours. Now Messrs. De la Rue have recently applied a totally dif- ferent colouring theory lo the production of papers singular in their novelty and beauty. The specimens at the Great Exhibition were placed in a some- what dark comer, and were not so well known as tlie ever-popular ' Envelope? Machine.' These papers are iridescent, or opalescent, or nacreous — that is, they exhibit the ever-varying hues of mother-o'-pearl or of opal. Looking at them from one point, they display all the tints of the rainbow ; change the point of vi(}w, and every little spot displays a different tint from that which before distinguished it. Most delicate and graceful is the result. Tlie fundamental tuit of tlie '■^ , ,'1 Id paper: its applications and its novelties. : 'M'l % V. papor may oc white, or black, or any other at choice ; and yet these pearly hues shall present themselves. A beautiful principle in optics is here broug.t into play; no colour is employed to produce the opalescence! The soap-bubbi.> ex- liibits its beautiful hues, although the water is nearly colourless ; and so like- wise it is in the present case. When a fdui of any transparent substance is 80 thin as a twenty-thousandth or a fifty-thousandlli part of one inch, there occurs what philosophers call an 'interference of light' at the two surfaces, which produces colour; and this colour depends upon the thickness of tlie film and.the angle at which it is viewed. This law governs the production of colour in some of the most beautiful of natural objects; and Messrs. De la Eue have skilfully brought it to bear upon paper. Each sheet of paper is covered, by a careful process of dipping, with an exceedingly tliin fdm of a pecu- liar varnish ; the process and the varnish being so chosen as to produce oj^al- eseence or iridescence. It would be difficult to predict all the uses to which so delicatcly-adomed a material might be applied; for book covers, for wall deco- rations, for paper ornaments — indeed, for almost all the purposes to which painted, stained, marbled, stamped, or embossed paper is adapted, this new material may be fitting. Already have the inventors begun to produce many curious ornamental articles by its means. The embossed paper, and the better kind of coVmr-printed paper, call for an astonishing amount of artistic skill at such an establishment as Messrs. De la Kue's. Designers are always at work on new patterns ; sometimes following, but more frequently leading the taste of ihe public. Be it a fanciful wrapper for a piece of linen or of muslin, or a bouquet-holder, or a cover for a paper box, or a })apetene-csise, or wedding-card, or a mourning envelope, there is a per- petual infusion of novelty in design or colour, or both. The embossing of " per, or the production of cameo and intwiHo effects, is one of the gi'eatest sources of beauty. If a portion of the surface is to be so embossed, a die is engraved, and a powci-ful press employed; but if the whole surface is to have a design, the paper is passed between copper rollers, one of which is engraved. Thus are produced the endless variety of embossed or ' lace,' or ' morocco,' or other papers having a raised device. Some of the works produced by Messrs. Dobbs and by ]Mcssrs. De la Hue in this department of manufacture are really works of art. Nor arc painting and colour less sedulously attended to. De la Rue's books of patterns, in which the designs are ar .anged and tabulated, form quite a rich assemblage of artistic tastt, and illustrate the gradual means by which gi'ace and beauty are becoming familiarised to all; for it is to the cheap as well as the costly articles that these designs arc apj)lied. The delicate-tinted note- paper, now so much used by ladies, was among the introductions of this firm; but, on the other hand, the cheap and neat envekpc-boxes, and paper- cases, and writing-cases, owe no little to the ingenuity of the same inventors. "■ Five quires for a shilling.," is a labelling that row moots the eye in every town. Thanks to the firm who first ailopted this mode of breaking down a ream of paper into convenient parcels, and tying up these parcels iiito nicely- wrappered shillings-worths. The paper may be letter-paper or note-paper ; the quires, may be three or four or five in number ; the price may be greater or smaller according to quidity ; but the principle was, to establish something between the quire and the ream, and to throw into this something a httle modicum of ' fine art.' I'aper itself is not made hy the firm no\v under notice ; but paper is made for them, according to patterns designed by them- selves; and tlius we have ' Queen's,' 'xUbert,' '^Uhambra,' 'Damask,' 'Eliza- paper: its APPLICATIOKS AND ITS NOVELTIES. 13 ally hues ug. t into ubbi .' ex- i so like- tstancc is ich, there surfaces, ss of tlie uction of irs. De la paper is of a pccu- uee opal- Avhich so kvall deco- to which this new uce many !all for an srs. De la following, 1 wrapper )aper box, e is a jier- jossing ot 3 gi'eatest d, a die is is to have engraved, morocco,' duccd by mufacture le's books lite a rich ich gi'ace xs well as ited notc- is of thi? lid papcr- iventors. 5 in every 2f down a to iiicoly- te-paper ; •e greater smething ? a little iw under by theni- ,' • Ehzu- betliaii,' ' Wave,' * Wat(!red,' and other note-paper, according to the water- mailc wliich is introdviced into it, or other characteristics imparted to it. Thus, too, in note-paper intended for bridal or for mourning occasions, the paper itself is procured elsewhere, but the symbols, and tho edging, and the stamp- ing ai'e the handiwork of this or some similar firm. Nothing can exceed tlio delicacy of some of these fancy articles. The bridal cards, and note-paper, and envelopes, are rich in hymeneal symbols, not merely embossed by a press, but in some cases picked out in silver ; and tlie sombre enrichments of mourn- ing stationery are not less redolent of the cypress, the willow, and analogous emblems. Bouquet-holders, too, have often gold or silver taking part in the embossed design. In such cases a pattern is printed with gold-size instead of colour, gold leaf is apjilied, which adheres only to the printed part; and the embossing io effected afterwards. In commoner work the gold is a "de- lusion and a snare ;" it is a powder of oxidized brass, sprinkled over the moist gold-size. The French give the name oi papeterie to stationeiy in general, aadi jmpetlere to a case containing stationeiy ; and these jjapetieres, ranging in price from one shilling to two guineas, and mostly made of paper and card, are among the most curious examples of Messrs. De la Rue's productions, so infinitely varied is the taste which they display. The little bits of card which are used in millions as ' railway tickets ' — those issports for the national highways — are mostly prepared up to a certain stage by Messrs. De la Eue. The cardboard is made, coloured in one or two tints, printed in black or in colour with certain devices, and cut up into separate cards ; these cards are transmitted to the respective companies, in whoso otliees they are further printed and registered by the machines noticed in an earlier number of this series. These small coarse cards are among the humbler examples of their class ; but visitimj cards are a production on which great taste and delicacy arc now bestowed. In addition to the ' At Homo 3ards, and others of a similar character, embossed by stamping, the lusti'ous vmmelled card is a notable modem invention. Penny-Post Stationkuy. Rowland Hill's Penny-Post system has done more to advance the manufac- ture of L:.tationery than any other single cause whatcn-er. The letter-paper, the note-pnr><'!, the envelopes, the postage-labels, all bear witness to this fact. Tluj depi' "uent of Messrs. De la Rue's establishment appropriated to envelope- mak ■ , . lu'te astounding for its magnitude; and this may be a convenient pluee • 'ir v together a few notices both of the envelope and the postage, stamp H\ -t' Ail;. How mam envelopes the world produces, how many London produces, an- nually, we know not ; but IMessrs. De la Rue turn out about a hundred mil- lions in a year. If we go into some of tho rooms, we see fifty or sixty women and girls folding and gumming envelopes with a rchn-ity which the eye can scarcely follow : go into another, and we havo before us a dozen machines doing the same work still more expeditiously. Surely the world has become a world of letter-writers, else whither can the cuvL-lopes go ? Here, as in other matters, excellence and cheapness advance together, when the demand increases. hero are London shops at which envelopes, made of really serviceable paper, i ill having gummed and embossed tips, can be pmchased at sixpence per iiu aired, sorted into four sizes, and bound with fanciful gilt and coloured m^im wmm^^mmmm ^^^ U paper: its applications and its novelties. 1 I ;: IF ■ I i' bandages. With envelopes at sixpence a hundred, and steel pens at sixpence per gross, the ' complete letter-writer ' has ijuleed many temptations held out to him. The GoveiTimcnt envelopes are made with a thread or two running through them ; these tineads are introduced into the pulp during the makmg of the paper ; but ordinary envelopes have no such additions. The lai'ge sheets of paper, pressed and rolled to give them smoothness, and packed into heaps, are guillotined into oblong strips ; and these strips, piled in heaps of fom' or five hunched each, are cut into diamond-shaped pieces — or, for more fanciful shapes, they are cut at once by a cun'ed cutting-stamp. If we follow the jO pieces into the envelope-room, we there see a striking example of tlie tujt which constant employment at one occupation gives. The more common en- velopes ai'e made by machine, but the less-used sizes are still made by hand ; and so fast do the fingers of these hand-workers move, tliat each woman or girl can make two or tbrce thousand in a day ! No description can tell ade- quately how this is done. In the lirst two folds several papers aic done at once, with nothing but the eye to guide the hand ; in the last two folds each paper is ti'eated separately And then the application of the gum, witli tlie fixing down of three out ' ^'^e four lappets, is a perfect marvel of quick- ness. But the machine-made env^ . )s are those which have more effectually brought down the price and brought up tlae quality ; eveiy envelope is, to a hair's breadtli, the same size as its fellow, and like it in eveiy particular. Rattling and clattering and humming away, there are in the envelope-room thirteen of those macliines, one of w-hich was seen by so many million eyes in the western nave of the Great Exliibition. This machine, invented con- jointly by ^Ir. Edwin Hill and Mr. Warren De la Eue, is an exceedingly beau- tiful contrivance. It performs many successive operations with unerring ac- curacy. A boy places a diamond-shaped piece of paper on a little platform ; a sort of plunger descends, and forces tlie central part of the paper into an oblong quadrangular cavity ; the four comers stand erect, and these ai'e suc- cessively flattened by four levers, fingers, or thumbs (whichever we may teim them), whereby the envelope form is given. And when all is done, two India- rubber fingers lightly touch the envelope, and delicately draw it aside, to make ready for another. These fingers are quite a refinement of ingenuity ; they are small metallic cylinders, with bits of India-rubber at the lower ends ; these finger-tips have just enough of the glutinous or sticky quality to adhere slightly to the paper on which they are pressed, and to draw it away from its place in the machine. But while these processes have been going on, there is another series also in operation, to efl'ect the gumming or fastening. There is a supply of gum, whicli spi-eads itself over an endless apron or blanket; and an artificial arm takes a supply of gum from this blanket, to apply it to the envelope. All tliese movements are so nicely adjusted, tliat the gum is ap- plied in its proper place just before the flap of the envelope is folded down. As fast as the envelopes are made, tli^y range themselves on an inclined plane, with the precision of well-drilled soldiers, and slide up into a box prepai'ed for tlieir reception. Tims does each machine make its sixty envelopes in a minute. The very elegant envelope-machine invented by M. Remond, and exhibited by Messrs. Waterlow at the Great Exhibition, in addition to much novelty in the folding and gumming apparatus, has a singular contrivance for feeding itself with paper. The diamond-shaped pieces are placed in a heap by (he paper: its applications and it3 novelties. 15 side of the machine, a hollow tube thrusts itself forward and rests upon the topmost paper, the air is drawn from the tube by a tiny air-pump, and the topmost paper clings by atmospheric pressure to two minute holes on the lower surface of the tubu ; the tube withdraws itself, drops the paper exactly in the spot where the folding and gumming mechanism is placed, and travels forth in search of another. The machine requires the aid of an attendant to remove and press the envelope; while De la Rue's requires similar aid to place the paper ; nevertheless, tlie tube of the one machine, and tlie elastic lingers of the other, are among the prettiest novelties of this mechanical age. Generally speaking, each of De la Rue's machines can make about as many envelopes as nine expert Avomen, or about twenty-five thousand per day. And yet more women and girls are employed in makmg envelopes than at any former period ; so tnie is it that machinery frequently increases tlie field for hand-labour, by creating new branches of manufacture. As learned names are now given to various other products, so we may here notice a recent invention by a London maiiufacturer, which rejoices in the name of tlie Polychrist Envelope. It is a sheet of note-paper and an envelope contained in one — cut, hi fact, out of a larger sheet, ui such a way that the sheet fomis its own envelope. The idea is not without its merit ; for the legal identification of a letter may often be facilitated by having the post-mark on the letter itself, instead of on a separate envelope. The envelopes sold by ordinaiy shopkeepers now fai' outnumber those which have the oval Govemmeiit medallion upon them ; but still these latter are pro- duced in millions annually, and the prepai-ation of them constitutes a singular branch of Somerset House responsibility. Mr. Edwin Hill is at the head of that department of the Stamp Office which has control over postage-stamps ; and he has under his management quite a large manufacturing establishment. He does not make die envelopes themselves, nor the penny and twopenny postage-stamps, but he stamps those envelopes which ai-e sold by the Govern- ment, and makes the tenpenny and shilling i)Ostage-stamps used for foreign letters. In a certain apartment at Somerset House there are machines daily employed in s tamping envelopes. The oval medallion stamp is carefully engraved on a hia'd steel die ; and the machines arc skilfully adjusted so as to ink their own dies with pink colour, and bring tlie dies down upon the paper. The papers ai'e sent to Somerset House, cut to the proper size and shape for envelopes ; a boy takes a handful of these, spreads them out, and feeds them into the machine at the rate of sixty in a minute ; the machine inks its own die at this rate of speed (once in a second), and stamps ufu;r each inking. ]iow wonderful must be tlie precision to effect all this ! Fom' things have to be done within a second : a boy places a piece of paper, the colour-rollers ink the die, the die presses on the paper, and another boy removes the paper. The two boys are virtually parts of the machine itself. We have said that the higher-priced postage stamps are made at Somerset House ; but the system is more strikingly illustrated by the penny and two- penny stamps. There is ■\ house in i'leet Street, very unpretending exter- nally, where postage-stamps are made annually to the value of something like a million sterling — that is, post-olhce value, not intrinsic value. Messi-s. Bacon and Pctcli have a contract for producing tlie penny and twopenny postage-stamps. The contract (lately renewed) was made in 1813, and shows how large a matter a penny stamp becomes when it is multiplied by millions. The contractors provide steel plates, each large enough for 240 ' Queen's heads; ' tliey engi'ave the plates with the well-laiown device (tlie head being a »'% !^5^P" -T^ wat^ti^^m^!*' ^^ ^^i"^ 16 paper: 1T9 APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTlfeS. reduced copy from Wyon's ' City Medal '); tlioy renew the plates as fast as tliey become woni out ; they provide all tli{! dies, presses, and machines neces- sary ; they make tlie blue and red inks, and the adhesive composition, according to recipes approved by Government; they r(!ceive paper from the Govern- ment, print sheets of stamps on this paper, and gum the backs of tlie sheets so printed : and they do all tliis in buildings oi rooms approved by tlio Stamp Office, and to which the Government officers have at all times free access. Tor these sei"viees, the contractors agreed to receive Qld., Gld., or Gd. per 1000 stamps, according as the number in any one quarter of a year amounts to less than thirty millions, from thirty to thirty-two millions, or more than thirty-two millions. Great as tliese numbers appear, they have gi'adually come to be fai' exceeded, for they are now something like sixty millions quarterly ! But the largeness of this (apparently) small subject is perhaps still better illustrated by a project to facilitate the teaiing or cutting of postago stamps. Conceive an inyentor and the Government quarrelling whether OOOZ. or something much larger should be given for such a contrivance ! The whole matter, as given in a recent parliamentaiy paper, is curious, and teaches us how formal and wearisome Government offices are in their official correspondence. In 1847 Mr. Archer proposed to Jie Postmaster-General the use of a machine which would make a number of little perforations round the border of each stamp in a sheet, to facilitate their separation without tlie use of scissors. He adduced many advantages which tlie public and the postmasters would derive from it. The Postmaster-General sent the matter to the Stamp Office for consideration, with a commendatoiy notice from some of the officials. Then Mr. Ai-cher made an offttr to the Stamp Office, in respect to it ; and then tlie Stamp Office refen-ed it to the Treasury. The year 1847 was now at an end, and 1848 commenced another series of tripartite official correspondence. The Treasury assented to a ti'lal ; and the Stamp Office caused the machine to be worked by tlieir label-stamp contractors. The trials were carried on ; the perforations were made by rollers — then by a fly-press — and then by a tliird method, to get over minor difficulties ; and tlie years 1848 and 1849 were brought to an end before tlie machine was finally rendered effective. Then came the question of re.nuneration — managed thus. Mr. Archer applied to the Treasury; the Treasury applied to the Stamp Oflice; tlie Stamp Office made a suggestion, and refen-ed it to tlie Post Oflice ; the Post Office slightly modified the suggestion, and returned it to the Stamp Office. Mr. Archer applied to tlic Post Office for better terms, but the Post Office referred him to the 1^'easury. Mr. Archer Uien applied to the Treasuiy, and the Treasury refen-ed him to the Stamp Office and to the Post Office ; the two Boards confeiTed ; and the Post L-f.! "e recommended the Stamp Office to raise the terms a little : the Stamp Office agreed, and wrote to the Troasuiy thereupon ; the Treasuiy told the Post Office tliat temis rather more liberal would be justifiable : the Post Oflice agreed, and wrote to Mr. Archer. Mr. Archer finally rejected the oft'er, after a battledore-and-shuttlecock game which had lasted twenty months in respect to remuneration, and fifty months in resiiect to the invention itself. Mr. Archer then made a tender for the whole manufacture of postage-stamps, including engraving, printing, and gumming as well as perforating ; but the former contractors obtained a new contract, at the reduced terms of Ijd. per thousand ; and the perforating machines are still the unused property of the inventor. When the Government do become shopkeepers or manufacturers, they are remarkably ' slow ' — whether we use this word in its old-fashioned or its new-fashioned meanhig. m&mm i^^ PAPEU: ITS APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVEt.TlES. 17 Taking our leave now of the dainty devices which adorn the lady's escri- toire, and the wonderfully cheap but good stationery which the Penny Post has done so much to render familiar to us, we may turn our attention to an- other interesting application of paper. Papier Machk and Carton Pierre. The very pretty and useful material which bears the name of Papier Mache does not always deserve that name. The brilliant display which Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge, and other manufacturei-s, made at the Great Exhibition ought to have been designated by some more significant and correct name ; it is j)asted paper and moulded paper, but not tnnshed or jndp paper, as the French name mache indicates. There are two distinct branches of industry here in- volved, which we must separate in order to speak of the notabilities of each. And first for the real, the titie papier mache, that which was introduced about twenty-five years ago, and from which Mr. Bielefeld produces such a wondrous variety of decorative ornaments. This is almost entirely paper ; there may be a small percentage of otlier material to impart certain minor qualities, but it is essentially paper. And if we enqnivc what kind of paper is thus used, we find that it is any and every kind. All is " fish that comes to this net." Nothing is refused, nothing laid aside, whether linen or cotton or hemp be the fibre from which the paper was originally made : all is available, whether it be black or white, bleached or unbleached, plain or figured ; whether it be fine as • exti'a satin wove,' or coarse as tougli wrapping paper ; whether in large sheets or small fragments ; whether new and unused, or old and woni ; — all will be welcome to the mache vat. Of course, in a practical point of view, where all kinds are useful, the manufacttu'ers look about them for cheap mis- cellaneous lots, instead of appealing to the bran new stock of a wholesale sta- tioner. Bankers have sometimes tons' weight of old account books by them, which have ceased to be of use, but which they are unwilling to place in the hands of the tnink-maker or the butterman, on account of the private trans- actions to which the writing on the pages of such books relate ; and as it is a task of no little difficulty and danger to burn these books, the bankers are glad to find a receptacle for them in the vat of the papier-macho manufacturer, under a pledge that they shall really and promptly be so used, without expo- sure to public gaze. Thus the banker may perchance see the relievo decora- tions of his own drawing-room made from his own old account books ; a ledger may find a new home as part of a cornice, or a cash-book as a fi'ame for a look- ing-glass, or a day-book as a ceiling ornament. Nay, these transformations may extend wider ; for in years gone by, the banker's old shirt may have been transferred to the rag-bag, and thence to the paper-mill, and thence to the account-book maker, and thence to tlie bank, and thence to the papier-mache factory, and thence to tlie drawing-room of the banker's residence — ^where his admiring gaze may rest upon a graceful oiiiament, some fibres of which once clotlied his own back. The cuttings of paper, produced by tlie principal applications of that ma- terial, form a very large portion of tlie supply whence papier mache is made. Bookbinders, pasteboard-makers, envelope-makers, account-book and pocket- book-makers, prinlsellers, paper-hangers, all accumulate heaps of shreds and cuttings ; and the papier-mache vat may receive them all, miless better prices can be obtained elsewhere. Wliatever may be the source whence the supply is obtained, it is certain tliat paper has now reached that commccial point W s •. * J ^F^l^^^ i^^^^w^ap^rnH^^^H 18 PAPEH: It3 ArriACATIOKS AND ITS NOVELTIES. which gold and silver veached long ago — that is, none need be •wasted, for a market can he found for all the odds and ends. The kind of papier mache Avhich is now under notice is a paste-like mass ^ormcd of paper-pidp, and pressed in moulds to any desired form. Mr. Biele- feld, the leading manufacturer in this branch, has an establishment in tlie coimtiy where water power can be commanded, and where machines, moved by this power, bring the paper to the required state. The paper, be it of what kind it may, or of as many different kinds as it may, is moistened, and chopped, and minced, and routed about imtil it becomes a perfectly homogeneous pasty mass, or rather a mass having a consistency like tliat of dough or of putty. A trifling portion of other substances is, as we have said, introduced, but not sufficient to change the general character of the mass as a paper substance. Then comes tlie moulding or pressing. The material is too thick to be poured into a mould like plaster of Paris, or like molten metal ; it is pressed into flattish moulds, like clay, or composition, or gutta percha. A piece is cut off, about enough for the article to be made, it is pressed well into the mould, a counter-mould is placed upon it, and the force of a powerful press is brought to bear upon it, so as to drive tlie material into every minute crevice of the mould. And here we come to the artistic department of such a manufacture as this. To command anytliing like a leading position in decorative art, there must be an untiring attention to new designs, new artistic ideas, new combinations of form, and colour, and material. Hence, m such an establishment as the one now under notice, the moulds (made in metal from plaster models) are con- ibtantly increasing in number and value ; they accumulate not merely by hun- dredweights, but by tons ; the designer, the carver of wood moulds, the en- graver or sinker of metal moulds, are all adding to the store. It may be that a new design does not ' take ' sufficiently to pay the expense even of making the mould, but this may be counterbalanced by anotlier which has a long run, and by degrees an extensive manufacturer becomes able to stiike a balance, to establish an average which shall determine the probable retm'ns to be expected fi'om each new mould. Among our large establishments, where mechanical skill and faie art meet hand in hand, those which produce the most continuous run of new designs are those which generally rise to the uppermost place ; and it is here that the ai'tistic education of the aitizan becomes a matter not merely of individual but of national importance. The articles made of this material are chiefly ai'chitectm'al ornaments for interior use, such as ceiling ornaments, cornices, and so forth ; but they are becoming every year more and more widely spread in their application. The theatres afford ample scope for the display of papier-mache ornaments ; because the material is so tough that it will scarcely break, and so light that it requires nmch less fastening than the whiting and glue composition ornaments of former times. The counter-mould imparts to the ornament a hoUowness at the back which economizes material and lessens the weight. The surface which the paper or papier presents is of a nondescript colour, ai'ising from tlie mixture of various colours in the pulp, but it is fitted to receive any decora- tions in gold, oil-paint, size-colours, or varnish. Thus, an ornate frame for a looking-glass, made of papier mache, may be gilt witli a degree of perfection nearly equal to that of a carved frame. But it is also capable of assumuig a sculpturesque form. There were in the Great Exhibition, as many of our readers may remember, two statuettes after INIichael Angelo, a copy of the noble horse's head from the Elgin marbles, and a bust of some celebrated man, all wm f PAPEIi: ITS APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIES. 10 fonned of papier macho, and deriving therefrom a toughness which defies almost any power of hreal;age. The Corintliian capital in this material, set up on a pillar in the western nave, was an example of the more ordinaiy ap- plication for ornamental purposes. There is anotlier modem decorative material, still more recent tlian papier mache, but like it honom'ed with a French name : wc mean carton j)icnc, which may be interpreted stone cardboard or pasteboard. This more nearly resembles plaster than papier mache ; it has a little paper in it, a great deal more plaster, and one or two other substances ; the mixture thus produced is fashioned in moulds, and is applied to various ornamental pui-poses, but it is much heavier than papier mache. The beautiful internal decorations at the Lyceum Theatre are, we believe, made of carton pierre. Carton picrre is manufactured in England chiefly by INIessrs. Jackson, but it appears to have been a French in- vention, and to be made in France and Germany more largely than in Eng- land. The carton pierre of die one country, and the stein pappe of the other, seem to be pretty nearly the same material : viz., a kind of lirpiid plaster com- bined with other materials, poured instead of praised into moulds, and backed with a stratum of paper to give strength. Some of our I'Vench neighbours displayed beautiful specimens of friezes, vases, pilasters, and bas-relievos, in ciuion i^iorre, at the Great Exhibition; while the Prussian exhibitor, Gropius, displayed some dozens of neat little statuettes in the sumo material. Tho noble chandelier for sixty lights, exhibited by Blcssrs. Jackson, was perhaps the best specimen of carton-pieiTC work. But to return to papier mache. That the pulpy or mache paper is suscep- tible of being made into beautifully even flat surfaces, is exemplified in tho thick millboard used by bookbinders. Time was when all such millboard was essentially pasteboard, produced by pasting together a large number of sheets of paper to tlie required thickness ; but now the pulp is used. Li the first place there is a flat table or slab, widi a raised edge all round to form a sort of shallow mould. Into tliis mould the pidp is laded, to a depth depending on the thickness of the millboard to be made, and this pulp, by drying between felted cloths, by diying in the open air, by gentle pressure in a press, and tlien by powerful pressm'e between rollers, assumes at length that hard, tough, strong, smooth, unifonn consistency which distinguishes millboard, and which makes that material so invaluable to the bookbinder. Mr. Bielefeld is about to in- troduce an important modification of this process in the production of panels for artists. He has produced panels eight feet by six, made entirely of papier mache half an inch thick, momited on a skeleton wood support or frame ; and the surface of tliese panels appeal's as if it would be admirably fitted for paintings, more durable than canvas, and less likely to split tlian wood panel ; indeed, splitting is out of the question in respect to such a material. The bulkheads and the cabin partitions of some of the fine steamers of om' day have been made of this material ; it is tough and strong, and admits of any degree of ornamentation. The material is said to be a bad conductor botli of sound and of heat, and has thus a twofold recommendation for room parti- tions. It seems to have been some such material as this which Mr. Haddan contributed to the Great Exliibition, in tlie fomi of panels for radway car- riages, or rather for the whole broadside. It is alleged that such panels do not shrink, and do not require grooves for fixing ; whether they will bear being ' mn into ' better thaia other railway panels, has probably not yet been tested. Now we may tmii our glance to that which, tliough not really papier 30 rAVKU; ITS Ari'LICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIKS. mache, is much more extensively known by that name than the material just (lesciibed. Tlic gorgeous coutiibutions to the Hydo Parlt collection must bo in the locolb^ction of most persons. That paper, even with the ad- ventitious aid of i)ainting, and varnisliing, and polishing, and gilding, and inlaying, should bo wrought into such beautiful forms, might well excite the wonder of those to whom the manufacture was new. It was no small triumph of skill to produce, out of such a substance, tlie pearl inlaid piano- forte and music stool ; tho Victoria Hcgia cot, designed by Bell, tlie sculptor, and decked with omblematic devices in gold and colours ; the pearl-and-gold inlaid loo-iable; tho Lotus work-table, designed by Bell; the pearl-inlaid and gilded work-table, in a foi'm suggested by Benvenuto Cellini's vase ; and Bell's chess-board for his " Parian " chess-men — to say nothing of the chairs, tables, sofas, cabinets, secretaries, screens, vases, writing-desks, blotting-folios, work- boxes, papeticres, inkstmids, envelope-cases, card-boxes, flower-stands, tca- ti'ays, coft'ec-trays, wine-trays, standishes, crochet and netting-cases, and tho numberless things which modem refinement has rendered familial' to us. The Furniture Courts in tlio Exhibition certainly glittered with these pro- ductions. It would give a better idea of the manufacture (although somewhat lower- ing to its dignity) if these productions were called j)ustcboarcl, for pasteboard they certainly are, as the reader will jircsently see. It was towards the close of the last century that iron tca-ti'ays began to be imitated or superseded by papier mache, and from these trays has gi-adually sprung up an important de- partment of Birmingham industry, a department in which it is pretty generally admitted, we believe, that Birmingham excels all other places. Although the real papier maehe snaps up all kinds of paper indiscriminately, with most impartial fairness, the tea-tray paper (if we may so ' nn it) is not so easily satisfied ; it requires whole sound sheets to work upon, and these sheets must have a certain definite quality to fit them for their destined l)mi)ose. Let us watch, in thought, the making of a papier-mache tea-tray. In the first place we see that the paper employed has a grayish colour, and looks like thick blotting-paper; and in the next we see that a mould or form is employed to give shape to the tray. Artists or designers are constantly at work producing new patterns ; but we are here supposing tliat a tolerably simple tray is to be manufactured. A model of the tray is prepared, giving tlie exact form and shape ; and from this model a mould is cas'. in iron, brass, or copper, the surface of the mould corresponding, of course, with the interior of the tray to be made. Women and girls, seated at talles, cut up the rough gi-ay paper into pieces of tlie requisite size, and these pi-. -les are handed to the pasters, who are also women — for it is worthy of remark that this very pretty art is one which is capable of being conducted in many of its branches by females. These pasters have beside them a plentiful supply of paste, made of flour and glue dissolved and boiled in water. The mould is gi'eased to prevent the paper from adhering. The first sheet is pasted on both sides, and handed to another woman, who lays it on the mould, pressing and rubbing and adjusting it until it conforms to tlio shape. Another and another are similarly applied, and tho mould, with its threefold gamient, is put into a drying room, heated to a high temperature, where it is brought to a dried state. It is removed from tlie stove-room, filed to give it a tolerable smoothness of surface, and then clothed witli three more layers of paper, in the same mode as before. Again is tlie stove-room employed, again tlie pasters ply their 'i ■Wi ho material collection (vitli the ad- [ilding, and excite the no small iilaid piano- 10 sculptor, arl-arid-gold ■l-ix\laid and ; and Bell's airs, tables, 'olios, work- stands, tca- es, and the iliar to us. these pro- what lower- pasteboard Is the close lerscdcd by aportant do- tty generally icriminately, m it) is not I, and these eir destined •ay. In the id looks like or form is constantly at a tolerably ared, giving I iron, brass, the interior cut up the i are handed lat this very its branches paste, made 5 gi'eased to both sides, and rubbing another are put into a I dried state. loothness of same mode iis ply their paper: its applications AN'D its NOVliU'IKS. Si labour ; a third time the stove-room, again the pasters ; and so on, until thirty or forty thicknesses of papor have been ixp2)liod, more or less, of course, ac- cording to the substance intended to be produced. For scnnc purposes as •nany as a hundred and twenty thicknesses are pasted together, involving forty stove dryings, and of courso canying the operations over a considerable num- ber of days. A mass of pasteboard, si,\ inches in tliickness, which is occa- sionally produced for certain puiposes, is perhaps one of the toughest and strongest materials wo can imagine. If a caimon-ball, made of such paste- board, were lired against a ship, would not the ball itself escape fracture ? The mould being covered with a sufficient layer, a knife is employed to dexterously loosen the paper at the edges ; the greased state of tlic mould allows the paper to be removed from it. Then are all imperfections removed ; the plane, the file, and the knife ai'e applied to bring all ' ship-shape ' and proper. Next come the adornments. The pasteboai'd itself is not beautiful, so beauty is sought in other wa;, o. Shtll-lac vamish of veiy fine quidity, coloured according to circumstances, is apidied coat after coat, until a thickness is ob- tained sulficient for tlie purjiose. The biack polished surface of ordinaiy papier-mache trays is produced by black japan vamish, applied by women with a brush. But whether the varnish be black or colom-od, it usually undergoes a rubbing and polishing to such a d(jgrce as to equal in brilliancy anytliing produced in the arts. It is said that the finest polishing instrument used to give the last finishing touch after all the ' rotten-stones and ' emeries ' have done their best, is the soft palm of a woman's hand; and that those females employed in this art, who are gifted by nature with the much-coveted charm of a soft and delicate hand, find it commercially advantageous to preserve tliis softness and delicacy by a degi'ee of gloved carefulness not usual in tlieir rank in life. What will tlie poets say, when woman's hand is thus spoken of? Then ensue tlie painting and the gilding, tlie bedizenmcnt with gaudy show, or the adornment with graceful device, according as tlie goods are low or high priced, or tlie manufacturer a man of taste or no taste. A kind of stencilling is employed in cheap work, but in better specimens the real artist's pencil is brought into requisition- The inlaid-work exhibited in the higher class of papier-mache goods is veiy curious. A sort of imitative tortoiseshell is thus produced. A tliin transparent vamish is laid on the prepared tray, leaf silver is laid on the vamish, the two are dried, and vamish is laid thickly over the silver, and 1 umice-stone is skilfully applied to grind away so much of tlie vamish at pai'ti- cular spots as will give to tlie whole tlie mottled appearance of tortoiseshell. Every day's experience tells us that imitations themselves ai-e imitated. Not only is varnished silvtsr made to imitate tortoiseshell, but vamished vermilion is made to imitate vamished -silver. A metliod of decorating papier macho with imitative gems has been recently introduced, in which some kind of foil or varnish is applied to the back of glass, and the glass employed as an inlaying. But perhaps the most striking omamentation of this kind is pearl-inlaying, of which Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge's pianoforte was such a brilliant specimen. Here real niother-of-peaii is employed. A design is painted on the tliin pieces of pearl with shellac vamish, a strong acid is applied, all t}ie shell is eaten away except those parts protected by the vamish, and thus tlie peoi-l is brought into an omamentol forai. The pearl is placed upon the wet japan of tlie papier mache, to which it adheres; and it is then coated witli such a thick layer of vaniish as to ecjual the thickness i , ! ds PAPEli: ITS APPLICATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIKS. of the film of mothor-of pearl. It is vaniishcd, dried, and ru1)bed with pumice over and over again, until a level sm-liiee is produced. It may bo easily conceived how excellent the vaniish and the mode of applicntion must bo to render such a thickness of applied varnish durabl(\ The lirm lately mentioned have made a complete s\iite of papier-mache drawing-room fmni- ture for the Queen of Spain, decorated in this remarkable way. But it is doubtful whetlu^r this e.\cessive glitter of polish and pearl will have a permanent reputation. Something more sober Avill iirol»ably live longer. At any rate, when wo find Mr. Owen Jones supplying Alhambraic designs, and other ai'tists iiictorial designs, for tea-trays, we find a nearer ap- proach to fine art. The papier-macho contiibutions to the Great Exhibition from tlie Messi's. Spiers of Oxford were remarkable, inasmuch as the two or three hundred specimens contained views of about a hmidrcd and fifty public buildings and interesting places in and near that city. There is in many of thee specimens amediosval tasto in oniament fitted to the mediteval state of feeling in Oxford. Paper-hangings. Many arc the curious applications of paper not yet touched upon ; but, as it would be vain to attempt an enimieration of them all, we will be content with a little notice of a paper product familial* to the denizens of most English houses of a decent class. Paper-stainers and paper-hangers arc not very happy in the terms they em- ploy ; for tlie paper is not stained, neither is it hmig. But criticism would ferret out much to cavil at in such matters ; and we will therefore take matters as we find them. It is obvious tliat the use of paper as a substitute for tlie tapestry of old times originated the title of hangings, as applied to wall-papers. There is evidence that it was somewhat about two centuries ago when this substitution began to take root. Whatever may be said concerning the higher ranks of society, it was certainly a favourable invention in respect to tlie cleanliness, the neatness, and the comfort of the houses inhabited by lower grades. This was true even when a pernicious Excise duty pressed upon this manufactured product : it is still more true now that the produce is freed from such shackles. The humblest and cheapest wall-papers are painted by the stencil method ; or at least they used so to be before the recent great advancements in the art. The stencilling is simply this : — a pattern is cut out, in a sheet of paper, of leather, of tin, of copper, or of some other convenient substance ; a vessel of liquid colour is provided ; a long strip of paper is laid on a bench, tlie stencil plate is laid on the paper, a brush dipped in tlie colour is worked over the plate, and the colour thus finds its way to the paper in all those parts where a pattern is cut in the plate. If there be three or more colours, there must be three or more plates, each cut in exact confomiity to the device for one par- ticular colour. But the pattern is never very elegant, never veiy nicely delineated by this method ; and it has been to a great extent superseded by the Mock method, in which the wood-cut system of printing is imitated. A block is carved in hard wood, the surftice of which is to represent the device for one colour, another is carved for a second colour, another for a third, and so on — the number of blocks equalling the number of colours, and all very carefully adjusted to work in hannony as to the general pattern. The ai'tistic part being thus prepared, matters proceed somewhat thus : — a long strip of paper I'APEU: ITS APl'UCATIONS AND ITS NOVELTIES. 23 is laid down ; a ground of ' distt-nipcr ' or size-colour is api)liod with a bmsli, and dried ; colours arc prepared, as many as there are blocks ; one colour is daubed over a soft leather cushicni ; a block is inverted on it, and made to take iq) a layer ; tbis layer is applied to tlu; paper ; and other impressions aro pnnted side by side until the whole length of paper is llnished. Then another block and another colum- arc used; then a tliird; and so on; and tho skill of the workmen is shown by rendering these several junctions as littlo visible as possible. Tho modem method of cijUnder printing is, however, tho great step in ad- vance. The making of continuous stri^js of paper, instead of having to jiastc sheets together, was one notable aid to the paper-stainer ; the removal of tho Excise duty has been a second ; while tho use of the cylinder nuichine has capped those improvements, and rendered it jiossiblc to make wall-papers at a farthing per yard. When wo considtn' that paiitir-hangings nsed to pay — besides the duty per lb. on all paper — no less than l'\il. per yard in their capacity as wall-paper, Ave may cease to wonder at the lowering of price which recent times have witnessed. And it is not ditficult, too, to sec how tho cylinder method should bring about a lower rate of charge than tlie block method. Calico prhiting, we know, has borne witness to an analogous fact ; the cylinder machine has given tasteful print dresses to the Avives and daugh- ters of men who could not have borne the price of such productions in i>ast times. The analogy is very close throughout. In the one case cotton, and in tho other paper, is made in one continuous length; in lioth cases this length is wound round a beam or roller; in both cases there are engraved cylinders, as many as there arc to be colours, and each having a device of its own ; in both cases there arc as many troughs of colom" as there are cyhnders ; in both cases the cylinders feed themselves Avith colour, but in such a way as to take up the colour on the raised parts in the one case, but on the sunk parts in the otlier ; in both cases the endless Aveb is draAvn in betAveen rollers, and made to pass over all the colom'-Avetted cylinders in succession ; in both cases the complete pattern is seen to bo printed by the time tho material leaves the machine; and in both cases tlie printed strip imdcrgoes a rapid di-ying process. The Great Exhibition, among its numerous specimens illustrative of paper-hangings, contained some which shoAved m a marked way the facility now attained by the cylinder method. Among IMessrs. Haywood's contribu- tions Avere wall-paper in fourteen colours, all produced at once by fourteen cylinders in one machine ! Many are the means adopted to give a decorative character to paper-hang- ings, besides tlie mere use of colours. Some specimens have a glossy ground, to Avhich the attractive name of satin is applied ; this effect is produced by tlie careful application of polishing poAvder to a sinface painted tlie proper tint. Some have an appoai'ance imitative of figtu-ed or Avatered silk, produced by passing the paper between slightly-heated rollers, Avhich have the requisite design engraved upon them. Some have a clotli-like appearance, produced in a singular Avay : tlie device is printed on the pajier Avitli gold size, and over this is sprinkled coloured Jluck, Avliich consists of AvooUen clotli cut or ground to a poAvder, Some of the striped pajjcrs are produced in a veiy remarkable Avay : the paper travels over a revolving cylinder, and in its passage touches against the open bottom of a trough, Avhence a continuous stream of liquid colour falls upon it ; Mended or shaded patterns are produced by a modification of this process ; bronzed, tjilt, or silvered papers are produced by printing a device with gold size, and applying the metallic adornment in the state cither of poAvdcr '.< n i ! I wmmmM " t 111- u PAPEB : ITS APPI-ICATIONS AND .ITS NOVELTIES. or of leaf. Some papers, to which the enticing designation of ' washable ' is given, ai'e printed with tlie colours prepai-ed in oil or varnish, which will bear a Avater-washing process with impunity. In these days, when artistic design occupies an uppermost place in the tlioughts of those who would advance our manufactures, paper-hangings have not escaped scrutiny. No definite principle of ornamentation has yet been introduced in this art. Sometimes we see cottages built one over another from the floor to the ceiling, all exactly alike, and each enclosed in a border. Sometimes animals, sometimes trees or flowers, are repeated in a similai* way ; and the result is, that wliatever may be the merit of any one compartment, or however gay the general effect produced, there is nothing sensible or artistic in the whole vertical surface viewed at a glance. On the other lumd, any attempt at j't^'-spectico views is vitiated by this objection — that all perspective supposes a point of sight to be chosen, at a particular distance from tJie pic- ture ; at any other distance distortion instead of synunetry is produced. At one time tliere was a fashion to give a sculpturesque tone to paper-hangings, by representing statues and bassi-relievi on neutral ground ; at another time co- pi(!S from historical pictm'cs had a reign of favour; while the architectural l)rinciple predominated at anotlier, by the rei:)resentation of Grecian temples, Gothic chfopels, Italian palaces, Chinese pagodas, and such like. The late Mr. Loudon, who was as untiring in his writmgs concerning house decoration as on gardening matters, threw out a suggestion for a new kind of pajjer-hanging for school-rooms and nurseries, " formed by printing figures of all tlie commoner and more important animals and plimts, with tlie scientific ;jd populai' name beneath tlieai ; each plant or animal being suiTomided by linos, so as to appear either in fraji^-^s or as if painted on the ends of stones or bricks. The advantage of the iramed lines would be to give unity to the paper as a whole, and also to admit of repairs by taking out any smgle frame or stone, and replacing H by another." " There is no reason," 'le adds, " but the expense, why a geogi'aphical paper should not be fomied ; or one exliibiting all the i:)rincipal livers, mountains, or cities in the world ; or the portraits of eainent men, witlx their names; or perpetual almanacs; or lists of weights and measures ; or chronological or arithmetical tables or, in '^hort, any useful and instructive subject, which it would be beneficial to tlic cottager to have frequently before lis eyes." Something like this has been suggested, adapted to a higher order of artistic work. It is this — to have a pattern printed on waU-paper, with a delicate and gi'aceful style of ornamentation ; eitlicr trellis-work, or tendrils of plants, or a -abesque patterns, but leaving spaces, or oval or circular me- daUions, ?•■• which subjects could be afterwards painted by hand. The lady- artist of a mansion might thus display her industry and taste on the papered walls instead of on tlie ci'ochet curtains or the rug-worlc ottomans ; and she might thus recall tlie feudal days when high-born dauies wrought the tapestry or wuU-hangings for their own boudoirs. Unless paper ceases to be a material for wall decoration (and tliere seems no reason why it should so cease), the lime has come fur a little more ai'tistic meaning in tlic designs — something like an a])proacli to a pr'mcqde in decorative patterns. The people, the paper users, will welcome a new in- fusion of mind in this art; for many of the " curiosities of industiy," in the fc^hapc of paper-hangings, are felt to be N'ery absurd curiosities uideed. ■I i s-asliablc' is ch will bear place in the ngings have IS yot been ver another in a border, similai- way ; lartmcnt, or le or artistic r hand, any perspective I'om tiie pic- oduced. At langings, by ler time co- architcctnml ian temples, ;niing house new land of ng figures of he scientiiic iTounded by ids of stones unity to the ; any single )n," ''.e adds, ned ; or one orld ; or the manacs ; or tiibles or, beneficial to ler order of aper, with a , or tendrils circular me- The lady- the papered ins ; and she the tapestry there sccnis , little more o a pr'mc'qAo 10 a new in- istiy," in the leed. CURIOSITIES OF INDUSTRY. GLASS AND ITS MANDFACTDEE. That most beautiful of all manufactured substances. Glass, is well fitted to commence this Industrial series. In few branches of industry have more re- mai'kable changes taken place dm'ing the present century ; in no other do we see exemplified more powerfully how much the mischief predominates over the benefit, in government interferences with manufactm'es ; in no other may we observe more distinctly how the manufactm-ers of one country derive advan^ tage by studying tlie worKS produced in other coxmtries. The " Cm'iosities" of Intlustiy belong to all ages; but it is with especial reference to the last fifty years that many of tliem will be here noticed. We wish to show, by a rapid glance over the intei-vening period, in what way 1851 differs from 1801, in respect to any special department of industiy. Have there been any new raw materials introduced ; and if so, has tlie addition been made by improved legislation or by tlie exercise of inventive talent ? Have tliere been improvements m the general routine of manufacture, either by the invention of new machines, or by the application of new manipulative processes? Have thei'e been any new applications of tlie manufactured mate- rial to the everj'-day wants of society, eitlier by rendering it cheap and abundant, or by employing it as a substitute for some other material ? Has the progress of improvement been less or more rapid in our o^vn country than among om* neighbours? Such are the questions which, if even confined to the past fifty years of the present centmy, will yield us an abundance of " Curiosities," without necessitating any systematic description of tlie pro- cesses of manufacture : for tliem we may refer to tlie Cyclo23a3dias to which the present work may be considered as a Supplement. If any of tliese subjects receive illustration, as doubtless tliey may, from tlie Great Industi'ial Congress of 1851 — that epoch in tlie world's history — we shall not fail to avail ourselves of such valuable testimony; but the prtsant papers have no especial relation to any temporary collection of works of industry : tliey chiefly rulate to tlie ad- vancements which have rendered such an Exhibition ^osstfc/t'. Let us now review the industiy of tlie Glass- worker, under the aspects noticed above. Raw Materials — few kecent Auditions. It would be a very fair assumption on the part of the reader, that as im- provements have been made hi so many depai'tnients of the glass-manu- ikcture, advances would to an equal extent be made in the materials em^ ployed, either as to their vai'iety or their quality. But tliis has not been the case. The tinith is, tliat tlie substances so employed are veiy few and simple, ,B 3 IV 1 J is m..'9 j. i'.i 4 GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTUES. and do not admit of so many probable som-ces of improvement as the more numerous and complex materials of many otlier branches of manufactm-e. Silica, soda, potash, Ume, oxide of lead — here we have neaily the sum total of the elements out of which glass is made. Bottle-glass has moi'e lime than any other glass ; plate-glass has more silica ; flint-glass has more oxide of lead ; and to these diflferences are probably mainly owing the characteristic qualities of the several kinds of glass. The alumina, 3ie manganese, the oxide of iron, and the other substances which ai-e employed in veiy small quantity, are to remove colour, oi to impart colom% or to modify in some way the qualities of the manufactured article ; but they ai"e not essential to its production. There would certainly be seen some modification, some addition ; but a collection of glass-making ingredients at the present day presents a tolerably close resemblance to such as would have been presented half-a-cen- tuiy ago. If we take, for instance, Mr. Apsley Pellatt's veiy interesting group of glass materials at the Exhibition, we find the silex in the forms of washed and binmt sand, the alkali in the form of carbonate of potash, and the oxides of lead and manganese; and three such series — silex, alkali, and oxides — would similarly have been seen in an earlier collection. It is in the minor details of each series that improvements have been and are now being sought. For instance. How can silex be obtained in greatest purity? is a question important to the glass-maker. Sand is, next to flint, the most familiar form in which silex is presented to us. Sand from Lynn, from St. Helen's, from Leighton Buzzard, and from many other places, is employed by glass- makers ; Isle of Wight sand is almost pure silex ; sand lately brought from Wenham Lake (the remarkable ice depot) has been foimd equally pure ; and sand from Australia has been shown to be so peculiarly well fitted for the pro- duction of the finest glass, that it has been deemed commercially advan- tageous to freight vessels with tliis substance alone. Flints and hard rocks, supposed to be rich in siliceous matter, have been tried in a ground state ; but no form of silica has been found suitable except Uiat wlxich is in -andy particles. But even here we have a sticking fact. An English vessel, free to cany any cai'go which presents itself, brings common sea-sand a distance of sixteen thousand miles from Australia to England, in order that the glass-maker may have a fitting siliceous mateiial for his manufacture ; and we may be quite certain that Qiis would not be done unless the manufactm'ers were willing to pay an adequate price for this humble import. The soda required in many manufactming operations used to be obtained chiefly from tlie ashes of burnt plants, such as kelp and barilla; but when the Excise duty on common salt was removed in 1825, this abundant material became the som'ce whence soda is obtained for most practical purposes in this country. The glass-makers have not failed to direct their attention to tliis source; but potash is a more generally useful alkali to tliem tlian soda; and the ashes of plants yield tlie allvali in a form ratlier more suitable tlian any other. Glass Duties — their Effects on Science and Art. Legislation, bad or good, has not materially affected the supply of raw material to the glass maker. But when we extend our observation beyond the mere materials of the ma- nufacture, and glance at the manufacture itself, we find tliat legislation has i the more anufactui-e. um total of lime thaii e oxide of laracteristic ^anese, the veiy small 1 some way ntial to its le addition; presents a half-a-cen- sting group 1 of washed the oxides d oxides — the minor ling sought. a question miliar form elen's, from I by glass- ought from ' piu-e ; and for the pro- ally advan- hard rocks, )und state ; is in "andy caiTy any i of sixteen maker may ay be quite willing to )e obtained it when the int material )oses in this tion to Uiis 1 soda; and »lc than any )ply of raw of the ma- islation has GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 6 been too busy during the last half-centuiy to be left unnoticed. Rarely has there been an example of fiscal legislation on which opinions have coincided so completely as in respect to the pernicious eflfects of tlie glass duties ; and rarely have predictions concerning the advantages of a reform been more fully realized. The able author of the Treatise on the Glass Manufacture in Lard- Tier's Cyclopadia, writing just twenty years ago, said, " Whenever this measiire (the removal of the glass duties) shall be accomplished, it can hardly fail to induce such an extension of the manufacture as will prove generally beneficial to the community. The abolition of these duties would be accompanied by the still further advantage of removing all those vexatious regulations and re- strictions imder which the manufacture is now carried on, and which will cease, as a matter of course, when the article is no longer an object of revenue. It is principally owing to these restrictions that so much foreign glass is now brought into this country in the face of what may be considered an amply pro- tecting duty. Foreign manufacturers are allowed to make any and eveiy article out of that quality of glass which will most cheaply and advantageously an- swer the end ; while om* own artists are forbidden to form certain objects, ex- cept with more costly materials, which pay the higher rates of duty. Nor is this restriction only commercially wrong, since it forms matter of just com- plaint on the part of chemists that they are unable to procure utensils fitted for effecting many of the nicer operati'^ns connected with their science ; be- cause the due protection of the revenue is thought to require that such uten- sils shall be formed out of that quality of glass alone which, apart from all considerations of price, is otherwise, from its properties, really unfitted for tlie pui-pose. Relaxations are indeed sometimes made on tliis head in particular cases by the Commissioners of Excise ; but the trouble necessarily attending applications to a pubUc board is greater than can be compensated by the ti'ifling money advantage tliat can result in each case to the manufacturer ; and the interests of science are, consequently, made to suffer." The peculiar mode in which this strangely short-sight I'gislation worked out its pernicious results will be noticed presently ; but oii' 'f the most ob- vious of the results themselves was shown in the Excise returns of duty. While foreign countries were gi-adually improving their manufacturt urs was stagnating; and tlie duty furnished a sensitive barometer to mark this differ- ence. The facts adduced by Mr. Porter (' Progress of the Nation ') are really astonishing as illustrative of tliis point. In 1801, with a population of sixteen millions, tlie quantity of glass used (as shown by the Excise duty) was 325,529 cwts.; and in 1833, with a population of twenty-five millions, tlie quantity had only increased to 303,468 cwts. Between 1827 and 1845 the average price of the glass articles in most common use fell about 25 per cent. ; but no thanks to the Excise for tliis : it arose from economical and improved modes of working. Science, commerce, manufactming art, domestic comfort, archi- tectural beauty — all were benefited by the happy revolution of the montli of September, 1845, when the glass-makers' premises were relieved from tlie burden of the Exciseman's visits. It would be hai'dly credible, were there not abimdant evidence to testify it, how enormous was tiie mischief brought about by the late laws. The Report of the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry, in 1835, is full of instruction on this point ; and we cannot do better than select a few items as illustrations. Mr. Dollond, the eminent optical instniment maker, wrote a letter to the Commissioners, in which he stated that he had been long attempting, in con- junction with the leading glass manufacturers, to produce glass fitted for y ..nil ,*! ^F PT^ ■W^^Bi 9 GLASS AND ITS MANOFACTUEE. scientific purposes. With Messrs. Chance, especially, he made experiments which led to the production of a superior kind of glass ; but at the eleventh hour the SupeiTisor of Excise stepped in, and forbade all further progress, as the novelty would interfere witli the technical ascertainment of the amount of duty ; in fact, it was a matter simp'' of thickness, for the optician required glass flicker than the excise would pei-mit. Mr. DoUond, tlien, with the aid of a friend, fitted up a small furnace, expressly and solely with a view to make expei'iments on a small scale ; but this again was frustrated by a cold negati^ ^ from the Excise autliorities. " I do not wish," says Mr. Dollond, " to escape from paying duties or any chai'ges ; all I wish for is, to be allowed to make my experiments free from interference, or what ai-e called estabhshed rules, or systems laid down to prevent roguery. In France and Switzerland such glass as I require is made and sold at a considerable price ; and those large telescopes, which are at present so much talked of, are made with that glass. I am willing to buy it at almost any price ; but, as it requires extreme cai-e in the manufacture, it cannot always be procured. It would, therefore, be a great advantage if it could be manufactured at home." Mr. Artliur Aikin, who was at that time the Secretaiy to the Society of Arts, gave abmidant evidence tending to the same pomt. He clearly elucidated these thi'ee questions — why will not ordinaiy flint-glass suffice for optical pm'poses? how could it be made fitted for that object? and why may it no« be so made fitted ? In the fii'st place, all flint-glass contains oxide of lead, which, from its gi'eat sjoecific gi'avity, will not mix ultimately and equally witli the otlier ingredients ; and tlie result is, that tlie refraction of the rays of light will be greater at one part of the mass than in another ; consequently, such glass is unsuitable for delicate optical purposes. As, however, tlie glass may be ground to powder, and intimately mixed so as to bring about homogeneity throughout the mass, tlie distortion may be removed ; and this may be stiU further realised by three or four giindings and meltings. But (and here was the blot which showed the defects of tlie system) the Excise claimed a new duty on tlie glass every time it was remelted ; and unless the maker were willing to submit to this exaction, his improving process became null and void. Mr. Aikin stated that tlie glass used for optical pm'poses in France, Germany, and Switzerland was better than that made m England, and could be sold at a cheaper price ; a state of things which he could only atti'ibute to the Excise regulations. The duplication of the duty on the duplication of the melting has been adverted to above; and tlie obstacles In experimental research were equally formidable. " Soon after my appointmeni as Secretaiy to the Society of Arts," says Mr. Aikin, " I built a small lumace capable of making, perhaps, six or eight pounds of glass at a time, for tlie purpose of investigating the action of some of the causes that affect the quality of optical glass. On mentioning the circumstance to tlie late Mr. Can", then solicitor to tlie P^xcise, and witli whom I was personally acquainted, I received such an luiswor as determined me to give uj) my intention." This same diificulty of obtaining the permission of the Excise to make any sort of experiments, lay at the root of multiplied evils and inconveniences connected with the manufactm'e. Giass-stainers and painters have long known that the old glass — independent of its rich colours — ^\ as better fitted than modem glass for the exercise of this beautiful art ; they think that the old glass was harder and less fusible thaw tlie modem, and thus b( ' ter al.ile to bear repeated firings in the enamel-kilns ; but any attempt mad<> l)y them to cariy put systematic experiments on tlie subject, with a view to dctei-mine the exact "^«i"p xperiments le eleventh progress, lie amount ui required dth the aid iW to make Id n6gati\ i " to escape d to make hed rules, rland such those large that glass, itreme care refore, be a ety of Arts, elucidated for optical may it not de of lead, qually witll ays of light lently, such 3 glass may omogeneity lay be still i here was imed a new veve willing void. Mr. rmaiiy, and 5 sold at a the Excise he melting search were the Society ig, perhaps, igating the glass. On the .Excise, aiiswDv as 56 to make )nveniences have long jetter fitted that the old ible to bear jm to cany e the exact GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 7 cause of the diflference, was frustrated by the Excise. Among the almost ludicrous results which followed from these obstructions, was tlie scientific reputation acquired by the hilmble Florence-oil flasks. It appears that, under the late laws, no green glass bottles were allowed to be made under the size denominated * six-ounce ;' it appears also that flint-glass, of which alone small bottles were permitted to be made, is, by virtue of the oxide of lead used as one ingredient, unfitted to resist some of the strong acids prepared by the chemists ; and the chemists were thence driven to the use of tlie flasks in which Florence oil is imported, the glass of such flasks containing no lead. Another aspect which the subject presented was tliis — that a manufacturer, even if he obtained pennission of the Excise to make experiments, could not do so witliout divulgmg the secret of any new invention he might have in his thoughts, were the invention patented or not. Mr. Apslcy Pellatt stated to tlie Commissioners that a very lai-ge lens could not be made at all in England, even of tlie same quality as smaller lenses ; for the Excise allowed melted glass to be laded out into cold moulds only ; whereas a large mass, for a lens of considerable size, could not be properly cast unless the mould were heated. The same manufactm'er gave a ciurious illustration of the effects of the law in respect to barometer and tliei-T"' meter tubes. The Excise required tliat all articles should be passed through tl.e lear, or aimeaUng oven; but it was fomid tliat the interior of these delicate tubes became smoked, and consequently unfitted for their pui"pose, by such an ordeal; and the English manufactm'ers had either to abandon the manufacture alto- gether, or to get the officers to connive at an arrangement whereby tlie duty might be paid witliout subjecting the tubes to tlie injmious process. There was also assigned a reason why — let the manufacturers and the glass-stainers be over so skilful — they were not permitted to produce colom'ed glass so good as was obviously within the scope of tlieir ability ; the red and amber tints require tliat the glass-pot should be opened frequently, tliat the maker may tost the progress ; but under the Excise regulations a gliiss-pot could be opened only at certain mtervals. Glass Duties — theiu CoiiMEUciAL Effects. The scientific and artistic results of Excise restriction were, as above noticed, observable chiefly in the quality of optical glass, and tlie quality and colour of stained glass. The commercial results were very varied, and some of them strange enough. The Icar, or annealing oven, in which flint-glass is annealed after making, has a window, and a wire within the window, conceniiiig which the Excise were veiy rigorous ; lor the duty was charged on the whole contents of the lear, whether injured or not. ^Ir. Pellatt told the Commis- sioners that on one occasion one of the Excise officers, in a frolic, " tlnew a piece of glass at another, which broke the Avindow of the lear. The super- visor observing it a few muiutes afterwards, and taking init part of the glass and pushing back the wire, pronounced the lear to be insecure, and reported accordingly. A prosecution was instituted. After incurring about £G0 law expense, the crown solicitor dropped the case, findhig that his own witnesses would affbrd him no chance of success. As the crown paid no costs, we had to defray the whole expense of that prosecution." The impossibility of collecting tlie flint-glass duty in a fair and equitable manner was made apparent in many ways. Mr. Powell, a Bristol manufac- turer, said to the Commissioners, " 1 do not see what legislative protection \ 'fl I ' 8 GLASS AND ITS MAMUFAOTURE. I, i 11) it'i ii I can be given to the flint-glass trade, unless there were officers almost as thick as the tiles on houses ; fo.* there ai'e thirty manufacturers in London at this moment, unknown to the Government, employed in melting up what we call cullet, or broken glass, such as the stems of goblets, bottoms of tumblers, the thick parts of decanters, and so on ; they can be melted in a garret, and made up into saltcellars, cruets and castors, bird-boxes, smelling-bottles, and a variety of articles used by perfumers ; and it is done to a very large extent." Mr. Pellatt called these obscure makers Little Goes; and stated that the little goes had ruined the trade in the smaller articles of flint-glass, " by making an inferior article of what is termed cullet. I have seen saltcellars retailed at M. each, weighing half-a-pound each, which is tlie full amount of u.? dut('." The battle between the Excise and the manufacturers was often a strange one. A drawback of 6s. M. per square foot (afterv ards lessened to 2s. 9d.) was allowed on plate-glass when exported ; and two manufacturers, taking ad- vantage of this, made plate-glass so thin that, when exported and allowed the drawback, they gained largely by it. The Excise then made com- plicated laws — tliat the duty should be by weight ; that the drawback should be by the foot ; that plate-glass should not be exported if less than one-eighth of an inch thick; and that (to prevent cro^vn-glass from having the drawback privileges of plate-glass) no crown-glass should be made thicker than one-ninth of an inch. Thus was the tiade hampered for many years by laws rendered necessary (or alleged to be necessary) by the dishonesty of two persons : a pretty clear proof that the whole system rested on an unsound basis. Then again, in order that plate-glass might not interfere with the levying of the duty on flint-glass, it was enacted that no plate-glass should be made above a certain thickness ; this restriction prevented an eminent manufacturing firm from carrying out a contract for supplying a very large lens for one of the northern lighthouses. "When the reader is told tliat one kind of glass paid a duty of Is. per cwt., while another paid 98s., and that three other kinds occupied three intermediate stages, he will see how much inducement manufacturers had to substitute one kind for another, and how much technical straggling would arise between them and the executive. The year 1815, however, arrived, and with it the removal of the Excise duty on glass. Then, and then only, did the English manufactiu-er begin to feel himself a free agent, in a position to make experiments tending to the advance of his manufacture. There is thus a curious featm*e in respect to the half- century's progi'ess ; more has been effected in the last five yeai's of the period tlian in the preceding forty-five yeai's. It has shown itself in respect to plate- glass, to sheet-glass, to flint-glass, — indeed to nearly eveiy department of the art. Let us take Osier's ' Ciystal fountain,' for instance — a fountain that will presently be known to persons from almost every comer of the world as a distinguished ornament to the Palace of Industry. This fountain is certainly one of the most ambitious specimens which the art has yet put forth ; and tlie result shows that the ambition has not " o'er-leap'd itself," for there are certainly Few productions in the Exhibition more honourable to English art. The glassy structure is 27 feet in height, and weighs about four tons — nearly 9000 lbs. There must of course be numerous pieces of metal used to sup- port the structm-e ; but these have been so skilfully overlaid with richly-cut glass, that they are virtually hidden, and their opacity detracts little or nothing from the brilliancy of the Avhole stiiicture. Plate-glass has fully kept pace with flint-glass in the march of improvement. GLASS AMD ITS MAMUFACTUBK. g Mr. Blake, manager of the Thames Plate-Glass Works, and Mr. Bessemer, have patented inventions for extensive improvements in the manufacture ; and improvements of a minor kind have been introduced by other inventors. The result may, to some extent, be seen at the Great Exhibition ; yve there see plates of glass which have been so coloured as to imitate polished woods and marbles; we see in McLean's looking-glass the largest specimen of a bril- liantly-framed glass ever executed in this country ; but the quiet and modest imframed glass, at the west extremity of the nnve, has the reputation of being the largest and the finest known specimen of British plate-glass : it measures nearly 19 feet by 10. Eevived Taste: Stained and Coloured Glass. Among the agencies which have tended to the increased employment of glass in artistic works must undoubtedly be included the partial revival of mediaeval taste in ecclesiastical decorations. In the seventeenth century stained-glass windows in churches met with much fierce opposition ; while in the eighteenth they encomitered neglect and indifference ; and as there was thus little or no demand, the skill which could furnish a supply became nearly lost. Hence it has arisen that the artists in this department, at the present day, have had to study anew the principles and practice of their art. It has been remarked by competent critics, that, in the specimens which exemplify the progress of tlae artists, the defects as well as tlie beauties of the mediteval productions ai'e attempted to be imitated, as if the revived art had not yet sti'ength to walk alone. In the Great Exhibition, tlie quaint and stiff drawing of many of the figm-es in the stained-glass specimens is apparent enough ; yet it is impossible not to obsen'e that gi'eat beauty of colouring is dis- played, and it is under this aspect alone tliat we allude to the subject here. In the Mediceval Court the stained glass has too little light behind it to dis- play the colours well ; but in the gallery, on the northern side of the foreign nave, a particulai'ly happy aiTangement has been adopted for the varied ex- amples of stained-glass, British and foreign, whereby fiie colours and general execution are developed with surprising distinctness. The fine window, too, in the centre of tlie foreign nave, well ejdiibits the skill in coloming and in the distribution of light and shade which its artist possesses. Any improvement in the colours of stained glass, whetlier in tlie recoveiy of the rich i-uby tint of the middle ages, or by tlie invention of new combinations, would tell favourably on the glass manufacture in general ; for we have yet seen only a little, in this countiy, of the application of colour to glass in miscellaneous manufactm'es. The practice of polychrome, or many-coloured decoration in buildings, is in its infancy among us ; and it is hardly possible yet to conjec- ture what new aspects of beauty may in future be developed. A question that suggests itself at die present time is — May not glass-staining be made available for a wider range of pictorial illustx*ation than it has ordi- narily been applied to ? The ecclesiastical structures of the middle ages are those to which we are most indebted for specimens of this beautiful art ; and ill suc]i buildings sacred subjects are necessarily adopted. Our modem English glass-stainers confine Uieraselves, for the most pai't, either to sacred subjects, or to mere ornamental foliage, stars, arabesques, &c. ; but the nortii- east galleiy of tlie Great Exhibition shows us that our neighbours embrace a wider range. Look at MM. Marechal and Gugnon's ' St. Charles Bon'omeo :5, giving tlie Sacrament to the Victims of tlie Plague ;' and their ' Portrait of a B 3 ^■^ w^ lO GLASS AND TtS MANUFACTURE. Burgomaster ;' at Geyling's ' Girl at a Window ;' and at Bertini's ' Dante Window,' in the central nave— these are of varied excellence ; but they show that othei's beside sacred subjects may suitably be chosen. Mr. Baillie's • Queen Elizabeth listening to the reading of Shakspere,' is suggestive as point- ing out how exhaustless a store Shakspere himself would be to the artistic glass-stainer. A monument to this delicate ai-t, and a monument to the great dramatist, might be formed by a series of dramatic scenes thus depicted. We need not go so far as to designate such supposed specimens " vitrified poetry " (in imitation of a modem Geraian definition of architecture as being " congealed music ") ; but it may well deserve a thought, whether our glass- stainers could not strike out a new path for themselves, instead of following in the wake of mediajval artists. What glorious subjects might the Great Exhibition itself suggest, to be depicted in a range of " storied-windows ! " Mr. Robert Hunt has well shown that the " poetiy of science " is something more than a mere name ; it can be felt as having a living warmtli In it. And so is there likewise a poeti-y of industry, which, if appreciated by one who is at the same time a glass-stiiiner, might produce results of surprising foi'ce and beauty. Whether future experimenters will verify the results remains to be seen; but M. Bontemps, in a paper communicated to the British Association at the Birmingham meeting in 1849, made known some experiments which touch veiy closely the labours of the glass-stainer. It is generally admitted that diflfei'ent metallic oxides impart different colours to glass ; but M. Bontemps asks — How do quantity, and time, and temperature, affect the result? May not nearly all colom-s be produced by one oxide, varied by these contingencies ? He sought industriously for trae answers to these questions. He states that all the colours of the spectiiim may be produced by oxide of iron ; that pui-ple, brownish-red, yellow, and green may be produced by oxide of man- ganese ; and that the oxides of gold, of silver, and of copper, severally pro- duce many different colours in glass— the determining causes being, the quantity of oxide employed, the temperature attamed, and the duration of the process. Here we find sketched in outline an unboimded field for future experimenters ; and science will belie itself if it do not, by and by, enable ouv glass-stainers (whether jNI. Bontemps' views be correct or not) to equal any- thing produced by the mediaeval artists, so far as colour is concerned. The above remarks concerning stained glass refer to improvements sought by a revival of taste or fashion in that department, rather than to the effects of fiscal changes. So ftu* as the actual manufacture of the glass is concerned, the advancement lately made has not been considerable ; it is in the combination of colouring materials with the glass that the talent of the glass-stainer finds most scope for its exercise. Not a fow of the recent improvements, or attempts at improvement, relate to a combination of colours in the glass employed. We allude not here to stained glass, usually so called ; but to adornments of a more special character. Take the question simply of colour. Here we find that tlic Bohemians, however far they may be below our level in manufactures, arc able to impart to glass a richness of colour which oin- glass-maliers have (until lately) endeavoured in vain to equal ; the ruby tints especially are marked for tlieir brilliancy. All colours in glass are produced by the admixture of some or other of the numerous metallic oxides ; and although it is known that oxide of gold is used by the Bohemians in the richer red tints of the best specimens, yet for some reason or other (or more probal>ly from a combination of reasons) our manufacturers have rarely GLA88 AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 11 quite equalled those tints. It is evident, however, to any one who has glanced over recent productions, that sedulous endeavouis ire now being made to do all that our neighbours are able to do. The * ruby ' chandelier, and Uio ' Alhambra ' chandelier, placed in the Great Exhibition, are steps in a stylo of aaii which may lead to results both brilliant and tasteful. The production of glass mmaks is a very remarkable appUcation of colom*ed glass to pictorial purposes. When Napoleon had possession of It-aly, ho ordered a mosaic copy of Lionardo da Vinci's celebrated picture of the ' Last Supper' to be made, the same size as the original, viz. 20 feet by 18. The artist was Giacomo Raffaelli; and the v.ien under his direction, eight cw ten in number, were engaged at it for eight years ; this mosaic, which now belongs to tlie Emperor of Austria, cost £7500. The picture was, we believe, formed of cubes of coloured earths and stones; and therefore, however clever tad effective, it does not belong to our present subject. The glass mosaics in the Great Exhibition, though few in number, are of distinguished merit, and ai'e comprised among the scanty contributions from the once mighty Rome. No nation among the ancients equalled the Italians of the last two or three cen- turies in the production of mosaic glass pictures ; for the ancient mosaics were for the most pai't in some kind of stone, clay, or pottery-ware, whereas the finest modem specimens are glass copies from paintings of the highest class. The production of glass mosaics requires unweaiied patience, combined with much skill and taste. In the first place, the materials of glass are mixed with various colouiing materials, chiefly metallic oxides, so as to fonn opaque coloured enamels; these enamels are cast into slabs or flat cakes; and the slabs are cut into veiy small cubes or rectangular pieces. Not only is every colour imitated, but eveiy gradation of tint hi each colom:; insomuch that, at the great mosaic establishment at Home, maintained by the papal govern- ment, they have no less than thirty thousand different tints of colom-ed enamels, all classified and registered. With these little coloured cubes a picture is built up, copying some celebrated work of the Italian or other masters. The pieces are inserted, one by one, in a bed of cement which dries to extreme hardness; each piece is ground at a kind of lathe to the exact shape required by the paiticular tint in each part of the picture; and when the picture is completed by this extremely slow process, the surface is ground down and polished. It is quite impossible to describe the result thus pro- duced ; the reader can only appreciate it by looking at tlie actual specimens themselves. Let him examine the views of St. Peter's, the Cohseum at Rome, the Roman Fonim, the Temple of Peestum, the Harbour of Genoa, the Bay of Naples, the eopy of Guercino's * John the Baptist,' &c., in the Italian compartment of the Great Exhibition (mostly table-slabs) : he will there find that the minutest touches, the most delicate tints, are imitated, and in some instances with surprising success. It must be remembered, too, that these colours are not mere surface tints, not merely ' skin-deep ;' they permeate the substance of the glass, each little fragment having the same tint all through its thickness. If it were possible to turn the whole series of pieces upside down, without disturbing their relative positions, a second picture would be presented exactly like the original, only with a reversal of right and left. The two specimens of glass mosaic described by Winckelniann and Count Caylus in the last century, seem to have been of a somewhat different kind, for they presented a complete picture on each suiface. They consisted of coloured glass fibres fitted together with the utmost exactness, and cemented by fusion into a solid mass. Of these two specimens, each of which was > i ; -; 1 K ^ 1 ( ' 1 ' ^ a- -. ' ! - 1 wmm mmmmmmmmmmmimm I ! I i I IQ GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. about an inch long by a third of an inch broad, one exliibited, on a dark ground of variegated colours, a representation of a duck; the outlines were decided and sharp, the colours beautiful and pure, and the effect veiy striking, from the artist having combined opaque with transparent glass; tlie most delicate pencil of the miniature painter could not have ti'aced more accurately and distinctly, either the circle of the pupil of the eye, or the apparently scaly feathers on the breast and wings. The other specimen was about the same size, and exhibited an ornamental device of green, white, and yellow colours, which were traced on a blue gi-ound, and represented volutes, beads, and flowers. On whichever side these specimens were viewed a similar object was perceived ; for the pictures were formed of very slender fibi'es of glass, laid side by side, according to their colours, and afterwards exposed to a heat just sufficient to fuse the whole into a cemented mass, without disturbing or injuring the tints of any one fibre. Decorativ3 and Silvered Glass Work. To return, however, to decorative glass work belonging more particularly to oiu" own day. Two remarkable novelties were patented by Mr. Pellatt a few years ago, founded on processes which had before to some extent been pi'actised by the Bohemians. These are Cameo Incrustation and Crystallo Engraving. About a century ago, tlie Bohemian glass-makers excited sm-prise by producing bas-relief casts of busts and medals, enclosed witliin a coating of white flin^glass; and it was an extension of this art that became the subject of one of the patents mentioned above. To produce tlie desired result, the figm'e intended for incnistation must be made of materials that will require a higher degree of heat for tlieir fusion than the glass within which it is to be in- crusted ; a mixture of China clay and silicate of potash is found to possess this quality. The bust or bas-relief is made of this material from a plaster mould, and after being slightly baked, is cooled gi'adually. A mass of trans- parent white glass is blown hollow, with one end open, and the clay cameo, heated to redness, is placed within it. The mass is pressed or welded to make tlie two substances adhere, and the remote end being closed, the glass- blower draws out the air from within (instead of forcing in air as in the ordinary manufacture), thus causing the glass to collapse, and to form one continuous substance with the cameo. When the glass is cut and polished to any desired form, the effect produced is striking and beautiful, for the clay cameo or bust has the appearance of unbumished silver, isolated in tlie midst of the solid transpai-ent glass. Small articles are incrusted in a more ex- peditious manner, especially upon glass goblets or similar hollow vessels. The hot cameo is placed upon the hot mauufactured vessel, a small piece of semi- liquid glass is dropped upon it, and tliis both fixes the cameo in its place and forms a glassy layer to enclose it. The other novelty mentioned above, the Crystallo Engraving, consists in taking fac-similes of casts or dies from intaglios, and compressing them in intaglio on hollow glass vessels. This process is conveniently adopted where numerous copies of elaborate devices are required, such as badges of regi- ments, or aiTOS upon decanters or table glass. The die or cast is sprinkled over fii*st with Tripoli powder, then with fine diy plaster and brickdust, and tlien with coarse powder of the same two materials ; it is placed mider a press, and at tlie same time exposed to the aciioii of water, by which the sandy layers become solidifio'-I irto a cast. This cast is placed in tlie iron mould in ^m T GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. IB 1 a dark les were striking, ho most ccurately itly scaly he same colow^, ads, and bject was lass, laid hent just rbing or irticularly Pellatt a tent been Crystallo i sm-prise coating of subject of the figm'e 3 a higher to be in- ;o possess 1 a plaster 3 of trans- ay cameo, welded to the glass- as in the form one (olished to r the clay tlie midst more ex- w vessels, ce of semi- place and ;onsists in g them in ited where BS of regi- sprinkled kdust, find ler a press, the sandy 1 mould in 'vhich the glass vessel is to be made, and becomes an integral part of the vessel so produced ; but by the application of a little water tlie cast is sepa- rated, and leaves an intaglio impression upon the glass as sharp as the original die. The cast or coke thus used, however, seldom suffices for a second im- pression. The mention of the Bohemian glass manufacture brings to mind a curious example of the mode in which conmierce seeks out its markets, and makes light of the distance which often separates the producers from the consumers. In Uie Great Exliibition is a glass case of a vei-y instructive kind, containing speci- . mens of all or nearly all the commodities brought to Livei-pool in tlie common course of trade. Each specimen is labelled with its commercial or local name, its scientific name (if any), tlie country whence imported, the uses to which applied, and the quantity imported into Liverpool in 1849. Among tlie articles so deposited are Bohemian glass beads, of all sizes and colours ; and the route by which they reach their destination is curious. They find Uieir way from Bohemia northward to Hamburg, or soutliword to Trieste ; tliey are shipped at one or both of those ports to Livei"pool ; they are shipped again from Liverpool to the west coast of Africa, where they are baitered with the natives for ivoiy, palm oil, or other commodities. Those who ai'e attracted by tlie brilliantly-coloured and diversely-oraa- mented specimens of glass which now appear in the London shops, may hardly know that such articles were a staple manufacture in Venice in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that much of the modem work is a mere revival of a pai-tially forgotten ai-t. Mr. Pellatt, in his interesting ' Curiosities of Glass Making,' enumerates the following among tlie tasteful productions of the Venetians. The Venetian ball has an exterior of trans- parent colourless glass, enclosing glass of many difierent colours fused into one mass. The Venetian ^filagree, which consists of spirally- twisted plain and coloured enamel glass, was much used by tlie Venetians for tlie stems of wuie- glasses, goblets, &c. ; and when placed together side by side in alternate colom*s, it was nianufactm'ed into tozzas, vases, and other ornamental articles. Millefiore glass consists of a great variety of ends of fancy-coloured tubes, cut sectionally a(r right angles with tlie filagree cane to form small lozenges or tablets ; and these, when placed side by side, and massed togetlier by trans- parent glass, have tlie appearance of an innumerable series of flowers or rosettes for ornamental vases, &c. Mosaic glass was produced by threads or small canes of vaiiously-coloured opaque -or transpai-ent glass, of unifonu lengths, ranged sectionally together in groups, so tliat the ends may form grounds on which are patterns of flowers or arabesques ; and these, being cut either ti-ansversely or obliquely, fomi slabs of any required number or thick- ness, the same pattern being met with at eveiy cutting. Of such kind were the two specimens described by Winckelmiuin. Sincta glass is produced by fused lengths of coloured glass rolled one into another, so as to imitate cai'- neliaii or other stones. Vitro di trino is fine lace-work, witli intersecting lines of white enamel or transparent glass, forming a series of diamond-shaped sections ; the centre of ea^li has an air bubble of miiform size. The Frosted glass has irregularly-vemed marble-like projecting dislocations, with iiiterveiiing fissures. It is produced by plunging the white-hot glass into cold water, and then reheating and reblowing it ; although it appears covered witli fractures, this glass is perfectly sonorous. INIr. Pellatt says tliat the art of making tliis glass was known and practised only by tlie Venetians, until revived by him a few years ago at tlie Falcon Glass Works. 14 QlJiSB AND ITS MANOFACTURli:. The flilvered glass produced by the metliod of Mr. Halo Thompson is a, product of singular beauty. Whether in the fonn of cups or goblets, of tazzas or wine-coolers, of epergnes, ewers, candelabra, inkstands, salt or sugiu-boxes, of flat miiTors or of miiTor globes, it exhibits a brillianciy of hue that con hardly fail to arrest attention. It is to the combination of colour with silvering that we owe tliis result. Some months ago, Mr. Donaldson, in advocating tlie use of this. material for architectural decoration, especially in tlie adonmient of shop-fronts, stated tliat the influence of the silver on the colour gave rise to tints almost unknown before, and such as no combination of the ordinaiy colouring ingredients could imitate. It may, in this respect, be compared to the Diorama, which differs ft'Om other pictures in being viewed by reflected and tnmsmitted light conjointly ; the glass presents tlie reflective power of tlie silver with the transmissive or transparent power of the coloured medium. The most conspicuous products, perhaps, are tlie mirror globes, Avhich present every variety of brilliant colour, and have a size from two inches to thirty inches in diameter ; but, excellently as tliese illustrate tlie combination of effects just alludfjd to, they are not so delicately beautiful as articles of more diverse fonn, where endless nuances are produced by Uie ditt'erent angles at v/liich tlie light is reflected to Uie eye. So much more brilliant is tlie argentine reflection than that produced by the mercuiy-tunalgam at tlie back of a looking-glass, that it is contemplated to employ tliis glass in many useful ways for optical and scientific instniments. Without going minutely into details, a few words will suffice to explain tlie relation which tliis new method bears to those ordinarily adopted. In jire- paring a looking-glass, a sheet of ^infoil is laid down smoothly on a flat table ; liquid mercury is poured on it, the plate of glass is laid on the mercury, and heavy weights are laid on the glass ; while the supei*fluous mercuiy is gra- dually expelled by the pressure, the remainder combines chemically with the tinfoil, and fonns with it an anialgam which adheres pretty closely to the surface of the glass: when seen from the other side, this amalgam yields the biiUiant white reflection familiar to us in looking-glasses. But, biilliant as is this reflection, it has often been thought that a yet more lustrous effect would be produced by the use of real silver; and a patent for tliis object was procured by Mr. Drayton, about eight years ago. According to this patent, the plate of glass is covered with a solution, in which the chief in- gi'edient is nitrate of silver ; and when tliis solution has been left undisturbed for a certain time, metallic silver separates from it, and becomes precipitated on the glass ; tlie remaining solution is poured off", and the film is secured by a resinous varnish. In the later silvering process a somewhat similai* nitrate solution is employed, but witJi a different precipitating agent. The re- markable feature, however, is, that the glass is made double, and the liquid is poured into the cavity between Uie two surfaces, so that no protecting varnish is necessary ; and as the twin thicknesses may be of diff"erent coloured glass, an extensive range of new effects becomes obtainable. The etching or engraving of glass presents another pleasing variety. By Mr. Kidd's recently-patented process, a species of embroideiy of great beauty is produced. In this method, the devices or patterns are cut on the under smface of tlie glass, and the small facets are silvered ; the result is, that innumerable tiny mirrors tlirow up reflections in eveiy direction. This is the case where colourless transparent glass is employed ; but where multi- coloured glass is used, many novel combinations jiresent themselves. There may, for instance, be a basis or primaiy layer of transparent glass; then n ipson IS A i, of tazZAH igHi'-buxes, coil hardly :erin^ that iig the use •niment of ive rise to 5 ordinaiy mpared to Y reflected wer of Uie um. The isent every ' inches in ist alUidfid nn, where le light is ction than iss, that it ptical and xplain tlie In pre- flat table ; rcuiy, and 117 is gm- y with the ely to Uie am yields t, biilliant rous effect his object ig to this chief iri- idisturbed ■ecipitated s secured it similar The re- :he liquid n-otecting ; coloured ety. By at beauty the under t is, that This is ■re multi- There Uss: then GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 15 nn opaquo layer of white glass is poured upon tliis ; and, lastly, a layer of ruby glass on the white ; the united thickness may be then cut to any deptli and with any device, and, whether silvered or not, a rich display of colours results. Specimens of Kidd's embossed glass, as well as of the silvered coloured glass, are to bo met witli in Uie Fx'ubition, and certainly form notable features among its novelties. Our American bretliren seem to have been the first to inti'oduce a mode of manufactming glass by jjressiuff, being one of the very few varieties in which blowing is not required. A metal die and plunger are prepared, Uie former to give the exterior pattern, and the latter tlie interior pattern, to tho article about to be made; the ball of melted glass is dropped into the die or mould, and tho plunger or matrix is brought down upon it by the lever handle of a simplo kind of press, and the gla.s3 is thus instantly fonned into the desired shape. Tho process is said to be cheap and expeditious, but to require much skill. If tlie quantity of glass be too large, the over- plus gives considerable trouble ; if too little, tlie article is spoiled : if the die an -I plunger bo too hot, the glass will adhere to tliem ; if too cold, tlio surface of the glass becomes cloudy and imperfect. It is by some such process as this, but still more simple, Uiat glass drops for chandeliers ai^o ordinarily fonned. Lumps of glass, made expressly for this pui-pose, afe softened by heat, and shaped hi twin brass dies ; but the inferior kinds are made from thick tumbler bottoms, or waste glass. The arms of chandeliers, also, are jiressed by twin dies, tlie upper die being fi.\ed to Uie plunger, and Uie under 0110 to the bed of a lever press. A mode of decorating glass, which leads to many varied and beautiful results, i Uiat carried on by Uie patent of ^lessrs. Powell. In manufactures of thi < description, after Uie glass is made, and before it has cooled, a device in iiitugu » IS impressed by a die, just as in making impressions in wax, and into the cavities Uius formed melted glass of another colour is poured ; when cold, the surface is properly gi'ound and polished. It is difficult to imagine the play of colours thus produced ; for, besides the contrast between Uie two kinds of glass employed, there are all the multiplied tints which result from prismatic reflection, accorduig to the angle at which each small surface presents itself to the eye. Scientific Relations of Glass- Making. But we must now direct our attention to a fcAv improvements more solidly advantageous than those which owe their attractions to colours, mosaics, silvering, or embosshig. Every day's experience tells us that Uiere is a perpetual reaction between the dilferent de]mrtments of knowledge. Eveiy science and art receives benefit for eveiy benefit which it confei's ; it " gains strength in giving." If science aids the glass-maker, so doe.3 Uie glass-maker lend his aid to the students of science. A curious exemplification of Uiis has appeared within the last few years, in connection with the beautifid palm-house at Kew, chiefly through Uie instrumentality of Mr. Robert Hunt. To explain it, we must remind the reader that ordinaiy solar light consists of rays of three colours, red, yellow, and blue ; and that of Uiese three the red have Uie most heating effect, the yellow tlie most light-giving effect, and the blue the strongest chemical effect. When combined in the ordinaiy ratio, the sim's rays produce the regular or natural effects (whatever they may be) on vege- I 1 mf-^^mm^ ^pnqn i^m^rm f^^mmmmmmmmmmmmm 16 GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. tAtion; but if artificial means be adopted to change this ratio, special effects result. Mr Hunt employed coloured glass to determine these effects ; for, in each kind, tlie glass transmits one portion of the solar rays more abundantly than the rest, and owes what is caUed its ' colovir ' to this property. Under yellow glass, he found that, generally speaking, the germination of seeds is prevented; and that, even in cases where it has commenced, the plant speedily dies. On tlie other hand, in a later stage of development, these rays seem to contiibute to the vigorous growth of the plant. Under red glass, if the seeds ai-e well watched and watered, germination takes place; but the plant shows a sickly constitution, and the leaves are partially blanched. It is curious that, according to Mr. Hunt's observations, those plants wliich naturally bend towards tlie white light of day, seem to shim red light by bending away from i^ ; but that when they arrive at the flowering stage, the plants welcome the red rays more than the V. ie or yellow. Under blue glass, the germination of seeds and the growth of young plants are accelerated in a remarkable maimer; but if this kind of stimulus be continued beyond a certain time, the plant increases in bulk without a correspondi:ig increase in sti'ength. Mr. Hunt, in othera of his published works, has applied tlie term actinism to the peculiar principle and effects of the blue rays ; and, in connection with those views, he expresses an opinion that tlie^e experiments on the effect of coloured glass on plants, " seem to point to a veiy greftt practical appli- cation, in enabling us in this climate to meet the necessities of plants, natives of tlie ti'opical regions. We have evidence (at least so it appears to me) from these and other results, that the germination of seeds in spring, the flowering of plants in summer, and the ripening of fmits in autumn, ai'e dependent upon the variations ui tlie amount of actinism or chemical influence of light and of heat, at those seasons, in tlie solar beam." These interesting facts, it is tme, belong to the optical and organic sciences rather than to the glt-s manufactm-e; but it is impossible not to see how mutually bene- ficial such discoveries must be to the two friendly powers— science and industrial ai't; and the new palm-house at Kew affords at once a case in point. Wlien a little manganese is present in glass, it con-ects the colouring action of the iron which usually exists in the sand ; but tlie whitened glass thus produced is found to admit the heat of the solar rays to a gi'eater degiee than ordinaiy glass ; and the plants in a palm-house or hot-house so glazed are found to suffer a scorching effect injurious to tliem. Mr. Robert Hunt, appreciating both the good and the bad aspects of this modification, has exercised his ingenuity in retaining the former and dispersing the latter; he recommended the use of a little oxide of copper instead of oxide of manganese ; and the palm-house at Kew, glazed with glass so tinted, has been found to possess the advantages without the disadvantages of what we may term the manganese system. The manufacture of glass suitable for optical puiposes has been (as we have before noticed) uiiduly pressed down in England by the pernicious Excise laws, only recently removed ; and we have to wait for future times to show the full eft'ect of the removal. The production of glass fitted for the construction of lenses for large telescopes, is a work of such extreme difticulty, that those who excel in it become celebrated throughout Europe, and tlieir names fmd a place in the records of science. Thus Frauenhofer, of Munich, has b. world-wide fame (among men of science at least) for having, among other works, produced the object-lens for tlie great telescope at Doi-pat. His successor, Utzschneider, maintains his reputation for producing optical glass al effects 3 ; for, in lundantly Under ' seeds is lie plant liese rays i glass, if ; but the sd. It is naturally ling away } welcome irmination emarkable tain time, strength. ictinism to etion with the effect tical appli- its, natives 5 me) from 3 flowering dependent ifluence of interesting ither than ually bene- jience and a case in 3 colouring ened glass iter degiee so glazed jbert Hunt, nation, has [the latter; ►f oxide of „ has been at we may 3en (as we I pernicious i-e times to 3d for the difficulty, and their [unich, has long other l-pat. His [ptical glass I GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTCRE. 17 free from sirise or streaks; Guinand, Frauenhofer's pupil, carried a share of the same reputation to Pai'is; and Bontemps, Guinand's successor, is at the present day taxing his skill to equal, if not to excel, his predecessors. Is it not lamentable that, until the year 1845, English glass-makers were almost wholly prevented from competing for these honourable distinctions ? Until recently, the dioptric lenses for lighthouses, on the principles laid down by Fresnel and Brewster, have been chiefly manufactured on tlie Continent} but our English makers ai*e now endeavouring to enter into honourable competition with their neighbours. It is most encoiuraging to And the Astronomer Boyal speaking as follows, at tlie recent meeting of the British Association at Ipswich : — " The removal of the vexatious fiscal inter- ferences with the manufactm-e of glass, and the enterprise with which Mr. Chance as manufactm*er, and Mr. Simms and Mr. Ross as opticians, have taken up the construction of large object-glasses, promise to lead to the most gi'atifying results. Already Mr. Simms has partially tested object-glasses of 13 inches' aperture; and one of 16 inches is waiting not for the flint, but for the crown lens. Mr. Boss, it is understood, has ground an objectglass of 2 feet aperture, but it has not been tested. The facility of procuring large object-glasses will undoubtedly lead to the extensive construction of graduated instruments on a larg^ scale than before." The manufacture of glass tubes for a multitude of purposes is among the most notable results of the removal of the Excise duty. Such articles could scarcely have been made with any chance of remimerative profit under the harassing restrictions of the old laws ; but several patented processes are now at work, by which glass pipes are made for the flow of water, con'osive acids, gas, &c. In the Mineral Section of Uie Great Exhibition, at the extreme southern side of the British depai'tment, many specimens of this glass tubing may be seen. As there ai'e many circumstances which show how the scientific principle of annealing or tempering improves the quality of manufactured articles in glass, so, conversely, does the manufacture afford sinking exemplifications of this principle. If we were to speak of natural magic in glass-making, we might perhaps select tlie Bologna phials and the Rupert drops as examples of its exer- cise ; for assuredly there are few things in this art so utterly perplexing to an observer. A Bologna phial is a phial of any convenient shape, which differs from an ordinaiy phial only in being much thicker at the bottom than the sides, and in having been suddenly cooled in the open air instead of slowly cooled in an annealing oven. The result on its susceptibility to fi'actiu:e is most extraordinary. It will bear a heavy blow or severe pressm'e from any blunt instrument uninjured; but if any hard and angular substance— even so small as a gi'ain of flint or shaif sand — be dropped into it, the bottom of the phial will crack all roimd and drop off. A smtdl fragment of diamond has even been seen to pass thioi:?;h the Uiick bottom with apparently as little resistance as if it dropped tlirougb a cobweb. Instances have been kno\vn in which one of these phials has been stnick by a mallet with a force sufficient to drive a nail into most kinds of wood, without fracture; while a two-grain fragment of flint, dropped gently into the phial, cmcked and severed the glass. The Rupert drops, or Prince Rupert's drops, are small solid pieces of gi'een glass, which have been dropped while red-hot into cold water, and which take tlie form of rounded lumps elongated by a tail. The round part will bear a hard blow without fracture; but if tlie smallest particle of the tail be broken off, the whole flies into innumerable fragments as fine as dust. It has been even i V i1 I ! ii i m. 't'Kymim'vimmm^mmmm^mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmifmmmmffUKIffKKI^ti I '1 IS GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. shown that if this experiment be performed while the glass drop is in a wine- hottle filled with water, by the aid of a long pair of nippers, the concussion by the explosion (for it almost amounts to an explosion) is so violent as to brealc the bottle and scatter the water in aU directions. Ail these strange results are due to a peculiai' inequality in the condition of the glass, arising from the sudden cooling; but it has not yet been clearly ascertained wherein the inequality consists. At any rate, it is a phenomenon equally strange and beautiful. Were we to dwell upon the many cm'ious relations which glass bears to scientific principles, eitlier as a consequence of tliem, or as an aid towards their development, it would take us far beyond ovu* limits. We may however mention a circumstance veiy little known in common life, that there ai'e cer- tain kinds of glass which may be dissolved in water. All glass is, chemicall}', a silicate of some alkaline or metallic oxide ; and according to the nature of this oxide, so does tlie quality of tlie glass differ. If potash or soda be the substance combined with the silicic acid or silica, witliout any third ingi'edient, a glass is produced which, though presenting the usual vitreous aspect, is easily dissolved in water. It is called soluble glass, and is employed as a Itind of paint for paper, clotli, wood, &c., to prevent or retai'd tlieir inflammation on the contact of an ignited body. New Applications of Gi-Ass. In respect to the every-day wants of society, wc find that glass is gradually working out tlie scheme which we noticed as mai-king the progress from 1801 to 1851. The raw materials, it is true, have "ot been largely increased in number or kind ; but commerce has given us a few (such as Australian sand), science a few (such as an extended knowledge of the metallic oxides), and legis- lation a few (such as cheapenhig the alkalies). The manufacturing processes have, from tlie reasons so many times alluded to, only of late shown any marked improvement; but these improvements lie in many different paths, all of which are now being pursued simultaneously. There are new but simple ap- paratus brought into use ; there ai'o new combinations of the primaiy ingre- dients ; there ai-e new mixtures of metallic oxides to impart colour ; there arc improved i-ules adopted concerning the temperatiu-e, the duration, and tlu; manipulative details of each process ; and there is a common-sense tendency to employ a few foreign workmen when (but only when) the English hands arc- not skilled in any particulai' department. But it is in the apjtlication of glass to practical puiposes that we most cleaily see the recent progress. There is both an increased use where it has long been used, and a new use as a substi- tute for other materials — both beuig due to the increased cheapness and ex- cellence of the glass made. The use of glass for agricultural and other purposes has indeed extended with striking rapidity since the change in the Excise duties. Let us take the shop-bill of one among many London manufacturers of these articles, and glance through its contents. First we find patent rough jilate-glass, im eighth of an inch thick, obtainable in sheets up to a size of ten or twelve s\iperficial feet, for consenatories and skylights, and saleable at tlu'eepence to tenpence per foot. Horticultural sheet-glass for consenatories is " made so fis to ob- viate the scorching effects of the sun's rays." Eough plate-glass, intimded for roofs and floors, is made from a quai'ter of an inch to an inch and a half in thickness ; so strong ai'c the thickest of these specimens, that they are walked I i ,"i i CLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 10 i in a wine- cussion by ,s to bvenlc results are ; from the herein the trange and ;s bears to lid towards ly however ro ai'e cer- chemically, 3 nature of soda be tlie ingredient, s aspect, is i as a land tnraation on is gradually 3 from 1801 increased in •alian sand), s), and legis- ig processes any marked )aths, all of simple ap- imaiy ingre- there arc on, and the ise tendency 1 hands are 'on of glass There is as a substi- loss and cx- cd extended us take the articles, and ss, im eighth e superficial to (enpencc 50 as to ob- inttmded for id a half in y are walked over by thousands of pedestrians in tlie busy sti'eets of London, in spots where light is requu'ed to be tin-own into an underground cellar. Glass tiles are made of rough plate from one-eightli to one-half an inch in thickness, and of sheetglass from sixteen to thirty-two ounces per square foot ; and glass slates, drilled with holes for fixing, fu'o made of similar materials. Glass shelves, witli or without raised edges, and from two to six inches in width, are sold by the foot of length. For immediate horticultural or daily use we find bee glasses, propagatmg glasses, cucumber glasses, hyacintli and flower dishes and glasses, crocus glasses, wall-fruit glasses, fmit-protecting glasses, peach and grape glasses, fern shades, milk trays and pans, cream-pots, and numerous other articles. Then there are numberless useful implements which can with difficulty be brought under any common designation, but which all tend to ex- emplitj' the increasing use of glass ; perforated glass for ventilation, syringes for injections, chemists' pill slabs, cornice poles, pipes for conveying liquids — aie each of them types of large classes of articles now made of this material. In respect to tlie ability of English workmen to equal those of foreign countries in tlie mechanical depaitments of tlie glass manufacture, Mr. Rixton adduced an instractive instance some time ago. In one of the many public explana- tions which he has given concerning the Exhibition and its wonders, he dwelt (among other tilings) on the apprehended injmy which foreign workmen might inflict on those of tliis country. " He would state a fact within his own know- ledge. Frenchnien were celebrated for ornamental glass. The establishment of Messrs. Chance employed a number of F'snchmen for a particultq: branch of the ti'ade, the making of glass shades. By degrees tlie English workmen in the establishment became as proficient in the ait as the French ; and about a fortnight ago a trial of skill took place between them. The establishment received orders for an enormous glass shade. A Fi-enchman tried his skill, and failed ; an Englishman, who, previous to the importation of the French, was unacquainted with the art, then made an effiprt to accomplish the task, and succeeded at tlie first attempt." The Glass Work of the Orystal Palace That tlie already renowned Ciystal Palace — that eightli wonder of the world, which could have contained six out of tlie seven old wonders under its voof — could not have been built half-a-dozen yeai's ago, is a tmism which we have before adverted to; and without dwelling more oaa this pomt, it will always remain a matter of interest to note the arrangements by which the palace has been built. The manufacture by Messrs. Chance of the acres of glass which tlie building contauis, was in itself an mdustrial feat worthy of record. The neighbourhood of Binningham produced boUi the iron-work and the glass-Avork for the Exhibition building. INIessrs. Chance's establishment is situated in a suburb called Spon Lane, surrounded by tlie smoking chimneys of various factories. It is a vast place, covering an area about equal to that of the Crystal Palace itself, but, unlike it, scattered and disjointed, witli no two buildings alike, and no symmetry of ai-rangement. Like many other of our manufactming establishments, it has gi'own with tlie gi'owth of trade ; it has extended its limits to embrace more juid more buildings, as tlie exi- gencies of tlie manufacture required, and has not had time to put on those outward adomments, or to adopt tliose symmetrical ai'rangements, which a wholly modern building might present. This very circumstance, however, ■i mm JJO GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. ; ! i gives it a peculiar interest; for the building embodies within itself an epitome of the history of the manufacture— rapid growth, wide extension, intense activity, gradual adaptation ; these distinguish both the building and the manufacture. Messrs. Chance originally confined their attention to one or two kinds of glass, but they have now a thousand peraons employed in making crown, sheet, plate, shade, and coloured glass ; and during the pro- duction of the glass for the Crystal Palace, tlie nimiber of operatives was far greater. How wonderful are the glass shades deposited by this firm at the Exhibition, and how remarkable that these shades ai'e made by the same pro- cess as the glass for the building itself! It is now about twenty yeai's since Messrs. Chance introduced into this country the mode of making sheet-glass, adopted before that time by tlie French and Belgians ; and the manufacture has gi*adually become an important one. Anytliing more striking than the details of the manufacture can hardly be met with in the whole range of industry. The workman dips his iron tube into the semi-viscid glass, and takes up a quantity amounting to 12 or 14 lbs. ; he rolls the mass on a wooden block, till it assmnes a cylindrical form ; he applies his mouth to the other end of tlie tube, and blows imtil the mass assumes a hollow ovoid form; he whirls this round his head, or, rather, in a vertical circle 10 or 12 feet in diameter, and elongates the ovoid into a cylinder with rounded ends ; he re-heats the glass two or three times during these processes; to maintain the proper consistency, and at length the remote end of the hollow mass gives Avay, and we have before us a cylinder of glass, attached only at one end to the tube. In respect to the glass for the Crystal Palace, the cylinders were made somewhat more than 4 feet in length. The cylinders are dissevered from the tube, and are cut lengthwise with a diamond ; they are placed in a kiln, where the heat gradually opens the fissure, and there is finally presented a flat piece of glass, which can be cut to any smaller size. It is sufficiently notable that tlie glass for tlie Exhibition should be so produced ; but that the shades which are deposited in one of tlie galleries should also have been produced by the same whirling process, almost passes beUef. Under the immediate pressure of the immense demand, Messrs. Chance invited over a few skilled workmen from France and Belgium ; but the English hands — urged by this proximity to do their best — have learned to equal their rivals ; and the shades here spoken of are of EngUsli workman- ship: — 72 inches by 13, 62 inches by 26, 88 inches by 18— such are the enormous dimensions of three of these shades. The exact foiin is given to the shade by pressing the blown cylinder gently into a mould of the required shape, while the glass is yet soft. Never, surely, is material more under the command of the workman, than glass imder that of the glass-blower. The account which Mr. Paxton has more than once given of the origin of his plan of the Crystal Palace may be here briefly adverted to, so far as it illustrates the availability of glass as a building material. In 1828, when his attention was first directed to this subject, the forcing-houses and hothouses at Chatsworth were formed of coarse tliick glass and heavy woodwork, which rendered the roofs dark and gloomy. His first reform was to lighten tlie rafters and sash-bars by bevelling off their sides. A second improvement was that of cutting grooves for the reception of the glass, by which there is much less exposure (than by the old method) of the putty to the destructive action of heat and moisture. The use of iron in various structures having by that time become very general, Mr. Paxton proceeded to inquire whether iron sashes and rafters would be available for glass stnictures; but the result of his GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 21 itself an ^tension, ling and 1 to one »loyed in the pro- 3 was far m at the ame pro- ai's since eet-glass, nufacture than the range of ;las3, and ass on a th to the ow ovoid or 12 feet ends; he ntain tlie lass gives one end ders were iissevered iced in a presented lid be so galleries st passes Messrs. ium ; but learned orkman- are the given to requu'ed der the origin of J far as it ttvhen his lothouses tk, which Ihten tlie lent was is much |ve action by that ' iron It of his inquiries was unsatisfactory, for he found tliat such iron framings were more costly than wood, that the sashes were liable to become disjointed by expan- sion and contraction, that the glass would be fractured by such disjointing, that tlie temperature of metal framings varies more than that of wood, and that the repairing of injmies would be less simple and expeditious. The com- bination of wooden rafters and frame-work with iron sash-bars was then tried, but the advantages did not equal the disadvantages ; and Mr. Paxton has since that period uniformly adhered to the employment of wood in immediate contact with glass. His next investigation led him to the " ridge and fuiTow" system of glass-roofing. In most glass structures employed for horticultural purposes, the lean-to roof inclines downwards towards the souUi, in order to catch the heat of the sun ; but a consequence of this is (especially if the sash- bars be thick and clumsy) that the east and west or morning and evening sun exerts veiy little power within the stnicture, while the midday heat is received in all its fierceness. To obviate this, Mr. Paxton contrived the ridge and furrow an-angement, at such angles as to increase the reception of mcnung and evening rays, and check somewhat the midday rays. He builc a pine- house in 1833, and a gi'eenhouse in 1834, on tliis principle; and in 1836 he constructed a curvilinear hothouse, 60 feet in lengtli by 26 in width, with an elliptical roof on the ridge and furrow principle, tlie sash-bars being of wood : this was, in fact, the first genn whence the fndescribably beautiful transept arch at the Crystal Palace proceeded. Wlien the great conservatory was com- menced at Chatsworth in 1837, Mr. Paxton availed himself of the use of a laachine for shaping and planing the sash-bars. He also availed himself of the sheet>-glass which Messrs. Chance had by tliat time brought into use ; and it was by his suggestions, and offers of purchase, that the firm redoubled their efforts until sheet-glass four feet in length could be made : this enabled Mr. Paxton to employ grooving instead of overlapping in glass roofs, a system to which the Crystal Palace owes no small portion of its efficiency. The next step was to make the ridge and furrow rafters horizontal, instead of inclined, as tliey are in the Chatsworth conservatory; and three buildings were con- stiTicted witli roofs on tliis piinciple, viz. a conseiTatory in Darley Dale, an ornamental glass covering to a conser\'atory wall at Chatsworth, and tlie new Victoria Regia house in the same piincely domain. The last of tliese three buildings was constructed in 1850 ; and it was while the subject was thus fully occupying his niuid, that tlie happy idea of the glass palace occun'ed to Mr. Paxton, and enabled him and others to suniiount obstacles which seemed likely to overwhelm all parties concerned. To describe tliis wonderful roof, these sixteen acres of glass, is barely necessaiy ; for the daily and weekly journals have made the subject familiar to almost eveiy one. Yet we cannot rightly understand the relation which the glass manufacture bears to it witliout recapitulating a few details. First, then, we have in the roof a stnicture of such unusual lightness that tlie whole weighs but 3J lbs. per square foot, glass and wood included. This slightness of pressure on the girdei-s and columns beneath has been a point of considerable importance and value ; for it enables the builders to rely secm-ely on a degree of strength in those parts which would be quite incon- sistent with the pressm'e of ua ordinaiy roof. In the remarkable " ridge and fiuTow " principle of this roof, the Paxton gutters, as they are called (we stay not to investigate the claims of other parties to the invention), are ranged parallel at distances of 8 feet apart ; and tlie ridges are midway between the gutters, both gutters and ridges running east and west. The ridges are so 'A mmmmmmmmmm^m^'mmimmm 22 GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. grooved as to receive the glass, and the furrows are hollowed to furnish chan- nels along which rain-water can descend to the hollow columns. The sash- bars, which extend nox-th and south, ai*e 51 inches in length; and it is at tlie sides of these slender sash-bars that the gi'ooves are made which mainly support the "crystal" roof. The glass panes extend north and soutli; but in the waggon vault of the transept, owing to the remarkable combination of the ridge and furrow system with the circular cuiTe, tlie line of direction is a cm-ious one ; the sash-bars are here set at an obUque angle, in " hemng-bone " fashion, in order to assist the conduction of the water, and to prevent its lodging against the lower putty bed of each pane of glass over which it trickles. J^ach piece of glass measm-es 49 inches by 10 inches ; and, as all are exactly of the same size, any • misfitting ' was quite out of tlie question. The mode of glaziiig these almost innumerable sashes was as follows : — The gutters, the ridges, and the principal rafters being fixed in their places, one of Sie long or 49-inch edges of a sheet of glass was inserted into the gi'oove of the principal rafter; a sash-bar, measuring 1 inch by IJ, and double grooved, was then put on to the other long edge of tlie glass ; tlie sash-bai' was next brought doAvn and secured at tlie top to the ridge, and at tlie bottom to tlie edge of the gutter ; tlie lower edge of the glass being bedded upon a layer of putty three-quarters of an inch broad, a slight blow to the lower end brought tlie upper edge of tlie glass home into the groove in the ridge. The glass being flien pressed down, the putty was made good in the gi-ooves externally. In glazing tlie veHical sashes, which form in pai't tlie walls of the building, pieces of glass were employed about equal in dimension to those in the roof; tlie glass was slipped down between the sash-bars. Botli in the roof and in tlie vertical sashes provision was made for mending or replacing broken panes, by causing one gi-oove to be cut deeper Uian the odier, so tliat the glass might be slipped in from one side, and puttied into its exact place. But the glazing of the vaulted transept was the mastei-piece. Scarcely anydiing else in the building called for the exercise of more caution and ingenuity, on ac- count of the curvatures which the vault presents. In tlie lower part of the cir- cular arcs, where the direction of the ridges and fuirows does not depai't far from tlie perpendiculai", ladders and temporary scaffoldings enabled the glaziers to proceed with their labours ; but as they ascended, ordinary means became in- sufficient, and a veiy ingenious box or stage was constructed for their accom- modation. This box moved on wheels in the line of tlie gutters ; it was sus- pended from tlie lead flat which i*uns along the summit of the transept, and was lowered to any part of the cui-ve at which the glaziers were at work, being brought sufficiently close to tlie cur\ed ribs and gutters by ropes and tackle. The glazing of tlie flat roof of the nave was little (if at all) less difficult tlian that of tlie transept, owing to tlie absence of any supporting teiTacc or passage on which the glaziers might stand. The ever- ingenious contractors devised a ma- chine (of Avhicli seventy-four were constructed), each capable of accommodating two glaziers. The machine consisted of a frame of deal about eight feet square, with an opening in its centre sufficiently large to admit supplies of glass, sash-bars, putty, &c., to be hoisted through it from the gi'ound beneath ; Uie stage rested on fom* small wheels, which ti'avelled on tlie Paxton gutters (the width of tlie machme being made exactly equal to the space from gutter to gutter); and the machine then spanned over one ridge and two sloping sides, being a little higher than tlie ridge. The workmen Avere protected in bad weather (of which tliey had a full wintiy share) by a canvas awning. The men sat at one end of tlieir stage, and pushed it along about a foot at a time as tlieir labom-s pro- ^ "1 GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 23 sh clioH' he sash- is at Uie mainly itli; but lation of ition is a ig-bone " Bvent its which it id, as all jstion. s -.—The !S, one of gi'oove of grooved, was next )m to tlie a layer of I brought Llie glass xtemally. building, the roof; of and in ;en panes, ass might anytliing ity, on ac- if the cir- •t far from flaziers to lecame in- ir accom- It was sus- isept, and irk, being id tackle, tlian that lassage on ised a ma- imodating !et square, I sash-bars, ige rested Ith of tlie and the ig a little (of which »ne end of lom's pro- ceeded ; they inserted and puttied tlie panes of glass one by one, and thus travelled with their machine from the transept towards Uie east or west end. So dexterous did the glaziers become in tlae use of these machines, that eighty of them put in upwards of 18,000 panes of glass, equal to more thtm 62,000 square feet, in one week. The greatest quantity put in by any one man in ono day was 108. For repairing the roof, a machine has been contrived, the wheels of which rest upon tlie ridges instead of upon the gutters. We feel strongly tempted to add to the above details a description of the very curious apparatus— first employed by Mr. Paxton, and then improved by Mr. Birch — for making and grooving the sash-bax's ; but these relate to working in wood (an instructive subject in itself) rather than in glass, and scarcely fafl in with tne object of tlie present paper. In respect to the humble material, putty, employed in this xmexamplea specimen of glazing, its chief point of interest is the largeness of the quantity called for : it was consumed not simply by poimds or by hundredweights, but by tons. If some of tliis putty has proved treacherous, and has admitted a sprinkling of rain mto tlae interior of the building, we may well excuse it, and wait patiently until ihe industrious glaziera have made all weather-proof. Let us put to ourselves this question, and think well before we answer it — If brick, stone, and mortar had been the materials for tlie Exhibition building, instead of iron, glass, and putty, would tlie year 1851 have witnessed the Great Exhibition at all? Many have been the doubts and queries respecting the thickness of the glass employed in tlie Ciystal Palace. At one of tlie meetings of the Society of Arts, questions were put to Mr. Fox on this subject, to which he replied nearly as follows : — He " tliought the glass quite strong enough, or he would have made it sti'onger ; because he had to keep the glass in repair for twelve months. But there was one impoilant point connected with glass which few considered when they put questions respecting it : they only asked what thick- ness it was. Now its thickiiess was very important, but Uie widtli was equally so. If they got a piece of glass of a certaui thickness and width, and found that hailstones broke it, let them reduce the width, and they would find that it would bear the force of the hailstones. Now the panes used were 16 ounces to the foot, 49 inches long by 10 in widtli. During Uie last twelve years they (Messrs. Fox and Henderson) had u.ied upwards of thirty acres of glass, spread all over the kingdom, a great deal of i< being used at the voyal dockyards and at railway stations. It had almost all been 16-ounce glass, and some was as low as 13-omice; and altliough it was spread over twelve yeai-s, tliey had had no difficulty with it whatever. But if, instead of lO-hich widtli, tliey had made it 15, tliey would liave had it broken in eveiy hailstorati." This evidently goes to the root of the matter; tho thickness may be safely diminished in about the same ratio as the width ; and experience alone can show what is the requisite thickness for a given widtli. The contractors, from the teiTOS of their agi-eement, had abundant reasons for wishing to make the glass sti'ong enough to resist hailstorms. The Crystal Palace system of glazing (if we may so designate it), in which the roof and tlie skylight are one, seems likely to meet widi many valuable developments. A farmer in the West of England has recently roofed with glass a bam more tlian 100 feet long by about 30 in width. The expense has been far less than that of a slate roof, while the anticipated advantages are many, and have been thus commented on : — " The barns may be applied to (hying com dming a catching harvest. The com can be placed m the barn immediately upon being reaped, where it will have the benefit of the sun when 4 i iij 24 GLASS AND ITS MANUFACTUIIE. 4 m it shines, be protected from the showers, and also dried by artificial heat if requu'ed, and then stacked in ricks under a covered stack yard. This will enable the land to be immediately ploughed up and sowed with turnips or rape, which will prepare the land for another cereal crop the following year ; so that he (the farmer) anticipates three crops in two years." If the Western Times is hero correct, and if the fanner's anticipations are really sound, he will indeed have cause to bless tlie Ciystal Palace, and those who have been instrumental in rendering the construction of it possible. Of the contents of tlie Hyde Pai-k stnicture, many of those which illusti'ate the glass manufacture have already been adverted to ; and tlie industrious visitant to that unparalleled collection will have no difficulty in calling others to mind. In the Sunderland compartment, for instance, we meet with Messi*s. Hartley's model of a glass-house and eight-pot furnace, on a scale of an inch and a half to the foot ; a glass-melting pot, of Stourbridge clay, so large and thick as to weigh neai'ly a ton when empty, and two tons when filled with molten glass ; a Rf'iies to illustrate the crown-glass manufacture, exhibiting the glass in tlurteen successive stages of its progress ; a similar series for sheet glass, in eleven stages ; a sheet of mby glass, 51 inches by 39 ; a mby cylinder of glass, fitted to produce a sheet nearly of those dimensions ; and various applications of glass to useful purposes. France, Belgium, Germany, Austria — all send sijecimens of glass-making, some of Avhich are highly curious. A French chimney-piece made of glass plates and cut glass, and an imitation of flowers made of glass thread, are examples to which other materials would have been better adapted ; but there are not wanting abundant specimens of fitting and tasteful adaptation of this delicately-beautiful substance. In respect to foreign covmtries, as the glass manufacturers have had no Excise laws to contend against, so have they had no sudden impulse by the removal of such laws, but have proceeded in a steadily advancing course. France once excelled us in plate-glass ; we now equal her. France and Belgium taught us how to make sheet-glass ; we now equal or excel our teachers. If, in flint- glass, France still excels us (as some tliink) in graceful forms and delicacy of adornment, let our Schools of Design do their best to bring the English work- men up to the proper level. If, in stained glass, Bohemia, or Italy, or France, still excel us, let our chemists, working hand in hand widi our glass-makers, tire not until they have discovered why the superiority exists, and how it may be attained. And in tlie meantime, wherever we find a foreign neighbour who can excel us — in colours, in foi'm, in durability, in cheapness — let us not hesi- tate to give honour where honour is due : it is not only the most just policy but in the end it will also be the most profitable. /^ I heat if 'his will mips ov ng year ; I Western i, he will ive been illusti'ate IS visitant to mind. Hartley's mtl a half nick as to en glass; I glass in t glass, in rof glass, )plications —all send A French of flowers ould have s of fitting I no Excise le removal ranee once 1 taught us [f, in flint- delicacy of glish work- er France, iss-makers, low it may jhbour who IS not hesi- ust policy FIRE AND LIGHT; CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. If we look around us it will speedily become appai'ent that tlie artificial pro- duction of jire and light forms a very large and curious department of com- mercial industry — full of ingenious contrivances, bold enterprises, and uncer- tain speculations. The precarious search for whales in the Greenland Seas and the Pacific Ocean ; the wholesale slaughter of oxen for the sake of their tallow in Russia ; the busy collecting of palm-oil in Central Africa ; the bur- rowing of miners through hundreds of miles of subterranean galleries in search of coal; the vast chipping and commercial arrangements for trans- porting the oil, the tallow, and the coal from place to place ; the erection of the numerous and extensive structures for obtaining gas and coke from coal; the subway arteries tlirough which this gas is conveyed to our streets and houses ; the lamps for applying the oil, the candles for applying the tallow, the burners for applying the gas, and the stoves for applying the coal ; the complex mechanism for warming extensive buildings ; the enormous furnaces and ovens for applying heat to manufacturing purposes — all tend to show that man's labours in the production of fire and light are both varied and ex- tensive. Nor are these subjects less marked than others by curious attendant circum- stances and ingenious modem inventions. A few of these will here engage our attention. Coal; Coal Fields; Coal Mines; and Colliers. The mode in which the inhabitants of a country habitually warm their dwellings must obviously depend on the kind and quantity of fuel which they can readily obtain ; and no inconsiderable effect on the internal arrangement of dwellings is traceable to this source. The wood-fuel districts have their characteristics, differing from those of coal districts, and both differing from those in which fuel of every kind is scarce. It is uistnictive to compare the fire-places (if thus we may call them) of different countiies and different ages. There is the Laplander, with a large lamp of stinking fish-oil in the centre of his hut, the flame and smoke of which supply him with his only fire during the long Arctic winter. There is the Persian fire-pot, or kourey, containing some slowly-buming fuel, and covered with a large quilt, beneath which tiie family tuck their feet and legs to obtain warmth. There is tlie open vessel containing burning chai'coal — often a medium for displaying great elegance in the braziers and tripods, but always a dangerous contaminator of the air. There is the Chinese system of hollow walls and tile-made flues, through which hot air passes from a stove containing a compost or mixed fuel. There were the open fire-places of our > s .'ir ■■Hi s FIRE AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR TllEIll I'RODUCTION. feudal halls, with thu andh'ons for siipportuig the burnnij^ brands, the louvre- boards in the roof for llie escape of smoke without admitting rain, and the somewhat savage grandeur which the glare of* light threw aroimd the hall. There were the lire-places of a later date in our old English manor-houses, where an enonnous chimney replaced the louvre-boards, and in Avhich warm seats were snugly ranged around tlio cheerful fire. There are tlie numerous and varied contrivances consequent on the substitution of coal for wood-fuel. There are the close stoves of the Continent, some made of metal and some of clay, but all repugnant to our English notions of a cheerful open fire. There are the economical novelties for producing small fiics for minor purposes ; and the culinary novelties for employing gas, or spirit, or naphtha, instead of coal ; and the scientific novelties (sometimes failures) for wiuming our large public buildings. Many may, perhaps, now with difficulty realise the state of things when coal was not used among us as a fuel ; yet such a time of course existed ; and it is not difficult even to name the ])oriod at which a commencement Avas made. This period was rather more than six centuries ago, when the neigh- bourhood of Newcastle was first explored for coal ; and from that time, during many hundreds of years, discoveries were gradually made in our northern counties of valuable beds of coal. At first tlie *' homes and hearths " of Eng- lishmen would not receive the black sooty fuel ; it did not suit tlie fire-places or the domestic habits of the people ; but it was found well adapted for the blacksmith and the lime-burner. Only the ' layers near the sm'faco, and in coal-fields adjacent to rivers or seas, were first opened ; ' when tlie demand increased, the miners dived more deeply into the bo\S' .- of the eartli, tuid boldly worked the coal wherever it was to be fovmd. When the mines became deep, the miners were sadly perplexed how to get rid of the water ; and it was not till the steam-engine came to their aid that they fully mastered this difficulty. But the prejudices of the users were as difficult to surmount as the perils of the miners ; we ai'e even told of a period when a citizen of London was tried and executed for burning sea-coal, in opposition to a sti'ingent law passed in respect to that subject ; but oven long after such in- tolerance as this had jj.assed away, coal was tabooed in good society. Ladies had a theory that the black abomination spoiled their complexion ; and it was for a long time a point of etiquette not to sit in a room warmed by a coal fire, or to eat meat roasted by such means. Prejudice unquestionably had much to do with these objections; but it was not all prejudice, for the almost total absence of i)roper arrangements for supplying fresh air, and remo\ ing smoke and foul air, rendered the burning coal a very dirty and disagreeable com- panion in a room. Coal, however, became at length our national fuel ; and whatever may be the other sources of the wealth and commercial prosperity of Great Britain, most certain it is that our ample supply of coal is one of the most notable. It is coiuhicive not only to the domestic comfort, but to the manufacturing efficiency of the peoj)le. It brings into a useab'a form not only the crude mineral productions wliich lie embosomed in the earth, but various other sources of power which would else remain dormant. It supplies not only all our own wants, but is the basis of a lai'ge and renmnerating commerce witli other countries. It not only obviates the necessity of cutting down the residue of our fine forests and woods for fire-wood, but it throws a Ufe of industry and activity into disti-icts which would else be profitless moor and mountain land. 9 louvrfl- and tho tho hall, r-houses, ch wiirni imnci'ous food-l'uol. i some o( . There •ui'posos ; nstead of our largo II gs when ited ; and uent was he neigh- le, during northern " of Eng- fire-places d for the ;o, and in e demand earth, imd es became 3r; and it tered this mount as citizen of tion to a r such in- Ladies ,ud it was coal fire, ad much lost total g smoke hie com- 3r may be It Britain, ]t notable. ifacturing crude lous other It only all ►erce wiUi le residue industry Imountain FinE AND light: oomtrivanoeb for theib pboduction. 8 It is indeed remarkable that so small a country should furnish so mighty a sup- ply of fuel. We have 12,000 square miles of coal area — nearly one-tenth of tho entire area of our island ; but still this bears but a small ratio to tlut total quantity in all countries. According to tho estimates of Professor Ansted and Mr. Taylor, the ascertained area of all the coal strata in the world is not loss than 150,000 square miles. And yet the annual amount of coal worked and brought to light in the British Islands is nearly double that of all other countries taken together — so enornioiis are now our colliery operations. The number of coal-fields in these islands, comprising districts detached from all others, is about 30 ; tho number of distinct workable seams in these coal- fields varies from 1 to 84 ; the thickest seam in any one field varies from 8 to 40 feet ; and the aggregate thickness of all the seams in Pitch field varies from 3 to *400 feet. From these various coal-fields there are now extracted not less than 35,OQO,000 tons in a year — the value of which, including transit to the place of consumption, is about 18,000,000^. This estimate, of about te» shillings per ton, may seem small to Londoners, accustomed to a price so much iiigber ; but in all the coal-mining and iron-smelting districts, the average is far under that here named. Of the 18,000,000/., it is supposed tliat about one-half is the value at the pit's mouth, and the other half the value of the transit to the consumei*. The fixed capital employed in the coal- trade, including mining machinery and transit machinery, is roughly esti- mated at 10,000,000^. The Newcastle coal-field is that with which the inhabitants of the metro- polis have had principally to do, owing to the overwhelming preponderance of this coal in use in London. Of the half million acres of coal in this field, about seventy thousand have been now worked ; at a consumption of ten million tons a year, it is supposed that this field will yet last' eight or nine hundred years. Some of the Northimiberland and Durham pits are iioai'ly two thousand feet deep; there are about two hnndi-ed separate collieries, which employ nearly thirty thousand men and boys, besides those engaged in the transit by sea and land. The recent celebrated Exhibition was full of instructive examples not only of the coal which we possess, but of the mechanism for bringing it to the surface. The visitors, British and foreign, will not soon forget the huge masses which the west end of the building displayed. There was the Coed Talon block of Flintshire steam coal, worked into a pillai', and said to weigh sixteen tons (a cubic yard of coal, we may here state, as affording a convenient means of calculation, weighs about a ton). There was tlie magnificent block of Tipton coal, thirteen tons weight, taken from the 80-foot seam of South Staftbrdshire, and being the largest i)iec(i which could be drawn up through a seven-foot shaft. There was the large block of Welsh anthracite from Cwmllynfell. There was the vuiequalled Staveley block from Derbyshire, seventeen feet long, six wide, and four thick, and estimated to weigh twenty- four tons ; it was drawn up from a depth of 460 feet. There were many otliers which would have appeared monsters but for the vicinity of this wonderful specimen from Staveley. The mechanism for working the coal, too, we have said, was well illustrated. In one instance, there was the rope by which one of the huge blocks was raised, and the picks and chains used in the mine. Another instance was a built-up column of tlie Staffordshire thick coal, showing the different working- seams as they exist in vertical section. A third presented to us a model of the apparatus used for the shipment of coals from boats or waggons at o 3 8 if FIRE AND LIOIIT: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR rRODUCTlON. Cardiff, worked by a high-pressure steam-engine, and cnabUng vessels to ship 400 tons a day. There were models of the corves or buckets, and of tho working tools employed by the Silkstone colliers. There were elegant vases formed of Ince Hall cannel coal, exhibited to show rather the qualities of tho coal itself than the mode of working it ; and there were similar nicknaoks, comprising pillars, small boxes, stamps, chessmen and boards, bracelets, shirt-buttons, razor hones, &c., formed from a brownish coal recently discovered near Edinburgh. The Tyne Coal Committee sent a map of their coal-field, showing the pits, the railways, and tho ' faults ' in the seams ; and sections of the field, with a synopsis of the seams ; also a working plan of a coUierj', including both the mining and the ventilating an'angements ; and lastly, models of the various implements employed, together with one or two of the safety lamps. A similar excellent series of models and sections was sent from a Staflibrdshire collieiy. A particularly interesting scries of the same kind was tliat relating to the strata and workings at Ebbw Vale in South Wales. In our English coal districts, as in most others, the beds of coal, whether few or many feet in thickness, are usually found inclined more or less to tho horizon ; but the workable beds are at all depths, from a few yards to six hundred yards beneath the surface. The mode of working must necessarily, therefore, vaiy considerably according to the depth. In nearly all cases, how- ever, there are vertical shafts dug from the surface till they intersect the bed of coal ; and from the bottom of these shafts horizontal galleries are worked in the substance of the coal. The galleries themselves yield coal while being excavated, and they also afford access to the rest of the mass. But as this process of excavation, if carried on incautiously, would leave the roof of tho mine, or the earthy layer above the coal, unsupported, the colliers are careful to leave substantial masses of coal as pillars or columns. When about one-third of tlie coal is thus extracted, and the maintenance of the colliery workings is no longer necessaiy, the colliers carefully break away the supporting masses and allow the roof to fall in as it may. The method of mining here described is called the pillar and stall method, and is adopted in Northumberland and Durham ; but in Yorkshire and some other districts the long-icall method is acted on ; this consists in removing the coal entirely and at once, the roof falling behind tlie work as it advances. Where the coal is near the surface, as in Staffordshire, the falling in of colliery roofs has given extraordinaiy iiTegu- larity to the surface of the ground ; so much so, indeed, that many of the miners' houses require to be propped up, as if undennined by earthquakes. The whole of tlie soil of South Staffordshire may be said to be honeycombed by tliis cause. Colliery Perils, and their Remedies. ' There is a curious chain of links which connect living wood with dead coal. First, there is mat, consisting of various kinds of plants and moss, imbedded and pressed together into a mass, and exposed to tlie action of air, or water, or both, and perhaps heat, for uimumbered centuries. Then there is lignite, formed in nearly tlie same way from trunks of trees, and accumulated in layers of vast thickness in Germany and other parts of Europe ; it has not hitherto been much used as fuel, but there are indications that it will so be ere long. Next comes jet, which appears to be a peculiar variety of vegetable matter brought almost to a bituminous state. Then we have cannel coal. la to ship id of tho jant vases ies of tho licknacks, bracelets, liscovered coal-fielil, lections of 1 coUierj', lid lastly, ;wo of tho -was sent tho same in South 1, whether less to the rds to six ecessarily, ases, how- ct the bed worked in hile being But as this aof of tho careful to t one-third 'orkings is ng masses described irland and method is the roof jurface, as uy iiTegu- tiy of the thquakes. eycombed dead coal, imbedded or water, is lignite, ulated hi has not will so be vegetable nnel coal. I'lRK AND LIOUT: CONTRIVANCES FOR TIIF.IK rUODtCTION. ft which not only yields the best and most abundant gas for street-lighting, but has often such a hardness, blackness, and polish, as enable it to be worked up into very beautiful ornaments ; many persons will remember tho garden chair and the model of the Durham monument, in canncl coal, at tho Great Exhibition, Next is the caking coal of Newcastle and its neighbourhood, which combines so many useful qualities for household purposes. Somewhat different from this is tlic stratified coal of the midland counties, which is obtained in very long pieces, and has less bituminous or caking quality than the Newcastle coal. A still less gaseous coal is that which, from tho puqiose to which it is now found to be ad- mirably adapted, is called steam coal ; it is obtained chiefly frc ni Wales, and burns with intense heat and little flame or smoke. Last on tl'o list is anthracite, so nearly without gas as to consist almost entirely of carbon ; its intense heat and freedom from sulphur render it invaluable for iron smelting and other manufac- turing processes. Most of the kinds of coal enumerated in the above list are mined or pro- cured in a similar way ; but those \vhich contain the largest ratio of gas ai'o those from which danger most fean'ully results to the miners. Newspaper readers need not to be reminded of the sad details which coiToborate this fact ; and it is impossible to look without interest at any contrivances which may lessen the calamities to which our swarthy coal-miners are subject. As the impure state of the air in the mines leads to disastrous explosions, so does the great depth of the mines entail great liability to fatal accidents. That men should descend and ascend a quarter of a mile of ladders every day, is a wonderful instance of patient daring; but if they descend by any kind of mechanism, their safety is too often dependent on a single rope. It is to ob- viate disasters of the latter kind that Messrs. Fourdrinicr have invented a very ingenious apparatus lately brought before public notice. It consists of a basket or cage, which may contain eitlier coal itself or the men who work the coal. It is raised and lowered through the shaft by a rope worked in the usual way from above ; but it also slides in vertical grooves at tlie sides of the shaft ; and these grooves afford means for safety in the event of the rope breaking. Should such a mishap occur, two arms or levers throw themselves out, and catch against the grooved guide rods so firmly that the basket be- (!omes held fast, and is prevented from further descent. Tho apparatus has been repeatedly tried in the collieries of the north, and seems to have been veiy generally approved. It would be a great pity if, as in the fire-escape, the good which the apparatus might render, were rendered of non-effect by any neglect in the use of the machine itself ; being essentially a preventive agent, and not a mere cure after the evil is produced, nothing but a pre-adoption of the apparatus in moments of safety could test its value in moments of disaster. But it is from explosions, rather than falls, that coal-mmers suffer disaster. There is a liability to the accumulation of gases which are deleterious and even dangerous to those working in the mines ; and very extensive systems of ventilation are adopted, by which fresh air is made to pass through all the passages and shafts of the mine. It is from pai'tial neglect, in othenvise good systems, that many of the disastrous explosions have occuiTod. Mr. Nasmyth s recently-invented fan seems to be a notable instrument for aiding the ventilation of mines. The use of a revolving fan for such a pur- pose is an old idea, generally realised by using the fan as a blowing machine, to force fresh air down a shaft mto the mine ; but Mr. Nasmyth, the uiventor of the famous steam-hammer, conceiving that it would be better to draw bad air !>:■' wm T wr -/ 6 FIRE AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. out of a mine than to force fresh air in — or rather that it would be easier, and that fresh air would be sure to follow to fill up the vacuum — dc .'ised a new form of apparatus. Above ground, near the 'up-cast' shaft, a steam engine and a revolving fan are erected, mid a pipe to connect the fan with the air in the shaft. The shaft is made to rotate rapidly ; it sucks the air from the ' up-cast ' shaft (which is always impure) ; and the vacuum below just as rapidly sucks pure air down the other shaft, and thus a circulation of air is maintained. A fan, four or five feet in diameter, and rotating 400 times in a minute, will send down 20,000 cubic feet of air jjer minute into a mine ; and tliere seems no reason why a lai'ger fan should not be made capable of pouring down a flood four or five times this arronnt. Nasmyth's apparatus is of very recent introduction ; and we believe that the mventor has abstained from patenting it, with a view to encouraging its use in coal mines, where some such contrivance is sadly wanted. Another recent and ingenijus novelty is the inveni.l;;n of Mr. Struve, and has been brought under the lotice of the Institute of Civil Engineers. His apparatus cox.sists of tw^ hollow pistons, resembling large gasometei-s, and two cyluiJer hi which these pistons work. The hollow pistons are, in r ality, air-rereiTcirs, v.ith valves at the top and bottom. The cisterns are nearly filled with, water ; and the arrangement of tiic valves is such as, when the pistons have a reiMprocating movement, to fill them with air by one move- ment, and to force the air out of them by another. A small steam-engine suffices to work the apparatus, and a pipe conveys the forced air to the shaft of the mine. One of the most singular incidents in the recent history of coal miiies is the extinction of a fire in a Scottish mine. In the South Sauchie Colliery, a 1 few miles from Stirling, a fire has been raging for nearly thirty years ; a line- fect seam of coal, twenty-six acres in extent, has thus been in a state of dcv/as- : tation, and has been known in the neighbouring districts as " the burning waste \ of Clackmannan." The fire is supposed to have been caused by some persons who establish i an illicit whiskey-still in the old workings. When it was found that no ordinary means would extinguish the fire, a sum of I6,000i. was spent, and five years employed, in building a mud wall around the burning mass, so •as to deprive it of all access of air: the builders of this wall had to struggle against tUeir fierce opponent for die mastery, being driven further and further away from the centre as the firo spread. So important has it been to keep thl? mud wall in repair, that the proprietor of the mine ^^the Earl of Mans- field) has since had to spend many additional thousands of pounds, 'resides losing the value of the coal in the mine. The seam is at a small depth only beneatli the surface ; and as the external air was thus able to efi'ect an entrance in small quantities through fissures in the ground, it kept up a slow, sulky, smouldering combustion, occasionally made manifest by die escape of smoke through cracks in tlu; ground. Thus matters remained until recently, when the Committee of the House > {' Lords on colliery accidents collected much valuable information bearing on this subject. Among other instances, it was found that Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney had efi'ectnally extinguished a fire at the Astley Collieries, in Lan cashiie, by a new and very singular operation. In the early part of 1851 Mr. Gurney undertook to extii'/iish this extraordinary Clackmannan fire, and most etfectually ho accomplished it. His plan consisted in pouring down into tlie mine an immeii»r body of choke-damp, forced hi by a high-pressure jet of steam ; the quantity being sufficient to extinguish the fire, the temperature ^mm ■IIP. wi ... Ti^m FIKE AND LIGHT : OONTRIVAN0K8 FOR THEIR PRODUCTION, 7 low enough to cool the coaly mass, and the pressure intense enough to keep out all external air. A furnace was constructed above ground, capable of burning coal and coke ; a boiler was erected to supply steam ; flues and pipes were so placed as to convey the gas and steam to one of the old working shafts of the mine, and a hole was broken through the mud wall below to establish a commimication with the smouldering mass. The fire was lighted; the choke-damp (a mixture of carbonic-acid and nitrogen) was generated; the steam was brought up to a high pressure ; and a jet of steam being admitted into the pipe which conveyed the choke-damp, forced it irresistibly along and into the mine. For several hours was this flood of gas poured in, until the mine contained eight million cubic feet ; it was completely filled, and remained so for three weeks. The absence of free oxygen in choke-damp • put out the fire,' and a subsequent stream at a lower temperature cooled the mass ; then fresh but damp air was admitted, and was forrsd for some weeks through all the vacuities of the mine, by which it was found that thf temperature lowered a little every day ; and at length, on fairly opening the mine, the fire was found to be utterly extinguished. This was perhaps the most successful con- quest over the burning element ever achieved. But it is not to put out a fire — it is to prevent a fire from kiiidling, that miners are more frequently called upon to show their ingenuity. If they could see to work without lamps or candles, few or no explosions would happen ; but the darkness of the mine prevents this : hence, among other means, Ave have the ' Davy,' or ' safety lamp,' a beautiful contrivance, but one which has not kept the miners free from fearful calamities. How I'ar this has resulted from their own cai'elessness is still a disputed point. The huge masses of coal give off car- buretted hydrogen gas ; this gas combines with the air which enters the mine, and at a certain ratio of mixture the two gases or airs explode when a light reaches them. Hence the coal-miner is never quite safe ; he is either liable to be burnt by the fire-damp or gas, if this explodes, or to be suffocated by the choke-damp, which is one of the results of the explosion. Hence the earnest desire to prevent any naked flame from reaching the gas, and hence Sir H. Da\y's highly-scientific mode of lighting the miner without perilling his life. If a fine iron wire gauze .« lUTonnd ;i flame, no flame can pass through the nieshes ; unignited gas may, but flame cannot. Herein lies the whole principle of the ' safety lamp.' It is a simple oil lamp, with a wire-gauzc en- velope aroimd the flame. Fire-damp may get into the enclosed space, through the m£shes, and may there biu^n ; but the produced flame cannot get out of the space, without which it could not ignite the gas in the mine generally. It is a fearful thing, to those who know what has occurred and is likely to occur in mines, to see a faint blue light within the gauze space. This shows that the mine i» full of fire-damp, that some has entered the lamp, an am linfccd together in an endless chain, which chain passes over two wheels c drams ul the front and back of the furnace; the chain is it i m m \f\iffnm ^m^ w^ wm mimmmi'^f^m^'''V w^wmr-fm^m^lf^wn ~ V FIRE AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. made to travel onwards from front to bac^' ^i the rate of six feet in an hour. On tliis chain of bars the coal is placed, so that the bottom of the fire-grate is constantly moving. The coal is deposited in a reser\'oir in front of the fur- nace, and from this reservoir it falls into the furnace as the bars travel on. Thus the fiercely-blazing fire is between the new cold coal and the flue at the back, insomuch that the smoke from the coal is co^npelled to pass through the fire, and to be there consumed ; thereby increasing the heat of the furnace in- stead of sending a jet-black cloud of rich but wasted carbon into the atmosphere. The furnace is fed with air thi'ough the bars, and the clinkers or hard cinders fall out when the bars have travelled to their hindmost position. The in- ventor tells us that economy results not only from the consumption of the smoke, but also from the facility for using small and cheap coal ; that the heat and steam-producing power aie rendered more regular by the steady and self- acting feeding with coal ; that labom- is saved by the fire-bars clearing them- selves as they travel onwards ; and that increased cleanliness may be main- tained by this contrivance. Practical men can alone determine how far these ai'e the real characteristics of Mr. Juckes's plan ; but the scientific principle on which it is based seems clear and intelligible. Many other inventcJi'S have systems for ensuring tlie same ends ; and the Legislature is doing what it can to stir up the energies of the furnace-makers and funiaco-users to a similar purpose. An Act came into force in London on Jimuary 1, 1852 (and local Acts with the same object have been procured in several of the great manu- facturing towns), for inflicting penalties on the owners of such factoiy chimneys as are not made to consume their own smoke. Bricklayers and builders, too, are trying their best to cure the household malady known as a ' smoky chim- ney : ' there is the ' self-acting chimney-guard ' of one inventor, the • double- chambered smoke-preventing chimney ' of a second, and many other recent contrivances, intended to apply to this much-talked-of discomfort. There are a few fire-places of small dimensions — curious for their very small- ness — which call for a meed of notice. M. Soyer, whose ' Gastronomic ' and ' Symposium ' novelties have placed him somewhat out of the range of ordinarj' chefs de cuisine, invented a ' magic stove ' or ' cooking lamp,' a year or two ago, which is certaiiily ingenious, whether or not destined to have a successful career. It is in effect a spirit lamp, with a novel mode of exciting and main- taining combustion. There are two resei-voirs of spiiit, which may be alcohol, or brandy, or naphtha ; and there are two lamps. You light one lamp with spirit from one reservoir ; the flame of this lamp heats the spirit in the other re- servoir; the vapour from tliis heated spirit pom'S out in a continuous but gentle blast into the midst of a second flame, which flame heats the cooking apparatus. There are tlius two distinct halves of the apparatus, one of which is destined to feed the otlier ]ji*lf with hot spirit vapom' instead of cold air, for keeping up ignition ; and the heat tlius produced is singularly intense. Whether this ' magic ' contrivance will bear out its character of " superseding inevitably every contrivance which ingenuity has hitherto devised for the rapid preparation of a comfortable meal ; " whether it will cost " only t'iree farthings to dress a cutlet;" whether you may " cook as comfortably with itm the middle of a stitt' nor'-wester as if the sweet soutli were wooing your cheek in June ; " whether " a mutton chop is dressed by it to a nicety in six minutes ; whether these newsf i,per encomiums are well founded — each user must decide for himself. In some forms of the apparatus the whole mechanism for cook- ing a dinner for six persons — includhig ht^ne, lamp, stewpan, frying-pan, i ' mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm'flfififlfli/^ mm WRE AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. 13 saucepans, plates, dishes, tea-kettle, and coffee-pot, are packed into a space of less than one cubic foot — a mitltum in parvo this, of an extraordinaiy c'iiaracter, it must be admitted. The apparatus, howevei', with its nicely-fitted copper appendages, is rather costly. There are other contrivances, humble relations of the same family. The ' bachelors' kettles,' and ' bachelors' ovens,' and ' bachelors' kitchens,' are now so numerous, that those said bachelors ought to be grateful for the attention thus bestowed upon them ; but, in truth, if a cooking apparatus be efficient for a small scale of operation, it matters little by what name it is called — it will work its own way into favour. Besides the 'magic' contrivance of M. Soyer, there ai-e many others of small size in which spirit, wood, or gas are employed as fuel. In Mr. Rigby's ' pocket stove,' for example, there is a small reservoir of spirit, from which a gas or vapour rises ; and this gas sup- ' lies the requisit(> heat. Mr. Hulett has exercised his ingenuity in the production of a number of ' gas-cooking stoves,' ' gas-kettles,' ' bachelors' cooking apparatus,' &c., in which ordinary gas is the fuel employed. In Mr. Norman's small cooking apparatus there are two saucepans or vessels, one within another, with a vacant space between filled with water ; and the inner vessel is thus heated by a sort of hot-water jacket. In other conti'ivances the ' patent fire-wood ' (itself one of tlie most curious examples of modern search for convenient novelties) is made to render ser\'ice of a similar kind. And if we pass from the smallest kind of heating contrivances to the largest, we there find that hot air, hot water, and hot steam are applied by means of apparatus both curious and costly. Dr. Ai'nott's pretty contrivance of a close stove may be classed among those which heat buildings by hot air Let a fire be lighted, for instance, in such a stove ; although one particular outlet must be left for smoke and gases, yet an enveloping chamber, whether of metal or of fire-clay, would contain a body of warm air, and this air might be conducted by pipes to any part of a building. It was Dr. Arnott's ingenious expedients for regulating the heat of the stove, rather than the principle of the stove itself, that was novel. There is the ' cockle ' or Belper stove, invented by Mr. Strutt, which has such a reservoir of warm air as we have here alluded to, and a pipe to convey it to distant rooms. . There is the Derby stove of Mr. Sylvester, in which the same result is carried out by improved agency ; and tliere are other modifications by other engineers and inventors. The method of steam-heating, now veiy largely adopted, depends on a principle not so easily recoginsable as tliat of the hot-air system. A pound of steam contains an immense amount of heat more than that contained in a pound of boiling water ; so that the contents of a boiler, if flashed off into steam, and made to travel into a system of pipes in that form, is in itself a rich calorific reservoir. When the steam comes into contact with the cold metal of the pipes, it is condensed again into water, and liberates the heat which had been imprisoned in it ; this heat first warms the pipes, and then diffuses itself among the air in the room or gallery containing the pipes. James Watt knew well the properties of steam in this respect, and he was just tlie man to give to those propeities a practical application ; he first warmed his own study by such means, and pointed out how others might do better. Then came in succession the plans (some of them patented) by Hoyle, Green, BouUon, Lee, and others, differing in the mode in which the steam was conveyed to the rooms, or m some of the minor urnmgements, but agreeing in prinl'ipl«^ R*i^f«W 14 PIBE AND liTGHT: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. The steam-method, however, has not had a long or active life ; it is yielding to the hot-water method. This consists in having a boiler, in some convenient spot, and a long coil of iron pipe leaving the boiler at one spot and entering it again at another ; the intennediate length of pipe being carried up or down, in or out, according to the position of the rooms to be warmed. It forms a rude analogy to our own bodily circulation ; the boiler is the heart, while the pipes are the veins and arteries. If the boiler be placed in a low position, the water in it, when heated, has a tendency to rise ; and if the whole system of pipes be filled witli water, the rising hot water drives the cold water before it, and a continuous circulation is produced ; the whole length of pipe be- comes heated by degrees, and gives off this heat to the rooms. The boiler may be of ordinary form, or it may be (as in Mr. Perkins's system) merely a part of the pipe itself coiled up into a compact mass and placed in a furnace. It is said tliat the first building warmed with hot water was a greenhouse at Newcastle, in 1716 ; but that the first successful application on a large scale was at a hatching-room — a chicken factory, as it may be termed — in 1776. Since then the method has come largely into use. Sometimes pipes are conducted into the rooms to be heated, as at the British Museum, and there coiled up under handsome pedestals ; sometimes a current of air is heated by being made to pass over the surface of a vessel containing hot water, as at die new Houses of Parliament, and then made to circulate by a draught caused by artiftcial means. Mi\ Pannell's ' Retort Calorifere ' is a recent contrivance for applying tlie hot-water method to conservatories. Peihaps the greatest ' curiosity ' in modem warming, connected with ven- tilation, is tlie new Palace of the Legislature. The world is staggered at being officially told that 150,000?. has been spent in the arrangements for warming, lighting, and ventilating that structure ; and is little less staggered to find that the light offends one, the warm air another, the cold air a third, the entire ventilation a fourth. But, in truth, there have been too many law- givers on the subject; four distinct authorities have given independent orders ; two distinct parties have attempted to carry out these orders ; and all tlio six have been playing at cross-purposes in consequence of this divided responsibility.- No one system has had a fair trial ; each of many systems has been allowed just strength enough to injure the otliers, but not enough to show its own excellence. If we must blame, let us award the blame to both Houses of Parliament and all tlie departments of the Government, leaving them to share it among them ; the systems themselves, of warming and ven- tilation, ought not to be judged by any evidence which this expensively- ludicrous state of matters affords. th< Candle-light : its Production and its Varieties. Let us now l§ave the region of Fire, and take a similar glance at that of IJcfht. Nations have not been wanting in variety in their modes of produciD;jf artificial light. The animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms have all been brought into requisition with this view. A splint of resinous wood has been the candle of many a nation, and is so at the present time in many parts of the Hebrides and of Ireland. The torch is a somewhat more elaborate agent; it was probably at first a staff of wood coaled with resin or pitch; and such torches are known to have been used hy die (J reeks und Romans. The substitution of a rope of hemp for the piece of wood formed fIRE AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. 16 the next stage ; and tlius the real torch or link was produced. The inflam- mable nature of all kinds of oil would naturally suggest their use for pro- ducing light ; hence would arise tlie capturing of fish and animals, or the gathering of vegetable substances which yield oil ; and hence, too, the construction of lamps and candelabra to contain this liquid. Then, when it was known (and it must have been known from the earliest times) that the solid fat of animals possesses the light-giving quality, a little ingenuity would suggest the construction of some sort of candle, in which a porous wick might be made to divide the melting fat or tallow into numberless little streams. In a fm-ther stage, it would be found that spirits and bitumens, wax and spermaceti, and many other substances, were inflam- mable; and contrivances would suggest themselves by which light might hence be obtained. Then, when coal became a common fuel, the brilliant little jets which occasionally dart out from it would induce an inquiry how such a source of illumination might be available ; but it required the boldness of the nineteenth century to give a decisive answer to such a ques- tion. Next, as the electric spark is intensely brilliant, practical men would ponder on the possibility of converting it into a useful source of light ; and we see in our own day how this possibility is being tested. Nay, even water itself is now narrowly watched, to see whether the hydrogen, which forms one of its constituents, may be liberated and made to render up its light- giving power. It is not every one who understands tlie bit of philosophy Involved in the burning of a candle. We may readily suppose — and the supposition is not a vei-y absurd one — that the wick is intended to bum and to give light. Such, however, is not the case. The parallel, or nearly parallel, fibres of the wick form the walls of numerous minute tubes, up through which any liquid will ascend by the power of Avhat is called ' capillary attraction ; ' and it is in this minutely-divided state that oil or melted tallow is best fitted for combus- tion. The heat of the candle melts the upper part of the tallow, which then in a liquid state ascends the little tubes of the wick, and is there burned ; it is true tliat the wick is burned also ; but this is not a necessary condition of the arrangement ; the candle would give forth its light even if the wick were formed of an incombustible material. How a candle is made, and from what materials, are matters fully described in works readily available. That the cotton threads are ranged parallel for wicks ; that the wicks are slightly twisted ; that they are dipped into a vat of steaming melted tallow ; that ingenious mechanism is employed to aid the dipping ; that some candles are cast in moulds instead of being dipped into vats — are facts pretty generally known. But the extent to which we are dependent on foreign countries for this tallow is gi'eater than would be gene- rally supposed. In 1850 this quantity was considerably beyond 100,000,000 lbs., a gi'eat portion of which came from Russia. Although we are a beef-eatin2; people, our cattle do not furnish us with a sufficiency of tallow for candle and' soap-making purposes ; and we have to look to other countries in which the richness of the meat is not so much regarded as the quantity of the fat or tallow. The fat of all animals which is solid at the ordinary tem- perature of our climate is fitted for making candles ; and it is for commercial rather than chemical reasons that tlie fat of oxen is more largely used by us than that of any other animal. The tallow-melting establishments of Russia are vast in size and most inodorous in character. Candle-making (it is proper here to state) has now become quite a notable M 10 FIRE AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR rRODUCTION. I example of factoiy operations, involving engineering and manufacturing che- niistry on a veiy instructive scale. Among many largo establishments there is one at Vaitxhall where ' Price's Patent Candles ' an? made in almost incon- ceivable quantities. The candles are made of pahn oil and cocoa-nut oil, of which many thousand tons per annum arc now employed. This modem sub- stitution of vegetable fat for animal iat is remarkable ; it is bringing central Africa into intimate commercial relations with England ; and many tlioughtful l)ersons are of opinion that it will do more than squadrons and treaties in suppressing the slave-trade. The palm oil is liquid in Africa, but it assumes a solid state in the colder climate of England. The casks containing it have steam forced into them, by which, the oil is melted and made to flow out ; and the oil is then purified and bleached to various degrees of whiteness, according to the purpose to which it is to be applied. The whitened cakes of palm oil are cut into slices by a machine ; the slices are deposited on mats of cocoa-nut fibre ; the mats are piled in heaps, with iron plates between them; the heaps are placed in hydraulic presses, where intense pressure brings the palm oil to the state of dry thin cakes. After a little more purifi- cation the palm oil is fitted for melting previous to the maliuig of candles. They may be ' mould candles,' or ' i)atent Albert's,' or ' Child's night lights,' or ' Price's night lights ;' but in all these cases there is now a remarkable ten- dency to employ machinery in the fonnation — some of it of a most ingenious description. It is to the French chemists that we owe much of the improve- ment recently made in candles ; their separation of stearine or stearic acid from tallow has led to the production of candles which give a much purer and more brilliant light, and are much less offensive to the smell and the touch, than the old-fashioned tallow candles — without any notable increase in price. Our manufacturers now exhibit to us specimens of bleached wax, of white and coloured wax candles, of white and coloured sperm candles, of stearine candles, of candles from mixed materials, and of wax and composite night lights. Some show tlieir skill in making wax and composition candles with plaited wicks. A Durham manufacturer produces his " marbled tallow candles, which burn without snuffing, and emit an agreeable perfume during combus- tion." A clergj'man has displayed his ingenuity in producing an ' acolyte,' a learned name for a little piece of mechanism to be put on the top of a lighted candle, to prevent it from ' guttering.' In the medifleval revivals of tlie present day, ' medicDval candles ' are not forgotten. They are intended for use in Catholic churches ; for many genera- tions in England they have generally been large but plain candles ; but witliin a recent period they have been made in imitation of tliose which were in fashion in tlie middle ages, and which were made to embody a certain degi'ee of symbolism. The paschal candle, used from Easter to Whitsuntide, is painted round the lower part witli emblems and devices belonging to that period of the church year. The lumen Christi, Lo a certain extent emblematic of the Trinity, consists of three equal candles twisted around each other. Many otlier kinds have a definite meaning attached to them, either as altar- candles or procession-cimdles ; and some of them, richly painted and gilt, show how much attention was paid to Uiis matter in former times, and, perhaps, is likely to be paid again. It would be unjust not to mention specially tliat ingenious creation of our day — the Palmer's candle. Anything more tidy and economical and self- adjusting can hardly be imagined. The wick is dexterously twisted round its own centre, in such manner that the top may turn outwards, and there catch FIRE AND light: CONTRIVANCKS FOR THEIR PRODUCTIOK. 17 oxygen enough to consume away without need of snuffing. The Knuffer- makers have no cause to bless Mr. Palmer; but; the snufier-users are cer- tainly benefited. As to the candles themselves, they may be made of palm oil, or of tallow, or of stearine ; the action of tho'iself-snuffing wiclt is inde- pendent of the kind of fat employed. The candlestick' employed is part and parcel of the ai)paratus ; for by its means the flame of the candle is main- tained at a uniform height from the table — a desideratum which readers and workers well know how to value. Lamp-lioiit : the Comdustible and the Apparatus. Our lamps and their philosophy lead us into a veiy different commercial region from that ivith which candles have to do. In a chemical sense the difference is not (fi'eat ; for tallow and oil have a strong family resemblance. That one is solid in an English climate and the other liciuid, is a chief point of difference ; this is instructively shown in relation to palm oil, which is a liquid when it leaves Africa, but a solid when it reaches England. Lamp oil, in this country, is still confined chiefly to tliat of the whale. There is a little obtained from seals and other animals, a little from olives and other plants, a little from camphine and other spirits — but our liquid fuel is for the most part whale oil. Nevertheless this oil has now so many rivals, and the whales (in the Greenland Seas at tmy rate) show so little dis- position to be quietly captured, that the whale-fishery has become more pre- carious tlian at the beginning of the centuiy. What a strange and eventful occupation is this fisheiy' The ocean monsters who are tlie objects of it are frequently sixty feet long, forty in circumference, and wpigh seventy tons — nearly equal to two hundred oxen; there are some whalt even more than a hundred feet in length ; and the open jaw would contain a ship's jolly-boat full of men. Such are the L-ppo- nents with whom the whalers venture to grapple and how do they effect this? A ship of three or four hundred tons leaves Hull, or Peterhe?,d, or some other port (we may confine these ♦'••w brief lines to tVe Gr'^enland fishing by British whalers) ; it finishes its b 'asting and 'aying in of stores at Shetland by the end of March, and reaches he icy sea> around Greenland towards the end of May. Manned with a crev of forty or fifty men, and ''ar- ising six or seven strong and well-appointed boats, it roams abuut the soas till September or October, keeping a shaip look out for whaks, and exposed repeatedly to imminent perils. When a wliale is seen lying unconscious of danger in the water, the ship approaches to ;. certain distance, and puts forth its boats laden Avith men, who approach tlie floating leviathan. With li trpoons and lances the animal is pierced, and with coils of rope he is allowed to expend his rage in diving deep into the flood. Modern ingenuity has supplied the whaler with a hai-poon of more pretensions than the old familiar imple- ment ; it is Mr. Ho iges's ' Patent Silent Harpoon Projector ' — a hai-poon, in fact, fired off by a i;!;un. If the whale does not kill the men (which occa- sionally happens) the men gercraliy succeed in killing the whale, and hauling him up to the side of the ship. Tiien commences the cutting up of the huge monster. The oil, as most readers ;',re aware, is obtainfid from the hhibher of the animal; this is really its fa!, which forms a yellowisli-white mass imme- diately under the skin from eight to twenty inches in thickness. Men descend upon the floating carcase with well-spiked shoes upon their feet, cut off the blubber in lai'ge pieces, and hand these up to other men upon deck, by whom I I i i ^>. ^'^ ^^^o. o..\^^ ^-^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) % vg >^ f '^ > y /A LO lllli ■i^ lie I.I I4£ illO m 1.25 1.4 1^ •• 6" — ► Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIM ??RFfT WEBSTER, NY. MSbU (716) 872-4S03 mmifmmm^'mm'^i^ffi^^i^^ii^m IB FIRE AMD LIOHT: OOKTRIVAKOES FOR THEIR PRODUeTIOK. it is cut up into smaller pieces, and then packed in the hold. The days were ■when the blubber was boiled in temporary establishmenta on the Greenland coast, and the oil alone brought home ; and there have also been arrange- ments for boiling it on ship-board ; but both methods ai-e now abandoned. "When the -whalers are at leisure, they remove the blubber from the hold, cut it into small pieces, remove the skin and impvurities, and pack the rest in casks. There may, on an average, be thirty tons of blubber from a ftiU-grown •whale ; and from this is obtained above twenty tons of oil. When the whalers have tried their fortune throughout the summer months, and secm-ed as many casks of blubber from as many whales as they can, they seek their way homewards ; they land their cargo (say) at Hull, where, at the northern out- skirts of the town, are establishments for boiling down the blubber and ex- tracting the oil therefrom, to be used hereafter as lamp-oil. There is nothing new in all these details ; indeed, the whale fishery, from its very nature, does not admit of much variety in management. The changes are local and commercial, rather than technical. One change is that Scottish ports are getting ahead of English in respect to whaling ships; another change is that the North Atlantic is becoming yearly more and more bereft of whales, to the manifest loss of the whalers who voyage thither ; a third is tliat the South Pacific, especially under the energetic management of the Messrs. Enderby, is becoming an important scene for our fisheries; while the North Pacific is with yet more energy crossed and reorossed by the American whalers. The vegetable oils are procured much more easily ; with less danger, less dirt, less uncertainty — ^whether at a less saleable price is a question for actual commerce to answer. Olive-oil, nut-oil, linseed-oU, hempseed-oil, rape-oil — all are procured by pressure of the vegetable substances which give them name. How these various oils are employed to yield artificial light, our lamp- makers show most ingeniously. The old table-lamps and shop-lamps of our grandfathers' days gave ~ smoky and yellow light ; then came Argand, who, by dexterously giving breathing room to the flame by means of a hollow wick, produced a less smoky and a less yellow light ; and in more recent days came the multitude of contrivances by which air — and sometimes pure oxygen — ^is admitted to the flame. Many modem lamps, to which very high-sounding names are given, are simply oil-lamps, with an improved adjustment for the supply of the respiratory agent. Chemistry and mechanism have certainly not been forgotten in the con- struction of modem lamps ; it is indeed somewhat bewildering to read of the numerous novelties which appeal to public favour in this direction. At one time we are called upon to a^ire the Soho lamp, which is adapted for burn- ing tallow or fat instead of oil. At another, our attention is directed to the Carcel lamp, named after a French lamp-maker ; the oil is raised through tubes by clock-work, so as to overflow at the bottom of the wick, and thus keep it saturated. Then there are the Ht-oil lamp, in which the oil is heated between two concentric tubes near the flame ; the Meteor lamp, which bums rape-oil ; the Solar lamp, which bums seal-oil, and in which three distinct currents of air are ingeniously brought to bear upon the flame ; the Camphine lamp (the members of which family rejoice in the names of the * Vesta,' the * Imperial,' the ' Victoria,' the 'Gem,' the ' Paragon,' ' Diamond,' &c.), in which the liquid employed is camphine, procured by distillation from common American turpentine ; the Benzole lamp, the light of which is yielded by a hydrocarbon called benzole, obtained by distillation from coal-tar ; the Bude-)i^i, the ex- FIBE ASO light: C0NTBITANCE8 FOB THEIB PRODUCTION. 19 le con- of the At one bum- to the Ihrough Id thus ] heated bums listinct \mphine Ita,' the licb.the lierican sarbon le ex- oelleirce of which depends on the mode of admitting air to an ordinary oil or gas Mme — and we might extend this list much further. If we look around us, in our shops and bazaars and exhibitions, we see that, whatever may be said in respect to correct taste, the lamps of the present day are especially splendid and ambitious. Every new kind of oil or spirit or camphine, every new mode of applying solid tallow to a lamp-form apparatus, every suggested method of supplying air or gas to feed the combustion — has been made a foundation for one or other of many glittering kinds of adornments. Many of these attractive articles are, however, veiy complex and ti'oublesome, and it has been quaintly observed, " a lamp which requires as much looking after, morning and evening, as a baby, is a luxury which those only who can keep a nursery-maid for it can properly enjoy." The telegraph lamps, the railway lamps, the lighthouse lamps, the carriage lamps, the ship lamps, the miners' lamps — all have certain mechanical adjustments which fit them for their peculiar purposes ; but we are now speaking of the decorative ti*eatment of domestic lamps. These, whether called Argand or Carcel or camphinC; or by any other name, do certainly now display much variety of adornment. White metal work, with dead-white glass, brass-work and coloured glass, bronze-work with medallion decorations, porcelain relieved with enamel painting — all are presented in most varied array. And the forms are not less diverse ; some- times the shaft imitates the stem of a plant, at others the ancient tripod, while in other instances an attempt is made to devise new and graceful forms. Messrs. Messenger, of Birmingham, who take a leading position in lamp- making and brass-work generally, are said to have had the aid of Flaxman and Chantrey, in throwing classic beauty iiito the forms adopted by them. And the glass globes and shades which environ the flame : how varied they are — cup-shaped, bell-shaped, tulip-shaped, lotus-shaped, ogive-shaped, oval-shaped — all are adopted. The lamps now used for lighthouses are highly ingenious and beautiful. In the first place it is necessary to distinguish between two systems — the catoptric and the dioptric — the former depending on the reflection of liglit from a mirror, and the latter on the transmission of light through a lens. If a large lamp were placed on the top of a lighthouse, with glass roof and windows all around it, the light would shine in every direction, losing its intensity by being so much diffused ; but by the use either of mirrors or of lenses, all the light is concentrated to one definite direction : its energy is increased by being cir- cumscribed in range. In the catoptric system, numerous concave reflectors are placed at definite angles round a central lamp ; they are of silvered copper, and are kept exquisitely bright; and they all contrive to reflect the rays out seaward, without allowing any to waste their power landward. Tiie dioptric system involves the use of powerful convex lenses, through which tlie rays are focalised in a definite direction. If very large, these lenses would be difficult to make and costly to pm'chase ; but it has been shown by Brewster and Fresnel, that a compound lens may be built up of a number of pieces, pro- vided the curvatures are well adjusted. In relation to this subject, we may here remark that our lightliouses and our Ordnance sui'vey-stations so far resemble each other, that each must tlirow out a strong gleam of light to a great distance. Aroimd our thousands of miles of coast— where the annual wrecks are from seven to eight hundred, and the property lost amounts to millions sterling— the lighthouses have passed through many stages of efficiency. First there was the large coal-fire used on the summits of open buildings ; then the old-fashioned oil lamps, or some- si. FIRE AND light: CONTRIYANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. times wax candles, with a looking-glass reflector behind ; then the more brightly-bmning Ai'gand lamp, with concave metallic reflectors behind ; then the convex lens, to focalise the rays by transmission ; and then the lens built up piecemeal, on the plan of Brewster and Fresnel, so that the light may appear almost as one vast luminous pillar. The survey lights have not been less vavied. The three angles of the enormous triangles by which a topographical survey is primarily conducted, sometimes eighty or a hundred miles asunder, must be visible one from another ; but how to produce this visibility ? In the earlier surveys, where such daring distances were not attempted, a signal light was in some cases obtained by reflecting tlie light of the sun from a well-adjusted surface of polished tin; or by Bengal lights being fired at night ; or by a powerful Argand lamp being placed behind a lens or before a parabolic reflector ; but Lieutenant Drum- mond, during the progress of the Irish survey, made a happy suggestion which eclipsed in efficiency all others. In what is called the Drummond or Lime light, a small ball of lime is exposed to the action of a spirit-flame fed by pure oxygen gas ; the flame, in a hiighly vivid state, heats the lime to an intense degree, and in this heated state it emits a light of surprising brilliancy, far exceeding that of any flame yet seen. So beautifully was Drummond's apparatus constructed, that the lamp fed itself with spirit and with oxygen, supplied itself with balls of lime as each one slowly wasted, and reflected its surpassing light from an exquisitely-polished parabolic surface of silvered copper. It was not merely figuratively but literally true, that a piece of lime, not bigger than a boy's marble, emitted a light at Londonderry which was visible at Belfast — a distance in a direct line of nearly seventy miles ! On a later occasion Colonel Colby made a lime-hght signal visible from Antrim in Ireland to Ben Lomond in Scotland, a straight-line distance of ninety-five miles. Gas-light : Half a Century's History. The gas-lighting system now calls for a little notice — that system which the present century has seen to start into existence, to put forth modest preten- sions, to struggle against commercial and social and practical obstacles, to conquer these obstacles one by one, to spread from the rich to the poor dis- ti'icts and from town into country, to ramify beneath our feet almost as exten- sively as water-pipes, and to extend to most continental countries. It is difficult to appreciate fully the advantages of any notable invention or discovery, unless we bring the imagination to bear upon the state of things which preceded its introduction. How little, for example, can the present generation do justice to the grand social improvement now under notice ! We can tell what it is ; but only those whose memory extends back to the begin- ning of the present century can compare the present with tliat which pre- ceded it. The oil lamps were few and defective ; the streets were but partially lighted : the turnpike roads were left almost in darkness ; the shops were insufficiently illumined ; much daily trouble was given to all by whom lamps were used ; and the oil being dependent in quantity on the success of the whale-fishers, was subject to frequent variation in price. But it may be said, and said justly, that the lamp system which preceded gas was a great improvement on tlie earlier practice. The public streets owe much to later ages in respect to lighting ; for in early times perambulators at night had no light but that of the flambeaux which were caiTied before them. FIRK AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR TIXKIK rUOUUCTION. •41 to [poor dis- 3ntion 01" \>i things present Ice! We begin- lich pre- veTB but |lie shops whom iccess of jreceded ^eets owe lators at them. P^ris was the first modem city which was lighted, and this was not till the sixteenth century ; the hghts were not lamps hut yreref allots, vessels filled with pitch, resin, and other combustibles. These stationary lights were some years afterwards superseded by lanterns ; and about tlie middle of the last century glass lamps began to be used, suspended over the middle of the streets by cords. London was somewhat behindhand in these matters ; for until about 1736 few lights were used in the streets except those which the citizens hung out in front of their houses ; but in that year five thousand glass lamps were set up by the corporation. In many of the cities of the Continent — Amster- dam, Hamburgh, Venice, Madrid, &c. — ^the streets were first lighted in tlie seventeenth centmy. Rome had no street lights until the end of the last century, when Pope Sixtus VI. adopted the singular expedient of ordering the number of lights before the images of saints to be increased, as a means of lessening the gloom of the streets. In Vienna, until 1780, the inhabitants had to take down the lamps from before their doors in tlie morning, take them to the lamp-office to be filled with oil, and light them in the evening on a signal given by the public fire-bell — a clumsy method this, which was ob- viated by the establishment of a body of lamplighters. Without departing from our own country, we have abundant evidence of the characteristics of the streets of a busy city before the introduction of gas- lighting. There was the London marching watch of Henry the Eighth's time, with tlie cressets or iron frames filled with burning pitchy ropes ; there was the time of peril and danger when this watch was abolished on account of the expense to the citizens ; there was the establishment of the standing watch or watchmen, with lanterns instead of cressets ; there were the three centuries of contest between the corporation and the citizens as to whether the lighting should be individual or corporate ; there were the robberies and mm-ders and other deeds of violence in dark alleys, because only those who paid ten pounds \ y a year rental were required to light the front of their houses ; there were the > flambeaux and link-boys of Hogarth's days, and the lamplighters of George the Third's time — all ihis, and much more, illustrative of the lighting (or non- lighting) of the metx'opolis in past days, is pleasantly depicted in Mr. Knight's * London.' But the age of gas approached. It was in 1792 that Mr. Murdoch showed that gas-lighting was practicable ; and five years afterwards he applied it on a large scale at the Soho Factory at Birmingham. It was in 1803 that Mr. Winsor lighted the Lyceum Theatre with gas, and in the next following year that the first Manchester factory was so lighted. Its fame and its use spreatl to Halifax Mid to other northern towns ; but the metropolis received the new- comer distrustfully. It was in vain for Mr. Winsor to announce a ' National Light and Heat Company,' and to promise the shareholders an unheard-of dividend on their capital ; the gas hitherto made had not been pure, its odour Avas offensive, and the Londoners would have none of it. The difficulties, however, were overcome on the one hand, and the prejudices on the other ; and by the year 1823 there were upwards of a hundred miles of gas-pipes running beneath the streets of the great metropolis. How the gas system has progressed in the last thirty years is most striking. Mr. Rutter has stated that, in 1848, there were six million tons of coal con- sumed annually in England for gas-making alone ; that one-twelfth of diis, or half a million tons, was so used in London ; and that the main pipes which conveyed tliis gas to the houses of London were fifteen hundred miles in length. X f 1 I ' \ 1 I ■ •1^^ mi KH»I ■OT mmmmmmmmmmmmKm^ f as FIBE AND UOHT: CONTBIVANCEa FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. And it was not in London alone that this astonishing advance was observable ; there were nearly six hundred proprietary gas-works in England and Wales in that year, and nearly two hundred in Scotland and Ireland ; and at these several works there were many thousand million cubic feet of gas produced annually. In the four subsequent years the advance has been very rapid ; and a ton of coals is now made to yield more gas than by the earlier processes. "What our great gas-works are, nearly every one now knows. The retorts for containing the coal, the ovens for heating tlie retorts, the vessels through which the gas passes to be purified by chemical means, the enormous gaso- meters or reservoirs in which it is stored for use, and the wonderful system of pipes by which ii is conveyed to our streets and houses, all are rendered tolerably familiar to us; and recent discussions have rendered them still more so, especially to the citizens of London. The years 1850-51 witnessed a fierce gas agitation in the metropolis. The City of London Gas-light Company had, up to that time, supplied a large number of the citizens ; but there having been many arguments to show that the price charged was unwaiTantably high, a ' Great Central Gas Consumers' Company ' was formed, professedly with a view of enabling the users to reap all the profit from the manufacture. The price, under the threatened com- petition, fell from 10s. to 7s., 6s., and then 4s. per thousand cubic feet. The new company was formed ; and in the autumn of that year the streets of the City were brought into an extraordinary condition, by tbe laying down of new pipes; and the *gas agitation' became offensive alike to the eye, to the nostrils, and to good sense. Within six months after the commencement of operations, tlie new company supplied 4500 consumers, with about a million feet of gas per week. After many struggles, and much waste of property, the two companies combined; but in order to secure to the gas consumers some instalment of advantage from tlie conflict, it was agreed that the gas should be chai'ged as low as 4s. ; and that if tlie united company should ever be lucky enough. to realise a dividend of 10 per cent., any surplus profit should be ap- plied to a further lessening of the price of gas. It is not often that the public make so good a bargain in the patching-up of companies' quarrels. We stated in a recent paragraph that the arrangements and processes of gas-works are pretty generally known ; but it is not less necessary to bear in mind that improvements are constantly being introduced in one or other of the various operations or the mechanism by which they are conducted. At tlie new works of the ' Gas Consumers' Company,' for instance, many novelties ai'e introduced ; and indeed it is these novelties which enable tlie new com- panies to undersell the old, by producing a given amount of gas with a less amount of simk capital. So in the new ' Western Gas-light Company,' wlio.-o works have been recently established at Kensall Green. Here the operations are conducted on a system patented by Mr. Palmer. Cannel coal is now known to yield a larger quantity and a purer quality of gas than ordinaiy coal ; and Mr. Palmer hence adopts it. There is a polygonal building of twelve sides, 166 feet in diameter, and containing 360 retorts; the gas made in these retorts is purified by passing through water, then tlirough a rotating tank, then through a refrigerating apparatus, then thi-ough a shower of liquid ammonia drops, then through an atmosphere of steam, and then through lime. All this may appear very complex ; but in truth the gas from coal con- tains a large number of foreign substances, each of which requires its own particular process for removal. The principal gasometer or gas-holder at ?! FUtE AND lioht: contrivamoes fob their pboductiom. 38 vable ; ales in several nually. ton of retorts trough IS gaso- system mdered !m still I. The a large low that isumers' . to reap ed com- !t. The is of the Q of new , to the 3ment of 1 million )erty, the ers some s should be lucky d be ap- le public ^cesses of bear ui other of . At tlie [novelties lew com- a less r,' who.-o )ei'atioiis is now [aiy coal ; )f twelve I made in rotating |of liqviid through Icoal cou- its own lolder at these works is of vast magnitude: il is 135 feet in diameter, by 26 feet deep; it weighs 150 tons, and will contain more than 350,000 cubic feet of gas. One of the singular novelties of recent times arose out of the backward- ness of mechanical art in Mexico. The apparatus for a new gas-work was sent out from England to Mexico ; but it was feared that there were no workmen in that city who could efficiently put together the pieces of metal for large gasometers. Mr. Hancock, therefore, was invited to apply the aid of India rubber to this pui-pose ; he made canvas bags twelve feet in diameter by fifteen high ; the canvas was saturated with India rubber, and the bags were rendered cylindrical by iron hoops ; and thus each bag became a gasometer. Mr. Leslie's gas burners are coming largely into use in public establish- ments. At the General Post Office, at some of tlie government offices, at many banking houses, and at the Thames Tunnel, they are now employed. The gas flows through a circle of small tubes, each tube surrounded by the atmospheric current at the point where the gas issues and is ignited ; from which follows a more complete combustion of the gas, and a purer and more brilliant light, than by the ordinary arrangement. This result is further carried out by the adoption of lamp-glasses, the shape and capacity of which vary according to the quantity of gas to be consumed in a given time. There is here something like the precision of chemical adaptation. Mr. Leslie has also contrived an apparatus for purifying gas before its combustion. Notwith- standing the numerous processes to which the gas is subjected at the works, it always contains a little sulphur and ammonia ; and these substances not only vitiate the air, but they lessen the brilliancy of the light produced. Mr. Leslie's apparatus consists of an enclosed chest, kept in the house of the consumer ; through it all the gas must pass on its way to the burners, and in its passage it comes in contact with lime and other chemical substances, which deprive it of the sulphur and ammonia. It is only in large establishments where such a purifying appai'atus would pay itself; but where the jets are reckoned by hundreds rather than by tens, the combined use of the purifier and the new bimier is said to be productive of a very remarkable saving. Dr. Playfair has recently drawn the attention of the Government to the excellent results observable at the General Post Office. In respect to the ordmary burners, nothing can be more vai'ied than the forms which they are now made to assume ; the cheapness of gas and the cheapness of glass have led to an almost infinite variety in our shop-windows and public buildings — not always tasteful, it is true ; but yet much grace and beauty are occasionally shown in the gas-light arrangements. The philosophy of gas and the philosophy of cooking are now brought into most useful companionship. Let us take as an example the gas-cooking apparatus which the good folks of Liverpool are said to patronise. Around the ' dripping-pan ' is a gas-pipe, which supplies numerous little jets to heat tlie whole apparatus ; the meat to be roasted is hung over the centre of the place bounded by the magic circle of gas ; and the meat to be baked is placed m a closed compartment, also over tlie heating agent. At the top of the stove are eight or ten spiral burners, sunk a little way below the surface ; and here the culinaiy operations of broiling, frying, boiling, steaming, stew- ing, &c.,- are conducted. All the compai-tments arc furnished with dampers to regulate the heat, and separate doors in front give access to each compart- ment. If, as the inventors teU us, " sixty mutton chops can be cooked at an outlay of only twopence for gas," the apparatus must indeed be a pattern of > X mmmmm 24 FIRE AND light: CONTRIVANCES FOR THEIR PRODUCTION economy. ' Other gas-cooking stoves are now putting forth their claims to I public favour ; one, we are told, can " cook a pair of chickens, 4 lbs. of beef, '~4 j potatoes (both baked and boiled) and boil a vessel of water, with less than ' two-pennyworth of gas." M. Soyer, who provided a dinner on a large scale, and at a short notice, for the Agricultural Society at their Exeter meeting, is said to have done wonders with an extemporaneous gas-cooking apparatus ; he cooked 560 lbs. of meat in five hours, with a consumption of 750 cubic feet of gas ; according to the modem London tariff the gas would have cost only 38. ; but the Exeter an-angement was of course not governed in relation to any saving of a few shillings in fuel. In most of these gas stoves the heating arrangements are of two kinds ; in one the lighted jets are placed beneath the metallic bottom of a boiler, a saucepan, or other cooking vessel, or an oven ; in the other tlie lighted jets are ranged in a circle within and above which a joint is suspended for roasting. If well managed, no gas odom* vitiates the meat. On a busy Saturday night, when many of the streets are thronged with retail dealers in all kinds of commodities — edible and culinary — thei'e may often be seen stalls or stands lighted up with more than ordinary brilliancy, attracting no small attention thereby. The form of lamp or light is am- biguous : it may be from gas, or it may be from oil — few can tell at the first glance which is its real character. It is in fact something between the two. The principle acted on is that of Holliday's ' Self-generating Gas-lamp,' in which the lamp makes its own gas while burning. The combustible employed is naphtha. There is a reservoir of this liquid, into which a wick dips ; the naphtha ascends by capillary attraction ; when it arrives near the burner, the extreme volatility of Uie naphtha causes it to vaporise by the heat of the lamp ; and this naphthalic vapom*, mingling with a small portion of atmo- spheric air, forms a gas well fitted for lighting, when ignited at small jets. The arrangement of the appai'atus admits of vainous modifications ; but the principle of action depends on the formation of vapour of naphtha, by the heat of the lamp itself. Invention has been busy tiying to produce gas-light for public purposes out of other substances than coal. One scheme is for hydrocarbon or water-resin gas, in which, by complicated means, water is decomposed in one vessel and resin in another, and the resulting gases made to combine for producing light. But chemists have shown that the quantity of gas produced is not adequate to the cost of the resin consumed ; and such is found to be the case in respect to many other proposed schemes. Of the Electric Light, a little has been said in another pai't of this work. mm-^f* ns to beef, } than scale, ing, is ratus ; lie feet e cost elation es the placed vessel, tin and 3 odour 3d with xe may illiancy, is am- the first the two. amp,' in mployed lips; tlie mer, the at of the of atmo- taall jets. hut the a, by the joses out ^ater-resin 3ssel and producing Id is not lobe the [work. WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. The lower animals not only give us their flesh for our food, but their clothing becomes our clothing. We are proud enough when we compare ourselves with them ; but not too proud to wear the same garments, or garments made from the same materials. The sheep gives us our coats and a multitude of materials for dress, including some of the most delicate for ladies* wear; the goat supplies us with the mohair and the Cashmere which now enter so largely into dress ; the llama gives us alpaca ; the little silkworm gives up its egg-shaped house, its cocoon, to supply us with silk ; the beaver and the sable, the savage bear and the lightsome squirrel, and numerous other animals, yield up their hairy coats to form our hats and our furriery ; the birds give us their feathers, either for snug bed- clothing by night, or for per- sonal adornment by day. Wool: — Broadcloth and Fulled Manufactures. One of the most instructive features in our wool trade, at present, is the substitution of colonial wool for German and Spanish wool. Our imports of Spanish wool, in the period between 1815 and 1849, fell from 7,000,000 lbs. to 100,000 lbs. annually; while that from Australia rose from 70,000 lbs. to 36,000,000 lbs. Of our total import in 1849 (77,000,000 lbs.), more than half came from British colonies ; and each succeeding year presents yet more striking evidences in the same direction. For instance, the recent Board of Trade returns tell us that in 1851 we imported 81,000,000 lbs. of wool, of which the truly enormous quantity of 52,000,000 lbs. was from our own colonies. It is another remarkable feature, that the beautifully soft silky alpaca wool or hair (for it partakes somewhat of both) has now become such . a favourite material for dress, that 2,000,000 lbs. were imported in 1851. The day has gone by when ' super Saxony ' was a name really applicable to a piece of broadcloth; Australia has nearly displaced Saxony m our wool markets. Yet (so much for fashion) we ai-e not told about ' super Australian' cloths ; we wear the cloth without knowing or caring whether the wool from which it was made has been brought from our own colonies. How much English wool is worked up witli this continental and colonial wool, no one seems to know ; but our parliamentary returns tell us that — be the quantity what it may — our woollen and worsted factories now number more Uian 2000, employing 160,000 persons, 2,500,000 spindles to spin the wool into yam, and 45,000 power-looms to weave this yam into cloth. This relates to factory operations alone ; it touches not upon that vast system of cottage industry which so especially distinguishes the woollen trade, and renders the Yorkshire valleys alive with industrious workers. There is a certain family likeness between the processes to which a bag of IF^pil 9 WOOL AND BILK. FUB AND FEATHERS. i wool is subjected in the course of manufacture, and those which apply more particularly to a bale of cotton ; and yet there are differences which show that animal and vegetable filaments have each a particular range of qualities which require to be humoured in the manufacture. Let the transformation be from a bag of wool to a piece of superfine broad cloth. First we see the wool tumbled out of its bag, and subjected to the disentangling action of a ' devil,' or • teazer,' or • willy,' the sharp teeth of which sever the locks of wool one from another. Next we trace it through a 'burring machine,' the rollers of which separate the clotted burs which would vitiate the quality of the cloth. Then comes into action the oddly- named ' scribbling machine,' by the sharp teeth of which the fibres are scrib- bled straight and parallel, and brought into a continuous roll. We see this soft roll of wool sucked into the fimnel of a ' lap machine,' and quickly coiled round a tin frame or cylinder. Next we follow the progress of these coils, and find that several of them are transferred to the ' carding engine,' where the fibres are combined together, and carded out into a continuous slivei'. By repetition of these drawings and cardings and combings, varying in number according to the kind of material employed, the wool is at length brought to the required loose thread-like state ; and it is then spun into yam by a ' mule- machine.' Arrived at length at the cloth region, we trace the woollen yam through its successive stages. First there comes the weaving, which in the West of England is still effected chiefly by the hand-loom, but which in the West Riding is gradually coming within the domain of the power-loom. Then we trace the cloth to the ' beating stocks,' by which the grease and oil are beaten and washed out of the clotti ; and to the ' fulling stocks,' by the incessant thumping of which the cloth is shortened, narrowed, thickened, and matted in that peculiar way which constitutes felting. The ' gig-mill,' with its attire of teazles or of wire teeth, then comes into use, for rubbing or scratching up the filaments of wool, to make a pile or nap ; and the cloth, not being yet enough tantt iised by these various ordeals, passes to the ' shearing machine,' to have the pile closely shaved down ; and to the ' brush- ing machine,' to have the short and beautiful nap brushed uniformly in one direction ; and to the ' pressing machine,' to give it that attractive and finished appearance which * extra Saxony super' is expected to present. In one and all of the above processes the machines employed have undei'- gone, and are still imdergoing, rapid changes and improvements. The; machines of bygone years become obsolete ; and even manufacturers living in the same district have each his own favourite patented machines. The same may be said, too, of the worsted, or stuff, or hosiery manufacture, in which long wool is employed. This wool does not felt ovfuU, and requires a different train of processes, some of which employ very beautiful machinery. It is not one of the least curious among our factory characteristics that two districts, widely separated, share the honour and the profit of our woollen manufactures — the West of England and the West Riding. The former produces principally fine cloth, which is mostly used at home ; the latter produces all kinds, for the foreign as well as the home markets. The former retains to a great extent the domestic or hand-work system of old times ; while the latter is every year adopting more largely the factory system. In the West of England district (Gloucester, Somerset, Wilts, and part of the adjacent counties), Trowbridge is a great centre for ' trouserings ' and narrow goods ; Frome for coloured woollens ; Dorchester for kerseys and drab coat- ings ; while Stroud, Melksham, Chippenham, Tiverton, and other towns, are WOOL AND BILK, rUB AKD FBATHERS. 8 r more show lalities ! broad to the eeth of ough a which oddly- e scrib- 366 this y coiled )ils, and lere the 8i. By number jught to i ' mule- len yam 1 in the ih in the rer-lcom. and oil },' by the sned, and lill,' v.ith bbing or he cloth, 3 to ihe brubh- ly in one [tive and Int. re under- Its. The living 5S. The Icture, in equires a kchinery. tticB that : woollen former Ihe latter I former times ; m. In of the [narrow Jrab coat- Iwns, are the centres of clustered villages in which broadcloths are made. If there bs one town in England which takes the lead of all others in the finest cloth, whether scailet for the officer or black for the civilian, perhaps it is Stroud. Why it is that the West Riding is adopting more rapidly than the West of England the system of factoiy labour, may perhaps be explained by the facta that coal is cheaper, that steam and water power are more readily obtainable, that an abundant working population is always at hand, that a complete net- work of railways exists, and that the two great shipping ports of Hull and Liverpool lie east and west of the • clothing valleys.' There are no such industrious valleys as these in any other part of England, and there is no other great manufacturing district which presents so many picturesque spots ; on the biil-sides and on the valley-bottoms tlie clothiers live in villages clus- tered together with a closeness which would astonish those who are familiar only with agricultural villages. The variety of goods which come under the designation of woollen manu- factures is (we may almost say) increasing every year. ' Broad cloth ' and ' narrow cloth,' ' Clarendons ' and * Petershams,' ' cashmeres,' ' cashmerettes,' * kerseys,' ' tweeds,' ' tartans,' • linsey woolseys,' ' angolas,' ' vicugnas,' * Vene- tians,' ' llamas,' * Sartlinians,' * Himalayas,' ' moleskins,' • doeskins,' ' beavers,' • trouserings,' ' vestings,' ' coatings' — there is really no end to the names ; for the manufacturers, not content with distinguishing names for particular materials and particular modes of manufacture, conjure up new names on any grounds or no gi'ounds, for the chami of novelty. Many of the names, however, might be made significant of really curious novelties in the manu- facture. Thus, there is a new ' bis-unique cloth,' of double thicloiess, the two surfaces having diff'erent patterns, so that the wearer may have either side outwards, at his pleasure. There is Mr. Barber's cloth, wholly made from beaver fur — soft, light, and warm — for winter garments. There is, as a third example, the comically-named Irish ' rumswizzle,' a veiy excellent brownish frieze made of undyed foreign wool. Nothing in our economical age is, perhaps, a greater industrial • curiosity ' than the shoddy, made at some of the Yorkshire mills. The old woollen rags — the last organic remains of coats and trousers — used to be employed for various trifling purposes ; but they have now risen in dignity : they have be- come the elements out of which new coats and trousers will spring. There is here a kind of metempsychosis of garments, which the ancients knew nothing about. Dewsbury draws to itself woollen rags from all parts of Europe; coarse, fine, little worn,' much worn, white, coloured, clean, dirty — all are welcome ; they may be so good as to command 50^. per ton, or so bad as to be worth less than that number of shillings : they may be clean from Scot- land or ft'om Denmark, or dirty from Ireland or Italy — all are grist to the Dewsbury mills. Here they are ' devilled,' or torn to tatters by the sharp spikes of ra[)i(Uy-i'evolving machines; the 'devil's dust' rises in stinking cloud;- iiiid befouls the whole town in its descent ; and die women, while sorting the rags, and the men, while feeding the ' devils ' with rags, muflle their mouths to ward off the choking effects of the unsavoury dust. Taken altogether, this i.^, perhaps, the vilest stage in any department of our textile manufactures. Some of the ' shoddy,' worked up into poor flimsy cloth, is exported to South America for slave-clotliing ; but more generally it is mixed up with a greater or less proportion of new wool, and tlien spun into yarn for coai-se goods. If the history of a slop-shop coat could be told, we might perchance find that it had had a previous state of existence ; that after having p 8 u i 4 WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FUATHERS. gone through a teim of service, and borne its share of rough weather and rough usage, it had been be-devilled at Dewsbury, and the shoddy mixed with new wool to form the sleek, glossy, but treacherous material for a new coat. As the shoddy must necessarily be very short fibred, we have no right to expect strength in any cloth wherein it forms a pai't. Wool: — Stuffs, Flannels, Blankets, Cashmeres, Alpacas. Let us pass on, however, to another and not less remarkable section of the wool trade. Although the Yorkshire clothing-valleys are identified with iJie woollen-cloth manufacture, the West Riding generally cannot be under- stood without reference to the modem characteristics of the long-wool or unfelted wool manufacture. The stuff's or mixed goods of the West Kiding have no parallel in any other country. In bygone times stuffs and such like ■worsted goods were as commonly worn by women as woollen cloths "were by men ; and Norwich, with some few other towns, were celebrated for their manufacture. But an astonishing change has come over this department of manufacture. By mixing alpaca and other fine wools with coarser varieties ; by combl-'iing one or more of these with cotton or silk, or both ; by increas- ing the richness of the dyes given to the yam ; by the employment of tasteful designers in producing patterns ; and by the adoption of all available im- provements in looms and weaving apparatus — the * mixed goods ' (as they are now called) have risen to a manufacture of great magnitude ; one almost peculiar to England, and which at the present time almost rivals that of woollens in the West Riding. Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield — each is the head-quarters of one pax-ticular branch of this new trade : in Bradford dress goods for ladies, in Huddersfield fancy waistcoatings, in Halifax furniture damasks. It is hardly possible to conceive the rapid rise of Bradford in this ti'ade without comparing its present condition with that of half a century back. It was then a mere nothing, veiy little more than a village ; whereas it is now one of the largest towns in the West Riding. Bradford shares with Brighton the reputation of having ris^jn in population and wealth more rapidly tlian any other towns in England. True it is, that Uie Sanitary Com- mission gave it a sadly dirty character eight or nine years ago ; but it has mended its manners and washed its face since. Halifax and Bradford are near neighbours ; but they present many points of contrast. Halifax is a very old town, Bradford has sprung into notice recently ; Halifax has steep hills and picturesque houses and gables, Bradford has nothing picturesque ; Halifax manufactures an immense variety of goods, Bradford confines itself more to plain stuffs ; Halifax only buys wool for itself and a small sur- rounding district, Bradford buys and sells for an immense range of country, and is more a prey to speculative fevers and agues. We may say of these mixed or long-wool goods, as we did of the woollen or short-wool goods, that their names are almost interminably bewildering. We have alpacas, mohairs, mousselines de laine, mousselines de sole, merinos, Coburgs, Orleans, Henriettas, poplins, paramattas, pi'incettes, quiltings, trou- serings, cashmeres, damasks, moreens, table-covers, and a host of others: some named according to tlie kind of wool employed, some according to the admixture of other fibres with the wool, some according to the mode of manufacture, others according to the purposes to which they are to be applied, and the rest according to any fanciful idea which the manufacturer hopes may assist his sale in &e market. Greatly as these differ one. from WOOL AND 8ILK, FUR AND KEATHKHB. 5 ther and ixed with lew coat. right to section of ified with )e under- j-wool or it Hiding such like i were by for their rtment of varieties ; r increas- )f tasteful lable im- } they are le almost Is that of ich is the brd dress furniture d in this I century hereas it res with more [aiy Com- it has [ford are is a las steep u-esque ; itself lall sur- jountry, I woollen fldering. lerinos, js, trou- I others : [ding to mode to be facturer le from ^■< another, they have those points of general resemblance — that they contain long wool instead of the short wool employed for broadcloth ; that printing and pnttem-weaving are much more largely attended to; and tliat there is (usufUly) no nap or pile on the finished goods. Some of the yam for the finer goods is spun to a high degree of delicacy ; tlius, No. IttO, in this depart- ment of manufacture, contains upwards of 50 miles of yani in 1 lb. weight. If the reader can fonn a clear conception of the various degrees of fineness in the yams, of the mixture of silk with wool in some of the yarns, of the occasional interlacing of silk or cotton yams with those of wool, of the dyeing or printing (or both) of the yams before weaving, of the production of elabo- rate pattems by the loom, and of the printing after the weaving — he will see how it is that, by combining any number of these sources of variety, the "West Riding manufacturers can throw such endless diversity into their mixed fabrics. Belgium, France, Saxony, Pmssia, Austria — all can equal the West Biding in broadcloths and other woollen goods ; but none of them approach it in this more modern department of industry. In Bradford alone there are said to be upwards of 15,000 men employed in wool-combing, preparatoiy to the spinning and weaving processes. This wool-combing is not, except in a few cases, a factory occupation ; it is done at the homes of the combers, and is paid for as piece-work. To save rent and iire and candle, tln-ee or fom' of these men work together in one room, assisted by their wives and children in the easiest parts of the work, and doing the rest themselves. Why should Rochdalo make such millions of yards of flannel, and yet pro- duce little else in woollen or worsteds? It is one of those peculiaiities with which we are occasionally struck in the location of manufactures, a satisfac- toiy cause for which it is difficult to assign. Rochdale is quite out of the woollen district of the West Riding ; it is in Tiancashire, among the cotton to>vns ; and yet it produces flannels in enonr. /US quantity — far greater than any other to\vn in England. Indeed it is the market for flannels ; the prices at Rochdale govern those elsewhere, and regulate large purchases. If we look at tlie trade reports given in the daily newspapers, and find that at a particulai' time flannels are ' looking up,' or ' go off briskly,' or ' hong heavUy,' we shall find that the ^vriter of the report has Rochdale in his mind as tlie centre of operations. Flannels are much more luxurious productions than they were in years gone by. We knew tliem ordinarily only as woollen or worsted goods ; but modem ingenuity has devised flannel made of mingled wool and silk. Its inventors claim for it a superiority over ordiiiftiy ilannels, in being " less imtating to the skin ; it shrinks less in washing ; the silk increases the strength and durability of the texture, and renders it less liable to tear." Such flannels have even been embroidered, and used for ladies' opera cloaks. Then we have choice ' Tibet' flannels, made from the finest wool ; and flax flannels, in which flax, prepared on Claussen's process, is mixed with wool ; and fancy-coloured flannels — pink, rose-colour, cherry, crimson, blue, orange, and other dainty tints. The philosophy of cheapness has also visited the flannel regions, for some of the low-priced flannels con- tain a portion, more or less, of cotton. There are striped flannels, and cricketers' flannels, and ' anti-rheumatic ' flannels, and many other special and oddly-named kinds. As it is with Rochdale and its flannels, so it is also with Dewsbuiy in respect to blankets ; each is tlie central market for the commodity which is manufactured there to a lar-ger extent than in any othei' town. It might appear that flannel ^ I 6 WOOL AND SILK, FDR AND FEATHERS. and blankets, so similar in many of their characteristics, would find a home in the same factories, or at least in the same town ; but such is not the case — Dewsbury yields the palm to Rochdale in tlae one, but expects equal defer- ence to be paid to itself in the other. The 'Yorkshire Directory, 'which we may assume to be a trustworthy authority, gives us no less than a hundred and eighty ' blanket manufacturers ' at Dewsbury ; and as among these theie are ten Ellises, six Crawshaws, six Seniors, and four or five repetitions of half a dozen other names, we see at once an indication of the old-fashioned West Riding custom, where one particular trade remains in the same family for generations. It is an interesting feature in the modem history of the woollen manufac- ture, that the wool or rather hair of the Cashmere goat is becoming a favourite material in cloth of the better kind. Not that all the ' Cashmeres ' of the shops are really Cashmeres ; the morale of trade has not yet reached the point when things are called by their right names ; and the beautiful Asiatic valley is quite innocent of the greater part of those products which rejoice in the name of ' Cashmeres.' Still the high-bora and tlie wealthy occasion- ally pui'chase shawls which were really made in that region ; and (what is more interesting to us) attempts are being made to naturalise in this country Uie animal which produces the beautiful filamentous material in question. The fleece of the Cashmere goat consists of two very different kinds of fibre — one of which is a fine, soft, pliable, rich wool, equal to the finest lamb's wool ; while the other, called kemp, is a hard, stiff, coarse, rough kind of hair. The kemp may be used in the manufacture of coarse cloth ; but every fibre must be removed before the fine wool can be employed in shawl-making ; this removal is very difficult and tedious, and will be a bar to the spread of the manufacture unless some expeditious system to effect it can be devised. Prince Albert has some Cashmere goats at Windsor ; and some few months before the Great Exhibition was opened he caused the fleeces of those goats to be for- warded to two manufacturing firms, one near Leeds and one near Halifax, there to be subjected to manufactmnng processes. The separation of the fine wool from the kemp was a slow manipulative process, which many persons under- took voluntarily and pleasurably — for it will be something to talk of in future yeiu's, that tlie younger members of many respectable Yorkshire families assisted the Prince Consort to make a Cashmere shawl. Of course the expense which would attend such a mode of manufacture for ordinaiy sale would be quite disproportionate to the result obtained ; but the Prince's praiseworthy object was answered by showing that the Cashmere goat can be reared in this country, and that the fleecy covering can be wrought into cloth. The articles produced from the wool in question consisted of a piece of white clotli, with silk warp and Cashmere weft, woven with a brocaded figure ; a piece of similar character, but dyed ; two shawls made wholly of the Cash- mere wool ; and a coai'se piece of woollen cloth made from the kemp or hair. As with the Cashmere goat, so with the alpaca; attempts are being, or have been, made to naturalise it in this country. The alpaca is one among many species of the llama, the wool of which is very beautiful. The first visit of these animals to Europe was an adventurous one. Thirty-six travelled across the whole breadth of South America, from Lima to Buenos Ayres, in 1808, and were there shipped to Europe as a present to the Empress Jo- sephine. At Cadiz tlie poor animals were ill-treated by a rabble, and oidy a small number were ultimately preserved in Spain— liiey never reached Jo- sephine. By degrees it was found that alpaca wool was longer, softer, more mm ma mmmimmmmmmm'mmmmm!^ WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. 7 pliant, and more lustrous than sheep's wool ; and the manufacturers of Brad- ford began to import it for use. Her Majesty possesses one or two of these animals at Windsor; and some articles of dress were made from tlie alpaca wool in 1844 — one was an apron, entirely of alpaca; another was a sti'iped and figured dress, with silk warp, alpaca weft, and alternate silk and alpaca figiu'es ; a third was a plaid dress, woven with an intermixture of alpaca, silk, and worsted ; while a fourth was a plain black dress, with cotton warp and alpaca weft. Many attempts have been made to establish the breed of Uie alpaca in this country', but hitherto the enterprise has not been com- mercially successful. Wool: — Carpets and Tapestrt. We must depart a little from our ' clothing materials ' to take a glance at carpet curiosities and novelties. Among the luxuries in which England indulges to a greater extent than her continental neighboiurs are carpets. The parquetry or inlaid flooring of the Continent is much superior to oiu' own modem flooring, because it is intended to remain uncovered ; while the slippery waxed floors of French mansions exhibit another phase of the same system. John Bull attaches a notion of chilliness to an uncarpeted floor ; it has none of the ' comfort ' which he so much loves. " We Englishmen," it has been said, " have dainty feet; we must have velvet lawns, as smooth as satin and as springy as leatlier; and carpets — ^fleecy, soft, glossy, peachy carpets — as smooth and as springy as our lawns." Yet it was not always so ; we were not in advance of other nations in this respect in bygone ages. It was not till the time of Charles II. that the apartments of the wealthy began, as a regular custom, to be car- peted ; and any person now tolerably advanced in years may well recollect that oak floors, deal floors, sanded floors, sawdust floors, rushed floors, concrete floors, brick floors — were much more prevalent in his early youth than tliey now are, even in houses of similar character. It is nevertheless remarkable tliat England, which uses so many carpets, was by no means one of the earliest nations which manufactured them. Turkey and Persia supplied the soft and costly carpets for our drawing and dining rooms ; while Flanders and France furnished those in which artistic beauty of design became gradually developed. The first English attempts in the manufacture appear to have had relation to cheap rather than beautiful carpets ; but the manufacture has made a vast stride witliin a recent period ; and it is pretty generally agreed tliat in material, in colour, and in pattern, we are approajphing nearly to a level with the most skilled of our continental neighbours. The names given to carpets are singular; for they are mostly those of towns or countries, which give veiy little information concerning the texture and quality of the car)jet itself Persian, Turkey, Venetian, Tournay, French, Brussels, Axminster, Wilton, Kidderminster, Scotch — these are the names of the carpets with which we are most familial'. In all these towns and countries cai-pets aro or have been manufactured ; and doubtless each kind of carpet had originally some distinctive qualities which its name sei-ved to indicate ; but there are now distinctions without diflerences, and difler- cnces which tlie names fail to point out. Tournay carpets, Axminster car- pets, and Wilton carpets, are very nearly alike ; Axminster now produces no carpets at all ; rot one of our modem Brussels carpets comes from Brussels; 8 WOOL AND SIT.K, FUIt AMD FEATHERS. Kidderminster no longer makes Kidderminster carpets, but has raised its attention to the better kinds, such as the Brussels; the Kidderminster carpets, which are not made at Kidderminster, are now made in the noi'th of England and the west of Scotland, and constitute the bulk of our cheap carpeting — such are the anomalies in the designation of carpets. As an illustration, we may mention that the cai-pets for the new House of Commons, comprising many thousand yards, though made at Kidderminster, ai*e * Bnissels ' carpeting, so called. There are two characteristic processes in making a cai-pet — one adopted in the more costly varieties, and the other for those of lesser cost and more extensive use. The former are very little otlier than specimens of needle- work : or rather they resemble tapestiy. There is a frame in which the foun- dation of the carpet is stretched, as for ladies' tambour or Berlin work ; and into and between the meshes of this foundation are introduced little tufts and threads of worsted, so disposed in colour as to produce any desired pattern. A peculiar kind of knot fastens each little tuft ; and the arrange- ment of the front sui-face, according as it is looped, or cut, or sheared, pro- duces the various kinds of Brussels and Saxony and ' pile ' and ' velvet ' carpets. The other or cheaper kinds are produced rather by the ordinary process of weaving, in which a shuttle, or set of shuttles, throws in the coloured weft threads among the warp ; peculiar adaptations of a double weft or a double warp being employed according to the particular kind to be pro- duced. In Tapestry and in the real Turkey carpets the manufacture bears some resemblance to lace-making, inasmuch as the fabric or foundation of the carpet is made by the same slow and patient hand-processes as the deco- rative surface ; oi', at most, the wai-p threads are previously arranged, and all the rest worked in by hand. In all these carpets each yam or sepai-ate thread is dyed of one colour throughout, so that there must be as many separate yams as colours in the carpet. Now one of the modem novelties in carpet making is to apply to it a principle which produces beautiful results in cottons and silks, viz., printing the yams before weaving, so that each single thread may have a parti-coloured pattern of its own. This pattern requires a very nice adjustment, so that when the various threads are interlaced each may show the right colour at the right spot. Some of Mr. Wliytock's carpets, produced on this principle, are very remarkable. AnoUier novelty is Messrs. Templeton's chenille carpets — soft, beautiful, but costly. These ai-e made in a singular way. The warp-threads are stretched out horizontally, as in a common loom ; and the weft is thrown in by a shuttle; but this weft consists of chenille instead of mere. yam; and when the weaving is effected, the loose coloured threads of the chenille are combed up and made to appear at the surface, where they are cut and sheai'ed to an exquisite state of velvety softness. The pattern is dyed in the chenille itself, nothing appearing at the surface of the carpet except the ends of the chenille fringe. A later novelty, and one which seems likely to lessen the price of well- made carpets, is an application of the power-loom in weaving with the print- ing process in omamenting. The yam is subjected to no dyeing or printing whatever ; it remains in the state of white worsted, and is in that state woven by the power-loom. Then, after the weaving, the white carpet is printed with rich colours, in such a way as to send the dye through the whole substance. We mentioned in a late paragraph that tlie House of Commons is carpeted t WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. 9 with ' Brussels ' made at Kidderminster ; and it may here be stated tliat the House of Lords' library, and some of the other apartments of the new legisla- tive palace, are carpeted with the more costly and luxurious ' velvet pile,' in which the foot sinks into a downy bed at each step. This is the time * Wilton ' cai-pet, which differs from ' Brussels ' chiefly in having the loops at the sur- face cut in the manner of velvet, thereby forming a nap or pile. Most of oiu- carpets are made of mingled worsted and linen — the latter hidden from sight by being placed at or near the back of the fabric. Cotton — that substitute for all the dearer kinds of textile fibres at the present day — ^has not yet been used much in carpets. A suggestion has been made, however, that such an application might not be at all unreasonable. Cotton carpets — stout, service- able, and handsome — are made and used in India ; they are generally striped, red and blue, or with three shades of blue ; but sometimes diey have figured patterns. Our cotton manufacturers can now produce very stout and dm-able goods ; and we may yet see tlie day for cotton cai-pets. Let them, however, be called cotton, and not palmed off as being made of more costly materials ; if known at all, let them be honestly known by their proper names. The 'ladies' carpet,' which has acquu'ed such notoriety in connection with the recent Exhibition, is noteworthy on many gi'ounds. It is not a woven carpet, in the ordinary sense, but is really needlework, and was intended by the ladies partly as a specimen of the profitable employment of their leisure hours. Mr. Papworth sketched the original design, to be worked in Berlin wool. The carpet measures thirty feet by twenty ; it was divided into a hundred and fifty squares measuring two feet each way, and each square was worked by one lady ; the whole were then sewn together, and were, of com'se, so planned as to form part of the general pattern. In the pattern, besides geo- metrical and floral devices, there is an heraldic border so laid out as to con- tain the initials of all the lady executants. From an address, presented by the ladies to Her Majesty on the occasion of presentation, it appears tliat the gift was an afterthought. " It (the carpet) was commenced wiUi a wish that their skill should be represented at the Industrial Exhibition of all Nations ; but tlie opinions expressed of their work have so far exceeded their expecta- tions, that they are led to tioist it is not unworthy of your Majesty's favour- able notice." The Msh ladies, too, produced their joint carpet ; it was pro- duced by a hundred and fifteen fair executants, and occupied six months in fabrication ; it was worked in squares, thirteen in length and seven in width, and — unlike the English ladies' carpet — each square fonned a distinct design in itself, though all aided to form one general and more comprehensive pat- tern ; the subjects of the several squares were flowers, fruit, birds, and land- scapes. Other examples of patience in carpet-making are not wanting. There is Agnes Grosmann's carpet, in which the story of the Finding of Moses is worked in with the needle ; and Weygold's carpet, in which half a million stitches ai-e devoted to the story of Boaz and Euth — but all such specimens are merely individual ' curiosities ;' they are of no commercial importance. As tapestry is associated with the past rather than with modern inventions, we will say a few words respecting it only to show in what it differs from carpet-making and from ordinary weaving. What is Gobelin tapestrj-, and wlio was Gobelin, and where did he live ? Many admirers of tapestry have had to ask these questions. Gobelin, then, was a French dyer, who resided in tlie Faubom'g St. Marcel, at Paris, some two centuries aud a half ago ; he was succeeded by others who added carpet-making to dyeing, and tliese by p 3 wssmm 10 WOOL AKD SILK, FUB AND FEATHERS. othei*s who added tapestry-working ; still the establishment continued to be called, as it has ever since been called, " the Gobelins." Louis XIV. made the Gobelins a royal establishment, which it has ever since remained — artistically advantageous, but commercially very costly to the nation. These tapestries are for the most part imitations of pictures, every line and colour of which are to be faithfully copied. Measured by actual surface, it is difficult to say whetlier tapestry or lace is the most tedious to produce ; high- class lace is certainly more costly than any tapestry, but it is at the same time noteworthy, that a skilful tapestry weaver, doing his best at the best work, can only produce eight or nine square yards in a year ; no wonder, then, that good tapestry commands so high a price. A manufacture of rich carpets, on the tapestry pruiciple, was combined with the Gobelins establish- ment twenty or thirty years ago. Wool: — Hosiery, Knitting Machines. The lace, mentioned in the above paragraph, we have nothing further to do with here, as it is for the most pait a flaxen or a cotton material ; but the hosiery claims a little attention, in respect to the wool which forms so notable an ingredient in it. Nay, although cotton stockings have to a large extent superseded worsted in England, and have tended to make Nottingham what it is, yet worsted was the material on which the first knitting frames were employed ; worsted was the knitting material for the hosiery connected with the pleasant stoiy of Lee the frame inventor ; worsted is the only home produce which we have to apply to the hosiery manufacture ; worsted is still the warmest and the suongest material employed for that purpose. Hosiery, however, is not simply confined to hose or stockings ; gloves and all otlier garments which are made of the peculiar open elastic webbing made on the frame, now come under that common designation. Worsted stockings are so completely associated with the Leicester district, that scarcely any are made in any other part of England — except the cottage knitting of the old housewife, which is independent of any such location. Nottingham is still the home of the cotton hosieiy ti'ade, Derby that of silk, and Leicester that of worsted. When machines or knitting frames first reached the Leicester district, about a century and a hiilf ago, they were in great disfavour ; the artificers worked at night, and secretly ; and the produce was hawked about the countiy. Nearly a century afterwards a worsted spin- ning macliine was invented ; and this greatly increased the resources of the Leicester stockingers. There are at the present time, in Leicester and the neighbouring towns, not much fewer than twenty thousand frames or machines making worsted stockings, socks, gloves, mitts, shirts, drawers, waistcoats, jackets, caps, leggings, braces, * polka jackets,' and such like articles — all bearing a family resemblance, in so far as they are produced by a kind of chain-stitch or loop, which imparts great elasticity. It is one among many odd proofs of the apparently capricious location of trades, that the material for nearly all our worsted gloves is made in Leicester and its neighbourhood, but many of the gloves themselves are cut out and sewed up in Worcester and its vicinity ; Worcester does not make the web on which its thousands of glovers are employed. Men generally weave the stockmg-web at Leicester, and women stitch it up into stockings ; in the value of eveiy pair, the weaving or knitting is about seven times that of the stitching. Why the steam-engine is so litUe employed in the stocking-manufacture is WOOL AND SILK, FUB AND FEATHEB8. II i M a social rather than a mechanical question. Large machines are occasionally worked, in large factories, for making stockings ; but the wages of hand labour in this branch of industry are so low that manufacturers seem to view the factory system with indifference. Improved hand-machines are, however, now employed. The circular hosiery or knitting machine is certainly among the most beautiful contri- vances of the age. It is said that the first idea of this machine was due to our French neighbours, who tried it in a rough way nearly a century ago. The late Sir M. I. Brunei, whose extraordinary mechanical genius manifested itself in so many directions, greatly improved the machine ii question, and brought it over to England, where it was patented about forty years ago ; but the machine worked slowly, and failed to establish itself While, however, the English machinists and knitters allowed this matter to sleep, those of France and Belgium were steadily engaged in working out improvements either in principle or in detail ; and we meet with the names of Touve, Gel- lett, Jacquin, Fouguet, Berthelot, and Claussen, in connection with these improvements. Chevalier Claussen, whose praiseworthy labours in respect to the flax manufacture have attracted so much attention, is one of the most successful of these improvers of the circular loom. His machine is now largely employed at Nottingham. The machine can manufacture all kinds of • looped fabrics.' In the ordinary stocking frame the loops are made by an alternating motion ; but in the circular loom, whether worked by hand or steam power, the motion of the web while being formed is circular and con- tinuous. The machine produces the looped fabric with astonishing rapidity ; one girl of fifteen or sixteen years old, by attending one machine, can pro- duce material enough in one day for twenty dozen pairs of stockings. To describe in words this beautiful machine is quite impossible ; to show how the ten or twelve hundred delicate needles start out and up and do^vn, and loop the thread into a chain as the machine revolves, is impracticable without many delicate drawings. Little as may be the skill necessary to learn the use of the ordinary stocking-frame, this new machine requires less — a woman turns a handle, as if it were that of a barrel-organ, and a stocking, or a jacket, or a petticoat weaves itself. Besides the circular machines, other knitting machines of smaller preten- sions have been produced. Messrs. Whitworth, tlie celebrated machinists, have patented one of this kind, to be worked either by hand or steam power ; it knits one stitch at a time, similar to hand-knitting. A small machine for a similar purpose has also been patented by a Mr. Eastman in the United States. One of the prettiest knitting machines on a small scale is that of M. Lauenville, for making purses, watch-guards, and such like trifles. Al- though only eighteen inches long by twelve in width, it is a perfect maze of intricate little -n^. -.nanism ; a handle is tinned (which a child of six years old might do) and presently we see levers, wheels, needles, hooks, pulleys, bob- bins, cranks, axles, spindles, sliders — all working among and around each other, and twisting a thread of silk into the form of a purse or other small knitted article. Felting; Hats. One of the most notable applications of wool and other animal fibres to the purposes of dress is that which we owe to the ingenuity of the hat-maker. If it is not fur, it is wool ; if not fur or wool, it is silk ; one of the three, n WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. or two of the three combined, form the hat-material for nineteen-twentieths of all the male inhabitants of Europe — nay, it is more than this ratio ; so much more, indeed, that we can hardly venture to name the limit. Any one may soon satisfy himself of this by glancing at his own countrymen around him, and at pictorial sketches relating to otlier countries. The world talked about a ' hat reform ' some few months ago ; and there seemed a probability that, with our ' wide-awakes ' and the varieties of oddly- shaped foreign hats which were visible in London in the busy year 1851, * something neat and satisfactory might have been devised. George Cruik- shank depicted a few specimens which were ' curiosities,' if not beauties. I^ut the black cylinders stUl surjnoimt the heads of the noble and the ignoble. And if we effect a change, what shall the substitute be ? Shall it be the fez of the modem Turks, quite as ungraceful as the hat, but exhibiting f ome ingenuity in the mode in which it is woven in one piece ? Shall it be the gi'aceful turban, the shape and folds and colours of which diifer in differ- ent countries, and in which silk and cotton may be employed Li such gi'eat diversity ? Shall it be the bernouse of the Bedouin, that strange sort of cotton head-gear midway between a cowl and a night-cap ? Shall it be the high conical zanzar or sheep-skin hat of the Pei'sian, the woolly fleece of which shields the head from the heat of the sun ? Shall it be a French dress hat, which you may tuck under your ai'm, or sit upon, or almost put into yom* pocket ; or shall it be a Scotch bonnet, which you may subject to almost any amount of rough usage with impunity ? Shall it be tlie hemispherical vhite felt skull-cap as worn by the potters of Staffordshire ; or the muffin-cap of the un-dress life-guardsman ; or the shapeless but sun-shielding slouch hat of the Italian organ-boy ; or the gi'acefully drooping but not slouching hat of • Spanish minstrels ;' or the odd little cap of the French soldiers, which we see alike in pictures of distinguished officers and of the humblest ' Jeannot?' Until these questions are answered, ' beavers ' and * gossamers ' must continue their reign. To those who were so disposed, there were at the Great Exhibition facili- ties for a sort of extemporaneous apprenticeship to the trade of hat-making. Messrs. Gaimes and Sanders' model was quite a curiosity in its way. There were the miniature shops and rooms ; the miniature model men and model women, each about two 'inches high, making hats ; the miniature irons, rounding-machines, rules, brushes, bottles, scissors ; the miniature processes of body-making, calico-proofing, stiff-rubbing, cover-stretching, brim-forming, cork-body-making, silk-blocking, silk-finishing, wool-bowing, batt-pressing, cone-felting, &c. ; the miniature hot-water tank at which the men work ; and even a miniature pint of beer by the side of one of the workmen. Messrs. Christy, too, the head of the trade, effected all that could be effected by exhibiting specimens illusti'ating the materials for hats in the raw state, tlie materials prepared for use, and the incipient hat in all the stages of its pro- gress. There were the dai-k and the light beaver skms ; the skins with the coarse hair removed ; the skins with the fine fur removed ; skins of the musquash, the nutria, the vicugna, the rabbit, and the hai'e, which now form cheap sub- stitutes for costly beaver ; tlie prepared fur from all these kinds of skin ; the English, Saxony, Spanish, and Australian wools for fonning the ' body ' of a beaver hat ; the beautiful machine for fur-cutting ; the hat itself, in a dozen different stages of progress — all were there. Tliere was also the interesting series for a silk hat; showing the silk for the plush, the plush itself, tlie . ventilating' body of the hat, and this same body clothed with its glossy I /'^ 3d by , tlie oarse uash, sub- the of a ozen iting tlie ossy WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. 13 silken garment. And not without its interest was the old cocked hat of 1700, with its Excise stamp of 7s. 6(2., which duty was then paid on such hats. Hair- work; Furs; Furriery. Hair and fur and wool have so many analogies to connect them, that we cannot always say to which of the tiiree any pai'ticulai' species belongs. Generally speaking, wool is derived from hoofed animals and fur from animals furnished with claws, while hair is obtained more or less from nearly all. But be this as it may, all three are used very largely for man's convenience, either to form part in the production of articles of attire, or for the fabrication of other articles intended either for personal or household adornment. Hair-working is now made to yield some very curious results. Portraits are formed in hair, with considerable likeness to the individuals, if not with artistic effect. Emblems and symbols of religion, government, arts, sciences, commerce, industry, &c., fonii another favourite class of representation. Flowers, bouquets, bracelets, brooches, and personal ornaments are made or imitated in immense variety, and in some cases with considerable effect. Devices for the binding of Bibles and Prayer Books have recently been in- troduced in hair work. Some of the imitations of feathers are truly re- markable, from the delicacy with which all the minute details are wrought out. The French artists work up hair in very elaborate forms with gold or jewels, to form earrings, bracelets, necklac«.s, brooches, rings, shirt-studs, and such like adornments. Perhaps the wig-trade is one of the most curious connected with manufac- tures in hair. The French ai'e famous in this department. There is a regular hair-harvest in some of the central districts of France ; Paris firms send agents into those districts in the spring of the year, who purchase the beautiful tresses which the country maidens have been cultivating for that purpose : this hair-crop is as much an annual affair as a corn-crop in the fields. The price paid is about threepence (English) per ounce ; but the agents usually pay for the hair with ribbons, handkerchiefs, and other trinkets, at fairs and mai'kets. Not the least curious feature is, that the agents can distinguish the hair of one district from that of another not far distant — an ethnographical feat which might puzzle a learned naturalist — and attach a money value to this difference. If it be true, as is asserted, that two hundred thousand poinds weight of women's hair is thus annually sold in the countiy districts of France, it must be admitted to form a veiy singular kind of commerce. The agents sort and clean the hair, and then dispose of it to the Paris firms at about double the fomier price. Then comes the art of the perruquier to fashion this hair into wigs, perukes, and scalps — some of which command a very high price. Of the ' transparent wigs,' the ' ventilating wigs,' the ' bald white wigs,' the ' gossamer-parting wigs,' the ' fronts with each hair fixed separately,' and other wonders of wig- making — our advertising perruquiers have made us abundantly acquainted. The hair for woven textures, such as hair damask, striped hair seating, hair weft to silk warp, &c., is chiefly horse-hair, taken from the tail, and dyed or otherwise prepared. Weaving such fabrics is a slow and difficult process. Fur is, however, more commercially important than hair. The skins and furs imported by or for our manufacturers are more varied and more nu- merous, perhaps, than would generally be supposed. When we consider, too, how many countries must be ransacked to produce this variety — the /< 4,1 u WOOL AND SILK, FCR kSt) FEATHERS. beaver, the bear, the ermine, the otter, the racoon, the chinchilla, the wolf, the fox, the musquash, the sable, the martin, the squirrel, the fitch, the mink, the seal, and others — it will be plain that the commerce in furs must be con- siderable. In 1850 the squirrel furs imported exceeded two millions, the musquash one million, the racoon half a million ; while the rest made up the total number to nearly five millions — not hides for tanning, be it remem- bered, but skins imported for the sake of the fur. The beauty of a fur does most unquestionably, in the eye of a purchaser, depend largely on the price he pays for it ; and this price depends on the scarcity in the supply. Why else should a black-and-silver fox fur command a price of thirty or forty gui- neas, or a sea-otter skin still more? It is true that fashion also tends to determine the price ; and it seems that the different tastes of different countries curiously illustrate this. Thus, the black-and-silver fox skins are mostly purchased for the Russians and Chinese ; the red-fox skins are in demand in the East for cloak linings and dress trimmings ; the otter skin is used in the same regions for caps and collars ; the beaver fur, now getting out of use for hats, is being made available as a beautiful kind of cloth for dresses ; the lynx, now out of fashion in England, is a favourite in America ; the wolf yields a coarse fur, which the Russians employ for cloaks and coats ; the sable has long been a favourite in England, and when dark in colour com- mands a high price ; the mink (the choicest specimens) is said to be now in high favour in Paris; the musquash is largely used iu England, it being made to do duty for more costly furs b;, "i little * doctoring ;' the fur of the black bear is chiefly appropriated by military men, for caps, holsters, rugs, hammer-cloths, &c. ; the sea-otter fur is a royal fur in China, and a noble fur in Russia, and hence commands high prices in those countries. Most of the furs named in the above paragraph are procured from North America, through the medium of the Hudson's Bay Company ; but there are some European furs which c )mmand an extravagant price. The Russian sable, for instance, will sometimes sell for as much as ten guineas ; and so many of these are employed to form a lining for a cloak, that such a lining has not unfrequently involved a cost of a thousand guineas. The Corpora- tion of London display their sable-furred gowns or robes on official occa- sions. The fur called French sable is really that of the stone martin, which the French show much skill in dyeing. The ermine or minever, from Russia and Sweden, is one of the most remarkable of furs, naturally as well as socially. Its beautiful and delicate white can only be insured by killing the animal in winter, when all is white except the tip of the tail. Li social dig- nities the ermine, perhaps, takes the lead of all furs ; for — not only in many countries of the Continent, but in less-despotic England — there is a sumptuar}' law or custom respecting ermine ; the sovereign, the royal family, the peers, the peeresses, and the judges, all wear ermine on state occasions ; and this ermine is • powdered ' (as the heralds term it) with small black spots or stiipes of some other fur ; the number and arrangement of the spots and stripes being indicative of the rank of the wearer, and no deviation therefrom being per- mitted. For the squirrel fur, which is used in larger quantity in England than any other, we are chiefly indebted to Russia; it is cheaper than any other equal to it in appearance ; and some of the white portions are admired for their beauty. The fitch, with its strong and durable fibres, has latterly been passing out of favour. The lamb skin, at a tender age, has all the beauty of fur ; and some of the foreign specimens command a high price. The cat skin is now used largely in England as a fur, greatly to the WOOL AKD SILK, FT7R AND FEATHERS. 15 , the wolf, the mink, St be con- llions, the ide up the it remem- i fur does the price •ly. Why forty gui- tends to ' different skins are ins are in ^r skin is •w getting ■ cloth for America ; md coats ; lour com- be now in it being fur of the Brs, rugs, noble fur m North [there are Bussian and so lining Uorpora- ial occa- which Bussia well as ing the cial dig- in many nptuarj' peers, md this stiipes s being ng per- nglanJ sr than ons are ■es, has has all high to the danger of the domestic * puss ' in general. The rabbit is also an extensively- used fur; and the white varieties are made to do duty as substitutes for ermine. The little chinchilla yields a soft and delicate fur, much used in England and France. Angora goat skin was at one time worn extensively as a fur ; but it is now more customary to remove the hair or wool, and manu- facture it into cloth. Seal skins, when to be worn as furs, have the long coarse hair removed, and the rich silky down which lies beneath it is dyed of a brownish colour. When these various furs are gathered together from every quarter of the globe, and consigned to the hands of the furriers, they undergo certain pro- cesses, which transfoi-m them from quadrupeds' attire into bipeds' attire. The ' pelt,' or hinder surface of each fur, has to be converted into a kind of leather, by greasing, and pressing, and scraping, and other processes ; and the hairy or downy surface has to be dyed and prepared in various ways, to develop all the beauty which naturally belongs to it, and sometimes to impart extraneous beauty to it. When the light flocculent down from birds is employed as a fur, it requires much patient labour to adjust all the little fibres to their places, since there is no natural 'pelt' or skin attached to the down when removed from the animal. As instances of this kind of work, we may adduce the Parisian muff and boa lately made from the down of a bird called the egret ; their value was one hundred and sixty guineas ; there had been only three similar sets previously made — for the Empress of Bussia, the Prin- cess Adelaide, and the Duchess de Bern. Silk. One circumstance distinguishes silk from the other three great sources of textile fabrics ; viz., the silk is already a continuous filament before it reaches the hands of the manufacturer ; whereas cotton, wool, and flax are all short in the fiibre ; and these fibres have to be combined end to end by spinning. The little silk-worm, intent upon making a warm habitation for himself, wraps or builds around him a cocoon or small egg-shaped hollow envelope, fabricated of one very long and exquisitely fine filament of silk. This filament the silk grow- ers — whether in Italy, Turkey, China, or India (these being the chief silk- producing countries}— imwind by various ingenious means ; and many fila- ments are then combined into one to form a thread sufficiently strong to form into hanks or skeins. Such silk is called raw silk, and in this state most of our supply is obtained. It thence follows that the twisting and spinning machinery differs from that employed for the other three kinds of fibre men- tioned above. The silk is transferred from hanks to reels, around which it is wound. It is twisted, and wound, and doubled, and wound again, and transferred from one machine to another, tmtil there is sufficient thickness to form a thread for weaving or for sewing, and sufficient twist to give it strength. Among the novelties of recent years in connection with this beautiful ma- nufacture is the application of the Jacquard apparatus, for weaving figured patterns ; or rather, as silk was the first material to which this admirable con- trivance was applied, we ought to say that many recent ingeniov.s applications of the Jacquard loom have been made, either to produce novel combinations or to work with more than usual rapidity. Another notable invention is a loom without any shuttle whatever, for weaving fringes and other narrow but 10 WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. thick silken goods ; the silk is threaded into a number of hinged arms or long needles, and then thrown in among tlie silk weft in a highly ingenious way. Perhaps the attention to the silkworms themselves, and to the birth (so to speak) and rearing of the silk, is among the most valuable of recent * curiosi- ties ' in this department. M. Duseigneur, an eminent manufacturer at Lyons, has lately shown exti'aordinary patience, skill, and energy in examining the anatomy of a filament of silk ; he has taken filaments of different ages and kinds, magnified them by the microscope, and fixed tlie images by the photo- graphic process — thus letting each distinct filament tell its own history. It is worth knowing that the Chamber of Commerce at Lyons has assisted ^I. Du- seigneur with funds to conduct these researches, in its desire to foster every- thing which can possibly improve the silk manufacture ; and it is just possible that the " tight little island " might learn a useful lesson tlierefrom. Another foreigner, Count Brouski, has been growing silk at his estate in Gironde, with a view of increasing the beauty and value of the filament in the highest degree ; the quantity, too, seems to have engaged his attention, for the ordi- nary yield from a cocoon is about five hundred yards, whereas he has caused his silkworms to yield a thousand yards. With respect to our own country, it is impossible not to feel admiration for the unwearied attempts made by the late Mrs. Whitby to foster tlie rearing of silkworms in England. True, it is no new idea — this enabling England to rear its own silk for its own manufacturers. It is well known that James I. endeavoured sedulously to bring about such a result, and that the mulbeny trees near some of our old mansions are remnants of the attempt. The attempt failed, apjjarently owing to the coldness of our climate ; but this did not deter other experimenters from further trials. In 1718 a silk-rearing company leased Chelsea Park, planted thousands of mulberry trees to feed the silkworms, and built extensive works ; but the project failed. So it has been, on a smaller scale, on numerous subsequent occasions. Mrs. Whitby was among the latest, but certainly not the least untiring of the experi- menters. This lady, about fifteen years ago, began to attend to the subject of silkworms at her residence in Hampshire ; she studied the habits of the little insect, and experimented on the relative value of different kinds of mulberry trees as food ; she gave her election in favour of the Philippine mulberry (the Moras multicavdis), some seeds of which she imported into England for the purpose. She communicated the results of her experiments to the Royal Agii- cultural Society and to the British Association from time to time. Writing in 1849, she said: — " There are many persons in England, and a few in Ire- land, who have begun the experiment on a small scale ; it requires time to mature and perfect any undertaking ; but, if I live long enough, and the growth of the mulberry becomes generally encouraged, I have no doubt my ardent wish to see the cultivation of silk established in England will be realised." Mrs. Whitby did not live to witness this realisation ; and it may be that modem attempts will fail, as eai'lier one^ have done, to make English silk-rearing a commercially profitable enterprise. Yet was it not a little inte- resting to see the beautiful banner which was recently made by Messrs. Houldsworth, from silk reai-ed by Mrs. Whitby ; tlie thing can be done — ^but will it 'pay?' As an interesting fact in recent silkworm statistics, we may mention that M. Nourrigat, a silk reai-er of Ijimel, in France, placed 24 ounces of silk- worm eggs under proper treatment in 1850 ; the worms consumed many hun- I arms or ingenious irth (so to t * curiosi- at Lyons, ining the ages and the photo- x)ry. It is 3d M. Du- ster every- 3t possible Another onde, with le highest ' tlie ordi- as caused iration for rearing of n gland to b James I. mulbeny ipt. The t this did Ik-rearing !s to feed So it has Whitby experi- lubject of little ulbeny ferry (the for the lyal Agi'i- Writing Iv in Ire- time to the ubt my will be it may nglish e inte- [essrs. ^e — ^but )n that kf silk- [y hun- land wool, AND StLK, I'Vn AND FEATilERS. 17 dredweight of mulbeny leaves ; and produced 32 cwt. of cocoons, which were sold for somewhat above 300/. It thus appears that one ounce weight of these little eggs has in it tho ' potentiality ' (as Dr. Johnson would, perhaps, have termed it) of more than 12/. worth of silk. English Sii-k Towns; Workers and Products. The silk manufacture has sought out for itself on English home in Spital- fields, Derby, Coventry, Macclesfield, Manchester, and a few other districts — a strangely-scattered domain. It would be pleasant to be able to record any notable advance of Spitalfields and its silk weavers. From the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, more than a centuiy and a half ago, when the French Protestants sought refuge in England, Spitalfiolds has been one great seat of the silk manufacture. The weavers have often shown tlie pos- session of intellectual tastes ; tliey have at different times established a matlic- matical society, an entomological society, a historical society, and a horti- cultural society ; they have sent forth a DoUond, a Simpson, and other emi- nent men . they have become proverbial for their humanising love for birds and flowers; aid yet — what are they now? They are amongst the most lowly paid of London artizans ; their ten or twelve tliousand small houses in Bethnal Green and Spitalfields ai-e badly built, badly drained, badly warmed, badly served with the conveniences of life ; they walk abroad as a pale, sad, sickly race of men, meanly clad, and insufficiently fed. If it be asked how the Spitalfields weaver has fallen so low, tlie answer is manifold. The weavers have been in the habit of appealing to public sympathy so often, that they have lost the self-reliance which might otherwise bo their stay. They have in such a mistaken spuit called aloud for ' protection,' that they neglected the best of all means of protection, viz., improved mechanical con- trivances and improved artistic designs. They have brought up all tlieir chil- dren to the same trade, so that there are now too many moutlis to be fed by the work which is to be done. That there was no real inevitable reason for the decay of Spitalfields, is shown by the vast spread of the silk manufacture at Manchester. England never produced so many silk goods as she now does, and Spitalfields might have had a share of the increase had she adopted the right course to procm*e it ; but, in truth, that district is behind the age, and suffers accordingly. Let us, however, not press too hardly on Spitalfields and its weavers. Now that ' protection' to the silk trade is almost universally given up, the Spital- fields manufacturers are showing an energy which was not before exhibited. They have recently produced some silks of especial beauty, and are evidently trying to regain some of tlieir lost ground. The goods manufactured by them are varied — comprising gros-de-Naples, gros-de-tour, gros-royal, ducapes, satins, glace silks, barratheas, Balmorals, paraphantons, armozines, radzimores, levantines, velvets, sarcenets, Persians, and others whose names would be a puzzle to most persons. Among these are beautiful and costly silks, which show that Spitalfields can do worthily if it will. A brocaded silk has been lately produced there, which required thirty thousand Jacquard cards and a hundred shuttles to weave it, and comprised silk of fifteen different colours. We need only mention the ' Spitalfields trophy ' to recall to memory a beau- teous array of goods from that district — comprising damasks, broeatelles, bro- cades, and furniture silks of great costliness. Nor should we omit to remark that there is a School of Design in Spitalfields, at which tlie pupils study It WOOL AND BILK, FOR AMD FEATHERS. drawing from natural plants and flowers; if the manufacturers foster this praiseworiliy attempt on the part of tlie Government to elevate the tone of designers or pattern-draughtsmen, Uiero may yet be a brighter future' for bpitiiltit'Ids. Derby is another of the centres of the silk trade, as it has long been. Lombe's Mill is, we believe, still standing on the little island in tlie midst of tlie Derwent, where it has been at work for a hundred and tliirty years ; and theie are thirty or forty otlier factories in which silk is spun into yam and tlwead, and then manufactured into ribbons, trimmings, dress silks, hosiery, and other articles. Derby is especially the seat of the silk hosiery trade. Some of the silk factories are very fine and complete establishments, one among tlie number giving employment to upwards of a thousand hands. The proportion of boys and girls in all such mills is much greater than that of adults ; in winding, cleaning, reeling, doubling, warping, Ming, picking, and many other processes to which the silk is subjected, boys and girls do the greater part of tlie work, women the next greatest, and men the least of all ; the men's work is chiefly spinning and ribbon-weaving. In the broad-silk manufacture, much of the weaving is done in tlie villages around Derby, in the houses of the weavers, but in looms belonging to the employers. The employment of boys and girls in any particular manufacture — as in that of silk just adverted to — is productive of results which adult workmen cannot ignore, tliough tliey may be very little understood at a distance. Its inevitable tendency is to bring down the adult wages (except for the higher or more skilled departments) to a very humble level : it is thus probably that the silk and stuff manufactures exhibit a lower range of wages than the cotton and woollen manufactures. As Derby is the silk metropolis in one coimty, so is Macclesfield in an- other — Cheshire. Macclesfield depends more exclusively than Derby upon silk ; for this is emphatically the manufacture of the town. It wab one of the towns which took trade away from Spitalfields about half a centi ry ago, on account chiefly of disputes concerning wages. There are large mills in which women, boys, and girls, with a few men, are employed in spinning silk and its preparatory processes ; while the weavers work at their own homes, in and around Macclesfield. The chief kuids of silken goods produced here appear to be shawls, handkerchiefs, scaifs, cravats, and gauze veils : plain broad silks, tlie staple of Spitalfields, are not well understood by the Macclesfield weavers — one among many instances of the force of habit in accustoming a body of men to a particular kind of employment. Nearly all the weaving is effected by hand-looms, veiy few power-looms being yet employed ; and for figured silks tlie Jacquard loom is in general requisition. Congleton, in the same county, and Leek, in the neigbouring county of Stafford, are two other notable silk towns. It is a very cuiious circumstance, that the large old village of Middleton, not five miles from Manchester, and immersed in the very heart of huge fac- tories, panting steam-engines, cotton-spinning machines, and power-looms — is almost wholly inhabited by hand-loom silk weavers. They carry on their huiidiciaft in their own humble dwellings, intermany with each oUier's fami- lies, keep up many old customs which have become obsolete in most other parts of Lancashire, and sympatliise but little with the high-pressure activity of their neighbours. It is said that the introduction of this branch of work at Middleton was brought about thus : — ^At a time when the power- loom began to exercise a sensible effect on the hand-loom cottfbn weavers near foster this Lhe tone of future' for long been, e midst of fears; and yam and 8, hosiery, iery trade, nentfl, one inds. The lan that of eking, and iris do the last of all ; broad-silk Derby, in rers. The in that of en cannot 1 inevitable er or more at the silk :otton and eld in an- 3rby upon one of the ry ago, on I in which ilk and its is, in and 3re appear ■oad silks, d weavers a body of 3 effected )r figured the same ir notable ^iddleton, luge fac- 3oms — is Ion their Ir's fami- )st other Ipressure Is branch le power- Vers near WOOL AMD 8ILK, FUR AND FEATBERB. 19 Manchester, tho Spitalfields weavers were earning a high average rate of wages, and it was thought that Middleton men might earn more at silk than at cotton ; it was tried, and seems to have so fur succeeded us to have con- verted Middleton into a silk-weaving village. The inhabitants work chouply enough, it is true, but tlicir earnings are said to be better than those of Spitalfields. As to Manchester itself, tlie great advance made by it in tho silk munufae- tifro has been due to tho production of spun silk. The beat silk goods ure made of whut is called thrown silk — the long continuous thread obtained from the silkworm ; but the shorter and waste fibres can only be wrought up by processes analogous to those of cotton spinning. Manchester sot those ])ro- cesses on foot, and hence has arisen a wholly new branch of industry. All our veiy cheap silk goods are now made of spun silk (witla un uimcknowlodged quantity of cotton often added), and are made at Manchester. True it is that silks of the highest order are also produced there ; but it remains not tlie less true, that the spinning of waste silk into yam for cheap goods forms the cha- racteristic of Manchester silk manufactures. It is at Manchester that wo may consistently look for tlie application of steam-power hi silk-weaving ; such an application has only lately been first made, and it would be unsafe to predict a future career for a system while in its infancy. Yet it is impossible not to see that the silk manufacture at Manchester may lead to great results; for although cheapness began it, there is no reason whatever why excellence may not mai'k its subsequent progress, in a town where all the elements of progress are so intensely active. Where the Schwabes and the Houldsworths are en- gaged, fine yams and rich fabricsHiuy well be expected. Our modem silk mills have produced yum or silken thread so fine as to give a length of twenty-four miles to a pound weight ; in woven goods some of tlie modem • shaded glace ' silks have the threads shaded into twenty different tints by dyeing ; and in embroidered goods, we see tho effects of Houldsworth's ele- gant machine, which embroiders both sides of a piece of silk alike. The Coventry ribbon trade is a puzzle. Why the same town should make watches and ribbons, so dissimilar in material, manufacture, and use, and in such vast quantities, is one of those ' curiosities of industiy ' which it is rather difficult to understand; but certain it is that the factories of the employers and the humble homes of the employed exhibit tliese two kinds of manu- facture to an extent that quite excludes all others. Floral ribbons, natural his- tory ribbons, heraldic ribbons, architectural ribbons, geometrical ribbons, por- trait ribbons, landscape ribbons, scroll ribbons, arabesque ribbons, nondescript ribbons — all are made at Coventry. And so are ribbons of all widths, from an eightli of an inch to nine inches. Until a recent period Coventiy aimed rather at the production of cheap than of high-class ribbons ; but the removal of ' protective ' duties has had an effect here similar to that observable in so many other quarters ; it has driven the manufacturer to depend on his own resources ; he studies design and artistic grace, he perfects all the mechanical an*angements of his spinning and weaving apparatus, he attends to the che- mistry of colours, and hence he is now enabled to show a neoi-er approach to his confreres at Lyons and St. Etienne than at any former period. When Prince Albert's industrial gathering was about to take place, the Coventry manufacturers adopted an excellent plan to display the present resources of their ai't. Besides all the ordinary productions of the ribbon- loom, they resolved to produce a specimen which sliould eclipse all yet done m England. A committee was appointed to superintend the manufactme of X i ^^^^ mw. m^ wwmmm m WOOL AKD SILK, FUR AND FEA THEUS. this ribbon, at the joint expense of some of the chief firms ; the object in view having relation botli to the excellence and the price of tlie article produced. This was done ; and the result was a ribbon which has, perhaps, never been equalled in this countiy. That our Coventry men can equal the ribbon- weavers of i'Vance, perhaps they themselves would hardly assert ; but they are working onward in good heart towards that object. Covinitiy is not the only ribbon town in Warwickshire ; it is tlie centre of a system, and has Nuneaton and other towns for satellites. The satellites, too, ai'e aiming to equal the greater body in merit if not in size. Nuneat n, for instance, has recently produced a ' gamiture-ribbon ' which required 1700 Jacquard cards to weave. This designation, ' gamiture-ribbon ' is better understood by ladies than by menfolk ; it relates to two ribbons of similar pattern, the one wide and tlie other narrow, and applied in dress in certain relations to each other. In the instance in question, the wide ribbon required 900 and the narrow 800 Jac- quard cards. Dublin and Norwich, widely as they are separated topographically, present some singular analogies in respect to silk manufactures. Each has acquired a fame for the production of certain silk goods, or rather goods in which silk and worsted or woollen are mixed. Who has not heard of Irish poplins ? They have a wide reputation among those who admire good workmanship and are willing to pay an adequate price for it. These poplins comprise silk for the warp threads and worsted for the weft ; but there are other textile goods — damasks, tabinets, tabarets, &c., — for which Dublin is famed. In Norwich, however, the variety is more considerable ; poplins, bombazeens, crapes, para- mattas, challis, chines, silk and bai'ege ^awls, stuffs, camlets, ' Lindianas ' (a cunningly-devised name to catch customers) — all are made at Norwich : some are silk, some worsted, some a mixture of the two. Bombazeen — resembling poplin in so far as it has a silk warp and worsted weft — is a Norwich manu- facture which fashion has almost completely killed ; scarcely a vestige of it remains, cheaper goods having superseded it. In respect to poplins, Nonvich is cheaper than Dublin, but l)ublin is better than Norwich. Norwich, at the present time, exemplifies the large amount of work rendered for a small amount of pay in some of the departments of the silk manufacture ; the weavers work at home, at the hand-loom, and pay girls or women for winding the silk on the bobbins of the shuttles ; now these girls Avind a dozen skeins of 560 yards each, making nearly four miles of silk thread, for about one penny ! We are not able, while thus speaking of silk, to record any pi'ogress in the use of certain substitutes for that delicate substance. There was a time when the pinna, a monster mussel two feet in length, was made to yield up its byssux as a silky material ; this byssus is a bundle of delicate fibres, with which the animal attaches itself to rocks or to the shore. And even at the present day the Sicilians arc said to catch tlie pinna, eat its flesh, spin the byssus into fine yarn, and knit this yam into stockings, gloves, caps, and other light ar- ticles. We are told, too, of the cocoon of the spider being used as a material for making the most gossamer-like gloves ever ^^•orn by human hand. But until these or other substitutes for silk become more commercially available, wc need not dwell further on their ' curiosities.' WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. Shawls; Glass- Tissue ; Embroidery Machines. HI The shawl manufacture has an interesting history, not only in respect to its eastern origin, but to its remarkable location in certain towns in Britain, and to the ingenuity displayed in its management. India shawls are still, as they have long been, greatly coveted by those who possess the means of purchasing such costly productions. The colours are in general very splendid, like the flowers and plumage of the sunny south ; and although the spinning and weaving apparatus are of the rudest possible kind, these shawls are wrought with a high degree of delicacy. The patterns are strange, scarcely admitting of description ; yet so identified have they become with the shawls themselves, that our manufacturers imitate them, and can scarcely be brought to attempt anything else. It was about seventy years ago that Norwich began the manu- facture of shawls in imitation of those of India ; and about the beginning of the present century Paisley entered on a similar course. Shawls of a different kind wei'e made in those towns previously ; but the rise of a profitable market for India shawls led our manufacturers to try their skill in imitation. Those who could pay for real India shawls did so ; those who could not, preferred French shawls to those of Nonvich and Paisley ; and it was not until the Jacqnard loom facilitated the production of shawls quickly and cheaply, that our home sale became large. The variety in shawls is rendered yet more striking by the recent intro- duction of printing as a means of producing the whole or a part of the coloured pattern. There are a few print-works in the home counties, at Crayford, Merton, and elsewhere, where this higher class of printing is con- ducted. The processes are slow, and require much care ; cheapness is not attempted ; but shawls and other goods are produced of exquisite beauty by the block-printing method. The material called harege is now wrought into printed shawls of great delicacy. There is one ' curiosity ' or novelty in the silk manufacture, the very name of which is so beautiful that one feels as if it ought to establish a place for itself in public favour. Tissue de verre — glass-tissue — the designation points to something ■ lelicate, graceful, glossy, rich. We must of course dismiss from oiu" minds the rigid characteristics of glass in its more familiar forms, and think only of the tender filaments which are drawn out by means of the blow- pipe and the spirit lamp. One of the very prettiest of work-bench processes is this glass-spinning, as carried on at the Polytechnic Institution and other places to which the public have access. The softened ductile glass, attached to a sort of ; pinning wheel at one end, and exposed to the action of a flame at the other, yields to the double influence, and spins out into a perfectly even and fine ciystal thread. When thousands of these threads are gi'ouped side by side, nothing can exceed tlieir lustrous beauty ; and we need scarcely wondcsr that the display should suggest the use of such fibres in woven goods. A patented method has been devised ; the glass threads are combined with other threads of silk, or of gold and silver, and woven into a delicate tissue, which may have the characteristics of satin, or velvet, or brocade, according to the mode in which the weaving io contlncted. The manufacture is very difficult ; for the glassy filaments ai'e of course iiagile ; and the time has not yet arrived when tlie novelty will be commercially advantageous to the inventor; like many others, it is too costly to have a large sale, and will scarcely pay with a I ICf<'U. <^a/i 'S-fy 'c't»,- ^' f*'»x-. as WOOL iUn> SILK, TUB AlfD FEATHEB8. very small sale. A glass slipper may, however, by and by, be something else than a mere Cinderella legend. But to return to our silks. A curious idea has been lately put forth by Mr. Hutchison, of Paisley, for inventing patterns ad infinitum ; he has patented it, and a brother townsman has devised Uie means for putting it in operation. It is intended for application to any woven goods- — silk, woollen, worsted, cotton, flax, or any combination of them ; and the patterns to be produced are stripes, checks, and tartans. The mode of procedm-e has some analog)- to that of the once famous but now neglected kaleidoscope, the patterns being produced by coloured glass and sliding murrors. The inventor tells us that " the advantages of this machine are — the facility with which any pattern, or idea of a pattern, may be set up and displayed ; the variety of designs it can produce ; and the ease and simplicity of accomplishing them. It is not at all necessary to paint the pattern on paper after viewing it through the mirrors, as the scales attached show at once the required number of threads of each colour, and how many repeats are necessary for the breadth of the web ; and it displays at once, not only the repeat, but the whole breadth and a consi- derable portion of the length of cloth at one view. By this invention, the precise effect of a pattern may be produced, in the course of a few minutes, without any expense, multiplied to any extent, and it may be enlarged or diminished at pleasure." It is obvious that, so long as straight lines bound eveiy pp.rt of the pattern, an interminable variety might be produced by com- bining different coloured glasses. The idea is not without its ingenuity ; but in a country where ai'tistic taste in design is confessedly lower than in France, it seems scarcely desirable to lead designers to a mechanical mode of producing the patterns they require. If we can produce graceful curves, intersecting straight lines will almost produce themselves. Some of the 'curiosities' of modern ingenuity consist in the expenditure of an enonnous amount of money, time, patience, and skill, in producing pictorial representations on woven fabrics for which they are quite unfitted. Persons of taste have not yet quite agreed what are really the best classes of designs for carpets, wall-papers, furniture daraasks, table linen, and dress silks and fancy goods ; but tliere is a growing perception of a certain measure of agreement which ought to subsist between tliese articles and the purposes to which they are applied. To trample a temple miderfoot, in a caipet design, is not satisfactoiy ; nor is it -r^'onal to build cottages or gothic porches one over another, fi'om the floor to the ceiling, in a wall-paper ; nor does a royal portrait look consistent in a table cloth or a pocket handkerchief — to be covered with hot dishes in the one case, and to be applied to the nose in the other. WTiile speaking of silks and velvets, woollens and worsteds, we may say a few words concerning the mechanical application of those materials. Whether, when so many thousand sempstresses and slop-tailors are barely earning the means of existence, machmes need be invented for expeditious sewing and stitching, will be determined diff"erently according to the aspect in v/hich the subject is viewed ; but such machines have certainly been introduced. Witness tliat of M. Maguin Villefranche, a recent Fi-ench invention for stitching. The piece of cloth is laid down flat upon a cushion ; the sempstress who works tlie machine sits at a kind of lathe on which the cushion is laid, and works a ti'eadle with her foot ; at each movement of the treadle a needle descends vertically and pierces the cloth, cariymg with it a thread ; the needle has a WOOL AND BILK, FUB AMD FEATHEBS. 98 small hook or notch on one side, which catches and brings up a thread on its return from the hole ; and tlius, two or three hundred times in a minute, a thread becomes interlaced in the cloth in the manner of 'chain-stitch' or ' tambour- work.' The machine, which costs twenty or tliirty guineas, can embroider as much cloth in an hour as an embroideress can complete in a day. Another French machine, by M. Seneschal, of Paris, is more complex in its construction, and is intended for sewing coarse clotli. Great ingenuity is shown in the arrangement of the several parts ; the machine pierces its own holes, inserts its own thread, tightens the thread after insertion, and shifts the cloth as the work advances, at the rate of forty or fifty stitches a minute. England, too, has not thought such machines beneath her notice. There is Bai'low's patent stitching machine, for making articles of dress ; two distinct threads are used, one at tlie front and the other at the back of the fabric, so that each stitch forms an independent fastening. There is Judkins' sewing machine, said to be " suited to sewing either a cu-cle, curve, or straight line, at the rate of 500 stitches per minute;" there are racks or toothed, anns employed, straight or curved, according to the shape of the work to be done ; there are two threads, one in a reel and one in a shuttle ; and a needle in- geniously entangles these threads one in another, through the holes pierced in the cloth. There is Mather's sewing machine, working out similar results by different means. The United States, too, have conti-ibuted to this class of machines. Of Morey's sewing machine, made at Boston, the following character is given : — " By a veiy simple process, straight and curvilinear seams are sewn in cotton, linen, or woollen cloth with great rapidity; with one attendant, it will accomplish the work of five sempstresses ; it is easily wrought, is not liable to get out of repair, and is readily applicable to almost every variety of plain stitch ; in the large ready-made clothmg establishments in the United States it is universally used." .- «» ig the cind ih the Feathebs. The last of these useful animal contributions to oiu: wants which will be noticed here axe feathers. Feathers, as a filamentous material, seem to have attracted admiration chiefly on account of the exceedingly beautiful forms which they naturally assume, but also for the brilliant colours which many of them display. Feathers, we know, give us — besides the beauteous plumes — articles which are valuable eit^ber for the elasticity and hoUowness of the quill, or for the softness of the barbs. They give us the quill pens which, notwithstanding the competition of steel, are still made and sold and used in millions annually. But we are here speaking oi feathers only in their relation to the labours of the plumassier and the feather-bed maker. One of the most notable of these decorative feathers is that of the ostrich — that appendage which makes the martial appearance of the soldier still more maitial. It is the long feathers of the wings and the tail which consti- tute the ordinary ostrich plume. The animal is captured and killed with much care, to prevent any injuiy to the plumage. The feathers are sorted into various qualities, scoured or cleaned, bleached, dried, shaken, and opened, the ribs scraped with a bit of glass, the filaments made to assume a curly form by scraping, dyed or not according to circumstances, and adapted for adjustment in militaiy hats or other garments. Those who are versed in the heraldry of pomp and formality would know the ostiich plumes worn by the mn U WOOL AND SILK, FUR AND FEATHERS. Knights of the Garter or the Knights Grand Crosses of the Bath from the court phimes adapted for ladies, and the black plumes for officers of the High- land regiments. In recent years, means have been devised for imparting bril- liant dyes to ostrich feathers, several different colours to one feather, gradually shaded or blended one into another. Then, besides the ostrich, we have the feathers of the marabout, the ibis, the bird of paradise, the vulture or rhea, the emu, the heron, the plotus, the egret, the pheasant, the peacock, the tur- key, the swan, the eagle, and some other birds — all applied as ornaments to dress. Some of these are veiy costly ; some are used almost exclusively for one particular purpose ; Avhile others have their fashionable and unfashionable periods in public favour. Some of the marabout feathers are knotted with gold, to make a costly trimming for dresses. The emu feathers are more worn on the Continent than in England. The heron feathers, worn by the linights of the Garter, frequently cost fifty guineas the plume, and sometimes above a hundred guineas, on account of their scarcity. The large egret fea- thers are worn by the Hussars. It is a departure, perhaps, from strictly good taste, to use one beautiful material as a means of merely imitating another which is much more abund- ant ; feathers ai-e Nature's ornaments, and so are flowers ; but this affords no reason for employing the former to imitate the latter. Nevertheless feather- flowers, as examples of patient manipulation, are sometimes very admirable. It lies not exactly in our path to talk about bed-feathers and their preparation ; but it is worth while to remember that our forefathers were obliged to ' rough it,' in their bed-room arrangements, to a degree that would appear a little strange to the soft-lying dwellers in the nineteenth century. In the days of the Henrys and the Edwards, bed cases or ticks, filled with straw or heath, or chaff, were slept on by the gentiy. When feathers became substituted for these less yielding kinds of stuffing, a most paternal care was displayed lest the health of the sovereign's liege subject should be injured by sleeping upon hair, or down, or feathers, unless in a duly prepared state. For instance, no feather-beds were to be sold if scalded feathers were mixed with tlxe dry- pulled feathers ; no down-beds were allowed to have fen-down (from the geese of the Lincolnshire fens) mixed with clean down ; and no beds or mattresses were to be stuffed with horse-hair, goat's hair, or neat's hair. It is worthy of note, in relation to the development of Australian industry, that the feathers of the sooty petrel, found in immense numbers near Bass Strait, are now coming extensively into use as bed-feathers. Mr. Booth, a feather-purifier of Cork, has recently obtained a patent for a curious application of the material now under notice. He manufactures a kind of textile fabric, composed of parts or strippings of featliers sewn on to any kind of woven material ; the i)ieces being so close together as to present a continuous featheiy or downy appearance. The feathers prefeiTed are those of the turkey, from which the filamentous or downy portions are stripped oft" in such a manner as to bring with them a slip of the skin or cuticle of the quill ; these skin-like terminations furnish the means of securing the feather to the cloth, by sewing tliem with a needle and thread. The material thus produced would constitute a sort of down- velvet or velvet-down, and might unquestionably have a veiy beautiful appearance imparted to it ; but it must necessarily be costly. ^taAMfeuMMlMi im the >High- ig bril- idually ave the V rhea, the tur- ents to vely for lionable ed with •e more by the netimes Tcet fea- jeautiful e abund- ffords no , feather- nirable. paration ; o ' rough r a little e days of heath, or for these lest the ing upon ,nce, no tlie dry- |the geese lattresses ^vorthy of f>, feathers are now lent for a tactures a Iwn on to present lare those lipped off Me of tlie le feather ^rial tlius id might It it must INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA PERCHA. We are about to bespeak the reader's attention to two very remai-kable sub- stances, which have wrought no inconsiderable revolution in industrial aiTangements within the last few years. They ai'e bretlu-en in origin, and brethren in many of their qualities ; yet they differ sufficiently to leave an independent range of action for each. Chemists tell us that the constituents are almost identical, comprising about seven-eighths carbon to one-eightli hydrogen ; but that gutta percha contains also a little oxygen, which seems to be wanting in india nibber. Both are elastic, botli are tough ; but if we say that india rubber is more elastic than tough, and gutta percha more tough than elastic, we shall probably place them on their proper relative footing. . INDIA RUBBER. It is cm-ious to observe the incongniity often existing between a substance or an agent and the name by which it is known. This name was, in many cases, given to it when its properties were but little developed, and becomes ill-fitted as a designation at a later period of its history. " Electricity," for example, is a word nearly equivalent to " amber-science," and was given to the wonderful agent to which it relates because tlie electric properties of amber happened to be tliose which first drew attention : if philosophers had now to re-designate tlie science, they would certainly dethrone amber from its high position. Taking a humbler example, we may deem the name of " India rubber " to be fairly open to tlie same scnitiny ; tliis substance was first known to us as a rubber for obliterating pencil marks, and it was brought to l^lurope from those pai'ts of South America, the natives of which were (and often still ai'e) vaguely called Indian. If a name were at the present day given to tlie substance, which should chai-acterise its more important qualities, it would not be " rubber," either Indian or othenvise, but son: atliing expres- sive of elasticity. What may be the meaning of the native name, caoutchouc, we do not know ; but as, by taking a little liberty with the vowels, this may bo made a " word of two syllables," it has an advantage over the longer and more clumsy designation " India i-ubber," which, in such a business-like, jagjE^ as tlie present, might be worth attending to. ,. ^,, b,n; .v/.,;>i.,ir{ iictrr^ /: ;i;i 7 . :.'.<■: : ''''I i, '',..ii.;i I'i ill liliij Ji to '(jfl'.-ilp 1; ,Ili( u'l )..!!i'l! ■.'1 vl'iil 111 .fv '\{l:'r ^■'hi'iii^. •)lu.;i /. ■ali I i- (d i,L,'j jiilni r .!Ui')i-j>(uA Mi i •:)n'ii ';i!t •■! ^-iif'.!" The extensive usp of indid rubber is' entii;i'iY of inodeni giWtti ; datihj^ fcack about a quarter of a centuiy. Bii^ file stilbstiuice itself lias fceeii loiifi: ong y F I 9 INDIA KUBBEB AND GUTTA PKRCHA known, and employed in small quantities in most European coimti'ies. In this respect it is unlike its young companion gutta percha, which has not yet V seen its tenth year. One property or quality after anotlier has been found to pertain to this substance ; and each of these successively-discovered properties has been made the basis of a new class of manufacturing operations. In a work by Torquedama, a Spanish writer, who described the Indians of South America about a centuiy and a half ago, we are told, that there was a tree which the Indians called usquahuitl, and which yielded a gummy liquid held in high estimation by tliem. " To obtain it," he says, " they wound tho tree with an axe or a cutlass ; and from tliese woimds the liquor drops. Tho natives collect it in round vessels of different sizes, called, in their language, icicalli, but by us calabashes. In these tliey allow it to settle in round balls, of the size most convenient for the purposes to which they are about to apply them. "When quite set, they boil them in water, in which state the gum is called ulli." But the natives appear to have been in nowise particular as to the mode of collecting ; theu' naked bodies formed a convenient core or mould on which to collect the material ; for they smeared themselves with the gum, and removed the incrustation when diy. The natives, we are informed by this writer, made breast-plates of thick layers of the gum ; they extracted an oil which was much used in medicine ; they made elasiic balls which were used in certain games ; and their practical jokers or meiTy andrews shod themselves with pieces of the gum, the elasticity of which gave rise to ludicrous contortions and boundings. The Spaniards speedily learned to appreciate the waterproofing qualities of this singular substance, by applying it as a liquid to their cloaks. It was either by tliis work of M. Torquedama, or by some other description written about the same time, that India rubber first became known in Europe. The true nature of the substance and the tree which yields it was, however, first ascertained by the French Academicians who visited South America in 1735, and was described to the Academy by Condamine in the following year Europeans had long before been struck with the odd appearance of the fan tastic bottles, bhds, and other forms into which the gmn had been fashioned by the collectors ; but they were now able to know something concerning the tree whence it exudes, and tlie manner of obtaining it. Besides the true caoutchouc tree, there are many others which yield a gum nearly identical with India mbber ; among these are the Jatropha elastica, tlie Ficus indica, the Artocarpus integrifolia, and the Urceola elastica. The method of obtaining india rubber for the ordinary purposes of com- merce, does not differ much from that described by the old Spanish writer. The substance as it comes to us is mostly dark in colour, but this hue arises from the mode in which it is prepared for market ; for the juice itself is milky in consistence, and nearly white in colour. The trees are usually pierced in the rainy season, at which time the juice is most abundant. If the juice be received in bottles, and be well corked immediately, it may be preserved in a liquid or semi-liquid state for a considerable time ; but the natives have no object in so doing. They go to the forest early in the morning, tap the trunk with a small pickaxe, and fix a cup of soft clay beneatli the wound ; in the evening about a quarter of a pint of the milky juice is found in tlie cup. This is the true or American india rubber; the Asiatic species will yield fifty to sixty pounds per tree in one season, but this is of inferior quality. The juice,: Avhefi thus collected by tli,e natives, jis spread in a thin layer on clay Ibnijis, la^iioiied in. any \vay that tl>p v\i# taste pf the coUeqtprs dictate^; this es. In not yet anntl to operties dians of ■e was a y liquid und the s. Tho mguage, id balls, to apply s gum is ar as to core or with the informed extracted lich were JW8 shod ) rise to lamed to applying escription 1 Europe, however, erica in ing year the fan "ashioned ing the the true identical dica, the of com- kh writer, lue arises ■ is milky lierced in 1 juice be ved in a have no le trunk in the Itlic cup. I'ield fifty |ty. The on, clay Itep; this INDIA RUBBEIl AND GUXTA PERCHA. 3 layer is dried by the heat of a smoky fire ; another layer is applied ; another diying follows — and so on, until a coating of considerable thickness is ob- tained. This coating may be punctured or stamped, or pressed with any de- vice, at pleasure ; and thus are sometimes produced birds the genus or species of which it would baffle the skill of an Audubon or a Wilson to deteraiine. Wlien all is diy, the clay mould or core is crushed to fragments, the frag- ments removed, and the india rubber shell liberated. So smoky is the fire at which the juice is dried, that a bottle-fonii piece of india rubber may be cha- mcterised as an alternation of layers of gum and soot. Numerous ai'e the purposes to which this singular substance is applied in the countries of its production. The Indians fashion it into nidely-shaped boots, for the rainy season. The inhabitants of Quito apply it as a coating to cloth, to make rainproof tarpaulins or coverings. It is formed into flambeaux, which yield a beautiful light, accompanied, however, by an odour which is not usually gi'ateful to European nostrils ; it is said tliat a flambeau, two feet long i by an inch and a half in diameter, will burn twelve hours. But it is in Europe that tlie qualities of India rubber have chiefly become ascertained. It is now recognised as the most pliable and elastic of kno^vn substances ; while it is so tenacious that it cannot be broken without consi- derable force. All that Avas then required was, to find out some solvent which would bring it to the liquid form, so as to enable it to be applied as a varnish, a cement, or a protective coating ; this our chemists have succeeded in doing, and the result is a very wide extension to the useful applications of tlie gum. India Rubber Processes: EiiASTicriY. The india rubber, or caoutchouc, now imported to the enormous extent of six or seven hundred tliousand pounds annually, reaches this country in masses of varied shape, but mostly of a dark colour. In its imported state it is used for very few purposes ; considerable modifications being necessary for its adap- tation to practical service. It requues to be transformed into cakes, or sheets, or tissues, or tubes, or solutions, preparatory to its ultimate use ; and tliis transformation requires operations of a somewhat peculiar kind, owing to tlie necessity of rendering tlie whole mass homogeneous in substance. The bottles, and masses, and fragments, as imported, have much inequality in textui'e, and are, moreover, contaminated with much dirt and refuse. To separate these the india rubber is first cut into very small fragments, and then steeped in warm water, by which the dirt is precipitated. The fragments are dried, and are then thrown into a kind of kneading machine, where immense pressure is employed to bring them to one homogeneous mass. There is in this kneading process evidence aftbrded of a veiy remarkable difference be- tween gutta percha and india rubber ; the former (as will be explained in a later page) requires to be heated to a soft state before being placed in tho kneading mill ; but the india rubber, though put in cold, becomes so hot by the agitation that it could not be safely touched by the hand ; it is necessary to supply the machine with cold water, which is made nearly to boil by the caloric driven out of the elastic mass. So thoroughly is the mass pressed, rolled, pricked, cut, and Imeaded, by the severe turmoil which it undergocis, that ail dirt, air, water, and steam are expelled, imd it presents tlie api)earance of a dark-coloured, uniform, smooth mass. It is put into cast-iron moulds of great strength, and brought, by hydraulic or screw pressm'e, to tlie fomi F 2 V II L i 4 INDIA nrnnKit and uutta pkrcha. of bloclcs, slabs, or cylindei's, according to the purpose to which it is to be applied. These blocks, or other masses, occupy the transition stage between the preparatory and tlie finishing processes ; the India rubber is brought mto a usable state, but not hito useful foi-m. It is as a sheet and as a thread that the material meets its most extensive application ; and both of these are made by cutting from the blocks and slabs. A block is cut into sheets by an ingenious machine, in which a shai'p knife-edge has a rapid vibratoiy motion in a horizontal plimc, so adjusted as to cut a thin film from a block of india rubber supplied to it by a steady motion. The knife requires to be kept fiool by a flow of water, or it would adhere to the india rubber. In tliis way thin sheets may be cut, or thicker sheets from which stationers' india nibber may be obtained, or sheets of any thickness, gi'eat or small, according to the pur- poses required. The separation of tlie material into shreds or narrow strips is a very pretty oi)cration, exhibiting nmch nicety of manipulation. A continuous strip may be cut from a bottle or any otlier cuiTcd mass of the india rubber. The bottom of the bottle is cut off, and is pressed into a round and tolerably flat forati. The cake tlms fashioned is fixed to the end of a horizontal shaft, or lathe-axis, and is made to revolve with gi'eat rapidity ; and while so rotating, a circuliu* knife, rotating at a high speed, cuts through the substance, and advances steadily towards the centre of the disc ; thereby separating the disc or cake into one continuous spiral thread. This tliread can be easily dra\vn out straightly, and can even be separated into two or more finer tlireads, by draAving it through a hole where one or more sharp-cutting edges encounter it. If a bottle or any other hollow piece of india nibber can be drawn over a cylinder of miiform diameter, it may be cut into a continuous thread by a modification of tlie same machine ; the cylinder being made to revolve, a steel cutter is placed against it, and us the cylinder has a slow longitudinal motion given to it, the gum is cut spirally from end to end — -just on the same principle as a worm or thread is cut on a bit of iron by the screw-cutting machine. Machines of this kind were invented in France more tlian twenty years ago ; but the machines used in our own country are of English invention and of later date. If we glance among tlie stores of the india-nibber manufacturers and retailers at tlie present day, we find that braids and cords, webs and bands, form no inconsiderable portion of the wares exposed for sale. These, in most cases, require that the india nibber should be first made into blocks or cakes, next cut into sheets, and Uien separated into threads or cords or narrow strips. Supposing these preliminaiy cuttings to be effected, the making of braids and web^ is exceedingly curious, for it involves a combination of the india rubber with other materials. Let us briefly trace the processes. In the first place Uie narrow cords are stretched by a kind of wheel, and kept ex- tended till nearly deprived of their elasticity, and till they form a thread of the d(!sired thickness. The thread is then put into a braiding-machine, which is a complicated and veiy ingenious apparatus, whereby a sheatliing of cotton, silk, flax, or worsted, is wound round tlie india-rubber thread. In such a machine several threads are twisted round each other, from three to nearly thirty in number; each thread has its own bobbin, and all the bobbins revolve round a common centre, giving out their threads in the proportions and order required. The visitors to the Great Exhibition have had opportunities of seeing some such machine at work. Generally speaking, tlie braiding-machine narrow cotton, such a nearly revolve d order lities of machine INDIA nUDDEll ANU OUTTA I'EIICHA. is employed in making stay-laces, braid, upholsterers' cord, A-c. ; but it is also applicable in making the numerous elastic cords and webs which owe their elasticity to india rubber. When an envelope of cotton, silk, Hax, or worsted has been given to the thread of india rubbei' by the braiding-machine, the threads ai'e laid as warp in a loom, and woven into the required kind of web, whatever it may be. Then comes a cvirious development of the properties of the material ; in the preliminary stretching, the india rubber was made some- wliat stiff and unyielding; but by now exposing it to the action of a hot smoothing-iron upon a table, the elasticity is I'estored, the riband or web con- tracts in length, and the sheathing or envelo[)e corrugates or wrinkles up on the surface. The web thus produced is very soft and elastic. The warp threads may be alternated with others of non-elastic character ; and the weft- threads may be either elastic or non-elastic, so that any desired degree of elas- ticity may be obtained. Why a piece of india rubber, when it has been somewhat modified by heat and chemical action, should be deemed vulcanized, it is for the inventor to say. Vulcan 7ii(ty have been the god of fire, and may have "forg'd tlie tliunderbolts of Jove ;" but he must have done something much more important than dress up a bit of india rubber to deserve his mythological fame. However, let us take the name simply as the expression of a fact, tliat fire or heat has been brought to bear upon this substance as a means of affecting its qualities. The method was invented by Mr. Hancock seven or eight years ago, and it has been the means of giving a wide extension to the use of india rubber. This vulcanized india rubber is in fact a compoimd of sulphur with the vegetable gum. When a sheet of india rubber is immersed in liquid sulphur, a marked change takes place in its quiilities ; the sulphur acts upon the gum and combines with it ; and indeed tlie two may almost be said to form a new substance. The methods by which the combination is brought about are varied, but tlie effect is in all cases veiy remarkable. The strength of tlie india rubber is increased to an extraordinary degree. The elasticity is ren- dered more permanent, analogous in some respects to that of gutta percha. The new substtmee will absorb essential oils without injury, whereas such oils would dissolve india rubber. It retains its properties at a temperature so low that india rubber would be too much hardened for use ; and at a temperature so high that india rubber would be destroyed. Later experimenters have found tliat antimony, and many other substances, may similarly be combined with india nibber ; and it is reasonable to expect tJiat many useful novelties are in store for us in this " vulcanized " direction. One veiy remai-kable manifestation of the elastic properties of this sub- stance is to be met with in Mr. Shaw's novel india-mbber air-gun. This gmi lequires no gimpowder whatever, and is so far a veiy economical production ; but its wonders do not cease here ; for it has no air-pump, no reservoir, no valves. We might marvel how it would be possible to discharge a missile by such means, were it not that tlie inventor shows the mode in which he brings india rubber to his aid. The air which expels tlie ball is, it seems, powerfully compressed at the moment of discharge by a piston acting within a cylinder, and moved with gi'eat force and rapidity by the sudden contraction of a spring. This spring is composed of a number of vulcanized india-rubber rings, and is capable of being distended or stretched by hand in a convenient way. The ball is propelled witli a force equal to that exerted in an ordinary air-gun ; and with much I'acility and precision. It certainly seems strange that such an instnnnent should possess sufficient projectile power to flatten a bullet ^• y^ V I I 6 INDIA RUDDEH AND OUTTA PHUCHA. pi'opelled from it; but Mr. Shaw has displayed at tlie Great Exhibition bullets so flattened, as companions to tho gun itself. It is not easy to say whether the most numerous and important applications of this singular substance depend on its use in tho form of thread, or that of a liquid solution ; each has its advantages, which keep it distinct from tho other. When once it was discovered that india nibber may be dissolved in petroleum, in naphtha, or in oil of turpentine, it was specsdily seen that a new mid extensive sphere of utility was given to it. And another advantage springs from this ; that any fragments or odds and ends will suffice as well as large and well-prepared pieces. Tho coai'sest pieces as imported, the waste from the kneading operations, and the parings and cuttings from other manufac- turing operations, are placed in a close iron vessel, to which tho liquid solvent is added. A brisk agitation is kept up, and the heat tliereby generated in the elastic gum warms the liquid and increases its solvent power, until at length the Avhole of the gum is dissolved. This operation is conducted on a some- what extensive scale ; for the iron vessel is large enough to contain more than half a ton of india rubber, which requires tliree days of constant agitation for complete solution. The liquid thus produced has a consistency which fits it to be used as a varnish, or as a watei-proofing medium, or as a cement, or for many other purposes which the sagacity and self-interest of manufacturers have enabled them to discover. India Rubber Processes: Waterproc ing. Besides the cutting up of solid india nibber into the varied forms of shoes and other articles ; besides tlie spinning, and braiding, and weaving threads of these substances into cords and elastic webs ; there is now an enormous consumption of tliis material in imparting waterproof and airproof qualities to woven fabrics, which would othenvisn be wanting in such virtues. The world-renowned " Macintosh " capes and cloaks, and other rain- resisting garments, do indeed deserve most if not all tlie encomiums passed upon them. It is true that they check the exit of perspiration, and have one or two other inconveniences, but tliey are brave companions nevertheless. Mr. Baillie Eraser, in the naiTative of his rapid and somewhat perilous winter journey from Constantinople to Persia, a few years ago, says : — " But as my furs alone would have made a poor defence against rain or falling snow, I had provided myself with a good Macintosh india rubber cloak, which now did worthy sex-vice." Many a traveller has been able to make a similar acknowledgment. Whether the plain cotton "Macintosh" gai-ments ai-e destined to be superseded by the " Siphonia," or other novelties of later introduction, the wearevs must determine. The manufacture of the Macintosh clotli is a singular one. The material is merely two layers of cotton cemented witli liquid india nibber; but tho junction is so well effected, that the three become to all intents and pui'poses one. The stout and well-woven cotton cloth is coiled upon a horizontal beam, like the yarn beam of a loom ; and from this it is stretched out in a tight state and a nearly hoi'izontal position. A layer of liquid or rather paste-like solution is applied with a spatula, to a considerable thickness, and the clotli is drawn under a knife edge, Avhich scrapes the solution and diffuses it equally over eveiy part of the cloth, which may be thirty or forty yards long. The cloth is then extended out on a horizontal framework to dry ; and when 1 INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA TKRCHA. laterial )ut the irposes beam, la tight Iste-like cloth ises it IS long. when dried, (i second coating is applied in n similar way; and a third and fourth may be similarly ajiplied if necessaiy. Two pieces, thus coated, ai-e next placed face to face, with great ctvi'e, to prevent creasing or distortion; and, being passed between two smooth wooden rollers, tlioy ai-e so thoroughly pressed as to be made to unite durably and peimanently. Cloth, thus cemented and doubled and dried, may be cut and made into garments which will bear many a rough trial and many a deluging befoie rain or water can penetrate. India rubber occupies a veiy notable position in connection with tlie numerous *' life-preserving " projects. Its power of resisting tlie action of water lies at the root of this application : wo have garments, and floats, and buoys, and boats, presented to our notice in great numbers. One inventor has claimed public attention to a safety-boat, formed of a kind of canvas bag saturated with liquid India rubber. Another has displayed his ingenuity in a boat, of which the frame-work is cork, and the covering india- rubber canvas. A boat was constructed in France, a few years ago, in which many curious arrangements were involved ; it was formed of skeleton frame- work, capable of being hinged or unhinged at pleasure, and over each frame a covering of saturated canvas was spread. "As an example of strength, lightness, and portability," we are told, " a large boat in this form was tried in France, in 1841. It was more than a hundred feet long; and although formed with canvas sides, it was loaded with nearly one hundred tons of wood and wine, which it safely conveyed from Auxerre to Paris, down a shallow and much interrupted stream. It was then taken to pieces in thre^or four minutes, and all the materials packed in two carts, which took it to Auxerre for another cargo." The buoys and garments of India nibber are, perhaps, still more varied than the safety-boats. Whether the •' safety-hat" still survives to render service to those who may be lucky enough to be covered with it, we do not know ; but according to the tlieory of its inventor it was intended to act as follows : — the hat and its lining were both to be rendered impervious to water by a solution of India mbber ; and air being blo\vn in between the two, it was considered that such a hat, if allowed to swim on the water, would bear the weight of a man clinging to it. In a " life-cloak," or " life-cape," introduced by Messrs. Macintosh, the cape is made of a double thickness of india-rubber cloth, with a provision for forcing air into the interstice between the layers, and thus rendering it buoyant. Among other novelties, " yachting jackets" ai'e displayed, which, while they present the requisite external neatness of appearance for amateur seamen, are yet said to possess buoyancy enough to float the weai'er — a property due, no doubt, to a little application of the magic India rubber. Nay, ladies' •' paletots " are exhibited with the same ascribed qualities. Beds, mattrasses, hammocks, pillows — all made of india-rubber cloth — have been proposed and introduced as life-buoys ; and belts and gloves may be added to the list. But it is striking to observe how little these matters are attended to in practice. Our inventors patent, our exhibitors display, and our journalists describe, numberless ingenious contrivances having the life-buoyant or rather body-buoyant property in view ; but how few persons adopt them ! Sea-going people can swim as little now as they could half a centuiy ago (and this little is much less than landsmen usually suppose) ; but yet we very seldom hear of life being saved by the hats, capes, cloaks, belts, mattrasses, &c., which the india-rubber inventors have provided — not because the India ■/ Ill f INDIA KUnDRIl AND OUTTA PKHCHA. ^ rubber fails in its duty, but because foresight Is seldom showu by those for whom the inventions were intended. It was a happy thought of the benevolent physician who first suggested the water-bed. Dr. Arnott has brought forward many useful inventions ap- plicable for the most part towards the preservation of health, or the alleviation of suffering ; he patents none, btit leaves society to reap whatever advantages may accrtie therefrom ; and he has had twenty yeoi's of that pleasure which results from doing good for the sake of the good done. Dr. Amott has piiblished an interesting account how, about twenty years ago, ho was led to the invention of the hydrostatic or water-bed for invalids. A lady, severely prostrated by illness, and bed-ridden for a long period, suffered much from tlie pressure even of the softest bed tliat could be supplied to her — a pressure which can be appreciated only by those who are helplessly confined to one position in bed. " Under these circumstances," says the ingenious physician, " the idea of the hydi'ostatic bed occurred to me. Even the pressure of an air pillow had killed her flesh, and it was evident that persons in such a condition could not be saved, unless they could be supported without sensible inequality of pressure. I then reflecited, that the support of water to a floating body is so uniformly diffused, that every thousandth of an inch of the inferior surface, has, as it were, its own separate liquid pillar, and no one pai't bears the load of its neighbour ; that a person resting in a bath is neai'ly thus supported ; that this patient might bo laid upon the surface of a bathi over which a large sheet of the waterproof india-rubber cloth had been previously thrown, she being rendered sufficiently buoyant by a soft mattrass placed beneath her ; thus would she repose on the face of the water, like a swan on its plumage, without sensible pressure anywhere, and almost as if the weight of her body were annihilated." A bed was made on tlie principle suggested; the invalid gained instant relief, and ultimately recovered; and •• Arnott's hydrostatic bed " became known in hospitals and in the chambers of the sick. It is not our province to dwell farther on this matter here ; it only concerns our present subject so far as it illustrates one among the many uses of india rubber; but it is valuable, as showing what good may be drawn out of almost any agency, when the heart as well as the head is engaged upon it. !,■ i India Rubber at the Great Exhibition. The Great Industiial Exliibition has sjiown, as it ought to have done, how varied are now the applications of this mat* rial. We have there seen, in Mr. Hodges' contributions, a peculiar applien.ion of india njbber to projectiles, and a somewhat similar apiilication to niechanical purchase or tackle. This tackle, highly elastic from the nature of the substance employed, is substi- tuted for, or used in combination with, the rigid kind ordinarily employed ; and it is so applied, that one man may bring an extraordinary amount of power to bear on the body to be lifted or moved ; there is a kind of accumu- lation of power going on in the process, and hence the apparatus has received from its inventor tlie name of the cumulator. Another exhibitor has contributed india-nibber saddles and collars ; a third, an india-rubber water- proof umbrella tent ; a fourth has a goodly collection of webs, braces, garters, ! M / ! 3cumu- is has tor has water- rarters, I P INDIA RUBHER AND on'TA I'KRCHA. 9 vrristlets, glove tops, braided wt«bs, hoad-thnniding, aiid such Hko small wares. Mr. MathowH otters for our inspection an india-nibber portable boat, useful for lake fishing and duck shooting ; and a portable bath of similar material. But his most singular contribution is a watei-proof cloak-boat, " which, when inflated, renders it capable of being used as a boat, and enables travellers to cross rivers or streams where no other means are at hand:" the wearer takes off his cloak, draws out a tiny pair of bellows from a pocket in it, fills a vacant space within the double cloth witli air, floats the cloak on the water, takes his seot in the centre, and forthwitli paddles along with a small pair of paddles taken from another pocket — a very vmlUtm in parvo, if it will do all that the inventor ascribes to it. Messrs. Bunn and Lockington, who are importoi's of this material, have very appropriately afforded the means of comparing different specimens of this produce ; tluiy show us both the Brazilian and the Asiatic varieties, classified according to their value and application ; and they also exhibit samples illustrative of the various stages of the manufactured articles. Mr. Hancock has funiished the means of comparing the plain india rubber with the "vulcanized" material, on which his higenuity has been engaged. But it is the fmn of Messrs. Macintosh by whom this branch of industiy has been most fully illustrated. Here we find, in the first place, specimens of india rubber in the imported state, exhibiting various degi'ees of quality. Next we find it in tlie partially manufactured state, in many stages of pro- gress, and in both the "vulcanized" and the non-vulcanized condition. Thirdly, we have a group illustrative of the water-resisting quality of the material : such as inflated boats, life-belts, cushions, pillows, beds, sponging batlis, sheets for covering waggons and ricks, waterproof gaiTuents, sporting and travelling appendages of vai'ious kinds, water and airproof fabrics, invalid or Amott beds, and many other articles of analogous character. Next we find illustrations of tlie elastic qualities of the material, in such articles as the various elastic webs and woven fabrics for dress and for furniture, springs for doors, bands and bandages, buffer and \k .iring-springs for caniages, tires for noiseless wheels, sewer and sink valves, torsion spring-roller blinds, wa.shers for flange and socket joints, &c. Another group comprises such articles as requh-e both the impenneable and the elastic qualities of tlie material ; among these are decanter and bottle stoppers, boots and shoes, surgical and veteri- nary implements, chemical appai'atus, calico-printing apparatus, and ship- sheets for occasional use at sea. Added to all the above are other maim- factured articles of most miscellaneous character: including sockets and pistons and packing for machinery, elastic maps, prints, and embossings, printed webbing, thread for ladies, ornamental work, and numerous others. Nor have our continental and transatlantic friends failed to do their best in illustration of this department of industiy. From Guiana, one of the homes of the india-nibber tree, we have specimens of the raw material. From France we have india-rubber braces and twists, stockings and knee-caps, belts, tissues, bandages, and surgical apparatus. Holland bids us admire her vul- canized india-rubber boots and shoes. From Russia we have india-rubber clogs. Switzerland has sent luiit stockings for invalids. The States of the ZoUverein have their india-rubber braces for our notice. But it is from across tlie broad Atlantic that the largest and most interesting collection in this branch of industry has been sent ; it is indeed so marked as to form a conspi cuous portion of the somewhat thinly-spread consignment from the United States to tlie Great Exhibition. One would tliink tliat Brother Jonathan F 3 )~y MK«n,T.i'Wirgli< i0-' % VaA'^ 10 INDIA RUBBER AND OUTTA PEROHA. must be in constant peril of drowning, from the multiplicity of floating life preservers here contributed. Every quality which india-rubber can possess seems to have been brought into requisition : impermeability, elasticity, tough- ness, smoothness — all are made to bear a part. We have iIip " Hayward Rubber Company," and the " Goodyear Rubber Company," both contributing their boots and shoes, cloaks and capes, hats and caps, leggings and gaiters, belts and gloves, and other water-resisting garments. The production of very thin sheets of india-rubber, and the printing of some kind of device on one surface, are cai'ried on with much effect. There are, for instance, india- rubber floor-cloths of considerable size ; and india-rubber prints and maps which receive a printed impression with a delicacy nearly equal to that of paper. There is an india-mbber globe, made of tissue so thin that it can be readily inflated by the breath through a small stop-cock. There are also india-rubber veneers, thin and flexible, ready to be applied to any suitable surface. In the vulcanized form, the American specimens embrnce a range which will not yield in variety to that of the mother country ; for besides such articles as balls, whips, niail-bags, swimming apparatus, cushions, saddles, bags, gas-bagS; &c., we have no less a cmiosity than a "vulcanized india- rubber flute." Daiiy-husbandiy has recently availed itself of the services of india rubbei*, in a somewhat singular way, in the milking of cows. The teats of the cow ai-e each covered with a case or sheath of india-rubber, having a small tube and stop-cock at the bottom. It would appear that some kind of pressure is ex- erted by the sheath : for the millc is said to flow without the usual action of the hand. The saving of time is the object apparently held in view in this odd contrivance ; for a saving there is asserted to be. One of the characteristics of our age is a yeaining to imitate the qualities of a substance by some substance of cheaper price. India rubber hao not escaped this mode of attack. Certain experimenters tell us, that " if well- prepared boiled li;i3eed oil be applied, by means of a brush, to any smooth surface, and dried in the sun or smoke, and the process repeated until some thickness be attained, it will afford a substance of considerable fineness, semi- transparent, wondei-fully elastic, and resembling india rubber in most of its sensible qualities." Hence is produced artificial caoutchouc; but the formi- dable period of six montlis is said to be necessary for the production. GUTTA PEEOHA. Another remarkable vegetable product, pnother elastic gum, now awaits our notice. GuTTA PeRCHA in THE FoREST. It was in the year 184^ — not yet ten years ago — that Dr. Montgomerie, an Assistant-Surgeon to the Residency at Singapore, accidentally lighted upon a knowledge of this remarkable gum. He was one day watching a paranq, or native wood-cutter, at his labour ; and was struck with the remarkable appear- ance of the hatchet or c}\opper employed by him. The handle seemed to be formed of some nitiLirial very different from those ustially employed. " I ques- tioned the workman," says Dr. Montgomerie, " in whose possession I saw it, and ^ f i c c d L ii b a n d INDIA RUBBER AND OtJTTA PERCHA. 11 our ^ ques- t, and heard that the materia' f which it was made could be moulded into any foi-m by dipping it into boili -g water till it was heated through, when it became plastic as clay, regaining when cold its original hardness and rigidity." An intelligent physician was not likely to lose sight of such a remarkable sub- stance ; the seed was pretty sure to take root in tlie mind of one conversant with the materials of manufacture employed in Europe, and with the advan- tages which would accrue from any increase in the number of such materials. He speedily ascertained that gjtta percha, like caoutchouc, exudes from be- tween the bark and the wood of certain forest-trees. He procured specimens in various stages of preparation, and sent them to tlie Society of Arts in London. Seldom has the Society's ^ jld medal been more fittingly awarded, than for the valuable knowledge thus communicated to the manufacturers of our coimtry. It is observable, however, that this substance may be said to have had two European discoverers, independent of each other ; for the tree, and the gum which exudes from it, were discovered or observed by Mr. Thomas I :>^b. This gentleman visited the islands of the Indian seas in 1842-3 on a botamcu mission, as agent to Messrs. Veitch, the scientific and energetic florists of Exeter; and it was during his rambles tliat he became acquainted with the gutta-percha tree. It is not, however, very remarkable that such a substance should have two independent discoverers — the histories of the planet Nep- tune, of photography, and of electrography, have taught us striking lessons on this point. The small sample of specimens which Dr. Montgomerie sent to England has a kind of historical interest attached to it, in being the humble beginning whence an important branch of industry has arisen. Several ingenious per- sons applied practical tests to the newly-imported substance ; and among them Mr. Whishaw and Mr. Hancock speedily showed how easily gutta percha might be fashioned into useful forms. Mr. Whishaw made a piece of pipe and a lathe band, which he exhibited before the Society of Arts ; he also pro- duced impressions from medals ; but the most striking testimony to the singu- lar properties of this substance was afforded in the following way : he softened a lump of gutta percha by hot water, pressed it out to a thin sheet, covered a soda-water bottle with it, hardened the surface by dipping in cold waiei, softened and removed the coating, and rolled up the gum again into a form similar to that which it first presentod. The piece of pipe and the lathe-band displayed by Mr. ^Vhishaw at the Great Exhibition are, we believe, the same which were produced on the occasion above alluded to, aiid are perhaps the first letters of this industrial alphabet. In the meantim. j Mr. Hancock, study- ing closely the properties of the material, contrived those methods and se- cm'ed those patents which have been the basis of much of the subsequent operations. In proportion as the value of this substance has become known, so has a desire extended to ascertain the range of its growtli in the East. It is now known that the gutta-percha ti'ce abounds in that extreme south-eastern point of Asia which obtains the name of the Malay Peninsula ; in the neighbouring island of Singapore ; in the important Bornean island which Eajah Brooke has been the means of making so familiarlv known to us ; and m various islands which constitute the Eastern A rchipelago. There seems very little cause to apprehend any failure in quantity ; for even if the present supply from the neighbourhood of Singapore should be exhausted, the capabilities of more distant islands are quite beyond present calculation. mJJ^. ii lti i w.ij i » < il f0 INDIA RUBBKR AND OUTTA PERCHA. An interesting sketch was given in the Daily News, a few months ago, of the spread of the gutta-percha trade, when once it became known 'hat a market had sprang up for that material. The jungles of the Johore ^M-chipelago, some distance from Singapore, were the scene of the eai'hest gatherings ; and they were soon ransacked in every direction by parties of Malays and Chinese ; while the indigenous population also gave themselves up to the search with zeal and avidity. The Tamungong, or chief, declared the precious gum to be a government monopoly— a stroke of policy at which we need not marvel greatly ; he appropriated the greater part of the profits, and still left tlie Malays enough to stimulate them to pursue tlie quest ; and these Malays, in their turn, obtained an enormous profit from the labom's of the Aborigines. In short, the gutta-percha fever in the east paralleled tlie railway fever in tlie west, but came a little after it in jioint of time. Besides all the otlier sources of profit, the Tamimgong employed whole tribes of hereditaiy serfs in the search for gutta percha. The gum hunters went from island to island in quest of tlie precious commodity ; but here they met with new claimants ; the petty sultans each imitated the Tamungong, and declared gutta percha to be a regal monopoly. The commercial value of the gum being determined by the best of all tests at Singapore, the desire to gather it spread like wildfire : northward to Pinang, southwai-d to Java and Sumatra, eastward to Borneo — thus tlie fever marched. The gutta-percha tiee was found in many parts- f Borneo :• such as at Brune, Sarawak, and Pontianak on the west coast, and Keli and Passir on the east coast. At the present time there is very little doubt that the forests of the Indian Archipelago are being penetrated in every direction, in seai i of these valuable trees : it will be one of the means of clearing the land for future dwellers in those regions. It appears that percha (of which the pronunciation is j}e)isha, not perlca or persha) is the Malayan name for the tree which produces the gum ; while gutta is a general name for any gum which exudes from a tree. The tree belongs, of course, to the group in which botanists place sapotaceous or gum-exuding genera. The wood of the tree, being soft and spongy, is not applied to many useful purposes. The fruit yields a thick oil, Avhicli is used by the natives with their food ; and either from this or from some other parts of the tree an ardent spirit is capable of being distilled. But it is the sap which fonns the most valuable product of the tree. It circulates in small vessels which run up between the bark and the wood. Thrifty methods are teachable to rude islanders as to more civilised men, when the advantages have been once made apparent. The natives around Singapore, when they first found a market for the solidified gum, proceeded ruthlessly to work ; they killed the bird which laid the golden eggs, by cutting down the treeri in order to obtain the gum. But they have now been taught better ; it is shown to them how, by tappbuj or cutting notches in the branches at certain intenals of time, the sap may be made to flow, without endan- gering the life of the tree. Experiments are now being made to detennine whether the gutta-percha tree can be planted so as to maintain a continuous and inexhaustible store of gum or sap : should these attempts succeed, the supply would equal any imaginable demand ; and the application of this sin- gular substance might acquire a range of which we little dream at present. If we follow the history of the gum to the point where commerce takes it lip, we are made painfully conscious that rascality finds a hold as in too many other directions. Chicory-coft'ee and sloe-tea, cabbage-tobacco and sand-sugar, have their parallels in many of the lumps of gutta percha brought to tlie dealers I' INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA PERCHA. .3 (0, of the a market tiipelago, igs ; and Chinese ; rch with am to he t marvel left tlie alays, in lorigines. er in tlie r som'ces s in the island hi ants; the a to be a ii by the wildfire : Borneo — Y pait'i t' t, and veiy little [ in every naeans of , petka or hile guita belongs, -exuding to miuiy natives tree an bniis the lich run ed men, around oceeded y cutting n taught jranches it endan- etennine ntinuoxis ceed, the this sin- esent. i takes it ,00 many id-sugar, e dealers at Singapore. Supposing the tree to be tapped instead of felled, the sap flews out gently into any vessels which the natives may choose to employ for this purpose. Before the sap has quite consolidated, it is kneaded into lumps by the hand or by a piece of wood, and these lumps may be of any size or shape that suit the fancy of tlio forest-artist. If zoologically inclined, he selects the form of a bird or a quadruped, or he may even patronize the " human face divine ; " if music charms him, he imitates the forms of such instruments as may be familiar to him ; but, generally speaking, the gutta percha presents the form of roundish lumps, eight or twelve or sixteen inches over. This is all very well, so far as shape is concerned. But what if the sample be not as it seem; what if it be fair without and false within? Alas! tlie purse of the buyer, and the edges of his cutting instruments, have often a sorry tale to tell. The gutta percha is sold at Singapore by weight, according to the apparent quality of each lump ; but, when the consignment reaches England, it is not unfrequently found that a large stone or a piece of heavy wood is imbedded in tlie heart of it, to increase the weight. It would entail a serious loss of time to cut open each lump at the time of purchase ; so that at present Oriental honesty is rather an important element in the commercial value of this article. There is, too, a great amount of difference in tlie quantity of bark, leaves, and dirt, which become accidentally mixed up with the gum. The crude gum is imported to the extent of about two millions of pounds aimually, in the Tai'iously-shaped pieces above spoken of; and we may next see what modem ingenuity has effected in devising modes of rendering these pieces either useful or ornamental, or both. Gutta Peucha in the Factory. The extensive and highly-interesting establishment of the Gutta-Percha Company, situated near the City Iload Basin of the Regent's Canal, is worthy of attention even beyond the general average of such centres of industry, for the peculiar character of the substance operated upon necessitates the employ- ment of new processes, new machines, and new tools. An incessant course of invention has marked the manufactm'ing history of this material during tlie brief period of its existence. If the gutta-percha is to be applied to some new useful pui-pose, tools and processes of novel character have to be employed ; ? ' an ornamental application is determined on, methods are adopted for de- v-'ioping any natural beauty which the grain of the substance may present ; if m attempt be made to supersede leather, or wood, or papier mache, or metal, !y this singular gum, great pains are bestowed on a study of the special qualities to be imitated, and the process of imitation often requires operations and tools differing considerably from those before employed. A pervading odour is sensible throughout the buildings in which the gutta percha is stored and manufactured. If it were necessaiy to characterise this odour, we might, perhaps, liken it to a hybrid between tan-bark and old cheese — an odour to which one is not, at first, easily reconciled. But this becomes dissipated after a time. When we direct our attention from scent to sight, and look around the establishment, we see the very history of the manufacture pictured in the buildings themselves. Eveiy separate block of building speaks of a particular application of the gutta-percha, or some particular mode of preparing it for use. If we see a building somewhat more fresh and modern than its neighbours, II 14 INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA PERCHA. ! we may infer that some new or comparatively new process is there carried on ; and the area is thus becoming dotted about with workshops and warerooms, which will not much longer yield each other sufficient elbow space. It is only when we bear in mmd ^e very recent introduction of this remarkable substance, that the extent to which tlie manufacturing arrangements have grown can be duly appreciated. Store-rooms for the newly-imported gum; steam-engines and boilers for supplying the agency whereby the manufacturing processes are conducted ; large buildings filled -with the machines and tools for working; workshops in which the finishing processes are condufted; a canal quay for unshipping the raw material, and shipping the finished goods ; — all speak of a busy series of operations. It is also proper to remark, tliat another extensive establishment of a similar character is earned on at West Hani, and that minor manufactories are now scattered over London and other towns. The Great Exhibition has in this, as in other matters, conveyed to millions of persons a kind and degree of information which would not otherwise be forfiicoming. We have there had an opportunity of seeing gutta-percha, not merely in its elegant u ished forms, but in all the successive stages of its manufacture. We has i che rough block or mass, the chips into which this is cut, the shreds iii. .ich the chips are torn, the homogeneous mass into which the shreds are ki^uaded, the sheets into which the mass is rolled, and the finished articles into which the sheets are fashioned; and thus the industrial histoiy of an important substance is spread out intelligibly be- fore us. The Oriental Imaveiy which leads to the mixing of stones and wood with the masses of gutta-percha we lately adverted to ; and a glance at the works of the Company shows us the result. In the store-room the blocks and lumps, of slightly-vaiying colom* and texture, generally present a fair outside, and it is not till the first process has been gone through that the fraud can be detected. This process consists in cutting the block into slices. There is a vertical wheel, on the face of which are fixed three knives or blades ; and while this wheel is rotating with a speed of two hundred turns a minute, a block of gutta-percha is supplied to it, and speedily cut into thin slices — much on the same principle as a turnip-cutter performs its work. Woe to the steel edges if a stone be imbedded in tlie block ! all alike, the soft and the hard, ai-e cut through, but not with impunity. These slices show tliat the gutta-percha is by no means uniform in different parts, eitlier in colom' or texture. To bring about a uniformity is the object of the shredding or tearing process. The slices are thrown into a tank of water, which is heated by steam to such a temperature as to soften the mass ; tlie dirt and heavy impurities fall to the bottom, leaving a pasty mass of gum ; and the mass being tlirown into anotlier rotating machine, is there so torn and rent and dragged asunder by jagged teeth as to be reduced to fragments. The fragments fall into water, upon the surface of which (owmg to the small specific gravity of the material) they float, while any remaining dirt or impurity falls to tlie bottom. These fragments are next converted into a dough-like substance by another softening witli hot water, and the dough undergoes a thorough kneading ; it is placed in heated iron cylinders, in which revolving drums so completely tmn and squeeze and mLx it that all parts become alike, and every particle presents a family likeness to its neighbour. The kneaded state may be considered the dividing line between the pre- paratory processes and those which relate to the fashioning of the material. If INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA PEROHA. 15 goods ; The soft ductile mass may be formed either into sheets or tubes. In forming sheets the mass is passed between steel rollers, placed at a distance apart cor- responding with the thickness of the sheet to be made — ^whether for the heels of a rough-booted pedestrian, or for the delicate " gutta-percha tissue," now so much employed by surgeons. By the time that the substance has passed tlu'ough the rollers it has cooled sufficiently to assume a solid firm consistency. By the adjustment of a few knife edges the sheet may be cut into bands, or strips of any width, before leaving the machine. In making tubes and pipes tlie soft mass of kneaded gutta-percha is passed through heated iron cylinders, where a singular modification of the wire-drawing process reduces it to the desired form and dimensions. From the sheets and tubes thus made, numberless aiticles are produced by cutting and pressing. Machines, somewhat like those used in cutting paper, are employed to cut the gutta percha into pieces. If for shoe-soles, a cutting press produces a dozen or so at one movement; if for string, or thread, naiTow parallel strips are cut, which are then rounded or finished by hand ; if for producing stamped decorative articles, tlie sheets are cut into pieces, and each piece is wanned and softened to enable it to take the impress of a mould, or die. But the mode of casing copper wire for electro- telegraphic purposes is, perhaps, one of the most singular applications of the material in the form of sheet. Several wires are laid parallel, a strip of gutta percha is placed beneath them, another strip is placed above them, and the Avhole are passed between two polished grooved rollers ; the pressure binds the gutta percha firmly to the wires, while the edges between the grooves indent the gutta percha so deeply, that it may easily be separated uito wires, each one containing its own core of copper. Gutta Percha: its Uses for Pipes and Tubes. ifferent object tank of -goes a le pre- laterial. The applications of gutta percha in the form of pipe, or tube, are becoming most numerous and vai-ied, and some of them highly interesting. Let us take a hasty glance at the list. Water-pipes have had a few vicissitudes in their histoiy. Those who remember the arrangements for the water-supply of London, in past days, will have been familiar with the wooden pipes, formed of bored trmiks of trees, which were wont to be laid down beneath the paving of the streets. These gave way to iron. The smaller pipes have chiefly been made of lead ; but zinc in one quarter, brown ware in another, glass in another, have invaded the domain of lead. A new competitor now enters the field. Gutta percha claims to be not merely an efficient material for water pipes, but to possess certain sanitary qualities very important in this sanitary age of ours. It is veiy strong and tough, (say tlie patentees); it possesses much durability undergroimd; it fjcoudy resists frost; and it leaves the water as pure as it finds it. Hence it is applied to pump bairels, to ships' pumps, to locomot've feed-pipes, to syphons and mine-pipes, and to fire-engine pipes. But if the testimony of medical men is to be deemed authoritative, the substitution of gutta percha for lead as a material for water pipes is a matter of yet higher import. Dr. Thomas Smith, of Cheltenham, states that " Many serious and alarming disorders, such as mania, epilepsy, sudden death, nervous affection, paralysis, consumption, hydrocephalus, heart disease, &c., OAve their origin in some instancies, tlieir intractable character in others, to the giadual and ZH^ri^ mmmm^f^^ 16 INDIA BUBBER AND OUrrA PERCHA. I' ' 1 continuous infinitesimal closes of lead, copper, &c., introduced into the system Uirough the channel of our daily drink." It appears that the carbonic acid contained in water has a tendency to combine with the lead of the pipe which contains it, and to generate a compound possessmg poisonous qualities. That gutta per'cha resists such action, all auUiorities agree ; and although at first the gum imparts a slight taste to the water, this effect seems speedily to disappeai*. There are many other circumstances which render tubes of this material veiy advantageous for the conveyance of water. It bears an amount of friction and hai'd usage which is frequently surprising. At New York there is a gutta percha pipe a thousand feet in lengtli, which conveys the water of the great Croton Aqueduct to Blackwell's Island ; the pipe lies along tlie bed of the inten-ening river, and is kept down by upwards of a hundred small anchors, and yet it resists both the friction of the bed and the weight of the anchors. With an immense pressure of water, gutta-percha pipes have been found to remain unhai-med, where leather hose would be disrupted. It resists the action of marine insects, which would soon make ravages on » stout tuuber. If water be contained in a gutta-percha pipe, it remains .^ liquid at a temperature which would produce ice in almost any other pipes. jT For watering gardens and roads, for sprinkling malt in a kiln, for applying water from a fire-engine, these pipes appear to be singularly well fitted, since to a great power of resisting pressure, they may be bent, or twisted, or lengthened, or shortened, in any requu-ed degree. Nor is this material, per se, the only efficient part of such pipes; for a gutta-percha pipe may be tii-mly imited to a metal pipe in five minutes, with no other cement than wanii water ; the end of the pipe being softened in wai*m water, and drawn over the end of the metal, the gum contracts on cooling so as to grasp the metal tightly, and thus fonn an impenetrable joint. But if water be conveyed thus effectively through tubes of gutta percha, the qualities of the material are still more remai'kably displayed in the conveyance of chemical liquids. Few persons are so ignorant of chemistiy as not to bo aware that the stronger acids and alkalies play sad havoc with the vessels and tubes which contain them. On the other hand, there is an obstinacy of constitution about this singular substance which enables it to baffle a whole host of formidable opponents. It does yield, certainly, to con- centrated sulphuric and nitric acids ; but if these acids in a weaker state be the liquids in question, or if muriatic, acetic, or hydrofluoric acids, or chlorine (all of which have a very destructive action), then the gutta percha stoutly resists them, and renders good service. Carboys, pipes, dye-vats, flasks, fun- nels, bowls, ladles, syphons, trL.::^'hs, measures, buckets — all are now made of this material, for use in chemical woiks, print works, dye and bleach works, and otlier establishro.ents where strong chemical liquids are employed. To go from the region of waters to the region of airs, we find that gutta percha pipes are coming into use for the conveyance of street gas. Consider- ing that tills material is soon softened by heat, and tiiat one end of eveiy gas pipe is in near proximity to heat, it is probable that gutta percha will be less available for this purpose than for the conveyance of cold liquids. But for any temporary gas lighting, nothing can well be more convenient. Let a festi- val, an honorai'y dinner, a " grand demonstration," be given in a large building not usually lighted to any veiy brilliant extent ; gutta percha gas-pipes can be arranged with great lapidity, owing to the ease with which they may be bent in any direction, and fastened to any other material. A veiy pretty applica- ' 1 gutta isider- Jiy gas 36 less Jut for festi- liilding pan be bent jplica- INDIA IIUBUHB AND OUTTA PKIICIIA. ir tion is sometimes seen in workshops, where a gas-hght cim be carried by hand to any part of a room. One end of a gutta-percha tube is fastened to a gas pipe, and the rest of the tube is wound round a small block of wood like a tape-measure ; this block has a handle to hold by, and a small metal jet for igniting the gas. This singular candlestick (or rather gas-stick) may then bo carried about the room, uncoiling or coiling the tube as distance may require, without intemipting the flow of gas through it. Gutta Perciia: its Acoustic SEnvicEs. The conveyance of sound is, however, the most exti'aordinary scn'ice which gutta-percha tubes have yet rendered. If there be (and perhaps there may be) any diversity of opinion in respect to water, chemical, or gas conveyance, there is and can be none respecting sound. No other substance has yet equalled gutta percha for acoustic pui-poses. Let us picture to ourselves an aged person, whose sense of hearing has become so far decayed that he is rendered unable to take part in the usual Sunday services in church or chapel, from inability to hear tlie voice of his minister; let us imagine (if it can be imagined by any except those who suffer) the desolation and isolation of such a position ; and let us next suppose that tlie glad tidings were communicated to him, that by a modem contrivance he will be enabled (unless his degree of deafness be wholly beyond human aid) to hear the reading and the preaching in whatever part of the building he may be — ^^vould he not at first be utterly incredulous, and would not his heart leap for joy when he found it to be a sober undoubted fact? He might know nothing of Dr. Montgomerie, or of tlie Malays, or of Singapore, or of tlie Society of Arts, or of the inventors, or of the manufacturers ; but he would bless them all if he found they could render him this service. We will examine the simpler forms of gutta,-percha acoustic apparatus, before describing the recent remarkable application in churches. There are two qualities required in a speaking tube ; first, that it shall con- centrate a large amount of sound into a small space ; and second, that it should not stifle the acoustic vibrations within the tube itself. Any material will answer equally well, so far as the first-named quality is concerned, for it requires simply a trumpet-shaped mouth at one end, and a very small orifice at the other ; but gutta-percha possesses rare qualities in respect to the second kind of service. Whether it is the smoothness of the textm-e, or the peculiar kind and degree of elasticity, or the relation of the substance to heat or electricity — ^whatever may be the cause, a tube of gutta percha pre- serves sonorous vibrations with a surprising degree of clearness and equability ; and the modes in which this quality are brought into useful requisition are already veiy numerous. There is, for example, the long ear-trumpet, witli a wide orifice at one end and a small one at the other ; and there is the portable car-trumpet, differing from the former only in bringing the speaker and the hearer closer together, by a " French-hom " system of twisting in the tube. There is the ear-cornet, so small and neat tuaL one may be almost invisibly attached to or near each ear. There is the paraboloid trumpet, in which the sound is echoed from a large concave receiver before it enters the tube. There is the trumpet with a long flexible tube, or with several tubes, so that seveial persons vornid a table can communicate in turn with the user. In shoi't there have been almost as I I I ■^f^mrwmmn 18 INDIA IIUUUEU AND GUITA TERCllA. 1 il many useful variations of the pi'inciple as there are variations in the social inconveniences of those who require such aid. A different group altogether is formed by those contrivances which are in- tended to aid — not partially deaf persons — ^but those whom noise or distance would otherwise disenable from conversing together. Take the case of a common London omnibus, with its rattle and rumble, and bang and confu- sion ; it is a hai'd matter to carry on a conversation in such a vehicle ; yet a small lengtli of tube, with a slight expansion at each end, would enable two persons to converse in a tone inaudible to their neighbours. In a railway car- riage the noise is generally still greater, and the sei-vice rendered more marked. Drivers of omnibuses now sometimes communicate with the conductors, and captains of steamboats with the engine-men, by gutta-percha tubes. ' But these are trifling services compai'ed with such as the tubes render at greater dis- tances. The Domestic Telegraph, as it has been called, is simply a gutta-percha tube conducted from one apartment to another : it is employed as a medium of transmitting messages, and saves many a weaiy footstep to those who are at the beck and call of others. The Medical Mail's Midnu/ht Friend (a lack-a- daisical sort of title) is a gutta-percha tube extending from the " doctor's " sti'eet-door to the doctor's bed, by which a message can be transmitted to the awakened practitioner instead of merely the soimd of his bell. In factories and large establishments such speaking tubes are advancing extensively in favour ; for the comnmnication between distant buildings is most complete. In printing-offices, spinning and weaving mills, in union poor-houses, in hospitals and infirmaries, and in various other establishments of magnitude, the advantages are so self-evident tliat the use is becoming very general. At the Gutta Percha Company's works (a fitting locality for such a trusty mes- senger) a tube stretches across a wide open area which separates two clusters of buildings ; to an eye below it looks merely like a thick wire, suspended in mid-air ; but it is in eft'ect a path-way for sound, a swift messenger, a secret confidant, an economizer of time, an insurer of accuracy, a merciful friend to men's legs and muscles. In a country town in Kent a shopkeeper has two houses on opposite sides of a street ; he has had a gutta-percha tube laid down beneath the roadway, and the two halves of his establishment can chat with each other as though tliey occupied one room. But to return to the church-acoustic apparatus, which is in many respects the most interesting and remarkable of these highly curious applications. Let us conceive, for cleai*ness of illustration, that in a remote pew of a church is a person who, though not deaf, yet fails in ability to hear what is said in tlio pulpit or reading-desk. A gutta-percha tube is laid down either on or beneath the floor from tlie pulpit to the pew — the material bends so easily that it may be earned in any form — and a small ivory or hard wood ear-piece is attached to one end, while the otlier end expands in trumpet-form. Now the remoi'kable circumstance is, that the required effect is brought about without necessitating the approach of the spealier's mouth to the tube ; his head may be two or tliree feet above, or below, or behind, or at tlie side of the tmmpet-mouth ; and yet the sound will reach the remote end of the tube in audible quantity. The tinith is, that if the tube receives a mouth-full of sound (which it can in any direction round and near the speaker), tliat quan- tity is so economised, and so faithfully conveyed to the otlier end, that it becomes condensed to an audible pitch ; if the trumpet-mouth be large, and the ear-i)iece veiy small, we may liken the action to the condensation of many thi'cads of sound into one ; and the ear of the auditor becomes sensible to INDIA BUnDEtl AND GUri'A PKRCHA. 10 Uiis condensed powei*. In practice, the tnimpet-moutli is usually fixed to tho front of the pulpit, mouth uppermost, and is stamped or moulded in mi onai- mental form consistent with the decorations of tho puli)it. Beyond all this the sound may be Utid on, like gas, to any pew or any quarter of the chuich ; for there may be a tube (which we will call tlio main-pipe) laid along tho centre aisle, and lateral tubes may spring from this to any required spot. Some clergymen have what they call a deaf pew ; tliat is, a pew m which those are congregated who may be collectively benefited by this admirable apparatus. This contrivance has been used at some of the great meetings (four tliousand strong) at Exeter Hall, by those to whom the speeches would otherwise have been little else than dumb show. It does, indeed, seem as if one characteristic of our age were the annihila- tion of space and time. We may breakfast in London and dine in Plymouth. We make our gas at one spot, and light it many miles otf. We turn a handle in London, and forthwitli a signal is felt or seen at Edinburgh. Wo whisper in a tube in one building, and the whisper becomes audible in another scores of yards off. No matter what the agent be — steam, light, electricity, sound — we contrive so to bend it to our service as to enable us to run a match against time and space. GuTTA Percha: its Telegraphto Services. X laid chat on or easily iT-piece Now about )e; his side of le tube -full of quan- that it ge, and f many sible to This mention of electricity reminds us that one of the most novel, striking, and valuable applications of gutta percha is that in which it fonns an envelope for an electro-galvanic wire. We may regard such an apparatus either as a wire coated with gutta percha, or as a gutta percha tube with a wire running through it : the principle is the same under either aspect. The impervious- ness of this material to water is the property which underlies tliis mode of ap- plication. In order that an electric current should pass along a copper wire, it is essential that the wire should be insulated, or suiTOunded by a medium which will not attract the current from its direct course. Gutta percha is eminently such a medium ; and hence the wire, when so coated, is in the best possible condition for conveying the current. The submarine telegraphs owe their efficiency to this principle : the copper wire being completely enve- loped in a casing of gutta percha. It ccn hardly be necessary to give here any detailed account of the remark- able " submarine " enterprise of last year, or of tlie plans for the future ; for they belong only incidentally to the subject of this paper. It will be remem- bered, however, that after much negotiation with the French authorities, an English Company actually laid down a telegraphic wire in the sea from Dover to a point near Calais. On August 28, 1850, a communication was made be- tween England and France in this way, and one or two messages transmitted. The wire, which was twenty-one miles in length, had a thickness of about one-tenth of an inch, and was enclosed in a solid cylinder of gutta percha half an inch in diameter. Tho weight of the wire was about twenty-two cwts., iand that of the gutta percha with which it was coated eighty-seven cwts. It was at that time hoped that telegraphic communication, by this means, would be permanently established between the two countries by the date of the opening of the Great Industrial Exhibition. Various circumstances have tended to retard the renlisation of this hope ; but wo may redsonnbly look fonvard to it ere long. Nay, we may even see' 'the day when a fiiish of lightning -will cross the Atlantic, clothed in a' tlubc 6f gutta percha. ' . , i..,; X i so INDIA IlUDllliU AND UUTTA I'EKt'HA. A highly curious expc'rimcnt has been recently made at the Gutta Percha Company's Works, which seems to show that hlnHlimj will receive the same land of aid from this material as electro-telegraphing. A barge was moored in the Regent's Canal, alongside the quay of tlio works ; and around tho edges of this, dipping into the water, were coils of wire to the extent of seventy miles. The wire was of copjjer, coated witli gutta percha ; it was about the thickness of an ordinary black-lead pencil, and was of the same kind as that destined to be used for the submarine telegraph across the British Channel. A cartridge was adjtisted to the wire at one spot, and the two ends of tho wire were connected with the poles of a galvanic battery. The instant the contact was made an explosion took place, the current having passed through tho seventy miles of wire in an inappreciably small space of time. If it can travel seventy miles, it can travel much more ; if it can explode a small car- tridge, it could explode a large body of powder ; and it is as yet difficult to guess tho number and variety of valuable pui-poses to which the method may be found available. Submarine blasting by electricity has been before ort'ected, but not tlirough such an immense length of wire as this. -+ Gutta Peuciia: Divkhsu'ikd Application, in Sheets and Masses. It is obsei-vable in many departments of manufacture that the material operated upon is brought to the form of sheets, before being fashioned for per- manent use. This has especially been the case since rolling mills have come into general use. Many advantages result from such an arrangement ; for tlae equability of thickness in the sheet enables the operator to adapt it to almost countless forms and purposes. Gutta percha is one amonr or other liquids. But the leather interest is attacked in its stronghold when gutta percha claims a place in our boots and shoes ; the battle here becomes an important one, and must be fought fairly and honestly. As to the claims put forth, no one has a right to pa»3 judgment on them except after a long and steady trial ; whetlier gutta pr.icba soles are cheaper, more durable, and more easily repaired than tliose of leather, and whether they keep the feet dry in wet weather and warm in cold weather — must be decided by each wearer for himself. If all this be really the case, notliing can prevent the extended use of such substi- tutes for leather. The oddity of the matter is, that " eveiy man his own cob- bler" may be adopted as a maxim in the case; for the fixing of gutta-percha soles, as of eveiytliing else made of this vemai-kable substance, is readily effected. The sons of Crispin may, however, still comfort themselves witli tlie fact that " upper leathers " remain pretty much within their own domain ; although even here India rubber and gutta percha are beginning to invade it. But if a biped can be shod with gutta percha, why not a quadruped also ? WiU tliis material suffice for horse-shoes ? Perhaps not, considering the Bevere usage to which such shoes are exposed. But there has lately been devised a curious and very useful application of gutta percha to the horse's foot. When a road is newly coated with broken flints, the fragments have a tendency to cut p-nd injure the foot of this trusty animal in the sunken por- tion within the iron shoe. A sole of leather is sometimes applied as a pro- tection ; but gutta percha, from its plastic character when warmed, is capable of being pressed into tlie commissm-es and cleft of the " frog " of the foot, so OS to adhere closely to all tlie exposed portion of the foot. And yet, at night- time, or whenever deemed desirable, this shield may easily be removed, and adjusted again by slight warming. There is a peculiar application of gutta percha which, though well under- stood in manufacturing towns, is not very familiar to general readers. We allude to wheel bands for machinery. When a shaft or wheel is rotating, another shaft or wheel at a considerable distance may be made also to rotate, by caiTj'ing an endless band from one to the other, and making it coil tightly round both ; tlie first wheel causes the band to rotate, and this in its turn commmiicates similai* motion to the second wheel. Now these bands, until within the last few years, have generally been made of leather ; but gutta percha is found to possess many qualities available for this purpose. A strip of the required width is cut from the sheet, and the two ends of this strip are joined, so as to fonn an endless band. The qualities which seem to adapt this material for such purposes are the dm-ability and strength, the permanent contractibility, the uniformity of substance, the power of resisting water, acids, alkalies, oil, and grease, and the facility of making joints. The bandai . ■^•W" M INDIA RIJBBKll ANI> (illTTA rERtillA. are now used to a considerable extent in breweries, bleach and dye-works, cotton and wooUen-tiictories, iron-works, paper-nulls, com-n»ill.s, bruik-yurds, and otlier large establiishnients where much wheel work is employed. It seems a very reasonable conjecture, that the peculiar proi)ortioH of giitta percha would render it a valuable material for boats — not perhaps the every- day boats for commerciid and nautical purposes, but those intended for some special service. When Lady Franklin htted out an expedition in search of her gallant husband, a year or two ago, Captjiin Forsyth, the commander of the vessel, took out with him a gutta-percha boat, presented ibr that ])uii)oso by Messrs. Searle. His account of the behaviour of this boat, under the rough usage to which it was subjected in the ice-bound regions of the north, is most laudatory. He states that, " whilst the other boats constructed of wood suffered much by tlie cutting of the young ice, the gutta-percha boat was not in the least damaged, and returned to England in almost as good condition as when she left, although she underwent all the rough work of the voyage." Mr. 8now, who had especial charge of the gutta-percha boat belonging to the " Prince Albert," has detailed in a clear manner the remarkable way in which this material resists the rude buffetings of those regions. It must be reniem- bered that the boat had a skeleton of wood and a covering of India rubber. Mr. Snow says, " The severest trial it endured, and endured successfully, was on b'lth my visits to Whaler Point, Port Leopold. To those unaccustomed to the nature of such ice as was there met with, it will be impossible fully to conceive the position a boat was placed in. The mere transit to and fro, among loose masses of ice, witlr the sea in a state of quiescence, would have been quite enough to have proved or not the value of gutta-percha boats ; but when, as in the present case, those masses were all in restless agitation, with a sea rolling in upon an opposing current, it might have been well excused— and without deteriorating from the previously attested goodness of the articl — if it had not been able to have resisted tlie severe shocks it received Slidmg through and over tlie ice ; sometimes lifted completely out of the water by the sudden contact of a restless floe ; and at others thrown sideways upon an adjoining craggy piece ; I think it would have been next to impossible for any other kind of boat to have been oUienvise than cmshed or stoved on the instant." It was in a right spirit that the explorers gave tlie name of " Gutta- percha Inlet" to the spot where the boat had rendered them such important service. In the plentiful sprinkling of salt water to which a hard seafaring man is exposed, it seems not unreasonable that gutta percha would be found ser- viceable in a great variety of ways on board ships. Accordingly, we find that a ship's fittings and a sailor's "kit" may now comprise a diversified list of arti- cles made in this material. Most of them are manufactured from sheets of greater or lesser thickness, but some are wrought in other forms. For some of such purposes gutta percha is valuable because it is waterproof; for some, because it is unaffected by salt water ; for others, because it is not liable to fracture when thrown down or when dashed against rocks ; and for others, because it is readily moulded into any form by the application of heat. Here we see it as a " sou '-wester," or as a pilot's hat ; as a life buoy ; as a lining for water tanks ; as a jug or a basin for holding water ; as a pump hose or a pump- bucket ; as a sheatiiing for ships ; as a speaking trumpet ; as a float for fishing nets ; as a waterproof covering ; as an air-tight life-boat cell ; as a cord or a line ; as a lining for boxes and tnmks ; as a flask or a bottle ; or as a chart case. The strange diversity of these uses is sufficiently apparent. If a sailor ! i INDIA BUBBER AND QUTTA PERCHA. as had been told, some years ago, that a time would arrive when he might have his hat, his wash-hand bowl, his tiller-rope, his speaking-trumpet, his life-buoy, and the sheatliiug of his ship, all made of the same material, he would have deemed it a landman's joke, fitted oidy for " the moi'ines." Medical practitioners are daily finding that gutta pcrcha is applicable to a number of purposes incident to their professional duties. A thin sheet or lining of this material is employed as a wrapping in rheumatism and gout. A tliicker sheet forms excellent splints or supports for fractured bones, or limbs under surgical treatment. As a stethoscope or chest-explorer, a gutta- percha tube is said to bo veiy effective ; for though a capital conductor of sound, it conducts heat very slowly. A rare catalogue wo should present, if all the useful applications of gutta percha were duly set forth. We should have to speak of breast-coating for water-wheels, of galvanic batteries, of shuttle-beds for looms, of packing for steam-engines and pumps, of cricket and bouncing balls, of felt-edging for paper making, of curtain rings whose merit is noiselessnesa, of window-blind cord and sash lines, of clotnes' lines (recommended to the laimdress as defying all attacks of weather), of bosses for flax-spinning frames, of whips and sticks, of policemen's and "special constables'" staves, of flax-holders for heclding machines, of skates, of fencing sticks, of washers for the axles of wheels, of plugs or solid masses used in buildings, of buffers for railway carriages, of gunpowder canisters (which " keep the powder dry "), of sheet- covering for damp walls, of linings for ladies' bonnets, of jar covers, of sponge bags, of foot baths, of funnels, of goldsmiths' bowls, of bobbins for spinning machines, of covers for rollers, of hook covers, of moulds for electrotypes, of coffin linings, of sounding boards, of portmanteaus, of beds for paper-cuttmg machines, of fine and coarse thread, of envelope boxes, of powder flasks, of portfolios, of a stopping for hollow teeth — a tolerable list, tliis, which shows how multiplied oi'e the applications for which this singular vegetable product is available. - y man 13 id ser- that a )f ai-ti- [eets of some some, ible to jthers. Here tng for jpump- ishing or a chart sailor Gutta Percha as a Decorative and Fine-Art Material. Widely apart from the various applications of gutta percha described in the preceding paragraphs, are those in which ornament rather than utility is the main purport in view. To dissever ornament from utility is neither needed nor to be wished; the two ought to be linked hand in hand ; but tlie difference of character here intended to be implied will be easily p^jpai'ent. Admirably does this substance show itself to be adapted to such purposes. When softened by heat, it will take the impress of a mould or stamp with delicate precision ; and in the course of a few miiiutes it reassumes its tough state, retainmg permanently tlie pattern given to it. The power of applica- tion is thus unlimited, or limited only by tlie inclination of the purchaser. Whether the mould be of copper or of brass, of pear-tree or of box, an im- press can equally well be obtained from it. In practice, all these four mate- rials are employed, and sometimes othei's. The mould being carved and in a state of readiness, the piece of gutta percha (always, or nearly always, in the form of sheet) is laid upon a marble slab, which is heated by steam from be- neath ; and the gum being thus brought into a pliant and yielding state, it is placed on,' or in Uiemauld,^ counter-mould is laid upon it, and the action of a pressiibrces \he material into the minutest parts of tlie deyicQ. Jf the pat- tern be deep and the relief bold, a hydraulic pressm-e of a hundred orj^^Ji^i^j }^**#f«--*-H--. u INDIA RUBBEH AND GUTIA PERCllA. dred and fifty tons is brought to bear upon it ; but if of lighter and simpler character, a hand-press is brought into requisition. In this way, aided by minor manipulation, are produced the vaiied and ever- increasing specimens ot ornamental gutta-percha work. Trays are produced of every imaginable (or at least every usable) form and pattern : bread trays, biscuit trays, cotton or work-table trays, counter or card-table trays, pen trays,, pin ti-ay?, card trays, soap trays, shaving trays, &c. Then there are work baskets and hand baskets, flower vases and bouquet holders, plates and plat- ters, decanter stands and watch stands, bas-reliefs and alto-reliefs. The desk tittings admit of much beauty in this material : inkstands are produced in most diverse forms ; while pen trays, paper weights, wafer boxes, envelope boxes, &c., are beginning to establish a formidable rivalry to the similar arti- cles made in papier mache. Beauty, pattern, graining, clouding, or whatever we may choose to term it, is produced in a very remarkable way on the surface of gutta percha. Some of the richly-moulded articles just described display on tiheir smface a diver- riiiy of brown tints somewhat analogous to the diversity of green tints in the noAv- celebrated though lately almost-unknown malachite. These brown tints are apt to be attributed to a painting of the surface, ai'tificially produced ; but it is due to the natural colours of the substance. Some specimens of gutta percha are dai'ker than others, and all have a tendency to darken by age ; and the woikman dexterously avails himself of these varying tints to produce a pattern. He softens two or more pieces, of different tints, passes them be- tween two rollers to thoroughly unite and amalgamate them, and then presses them into the mould ; leaving it to the freaks of chance to bring out the wavy lines, the curls, the streaks, the knots, which the intermixture of tints pro- duces. This diversity is not veiy apparent at first ; but it becomes developed when the substance is polished "ad considerably enhances tlie beauty of the article produced. A novel application of gutta percha to tlie purposes of printing has recently been made, on the stereotype principle ; and the neatness display ed by some of the wood-cut engravings produced on this method, as shown in the Indus- trial Exhibition, is not a little remarkable. A page of mingled type and wood- cuts, we \. ill suppose, is prepared in the ordinary way ; then a i tereotype mould from this is obtained in gutta percha by pressure ; a cast Vom this mould is obtained on a cylinder of gutta percha by the aid of a cylinder- press ; and tlie printing is effected from the gutta-percha cylinder. The gutta- j)ercha plate thus represents the plaster-mould of ordinaiy stereotyping, while the gutta-percha cylinder represents the metal stereotype plate. It is said that paper can be printed from these gutta-percha cylinders without the cus- tomaiy process of wetting ; and it is also stated that an hour suffices to make both tlie mould and the cylinder. If all this is con-ect, gutta percha may Iw 3 et destined to see many important eytensions. We have proof furnished, in the interesting Austrian department, how delicately impressions may be tiiken in tliis material from wood-cuts, to form moulds whence electrotype casts can be obtained. From the outline here given, it will be seen that, while india rubber and gutta percha have many features in common, they so ff^ diffbr as to giVe vi^d t6 wholly distinct bi-ahches of manulacttiris^d'to V^ry divei^d prabtl'dal apbll catibn^.' mpler I evcr- iduced trays, trays,. 1 work I plat- le desk ced in ivelope w arti- teiin it. Some I diver- in the m tints 3d; but af gutta ge ; and educe a lem be- i presses ihe wavy ints pro- eveloped ,y of the recently jy some Ii\dus- id wood- ereotype rom this ;;yhnder- le gutta- g, while t is said the cus- to make may bi> [ished, in may bo ctrotypo id guttii A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. " A SHIP, in the nineteenth century," is an assemblage of as great a number of ingenious contrivances, perhaps, as any production of man's industry. There is not a science but has been brought into requisition ; there is scarcely a material of manufaci,ure but has been employed ; there are none of our great departments of manufacturing skill omitted in supplying the ship and her fittings ; there is not a quarter of the globe (and scarcely a countiy on the globe) which has not supplied some one or other of the necessities or con- veniences of the floating fabric ; and there is no production in which the skill of different nations is brought more distinctly into comparison. The middle of the present century is distinguished from its opening by the phenomena of steam navigation, above all others connected with ships and shipping ; but in numerous other particulars, concerning both the construc- tion and the fittings of ships, the advance has been marked and rapid, show- ing that the discoveries and improvements in other arts have been promptly applied to those noble structm-es whose home is to be on the bosom of the ocean. In noticing a few of the novelties and curiosities presented by this subject, we shall presume the reader to have access, in other quarters, to ordinary manufacturing details respecting the production of ships and ships' fittings : the present sheet is in some sense supplementary to all such details. A Bied's-Eye Glance at Ships in general. And now, at the outset, it may very fairly be asked, how are ships distin- guished from boats, and what are the characteristics which separate ships into classes? Many of the modern improvements apply to one class of ships rather than to others ; and the answer to these queries tlius becomes pertinent to the present subject. The term vessel is more general in its application than shii) ; since the latter, in strictness, is applied only to three-masted square-rigged vessels, conse- quently to vessels only of a large size. A square-rigged vessel is one in which the sails are suspended from yards fixed horizontally to the masts, usually at right angles to the direction of the keel. Single-decked vessels, with one mast and a bowsprit, but no yards, are called cutters and shops, and have the sails generally in a right line with the keel ; the cutter having relatively larger sails than the sloop. Two-masted square-rigged vessels are brigs ; but if there are no yards, and if the sails lie in a line with the keel, the vessels are then schooners. Most of the pleasure vessels belonging to tlie Yacht Clubs are either cutters or schooners. The above appellations are given chiefly to merchant vessels and pleasure vessels, but ships of war are differently design nated : they are ships of the line, if large, and variously named if small. A N *a«H «!«■■ ■ s S A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. first-rate has 100 guns or more, a second-rate 90 to 100, a third-rate 60 to 90, and so on ; frigates, gun-brigs, &c., are smaller vessels. Boats are open or un- decked vessels ; but some of them aro so large, such as the long-boat, the barge, and the pinnace of a man-of-war, that thej- can cany an araied and well- provisioned body of men on short expeditions. Lifeboats (not yet adopted so extensively as they should and might easily be) have a buoyancy of construc- tion, which renders it difficult for them to be upset, stove-in, or simk. These vessels, however vai'ied they may be in other respects, show how skilfully materials have been combined to make a floating fortress, or a float- ing warehouse, as tlie case may be ; stability of construction, steadiness of flotation, capacity of interior, SAviftness of movement — all are, more or less, combined. As to interior capacity, the tonnage is rather a perplexing matter to ordinary readers ; we often hear of a vessel carrying a much greater weight of cargo than is indicated by her registered tonnage ; while, on the other hand, there is nothing to show whether this tonnage includes the weight of the vessel itself. The case seems to be this — the tonnage is an estimate of the weight of stores and mex'chandise which a ship can carry without overloading, but does not include the weight either of the ship or its crew and passengers. A 74-gun ship is supposed to weigh, when fully equipped for sea, three times as much as its registered tonnage. Ship- builders and ship-insurers have certain technical rules by which the tonnage of a ship is estimated from its dimensions ; but these rules have been altered within the last few j'^ears, so that we have now " old measure " and " new measure ; " and there are many indications that improvements in ship-build- ing will, ere long, overturn even the new measure, and require the adoption of some new principle of tonnage-measurement. The greatest ship now belonging to the British navy is, we believe, the Royal Albert — still on the slips in Woolwich Dockyard, where it has remained since the keel was first laid down nearly ten years ago. A beautiful model of this ship was prepared for the Great Exhibition, by Mr. Lang, the master shipwright at Woolwich, who designed the leviathan man-of-war. The model was on the scale of a quarter of an inch to a foot. We may here remark, that the Great Exhibition rendered only scanty justice to the naval architecture of our country. There were models of exteriors, and models of midship sections; there were many interesting novelties, and not a few oddities ; but there was no such series as would have compared the early English ships with ihe modem, or war ships with mer- chant ships, or steam-vessels with sailing vessels, or screw-steamers with paddle-steamers, or iron vessels with wooden vessels, or roomy vessels with fast vessels, or one kind of rig with another kind, or the craft peculiar to one part of oiu' coast with that observable on another, or the ships generally of our own country with those of foreign nations. There were isolated examples, but anything that could be called a series there certainly was not. A maritime nation might have done better. If we Avatch the labours at a ship-building yard, we still find the saw, the axe, and the adze employed in fashioning the timbers with which a ship is built: machineiy has yet done little in this matter, owing to +^"i tortuous forms which these timbers are made to assume. There are, it is true, machines now before public notice for cutting these great oaken ribs, and a pretty model of one of them was exhibited in working order at the Great Exhibition ; but we must be content to leave to tlie next generation the gathering of this fruit. In our great ship-yards we still see the draughtsman ) 90, r un- , the well- fid so struc- t how , float- ess of r less, matter rreater on the [es the ;e is an a carry- ship or on fully Ship- tonnage 1 altered d "new ip-huild- adoption ieve, the ■emained model of B master e model ^ scanty^ lodels of Iteresting ^uld have irith mer- gers with sels with u' to one tly of om- Wes, but |maritime J saw, the |a ship is tortuous is true, lbs, and a [he Great fttion tlie aghtsman A amp, IN THE NINETEENTH OENTDBT. 8 make his drawings on paper, and from these drawings chalk out the full-sized cmrvatures of the ship on a flat boarded floor, and make lath or thin patterns from these chalk marks ; the ' converter ' has still the office of selecting the oak, and elm, and other woods, and appropriating one piece to one purpose, one to another, according to its size and shape ; and the sawyers still cut up the bulky timbers as they were wont to do in past times. Elm for the keel, and oak for the timbers generally, are still the principal kinds of wood eni- ploytd (always excepting iron vessels, of which we have yet to speak). But a notable mai-k of modern improvement is in the bracing or strengthening of the huge cai'cass thus built up ; diagonal timbers, diagonal plates and bars of iron, are now disposed in the interior to an extent that would quite have puz- zled the old ship-builders. And another grand innovation is the steaming of such timbers, or rather thick planks, as are to be bent to the cvuratures of the ship : a huge iron vessel, supplied with steam, is tlie receptacle into which the timbers are placed ; and here they are steamed and soddened to faciUtate their bending. But what of mahogany ? Cannot we have our ships as well as our tables made of tliis beautiful wood ? Practical men are beginning to inquire whether mahogany can be etfectively thus used, and whether it can be obtained at a sufficiently reasonable price. Until a recent period, nearly all our mahogany was obtained from the West India Islands ; and as most of the trees growing near the shore have be-^n cut down, the exigency of land-carriage from the interior has added to the former cost of shipping this valuable wood. The dis- covery of tlie riches of California has, however, shed a new light on this subject. Dense forests of splendid mahogany trees spread for hundreds of miles in Cen- tral America ; and as tliese regions will shortly be traversed by a railway at Panama, and (perhaps) by a ship-canal at Nicara-ua, the forests will be laid open in a way never before contemplated. The trees are at present absolutely valueless, simply because we cannot get at thum : but a commercial value will arise as soon as they can bo easily felled a shipped. Then will be the time to determine whether mahogany can be bw.iyla as cheaply as oak or teak for ship-building. Mahogany is said to be stiffer, less liable to dry-rot, andm tons in the lower mainmast alone of an ordinary East Indiaman. If from the woodwork of a ship we turn attention to the sails, we find that one or two improvements have lately worked their way into public favour. The sails are, indeed, a notable part of the attire of a ship — beautiful in effect, indispensable in service. All that tlie spinner and the weaver, the i sewer and the rigger, can do to give them strengdi is done. Sail-cloth is the j sti'ongest of all varieties of tlie flax manufacture ; or sometimes it is of hemp ; ' or sometimes of both combined. The Admiralty is very scrupulous about its sail-cloth, and shipowners have little less reason to be so. A ' bolt ' of sail-N cloth, forty yards long by two feet wide, weighs from 23 to 44 lbs., according j ^^ to the thickness ; but all alike, stout or fine, are made of these narrow widths. The cutting out for a whole suit of sails is a formidable aflair ; in an East Indiaman of average size, the quantity of sail-cloth thus consumed is said to be very little less than nine tliousand yai'd.s- How the cutter-out economises his material, and provides for slanting edges, so as to use up odds and ends in all the nooks and corners, may be pretty well guessed by those who have to cut out any woven goods for garments ; but the stitching is a more weighty affair, owing to the great strengdi required. There is a stipulation between the sailmaker and his employer as to the number of stitches to be put in a given space ; and eveiy attempt is made to enable the sail to bear a powerful , strain. A veiy simple addition has been recently introduced in the means of strengthening the sails of ships. This is by Trail's storm-sails. The canvas is the same, the shape of the sail is the same, the mode of sewing is the same ; but these sails ditt'er from those ordinarily in use by having strengtliening bands of canvas placed diagonally ; tliese bands are corded and are stitched firmly to tlie sail at intervals of a few feet apart. These bands, by their > ) SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTDRT. ■ diagonal arrf-ngement, tack the various warp and weft threads together, and add very greatly to the strength of the whole spread of canvas. Partially- woni sails, bj having these bands affixed to them, take a new lease of ser- viceable existence, and effect a postponement of the period when new sails become necessaiy. Independent of any testimonials on the subject, this system carries with it much to recommend it to the judgment; for diagonal bracings, in all kinds of constmctions, are yeai'ly coming more and more into use. Another modem improvement is in the sail-cloth itself. Messrs. Milvain, of Newcastle, have devised an ingenious mode of thickening sail-cloth at intervals, by introducing an extra quantity of warp thread ; thereby forming bands or straps of very thick twilled canvas, ranged pai'allel to each other at a certain number of inches apart. These bands cannot loosen, as they form pai't of the canvas itself; while they add greatly to the strength of the whole. It is a feature worth noting that ropes — ^hempen ropes — seem now to have reached nearly beyond the region of improvement. The novelties are rather in the substitution of iron wire for hemp, than in the merits of hempen ropes themselves. This is instructively displayed in the history of Captain Huddart's beautiful cable-making machineiy; its excellence is xmquestion- able, but chain-cables have thrown it out of work. AU the world knows how string is made ; and a cable is but a reduplication of a multitude of strings. First the spinner, with a bundle of hemp woimd round his body, the fibres fastened at one end to revolving hooks, and his hands working busily, spins yams at the rate of something like a himdred feet in a minute , then a certain number of these yams are twisted to form a strand ; and three of these strands are twisted together to form a rope; and three ropes, when twisted, form a cable. Thus is a bulky cable built up piecemeal, by successive combinations of twisted fibres — each successive twist being in an opposite direction to that which preceded it, so as to lessen the liability of untwisting. In a first-rate cable of twenty-five inches circumference (little other now than a memento of past days) there are three hundred and sixty yarns in a strand. Little is it to be wondered at if the making of these monster ropes, requiring so much material and so much power, led to the suggestion of rope-making machines. The late Captain Huddart constructed some beautiful machinery for making cables of almost any thickness and any length; and this ma- chinery was to some extent employed by the government ; but chain-cables have almost driven these machines into idleness. There is, however, machinery of a most ingenious kind now employed, both by the government and by private manufacturers, in making ropes of smaller size. One such machine must be fresh in the recollection of the visitors to the Great Exhibition ; it was Mr. Crawhall's invention, iu which tlie various strands are made to twist roimd each other by a veiy ingenious application of rotatory machinery. Ropes and cordage of various kinds, too, we may remark, were not wanting in our international display. There were round ropes and flat ropes, shroud-laid ropes and reef-point ropes, ropes from Russia hemp and ropes from Manilla hemp, ropes made by steam and ropes made by hand, ropes tan-ed and ropes untarred. The chain-cables so often alluded to above are simply chains of large size. Our chain-makers take a bar of iron of any thickness, weld this up into links, and at the same time connect these links one to another; and recent en- ler, and artially- 5 of ser- en new subject, )nt; for Lore and Milvain, cloth at forming other at as they h of the ir to have re rather hempen ' Captain question- Ld knows Ltitude of lis body, working I minute , and three ee ropes, > liecemeal, / being in ' iability of ce (Uttle and sixty [requiring pe-making lachinery this ma- lin-cables however, Ivemment One such Ihe Great ■ands are rotatory iark, were and flat lemp and by hand. Large size. Into links, recent en- A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. T gineering has shown that there is hardly any limit to the degree of strength 9ius obtainable. And if we turn our glance from the cables to the anchors which they ai-o intended to support, we do not less see tlie influence of modem ingenuity. Either the anchors themselves have been improved, or the mode of manufac- turing them, or both. All throughout the last European, war, our anchors were fashioned pretty nearly after one model; the various parts — the ring, the stock, tlie shank, the crown, the arm, the throat, the trend, the fluke, the peak, &c. — had their various conventional proportions to each other ; and the technical designations of sheet-anchor and bower-anchor, stream-anchor and kedge-anchor, became familiarised to us as a maritime people. How the anchor was made in those days our dockyard guide-books have not. failed to tell, and even our poets and song-writers have versified. The building up of ' four tons of iron into a first-rate anchor ; the welding of bars to form a solid shank ; the heating of the iron on the forge-hearth ; the fierce blast by which the heat was maintained ; the circle of anchor-smiths wielding their ponderous hammers ; the sooty dimness, the fiery sparks, and the noisy clangour of the smithy — all have been described over and over again. But the world has not consented to allow its anchors to remain un- changed : we now meet with many novel forms and appliances. Mr. Pering has shown how to gi'oup together a nmnber of broad slabs of iron, instead of mere square bars, to form the shank. Lieutenant Kodgers has been bold enough to propose and to construct holloiv anchors, on the well-known prin- ciple, that a given quantity of material makes a stronger column if hollow than if solid. Mr. Porter has provided a pivot or hinge at the end of the shank, by which the arms and fluljes have a certain freedom of movement, intended to facilitate the use of the anchor. The Great Exhibition illustrated these as well as many other novelties in anchors. No one who visited the enclosure at the west end could have failed to notice the enormous anchor sent by Messrs. Brown and Lenox ; and tliere were many curious eyes directed also towards a certain tank or cistern, filled with "unlovely" muddy water, in which two mimic anchors were repeatedly subjected to mimic experiments, to show that a slight alteration of shape produces a considerable result in the grappling power of an anchor. And tbe mode of manufactiu:ing anchors has imdergone at least as much change as the forms of the anchors themselves. A steam-engine now blows a blast into the forge fire, instead of leaving this service to be rendered by hand- worked bellows. And as to the hammering, this has undergone a complete revolution. A large sort of hammer, worked by ropes, and Iben a still larger moved by machinery, have had their day ; but Nasmyth's steam-hammer now triumphs over them all. Many who saw this machine at the Crystal Palaee longed for an opportimity to see it in action ; and those who have seen it in the anchor-smitheries of our royal dockyards are not likely soon to forget it. If we pass from the metal of the chain-cables and the anchors to that of the sheathing and tlie lightning conductors, we find that science, rather than manufacturing skill, has here rendered the chief service. Copper is still the sheathing material, and it is still applied to the lower part of the hull of a ship in sheets, which are fastened widi copper nails ; and when the ship has seen a certain amount of service, which has worn and injm-ed the metal, the si^eithing is stripped off, sold for re-melting, and replaced by new. Our ship- builders have done little more in this matter than to increase the sphere of usefulness due to this system. But in respect to lightning-conductors, the hi * 1 ill ■*^«j,A.* ,id»eijt..i» wA .„.. fli I i 'I i I 8 A SHIP, IN THB NINETEENTH CENTURY. case is quite different. Year after year did the royal ships and the merchant ships suffer appalling disasters by lightning; year after year did Sir W. S. Harris perseveringly press upon the attention of tlie government the important fact, that such calamities may be almost wholly prevented. It is only very recently, however, that his method has come into general adoption ; but our finest ships have now generally those slips of sheet copper, which, nmning down the masts and through the hull into the sea, cany off that terrible agent which might otherwise rend and destroy the ship. A notable modem feature in connection with shipping matters is the life- boat — not exactly a creation of our own days, but still one which is now more attended to than ever: witness the Northvunberland life-boat prize. The circumstances attending this prize were somewhat remarkable. Notwithstand- ing all the efforts made by benevolent and enterprising persons, the loss of life on the coasts of England still continues to be seriously large. The storms which rage in the German Ocean, and impel the poor helpless ships towards the shores and shoals, occasion more destruction, perhaps, than those on any other part of our coast. In the winter of 1849 a life-boat, manned by a brave crew of twenty Tyne pilots, was lost while attempting the rescue of a ship's crew ; and this, added to so many other lamentable catastrophes, led the Duke of Northumberland to offer a reward of a hundred guineas to the con- triver of tlie best life-boat. So heartily was this offer responded to, that nearly three hundred persons entered the list as competitors ; the offer was made in October, 1850; the plans and models were sent to an office in Somerset House, and tlie Duke collected five folio volumes of manuscript documents relating to them. A committee was appointed to examine all the plans and models ; and there can hardly be imagined a trial conducted with more fairness tlian that which was thus submitted to the committee. Certain qualities were decided on which a life-boat ought to possess ; all the compet- ing plans were compared in respect to all these qualities ; the relative degrees of excellence in all were represented by numbers, in respect to each quality ; and that plan which stood highest in tlie list in relation to the greatest num- ber of qualities, was adjudged to be the best life-boat. The report of this committee contains the greatest body of information ever collected on the subject. The prize was awarded to Mr. Beeching, of Yarmouth, for having produced the best of all the life-boats. Mr. Beeching's life-boat is, in form, something like a whale-boat. It is about 36 feet in extreme length, 9^ feet extreme breadth, and 3^ feet in depth ; it has twelve oars, double-banked. A cork fender, about seven inches square, runs round outside, at a few inches below the gunwale. Extra buoyancy is given by air-cases placed in all the vacant parts of the boat ; these, with the cork fender, give a buoyancy or upivard tendency of more than eight tons, counteracting to that extent the weight or downward tendency of the boat and its crew. For ballast there is an array of divided water-taiJis capable of containing any quantity up to about two tons, and tliere are pipes for empty- ing these tanks very quickly. If the boat be upset, the heavy iron keel and the filled water-tanks near the bottom, aided by the light air-cases near the top, tend to right it. It is rigged with a tug foresail and a mizen. The draught of water, with tliirty persons on board, is about two feet ; the weight of the boat and its fittings is about three and a half tons, and the cost 'HbOl. It Is capable of cari'ying seventy persons with safety. In November, 1851, this boat made a tiial trip to the Goodwin Sands, under the care of Captain Chaiiwood and a crew of sixteen picked men ; it was placed in such positions A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 9 archant W. S. portant ily very but our running [e agent the life- )W more B. The thstand- I loss of e. The iss ships an those inned by cue of a 5, led the the con- to, that offer was office in inuscript le all the cted with Certain compet- degrees quality ; est num- |t of this on the ir having as to allov^ the surf to have the greatest effect, and the result is said to have been such as to fully bear out the high anticipations formed of tlie excellent construction of the boat. Among the competing plans for life-boats were some of great oddity ; but none more odd, perhaps, than that which has been displayed at the western end of the Crystal Palace, where the tubs or cylinders provoked a recollection of the oil jars in which tlie renowned Forty Thieves concealed themselves. Among the recent projects for life-boats is one that does not relate to the shape of the boat itself, but to the introduction of a paiticular substance as a buoyant material. This substance is not formally described, but its excel- lences are announced in most laudatory terms. The * substance ' is made up into packages, and these packages are built into the framework of the boat; it can be applied in any bulk, in any fomi, and to any part ; if a boat be shattered, the pieces, if stuffed with this material, will form so many rafts ; the buoyancy is said to exceed that of cork, or even of cases filled with air. In short, if the " Patent Life-Boat, Buoy, Belt, and General Marine Buoyancy Company" do not overstret^-h their claims, this buoyant material must be a very notable affair; a little incredulity may, however, be Avholesome. The substance employed is, wo believe, a kind of rush, prepai'ed under a patent taken out by Captain Light. Swiftness, as a Characteristic of Modern Ships. It would obviously be quite beyond the scope of the present paper to go further and further into details respecting modem improvements in ship- building and ship fittings. We have said a little respecting the timbers, the masts, the sails, the ropes, tlie anchors, tlie cables, the sheathing, the con- ductors, the boats ; but tiiere are almost numberless other directions in which we should find novelties and curiosities, could we search for them. Our ever- busy age would indeed belie itself, were such not the case. Let us, however, before touching on the marvels of steam-shipping, render due justice to the sailing vessels of the middle of the nineteenth century, in respect to sailing qualities. Speed is the gi-eat chai'acteristic of om* age in respect to travelling. It is the key which unlocks the mysteiy of all our modem locomotive arrangements. It shows its power on tlie water as well as on the land, and in sailing ships as well as in steamers. Many newspaper readers mai'vel what a clipper may mean ; but whatever may have been the origin of the name itself, a clipper is simply one of the exemplifications of this speed-producing tendency in modern ship- building. The clippers of the German Ocean have arisen thus : when salmon and other perishable commodities began to be sent in large quantities from the north to London, it was found that the clumsy brigs and otlier coasting craft of the Tyne and Wear were of too slow a movement to convey the cargo with tlie necessary rapidity. Newcastle, and Shields, and Sunderland, did not want high speed for their coal, and glass, and chemical cargoes ; but Aberdeen, and Dundee, and Leith knew how to value any increase of speed for the con- veyance of their salmon and cattle, and other articles which became deteriorated by a long voyage. Hence it is to our Scottish neighbours that we ai'e indebted for clippers, or fast-sailing merchant ships. The clipper sacrifices a portion of space for the sake of increased speed ; she carries a somewhat smaller cargo than the old vessels of equal length, but conveys it sooner to its destination. The clipper is narrow, gracefully tapering behind, very sharp at the bows, and N 3 i- i ■n '(. I ) 10 A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH OENTURY. altogether calculated to cut cleanly and rapidly through the water, attaining a speed about double that of tlie old coasting brig. The fruit ti'ade of the ]\Ic'dit(n'rancan and the Azores is gradually coming within the domain of rapid clippers ; and the records of daily commerce show us a progi'essive extension of the same system to ocean sailing The opening of the China trade has had a wonderful effect in developing the energies of oui* ship-builders. Two of the Aberdeen clippers have recently been placed upon the China route, one by a London firm and the other at Liverpool. They ai*e comparatively of small burden, the Stornaway being 600 tons, and the Chrysolite 450 ; yet, small as they are, the former has accom- plished tho out and home voyages between England and China in 102 and 103 days respectively; and the latter in 102 and 104 days — a most extraordinary equality of action. They outstripped three American clippers with which they happened to come into competition, and beat everything else, large and small. It was ascertained about a dozen years ago, by a cai-eful examination of nearly a hundred log-books of Indiamen, that the average time from London to Bombay, in all the ships, large and small, was 112 days. When wo consider the much gi'eater distance to China, we shall the better appreciate the re- markable perforriiuices of these modem clippers. This clipper forai is unquestionably now of much importance. It was about the year 1810 that Messrs. Hall, of Aberdeen, first boldly adopted — on the wave principle developed by Mr. Scott Eussell — a form which combines great capacity witli great speed. The tonnage of a vessel (as was before reniaiked) does not now tell us how much cargo can be conveyed ; the ship- builders have managed to obey certain conventional rules, and yet increase the available capacity of their ships. Thus the Chrysolite is said to be of 450 tons, yet she brought 000 tons of tea from China. On one day the Chrysolite is said to have sailed 320 knots or nautical miles in twenty-four hours. The ' Aberdeen bow ' has thus become a very notable recommendation to a ship. There is, however, a claim put forth by Baltimore to the honour of having introduced the clipper style of ship; at any rate, tlie 'Baltimore clippers,' usually single or double-masted vessels, had a famous reputation in the western world long before the present rage for high speed arose. Since New York and Boston have sent their beautiful ' liners ' to sea, the smaller Baltimore clippers have lost a little of the sunshine of popularity. These larger ships, which cross the Atlantic and tlie Indian Ocean to China, or double Cape Horn to California, or merely make the now insignificant run to England, have generally some dare-devil name given to them — the White Squall, the Black Squall, the Sea Serpent, the Sea Hound, the Sea Witch, the Grey Eagle, the Oa)ne Cock — such are the Yankee clippers. The American ' liners ' just mentioned are indeed among the finest ships afloat. They are sailing vessels which ply between England and the United States ; and tlie rivali-y of steam has m-ged their builders to throw the utmost efforts into the consti'uction. At intervals of every few months, or even weeks, tlie news from the great ports announce to us the launching or the first voyage of some new member of this well-appointed series. Take, for example, the clipper ♦ liner' Racer, which was built at New York, and made her first appear- ance at Liverpool in the autumn of 1851. Her length is 207 feet ; her breadth of beam, 42 feet ; her depth of hold, 28 feet ; her ' 'tween decks ' height, 7 feet ; her load line, 20 feet draught ; her registered tonnage, about 1700 tons. She is long and shai'p, for speed ; but is yet roomy within, (^n the upper deck, between the fore and mizen masts, is a large and commodious structure, A BHIP, IN TUE NINETEENTH CENTUllY. tl containing apartments supplied with cooking ranges, a hospital, hoys' room, vegetable room, ice-house, &g. The chief cabin is magnificently fitted with all the solid conveniences which mahogany and rosewood can furnish, and all the decorations which gold and papier-mache can supply. In accordance witli the American custom of supplying an immense surface of sails to ensure speed, the Racer spreads upwards of 8000 yards of canvas. This vessel — so appropriately named — has lately accomplished the run from New York to Liverpool in fourteen days — a speed that throws far in the shade all previous sailing achievements across the Atlantic. But even this has since been ex- ceeded. Wliile these pages are being prepared for press, the Washiriffton, one of the 'Black Star' line of packets (for all these companies adopt rather fanciful names), has run the distance from New York to Liverpool in ten hours T'ithin the fourteen days. But it is not only commerce which leads to increase of speed as a desideratum in ship-building ; pleasure is also tending in the same direction, as our yachts plainly enough show. How characteristic it is, that Kobert Ste[>henson, who has done more to accelerate the speed of travelling than any other man living, should have gone to Egypt in his own pleasure-yacht, the Titania, and that this yacht should have been constructed on the speed-producing plan of Mr. Scott Russell, and that the object of the voyage should have relation to the speed of railway transit across the Isthmus of Suez. The man, and the yacht, and the occasion, were worthy one of another. The yacht America is, perhaps, not so noticeable in regard to its own merits as having been the means of drawing a large amount of public attention to the build, the sails, and the rig of ships in general. Belonging to a member of the New York Yacht Club, this yacht was constructed in that city early in 1851, mainly with tlie view of competing with the English yachts at Cowes. She arrived in this country in July, after a rattling run across the Atlantic ; and her shape, her rigging, her sails, all showed marked differences from those presented by English yachts. She was built by Messrs. Steers, for Mr. Stevens, the commodore of tlie New York Yacht Club. Her extreme length is 94 feet, and breadth about 23 feet. The masts have an extraordinary ' rake,' as nautical men term it — that is, a backward inclination. The standing sails which she carries are those called by sailors the jib, mainsail, and foresail. The internal arrangements comprise state cabins for the master and mate, mfiii cabin, witli side berths for fomteen seamen, three or four extra state rooms, cook's galley, pantiy, wash room, bath room, clothes room, wine room, sail room, &c. Such was the vessel which challenged the British yacht owners, and which won the victoiy on August Q2. Then did curiosity set to work in right earnest. Was the America built on a new model ? Did not the Aberdeen men, or the Yarmouth men, know this build previously ? Was she built for comfort as well as speed, like English yachts, or for speed only? Was tliere a new arrangement of sails? Was the quantity of sail more for the tonnage than in English yachts? Did the 'rake exceed that in English yachts? Were not \he masts less encumbered with rigging than ours ? Did her superiority show it>eil' whether sailing with or against the wind, in fair or in rough weather? — All these questions have been canvassed with cxtraordinaiy eagerness ; and English yacht-builde s must be unlike other Englishmen, if they do not show that the discussion may be made fruitful in good results. t Iff 13 ▲ SHIP, IN THU MINET£ENTU CENTUBT. Steam Navigation; its Eably Days and its Rapid Gkowth. But all improvements in sailing vessels must give way to that which resulted from the application of steam as a moving power. What a scene has half a century witnessed in this matter! It was about 1784 tliat two Americans, Fitch and Rumsey, exhibited two boats which were slowly propelled in the water by steam power — a humble beginning of a great system. It was hi 1788 that Symington, and Miller, and Taylor, applied steam power to work u paddle-wheel ; while in the following year they were the first to attain a steam- boat speed of seven miles an hour, on the Forth and Clyde Canal. It was in 1802 itiat Symington first drew a heavy load along a canal by steam power. It was in 1807 that a steam-boat first plied for traffic from Albany to New York on the Hudson River ; this boat, the Clermont, was constructed by Fulton, and was of so great biu-deu as 160 tons. It was in 1808 that a steamer first ventured on a coasting voyage, which Stevens made from New York to tho Delaware. It was in 1812 that the first passenger steamer plied in Britain ; this was Henry Bell's little boat, the Comet, of only 25 tons burden, and O-horse power; it carried passengers up and down the Clyde. It was in 1813 that a steamer first made its appearance on the Thames, as a passenger-boat between London and Gravesend ; and it was in the same year that a steamer first braved the rough seas of our coasts in a voyage from Glasgow to London. By tlie year 1818 there were 46 steamers plying in the twelve rivers — Clyde, Forth, Tay, Trent, Tyne, Humber, Mersey, Yare, Avon, Severn, Orwell, and Thames ; and about the same time the steamers in the United States exceeded this number. It was in 1818, too, that the first regular trading over-sea steam navigation commenced, by the placing of the Rob Boy on the Greenock and Belfast route ; although the English Channel, the Irish Sea, and the Ger- man Ocean, had all been crossed by steam before tliis date. It was David Napier, of Glasgow, who took the lead in steam navigation between 1818 and 1830, and his cousin Robert who has since taken up this honourable position. It was in 1838 that the problem of transatlantic steaming was effectually solved by the safe voyages of the Great Western and the Sirim ; and in the fourteen years which have subsequently elapsed, tlie progress of steam naviga- tion has been truly astonishing — little less so than that of its sister-system, the railways. Let us imagine that a • bird's-eye ' glance could be taken at the sm-face of Europe, in relation simply to the steam-ships which have been mainly esta- blished for post-office service. We should see the steamers of twelve Com- panies, forming an unparalleled fleet of a hundred splendid ships, employed by the English government alone. These ships (it has been lately stated) have cost not less than 3,000,000^. ; they have 30,000 horse power of engines, and 80,000 tons burden ; they ti-averse 2,000,000 miles of ocean in a yeai', and tlxeir o^vners receive 750,000Z. per annum from the British government for postal service. Southampton is the ptjcket station for neai-ly one-half of these fine steamers; and the three companies which malce it their depot receive much more than one-half of this large sum. If we watch these himdred steamers, careering over seas and oceans, we find that they touch at most of the great ports in both hemispheres ; tliey carry not only British letters to foreign countries, and foreign letters to the British dominions, but also foreign letters to other foreign countries ; France, Denmark, Spain, Holland, all have colonies separated from the mother country by the broad Atlantic ; but none A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 13 esulted . half a ericans, in the i was in work a I steam- t was in I power, to New Fulton, tier first c to the Britain ; len, and in 1813 igei'-boat steamer London. —Clyde, (veil, and exceeded over-sea jreenock the Ger- is David 1818 and position, ffectually d in the Q naviga- r-system, urface of inly esta- Ive Cora- jloyed by ,ted) have ;ines, and yeai', and iment for f of these )t receive hundred i most of letters to 50 foreign , all have laut none of Chise use their own steamers to pcrfoiTn the mail sei-vice to those colonies ; it is ,>itlier effected by sailing vessels, or by the English mail steamei-s — the latter being the method now adopted more extensively year after year. The West India Company take such mails to the colonies lying contiguous to Amerii!a ; the Poninsulur and Oriental Company convey those bound eastward ; and in such cases the mail-bags from foreign countries are either brought to Southampton, or we pick them up it, Cadiz, or some other port. The India mail, alone, presents a lively picture of the business-like age in which we live. It is said that tho steamers which leave Southampton on the 20th of each month for Alexandria, bearing the Meditenanean and India nails, usually take out as much as three enormous railway vans can contain; there are some two or three hundred boxes or cases of letters and dispatches, and numerous sacks of letters and newspapers — the whole weigh- ing foul or five tons, and comprising generally about a hundred thousand letters and twenty thousand newspapers. This, it must be borne in mind, is only one among many monthly steamers ; there are five or six others which leave Southampton every month for various ports in the I'eninsula and the Mediterrmean. * Wood and Ibon Steamers: Paddles and Screws. But we are somewhat anticipating our subject. There are a few interesting matters to be touched on, relating to tlie steps by which steamers have reached their present degree of efficiency. First, then, we have to bear in mind, that steamers were originally all built of wood, that they all had paddle-wheels, and that the boards or floats of these wheels were all fixed parallel with the axis ; but these points have undergone notable changes. Our daring engineers have met with equally dai-ing cap- tains, who scmple not to go to sea with steamers " clothed in circumstances " of almost peribus novelty ; and the result has shown that this daring has had a sound scientific basis to rest upon. Iron steamei-s are among the creations of our age. IMr. Grantham, in a paper read before the British Association a few years ago, enumerated so many advantages which iron ships have over those of wood, that it is matter for surprise why ship-builders do not more generally adopt the foi-mer material — unless indeed they differ from him in opinion. In the first place, he states that the ' form of least resistance,' which enables a vessel to glide most readily through the water, is more easily constructed in iron than in wood ; he thinks that iron ships excel wood in strength and durability, in facility of uniting t\ie various pieces, in comparative stowage, in comfort and convenience, and in expense. In respect to the last-named item, Mr. Grantham adduces the instance of the Flindostnn, a fine timber-built East Indiaman costing 72,OO0Z., of which the wood alone cost 48,000/. ; whereas in an iron vessel costing the same sum the crude iron would not be worth more than 5000Z. — so much more is distributed in wages for the latter than the former. The difference here stated seems excessive ; but there can be little doubt that, in a counti*/ which yields so abmidantly the iron fit for ship- building, great economical advantage ought to result from the substitution of iron for wood, other things being equal. Whatever may be sai<^ on other as- pects of the subject, it remains on record tliat the largest steamer in the world — the Orcat Britain — built of iron, was for more than three hundred days lying in peril on the sands of Dundrum Bay ; and yet escaped at last witli the hull 14 A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. I ! 'i i of iron almost unshaken and uninjured. The commercial misfortunes 0/ this luckless vessel ought not to hide this fact from view. It must be owned that, when an iron ship is seen imder process of coiBtruc- tion, it is difficult to realise the fact tliat it will possess the strength recuisite to beaj up against the power of the ocean. The keel is formed rf bars securely riveted side by side and end to end ; a keel six inches deep b; three in widdi being large enough, it is said, for avossel of a thousand tons Vurden. The stem-post, the stem-post, the ribs — all are formed A bar-iron, the slight- ness of which affords a striking contrast to the bulky masses of a dmber- built ship. The surfaces are all foimed of sheet-iron ; and these sheets are fastened to each other and to the various bars, by a countless number of iron rivets — ^rivets thro gh 'he keel, rivets through the ribs, rivets through the sheets, rivets everywhere. There is no soldering, there is but little velding, there aro but few screws — all, or nearly all, the fastening is effected bj rivets ; and these rivets bind the various parts togetlier witli almost irresistible force. Of the noisy tumult which the hammering of these thousands of ri7ets pro- duces in a ship yard, we need scarcely speak ; steam-boat tomusts on the Thames and the Clyde know something of tliis matter. It is difficult to soy whether the Ube of hon in building a steamer, or the adoption of the screv/ principle for pr'jpelling it, has been productive of most advantage. Both are great inventions. The noble Great Britain, with her bm'den of 3000 tons, and her engines of (originally) 1000-horse power, is a screw ship ; and the Screw Steam y.avigation Company, formed in 1846, has fully demonstrated, on tlie Mediterranean route and the Cape route, that the screw, tliough perhaps not so swift as the paddle, consumes leBs fuel and leaves a larger space for cai'go. It seems, at first thought, strange that a mere screw, placed at the stern of the vessel just above the keel, shoula have power to propel a ship. The steam-engine causes the screw to rotate en its shaf* or axis, and the blades of the screw enable it to worm its way through the water ; but then it should be remembered that these blades are sometimes as much as fifteen feet in diameter, and thus act on tlie water with immense force. New screw steam-ships are crowding in upon our waters from all quai'ters, significantly telling the tale of their efficiency and desirableness. The capa- city of screw-steamers, compared witli those having paddles, has led to a pro- ject of constructing such vessels, of 9000 tons burden, as emigrant ships between Liverpool and New York — a most important circumstance for emigrants, if they can thereby reach the place of their destination in two weeks instead of six or eight. In the Great Exliibition was placed a model of a screw-propeller, by Captain Carpenter, comprising a very curious arrangement. The fore half of the vessel is like that of an ordinary screw-steamer ; but from the midship section to the stern it has two heels, placed two feet or more apart, with tlie water flowing between tliem. There are two screws, the axes of which are in line with these two semi-keels, one to each, but one a little in advance of the other; and there are two rudders, one behind each screw. Whether this singular project has advanced beyond the condition of a model, we do not know ; but the hopes of the inventor are said to be, that the two screws will give a higher speed tlian one under th« ordinary ai'rangement, and that the two rudders will enable the vessel to turn in oue-half of the ordinary space. The auxiliary screiv is one of the best of recent inventions. It rests upon the principle that during a favourable wind 9 ship shall progress by means of aarters, capa- a pro- ships nee for in two ler, by half of lidship ith tlie are in of the er this do not ws will lat the [pace. [s upon 3anR of A SHIF, IS THE NINETEENTH GENTUBT. IB her sails ; but that, when bad weather sets in, a screw and a steam-engine shall set to vork, and render good service at a time when the poor ship would be otherwise beating about at the mercy of adverse winds, or else absolutely powerless in a dead calm. A vessel so constructed has a screw and engine skilfully placed so as to be out of the way when not wanted, and yet quickly available in time of need ; the quantity of fuel canied is but small ; while the spare room for cargo is much lai'ger than in any ordinary steamers. Our merchant ships, our war ships, our Arctic exploring ships — are now giving indications that the auxiUary screw principle is rising rapidly in favour. Indeed, it is evident that there are many som'ces of advantage here in store ; for it is optional to the commaaider to employ steam power just when and as often as he may choose, or his stock of coals may admit. He has wind to appeal to if short of coals ; he has coals at command if ill-provided with wind. From the paddle and the screw we may pass to that mighty agent whereby paddles and screws are made effective — the marine steam-engine — that me- chanical unit which had one-horse power in the eai'Uest experiments, and now has five hundred. The marine steam-engines at the Great Exhibition gave us a little insight mto the varied and ingenious contrivances for applying steam power to the propulsion of ships. There was Mr. Atherton's pair of marine engines, havmg one beam overhead instead of two beams beneath the cylinders, and a construction such as would enable them to be applied either to paddle- steamers or screw-steamers. There was Messrs. Slaughter's pair of 50-horse power engines for a screw-steamer, with cylinders at an angle of 45", and a three-bladed screw-propeller made of gun metal. There was Messrs. Boulton and Watt's magnificent pair of 700-horse power engines, intended for a screw-steamer, with fomr cylinders of 52 inches diameter, and a screw-pro- peller 16 feet in diameter. There were the instructive little models, deposited by the same company, of Jamej Watt's oscillating engine of 1785, and of his experimental locomotive of the same date. There were Messrs. Peixn's pair of 16-horse power engines, with oscillating cylinders, such as we are accus- tomed to see in some of the river boats, and such as have been found capable of high speed out at sea ; and the same firm's pair of 30-horse engines for a screw-steamer, of a form now used in some of the screw ships of war. There was Messrs. Maudslay's beautiful collection of models — comprising a pair of beam-engines, such as are largely used in the royal navy, but which are now being gradually superseded by oscillating engines ; a pair of these last-mentioned oscillating engines ; a pair of the fom*-cylinder engines patented by this firm, and appUed by them to many war-steamers ; a pair of anr.alar-cylinder engines, such as are used by some of the steamers on the FJlistone and Boulogne route; a pair of horizontal-cylinder engines, for working a screw-propeller; a steeple engine, adapted for shallow river steamers — such were the instructive contents of the fine glass case containing Messrs. Maudslay's models. There were the curious examples of screw- propellers, deposited by Mr. Smith, who may be regarded as the originator of this mode of propulsion, and whose collection showed how numerous have been the forms of the screw successively adopted : it included the fii'st screw which ever worked a steamer out at sea. Were ii possible to trace all the improvements made in marine steam- engines within the last few years, we shovdd find that not a single month has passed without the introduction of some novelty or other connected with the subject. No pai't of the complex and beautiful apparatus has been left witli- 16 A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. I out its newly-patented inventions, or its registered improvements, or its suggested alterations which have never ri^en to the dignity either of a patent or a registiy. And if we glance throiigh the pages of those journals which record new patents and inventions, wa find that there is always some contro- versy or other going on respecting the merits of certain engines and parts of engines, or whether the ' Fire-fly,' or the ' Fire-king,' or the ' Iron Duke,' or the • Asia,' or the ' Atlantic,' or any vessel, is worthy of the lofty position which its advocates claim for it. All such discuseions indicate the strength of the current of opinion and invention respecting steamers and their engines. High Steam-Speed: the Wave Peinciple. One of the hest gifts which the British Association has bestowed on the practical arts, is the investigation into the nature and forms of waves, and the adaptation of the forms of ships to those waves. Nearly twenty years ago Mr. Scott Russell took up this subject with a view to its elucidation ; and in 1837 the Association entrasted to him and Sir John Robinson the manage- ment of an extensive series of experiments, conducted at the cost of the Asso- ciation. Among other results, the Committee discovered the existence of a pecuUar wave, generated when a vessel is moving in a channel of definite width ; in this wave the particles of water do not merely oscillate up and down as in ordinary waves, but they are lifted forward to a new position, at a rate dependent on the depth of the channel. It was also found that a ship, if it could be made to move with a velocity exceeding that of this wave, Avill have a tendency to ride on the top of thi wave, and to be urged forward with actually less force than if it moved more slowly. A third result was, that if the exterior or water-line of a ship be made to coiTespond witli the shape of tliis wave, the speed of tlie vessel will be greater than with any other shape. In many succeeding meetings of the Association this Committee presented Reports of its indefatigable labours — almost AvhoUy due to Mr. Scott Russell ; and those who have not Avatched the proceedings of that learned body, can scarcely imagine how great and \aried were the experiments made by the Committee. Apparatus of tlie most delicate and ingenious kind was invented for conducting the investigations concerning waves ; and when the forms of ships came to be inquired into, the Committee applied to the most eminent ship-builders to mention the points on which they most wanted information, and the forms of vessels which they would wish to have tried. More than a hundred models of vessels were constnicted, varying in length from three to twenty-five feet ; these were drawn through the water with various velocities, and at dififerent degrees of immersion, to determine the resistance of all the various forms that might be adopted. Some of the experiments regarded the transverse sections of ships ; some, the ' water-line ' of the bow ; others, the Avater-line of the stem ; others, the proper point of greatest breadtli, and so forth. Not only were these experiments made upon models, but also upon ships of all bm'dens, up to 1 300 tons. One experiment was very romai'kable : — Mr. Russell caused four boats to be constructed, about twenty-five feet long, having all equal length, equal breadth, equal depth, equal capacity, and equid Aveight ; they were towed along at the same time, with the same velocity, and under tlie same circumstances — notliing differed except the curves of the boats at various points in the length. Yet so great was the influence which these curves exerted, that one form met with more than twice as much re- sistance as anotlier ; the other two being midway. The difference of cuna- A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 17 or its patent which joutro-^ larts of ' or the lich its of the on the and the >ars ago and in manage- tie Asso- Dce of a definite up and Mil, at a It a ship, mve, will /ard with [lat if the 36 of tliis ipe. iresentetl Bussell ; lody, can je by the invented forms of eminent jrmation, fi-e than a three to 'elocities, jf all the larded the Ithers, the h, and so lIso upon aai'kable ; [feet long, md equid jcity, and \es of the [ice which much re- of curva- ture was so Elight as to be detected only by an experienced eye, and yet the results were most marked. The boat built on the ' wave principle ' was found to be not only the least subject to resistance, but to be tlie best, easiest, and driest sea-boat. It was also ascertained that ea ^^ form has a velocity at which its powers bear the most favourable comparison with others ; two of the boats, for instance, were neaiiy equal for resistance at a speed of three or four miles an hour ; but one of them gained relatively over tlie other at six or seven miles speed ; the ' wave-line ' boat, however, beat all the others at all rates of speed. A very strange comment on our Admiralty arrangements was made at the Southampton meeting of the British Association in 1846. After Mr. Scott Kussell and others had given evidence of the great value of tlie wave principle in ship-building, Mr. VignoUes, the engineer, asked whetlier the Admiralty had built any vessels on this principle ; and if not, why not ? !Mr. Russell i-ephed tliat "he had been much more desirous for the adoption of the system in other ships than in the Admiralty, because he had been infomied that the Admiralty did not like tlie introduction of scientific principles into ship-building, but preferred remaining as they w^ere. He had therefore been averse to obtrude the subject on them." It is pleasant to know, however, that the same engineer who discovered the wave principle, and who has for sixteen or eighteen successive years detailed to the British Association the results of his indefatigable inquiries, has at last seen even governments (but not that of England) bend to the new order of things. At the Ipswich meeting m 1851, Mr. Scott Russell stated that a foreign government had consented to tlie adoption of the wave prin- ciple in wai'-steamers. The firm of Russell and Robinson had received an order from a foreign government for two war-steamers, concerning which these fonnidable conditions were to be fulfilled — " that tlie ships were to cany double the ai-mament of any war-steamer of the same tonnage and power, and go two knots an hour faster, than any vessel in her Majesty's navy." The conditions, we are told, were faithfully observed, by the adoption of the wave principle in the wai'-steamers thus constructed. Should the warlike talk of tlie age ever result in something more than talk, and should the wave principle, or any other scientific principle, be found to have been quietly followed by foreign countries, while om' own Admiralty has been reposing on the old familiar customs, the consequence may possibly bo neither pleasant to the national vanity nor profitable to the national purse. What is the proper ratio between the tonnage and the horse power of a steam vessel? This question constantly presents itself to tlie notice of ship- builders and engineers ; but it is quite evident that no settled system is yet agreed upon, for different companies adopt ratios widely diverse. As the race of competition is leading to greater and greater speed, so does this speed lead to greater and greater horse power in respect to tonnage. The English builders generally give a lower horse power per ton than tliose of the Clyde; but as ocean steamers increase in number, and as adverse tides, currents, and winds occur more frequently in the Atlantic than in sheltered seas, our engineers are gradually adopting the system of giving more power to obtain more speed, which speed acts as a comiterbalance to the hostile currents and winds. What a curious and important subject presents itself to our notice, when we tliink of the available means for obtaining this so-called horse power ! The shaft moves the paddles, and the piston moves the shaft, and the steam moves I 18 A SHIP, TN THE NINETEENTH CENTURT. the piston ; but unless the port from whence the steamer starts is well supplied witli coal or other fuel, the length of the voyage has a limit put to it, irrespec- tive of any amount of excellence in tlie machinery. This was one of the cir- cumstances which led to adverse prophecy respecting ocean steaming, fifteen years ago; tlie predictions have not been fulfilled, but still the •coaling' of a steamer is a matter of great moment. Some of our leviathans of modem ■'ays carry out a tliousand tons of coals with them; but the gi'eat desideratum now is, to discover spots where good and cheap coal can be obtained — spots lying in the route of ocean steamers. These spots are being eagerly sought after, and eveiy yeai' adds to the known number of them. Nay, so important is this matter, Uiat it is even deemed worth while to send out coals in other ships to certain stations, in order to keep up a supply for the steamers which call there. One featm-e in connection with the proposed trans-Pacific steam navigation of the United States merchants is, that the whaling ships, which usually go out in ballast, should go usefully laden with coal, which could be left at depots conveniently situated for the ocean steamers — a commercial way of " killing two birds with one stone." Mr. Scott Russell, at the Swansea meeting of the British Association, in 1848, gave a useful outline of the general course of improvements up to that year, in steam-ship building. In tiie early steam vessels the boilers were of great length, whereby the smoke was kept winding round and roimd in the flues, and at last was allowed to escape with difficulty. Now, however, the flues are made shorter, very numerous, and of thin metal, so as to heat the greatest quantity of water in the shortest time ; by which a boiler of small extent and weight is made much more efficacious than the old bulky and ponderous boilers. The beam-engine, which occupies a great amoimt of space, was formerly used for almost all steam vessels ; but it has been superseded to a veiy considerable extent by the direct-action engine, in which — the cylinders being immediately under the shaft of the paddle-wheels — less space is occupied, and less power wasted in friction. A useful change also has resulted from the use of oscillating-cylinder engines, which are equally avail- able without a beam. Another important change is, that wi'ought iron is used in much of the engine work which used to be formed of heavier but less tough cast iron. Many modifications have been introduced in the form of the paddle-wheel and its floats, giving to the latter a more economic action on the water. But a much greater unprovement has resulted from driving the paddles more rapidly tlian was wont in the infancy of steam navigation ; it is now known that fuel is economised, instead of wasted, by giving to the movements of the piston in the cylinder, and consequently to those of the piston-rod, crank, shaft, and paddle, this increase of speed. There is a method in practice of ' working steam expansively,' as it is called. Instead of completely filling the cylinder with steam, it is only partly filled, and the tendency of this steam to expand so as to fill the vacuum in tlie cylinder, supplies in itself a certain amount of moving force, insomuch that a quarter cylinder-full of steam has been made to produce two-thirds a cylinder-full of ettect. This expansive working was introduced into steam vessels twelve or fourteen years ago, and the extension of tlie method has formed one of the marked items in modem improvement. I applied •respec- the cir- fifteen ig' of a modem leratum L — spots ;ht after, [t is this ships to ai there, gation of y go out ,t depots " killing iation, in ip to that ■s were of id in the , the flues e greatest xtent and ponderous pace, was eded to a cylinders space is also has laUy avail- »n is used (r hut less )rm of the Lon on the •iving the Aon; it is g to the ise of the 'here is a Instead , and the cylinder, a quarter ider-fuU of twelve or me of the A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 19 Ocean Steamers in 1852 : what they are, and what they perform. As an exemplar of the perfection to which the arts of civilised life have been brought into requisition on shipboai-d, we might take any one of the later steamers built by tlie Cunard, the Collins, or tlie West India Companies. All that a seaman can want in the nautical excellence of the ship — all that an engineer can admire in the mechanism for the steam machinery — all that a well-to-do passenger can desire in respect to his own personal comfort — arc realised to an extent that the world never saw before. Whetlier we take the Asia or Africa of the first of the above-named companies, or the Atlantic or Baltic of the second, or the Orinoco (would that we might also include the Demerara or the Amazon) of the thu-d, we should equally find this to be the case. Let it be the Atlantic, for instance, which we may select in courtesy to our transatlantic friends. The first American-built steamer which crossed the broad ocean was the Washington; but the next one, the Athntic, far excelled it in eveiy respect; it made its first appearance at Liverpool in May, 1850, and formed the commencement of a new era in ocean navigation. Her length of keel is 276 feet ; her breadth (within the paddle-boxes), 45 ; her paddles are 36 feet in diameter, and her floats 15 feet long ; her bm-den is nearly 2900 tons ; her power is supplied by two engines of 500-horse power each ; her boilers are four in number, each heated by eight furnaces ; her appetite for coal is equal to two tons per hour. Then the passenger an'angements are very unlike those of the old steamers. The deck is nearly flush from end to end. The captain and officers' rooms, the kitchen, the pantry room, and the barber's shop, are clustered into two convenient groups on two distinct parts of the deck. The bai'ber's room has a multitude of little handy contrivances for facilitating the delicate operation of shaving during all tlie ^'aried movements of the ship. On deck also is a smoking room, shielded alike from the saloon below and from the weather above. The saloons are magnificent apartments, each sixty or seventy feet long, by twenty broad ; one we may call the dining- room, and the other the drawing-room. They ai-e fitted up with every imagin- able luxury. Rose-wood and satin-wood, carving and gilding, mirrors and stained glass, velvet cushions and rich carpets, brilliant silver-plate and lustrous cut glass, paintings and sculptures, polished marble and polished steel, abound in tlie fittings and famiture. There are a hundred and fifty berths, situated on either side of the saloons, besides a certain number of ' wedding-berths,' which, in accordance with a general custom in America, are provided in steamers for newly-married couples Avho wish to pass the honey- moon on the waters. Bells are placed in all the cabins, or rather a bell-ro[)e in each, all communicating with a bell-telegraph, such as was shown in our Great Exhibition. A bell likewise gives the signal from the captain to the steersman, who steers to the right or the left, according as one or two strokes are given on the bell. A kind of bell-rope, but with an inscription-card instead of a bell, is used to convey signals from the captain to the engine-niun below ; according as the orders ' go on,' ' slow,' ' fast,' ' ease her,' ' stop her,' or the like, are needed to be given, the captain pulls one or other of several handles, which causes the required signal to appear on an inscription in the engine-room. One little appendage makes its appearance in nhe saloons and other elegantly-fitted places where we should little expect to meet with it : it » ^^-y-* ■*— - .■sts belonging to the companies alluded to in many of the pi'e- ceeding paragi'aphs. All alike have availed themselves of those grand improvements which so signally mark the steam navigation of the present day. If we trace the history, or visit the ships of the ' Cunard ' or tlie ' Collins ' lines of North American steamers at Liverpool; or of tlie Peninsular and Oriental, or tlie West India lines at Southampton ; or of tlie Ocean Sa-eiv lines at Plymouth, Ave find that all now comprise tnily magnificent vessels. A burden of 3000 tons, a length of 800 feet, an engine-force of 1000-horse power, are no longer isolated Avonders in our ocean steamers. When shall Ave cease to ask for higher speed '? The Avorld ought, perhaps, to be satisfied Avith being conveyed from Liverpool to Halifax in eleven days ; yet does the recent Galway enterprise (and many other projects) shoAv that men Avill not be content until the shortest practicable ocean route is attained. Liveipool is not the most Avestern British port ; Halifax is not the most eastern American port ; hence are the projectors looking around for others. Many an eye has been attracted by the favourable Avestem position of Galway ; and smce a railway has been foi*med from Dublin to that port, Gahvay has put in its claim to tlie dignity of a transatlantic mail station. Gahvay is, perhaps, two hundred miles in advance of Liverpool on the Avay to America ; and there is a small port called Sydney, in Cape Breton, seventy or eighty miles nearer to Europe than Halifax ; and hence it has been proposed to establish a mail route from Gahvay to this little Sydney. Supposing, hoAvever, Gahvay and Halifax to be selected, this distance of about tAvo thousand miles might, as is hoped by sanguine projectors, be accomplished in seven days. But until raihvays are further advanced in British America, Galway must look to New York rather than to Halifax as the other end of her oceanic chain ; and a fcAv months Avill probably shoAV us something notable in this direction. And it is in a somcAvhat analogous spirit that Ave should regard the com- peting schemes for ocean routes to India and Australia. Shall it be by the Isthmus of Suez, or by Panama, or by the Cape ? Which is the shortest ? Which Avill convey our officers, and colonists, and merchandise to tlie far- distant east most quickly and cheaply ? All these questions are being nai'- rowly canvassed ; and it is not improbable that the result Avill be the esta- blishment of all three routes — each having its OAvn catalogue of favourable circumstances, and the impulse of competition having taken so decided a foiin. If Ave do not effect these things, America Avill ; and herein is another source of commercial activity. HoAv strangely does it strike upon the mind — hoAV subversive of old-time associations — to read such an advertisement as the following : — " Steam Com- munication betAveen Cairo and the First Cataract. The Egyptian Transit Ad- ministration begs to inform travellers that a steamer Avill be dispatched from Cairo to Assouan on or about the 10th of every montli The whole A'oyage Avill be accomplished in seventeen or eighteen days, including about 210 hours' stoppages at all the places Avhere the principal antiquities exist." Napoleon talked to his soldiers about forty centuries looking down upon tliem from the Pyramids ; but if the builders of Edfou, and Denderali, and Thebes, could " look down " upon a pufling, panting creation of " Penn and Sons," or " Maudslay and Co.," rattling audaciously along at the A'ery a con agnifi- le pre- grand >resent Jollins ' ar and tv lines 3ls. A 0-horse erhaps, a days ; jw that ttained. lO most others, jalway ; IS put in [>erhaps, ad there 3 nearer L a mail way and ht, as is ut until to New id a few |he corn- by the Ihortest ? tlie far- ling nai- Ihe esta- .rourablo jcided a another aid-time Com- isit Ad- led from The ^eluding Jtiquities |g down Inderal!, " Penn 16 very A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 21 foot of the sacred temples, the sight would be much more startling than that of an armed host, and more significant of the progress which the last hundredth-part of forty centuries has witnessed. The fine steamers of our day are not to be understood by regarding merely their mechanical and engineering qualities. There are otlier commercial curiosities exhibited by them. For examjile — -food. Of that part of a ship's accompaniments which relate to the victualling of the crow and passengers, no example, perhaps, is more striking than that afiorded by the gi-eat mail steamers which leave Southampton every month. One of the Oriental steamers some- times contains a crew of nearly a hundred, and about as many passengers ; these have to be provisioned for five weeks; and the principal portion of tliis supply is shipped at Southampton. Grocers, butchers, bakers, wine merchants, spirit merchants, confectioners, poulterers, cheesemongers — ■ all are busy for several days before the starting of tlie mail, in supplying pro- visions, which comprise the delicacies as well as the solid comforts of the larder and the cellar. " About 3000 lbs. weight of bread, flour, hops, and malt," says a writer in tlie Hampshire Advertiser, apparently well infonned on this subject ; " 2000 lbs. of butchers' meat, consisting of prime beef, mutton, pork, calves' heads, and ox tails ; 200 head of live stock, comprising sheep, pigs, turkeys, geese, ducks, fowls, and a cow in milk; 100 head of dead stock, consisting of turkeys, geese, ducks, fowls, and rabbits ; 2000 lbs. of provender for the live stock ; 3000 bottles of champagne, claret, Madeira, port, and sheny ; 6000 bottles of pale ale, porter, soda-water, and lemonade ; 200 gallons of brandy, gin, rum, and whisky ; 3000 lbs. of tea, coffee, and sugar ; 2000 lbs. of various groceries and spices ; an immense quantity of oilmen's and confectioners' stores, such as anchovies, blacking, bottled fniits, candles, cod-sounds, curry powder, celeiy seed, groats, liemngs, jams, jellies, marma- lade, maccaroni, mustard, salad oil, olives, pearl barley, pickles, capers, salt, sauces, salt fish, catsup, soy, soap, soda, salted tripe, vermicelli, whiting, vinegar; together with 1000 eggs, and 1000 lbs. of bacon, butter, and cheese ; — ai'e shipped on board every Alexandrian packet at Southampton, for one outward and homeward voyage." Of course in a large man-of-war, provided for a long period, tlie quantities of provisions must be very much greater ; but we are speaking of ordinaiy monthly commercial systems. One word as to the millions of steam-boat passengers. The new Navigation Act, which came into operation on the first day of 1852, contains many im- portant regulations for the safety of passengers. An Act of Parliament is not omnipotent, either in the prevention of accidents, or in anything else ; but a ship-passenger is so helplessly and Iiopelessly at the mercy of others, that it becomes reasonable for the legislature to tiy and throw a shield of protection around him. What, then, are the materials of this protecting shield, as set forth in tlie new Act? In tlie first place, all steamers are to be surveyed twice a year by surveyors appointed by the Board of Trade ; these surveyors are to examine eveiything, in the departments both of the shipwright and of the engineer ; they are to send in their report ; the Board (if the report be favour- able) is to give a certificate, and without such a certificate no steamer must com- mence its six months' liberty of voyaging. In the next place, all our steamers must have transverse water-tight partitions, between the engine-room and the fore and aft parts of the vessel, respectively ; a latitude being allowed in respect to ships already built. Then, again, self-acting safety valves are to be provided to every boiler of every steamer, placed out of reach of any interference from the engine-man. Another clause determines tiae minimum niunber and the ( I ( m A SHIP, IN THB NWETEBNTH CENTDRT. dimensions of the boats which shall be carried by every sea-going vessel, whetlier sail or steamer ; one of tliese boats, too, to be a life-boat. As a further precautionary measure, hose for fire engines, and blue lights, and a cannon for signals of distress are to be provided. And lastly, all accidents to steam- boats are to be reported at once to the Board of Trade. Such is the statute. Three days after it came into operation occurred that deplorable calamity to the Amazon, which was the first subject that came ofticially under the notice of the Board. We may obsei-ve, however, that the ocean mail steamers, being already under stringetnt contracts, are not amenable to the Board of Trade under tliis new Act. Ships and Shipping at ouu Great CoMArERciAi. Ports. The advance of any of our great ports, such as Glasgow or Liverpool, is in itself one of the best indices to the advancement of shipping aiTangements generally. Taking Glasgow as an example, what do we see '? We have there a river on which a million and a half sterling has been expended ; in forming embankments, building two miles of masonry quays, straightening the crooked bends, deepening the bed so as to receive ships of a thousand tons burden, fixing beacons for twenty miles down the river, providing sheds and ci'anes and all other apparatus to facilitate the loading and unloading of ships ; by such means has Uio Clyde become one of the most wonderful rivers in Britain ; and on tlio bonks of this liver are situated those great foci of industry where our steam ships have received so much of tlieir development. Here ai-e to be foimd the works of Robert Napier, of Tod and Macgregor, of Caird, of Wood, and of other distinguished firms, whose names are so indissolubly bound up with tlie progress of modem navigation. If we glance at Liverpool instead of Glasgow, the shipping phenomena are still more astonishing. Here we find a range of docks more than four miles in length; in which there are sometimes as many as eight hundred ships moored at one time; and tlie construction of which cost twelve millions sterling. Liverpool is now the gi'eatest port in the world, in respect to the value of its exports, and the extent of its foreign commerce generally. New York, the first city in the United States, is more populous, but its commerce does not equal that of Liverpool. The shipping trade is rather less than that of London, but the exports amount to greater annual value. These amounted, in 1850, to tlie almost incredible sum of 35,OOO,000Z., much more tlian one- half of the whole exports of the whole United Kingdom ! They comprise not only the cottons of Lancashire, but also the woollens and linens of the West Riding, the salt of Cheshire, the coal of Yorkshire and Northumberland, tlie pottery of Staffordshhe, the hosiery of the midland counties, the steel of Shef- field, and the iron, the hardware, and the machineiy of all our midland and northern counties. According to retmns recently prepared, it appears, that 4440 vessels entered the port of Liverpool in 1851, of which radier less than two-thirds were British, and the rest foreign ; their burden amounted to upwards of a million tons. The ships which departed from Liverpood rather exceeded this number. Jn everything relating to mai'itime and commercial affairs, this extraordinary port claims our attention. So many nations have dealings with Liverpool, that tliere are more than thirty consuls there. The customs receipts in 1850 were neoi-ly 3,400,000?., and in 1851 they exceeded 3,500,000?. In ship-building, besides all the sailing vessels and all the paddle steamers, vessel, further cannon I steam- statute, amity to e notice rs, being )f Trade lool, is in :igements ave there 1 forming e crooked is burden, ranes and ; by such 1 Britain ; 3try where } ai'c to bo of Wood, bound up A SHIP, IN THE NINETBENTH CENTURY. 98 lis entered lirds were la million number, [•aordinaiy jiverpool, hceipts in lOOOi. In 1 steamers, there were no less than 13 screw steamers built at Livei-pool in 1851, pre- senting an average of about 600 tons burden each. And if we take our wondrous metropolis, and the river on whoso banks it lies, we encounter, of course, more vast and varied phenomena. In 1850 a lecture was published by Mr. Howell, entitled ' A Day's Business in the Port of London.' Ho selected one particular day in September. 1849, and pro- cured a mass of Custom-house documents in respect of that day's commerce on the Thames. We find, then, that 121 ships, navigated by 1387 seamen, and having an aggregate burden of 30,000 tons, arrived in the Thames on that day ; of these only one in eight were foi'eign vessels. Thoy came from all parts of the globe, as far north as Archangel, as far south as Australia, while the remote east and the " far west" supplied their fair quota. These ships contained 300,000 lbs. of sugar, 10,000 chests of tea, 7400 packages of coffee, 3000 head of live stock, 8000 packages of butter, 50,000 cheeses, 900,000 eggs, 4458 bales of wool, 1250 tons of granite, 219 packages of specie, 80,000 lbs. of currants, besides smaller quantities of almost eveiy conceivable article which commerce brings to this countiy ; all this, be it remembered, is one day's arrival at one port. It was not all, however, for home consumption, since London is a spot on the great highway of nations wliere merchandise rests for awhile on its transit from one countiy to another. There is no reason to think that the day selected was an unusual one as to commerce, or that it presented other tlian average amounts ; nor is there any mention here of the departure-ships with their cargoes, nor of the immense coasting trade between London and other British ports. Our shipping account for 1850 is one of which the nation has no little reason to be proud. In it we find that 23,960 ships were registered at British ports at the close of that year ; that the burden of these ships amounted to 3,337,732 tons, or about 140 tons per vessel on an average ; that our merchant steamers were 570 in number; that 27,286 ships left British ports for foreign covmtries, and about the same number entered British ports from those coim- tries ; that about 5000 ships left for the colonies, and rather more than tliis number arrived from tiie colonies. But the coasting trade, in which each vessel generally makes many voyages in a year, involves numbers and quanti- ties almost incredible. The parliamentaiy returns tell us, for instance, that, in the year now under notice, all the voyages of all the coasting vessels in the United Kingdom amounted in number to more tlian 140,000 ; this being the number of vessels which ' entered inwards,' as the maritime authoi'ities tenn it ; the number ' entered outwards ' being of course nearly the same. During that year 610 timber sailing vessels, 1 8 timber steamers, 11 iron sailing vessels, and 50 iron steamers — making a total of 689 — were built, or finished building, and were placed upon the registry. Let us here do justice to the young but energetic power beyond the Atlantic. Her fine yachts and 'liners' have been adverted to, and her ' Collins' steamei's have been described; but her commercial marine must not be thus briefly dismissed : it is certainly among the most remarkable phenomena of this age. We may pardonably boast a Uttle of the general advance of British shipping ; yet the United States beat us holloyr in rapidity o{ advance. In 1832, just twenty years ago, the shipping of the United States amounted to a little more than 1,400,000 tons ; while in 1850 it reached 3,500,000 — a rate of increase very far exceeding that of the British commercial marine. In the year ending June, 1850, we are told (by the government statistics) thflt no less than 18.196 vessels left or ai'rived at ports in the United States, of which rather less than ttm$m mn*m 24 A SHIP, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. one-tlurd belonged to the republic — the larger moiety belongmg to other countries. Moi-e than six hundred of these cleared from the comparatively modem port of San Francisco ; but from Nfw York — the queen city of the western hemisphere — the aiTivals and departures reached 7303, averaging 20 por day. At the close of 1850 it was calculated that there were not much fewer than 2000 steam-boats navigating the rivers and lakes of America, and 22,000 American steamers and sailing vessels, of various kinds, on the coast and on the broad seas. More than 1:300 vessels, great and small, were launched in the republic in 1850. The city of New York, in nine months of that year, launched 12 large stcam-sliips, 7 steam-boats, 13 liners or first- class sailing vessels, and 5 smaller vessels ; while at tlie end of this period there were on the stocks, in the building yards of that city, 12 large steam- ships, 5 steam-boats, and 14 other vessels of various kinds ; making, together, a total of (')8 vessels, either launched or building; and of such magnitude were some of these ships, that the average burden (taking one with another) exceeded 1000 tons. Many circumstances have led to this rapid advance of American shipping. One of the most notable of these is the supply of cotton to Britain and other parts of Europe. The astounding extent of this commerce is treated in anoUier paper of tliis series (Cotton and Flax) ; and it may Avell be supposed that the conveyance of nearly two million bales across the Atlantic yearly, with 300 to 400 lbs. of cotton in each bale, must needs require many large and well-appointed ships. Another is, that as any largo sale of commodities be- tween two countries leads to nearly equal ] bases in others, by which the 'balance of trade' is pretty nearly kept up, tli sale of cotton to England has led to vast purchases of manufactured goods from England, which furnish valuable freight for shipping. Another circumstance is, the acquisition of California by the United States, followed by the discovery of tlie golden wealth of that extraordinary country; mighty, indeed, is tlie activity which this has given to American shipping. Let us lastly note a few of the recent statistics of emigi'ation, so far as they affect shipping. In 1850, tlien, the number of emigrants from British shores was 280,849, of whom no less than 257,663 sailed for America. Not only did Liverpool excel any other British port as the point of departure, but it far exceeded all tlie others taken together, the number from Liverpool being 174,188. The amount of shipping employed in conveying this great number of souls across the Atlantic is really veiy large. In the four years 1847 to 1850 there were 2166 ship-loads thus conveyed to search for a new homo from Liverpool alone, comprising nearly 600,000 persons, or an average of about 275 in each ship. Nine-tenths of these emigrants were Irish, who crossed St. George's Channel to take ship at Liverpool. Great as was the number of emigrants shipped from Liverpool in 1850, it became still more surprising in 1851, when it was little short of 200,000. Of the horrors which have occasionally been experienced by these poor emigrants, when eight or nine hundr d have been cooped up in one ship (which has occasionally taken place), we need not speak ; the emigrant regula- tions are now far superior to those formerly adopted, and dishonesty on the one side and misery on the other diminish in amount. It is impossible to avoid seeing that " a ship, in the nineteenth century," is one of the most notable aids to the ' fraternisation ' of different and widely separated countries. t to other iparatively city of the eraging 20 not much nerica, and I the coast imoll, were ,ne months 3rs or fii'st- this period arge steani- ig, together, magnitude ith another) m shipping, in and other s treated in be supposed c yearly, with ny large and imoditics be- by which the England has vhich furnish acquisition of If the golden ictivity which of the recent 1850, tlien, jof whom no |ol excel any seded all tlie ■4,188. The souls across ,0 there were rerpool alone, ^n each ship, •ge's Channel lants shipped when it was these poor 'in one ship [grant regula- Jnesty on the century," is and widely CALCULATING AND REGISTERING MACHINES. We are about to give a popular view of a range of nincliincs, tlie object of which is to perfomi some kind of calculating, onun)erating, or vogis- teiing operations ; something which imitates the thinker rather than th 4 CALCULATING AND HECUSTERING MACHINES. A more etftcient mode of facilitating the ni».ltiplication and division of large numbers, by mechanical means, was invented t\.'o centuries and a half ago by Napier of Merchiston, the inventor of logarithmic arithmetic ; he called the ai't Rhabdology, and the instmment came to be called Najners Bones. These bones or rods consist of five oblong pieces of wood or any other convenient material, divided each into nine little squares ; each square is resolved into two triangles by diagonals ; and the numbers of the multiplication table are written in tliese squares in such a manner, that the ' units' figure is found in tlie right hand triangle, and the ' tens ' figure in the left hand triangle of the sauic ^nuni'e. It would be difficult, without diagrams, to explain tlie mode of effecting multiplication by these pieces ; but the pieces are ranged side by side, in an order determined by tlie figures of the multiplicand and the multiplier, and the answer is found at the intersection of a -sertical with a horizontal line — in a mode similar to tr at in which most tables are consulted. Analogous in principle to Napier's bones or rods are the various kinds of Sliding El (^, so familiar to engineers and workmen. Whetlier it be the common Carpenter's slide-rule, Bevan's Engineer's rule, Henderson's double shde-rule, the Excise-officer's rule, tlie Grazier's rule, or any of those for per- ibnning more abstiiise calculations, the principle of action is nearly the same — that of placing two or more rows of numbers side by side, and finding the required result at certain junctions of graduated lines. But tliese are rather arithmetical instruments tlian machines; they are an extension of aritlmietical tables ; and though it has been said by one wlio ably advocates tlie increased use of the sliding rule, that " fcr a few shillings most persons might put into their pockets some hundred tim-js as much power of calculation as they have in their heads," yet these instvuments are not of a kind to call for further notice bore. The apparatus invented by Pascal, how- ever, was really a calculating machine, and was perhaps the fiio^ of its kind. This distinguished man was, in early life, an assistant to his father in an official situation in Normandy ; the duties of the office invohed hmxoIi numerical calculation ; and young Pascal conceived the idea of shortening the labour bj means of a madiine. It consisted of a series of wheels, earning cylindrical barrels, on which were engraved the ten iiiunerals from ) to \). One wheel was foi 'units,' one for • tens,' and so on; each wheel was so con nected with the one to the left of it, that \s'hen the fonner passed from 9 to (', the latter was iiecessarily advanced one figure, or made to rotate one tenth of a complete circle — thus was the familiar ]n'oce.ss of '.aiTying' effected. IMul- tiplication was wrought by a series of additions, and division by a series of subtractions, and the wheels were turned by hand to bring them into the proper relative positions. It is exactly two centuries ago that this machine was constructed ; it was distinguished neither for correctness enough, nor quickness enough, to bring it into peiniantnt use; but it contained tlic germ which has characterised all kitscal, how- ,f its kind. Either in an .Ived unu'h [)vtening the [Is, caiTving ■om .) to 1). A-as so con [Vom 9 to (\_ ,iic tenth of Ictod. ^lu^-. a serie-j *:•* |in into the [lis maclnne ■iiough, ncH' h1 the gprm_ iscal himself liwithmetical those which |u for it the „ and ''fii"' seventeeiill' iblivion. CALCULATING AND REGISTERING MACHINES. Babbage's Calcul^vtino Machine. Of all machines invented for these purposes, none have approached Mr. Babbage's — in the admirable talent exhibited, in the cost incurred, in the amount of correspondence to which it has given rise, in the time bestowed upon its production, in the mental anxiety which it has caused to its inventor, and in the strange ending of its career. It was in April, 1823, that official notice was first taken of this manellous invention, by an application from the Treasuiy to the lloyul Society, for the opinion of that learned body on a plan proposed by Mr. Babbage, " for applying machinery to the purposes of calculating and i)rinting mathematical tables." But the matter was kno'vu to scientific persons at an earlier date. Sir Humphrey Davy, the Presidem of the Society, had been familiar with Mr. Babbage's laboiu's ; and Mr. Babbage wrote a letter in July, 1822, which was addressed formally to Sir Humphrey, but was intended virtually as a means of making the invention public. He said. " tlie intolerable labour and fatiguing monotony of a continued repetition of similar arithmetical cal- culations, first excited the desii-c, and afterwards suggested the idea, of a machine, which, by the aid of gravity or any other moving power, should become a substitute for one of ilie lowest operations of liuniau intellect." It may seem sti'ange to many i>ersons so to designate arithmetical processes ; but such they really become to men of lofty analytical genius ; for, as was before observed, it is found that a mere .omputer, a man or boy who only knows the fii'st four rules of arithmetic, can compute arithmetical tables more quickly and more accui-ately than an accomplished mathenuitician — so much does it assume the character of meclumical routine work, when the e.xact mod« of proceeding is once laid down. Mr. Babbage seems to have con- trived, even before that time, many dilTerent machines for perfornrng ditrerent mathematical operations ; they were mostly plans drawn on papei-, but one or two had advanced to a working condition. So early, iiK^eed, as June l^o-^^ >ii-. Babbage had read a paper before the Astronomical Society, in which he alluded to the fact that many of th(! members were acquainted with his views on this subject, and then announced tJiat his labours had attained a favourable result. He mentions certain tables of numbers, and adds — " These, as well as any others which the engine is competent to form, are produced almost as rajjidly as an assistant can write them down. The machine by which those calculations are effected is extremely simple in its kind, consisting of a small number of different parts frequently repeated. In the prosecuduii of this plan, I have contrived methods by which tyjie shall bo set up by the machiiK; in the order deter- mined by the calculation ; and the arrangements an; of such a nature that, if executed, there shall not exist the possibility of error in any printed copy of tables computed by this machine." This is a high character for an inventor to give to his own machine, but there is esiiry I'eason to think that it involves no exaggeration. In December of the same year, Mr. Babbage communicated u second paper to the same learned body, in which he stated that he had not made any notable progress in his macliine, but that he had tested its powers in a singular way. He found that, in considering the arrangements of its parts, a different mod(^ of adjustnig them would produci; tables of a new species, altogt^thei' different from uny with which he was acquainted — in other words, the njachine could work a problem whidi I i 6 CALCULATi.NO AND REGISTEMNCt MACHINES. mathematicians could not; he investigated the matter, and, instigated ov guided hy the machine, succeeded in getting over a difficulty Avhicli had perplexed him many years before, in the solution of a problem connected Avitli the game of chess. The machine became a tutor to tlie machinist. When Mr. (afterwards Sir T. C.) Colebrooke presented the Society's gold medal to Mr. Babbage, in 1824, he compared the purport of the machine with other mechanical contrl\ ances. " In other cases, mechanical devices have substituted machines for simpler tools or for bodily labours. The artist has been furnished with command of power beyond human sti'ength, joined witli precision suipassing any ordinaiy attainment of dexterity. Hf is enabled to perform singly the work of a multitude, with the accuracy of r select few, by mechanism, which takes the place of manual laboiu", or assists its efforts. But the invention to which I am adverting comes in place of mental exertion : it substitutes mechanical performance for an intellectual process ; and that peiformance is effected with celerity and exactness unattainable in ordinary method'^, even by incessant practice and luidiverted attention. The invention 'is in s('//pe, as in execution, unlike anytliing before accomplished to assist operose computatif/ns. Mr. Babbage's invention puts an engine in the place oi the computer; the question is set to the instrument, or the instrument is set to me question ; and, by simply giving it motion, the solution is wrought and a string of answers is rxhibited. Nor i" +his all; for the machine may be rendered (^apable of recording its answev, and even multi- plying copies of ife" But to return to the record of official proceedings, without which the history of this remarkable invention would X' unintelligible. The letter addressed to Sir Humphi< y Davy having l)een printed, and a copy sent to the Treasiuy, it led to tlu^ application by the Government to the Royal Society for that learned body's opinion. Men of unquestioned scientific attainments fonned themselves into a Committee for investigating the subject. The names of Daxy, Herschel, Young. WoUaston, Pond, Kater, Brande, Baily, Combe, Bvrmel. Colby, and JJavies CJilbcii, formed this memorable and mi- equalled Connnittee ; which, thus constitut^'d, after examining the whole subject, reported, " Tliat it appears to this Commitue that ]\Ir. Babbage has displayed great talent and ingemnty in the construction of his machine for computation, which the Committee think fully adequate to the attainment of the ol)ject proposed by the inventor, and that they consider Mr. Babbage as highly deserving of public encouragement in the prosecution of his arduous under- taking." ]Mr. ]]abbage's reason for applying to the Government was, that the fidl accomplishment of his plans would entail greatci' expense than his own private resources would bear; and that, as he had no pur])ose of emokunent in view, he applied fo/ national assistance in completing a national bunetit. It is said that I)r. Young differed from the rest of the Committee; he thought tlie invention unquestionably a meritorious one, but he " conceived that it would be far more useful to invest the jjrobable cost of constructing such a calcu- lating machine as was proposed, in the hmds, and apply the dividend to paying calculators." However, tlie Ileport of the Committee being favourable, tlie Treasury agreed to take uji the subject. I'^nfortunately, there seems from the first to have been u want of pivcision in tlie mode of conducting the arrangements between the Goveniment and the inventor. In the new palace of tiie parliament, no one seems to know who has control over tlie expenditure ; and in the far more wonderful cab'u- lating niachino there was a somewhat analogous trahi of unsatisfactory gated ov hich had cted Avitla 3ty's gold hine with ices have .'he artist Lh, joined is enahled lelect few, its efforts. \ exertion : ; and that 1 ordinary ! invention I to assist I the place instnmaent solution is lU; for the 3ven multi- which the The letter opy sent to the Ptoyal d scientific the svihject. mde, Baily, )le and un- lole subject, ts displayed ,)inputation, the object as highly A)ns imdev- las, that the an his own .olunient in efit. It is [bought the. |at itwoubl >\\ a calcu- llividend to avourablo, U' pi'(H'ision anunit and Jis to know .rf\d cal.'u- Isatisfactoiy CvVLCULATIXG AND HEGISTEKlNCr MACHINES. 7 results. ]\Ir. Babbage's fu'st direct negociation with die Government was verbal instead of written, whence arose misconception of the meaning of either paity. A few montlis after the Report of the Committee, the Treasury " directed tlie issue of ^111500 to Mr. Babbage, to enable him to bring his invention to perfection, in the manner recommended " by the lloyal Society ; but as the recommendation did not lay down any plan, terms, or conditions, the inventor was left to fonn plans of his own. The machine which had before existed was nothing more than a model ; but the calciUating machine, to be regarded as public j^roperty, was connnenced by Mr. Babbage in 18^3, and it> construction continued steadily for four years. Drawings of the most elaborate and delicate kind were made, and skilful machinists were employed to construct the wheels and other mechanism from these drawings. Not only had the best skill to be employed, but workmen had U) be educated specially for the work, and entirely new tools had to be invented, so ex- traordinai'y was the nicety requu-ed in every l^art of the apparatus. JMoiiey was advanced from time to time by the GoveiTmicnt, and paid for materials and labour, under the audit of three distinguished engineers — Messrs. Bruiujl, Donkin, and Field. ]\Ir. Babbage himself received no remuneration for tlie mental labour and the time bestowed by him on his great work ; all went to those who were assisting him. Years rolled on, and money was advanced from time to time by the Treasury, but the machine was not yet completed ; and the House of Commons, the keeper of the public jiurse, began to exhibit a little restiveness. The Government wished to know how matters were proceeding ; and, in December, J fS'^8, a second Treasiay letter to the Royal Society was written, begging the Council " to institute such inrjuiries as would enable thern to re})ort u'lon .he state to which the machine had arrived ; and also whether the prog, s made in its construction confirmed them in the opinion which they ha, it became necessary to look clearly at the financial difficulty; A sum of tTOOO had by that time been spent on the machine, of which the Treasury liad provided only ,t'30()0, the rest having been borne by the hiventor ; and it was found that at least £4000 more would be required. An application was made to the Duke of Wellington, then in office, and £':1000 was advanced from the Treasury. Another sum of i'OOO was afterwaisteam-engine to work the handle ; we could tlien manufacture arithmetical tables like yards of cotton. Recent Arithmetical Machines. Any comment on the circumstances which have for so lengtlusned a peiiod rendered the above extraordinary inventions barren of results, besides being painful and un.-atisfactoiy, would lie beyond the scope of the present paj)er. \Ve therefore propf^se to take a glance at recent and luunblor performances in tlie sanui line of mechanical art. That arithmetical machines of any kind have as yet come extensively into use is more than can be safely aflinned. This is no reason, however, for a suspension of ingenuity on the subject. The regularity and j)recision of modem mcclianism are quabties shigularly analogous to those which calculated tables and (piantities ought to present ; and practical mm feel that tliis analogy will yv , produce its good fruit. Ingenious machinists aie groping their way in seai'ch of tliese favourabbi results ; and it will be hard if some among them do not hit upon the rigiit path. CALCULATING AND IIEGISTERING MACHINES. 11 inted IV icupictl 1 of the we up would action ccuvacy 1 eiTov, on the I a mob >, wheels t at all : near tlie uachinc, ility and hc'isand ugine. A Ltiivanco. ers, coni- •; and it not only ;ould pev- An ac- msclle, in Ix. Weld) on paper, liuned the is ailicle. echanical rer to tlie ould tlien ii period Ides behig tnt paper. jiiances in :;ively into 3ver, for a lecision of 1 calculated [is analogy their way be among Among tlie English and foreign inventors who have applied their inge- nuity in this channel, may be named jM. Colmar, a Director of the Sun Fire Office at I'aris, who has invented a calculating machine which he calls the Arithmometre. It has been invented more than thirty years, but there ap- pear to have been many iipn-ovements recently introduced in it. The claims put forth ibr the machine are these : — that provided a person knows the numerals, and follows the printed instructions, ho can work sums in ad- dition, subtraction, nmltiplication, division, and square root, without having learned those rules ; or tliat, if he knows them, he may work more quickly and more correctly with than without the apparatus. The machine is contained in an oblong box, from fomteen to twenty- two inches long, accord- ing to the extent of its powci-s. There are as many slides, each working in a groove, as there are j)laces of figures ; and each groove is numbered with ten figures, from to 9. There are as many rouncl holes, in a brass jilato, as there are possible places of figures in the result to be produced ; and be- neath each hole may appear any one of the ten luimerals. The machine is adjusted to any particular problem, or the " sum is set, " by moving some among the many slides ; to determine which of the slides, and how I'ar along the groove each shall be moved, depends on the tenns of the question ; these slides work npon certain wheels and levers underneath, which cause the propc" figures to make their appearance at the row of holes in the brass plate. There is another French machine, by M. Maurel, differing in the working details, but founded on the same principle of graduated sliding bars or rods. Baranowski \s Eeadi/ Bcckoncr, lately invented in America, is a nuich more simple machine tlian those for aritlimetical processes generally. It is intended for questions in which sums of money are concerned ; such as days' wages at so much per day, prices at so nuich per lb., or interest at so much per cent. Let us describe a wages machine. We see an upright box, with a handle at the bottom, rows of figures up tlie front, and a number of small slides moved by studs. Near the top, concealed within the box, is a paper on which rates of wages are printed, from Is. to i!is. per week ; tliere is a small opening in front of tins jiaper, and by turaing the hmidle any required rate of wages be- tween those limits is brought to the opening. Suppose it be ^4s. i)er week ; then " 24s." appears at the opening, and the machine is in a condition to show the amovmt of wages earned in any fractional number of days and hours, at that rate. Let it be four days, five hours ; we draw aside a little slide at " four days," and another at "five hours;' these reve>d openings, at which appear ]n'inted figures representing the sums of money to which tlie earnings amount. If the time were fom- days, five hom-s, and three quarters, three slides would have to be moved, three svmis would appear, and these three would have to be added. Whether time be saved \>y this mechanism is a question for each com- puter to decide for himself. Another application of the machine is for calcu- lating goods tolls at so much per ton ; the rate per ton appears at the top, while the tons, cwts. and lbs. ajipear at the sides, and the result is arrived at on the same principle as in the wages machine. It is obvious that the principle, if useful at all, is ca]iable of wide application. A\'hen w(^ hoar and rend of Polish Jews, we are apt to think rather of shrewd barterci's than of ingenious machinists; yet one of the articles deposited in the Kussian department at the Great Exhibition by a Jew of Warsaw, named Staffel, is a highly ingenious mechanical contrivance. It is a ma> hine for W ': U CALCULATING AND nEOlSTERlNG JFACHISKS. working sums in arithmetic, and is said to perform addition, subtraction, nniltiplication, and division, witli great quicluiess and unerring correctness ; it goes oven further thim this, for it can calculate powers, roots, and fractions. Externally the machine is small and rather plain, but its internal construction nuist necessarily he complex. It is an oblong brass box, about four inches high. On the upper face are the words " additio," " subtractio," " multiplicatio," " divisio," ranged in a semi-circle ; and to whichever of these an index is turned by a small handle, tlie machine is then in a state to perfonn that particidar rule or operation. \Ve see seven small holes, with moveable plates lieneath them, marked by numerals ; seven similar holes in the peripheries of Ht>ven little vertical wheels ; and tliirteen lumiber-holes, if we may so designate theni, in (mother piece of appaiatus. Each set of seven holes has a traversing movement, but the longer series is inmioveable. The principle of the opera- tion is somewhat as follows : — the two smaller frames are adjusted to the con- ditions of the (piestion, so as to represent two sums to be added or two to be nuiUii»lied, I'tc, and then, on turning a handle, the answer appears at the ihirttien holes of the otlier frame. Eveiy one of the twenty-seven holes has ten numerals (0 to U) belonging to it, and any one of these ten may appear at the opening, according to the adjustment for the solution of each question. The machine can multiply seven figures by seven tigm-es (or millions by millions), and can disjday analogous powera in tlie otlier arithmetical pro- cesses. There is one little feature in the machine just described which seems to approach nearer to the volition or judgment of an intelligent being than even till' ealculating itself. The machine corrects certain eiTors into Avhich the computer might himself inadvertently fall. For instance, if the machine is set to subtract a larger luimber from a smaller, or to divide a number by ano- ther larger tliiiii itself, the machine cannot and will not do it: it rings a bell, and then stops work. The mechanism by which this singidar result is brought about is small but intricate ; it shows, however, how many mental j)r()cesses may, to a certain extent, be imitated by wheels and levers. ])r. llotli's Aatoinntoii Calculator, introduced about ten years ago, has the same kind of assemblage of slides, studs, wheels, &c., as chai'acterise most of these contriviuices. In one of its forms it simply registers tire number of strokes or I'otations in a machine, but in its more complete shape it solves questions in addition, nudtiplication, &c. Analogous in character, too, though differing in details, is the Calculating Machine introduced to the notice of the British Association, in 1H49, by M. Slovinski, a Pole; it can perform multiplication sums up to millions nuUtiplied by niillions. Numbering and Registering Machines. The reader can hardly fail to perceive that there is a general family likeness among these various arithmetical and calculating machines, however they may (litter in d(;tails. Instead of further amplification on this point, therefore, we will talk awhile of another class of ingenious contrivances, wherein a principle of ret/idry is involved. By this principle a piece of apparatus not only per- forms its destined work, but presei'ves a record of the quantity of work done : it is an accountant as well as a workman. One of the French machines at tlie Great Exhibition is called the Timbre Ad'litioneur. It is intended for stainjjing, and numbering and registering the articles stamped. Different stamps or dies may be used in the same machine. U faction, ictness ; actions, tvuction es high, ihcatio," ndex is rm that le plates lieries of [esignate •avevsing le opera- the con- )r two to rs at the loles has xy appear question. ilUons hy tical pio- seems to than even kvhich the lachine is ler hy ano- (igs a hell, result is hy mental the same |t of these [strokes or lestions in fitfering in le British Itiplication likeness J they may Irefore, we principle only per- )rk done : llie Timbre tering the machine. CALCULATING AND REGISTERING MACHINES. 18 and exchanged at pleasure. It is intended for numbering and stamping such documents as bills, letters, share certificates, &c., and is designe^I for the use of bankers, railway companies, tlie Stamp and Post Ottices, and such like establishments. The machine, in its ordinaiy fonu, presents a flat table or stimd, with a vertical box at the back of it. Within this box are wheels acting one on another, and at the top are dials to indicate how many times tlie wheels have revolved. A lever projects from the front of the machine, to which is attached the die or stamp. A small inking table is provided ; and the lever has a range of movement given to it, which enables the die to be brought down first on the ink and then on the paper to be stamped. As many times as this movement occurs, so many are the revolutions or movements made by the wheel-work; and tlie index hands show this result on the dial faces. The machine seems to be capable of counting in many different ways, when the stamping part of the apparatus is removed and a few adjustments are made ; it may count the passengers through a turnstile, or the revolutions of a coach wheel, or the length of yam spun by a machine, or that of cloth woven by a loom, or the revolutions of a fly-wheel or of a water-wheel. Many a curious loiot of persons, who have assembled round tlie Paging jMachine at the Exhibition, have there had an opportunity of witnessing an analogous principle at work. There is a handle or lever, an inking apparatus, and a train of wheels with raised numbers on their edges. When the lever is pressed down, one of the numbers comes in contact with the ink, and then with the paper ; and on raising the lexer-handle tiie number-wheels are moved round a small space, so as to present a new number for the next inking and printing process. The variations of this exceedingly pretty operation ai'e numerous. M. Baranowski's ticket-printing, nmnbering, and registering machine, is a contrivance displaying considerable ingenuity — much more so than his Ready Keckoner. A number of blank cards are placed in the upper part of the machine ; a handle is turned, and forthwith the cards make their aj^pearance, one by one, at the bottom of the machine — ptiitted from an adopted fonn, numbered from 1 to 2()()() or more, consecutively, and leaving a reifistry as they quit the machine. This, it is said by the inventor, can be done at the rate of 5000 per hour. The printing may be in one or two colours, and may be quickly adjusted to any desired form. All this is effected by a machine com- prised within the limits of twelve inches long, nine wide, and eight high. The mechanism displays much cleverness. The types are arranged on the cir- cvunference of small wheels, placed vertically ; and on pressing down the frame which contains the wheels, by a sort of piston or plug, the types come in con- tact with paper or pasteboard placed beneath; but before doing so, the movement causes a tiny inking roller to work quickly over tlie face of the types, and thus enable them to print their impress in black ink. If this were all, eveiy ticket would be printed exactly alike ; but by means of cogs and notches, and ratchets, tho type-wheels make part of a revolution after oacli impression, so as to i)resent a new figure for the next movement. If the tickets are printed in two colours, there must be two inking rollers, one for each. So nuich nicety is there in the mechanism, tliat each machine, small as it is, costs about a hmidred guineas. Another apparatus of somewhat analogous character, is Edmondson's Rail- way Ticket Machine, extensively used by railway companies. It consists of a series of wheels, together witli a stamping and cutting instniment. The pasteboard material is introduced ; it is cut, printed, nimibered, dated, regis- 11 CAl.CULATINO AND HEOISTEItlNG MACHINKS. 'I tered, panketl, and Hoitod, with wnrprisiijfjf quicknoss and acnniary — indnrd it lUHiit be ac(!unite ; for such a machine could not act at all unlcsH its various niovonients succeeded ouch other in proper order. The same general principle lies at the root of many instnnnents patented or introduced within the last few years. Thus, INIr. Jj(!wthwaite's machine, invented in 18 47, and intended for numbering railway or pawnbrokers' tickets, or paging books, or for ))rinting any consecutive series of luunbers, has its type-wheels and driving-wheels, its levers and studs, and other (iomplex me- chanism ; but there is still the movement of a wheel one-tenth of a revolution after each |)ressure, and other wheels which revolve each one-tenth as fast as its neighbour. A wider extension is given to the use of such machines when they are individually simpler in action : that is, they are applicable to a greater number of |»uri)oses. Suppose, for instance, it be merely to record the ntmiber of times that a certain oi)eration is conducted, without any printing or stamping ]n'o- cess, wo have at once an instiuice in a contrivance for which Mr. Whithn obtained u patent a year or two ago. It comjjrises toothed-wheels, ratchets and ratchet-wheels, a dial plate, and index hands ; and it is in- tended to be ai)plied to the trap-door of a sliip's coal-weighing machine, to register the number of times that the door of the shoot has been opened for the discharge of coals. Supposing the ap])avatus to be elfective, a slight modilication would enable it to register the tilling of measures of grain, or the number of times that a porter or can'ier has crossed a i)lank with goods. It may very safely be doubted whether anything so delicate as galvanie ap- paratus would bear the rough usage of onniibiises and cabs ; otherwise tlie thaonj of Mr. Pownall's " I'atent llegister" may be sound enough. The ol)- ject of the apparatus is to place a check upon money-takers in public vehicles, or at the entrance of theatres, bridges, piers, and public gardens. As ap- plied to an onniibus, a small galvanic battery and a registering apparatus are placed under the Hoor of the carriage ; every time a i)erson treads upon the step, a galvanie circuit is established with the battei-y ; and, by a train f wheel- work, an index wheel is made to revolve to the extent of one tooth or notch. By this means, as many notches are traversed as there have been persons enter the onniibus ; or rather, as the exit as well as the entrance of a passenger marks one notch, the actual number is doubled. There is a num- bering dial, on which tui index hand shows the result. Wliether a pair of omnibus servants could " drive a coach and six we would not venture to predict. ^Ir. Walker's Operamcter, invented several years ago, was intended by him to measure or register the amount of work performefl by certain machines in the woollen manufacture. The apparatus had a shaft which could be con- nected with the gig-mill, the shearing machine, or other machines employed in that department of industiy ; this shaft necessarily rotated as fast as the machine to which it was applied ; and the shaft gave motion to a train of wheel- work, with a dial face and index hands to denote the number of revolutions made in a gi^'en time. The index hand thus became a measure and recorder of the amount of work done. To register the height of the tide at tidal harboin-s is also among the valuable senices which self-acting tell-tnle machines are fitted to render. Let us take the Sunderlimd Tide Gauge as an example. Here there is a vertical tube into which tlie water rises to a height depending on the through such a contrivance OALCDI.ATING AND HK0I8TEUTNG MAf IIINES. 15 lep(i it various [itentcd livchine. tickets, has its )lex nw- volution s last as Lhoy arc immbev of times ping pvo- . ^Vhirtin (l-wlieels. it is in- niachine, ;n openeil e, a slight :' grain, or lank with alvaniu ap- lerwise tlie The ol)- ic vehicles, As ap- iiavatus are upon the f wheel- ^e looth or have been ■vance of a is a nuni- a pair of !ontrivanco, lied by hiin Irachines in hid be con- Is employed Hast as the Lin of wheel- revolutions Lnd recorder among the to render. le there is a ling on the height of the tide. On the smfiu'o of this cohnnn ot wator is a light lloat, which rises and sinks with it ; a coppt-r wire from the float rises upward to a ti'uin of wheels and rollers, which rohite in one or other direction, according as the rioat rises or sinks. From one roller to another passes a web of wire gauge, on which are printed in large characters the various depths from high to low water; and two lixcul pointers or hands also sliow the nund)er of feet and half-feet of depth of water, at any hour of the tide, on the bar at tho entnuK'e of Sunderland Harbour. There are thus renderetl visible, to thoso most nearly concerned, and at all hours, the height of tho tide and the d(!pth of water on the bar. But this instruinent leaves no |)eniuuient record behind : it uulkates but does not irtjistcr. 'i'heit,' are (jther tidal-gauges, however, which roider this furtlicr service. The construction of such instruments is sonie- w'.iat as follows: — We will inuvginc there ai'e the tube, the risiiig and fallhig cclumu of water in the tube, and tho float on the surface of th(! watei' ; we must also siippose there is a cylinder, having regular motion given to it by clock-work, and having its surface covered with papir nded in a jiarticular fashion. There is a wire extending from tho lloat to a rack which holds a pencil; and this pencil presses against the paper. Now the result of tins arrangement is, that the pencil niuiks a line roitinl the cylinder as the latter )'ev(dves, and alonij the cylinder as the tide rises or falls ; so that tho exact height at every and any i)eriod of time is permanently registered. Tho registering metetn'ological and pliilosoi)hical instruments have now become a very numerous and varied class. Th(^y i)ut in a permanent foi-m tlio record of the information which they convey. Heat, moisture, baro- metrical pressure, rain, wind — all now register the times and (piantities of their occurrence. Let us illustrate this by one e\ami)le. I\Ir. David Napier paten,. I an ingenious barometer in IHiH, intended to mark the variation of atmospheric pressure throughout an entire period of twenty- ff)ur hours. C'onnectetl with the baronu 't-r tube i> a vertical spindle, which carries a card having on its surface a number of radial hues and concentric circles ; the radial lines represent fracti'iis of inches, and the concentiic circles represent portions of time. Above tl, ard is a 1< ^er carrying a vertical pricker, which is made to rise and fall at rtain regular intervals of time, and to travel i'rom tlie inner concentric circb to the outer one once iii twcnty-fovu" hours. On tho vt itical spindle, and uudennath the i-ard, is lastened a grooved wheel, romid which is passed a cord; a count* rbalancc weight is attached to one end of the cord, while the other end is made fast to a llout resting upon a colunni of mercury in a nbc. The card has a I \ed point representing •i'Ju inches, which, at commencement, is placed uuderncath the pricker. As the column of mercury rise's or falls by the viuying j)ressure of the atmosphere, the printed card will travel to tlie left or the right accordingly ; ami t!ie variation of height will be indicated by the distance of tlie punctured lines from the starting point, on either side. PiF.GisTRY Of Time, Space, and Si'ked. • Many curious varieties, in the machines which register or tell their o\\n tale, ai'e prescmod by those whose duties are related more or less to time, space, and sjjeed. In one case it is tlie speed of a pedestrian, in another that of a caniage. in a third that of a locomotive ; a fourth attends rather to the total distance travelled, than to the rate of progi-ess ; while another kind registers the time which has elapsed between two events, without attending IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) k // ^/ ^ ^"^^ A d L 1.0 1.1 1.25 Ui|2<8 |2.5 ■ 50 '"^" ■■■ ^ 1^ 12.2 m m WUt. IIIIIM 1.4 1.6 V] yl A^^ ?!'/ '^F Photographic Sdences Corporation V V 4 \. '^ \ \ :t wst main strebt WEB^f^:^, N Y. USSO (716) 872-4503 6^ . r •r^vTsw^^-^^' «RW"«™TS»-flW* I 16 CALCULATING AND REGISTERING MACHINES. either to space or_ to speed. A few examples, taken at random, will illus- trate tlie sort of machines here kept in ^aew. Travellers ai-e from time to time reminded in the usual sources of inform- ation of the merits and uses of " Payne's Pedometer, for the waistcoat pocket." It is a small but ingenious distance measuring and registering machine, about the size and shape of a watch. The action is very peculiai-. Eveiy one knows that each step of a pedestrian, or of a horse jogging at regular speed, is accompanied by a sudden jerk, or sinking; and it is the series of these jerks which the machine registers. There is a small lever, with a pivot at one end and a weight at the other ; this is so nearly balanced, that tlie slightest movement causes it to sink, and the steps of the pedestrian thus keep the lever in regular and steady oscillation. There is a small assemblage of wheels, pinions, and dials, by which the number of oscillations is registered; and this number multiplied by the lengtli of pace, or step, gives the total distance walked over in a given time. By a little ingenious adjustment, the instrument is rendered applicable to carriage travelling. The somewhat too learned names of centimetral chronwneter, and velo- cmtimeter, are given by Mr. Whishaw to an apparatus recently invented by him. The velocity with which a railway train is moving is tlae element to be deteraained by this machine. There iS a dial-face connected with a clock, and a ring surrounding the dial ; this ring is graduated to quarters of a mile if for use in England, or to some aliquot pai-t of a kilometre if for use in France. The zero mark on the ring is brought opposite to the index-hand on tlie dial, at the commencement of the period dm'ing which the velocity is to be determined, which should be when the train is opposite one of the mile-posts ; then, on arrival at the next post (on English railways these posts are a quarter of a mile apart), the index hand and the zero point will be found to have separated, and the amount of this sepai'ation furnishes the means of deteiinining the velocity of the ti*ain. Belonging to the same family of machines, though produced in a different country, is M. Redier's horogmphe. Whetlier this appai'atus has been brought into practical use on the French railways, we do not know, but tlie inventor seems to have aimed at a veiy complete range of registry movements. The object is, to trace the progi'ess of a railway train throughout its whole course. There is one machine which tests the speed of tlie locomotive. Let the engineer detennine the speed, the number of miles or kilometres per hour, at which the locomotive is intended to travel : he puts a stud into one of eleven holes, which are marked from twenty to two hundred and forty turns of the diT.mg wheel per minute, and he thus notifies one of eleven different rates of speed. If the required speed is kept up, an index hand maintains a vertical position ; if the speed is too gi-eat, the index tm-ns to the right ; if too slow, a reverse movement takes place. There is another apparatus which prints on a sheet of paper the exact time of arrival at each station. France has also produced an ingenious machine, by a different inventor, we believe, which is busily employed while tlie train is in motion. A sheet of paper is placed in an oblong box ; and on this paper is indicated once a minute, and also at the completion of each kilometre, the speed and the distance travelled; it also shows the time of arrival, and t^^e duration of stoppage at each station. In one sense almanac clocks may be included among registering machines. By these we mean those complicated watches, clocks, and chronometers which indicate so many astronomical phenomena. For many centuries, and in many countries, these specimens of ingenuity have been produced. They are CALCULATINO AND REGISTEniNG MACHINES. 17 .1 illus- inform- listcoat istering eculiar. ging at t is the II lever, alanced, destrian a small illations or step, agenious md velo- ented by ement to 1 a clock, of a mile ar use in idex-hand i'clocity is ne of the lese posts r\t will be lishes the different n brought inventor ts. The e coui'se. Let the hour, at of eleven ms of the [it rates of a vertical too slow, prints on has also , which is is placed id also at Lvelled; it station, machines. ■ers which [d in many They are mostly, however, little more than toys, for the slightest derangement (and derangement is veiy likely to occur among such small and intricate mecha- nism) will affect all the phenomena at once ; and eclipses will fail to appear (as eclipses ai'e wont to fail in cloudy weather) at the proper time. It is impossible to walk through our Great Exhibition wiUiout meeting with numerous specimens of this class — chiefly in the French clock department. One of the prettiest examples is a chronometer about three inches in diameter, the face of which contains dicds enough to indicate twelve different phe- nomena respecting seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, sun-rise, moon's age, moon's phases, &c. The Liverpool Alhmt announced a few months ago, that Dr. (lenderson of that town had been engaged, since 1844, in produchig a chi'onometer which would excel eveiything of the kind ever made. If the announce- ment be one half time Uie instrument will be indeed a man'el, and society will be eager to welcome it when finished. According to this account, the clock will show the minutes and hours of the day; the sun's place in the ecliptic ; the day of the month perpetually, and take*leap-year into account ; the moon's age, place, and phases; tlie apparent diurnal revolution of the moon ; the ebb and flow of the sea at any port m the world ; the golden number, epact, solar cycle, Roman indiction, Sunday letter, and Julian period ; the mean time of tlie rising and setting of the sun on eveiy day of the year, with its terms, and fixed and moveable feasts. The day of tlie week will also be indicated, and the year will be registered for 10,000 yeai-s past or to come. The quickest moving wheel will revolve in one minute, the slowest in 10,000 years. Furthennore we are told that tliere are 170 wheels and pinions, and that the machine will go 100 yeai-s without winding up. Mr. Carey's measuring machine is one among numerous examples of this kind. It is intended to record the number of revolutions made by the wheel of a cannage. The apparatus is very small, and is buckled by straps to one of the spokes of the wheel near the nave ; it of coui-se follows the curved coui*se of the part of the wheel to which it is attached ; and once in each revolution it causes a wheel to be advanced one tooth ; so that the number of teeth ad- vanced determines tlie number of revolutions made by tlie wheel. It was a contrivance something like this in principle, though differing in details, which James Watt devised for registering the number of strokes of a steam-engine. The turnstiles at the Ciystal Palace, at the ends of toll-paying bridges, and at tlie entrances of many public buildings and exhibitions, are excellent examples of registering apparatus. The older method of testing the honesty of money-takers was by issuing tickets or checks, the return of which would show how much money had been received ; this plan is still adopted at the theatres ; it requires two senants instead of one, and is not proof against collusion. Now, in the mechanical turnstile, the instiniment preserves a record of the number of times it has turned on its axis ; and the money-taker must be prepared to account for a sum of money coiTesponding to the number. Some of the precautions protect the money-taker against the public, while some protect the proprietors against the money-taker. In the first place, there is a vertical framing, capable of rotating <iits itself out at sun-rise, or some desired period neai- it, by the exliaustion of its supply of gas ; and the quantity of this supply IS determined by the extent to which the gas-cock is opened, this extent being itself governed by the works of the clock. It would take us beyond die scope of tlie present subject to dilate upon the contrivances for teaching tlie blind to read, cipher, &c.; but there has been sent to the Great Kxliibition a machine by M. Foucault, himself a blind man, which has a peculiar registering power and is exceedingly ingenious. A blind man is enabled to write his thoughts by this contrivance, even though he may never have learned to form a letter : hejmnts instead of writes. Tliis machine exhibits thirty or forty vertical bmss rods, ranged in two rows. At the top of each rod is engraved, in bold relief, a letter of the alphabet, or a grammatical stop or sign ; and at the bottom is a con-esponding letter, stop, or sign, foniied of ordinary type. A piece of blackened paper, with white paper beneath it, is placed underneath the rods, and on the pressure of any rod a black type- printed mai'k appears on tlie white paper. But to make the arrangement available for successive lines of writing, contrivances of a most ingenious character are introduced. Although we have spoken of the rods as being vortical, the lower ends converge so that till the types make their impression at one point ; and if the paper were not moveable, the impressions would be superimposed on that point ; but the paper has a slow lateral movement for successive letters and words in one line, and a vertical movement for succes- sive lines in the page. Suppose the poor blind student wish to write or im- jirint the word " France," he presses Avitli his fingers on the six coiTesponding rods, which bring tlie six types in proper order on the paper ; they all converge to the same point, but as the paper has a gentle side movement after each contact, the blackened type impressions assume the proper order for forming the word. One of the oddest calculating or registering machines (if we may so desig- nate it) is, perhaps, Mr. Clark's Eureka, which was tlie subject of much news- paper gossip hall" a dozen years ago, It niultii)liod Latin words into hex- r ■M^ ^■■P«i 94 CALCULATING AND REGISTERING MACHINES. y • : ameters, instead of single numerals into larger quantities. Mr. Clai'k's machine, so far as it could produce hexameters at all, produced them all after one unifonn type. Each of his lines consisted of six words, one to each foot ; in each line the first word was an adjective of tliree syllables, the second a noun of two syllables, Uie foux'th a verb of three syllables, and so on. All tlie six words agi'eed in gender, number, person, and case, so as to form collectively a sentence; and all the lines were analogous in structure. It seems, so far as the constmction of the machine has been described, us if these words were ti'eated as so many dice or dominoes, or ratlier as so many tickets in a lotteiy. Put in, we will say, half a dozen adjectives of similar grammatical fonn, half a dozen nouns, half a dozen verbs, and so forth ; then turn the handle, or rattle the box, or go tlirough tlie necessary hocus-pocus ; lastly, draw out an adjective, tlien a substantive, then one of each of the other four kinds of words ; and these six, placed in line in certain order, would fonn a correct hexameter. We do not present this as the actual process, but merely as a means of showing how, by pi .mutations among a definite number of words, many times that number of hexameter lines may be produced. The common rule of permutation shows us that, even with only six words of each kind, neai'ly two hundred changes may ,be produced without departing from the hexameter form ; and if the numbers are gi'eater, the changes may bo made almost inexhaustible. It is in this sense that the machine may be said to manufactm'e verses in any desired quantity. Mr. Clark, describing his ma- chine in the pages of the AthmtBum, said tliat it is " neither more nor less than a practical illustration of tlie law of evolution The machine contains letters in alphabetical arrangement ; out of these, through tlie mo- diuni of numbers, rendered tangible by being expressed by indentures on wheel work, tlie instrument selects such as ai'e requisite to form the verso conceived ; the components of words united to form hexameters being alone previously calculated, the harmonious combination of which will be found to be practically intenniriaBle." The metal-working processes, by which all tlie machines noticed in this sheet have been produced, do not need special description. The fashioning of wheels, pinions, levers, and other delicate bits of mechanism, comes witliin the ordinaiy labours of the machinist and the clock-maker. It is to tlie mental power exhibited in the inventions, and to the imitation of mental power displayed in the action of tlie machines themselves, that the reader's attention is here directed i I I I i 1 r. Clfti-k's thorn all \e to each lio second id so on. so as to structure, ibed, as if 3 so many of similar orth; then cus-pocus ; f th« other der, would irocess, but ite number uced. The rds of each u-ting from ges may bo may be said ling his ma- )re nor less 'he machine igh the me- dentures on tn the verso being alone be found to iced in this jashioning of fomes witliiii .t is to tlic iiental power >r's attention INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICITY. If any matter-of-fact man should ask (as matter-of-fact men do sometimes ask) what is the use of science ? — ^we might point, among other things, to tlie wonderful history of electricity during tlie last quarter of a century. We might bid him seek for an answer in the telegraphs which now waft mtel- ligence from one end of Europe to another; in the clocks which now go without springs or weights ; in the rich metal gilding which dispenses with the unhealthy fumes of mercury ; in th« fine-art productions now copied witli such marvellous quickness, neatness, and cheapness; in the engineering operations whei'oby electricity blasts acres of rock at once ; in tlie curative influence of this agent on ihc animal .system. All these, and very many othere, are testimonies of the good which science has rendered to man. For it must be remembered that the principles of science requii*e a long elabora- tion and process of development, before practical applications can be looked for ; and these elaborations and developments depend on students who work silently in their laboratories and closets, too often uncared for and unrewarded by Uie world. It is tlie same everywhere and at all times. The man of science is laying the gi'oundwork for tlie artizan, though the latter is not always aware how large is tlie service thus rendered. The reciprocal aids ren- dered between Science and Inuustry ought never to be lost sight of, any more than those between Fine Art and Industiy ; all three work hand in liand, each one gaining stx-ength hi return for the strengtli which it imparts to the otliers. Let us glance at a few of the " Curiosities " presented by tlie modem ap- plications of electric power to useful and ornamental puiposes. Thi3 Electbic Telegraph and its Marvels. Who was tlie happy suggestor of tlie electric telegraph? To this day it is a disputed point ; and it is likely to remain so : for modest hints as to Uie power of commmiicating signals by this agency may have been thrown out before any fonnal proposals for tliat purpose were made public. Many slight suggestions, experiments, and contrivances, having some such object as this in view, were made in times long gone by ; but it was about fourteen years ago that its practicability as a system was made apparent. To the little Blackwall Railway is due the honour of being the scene of this manifestation, so far as England is concerned. At tlie time that Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke patented their electric telegraph, in 1837, this railway was being constructed ; and the peculiar system of rope-traction, adopted for the accommodation of intemiediate stations, rendered some efficient tele- graphic system necessary. The new agent, electi'o-telegraphy, was employed ; and most admirably did it do its work. It kept up a conimimication between G TT M I '' ft INDUSTlllAL Arri.IOATlONa OF KT-ECTUICITY. tho two termini and half a dozen intcrmediato stations, and provided for the transmission of signals from every station to every other, at intei-vals of a (quarter of an hour throughout the day. Tho rope has died a natural death, and given way to locomotives ; hut tlie telegraph has gone on increasing in impoitanco year by yeai'. The same inventors who introduced the first telegraph have improved it by subsequent patents, and have (among otlier things) devised a mode by which it may print its o>vn indications. In the mean time foreign nations were not blind to tlie wonders thus gradually developed ; Professor Morse in America, and Dr. Steinheil and otliers in Germany, devised foims of electric telegraphs in which much novelty and ingenuity were displayed. The first experimenters employed a return wire to complete the galvanic circuit ; but it has since been found that this may be dispensed with. In 184!i Mr. Bain conducted an experiment at the Sei-pentine, in which he made tho water itself perform tlie part of tho return wire. Professor Wheatstone, about tlie same time, laid down a telegraphic wire from King's College to the shot tower nearly opposite, and completed the circuit by the water of the Thames. Long before tlie Electric Telegraph Company was established, public atten- tion had been attracted to the marvels attained in quick communication of in- telligence. The Queen's speech was printed at Southampton within two houra after its delivery in London ; the substance of it having been trans- mitted letter by letter. A murderer, whose crime had been committed at Salt Hill, was captured in a railway can-iage at Paddington, the news of his crime having travelled quicker tlian even railway ti-avelling could carry him ; the dread messenger, witli lightning speed, passed silently through the wire sus- pended near him, and overtook him in his attempted escape from justice. Games of chess were played by persons a hundred miles apait : each move being signalled by Uie telegi'aph. A deserter from the United States anny, who had doubled his offence by robbery, was captured in a similar way on the Washington and Baltimore Eailway. A physician at Lockport corresponded by similar agency with a patient at Bufl'alo, many miles distant; die one transmitt tig an accormt of his symptoms, the other forwarding his advice and prescription. But tlie oddest of all was a maii-iage ceremony, performed be- tween a bridegroom at New York and a bride at Boston ; the questions and an- swers and declarations and pledges being ti-ansmitted per telegraph: the match being a stolen one, however, tlie validity of the ceremony was afterwards disputed in a court of law. Dr. Steinheil, Professor Morse, and Mr. Davy, all contrived electric tele- graphs which would write or print tlieir own indications, and this even very early in the history of the ai't. But from various practical difficulties, tlie registering apparatus has not been so much employed as was at first antici- pated. Professor Morse made his instrument write with a pencil, in arbitrary characters fonned of lines and angles ; but in a later modification, the charac- ters were made by indentations on the paper with a blunt instrument. Mr. Davy contrived to produce a series of blue lines on white paper, as a set of symbols. It would be no easy matter to trace the rapid succession of improvements and novelties in this wonderful apparatus. The wits of men were sharpened both by the beauty and the value of this new intermedium of thought ; and we find a continued stream of inventions, some patented and some not. Mr. Wheatstone patented a third modification in 1840, supplemental to those of 1837 and 1838. In 1841 Mr. Bain brought forward his electric telegraph, for the vals of ft al death, casing ill >ved it by by which were not America, elugrapha ) galvanic In 184!i made tlio one, about ,0 the shot • Thames, iblic atten- ition of in- within two been trans- ited at Salt [ his crime f him; the e wire sus- om justice. each move tates anny, way on the )rresponded it; the one advice and rformed bc- jns and an- graph: the afterwards llectric tele- even very lenities, tlie first antici- tn arbitrary [the charac- lent. Mr. IS a set of Iprovements sharpened If thought; some not. Ital to those telegraph, INDUSTniAI, APri.lCATlOX J OF ELErTKICtTT . t with a nrinting appamttis for recording the results by ordinary inkod types; and in 1843 ho appliod various modifications to the system. In |Hi:i Mr. Cooke introduced the mode of suspendhig the wires on posts, which has since been so generally adopted on English railways. A year or two after this, Mr. IBain devised a new fonn of registering or writing telegraph, in which the written copy produced at one end of the wire is an exact counterpart or facsimile of tliat transmitted from the other. Then came various imi>rovements by Messrs. Brett and Little, in almost every part of the apparatus ; by Messrs. Henley and Forster, in the details of the magnetic machhie; by Mr. Ricardo (Chairman of the Electric Telegi'aph Company), in the mode of insulating and suspending the wires ; by Mr. Swan, in the acid liquid employed in the batteries; by Dr. Bachoffner, cb.iefly in the indications by means of a dial; by 'Mr. Bakcwell, in hi;^ very ingenious transmitting apparatus; by Mr. Hoc, in the mode of using metallic types; by Mr. Bain, again (who, in 1849, attained the means of printing one thousand letters per minute by his electric telegraph); by M. Dujardin, in the chemical printing an-angements ; by M. Pulvcnnacl;. i\ in various pr.rts of the appa- ratus; by Mr. Highton, vho sketched a muliiplicity of minor changes; by Messrs. Brown luid Williams, in the adjustment of the electro-magnetic machine; by Mr. Siemens, in the mechanical details of the magnets and the printing types — indeed, considering the expense of a patent, it is as- tonishing what a number have been taken out on this subject ; for most of the above lists are patented, and only a few out of the nuuiber are likely to bring golden results to the patentees. The Electi'ic Telegraph Comptmy, mentioned in the preceding paragrajjh, was formed in 1810. It has purchased most of the patents of Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke, and of Mr. Bain ; and is up to the present time the only body by whom el ctric telegi'aphy has been carried on to any great extent in this countiy. The central office is in Lothbury, from which point wires extend to the various metropolitan railway teraiini, and from those ter- mini the wires ramify to almost eveiy part of England and Scotland wherever a railway exists, always excepting the mighty " brd gauge," which seems to have a will and a way of its own in everytliing, nnd to distrust imitation of its naiTow gauge neighbours. The broad gauge is, however, at length yielding to the electric pressure from without ; for orders have lately been issued for laying down the telegraph on tliat important system of railways. As for the modus operandi at the various telegraph officeSj most persons have seen, or heard, or read something concerning it. A person takes a written message to the office; it is dissected into letters, and transmitted piecemeal; it is received at the other end of Uie wire, and is built up again into the form of a message; and this message is conveyed to the required quarter, (ienerally spealiing, the messages relate to matters of business, making enquiries, transmitting news, &c. ; but they may obviously relate to other matters. A few weeks ago, a militaiy officer had to attend a royal banquet in London; he came from the north, per railway, but found that he had left his regimentals behind him ; he was for hastening back at e.vpress speed to fetch the indispensable symbols of his rank, but was told that wi electric message would save him all the labour, half the time, and nearly all the expense; and the glittering attire was sent up to him by the next train. The Telegraph Company, after an existence of fourteen years, has recently applied for an extension of the monopoly rights, on the ground of the large sums paid in pm-chase of patents. But this application has been refused, and G 2 \\ i INDUSTRIAli API'LICATIONS OE ELECTKIUITy. a new company established by Act of Parliament. Hostilities have not yet actually commenced between the rival powers, but it is pretty sm-e to ai-ise ere long. The directors state that sufficient capital has been provided by shai'eholders to construct a thousand miles of telegi'aph on tlie new system, which is said by its advocates (as advocates always say) to be much superior to the old. Negotiations are on foot with the various railway companies; each telegraph company seeking to outbid the other in offers made for tlie use of tlie railway lines : the profits to be derived from letting out the use of the telegi'aph for commercial puiposes. If this competition do not degenerate into recklessness, there may be enough financial success for both, and the public may be well served; but the difficulty consists in maintaining the distinction between wholesome and imwholesome competition. But the attbmariiie telegraph is that which now most rivets public attention : It is so marvellous, and will be of such incalculable advantage if successful. Where and when the subject was first broached we do not know, but in 1844 a Jersey newspaper threw out a suggestion that a submarine telegraph might possibly be laid down from that island to Southampton. In 1845 an Ame- rican newspaper — the country for daring "go-ahead" journals — gave a string of calculations to show Uiat an ocean telegi-aph from England to America was practicable. This was a matter in which the Admu-alty felt an interest ; and partly for their imme(".ate uses, pai-tly to test the larger project, they caused a submarine telegraph to be laid down from Gosport to Portsmouth, across Portsmouth Harbour. The perfect success of tliis project made a great im- pression on the public mind ; and hence projectors became abundant — Dover to Calais, Holyhead to Dublin, Marseilles to Algeria, England to America — nothing came ainiss to these oceanic telegraphers. In the beginning of 1849 the Elecjtric Telegraph Company laid down wires from their office at Hull to Uie new railway station, and passed it at a depth of twenty feet beneatli the water tlirough one of the docks ; this was a submarine (or at least subaqueous) telegi'aph on a small scale, and succeeded perfectly well. A "Dublin and Holyhead Submai-ine Electric Telegraph Company" was projected and ad- vertised in tlie same year ; but shareholders do not appear to have been forth- coming. In the same year, also, the French Cs^t^ernment granted a privilege to Mr. Jacob Brett to lay down a submarine telegraph from France to Eng- land : the Government to derive certain advantages from it, and the contractor to have the commercial monopoly of tlie system for ten years. One of the conditions of the contract is said to have been, that by tlie aid of a single wire, and of an obsei-ver on each shore, tlie apparatus should be capable of printing on paper, in clear lloman type, 100 messages of 15 words each, in 100 con- secutive minutes. It was a day to be remembei'ed, when this thread of tliought (if it may so be teiTned) was first stretched across the Channel from England to France. On the 28tli of August, 1850, tliis was actually effected; and although circum- stances have retarded the completion of the system, the soundness of the principle was abundantly tested. The wire employed was of copper, encased in gutta percha ; about thirty miles of such wire was coiled round a large cylinder in the steamer Goliath. One end of tbe wire being secured on shore at Dover, the steamer slowly voyaged across the Channel to Cape Grisnez, a point on the French coast midway between Calais and Boulogne ; the wire uncoiled as the vessel proceeded, and sank to the bottom of the sea, where it was kept down by leaden weights placed at intei-vals. Onward Uie steamer proceeded, while those on boai'd kept up a fiio of telegraphic (piestions and answei-s with m in It dicta creep anoth such more, comn across may t INDUSTRIAL APPUCATIONS OF ELECTRICITY. aot yet o arise ded by system, luperiov ipanies ; for the e use of generate and the xing the Ltention : iccessful. t in 1844 )h might an Ame- ! a string terica was rest; and ' caused a th, across great im- [\t— Dover /^ erica — ig of 1849 at Hull to eneatli the ibaqueous) )uhlin and id and ad- been forth- a privilege ce to Eng- I contractor One of the single wire, of printing tn 100 con- t may so be ranee. On igh circuni- ness of the )er, encased and a large . on shore at pez, a point ire uncoiled it was kept proceeded, .nswers >vitli khe friends left behind at Dover ; a strange defiance of distance and of waves ! At length the vessel reached the French coast, and the line was carried up a cliff, where it was placed in connection with a battery. Complimentary mes- sages were then transmitted between England and France; and thus was achieved one of the greatest triumphs of science in its applications to tlie wants of society. It is true that the wire was broken by an accident within a week afterwards ; it is true that a whole year has not sufficed to re-establish the system on an endm-ing basis ; and it is also true that tlie arrangement now in progress involves veiy foiinidable augmentations to the weight and costliness of the apparatus employed ; but it cannot be doubted Uiat the gi'eat difficulty has been sumiomited : tiie principle and the leading pi-actical details are sound ; and engineei-s are not the men to be beaten by such difficulties as those which yet remain. A comjiany of capitalists has, we believe, been foimed for carrying out the project, and tlie wires have recently been completed. They consist of copper wires, each imbedded in gutta percha, and the whole then inclosed in an iron wire cable. The whole apparatus is of immense weight, and is (at the time tliis sheet is being printed) about being taken out to sea. To lay this ponderous mass down from shore to shore will be an operation likely to tax all tlie skill of the engineers. In the beginning of 1851 a paragraph appeared in Oalujnani, which seems to show that Mr. Bain's system is working more energetically in tliat country than our English system. The French Government, preparatoiy to pm'chasing Mr. Bain's rights so fai' as regards that countiy, caused a trial to be made on the Paris and Tours Railway. "A signal was made from tlie ministiy to Tours, desiring that a despatch might be forwarded to Paris. This conimu- nication, and the answer from Tours, a distance of about 180 English miles, aunouncmg that a despatch would be sent immediately, took one minute and a quarter. A long despatch, containing 466 words, equal to about fifty lines in the ordinaiy print of a newspaper, was then received. The time occupied in the transmission of this long despatch was only two minutes and a quarter. It was read off by one of the assistants, and ^vl•itten down by another at his dictation, in thirteen minutes. The signs were read with tlie same facility and rapidity as another person would read the ordinary print of a book." Unless some error has crept in here, such a perfonnance is most marvellous. Great as may be deemed the length of electric telegi'aph in England (for it is adopted on most of the naiTow-gauge railways), it is wholly Uirown into the shade by that of the United States, where it is measured by thousands of miles ; some on Morse's system, some on that of Bain. Even Mexico, poor shattered Mexico, has spirit enough to have lately commenced a line of telegraph from the Capital to Vera Cruz on the one side, and to Acapulco on tlie other; thereby stretching a wire across the country from ocean to ocean, British America, too, is rapidly nmning a line from Montreal to Halifax. On the continent of Europe, Siemens and Halske's system is adopted in the greater pait of Germany ; it combines a ^vl•iting and printing power with tliat of telegraphing, exhibiting gi'eat ingenuity. In Austria, where the railways ai'o creeping towards the Adriatic in one direction, and towards eastern Europe in anoUier, the electric telegraph appears as their companion; and so it is in such other parts of Europe as have begun to adopt the railway system ; uay more, telegraphs are, in some continental countries, laid down beneath the common roads without waiting for railways. Thus it proceeds, step by step, across Europe. Lord Pahnerston made a pleasant prediction, or a joke which may turn out to be a prediction, at a public dinner at Southampton, where he il..l.-.J«JiliV I . \ I b 1 ( INDUSmiAL APl'LICATIONS 01. F.I.KCTniClTY. said that the day may come when, if the minister were asked in the House of Commons whether war had broken out in India, ho might anawer, " Wait a minute ; I will telegraph the governor-general, and ascertaui." Elecihio Bells and Eleotiuc Clocks. A sister invention to the Electric Telegraph now presents itself to our notice, in the very remarkable clocks Avhich derive their characteristic features from this wonderful but invisible agent. Clocks and bells have been subsidiary adjuncts to many electro- telegraphic contrivances. Bells were introduced some years ago, in certain public establishments, coiuiected with the apparatus on Professor Wheatstone's principle. A single small battery, or small magnetic arrangement, is sufficient to ring all the bells of a large establishment, by con- ducting a smtdl wire from the machine to the bell. A touch instead of a pull suffices to ring a bell so arranged. The electric clock is not, as some suppose, a clock in which electricity replaces wheelwork and pendulums : it is not so entirely magical. What it will really effect is this — if one clock be going correctly, any number of other clocks may be made to borrow their indications from it, with very little other mechanism tlian hands and a dial. It is not so much a production as a trans- ference of time-measui'ing indications. In Mr. Wheatstone's first electric clock, for instance, shown in action to the Royal Society in 1840, there was ii primary clock with a few extra adjustments, a galvanic battery, a skeleton clock without miy mechanism for the maintaining or regulating power, and condtu'ting wires to connect the whole together. The primaiy clock gave correct time, and ingenious contrivances enabled these indications to bo imitated on tlie skeleton clock, throtigh the medium of galvanic agency con- ducted along the w'nv.. The principle was made very ap})arent, tliat a single clock may be nuide to indicate tlie time in as many different places, distant from each other, as may be re(juired. In an astronomical observatory, lor instance, every room may be furnished with an instrument which will copy exactly the indications of the primary astronomical clock set up for the use of the establishment. A very striking illustration of the use of this marvellous agency in connec- tion with clocks was given in the United States in 1847. It was not an electric clock, but a peculiar employment of two clocks and an electric tele- graph. Two astronomical clocks, at New York and Washington, were ac- curately adjusted to solar time at those two stations, and an electro-telegraphi(! wire extended from the clock room at one station to tlio clock room at the other — a distance of 2'^5 miles. At a given moment, say precisely at noon, a signal was sent from New York to Washington, stating the exact time ; this signal was received instantaneously, or at least after an interval too short to be appreciated, and immediately compared with the indications of the Washington clock. The two clocks were thus comi)ared at a given instant, although so far asunder ; and the difference of the indications measured tlie difference of longitude between the stations : this difference was found to agree almost (Exactly with that determined by astronomical and trigonometiical operations. Depending on the same principle, though moditied by different circumstances, is the paradoxical receij)t of a message earlier than it has been delivered — one of the most curious among the " curiosities " of electricity. On tin; morning of New Year's Day, 1845, a second or two after an accurate clock had stmck twelve, a message was sent by the electric telegraph from Pad- INntlHTTlTAT, APriJOATIONS OP Kf.ECTnrCITy. T (lington to Klont^h: this mossugo wan received in 184t by the observers at Slough ! Tlio tnith is, that as Slougli is westward of Taddington, its clocks are later or slower in the same degree; so that the Slough clocks hml not yet struck twelve, and the year 1814 had not yet cxi)ired. Of course, iu this instance, the clocks indicated local time, and not railway or Greenwich time. For some reason or other, or perhaps for a combination of reasons, th»! electric clock has not been made so practically available as the electric telegraph. Many years passed over without iruich advance ori Professor Wheatstone's arrangement. A certain inconstancy and varied intensity in the electric pow(!r by whicli the pendulum is kept in oscillation is one nuiin (lifficulty in the way. Two or three years ago Mr. Appold sought to remove this evil tlirough the aid of a self-adjusting apparatus connected with the penduhim, which should allow the current to flow only when rcrpured, and then only in such quantity as becomes necessai^ to restore the pciidulum to its mean rate of vibration. Mr. Bain, also, who has ])erhaps been the most indefatigable of all inventors in the application of electricity to telegraphs and clocks, has steadily followed out plans for removing one by one the diffi- culties which present themselves Few contrivances can be more reinarkable than Mr. Bain's electric clock. It has no weight, no spring, no esca|)ement, no winding-up apparatus nor necessity for being wound up, no agency within itself for putting or keeping the bunds in motion. The invisible power which actuates it is outside the clock — outside the house, even, in which the clock is contained. In a garden or other piece of ground is dug a hole four or five- feet deep ; into this hole is thrown a layer of coke, then a layer of earth, and then a few zinc plates. A feeble but constant galvanic current is generated by the contact of the earth with the coke below it and the zinc above it, without the aid of any other battery ; and this cuiTcnt is conveyed in-doors by copper wires. The wires fomi a cf»il round a magnet; and the el-^ ■!«)- magnet thus formed is made to constitute the bob of the pendulum ot Jic clock. Delicate and beautiful mechanism enables the electric apparatus U> give a vibratory motion to the pendulum, and the pendulum in its turn to give motion to the two hands of a clock. The only " winding-up " required by this extraordinary clock is a feed of zinc to the earth-battery when it shall have become oxidized by long use ; but one of the clocks has been already known to go three or four years without any such chemical winding-up. This is not " perpetual motion," certainly, but it is a most instnictive approxima- tion towards it. It was in 1840 that Mr. Shepherd, the chronometer maker, obtained a patent for that form of electric clock which has since become familiar to so many thousands of visitors at tlie Crystal Palace. In the first place there are eight (flectro-magnets to give moving-power to the clock. Each magnet con- sists of a bar of iron with about three thousand feet of wire coiled round it ; so there are nearly five miles of wire in all. The mode in which the electric current is brought into operative connection with the works of the clock is novel, but too intricate to bo made intelligible without diagrams ; we there- fore go to the outside of the south transept. Here we find a clock-face of singular character : instead of being a circle it is a semicircle, and each hand extends across the diameter instead of merely the semi-diameter. This novelty seems to have been chiofly due to the architectural arrangement of that part of the building. The minute hand is sixteen feet long, and the hour hand twelve • the former revolves once in two hours, and the latter once "' ^x: If ^ i INDUSTniAL APriJOATIOXa OF ELFXTRlCnV. in twenty-four. Six o'clock, instead of being marked at the bottom of th6 face, is at the right and left, or east and Avest ; and the obsei-ver is at first a little puzzled io learn the indications; but they soon render themselves familiar. There are no heavy weights in the clock, and the space which it occupies is very small, altliough it is said to equal tliat of St. Paul's in power. A smaller clock, in front of the south transept galleiy, within the building, is worked by the same battery as the larger one ; and — still more fitted to illvtstjate the way in which electric agency defies distance — there is a third clock in the western gallery, eleven or twelve hundred feet distant from the first. All three work together, giving like indications, and linked by this mysterious sympathy. Of the kindly relations which exist, and must ever exist, between science and its applications, we have already spoken; and instances illustrative of these relations are daily multiplying around us. For instance, at the recent Ipswich meeting of the British Association, evidence was afforded of two pleasant and important fiicts — tliat electricity is likely to be a most important aid in astronomical observations ; and that America is busily and successfully prosecuting astronomical studies, in spite of Cuiifomian gold and other sources of excitement. Professor Bond contributed a paper on the applica- tion of electivj-mechanism to astronomical observations, as practised at Han-ard Observatory. Supposing the observer wishes to note the exact instant when a star passes the meridian ; he has an accurate clock near him, and an electro- magnetic machine in connection with the clock ; he has also a piece of paper wrapped round a slowly revolving cylinder. He touches a key at tlie instant of the transit ; this connects the machine, the clock, and the paper together ; and a mark is made on the paper in such a way as to indicate the exact instant of the transit. A permanent record is thus obtained, which can be preserved by removing the paper from the cylinder. The gi'eat authority of the Astronomer Royal tells us that " the principle of tlie method is entirely the discovery of the Americans, and that Professor Bond has the merit of originating what he (the Astronomer Royal) had no doubt would prove of the utmost importance in the practice of astronomy." Electric Rivalby to the Steam-Engine. An opponent has sprang up to the system which we owe to the genius of James Watt. Electricity has given a formal challenge to steam, and engages to tiy strength against it in tlie mill, in the ship, and in the railway. The challenge is a bold one, and must be fairly met. It is now about eighteen years since the idea of working machineiy by electric power was first practically tested. There may, it is tiaie, have been some earlier attempts ; but the late Mr. Stui-geon, at any rate, exhibited a small galvanic apparatus in 1833, which was capable of pumping water, saw- ing wood, and perforaiing other mechanical operations. Although a mere toy as to size and power, it clearly illastrated the principle under notice, and was so far important. Three or four years after this Dr. M'Cbnnell, of Pennsyl- vania, made a small electro-magnetic machine which gave motion to a fly- wheel : although the machine weighed but seventeen pounds, the wheel caiTied a load of forty pounds through a space of 300 feet per minute, and was made to rotate seventy times in that space of time. Other inventors in other quarters were not slow to follow the path thus laid open. One of them was Mr. Clarke, of Leicester, who constructed an electro- iXDUSTftTAL APPLICATIONS OF KLKOTHU'ITV, 9 [ineiy by Vve been ^ibited a ^hus laid electro- locomotive "wliich ran on a circular railway, and drew from sixty to one hun- dred pounds weight; instead of a " feed of com," or a "charge of coke," its stamina was kept up by three pints of acid liquor in the galvanic apparatus, for two hours' work. Another ingenious experimenter was Professor Jacobi, of St. Petersburg. In a paper read at the Glasgow Meeting of the British Association in 1840, he detailed the particulars of a veiy novel voyage which he had made on the river Neva in the pi-eceding year. He constracted in 1838 a tiny steam-boat, or ratlier magneto-boat, about thirty feet in length, seven or eight in diameter, drawing three feet of water, and capable of liolding four- teen persons ; it had a galvanic batteiy instead of a steam-engine ; and this batteiy was made to act on paddle-wheels, by which the boat was propelled. He obtained a speed of a mile and a half an hour, on the first trial ; but, by various changes, in the next following year he raised the speed to three miles an hour — ^liumble, perhaps, but not contemptible as a beginning. *' We have gone thus on the Neva," the Professor wrote, " more Uian once, and during the whole day, partly with and paitly against the stream, w'ith a party of twelve or fourteen persons, and witli a velocity not nmch less than tliat of tlie first- invented steam-boat." It was, in tnith, a veiy creditable beginning. . Shortly after this, another ingenious explorer in the same field appeared in Scotland. Mr. Davidson, of Abei'deen, constructed a small galvanic machine whereby a common turning-lathe could be driven ; and the velocity obtained was sufficient for the turning of small articles. In another form of apparatus, the same inventor managed, with only two electro-magnets and one square foot of zinc surface, to generate power sufficient for drawing a small can-iage with two persons over a rougli floor. There was so far a fair trial given to the pro- ject, even in 1842, as to place a locomotive on tlie Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway at the service of the inventor, who propelled it at the I'ate of fom' miles an hour, solely by electro-magnetic agency. So busy has been the search after this remarkable agency, that not a year has passed since the date of Mr. Davidson's experiments without producing something or other bearing on the subject. In one instance we have an in- ventor who is so sanguine that all is as he Avould wish it to be, that he pre- dicts the speedy downfall of steam-power, never again to rise, befoi'e tlie younger giant — electricity. In another, we find an ingenious an-angement of mechanism described, but with more modest anticipations on the part of the inventor. In others, again, the plims exist only on paper, and have never yet been tried in the crucible of experiment. In the year 1 849 these projects began to assume a somewhat more definite form than they had hithei*to presented. ]\I. Hjorth, a Dane resident in Eng- land, obtained a patent for an application of electro-magnetic power to the purposes of engines, machines, ships, and railways. There were batteries to generate the power, magnets to be influenced by the power thus generated, and mechanism to apply the power to the rotation of a fly-wheel, which became in its turn the source of motion to other machineiy. He planned an engine, in- tended to be of ten-horse power ; one of his electro-magnets was of enormous power; and bright anticipations were indulged in concerning the results. The visitors to tlie Ciystal Palace have had an opportunity of seeing M. Hjorth 's machine, or at least a model of it ; but we are not aware that anything has yet occurred in realization of the inventor s enthusiastic hopes. The same year witnessed tlie introduction of M. Pulvennacher's electi'o- magnetic conti-ivances. This gentleman is an Austrian, but he obtained an English patent, in which a very wide range of ingenious inventions are de- a 3 10 rNDUHTRlAIi APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICITY. I h '111 I ! ■ \ ! i IK i| i f i I. scribed. There are new materials for the cells of the galvanic battery ; new an-angements for conveying away the acid fumes generated during tlie galvanic action ; new modes of rendering the current uniform in strength ; new combi- nations of fluids in tlie battery ; an an-angement of apparatus for producing mechanical power ; an electro-magnetic locomotive ; and a new form of electric telegraph — the whole comprising many ingenious novelties. Another aspirant to public favour in the same field is Professor Page, of America. In a series of lectures which he delivered before the Smithsonian Institution in 1850, he described certain arrangements of electro-motive appa- ratus which he had adopted. The Ame ican journals frequently indulge in such a tone of bombast and exaggeration when describing any really ingenious inventions by our transatlantic brethrei ,, that they must often be read with a certain discount, a drawback allowance foi suipluc; cr>th"«in'5Tn. In the ac- counts of Professor Page's experiments, it is stated that a bar of iron, one hundred and sixty pounds weight, was made to spring up by magnetic action, and to move rapidly up and do^vn, " dancing like a feather in the air, without any visible support." The distance thus moved, it is time, was only ten inches; but it was concluded, by a somewhat sweeping logic, that a hundred feet could be as readily gained as ten inches, and a ton raised as well as any smaller weight, by increasing the power. The mighty steam hammer, it was conjec- tm-ed, would have to yield to this more powei-ful rival. Professor Page also exhibited an electro-magnetic engine of five-horse power, set in action by a galvanic battery occupyuig about three square feet; it was a reciprocating engine of two-feet stroke, and weighed (with the battery) about a ton. It was capable of working a circular saw ten inches in diameter, which cut up boards into laths, and which revolved eighty times in a minute while so doing. The inventor candidly avowed that, though the expense was less than that of steam in most engines, it was ratlier gi'cater than in engines of cheap construction ; but the newspaper commentators would not submit to any limitations to their bright predictions ; for we are told that " we can now look forward witli cer- tainty to the time when coal will be put to better uses than to bm-n, scald, and destroy." But although there is a tinge of extravagance in the published accounts of inventions and novelties, there is an energy across the Atlantic which is pretty sure to lead to something valuable. In the case now before us, the Congress appropriated 20,000 dollars to assist Professor Page in caii-ying on his experi- ments. Those experiments were made at Washington; and the object in view was to determine the availability of electric power as a substitute for steam power — not simply under a scientific aspect, but in the ordinary commercial arrangements of eveiy-day life. The Professor has during the present yeai* (1851) exhibited an electro-magnetic engine which works a cylinder printing- l^ress. He has also made an electro-hammer, the head or mass of which weighs about fifty pounds, and which he causes to rise and fall with great rapidity and force. His next achievement was the constiniction of an electro- locomotive, with five-feet driving wheels and two-feet stroke, and a weight of more than ten tons ; it was tiied on the Baltimore Railway, and attained a speed of ten miles an hour on a level. In a letter to the Scientific American journal, the experimenter, in answer to certain objectors, drew attention to the memorable trial of locomotives on the Liveri)ool and Manchester Railway in 1829, and asserts that, even in its present state, he would ventm-e to place his electro-locomotive as a competitor in a contest with such a steam-locomo- tive as the " Rocket" was twenty-two years ago. He moreover expresses a con- ' 11 INDUSTRIAL APPTJCATIONS OF ELECTRICITY. 11 fidence that his new contrivance •' is capable of canying two loaded passenger cars to Baltimore at the rate of twenty miles an hour, as soon as some of the very great and obvious defects are remedied." One of the most recent projects in this curious department of mechanical enquiry, is Mr. Shepard's (or ratlier M. Nollet's, it having been patented for him in England) "Electro-magnetic heat, ligkt, and motive-power pro- ducing machine." A long name this, and an imposing claim of power. The apparatus is very complex, and exhibits abundant ingenuity; it is formed on the theory of decomposing water by electric agency, and then developing light, and heat, and motive force, as consequences of tlie decomposition. The merits of this new machine ai-e now being put to the test in Belgium. After all, the question of electro-mechanism seems likely to resolve itself into onft nf poiuius, shillings, and pence. Will it pay? — is the query, here as elsewhere. Machinists tell us that they can move fly-wheels and drive locomotives by electricity; but machinists, with their account books before them, count up the cost, and look grave thereat. For eveiy unit of power obtained, coal must be consumed in a steam-engine, and zuic in a batterj' ; and the ratio between the production and the consumption must be deter- mined in each case. Now tiie results of observation and calculation on this point have something very cm-ious about them. Mr. Robert Hunt, in a paper read before the Society of Arts, in 18.50, presented them in the following form: — He stated, that one grain of coal, consumed in the furnace of a Cornish mining steam-engine, generates power sufficient to lift one hundred and forty-three pomids one foot high ; whereas, one grain of zinc, consumed in a galvanic battery, produces power adequate only to eighty pounds. Again, one cwt. of zinc costs twenty or thirty times as much as an equal weight of coal. Taking these and other facts into consideration, Mr. Hunt gave it as his opinion, that galvanic power is fifty times as costly as steam power. If this be correct, or if it approximate even remotely to coiTectness, it places the new rival to steam power in a very humble position; and it will have to submit with as good a grace as may be to a defeat. ELECTRIC Rivalry to Gas-Lighting. There is another battle which electricity has carved out for itself, and on which it has not been ,less sanguine of victory — that of producing a light so briUiant and so steady, so cheap and so efficient, as to supersede gas. It was in 1846 that the vorld was first startled witli this novelty — the electric light. True it is, that scientific men had long been familiar with the intensity of the light caused by electric action, but it was Messrs. Greener and Staite, we believe, who first devised a fomi of apparatus for public lighting by such agency. Their patent of the year above named described an arrangement whereby small lumps of pm-e carbon, enclosed in air-tight vessels, were susceptible of being rendered luminous by currents of galvanic electricity. Little was done, in the first year, beyond the promulgation of the •method; but in 1847 the evening gazers in London were astonished by the occasional flashes of intense light tlu•o^vn out upon tliem from elevated spots; and one of the inventors estimated tlie merits of the system so highly, as to state the comparative cost of lighting to be in the ratio of one to six, or eight, as compared witli gas. At one time it was the National Gallery, at another the north tower of Hungerford Bridge, at another the Duke of York's Column, at another the Polytechnic Institution, which was PRMR 13 INDUSTHIAL APPI, (CATIONS OP ELECTRICI'n'. I' 1^ ■ » thus made the theatre for the exhibition of these results j and, for a time, the " talk of tlie town" was tliis electric light and its mai-vels. So fur as it can be described in a few words, the following will convey an idea of the mode of producing the light. In the fii-st place there were two small cylinders or bits of pure carbon, with their points placed some small fraction of an inch apart. • As they were subjected to a slow combustion, tlio points of these cylindei*s receded further and further apart ; but this reces- sion was corrected by a train of wheel-work which advanced them in an equal degree in the opposite direction, so tliat the carbon points were maintaineu equidistant. A galvanic battery was provided, and tlie two carbon cylinders lay in the direction of the circuit through the wires, so that the galvanic circuit could not be completed unless the fluid could traverse the small distance from one piece of carbon to the other. It is one among the many propeities of electricity, that when the subtle agent has thus to leap over the interval, as it were, from one point to anotlier, it generates an intense heat at that point; and the points being, in the apparatus \v question, formed of a slowly combustible body, like carbon, the heat generates, or is at least accompanied by, an uitense light. The task which most called forth the ingenuity of the inventors, was to keep the carbon points at such a distance as to render the light continuous instead of intermitting ; for an intej-mitting or flickering light would be nearly valueless in ordinary cases. Numerous practical ditticulties presented themselves in this novel experi- ment, an Mr. Staite obtained another patent in 1848, for their prospective removal. He devised a new form of galvanic battery, and new applications of exciting fluid to be used in it; he introduced a galvanometer, to measure the intensity of the cun-ent produced; he substituted the metal iridium for carbon at the points; he improved the means of maintaining a constant distance between the points ; and he showed how so to aiTange the appai-atus, that the light may be made either continuous for ordinary pmposes, or intermittent for lighthouses. The electric light was again exhibited in many public places ; and in the same year another mode of producing the desired result was brought fonvard by MM. Achereau and Fom'cault, at Paris. In the following year, 1849, there was no lack of busy discussions in connection with tliis subject, or of suggestions for improved methods. M. Le Molt patented many modifications, especially in tlie form and aiTangement of the charcoal points. Mr. Gillespie, in like manner, directed his attention to this veiy delicate part of the an-angement, on which so much depends, and suggested a new mode of maintaining the constant distance. ,Mr. Pearce was another of the inventors who took the carbon points into consideration, with a view to improve their mode of action. Li the same year Mr. Staite, in con- junction with Mr. King, obtained another patent for a most extensive series of improvements, modifications, adaptations, extensions, or whatever they may best be termed, embracing almost every part of the subject, and showing significantly that the former method, however ingenious, must have been full of imperfections of one kind or other. Professor Grove, in a lectm'e at the Royal Institution, stated that he had illuminated the tlieatre of the London Institution by an electiic light, five or six years previously; and he thought that much hope and promise were in store for us, in respect to a brilliant and economical principle of lighting. On the other hand, Mr. lluttei', who about that time wrote a treatise on gas lighting, gave the new-comer, the electric light, a few gentle i-ubs ; and asked how it happened, if the light were so very efficient and economical, that it had not by that time come into use. Indeed, N". ,]■ ISDl'STniAL APPLICATIONS OF ELECXniCITY. U there were many misgivings among scientific men as to the fitness of tlie electric agency for the object in view. Dr. Faraday, in a discussion on this question at the Birmingham Meeting of the British Association, commented on the irregular character of the electric light, and "ts inapplicability for pur- poses of general illumination : all objects appearing dark when tlxe eye was embarrassed by the intensity of this extraordinaiy light. A new claimant to pv.blic attention, Mr. Allman, brought out a new form of electric light in 1850, directed, as the gi'eater number of the inventions have been, to the maintenance of proper distance between the points. He devised a very ingenious self-adjusting or regulating plan, whereby the distance should not always be the same, but should vary as the intensity of the cun'ent. When the flow is too energetic, and would consequently produce too bright a light, the points recede a little ; whereas they approach more closely when the power becomes weak. The principle here involved is highly scientific, sometliing like Watt's steam-engine governor; but it would require exact workmanship and careful handling to make it practically available. The gi-and project, however, of 1850, so far as relates to this subject, was the Anaerican light, jjroduced from water at no expense at all ! It was announced that Mr. Paine, of AVorcester, U.S., had discovered a mode of obtaining a brilliant light by the action of electricity on water, at a cost mei-ely nominal. At first the world disbelieved it ; but by dint of repeated assertions and assurances, the world (that is, the American v.'orld) begaii to think there must be something in the matter. The Boston newspapers took up the sub- ject ; and one of them stated in due form, that the inventor or discoverer has not only " extorted from nature the secret of the artificial pi'oduction of light at a nominal cost, but that he has got hold of the key which unlocks and enables him to command a new force of nature, which is soon to supersede most of the forces now employed — something which is destined to work a revolution both in science and art." Brave words these : but electricity has had to hear and to bear much of this magniloquence. According to the de- scription given in the Boston journals, there seem to have been a glass jar containing spirits of tuiiientine, another glass jar containing water, two flat strips of copper, a small tube which terminated in a jet or burner, and an electro-galvanic machine. When the machine was worked, water was decom- posed ; bubbles of gas escaped from the jar, and passed tlirough the spirits of turpentine ; and being then ignited, these bubbles yielded a brilliant light. Such was the declaration, and on this declaration " issue was joined " by those who were not disposed to admit the philosophy of the explanation. ^Ir Paine is said to have devised a form of galvanic, or rather electro-magnetic machine, which, with the aid of two slips of copper, decomposes water, and liberates hydrogen; it is next said, that this hydrogen, by passing through spirits of tui'pentine, catches up in its transit a dose of carbon, or at least a new property which enables it to become a brilliant light-giving agent ; and lastly it is affirmed, that this is done without any consumption of the tui'pen- tine. Many of the journalists proceeded at once to annihilate the customary theories of chemical action : they adduced Mr. Paine's experiments as proof that oxygen and hydrogen are not simple substances, tliat water contains no oxygen, and that hydrogen imbibes qualities from spirits of turpentine without occasioning any waste in it ; and tc add to the testimony, a Mr. Mathiot de- scribed at some length a mode which he adopted of passing hydrogen tlirough turpentine to increase the brilliancy of the light produced from it, witliout occasioning any consumption or diminution of the turpentine so used. T U INDUSTRIAL APrio\vdci*, vellers to k plat- id Down works. means, ons were oyed the iekin, in of rock the most connec- le of the wer, but I peculiar Ictricity,'" li laboioi'. 1 employs I'errible is tho form in wl)ich cloctricity hci-o jirosonts itsdf. As developed m a galvanic battery, it can be adapted to our wants in a thousand ways ; AS developed in tlie clouds, it marks a path for itself with resistless power. When electric equilibrium is distiu-bed in the atmosphere, tlic surcharged quantity seeks a vent, and will take the shortest path or tho best conductor which presents itself. If it meets with a metixUi*; rod or wire, which is con- nected with tho earth, it will travel qiiietly along that nuHal, and dift'iise itself without injuiy ; but if no such conductor presents itself, the j-osiUt is startling. The electricity, the visual effects of which we designate lufhtninrj, seeks a path- way by which to descend to earth from its cloud dwelling ; a rod of metal is the best railway for such a passenger ; and trees, houses, and ships are rent asimder in the search for such a channel of conveyance. Now it is the supplying of such an iron pathway which constitutes the philosophy of lightning conductors or thunder rods. Of the amount of de- struction produced by lightning few persons have an adequate idea. Fuller gave a list of thirteen abbeys and monasteries which had been destroyed by lightning down to his time, about two centuries ago; and churches and houses are similarly destroyed or gi'eatly injured every year. A calculation has been made (though we know not on what data) that buildings are thus destroyed in England to tlie value of £50,000 annually. But it is on the broad ocean that this giant desti'oyer most shows its power. The ships that have fallen a sacrifice are numerous almost beyond belief. In the Britisli navy alone there are official records of more than two hundi-ed and fifty ships of war which have been stmck and injured by lightning since the year 1793, while merchantmen have been destroyed to an extent of which no exact estimate can be foi*med. Pity, indeed, it seems, that there should be any laxity in the precautions taken to wai'd off this dreadful calamity. But such a laxity there has certainly been. It has required the incessant appeals and remonstrances of scientific men to obtain due attention to this subject. The first lightning rod is said to have been attached to a building by Dr. Watson, about ninety years ago. The practice spread into many countries, but veiy slowly. It is said, that when Guyton de IMoneau put one up at Dijori, in 1770, he was violently attacked for his presumption by a superstitious mob ; but that he appeased them by stating that the gilt point of the rod was sent by his holiness the Pope. It has gradually become established, that for any building to have a good lightning conductor, it is necessaiy that the metallic rod (copper is the best, but iron will suffice) should reach from tlie highest point of the building down ill one unbroken line to the soil beneath : few buildings so provided have ever been injured by lightning ; but if there is any want of continuity in tlie metal, the protection becomes doubtful and precarious. In respect to ships, Dr. Watson, after a trial at his own house, recommended to the government tliat a copper chain should be furnished to eveiy ship, to be suspended from tlie mast head, and to hang over tlie side of the ship into the sea. The plan was adopted, but after a strange fashion ; the chain was made, and a box provided to keep it in, from whence it was to be removed for use "as occasion requires."' But lightning flashes are wcmt to do their own work at their own time, without giving fonnal notice to the captains of tlie royal ships ; and it often happened that an unfortunate vessel received a shattering stroke before the protector could be removed from its box. It was found, too, that the chain form is not efficient for conduction, and that not only one, but all the masts ought to be protected. Thirty years ago Mr. Snow Hanis (who hag 1 1 f-^ww. ^^ i\ M 1$ INDUSTniAT. APPLICATIONS OF ET.ECTRICITT. since been knighted for his services on this important subject) brought before the Admiralty a plan for improved lightning conductors for the Royal Navy ; he fought the battle pcrsevenngly, year after year, against one administration after another, until at length conviction was forced upon official minds, which receive conviction ratlier slowly, and his method is coming every y.^ar more and more into use. It is simply as folio vs : — Each mast is made in effect a lightnuig conductor, by two bands of copper inserted in ito surface, and ex- tending from top to bottoni ; the bands are strong enough and elastic enough to accommodate themselves to the strains to which the mast is exposed. The copper bands extend under the deck beams to the side of the vessel, and from the mast to tlie large metal bolts of the keel and keelson ; so that the metal of the vessel itself is made to form part of the general system of cordtiction. So far as recorded evidence extends, the national saving effected through the protective uses of these conductors must have been immense. Electricity in the Workshop. But we may leave these ten-ible examples of electiic power, and of the means adopted to ward them off, and resume our glance at those more peace- ful operations in which this wonderful agent is employed as a handmaid to the arts of civilization. " Electricity in the workshop" may sound a strange pln-ase ; but it is a cor rect and fitting one. Electricity does appear in the workshop, and is tliere employed as an actual worker; and, moreover, it perfonns manufacturing operations which would baffle the skill of the most talented artizans. Franklin gained celebrity for having gently drawn down lightning from above by the string of a kite ; but it was left for later times to tame this rough agent (or at least its congener, electricity) and make it a metal-worker in Bii-mingham fac- tories. In this, as in oUier depai'tments of electro-chemical action, it is difficult to say to whom the honour is due of the first practical application ; it can only be settled approximately. Pi'ofessor Jacobi of St. Petersburgh, Mr. Spencer of Liverpool, and Mr. Jordan of LondO^i, appear to have claims to share the ho- nour among them. But tliis is a nice point, on which we will not venture to dwell. Suffice it to say that, about twelve or fourteen years ago, metal was rendered obtainable from the liquid in a galvanic battery, by peculiar an'ange- ments. Let those who have been familial* with the admirable Typographical Section, in the Austrian department of the Great Exhibition, consider tliat the large and beautiful sheet of copper there displayed, more than thirty feet in length, was produced from a cold salt liquid : they will thus gain a little in- sight into the marvels of this pi-ocess. Stripped as mucli as possible of scien- tific difficulties, and presented in its simplest form, this transfomiation may bo thus elucidated. Diluted sulphuric acid is poured into a porous vessel ; this is placed in a larger vessel containing a solution of sulphate of copper ; a piece of zinc is placed in the former, and a piece of silver or of copper in the latter, and both pieces are connected by a wire. Then does the wondrous agent, electricity, begin its work; a current sets in from tlie zinc to tlie acid, thence through tlie i)orous vessel to the sulphate, thence to the silver or copper, and thence to the conducting wire back again to the zinc ; and so on in an endless circuit. But electricity never makes such a circuit without disturbing the chemical relations of the bodies through which it passes : the zinc, the silver or copper, the sulphuric acid, the oxygen, and the hydrogen — all are so far INDUSTRIAL Al'l'LICATlONa OF ELECTEIClTy. 10 affected that the zinc becomes eaten away, while a beautiful deposit of metallic copper, derived from the decomposition of the sulphate, appeal's on the surface of the silver or copper. This bit of philosophy must siiffice for oui" present purpose. Now the Birmingham manufacturers, ever alive (as manufactm'ers are wont to be) to any improvements which may advance their ti-ade, saw that there was a principle of great commercial value liere developed. Copper is not tlie only metal which can be thus precipitated ; gold, silver, platinum, and other metals may be similarly treated ; and it was conceived that a thin layer of gold or silver might be applied to the surface of cheaper metals by this process, in- stead of by the older process of "plating." Let the brilliant display ot MessiBS. Elkington, at the Crystal Palace, tell how great has been the success attained in this new art. Let us compare the real plate with the electro-plate, and then appreciate the striking peculiarities of a process which enables so beautiful a silvery surface, so close an imitation of solid silver, to be produced from the liquid solution in a galvanic battery. How is an electi'o-silver vase, or candelabram, or table ornament, or hono- rary trophy produced ? The answer is full of interest. There is first the artist, tiie tasteful designer, employed ; he exercises all the talent which he may have acquired by nature and education, to produce a design which shall combine fitness of adaptation with grace of form and decoration. Ne.xt comes the modeller : he places before him the design which has been laid down on paper, and proceeds to build up a realization of that design : he works upon a mass of smooth wax, which, by the aid of vai-iously-shaped tools in wood and bone, he fashions into an exact representation of the article to be produced. To the modeller succeeds the moulder, who makes a mould in lead or some otlier fusible metal ; this would, of course, present a reverse to the model — hollows instead of projections, and projections instead of hollows. Next to the modeller comes the pattern-maker, who, by a similar process of casting, niaJies a cast in brass from the lead mould ; this brass pattern is carefully touched up and finished, and constitutes a more perfected edition of the wax model ; and it senes as the type, as it were, of all die articles to be produced. Again and again does tlie casting proceed ; for as there was a lead mould made from the wax model, so is there now a sand mould made from tlie brass pattern ; and as diis brass pattern was obtained from tlie lead mould, so, lastly, is there a white metal cast made from tlie sand mould. The white metal cast is the article to be produced and sold, though it has not yet received its silvery gar- ment. Tlic luxui'iant ornament which we are here supposing to be under for mation, may require other preparatoiy processes ; it may have decorative de- tails in thin metal, which require stamping ; it may need the addition of thin pieces, made from sheets by brazing or hammering ; or it may render neces- sary the soldering of many pieces together. But we will leap over these inter- mediate processes, and suppose the article to be completely formed, in a white metal, composed of zinc, copper, and nickel. It is dipped into a tank contain- ing a chemical solution of silver, in which also a few sheets of pure silver arc immersed. Then comes the mysterious agency of electro-chemistiy. The vase or other article ^^eing placed in connection witli the wires of a batteiy, a cmrent is generated, the solution is decomposed, the atoms of silver leave it and cling to the vase, other atoms of silver leave the plates to re-invi- gorate the solution, and so the chain of operations proceeds, until the vase is coated with pure silver, atom by atom. These atoms cling together ; and ao- r ' ■ wmmm so INDUSTRIAL Al'PLICAllOxNS OF KLECTRICITY. I .1 '' ! cording to the intensity of the current, tlie sti-engtli of the solution, and the time of immersion, does the deposited coat become thicker. It is tlms that the silveiy coat of electro-plate is produced : the subse- quent burnishing and finishing we need not dwell on here. And tlius might a tliin coating of gold, or copper, or iron, or zinc, or platinum, be applied to any otiier metal, by (thanging tlie nature of the chemical solution in the tank. And thus also might the delicate coating be applied to a non-metallic body beneath, by an intervening preparation of black lead or of phosphoms. And thus, again, might fniits and flowers, stems and leaves, wings and feathers, bo coated with metal with the same ease as luiy maruifactured articles. Not only may substances of almost eveiy kind be thus coated, but the entire thickness of an article in metal may be thus made by electro-deposit : all tliat is required is, that provision should be made to ensure tlie non-adhesion of the deposited metal on the framework or mould. When we see large sheets of copper produced in tliis wonderful manner, we have proof that the metal, precipitated atom by atom from tlie solutit^ii, unites into its proper metallic homogeneous state ; and this has given a range of applicability of the method to useful and ornamental pui-poses, quite beyond j^resent calculation. Sometimes we meet with articles of table- plate so produced ; sometimes buttons, pens, trinkets, or cheap jewelleiy ; some- times it presents itself as a coating for chronometer springs and for magnetic needles ; sometimes as a mode of preserving medallions by a minute layer of copper; sometimes as a mode of pennanently retaining the fonns of vegetable objects, by encasing them in gold, silver, or copper envelopes; or even as a presen'ative for insects, for detiiils so minute as those of a buttei^fly's wings may be presei-ved by the electro deposit; sometimes as a covering for basket- work, or for lace. The suggestions for new modes of useful applications are not less numerous than the applications themselves. One proposal is for a mode of taking impressions in copper from ornamental brasses by electro deposit. Another is for making stamps and dies by electro deposit on embossed surfaces. Another is for obtaining copies of graduated instru- ments from a carefully prepared standai'd. Another is lor making tools for grinding specula and lenses, by depositing tlie thin film on the curved surface of tlie Neiy article to be polishecl ; nay, more, the specula tliemselvcs have in «ime cases been made by electro deposit. A proposal of much gi-eater magnitude, in respect to its influence on niiuiufactures, is that of smelting by electricity; this is not so much an example of electro deposit as of electro separation; its theoretical soundness is undisputed, and small portions of ore have actually been smelted by this agency; but up to the present time the system has not yet entered the domain of practical manufactures. Electric action is now at the threshold of many manufacturing processes, besides that of smelting, just alluded to. It is waiting for admission, and well be admitted step hy step. Copper tubes and pipes have been made by electi'o deposit ; luid we may yet see the day when they will thus bo made with commercial advantage. Calico-printing has been effected also by tliis agency, in a curious manner. Two rollers are prepared, one of plain iron, and one on which a pattern has been formed by pieces of various kinds of metal inserted in the surface. The calico dips into a liquid having peculiar chemical relations to the various metals ; and while it passes between tlie i-ollers, a galvanic current is allowed to r?'".r4 a. circuit through INDUSTIUAL AI'l'LU'ATlONS Of KLEtXliiCITY. 21 the apparatus. The singular result is, that different colours are produced on the calico by the diti'erence in the action between the various metals and the liquid wiUi which it is saturated. A glance will presently be talcen at the curiosities which electricity presents when connectecl with fine-urt printing; but it may here be stated, that ordinary letter-press printing is beginning to receive aid from the same wonderful agent. A method has been devised for covering the surface of ordinaiy type with a film of copper, by electro-deposit: copper is known to be ten or twelve times as tenacious as lead; but as it is difficult to melt, and is much more costly, coj)per types are almost imknown ; and, therefore, an attempt is now being made to combine the tenacity of the one with tlie cheapness and fusibility of the otlier, by facing ordinary typo with copper. Dr. Newton, in a paper recently read befoi-e the Franklui Institute at Phila- delphia, states that, in a widely-spread religious publication at Niw York, ordinary types are nearly worn out by 170,000 impressions, while the galvanized type is little injured by six times this number; that the new types require less ink, and waste less than ordinaiy type ; that the copper face can be read better by the compositor than the leaden face; that the two metals can easily be separated for remelting, the one melting at DOO"" and the other at 1800° Fahrenheit; and that the increased expense is not more tlian 30 per cent. Whether English printers will confinn this favourable American verdict, time must show. A veiy pretty specimen of electro-metallurgy is presented in Mr. James's elaborate model of the Britannia Bridge, whicli has had some million pairs of eyes upon it at the Industrial Exhibition. The two gi-eat tubes of this tubular bridge are of course the most notable parts of the structure ; and Mr. James has made his mimic tubes in tlie model entirely by the electro process. Electricity in Relation to the Fine Aiits. But if electro-chemical action thus lends a kindly hand to the manufac- turing arts, not less marked are its senices to tlic fine arts, or those where beauty and grace prevail over mere material use. The copying of an exquisite line engraving, from a copper or steel pi Ate to an electro-copper deposit, although now become a ver}' familiar process, is really a wonderful one ; for let the lines of the engi-aving be as fine and minute as they may, the deposited atoms of copper mark them all distinctly — so infinitely small is each atom or particle compared with any magnitude which human hands can produce. Like many other wonderful and beautiful processes, this is a vei'y simple one. Let us suppose that a large steel or copper engra^'ing is to be so copied. The plate is immersed in a chemical solution of copper, and a thick film is precipitated on it by electro deposit. This film may be easily loosened from tlie plate, and its surface then presents a reverse to the plate, i)rotuberances instead of engraved lines, and cavities instead of plain or raised portions. The film is employed as a sort of mould; for it is, in its tuni, immersed in the solution, .and made the basis for a second deposition. This second deposition is allowed to continue until a plate as thick as tlie original is produced ; and this plate, when separated from its parent film, is seen to be an exact countei^part of the engraved plate first operated upon. So perfect is the resemblance, tliat, 'f the electro-plate be made with care, an inked impression printed from it can be detected from ,ir^ 23 INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICITY. ■ \ 1 lj I'! 1 Sl. one printed from the original plate only by an experienced judge : to ordinary eyes they are equal in aU respects. The first attempts at electrography (as this art is sometimes called) were in producing impressions from coins, medals, dies, seals, cameos, intaglios, and such like small articles in bas-relief; and these have always been regai'ded as among the neatest and prettiest maiiifestations of this curious art. But it is becoming wider and wider in its application. Not only does it produce copies from engi-aved plates, but even the plates themselves have been thus made by electro-coppering, for the engraver to work upon. In Mr. Smee's treatise on Electro-Metallurgy he gives three engravings of a very instructive kind, to show how a method of stereotyping might be practised by electro deposit. They were produced in three different ways. In the first, a' device Avas engraved on a wood block ; a copper reverse from this was taken by electro deposit ; a cast was taken from this in soft or fusible metal ; and im- pressions were printed from this cast. In tlie second, the device was engraved on wood ; a reverse was taken from the wood in fusible metal ; a copper plate was deposited on the metal by tlie electro process ; and the printing was effected from the copper. In the third, the device was engraved on wood ; a mould from this was taken in plaster; an electro cast was taken from the plaster ;. and the impressions were obtained from this copper deposit. The impressions vary somewhat in fineness ; but all suflice to show that the electi'o process may fittingly form one part of the series. There are now to be seen, in fine-art exhibitions and elsewhere, copper busts which illustrate the electrotype ai't in a very remarkable way. The Great Exhibition has displayed to us a few of colossal dimensions, besides numerous smaller specimens. These consist wlioUy of copper, in a thin sheet ; and the whole of the metal has been reduced or precipitated from a liquid solution. We believe that the first example of this striking production was a bust of the late Dr. Dalton, made by Mr. Cheverton about ten years ago ; and the practicability being thus demonstrated, the art may be now foUowod to any extent. The processes are curious. The bust is first modelled in some kind of clay, which may afterwards easily be broken away piecemeal ; and on this a tliick copper film is deposited by the electro process. The clay core or model bemg broken away, tlie copper remains as a hollow shell, the inside of which has taken the exact impress (though reversed) of the outside of the bust. This copper shell, on being propeHy prepared on the inner surface, is made the groundwork on which a second deposition takes place ; it is used, in fact, as a mould, from which one or more busts may be procured. We might even imagine a nest of busts, one within anotlier, each serving as a mould for the one within it ; and thus we might form a goodly family of Napoleons, or Byrons, or Scotts, graduating from tlie colossal to the petite ; the number of the series depending on the thickness of the metal deposited to fonn each of tliem. Such a series would certainly be a " cm-iosity " of electrotyping ; but it would require some mechanical tact to effect the libei.t- tion of each bust from its enveloping mould. Architects and sculptors are gradually availing themselves of this art in the furtherance of their professional labours. The late Bavarian sculptor, Stiglmayer, who was employed by King Ludwig on so many important works at Munich, deviirod a mode of coating colossal plaster statues with copper, by the electrt) process, in a remarkably expeditious way. But one of the most important applications of the art is that which is exhibited in the new and splendid catiiedral of St. Isaac, at St. Petersburgh, on which the Eniper(>r has expended ' INDUSTUIAL APPLICATIONS OF ELECrRIClTT. US iinai'y ere in »s, and (led as But it reduce n thus Smee's ructive electro ' device ken by ind ini- ngraved er plate ing was ,vood ; a L'om the it. The liat the s, copper ly. The ;, besides a a thin d from a L'oduction ears ago ; followed delled in cemeal ; The clay hell, the le outside the inut-r )lace; it )rocured. rving as a aniily of le petite ; deposited losity" of le liberii- art in the tigimayer, t Munich, ic electro important 1 splendid expended lai'ge sums. Certaiin pai*ts have been ornamented in a remarkable way. The cathedi'al has seven very large doors, or rather door-ways, three of which are forty-four feet wide by thirty high ; they are fonned of bronze, but all tho adornments are produced by the electro process. These adornments are of a most elaborate nature ; they compx-ise no less than fifty-one bas-reliefs, sixty- tliree statues, and eighty-four alto-relievo busts. It is not simply as a matter of economy that the electro process has been adopted ; for the Czar is not a man to entertain scruples on such a point ; but there are certain advantages of an artistic character. By ibe electro process the sculptor is sure to have his model faithfully copied ; and tlie lightness of tire material enables him to impart bolder relief to his designs than if they were cast in bronze ; while this lightness of weight also justifies him in suspending pendants or bosses from vaulting, of a larger size than would be safe if made in any other way. Among our own English productions, Messrs. Elkington have produced an electro statue of the Duke of Gloucester, for the new House of Lords. The same successful firm produced, by the electro process, the gold and silver decorations of Her Majesty's jewel casket, which has adorned the main avenue of the Crystal Palace. It has been sometimes apprehended that tlie startling discoveries of tlie last few years will tend to lower the tone of art in its purer acceptation ; that if Light becomes an artist, by producing photographic pictures, and Electricity an artist, by producing electrographs, the man of genius may be superseded altogether. But this is a mistake, arising from too humble an estimate of art. A photograph is a copy, and nothing but a copy ; so is an clectrograph ; neither can originate, or combine, or modify, or idealize. If a faithful copy of foiTns or colours be required, one or other of these arts can present it ; but if some- thing more than a mere copy be wanted, the mind of the artist is as necessaiy now as befoi'e these arts were known ; tmd such it will continue to be. Pho- togi'aphy and electrography will expedite and assist the lower departments of ai't, but they will never supersede the higher. These remarks are suggested by the ti-uly interesting etchings recently pro- duced by electricity. Some persons have hastily assumed that tlie etcher's " occupation 's gone " as soon as the chemist's laboratory becomes the artist's studio. But, by looking a little fai'ther into the matter, it will be seen that tho mind of an artist is as much required in producing tlie design on a plate in the one process as in the other : it is not science as oi)posed to art, but elec tricity as opposed to aquafortis. Let us illustrate this. In etching, a plate is coated with a peculiar composition ; and tlie etcher, with sharp instruments, scrapes away tiie composition in all the parts which are to form the design ; the copper in these exposed lines and spots is then eaten away by the cor- roding action of aquafortis on the old process ; while on the new it is removed by the action of the galvanic battery. The batteiy is so adjusted that tho copper, instead of being deposited on the plate from anotlier body, leaves tlio plate and deposits itself on that body. But the method of electrotint is more curious, inasmuch as there is no etching at all. A plate of white metal, presenting r; v^JU white surface, is pre- pared; and on this the artist paints his design in full, giving eveiy touch which is required in his picture ; he uses a pigment mixed expressly for this puipose, without regard to colour; and he applies it with brushes, pencils, and small pointed pieces of wood or bone. He proceeds on the same prin- ciple as the copper-plate engi'aver and the etcher in tliis respect — that all tlie parts which are to be uMte in the impression are left untouched by the paint. MM NMnMMRi 24 INDtSXlUAL APPLICATIONS OK ELKCTRICITT. ! V' Different deptlis of light and shade are managed by diffei'ent thicknesses of tlie paint laid on; and it requires much artistic skill to effect this. The picture being thus far finished and dried, the plate is exposed to the electro process , a film or sheet of copper is fomied on it, in which the slight alterna tions of ridges and hollows ai'e faithfully copied, but reversed ; and the plute thus fomied is capable of being worked at the copper-plate press in thn ordinaiy way. By modifying the details, tliis process is made to imitate wood engraving rather than etching. In a wood engraving, unlike etching, tlie parts which are to be black are left untouched by tlie engi'aver, or left prominent ; and, iu like manner, the electrotinter gives prominence to the lines which aro to give a black impression, by reversing the process before desciibed. His pencillmg must be peculiai", for he avoids touching with paint those lines which are really to constitute his design. When the painting is finished, an electi'otype plate from it will be suitable for surface printing at tlie common press. These remai'kable processes were introduced by Mr. Palmer eight or ten yeai'S ago ; and in the Austrian department at the Great Exhibition we have had an opportunity of seeing a production which, if not identical, is cer- tainly of analogous character. There is, in the instance in question, a white metal plate, on which a pictm-e is painted in a dark-coloured pigment ; by the side of tliis is a copper plate, produced from tlie former by electro deposit ; and by the side of this agahi is a proof impression of the engraving so obtained ; and the excellence of the print thus produced, without any process of engraving or etching whatever, shows that this singular method may become applicable to varied purposes. The variations of these processes are now becoming numerous. It is said by Mr. Smee, in a recent edition of his work on Electro-MetaUurgy, that the title-page of Punch, and the vignette at the top of the Illustrated London News, axe both printed from copper electrographs ; and that several millions of impressions have been obtained from different coppers, all derived originally from the same woodcut. In such cases a cast is taken from the woodcut, an electrotype is produced from the cast, and the impression is piinted from tlie electrotype. In a recent number of the Illustrated News tlie proprietors stated tliat they have long been of opinion that something different from wood- block engravings will by-and-by be available for surface-printing ; that tliey arc watching with anxious interest the progi'ess of electrography in tliis direction ; but tliat they have not, up to the present time, felt justified in adopting the method extensively until furtlier improvements are made. Glyphographtj, or the electro-etching of plates, has been found well fitted for maps ; tliere is a gazetteer now in course of publication, tlie maps of which form excellent speci- mens of Glyphography. It is also a notable circumstance, that tlie Ordnance maps are printed from electrotype plates ; a series of them, with some of the plates in juxtaposition, have been displayed at tlie Great Exliibition. But pei'haps the most curious of all these curiosities is the union of photography with electrography. Most readers know that the effects produced in the first of these arts is due to the action of light on a carefully-prepared and very sensitive surface. Now it has been found that varied intensities of light pro- iluce varied intensities of chemical action in the metal plate employed, and that the galvanic action will then eat away the copper to varied depths ; thus producing a plate with the alternate depths of lines fitted for printing. Ijight is, in tliis case, the painter, and electricity the engraver, of a picture. knesses of his. Thf! he electro lit alterua I the pliite iss in the litate wood ;, ihe paits •rominent ; which are [bed. His hose hues inished, an e common ler eight or hibition we ;ical, is cer- on, a white mt ; by the so deposit ; igraving so any process nay become It is said gy, that the ited London [ral miUions ;d originally woodcut, an ed from tlic etoi's stated rom wood- lat tliey are direction ; opting llie hography, or tliero is a client speci- e Ordnance 5ome of the )ition. But hotogi-aphy in the tirst and very if light pro- ployed, aiitl epths : thus ing. liiglit re. IRON AND ITS MANUFACTURE. If we glance at tlie aspects which the iron manufacture has presented between 1801 luid 1851 — tlie first half of an e\entful century — we find that changes and advancements have been made in the jirocesses and the application, lather than in the materials. In truth it could hardly have been otherwise ; for iron, absolutely pure iron, is one of tlie small number of simple chemical substances, not compounded of any other two. In tlie forms, however, which tlio metal assumes when manufactured, there are always small (quantities of cai'bon and otlier substances combined witli it ; and as tliese substiiiices impart valuable qualities to the iron, busy researches have been made to detennine tlie exact relation between the substances and the qualities. So far, then, materials lia\ e undergone modification ; but it remains true, as noticed above, tliat pro- cesses ratlier tlian materials mark the com'se of recent improvements. The glass manufactm'e, as was explained in tlie former article, had an up- hill sti'uggle against tlie legislature until witliui the last half dozen years ; and all attempts at improvement were neaiiy paralyzed until tliat struggle reached a successful issue. This lias not been the case in respect to iron. The legisla- tion concerning tliis important metal has — happily for jill parties — been small in amount. The miner may dig and the roaster may calcine, t>e smelter may reduce and the founder may cast, tlie blacksmitli may forge and tlie whitesmith may file — widiout obstiaxction, or at any rate without the unwelcome visitation of the exciseman. The duties on the import of foreign iron or ii'on nianufac- tures, or on the export of those of British produce, have not during the present century been veiy hea\'y ; and although the spread of liberal commercial views has been felt in this as in otlier depai'tments of industry, yet it is not in such direction that we are to seek for tiie main cause of the recent great advance- ment in the manufacture now under notice. It is not intended (as has been already announced) that this series of papers should contain systematic descriptions of the manufacturing processes, or of the local centres, of industry ; for such details we refer to the tw'O Cyclopaidias, and shall assume tliat the reader has a general eveiy-day acquaintance with them. Almost every one, for instance, who is competent to understand even a common newspaper, is aware that the south of Wales, the centre of England, and tlie south-centre (if we may so designate it) of Scotland, are the chief seats of the British iron manufacture. But when we go beyond these primary facts we find abundance of " Cmiosities," both ui the localization and the processes of this all-important branch of industry. Local Peculiarities. Strange, indeed, ai'C the changes which have occuiTod in the chief seats of this manufacture. Who, among the thousands who know Sussex as an agi'icul- tural and pleasure-touring county, have detected or could detect any indication tltat it was once an iron-making district? y(!t such was once its chai-acter. The sand which Sussex presents in i^uch large quantity cuiUuins a rich pev- , S lUOK ANTi IT8 MAKUFACTURE. centngo of iron ; and this iron used t'omiorly to bo extmcted by smelting on the spot. It" tlie reader should ask whether the sand is less femigiuous iliaii formerly, or (if not) why the manufacture has fallen off, the answer is a siniplc but significant one. Until the last century all iron was smelted in tliis country (as in others) with chai-coal, and this charcoal was unifonnly made from the trees which grew in or near the iron district ; but this practice has b(!en nearly su- perseded by tlie use of coal and coke. A timber ti'ee, the giowtli of a century, may be consumed in a few weeks or even days in smelting operations ; the consumption is much more rapid than tlie growth ; and it thus happened that the malcing of charcoal for the smelting of iron was one chief cause of tlie great destruction of our ancient woods. Evelyn made a kind of sorrowing complaint against Nature, for having " tliought fit to produce this wasting ore more plentifully in wood-lands than any other gromid, and to enrich om- forests to their own destruction ; " and he utters a " deep execration of iron mills, and iron masters also." If he could have lived to see the day when Sussex, by becoming too tliinly supplied with timber fuel, would cease to bo tormented with "iron mills and iron masters," he might have softened his anathema. Smoky and dirty as our iron disti'icts may be, they do not in the present day involve the cutting down of trees for charcoal fuel ; and we are so far better off than Evelyn in his Sylvan days. Sussex has no coal, and the iron manufacture left the county when smelting with coal or coke began to supersede smelting with charcoal. Sussex has iron without coal, Durham has coal (nearly) without iron ; and the iron-smelting operations are not located in either county. — This gives us a clue to the circumstances which detenninc the localization of iron works. The series of iron ores dejiosited in tlie Great Exhibition, illustrating the general h-on-making resources of the United Kingdom, together with the sta- tistical information concerning them given in the Official Illustrated Catalogue, are full of interest. From thence we learn that the gi-oss annual produce of iron now reaches the enoniious quantity of two and a quarter millions of tons ; of which South Wales yields about 700,000, Scotland 000,000, Staffordshire and its neighbourhood 600,000, while the remainder is made up of small contribu- tions from vaiious counties. It is not simply the possession of the iron oro which gives us so great advantages in this mighty department of industry; but tlie coal is so abundant and in such near j)roxinuty to the iron, and tlii) lime and claystone necessaiy to facilitate the smelting ai-e also so amply sup- plied, that nearly all the iron can be smelted in the district where it is raised, and the expense of bulky carnage is thereby notably lessened. If the iron ore of the coal districts should ever be exliausted, however, we have still a supply in numerous counties belonging to other geological foniiations. The product; of the British iron manufactm-e in 1750 was only 80,000 tons; in 1800 it had increased to 180,000; in 1825, 600,000. In 1820 the duties upon the intro- duction of foreign iron were either removed or rendered nominal ; tlie Britisli u-on was left to work its own way, according to its o\vn peculiar properties, while foreign iron became freely obtainable for such purposes as it is most fitted for; luid vuider tlie influence of these unshackled movements the manufac- ture has risen in the astonishing way noted .'ibove. In the fifty years previous to 1800 it increased six-fold; in the fifty years subsequent to 1800 it increased twelve-fold upon tlie quantity for that year, or seventy-two fold upon the quantity for 1750! It is in truth among the most astonishing instances of industrial progress which our country exliibits. Taking the Monkland Iron \^'^orks, at Caldcr, as a typo of progi'css generally, wo find that in 1805 forging molting on [iuoiis tluin is II simple liis country ini the ticos L nearly su- f a century, ations ; tli(3 [ipened that auso of the f sorrowing wasting ore enrich our ition of iron le day when cease to he softened his ) not in the id we arc so •onl, and the ke began to )al, Dui'hani B not located ;li detenninc ustrating the tvith the sta- Catalogue, uce of iron of tons; of ordshire and lall contrihu- the iron ore of industry; ron, and th(5 amply sup- it is raised, the iron ore till a supply .'he product: 1800 it had n the intro- tlie British properties, it is most ic manufac- [irs previous it increased vipon the instances •)!' ikland Iron Is05 forgin;4 mOK AND ITS fttANUFAOTtJRE. 8 and rolling only were carried on by tlie aid of water power ; tliat, in I fi28, taking advantage of the excellent iron ore in tlic neighbourhood, smelting was conunenced; and that in 185 1 the works compiise nine blast furnaces, at which 00,000 tons of pig-iron and 40,000 tons of malleable iron are produced annually, employing 2600 miners and workmen, and affording school accom- modation for 1400 children. The Dowlals Works at Merthyr Tydvil present itill more striking proofs of recent advancement. If we look at the distribution of the mining and smelting operations, as given in the authoritative work above quoted, we lind the following facts : — That portion of the Houth Wales district which has IVIeilhyr Tydvil as its mining metropolis has 12 principal iron works, with 70 furnaces ; tlie Ponty- pool district has 7 works, with 23 furnaces; the Tredegar district has 10 works, and 50 furnaces ; the Neath district has 6 works, and 20 fumaces ; the I'en- tyrch district 5 works, and 1 1 furnaces ; and the Rlniabon district 2 works, and 5 I'urnaces. There are a few smaller works not here included, and some of tho furnaces are out of blast ; bat without going into pai'ticulars in these matters, it may suffice to state that in 1848 the number of iron furnaces in Great Britain was estimated as follows : — England 280 Wales 207 Scotland 130 023 The English fumaces are smaller than those of Wales or Scotland, and do not yield so much iron per week. From the specimens at the Exhibition wo may see how numerous are tlu.i veins or beds of iron ore, how varied are their appearance, and what strange local names are given to them. We find the soap vein, the hhivk jviis, and the three-quarter balls; the black band, tlie spotted pin, and the little ])in; the bi(/ blue, the little blue, and the lumpy; the jenkin inns and the 2^emi}f pieces, the blue Jlats and the Bristol diamonds, tlie doff tooth and the bacon jiitch, and numerous others, the etymology of which it would be no easy matter to determine. Each of the iron districts has some peculiarity or other, which gives it com- mercial importance. The Ystalyfera iron is associated witli anthracite, which affects the smelting process. The iron ore of the Pentyrch district is princi- pally hrematite ; hut as Wales produces evciy kind of coal, from tlie bitiuninous to anthracite, it can readily smelt any kind of ort>. Plentifid as the ore is in South Wales, tlie coal is still more abundant ; and that countiy will probably long continue to be (what it has been for the last few years) the gi'catest iron- manufacturing district in the world. In the North Wales district both tlie iron and the coal seams are thin, but good. The Shropshire iron is good, but small in quantity. In Staffordshire, where coal was first used in Uie smelting of iron in 1019, the iron made is better in quality than that of Wales, and equal in quantity to the Scotch. North Staffordshire produces a much lai'ger quantity of good iron ore than can be smelted with the coal of tlie same dis- trict, and considerable supplies are furnished to other distiicts. The Yorkshire iron, from Bowling and Low Moor, is especially celebrated for its toughness. The iron oi^es of the Lake district are veiy abundant, and the finest in the kingdom ; they arc eagerly purchased by smelters elsewhere. The Forest of Dean iron ore is especially fitted for tlie making of tin (or radier tinned iro.n) plates, and is sent into Wales in large quantities for this purpose. There is a small quiintity of ore among the primitive rocks of Devon and Cornwall, better c 2 4 IRON AND ITS MANUFACTURE. fitted for milking steel tlian other English ore ; hut Uicre are difficulties in bringing it protitiibly to market. It is tlius tliat every kind of iron ore, like other raw materials of manufacture, finds out the market most suited for it when left to the natural operations of commerce. Occasionally proofs are presented to us tliat tlio qualities of iron depend, not only on tliose of tlio ore whence it has been produced, but idso on the extenml agents to which the iron itself has been exposed. A writer in one of tlie London newspapers some yews ago congi'atulated himself and otliers that " we may one day mow our beai'ds witJi a relic of Old London Bridge." It appears that when that venerable structure was taken down to mi\ko room for the present bridge, tlic wrought iron with which the piles were shod was Ibiuid to have undergone petiUiar modifications ; the action of tlie moist clay, without access of air, had gi\en it a fineness of (piality and a malleability which rendered it admirably fitted for making steel ; and many tons of it were bought by lui eminent London cutler for this piui)ose. A peculij,r and interesting feature in tlie Industrial Exhibition, in connection willi the iron manufacture, is the model of the Ebbw Vulu district, beneath ■which iron ore is met with in such abounding qutmtity. The Ebbw is a river flowing near the boundaiy between Monmouth and (Jlamorgan counties; and the ncighbouibood presents many iron works on a large sciUe. The model is-' made accurately to scale, luul shows the chai'acter of the country, tlie order of stratification, and other physical featm-es ; and, being made to dissect, it exhibits tlio arrangements of the mining works beneath, the shafts, galleries, adits, and cross cuts. There is also, accompanying this, a model of a blast furnace, such as are used in the Welsh iron works. These two models, together with tlxo numerous specimens of iron and iron-ore deposited in the south-west part of tlie Exhibition, are full of instruction to tliose who can bestow sometliing more than a mere passing glance on them. Modern Agents — the Hot Bi..\st, the Steam Hammeij, etc. It is unfortunately by no means common for on inventor to live to sec hk countiy enriched by his inventions mid himself appreciated as the inventor; but such has been tlie good fortune of Mr. Neilson. In 18^7, Uic year pre- vious to the patenting of the hot-blast metliod, Scotland had only eighteen iron furnaces, which produced about 30,000 tons of pig-iron against 050,000 tons produced in England and Wales. W'hat has been the progi'ess in the last twenty or twenty-four years ? It has been, in Scotland, almost inconceiv- ably rapid ; our iiortheni neighbours sent into tlie mai-ket 240,000 tons of pig-iron in 1840, and 090,000 tons hi 1849. We must not be supposed to imply that this enormous advance was due only to the substitution of the hot blast for the cold blast in smelting ; but it is clearly understood that this agency has been more influential than any other in the matter. Mr. INIushot (' Papers on Iron and Steel ') has been able to present in a remarkable light the improvements made in less than a quarter of a century, consequent on the introduction of the hot blast. The instances adduced are of the greater value in respect tlrat tliey all refer to one establishment, and tliereby atl'oicl materials for comparison. At the Clyde Iron Works, just before tlie introduc- tion of the hot blast, tlie quantity of materials necessaiy for the production of I ton of pig-iron was about 3 tons of coke, 1 f tons of calcined ore, and h ton of limestone. In 1831, when the hot blast was coming pretty extensively into use, the quantities were 8 tons of coke, 'rJ tons of calcmed ore, and ^ ton IKON ANI> ITS MANUl'ACTTaii:. icnUies in >n ore, liki! lited lov it U'peiul, not lio extern 111 one of Uie otliera that »u IJviilt^e." nnikc room I'c shod was moist day, .bility whii'h ,vere bought 1 connection ict, beneath Ebbw is a an countiiis; scale. The the country, ing made to 1, the shafts. 1, a model of I two models, osited hi the ose who ciui ETC. :e to sec his the inventor; lie year' pre- |nly eighteen inst 050,000 L-ess in tlie Ist inconceiv- 1,000 tons of 1 supposed to In of the hot ^od that this Mr. Mushct u-kable light [nsequent on the greater hereby ailbrcl he introduc- production of je, and | ton extensively and h toil of limestone : the air of the blast being heated to a tompcraturo of 400° or even 000" Fahr. in IK.'IU, when tho nietliod had becomo more Adly esta- blished, and when the heat of blast was raised to the temperature of melting load, till* ((uantities were 1 4 tons of coal, 1^ tons of calcined ore, and \ ton of limostone. It is thus seen how greatly the consumption of coal is les- sened by tho use of tlio hot blast. What is tho philosophy, tho scientific rationale, of the hot blast, is still a subject of discussion and inquiry ; we may give a homely illustration by supposing a common bellows to be supplied with hot air instead of cold, aiul the lire excited to a much liigher degree of heat tliiui if cold air had been employed ; but if wo further suppose that the coal in the fire, and tlic coal which heated the air, are together le.^s in cpiantity than that which would produce the same etl'ect on the old method of bellows- blowing, we shall have an idea of the important (luostiou which is engaging the attention of manufacturers. It would give an erroneous view of tlio subject, howev(;r, to attribute to tho hot blast tlie introduction of vast extensions, without noticing other matters which facilitated those extensions in other ways. A few such must be hero noticed. It was towards tlie close of the last centuiy that the capital improvement was introduced of bringing malleable iron into the forms of bars and rods, by passing it between grooved rollers instead of simply hammering it on tlm anvil ; but it is in the present century that the invention has worked out its striking results. The inventor, however — like too many other inventors — lacked a sufficient return for his ingenuity : he spent his fortune in tho enter- prise, Jind died poor. Mr. Cort introduced and patented this method in 1784; and his son petitioned Parliament in IHl'^ to make some return for tho vast national benefit which had by that time accrued from the invention ; but it does not appear that any fruits resulted from the application. Another improvement — and one that certainly must take rank among tlio Curiosities of the Iron Manufacture — was the introduction of iron-slitting mills into tills country. Until the invention (just noticed) of rollers for making Ijars and rods, all bars abo\e three-quarters of an inch square were made by llie tedious process of hammering at the anvil ; while sizes below that limit were produced by slitting, which superseded a much less efficient process. Coleridge, in his ' Letters, Conversations, and Recollections,' gives the follow- ing narrative: — " The most extraordinary and best attested instance of enthu- siasm existing in conjmiction with perseverance, is related of the founder of the J^'oley family. This man, who was a fiddler, living near Stourbridge, was often witness of the immense labour and loss of time caused by dividing tlie rods of iron necessary in the process of making nails. The discovery of tlio process called s])litting, in works called splitting mills, was first made in Sweden ; and the consequences of this advance in art were most disastrous to the manufacturers of iron about Stourbridge. Foley, the fiddler, was shortly missed from his accustomed round, and was not again seen for many years, lie had mentally resolved to ascertain by what means the process of splitting of bars of iron was accomplished ; and without commmiicating his intention to a single human being, he proceeded to -Hull, and thence, without funds, worked his passage to tlie Swedish iron port. Arrived in Sweden, he begged and fiddled his way to the iron foundries, where, after a long time, he became a universal favourite with the workmen ; and, from tho aj)i)arent entire ab- sence of intcUi.uence, or anything like ultimate object, he was received into the works, to every part of which he had access. lie tooJc the advantage tlxus f'Vlflf-T^XW^ ^"▼^^■^■^■^^^W •^^^^^mmH^^m IftOl(f AKD tTS MANtTPACTTJim:. offered, nnd hiivinp Htoretl his memoiy with ohsorvations on nil the combina- tions, he (lisappcanKl from amongst his kind friends ns he had appciarcd, no one knew whence or whither. On his rctimi to I'lnt'liind he connnunicatcd his voyage und its results to Mr. Knight luid another person in the ncighl)our- hood, witli whom he was a.ssociiited, and by whom the necessaiy bjiildings were erected and machineiy provided. When at lengtli evciything was pre- pared, it was found tliat the macliinery woidd not act ; at all events it did not answer the sole end of its erection — it would not split the bar of iron, l^'olciy disai)peared again, and it was concluded that shame and mortification at his failure had driven him away for ever. Not so : again, tliough scmiewhat mou! speedily, he found his way to the Swedish iron works, where he was receivtul most joyfully ; and, to make more of their fiddler, he was lodged in the split- ting mill itself. Here was the veiy end and aim of his life attained beyond his utmost hope. He examined the works, and very soon discovered IIk- cause of his failure. Ho now made drawings or mde tracings ; and having abided an ample time to verify his obseiTations and to impress them clearly and vividly on his mind, he made his way to the port, and once more retimied to England. This time he was completely successful, and by the residts of his experience enriched himself and greatly benefited his countiymen. This" (adds Coleridge) " I hold to be the moat extraordinary instance of credible; devotion in modem times." It is no more than just to name the mighty steam-hammer of Nasmyth as one of the means whereby the iron-mannfacture has been lately advanced. The irresistible power with which this machine falls upon the glowing masscM of iron taken from the furnaces greatly expedites the process of irninulacturc. On the occasion of the visit made to Binningham by the Commissioners and Juries of the Great Exhibition, a steam-hammer, at Messrs. Fox and Hender- son's establishment, was made to perform its part among the wonders of tin' day ; and we may be pretty cerfain that the controlling workman, the captain of the hammer, did not fail to exhibit the customaiy "magique mysterieusi; " of that apparatus — tlie delicate and gentle cracking of a nut by a machine which could almost crush an elephant. MODEIIN EXPEBIMENTS, AKD TUinU ResUI.TS. One of the notable nnprovements introduced in recent years is a combluii- ti(m of many kinds of iron, to ensure the good cpialities of each; and anotlicr is the admixture of f tnall quantities of other metals. It i.s supposed that tlit' fluidity of Berlin cast iron, by which the exquisitely delicate omaments aic capable of being produced, is due to the addition of a little arsenic. Manga- nese is found to give a closeness of grain to iron. Calamine (carbonate ol J5inc) gives increased malleability to iron ; and with certain kinds it jn'oduccs extraordinary toughness. If calamine be introduced into tlie iron of a wheel or a rail, it gives toughness and strengtli ; while if antimony be added to the iron of the surface, it imparts a steely hardness ; so that qualities can be in- duced suitable to the diti'erent kinds of senice which each part is to render. And it is remarkable that these changes are wrought by so small a ratio as 1 per cent, or less of the additional metal. On the other hand, the addition of 1 or 'i per cent, of iron to brass has recently been found to produce a most valuable substitute for bell-metal, gun-metal, and similar compounds ; large guns, large screws, propeller vanes, mill brasses, railway bearings, bells, and other articles, are now made of a metal in which copper, zinc, tin, and iron IKON AND ITS MANUFACTIUK. 1 coTubina- •oared, no uunu'ivU'd ioighl»our- ; waH [no- It ditl tint lU. I't'lcy ion at his wbat inui(! IS rcc(!ivi'(l I the Hpht- ed beyond nvrred the nid huvhi^ the addition duce a most mids; largi' bells, and 111, and iron all take part; tho proportions are varied accordiiif,' as (on^hncss, hardnoss, sonorous power, or siisceptihility of receiviiifi a polish, are recpiired ; but tho comhiuod cheapness and ollicioney of the new alloys are now beconiing very apparent. There are sevtjral hells in tho Kxhibition of lino tono, inado of an iron-alloyed metiU, which is only half tho prici! of bell-niotal. KeturnuiK to iron manufactures, properly so called, it is found that Uussian sheet iron (abundant specimens of which are to ho seen in tho Kxhibition) is said to ho superior in quality to most prod ucud in En^'land ; u jieculiar fibrous iron is ro(piired ; and this librous (piality is given to the ilussian iron (as is supposed) by th(3 presonco of a little phosphorus luid u little silica in the ore, and by tho acfjuisition of a little carbon from tho wood-fuel used in smelting. Such aro tlio discoveries which chemistry is gradually enabling us to make; : when wo know tho causes of difference, we may perchance make tliose differences dis- appeai" at pleasure. All tlio world knows that improvements in manufacture tend to eoouomi/o material. What a capital result it will bo, if future experiments should esta- blish tlio soundness of a principle which was brought before tho British Asso- ciation in 1850, connectod with iron furnaces! When iron is smelted in ono of tho huge blast furnaces of South Wtiles, four tons weight of gaseous pi-o- ducts ai'o sent off' into tlie air for eveiy ton of iron smelted ; ami these gases cany with them an immense amount of heat. Cannot tliey bo njbbed of some of this heat, and the heat be applied to useful pmposes? Such is tho fpiestion now at issue ; and Mr. Budd, of the Ystalyfera Iron Works, answers it in the affirmative. He docs not allow the lieated gas(;s and smoke to esca])0 immediately at the top of the furnace ; but he imprisons them in a series of Hues, where they ai-e made to heat the air for the hot blast, and to produce the steam which is to impel this hot blast into the furnace ; and when tliese services are rendered, he finally liberates the partially cooled gases. At Dun- dyvon Woi'ks, in Scotland, owijig to the enormous quantity of gases which tlie Scotch coal gives off, we are told that tlie waste heat from ono fniiiace is actually sufficient to heat tlie blast, and to raise tlie steam for iliree. Mr. Budd even thinks tliat tlio waste heat of ono Scotch funiace is sutticiont not only to heat and supi)ly the blast for that funiace, but to convert the pig-iron into bar-iron in other furnaces ; and he seems to entertain no doubt tliat the ingenuity of our northern neighbours will point out tho way to realize these advantages. He states that, even now, upwards of a ton of coals is saved in smelting a ton of iron at Dundyviui, by making tlie heat of tho furnace do more work before being pennittcd to take its aerial tlight ; but this is so enor- mous an amount, that it seems to require verification. Mr. Budd may yet, however, live to see his prediction verified, that " funiace heat will be let out, like mill-power, for burning bricks and otlier similar piu'poses." In tliese days when the famed Koh-i-noor is undergoing criticism alike from all quarters, from tho duke to the dustman, and when Spanish jewels and Ilussian jewels, Indian jewels and Tunisian jewels, are being gazed at by mil- lions of persons, it may be interesting to bear in mind that tlie diamond has on some occasions been used to convert iron into steel. A somewhat stailling and costly experiment tliis ! One of the points of difference bet'.vcoAi steel and bar-iron is, tliat the former contains more carbon tliau tlie latter: and as the diamond consists of absolutely pure carbon (so fai' as experiments have liitlierto determined) it has been thought worth while to try whether iron can be imbued with the reciuisite dose of carbon from tliis source. In the infant stage of tlie first French revolution, when considerable activity was displayed l! i ; I 8 IRON AND ITS MANUFACTUnE. nmong the scientific men of that country, M. Clouet commnnieatctl to tlio National Institute tlio result of an experiment he made in this direction ; and shortly aftenvards Guyton Morveau repeated the experiment. A small dia- mond was selected, and wedged with iron filings into an iron cnicihle of defi- nite weight, the ratio between the weight of tlie diamond and that of the iron having been previously determined on; tlie iron cmciblo was placed in a second crucible of Hessian earth ; this into a third crucible of the same sub- stance (with a layer of siliceous sand between the two) ; and this into a highly heated furnace. After an hoiu's heating, the diamond and the iron were found to have disappeared, and a globule of steel to have been fomied from them, the weight of which wanted only a few gi'ains of that of the ingi'edieiits conjointly. Much controversy arose from tliis diamond experiment ; but the costliness of the precious gem deteiTed all but two or three pei'sons from repeating it. j\Ir. Mushet was one who took up tlie subject eagerly ; and ho mentions tlie names of lidios who, taking an interest in tlie issue of the expe- riment, t'lnsfeired some diamonds from their je^\3l caskets to the crucible, or at least placed them in his hands for this pui'pose. To imagine the Koh-i-noor transformed into one component material for a knife, a saw, or a fiUi, might seem a veiy woeful imagining — a sort of descent from the sublime to tiio ridiculous ; but it would, in fac^ elucidate in a significant way the diflferencc between commercml value and chemical value. Recent Applications of Iron in the Arts. ' It is in the application of iron to new pui-poses, or in the extension of its use in others, tliat the pr 'gross of the last half-centuiy has been most marked, and presents the greater r. umber of curious fpatures. The Birmingham and Hardware departments of the Great Exhibition arc tvuly remarkable manifestations of the extent to which the manufacture of iron and steel is now carried. There is a veiy world of grates and stoves, dazzlingly bright, displaying their painted china tablets, their omiolu decora- tions, their encaustic tiles, their foliage and flowers of burnished steel, their iRIoresque and diapered patterns, their small busts and statuettes, and their delicate white marble. There is the unrivalled cutleiy of Sheffield, which some towns in our own countiy, and some countries abioad, are attempting to imitate, but nowhere with full success; the knives, the razors, the scissors, the weapons, the tools, the needles, the saws, tlie files — these are the commo- dities which, not only in ^lessrs. F^odgers's Sheffield trophy in the Englisli nave (with its half-grain of steel \M'ought into twelve pairs of scissors), but in the larger and more diversified Sheffield compartment, exemplify tlie remark- able degree of skill now attained in this department of hidustry. But if Sheffield attracts us by the brilliancy and excellence of her steel goods, Bir- mingham tells a still more extraordinaiy tale concerning the diversity which marks her manufactures in metal. Taking no account (becaur^e they do not belong to the subject of tliis paper) of the varied Bimiingham products in copper, zinc, brass, pewter, lead, tin, gold, silver, and other metals, how end- less are the forms into which the industi-y of that toAvn has brought iron and steel! Bedsteads, chain-work, trays, fire furniture and stoves, safes, swords, fire-aiTis, saucepans, kettles, locks, keys, saddlers' ironmongery, needles, fish- hooks, pens, nails, screws — it is quite in vain to attempt anything like an enu- meration. Oni! of the exhibitors has shown how effective is noAV the process of rolling iron into very thin leaves or sheets ; he has produced a book, con- IRON AND ITS MANUFACTITHE. tctl to tlio ition ; ami 8ir>all ilia- ble of defi- af the iron laced in a same snb- to a highly iron were rtTiiecl from ingredients at ; but the rsons from ly ; and he )f the expc- crncible, or ! Koh-i-noor L file, might lime to tiie le difference ■nsion of its been most diibition arc nufacture of and stoves, lolu decora- steel, their ;s, and thoir ftield, which ttcmpting to the scissors, the commo- the English sors), but in tlie reniark- ry. But if goods, Bir- ersity which they do not products in is, how end- ;ht iron and fes, swords, sedles, fish- llike an enu- the process book, con- sisting of forty .ir leaves, or eighty-eight pages, of shoot iron, measuring about live inches by three, and so thin that the whole weighs only two and a liaU' ounces. Some of these productions belong especially to Birmingham ; some find their head-quarters rather at Woherhampton, Walsall, Dudley, or others of the remarkable gi'oup of towms lying north and west of the " toy shop of Europe." If we speak of locks and keys and safes, a veiy world of complica- tion lies before us. Tbough South Staffordshire produces more locks, perhaps, tlian all the rest of the kingdom together, it is impossible to forget the names of Chubb and Bramah and Mordan, with their Koh-i-nOor cages, their myrio- permutation keys, their impenetrable locks, and their incombustible safes. Some of the locks and safes are really curious specimens of careful workman- ship. There is the qtuiditqyU lock, consisting of four distinct locks in ^inith, who offers us a store of gold if we can open the casket which contains it. Nay — almost while the pi'esent page is being written — this same locksmith has startled his British compeers by picking a lock which they deemed not-to-be picked. It would, indeed, be one of the " Curiosities " of the Great P^xliibition, to lead to the develoiimcnt of a new pick-lock theory ! But those details, which relate to clever mechanical working in producing the countless implements of iron at the present day, scarcely come within the scope of this pai)er. It ic the capahlUty of being so applied, and the extension of tliat capability, that we wish here to draw attention to. The substitution of wrought iron for cast iron in bridges is one of tire most notable changes introduced withi" tlie last few years. This change, though not originated, was gi'eatly advanced by the experiments relating to the Britannia Tubular Bridge. Those experiments showed that a scpiare form of tube is stronger than a circular or an elliptical forai, contraiy to what many persons would have supposed; and they also proved, that if the top were cornigated, or else fonncd of a nuinber of minor tubes, the strength \,ould bo greatly increased. This discovery at once suggested a modified form of tubular girder adapted to shorter spans ; and we now find such girder-bridges being formed all over England. Mr. Fairbaim, the talented engineer, to whose experiments this advancement is mainly due, says in one of his scientific papers, — " The strength, ductility, anc^ comparative lightness of the material are the important elements of these girders; and tlieir elasticity, retention of form, and other properties, render them infinitely more secui'o thim those composed of cast iron, which, from the brittle nature of tlu; material, and imperfections in the castings, are liable to break without notice, and to which the wrought-iron girder is not subject. This is, however, pro- bably of less importance, as the wrought-iron girder will be found not only cheaper, but (when well constructed, and upon the right principle,) upwards of three times the strength of cast iron." The reader Avill easily recognise these wrought-iron bridges when they meet his view; they are composed chiefly of plates of iron rivetted to each other, and to thicker pieces of what (from their shape) are cafled T and L iron. Of the mighty stmcture just named, the Britannia Tubular Briscutmg m iprisin^ in aiitl exccu- ie familial' leme relies, sry dry and terials, the ic adhesion ) researches pie couccp- . its realiza- i invalitahlo mtance with 3; and will ather works piece-meal, 31'. Such is louses. Wc An Pier, who ghtliouse on ibv Jainaioit, her. A lew ,eve that the tubular and ;t-i]'on j)lates •..i' ■■■'■, ally . ' . l;!.ei ill .ttling, hipli- Ikiek anil ne for such f thousands, learly ready- s shipped at hi^'h to tho which havo witli swivel .h.rtl ju [tev- uij^ on the lies ; and the tove in eaeli t peculiarity ted togetlicr lUON ANU ]TS MAXUFACTUUE. U with groat expedition. Such a one as is here described weighs about 2iJ- tons, and costs t(5() to ,t70; and three or four men can put it up and bring it uito liabitable order in as :niuiy days; for cveiy piece is marked, evciy bolt-holo made, and every bolt and nut provided. In a less ambitious fonn, outliousea, stables, piggeries, and sheds ai-e made in tlie same way. Warehouses of con- siderable dimensions are similarly manufactured. Perhaps one of tho largest iron houses yet built was one which Messrs. Bellhouso, of tlie Eagle Foundry at IVIanchester, sent to California a year or two ago. It was 27 feet high by 2;i wide, two stories in height, and containing eight rooms. Besides the general sti'uctural arrangement, there was a wood lining for aveiy room, and a corm- gated gahanized iron covering for the exterioi". The interior fittings w(U'o said to be equal to tlie average of houses of the same size in England, and yet to be so formed as to bo transportable in pieces to their destination. We nmst not forget that, if iron has become a substitute for stone and brick in some particulars, it also presents a fomiidable rivalry in others to hemp. Chains for cables, and wires for ropes, are extending most widely in use ; they render navigation, mining, and otlier important avocations, less dangeroxis and more eft'ective than heretofore. One of the most notable advancements in the iron manufacture in recent years has been the inti'oduction of fialvanized tinned iron for an almost in- numerable variety of purposes. This consists of iron plate coated with tin, not by tlie ordiiiary tin-plate process, but by galvanic deposition. It senes m a substitute for plain iron, for tin-plate, for zinc, and for lead, under certain special circumstances. It is stronger and more durable, for many purposes, than lead or zinc ; it is better tlian plain ii'on whore rust is to bo avoided ; it is superior to lead and zinc in wami climates, inasmuch as it does not cxiiand and contract to so great a degree; and it is said that the New York Fire Insurance Offices will insure houses at a lower prcanium if covered with this material than with any other. Withinsido a house and without, in vcisscls and in utensils, in towns and in the country, in nuunifactures and in dome.-.iic economy, wc now find this substance employed. Hei'e we meet with gal- vanized tinned-iron corrugated plates for roofing, and for the sides and doors of " California houses ;" in another form tliere are plain plates for the simio pui"pose; roofs for sheds, roofs and sides for storehouses, and many siinihu" purposes. The roof of the Merchants' Exchange at New York, and that of the new Cathedral at Antigua, liave lately bccin formed of tlie same material, besides roofs of many buildings in tliis country. Then, besides Uie sheet form, there are round and square bars, hoop-iron, wire, tubes and pipes, nails, rivets, bolts, screws — all fonuful of iron tlms protected by the galvano-tin process. There is this advantage also, which is unattainable by the ordinaiy tin-plate process, that articles can be tinned after they are made in tlie proper form of iron, provided tliey are of small dimensions. We o\ight to have stjited above, that the jilates are really a combination of three met»Us; for in tlio first place, a layer of tin is prpcipitated on the iron plates from a solution of chloride of tin by the galvanic process ; and then a layer of zinc is obtauied by (lipping the slitjets into molten zinc. The louvre-boards, or mtlier louvre- plates, which regulate tlie ventilation of the Gi'eat Industrial building, are formed of the material now under notice. That many of our novelties and attractions in iron result fi ;m improved and improving taste is now pretty evident. The schools of design have not l)(>en unfruitful in good results. It is generally admitted, by Uioso who were in a position to form a judgment, that the French Exposition of 1841 exer- ,;*■ \\-A h 13 IRON AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 1 f, cis&d a powerful influence on the iron-founders of this countiy. "SVhatevor may be the value, in a commercial point of view, of the protection which the French Government tlirows aromid home manufactures, the beauty of the ornamental iron castings displayed at that Exposition was imiversally acknow- ledged. English manufacturers felt that their position was rendered critical ; and since that time a marked improvement has been witnessed in one depart- ment of manufacture which appeals in a peculiar way to English habits : we allude to stoves, grates, fire-places, and fire fum'.ture. It is unquestionable that England has recently made a great advance in the ornamental details of tliese productions. The Coalbrook Dale Company's dome, or summer-house, or whatever it may most fittingly be designated, in the nave of the Great Exhibition, is perhaps the most remai'kable specimen of casting contributed l)y any English finm. The dome itself, supported by six nistic-looking columns, from which oak branches and leaves spread out beneath tlie dome, exhibits a high degi-ee of skill in casting, independent of such merit as it may possess a? an artistic design. But we may here ask, as has been asked by others, "v f ' . uld this casting be bronzed?" Many croakere say that we are livhig in Ui. of shams; it may be so; but at any rate it is worth while to avoid sJ: ans as far as we can. Papier mache is good, and iron is good; but when tlie first puts on the semblance of solidity which belongs to wood, and the latter the tints which belong to bronze, there is a sort of trickery with which the mind is not ipiite satisfied — an uttering of (not base coin) but coin which is needlessly ashamed to show its o^vn honest face. Why is not a good iron casting beautiful in an unadorned, unbronzed state ?' Austria, Berlin, and France, have all sent us castings in which the iron integiity of surface (so to speak) is fully preserved. Our founders can now, if they give fair play to their own skill, produce fine castings either of iron or of bronze ; but they sinely undeiTalue their art when they give a bronze cosmetic to tnie iron. .,1 I' it Iron Work of the Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace does not come foi-mally within the scope of this paper; yet it is impossible not to see how strikingly that sti-ucture illustrates the rapid advance in tlie use of iron. The Iloyal Connnissioners, in Mai'ch, l^W, invited suggestions and plans for an Exhibition building from all quai lers ; and in the following month no fewer than ^IHS designs were sent in. Eng- land, France, Belgium, Holland, Hanover, Pi'ussia, Hamburgh, Switzerland, Naples — all competed. But all were equally laid aside. "Every possible variety in style, in decoration, material in construction, and system in arrange- ment, wei>e strenuously recommended by the authors of tlie respective de- signs as the gi'eat ultimatum sought for;" and yet the Building Committee " arrived at tlie unanimous conclusion that, able and admirable as many of these designs appeared to be, there was yet no single one so accordant with the peculiar objects in view, either in the principle or detail of its arrange- ments, as to warrant us in recommending it for adoption." Two of the most remarkable plans sent in were by M. Horeau, of Paris, and Messrs. Turner, of Dublin, — both illustrative in a marked degi-ee of the proposed use of iron. M. Korean's plan comprised one immense hall or shed, 2000 feet long by about 270 wide, with several small detached buildings. The interior was divided into five avenues by iron columns, which supported arched ribs for the roof. The whole construction was to be free of stone and wood; the foundation of brick, the fayadc of metal and glass, the floor of asphalte, the roof chielly of IRON AND ITS JIANDFACTUllE. i;; thick glass ; and the whole was to be so fonned of repetitions of similar parts, that it could readily be increased or diminished in length. ^Messrs. Turner's proposed building was about WOO feet long by 400 wide ; the roof in one span rising about IJiO feet above tlie floor; the interior to be fonned into three avenues by pillars and semicircular ribs ; the general construction of the building to be chiefly in wrought-iron plates ; a liu'ge amount of glass to be inti'oduced in the iron roof; and a glass dome to surmount the crossing of the nave and transept. Yet, as we have said, all the plans were rejected ; and the Building Com- mittee concocted one of their own, derived from tlie hints suggested by tho others. They endeavoured to combine the following qualities in their build- ing — economy of construction ; facilities for the reception, classification, and display of goods ; facilities for tlie circulation of visitors ; arrangement for gi-and points of view ; centralization of supervision ; and some striking fea- ture to exemplify tlie present state of the science of constiaiction in this countiy. The structui'e was to be supported on iron columns, with a veiy hght e-iterior, and an iron roof ; and at the centre was to be a dome of sheot iron iiOO feet in diameter. The Committee explained fully the advantages which seemed to tliem to attach to such a building ; but the public received the plan witli very general disfavom* ; and it will ever remain a curious sj^ecu- lation what could or would have been done if Mr. Paxton's happy idea had not suggested itself. On tlie occasion of the well-earned compliment paid to Mr. Fox by a public dinner from his to^vnsmen at Derby, he gave some exceedingly striking illus- trations of the difficulties and daring of the project so successfully carried through. On June 2'i, 1850, Mr. Paxton communicated his remarkable plan to Mr. Fox. On June 28, while tlie Royal Commissioners were in peiplexity concerning the numerous but uni>romising building-plans which were before tliem, Mr. Fox went to Birmingham, to put in hand the drawings and specifications upon which his tender would be based. On July Ji ]\lr. Cole (one of tlie Executive Committee) visited Binningham, with a view of ottering any suggestion which might smooth the path for this novel project; and about tlie same time the addition of the transept (not included in INIr. Paxton's original plan) was suggested by Mr. Henderson, and ajiprovcd by Mr. Paxton. The arched fonii of the transept roof was, we believe, an ai'tcr- tliought by Mr. Fox himself. Mr. Fox states that just before his tender was sent in he " walked out one evening into Portland Place ; and there setting off the 1850 feet upon the pavement, found it the same length within a few yards ; and then, considering that the building woiUd be tliree times the width of tliat fine sti-eet, and the nave as high as the houses on either side, I had presented to my mind a pretty good idea of what we were about to under- talce ; and I confess tliat I considered the difficulties to be suraiounted in constmcting that gi'eat palace were of no ordinaiy kind ; but feeling confident that with great energy, good anangements, and a hearty co-operation on the part of our e.xtensive and well-disciplined staff", it might be accomplished, and that upon it depended in all probability tlie success of the Exhibition, we deteniiined to undertake the responsibility ; and the opening on tlie 1st May has proved the correctness of our conclusions." The tender was sent in on the 10th of July ; tlie arched roof of the transept, as an additional feature, was suggested to the Commissioners on the 15th; and the tender was ac- cepted on the JiOth, subject to the contingency of the Commissioners obtain- ing a royal charter. It affords a proof of the abiding reliance which all tlie ;<• I 11 mON AKD ITS MANUFACTURE. H parties fult in the sounclness of the groat scheme, that not only did Messrs. 1A)X and Henderson luidertuke the contract before tlie Commissionorrf wore in a position to give legal certainty to it, hut they actually incurred liabilities (a the extent of 5(>,00ui!. under tliu same uncertahity ; the tender was acco[)tcd on July *^G, but many months elapsed before Uio Commissionorb obtained their charter, Avitliout which the contract was not a legally binding one. The tender havhig been accepted, the planning of all tiae minor details, and the preparation of the working drawings, became the next stage in tlie arduous undertaking. " The drawings occupied me," says Mr. Fox, " about eighteen hours each day for seven weeks ; and as tliey came from my haml, i\lr. Henderson innnediately prepared the iron work and other materials nniuired in the construction of tlie building." As tlie girders and trusses were niiule, they were subjected to a test four times greater than tlieir sti'engtli would ever have to bear in practice, so as to dissipate all anxiety on this point. On tlio '^Oth of September tlie first iron column was fixed in its i)lace. " From this time," ]Mr. Fox adds, " I took the general management of the building under my chai'ge, and spent all my time upon the works, feelhig that, miless tluj same person who had made the drawings was also present to assign to each part, as it arrived upon the ground, its proper position in tlio structure, it would be impossible to finish tlie building in time to ensure tlie opening on the 1st of May." The contractors speedily got the operation into such good train, that they were able each day to lix as much iron work as would be required for the roofs of tlie Derby station, one of the largest railway stations in the kingdom. The iron-work of this building, tliis curiosity of industiy and daring enterprise — this " huge mass of ti'ansparency," as it has been designated — may be briefly described in the following words. The building, as almost every one is now aware, is about 1851 feet long by 408 wide. There is, besides tliis, an additional projecting poilion on the north side, 93(5 feet long by 48 wide. Very noiU" the centre of the length, at a point d(}tcnnined by the presence of certain large trees, tlie building is crossed bv a vaulted transept, 408 feet long, 72 wide, and 108 high; and other trees in various parts of tlie area have detennined the formation of five open courts. The tottd aiea of tlie building is about six times tliat of St. Paul's Cafliedral ! It is a notable feature in the building, that '2i feet is n unit of horizontal measurement tlu'oughout every pai't. All tlie various a\enues which lead east and west through tlie structm'e are 1^4, 48, or 72 feet in width ; the transept is T2 feet wide , ^he galleries ai'e 94 feet wide ; the refreshment courts are 4s feet wide ; the various " courts" which fomi such admirable exhibition rooms, such as the Medireval, the Cai'riage, the Sheffield, the Bimiinghani, the Tunisian Courts, itc, are 48 feet wide ; the external pailitioning presents w-feet compartments ; tlie elegant iron railing which suiTounds tlie buildiny; has its standards or posts 8 feet apai't ; tlie ridge-smd-fuiTOw roof has the ridges 8 feet apai't. All these numbers are either multiples or sub-niultii)les of '^4 ; and it has been found tliat the calculations necessary in adjusting the materials have been greatly facilitated by tliis simplicity of ratio. This symmetry is ob- tained by i)lacing all the hollow iron columns which form the skeleton of the building at distances of 24^ feet apart, except in those places where the wider avenues or courts require a space of 48 or 7 '2 feet. For the most part, the building is seen to be divided into bays or compartments, exactly 24 feet squai'e. iHON AND ITS MAXUFACTUllK. 15 (Vul Mi'ssrs. iurs wcro in iubilitios to as rtcccptcd VH obtuijiccl one. tlotaila, aiul tlvi arduous >ut eighteen hantl, ]\lr. als vtHniivod were uuuli!, . would over tit. On tlio " From this Iding under , luiless the igli to each structure, it opening on t such good 3 would bo way stations and daring lesignated— |fcet long by ion on the e length, at building is ; and other »t' five open f St. Pauls horizontal [h lead oast transept is lirts are IS tion rooms, ighani, the presents le buihling the ridges ides of '^4 ; [e materials letry is oh- ston of the the wider It part, the lly 2i feet The lower columns are 19 feet high; the upper IT; an). It may horo b(t Htat«!d, tliat tlio cwt. Hpolvcn of is tho Austriiui centner, o(iual to about 1^;) lbs. En^'lisb. Tho folli»\vin,t^ (bstails arc intcrestin}:;, for thoy relate to tbo productive industry or a (ujuntry with which wo have hithorto boon too littlo iicquainttul : — " Of the ditVuront branches of this (tho iron) dttpartniont of manufacture, those that are conductod on a larf^'i; scale seem to deseiTO most attention; aniouf^ these, the lirst that |)reseiits itself to our n(tti(!e is tho luaiuifacture of s(!ythes, sickles, and ehalV cutters. The producci of 17U scytho factories was 4,()0(>.»)()() scythes, 1, (>()(),()()(» sickles, and 1)(),00() chatf cuttei-s, valued at 5,0U(),(t()() llorins ; these articles, on account of their e.xcellent (juality, have found tlujir way into all parts of tho world. The nuuuiliicturo of pans, boilers, and kettles, carri(;d on in 50 estal)lishnunts, tunis out Ji5,000 cwt. of aiticles, valued at 075,000 florins. Tho manufacture of wiro is of {greater importance, and is carried on at 100 factories, produciujj; about 80,000 cwt., value 1,;U5 1,000 florins. The manufacture of nails is also very (extensively carried on, and amounts to 50,000 cwt., valued at y70,0<)0 florins. The smaller workshops ai)propriated to other manuliictmes in iron, produce files, knives, hatchets, shovels, sword blades, {^im barrels, and various otlier luticks, to tho value of 4,800,000 tlorins ; tluy j^ive em)»loyment to nioro than 00,000 persons (of whom about 15,000 are masters), and support 150,000 individuals, including the members of th' families of those employed." It might at first seem strange that, \shilu England can produce every kind of iron implements at e.xti'emely low prices, Austi'ia should bo able to export by millions the scythes, and sickhis, and reaping hooks needed by the farmer. But in this, as in many other cases, we umst look at the quality of tlu; oro met witli, and tho metuis for obtaining iron from the ore. Now, in Styria (one of the component members of the Austrian Empire) there is a pei-uliar and very abundant kind of s]»athic iron ore, a semi-taystalline carbonate of tlie metal ; and it is proved that the steel made from tho iron of this oro is excellently suited for the kind of services rc(iuired in tlie cutlery implements here named. ,1 Economical Pkcuoaiuties in Geumany and Ameuica. The rise of the iron manufacture in Rhenish Pmssia is beccMuing astonish- ingly rapid. Smelting mid forging estiiblishments on a very large scale are multiplying fast. Let us tidte Mr. IJantield's account of a visit wliich he jiaid to tlie iron-works of ]\Icssrs. llaniel, at Oberhausen, a few years ago. Neai* the works are cottages which the firm had built for the workmen ; tlie build- ings are well planned luid constructed, and are made over to the workmen at prime cost, to be paid for by small deductions from their wages dming a series of years ; tliis comprises tlie best elements of a Buildmg Society, witliout its defects. In respect to the value of the land near the works, ^Ir. Buiifield makes a striking remark : " It is, perhaps, not too much to say, tliat every fresh pair of rolls (rollers for nialcing biu' iron) erected at Ober- hausen, would add tlie value of a dollar an acre to every estate whose owner hud sense enough to draw his profit from it." — {Iiulustnj of the Ilhine.) The Oberhausen works stand on about as much ground as tlie Low Moor works, iu Yorkshire. Tho central part is occupied by the rolling mill, rouud which 93 IRON AND ITS MANUFACTUBE. ■ '\h neoi'ly forty puddling fumacos are ranged, each with its hammer and pair of rolls. Nasniyth's steam hammer was introduced in these works almost as soon as in Englai^d. Workmen of many different nations are employed, and on this point Mr. Banfield makes the following obsei-vations : — " When tlie di'ill is good, there is sometimes an advantage in this; for tlie national rivalry is awakened, and urges tlie men to do their. best for the sake of the good name of tlieir country as well as of their own. The high wagos paid to puddlers and rollers, and tlie present necessity for employing strangers, owing to the suddenness of tlie demand tl»at grew out of the spread of railways, is a strong incentive to tlie Germans, who make great exertions to fit Uiemselves to tlio task, and of course now succeed. The only superiority in the strange workmen lies in their having seen large works in England or in Belgium, and knowing the methods used in uem. But now that mills ai'e erecting all over Germany on quite as large a scale as the English, there will be a school to train them in at home. We could not help thinking, on viewing the scene, that some advantage might be derived from that kind of masonic hospitality which prevailed in the Middle Ages, and which encouraged men to visit other coimtries, with their trade as a passport and letter of credit, which ensm-ed them a good reception wherever tliey went. It is, perhaps, natural that strange workmen in Germany should be well received where tliey appear as teachers ; but it is creditable to every countiy in which hospitality is dictated by good feeling." a singular fact met Mr. Banfield's view : a water-mill was built, in the infancy of the works, to give motive power to tlio machineiy, but it is now wholly employed in gi'inding corn for the 1000 persons employed in the establishment. Tlio proprioto' . Iia-'-e built a refectory, where they sei^ve such of the workpeople as ai'e willing to avail themselves of the accommodation witli provisioiiH, at a low price, on a system which keeps ch ar of the knaveiy of our truck- system. It is another good feature at tliese works, that all the workpeople deposit something weekly in a Savings Bank, as n resen'e for times of dithculty. As a contrast to tlie fine an-angement of tie establishment just noticed, we may glimce at Mr. Bimfield's description ot a mining and smelting work near Siegcn. managed on what we may call t.ie peasant-proprietor system. Tlie Eisonzec'he Mine is situated in a valley; its adit, which nins upon the vein, is about an English mile in longtli. 'J'liere is no provision for horse- power, but a tram-road is used to run out the stutt". Around the entraKcc heaps of ore, of two tons each, lie nicely piled, each with a wooden cross stuck in it, marked with some kind of miners' heraldiy — such as a ship, a tree, or an initial, to indicate tliat it belongs to one particular shareholder in tlio mine. The niiiie belongs altogether to small miners, and is worked by themselves, under the direction of mining officers. From the piece-meal and primitive mode in which the operations are conducted, the profits of tiie miners amovnit to rio more than very moderate wages. In a smelting work not far from the mine, there is a fiimace in the middle of a largo casting house, which affords shelter to the numerous smelters and tlicir gossiping neighbours. As the restilt of a timid caution lest the mines should be too soon exhausted of their treasures, each smelt-work is limited to a certain number of days in each week; and each miner attends to sniolt his own little store on tlio prescribed days. Notliing can be more opposed to the organized system of a modern establishment than the proceo(lin \ CORN AND bread: WHAT THET OWE TO MACHINERT. steam power is often let out in that town ; two men, for example, have work- shops adjoining each other ; one haa a steam-engine, but the other not ; a belt or shaft is carried from one shop to tlie other, by which both may have the aid of the steam-engine's power ; and the one manufacturer pays a rent to the other for the steam power thus afforded. Now something similar to this is beginning to be applied in the agricultural districts. The owner of a port- able steam-engine conveys it from farm to farm, at the seasons when much labour is required, or at such periodical intervals as may suit the arrange- ments of the farmer ; it is used to perfoi-m tho farm-work, a rent is paid for its use, and it then travels on to another fann — it is a peripatetic operative, which lives upon cuals and water, and patiently goes anywhere to do any kind of work for anybody. The grounds of preference now claimed for moveable instead of fixed steam-engines for farms are something as follows :— in a large farm, with a fixed engine in one spot, there is great waste of labour for man and horse in bringing all the com to one spot, and making all the operations centre in one spot; if the engine can be taken to the crop, instead of the crop to the engine, power will be economised. If a farm be small, it will not afford work enough for a fixed engine ; but a moveable engine might suffice for two or more such farms. The moveable engine enables com to be threshed with much less expenditure of time and labour than by the fixed engine. In using the latter, the com is put up into ricks, pulled to pieces again, cai'ted to the threshing bam, and then brought imder the action of the fixed engine ; but when a moveable engine is employed, the complex threshing machine is attached to it, as a tender is to a locomotive, and both are driven into the com field (fine weather being of course necessary) ; the sheaves are tossed at once into the threshing machine, which is set to work by a band or gear from the engine ; and it is now found that it takes no more time to thresh the com in this way than it formerly did to cart the corn to the bam. Farm-Machines, as superseding Hand-Implements. But we must examine a little more in detail the doings of the com- husbandman, to see in what way, and to what extent, horse labour has super- seded hand labour, and the steam-engine superseded both. Mr. Pusey, in 1850, presented to the Royal Agricultural Society a valuable report on the progress of agriculture during the eight years preceding that date. His discussion of Liebig's celebrated chemical theories we will not touch upon ; but the mechanical aids to agriculture come precisely within our range ; and it is instructive to see what so competent an observer has to say on this point. We are told, then, that agricultural mechanism is " certainly the branch in which the increase of knowledge has done the most good to famiers, that increase being partly extension and partly advance." In 1840, in the same parish and with the same soil, one farmer's plough might be seen heavier for three horses than another plough for two. In many places three horses might be seen ploughing light loam : a waste of power never now seen. Agricultural horses are diminishing in number; those entered in the Tax Retm-ns for 1840 were 371,937 ; whereas those for 1848 were only 297,858. This is a very singular fact, and shows that horse-power is being now more skilfully employed than it was a short time back, owing to the improvement in machines. Mr. Pusey estimates that the actual saving to the English farmers in this item alone, COBN AND bread: WHAT THEY OWE TO MACHINERY. 7 comparing 1848 with 1840, must amount to nearly a million sterling annually. Another significant improvement is, the substitution of light carts for heavy waggons in field work. Many trials have lately shown that single-horse carts, of the Northumberland hyuild, will bring in a field of com in about the same time as the two-horse waggon ; and that both in the first cost of the vehicles and the horses, and in the daily expenses of the latter, the substitution will have a most momentous effect on the farmer's profits. Our authority speaks of the matter in an imequivocal manner : — " Here (in Wiltshire), since farmers have compared the two systems, no one buys waggons in stocking a farm ; but those who have vaggons do not like to buy a new set of carts. I should say they had bettpv sell their waggons while they can, and if tliey cannot, make a bonfire of them. To use them still is like running a stage coach in these days between London and Batli." We may, perhaps, better follow out the object of this paper by tracing the main operations of corn-husbandry in succession, so far as they involve the use of machinery ; and see how far Mr. Pusey's paper, and the Agricultural Jury's Report, will aid us. The Report here spoken of is that of Jury No. IX., relating to the agricultural machines in the Great Exhibition ; it is printed as a separate pamphlet, and also in the 'Journal of tlie Royal Agricultural Society.' And first for draining, about which we hear and read so much in tlie pre- sent day. The draining of arable land has given rise to many machines of grea>; in- genuity. It is not an annual process to be performed by tlie farmer, n'"!' on some land is it required at all ; but in wet soils tlie landlord now finds it worth his while to bear the expense of thorough draining once for all. Drains or trenches have to be dug, and tiles or pipes laid in these trenches ; hence tile and pipe-making machines have come to occupy an important position at our Agi'icultural Shows. Until about 1840 the tiles were made by hand ; but now pipes are generally substituted, made by machineiy at less than half the cost of hand-made tiles ; this diminution of cost has encouraged landlords to drain wet land very largely. So iniportant is the matter now regarded, that at one of the recent shows no fewer tlian forty-eight of such macliines com- peted for tlie prize. The drains or trenches for the pipes are dug by hand with spades ; but a bold attempt is now being made to substitute machinery for this as well as other hand processes. Mr. Fowler's draining plough is really an extraordinary machine ; it ploughs out a channel three or four feet below the smface, and lays down the pipes in that channel. The Agricultural Jury recently tried it ; and in their report they thus comment on it : — " But for the American reapers, Mr. Fowler's draining plough would have formed the most remarkable feature in the agricultural department of the Exhibition. Wonderful as it is to see the standing wheat shorn levelly low by a pair of horses walking along its edge, it is hardly if at all less wonderful, nor did it excite less interest or surprise among the crowd of spectators when the trial was made, to see two horses at work by the side of a field, on a capstan which, by an invisible wire- rope, draws towards itself a low framework, leaving but the trace of a narrow slit on the surface. If you pass, however, to the other side of the field, which the framework has quitted, you perceive that it has been dragging after it a string of pipes, which, still following the plough's snout, that bm'rows all the while four feet below ground, twists itself like a gigantic red worm into tlui earth ; so that in a few minutes, when the framework has reached the capstan, y 6 CORN AND bread: WHAT TllEY OWE TO MACHINERY. the string is withdrawn from the necklace, and you are assured that the drain has thus been invisibly formed beneath your feet." This thorough draining is a heavily-expensive operation. But let us next watch the more general and annually-recurrent operation, of which that of the plough is an important one. The minute shades of difference in tlie an-angoment and action of ploughs are quite beyond tlie appreciation of ordinary obsen-ers. The last quarter of a century has produced modifications and improvements ahnost out of number. Some of tlie new patent ploughs owe their distinctive character to being made of wrought iron; others are specially adapted to penetrate tlie ground to particular depths ; one manufacturer prides himself on the geo- metrical accuracy with which tlie curves of tlie share and the fun'ow-turner and tlie mould-board are planned ; another seeks to attain a certain symmetry and compactness in the an-angement of the several parts ; anotlier is noted for tlie mechanism by which tlie share is fixed higher or lower according to tlie state of the soil ; here we have a peculiar adjusting power for the coulter ; there a novelty in the application of the draught or ptdling force of the horse ; in one, by a change in the mould-board, the same plough may be used for heavy and light land ; in another, the parts are susceptible of being readily taken to pieces, for the convenience of emigrants. Nor are foreign countries wanting in modern novelties in ploughs ; though we may fairly claim to be ahead of most of them in this matter. The Belgian ploughs are still strong and stout, but rough and heavy ; the Austrian, the French, the North German, the Dutch — all are somewhat rude. But our brethren across the Atlantic show a good deal of neatness and cleverness in their ploughs ; the woodwork of these ploughs (white oak, of great toughness) is made by machinery ; and it is thus so accurately fitted, that all the parts can readily be talien asunder for repair or for removal to a distance. The Jury Report informs us that it was Messrs. Eansome who furnished the modem English plough Avitli two low wheels, and with mould-boards adapted to different soils, Mr, Howard and Mr. Busby have especially directed their attention to tlie mould-boards — those curved surfaces which, after raising each furrow-slice of ploughed earth, gradually lays it over half inclined on the preceding slice. Foreigners are said to have been struck witli the length of the English mould-boai'ds, at the Great Exhibition ; this length has been found advantageous for the stiff clay soils of England, In respect to harrows, the square-bar haiTow, with straight-set teeth, has been used from the earliest times till within the last few years. Harrows are now made with the teeth diagonally aiTanged, so that tlie frame which contains them can be drawn square forward instead of obliquely. There is also a veiy ingenious expanding harrow now in use, in which tlie cross bars are jointed loosely, so that the tines or teetli can increase or decrease their mutual distance behind and before, by decreasing or increasing tlie distance to the right and left — like the ' lazy-tongs,' Another implement which assists in preparing the soil is the roller. This, like the plough, has midergone gi'cat improvement recently. " Not fmany years ago," the Jury Report tells us, " the landlord was often asked by his tenant for some old tree to convert into a roller. The tree roller, when manufactured, had its framework loaded with rough materials to give it weight ; but it soon wore and cracked." Sometimes there was no framework at all, but tlie traces for the horses were fastened to two pins at the ends of thef-oUer. Now, however, our Crosskills and others have produced excellent i oilers, some sen-ated and coiiN AND bukad: what they owe to machinerv. 9 some plain. Farmers used to break their stitt" clods partly by the han*ow and pai'tly by tho plain roller : but now the clod-crusher — a kind of roller bristling over with teeth — etfectualiy breaks down tho hard lumps of earth which impede arable culture. The Norwegian harrow, a kind of triple roller armed with much sharper teeth than the clod-crusher, is another modern implement for breaking tlie clods. The implement called by the various names of (iruhber, scarifier, and cultivator is a kind of substitute for the plough ; it is a modem invention to which gi'eat value is attached by experienced men. The Jury Eeport encourages an expec- tation that the cultivator may, when brought into general use, save one-half of the entire labour now bestowed upon ploughing ; and tliat it ought to tako rank with the reaping-machine, in its prospective value to practical farmers. The scarifier or cultivator cuts up five feet width of soil at once, but to a less depth than the plough ; and this wholesale cutting up, when adopted at a cer- tain season, saves tliree or four ploughings ; the instrument has generally about eight or ten thies or cutters, something like ploughshares. Next we come to the drills or seed-sowing machines. These are not less mai'ked by diversity tlian tho ploughs of tlie present day. Let any one examine the drills in tlie Great E.xhibition, or in the Smitlitield Cattle Shows, or in tlie annual shows of the Agricultural Society, or in the ti*ade-circulars of the vai'ious maimfacturers — he will see ample proof of tliis. Some of the drills are for sowing turnip seed only ; some ai'e equally adapted for all seeds ; some deposit manure in the same holes as the seed ; others lay the manure at a trifling distance from Hie seed ; one manufacturer attends par- ticularly to tlie driving or steering apparatus, by which the drill is made to do its work in regular straight lines ; another tries to make his drills work well on the side of a hill ; in one drill we see the seed descend through a string of tin cups, each dipping into the one below it ; in another a vulcanized india- mbber tube supersedes the cups ; some are two-row drills, while others are four, six, eight, or ten ; some of the manure-drills are so nicely adjusted that tliey can be made to drop small portions of pulverized manure at any required distances apart. " The sower with his seed-lip," says the Jury Report, " has almost vanished from soudieni England, driven out by a complicated machine, the drill, depo- siting the seed in rows, and dra^vn by several horses." Although horses are used for the drill, and not in hand-sowing, yet horses ar j used for the haiTows which follow the hand-sower, and tliis to such an extent that it is calculated one-half the horse-power is saved by adopting the drill instiad of the " broad- cast " metliod of sowing. There is a saving of seed, too, by the drill. But the Jury Keport, which discusses this subject with much cleaniess, states that the proper mode to view the drill is as tlic keystone of what may be teiTned machine-agriculture; the scarifier loses much of its value imless the drill, instead of the broadcast metliod, follows it; and the horse-hoe — another important member of the machine series — requiies tlie drill to precede it. The drills are costly machines, some rising to the price of £40 or £5U; but tlie makers are cheapening them, and are introducing many vai'ieties among them. The jury instituted a trial of twenty drills at Pusey — ten-rowed corn drills, ten-rowed com and seed drills, three-rowed drop drills, two-rowed turnip drills, hill-' ide drills, general-purpose drills, self-adjusting steerage drills — all were tliere, and otliers besides. There was also a hand-barrow drill, worked by a man instead of horses, which obtained a highly-eulogistic charactei. The modern drills not only economize seed, but manure also, fanners used, not M 3 \ i V 10 COHN AND BHEAD: WHAT THEY OWE TO MACHINEKV. long ago, to scatter the lime or phosphate or otlier manure over the whole surl'aco of a field ; but now the miuiurc-drills concentrate it in lines along the rows of seed ; nav, Mr. llomsby's drill drops the seed and manui'o, by a second advance in mechanic frugality, only at ti»use points in the Unes whore the plants are intended to stanct. This has been well characterised as "an elastic pliability by which mechanism in agi'iculture has seconded chemisti-y." There has been a veiy striking improvement in drills made recently, by which a wholly now principle is brought into requisition — wholly new, at least, so far as regards the ai't of sowing. We cannot do better than give Mr. Pusey's account of Uiis matter : — " The most striking novelty is Chandler's water-drill, which bids fair to remedy a great evil for southern fanners. Often when our land in July is ready for tlie turnip seed, on the success of which depends our flocks' subsistence in winter, tliat land is as diy and dusty as a turnpike road. We watch vainly every cloud, and in vain set our weatlier-glass ; weeks pass without rain, or, worse still, a shower falls, but we fmd tliat the rain has not entered the ground. This drill, however, deposits along the Ime of seed enough water, which sei-ves also as a vehicle for manure, such as superphos- phate, to staxt the young plant in readiness for the coming chaL},*; in the weather. It is used extensively by practical farmers in Wiltshire, and bids fair to remove from the root-crop one of the farmer's peculiar obstacles — uncer- tainty, to remove which, if there be a leading object of improvement in agri- culUu'e, is the main object." Mr. Pusey, botli in the Agricultural Journal and in the Jury Report, does his best to recommend tlie horse-hoe and tlie horse-rake to the notice of farmers, as being valuable applications of horse-power to field labour. The horse-hoe has a ow of hoes or knives, at a distance apart equal to that of the rows made by tlio drill; whedier the seed be tuniip or wheat, this compound loe will drive fearlessly between the rows, and hoe them effectually. So nicely do the parallel hoes do tlieir work, that " for a field operation," Mr. Pusey n marks, " it is as delicate as the action of the revolving knives witii which tlie loose threads are shorn from the surface of broadcloth at Leeds." He gives the farmers some hard nibs concerning their waste of horse-power in field waggons, lUid states that the expense of a horse-hoe would not equal the difference between that of a two-horse waggon and that of an equally efficient smgle- horse cart. Machine Pbocesses, from the Harvest to the Granary. As we are here ti'eating of agricultural matters only so far as they have been brought within the range of machinery, no apology is necessary for our skip- ping over the more minute, patient, and manipulative processes which engage so much the attention of the fai'mer. We will suppose the field of com to be ripe, and then see what the machinist has done for this com. Of all the recent applications of raachineiy to farming, none have excited greater attention and astonishment than reaping machines. Threshing machines have ceased to be a novelty ; but reaping machines are only now taking fast hold of the position which they are destined to maintain. How the reaping-hook and the sickle are employed by hand labom-ers, every one knows who has walked through a com-field in harvest time; the stooping position and the slow progress have often suggested to the observer that a day must come when some plan more efficient would be adopted. At the beginning of the present century, Parliament voted a reward to the I CORN AND BREAD : WHAT TUEY OWE TO MACHINERY. 1 1 inventor of h reaping machine ; but tho mfichine waa so intricate that it gradually fell into disuse. Another was afterwards invented in ono of our colonies, hut it cut oft' only tlic luads i>f tho com, leaving tlic greater part of tho straw standing — a serious impediment to proper culture. One or two other machines were afterwards inveniod, hut they went so completely out of use that, at the opening ■ f tlio (ireat Exhihition, tho two American nuichines appeared almost like perfect novelties. Mr. McComiick has given an account illustrative of tho slow steps by which his machine an'ived at eliicier.cy. His father, a farmer in Virginia, made two different attempts, at periods long apiu-t, to construct a reaping machine ; he abandoned both as being unsa|isfactory. In IBiJl the son began his expcai- ments, and in tliat year constructed a machine for reaping. It is ono of the pecuUarities of a reaping machine, that it ran only be tested during a fow weeks in the year; a nuuuifacturing machine, in most other trades, cim be used or tried at all seasons of the year ; but a reaping machine only comes into use when the com is ready for hai'vest. Hence it happened, that when any defect was found in Mr. McCormick's machine, he had to wait nearly twelve months before he could tost tho usefulness of any changes or improve- ments he might make. It was nine years before ho sold a single machine, and fourteen years before a regular demand arose. At length, tho year 1815 saw tlie machine completed ; tmd since that time there has boon a saks in America for about a thousand annually. It seems strange tliat six years should elapse before these machines became known in England, and that our Great Exhibition should be the means of maldng them known ; but England has always looked rather for raw produce than for machuieiy from the United States ; and, moreover, agricultural machines ore ponderous ai'ticlos to ti'ansmit so great a distance. A few words must suffice to explain the principle of action in this machine. Two systems have been tried in the machines hitherto made : tlie one to cat by a series of clippers or sheai's, and the other by a revolving plate. In McCormick's machine there is a cutting blade about an inch in breadth, jagged or toothed in tlie front edge ; it extends across the front of the machine near the ground, and has a reciprocating or oscillatory horizontal motion given to it. Over ttiis blade is a light reel, to which are fixed oblique blades or spars of deal ; these spars, when the reel revolves, get behind the stalks of standing corn, and hold them steadily while being cut ; the stalks are pressed between projecting tines or fingers, and are thevc out by the saw-like action of tlie blade. When tlie stalks ai'e thus cut near the ground, they fall on the floor of the machine. The reel, with its windmill-looking appendages, is the strangest part of this machine ; it seems at iirst as if it would beat out all the ears from the corn as it revolves ; but this we may presume has been guarded against by the inventor. There has been, and still is, a battle raging between two reaping machines, McCormick's and Hussey's, botli from the United States. It is quite plain that both are veiy etHcient machines ; and that though, rather from untoward accident than design, one obtained a *' council medal " and the other did not, the jury would have been veiy glad if both had obtained this much-covcicd honour. On one of the trials made before the Exhibition Juiy. McCorrick's machine cut fifteen acres in ten hours, and did it lower down the stalk than by ordinary band reaping. Mr. Pusey's estimate of the saving by tlie use of this machine is extraorduiary ; he assumes 9s. an acre to be the labour-wages for ordinaiy 12 COBN AND BREAD : WHAT THEV OWE TO MACHlNERi'. reaping, making 61. 15s, for fifteen acres; he estimates the wages tor the two men on tlie machine, the slieaf binders, and the horse food, at 2i. 7s. 6d., leaving a margin of U. 7s. 6d. in favour of the machine ; in strictness, a small percentage ought to be added to this, as interest on the cost price of the machine and the two horses. But Mr. Pusey thmks that a feature of greater importance tlian tliis saving is, that the machine may enable tlie farmer to save more of his crop in bad seasons and late districts by its rapid rate of action. On one occasion Mr. Hussey's machine was tried before a large concourse of pei-sons at Hadham Hall, near Bishop's Stortford. It first cut a field of barley, tlien a field of clover, then a field of whfat, and did its work so cleanly and quickly as to astonish all the lookers-on. One incident (if newspaper reporters told it coiTectly) must have been very rich in its way. A Herculean smockfrocked spectator, with a reaping-hook in his hand, was so overwhelmed with astonishment at what he saw, that he broke his reaping hook and threw a*vay ti;e pieces, in despair of ever equalling tliis magical com-cutter. In another trip.' at Windsor, before Prince Albert, Hussey's machine was tried upon u veiy rough and imoven piece of ferny ground ; the machine cut the ferns very rapidly, cleanly, and close to the ground ; and Mr. Hussey himself, standing Oil the platform as the machine moved along, raked the iem off the platform on the gromid in heaps of convenient size for gathering into sheaves. The aiTangement of tlie cutting points or edges seems to ensure a kind of clipping of the stalks, analogous to tiiat by shears, whereas McCormick's has a cutting action more like tliat of a saw. In a trial of the two machines at Tip tree, tho verdict was given in favour of McCormick's ; at another trial near Middles- borough, the verdict was most decidedly in favom' of Hussey's. " When doctors disagree," &c. ; we may, however, safely settle down into the conclusion that both are admirable and important contrivances, and that probably each one is better fitted for a particular crop or a particular state of the ground. These two are not the only reaping machines now attracting public notice. Some short time ago, the Hon. Mr. Tollemache, ti'avelling in the United States, saw one of tlie reaping machines in operation (w ^ do not know whether Hussey's or McCormick's), and was struck with its effective action ; on his return to England he described the machine to Messrs. GaiTett ; and those eminent implement niak'.'rs — pai'tly from his description and pailly from their own ingenuity — produced a new reaping machine, which was bj* ught before public notice in the eai-ly part of 1851. This machine cuts wheat, barley, oats, or beans; it acts neai'ly on the same principle as tlie other two machines, and cuts about an acre in an hour. There is a machine recently invented by Mr. Winder, for cutting corn or grass by a series of rotating horizontal knives, adjusted in t singular manner. There are many other reaping machines of recent invention now tiying to malie tlieir way into the market and into tlie corn field ; but it must be confessed that — like American revolvers and American pick-locks — American reaping machines are at pic?,?'it in the ascendant. It was one of the notable stages in the history of English agriculture when the threshing machine invaded the domain which had before been held undis- puted by the ftail. All our manufactures experience analogous changes. A time comes when inventive talent, spurred on by the obvious imperfections of the old hand implements, contrives a machine which saves a gi'eat amount of labour, and very likely performs the work more efliciently. This machine is introduced ; it is tried by the inventor or other,i ; a great outcry is raised by those CORN AND bread: WHAT THEY OWE TO MACHINERY. 13 whose labour is displaced, and by others who advocate their interests ; entreaties and complaints, threatenings and violence, succeed each other; the machine gradually conquers its opponents, and matters gradually adjust themselves to a new order of things. Such has been tlie case in respect to the instruments for separating gi-ains of com from the straw; eveiy year is the threshing ma- chine seen to be more and more employed, and eveiy year are the old-fusliioned flails lessening in number. In the eai'lier machines the grains were liable to be rather more broken or bruised than by a well-managed flail ; but the im- plement maker.-i have gradually surmounted all obstacles. Threshing machines bear a pretty general resemblance to each other in their mode of action. The essential part is a large cylindrical dram, on the outer surface of which are fixed bars or beaters parallel with the axis ; the drum is made to revolve with a velocity of five hundred to a thousand turns in a minute. The stalk of com being passed between feeding rollers, it comes in contact with the beaters on the rapidly revolving drum ; the grain is beaten out and falls to the ground, while the straw passes on to the other side of the machine. Most of tlie tlireshing machines have straw-shakers attached, to separate more effectually the straw from the gi'ains of com. Among our most noted manufacturers, the thi'eshing machines are usually made fi'om five to nine horse-power ; most of the machines (down to the present time) are worked by horses, who go round in their monotonous circular course two or three times in a minute ; in an average machine, about a hundred sheaves of com can be threshed in three minutes. The revolving dram being the com- mon type 'of all the machines, minor improvements are introduced by par- ticular makers; one has applied anti-friction wheels to the axle of the drum; anotlier uses seiTated instead of plain beaters ; some of the machines are fed with the corn-stalks in a vertical position, some horizontal ; in one kind the maker cai'es only for the complete extrication of the com from the straw; while in another, which is to be worked near towns, where clean unbroken straw has a good and ready sale, the mechanism is so constructed as to leave the straw in as Avhole and unbroken a state as possible. The Jury Eeport, in reference to the efficient threshing machines of mo- dern days, adduces a very extraordinary fact, which this Exhibition Jury has undoubtedly done much to bring to light, viz., the enormous loss of i)ower in the ordinary horse machines. The tlu'eshing machines which superseded the flail are worked by thi'ee or foui* horses moving in a circle ; but it has been foimd that, until very lately, the various wheels, shafts, levers, and other worli used in warming buildings. There are three merits claimed for this oven by its inventor — cleanliness, economy, and ease of adaptation. It is cleanly, because, there being no coal of any kind used in the oven, nothing but the pm-e heat from the hot-water pipes can act upon the bread, and no deleterious gases can affect its flavour or quality ; it is economical, because, from the mode of applying the heat, one-half of the fuel is saved, and a constant and equable heat maintained ; it is easy of adaptation, because the temperatm-e, indicated by a thermometer placed outside the oven, can bo raised or diminished at pleasure by opening or closing a damper, so as to meet the requirements of different kinds of baking operations. A very extended application would be necessary to determine the validity of these claims. There was no lack of ovens at the Crystal Palace which put forth their claims to public notice. There was Mr. Powell's ' portable economical oven." There was Mr. Shave's 'patent oven for baking bread, &c.,' exhibited for economy of fuel and time. Mr. Edwards' ' atmopyre hoods ' are ovens of a somewhat remarkable kind ; they are gas-ovens, which act somewhat on the same principle as the wire-gauze envelope of tlie miners' safety-lamp. They are made of porcelain ; gas is introduced into the interior, whence it escapes through small perforations in the sides ; these tiny streams of gas, not more than one-fiftieth of an inch in diameter, when ignited on the outside of the hood, bum with a pale blue flame ; this flame emits very little light, but its heat is so intense as to make the mass of porcelain red hot in a few minutes. When several of these atmopyres are grouped together, they form a sort of solid fire which will speedily heat an oven ; and there are arrangements for adapting the number to the size of the oven required. Porcelain will bear many repeated red-hot firings without beuig destroyed ; and it is at all events interesting to see this beautiful principle (for beautiful it certainly is) of' CORN AND nUEAl) : WHAT THEY OWE TO MAflHINEIlY. 23 minutely-divided gus streams applied to tho purposes of nn oven. Besides our own English ovens, there was M. Espinas^e's model of an oven for bread baking, on a now patented system ; thcro was Kucsens Colngtio iron oven ; and there was u Chinese oven, heated by tho flame of a lamp passing into tiio centre. With respect to the ovens ordinarily employed by bakers, tho old method ot heating by shavings bvu-ned in the oven itself has gone very much out of use, being superseded by flues heated in a receptacle distinct from tlic t>ven. But it must be r>\vned that the heating of bakers' ovens ban not acquired tho com- pleteness of whi.'h it is doubtless suacejitible. It is rather singular that biscuits have become more d — so much does it depend upon a nice discrimination in the hand and eye of tlu) workman, and on so miniature a scale is the apparatus. But before describing modem types and type-making, it may be well to re- mind the reader that the first or original printers did not employ such types: they arrived at this stage of completeness by degrees. Vciy early in the tif- teenth century, a metliod was practised of cutting lines in relief on blocks of wood, and printing from those lines when inked ; this was the forerunner of the wood-engraving of modem days. There is indistinct evidence of such au art being practised eailier ; but it is, at all events, known that small cheap pictuies, produced in this way, were sold in Germany and Italy at the period named above. Strangely enough, religions books and plagiwj cards were the first works which received this kind of printing; but other works speedily fol- lowed. The same block of wood which contained a picture came, by l-'groes, to have words and sentences also cut on the surface ; and these were printed at the same time as the picture. The next step was, to cut up the tt;.\t portion into sepai'ate letters, so that they might be recombined for any other work ; this was tlie great invention in printing, and the one to which the riyaX claims of Gutenberg, Faust, Coster, and Schoeffer relate. A further stage was, that of engraving a model of each letter, striking a mould from the model, and casting separate letters from the mould ; this, which is essentially the principle of modern times, seems to have been first adopted about 1150. These matters being premised, we may now glance at the types and the type-makers. Types for printing are usually about an inch long, with a letter in relievo at one end, and a nick or notch near the other. They are cast in a mould, and are formed of lead to which about twenty per cent, of antimony has been added. But before this casting takes place, a very impov'ant affair has to bo attended to : a mould has to be made ; and to make this mould t>.jjunch or die is requisite. This punch is tlie production on which the iype-founder most K s rmNTiNo: its modern varieties. prides himself; since the beauty of the type depends so much on the excel- lence of the punch. This punch is a small block of steel, on one end of ■which a letter is formed by a very careful application of punching and en- gi'avmg or cutting; the steel is softenea to aid these processes, and is hardened afterwards. The letter or character is one of the many which the type-founder must produce. There must be twenty-six punches of each, fount or size of type, for the small letters ; thei*e must be an equal number for ^le laige and for the small capitals ; there must be ten for the numerals ; there must be commas, colons, and all tlie other subsidiary characters, ornamental as well as significant ; tliere must be an Italic series as well as a Eoman series ; there must be different sizes, agreeing in all else but in size ; there must be foreign alphabets, such as Greek, Hebrew, &c. It thus arises that the types amount to a very large nvimber ; and tliere must bo a separate steel pimch for each. The sizes of type, irres pective of other differences, are known by names which are a perfect mystery tx< readers generally. To explain why these sizes tu'e called double pica, paraxon, great primer, Knyi-sh, pica, small pica, long primer, bourgeois, bre- vier, minion, nonpareil, pearl, diamond, and brilliant, would be no easy matter. Th'^y are compai'ed one with anotlier, by printers, ui reference to the number of ) mes of each which fill a column of twelve inches, if packed closely side by side ; tlius a foot of double pica would contain about 42 such lines, whereas a foot of diamond would contain 205 lines. The present sheet is prhited with long primer type, which has 92 lines to the foot. In respect to the punches, fashion exerts its influence, as in other matters ; thus, in tho French types, and the pimches which produce tliem, there is seen a ^.endency to finer thin lines (or ' up strokes ') than in the English ; and we may also see among those who have ' niedia;val ' tastes (to employ a much-used ptrase), a wish to revive what others would call old-fashioned type. The punch for a letter, tlien, is formed ; and an impression from it is made upon a piece of copper, which obtains tlie name of tht viatrix. This matrix, when the casting is about to take place, is placed within a tsmall but curiously- constructed moidd, wood Avithout and steel witliin. There is u furnace con- taining molten type-metal ; a workman holds tlie mould in his left hand and a tiny ladle or spoon in his right ; he lades from the molten mass a ladle-full, pours it into the mould, gives the mould a sudden upward jerk to force the metal into all the little cavities, opens the mould into two parts by means of a spring, picks out tlie hot but solidified cast type with a hook, and clos( s the mould again for another casting. And when the reader is told tliat the whole of these suceessive movements occupy collectively only an eighth part of a minute, he will be prepared to consider the art of type-casting as one of the moat striking exemj)lifications of manipulative skill derived from long practice. Thus types are cast, thousand after thousand from each matrix ; and when another letter is wanted, another matrix is placed in the mould. A few finish- ing touches bring tlie types to the state required by the printer. Boys brealc off the bits of superfluous metal which adhere to the types ; this they do at the rate of three or four thousand in an liour. Other boys rub the side« of the type against a grit-stone, to remove asperities ; and this they do nearly as quickly as the breaking oft". Men then finish tho type-^. by planing them till they become all exactly equal in length, and examining each with a magnifier, to sec that every single type is fitted foi' its i)urpose — all ill-formed t}[)*'s bring reje<;t^v], as unworthy companions for the rest. It was \e:Yy interesting to see, at the Great Exhibition, specimens of the types made by the old firm of Oa.slon, through so long a ])eriod as a hunured I PKINTING: its MODEKS ViUllETIES. 8 and thirty years; they showed how fashion has varied between 1720 and 1851 ; but in regard to actual excellence, some of the old type would bear safe comparison widi om' modem productions, though not when taken collectively. A proof was given of the extreme accuracy in the form of modern type, i)y a mass of two hundred thousand veiy small types, suspended in the air with no other security than the lateral pressure of screws in the chase or frame ; the type was of the kind called 'pearl," and the whole mass, thus supported onJii at the sides, weighed a hundred and forty pounds. A new typo has been cast by Messrs. Miller and Richard, called ' brilliant,' said to be tlie smallest ever produced, being smaller than the ' diamond ' type used for the notes of tho smallest bibles. Gray's Elegy was displayed at the Exhibition, printed with this type witliin a space of four inches by three, tho whole thirty-two verses of four lines each; this was perhaps the closest specimen of printing ever yet seen. Another curi':~sity cou'^isted of the types invented for the phonotypic and phonogi'aphic systems, :ir present struggling to maintain a recognised existence in society. A singular plan for printing in types from two colours (whether or not yet acted on we do not know) was exhibited, in which the letter- types are of unequal height, so that the inking roller, in applying one of the two colours, shall touch only the prqj.'eting types. Books and newspapers have often lines printed either horizontal ly or vertically, to separate columns or to tabulate nuoiljers ; there are also numerous small ornamented tyi)es used in various parts of some books ; and one of the type-founding establishments hit upon the expedient of combining some twelve or thirteen thousand of these decorative and lino types, to form a picture of the front of the Free Church College at Edmburgh : it was a toy certainly, but it was intended to exhibit the powers of the establislmit nt in this department of type-founding. There ai'e many peculiarities in the types used for printing music. The ordinaiy music pages, in the extravagantly-charged sheets of the mu.-»ic- publishers, are engraved on zinc-plates, and it is therefore easy to combine all th<; requisite characters and symbols; but the arrangement of separate metal types for this purpose requires the exercise of mucli ingenuity; for not only must tlie proper musical symbols be given, but the five lines of the stall' or tave must be preserved; and the type-founder has to calculate hiw many combinations of form in the types will meet all the requhements of modem music. In the Exhibition there was one collection of music-type which com- prised 315 separate types — 315 separate letters (so to si)eak) in the musical alphabet. Let the reader examine closely any page of type-printed music : ho will find that each musical line is built up with numerous fragmentaiy pieces. These pieces arc separate types. Sometimes a typo consists of an eighth of an inch of staff, with a crochet or a quaver attached ; sometimes it is a minim rest, with two bits of staff above and below it ; sometimes it is the thick double line for a semiquaver, ready to be fitted on to any note either above or below it ; sometimes two notes, with an interval of a musical third between them, arc formed on tlie same type, with fragments of horizontal lines either throii'jh tliem or between them, so as to adapt them to talie a position either on the lines or on ttie spaces of the staff. It is an evidence of the skill with which this kind of printing is now done, that tliis pi(!ce-nieal formation of a music page can only be seen by tolerably close inspection. Nothing but experience can decide as to the best forms and combinations to give to the types. In practice there ai-e two dift'erent plans acted on — the complete note being cast in one piece, and the note being in five pieces, for the five lines of the staff. Botli plans ai"o axlopted as may be most convenient ; but music-typo founders aro K 2 4 rRINTING : ITS MODERN VARIETIES. endeavouring to devise some medium system which shall combine the ex- cellencies of both. Many and varied have been the attempts of type-founders to devise some mode of combining letters into one type, as a means of saving time. In nearly all systems of stenography, or short-hand, small and much-used words are represented by a single symbol : such as ami, the, of, &c. ; as likewise the most usual prefixes to compound words, such as in, con, re, &c. ; and the most used terminal srllables, such as ion, ment, ing, &c. In the Exhibition there were some American types cast on this principle, viz., that of having one type for a constantly-recurring word, instead of building it up with as many types as there are letters. The master printer on the one hand, a. id the compositor on the other, haNe to test tlie value of all such innovatioj.s on the ordinary practice ; the former has to bear the expense of mailing new punches and matrices for the compound types ; while the compositor has to find little cells for the extra types, and to lay his fingers upon them as readily as upon the orduiaiy type. It is due, however, to the American exhibitor, Mr. Tobit, to i)i>t,e, that much of the extra expense is avoided in his method, by forming the matrices on the electrotype princij)le, from the single types tliemselves, Avitlx- out tlie engraving of any new punches. One of the most rmiarkable typographical displays in the Exhibition was ihf collection of Chinese types, or at least types to represent Chinese cha- racters, in the Zollverein doipartment. They were manufactured by Beyev- haus of Berlin, for the American Missionary Soci'.b/. The Chinese voca- bulary is made up of a number of distinct words, which are not built up from component lettei's, as in Eui'opean limgnages, but have a good deal of the hieroglyphic effect about them. 1 ■ imitate these words or characters by moveable types has always been deemiei a dilhcult matter. M. Beyerhaus has analyzed the lines and dots of the Chinese language, so as to make 4^00 letters out of them, or elements which will senc the compositor in lieu of letters. The steel punches of all these 1200 types were shown ; and by various com- binations of them, about •^-1,000 Chuiese words or characters can be imitated; and it was very interesting to see copies of the Bible and the New Testament l)rinted in Chinese by the aid of tJiese types. Another example, which illustrates the untiring industry of our German neighbours in the type-founding art, was to be met with in the Saxon section. It consisted of a volume relating to ancient Egypt, printed in nearly thirty languages, and also in the Egyptian hieroglyphic characters. These required no fewer than 3000 puncbes, matrices, and type-castings, to produce the type for these hieroglyphic cbaracters. M. Le Grand, of Paris, has devised an ingenious mode of castuig many types at once, by ranging the matrices side by side in a mould which will con- tain them ill. He casts from 100 to 150 at once, and claims to have tJie l)u\vor of i/roducing 30,000 to 50,000 per hour by tlie aid of two men only. While this paper is being prepared for press, an advertisement has appeared announcing a new Type-making Company, which is to be established for working a recent patent. The types are to be made of hai'd wire, cut and stamped without any process of casting ; and it is alleged (in the bright language of advertising) that types can be thus made at tlie rate of a hundred in a minute. The facing of types with cop])er by the electrotyfie process, as a means of rendering tliem durable, is a modern project noticed in a former number of this series. pbinting: its modern vabieties. of ite. of of The Compositor and his Apparatus. It is scarcely necessaiy to inform an intelligent reader in tlie present clay, that a compositor is one who imts the types together, for printing. The labours of the compositor certainly requii'e as much exercise of mind, eye, and fingers, as any of the ordinary handicraft employments. He is expected to decipher tlie WTiting, good or bad, of the .author whose manuscript he is putting into type. He has to manage the punctuation, which authors too generally care very little about ; and he often rectifies an occasional error arising from haste in writing or from transcription. His eye guides his fingers (or his fingers almost guide themselves) to the cells where the proper letter-types are to be found ; and tlie formation of letters into words, words into lines, luies into columns, columns into pages, and pages into forms or sheet-surfaces, taxes all his powers — mental, visual, and digital. He has to " mind his 7; a and 7's," n<^t only in tlie literal sense of that phrase, as tlie p appears on the type liko ». q to the unpractised eye, but in many a figurative sense also. The compositor has his types placed in small cells, which are combined into a case, and two pairs of cases occupy a frame. He has one pair of cases for Roman, another for Italic, or a smaller type for notes. The upper case of each pair contains large and small capitals, numerals, accented vow(;ls, and a few other types ; the lower case contains the small letters and the space-types. Some of the cells are larger than others, to contain the letters most in use. In the English language the letter e occurs more frequently than any other; then t; then a; then i, v, 0, and s; « is the least in use, there being sixty times as many e's as z's. In a ' fount,' or complete set of types, consisting of 100,000, there are 12,000 e's, rather more than one- ninth of tlie whole. The letters are not arranged alphabetically in the case, but tliose which are most in use are placed r irest to the hand of the com- positor : a conventional arrangement, wholly dependent on practical utility. 80 well does the compositor know this arrangement, that his fingers dip almost intuitively into the proper cell for any required type ; no labelling or inscribing being at all necessary. Step by step does the compositor build up his letters into words, and his words into sentences. Let his first word be " Industry:" he takes an I from the upper case, or case of capitals, and then his fingers dip successively into the cells of the lower case which contain n, d, u, s, &c. Each type, as ho picks it up, he places against a ledge in a little implement called the composuir/- stick. Wlien he has arranged side by side the eight types for the word "Industry," he takes a 'space' out of another ceil, and uses it as a boundary between this and tlie next word — the ' space ' being a blank type, too shallow to come under the action of the inking apparatus. Then he proceeds to tlic second word, and so on till he has words enough to fill one lino of a page or column. He then begins a new line, and by tlic time he has thus collected about a dozen lines, his composuig-stick is full ; the contents are carefully lifted out in a mass, and placed in what is called a ijallci/. He then gets nn- otlier stick full, and transfers it in a similar way, mitil at length the galley becomes full. Thus he proceeds ; at the rate of about fifteen thousand letters in a good day's work. The precautions which the compositor has to take are many and vai'ied. After having mastered the difficulties of the manuscript (which he reads two 6 pniNTiNa: its modern varieties. or three lines at a time, and which he places in a convenient spot before him), he selects the proper types to make the words. It is found that rather over five letters is tlie average length of all English words ; but, as a line must not end in the middle of a syllable, much tact is neoessaiy in spacing the words, so that none may appear too crowded, none too wide. Then, again, he must take care that none of his letters are placed upside down ; a little aick or noich in the shaft of each type gi'eatly facilitates the eye and finger in avoid- ing mistakes in this matter. Again, when his stick is filled, in liftmg the type to the galley, he may have a slight mishap ; when lo ! down go the types, the fruit of his labour, in confusion on the floor, to form what printers, with mortifying irony, call pie — a grievous pie, which often falls to the share of the apprentice-compositor. The workman who makes " pie " has to taste its bitterness doubly, for he must re-distribute the type before he can re-compose his page, and he is paid neither for the one nor the other. The processes of adjustment and rectification, after the composing but before the printing, are numerous. The column of types is bound tightly, and a • proof ' or impression printed from it ; or sometimes a whole sheet-full of pages is printed at once for a proof. A strange medley is this proof sheet. Let the compositor be as careful as he may, the mistakes ai'e very numerous — sometimes his own fault, sometimes the author's. A wrong letter appears in one place ; a wi-ong word in another ; a letter or a word or a whole sentence may be omitted ; a Avord may be given in duplicate ; two words may havo been made to coalesce without a space ; a letter may be I'eversed ; two or more words may be transposed ; a word which should begin one line may be seejx at the beginning of the next following line ; sentences may be in different para- graphs which ought to form parts of the same paragraph, or vice versa; a comma may be given instead of a semicolon, or the stops generally may he either redundant or deficient ; a word may be printed in Koman which ought t5 be in Italic, or the reverse ; a word may be in capital instead of small type, or the reverse ; a letter belonging to a wTong fount or size may have become mixed up with the proper type in the cell ; a space may protrude so much as to be inked ; part of the letters of a word may slip down below the general level of the line — all these mistakes may occur, and do occur. Some of tlie errors, if left luicon-ected, would be serious ; some are simply ludicrous. An intel- ligent man, midway between a tliinker and a worker, reads the proof attentively, detects the grammatical and typographical errors, and marks with a pen the kind of corrections necessary. The proof goes back to the compositor, who has to take his work to pieces i)i most heart-ache style — at least so it appears to a looker-on, who can hardly fjel other than regret at so much patient Inbour l)cing rendered useless ; for if tlie errors are numerous, their reparation may take as long as re-composing the whole sheet. The wages of a compositor are so calculated as to include payment for the production of a correct proof, as well as the distributioii of the type after printing ; consequently the cor- rection of all the errors which may fairly be imputed to himself, in the proof, is a part of his engagemt;nt, for which he receives no extra pay ; and he has thus every inducement to strive after the attainment of a good, clean, perfect proof in the first instance. But there are otlier errors for which the composite" is not responsible. A second proof, or revise, is examined by the reader, *~ se-'i that his corrections have been attended to; and is tlien sent to the frthor, who makes such changes as he may deem necessary ; and the compositor is paid by tlae hour for the extra labom' resulting from this revision. AccordiM^ I ' h 1% 5 • • rniNTiNa: its modehn /arteties. 7 the extent of the corrections, and the number of times they are made, these revisions have to be repeated. The corrected pages arc gi'onped in tlieir proper order, so as to print a sheet of quarto, octavo, duodecimo, or any other size. The order in which they are arranged depends on the number of foldings which the sheet is to undergo. In tlie present sheet, for instance, the reader will find that although there are twelve pages on each side, tliese twelve follow each other in (appai'ently) veiy iiTegular order, when the sheet is open ; yet all find tlieir proper place when folded. In arranging the pages for the press, they are placed at proper distances, and are separated by pieces of wood called furniture, wide enough to foiTO the margins to the seVeral leaves ; and the whole are then wedged into an iron frame called a chase. Each side of the sheet must have an an'ange- ment of this kind ; so that there are ultimately prepared two forms, as they are called, each properly fitted for printing one side of a sheet. When tlie printing is finished, or the stereotype cast (as the case may be), the compositor has to imdo his work. The type having been cleaned from the ink, the form is pulled to pieces, the furniture is removed, and the types are sepai'ated — «ach to be returned to its proper cell. This is a pretty and remai'kable pro- cess. He takes a quantity — perhaps a dozen lines — in his left hand, takes up one or two words from this quantity between the fingers and thumb of his right hand, and drops them into tlie cells with almost inconceivable quickness. An experienced compositor will thus distribute fifty thousand types in a day, in- volving very few mistakes. A small mechanical adjmict to the labours of the compositor has been inti'o- duced in Belgium. Instead of tying round a page of type with string, to enable him to lift it in one mass, there is here substituted an iron frame — light, strong, and easily adjusted to its place. So tightly, indeed, does the frame hold the tj'pe, that in cases of emergency printed impressions are said to be obtainable from the type in this state, without any other fastening. Another trifle — tlie value of which must be deteiTnined by the compositor, and by him alone — is Mr. Gallard's portable composing-frame, which was shown at the Exliibition. It is intended to provide temporary acconnnodation for cases at the imposing-stone during correction of proofs ; and also for extra cases near the compositor's frame, at times when he is engaged upon work Avhich has a mixture of Italic or other type with the ordinaiy type. Can the aid of machinery be brought into requisition in coaipositor-woik ? This question has been many times asked ; and many ingenious persons have endeavoured to give an affirmative answer to it. About ten years ago th(? attention of the printing fraternity was miicli attracted towards two ri\;d machines, one by Messrs. Young and Delcambre, and one by Captain llusonberg. Both machines could compose typo by automatic agency, and both were highly ingenious; or, more correctly, both substituted niochniiism lor human fingers in certain parts of the apparatus. In these two machines there is a key-boaril on which the compositor plays ; he has not to deal wi(liy/((As and Hhnrfm and niiturals,]mt v ith ihe letters of the words transmitted to him by the author. To use our tonner illustration (the word ' Industry'), the ermpositor, instead of dipping his fingers into eight little cells, presses his fingers on eight ditl'erent keys of his silent pianoforte. What, then, is the result? In Young and L»«leiimbre's machine, the key moves a lever ; the lever pushes a tyi ■>■ out of a little receptacle ; the types slide ^,V»-':ossr;^rt f Vt-^«.'.*t.V v.- 8 PIUNTINO : ITS MODEKN VAIIIETIKS. Rosenberg's machine, the key detaches a tj-pe from a vertical rack ; the types, when detached, range themseh'cs on an endless belt ; they leave tlie belt and I'ange close together in a receiver ; and when one line-full is thus fomied the machine rings a bell, and tlie compositor takes away the line of type, and leaves room for another. In tlie one, tlie types require to be distributed in the same piece-meal way as in oi'dinaiy composing ; while Rosenberg's machine was accompanied by another for effecting the distribution also. Rosenberg 's ma- chines were therefore more complete than that which was invented shortly before them ; and veiy high a ">ticipations were formed of their value. But these anticipations have not been realised. INIen are still required to attend on the machine, and to do part of the Avork ; it is found that the machine cannot think sufficiently, aiad that nothing is saved by the time all the correc- tions and adjustments are made. M. Sorensen's very remarkable type-machine had not, we believe, been known in this country until the recent Exhibition. The singular bird-cage-looking'' apparatus, which fomied one of the small number of contributions from Penmark, has the merit — be this little or much — of being in many points quite unlike any that preceded it. It is no easy matter to describe this machine. The reader may picture to himself two circular cages, one placed over another, and the upper one capable of revolving on its axis independent of the lower. The upper cage is for distributing type ; the lower for composing. Suppose a sheet to be printed off, and the compositor required to distribute the type ; he takes them up a few at a time, and places them between the brass bars of the upper cage, where they slide down to a plate which separates the two cages. This plate has perforations, each one so formed as to admit one kind of type-letter only ; and as every type-letter has side notches differing from those of eveiy other letter, each type can only pass through one particular perforation ; and it is by slowly revolving the upper cage that the types one by one find the proper perforations through which they may creep. The lower cage has as many vertical brass bars as there are letters of type ; and by degrees the space between any two bars becomes filled with type all of one letter — tliis consti- tutes the distribution. Then for the composing. The compositor plays upon a set of keys ; these keys act upon strings ; the strings act upon springs ; the springs push out or let out the requisite types from between the bars of the cage ; the types descend to a sloping [)late, then through a sjjiral tube, and dien into a receiver, where they range tliemselves in soldierly order side by side. If the compositor has played the keys rightly, the order of arrangement in the types is also right. A foot-pedal moves the receiver along gently, ready to accept the types as they drop successively into it ; and when a line is formed, it is removed, and the receiver adjusted for another. Now for the alleged advantages and disadvantages of this remarkable machine. Is it not a troublesome affair to place all the types between the bars of the distributing machine '? M. Siirensen asserts that it occupies only one-tenth the time '/ ordinary distributing. Docs not the machine require most deli- cate workmanshii), that all the rods, incisions, types, notches, and projections, nmy fit well into each other? I\I. Siirensen admits that this is a sine qua non ; but considers that this ought not to be an objection in an age of high mecha^ nical ability. Will not the types be dearer to cast, and weaker under the press, than ordinary type without those peculiar notches ? M. Sdrensen thinks that the slight increase in expense will in part be counterbalanced by less weiglit of metal ; and that the types, though yielding to violence, would bear dir pressm'e. Would not the expense of such a machine (100^.) neutralise its f printing: its modkkn varietiks. 9 advantages ? No, says M. Sbrensen ; divide the expense over a long period, and you Avill have a good margin left. Is not the method difhcnlt to learn ? M. Sorensen states that any person could learn to use this machine moio quickly than the ordinary composing system, and that a compositor could master it in a few days. Will not the saving of time he neutralised hy the ne- cessity for hand-labour in dividing, spacing, adjusting, i7«/(t'-ising, and so fortli? Lessened, says M Sorensen, hut not neutralised. Would not the compositors opjiose it? If they did, says M. Sorensen, the opposition would yield after a time, as in all similar cases. — These are the statements for and against ; and it may be hoped that so ingenious a machine may have an ample testing, which it docs not seem yet to have had ; indeed we are not aware tliat M. Sorensen has ever yet actually f?et the machine to work in a printing-office ; and all mere model experiments will fail to place tlie inquiry on a proper commercial basis. Stereotyping : its Pliiport and its Varieties. That cheap literature owes much to stereotyping, is beyond question ; as the process is one of those which economise the outlay in printing. For works of small circulation it is useless, or worse than useless ; but when there is a very large demand for a book, or the demand spreads over a considerable space of time, then does stereotyping lessen the expenses of the publisher. It does so for the following reasons. If the publisher over-estimates the de- mand for a new book, he prints too many copies, some of which remain a dead loss to him on his shelves ; if he under-estimates the demand he prints too few, and has all the expense of composing the type to incur over again. But if he bestows the time and labour of making stereotype casts from his type, he can then print from these plates just as many copies as are wanted, and do this from time to time during an indefinite period. He need not keep tlie type standing ; he can distribute and use the type for other works, knowing that he has a source of power in his stereotype plates. And, moreover, he can make two or a dozen or any number of stereotype casts from each page , so that he could print two, or a dozen, or any number of copies at once, with the requisite press or machine arrangements, and all with one original ' setting up,' or composing. There is this consideration, too ; that a woodcut becomes somewhat worn when a lai'ge number of impressions have been taken from it ; but by a series of stereotype casts from it, the power of printing from it be- comes practically illimitable. The reader will then bear in mind that, so far as any one copy is concerned, stereotype-printing is not better than type-printing ; on the contrary, the highest class of work is generally type-printed; but when a large quantity of one kind is required, the advantages of tlie stereotjpe method, both in time and money, are quite irresistible. It is certainly extraordinaiy tliat, after two castings, a stereotype plate, even from a woodcut, should be fine and sharp enough for printing ; it shows how great is the skill no^*' attained in the art. Tliat there are tuo castings, many readers are a2:)t at times to forget ; but a moment's consideration will show that such must necessarily be the case ; for the first cast will give hollows hi- stead of protuberances, and vice versa; and htuice another is required to restore the original aspect of the surface — just as in all other processes of casting, foundin:^'. or moulding; where a model is employed to yield a mould, and tlie mould is employed to yield casts. In stereotyping, the page of type?, or mingled type and woodcuts, is the model; a plaster impression from this is the mould; K 3 ■'«r i' 10 printing: its modern varieties. and the stereotypo plate Ls the cast. The method wns first practised at Edin- burgh a centmy and a quarter ago ; but it was not brouglit much into requi- sition until towards the close of tlie last century ; and did not become a really important commercial element in printing imtil 1882, when the vast sale of tho Penny Magazine produced a revolution in cheap literature. Stereotype casting is managed simply as follows. The page of type, as clean and perfect as possible, is wedged up closely in a moulding-frame ; the surface of the type is slightly oiled ; liquid plaster is pom'ed upon it until the mould- ing-frame is filled ; the solidified mould is removed when cold ; and after being trimmed, it is placed in an oven to bake or dry. Then begins the me- tallic casting. The metal is melted in a cauldron; the plaster-mould is placed in a peculiar casting-Box; and, by a very nice adjustment, the mould and the box are both immersed in the molten metal, in such a way as to allow u layer of metal to form on the surface. AVlien removed from the cauldron, and talzen cylinders, present each surface exactly at tho proper i :9tant to the proper inked foiTO — how to realise aU these concep tions, hi\~ been a tax to the invent ^e powers of our Applegalhs and Cowpers ; but the ro>nlt shows how triumphantly they hare been realised. Great as these achievements unque-tionably are, however, the Tlnm printing machine of 1848, and the lUnstn/ted Neics' machine of a later date, are still greater marvels in. the art. To what pitch the speed of printing will ultimately arrive, it would be vain even to guess ; but these vertkal cylin- der machines seem to have a power of expansion (sotaspeakj which will lead, e-tep by step, to further increase of efficiency. As it was the Times which in- troduced Konig's machine in 1811; as it was on the Time-- that Cowper and Applegath's improveii machine lirst exhibited its powers hi '837; so was it the same journal that enabled Mr. Applegath to display tht vonders of his new conception in 1848, by printing eight or nine thousand copies of that newspaper in an hour. 1 '/ ^A'"'^^-. \ S*" ■''■A IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) c <5? ^/% 1.0 I.I 1 1£ 2.0 1.8 L25 mil 1.4 IIIIII.6 V] «^ /^ >^ o^ 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MA.tv ST* v«' Wl^BSTER.N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 Ld> f' u PBINTINfl: ITS MODERN VARIETIES. If we were about to attempt a minute description of this new machine, we should at once ask the reader to suppose the large cylinders of an ordinaiy printing machine to be turned up on their ends, and to be revolving on vertical instead of horizontal axes ; and furtlier to suppose that tlie types are arranged roimd a cylinder, instead of being packed together on a flat surface — for these ai*e the two pervading principles of the new machine. And though we cannot go into technical details, a recognition of these two principles will do much to render the action of the machixie intelligible. The monster machine at the Times office, then (for it is this of which we are speaking), has the type ranged round the surface oi a cylinder more than five feet in diameter; or, more correctly, the surface is a polygon, each side of the polygon being equal to the width of a column. This type cylinder rotates, and presents its several poly- gon facets to the sheets of paper. The inking rollers are vertical, and they feed themselves from a reservoir, which is also vertical. There are eight cylinders, about a foot in diameter, round each of which a sheet of paper coils itself; eight boys place the sheets upon stands or platforms, and the eight sheets are drawn down and made to wrap round the eight cylinders. The inking rollers receive their dose of ink ; they touch the types as the type cylinder rotates ; the paper cylinders press the paper against the inked types ; the printing is effected before tlie spectator can well tell what has become of each sheet ; and the eight printed sheets fall from the eight cylinders, and are received by eight boys who are seated at the lower part of the apparatus. In this most beautiful machine, Mr. Applegath undertook to provide a power adequate to print 8000 copies per hour ; but he conceived it probable that, by a few slight improvements, such a machine might attain a speed of 10,000 or 11,000 ; and some such increase has been obtained. It was a pity that a larger amount of * standing room ' had not been afforded aroimd the Illustrated News printing machine at the Great Exhibition ; many an eager eye wished to trace the movements of the mysterious cylinders, but wanted facilities. Yet was it such an opportunity as was never before afforded ; and those who did watch the machine attentively know more than any written description can tell them. "When the increasing circulation of the Times rendered it necessaiy to expedite the process of printing ; when the pr-^prie- tors requested Mr. Applegath to tax his skill in producing a machine which would print eight or ten thousand copies in an hour ; when Mr. Applegath sminounted all the difficulties ; and when the means of accomplishing this typographical feat was rendered apparent ; — ^then did the proprietors of that paper commission Mr. Applegath to make for them the machine which was fitted up in the ' machineiy in motion ' department of the Exhibition, This machine is smaller than that of the Times ; it has four cylinders instead of eight ; and these four cylinders have a tmited surface exactly equal to that of the type cylinder. How the paper takes its extraordinary tour among the cylinders; how the 'laying-on boy' places the sheet upon a little platform, and a spindle urges it from the platform towards vertical tapes, and the vertical tapes transfer it to the care of upright bars of wood, and the bars of wood transfer it to small pulleys, and Uie small pulleys resign it to marginal tapes while the sheet is being pressed against the type, and the marginal tapes dismiss it to the care of other little pulleys, and the ' taking-off boy ' finally receives it from these pulleys — how all this is effected is, perhaps, not " more easily con- ceived than describe''," but it is certainly beyond the descriptive scope of the present work. So valuable is eveiy minute in printing a daily newspaper— especially such *^iir ditFerent nations. There was a copy of Gutenberg's Bible, and specimens of the type used for it. There were copies of books recently printed in the establishment, for various persons, requiring rare or peculiar type. There were large engraved woodcuts, with moulds from them taken in gutta percha, and electro-copper casts from the moulds. There were pictures, chemityped or etched on zinc by a chemical process, and capable of being printed at the common press. There were stereotype plates of all the alphabets in the world, with moulds or matrices in gutta perciia and in plaster, and electro- copper casts from the moidds. There were numerous electro-copper casts from types, woodcuts, petx'ifactions, has and alto-reliefs, &c. ; besides admir- able plates suitable for engravers, and the really wonderful sheet of copper thirty feet long — ^wonderful when we bear in mind that it was produced from a cold liquid solution of copper by galvanic agency. There were numerous chrorao-lithogi'aphic prints, hung by the side of tlie original coloured drawings, to which they made a singularly near approach in richness and softness of colouring. There were engraved steel and copper plates, and impressions taken from them. There were electrotint plates, in which the subject is pro- duced by painting and galvanizing, without either etching or engraving. There were designs for ornaments connected with books and bookbinding, »"■■■. ^ ^ ■ii"i 18 prikting: its modern varieties .ind ornamental tools for bookbinders. And lastly, there were a dozen or more of photogi'aphs. Such are some of the points of interest connected with an establishment which is said to employ nearly a thousand persons ; which possesses a hun- dred and fifty millions of letter-types, weighing a hundred and fiffy tons ; and at which three hundred thousand sheets of paper are printed daily. The typographical contributions to the Great Exhibition by three societies ii: London were interesting in an industrial point of view, irrespective of other considerations. The British and Foreign Bible Society have printed the whole or portions of the Bible in 170 different languages, of which 118 are from translations never befose printed. Specimens of nearly all of these were exhibited, and a most curious collection they made, worthy of more study than casual visitors to tlie Exhibition could give them. The same Society illustrated the progress of the printing art, by placing side by side Bibles printed in 1816 and others printed in 1851, to show that the paper, printing, and binding had all improved, while the expense of production had lessened 6S per cent. The BeUfjious Tract Society have published tracts and other religious books in 110 languages, specimens of most of which were exhibited. It is a striking illustration of tlie world-renowned position which Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progi'ess ' occupies, that the Society have printed and published this woi'k in no fewer than 28 different languages. The third Society alluded to above, the Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, occupy a marked and distinct position, from the peculiar object to which attention is directed. The contributions consisted of embossed books, cyphering books, maps, geometrical boards, embossed writing copies, music, and chess boards — all intended for the use of those who have to bear the dread calamity of blindness. The raised characters are in an arbitrary type, foraied of curves and lines similar to those used in some of the systems of short-hand ; while in the Glasgow Blind Asylum the ordinary Roman letters are employed. All such embossed letters are produced by stamping on paper with bold but un-inked metal types, and the finger of the blind student reads the words as it passes over them. There is sometliing sadly beautiful in this mode of blindly feeling the way to knowledge. The cyphering-boards ai-e perforated all over with small square holes, into which types easily fit, and these types represent the ten numerals. In the maps, tiie land is raised above the water, and great distinctness is given to the Imes and spots which represent cities, mountains, rivers, and geogi'aphical boundaries. The chess- boai'ds have the black squares raised above tlie level of the white ; the black pieces are distinguished by a projectmg point ; and all the pieces have pegs which fit into holes in the boai'd. There is also a pretty apparatus by which the blind can print their own thoughts, or write and print at once. There are stamps or punches for the various letters, and these stamps, by the aid of levers, i? slide, a bar, and a rack, can be made to impress a sheet of paper in regular lines. The Edinburgh School for the Blind contributed in like manner various contrivances which are used in that establishment. There were some Egyptian books in the Exhibition, which, judging from cir- cumstances, appear to have belonged rather to plate-printing than to type- printing ; for tiie pages were from leaden plates, and had been printed by the lithographic press. The collection was highly interesting ; it comprised about a hundred and fifty volumes, printed in the Turkish, Ai'abic, and Persian lan- guages, and relating to histoiy, military science, medical science, poetry, and other subjects.* The paper of the books was manufactured, and all the print- i ^ ^^ w^^^mmg^^mimm / PBINTINa: ITS MODEttN VARIETIES. 10 ing processes conducted, in Egypt ; and the display certainly illustrates the marked progress which that couutiy has made imder the unscrupulous but sagacious Mehemet Ali. Chromatic or Colour Printing. By little and little the art of printmg in colom's has arrived at great perfec- tion. One single colour, if well printed, was accounted a feat in bygone times ; now, the diversity of colour is almost unlimited. The colour may be mixed with oil instead of with water ; and the style of the engraving may be almost any one of those adopted for ordinary purposes. As to the origin of this kind of printing, it is difficult to attribute it to any one inventor ; for the simple use of red ink instead of black would, in effect, be colotu'-printing. There are found to be initial letters, in some of the very earliest printed books, in two colours ; these must have been printed at two operations, with ink of two colours. At vai'ious times during the last three centuries modes were adopted of producing engraved pictures, not exactly in colours, but in light-and-shade, as if copied from drawings in India-ink or in sepia. Mr. Savage's Treatise on Decorative Printing, published ratlier more than thirty years ago, was one of the first works which gave an impetus to this beautiful art. The fancifully-adorned lotteiy-tickets (of which the present generation know little, except by tradition) were, under the inventive talent of Mr. Whiting, made another of the means for introducing colom'-printing ; not pictorial, but typographical. It is not a little remarkable that playing cards (which were among the means of introducing woodcut printing fom' centuries ago) gave also an impetus to the art now under notice. In a former number of this series we have described the mode of making these cards, and have stated that, by Messrs. De La Kue, the cai'ds are printed in oi^colours. Now it was only after numerous trials and much expenditure that Mr. De La Rue, about twenty years ago, devised a mode of mixing and applying oil colour which would bear the polishing processes necessary to the finishing of playing-cards. This card-colour printing has been the basis of many subsequent improvements in tlie art. Another cm'ious example presents itself to our notice, showing that humble productions illustrate a principle as efficiently as those of greater dignity or rank. Let us select the label of a blacking-bottle as an example of a notable ad- vance in colour-printing. We must, of com'se, begin by duly acknowledging the unrivalled merits of " Day and Martin's incomparable jet ; " no matter whetlier Day is dead, or Martin dead, or both ; no matter whether Day and Martin have had merely a hypothetical existence, like Boz's " Mrs. Harris " — it is sufficient to know that this "inestimable composition," has a large sale; and we are further justified in believing it possible that roguish traders (for there may be rogues in blacking as well as rogues in grain) might imitate the label, as a means of sharing in the profits of this " real japan." Now if such were the case, the manufacturers would have a strong inducement to employ a label which would be very difficult to imitate ; and this, we believe, is the true history of tlie colour-printed label foimd on the bottles sold by the firm in question. It must have been indeed an achievement when that pro- duction was brought to light in the infancy of colom'-printing. How to pro- duce the lace-work ground-pattern in red ink ; and the waving lines in red and black ink ; and the white and black and red letters of vai-ied sizes and shapes ; and the woodcut of the ambitious Ionic-columned factory in Holbom ; and • I so rniNTiNo: its modern varieties. the copied autogi'aph of tlie veritable Day and Martin — ^liow to effect all this called for much patience, skill, and expenditure of capital ; and a department of the establishment has been expressly set apart for this purpose. A cylinder machine, on Mr. Cowper's principle, is employed, with two cylinders, one for red ink, and one for black — each cylinder being large enough to print eight labels at once. For each label two stereotype plates are prepared, by a com- bined process of ^casting, stamping, and modelling ; they are so accurately ad- justed, that eveiy raised spot in one plate corresponds with a sunken spot in the other. One plate contains, in relief, the whole of the letters and devices which ai'e to be printed in black ; while the other contains those for red ; and both plates are bent to tlie exact curvature of the two cylinders. Eight plates are adjusted to each cyhnder, with great accuracy ; and the inking roUei-s are so placed that tlie inking of the black plates is completed just as the paper is brought near ; while the red plate is similarly brought in readiness to seize and impress tlie paper directly it is liberated from its neighbour. The more completely the black and red portions are seen to keep cleai- of each otlier in tlie label the more accurate must have been tlio adjustment of the plates on the cylinders. — Thus the " pursuit of knowledge " may lead us even to tlie study of a blacking-bottle. About tlie year 1 836 Mr. Baxter procm'ed a patent for a method of printing in oil-colours, from wood-blocks and steel-plates conjointly ; and this method has recently been carried to a degree of considerable excellence and beauty. Some specimens of oil-colour printing are from wood-blocks only ; while others ai'o worked by the woodcut method, from mezzotinted metal plates, of which as many are used as there are tints in the picture. It is scarcely possible to conceive a higher degi'ee of beauty than now dis- tinguishes some of tliese colour-printed productions. The names of Baxter, HuUmandel, Hanhart, and many others, among the patentees and printers, and those of some of our best artists among the draughtsmen, are becoming every day better known to tlie purchasers of cheap but good artistic productions ; while every kind of pictorial subject, and almost every style of engraving, are being brought within the range of colour-printing. We have copies from the old masters, and copies from the Stanfields and Creswicks of our own day ; we have graceful story-book illustrations by Absolon and others, and sump- tuous decorative ornament by Owen Jones ; we have fruit and flower pieces in imitation of Nature's work, and buildings and other productions of man's in- dustry. All these ai'e depicted or designed on engraved steel, on mezzotinted softer metal, on stone, on wood, or on stereotype plates ; and ail are alike brought within the powers of the colour-printing press. Nor do these produc- tions belong exclusively to the domain of fine art ; the colour-printed paper covers for cheap books, with their glazed surfaces, are not only pleasing to the eye, but are more durable than the paper garments of the books published " in boards " in the olden time ; while tliey are cheaper than cloth binding. It was one of the most instructive characteristics of the Great Exhibition that, whenever opportunity offered, the successive stages of any particular process were represented in their proper order. Such was the case, among other instances, in respect to colour-printing. In the Saxon section, this art was illustrated by a series of sheets, each exhibiting one stage in the chronio- priiiting process, showing how many times the print itself had to pass through tlie press before its final completion. And thus likewise were the productions and processes of Mr. Baxter illustrated. /'• PniNTINO: ITS MODKItN VAItlKTlKS. n The application of colour to lithographs is among the beautiful novelties of recent times. It can scarcely bo necessary hero to describe a lithograph, or to state that it is printed from stono ; but a few words will suffice to show the relation between a woodcut, an engmvimj, and a lithograph. A wood- cut is printed from raised lines; an engraving is printed from sunken lincx; a lithogiaph is printed from cheniivalbf-prejmred lines. A wood-block is cut till none of the suiface is left except the lines which are to be inked and printed ; whereas an engraved copper or steel plate is so cut or engraved tliat tlie parts left shall be un-inked in printing. A lithograph differs considerably from both. A stone of a veiy peculiai* quality, brought chiefly from the Damibian provinces, is carefully prepared on tlie upper surface. A design is sketched on the stone, either with lithographic chalk or lithogi-aphic ink — both of which are nearly alike in composition, but one is used dry and the other wet. A solution is poured over the stone to fix this device ; and when about to be printed, the stone is sponged with water, which is received by tlie stone; but repelled by the chalk or ink. Tlie printing ink, applied by a roller, is re- pelled by the damp stone, but received by tlxe device, and a press suffices to effect the transfer. Such, then, is ordinary lithography. The lithotint and the stump drawing on stone are two methods of colour-printing practised by Messrs. Hullmandel, and of which some beautiful specimens were disjilayed at the Great Exliibi- tion. Many of the specimens in the first of these two styles were drawn on tlie stone by Cattennole, Harding, Haghe, and Nash. They are executed by making drawings on the stone with a liquid ipk applied by a brush ; the qua- lity of the ink being such as to resist the action of the chemical agent after- wards applied to the stone. The result produced has much of the beautiful effect presented by an original drawing in sepia colour. It is a style consi- dered to be well adapted for engravings relating to engineering, architecture, and natural history. The other of these two methods, the stump drawing, is effected by applying the stump to designs which have been produced partly by chalk and paitly by ink. The method of lavis aquarelle, or water-colour wash, employed by some of the French lithogi-aphers, seems to bear some resemblance to the English lithotint. Mixed Processes, in Modern Printing. It is a matter full of instruction, in respect to the probable future of this valuable art, to watch tlie vai'ious combinations which are now going on, in respect to principles, materials, and processes. Engi-aving, litliogi-aphy, xylography, stereotyping, black printing and colour printing, casting and pressing, electrograph and photograph, metal and stone, wood and paper, gutta percha and bitumen — all ai'e being brought to afford mutual aid, each to each. The lines of demarcation are being broken down ; and we are, every month or two, called upon to attend to some new and ingenious process, Avhich, if called by a correct descriptive name, would indeed require a com- plex assemblage of Greek syllables. Some of the recently-introduced modes of engraving or prepai'ing designs of any kind for the press are really remarkable. One example, shown in tlie French department of the Great Exhibition, is an expeditious mode of en- graving maps. It is always desirable to have some distinctive mode of engi'aving an uncoloured map, so that the eye shall catch readily the bounda- ries between land and water. In the example in question, a veiy delicate ■W« aa PRINTINO: ITS MODERN VABIETIES. machine makes lines of dots over the whole of tho land portion of the map ; the dots are veiy faint, and very close together, so as to form a sort of tinted gromid ; the machine is said to make two thousand dots in a minute ; and, hy a beautiful contrivance, it reverses its action whenever it encounters tho deeper lines which mai-k a boundary between land and sea. Another novel kind of printing is a combination of typography and liUio- graphy. Part of a page is set up with ordinaiy moveable types ; an impression from them is transfen-ed to a lidiogi-aphic stone ; the remainder of the design or page is filled in by drawing on the stone with the usual material; and the stone is then prepared for printing in the usual lithographic method. This double system is intended for application in bordered, tabular, or or- namental printing; and it seems to be capable of useful extension — since the precision of type-printing may be combined with the artistic grace of lithography. Anotiier kind of htho-typography, of French invention, is a pe- culiar mode of etching upon stone, so as to leave a printing surface raised considerably above the general level of the stone. There were specimens exhibited of a new art, to which the embaiTassingly- learned name of paneiconographic printing was applied. It seems to bo .m attempt to combine the excellencies of all kinds of engraving, by produc- ing plates in which the design, though always raised or in relievo, has some- times the characteristics of one style, sometimes of another. The French exhibitor of the specimens, in his catalogue-description, says that this panei- conographic art has the power of " repx'oducing on every kind of metal (whether engraved or in relief) any lithographic, autographic, or typographic print, any drawing in pencil or in stump, any engraving on wood, steel, or copper, whether produced by aquafortis or by the gi'avei", in such manner as to be able to print tiiese reproductions by means of the typographic press." Tho typographical or common printing-press is so much more expeditious in its operations than the copper-plate or the lithogi-aphic press, tliat it would be a valuable improvement if all the various kinds of engraving really could be reproduced by such means — whether or not we give a hard Greek name to tho process which ensures this result. The Denmark section, which was not veiy large or important, contained, nevertheless, a specimen of a new art, which the exliibitor, M. Scholer, calls stylography. It is said to be a method whereby a copper-plate can be engi'aved without the aid either of the' graver or the etchuig-acid ; and M. Scholer exhi- bited an engraving in all the various stages of progress. In the first place a smooth metalUc sinface is prepared; on this surface an even layer of black composition is cast ; on this composition a thin coat of silver is ap- plied; on this silver the artist sketches his design with a sharp pointed in- strument, cutting deep enough to expose the black composition beneath ; firom this black and white picture (for such it certainly is, tho black linos of the design being visible through a silve?.y gi'oimd) a copper cast is taken by the electrotype process ; and from this cast a second cast is produced by the same process, which becomes of course a copy of the silvered composition model. From the copper cast last produced impressions may be taken by tlie ordinary copper-plate press. This is one of many modes «5f applying electro- deposition to the production of engi'aved plates ; but it must require very careful manipulation to produce by tliese means a plate flat and perfect enough to meet the exigencies of a press. Bank-note requirements, as is well known, have led to many curious and valu- able inventions, in respect both to paper and printmg. There is Messrs. Perkins PBIMTIMO: ITS MODERN VARIETIES. 23 and Heath's method, by which one process of ongiaviug suffices for an unli- mited number of impressions, by a transfer of the device from hard to soft steel. Tliere are Mr. Oldham's numbering machines, as used at the Bank of England, whereby bank-notes may bo numbered consecutively with unerring accuracy and great facility. There is a method, patented a few years ago, but uot (so far as we aro aware) yet acted on, for a very peculiar mode of printing bank-notes ; a groundwork of geometiical figares is printed with an hik of a certain chemical character; another design, dilferent from the fomier, is printed with a different colour, and the note is then printed with the usual entries — thus presenting many chemical obstacles to imitation or ti'ansfer. There is the United States' patent for bank-note paper, in which tlie number of threads introduced into each piece of paper is made in some way to indi- cate the number of dollars for which the note is current. There was Mr. Fisher's bank-note paper, shown at the Great Exhibition, prepared for re- ceiving black letters on a neutral-tinted ornamental backgi'ound, from whii-h a signature in common ink could not be erased without changing the colour of the gi-ound. There was Mr. Saunders's ' white and coloured safety paper ' for bank notes, bankers' cheques, letters of credit, &c., capable of detecting the removal of writing by any chemical agent. It is in relation to chemistiy, or chemical affinity and repulsion, that we ought to regard the Anastatic printing which made such a commotion a few years ago. In 1841 the world was stai'tled with this new ai't — tliis handbook of forgeiy or of stealuig, as some woidd fain have deemed it ; in 1851 we heai' little of it. It is certainly a remarkable process, depending mainly on the antagonism of oil and water. A printed sheet of paper is moistened with dilute phosphoric acid, and is pressed on a clean surface of zinc ; and by this contact the acid of the imprinted pait etches the zinc beneath, while the printed part sets off on the zinc. There is tlius produced a reverse copy of tlie printmg on the zinc. The plato is washed with an acid solution of gum, and is then inked : tlie affinities in some instances, and the repulsions in others, cause the lines of the device (whatever it may be) to take tlie ink, but the other parts of the plate to remwn clean ; and the printing then follows. This Anastatic method of printing has gone a little, and only a little, beyond the limits of a manipulative curiosity. Mr. Cowell, of Ipswich, has published a ' Descriptive Account ' of the process, with illustrative specimens and practical instructions. The claims put forth for Uie method ai'e somewhat comprehensive ; for it is aveiTed that " designs produced either by the ordinary process of printing from types, copper or steel plates, wood, stone, &c., or by the manual operations of writing or di-awing in prepared ink or chalk, may be readily transferred to the metal plate, and an indefinite number of copies produced, at a really txifling cost." The time has not arrived for determining the real commercial and artistic value of the art ; jot a marked and distinct value it assuredly will have, for it is one of the most peculiar modes of copying ever devised. Photot/raphy or Daguerreotype seems to belong so much more nearly to Fine Art than to the printing art, that its claim to a place in the present sheet is not quite indisputable ; still, as we Avish to show the bearings which the numerous family of ' gi'aphs ' and ' types ' have one towards another, a few words relating to this curious art may be desirable. To paint a picture by a sunbeam is certainly a beautiful art ; but to give pemianency to the picture has required all the resom'ces of modern chemistiy. LDce every other art, the progi'ess of improvement has been gradual, from small beginnings to splendid results. The old alchemists knew that certain chemical I. ft4 PBINTINO: ITS MODERN VARIETIES. substances turned from white to black bv exposure to the sun ; but they did not seelc out the cause of tho change. The chemists of the eighteenth century went fai'ther ; and Wedgwood and Dnvy advanced yet another stage ; but it was M. Niepce, a Frenchman— ^first by himself, and then in conjunction with M. Daguerre — bv whom tlio fixing of the sun-pictures was first olfectod. In 1830 DagueiTe publicly announced his discoveiy that iodide of silver is an exqui- sitely sensitive material to act upon, and that the vapour of mercury tends to develop and fix the image formed by light on the iodide. Most curiously, our own counti^man, Mr. Fox Tulbot, was working on the same kind of experi- ments at the same time, without any knowledge of the Frenchman's labours. As in tlie great i)lanetary discovery by Adams tmd Leverrier, so in this case — an Englishman and a Frenchman were working simultaneously, in the same direction, but each in ignorance of the other's labours ; and in each case tiio Frenchman, by priority of publication, has carried oft" the lion's share of populai'iiy. The last twelve years have presented a continuous chain of improvement in tliis most attractive art. Scientific men, practical chemists, artists — all have a^ded to our stock of information on the subject. And tlie distinctive names, too, have been wanting neither in number nor in variety. Besides the de- signations drawn from the names of the inventors, such as Daguerrotype, Talhotype, Hillotype, and the like, we have many otlier ' graphs ' and ' types ' such as photograph, heliograph, calotype, chrysotype, amphitype, chromatype, cyanotype, ferrotype, and two or three others. Most of these designations depend upon the kind of chemical substances employed. The photographic principle has scarcely yet become an accessory to the printing art. There is evidence, however, tliut it may become so ere long ; for, by a most delicate and beautiful manipulation, an electi'otype cast has actually been taken from a photogi'aphic plate, and an impression printed from it — a sunbeam paints a picture, and a galvanic cun-ent engraves it. Proofs have also been given that photography may become a handmaid to the printing art; for many scenes and views have been presented in various illustrated oumals, which could not have been published in time but for the quick modo in which the sketches are produced by photography. The processes of photography are varied and often difficult ; but their rationale is simply as follows : — A prepared surface of metal, paper, or glass (the mode of preparation being varied according to the material), is placed in a camera obscura ; the object to be copied is placed before an opening in the camera ; an image of tlie object becomes focalised on the prepared surface ; the strong lights and tlie faint lights act differently on the chemically-prepared surface ; and by subsequent processes tlie parts thus differently affected become developed into a picture, which anotlier process renders permanent instead of evanescent. Slowly but surely does the printing art become Unked to Fine Art on tho one hand, and to science on the other — a tripartite association such as In- dusliy is developing around us on all sides. ■Is -ii*. . ^ 'i'« V / % ADVERTISEMENT. (' The late Mr. D'Israoli, in his celebinted • Curiosities of Literature,' employed the term " CuriosUiea" to designate A Miscellany of Interestino Facts. The ' Curiosities of Industry/ although disrirsive in its chai-acter, forms a Supplement to the Cyclopaedia, having regaid to the more precise industrial uiformation which has preceded it, whether in connection with Science, Art, Geographical Knowledge, or Social Economy. It treats of Industry, tmder its Novelties and Rarities ; its comparative Condition in all Countries ; its Pkooress at Home, especially during the present centunj ; its essential adaptation to Cheapness of Production ; and its extension under a system of Universal Intercourse. In the realms of Science, of the Arts, of Natural History, of Manufactures, of C'^mmerce, of Social Economy, there are abundant new and curious materials tnat may be presented both to tlie desultory reader and the diligent student, in a form at once inviting and instructive. The present time is more favourable to the foimation of such a collection than any former period. The gieat Book of Nature and of Art has been fully opened to our view — and even " those who run may read " its wondrous pages. The • Curiosities of Industry,' altliough of general interest as a distinct work, forms a Supplement to the ♦ National CYCLOPiEoiA,* and to the * Cyclopedia of Industry of all Nations." ' % ■%