The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-23 00:00:00

strips like a low sandy shore at ebb tide. From each
of the 30 sections into which the British Industrial Ex-
hibition has been divided pour forth upon the main
avenue immense quantities of empty packing crises,
and on either side the eye glances down openings
and passages disclosing varied scenes of bustle and
preparation. Over the whole space swell at inter-
vals the pealing notes of the great organ on the west-
ern gallery, as each pipe is tested, and the constructive
process ascertained to be properly performed. The
western half of the nave, true to the characteristics of
our national industry—will be more remarkable fur
manufacturing and productive energy than for high
art—for the capital and the resources of a great em-
pire than for appeals to the imagination, the senses,
and the taste of spectators. We exhibit there, with-
out any reference to sightliness, enormous transverse
sections of mahogany trees, and blocks and planks of
Canadian timber—rough from the hands of the back-
wo sdsman. The gigantic specimens of our mineral
products will be disposed outside of the building, in
front of the western entrance. Foreigners will pause
before those great masses, arranged eo as to resemble,
in some respects, the stupendous remnants of Egyption
architecture, but of deeper significance to the contem-
plative mind than even those time honoured memo-
rials of the Ptoletnys and the Pharoahs. They will
not fail to observe in those vast blocks and obelisks of
coal a type of the force which sustains our national
industry, and an evidence of that enterprise which has
drawn from the bowels of the earth the deposits of
primaeval forests to light the forges of Birmingham, to
drive the cotton-mills of Manchester, and to warm the
hearths and darken the air of the great metropolis.
Other objects, also, will be examined with interest,
and among them those masses of granite and slate
which have been sent from our quarries as specimens.
Such materials illustrate the substantial and perma-
nent instincts of John Bull, and the vigour with which
he applies himself to the roughest and most inflexible
materials of nature in order to gratify his love of the
solid and enduring.
From the nave, and its continuation of analogous
objects beyond the western entrance, let us pass into
the department of machinery, on the north side of the
building. Nearly all the leading features of that in-
teresting department have now been developed, and
the exact character of the display may be accurately
and succinctly defined. From an early period it was
predicted that the collection would be more remarka-
ble for the excellence of each contribution, and for its
adoption of the most recent improvements, than for
any striking novelty. That anticipation turns out to
be well founded, and in this great branch of industry,
where we are comparatively without rivals, our repu-
tation rests mainly upon what the mechanical genius
of the country has already successfully adopted. Yet
there are points of interest to guide the steps of the
uninitiated visitor amid that wonderful display, some
of which from time to time we have attempted to
point out. He may pause for a moment to examine
Donnesthorpe's patent for opening cotton—a quarter
of the right in which he has disposed of, it is said, for
25,0001. Mather's invention for printing calico in
eight colours is not yet ready, but will be soon after
the Exhibition opens, and will attract great attention.
Another important novelty is the patent exhibited by
Dalton, of Manchester, for calico printing on both
sides. The show of Manchester tools by Whitworth
developes a new adaptation of the well known princi-
ple, that tubular frames, besides their other advan-
tages, are better adapted for resisting the strain of ma-
chinery than solid masses of metal, Mr. Whitworth
also claims to have solved a mechanical difficulty,
long felt by the scientific world, and often announced
as accomplished, but never hitherto successfully. He
exhibits a machine which it can be ascertained by the
touch, measures the 250,000 th part of an inch, and which
it is believed may be made to measure a millionth
part of the inch. Garforth, of Dukinfield, near Man-
chester, shows a very remarkable new rivetting ma-
chine, in which the direct action of the steam piston
rod is substituted for that by levers under Fairbairn's
invention. An elastic and directly controlable force
, is thus obtained by the simplest mechanical means.
The hydraulic press punch of Hick and Sons, from
Bolton, is illustrated by a small model ; yet the power
and beauty of the arrangement are obvious, and the ex-
hibitors produce specimens of what their patent can ac-
complish. Instead of one, this press has four cylinders,
and by this cumulative feature an enormous additional
strain is obtained. Maudslay, the well known engineer,
contributes two features to the display of machinery.
One is a highly finished connecting rod, the bearings of
which are of white iron instead of brass, thus securing
less friction and more durability. The other is an in-
genious machine for coining medals, which substi-
tutes the use of a cam instead of a screw,and gives a
result obtained by increased leverage instead of one
obtained by increased momentum. Of Mr. Appold's
centrifugal pump we have already spoken, but we
may observe, in addition, that it is now in working
order, and promises to be a very attractive object. By
it the inventor calculates that with a wheel 20 feet in
diameter, describing 531 revolutions per minute, he
could discharge in that short time 560,000 gallons of
water. For working in wood few mechanical con-
trivances are exhibited, but we may mention the mor-
ticing and tenon machines of Furness, from Liverpool,
and the sash-bar machines used by Fox and Hen-
derson in the construction of the building. Westrup,
of Wapping, shows a new and ingenious construction
of a corn mill. Watkins and Hill a beautiful ex-
planatory model of the steam-engine. The only
marked novelty in the printing press department,
besides Applegarth's machine, is a hand press,
exhibited, we believe, by Ransom and May,
of Ipswich, and which inks itself. We have
now gone as minutely as the object of the
present notice would justify over some of the more
striking features of the department of machinery in
motion, yet, before we quit that part of the Exhibi-
tion, let us notice a rather remarkable implement for
plaining stone, produced there by an American con-
tributor named Morey. The railway section of the
Exhibition—that which for years past has absorbed so
large a portion of our mechanical and engineering
skill—will be examined with great interest by an in-
quiring public. Visitors will expect to see locomo-
tives set in order like so many prize oxen at a cattle
show, with an immense heating surface, huge driving
wheels, and a power of steam pressure astoundingly
great. The department has only within the last few
days been opened, and we are unable therefore to judge
what position it may occupy in the general display ;
but already the anticipations to which we have alluded
have been realized in the arrival of a monster engine
contributed by the North-Western Railway, and the
largest and most powerful ever made to run on the
narrow gauge. This overgrown machine has driving
wheels eight feet in diameter, and is, in point of fact,
a moving mountain of iron. Two other locomotives
had previously taken up their position ; one, a small
racehorse, adapted for short branch lines or light
traffic, and having a tender combined with it, is ex-
hibited by Mr. England; the other, made by Ste-
phenson, on Crampton's patent, is a very interesting
contribution from the important principle which that
patent developes. An additional axle, without wheels,
is introduced to bear the strain of the machinery, and
the axle of the driving wheels is thus lightened of a
portion of the work which hitherto it has had to per-
form, and which has rendered it so apt to give way.
The only other object in the locomotive department
worthy of notice is Barlow's sleeper and rail combined
with continuous bearings. We pa=s on into the section
of fixed machinery and admire the splendid marine en-
gines of Bolton and Watts, and of Penn, remarkable for
their economy of space, their direct action, and the
finished workmanship they display. Then come the
Nasmyth hammer and the Britannia hydraulic press,
each wonders in their way, and well calculated to
astonish spectators by their very appearance without
seeing them in action. We hurry through the fine
arts court, which is now filling with a great variety
of models and specimens too numerous to allude to,
through the furniture court on the north side of the
nave, which contains a very splendid sideboard, from
Messrs. Cooke, of Warwick, elaborately decorated
with carved scenes from Kenilworth. Near at hand
the section of mineral manufactures is disposed, and
most prominent in that collection are the polished
granite, porphyry, and serpentine of Cornwall. The
specimens of chimneypieces, candelabra, vases, inlaid
tables, and other ornamental objects exhibited in these
materials, are surprisingly beautiful, and will take the
admiration of the public by storm. The Serpentine
Company of Penzance are the principal exhibitors of
this manufacture, which is a recent one in its origin,
and in addition to its intrinsic excellence has thus the
charm of novelty. Passing the .
envelope folding ma-
chine of Mr. De la Rue, which is not far off from the
point of the building at which we have now arrived,
we take the opportunity of correcting an error into
which we fell with regard to its invention. Mr.
Edwin Hill and Mr. Warren De la Rue are the joint
patentees. The credit of the original idea, and of its
development to a considerable extent, are due to the
former gentleman, but he received indispensible as-
sistance from his co-patentee's mechanical ingenuity.
Mr. Edwin Hill is brother of Rowland Hill, the great
author of the penny postage stamps, and it was while
prosecuting the details of changes consequent on that
reform that the thought of the envelope folder was
suggested. We have never seen a machine which SO
nearly approaches to the characteristics of human
labour in its action, and whatever other objects in the
Exhibition escape observation, we predict that that
will not. Let us now ask our readers to step with us
for one moment into the carriage court—not to de-
cide on the relative merits of broughams, britzkas,
flys, dogcarts, gigs, jaunting cars, or any other form
of private vehicle, but to examine for one moment a
spick and span new omnibus presented for approval.
Of all metropolitan ills there is none which is entitled
to take precedence of the present " buss nuisance."
People read with a thrill of horror how the pirates of ft e
Indian Ocean, when they capture prisoners, pen them
up in iron cages, where they can neither sit, stand, or lie
down, and thus expose them to the heat of a tropical
sun. But is that worse than the torture which the
unhappy Londoner Ware, Who, compelled to take an