The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-11-19 00:00:00

MR. PAXTON'S " CHRYSTAL PALACE."

A description of this stupendous building, given by the
architect himself, in a lecture delivered on 'Wednesday
last at a meeting of the Society of Arts, contains some
statements likely to surprise the public. When plans
were first invited to be sent in to the Executive Commit-
tee of the Exhibition, it was generally believed that one
of the stipulations was that the building, whatever mate-
rials were used, should be perfectly fire proof. Indeed,
it is a fact which we have reason to know, that some of
those furnished, one in particular, by Mr. Turner, of
Dublin, which was very nearly receiving the sanction of
the Committee, fully realised this great desideratum.
Even when, at the last hour, Mr. Paxton stepped in with
his plan of a " chrystal palace," the public were given to
understand that the materials were to be exclusively metal
and glass; and such glass, moreover, of the strongest
make, and capable of resisting any violence of the ele-
ments. Mr. P xton himself, in his recent lecture, almost
admits this. Objections, he says, had been raised against
any building of bricks and mortar in Hyde Park ; and he
adds, "*.it was not until this period that I turned my atten-
tion to the matter, when I was at once convinced that the
least objectionable structure to occupy a public park
would be an erection of cast-iron and glass."
So the majority of the public expected the building to
be ; but in reality, as the architect now informs us, and as
we are assured from othersources of information, so it is2zot
to be. It is supported, indeed, by cast-iron pillars ; but
if we understand Mr. Paxton's description of the house
fitted up at Chatsworth for the Victoria Regia to be the
same plan which is to be adopted in the construction of
his " chrystal palace," the entire roof is to be of wood.
" The curved rafters," he says, are "composed of several
boards nailed together on templets of wood, cut to the
exact curve." The sash-bars, too, of which 205 miles in
length are required, are to be of wood, and very light in
substance. The floorings of the galleries are to be-of
wood, and the bottom floor of the entire building is to be
of wood. This bottom floor, we may add, is to be of a
peculiar construction, the boards being laid with half an
inch of space between each, and on joists raised some feet
above the ground. The object of interstices being lift be-
tween the boards, he tellsus, is to allow the dust to fall more
readily between when swept, and the wet to run through
which may be spilt in sprinkling it before sweeping. We
may suggest as an objection to this feature of the plan,
that the moisture from the soil below may possibly rise up
disagreeably, and that an up-draft may be occasioned
which will prove annoying to the female sex especially.
The glass used in the roof and sides, we now learn from
Mr. Paxton, is merely •` sheet glass" manufactured for
the purpose in Birmingham, in lengths of four feet ; and
it is stated in a recent article of The Builder to be of a
very light description. To obviate the liability of this to
breakage, and " to subdue the intense light in so large a
building covered with glass, all the south side of the up-
right parts, and the whole of the angled roof, will be co-
vered outside with canvas or calico, so fixed as to allow a
current of air to pass between the canvas and the roof."
This contrivance, it is added, may be made use of to re-
duce the temperature of the building in very hot weather,
by the canvas being wetted. We ought to have men-
tioned that " all round the lower tier of the building will
be boarded will.fillets planted on in a perpendicular line.
with the sash-bars above."

Essentially, then, it must be admitted that the " chrys-
tat palace" is A wooden nuilding. Mr. Paxton tells us
that " one great feature of it is that the whole is com-
posed of dry material, ready at once for the introduction
of articles for the exhibition." But may it not. from its
dryness, be quite as ready for combustion, shouldiany un-
fortunate cigar or lucifer be dropped amongst the inflam-
mable articles which it must contain. The canvas blinds
outside would' on a hot summer's day give very efficient
assistance to clothe the entire building with a covering of
fire ; whilst they will not be a very strong defence against
a shower of hail, or of stones directed against its brittle
roof and sides by a handful of the foreign and other
scamps who will be attracted next summer, for plunder or
mischief, to the locality.

District RelD5.

The Protestant Association of Loyal Orangemen will
meet at Newton to-day, to consider the late aggression of
the Pope.

Mr. Robert Wright. clerk and traveller to Mr. Morris,
of Wigan, spirit-merchant, is in custody charged with
embezzling nearly £lOOO, the property of his master.
On Thursday next, a great meeting of Protestants of
the parish of Manchester is to be held in the Free Trade
Hall, Peter-street, for the purpose of giving expression to
public opinion in reference to the recent daring aggression
of the Pope. The meeting has been convened by the
churchwardens of the parish, Messsrs. R. Birley, T.
Clegg, and J. Morley, in compliance with a requisition
signed by a very numerous and highly respectable portion
of the laity of the parish. The chair will be occupied by
the senior churchwarden.

DISTRESSING CIRCUMSTANCE.—A person named Wil-
liam Starkey, of Blacko, near Colne, aged 28 years, being
deaf and dumb, left home on the morning of the 19th of
August last, and went by the cheap trip train to Liverpool
from the Colne Station of the East Lancashire Railway.
There were about 4,000 passengers, and in the confusion
which they caused Starkey got separated from his friends,
and was never seen by them afterwards. Although con-
siderable trouble and expense have been incurred, no
tidings have yet been heard of him. His mother, who is
a widow, has also a daughter deaf and dumb ; they are
both much attached to their lost relative.
REMARKABLE ESCAPE.—The Manchester Guardian
states that on Friday night an ironmonger's shop in that
town had a most remarkable escape from destruction by
an explosion of fireworks. A large pyrotechnic, called a
" wheel," about two feet in diameter, had ignited, and
had burnt entirely away. It had been placed upright be-
tween two shelves, and its position was such that it could
not turn round ; which was most fortunate, for it was sur-
rounded by a large collection of rockets, and other fire-
works, and had close to it, in another drawer, four pcunds