The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-05-24

Another letter, dated the 18th ult, from Mr..
Riddle, agent of the American Committee in Lon.
don, at the great exhibition, is published in the In
telligencer. The writer says that the Americans,
though last in the field, are foremost in the march
to completion. With but few exceptions, the Amer
lean contributors enlisted with characteristic ma
tonal energy, in the work of preparation, and,
without regard to appearances, volunteered their
services for any and every work that the day or
occasion has required. He adds
While our neighbors have imported mechanics
and laborers from their workshops and farms at
home, in the utter impossiblity of hiring artisans
in London, it has been necessary only to pass The
word among people who are here that their aid
was needed at the "Crys,al Palace" to insure at
every branch of work, and in every department of
labor, efficient and gratultous superlntendence.
In many of our manufactures there is already
much interest taken by members of the ROYAL
Ct Ctmmssion, and Others who have the entree of
the building. In our carriages, for example, of
which we have variety, there is much that ex-
| cies constant curiosity. The marked difference
they show to every hing of English make; the
grace OF form, lghness OF material, elegance OF
finish, freedom from noise in their quickest move
| ment, and taste in ornament of springs and lamps
and ax'es, are manifest in nearly all the specimens
that have been sent, and the combination thew pre
| sent of great strength with extreme lightness
weighing in several instances less than one third
VI OI tne same description, are
subjects OF never-wearying remark. We have Gns
specimens OF the staples of our great West, in lard
oil, adamantine candles, barrels of salt pork end
| thoroughly y-cured hams.i The valley of the Cen
esee has contributed from its best wheat and fines
-four, in liberal profnson. The cities of the sea
board are represented in articles of beauty, ee-
gance, richness a. ID fashion; while the workshops
and manufactures of New England have sent OF
their machinery and products, not enough, indeed
to give fair idea of their vastness and Importance
but still sufficient to show the representatives oil
other nations that, in all that pertains to the saving
of labor, we are fully their equals.
Speaking Of the general exhibition, the writer
| says:
| In the department of machinery, the observer
| finds objects, in number and inventive genius suf
ficient for the study of lifetime. Machines foI
every purpose, from breaking the cane stalks tc
| making percussion caps; from the pump that
throws its four thousand gallons of water in min.
ute, to microscopic gravers that reduce draw ings
| to the smallest possible compass are spread out
over an immense surface. And yet these are small
| in their show, when compared with machinery in
motion, TO which the largest compartment of the
"Crysal Palace" is devoted. Fnm every coun-
try that has furnished machinery to be moved is
this one division the vast recipient As passes
through the narrow spaces that are left untitled
as one stops to look behind and before at the wheels
| and cylinders and shafts and gearing and pistoni
that fill the immense distance as onemeets print
ing press, lathe hydraulic forcer set of cards
| q spinning jenny, q loom, pump, stone smoother
buzz saw, a trip hammer, groover, gunstocl
shaper, and sees in each such ponderous metal ant
tremendous power; and then as one multplies b.
g tens almost every machine he meets only 10 fal
; short Of the numbers there, the astOnshment ON
u feels becomes amazement at what all this gigantic
It workshop will he when the steam power, in tn
neighboring building, shall have set it all in mo
= tion."