Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1858-10-15

ace in that ctv on the evening of Thursday last There
were in the building at the time of the breaking out of
the fire. about two thousand persons spectators and as
sistans of the great annual fair OF the American lns
tute The building was filled with valuable goods mo-
des or Inventions choice manufactures and indeed eve
ry possible symbol of the industry and skill of the City
and State of New York The fact that this structure
was located directly under the reservoir of the public
waterworks and that the apparatus of the palace was
out of order shows how careless people to secure the
public against the loss of either property life. We
extract of the particulars of this calamity from the
New York Times
1.-The Crystal Palace was totally destroyed by fire
yesterday. At few minutes after P. NJ, fire was
discovered in the FOrysecond street entrance, which
has been used as lumber since the opening OF the
Fair. The flames spread with fearful rapidity, and,
darng up through the steps of the staircase commun
Gated to large gas chandelier with thrtyone burners
then to quantity of paints and oils on the second floor
eaped to bedding and cabinet furniture and
with astonishing CELEBRITY shot up to the dome, which
speedily fell setting fire to the pine floor of the first
story Thence the fire spread in every direction and in
little over twenty minutes from the time when it was
first discovered the entire roof of the Palace fell carry
ing with it most Of the walls beneath
"The amount of damage sustained can only be very
loosely estimated If the Palace worth 1925 000
1.-THE last price paid upon it, and the property of exhib-
itors, at very low estimate, named at $225000 the
total loss would be $35000O to which is to be added
the value of stauary and other works of art which
ID the dllef w air So
u.s. perhaps, safe to estimate the entire value of the
property destroyed at much higher figure
Among the property destroyed in the Palace were
several fine pieces of statuary, including Kiss eques
tran statue Of the Amazon, Marochetts fine colossal
statue of W ashngton casts from ThOrwasdens group
of the Apostles, basrelief of the Descent from the
Cross mantle statue of Columbus, and several other
valuable works of art.
"This calamity has struck every one aghast, for the
possibility Of such event has never been calculated
upon The REGULAR character of the building construct
ed as it almost entirely of iron and glass; appeared
to bid defiance to the flames, yet its destruction was
more rapid than any building of wood could possibly
have BEEN In less than fifteen minutes from the time
the fire discovered the flames spread with such fear
full rapidty that the immense dome, which has so long
been object of beauty towering over the city, and
landmark from every approach fell and the work of de-
struton was complete 1t was like fash. The great
fabric of glass and iron, with tpriceess treasures OF
art were suddenly wiped out of existence as though
they had been mere unsubstantlal Vapor The earth
hath bubbles the water hath and this one OF them
cat no other time could the disaster have been more
deporable in its consequences than the present. The
building itself, though immensely costly, was of but
secondary Importance to the wealth of objects which it
contained. The Thirteth Annual Exhibition of the
American Institute at its height, and there was
collection of objects of art and industry whose value
could not be represented in figures. There were models
of machinery which had cost years of toll and study
precious inventions, gems exquisite examples of
mechanical ingenuity and SKILL and many products of
the higher arts There also cases Of splendid jew
elry of gold and silver of immense value, and in
Vulnerable objects which can never be replaced. The
entire value of the articles destroyed by this terrible fire
cannot be accurately estimated but it cannot be less
than half million of dollars
CAS- always happens in such cases, there appeared to
be fatal concurrence of accidents to accelerate the
ruin The fire broke out in that part OF the building
where there happened to be the greatest quantity of
fammabe materials the apparatus for extinguishing
fires gave out at the moment it needed and there
was high wind, which sucked the flames up into the
dome and along the galleries where all sorts of combus
tbe articles were placed as if on purpose to feed the
devouring element.
There were in the building when the alarm of fire
given some two thousand persons and the one con-
ISOLATION to be derived from the great disaster is that all
of this crowd enabled to escape without HARM 1t
miracle that no was killed in the sudden col
lapse OF the enormous structure.
"The Palace originally the property of an incor-
poration known the Association for the Exhibition
of the Industry of all Nations This company in
corporated March II, 1852 the first president was
Theodore Sedgvck. The building commenced in
the fall of 1852, and nauguraed by President Pierce
the 18th July, 1858. The exhibition remained open for
nearly year, and the presidency subsequently vest
ed in Mr.. P. t. Barnum under whose auspices rein
auguration took place on the 4th of May, 1854 In
May last the entire property reverted to the city"
Mr.. Marley.
At last we have something official and Ineligible in
regard to the condition of the Atlantic cable Mr. Var
lev the Electrician of the Electric and International
Telegraph Company so he is styled by the company
has made report on the state of the cable obser-
we'd by him the 9Th, 7th 6th, 9th and 10th of Sep
TENDER, and the result is by no means encouraging
He finds " fault of great magnitude at distance OF
between 245 and 300 statute miles from Vaenta," and
possibly in water of but Al fathoms in depth He finds
the cable unbroken but thinks the power used will
shortly eat away the exposed copper wire in the faulty
place by eecroytic decomposition He is satisfied also
that there is another fault distant than this tie
approximate locality of which he could not estimate
without communication with Newfoundland. From au
thentic data shown him at Vaenta, he is also of opn
ion that there was fault in the cable on board the
Agamemnon before it submerged, offering a ress
lance equal to 900 or 1000 miles of CABLE situated
distance of about $50 miles from end of the zoo
mile COIL and supposed to be the fault which caused
much alarm when the ships 500 miles from Ireland
He is satisfied that the cable has been seriously if
fatally impaired by the use of too powerful currents
from the large induction COILS especially from this side
and that the present conducting strand is too small
have answered its purpose had the insulation beer
found. We here quote what he says:
"To satisfy myself on this point, 1 attached to tn
cable piece of gutta perchcovered wire having frs
made slight incisOn in the gutta percha to let the wa
ter reach the wire the wire then bent to clos
up the defect. The defective wire then placed in
Jug of sea water, and the latter connected with tn
"earth." After few signals had been sent from the in
PRODUCTION coils in thecabe and the ties
wre the electricity burnt through the ncision, rpid
burning hole nearly one-tenh of inch in diameter
When the full force of the coils brought to bear
the test wire, by removing from the cable and ALLOWING
the electricity only channel viz that of the ties
wire the discharges, as might be expected burnt hol
in the gutta percha under the water half inch in length
and the burnt gutta percha came floating up to the
| face
Mr.. Varley closes his discouraging catalogue wit