Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-27
THE PARIS RxposIr1an.

|
 The Machinery Palace - The Largest
 BuildiDg Ever Constructed Under a
 Single Roof American Machinery 1 Exhibits.
 Copyrighted, 1ss9 by the New York Associated Fressl
 PARIS, May 26.-The machinery place of
 the exposition is the largest building ever
 constructed under single roof. A remark
 able feature of the building is that the roof
 has no interior support, except twenty great
 arches, hinged at the foundation plates and apex so as to provide for expansion and con- l traction under changes in temperature. The roof is glazed. The lower panels are decorat- ed with heraldio designs. The ends of the building are filled with toned glass. Light is abundant and the effect of the decoration is magnificent. The length of the building is nearly ], 400 feet, it's width 37O feet and it's height ITO feet.
 A gallery thirty feet from the floor extends
 the entire length on both sides. At the four corners are steam generators for driving the
 entire machinery. The power is communi..
 oated by shafting and placed on four rows of trellis gfrders lying parallel with the length of the building and placed in subways. The engines are now working and there is more
 power than is required. An idea of the colossal charater of the exhibition may be gained from the fact that the power available this year is four times aa great as that fur
 nished during the exhibition of 1878. The American machinery exhibits occupy third of the entire space in this building and
 is in all respects but one more imposing than the exhibition at any previous international exhibition. The exception is in agricultural machinery, in which we do not show pro gress nor respond to that manifested in other lands. We are indeed at disadvantage in this, for, besides exhibiting nothing notably
 new European nations have been successful
 ly overriding us in the production of our
 machines. This is especially true of Great
 Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In this respect, as in others of equal importance, we nave supplied Europe with ideas. It will be remem bered that Cyrus
 Mccormack failed to secure in the United States the adoption of his agricultural ma-
 chinery until after it's exhibition in London in 1851. That international exposition in- augurated new era in machinery. In 1867
 Thomas R. Pickering, engineer and inventor, who has been superintendent of machinery for the United States at the successive e1hi- bition at Philadelphia, Melbourne and New
 Orleans, brought about the exhibition of one 50-horse- power Corliss engine in this city. This engine was sold to 8 Frenchman. To- day if no American machinery occupied the space allotted to the United States the entire area could be filled with the notifications of the Corliss engine manufactured by Europe ans. Two-thirds of the steam engines ex- hibited are of the Corliss pattern.
 Within obvious limits American ideas re- late chiefly to steam engines, air-compres- sors, machine tools, machinery for forming sheet metal, for rolling metal into forms, for making paper bags, machinery for work ing on rock and stone by means of com pressed air, for making wood screws by roll ivnrv sy7~fa 0f O threads, and woodworking machinery. A Baldwin gas engine built by Otis Broth CTS attracts attention by employing gas to run dynamo for the purpose of lighting by means of incandescent lamps, the claim be- ing that the light is more economical than gas itself.
 Warner & Swasey of Cleveland, Ohio, and William Sellers & Go. of Philadelphia, Pa, are conspicuous by their exhibits of brass working machinery.
 Printing House Square in the American exhibit will be run with electric power sup piled by Pickering for the special accommo- dation of the presses, which are not connect ed with the shafting. Neither Scott nor Hoe
 has any exhibit, but the plant when ready will be considerable.
 The Campbell and the Golden companies exhibits are the most important. Several type
 setting, machines are exhibited, includ- ing the MacMillan, the Thorne and
 the Mergenthaler machine. The last named presents the most striking features, as it does away with movable type. Instead it uses matrices and casts solid bar for each line, the matrices being then returned auto- mstically to their proper places. This machine is furnished with @ photograph which die tates copy to the operator. The only other country exhibiting novel improvements in printing machinery is Great Britain. We have practical monopoly also of writ ing machines, there being nine American ex hibits and only one English exhibitor, one Russian and one Swiss. The machine of none of these compare favorably with the best American machine.
 That electricity constitutes an absorbing problem of mechanical invention and physi- cal discovery is shown by the prominence it's apparatus occupies. Throughout machinery hall and in various other parts of the exhibi- tion there are five hundred exhibitors ia this branch. The position of Alexander Graham Belt and Thomas A. Edison is unique, while the great discovery by Professor Elihu Thompson Of the perfect fusion by means of electricity of metals that do not smalgamate l in the forge adds a third American to the ! list of electricians first in the world. Profess BOT Thomson's discovery is expected to revo- ! lutionize processes and modify methods l throughout the whole scope of metal working l from the fine art of the goldsmith to the col- l ossal undertakings of the cannon maker.