St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-27
All Nations Evidently Making
a Close Study Of Elec-
tricity.
The Edison Exhibit Occupies
One-Half the Entire Amer
lean Frontage.
Uncle Sans New Representa-
tives in London Seeking
Swell" Localities.

ing is that the roof has no interior sup
port. except twenty great arches. hinged
at the foundation plates and apex so as
to provide for expansion and contrac-
ton under changes in temperature.
The roof is glazed. The lower panels
are decorated with heraldic designs.
The ends of the building are filled with
toned glass. Light is abundant, and
the effect of the de coration is magnifi-
cent. The length of the building
is nearly 1,400 feet, its width
$40 feet and its height ITO
feet. A gallery thirty feet
on both sides. AT the four corners are
steam generators for driving the en-
tire machinery. The power is COM
municated by shafting placed on four
rows of trells girders 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 colos
sal character of the exhibition may be
gained from the fact that the power
available this year is four times as
hibitiOn of 1878. The American ma
chinery exhibit occupies One-third of
the entire space in this building, and is
In all respects but one more imposing
than the exhibit at any previous inter-
national exhibition. The exception
S in
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY,
in which we do not show progress cor
responding to that manifested in other
lines. We are. indeed, at double dis
advantage in this. for besides exhibit
ing nothing new. European nations
have been successfully Overtaking us
in the production of our own machines.
This is especially true of Great Britain,
France, Germany, Austria and Switzer-
land. In this respect, as in other of
Europe with ideas. 1t will be remem-
bered that Cyrus Mccormick failed to
secure In the United States the adop-
ton of his agricultural machinery until
its exhibition in London in 1851. That
international exhibition inaugurated
new era in machinery. In 1867
Thomas r. Pickering, engineer
and inventor, who has been super
intendent of machinery for the United
States of the successive exhibitions at
Paris. Vienna, Philadelphia, Melbourne
and New Orleans, brought about the
exhibition of the l50-hOrse power Corliss
engine in this city. This engine was
sold to a Frenchman. To-day, if no
American machinery occupied the space
allotted to the United States, the entire
area could he filed with the modifica-
lions of the -Corliss engine, manufact-
ured by Europeans. Two-thirds of the
steam engines exhibited are of the Cor
liss pattern. In 1867 there was an ex-
hibit of machine tools by Brown &
Sharp, of Providence. They were all
sold. To-day tools made after the
Brown & Sharp patterns by Europeans
are universal in the exhibition. When
the model of
THE YACHT AMERICA
was shown in the United States it was
rather scoffed at. Its superiority was
promptly detected by British builders,
and it is now becoming model on the
Clyde. When the international congress
of civil, mechanical and mining engi-
neerS meets here next month, it is ap-
parent that the chief pleasure of the
American delegation, numbering nearly
800, will be to point out the docility with
which American mechanical ideas have
been adopted by other countries. These
ideas are paramount. Within obvious
limits they relate chiefly to steam en-
gineS and cOmpreSSOrs, machine tools,
machinery for forming sheet metal, for
rolling metals into forms, for making
paper bags, machinery for working on
rock and stone by means of compressed
air, for making wood screws by rolling
instead of forging, and for cutting the
threads and wood working machinery.
A Baldwin gas engine, built by Otis
Brothers, attracts attention by employ
inr n for bo
of lighting by means of incandescent
lamps, the claim being that the light
thus produced is more economical than
gas itself. Warner q SwaZey, of Cleve-
land, and William Sellers & Co., of
Philadelphia. are conspicuous by their
exhibits of brass working machinery.
Printing house square," in the Ameri:
can exhibit, will be run
WITH ELECTRIC POWER
supplied by Pickering for the special
accommodation of the presses, which
are not easily connected with the shaft
ing. Neither Scott nor Hoe has any
exhibit. but the plant, when ready, will
be considerable. The Campbell and
important. Several typesetting ma
chimes are exhibited, including the
Macmillan. the Thorne. and the Mer-
genthaler linotype machine. The last
named presents the most striking feat
ures, as it does away with movable
type. Instead, it uses matrices, and
casts solid bar for each line, the
matrices being then returned automat-
ically to their proper places. This ma
chine Is furnished with photograph,
which dictates copy to the operator.
The only other country ex-
hibiting novel improvements in
printing machinery is Great Britain.
We have a practical monopoly also of
writing machines. there being nine
American exhibitors, and only one Eng
fish exhibitor, one Russian, and one
Swiss. The machine of none of these
compares favorably with the best Amer
lean machine. That electricity consti-
tutes an absorbing problem of mechan-
ical invention and physical discovery is
shown by the prominence that it's appa-
ratus occupies. Throughout machinery
hall and in various other parts of the
exhibition there are 500 exhibitors in
this branch. The universally of the
study devoted to it is shown in the
range of the countries represented by
apparatus. These countries include
France, Germany, Great Britain, Amer
lea. Belgium. Switzerland, Algeria,
Austria, Hungary, China, Denmark,
Spaii, ItdIy, cdpdH, Nol way. IOIGuSdl,
Russia and Finland.
THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY
to machinery and to various processes
is making rapid progress. The position
OF Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas
Edison is unique, while the great dis
covery by Prof. Elihu N. Thompson of
the perfect fusion by means of cleo
trlclty OF metals that do not amalgamate
in the forge adds third American to
the list of electricians first in the world.
Prof. Thompson's discovery is expected
to revolutionize processes and modify
methods thrOughont the Mhnln cno,o t.f