ployed in spinning this material for weaving, and, as the supply is almost unlimited, it is difficult to calculate what results may yet be arrived at through its use in other directions than those in which we have just reviewed its successful application.

Perfection of Cotton Machinery. Some interesting facts illustrative of the perfection attained to in cotton-spinning, as deduced from an examination of muslins shown at the Exhibition, have been published by Mr. II. Houldsworth, a leading Manchester manufacturer. It has been stated that the fine cotton yarn spun in India by female hands is finer than that spun by machinery in England. Mr. Houldsworth, however, shows this is not the case. He states that he examined the finest piece of Indian muslin exhibited in London, in 1851, and found that it measured 10 square yards, weighed 1,507 grains, contained 104 warp threads and 76 weft threads to the inch, the number being what is denominated No. 357. At the same Exhibition No. 400 English yarn was shown, but at the recent Exhibition there was a piece of muslin, woven in France from No. 700 yarn spun in Manchester, which exceeds anything ever before attempted. It is a mere fancy specimen, however, and not fit for practical purposes. On the other hand, there was a whole piece of cloth, of about thirty yards in length, made of No. 440 yarn. This cloth was also woven in France, but the yarn was spun in England of Sea Island cotton. The fine muslins of Hindostan have been called, in oriental style, "woven wind," but they are evidently coarse compared with the finest specimens that have been woven in France. Mr. Houldsworth states, as an item of curiosity, that a few threads of No. 2,500 have been made, but they are of no practical use. A single fibre of Sea Island cotton is equal in fineness to No. 8,000 yarn, and a pound weight of it in a single fibre of thread would measure 3,818 miles in length.

All the new dyes and chemicals of importance introduced during the last ten years into the manufacture of printed and dyed fabrics were shown in a great variety and richness of specimens;-prominent among them naturally being the products derived from coal-tar. Of aniline purple, there was shown by Perkin, its inventor, a cylinder of "mauvé paste," of so moderate dimensions as to be easily carried under one's arm, which required for its production the tar derived from 2,000 tons of coal. Its value was given at $4,000, and its "tinctorial potentiality" as equal to 100 miles of calico. In juxtaposition with this, on one side, was to be seen a large jar containing one grain of the paste dissolved in two gallons of water, to show the intensely colorific property of this material, and on the other side another jar containing about two gallons of crude coal-tar, the exact amount necessary to produce ten grains of mauvé dye. Aniline colors were also shown in their varied forms of dyeing and printing as applied to cottons, cotton-velvets, silk, and woollen, in shades of purple, reds, and blues, known as mauvé, magenta, etc. These colors in silk were especially brilliant. There were also illustrations of murexide colors, or the so-called "Roman purple," derived from the uric acid contained in guano. Pigment colors fixed by albumen and substitutes for albumen, such as lacterine, gluten, etc., were also shown, and coal-tar colors in combination at one operation with dyeing and print

ing. Specimens of emeraldine, a new green, and azurine, a new blue, were exhibited by Mr. Crace Calvert. Of these, emeraldine is produced by preparing cotton with chlorate of potash, and then printing with an acid chloride of aniline; in a given period a bright green appears; then the green is subjected to the action of a solution of bichromate of potash, and the tint is changed to a deep blue, which has been called azurine.

Engraving and Printing. In this department the novelties which seemed most worthy of specification were, first, illustrations of a process (not new, see Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1861, pp. 68, 69) for enlarging or reducing impressions from engravings, through the elastic power of India-rubber. Thus a picture is first printed on a sheet of vulcanized rubber prepared with a surface to take lithographic ink; this is then stretched to any required size, and the enlarged impression transferred to a lithographic stone, from which other impressions on paper may be taken in the usual manner. When it is required to make a reduced copy of a drawing, the process is reversed. There is now on exhibition in London a series of enlarged sketches in oil from Punch by John Leech, which have been formed in this way from the original wood-cuts stretched and painted over. Second, lithographs transferred to copper and chemically treated to become surface-blocks by Giessendorf of Vienna; third, engraved photographs on wood, with which the draughtsman has had nothing to do; fourth, one of Hogarth's engravings, reduced and engraved by the action of light, producing a repetition that would puzzle a connoisseur to make out, the work of Sir Henry James; and, lastly, specimens exhibited by Mr. Willis of what he calls autotypography a process by which he is enabled to impress in a plate of soft metal an artist's own drawing, even to his washes and delicate renderings, provided they be done upon the transparent medium supplied by him, somewhat as drawing upon tracing paper, an easy and facile method, requiring no reversing of the subject or writing.

Engraving by Electricity. An ingenious, though not very new machine, was exhibited for engraving copper cylinders employed in the printing of textile fabrics by means of electricity, its distinctive feature being the application of voltaic electricity in communicating certain necessary movements to important and delicate portions of the apparatus. The cylinder to be engraved is first coated on its outer surface with a thin film of varnish, sufficiently resistant to the continuous action of the strongest acids. The requisite number of copies of the original design are then traced or scratched simultaneously by a series of diamond points, which are arranged on the machine parallel with the axis of the cylinder. Each diamond point is in correspondence with a small temporary magnet; and the entire series is so arranged en rapport with the original design, which had been previously etched on a metal cylinder fitted in with a non-conducting substance (this cylinder being made to revolve in contact with a tracing-point), that when the electric current passes, intermittent currents are established, whereby the diamonds are withdrawn from their work at the proper intervals. The metallic surface is thereby exposed in certain parts, and a bath of nitric or other acid being alterwards used to etch or deepen the engraved portion, the

operation is completed. By means of this apparatus, engravings may be enlarged or diminished to any necessary extent from the same original.

Agricultural Implements. The display of different devices for steam-ploughing was very extensive, but embraced no construction of novelty. Many styles of the agricultural locomotive engines which have come into extensive use in Great Britain were shown, each being applicable to the various uses of steam in farm-work, as threshing, chaff-cutting, etc. Each engine is constructed to transport itself and its apparatus from one farm to another, and in neighborhoods where the roads are good they succeed well. A very cheap stationary cast-iron boiler for farm or conservatory purposes, where only fifteen or twenty pounds pressure is required, was deemed worthy of a first-class medal. The boiler was tubular, and cast all in one piece; the exhibitors claiming that this plan of construction effectually prevented breakage and leakage by expansion and contraction. There were also exhibited iron stalls for horses, admirable for fitness of design and completeness of finish. The rack, manger, and water basin are all of iron, the manger and basin lined with white porcelain enamel. The floors are of brick, or wood, or grooved iron, as preferred, but each is provided with a perforated iron gutter. Wood is preferred for the partition walls, as iron has been sometimes broken by a kick, to the damage of the kicker. Halter-straps weighted so as to prevent all possible entanglement, and zinc rollers at the edge of the manger to prevent crib-biting, were accompaniments of these stalls. A patent safety-spring, to prevent horses from running away, exhibited, consisted of an elastic India-rubber strap, about a foot long, one end being attached to a common straight bit, the other buckled to the riding or driving rein, which is attached to a curb bit. The point of junction is so adjusted that ordinarily the horse will feel only the small bit, whereas, in case of sudden restiveness, a heavier pull on the rein brings the curb to bear. This simple contrivance may be applied to any riding or driving bridle, and for tender-mouthed horses who will not bear the curb, but still like to run away occasionally, it is invaluable.

A Danish Milk Pan, for large dairies, which was honored with a medal, was of iron, lined with white porcelain enamel; the dimensions six feet by two and a half feet. It was so arranged that one end may be easily raised to pour out the milk as desired. The cream is removed by means of a long-handled skimmer, a light strip of wood between two wheels, adjusted to travel down the edges of the pan, pushing the cream before it into a reservoir stationed at the end to receive it. This reservoir is placed on wheels, and may, if the row of pans is long, have a railway of its own to travel over. Swedish pan, of tin, provided with a perforated tube through which the milk is allowed to pass out, leaving the cream in the bottom of the pan, was also awarded a medal.

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Bricks and Tiles.- An English hand machine for making tiles for drainage, and hollow brick for building purposes, received a medal in this class, as an implement adapted for the use of farmers. A man and two boys, it was stated, could make with it 7,000 tiles of 24-inch bore and 13 in ches long, or 3,000 hollow brick, per diem. The price

was about £20. A large steam-power machine for the manufacture of both solid and hollow brick was shown in operation, by H. Clayton & Co. This machine was a "combined three-process machine" for clay-crushing, pugging, and brick-moulding at one time. It is worked by a 12-horse power engine, and is capable of turning out from 20,000 to 30,000 solid, perforated, or tubular bricks per day, according to the quality of material used. The exhibitors claimed that, combined with their patent system of kilns and drying apparatus, these machines have, where they are adopted, reduced brickmaking to a regular factory system, which can be carried on, independently of seasons or weather, uninterruptedly throughout the year. The peculiar mechanical difficulties necessary to be overcome in the production of a practically successful brick-making machine do not seem, however, to have been as yet accomplished. All experiments, necessarily, have had to be conducted on one of two essentially different principles: by "compression," i. e., forcing the clay, either in a wet or dry state, into moulds to form the brick; or by "expression," i. e., forcing the clay, in a plastic state, through a die which should consolidate and shape it during its passage. Both processes have been extensively and variously tested. With the former, great difficulty has been found in perfectly filling the mould, whether with wet or dry clay, the lower corner of the brick remaining imperfect, even after the clay had been submitted to enormous pressure while in the mould. Another difficulty was in delivering the brick from the mould rapidly, and without injury to its form. In the use of dry clay, the inconvenience from each of these causes was, perhaps, somewhat less felt, but this involves the erection of an apparatus for crushing and sifting, beside the cumbrous and expensive pressing machine, and the quality of brick so produced is not generally admitted to equal that made from plastic earth. In the "expressing" machines a serious difficulty was experienced at the outset in moulding through dies so as to form a perfect rectangular stream of solid clay, the increased friction at the angles of the stationary plate die causing the mass to come out ragged at the edges, at times fracturing even the brick itself. Very many methods have been tried for obviating this difficulty, and in the Clayton machine, above noticed, it is claimed to have been effected by giving to the die orifice revolving sides. The working surface of the die-rollers is, further, constantly lubricated by means of branch supply pipes passing down from a water reservoir above. The clay comes out alternately on the two sides of the machine in a continuous, smooth, and solid stream, with sharply-defined angles, and there remains only to cut it in proper breadths for forming bricks. There were, beside this, a score of brick-machines exhibited in the building, from Great Britain and various European countries, indicating that whatever apathy may have existed on this subject in the past, there is none now, and that the days of hand brick-making are over; for from among so many, each possessing, doubtless, some merit peculiar to itself, there must, ere long, be educed a machine for Lanufacturing "perfect bricks" with economy, even if it has not already been effected.

The display of glazed stoneware in the English department was most extensive and interesting. As examples of novel applications

we may mention two large cisterns, the one cylindrical, the other rectangular. Both were built of hollow blocks, glazed on both sides, and fitted together with a double dove-tail laid in a fine water-proof cement, and forming a solid wall. They were clean and excellent, and probably cheap and durable, as was stated of them. At the same stand were large kegs of the stoneware so grained and colored as to require close inspection to convince one that they were not really made of oaken staves with hoops of brass, as they seem to be. They were neatly fitted also with faucets of earthenware. These last are much in favor in England for general purposes, being most perfectly fitting and trustworthy.

The display of ornamental tiles, made by the well-known firm of Minton & Co., was especially interesting, as showing the great variety of uses to which these colored plaques of various materials have been applied. In addition to their use for the flooring of door-steps, conservatories, and halls, they are now applied for the adornment of the fronts of shops and houses and for inner walls of apartments. In bathrooms, particularly, the use of these tiles for overlaying vertical surfaces is most desirable, inasmuch as they are impervious to wet, and give to the wall a highly ornamental appearance.

Furniture.- Chairs in which painted panels were introduced in imitation of medieval work appeared quaint, but rich and beautiful. It may fairly be questioned whether it is judicious to place pictorial works in a position in which they are hidden when the object which they adorn is in use; but, allowing such to be legitimate, these were placed in a very skilful manner, for the panels were small and deeply sunk, so that the projecting styles fully guarded them from injury, and the large central panel against which the back rests was filled up by a projecting cushion. Cabinets and chairs enlivened with plaques of colored stones, and others which had the curved surfaces of their mouldings enriched with inlays as well as the flat surfaces, were other noticeable objects. Library furniture in the Pompeian style was both novel and beautiful.

Jewelry and the Precious Metals. One of the generally acknowledged gems of this department of the Exhibition was a silver table in repoussé work exhibited by the famous electro-platers, the Elkingtons, and executed by M. Morel Ladeuil. Repoussé work, we may premise, is the slowest and most difficult mode of working in silver. The relief on the metal is all beaten out from the inside by means of an iron rod, one end of which is placed in contact with the plate, while the other is struck by a hammer. When skilfully performed, the labor is repaid by the superb effect obtained. The value of the table under notice, i. e., as a work of art, was sixteen thousand dollars, and the time consumed in its manufacture was three years. The subject of the work is Sleep, the drowsy divinity, the terminal figure at the top, scattering poppies over three statuettes, from which the stem of the table springs, a minstrel, a soldier, and a husbandman. The varied dreams of these three are represented in the circumference of the table above, and represented with such power, and such breadth and depth of shades, that, with the soft tone of the oxidized silver, the effect of this portion of the work rather resembles the proof of a fine engraving than a design hammered out