THE GREAT AT EXHIBITION OF 1862.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 23, 5 December 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE GREAT AT EXHIBITION OF 1862.

(From the Times.) Every clay now adds visibly to the growth of the stupendous structure which is being bolted together with such rapidity at South Kensington. Of the thousands of colums, girders brackets, and and railings of cast iron nearly one-fourth are already actually in their places.* The remainder ore being rapidly forwarded and all are to be delivered on the ground before the 30lh September, at which time the delivery of the ironwork for the Exhibition of 1851 was only just commencing. In all about 4,000 tons of cast iron will be required and it reflects no slight credit on 3i'r. Barrow, of Staveley who has been intrusted with this portion of the works that he lias been enabled to complete all these castings of first rate quality in such an exceedingly short time. The columns are of unusual size and strength. There are 1,100 of them, and if laid end to end they would reach from South Kensington to the Crystal Palace at Norwood. Early in October the Picture Gallery will be all roofed in, so that the walls will have ample time to dry before the grand opening on Tuesday the Ist of id ay next. By the 12th of February the building will bo completed and formally handed oyer to the Royal Commissioners—a happy occasion which we hear will be duly cclebreated by the great contractors AXcssrs. Kelk & Lucas with a kind of fete in the centre nave. After the 30th of next month no further applications for space will be granted by thecommissioncrsno matter from what quarter they may come. On this point there should be no misunderstanding, and we can assure those who are in that peculiar state of the | mental uncertainly known as “ making up one’s ‘ mind ” that if it is not made up before the 20th September they may save themselves all further trouble for that is positively the last day of grace. As a matter of course England and the colonies alone have demanded more than five times the space of the entire building. The commissioners, however naturally wish to know the worst before thep begin cutting down the exorbitant estimates, and therefore want to have all applications in as soon as possible. If a list could only bo published of intending exhibitors and their demands it would make we think as amusing a book as any ever laid before the public. Tile deep mysterious secrecj of some as to the nature of the articles he .intends to exhibit, the utterly preposterous nature of other articles, and the perpetual confounding of feet square with square feet would scarcely be believed if told. One of the earliest applications for space was that of an inventor, and notwithstanding the numbers that have since come, in this still remains one of the most remarkable of all. This "cntlcman, who docs not specify the nature of the articles he intends to exhibit, requires space in every class of the industrial sections to the amount of 72,000 square feet ! lir the Exhibition of 1851 the classes of exhibitors were arranged under the heads of animal, mineral, and vegetable manufactures, &c. The same rule was followed at Baris in ’55, and led to the most absurd derangements, to which we shall have occasion to refer hereafter! To avoid these mistakes for the future the classes of next year’s Exhibition arc arranged under trades, irrespective of the materials used in manufacture. But the only people who -won’t be classified according to this order are the inventors. Their genius refuses to bo fettered hy the rules that govern mere manufacturers they will not have their ‘“patent tombstone,” “invulnerable floating battery,” “ automatic flute,” and “ indestructable boots” reduced to the level of mere classes. The Commissioners must take all or none and if not exhibited together they won’t send any. It must be taken, we suppose as a proof of the versatility of tin; genius that we always find the professions and trades of these intractable inventors have not the remotest connexion with their valuable mechanical, chymical, and warlike discoveries. Thus a clergyman may send breech-loaders and models of tremendously destructive shells, while the nurseryman and market gardener proffers improvements in surgical instruments, and the doctor a contrivance for forwarding the ripening of fruit on walls. One grocer demands space for the exhibition of a new axle applicable to all carriages, a new projectile for ordnance, and a new method of propelling ships. An M. A. and E. R. G. S. has models of an invulnerable floating battery, a breeeh-loading gun and carriage converting all"guns of old pattern into breech-loaders, a refuge buoy, a beacon, a coik poncho mattrass a life, limb, and treasure preserver an unfoulable anchor, and some new screw propellers. An accountant asks space for a model of a self-acting watcrcloset, with water metre and apparatus for regulating the flow water all in one, the model of an improved theodolite, and an omnitonic flute all to bo shown together ! A bookseller seems overflowing with invention. Ho iias a plan of interminable suspension applicable to bridges, aqueducts, &c., of great span or length, and by which means to do away with the costly supports hitherto used ; a target-shooting protector for the safety of (hose employed to note the score ; a new paddle-wheel by which to secure a greater amount of power than is attainable by any other arrangement ; a self-acting railway signal for day and night, and bolts for gates at level crossings whereby to prevent the gates from bArr

opened while a train is within n quarter of a mile ot any convenient distance ; a safety spring mining cage to secure the safe lodging or prevent the falling of the cage in its ascent or descent when conveying men or goods up or down the mine shaft should the rope or chain break or become disarranged ; a now windowsash fastening and door-bolt by which to attain perfect security from the possibility of unfastening them from the outside, rister wishes to exhibit two architectural designs; a pair of springheeled boots and drawing of a man equipped with ditto ; diagrams of Cory ton’s system of fairway lighting off the coasts of Great Britain ; a type-composing machine and handstamp ; models illustrative of Groyton’s vertical wave-lino system of ship-construction ; Coryton’s atmospheric guide propeller, and Coryton’s selt-adjusting sails. An insurance-broker his specimens of wines and other fluids fined by a new and more effective process and model of the apparatus used ; electric telegraph cables and conductors model of an improved ship and of parts thereof ; specimens of improved pavement in carriage roads; specimens os improvements in iron houses, &c. ; specimens of budding stone preserved by a new material ; model of a machine' for dressing stone ; specimens of improved junctions of iron pipes to prevent breakage ; specimens of a new description of embroidery ; ditto of paper hangings ; ditto of an improved floorcloth. These likewise are all to be shown together. This list might be extended indefinitely. Another class of applicants appear to wish to exhibit, merely to say they have exhibited. Thus, a private secretary wishes to show specimens of grapes, gooseberry, and rhubarb wines, and another a method of training vines. One gentleman proposes to exhibit wines, a photographic view of an organ front, designed by himself, and six large views of his fig orchard. A great many intending exhibitors, either from motives of secrecy or from not comprehending the term, “Nature of the articles to be exhibited,” have either omitted description altogether, or, what is worse, defined them very badly. Thus, one declines to give any specification but the number of the class he wishes to exhibit in. One can only be got to admit that his inventions are Archimedian, whatever that may mean; another that his “ objects are geological while a third baffles the Commissioners with the general answer that his articles “ are various.” Ideas of space are, of course, of the most indefinite kind. People will do anything rather than adhere to the plain dimensions of length, breadth, and height. An organ builder, after much correspondence, says he cannot tell how much space he will want. Another requires horizontal space of 200 It. by 100 ft., or 20,000 square feet, for the exhibition of some photographs ; another wants 100 feet by 100, or 10,000 square feet for carriages. The agricultural implement makers, however, carry off the palm for exorbitancy. They seem to think the building will he rather larger than Salisbury Plain, for one eminent maker demands a space of 1,500 feet by 1,500 feet or 2,250,000 square feet, nearly three times the whole exhibition space in the building. The applications for space under the head of the bine Arts must have given considerable amusement to the Commissioners, though unfortunately some of them also happened to be in the' last degree embarrassing and troublesome. Every one in England who considers himself the artist whom the world has conspired to keep down and defraud of his rightful fame has now, or at least thinks he has, a chance of displaying his immortal works before the eyes of admiring Europe. “But for the Exhibition,” he writes, “posterity might have lost the chance of beholding,” &c., and on goes a remorseless claim for space for a grand historical cartoon of the signing of the confederacy ot the Seamancler; or the Coronation of the three Rings of Brentford. This, however, though bad, is by no means the worst. People will insist on space in the Fine Arts Gallery for what to use the mildest term are not, and never were, Fine Art objects at all. What, for instance, is to bo done with a man who, in spite of Queen, Lords, and Commons, claims a space in the picture gallery “for a model roam for a working shoemaker, showing sanitary arrangements and economical furniture cooking apparatus, and bed ?” Another offers ft masterpiece of plain and ornamental engraving,” of/iis own, though he couples the reception of this Art treasure with a condition that space must be found among the bine Arts for specimens of Argentine plates for marking linen, silk, paper &c There is an enthusiast who will not be denied admission among Fine Arts for “ an architectural model birdcage in ornamental wood and sbellwork highly finished in glass.” . Yet this is in its way a lucid application compared with that of a gentleman who demands space in the Picture Gallery lor the exhibition of a poem ! What number of feet square, or square feet, are requisite for properly exhibiting his verses the applicant does not say, and he likewise wisely declines to specify the exact maimer in which the pcom is to be “ exhibited.” If the Commissioners yield to this “ fine frenzy,” and admit it to the gallery, we trust that they will hang it high. For room for figures in costume and Indian and other clay statuettes there is, of course, a large demand, and there is a regular twitter among picture-dealers who want space for their “genuine” Reynold's and Gainsboroughs, when it is well known that the originals are in great collections elsewhere. The object of this is that their pictures may come forth from Exhibition with their putative authorship duly authenticated. The desire to exhibit the Wardour-streets style of antiques under the class of b ine Arts has been broadly evinced. One wants space in the Picture Gallery for antique swords and casques another room for an ancient cabinet, while a third wants a stand for a show of antique bricks. In fact, Salisbury Plain would not be large enough if half the demands now made for exhibiting space were attended to or granted. It is the nature of these exhibitions to dovelopo themselves and progress in magnitude with each fresh display, but the development and magnitude of the forthcoming show would be something startling indeed if all intending exhibitors had their claims allowed. In making their arrangements for exhibition under trade classes the Commissioners have had compiled for them one of the must wonderful trade lists that hag ever been completed in this country. It contains the names of upwards of G,OOO distinct trades and iaannlaetnrc;, hundreds of which (he general pub-

lic never heard the names of before, and many of which are so utterly unknown even to the Commisioners themselves that they actually don’t know in what class, they ought to be put. ' Wo have, however, already exceeded the limits of a passing notice, and must defer to another occasion our account of this most interesting list and other matters still more important connected with the progress of the great Exhibition.