ART AND MANUFACTURES IN THE COLONY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4126, 11 June 1874, Page 3

ART AND MANUFACTURES IN THE COLONY.

Interesting notes of the cultivation of art and the extension of manufactures appear in our Provincial exchanges, and are worthy of publication as indicating a growing taste for the one and an increasing investment of capital in the other. We make a few illustrative quotations : THE CANTERBURY MUSEUM. To the contents of tins Museum several valuable additions have recently been made. The additions are principally of a rare kind, which may not be without their influence on future Colonial manufactures. In one case, lately added, there are shown Egyptian and Pheenician antiquities in potteries and glass, the latter of which were found at the settlement of that ancient people, the Phoenicians, at Taros, Island of Sardinia. In another case there is a fine series of pottery and glass articles belonging to the Greoo-Italiau and first Roman periods, found at Girgenti (Sicily), the ancient Agrigeutum; also Celtic potteries, bronzes, and iron found at Golasecca, Northern Italy. Lastly, there are specimens of Etruscan aml'lloman ceramic art, excavated in various parts of Italy and Sicily, and a beautiful collection of cut gems (Intaglios), many of great artistic merit, found in the ruins of the Temple of Dcocletianus at Spoleto. Besides these there is exhibited a fine collection of Roman coins—about 500 in number—ranging from the time of Caisar to Johannes I. In the same case there are also collections of medals, medieval and recent, including a fine series of the family of the Medicis. Adjoining these are Roman silver coins from the Lake dwellings in the Lake Varese, Lombardy, pertaining to the time of the first Roman Emperors, and a collection of Roman silver coins found in Phillippi (Macedonia), of the time of Ciesar and the Triumvirate. Prominent among the additions (says the Press) is the alligator Rig Ren, formerly the attraction of Mr. Gourlay’s Royal Exhibition, and several smaller alligators. Hr. Haast is to be congratulated upon having secured this sjilendid specimen for the Museum, one which is not equalled by that possessed by any Museum in the colonies. While in Sydney, Mr. Kreft, the curator of the Museum there, made a very handsome offer for the large alligator alone, which was refused by Mi'. Gourlay, but the whole collection has now been purchased, NEW USE FOR PHOIIMIUM. Flax, as wo learn from the Nelson Colonist, has just received another testimonial in proof of its universal application to our wants, ami although the direction is not an important one, it furnishes another proof favorable to our attempts at self-help. Cane-bottomed chairs from England occupy many, perhaps most, of the rooms of our dwellings, and when the cane work wears out the only means of continuing their use, hitherto, has been the substitution of wooden seats, but with unsatisfactory results. Mr. Knight, of Nelson, lias shown some very creditable flax-work seating which he has applied to worn cane-bottomod easy chairs, and the result is almost a reproduction of the first article. Thoroughly satisfactory to the eye, and of fair wearing capabilities, chairs so renovated are said to be usable for three or four more years. BREWING PLANT FOR WELLINGTON. A largo quantity of brewing plant for brewers in various parts of the colony is being turned out by Messrs. A. and T. Burt, Dunedin. As reported by the Times , they have just finished for shipment to Wellington part of a brewing apparatus on the latest and most improved principles, the brewing being done by steam. 'This plant includes a steam coil for boiling the wort; and tliei-e is also a refrigerator similar to those of the pattern lately adopted in the Dunedin breweries. The order was received only in the beginning of last month, and already a largo part of the complete plant ordered is ready to be sent away. This plant will brew about 2000 gallons at a time, and there are some “ideas” in it—notably the steam coil and the refrigerator—which will doubtless bo soon adopted by the Wellington brewers. It is intended for Messrs, Maeo and Arkell. A plant similar in design but on a smaller scale, is being constructed for Mr. Field, of Tiniaru. The capacity of this is about 1200 gallons at a brew. One on the same scale and pattern as the last lias been made for Mr. Martin’s brewery at Invercargill. A- large copper to hold about 1200 gallons, and which is for a brewing plant of the oldfasliioned sort, is being made for Messrs. Surman and Co., of Invercargill. The bottom of this boiler lias been formed by the steam hammer used for working copper. Each of the breweries mentioned is being provided with patent mashers of the description in use at Mr. Copeland's and at Mr. Joel's breweries. The quantity of browing plant turned out during the past twelve months or so by Messrs. Rurt is very large, the brewers finding that with what they had previously used they could not turn out sufficient beer to meet the greater demand arising from the increased general prosperity. In the way of water engines, one is being made for Wellington, being the third sent to that place; and another for the Daily Times and Witness Co., to bo used for driving printing machinery. During the twelve months or so since Messrs. Rurt first l introduced the description of water engine they

now manufacture, they have turned out about three dozen of them. In going through the factory yesterday, we noticed a large and powerful force and lift pump for Mr. Larnach’s residence ou the Peninsula. This pump is fitted with an air vessel, in order that it may be worked to more advantage, and a fire cock, and is to supply a main and pipes that will take the water as high as the top of the building. Messrs. Burt and Co. have also in hand a number of syrup pumps to be used in connection with the patent bottling machinery (Hogbeu's), and the patent bottles used by Messrs. Thomson and Co., for their aerated waters. A corking machine and bottling syphon, of a sort lately introduced here by Mr. Strnchan, of the Victoria Brewery, appears to find favor with Dunedin brewers, and there are now orders for three of them from local firms. MACHINERY -FOB MARINE WORK. There are now being lauded out of the James Hicol Fleming, at Port Chalmers, two machines, the first instalment in reply to the first order sent homo by the trustees of the Otago graving dock. These are a punching and shearing machine, and a ten-inch stroke shaping machine, with their necessary gearing. The remainder of the machinery ordered at the same time is on board the Hindustan, and should very shortly come to hand. The machinery to arrive by her includes a gap 20-inch break lathe, 12-inch gap lathe, selfacting radial drilling transverse boring machine (suitable for boring cylinders up to five feet diameter), and a planing machine. A second order was, we understand, sent home in February last for a steam hammer of great power, and for the iron work of the furnaces, cranes, and boilers required in connection with it. A travelling crane, capable of lifting four tons, was ordered at the same time. It may ho expected, therefore, that the workshops of the graving dock will be in full working order by the end of the year. WATER ENGINES. A now description of water engine, introduced by Mr. J. (Manning, of Walker Street, Dunedin, is thus described by the .Dull;/ Times :—lt is an American invention, called Lcifol’s Improved Double Turbine Water Wheel, which has of late years been superseding the ordinary turbines and overshot wheels. An ordinary turbine is a water wheel fixed upon a vertical revolving axis, receiving and discharging water round its surface. It consists of a drum bearing a number of vanes or buckets, curved in such a manner as to allow the water to escape with as little velocity as possible. There is in this improved machine, a combination of two independent sets and kinds of buckets, ono a vertical, the other a central discharge, each entirely different in its principal of action upon the water yet each wheel or series of buckets receiv (-water from the same set of guides at the same time ; but tile -water is acted upon but once, since half of the water admitted by the guides passes to one wheel, and the other half of the water to the other wheel—the water leaving both wheels or sets of buckets at the same time, and as quickly as possible. Those two sets of buckets arc so combined as to make really but one wheel—that is, both are east in one piece, and placed upon the same shaft. The surface of the wheel is thus reduced to a minimum as compared with the quantity of water used, avoiding a very material loss by friction, which otlienvi.se seriously diminishes the working power of a wheel. Mr. Manning has shown us testimony from millers and wheelwrights, who have had years of experience witli overshot wheels, to the fact that they get more power with less water from the double turbine than from the overshot. Dcffel's double turbine is now used in mills and factories all over America, and wo are assured, from the testimonials which we have seen in its favor, that when once it is tested here, it will be universally adopted in New Zealand. It uses less water, gives a steadier motion, occupies less space, and is more durable than any other water machine. MARINE MOTIVE POWER. One item from Victoria maybe appropriately added. Mr S. E. Deverell, of Portland, appears, says the Hamilton Spectator, likely to become wealthy as well as famous, by reason of the success of his improvements in connection with marine motive power and machinery. Hews lias readied the Colony that the Admiralty are mailing trial of his patent for utilising wave power as a propelling force, and the report is that the application of the principle has the effect of doubling the engine power of any vessel supplied with the invention. Mr. Bessemer, the well-known patentee of the process for manufacturing steel, is constructing several steam vessels, intended to ply across the English Channel, having the saloon cabin suspended according to Mr. Doverell's system, so as to keep the floor always horizontal, notwithstanding the motion of the vessel, thereby saving the occupants from the dmiyremem of sea-sick-ness. To Mr. Bessemer, Mr. Deverell has sold, at a satisfactory price, another invention of his, namely, that of the “ship clinometer.” It appears to be an apparatus for determining exactly the angular inclination of a ship in a seaway. The ordinary method of ascertaining tin's oscillation was by personal observation of the horizon—a method winch was obviously unsatisfactory ; but this simple apparatus of Mr. Doverell’s registers every motion, and is self-acting. Tire importance of the invention is considerable, as its use will enable shipbuilders to determine, after a few experiments, the form of “ linos” on which to build vessels, so as to reduce the rolling motion to a minimum.