Conversational Meetimp. 07 



manufactures by using glass thread, which is prepared so fine as to 

 be capable of being tied in knots without breaking, and woven in 

 overy respect like ordinary thread. But the fabric which excited 

 the strongest interest, both on account of its beauty and its novelty 

 and ingenuity, was a large square of Wool Mosaic, or India-rubber 

 cloth, a manufacture peculiar to France and somo parts of Germany. 

 The pattern was perhaps the most perfect, in respoct of design, of any 

 work of art in the exhibition. Tho flowers and leaves were copies 

 from nature, and were much admired for their botanical accuracy. 

 Even the least prominent of the plants represented in tho composi- 

 tion, such as tho fronds or leaves of ferns, were delineated with so 

 much fidelity, as to enable botanists to distinguish the different 

 species, and give them their specific names. The triumph of art in 

 this instance is the more remarkable, that, after the design passed 

 from the hands of the pattern-drawer, it was wrought into the fabric 

 by one of the most complicated processes that can well be imagined. 

 The pattern is, in fact, produced in the fabric by the ends of threads 

 standing out transversely from a foundation of India-rubber cloth, 

 and not, as is usually the case, by the threads being interwoven longi- 

 tudinally. In order to understand how this is accomplished, let us 

 suppose a piece of cloth equal in size to the square of a good-sized hand- 

 kerchief, to represent, not the upper surface of the threads of which 

 it is woven, but the ends of the threads ; and suppose farther that tho 

 threads, thus piled in successive layers, extend inwards for perhaps a 

 yard, like the straws in a hay-stack. Then these threads are coloured 

 throughout their whole length, according to the place which each 

 holds in the pattern ; and the way in which the surface is prepared 

 is by making a transverse section of the whole mass of threads, which 

 is then embedded in a foundation of India-rubber cloth. It will be 

 seen, therefore, that the operation bears some resemblance to the lapi- 

 dary's process of cutting a transverse section of recent or fossil wood. 

 The manufacturer of wool-mosaic, having his pattern arranged to a 

 given depth, cuts section after section off one end of it, till the whole 

 has been sliced down. The advantage of conducting this part of the 

 process apart from the other, is, that when the fabric is indented iu 

 tho India-rubber, it preserves its velvety softness and clearness, which 

 would be lost were it woven along with the India-rubber cloth. The 

 cloth is sold at £5 a yard. 



An exceedingly interesting and instructive part of the exhibition 

 consisted of the electric telegraph, and electric clock, constructed by 

 Mr. Bain of Edinburgh, which are now well known and appreciated. 



