EXHIBITION, BRITISH INDUSTRIAL. 



413 



came trustees for buying and selling the land, 

 about 12 acres of which they have disposed of 

 very profitably in building leases. Nearly 

 doubling their original capital by the above 

 speculation, they next let the upper part of the 

 centre square, about 22 acres, to the Hor- 

 ticultural Society. The commissioners have 

 expended about 50,000 in building arcades in 

 the new gardens ; and the society have expend- 

 ed an equal amount in terraces, fountains, con- 

 servatories, and in laying out the grounds. 



The Society of Arts, impressed -with the im- 

 portance of international exhibitions, proposed 

 to repeat the great exhibition of 1851, but the 

 commissioners had not sufficient funds for the 

 undertaking, nor did they think that the scheme 

 would be profitable. But a new commission 

 rganized, and a plan was submitted by 

 Capt. Fowke, R. E., and adopted. 



The commissioners informed the Society of 

 Arts that they would grant, rent free, until the 

 31st of December, 1862, for the purposes of the 

 exhibition of 1862, the use of the whole of the 

 land on the main square of their estate lying 

 on the south side of the Horticultural Society's 

 gardens, estimated at 16 -acres, on the under- 

 standing that all the buildings to be erected for 

 the exhibition, whether permanent or tempo- 

 rary in their character, should be subject to their 

 approval, and that all the temporary buildings 

 should be removed within six months after the 

 close of the exhibition, if required ; the trus- 

 f the exhibition being at liberty, on the 

 other hand, to remove the buildings termed 

 permanent if the exhibition should be attended 

 with pecuniary loss. They further exp: 

 their readiness to grant to the society a lease 

 for 99 years at a moderate ground rent of those 

 permanent buildings if retained, on condition 

 of not less than the sum of 50.000 being ex- 

 pended on them by the trustees, and of their 

 not covering more than one acre of ground ; 

 and also on condition of their being used solely 

 for holding exhibitions and for purposes con- 

 nected with the promotion of arts and manu- 

 factures. They said u we would undertake, in 

 the event of the payment to us of the sum of 

 10,000 out of the profits (if any) of the exhi- 

 bition of 1862, to reserve for the purposes of 

 another international exhibition in 1872. to be 

 conducted by such body as might be approved 

 by us, the remainder of the land now proposed 

 to be lent by us for the exhibition of 1862 that 

 was not covered by the permanent buildings 

 already referred to, such reservation not inter- 

 fering in any way with the free use by us of 

 that land in the intervening period. 1 ' The So- 

 ciety of Arts accepted these terms. 



Of the tenders sent in, that furnished by Mr. 

 Kelk and the Brothers Lucas, being the lowest, 

 was accepted. For the rent of the building a 

 sum of 200,000 was absolutely guaranteed ; 

 if the receipts exceeded 400,000, the contrac- 

 tors were to be paid 100.000 more for rent; 

 and they were bound, if required, to sell the 

 whole for a further sum of 130.000, thus mak- 



ing the whole cost 430.000. The commission- 

 ers for 1851 are the legal proprietors of the 

 site, but have agreed to reserve about 16 acres 

 of it for the 1872 exhibition, receiving 10,000 

 as a sort of ground rent. It is already agreed 

 that the Society of Arts. Adelphi, will be grant- 

 ed the lease of the central portion of the pic- 

 ture gallery, one acre in extent, along the 

 Cromwell road, for 99 years, on payment of a 

 ground rent, and that it be given up unreserv- 

 edly for the use of the 1872 exhibition. 



Laying out of the Works. The laying out of 

 the works was commenced on 9th March. 1861, 

 by three independent agencies Mr. Marshall on 

 the part of the contractors, while Mr. Vake- 

 ford and Sergeant Harkin, R. E.. acted for the 

 commissioners. About two weeks were occu- 

 pied in making the measurements, so that the 

 Building may be said to have been actually 

 commenced in the beginning of April, 1801, 

 and to have been practically finished about the 

 beginning of April, 1862. There were 7,000,- 

 000 bricks used ; of cast iron there are up- 

 ward of 4,000 tons in the building ; and to 

 show what care had been taken with the eat- 

 ings, only four girders proved defective, by 

 breaking in the proof. There are upward of 

 820 columns, of 25 feet, equal in length to 4 

 miles; and if the 1.266 girders used were 

 placed end to end, they would reach a distance 

 of 6 miles. The total quantity of wrought iron 

 used was 12.000 tons. Upward of LOOO.OOO 

 superficial feet of floor was laid. To cover the 

 roofs 486,386 square feet of felt were used, equal 

 to 11 acres ; and to complete the whole of the 

 glazing required 353.000 superficial feet of glass, 

 which weighed 247 tons, and would cover 12J 

 acres. 



Progress of tJie Building. On the comple- 

 tion of the building the floors and staircases 

 were submitted to the followii -._ . large 



body of men, about 400 in number, were closely 

 packed upon a space 25 feet by 25 feet on one 

 lay of flooring ; they were then moved in step, 

 and afterward made to run over the different 

 galleries, and down each staircase : at the same 

 time the deflections of the girders carrying 

 these floors were carefully noted at several 

 places, and in each case the deflections were 

 very nearly the same. The cast iron girders, 

 with 25 feet bearings, deflected only one eighth 

 of an inch at the centre, and the timber-trussed 

 beams of the same bearing placed between 

 these girders deflected half an inch at the centre. 

 In every instance the girders and trusses re- 

 covered their original position immediately on 

 the removal of the load. 



The Exhibition Building. The internal space 

 is entirely covered in by roofs of various heights, 

 and is divided into nave, transepts, aisles, and 

 open courts : the latter are roofed with _ 

 as in 1851. but the other parts have windows. 

 The South Front, in Cromwell road, 1.150 feet 

 long and 55 feet high in the brickwork, has two 

 projecting towers at each end, rising 16 feet 

 above the general outline, and a larger tower 



