EXHIBITION; BRITISH INDUSTRIAL. 



421 



taining 79 grains, and there were 10 ears from 

 the finest plant. In 1860 the ears were imper- 

 fect, from the wet season, bu^ they appear only 

 to have reserved and husbanded their pro- 

 ductiveness for a more auspicious occasion, as 

 in 1861 the finest ear was no less than 8f inches 

 long, containing 123 grains, and the number of 

 ears in the finest single plant had risen from 

 the starting number of 10 in 1857 to 52 in 1861. 

 The various ears and their dates of sowing were 

 shown. 



Mr. Spence, of Manchester, has devised a 

 process whereby he is able to produce sixty- 

 five tons of ammonia alum from fifty tons of 

 coal shale. 



Valuable improvements have been made in 

 the preservation of meat and other articles of 

 diet. Jones and Trevithick exhibited a raw 

 leg of mutton and other meats, which appeared 

 perfectly fresh after a long interval of time. 

 In their process the meat is introduced into a 

 tin vessel, the air is exhausted, and a small 

 quantity of sulphurous acid gas is introduced, 

 which is quickly absorbed by the juice of the 

 meat. Nitrogen (or azote), which is incapable 

 of exerting any putrefactive action on it, is then 

 permitted to enter the vacuum, and the can is 

 sealed. Should'this process prove successful a 

 great step will be gained. Mr. M'Call exhibited 

 - preserved in the old method viz., ex- 

 pulsion of the air by boiling. The speciality of 

 his process consists in a plan for the absorption 

 of any oxygen remaining in the case. In the 

 top of his can is a small capsule in which he 

 places a button of fused hypo-sulphite of soda ; 

 this, when exposed, as the can is soldered, is 

 supposed to take up the oxygen left in the ves- 

 sel. The opened case of beef appeared quite 

 fresh. 



The increasing demand for agricultural prod- 

 uce necessitates the application of manure to 

 rest :>re to the ground the elements taken from 

 it. Mr. "Whitworth, of Bermondsey, has en- 

 deavored to make still further use of fish for 

 the purpose, and exhibited specimens of his 

 concentrated fish manure for cereal crops. 



Indian Products. Three hundred samples of 

 tea were shown, and more than one hundred of 

 cotton, with some tobacco ; and of starchy prod- 

 ucts were two or three novelties. The elastic 

 gums contained some novelties obtained from 

 the Mudar plant (Calotropit gigantea ), and also 

 from the milk-hedge (Euphorbia antiquorurri), 

 and other species of Euphorbia (E. tortilis). 

 Of woods there were from twelve to fifteen 

 hundred specimens. Amongst the curiosities 

 of food, we had, in addition to the usual con- 

 tribution of sharks' fins, birds' nests, trepang, 

 agaragar, &c., sime potted fish gnapie, dried 

 mushrooms from China, dried fungi, and other 

 delicacies. 



The most suggestive, but least attractive, por- 

 tion of the Indian display was at its entrance, 

 where one of the great tests of a country's value 

 was shown by a collection of its raw materials 

 and natural products. Beyond these came its 



manufactures native locks that would puzzle 

 Hobbs to pick ; cutlery from Salem that should 

 astonish Sheffield. Beyond these were weap- 

 ons damascened in gold, and then gold and 

 silver work, and enammelled jewelry. Among 

 a curious collection of articles from Darjeeling 

 and Thibet are the prayer cylinders a 

 common brass cylinder, filled with printed 

 prayers, which the natives spin and turn round, 

 and every revolution counts as so many prayers 

 said. In some parts near Thibet, where the 

 strictest Buddhism prevails, these prayer cyl- 

 inders are made of great size, and turned by 

 water power, so as to do the praying of the 

 whole village in which it works without a mo- 

 ment's cessation. This easy method of invoca- 

 tion is so extensively practised by all the 

 natives, that printing in Thibet is confined al- 

 most exclusively to the production of the in- 

 numerable prayers that are required by the 

 people. The printing blocks used for this pur- 

 pose in Thibet and Darjeeling were shown in 

 one of the cases. They are cut in coarse wooden 

 blocks, and in workmanship are apparently on 

 a par with what Caxton's first failures must 

 have been. 



MACHINERY. Of locomotive engines there 

 was a magnificent rank, eight or nine at least, 

 with tenders attached, in complete working 

 order. Mr. Ramsbottom exhibited an admirable 

 invention for watering tenders of trains while 

 at full speed. This was originally invented to 

 facilitate still further the rapid progress of the 

 Irish express train between HolyheadandLor- 

 don. The plan simply consists of a sunk trough 

 filled with water, laid at certain stations be- 

 tween the rails, and into which, as the engine 

 approaches, a slanting, trumpet-shaped shoot is 

 lowered, up which the velocity of the engine 

 forces the water with such power as to fill the 

 tender tanks in a single minute. The Great 

 Northern (of France) Railway Company sent a 

 monster locomotive engine, which has its 

 boilers, cylinders, water tank, and coal bunk 

 built up one above another to such a height 

 that the wonder is how it can pass under 

 an ordinary bridge. Its chimney, instead of 

 standing straight upright, as is the manner with 

 ordinary locomotives, has to be curled over its 

 back like an elephant's trunk. It is intended 

 for heavy traffic only. Among other improve- 

 ments it is fitted with a superheating apparatus. 



Traction Engine*. Bray's traction engine, 

 considering its great capabilities, is a remark- 

 ably compact and simple piece of locomotive 

 machinery. A specimen exhibited was built 

 for Woolwich Dockyard. It combines many 

 improvements upon the earlier contrivances for 

 the purpose of transporting heavy weights by 

 steam power ; but the feathering principle of 

 the wheels, as originally introduced by Mr. 

 Bray, is retained. This principle consists in 

 the circumference of the wheel having a num- 

 ber of small apertures through it. These aper- 

 tures are the media which allow of the protru- 

 sion and withdrawal, by means of an eccentric, 



