EXHIBITION, BRITISH INDUSTRIAL. 



429 



ment. The whole result thus produced, how- 

 ever, is not solely due to the tension applied to 

 the sounding board, but is in part referable to 

 the oblique braces which transmit the vibrations 

 from the frame on which the strings are stretch- 

 ed to the centre of the sounding board. Mr. 

 Hulskamp has applied the same principle of 

 construction to the violin, increasing in a re- 

 markable degree the volume of tone. 



In organs again, while there remains much 

 to be done, there have been great improvements 

 both in point of combination and to facilitate 

 the manual and pedal execution. M. Sax had 

 his usual case of carefully made brass instru- 

 ments. England, we fancy, carries off the palm 

 in flutes. 



The Musical Boxes from Geneva attracted 

 great attention in the Swiss Court ; and Auber 

 and Linton showed here a beautiful piece of 

 mechanism which, though no novelty, drew a 

 crowd of admirers. It was in the shape of a 

 small musical box, just large enough for the 

 waistcoat pocket, out of which, when the lid 

 was opened, popped up a pretty little bullfinch, 

 who piped a song, fluttering his wings in the 

 most natural manner possible. The plumage, 

 the action, and the peculiar note of the bird, 

 were imitated with wonderful exactness. It 

 was a benevolent idea of the proprietors to 

 make this me^nnical wonder subserve "all 

 mankind's concern," charity, by announcing 

 that whenever the sum of five shillings was 

 raised among the visitors, the bird should per- 

 form, and the fund so collected be appropriated 

 to the benefit of the distressed cotton dis- 

 tricts. He seldom continued long without an 

 audience, and sometimes realized from Wl. to 

 12. a day toward the Cotton Districts Fund. 



MISCELLANEOUS MACHINERY. Cotton-Spin- 

 ning Machinery. This important branch of 

 machinery was largely represented ; and Dob- 

 son and Barlow, of Bolton, contributed a fair 

 quota of the whole. They exhibited, in fact, a 

 series of machines for opening and cleansing, 

 preparing and spinning cotton. The first is 

 named a Cotton Spinner, and it is adapted for 

 spinning and cleaning long or short stapled 

 cotton. The feeding parts and the inside 

 gratings, are of a novel construction, the ob- 

 ject in view being to open out and clean the 

 cotton without injuring the staple. The second 

 is called the Single Scutcher, and it is supplied 

 with feeding rolls: the merit of the roils con- 

 sists in their holding the cotton sufficiently firm 

 without breaking the seeds or shells. Then 

 follows the Breaker Carding Engine, which is a 

 combined patent machine : Wallman, of the 

 United States of America, and Dobson and 

 Barlow, each having a share in it. Its chief 

 merits are that the cotton is well opened and 

 cleaned by the working rollers, before the 

 upper rollers will allow it to pass the selt-slip- 

 ping top-flats : these flats can be taken out at 

 pleasure by the attendant, and readjusted with- 

 out the use of a screw key. A Finisher Card- 

 ing Engine stands next, and it works automati- 



cally an improvement on the plan of strip- 

 ping flats by hand, as is usually done. Ash- 

 worth's patent Lap Machine is used for making 

 laps for the finisher carding engine, and comb- 

 ing machine; and a grinding apparatus is so 

 contrived as to grind two rollers and a flat at 

 the same time. 



There was an extensive collection of Carpet 

 weaving Machinery exhibited. The Power Loom 

 by Tuer and Hall, of Bury, near Manchester, 

 for the weaving of pile, velvet, patent tapestry, 

 or ordinary Brussels carpet, any width re- 

 quired, either witli or without jacquard, was 

 shown in operation. All the working motions 

 are outside the loom, except the crank from 

 which it is driven ; by this means free access 

 to the working parts is obtained, and a hither- 

 to much complained of inconvenience removed. 

 It will admit larger yarn beams in the same 

 space than any other loom we know of. The 

 wire motion inserts forty-five wires per minute, 

 at two picks per wire ; it recommends itself by 

 the facility with which it inserts the wires on 

 which the loops or pile is raised, and by its 

 simple arrangement for holding the wires when 

 inserted, withdrawing and transferring the 

 point of the wire for reinsertion. The whole 

 of the motion is governed in its action by one 

 cam. It produces six yards of carpet per hour, 

 much more than ordinary looms, and requires 

 -pace than most of them with the same 

 width in the reed ; six such machines may be 

 driven by one horse's power. This loom is 

 also applicable to the weaving of Utrecht vel- 

 vet, for the lining of carriages, omnibuses, &c. 



From Switzerland two Looms were both ex- 

 hibited at work, in weaving broad ribbon. In 

 one the pattern was a portrait of her Majesty 

 (black lines on a white ground) ; the other 

 produced the royal arms in beautiful colors, 

 also on a white ground. This latter machine 

 weaves several ribbons at one time. It is a 

 beautiful piece of workmanship, but so elab- 

 orate and apparently complicated that it is 

 perfectly bewildering to a stranger to endeavor 

 to trace out the meaning of its parts such 

 piles of perforated cards, such masses of threads 

 in the gears, and such innumerable little bob- 

 bins and shuttles. It is in machines of this 

 kind that we see the real genius of the French 

 or Swiss mechanic develop itself. 



AMERICAN MACHINERY. Among the ma- 

 chines was Conroy's Cork Cutter : the man in 

 charge simply puts down a square of cork 

 on a small ledge, and as the machine works, 

 two fingers are pushed out, which grasp 

 it, and fix it on a rapidly rotating pin, where 

 it is applied to the edge of a circular knife, 

 revolving horizontally: in a couple of sec- 

 onds the square assumes the desired shape 

 and size, and immediately drops into a res- 

 ervoir beneath to make room for another. 

 A man and a couple of boys can cut 150 gross 

 of corks with this machine in a day. The Rope- 

 making Machine, which stood next, compresses 

 a ropewalk of some 800 or 900 yards into about 



