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EXPOSITION, PARIS. 



was complete in the French division, but very 

 imperfect in the foreign. American publishers 

 were represented by a collection of miscella- 

 neous books from 21 publishing houses under 

 the charge of M. Terquem ; the catalogue was 

 a fine example of typography from the River- 

 side press, containing explanatory articles on 

 the American book-trade by R. R. Bowker. 

 In the English section the prominent and al- 

 most the only displays were, as at Philadelphia, 

 those of the illustrated weeklies. In the French 

 section the superb and lovely editions of French 

 classics printed by Lemerre and Jouast were 

 the chief ornament ; it included no less than 

 six simultaneous editions of u Manon Lescaut." 



In musical instruments this exhibition was 

 signalized by no important improvements, like 

 the cross-string system on the piano exhibited 

 by Stein way at the world's fair of 1867, which 

 created a revolution in piano construction all 

 over the world. The principal English piano- 

 makers, Broadwood and Collard, and Steinway 

 and Chickering in America, were not repre- 

 sented at this exposition ; nor, of course, were 

 the German instrument-makers ; so the field 

 was left pretty much to French manufacturers. 

 In France the Steinway system has not yet 

 been adopted ; only a few of their exhibited in- 

 struments, among them one of Pleyel's, were 

 constructed on that model. Pleyel and Erard 

 are the leading French manufacturers, the 

 former producing purer-toned instruments, of 

 simpler and more durable mechanism, and the 

 latter a greater volume in his tones. Henri 

 Herz, formerly a composer in Vienna, exhibited 

 his melo-pianos, invented by Caldera-Brossa, 

 on which a tremolo can be produced either on 

 the bass or treble notes. The most important 

 improvement was exhibited by Ehrbar of Vien- 

 na, in his system for prolonging any desired 

 note or chord on the piano ; it is accomplished 

 by a pedal arrangement connecting with a 

 mechanism which will hold the damper free 

 from the string as long as the player desires. 

 The same exhibitor had the best pianos in the 

 exhibition, and grand concert pianos of remark- 

 ably rich and penetrating tones. The Swiss 

 exhibitors showed excellent instruments. An- 

 other useful improvement was the transposer 

 of August Wolf, head of the house of Pleyel, 

 with which the key in which a piece is played 

 can be changed by a mechanical adjustment. 

 The double finger-board, the upper one hav- 

 ing the notes reversed, with the treble on the 

 left, invented by Mangeot of Paris, is an im- 

 provement which admits of extraordinary ef- 

 fects, such as could formerly be brought out on 

 two pianos, and by two players, but requires a 

 brilliant pianist to handle it. In the organ Ca- 

 vaille-Col excelled ; the organs of Riegel of Aus- 

 tna,-built on Walkers system, with an improve- 

 ment for taking out the stop-valves without 

 removing the pipes, were excellent mstru- 



icnts. In harmoniums the American makers 

 bore away the palm by their handsome mechan- 

 ism and rich organ-like tones; the cabinet or- 



gans of Mason & Hamlin and Estey & Co. ex- 

 celled the French instruments in these particu- 

 lars, though not so ambitious in the number of 

 registers. Of string and wind instruments two 

 classes were shown, those artistically elabora- 

 ted for musicians, and those produced, some- 

 times by machinery, for the trade. Of the 

 latter class the factory of Gautrot, employing 

 600 workmen, turns out 47,000 violins and 

 24,000 wind instruments a year ; another great 

 Paris firm, Thibouville-Lamy, employs the 

 whole town of Mirecourt in making stringed in- 

 struments, an occupation which the inhabitants 

 have followed from time immemorial, and has 

 also a factory in La Couture for wooden wind 

 instruments, and one at La Grenelle for violin- 

 strings and brass instruments. In flutes the 

 Austrian makers adhere to the old form in 

 their otherwise excellent instruments, while in 

 France, as well as elsewhere, the system of 

 Boehm of Munich, in the bore and arrange- 

 ment of the keys, has been introduced. 



In dyeing and colors the most noticeable 

 features were Joly's process for carbonizing 

 vegetable impurities in woolen cloth; silk 

 bleached and dyed by the Girard process ; a 

 large series of shaded woolen yarns in the 

 Spanish section; woolen yarns from Austra- 

 lia, nearly equal to Berlin wool ; the Swiss ex- 

 hibit of chemical colors, including the ordinary 

 aniline dyes, diphenylamin, methyl-blue, and 

 resorcin in crystals, exhibited by J. R. Geigy ; 

 and the blue shades of eosin, from Monnet & 

 Co., with their apparatus for the production 

 of methyl-chloride ; also the alizarine products 

 by a Basle firm, and many splendid crystals 

 from several other exhibitors. The absence of 

 German exhibitors left this class very defective. 



The extensive court manufactory of candles 

 of Brussels exhibited the product of a tree in 

 Central Africa, a fatty substance called sheea 

 butter, which this last year they have employed, 

 with tallows, palm oils, and other fats, in the 

 manufacture of their candles. This important 

 factory employs superheated steam to effect 

 the distillation in cast-iron retorts. The mate- 

 rials are decomposed by sulphuric acid. The 

 sheea butter is obtained from the nuts of a tree, 

 of a hard red wood, growing about 30 feet high, 

 which is called meepampa by the natives. The 

 meats of the almonds which grow in great clus- 

 ters on this tree have a pleasant taste, and the 

 white fat which is obtained by crushing and 

 boiling them, after drying, has a delicate resin- 

 ous aroma, and is an excellent substitute for 

 butter ; it possesses also some valuable medi- 

 cinal properties, and will remain two years 

 without turning rancid. A fine, firm soap, 

 which makes no lather, can be produced from 

 it, as well as a valuable stearic acid, which will 

 absorb more latent heat than any other acid fat ; 

 it is difficult, however, to obtain the stearine 

 colorless, on account of the resin contained in 

 the fat. When employed in lights this ytearine, 

 because it shrinks at a low temperature, must 

 be mixed with paraffin or a similar substance. 



