A VISIT TO THE POLYTECHNIC. 105 



CHAPTER XH. 



THE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION. 



LAWKENCE and John set off one evening about seven 

 o'clock to go to the Polytechnic. They went up through 

 Regent Street, and, as they had plenty of time before them, 

 they stopped along the way to look into tl e shop-windows, 

 to examine and admire the curious and beautiful things 

 that were to be seen in them. At length they arrived at 

 their destination. The building presented somewhat the 

 appearance of a church. They passed in through the 

 porch in company with many other persons, and stopped 

 on one side, as they went in, at a little office to buy their 

 tickets. The tickets were a shilling that is, an English 

 shilling each. The value of an English shilling is about 

 a quarter of a dollar. 



When they were fairly within, they found that the inte- 

 rior of the principal room was still more similar, in its ar- 

 rangements, to a church than the exterior had been, for it 

 was of an oblong shape, with an open floor below, and gal- 

 leries above all around supported by pillars ; only, instead 

 of pews, the floor below was filled with small steam-engines 

 and large articles of apparatus ; and the floor of the gal- 

 lery was also flat, and had a range of curiosities and little 

 machines over the balustrade in front, and upon shelves 

 against the wall behind, with an open space for people to 

 walk in between. Where the pulpit usually is in a church 

 there was a great tank, ten feet square and very deep, which 

 was filled with water, and over it there was hanging an 

 immense diving-bell, ready to go down. 

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