i4 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



NOTES FROM THE WORLDS FAIR.- IV. 



E-ST our readers weary of too long a visit even in the Horti- 

 cultural building, let us stray out to witness some of the 

 wonders which electricity is working in this 19th century. 

 Recognizing its importance the World's Fair directorate 

 spent $401,000 in constructing a palace for exhibiting 

 scientific and applied electricity. A visit to it in the even- 

 ing is enchanting, on account of the brilliant effect of 

 innumerable incandescents, enclosed by glass of various 

 colors. In one room with a glass ceiling, the appearance of a constant play of 

 sheet-lighting is kept up, while near by is a column, up which rings of light seem 

 to chase each other, through glass of red, white, blue, purple, etc., and then 

 divide along four lines in the ceiling until they reach great revolving balls, which 

 change to every hue in the rainbow. In another part Edison's phonograph 

 repeats a cornet solo and accompaniment through a tin horn, which renders it 

 easily heard at some distance, and in another the Belknap motors from Portland, 

 Me., under charge of Mr. G. W. Brown, drive an electric fan with such rapidity 

 that the breeze threatens to blow you away. Then there is cooking by electricity, 

 electroplating, and chicken hatching, cutting clothes and transmitting cables ; 

 but the most wonderful is the telautograph, to which we referred in our last 

 issue, because by means of it a writer in one town has his handwriting or 

 sketching exactly reproduced in another before the eyes of his friend. 



Outside immense electric fountains play in the Grand Court of Honor, the 

 whole spray changing color constantly, to the wonderment of thousands. 



Returning through Mining, one is especially attracted by the copper exhibit 

 of Arizona, because of its great beauty. The various colored quartz rock looks 

 like velvet of the richest green, and purple and red tints, which' the geologist 

 recognises as indicative of the amount of water in combination with the copper. 

 All the courts are magnificent, and Canada's not the least so, with her little piece 

 of nickel from Sudbury, weighing only five tons ! and her rich ores from Quebec 

 and British Columbia. 



Through the courtesy of our friend, Mr. Berliner, of Cape Colony, we 

 were permitted a private inspection of the Diamond Washing. One hundred 

 and fifty tons of this valuable earth was brought to Chicago for the exhibition, 

 and about one ton is washed each day. After being well washed, the dirt is 

 placed upon a table, and an expert rapidly turns it over. So rich is it in 

 diamonds, that one is found in almost every peck, and some of them of great 

 value. 



Passing through the Japanese Court, the superintendent, Mr. Saki, of Tokio, 

 was very courteous, and pointed out the coal, graphite, and antimony, for which 



