!94 



NATURE 



\jfa7i. 27, 1 88 1 



was reached at dusk, and we experienced some difficulty in 

 landing across the mud, which stretches a long way from 

 shore at low water. We reached Warden Point at 6, 

 and found that the fly we expected to meet us had driven 

 home an hour before. The position of two mud-covered 

 and complete strangers on a dark night on a most 

 desolate spot, in drenching rain, eight miles from, and 

 two hours late for dinner was not particularly en- 

 viable ; yet a well-arranged excursion from Whitstable 

 to Sheerness, via the singular shores of Shellness, would 

 under pleasanter circumstances well repay any naturalist. 

 J. Starkie Gardner 



THE CONSERVATOIRE DES ARTS ET 

 METIERS^ 



/^NE of the most eminent English men of science said 

 ^^ to us one day : — " You have at Paris collections, 

 libraries, museums, observatories, faculties, schools ; we 

 have the equivalent of all that. There is only one thing 

 we have not, which I always admire among you, and 

 that is the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers." 



The National Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers - is, in 

 fact, an establishment unique of its kind both in its scien- 

 tific interest and practical utility. No institution is more 



Fig. I.— Plan of ihe Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, and of prr.jecled add.tions.— i. Office for the verification of weights and measures : 2, Laboratory of 

 the Course of Mechanics (Prof. Tresca); i, Ground-floor: Laboratory of theCoi.rse cf Dyeing and of Ceramics (Prof. Luyne); First floor: Laboratory 

 of Agricultural Chemistry (Prof. Boussingauh) : 4. Ground-fljor : Amphitheatre ; First Floor: Physical Laboratory (Prof Becquercl); 5. Provisional 

 locauon of the Agronomic Institute ; 6, Great Hall (.f Machinery in motion : 7, Great Amphitheatre : 8. Old .Amphitheatre; 9. Library; 10, Laboratory 

 cf Industrial Chemistry (Prof . Girard) : 11, Laboratory of General Chemistry (Pr-f. Peligot); 12. Great staircase ; I3,1he Echo Hall; 14, Galleries 

 aild Collections; 15, Ground-floor: Gallery in construction; First fljor: Gallery cf Ceramics and Optics; 16, Ground-floor: Weights and measures; 

 First floor: Gallery of Spinning; 17, Exiiibition Hall antl Gallery of Spinning; 18, Administration antj Gallery in construction; 19, Industrial 

 drawings, patents, and trade-marks; 20, Projected construction, gallery of collections: 2 r, Projected construction; 22, Proposed location for tbe 

 Central School of Arts and Manufactures. 



worthy of the solicitude of the Government, since it has 

 for its object the occupation of the workers and the 

 instruction of the people. The Conservatoire is about to 

 make a fresh start in consequence of the construction of 

 a new block of buildings. There is even reason to hope 

 that these works will only be the prelude of constructions 

 still more important, and that very soon a law will insure 

 ihe completion of our fine national establishment. The 

 following are some of the improvements which have been 

 recently introduced into the institution. 



The service of patents and of the industrial department 

 has been recently installed in the new buildings in the 

 rue St. Martin. Early in November there was placed at 

 the service of the public the old and remarkable collec- , 

 tion of Vaucanson's drawings. These drawings, which , 



form a considerable series, comprised between the years 

 1775 and 1829, have a great historical interest. We find 

 in them the germ of a considerable number of apparatus 

 or of systems realised in our time, and which the want of 

 processes of execution condemned to remain in the 

 condition of projects. We see there a great number of 

 curious object?, and notably the original drawing of 

 Fulton's first steamer. 



Among recent additions we may mention the great 

 gallery of machinery (No. 6 in the accompanying plan, 

 Fig. i), to which is added the entire apse of the old 



■ From an .article in La Xaturc. by M. Gaston Tissandier. 



= Descartes had the idea of its foundation ; Vaucanscn farmed the first 

 germ of it by his public collection cf machines, instruments and utensils, 

 intended fur the working classes : and the Convenlit n decided on its definitive 

 creation by a decree of 8 vend^mraire of the year xii. 



