1852.] 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



A1 



FOnsiGN. 



The New Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 



On Thursday last the first column of the new Crystal Palace was 

 erected, amidst the acclamations of a large and very respectable 

 company. Tlie scenery around the spot chosen is very beautiful, and 

 the site presents facilities and opportunities which, it is expected, will 

 be made good use of by those who have charge of the undertaking. 



The company present included many illustrious in rank, science, 

 literature, and commercial rank ; and letters of apology, regretting their 

 absence, were read from some of the most distinguished persons in the 

 country. 



At half-past two o'clock, the visitors, guided by a programme which 

 had been delivered to them, assemtJed round the spot where the pillar 

 of the palace was lo be planted ; and shortly afterwards a procession 

 advanced, preceded and marshalled by Mr. Harker, the toastmastcr. 

 Si.K workmen, bearing a large and handsome banner, insciibed "Success 

 to the Palace of the I'eopU-," were followed by Mr. Laing, M.P. (the 

 Chairman of the Crystal Palace Company), Mr. F. Fuller, and the other 

 director.s. The column was immeiliately raised and inserted in its 

 socket, three young lads assisting in the operation. A bottle was 

 deposited under the pillar, containing the coins of the realm, and a 

 paper bearing the following inscription : — 



"Tliis Column, tlie first support of the Crystal Palace, a building of purely English 

 Architecture, designed for the recre.ition and instruction of The Million, was erected on 

 the ijthday of Au,;'ust, 18o-2, in the lOth year of the reign of Her Majesty dueen Victoria, 

 by Samuel Laing, Esq., I\I P., Chairman of the Crystal Palace Company. 'J'he original 

 structure, of which tliis column forms a part, was built, after the design of Sir Juseph 

 Paxton, by Messrs. Fox, Henderson, & Co , and stood in Hyde Parit, where it received 

 tlie contributions of all Nations, at the World's Exhibition, in the Year of our Lord 1851. 

 " I, your glass. 

 Will modestly discover to yourself 

 That of yourself which yet you know not of." 

 The new building, which is expected to be finislied by the 1st of May, 

 1853, will differ in many important respects from the old. In consequence 

 of the great fall in the park in whicli it will be situated, an additional 

 story will be necessary in front, which will have the effect of remedying 

 a defect in the old structure, — the want of elevation, as compared with 

 its vast length. A slight curtailment of length will also be made, 

 although the area of ground covei'ed will be equal to that occupied by 

 the Hyde-park building. The centre transept will be extended into a 

 semi-circular roof of 120 feet diameter; and two smaller transepts will 

 be placed towards the ends of the building. The centre transept will 

 be nearly 200 feet in height, and 120 in width; those at the sides 150 

 feet high, and 72 wide. The columns and girders, instead of falling so 

 rapidly towards the extreme end, and thereby preventing the spectator 

 from arriving at a conception of the extent of the building, will not 

 now keep the same line as before, but every 72 feet pairs of columns, 

 24 feet apart, will advance 8 feet into the nave, and from these columns 

 will spring ari.'hed girders 8 feet deep, in lattice work of wrought iron, 

 which support the girdeis of tlie roof. These advancing columns, tied 

 together, will form groups of pillars like those in s gothic cathedral, 

 and oceuning at every 72 feet down the nave, will furnish to the eye 

 a means of measuring which it had not before. Tlie ends of the 

 building will extend into large wings, attached to one of which will be 

 the railway station, and these wings will terminate in lofty glass towers. 

 The area in iri>nt will be laid out in terraces and gardens, interspei-sed 

 with .statues, f luntains (one of wliich will rise to the height of upwards 

 of 200 feet), and temples, and adoined by a choice collection of plants, 

 shrubs, and flowers. 



One of the most conspicuous and attractive sections will be that of 

 Ethnology. No museum has vet ever attempted to show models of 

 the dift'erent varieties of the human race, together with their national 

 costumes, their domestic and agricultural implements, their armour, 

 their dwellings, their modes of conveyance, and other cliai'acteristic 

 objects appertaining to them. But, under the guiding direction and 

 personal superintendence of such an eminent ethnologist as Dr. Latham, 

 no fears are entertained but that all these will one day ornament the 

 compartments of tliis noble building, and that a very large proportion 

 of a complete collection will be ready by the opening. 



It is intended to arrange the growing plants in such a manner as to 

 show what are the peculiarities which mark the Flora of different paits 

 of the world. To this end the surface of our globe will be divided 

 into regions, or natural piovinces, which are each characterized by 

 particular races of animals and vegetables, and all the arrangements of 

 natural objects will tend towards the due illustration of the "countries" 

 (as it were) which nature has mapped out upon our earth, and which 

 she has peopled with the subjects of her three kingdoms. 



The ethnological specimens will, therefore, appear near the plants of 

 the region to which they both belong. Close by them will be placed 

 specimens of the most characteristic quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, 

 nioilusca, and insects, which are to be found in the same j^arts of the 



world. All these will be shown in the attitudes most natural to them, 

 and best exemplifying their peculiar habits and dispositions ; for which 

 purpose the assistance of the exhibitor of the most life-like stuffed 

 specimens in the Great Exhibition will bo obtained. The fish will be 

 preserved on a plan not hitherto tried, that of making thera appear to 

 be swimming, in very large glass vessels containing a sufficient quantity 

 of some preservative fluid having the appearance of water. The 

 mollusca will be represented, not by their shell only, but by shells 

 containing models of the animals crawling or swimming in the localities 

 peculiar to them ; and in all cases the soil or situation which all these 

 creatures inhabit will be imitated and represented as closely as po.ssible. 

 So that a visitor will find himself surrounded, wherever he goes, bj' 

 groups of objects, taken from all the three kingdoms of nature; not 

 ph ced, like museum specimens, "all in a row," but artistically arranged 

 so as to exhibit individual habits and peculiarities to the best advantage; 

 and so associated as to give an accurate idea of the Fauna and Flora 

 of the region they are designed to illustrate. The selection of 

 characteristic examples of the zoological portion has been kindly 

 undertaken by Profes.sor Edward Forbes, Mr. Waterhouse, and Mr. 

 Gould, whose attainments, as naturalists, are too well known to need 

 comment; and the whole will form an extensive series of small 

 collections, illustrating, in a manner never hitherto attempted, the 

 physical geography of the whole world. Such an exhibition, while it 

 cannot fail to be amusing, will be, at the same time, replete with 

 instruction of the soundest character, and afford a clearer insight into 

 the subject of the distribution of plants and animals on the surface of 

 the earth than many months of reading. 



It is ultimately intended to exhibit a series of geological illustrations, 

 correspouding to those of physical geography, on a scale which no 

 geological museum can attempt, for want of space. Not only will the 

 external appearances of the earth's crust at different places be shown, 

 but also the geological strata of particular portions. Models will be 

 prepared to illustrate mining and quarrying, to show the action and 

 results of volcanoes and earthquakes, and to exhibit geology in its 

 practical bearings with reference to well-sinking, the supply of water 

 tunnelling, &c The name of Professor Ansted will be a sufficient 

 guarantee for the accuracy of execution of these details. 



For the present, however, the principal endeavours of the Company 

 are concentrated in bringing out as complete a collection as possible of 

 life-sized restorations of those colossal extinct animals and birds, which 

 we now only know of by their fossil remains. Under the diiection of 

 Di-. Mantell, it is confidently believed that a museum of such creatures 

 will be formed which will excite the wonder of every one, and afford 

 little opportunity fur disapprobation,even amongst the most scrupulously 

 particular anatomists. 



Reference must also be made to another section of the natural history 

 department, which is likely to prove the most useful and commercially 

 valuable portion of the exhibition ; though, perhaps, not one of the 

 most attractive. We allude to the collection of raw produce, which is 

 designed to show all the various articles taken from the animal, vegetable 

 and mineral kingdoms, and applied to ornamental and useful purposes 

 by the skill of man. With this view, the directors invite the assistance 

 of all, in the way of contributions of raw products, either now in use 

 or likely to be brought into use, in the arts and manufactures; and 

 they may reasonably look forward at no distant period to being able 

 to fhow such a collection of raw materials, conveniently arranged and 

 tritely labelled, as shall not only convey an immense amount of useful 

 instruction to the mass, but give a far greater impulse to improvement 

 amongst the niannfactureis of Europe than was imparted even by the 

 Great Exhibition of 1831. — Illustrated London Aden's. 



The ELECxrac Time-Ball ix the SxRANn. — After the satisfactory 

 completion of the requisite arrangements which had been for some time 

 pending between the Electric Telegraph Company and the Astronomer 

 Royal at Greenwich, Mr. Edwin Clark, the Company's engineer, had 

 entrusted to him the constiuction of the ingenious apparatus fur the 

 developement of the electric telegraph system, as applied to the regu- 

 lation of time on a plan for distributing and correcting mean Green- 

 wich time in London and at all the principal ports throughout the 

 United Kingdom every day at one o'clock. The ball that has recently 

 been raised on a pole upon the dome of the Electric Telegraph Com- 

 pany's West-end station, No. 448, Strand, opposite Huugerford-market 

 (similar to the ball which surmounts the Royal Observatory at Green- 

 wich,) which is a remarkable object of attraction lo all persons passing 

 to and from the west-end to the city, is now completed. It is about 6 

 feet high and IG feet in circumference, made of zinc, and painted of a 

 bright red colour, so that it may the more clearly be discerned at a 

 distance, and can with ease accommodate three persons in the interior. 

 It has a broad gilt belt round it, thus having the appearance of a " great 

 globe," and at tlie extremity of the shaft is a cross, or bright gilded 

 weather wand, with the four points, N. S. E. W.; and below the arms 

 of the Electric Telegraph Company, with their initials, "E. T. C." 

 Many difliculties have been experienced in the completion of this new 



