398 A VISIT TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 



The great richness and brilliancy of colour of many of these woods, almost 

 provokes the suspicion that dye has been used to enhance the effect, yet 

 every single specimen is perfectly natural and unexaggerated. These woods 

 have not been grouped for the purpose of displaying architectural beauty, 

 but the model in question was selected as one best calculated to illustrate the 

 character of those hard and fancy woods, so extensively worked in the lathe. 

 A catalogue and plan of this model is promised shortly, and will doubtless 

 prove acceptable to the public. Close behind this model is a beautiful 

 display of furniture woods, by Messrs. Oliver, also of Bunhill row. A 

 magnificent specimen of Sabicu wood, such as is rarely seen, and some very 

 fine Hungarian ash, are the chief attractions, but most of the woods shewn 

 by this firm are of exceedingly fine quality. 



Messrs. Langton, Bicknell, and Sons, of Newington Butts, display an 

 instructive series, illustrating the manufacture of sperm candles (No. 926.) 

 The raw sperm, or head matter of the whale, " Physeter Macrocephalus," is 

 placed in juxtaposition with the preparatory processes. Slack pressed sperm, 

 tight pressed sperm, hot pressed sperm, and rectified sperm, which latter 

 material is the solid portion of the oleaginous mass, purified and ready 

 for candlemaking. The oil itself is largely used as a lubricator for machinery. 

 All who take an interest in paper and papermaking, will rejoiee to find 

 in a case exhibited by Messrs. Boutledge and Co., (No. 1,120) of Oxford, that 

 rags are no longer essential to the production of a useful paper material. 

 The Esparto fibre, " Spartium junceum," which Messrs. Routledge appear 

 to have utilised most successfully, is a wild grass which grows abundantly in 

 Spain and Portugal, and is converted by the peasants into shoes or sandals, 

 baskets, brooms, cordage, and a variety of other useful articles. The 

 " lament o'er rags " may fairly cease, for if the coarse and tough grass thus 

 reduced to pulp, by Messrs. Routledge can be utilised, there are other and 

 even more eligible fibres, which can certainly supply us with all that is 

 necessary or desirable. 



A small and modest case, the property of G. Mason, Esq., of Yately, 

 Hants, proves by its contents, that a very fair quality of silk, may be pro- 

 cured from the true moth, even in this cold and ungenial climate of ours, 

 if the food be but the best of its kind. The cocoons and skeins of silk, 

 which Mr. Mason has sent up to interest and instruct us, are the produce of 

 worms fed upon the white mulberry (Morus alba), which is the proper food 

 of the silkworm. English silk from worms fed on the common garden or 

 black mulberry, (Morus nigra) has certainly failed as an experiment, but 

 this silk appears, from the superficial and distant inspection I was able to 

 afford, considerably superior to any of English production before seen. 

 And if the theory be correct that the silk fibre exists primarily in the 

 leaves, (in those of the white mulberry pre-eminently,) and that the 

 functions of the caterpillar in producing the silk are somewhat akin to our 



* An account of Esparto for papermaking will t>e found in the Technologist, vol. 

 II, ante page 13. 



