324 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Oar limited space will not admit of farther description ; but 
in closing this somewhat imperfect account of the Great Inter- 
national Exhibition Buildings, it may be proper to advert to the 
security of the whole structure, which is due to the excellent 
designs of Captain Fowke, placed in the hands of the con- 
tractors, Messrs. Kelk, and Charles and Thomas Lucas Brothers, 
for execution. To these gentlemen every praise is due for the 
liberal and efficient manner in which they have performed their 
contract. The whole of the responsibility for the execution of 
the works rested on them and their engineer, Mr. Meeson, C.E., 
who prepared the working drawings to be submitted to a Build- 
ing Committee, consisting of the Earl of Shelburne, the writer, 
and Mr. W. Baker, who undertook to act for the Commissioners 
in conjunction with Captain Fowke and the contractors above 
named. 
The general features of these large structures have no claim, 
according to the opinions of some persons, to architectural 
design, but they are admirably adapted to meet the require- 
, ments of the Exhibition ; and the long vista of the nave, with 
the domes and transepts at each of the east and west entrances, 
will convey to the spectator a sense of perfect harmony as regards 
altitude, magnitude, and general effect, seldom to be met with 
in public buildings. Independently, however, of architectural 
considerations and an imposing exterior, the great and impor- 
tant aim of the Building Committee was to see that every part 
should be made secure, and that no danger could possibly arise 
through a want of due proportion in the different parts, and of 
the needful strength in everything that might affect the public 
safety. On the part of the contractors every alteration and all 
the wishes of the architect and committee have been cheerfully 
and liberally conceded, and the result is the following letter, con- 
firmatory of the trials and experimental facts arrived at in test- 
ing the resisting powers of the different floors and girders, and 
the great domes covering the points of intersection of the nave 
and transepts : — 
“ To the Commissioners of the International Exhibition. 
“ My Lords and Gentlemen, — Feeling that it would be a source of satisfac- 
tion to the Commissioners, as well as to ourselves, as members of the Budding 
Committee, and also a due precaution for the public safety, that the gallery 
and other floors of the International Exhibition Budding, at South Kensington, 
should be thoroughly proved, we undertook a series of experiments on 
Monday last. 
“ We have to report that, in carrying out these experiments, the various 
floors and stairs were put to a more severe test than they woidd be subjected 
to with the largest number of jieople that could possibly be assembled upon 
