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NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
________, i 41 Pnrli Row, New York. 
OrriCGS. 3 8a UulVulo St., Rochester* 
YOL. XXI. NO. 17. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S7U, 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, APRIL 23,1870. 
ittreas, to the year 1870, by D. D. T. Moouk, In the Clerk's Oili,-e of the District Curt of the United States for the Southern District of New York.] 
WHOLE NO. 1057. 
OO 
Eural Airbitcrttue. 
% _ 
BESSEMER’S CONSERVATORY. 
It is to be bopetl that tRe time is speedily 
to arrive in America when tRe 
testhetic culture of our people 
will be represented by a more 
critical and intelligent devotion 
to floriculture, and that connect¬ 
ed with every Rome will Re 
found natural objects for study 
and delight. Iron is becoming 
more aud more used in arebi- 
teeture. It will continue to 
grow in popularity, wo feel con¬ 
fident. Illustrative of tRe or¬ 
namental uses to which it may 
Re put, we copy herewith an 
engraving aud description of |jj 
Mr. Bessemer’s Conservatory, 
which wc find in Engineering, 
an English publication. We do 
this with the two-fold object of 
show Rig what is doing abroad, 
architecturally, to furnish har¬ 
monious homes for flowers, and 
to stimulate a desire, on the part 
of our men of wealth, to realize 
something similar here. Our 
public conservatories are, us a 
rule, uncouth structures, and wc 
need reform in them as well as 
elsewhere. Engineering says: 
“ But few iron structures have 
been hitherto attempted in 
which the architectural effect 
lias not been more or less marred 
by the prominence given to | 
largo bolted flanges, tie rods, 
cross braces, or other like de¬ 
vices, which, however necessary | 
in a structural point of view, 
certainly do not add to the 
beauty of the building, uuless 
it he of the plainest or most 
utilitarian description. In the 
design we now lay before our 
readers, however, there arc no 
signs visible by means of which 
the whole is put together; not 
one flange, tie, or bolt of any de¬ 
scription being shown in the 
whole of the building, externally 
or internally. The original plan 
was made by Air. Bessemer. 
Many of the perforated castings 
employed in this structure are 
of extreme beauty and delicacy 
of finish. Among the heaviest 
are some from three to four tons 
in weight each, Ayhile there are 
thousands of others not exceed¬ 
ing four or eight ounces. 
“The conservatory has two 
floors or crypts, extending en 
tircly beneath it. The lower 
one receives a supply of fresh 
air through a perforated stone 
screen facing the grounds, and 
forms the cold air chamber. 
Above this is a second space of 
equal area, divided from the 
lower one by a stone floor. The 
upper space contains a coil of 
ten pipes of four-inch diameter, 
the coil being about one bun 
tired feet in circumference, and 
giving over 1,000 square feet of 
heating surface. The ceiling of 
this upper or hot-air chamber is 
covered by five-inch York flags, 
kid on rolled iron beams. On 
1 the upper surface of these flags 
L the tesselated floor of the con 
servatory is laid. Ten large 
|v slide valves (all connected by a 
^ rack and pinion) admit cold air 
from the chamber below at equi¬ 
distant parts to the surface of the hot water 
pipes. After passing over anil among these 
pipes, the air enters the conservatory t hrough 
numerous perforated brass panels, in such 
quantities as may be desired. Massive brick 
piers pass through these floors, and support 
the sixteen columns on which the upper 
part ot the structure rests. The con¬ 
servatory is formed with a large square 
central area surmounted by a % dome. On 
l each side of the square there are bays or 
[ transepts, the entrance to which is beneath 
three arches, vising to a height of fourteen 
feet, and. resting on columns, of which there 
are sixteen. The dome is formed of rolled 
iron rilis, meeting together in the center and 
united to a large pendant perforated boss; 
the ribs (forty in number) are separated by 
extremely light ornamental castings, forming 
j a framework which is glazed with stained 
1 glass, which encircles the dome in three dis- 
sgSr 
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BESSEMER’S IRON - CONSKRVATORY. 
tinct bands ; exterior to this stained glass is 
a plate-glass covering, each plate being 
curved to the true shape of the dome; the 
plates are each seven feet long, the joints so 
arranged as to he rendered invisible behind 
the stained glass panels; the glass is ground 
on both sides, and embossed in a bold trellis 
pattern, giving to the whole a 
most beautifUl effect. The em¬ 
ployment of ground glass for 
the dome gives it an apparent 
solidity when viewed externally 
from the terrace that surrounds 
tho building, which much in¬ 
creases its architectural beauty. 
The dome, which is forty feet 
in height, rests on a series of 
hold trusses, springing from the 
sills of the upper windows, and 
forming a division between 
them; these trusses are perfo¬ 
rated on all sides, and are highly 
ornamented. The ceiling of 
the central part surrounding tho 
dome is formed into deep soffits, 
each filled with elaborately-de¬ 
signed perforated gilt panels, 
with an azure background form¬ 
ed by the flat iron roof above 
them. I 11 the upper part of tho 
central space there are six win¬ 
dows on each side, each one 
composed of a single sheet of 
ground plate glass, engraved 
and painted in pale tints. These 
windows all open by an ingen¬ 
ious contrivance worked by an 
attendant from the cold air 
chamber below, which is suffi- 
eienlly lofty to admit of ready 
access. 
“The iron columns have a 
spiral groove running around 
them, in which small spheres 
are fitted, by stringing them on 
a copper wire, giving an effect 
which simple casting could 
never accomplish; these spheres 
are all gilt, and give to the fresh 
gray tint of the columns a great 
relief; the capitals are all built 
up with separate acanthus 
leaves of very light and elegant 
form, and are also gilt. The 
arches, which rest on these col¬ 
umns, are fill double castings, 
placed back to hack, aud are 
most exquisitely molded in a 
perforated pattern, through 
which the light falls in ever- 
varying clusters of rays as one 
walks about the conservatory. 
There are thousands of rosettes 
on these perforated screens, all 
cast separately, and screwed In 
place, so as to get a hold relief, 
well undercut, an effect which 
founding in mass could not Have. 
“The external walls are 
pierced with large circular¬ 
headed windows, glazed with a 
single sheet of plate glass, with 
a small Greek border etched 
around the edge, and narrow 
margins of colored ground glass 
of a soft gray tint etched in pat¬ 
terns. The walk arc entirely 
encased with polished marble, 
in pieces so large jus to show no 
joints. A richly-molded archi¬ 
trave of red Devonshire marble 
surrounds each window apt! 
door, and relieves by its warm 
color the spaces between tDe 
windows, which are of dark 
Bardillo marble, against which 
are placed three-quarter col¬ 
umns of wlute-veiued .Sicilian 
marble. The shafts of all twen¬ 
ty-four columns and the angle 
pilasters are ten feet in length, 
