316
BENEFICIAL EFFECTS ANTICIPATED TO RESULT FROM EXHIBITION. [Class X.
consists in its economy of space; it is 3 feet in height,2 in length, and 2 in width, lie also exhibits a patentwater-meter, which is 2 feet in length, 2 in width, a di foot G inches in length; stated to keep perfect adjust-ment under varying pressure. Also a patent water-meter,stated to work in compressed air, without cock or valve;and two other meters. (See the Illustrated Catalogue.)
Lawrence (No. 115, p. 418) exhibits a screw-wrench,capable of being adjusted by aspring, and of being variedin size in a moment. Also a pair of dividers; a hand-drill, intended to supersede the use of the bow-drill, anddriven by a crank. A turner’s centre-bearing, withfriction-rollers to prevent small articles from moving inthe lathe, and to enable the lathe to turn easier than inthe ordinary way. These articles all seem to be useful,but scarcelv belong to Class X.
Plant (No. 215, p. 434) has exhibited a self-regis-tering steam-boiler feeding apparatus, intended as a sub-stitute for the common force-pump and regulating-float.
Rocher (France , No. 991, p. 122G). A tank apparatus,for the distillation of water; adapted to the use of a shipof the line. The workmanship is excellent, but it can, inno respect, be considered a philosophical apparatus.
Green (No. 44G, p. 4G2) has exhibited damp-detectors,fitted up in different kinds of boxes; also several angle-meters.
Merryweather (No. 151, p. 429) has exhibited atempest-prognosticator. This consists of a number ofbottles placed on an ornamental stand, in each of whichit is proposed to place a leech, so as to render availablethe well-known sensitiveness of this animal to changes ofthe weather.
Before closing this Report, it may be well to dwell fora short time upon the probable good resulting from theexhibition of the subjects which it embraces. So vast isthe field over which it is spread, and limited the timeallowed for its preparation, that, in some instances, wehave been able only to enumerate, without fully discus-sing, the merits of individual works. No opportunity,for'the same reason, is afforded of instituting an inquiryinto the comparative importance of the several classes ofinstruments—an inquiry which would be attended withgreat labour, from the necessity of gravely weighing anddetermining the comparative value of results which wehave been enabled simply to record.
That the Exhibition will form an era in art and scienceis to be expected; and that both will benefit greatly fromso large a collection of instruments and useful appli-cations from all countries is also certain. That it is notcalculated to engender national animosities will be seenby a rc-view of our Report, which discovers the fact, noless pleasing than anticipated, that every country ischaracterized by peculiar excellence in some department;and we might venture to predict, that steady and con-stantly progressive as the advancement of science hasbeen—from the broad basis now offered for the first time,as a groundwork for future improvements—it will receivea fresh impulse and many accessions from new and other-wise unexpected quarters. That the Exhibition has
received contributions from individuals of various grades,is one of its most pleasing features ; as is the fact that avast field for increase of knowledge, and a means of self-education, has for the first time been opened to theavtizan. This class of individuals greatly want a knowledge of that which has been done—a deficiency theExhibition is well calculated to supply, and may thusdivert much fruitless labour and ingenuity into newerand more useful channels. That there does exist in thisclass of the community a considerable amount of abilityand power of application, is evidenced by the variouspatents which have been taken out for ideas and inven-tions, the purchase-money of which lias too often beenthe sole remuneration of the inventors.
The Exhibition will make the improvements whichhave been made in different instruments by various coun-tries known to all; and the means for the acquisition ofknowledge, hitherto confined to the few, will, by it, beplaced within the grasp of the many.
Glancing once more at the collection now before us,combining as it does a concentration of the labours ofeminent men, who have toiled during successive genera-tions for the advancement of science, and whose success-ful efforts have developed the important principles whichhave served for the groundwork of modern discoveries,and their beautiful applications to the wants of thepresent day, we are impressed more strongly than everwith the all-important fact, that much as man has done,both in the physical and scientific world, by a long trainof brilliant discoveries, there is more yet left to achievethan lias hitherto been accomplished.
As heat, light, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity,&c., by the recent discoveries of Volta, Faraday , Oersted,Seebeck, Wheatstone, &c., have been found to be mutuallyrelated, so that heat may be said to produce electricity,and vice versa, and so on for all the rest, we may expectthat a still more intimate union than that already dis-covered may be found to exist. That things apparentlydistinct and remote prove to be linked together andinseparable, is instanced by the frequent discovery ofintermediate missing links in the continuity of the chainconnecting all living bodies, from the most minute, andalmost inanimate, to man ; and which have tended toprove that the powers with which they are severallyendowed, and the principles of their formation, have beenregulated upon one grand system of gradation, havingunity alone for its summit. That the effect of a concen-tration of the sciences of the age must be infinitelygreater than that exerted by a single one, is obvious; asalso that this concentration and union, once effected, willbe productive of vast and universal applications, such aswe dare not even to predict.
The Exhibition, by collecting, within a comparativelysmall space, almost all the known applications of sciencethroughout the civilized world, is eminently qualified forthe attainment of this great end, by promoting the ad-vance of science in its various branches, and by iufusiuga taste for the development of the highest faculties withwhich man is endowed.
JAMES GLAISIIER, Reporter.