493
k. Bells : house, church, ship, table, See., and alarums.
/. Candlesticks: table and bedroom.
m. Monumental brasses ami ecclesiastical brass-work.
n. Copper-plates for engravers.
o. Miscellaneous: including pins, nails, wire-gauze,bird-cages, hooks and eyes, wire baskets, and ropes.
2. Copper, Zinc, Tin , Pewter, fyc.
a. Kettles, coal-scuttles, coppers, saucepans, steamers,plate-warmers, &c.
b. Bronzed tea and coffee-urns, kettles, Sec.
c. Tubing : copper, tin, lead, Sec.
cl. Pewter, German silver and Britannia metal tea-pots, basins, dishes, spoons, ladles, inkstands, &c.
e. Coffin furniture: plates, escutcheons, Sec.
f. Zinc articles generally.
3. Iron-work.
a. Stoves, grates, fenders, and fire-irons, kitchenranges, cooking apparatus, smoke-jacks.
b. Warming apparatus for hails and rooms, ships,See., either by water, coal, coke, wood, charcoal, or gas.
c. Shower, vapour, air, and warm-water baths. j
d. Ventilators : metallic and others.
e. Pipes and gutters, See.
f. Locks and hinges.
g. General ironmongery.
h. Ice machines.
i. Knife-cleaning machines.
k. Letter-copying machines and presses.
l. Saddlers’ ironmongery.
7n. Hollow ware, cast and wrought, tinned, and ena-melled.
n. Spades, shovels, pickaxes, hoes, rakes, garden-rollers, &c.
o. Nails: cut, cast, and wrought.
p. Screws and railway bolts, &c.
q. Iron safes, cash boxes, fire-proof and others.
r. Horse-shoes.
s. Gates, railings, hurdles, and stable fittings.
t. Mangles, washing-machines, See.
ti. Iron bedsteads, garden seats, &c.
t\ Castings in iron.
4. Steel Manufacture.
a. Tools and heavy steel toys, hammers, vices, See.
b. Steel ornaments, light fancy steel toys, brooches,buckles, See,
c. Steel pens and metallic pens of other kinds. \
d. Needles, fish-hooks and fishing tackle.
Besides these, there must be included also a number ofobjects fabricated of mixed materials, such as buttons —metallic, Florentine, pearl, bone, &c.,—and other produc-tions coming under the usual denomination of hardware.
Considered in another aspect, the articles comprehended \in Class XXII. may be divided into those intended to jsupply the necessary and absolute requirements of large jindustrial populations, and generally to minister to theconveniences of society; and those which, either partiallyor wholly, are created to meet the demands of taste andrefinement among the wealthier classes of the community.
A large proportion of its contents, accordingly, consistsof articles of mere utility and convenience, the merits ofwhich were to be tested by such considerations as fitnessfor their professed purpose, and. excellence of materialand workmauship.
To these tests the Jury believe it would have been ad-vantageous to have added a comparison of prices; butthey found it necessary to abstain from introducing thiselement into the grounds of their decisions, partly onaccount of the difficulty of doing so, and partly in defer-ence to the instructions furnished to them by the Councilof Chairmen.
They must also add, that, after much deliberation, theyfelt themselves compelled to adopt a rule for determiningthe merits of inventions, and of improvements on existingcontrivances, which, in many cases, they admit to havebeen inadequate. Numerous instances, of course, therewere of contrivances in which the adaptation of the
means to the end was so obvious, that no question couldbe made of it. Others there were in which the actualworking of the invention was witnessed; but there wasa third class, respecting which the decisions of the Jury,it was felt, must be pro tanto, conditional and contingenton the efficacy of the contrivance, unless—and this wasconsidered to be impracticable—they were enabled toform an opinion after actual experiment.
This question was, in the first instance, raised in thecase of lamps for oil or camphine, on the occasion of aconsultation between this Jury and the Jury of ClassXXIX.* on that point; and it was subsequently decided,in the first place, that there were practical reasons, whichit is here unnecessary to state, against undertaking acourse of experiments on the comparative advantages inpoint of economy and the illuminating power of thelamps in question; and, secondly, that supposing it to beotherwise (though indeed the same or similar obstaclesexisted in other cases), the Jury must, in fairness to exhi-bitors in all the sections of this Class, have resorted toexperiment where any doubt arose, and thus have pro-tracted their labours to an inordinate length.
Among the cases to which the Jury refer, they mayadvert more particularly to contrivances for preventingsmoke, kitchen ranges, professing great economy in fueland other advantages, apparatus for heating and cookingby r gas, and such like.
In some instances, indeed, experiment would haverendered no assistance. In the manufacture of steelpens, for example, the improvements introduced by par-ticular houses (beyond a certain point of excellence longsince passed by all) are, for the most part, merely differ-ences of form, on the advantages of which, adapted asthey are to suit different characters of hand-writing, very-few persons would be found to agree. With respect,however, to all the cases to which they refer, the Jurybelieve that, short of actual experiment, they have ne-glected no means by which they were likely to arrive at asound conclusion. And besides, it must not be forgotten,that even in these and similar instances, the invention orcontrivance is not the chief, nor always the sole elementof merit on which they were called upon to pronounce ajudgment.
Next in order to articles of mere utility and conve-nience, may be ranked those in which use is combinedwith a greater or less amount of ornament. These con-stitute the largest proportion of the objects in Class XXII.;besides which there is a third section, which consists ofarticles either solely or chiefly ornamental; includingsuch works of fine art as are or may be employed for de-corative purposes.
The whole number of exhibitors iu this Class is up-wards of 1,200, including those who, chiefly exhibitingin other Classes, have also sent articles which more orless come under the denomination of hardware. Thisnumber also includes exhibitors of certain objects, suchas metallic combs for weaving, and mangles, which wereultimately referred to other Juries.
The proportions in which various countries have cou-tribuvd examples of all kinds may be gathered from thefollowing statement of the relative number of exhi-bitors :—
Two-thirds of the whole number of contributors belongto the United Kingdom ; the other third are thus distri-buted ;—
about one-fourth,rather above ditto,about one-eighth,about one-sixteenth,ditto ditto,ditto ditto.