Young's Type-Composing Machine.-The inventor describes that this type machine is provided with separate compartments called "reservoirs," for all the letters of a font; each reservoir being provided with a small lever, which, by means of a rod, is connected to a key like those used in a pianoforte. When a key is struck by the player, it pushes a type out of the reservoir by means of the lever mentioned above, and the type is thus caused to slide down an inclined plane, and thence into a receiver, where it is set up side by side with other types, by means of a beater. Thus, each type or letter can be set up by a player in the order required by a compositor's copy. This is now done with a speed of from 12,000 to 15,000 types set up in an hour's time. The justifying apparatus is intended to replace the compositor's stick. The compositor places the galley filled with the long lines of type set up by the composing machine, slides one of them into the apparatus, divides it into the proper width of the page, and having justified it, moves a handle which depresses the completed line, and thus makes room for a succeeding one. It is found that a compositor can by this means justify at the rate of 4,000 to 6,000 types per hour. The distributing machine separates all the different letters of a font that may have been used for printing, into different channels ready for use in the composing machine. This is effected by one or more pairs of nippers, which takes every type singly from the reservoir in which all the types have been placed, and allows it to slide down an inclined plane, the upper part of which moves on a hinge. The thin or lower-case types slide down to the bottom of the fixed inclined plane, but the thicker or upper-case letters are retained on the movable incline, which, on being raised, drops them into an appropriate receptacle, whence they are then taken and redistributed by passing down a separate channel of the inclined plane. The thin, or lower-case letters, that have arrived at the bottom of the inclined plane, are pushed into the grooves of a revolving chain. This chain in moving passes underneath plates which are made of different widths in order to cover only certain nicks cut or cast on the edge of the types, and situated in different parts of their length, from 1-16th to 12-16ths of an inch from the tail of each type. When, therefore, a type passes underneath a plate, which allows its nick to be exposed, it is pushed from off the chain by means of a scraper which passes over the plate on to a tilting inclined plane. This plane in its descent allows the type to slide down, by means of an inclined channel, into a receiver, where it is set up by means of a beater, as in the composing machine. The distinguishing nicks are somewhat like those used by typefounders; 71 per cent. of the types require only one nick, 20 per cent. only two nicks, and the remainder have three nicks. One distributing machine, attended by two boys, will distribute and prepare for the composing machine from 14,000 to 18,000 types per hour. Mitchell's composing and distributing machine was also exhibited. This machine has been for many years in practical operation in this country, and the description of it can be found in Appleton's "Dictionary of Mechanics." Folding, Pressing, and Stitching Machine.This compact little folding machine, a Swiss invention, is constructed to make a perfect register, and to fold printed or white sheets of paper with far greater precision than the most experienced hands can do it, at the rate of 1,400 to 1,500 sheets of any size per hour; and it presses and stitches the sheets at the same time. The machine works as follows: The sheets are put singly by a boy under the points of the machine, in the same manner as with the printing machine. A knife moving nearly vertically up and down takes hold of the sheet lengthwise in the centre, draws it through a slip in the table, and the first fold is made. The knife returns instantly, and the sheet is taken by a second vertical knife, moving from the left to the right, folding it at a right angle to the first fold. The double-folded sheet is now opposite a pair of ribbed rollers (cylinders). Before the third fold is made, the stitching commences as follows: Two needles, provided with hooks, pass through the middle of the sheet, at about an inch distance from each other, drawing the cotton through, which is unwound from a bobbin, and cut to the required length by a peculiarly constructed pair of shears; the sheet is then folded a third time-viz., a knife in the shape of a T, acting horizontally, and consequently, at a right angle with the second knife, takes hold of the middle of the sheet, and pushes it between the above-mentioned ribbed rollers, whence it is passed directly to another pair of polished rollers, from which it comes glazed and pressed on to the table. The machine works very correctly, and folds the largest as well as the smallest sheets, and both the stitching and pressing apparatus, or each singly, may be detached by loosening a single screw. It can be worked either by steam or hand, a boy being sufficient for that purpose. The same exhibitor showed a second folding machine, which feeds itself by an air or sucking apparatus that takes the sheets one by one from off a pile, under the horizontal folding knife, thus enabling it to fold 3,000 sheets per hour. AGRICULTURAL MACHINES AND IMPLEMENTS.Cultivation by the steam engine was the paramount feature of this department; one gallery and part of another being occupied by two rival systems of steam-ploughing mechanism. Fowler contributed the steam engines, with their wire ropes, ploughs, and grubbers, of which about 150 sets are now at work in this and other countries. Here, too, were the engine, windlass, grubbers, and new balance ploughs of the Howards, of Bedford; their steam cultivator and new implements for the hay harvest. America has produced a greater variety of reaping and mowing machines than we English have done; most of our new notions in knife, or gearing, or delivery, having come a voyage across the Atlantic. In the United States Court we accordingly found several ingenuities of this order. A striking object among these inventions was the reaper of Mr. M'Cormick, which advertises itself as one of 40,000 made and sold in one shop. The platform is of a quadrant figure; the reel has but three, instead of four blades, the place of the fourth being occupied by a rake, which by a very peculiar but really simple and easy movement is made to sweep over the platform, delivering the cut corn at one side. Mr. Aveling, of Rochester, showed his simplycontrived and practically-successful locomotive for common roads, of which, it is said, forty are already in constant use. Denmark contributed a novelty in the shape of long shallow iron pans for holding milk in large dairies. A screw at the farther end enables the pan to be slightly raised for emptying, and a broad blade of thin wood reaching across the pan and supported by rollers running along the edges of the pan, is drawn from end to end when the cream is to be skimmed off the milk. In the Australian Court was a Victorian reaper from Melbourne, in South Australia. The machine exhibited resembled the ancient Roman reaper. A box, upon a pair of wheels, is propelled by horses and a pole at the side; the forward end is armed with an iron comb, which does not, however, snap off the ears of the standing crop, but holds them, while the rapidly revolving beaters of a drum, like that of a threshing machine, strip out the kernels of ripe grain. The box receives the corn; sometimes a fan (driven like the drum, by wheels and a strap, by the rotation of the carriage wheels) winnows away the chaff, and the produce is thus collected ready for the market. CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE, AND BUILDING CONTRIVANCES.-The great number of the contributions by engineers were models of iron bridges and viaducts, of which the principle of construction is remarkable for that subserviency of other considerations to one of rapid completion, which is generally of importance to shareholders. In most of these models, one of the forms of the lattice-girder is used, with piers likewise of iron construction. The Beelah Viaduct, Westmoreland, was illustrated in a model. It was designed by Mr. T. Bouch, of Edinburgh. It is 1,000 feet long and 200 feet high in the deepest part of the valley, and was erected in four months. Three years, say the exhibitors, would have been required for the erection of a viaduct of brick or stone. Several models and photographs of suspension bridges were shown. The chief work was a railway bridge, that of the Niagara-still not sufficiently appreciated, we think, by British engineers. An admirable series of models contributed by the French Minister of Public Works, comprised representations of the sea walls of Cherbourg and the harbor of Marseilles. The system of construction in both cases, if not identical, is closely analogous. In the greatest depths where the disturbing action of the wave ceases, the smaller stones are placed, or, more properly speaking, sunk, being allowed to assume their natural inclination. Above these again the larger material comes, increasing in bulk in proportion to the action of the waters; the largest masses of natural stone being surmounted, and the outer surface faced by enormous blocks of concrete, of which also the superimposed masonry is principally formed. This artificial stone is composed of the débris from the quarries mixed with hydraulic lime. In the instance of the creosoted woods shown by Mr. J. Bethell, however, the evidence is clear that piles, fourteen inches square, used at Grimsby, half the substance is found to be eaten away by the seaworms, in ten years or less, where the pile had not been creosoted; whilst the creosoted pile, after exposure for the same time, is shown to be in the original state. The collection of specimens included sections from railway sleepers after twenty-one years' constant use; the wood being scarcely injured. Clay-ware pipes, by Zeller, of Ollwiller (Haut-Rhin), enamelled, and bitumenized paper pipes, by Jaloureau, of Paris, of good manufacture, for the conveyance of water and gas, were exhibited. The bitumenized pipes are favorably reported on in Paris, as regards durability, after four years' trial; and elasticity is one of their advantages. MODELS, WEAPONS, &c.-In the court devoted to these articles the visitor could study, almost in a glance, the progress of naval architecture for nearly three centuries past. All kinds of these models were here, from that of the Great Harry down to our last and greatest ship, the Warrior, with lines as fine as a Dover packet. An important American invention was shown -a series of beautiful little working models of the various machines used in Thompson's patent for making boats by steam, which do all, even to curving and bevelling the edges; so that a rough board passing in at one end of a machine comes out at the other, not only curved, but bevelled and planed. The new gun, invented by Sir William Armstrong, is a rifled breech-loading 70-pounder, but one in which the chamber ventpiece and screw are entirely dispensed with. The gun is built up of wrought iron coils and rifled in the usual manner; but in the breech on both sides two narrow openings are cut, into which are fitted two wedge-shaped masses of iron with handles. These, when drawn aside, have openings in them corresponding to the bore of the gun, which can then be seen through from end to end, a hollow rifled tube. The shot and powder are then inserted in the ordinary way at the breech, and the foremost of the sliding iron wedges we have mentioned drawn across so as to close the tube. The second and most massive wedge is then drawn into its position so as to jam both tight, and the gun is ready for firing. By a simple contrivance connected with the lock of the gun, which slides down a powerful steel bolt that keys the two wedges together, the piece cannot be fired till both wedges are in their place, nor can they be withdrawn until this again is lifted. Near the Armstrong gun were shown sections of shells of all sizes, both time and percussion. The time shell is adjusted by distance --that is, the fuse is cut short to burst the charge so many seconds after it leaves the gun, every second representing a space of four hundred yards traversed. Thus, after one or two shots for "range," the shell can be burst to a nicety of fifty feet. The percussion shell, as its name implies, explodes instantaneously on touching any obstacles after it leaves the gun. Near to this were exhibited the guns of Armstrong's great competitor-Mr. Whitworth, whose gun is still that which has attained the longest range and greatest accuracy, and is still the only piece that has sent as light a shot as 70 lb. through 41 inches of solid iron plate. The Blakeley gun, also in this court, is a very good piece of rifled muzzle-loading ordnance, very similar in principle to the canon rayé of the French. Even, however, as a rifled muzzle-loader it is inferior to Whitworth's, which has the advantage of being a breechloader as well. A large wrought iron gun was exhibited from the Mersey works, which, as a perfect triumph of forging, should have been shown side by side with the double-throw crank of the same firm. The shells of the monster mortar-shells which, when loaded, weigh as much as 25 cwt.--are another instance of extravagant invention of which this court offers as many samples as any other in the building. Every kind of breech-loading small arm was, of course, to be found here. And here, by comparison, might be seen the superiority of the American invention of Mr. Storm over others. In this piece there is nothing special in either the lock, or stock, or barrel; the only invention, in fact, being the breech-loading apparatus, which is applicable to any and every barrel, at a cost, it is stated, as low as some 168. each. The breech, about an inch, or an inch and a half in length, is fitted to the barrel by an ordinary hinge, which is thrown up or open by a movement of the finger or thumb, the charge inserted, and the breech closed. It has been tried by some of the highest professional authorities on musketry, and has been pronounced perfect. Mr. Lancaster exhibited his oval-bore cannon, with shot and shell for its service. The system of construction is briefly described thus: "The inside of the barrel is cut by proper machinery in spiral form, the difference between major and minor axis being .012 of an inch." A very interesting collection of guns and projectiles was contributed by the Whitworth Ordnance Company. The guns ranged in size from the 1-pounder to the 70-pounder, and comprised examples of both breech and muzzle loaders. In every case the bore is hexagonal in its cross section, and in the rifling the pitch is equal to twenty times the diameter of the bore. Messrs. Whitworth state the range of their 12-pounder rifled canon, with a 12 lb. shot, and 1 lb. of powder, as follows: At point blank, 380 yards; at 1° of elevation, 900 yards; at 5°, 2,600 yards; at 10°, 4,500 yards; at 20°, 7,000 yards; at 35°, 10,000 yards, or about 53 English miles! A very beautiful gun of small calibre, and constructed of cast steel, was forwarded from Russia. A label attached to it informed us that it has withstood a test equivalent to 4,000 charges. This argues a degree of tenacity in the metal of which it is composed, second only -if second, indeed, it be-to that of which the Prussian cannon are made. Prussia contributed an interesting collection of gun barrels of the famous steel of Messrs. Krupp, of Ensen. They were shown, together with various specimens of the metal, including one ingot of thirty tons weight, in the western Annexe. "When we examine the illustrations here offered of the texture (so to speak) of this steel, we cease to be surprised that the guns made from it have borne with impunity the rigid test that has been applied to some of them. This consists of sealing securely the muzzle of the gun, after having previously filled the barrel with powder; when, on application of the fuse, the whole charge burns away harmlessly through the touchhole, leaving the barrel perfect and flawless." New Cartridge.--A new seamless skin cartridge, the invention of Capt. M. Hayes, excited much interest. The advantages which it possesses over ordinary cartridges are its waterproof qualities, greatly increased facilities of loading, cleanliness, and cheapness. In addition to the natural damp-resisting properties of the skin used in the manufacture, it is chemically prepared, so as to be impervious to wet. The ordinary paper cartridge cannot resist water, and naturally absorbs moisture. The facilities in loading gained by this invention are extraordinary. The cartridge requires neither biting, tearing, nor puncturing; but by one action is passed entire, viz., powder and ball in one complete whole, into the muzzle of the arm used, and goes clean down to the point of ignition. The spark from the percussion cap penetrates the skin, and the charge is exploded without the chance of hang or misfire. Marine Engines.-As might naturally be ex: pected, the most important part of the exhibition of machinery was that where the object was marine propulsion. There were no less than seven pairs of marine engines fitted up complete for work, the aggregate power of which could not be less than 2,000 horses. But in their construction they presented nothing of novelty, being but examples from the best makers which may be found described in Tredgold and Bourne on the steam engine. GAS ENGINEERING.-One of the best illustrations of the progress effected since 1851 was in the number of exhibitors of fireclay gas retorts at the Exhibition. This has been caused through iron gas retorts being superseded by earthenware retorts in almost every town exceeding 10,000 inhabitants. Mr. G. Glover, of Pimlico, exhibited a meter, by which quantities of gas so minute as from To to 5000 part of a cubic foot can be measured with precision each second. Mr. Prossex exhibited his oxyhydrogen lime lamp, the identical one used for three months at the South Foreland lighthouse. In 1851 the only paraffine candle exhibited was made from turf. The considerable display made by Mr. Young, and Messrs. Field, and many others, of blocks of paraffine and candles, proves the manufacture of this article to have arisen during the past ten years. Mr. Shepard's magneto-electric light was shown. This remarkable light has been two winters in use at the South Foreland lighthouse, and is now fitted up by the Trinity Board at Dungeness. The light produced is intense sufficient, it is stated, in a revolving lens giving off six rays, to enable any person with average sight to read at a distance of ten miles. PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENTS.-Amongst the general instruments exhibited were cloud mirrors, sunshine recorders; and a galactoscope for measuring the transparency of milk. The Right Hon. Robert Lowe showed spectacles which magnify without glass or any other refracting medium; and Dr. Lankester exhibited an ozonometer for registering the hourly variations of ozone. The improvements Mr. Wenham has effected for microscopic objects deserve mention. No longer a mere flat image is produced; the binocular microscrope, by a contrivance for the use of both eyes, gives perfect stereoscopic relief, and at the same time saves much labor to the eyes of the spectator. A machine was exhibited by Mr. Peters for microscopic writing. The words to be written microscopically are written in pencil, in ordinary characters, on a sheet of paper at the bottom of the instrument. But the pencil with which this is done communicating by a series of levers and gimbals with another minute pencil and tablet at the top, is so graduated that a stroke of a quarter of an inch at the bottom is only a stroke of a quarter of a millionth of an inch at the top, the shape and character of both marks being nevertheless precisely alike in outline. The object of the machine is chiefly to mark banknotes with certain minute signatures for the prevention of forgery. Close by this curious instrument was Mr. Babbage's calculating machine, which will work quadrations and calculate logarithms up to seven places of figures. Messrs. Scheutz, of Stockholm, have improved upon it to such an extent as not only enabled the machine to calculate its tables, but to print its results. This improvement was at once bought up by the English Government, but it is not now shown at the Exhibition. Negretti and Zambra showed instruments entirely new, and most of the important ones. Among these was a thermometer so exquisitely sensitive as to rise at once upon the approach of the hand within two or three inches; this was made specially to test the temperature of the body and coils of the python during her attempted incubation at the Zoological Gar dens. M. Koenig showed a wonderful collection of instruments applied to the illustration of the theory of the conduction, undulation, and vi bration of sound. By a most ingenious but simple instrument-a common glass cylinder, coated with fine lampblack, and applied, turning, to a tuning key when vibrating-M. Koenig makes sound its own printer. From the impressions left on this cylinder all the different vibrations and undulations of sound between A and G are here recorded from their outset to their latest tone, have been made to register themselves, and from the records thus left a most beautiful series of acoustic charts has been drawn out. M. Perreaux exhibited a spherometer for measuring the curves of object glasses. This instrument is of such extreme delicacy, that when adjusted to zero, even placing the hand on the ground glass plane beneath, from which the slender index works, is sufficient to deflect it instantly. None in the foreign department showed good photographic negatives of microscopic objects but Roncoli, of Bergamo, in the Italian section. Some of these instantaneous photographs of the magnified blood and anatomy of the most minute insects were among the most wonderful tours de force that this chemical art showed in the building. In the French department was the calculating machine of M. Thomas--the Babbage of France. It is so small as to fit in a compass not greater than that of a good musical snuff box. Yet, by simply winding a handle, 18 seconds suffice to multiply 8 figures by 8; to divide 16 figures by 8 figures only 24 seconds are required, and a square root of 16 figures is obtained within a minute! And all this is done by turning a handle rapidly, and the price of the whole apparatus is within the reach of most buyers. PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARA TUS.-Mr. Warren de la Rue exhibited his most interesting series of photographs, showing the progress of the late total eclipse of the sun as seen in Spain. Col. Sir Henry James, director of the ord nance survey, showed specimens of "photozincography," for the reduction, enlarging, and printing of maps and plans. Sir Henry showed adaptations of it to the production of facsimiles of ancient MS., and one of a page of Domesday Book. The photograph, by a simple and cheap process, is transferred to a zinc plate, whence any number of copies can be taken off by the ordinary plate printing process. F. Joubert exhibited a series of very beautiful pictures burnt in on glass, a marvellous adaptation of the photographic art in an absolutely new direction. By a pure photographic process he produces on the glass, in ceramic colors, a picture, which, by exposure to heat in the furnace becomes burnt in like any other picture on glass or china. By a careful and artistic manipulation he has been able to produce effects in several colors. The process has been perfected, and a cheap and artistic ornamentation of our windows is brought within the means of the many. CLOCKS AND WATCHES. -The great dial around the stained glass window at the eastern end of the nave, measuring nearly 40 feet in diameter, was the first lion of this class. It was worked by a clock made by Dent. Another gigantic work, termed par excellence "The Great Exhibition Clock," was placed in the central tower of the south side of the exhibition building. The maker is M. Benson, of Ludgate hill. Its special peculiarity is a new double lever rémontoire, the application of which diminishes the friction or retarding force, and allows of great motive power, even to the extent of 20 tons, being used without disturbing the time-keeping qualities. In all cases where the works of a clock are at a great distance from the dial, as in this case, the outer dial being 300 feet from the works, a great motive power is requisite. The great watch and clock makers of Clerkenwell exhibited in full strength. After Clerkenwell, but at some distance, came the watches of Coventry; and last of all, the prettiest and cheapest, but much inferior, watches of Switzerland. In this class all the great watch and clock manufacturers of England showed their masterpieces of workmanship. There were reversible chronometers, steam clocks, marine chronometers, astronomical clocks, geographical clocks, silent clocks, skeleton clocks, Liliputian alarm clocks, electro-magnetic clocks, key less watches, electric clocks, mercurial timepieces, clocks showing mean time and longitude at important places, and galvano-magnetic clocks; and gold and silver watches of every description. ELECTRIO TELEGRAPHS AND ELECTRICAL APPARATUS. It has been aptly observed that the practical influence of electrical inventions met the visitor at the very threshold of the Exhibition Building, where the "Magnetic Tell-Tale" of Prof. Wheatstone was attached to some of the turnstiles, and this, in a measure, controlled the financial department. This instrument was worked without battery power of any kind. The electricity was generated by a peculiarly constructed magnetic machine, so connected with the axis of the turnstile as to discharge a current of its force at each revolution of the stile. Thus, each visitor, on passing through it, unconsciously and telegraphically announced his or her arrival to the financial officers in whose rooms were fixed the instruments for receiving and recording the liberated current, which latter was conducted thither by a line of copper wire laid along the building between those instruments and the turnstiles, and metallically connected to each. The registers thus obtained formed a complete check upon the money taken at the doors. The great improvements and numerous inventions in electric telegraphy during the past ten years were strikingly shown by the various new instruments exhibited by the Universal Private Telegraph, the British and Irish, the Submarine, and other telegraphic companies. Prof. Wheatstone's ingenious and beautiful Domestic telegraphs were shown in working order, and many inventions and contrivances to utilize this valuable discovery. Mr. Tyer exhibited his patent Train Telegraph. The apparatus for the use of the signalmen comprise a telegraphic needle for each line of rails in each direction, and a bell and gong, having different sounds, the one for the up and the other for the down line of rails in each direction. The bell or gong is used to draw attention to the approach or passage of a train, and by the number of beats employed, to describe the train: while the needles are used solely to denote either "line blocked," or "line clear;" and no signalman can alter his own instrument, it being the duty of each signalman to work the needles of the signalmen on each side of him. The most interesting and advanced of these instruments were those which worked more or less automatically. The automatic system of Mr. Allan consists of three machines; the punching machine is the first of these, and by this the ribbon paper to be passed through the sending machine is perforated with holes, representing dots and strokes of the Morse alphabet, at those points only where the current is required to mark on the unperforated ribbon at the receiving station; next is the sending machine, into which the perforated paper is introduced. This machine winds up its own clockwork, whereby the paper is drawn forward, and stops of its own accord when the message is completed; and lastly, the receiving instrument at the distant station, which is also so arranged as to start its own machinery on receiving the electric impulse, and stop it when the perforated paper at the other end has passed through the sending apparatus. The British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company exhibited a system of controlling turret and other clocks, the clocks being controlled only, and not moved either in whole or part, by electricity. The three clocks shown were in all respects, excepting the pendulum, of ordinary construction, and would go without the electric current, keeping their own time. The pendulum is a hollow electro-magnet, oscillat |