to be raised to a height of 115 feet in less than fifteen minutes, and is made to work by means of a tube 100 feet in length, leading from an air-holder.

In full size it would consist of two cylindrical air chambers or holders, eleven yards in diameter, having together a surface of 180 square yards, upon which rests a bridge bearing a train which, with the weight of the immersed air-holders, weigh 550 tons. A threefeet diameter tube, provided with a stop-cock or valve, puts them in communication with a main acting chamber or motor of an equal surface, 180 square yards, on the top of which is fixed a tank, made to contain sufficient water to equilibrate the 550 tons weight of the train. This acting chamber may be placed anywhere, at any distance where water can be had, and stands between two reservoirs, easily formed one above the other, from which water is procured for adding to the different loads of the train a surplus weight which enables them to be hoisted or lowered.

The inventor has also designed an aero-hydrostatical apparatus, for instantly raising out of water any floating dock containing ships of any size to be repaired; it will practically be effective, simple, handy, and cheap, because no foundation or masonry of any kind will be required to erect it. Being movable, and floating on air, it can be towed anywhere in a dock, river, or the open sea. The inventor has entered into a contract with some first-rate engine and iron bridge builders in France for the construction of his apparatus, and also wishes to find an opportunity to apply it in England, being fully satisfied that it may render valuable services.

With respect to the steam-engines in the present Exhibition as compared with those of 1851, it may be observed-say the jurors in their report of Class 8-that "they show an increased employment of high pressure, great expansion, and super-heating, an increased use of surface condensation (generally effected by means of a great number of small horizontal tubes), a tendency towards simplicity in the framing and main moving parts, a general abandonment of devices that are more curious than useful, and a higher perfection of workmanship and finish; all of which improvements combine to produce greater economy of fuel, power, and repairs.

"Setting aside merit of a kind that does not require special explanation, such as simplicity, good workmanship, practical success, &c., the following remarks may be made as to those engines which present new and unusual features:

"When the machinery of the present Exhibition is compared with that of 1851, it is found to be marked less by originality of invention, or the introduction of new principles, than by improvement in details, workmanship, and material; and that with respect to material in particular, the most striking improvements are those which consist in the greatly extended use of steel, and of iron approaching to steel in its properties."

With these remarks all practical men will coincide; it being doubtless a fact, that while we have made vast advances in machinery, these advances have all been in the right direction-the obtaining an increase of power with an increase of simplicity of manufacture. Instead of a multiplicity of wheels, and a confused assemblage of cranks, condensers, &c., as in the original steam-engine, we have now engines which appear to consist simply of piston, driving-wheel, and governor; but which, in fact, are far more powerful, and infinitely more useful, than their progenitors. This is also observable in the cotton machinery, of which Messrs. Harrison make so excellent a show.

Although the greater portion of the machinery is to be found in the Western Annexe, the Eastern Annexe is not deficient of similar attractions. At the very threshold may be seen a model to which the frequent accounts we read of terrible accidents in coal mines give far more than a passing interest. The model represents the mode of ventilation actually adopted in Hetton Colliery, and is exhibited by Messrs. Wood and Dalglish. It is very compact and easily under

MESSRS. DIXON'S CASE OF BOBBINS, &c. MESSRS. JOHN DIXON AND SONS, of Steeton in Craven, Yorkshire, are the exhibitors in the Western Annexe, Western Wall, of a very interesting collection of the principal articles manufactured from boxwood, lancewood, lignum vitæ, and English woods, that are used in the spinning and weaving processes of our great staple commodities, cotton, wool, and flax.

Our engraving furnishes some idea of this tastefully-arranged display, which reflects credit upon the member of this old-established firm, who originated the idea late in April last, of sending some contribution to the "World's Fair." As an inventor, this gentleman is well known, and considering the manifestly unfit and altogether

and handles for drawers, &c. Every one knows how disagreeable it is to have the knob of a drawer come loose, and how impossible it seems to fix it again, so as to render it tight and secure. The contrivance of Messrs. Dixon entirely prevents the annoyance complained of. The reader will see by the sectional drawing here introduced how simply, and yet how effectively, the improvement is managed. The knob or handle is formed with an internal screw to receive the screwed piece, which is passed through the thickness of the door or drawer-the front protruded end of this piece forming the means of attachment for the handle.

This is a most simple, practical, and satisfactory SECTION OF KNOB.

insufficient quantum of space awarded by the Commissioners to this influential firm, Mr. Thomas Ogden Dixon has managed remarkably weli.

It is these illustrations of the manufacturing processes made use of in the northern division of this island that are so interesting and novel to us southerners, few of whom ever have the chance of seeing a cotton or worsted mill. Commending, therefore, this collection to our readers' attention, we may remark that Messrs. Dixon and Sons supply the principal mills in this country, France, Belgium, &c., through their resident agents, with the specialities for which they deservedly enjoy so high a reputation. We understand that Mr. T. O. Dixon is a member of the Society of Arts, and is proposed as a member of the Inventors' Society.

Messrs. Dixon are also the inventors of a series of improved knobs

fastening. Messrs. Dixon are also patentees of an excellent and economic gas-burner, which has been somewhat extensively used in Yorkshire and Lancashire, and really deserves very wide publicity. Its claims to notice are thus stated by the manager of the Skipton Gas Works:-"Its economy; its durability; the iron burner requiring repeated change, the patent one being as good the second season as the first; its incorrosive property, never stopping up from that cause like the ordinary burner. The small amount of heat evolved greatly diminishes the breakage of glass, and its anti-pressure property more completely secures the consumption of the gas, thus preventing to a large extent the deposition of soot on the surface of the glass." The purity of light produced by this burner, and the higher illuminating power of the gas passing through it, are great recommendations to its extensive employment for public and private lights.

MRS. DANIEL JONES'S MINIATURE PRINTING PRESS AND TYPES.

AMONG the vast efforts and many successful displays of taste, skill, and beautiful adaptations of industry and refinement which this great Exhibition presents there is one which, in a most singularly unaffected and perfect manner, appears to carry out and concentrate the early purposes of the departed and greatly regretted originator of the scheme for bringing together from all climes and peoples their intelligence and power in combination.

In the Processes Court, No. 1,634, Class 7 b, we find an undertaking for educational and de

votional purposes, which, though occupying a space of only four feet square, is so managed as to be complete in itself.

Mrs. Daniel Jones announces in the "Illustrated Catalogue" a "Miniature Albion Printing Press," professing to be an appeal chiefly to ladies to turn their attention to a private study to produce gems of thought, in elegancies of well-assorted type, and clever arrangement, so as to relieve the fingers from the ornamental intricate worsted work and crochet labyrinthical pattern, and exert the same patience and perseverance in leisure hours to the cultivation of private circulation of new ideas, which would soon grow into a pleasure in the doing, and a necessity for fireside entertainment.

Mrs. Daniel Jones gives us head, hand, and heart work, and presents to us examples of what can be done by individual enterprise, in octavo pages, consisting of speci mens of her printing, in about forty-six different languages, each in their national character.

The

Indian pages are espe

In speaking of the merits of this undertaking as a whole, we see a useful, neat, powerful printing press, suited to the library, the merchant's office, the schoolmaster, and the boudoir of the lady, whose ingenuity and reflective habits would be greatly assisted could she, in her leisure hours, be enabled to print many beautiful passing thoughts, which otherwise float away, and have no means of being retained in the private manner which her judgment and sympathies would suggest.

However, as it is, that peace and war are yet in disputation around us, we must wait events, and in the meantime lend our assistance to point to efforts which, in our opinion, are most likely to be a good way

cially well done, and interesting as a literary curiosity. The English page gives the key to the whole, and presents a prayer for universal peace, which, if accepted by all nations, would dull the edge of war, and would fully carry out the ideas of the late Prince Consort, and accord with the motto work exhibited about the building from his dictation.

This task has been great, but the excellent style of each printed page gives a stamp to the genius of the press; and the singular stillness and plain dealing, without any needless attempt to produce effect, keeps up our interest, and the attention is not drawn aside from the one desired object-universal peace.

towards a good end:

"Arms yield to arts, the sword unto the tongue, Then give the glorie to the learned throng." This ancient couplet, it is to be hoped, will be fully carried out in the great effort to bring assembled nations under one roof for industrial purposes.

Yet, when we see the triumph of the gigantic powers of the Armstrong gun over the iron sheets, and the intense interest that warlike inventions absorb from millions of visitors, we turn with doubt to the fairylike forms of the beautiful designs in fragile glass textures, standing side by side. They look to us as so many would-be pleaders for peace.

Having given this general description of this miniature printing press, we advise inspection, and heartily wish the originator the success which, in offering this powerful prayer in so many languages, she earnestly desires, and certainly appears fully to deserve.

Our illustration gives a good notion of the general appearance of Mrs. Jones's Miniature Printing Press. It is accom

panied by cases of types, furniture (the pieces of wood necessary to enclose the page of metal types within the iron border or frame, called the chase), and all the necessary adjuncts of a small printing office. There is a well-known anecdote of a clergyman who, being unable to bear the expense of printing a volume of sermons, purchased types and a press, turned printer himself, and produced the book a page at a time. With Mrs. Daniel Jones's press, such a feat is rendered easy to all who are anxious to see their names in print; and that, too, at a very cheap rate. We understand that the exhibitor undertakes to give instruction to ladies in the mysteries of the compositor's and pressman's art.

FOR DECORATING THE BUILDINGS ERECTED FOR INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS.

Ir is proposed to raise sufficient funds to execute two large mosaic pictures, 23 feet high by 13 feet wide, as experiments for decorating the panel of the outside walls of the permanent picture galleries for International Exhibitions, in Cromwell Road, South Kensington. The mosaics will be made of pottery, in geometric forms, by the pressure of dry powder. Various experiments in laying the mosaics have been made by Messrs. Minton (Stokeupon-Trent), with mosaics of their own manufacture, and by Messrs. W. B. Simpson and Sons, of West Strand, with mosaics manufactured by Messrs. Maw, whose works in terra cotta and mosaics we have already noticed. The experiments are very promising, and they prove that mosaic pictures may be as easily worked and used in England as in ancient Greece and Rome, or Medieval Italy. They will be as imperishable as the hardest and most perfect terra cottas. They will create a new branch of industry, which may be worked in any locality, and probably by women as well

as men.

have been executed in mosaics, and placed in recesses of the wall in the Cromwell Road.

The ornamental borders will be designed, and the mosaics worked out, under the superintendence of Mr. Godfrey Sykes and his assistants. When all the neces

The designs wlll illustrate Industry, Science, and Art. Some cartoons have been already prepared by Mr. Cope, R.A., Mr. J. C. Hook, R.A., Mr. Godfrey Sykes, and Mr. Townroe; two of these

sary arrangements have been made after the close of the Exhibition of 1862, for filling the others, designs for other subjects will be sought from the artists named below.

The following are the prineipal subjects which, at present, it is proposed should be executed, and the artists named are those who have already kindly consented to undertake to make designs for them, when the proper period arrives:

I.-SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATING THE PRODUCTION OF RAW MATERIALS.-1. Agriculture, Holman Hunt; 2. Chemistry, W. Cave Thomas; 3. Fishing, J. C. Hook, R.A.; 4. Hunting, Frederick Leighton; 5. Metallurgy, Eyre Crowe; 6. Mining, F. Barwell; 7. Planting, &c., Michael Mulready; 8. Quarrying, G. F. Watts; 9. Sheep Shearing, C. W. Cope, R.A.; 10. Vintage, F. R. Pickersgill, R.A.

II. SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATING MACHINERY.-1. Astronomy, S. Hart, R.A.; 2. Engineering; 3. Horology; 4. Mechanics; 5. Navigation, J. E. Millais, A.R.A.; 6. Railways, R. Townroe.