Annual of Scientific Discovery
by David Ames Wells (9781459033849)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVEKY. MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1862. The second great English Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations having been appointed for the present year (1862), the commissioners intrusted with the direction of the same have made arrangements for opening the Exhibition on a most extensive scale on the 1st of May next. Warned by the experience gained in 1851, at Paris in 1855, the Manchester Art-Treasures of 1857, and the Crystal Palace, the commissioners resolved that the new building should be formed of more weather-tight materials than iron and glass, at least in those portions devoted to the reception of works of art. Without some such provision for the safety of pictures there was no chance of getting loans to any extent, more than one mishap having, reasonably enough, disposed owners against incurring risks of the like nature over again. Accordingly, a very large portion of the new construction is to be of brick, the roofs supported on cast-iron pillars, the roof itself of wood, protected by felt, and painted. Thus much for the materials; now of the form and architectural characterof the edifice. The dimensions of the site of the building are 1,152 feet from east to west, and 692 feet 6 inches from north to south: the measures, however, being exclusive of a wing devoted to machinery, the area of which is 872 feet by 200 feet, going directly north and south, at a right angle, therefore, to the main construction. Looking at the southern facade will furnish the most striking view of the whole exterior, which is arranged thus: The whole stretch of the front proper is nearly on a level from end to end, of the height of about sixty feet; behind this, and overlooking it in some degree, will run the loftie...

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