IRON AND GENERAL HARDWARE (Part I.), including Locks, HUNT'S HANDBOOK ΤΟ THE OFFICIAL CATALOGUES. THE TRANSEPT. As the visiter approaches the Transept entrance to the Great Exhibition Building attention is naturally attracted towards the novel character of two long gilded index-hands moving across a semicircle, divided by the radii of the framing, on which are marked the 12 hours. Being accustomed to the circular clock-face, this disposition of the divisions to indicate the march of time at first strikes us as strange; but a very brief consideration will show that the hours and minutes are read off as easily from this arrangement, which was adopted to avoid any interference with the design of the Building, as from an ordinary dial. However, those large index hands are most appropriately placed, forming, as they do, an exemplification of one of those applications of abstract science which distinguishingly marks the present age. They are regulated in their movements by electrical force. The attraction and repulsion of induced magnetic power, nicely regulated by mechanical ingenuity, have superseded the old clock-weights, and the means are easy by which we may regulate the clocks of a city, making their movements isochronous with this horologe in front of the Industrial Palace. This example, and the allied application of electrical power, appear as the culminating points of man's triumph over the great physical forces by which the conditions of the universe are determined: the electric clock, which must be described with the Philosophical Instruments, therefore very properly marks the entrance to this Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. Passing into the Building we tread upon some fine examples of slates from Llangollen; and entering through the ornamental iron gates, which are good illustrations of the present state of cast-iron manufacture in this country, the grand features of the Transept open themselves. The statuary disposed on either side, lending that beauty to the scene which art ever sheds around it, well marks the centre of the Building. The mere application of native productions to the useful purposes of life should not be the end of our industrial labours-thought should tend ever towards the realization of the beautiful; and even the form of the most ordinary manufacture should be designed upon a system by which symmetry should be secured. Thus the study of the most elevated of the arts, sculpture, becomes immediately connected with the labours of the forge, of the smith, or the productions of the wheel of the potter. The business of the Handbook is not, however, with these developments of the ideal: designed to be purely instructive, objects of taste are left to speak their own language-to be their own interpreters. The Crystal Fountain (20) of the Messrs. F. and C. Osler is manufactured of the purest flint-glass, which is technically called "crystal," from its pellucid and brilliant character. It possesses a very high refracting power, imparted to it by the oxide of lead which enters into its composition; hence the fine play of prismatic colours which are observable at some angles. There are points about the manufacture of this fountain which are curious. The framing of the whole is metallic; the weight of the glass nearly four tons, requiring supports of iron-these are, however, silvered on their outer surface. The glass, previously to its being placed in its position, has been most |