DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1310#0147
116 THE GREAT EXHIBITION"
elaborate production, he has gone far beyond the experimental philosophers of the Flying
Island. The worthy experimentalist who ingeniously attempted to extract sunbeams out
of cucumbers, had at least some pretence towards a useful purpose; and the learned
and literary world would have had reason to bless, had it but succeeded, the projector
of the noble idea, far superior to the wonderful calculating machine, from the aid of
which " the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with little bodily labour,
might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology,
without the least assistance from genius or study." We shall not attempt to enter into
a description of this most desirable piece of machinery, but we think it might be
worth the while of the ingenious inventor of "the great iron man" were he to carefully
peruse the whole of the renowned Gulliver's account of the proceedings of these sub-
lime philosophers of Laputa, nothing doubting that he would profit by many of the
hints and descriptions he would there find detailed. This piece of mechanism wa3 in the
figure of a man, and was constructed of seven thousand pieces of steel. Most of them
appeared to be either springs or slides, and they were so put together and arranged
as to be capable of a graduated movement, by means of which the proportions of the
whole figure might be expanded from the standard size of the Apollo Belvidere to that
of a Goliath. From these colossal proportions it might again be contracted at pleasure
to any size between them and its original standard. The mechanism was composed of
875 framing pieces, 48 grooved steel plates, 163 wheels, 202 slides, 476 metal washers,
482 spiral springs, 704 sliding plates, 497 nuts, 8,500 fixing and adjusting screws, with
numerous steadying pins, so that the number of pieces was upwards of 7,000. The
only utility we ever heard suggested as derivable from this elaborate piece of mechanism,
was its applicability to the various measurements of army clothiers or tailors, as it
would serve for the figures of men of various sizes. We do not know whether this was
the purpose assigned to it by the inventor, as it seems a very absurd one; the same
result being far more easily attainable by the incomparably more simple means of half-
a-dozen dummies, or wooden lay-figures.
But hold ! it behoves us to speak with deference and humility in this matter, seeing
that the Council of Chairmen of Juries, the supreme heads of wisdom, to whom the
dispensation of the Exhibition honours was intrusted, thought proper to reward the
constructor of this huge mechanical toy with a "Council Medal." Yes, hear it
Troughton and Simms, who talk about novelties in astronomical instruments, to which a
council medal was denied, though recommended by the jury; hear it Claussen, whose
newly-discovered, and nationally important processes in the preparation of flax received
only a common medal; hear it, Losely, whose compensating pendulum, one of the most
ingenious and valuable improvements in horology in the whole Exhibition—hear it
Applegarth, whose vertical printing machine—hear it all ye whose performances had
to share the common fate of merit in "a certain degree;"—the Jury in Class X. (" that
of philosophical instruments, and processes depending upon their use,") awarded, and the
Council of Chairmen confirmed to Count E. Dunin a council medal—"For the extraor-
dinary application of mechanism to his expanding figure of a man/" After reading this
result, we began to be somewhat doubtful about all we set out with touching " philosophy
in sport/'* and nice distinctions between " ingenuity" and " whimsicality" and so forth;
and in a moment of bewilderment and irritation, were almost upon the point of
consigning the notes upon which the rest of this article will be composed to the fire.
But fortunately, we were restrained from so doing, by an urgent application for " copy"
from a quarter which is not used to be denied, and therefore we proceed with the task
upon which we set out. Still in the philosophical instrument department, we come
upon " an apparatus of a peculiar construction, showing the ebb and flow of the tides,"
elaborate production, he has gone far beyond the experimental philosophers of the Flying
Island. The worthy experimentalist who ingeniously attempted to extract sunbeams out
of cucumbers, had at least some pretence towards a useful purpose; and the learned
and literary world would have had reason to bless, had it but succeeded, the projector
of the noble idea, far superior to the wonderful calculating machine, from the aid of
which " the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with little bodily labour,
might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology,
without the least assistance from genius or study." We shall not attempt to enter into
a description of this most desirable piece of machinery, but we think it might be
worth the while of the ingenious inventor of "the great iron man" were he to carefully
peruse the whole of the renowned Gulliver's account of the proceedings of these sub-
lime philosophers of Laputa, nothing doubting that he would profit by many of the
hints and descriptions he would there find detailed. This piece of mechanism wa3 in the
figure of a man, and was constructed of seven thousand pieces of steel. Most of them
appeared to be either springs or slides, and they were so put together and arranged
as to be capable of a graduated movement, by means of which the proportions of the
whole figure might be expanded from the standard size of the Apollo Belvidere to that
of a Goliath. From these colossal proportions it might again be contracted at pleasure
to any size between them and its original standard. The mechanism was composed of
875 framing pieces, 48 grooved steel plates, 163 wheels, 202 slides, 476 metal washers,
482 spiral springs, 704 sliding plates, 497 nuts, 8,500 fixing and adjusting screws, with
numerous steadying pins, so that the number of pieces was upwards of 7,000. The
only utility we ever heard suggested as derivable from this elaborate piece of mechanism,
was its applicability to the various measurements of army clothiers or tailors, as it
would serve for the figures of men of various sizes. We do not know whether this was
the purpose assigned to it by the inventor, as it seems a very absurd one; the same
result being far more easily attainable by the incomparably more simple means of half-
a-dozen dummies, or wooden lay-figures.
But hold ! it behoves us to speak with deference and humility in this matter, seeing
that the Council of Chairmen of Juries, the supreme heads of wisdom, to whom the
dispensation of the Exhibition honours was intrusted, thought proper to reward the
constructor of this huge mechanical toy with a "Council Medal." Yes, hear it
Troughton and Simms, who talk about novelties in astronomical instruments, to which a
council medal was denied, though recommended by the jury; hear it Claussen, whose
newly-discovered, and nationally important processes in the preparation of flax received
only a common medal; hear it, Losely, whose compensating pendulum, one of the most
ingenious and valuable improvements in horology in the whole Exhibition—hear it
Applegarth, whose vertical printing machine—hear it all ye whose performances had
to share the common fate of merit in "a certain degree;"—the Jury in Class X. (" that
of philosophical instruments, and processes depending upon their use,") awarded, and the
Council of Chairmen confirmed to Count E. Dunin a council medal—"For the extraor-
dinary application of mechanism to his expanding figure of a man/" After reading this
result, we began to be somewhat doubtful about all we set out with touching " philosophy
in sport/'* and nice distinctions between " ingenuity" and " whimsicality" and so forth;
and in a moment of bewilderment and irritation, were almost upon the point of
consigning the notes upon which the rest of this article will be composed to the fire.
But fortunately, we were restrained from so doing, by an urgent application for " copy"
from a quarter which is not used to be denied, and therefore we proceed with the task
upon which we set out. Still in the philosophical instrument department, we come
upon " an apparatus of a peculiar construction, showing the ebb and flow of the tides,"