the flames were extinguished as if by magic. The whole of the interior was instantly purified, the light was again applied, and burned brilliantly. At the end of the building in which the experiments were made, a building, of wood, was raised, of the ordinary height, size, and appearance of a four-roomed house, and in the interior were placed planks covered and well paid with tar, turpentine, &c. On being set fire to, the flames ascended with wonderful rapidity, and roared loudly. While the flames were at their height, the annihilator, of the large size we have mentioned, was brought to bear upon them-the party carrying it boldly going into the midst of the smoke. In five seconds the whole was extinguished; and in another second Mr. Philips and the man who assisted him were seen on the top of the building-the one holding a light in his hand. Another demonstration was also made as to the efficiency of the annihilator for extinguishing fires in ships, &c. The vessel on which the experiment was made, the Wear, of 150 tons, was laid close alongside Blackwall pier, and the whole of the arrangements were made in the presence of a numerous concourse of persons. The hold of the vessel was filled with pitch, tar, turpentine, saltpetre, and rosin barrels, plentifully intermixed with shavings and other combustible materials. At a signal from the patentee, this mass of inflammable matter was ignited at the bottom, and the hatchway closed on deck for about five minutes, in order to give the fire time to spread and take a thorough hold. On the removal of the covering, upon the admission of the external atmosphere, the flames immediately made their appearance, and, aided by a brisk wind which was blowing at the time, ascended to a great height. The fire was allowed to burn with great fierceness for some minutes, in order to show the perfect command over it which is conferred by Mr. Philips's invention; though, as he remarked, in the case of fire taking place on board a vessel at sea, no time would be allowed for it to spread, and there need not be any large or continuous admission of external air to feed the flame. This was merely done on board the Wear to prove the capabilities of the invention under the most adverse circumstances. In about ten minutes from the commencement of the fire, and when the flames were about their greatest height, two of the machines were brought to bear upon it, and discharged the gas with which they were filled into the hold with great force. The effect was instantaneous. The flames sank beneath the deck immediately, and, by the application of two more machines, the fire was thoroughly extinguished in about twenty-five minutes from the time it was kindled.

With a proper supply of machines, and the prepared material, it is apparent that the spread of fire on board of vessels, either in dock or at sea, would be rendered all but impossible; and it is stated by the patentee that the cost of both would amount to a comparatively trifling per-centage on the tonnage and cargo of sea going ships, with this advantage-that the material from which the gases are eliminated, being solid, can be easily kept in boxes, or on shelves, and does not deteriorate by exposure to any climate.

Another and most important peculiarity connected with this invention is the rapidity with which persons may enter the hold of a ship, or the interior of a house, immediately after the fire is subdued, without any defence or covering, and without any danger of being suffocated by the smoke arising from the smouldering and charred materials.

CLASS 2.-MANUFACTURING MACHINES AND TOOLS.

Under this head were included manufacturing machines, tools, and implements employed in the production of spun, woven, felted, and laid fabrics, and in the manufacture of vegetable and animal substances-all the varieties of machinery necessary for the production of the fabrics from the following raw materials: cotton, wool, flax, hemp, silk, caout. chouc, gutta percha, and hair, as also those used in paper-making: printing, and book-binding. It also comprised the vast range of manu. factures in metals, and the machinery and apparatus used for brewing and distilling.

Machinery for the manufacture of Cotton.

The cotton machinery formed one of the most important and interesting features in this department of the Exhibition, and was represented in a manner commensurate with its importance. The extension of this branch of manufacture has been far more rapid in England than in any other country. Before Arkwright's time, it was the custom for the weavers, who were dispersed in cottages throughout the manufacturing districts, to purchase the material with which they worked, and, having converted it into cloth, to carry their wares into market and sell them on their own account to the dealers; but about 1760 the merchants of Manchester began to employ the weavers, furnishing them with yarn for warp, and with raw cotton, which was spun by the weaver's family for the weft, paying a fixed price for the labor bestowed in weaving.

The fly shuttle came into general use about 1760. It was invented by John Kay, in 1738, simply consisting in the weaver chucking the shuttle backward and forward through the warp, by means of strings in each hand. This was a decided improvement over the old machines then in use, as one man could then weave cloth of the same width that previously required two.

The impossibility of producing a greater quantity and better quality of yarn formed a serious hindrance to the further progress of the manufacture. One pair of hands being able to spin one thread only, rendered the operation slow and expensive until a machine was invented by which from twenty to a thousand threads could be spun at once.

John Wyath was the inventor of this wonderful machine, generally known as the mode of "spinning by rollers." The first process in the manufacture of cotton, before it is spun, is to clean it, and then pass it through the carding machine. Carding consists in combing the cottonthat is, disentangling and straightening the fibres. When the cotton leaves the carding machine, it is in loose rolls, called slivers. The operation of spinning consists in drawing out the cotton-that is, reducing the sliver and then twisting it into a thread. In the machine which Wyath invented the sliver passed between two rollers, which revolved at a certain speed, and again passed between two other rollers, revolving at four or five times the speed of the first. By this means the sliver was drawn out in proportion to the difference of speed between the two sets of rollers, and, after being thus reduced, the cotton was twisted and wound on a bobbin.

In the year 1770, Hargreaves took out a patent for the spinning jenny. It is said that Hargreaves got the idea from seeing a one-thread machine overturned upon the floor, when both wheel and spindle continued to revolve. This threw the spindle from a horizontal into an upright position. It then struck him that a number of threads might be spun at once by having a number of spindles placed side by side in an upright position. The spinning jenny, therefore, is a machine by which the roving, which is a loosely twisted thread, about the thickness of the wick of a candle, is drawn out and spun into a fine thread, or, as is technically termed, yarn.

In 1776, Samuel Compton invented the mule. This machine is a combination of Arkwright's water frame and Hargreaves's jenny, its dis tinguishing feature being that the spindles recede from the rollers, so that not only is the cotton drawn out between the rollers, but it is further drawn out when in the act of being spun; a finer quality of yarn being thus obtained. When the threads had been drawn out from four to five feet, the spindles were drawn up to the rollers; the threads being wound up on the spindles.

The throstle, which is merely an improvement on Arkwright's waterframe, is still much used in England among cotton spinners, though at one time it was thought likely to be entirely superseded by the mule. When the power-loom came into use, it was found advantageous to use weft of a stronger and smoother quality—a kind of spinning better suited to the water-frame than the mule. The water-frame, in its improved form, takes the name of throstle; the spindles on each side of the machine form one long cylinder by means of belts passing from the cylin der to the spindles.

Messrs. Hebbert, Platt, & Son, of Oldham, at a very large expenditure of time and money, illustrated the processes of manufacture from the cotton as it is taken out of the bale in its raw state to the time of its completion, in the form of calico, twills, &c. The preparatory process of mixing the contents of different bales, for the purpose of equalizing the quality, was first exhibited. This is done by spreading out their contents, forming separate layers, and resting one upon the other. The cotton, of which this heap is composed, is then torn down by a rake from top to bottom. It is evident that, in its progress, a portion of each hori zontal layer will be brought away; and that thus, if the work be skilfully done, the contents of the different bales must be collected together in a mass of uniform quality. The mode of conducting the mixing depends on the quality of yarn required.

The next stage through which the raw material passes is the “scutching machine," which is used to open the lock of cotton, and separate its fabrics; while, at the same time, it separates from it any sand or seeds which it may contain. This machine consists of feeding rollers, made of wood, and placed at a short distance from each other, through which the cotton is made to pass slowly. After passing through the rollers, the cotton is struck by a set of beaters, made to revolve 1,000 or more times in a minute. The cotton is passed through two sets of rollers, and subjected to two sets of beaters.

Up to this stage the fibres of the cotton cross each other in every di rection. The use of the "carding engine" is to disentangle them, to draw then out, and to lay them parallel to each other. It is then taken

to the next machine, called a "lap machine." Its object is the drawing of the cotton, or arranging the fibres longitudinally, in a uniform and parallel direction, and to remedy all existing inequalities in the thickness of the sliver. The drawing frame acts with two sets of rollers, moving with unequal velocities. The cotton is drawn several times to attain the utmost regularity.

The next step in the process is "roving," which is a continuation of the drawing, with this only difference: that the cord, now called a "rove," or "club," being so much reduced in thickness that it will not otherwise hold together, a slight twist is given to it by passing it into a conical can, which, while receiving it, is made to revolve with great velocity. The rove, thus slightly twisted, is wound upon bobbins, and is then ready for the spinning frame. The "mule" is the machine next in order. Here the bobbins taken from the roving frame are again passed through three lines of smaller drawing rollers, and then delivered on to the points of the spindles, which, by their rapid revolution at the time the carriage is drawn out, twist the roving into yarn. On the return of the carriage, the twisting operation ceases for a time, and the newlyspun yarn is wound on to the spindles in the well known form of "cops." One of the mules here exhibited is a weft mule, with tin rollers; the other is a warp or twist mule, but with drums, instead of the rollers, to show the variety of mechanism. The twist mule has also a back shaft the whole length of the machine, instead of squaring bands, as in the weft mule, for the same reason. All the bearings are constructed with unusual solidity, on the patent principle of the exhibitors, as also the adjustable spring for "backing off," and the adjustable catch box in the front roller, for preventing "snarls.'

The doubling frame is the next machine, and is used to twist two. yarns together into one thread for strong warps, as stocking yarns, and also for sewing cotton. The winding machine follows, and is shown with two sorts of arrangement-that for winding twist mule cops on one side, and that for throstle bobbins on the other. Both these are wound on to large bobbins, ready for the next machine, which is called the beaming or warping machine. It is fitted up in the same superior style as the other, and has Kenworth's patent rods. Here the warp is trans ferred from the large bobbins to the warp beams, or rollers, ready for the dressing machine, which, however, is not shown in this series, as it is a machine requiring a room to itself, to prevent the steam employed from being a detriment to the other mechanism.

The dressing process consists in dressing or coating the warp threads with a paste made from flour, to stiffen the threads for the looms.

The looms are the machines which follow, where the yarns, both weft and warp, are woven into cloth. Four looms were exhibited for making plain cloth or calico, to which the jacquard apparatus can be attached for weaving fancy goods. All the looms have the patent taking-up motion of this form, and are all adapted both for plain work or twill.

The development of this extensive branch of industry (the cotton trade) in Great Britain may be estimated from the fact that the quantity of raw cotton consumed by the manufacturers in 1850 was 584,200,000 pounds, or nearly 900 tons per day.

The total number of cotton factories is 1,932, containing 20,977,017 spindles, and 249,627 power-looms. The moving power in these facto

ries is supplied by steam, representing 71,005-horse power, and water, 11,550 horse power; the total number of persons employed in these factories amounting to 330,924. If to these we add the persons not employed in factories, such as hand-loom weavers, calico printers, and dyers, makers and repairers of machinery, &c., a total of 700,000 would be obtained.

The total value of the cotton goods and yarn exported in 1850 was £28,252,378; and the capital employed in the cotton manufactures of England is estimated at not less than £45,000,000.

Centrifugal Machines for washing and drying Clothes, for drying Starch, and purifying Sugar.-Messrs. Manlone & Co., Nottingham, in

ventors.

The patentees of this valuable invention claim for it the property of completely overcoming the disadvantages arising from wringing or squeezing wet garments, and also of effecting the drying of any material much more speedily and effectually than has hitherto been deemed possible. The peculiar advantages possessed by this over all other machines in use by calico printers, bleachers, dyers, &c., are thus adverted to: The goods are not injured in the slightest degree. The only pressure or force to which they are subjected is that of the different folds of the fabrics on each other by virtue of their centrifugal tendency; and this, even in the finest and most delicate material, does not produce the slightest abrasion in the texture, or rupture in the threads; at the same time all creases are entirely avoided, and, in case of very fine yarns of silk or cotton, the difficulty that arises from the adhesion of their fibres, wringing, or other pressure, is completely prevented.

The liquid or moisture is so completely and so uniformly abstracted by this process, however heavy the fabric, that only a very slight degree of heat is required to complete the drying; and, in most cases, the goods are sufficiently dry for the finishing process; and in consequence of less heat being required for drying, the injury so frequently occasioned to the colors, and also to the fabric, is thus avoided.

In the finishing process, when a certain and determinate quantity of noisture, starch, soap, or other article, is desired to be left in the goods, the quantity of such article can be fixed with an equality and exactness not otherwise attainable, the machine being so arranged that the speed, and therefore the effect, can be calculated at pleasure from 200 to 2,000 revolutions per minute.

In some dyeing processes, where expensive materials are employed, a considerable saving has been effected, as a larger quantity of such material can be extracted by this than by any other means; and where fancy or fugitive colors are employed on weaving articles, regularity of color is obtained in the drying that could not be previously had. It is well known that in the domestic operation of drying, the destruction of the clothes, from wringing or squeezing after washing, (the method now generally adopted,) is often greater than even the natural wear of the same. This invention will entirely put an end to such mischief; the clothes being placed, with all the water in them, directly therein, and after five minutes' working taken out nearly dry, without having been subject to the least strain on their fibres; indeed, the finest materials,