CHAPTER XI.

ULTERIOR OBJECTS.

Besides those universal advantages which will result, in a greater or less degree, to every nation maintaining friendly intercourse with its neighbours, there are others arising from the Exposition, which may be secured by a little industry and small expense, if timely thought is bestowed upon them.

There are also opportunities for advancing several kindred subjects to which it may be useful to allude.

The most obvious is the facility it will afford of making extensive collections of examples of the present state of many industrial products.[12] All woven manufactures, for example, might be arranged in books. A small piece of each article being pasted in, might be followed by a short statement of the various facts relating to it—as, for example, a piece of plain cambric—

PLAIN CAMBRIC. (Date.) Woven in a ---- loom, at ---- by ---- Number of threads in warp. Number of threads of weft, in ten inches length. Breadth of piece in inches. Length of piece in yards. Weight per square yard. Price per yard retail. Price per piece of ---- yards, as sold by the manufacturer.

Coloured woven goods might be similarly arranged as regards colour, and the note connected with them ought to contain the name and locality of the dyer, and also the nature of the dye used. Such volumes would hereafter become highly instructive, and save many costly experiments. But it will be necessary to provide against, or to allow for the fading of the colouring matter. This could be done only by preserving some portion of it unchanged by time or exposure. Woven fabrics will not supply this test, but another department of manufacture would, if properly treated, give by the permanence of its colours, invaluable aid not only to many arts, but also to the naturalist and the man of science.

§ The enamel colours used on porcelain, have the permanent character required. Different manufactories excel in different colours. The first step therefore would be to invite each manufacturer to send tablets of porcelain of a given size, on which are to be painted a number of small squares, containing all the pure colours he employs. Besides these squares, a certain number of other squares should contain two or more combinations of these colours, two by two, or in such proportions as are usually employed.

The comparison of these tablets would indicate where the purest and most useful porcelain colours could be obtained. The next step would be that a small committee of manufacturers and men of science, should decide on the number of combinations and shades of colour it might be desirable to bring together as permanent and standard objects of reference.

The different makers of porcelain should then each receive an order for a certain number of tablets containing those colours in which they respectively excel. Each small square should be numbered. A sufficient quantity of the proper materials constituting each colour, should then be mixed in the proper proportion, and applied at the same time, to the same number on each tablet; and these tablets should be exposed to the fire under as nearly as possible the same circumstances of heat, and for the same length of time.

Thus an extensive system of unchangeable colours might be obtained, and if 500 sets were made, they might be distributed in all the great cities and universities of the world. It might perhaps be found that certain colours were deficient, and this would of course stimulate discovery by making known the want. Thus, in the course of upwards of twenty-five years, during which the author has been collecting on a small scale, such tablets of colours, he has been unable to meet with any specimen of an enamel colour at all approaching to the pure scarlet of the common geranium.

The utility of such sets of standard colours would be very great, enabling all nations to speak a language regarding colour at once accurate and universal. It might serve as the starting point and the test of many analogous collections of materials tinted by colours of more transitory duration, whose relative degree of fixity might thus be measured: as silks, cottons, linens, woollens, leather, paper, and many other materials.

There are two coloured substances which seem to promise a higher degree of permanence than those just mentioned—sealing-wax and glass. For these admit of the renewal of their surfaces by grinding, in case atmospheric or external causes should have altered or impaired the superficial colour.

A collection of small squares of sealing-wax would be cheaper, and might if duly verified by comparison with the porcelain standard be in many cases a useful instrument. Glass also might supply a suit of transparent colours of great interest. A complete collection of the enamel colours used for the mosaic work made at Rome would also be instructive.

§ Perhaps the most important advantage which such an Exposition can confer, is to instruct the consumer in the art of judging of the character of the commodity he is about to purchase. Besides the money we pay in return for the skill, labour, and capital expended in producing each article we purchase; a further, and often a very considerable sum is paid in order to assure us that it possesses those qualities which the vendor has asserted. This is called the _cost of verification_; in some cases, as in that of white sugar, it is very small, for almost every one can see by its external character the degree of goodness of that article. In other cases nothing less than a whole life spent in acquiring a knowledge of his subject, can be of any avail, as _in the case of the purchase of a field_. The verification of the fact that the vendor has really the right to sell it, can, in many cases, be arrived at only by a profound chancery-lawyer, and sometimes requires an expense even beyond the value of the field itself.

When the purchaser has been convinced that he is no judge of the goodness of an article, he usually buys it at some shop having the reputation of selling only the best of the kind. In this case he justly pays a higher price to the vendor, who ought to be remunerated for his skill in selecting good articles from the manufacturer or merchant, and for his integrity in not taking advantage of the ignorance of his customer.

It may be contended that it is cheaper for the purchaser to pay for the use of the skill and integrity of the vendor than to spend his own time in acquiring the same skill; and in many instances this is true. Still, however, the integrity remains to be paid for, and if simple and ready modes of verification were more generally known, a very large portion of this loss of time would be saved.

In all those articles which are easily verified the retail price varies but little; whilst on those that are difficult to verify, the price of the same article, although apparently of the same quality, will be found to vary considerably at different shops.

The duties of the various juries who will examine and recommend the articles for which prizes are to be awarded, will require much consideration. It cannot be expected, even after long experience through several successive expositions, that it would be possible to form a jury which should satisfy every exhibitor. Much, however, may be done, even at the first, by a sincere desire to arrive at just conclusions, and by an earnest endeavour to inform the public of the principles, and to point out the observations, which have led their judgment to the decisions at which they may arrive. Each of the purely mechanical arts is allied to one or more of the sciences; almost all their various processes are amenable to, and explicable by known laws; it is possible for him who is a perfect master of his own craft, so to explain them without technical terms, and in the language of common sense, that most persons of tolerably liberal education, and possessing a fair average intellect, may not only understand the effect produced, but admire the ingenuity by which it was attained.

§ It is of great importance that an effort should be made to remove that veil of mystery which unfortunately, even in minds otherwise well instructed, often shrouds the principles on which perfection in manufactures, in science, and still more remarkably in the fine arts, depends. These principles nevertheless are founded immutably on the nature of the material world around us, as well as upon our own internal feelings. Those which regulate taste are as general, although its rules are not so precise, as those which relate to physics. Nor need it be dreaded that a knowledge of the _grounds_ of that admiration which works of genius ever command from cultivated minds, should diminish the pleasure derived from their contemplation.

Show to the student some mechanism effecting results apparently beyond the reach of the art, and he becomes impressed with the immense distance between his own intelligence and that which contrived it. Explain to him the simple means and the beautiful combinations by which it is effected, you then raise him in his own estimation, and the studious disciple thus instructed, will ultimately arrive at the conclusion that the only distance which is really _immense_, is that existing between the perfection of the highest work of human skill and the simplest of the productions of nature.

§ In questions relating to taste the subject matter is so idealized, that the enthusiastic and the timid equally dread its contact with the more sober powers of reasoning, lest the process of analysis should disenchant its visionary scenes, and dissolve the unreal basis of their delight. Taste the most perfect, without a knowledge of the principles on which it rests, resembles the barren instinct of animals: like them, it gathers but little improvement from experience, and like them it perishes with the extinction of the individual life; its labours leave no inheritance to its race.

Taste united with an intimate knowledge of its principles, and still more if conjoined with the power of eliminating from the fleeting relations amongst the objects of its attention, those resemblances which, when sufficiently multiplied and defined, lead up to the discovery of higher generalizations, confers upon its enviable possessor a double source of happiness; it adds the delight of an intellectual triumph to those romantic feelings which are excited by the beautiful, the lovely, or the sublime in Nature, or which are suggested by the most perfect representations of art.

The comprehension of the cause of our pleasure renders us more acute to perceive those elements which conduce to its existence, to trace their connexion, to estimate their amount, to mould into form, and to call up for the happiness of others and of ourselves, their endless combinations.

There is, however, for that rare union of judgment, imagination, and taste, which we call genius, when each exists in due proportion and in rich abundance, a yet higher object, a still nobler ambition. To have given to mankind those models, which, after twenty centuries, still rivet their attention, commanding unbounded admiration and defying rivalry, is indeed a splendid achievement, justly repaid by the undying fame which accompanies the names of those benefactors to mankind.

But great as undoubtedly our gratitude ought to be for such gifts, it is trifling compared with that which civilized society would owe to him, who should instruct us in the _principles_ that guided the intellect as well as the hands, of those by whom such immortal works were executed.

In the fine arts, and in the arts of industry, as well as in the pursuits of science, the highest department of each is that of the discovery of principles, and the invention of methods. To investigate the laws by which human intellect picks with caution its uncertain track through those obscure and outlying regions of our knowledge which separate the known and the certain from the unknown;—to teach us how to cast as it were an intellectual and temporary connecting line across that chasm, by which a new truth is separated from the old—confident that when arrested by that isolated truth it will have fixed itself upon one solid point, amidst a floating chaos of error,—confident also that, when once the fixity of that single point has been assured, it is always _possible_, however formidable the task, to link it by innumerable ties to established knowledge, and thus to fill up the intervening space even to the very boundary of its enlarged domain:—to achieve such a conquest in any science surpasses all other discoveries, for it supplies tools for the use of intellect, and enlarges the limits and the powers of human reason.

§ One of the great advantages of the Exposition will arise from the interchange of kindly feelings between the inhabitants of foreign countries and our own. The classes who visit us will consist neither of the very elevated nor of the very low. They will all of them, probably, possess more instruction and information than the average of their class amongst their countrymen: consequently they will consist of persons the most likely to derive instruction from their visit, and therefore to return home with pleasing impressions.

It has been found on the continent that the periodic unions of men of science have had an excellent effect in removing jealousies and establishing friendships. It has not unfrequently happened that two philosophers have met in such societies, and have entered into discussions which have enabled each to appreciate more justly the talent of the other, before one of them was aware that he had formerly criticised a work of his new friend, in terms which their present good understanding would effectually prevent him from repeating.

The experience we have had of the visit of the National Guard of Paris, strongly confirms this view. It brought out the better feelings of our nature towards our neighbours, and all classes took their share in endeavouring to make those visits agreeable. On their return home, the feeling excited by the visit was conveyed far beyond the actual visitors; and it has left on the population of Paris a permanent advance in good will towards Englishmen.

§ Several objects may be suggested whose discussion would be of the greatest importance for the advancement of the industrial arts, but which are not within the scope of the Exhibition. There are, however, other places of meeting where some of these might be discussed. The Society of Civil Engineers might entertain some inquiries, whilst the Statistical Society would be the most appropriate place for others.

A few of these objects may be shortly alluded to.

§ The law of patents is, perhaps, one of the most interesting as well as of the most difficult questions. Amongst our visitors, doubtless, there will be several who have studied the subject in their own country and who might assist us by their information and experience.

§ We have another law—that of partnership—which presents greater obstacles to the advance of the mechanical arts than even the defective state of the patent law. In England, whoever enters into a partnership, however small a share of the profits he is to receive, yet his whole fortune becomes responsible for any losses. In most other countries there are a class of partnerships called anonymous, or _en commandite_, in which persons willing to risk only a limited sum are entirely relieved of all further responsibility.

The effect of our English system is highly unfavourable to inventors. It prevents in all but a few cases a small capital from being raised by the joint contributions of persons more immediately acquainted with the character and prospects of the inventor, and who are in that respect best fitted to measure the chance of his success.

A far greater impediment, however, arises from its entirely preventing a considerable quantity of capital from being directed to inventions. Its operation may be thus explained.

There exist in this country a great number of persons of manufacturing and commercial habits, whose knowledge of men is considerable, and whose judgment of the capabilities of a proposed scheme or invention, is cautious and judicious.

Persons of this description often possess capital, or such credit as easily to command its use. If partnerships could be entered into, in which the liability was limited, many persons so circumstanced would naturally use their skill and knowledge in selecting a certain number of schemes, in each of which they would embark a small sum. By thus spreading the risks over an extensive field, the profits to the capitalist would be much more certain: whilst many an excellent invention now lost for want of capital to carry it out, would thus enrich its inventor and benefit the country.

§ Connected with the subject of patents is another, which is of some consequence to the public. Many of those capable of improving the arts by new inventions, have no desire to secure their discoveries by patent and thus to render them profitable to themselves, but are willing to give the public the entire advantage.

Now it is supposed that, if an inventor, under the existing law, publishes the drawings of an engine which has not actually been constructed, a machine-maker might make the machine, take out a patent for it, and supply the public to the exclusion even of the inventor himself.

If the invention is a purely mechanical contrivance, it is quite possible with mere drawings and with the aid of the Mechanical Notation to demonstrate the possibility of its construction and of all its movements, with the same certainty as that with which a proposition in Euclid is proved.

It seems then desirable, that some mode of publication should be arranged by which the public should really enjoy the gifts which science may present without risking monopoly by an interloper.

$ The subject of co-operation is one of the greatest importance, and like many other social questions neither its principles nor its limits seem to be clearly understood. It is of the utmost importance that the masses should be enlightened on a subject so exciting, and bearing so directly on their interests. But until it has been further investigated, and numerous instances having a practical connexion with its principles have been collected, it is hopeless to attempt a popular treatment of the subject. It would be highly desirable that those of our foreign visitors who have at all studied that most important question, should communicate to us the results of their experience.

§ The _Mechanical Notation_ to which a slight allusion has been made, is a system of signs by which all machinery may be perfectly described even without the necessity of any explanation in words. It forms in fact an universal language, which will be, when generally employed, capable of being read by every people, just as the Arabic numerals are at present.

It has now been in use for more than twenty-five years, during which time many improvements and additions have been made. A considerable portion of it was published in 1826.[13] Amongst the subsequent additions there is one called the Mechanical Alphabet, which consists of very simple but expressive signs placed above those letters of the alphabet used to express certain parts of machinery. Possibly from 100 to 200 of such signs may be required. Now before any publication is made of those already used, it is of the greatest importance that they should be thoroughly revised, and that practical mechanicians familiar with every branch of the art, should contribute information respecting the requirements in their different departments. Those also who are most experienced in the art of mechanical drawing, ought to confer together respecting the new rules according to which all drawings should have letters attached to the various parts of the machinery they represent.

The _universality of the language_ is of such importance, that it would be quite mischievous hastily to publish to the world any other than a well-considered system of signs. The Exposition of 1851 furnishes an opportunity for such a revision.

§ Considerable discussion has arisen respecting the ultimate fate of the Crystal Palace. Three questions have been agitated:—

1. Shall it be pulled down?

2. Shall it be removed to another locality?

3. To what uses can the building be applied if it is retained?

Public opinion has undergone a great revolution since the opening of the Exhibition; but however strongly it may now be expressed, it ought not to interfere with public faith. If, after all the protestations and pledges of the Commission, that the building was to be of temporary duration, it should be permitted to remain permanently in its present locality, little faith will be given in future to the promises of public bodies. The pledge contained in the document by which the Commission was appointed, viz. that 20,000_l._ should be given in prizes, has neither been redeemed nor forgotten; and the treatment of the income-tax by the successive political parties has added little to the respect with which official promises are regarded.

If the country had originally maintained its undoubted right to use its own parks for its own purposes, the building might then have remained; but the inhabitants of Belgravia, having raised a violent opposition to the selection of that locality, were only pacified on receiving the strongest assurances that the building should be removed after it had fulfilled its original purpose. In justice therefore to them, it must be taken down.

The second question, Shall the Crystal Palace be removed? is by no means decided by the answer given to the first. It would be perfectly consistent with good faith to remove it to any other part of the park not contiguous to Belgrave Square.

The third question, therefore, To what uses can the building be applied? must now be examined, in order to arrive at a definitive decision upon the second.

A wish seems to be very generally entertained for the preservation of the building; and various uses have been suggested to which it might be advantageously applied.

Mr. Paxton wishes to convert it into a winter garden.

M. Gambardella, in his highly interesting pamphlet, “What shall we do with the Glass Palace?”[14] has proposed to have within its walls alternately exhibitions of painting and of sculpture.

Permanent galleries of the fine arts have also been proposed.

Collections of the industrial arts, and models, have also been suggested.

A portion of it might also be appropriated to the building of several theatres for lectures, of various sizes, capable of containing from 100 to 2,000 persons.

The great principle to be borne in mind is, that, whatever the future destination of the building, it must be self-supporting. The best and most certain test of its utility to the public is furnished by the fact of their being willing to pay for the enjoyments it affords them.

The plan of having a considerable portion of the building devoted to a winter garden would supply a great want in our wet and uncertain climate. The temperature ought not to be high, so that exercise might be taken under shelter. No dogs, horses, or carriages ought to be admitted.

A large portion of those residing in the immediate neighbourhood would subscribe, and also many who possessed carriages. But the number of subscribers would depend chiefly on the position chosen for the building. In its _present_ locality, the prejudices of the wealthier class would be increased by the injustice of retaining it in violation of the strongest pledges, and it would probably have a very limited number of subscribers.

Perhaps it might be desirable to add reading-rooms for newspapers and for the periodical literature of the day. Subscriptions to these might be either for limited periods, or even for a single day. A refreshment-room, also, would be required.

If, however, the building were removed to the situation proposed in the seventh chapter of this volume, it would be accessible to a much larger number of subscribers. Its two ends being then placed at a small distance from the two great thoroughfares passing Hyde Park Corner and the Marble Arch, a large number of its visitors would arrive by the omnibuses which pass each of those well-frequented localities.

Space might readily be found either for periodical or permanent galleries of painting and of sculpture. An objection has been made to the former, namely, that the light in the glass palace is not fit for the exhibition of paintings. It is singular that it should not have occurred to such objectors that this is almost the only building in which, from its very nature, there exists the most unlimited control over both the quantity and the direction of light that may be required.

The profit to be derived from this part of the establishment will, as in the former questions, depend greatly on the situation of the building.

Another plan, mentioned in the first edition of this work, was, to have collections of the produce and manufactures exhibited on the present occasion. Few applications of the building would be more appropriate, and scarcely any could be more useful, than this. Fortunately, the Executive Committee have undertaken the task, and it cannot be doubted that the exhibitors will willingly lighten their labour by giving every assistance in their power. One or two suggestions may here be offered, for the purpose of impressing on the exhibitors at future Expositions the great importance of attaching to each object a brief and condensed account of facts connected with it. In the article of raw materials there will not be much difficulty, as there are many instances of excellence in that department. The case of drugs from Liverpool is a good illustration. Their price, however, is omitted, because it was forbidden. In the permanent collection, this most important element will, of course, occupy its proper place. It might also be useful to give the date of the first importation of each drug, and the first application to its various uses. The quantity, also, of the chemical element on which its use is founded contained in a given weight of the substance would, if known, be highly interesting: as, for instance, the quantity of quinine in a given weight of bark.

In making a collection of machines, there is some fear of occupying a very large space without a corresponding advantage. A lace frame, making in one breadth of fifteen feet from sixty to a hundred repetitions of the same lace, would, commercially speaking, be the most advantageous; but such a frame with only ten repetitions would be more useful for instruction. The various self-acting mules, also, would easily fill a large room. Perhaps the collection might be confined to working models: these might be made, from time to time, to replace the larger machines, and funds for that purpose might be derived from the payments of the visitors both to the exhibition and to the lectures which ought to be given to explain the collection.

In making a collection of specimens of manufactured articles, as well as of produce, it would in many cases add little to the expense if a sufficient quantity were purchased to divide into many samples. Thus, the collections of foreign countries and of our own cities might be enriched by authentic specimens. This view applies more particularly to collections of woven fabrics.

A well authenticated collection of cotton, flax, wool, and silk, in the raw state, through all their successive stages of manufacture, up to the woven fabrics of which they constitute the basis, if accompanied by the prices of each at intervals of ten years during the last century, would furnish materials of the most valuable kind, and would greatly aid the economist, the statesman, and the philosopher, in discovering and putting to the test the principles connected with their several inquiries.

It is not necessary, or even desirable, that this collection should consist of articles of fancy: it ought to be composed of all those fabrics which, although at first rare and costly, have ultimately become objects of habitual consumption by large classes of the community.

Another purpose of great importance to which a portion of such a building might be applied, is the construction of convenient theatres for the delivery of lectures, and for the discussion of questions of interest. The want of such buildings in the western part of the metropolis has long been felt, and acts injuriously on the progress of knowledge.

In the present state of society, oral statements of the great principles which govern it, illustrated by striking facts drawn with judgment from varied sources, would, if delivered with ability and good taste, attract large audiences. Even science itself might be rendered popular by such means. Yet if any highly gifted person, qualified for such a task, were willing to devote to the subject the time necessary to assure the success of his efforts, he would now be stopped at the very threshold, for he could find no convenient theatre in any part of the west of London, which he could hire for the delivery of such a course of lectures.

The only theatre capable of holding 1,000 persons, is that of the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. Let us suppose the lecturer capable of attracting 1,000 subscribers, each willing to pay a sovereign for a short course of lectures. How would the sum thus raised be divided? He could lecture at that theatre only by the permission of the Managers, who would scarcely pay him more than 100_l._[15] for the course. The 1,000_l._ therefore, which the public would willingly pay for the instruction they received would be thus divided:—

To the intellect which charmed them £100 To the rent of the room in which they listened 900 ------ £1,000 ------

If the 900_l._ were the remuneration of the creative mind, and the 100_l._ were the payment for the use of the room and the necessary attendants, the information of several classes of society would be far other than it now is, and the status of the lecturer would be entirely altered. At present, however great the talent of the instructor, his position is not exactly that which the interests of society demand. The term, _itinerant_ lecturer, has long been one of reproach, and even now it is not thought quite dignified in a gentleman to give a lecture _for money_. The reason is obvious: nothing is thought respectable in England which does not produce wealth. Any shrewd and unscrupulous fellow, who swindles on a gigantic scale, will, if he succeed, be immediately received with welcome into what is called the best society. Neither wit nor talent are necessary for his admission: if, indeed, he be horridly vulgar, a few additional hundreds of thousands will procure him absolution in fashionable eyes, even for that most deadly sin.

Enable the instructor to receive his due portion of that reward which the public are willing to pay, and he too will become rich, and therefore eminently respectable. With this increased remuneration, minds of a higher order will be attracted to the study of the most difficult of arts,—that of teaching; and the time will arrive when accomplished, enlightened, and independent men may earn from five to ten thousand a-year without courting a constituency for parliamentary influence, or a minister for justice to merit he is incapable of appreciating.

Such results, however, demand the use of convenient theatres of various sizes, placed in situations easily accessible.

It appears then that, on every ground which has been considered, the utility of the Crystal Palace will depend almost entirely on the situation chosen for its ultimate position.

Looking at the question in a purely commercial view, considering the difficulty of access from the north to its present locality; contrasting it with the facility of access from every quarter in the site proposed; it is not too much to presume that its revenue would be so greatly enlarged by the removal, that it would justify an expenditure of forty or even of fifty thousand pounds.

[12] The French chamber has devoted 50,000 francs to the purchase of specimens.—(_Illustrated News_, 2d. Feb. 1851.)

[13] Phil. Trans. 1826, p. 250.

[14] Published by Aylott and Jones, Paternoster Row.

[15] It is far from the author’s intention to reproach in the slightest degree the Managers of that most valuable Institution. Every member having a right to be present at every lecture, it is not in their power to do otherwise.