Having spoken of the New York crystal palace, we now pass to the crystal
palace of London, which preceded the former in the order of time, and
far surpassed it in size and magnificence. This splendid building,
erected for the great exhibition of 1851, was located on the south side
of Hyde park, near the Kensington road, in a position highly favorable
in all respects to its intended objects. The construction of the edifice
presented not a few difficulties. The building committee, comprising
some of the leading architects and engineers of Great Britain,
advertised for plans to be presented for the building; and as the
result, no less than two hundred and forty designs were laid before
them. A large part of these were at once put aside as utterly worthless;
and then from about sixty, which were thought worthy of consideration,
the committee proceeded to prepare a design which pleased nobody, not
even themselves. This plan, however, such as it was, was decided upon,
and advertisements were issued for proposals to build it. Objections
were at once raised, both against the plan proposed, and the possibility
of its execution; but while the committee, perplexed with the
difficulties suggested, were doubting what they should do, relief came
to them from an unexpected quarter, which we must go back a little to
explain.
In 1839, Sir Robert Schomburg, a distinguished botanist, in going up the
river Berbice, in Demerara, had discovered in the still waters of the
stream, a gigantic water-lily, of a shape hitherto unknown, and had
transmitted some of its seeds to England, where the plant growing from
them, under the care of Joseph Paxton, the head gardener of the Duke of
Devonshire, was called the Victoria Regia. This plant was the occasion,
and in some respects the model for the crystal palace. Every means was
adopted to place this wonderful exotic in its accustomed circumstances.
A tropical soil was formed for it, of burned loam and peat. Coal-heat
was substituted for that of the tropical sun; and by means of a wheel, a
ripple, like that of its native river, was communicated to the waters of
the tank upon which its broad leaves reposed in beauty. In these
circumstances the lily grew luxuriantly, and Mr. Paxton was obliged to
plan an edifice capable of holding it. This he was doing just about the
time when the committee were poring wearily over their two hundred and
forty plans; and in June, he drew out a design for the exhibition
building, which had been suggested to his mind while preparing an abode
for the Victoria Regia. In ten days he had completed his elevations,
sections, working plans and specifications; and the whole being
submitted to the inspection of competent and influential persons, was
unanimously declared to be practicable, and the only practicable scheme
presented.
The design, thus prepared, was next laid before the contractors, Messrs.
Fox & Henderson, who at once determined to submit a tender for the
construction of a building in accordance with it. And in a single week,
they had calculated the amount and cost of every pound of iron, every
pane of glass, every foot of wood, and every hour of labor, which would
be required, and were prepared with an offer and specifications for the
construction of the edifice. But here arose a difficulty. The committee
had advertised only for proposals for carrying out their own design;
but, fortunately, they had invited the suggestion, on the part of
contractors, of any improvements on it; and so Mr. Paxton’s plan was
presented simply as “an improvement” upon that of the committee, though
it had not a single feature in common with it. This, with certain
modifications, was adopted; and the result was the celebrated crystal
palace, the first of the name, and the suggester of all others of the
same general character—the great, _original_ crystal palace; itself the
greatest wonder of the most wonderful exhibition the world has ever
seen!
The building consisted, or rather still consists, of three series of
elevations, of the respective hights of sixty-four, forty-four, and
twenty-four feet, intersected at the central point of meeting, by a
transept of seventy-two feet in width, having a semicircular roof rising
to the hight of one hundred and eight feet in the center. It extended in
length eighteen hundred and fifty-one feet from north to south, or more
than one-third of a mile, with a breadth of four hundred and fifty-six
feet on the ground; thus covering a surface of some eighteen acres, or
nearly double the extent of Washington square in New York, and
exceeding, by more than one-half, the dimensions of the Park or the
Battery. The whole rested upon cast-iron pillars, united by bolts and
nuts, fixed to flanges perfectly true, so that if the socket was placed
level, the columns and connecting pieces could not but stand upright;
and in point of fact, not a single crooked line, it is said, was
discoverable in the combination of such an immense number of pieces in
the building as first erected, or as it now stands. For the support of
the columns, holes were dug in the ground, in each of which was placed a
bed of concrete, and upon this rested the iron sockets, of from three to
four feet in length, according to the level of the ground; to which
sockets the columns were firmly attached by bolts and nuts. At the top,
each column was attached by a girder to its opposite column, both
longitudinally and transversely, so that the whole eighteen acres of
pillars were securely framed together.
The roofs, of which there were five, one to each of the elevations, were
constructed on the ridge and furrow principle, and glazed with sheets of
glass of forty-nine inches in length. The construction will be easily
understood, by imagining a series of parallel rows of the letter V,
extending (thus, VVV) in uninterrupted lines the whole length of the
building. The apex of each ridge was formed by a wooden sash-bar, with
notches on each side for holding the laths in which the edges of the
glass were fitted. The bottom bar, or rafter, was hollowed at the top,
so as to form a gutter to carry off the water, which passed through
transverse gutters into the iron columns, which were made hollow so as
to serve as water-pipes; while in the base of each column a horizontal
pipe was inserted to convey the accumulated water into the sewers. The
exhalations from so large a surface, from the plants and from the breath
of the innumerable visitors, rising against the glass and there being
condensed, would, if the roof had been _flat_, have descended in the
form of a perpetual mist, or dropping rain; but it was found that from
glass pitched at a particular angle, the moisture did not _fall_, but
would glide down its surface. The bottom bars, therefore, were grooved
on the inside, thus forming interior gutters, by which the moisture
found its way down the interior of the columns, and thus through the
drainage pipes into the sewers. These grooved rafters, of which the
total length was two hundred and five miles, were formed by machinery,
at a single operation.
The lower tier of the building was boarded; the walls of the upper
portion being composed, like the roof, of glass. Ventilation was
provided for by the basement portion being walled with iron plates,
placed at an angle of forty-five degrees, known as _luffer-boarding_,
which admits the air freely, while it excludes the rain. A similar
provision was made at the top of each tier of the building; the plates
all being so constructed that they could be closed at pleasure. In order
to subdue the intense light in a building having such an immense extent
of glass surface, the whole roof and the south side were covered with
canvas, which also precluded any possible injury from hail, as well as
rendered the edifice much cooler than it otherwise would have been.
In the construction of the building the utmost care was taken to give
each part the stiffest and strongest form possible in a given quantity
of material. The columns were hollow; and the girders which united them
were trellis-formed. The utmost weight which it was supposed any girder
would be likely to have upon it, was seven and a half tuns; and not one
was used till after having been tested to the extent of fifteen tuns;
while the breaking weight was calculated at thirty tuns. At first sight
it would seem as if there might be danger that a building presenting so
vast a surface to the action of the wind, might be liable to be blown
down, or at least forced out of position. But from the manner in which
the columns were framed together, they could not be overthrown except by
breaking them; and experiments showed, that in order to break the one
thousand and sixty columns on the ground floor, a force of sixty-three
hundred and sixty tuns must be exerted, at a hight of twenty-four feet.
But the greatest force of the wind known, is computed at twenty-two
pounds to the superficial foot; so that assuming even a force of
twenty-eight pounds, and supposing a hurricane with that momentum to
strike at once the whole side of the building, the total force, it was
said, would be less than fifteen hundred tuns, not one-fourth what the
building could easily sustain, independently of the bracings, which
added materially to its strength. So that, if any reliance at all could
be placed on theoretical engineering, there could, it was said, be no
doubt whatever but that the building would be safe in the most violent
tempest.
The building being thus erected, the spectator entering at the main east
or west entrance, found himself in a nave sixty-four feet in hight, and
seventy-two in breadth, and extending without interruption the whole
length of the building, one-third of a mile. Parallel with this, but
interrupted by the transept in the center, was a series of side aisles,
of forty-eight and twenty-four feet in breadth, and with a hight of
forty-four and twenty-four feet. And over the center of the nave,
swelled the semicircular roof of the transept, overarching the stately
trees beneath; thus forming a gigantic green-house, with the ancient
elms of the park in the place of geraniums and rose-bushes. The whole
area of the ground-floor was seven hundred and seventy-two thousand,
seven hundred and eighty-four square feet, and that of the galleries,
two hundred and seventeen thousand; making in all nearly a million
square feet, to which should be added five hundred thousand feet of
hanging space, available for the display of the innumerable products of
human skill and labor, that made the exhibition one of the most wondrous
of all the wonders of the world.
There were three refreshment rooms; one in the transept, and one near
each end of the building, around the huge trees of the park, which, as
already said, were left standing. No wine, spirits or fermented liquors
were allowed to be sold, but only tea, coffee and unfermented drinks;
while pure water was to be furnished gratis to all, by the lessees of
the refreshment rooms. As to the decoration of the interior, it may here
be added, that the shafts of all the columns were painted yellow; the
concave portions of the capitals, blue; the under sides of the girders,
red; and their vertical surfaces, white.
We might dwell in detail on the vast collection of the products of human
industry and art which filled the interior of this immense structure,
and made it the resort of visitors from every part of the world. But the
history of “the great exhibition” is familiar to most if not all of our
readers. We will only add, that among all the wonders of the crystal
palace, nothing was more wonderful than its cheapness, and the rapidity
of its construction. Possession of the site was obtained on the
thirtieth of July; and in a period of one hundred and forty-five working
days, the building was mainly completed. Its _cost_ was less, by the
cubic foot, than an ordinary barn. If it had been used only for the
exhibition, and at its close returned to the contractors, its cost would
have been nine-sixteenths of a penny per foot; and if it had been left
remaining permanently, it would have been but one penny and one-twelfth
of a penny per foot. The astonishing fact, that a building of glass and
iron, including thirty-three million cubic feet, and covering eighteen
acres, and affording room for nine miles of tables, should have been
completed in less than five months from the day when the contract was
entered into, at a cost less than that of the humblest hovel, opens a
new era in the art of building.
Silliman, in his late “Visit to Europe,” under the date of the
twenty-ninth of March, 1851, says: “Into this wonderful and imposing
structure we have to-day merely made our entrance. As we drove along the
eastern side of Hyde park, on a bright and beautiful morning, the
splendid vision caught our eyes, as the sunlight was thrown wide around
by this immense mirror. It was merely a glance that we took on this
occasion, reserving more deliberate observation for future
opportunities. It was not accessible, as yet, to visitors, but by
particular favor, through an introduction to one of the managers, we
were admitted into the interior. It has become so familiar, in all its
aspects, to the whole world, that at this date, after its complete
development, any detailed description would be out of place. The general
impression made upon us, by our walks through this stupendous
conservatory of the arts, was that of great splendor and magnificence.
It appeared a fairy palace, like the creations of fable; a building
equally unique and original in its structure; original, also, in its
bearing upon the concord and amicable rivalry of nations; in this
respect of most auspicious tendency. Already the consignments of the
world are coming in, and to a great extent have actually arrived.
African Tunis sends its contributions, and even more remote countries
are beginning to occupy the large space allotted to them. The palace is
so high as to cover several of the large trees of Hyde park, where it is
erected; and we saw, not without a shudder, a man dangling in the air at
the end of a rope near the roof, at the hight of eighty feet. He had
been drawn up simply by holding on the end of the rope by his hands, and
was whirled around and around, until he reached a plank almost in the
angle of the roof, where at last he was safely landed.”
And at a later date, he adds: “Although I have walked many hours, and I
presume ten miles in this immense structure, I seem only to have begun
to see it. In despair of my ability to convey any adequate idea of it, I
am almost disposed to pass it in silence, but this would disappoint
those for whom I write. Pictures and descriptions of the building had
reached America before I left home, and it is known that its front
extends more than one-third of a mile, besides its branches. The area
which it covers is eighteen acres, and under its vaulted transept are
included some large and lofty trees that were growing in the park. So
many accounts of its contents, and so many views of its form, both
within and without, have been since published, that a better idea of
both can be obtained from numerous sources, than from anything that I
can write. I shall, therefore, attempt nothing more than some general
remarks, and will mention a few examples. When we were here in March, I
expressed my admiration of the general design. So far as I know it is
novel. Exhibitions of the productions, whether in nature or art, of
particular countries, have often been made, and in some countries they
are annual, as in France, England, and in the United States; but I
believe it was reserved for Prince Albert to originate the design of
inviting all nations to bring to one place the results of their industry
and skill, and specimens of their physical resources. For obvious
reasons, no place was so proper as London, the commercial metropolis of
the world, and I suppose now containing a greater population, and
certainly more wealth, and exerting more influence on mankind, than any
other city. The invitation was a pledge of universal good-will, and it
has evidently tended to produce kind feelings among the nations. Instead
of new fortresses of stone and iron, instead of walls and battlements to
protect this immense city from invasion, there rises in its grand domain
of Hyde park, a crystal palace, the temple of arts and industry. It rose
like an exhalation, a magical illusion of the senses. The frame-work of
iron, although strong enough to sustain the weight and to resist the
winds, is so little apparent to the eye, that the crystal palace appears
a sea of glass, as in the Revelations, ‘A sea of glass like unto
crystal.’ One might dream, as in the ‘Arabian Nights,’ of such a
creation, ‘in the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon
men,’ and might find on waking that it was all an illusion, when it
would vanish like the fabric of a dream, and leave not a wreck behind.
But there it stands, a splendid reality, and with its widely extended
transepts, wings and galleries, has proved sufficient to receive and
protect the gathered riches of mankind.
“I mentioned in my passage from Boulogne, that I was in company with a
large number of French people coming over to see the crystal palace.
Crowds of all nations throng this palace; fifty thousand, or sixty
thousand, and sometimes seventy thousand in a day. As you walk about, or
thread your way through the great masses of human beings that crowd the
avenues, you may hear half the languages of Europe, and some of those of
the orient. I imagined that before our return from the continent the
deluge of nations would have subsided, and this consideration was not
without weight in inducing us to prefer a late inspection of the
splendid wonder; but in this particular we have been disappointed. The
numbers who daily resort to the crystal palace are undiminished: it may
be that there are fewer foreigners, but since the price has been reduced
to a shilling, the country people come in, parents and children, and
mothers with their infants; steamboats and cars are crowded, and it
seems as if the rural population of the kingdom were all rushing into
London.
“As to the contents of the palace, it is impossible to enumerate them. A
mere catalogue, with the most brief descriptive notices, would fill a
large volume. I can only mention groups of things, with here and there a
particular instance. The collection embraces the useful as well as the
fine arts. All kinds of agricultural machines are here to be seen, and
there are seeds, and specimens of crops, all duly arranged and labeled.
The American department has been somewhat undervalued, because it was
not so splendid, and was less full than the collections from some other
countries, but even the Times, which has generally an unfriendly bearing
in relation to our country, has commended the American department on the
score of utility. Indeed, it was not reasonable to expect that a country
occupied but two centuries by civilized people, should be able fully to
compete with nations who have been civilized for a thousand years; and
our great distance, and the difficulty and expense of transporting
articles across the ocean, and of coming over to look after them, must
have prevented our appearing as we do at home, in the great industrial
exhibitions of New York, Philadelphia and Boston. I have seen such
gatherings at Niblo’s and the Castle Garden, in New York, and in Boston,
not only of useful, but of elegant things, as I should feel proud to see
in the American department in the crystal palace. Two agricultural
instruments are, however, spoken of as giving the palm to America above
all competition. I refer to the plow and the reaping-machine of American
manufacture. The plow is said to have attained the perfection of form,
and the reaping-machine to be recommended by its great utility.
“Iron, as it is the material which, more than others, (wood excepted,)
contributes indispensable aid to the arts of life, occupies a
conspicuous place in the exhibition. Its ores and its castings, and its
wrought articles, whether in a locomotive, or the hair-spring of a
chronometer, whether in chain-cables or a cambric needle, are displayed
in endless variety of useful and beautiful forms, and in this department
England justly claims and fully proves her preëminence. Iron, lead,
copper, bismuth, zinc, antimony, and silver, gold and platinum, are
conspicuous here. England glories in her tin, lead and copper: in the
two latter we can compete with her; our lead is inexhaustible, and our
native copper of Lake Superior, is unequaled for abundance. A large mass
of it has been brought over for the exhibition, weighing many thousand
pounds.
“Nothing can exceed the beauty of the articles of silver, whether
utensils or ornaments, which are exposed to view in the gallery of the
crystal palace. The most graceful forms both of peaceful men, and of
warriors, armed cap-à-pie; and of woman in the very _beau ideal_ of her
loveliness, are here in profusion; and if England excels in these
articles in silver, France is not behind her, both in them and in gilded
furniture, and bronze, as seen in all the splendor and elegance of the
show windows of the Palais Royal. The silver extracted from lead by
Pattinson’s process is here seen in piles so rich, with a perfect purity
of whiteness, and in scaly pyramids, a kind of flaky mound, that the
observer looks on with delight, as also upon the same metal cast in
ponderous ingots. Here is the gold of California, one brilliant mass
weighing in value eight hundred pounds sterling, equivalent to nearly
four thousand dollars. There are three masses of native Siberian, or
Russian platinum, weighing respectively twenty-one, twenty-three, and
twenty-five pounds, and many wrought articles of the same metal. The
copper of Russia, in the form of malachite, here makes a great figure.
The same material which we saw in the Vatican, and in the palace of the
king of Prussia, in the form of magnificent vases, is here seen wrought
into innumerable forms of beauty. There is even a large paneled door
fabricated entirely of malachite. Of course many pieces are united to
afford the requisite mass. There are tables, vases, urns, chairs,
settees, &c., mounted with the same rich material. The gems form a
conspicuous ornament of the collection. Queen Victoria has loaned her
largest diamond, with several smaller ones, to be exhibited, and here
also are some of the most precious of the diamonds, rubies, sapphires,
topazes, emeralds, chrysoberyls, opals, and pearls of the regalia of
Russia, Spain and India. The Duke of Devonshire has an emerald deposited
by Mr. Tenant, nearly two inches in the diagonal diameter, and two to
three inches in length; it is of surpassing beauty, being perfectly
crystallized, and of the most intense and uniform grass-green color.
There is no end to the _bijouterie_ of the French. A case in the gallery
is composed of four pieces of plate glass, each between five and six
feet long, and four to five broad. This case is entirely filled with
elegant ornamental articles.
“I can not pretend to enumerate the marbles, granites, porphyries,
serpentines, and other architectural materials, nor the piles of mineral
coal, and anthracite, nor the perfect imitations of beautiful and useful
mineral compositions, such as serpentines, verd-antique, porphyry, and
verd-antique marbles, &c. The _chemical products_, too, of great beauty,
are numerous. The crystallizations of carbonate and bi-carbonate of
soda, of alum, of the prussiates, yellow and red, of the sulphate of
iron, and the sulphate of copper, and sal-ammoniac, are splendid, and
evince that the chemical arts are not behind the mechanical. Large cakes
of metallic antimony are crystallized in beautiful fern-like radiations.
“France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Germany, Prussia, Turkey, the
Barbary states, Egypt, Bermuda, the East Indies, Canada, Australia, and
other countries, have combined to decorate the crystal palace. Superb
silks have come from the east, and pictured stuffs, shawls, carpets,
&c., from Germany; the antipodes have conspired to crown the glorious
spectacle; plain and useful materials, leather, hemp, ropes of manilla
grass and of other fibrous vegetables, and glass and pottery in their
varieties, are not omitted. To give animation to the scene, steam
generated out of doors is brought in through concealed tubes and applied
to machinery. Cotton-gins and paper-making machines are at work, and the
palace resounds with the noise of actual and productive labor. Ship
models are presented in many forms, especially ships of war, in sections
longitudinal and transverse, with all their interior structure.
Life-boats and life-preservers, and in harmony with them, mirrors for
light-houses; but in contrast, swords, pistols, revolvers, guns, dirks
and daggers, and multiform contrivances to do the work of killing the
greatest number of men in the shortest time; such are man’s
inconsistencies!
“But time would fail to tell of the furniture, the carriages, the
musical instruments, the ceramic wares, and all the countless and
indescribable throng of articles which contribute their effect in the
_tout ensemble_ of this vast storehouse of the nations. The statuary
arranged along the naves is a conspicuous and interesting feature. Many
of the prominent and more meritorious of these marbles, have since
become so familiar from the engravings in the Art Journal and other
illustrated works, that it is needless at this late day to call
attention to them individually. The famous Amazon of Kiss, the same
which was in London, is now the most remarkable artistic object in the
American crystal palace. The most interesting view is obtained from the
galleries of the moving masses of human life below. It is a panorama
where multitudes are passing to and fro, and soon are seen no more,
fleeting as the _jets-d’eau_ which sport among them from living
fountains, that curl over and descend in graceful sweeps, and seem to
enliven the stately palms and other living plants and trees which grace
the scene.”
In closing this extended notice of the crystal palace, we hardly need
add, that after the close of the great exhibition, it was taken down and
removed; and that at present, it rears its splendid form and stately
transepts in a new and more beautiful situation at Sydenham, with many
important additions and improvements. It now stands in the midst of a
magnificent undulating park of three hundred acres, surrounded with
rural delights, fountains, shaded walks and silvan temples; while
within, it has been converted into a great permanent museum of arts,
antiquities and science, with living groves of palms, enlivened by
singing birds and sparkling fountains. For eighteen pence the London
artisan can visit it, including the ride out and back upon the railway.
This is being done by a private association at a cost of near four
million dollars.