MODERN TRIUMPHS OF MECHANICAL ART.

ANNA HINRICHS, ST. LOUIS, MO.

AN Exposition is the best of educators.

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It depicts the substantial development and ingenuity of man's varied industries. Intelligent reflection upon his triumphs as seen in the exhibits, offers a delightful comparative study of the times and customs, the people and their inclinations, of the past, the present and the mystic unknown.

A Columbian Exposition is a grandeur that, obviously, is beyond frequent realization, but an Annual Exposition is a possibility to people of all time. For the past ten years, with ever increasing success, and a yearly attendance of almost 600,000, such an Exposition has been held at St. Louis. The building is an imposing structure 438 feet long, 338 feet wide, and 108 feet high; 9,000,000 of brick and 600 tons of iron being used in its construction. It has a Grand Music Hall with seating capacity of 5000, an Entertainment Hall seating 1500, and a floor area of exhibition space of 280,000 square feet. 4000, 16 CP, incandescent, and 125, 200 CP, arc electric lights, brilliantly illumine every quarter of the vast edifice. There is neither flame nor fire in the building; the boiler house is across the street. All of the machinery in the building is run by two engines, a Corliss, compound pressure, of ` 125 HP, and a Watertown, low pressure, of 100 HP. This involves 3000 feet of main and counter shafting and 6 dynamos, each having its own engine, ranging from 960-980 in power.

In Music Hall are four concerts daily-the program being in the form of a bright 16 pp. paper. This is printed, 12,000 per day, in Machinery Hall by the Post-Dispatch, and affords the most interesting sight in the Exposition.

In the temple of music, those who have wearied of the surging tide in the naves, and the bewildering maze of the exhibits, find sweetest refuge in the glorious refrains from classic and popular composers as rendered by Sousa! The idealist haunts the art galleries, fascinated by inspirations on canvass by the world's greatest masters.

Near by, are curios and antiquities that carry

the observer back to the age of the savage, and emphasize the flood of intellectual light that has come down through subsequent ages. Exposition portals lead the student in human nature into a most fertile field. He retreats to a secluded corner and observes the cosmopolitan types that surround him. Youth and sage; connoisseur and ignoramus; the dude with his sweetheart of aristocratic lineage and the brawny "Joe" from rural districts, with "his Annie;" those who toil not and those who find the wherewithal by the sweat of the brow, each finds a magnetic current in this sea of attraction.

The liberal arts comprehensively portray all the delightful, accessories that are not absolutely demanded for the sustainance of life. The remarkable displays of a mechanical nature suggest that Bellamy's conception of the year 2000 may prove correct,-press the button, the machine does the rest. Mechanical art as applied to iron, steam and electricity has resulted in marvels that are mute, though emphatic expressions of the tendency of the day, and serve to lessen physical labor and economize time.

A late invention to this effect is the American Embossing Machine. This is truly a mechanical curiosity, of the simplest construction, yet it embodies every requisite for the fulfillment of its intricate purpose. The striking feature of this machine is its wonderful adjustment. It adapts itself to work with stock of any thickness, produces irregular moulding work by continuous feed, and turns out quarter-sawed oak, bird's-eye-maple, and other imitations of fine woods, that defy detection from the genuine. Beautiful designs are executed in relief, by spontaneous pressure. Woodwork, mouldings and panels, embossed in exquisite designs are effected with marvellous speed and perfection at a minimum cost. Another ingenious device for lessening manual labor has recently been discovered by Pierre Chouteau of Saint Louis. It is for the application of compressed air in sculpture work in marble, stone granite and onyx. The same process is of great value in corking. and riveting boilers, and is especially adapted for use in foundries, for clipping off castings, etc. By its means one man does the work of five skilled laborers. It is an exceedingly simple contrivance on the plan of a pneumatic hammer. A piston inside a cylinder, is driven by the air, the quantity of which is controlled by a little valve in the handle. This governs the stroke of the operator, allowing him to make a very delicate, medium, or full strength stroke.

He regulates this without adjusting the chisel, merely by operating the valve in the handle. The hammer or chisel makes over 5000 An engine of 40 pounds pressure will run

strokes per minute!

six instruments.

The inventor of the famous Ferris Wheel says that within ten years, modern practical life will be absolutely revolutionized through electricity. He predicts it will heat our dwellings and cook our food. The latter is already being demonstrated at the Saint Louis Exposition. The principle is simple. Each cooking utensil has a separate enamelled plate in which the wires are imbedded. The resistance in the passage of the current through the enamel, creates the heat. Five processes of baking the enamelled plate are involved to render it of sufficient hardness to do the baking. To this heating plate is attached the connecting wire which transmits the current. The oven has three such heating plates, two below and one above for browning. It is a wooden box, lined with asbestos, which is covered with tin as a protection. The door is provided with a mica window, and inside is an incandescent light, turned on at will. Thus the progress of baking is known without opening the door. A similar enamelled plate is attached to the bottom of the sad-iron for ironing. Every house having the convenience of electric lighting may enjoy the luxury of cooking by electricity. Another marvellous exhibit, representing the only enterprise of the kind in the United States, is that of the Crystal Water company. The problem of pure water is of vital importance. The process here employed renders the water absolutely pure, free from all solid salts and organic matter. It is sterilized, removing all germs and bacteria and is fully supplied with oxygen. The water is placed in a tank and heated sufficiently to drive out whatever free ammonia may be present. It is then pumped into a boiler supplied with an apparatus for removing all organic and solid matter. The next process is that of distillation. The steam passes into an apparatus attached to the boiler for extracting ammoniacal gases and other volatile impurities arising from the decomposition of organic matter in the process of distillation. These volatile gases are removed with the steam employed for running the machinery, the pure vapor passing through a second steam pipe to a still 50 feet higher. This still contains a coil of pipe, one end of which is connected with the steam pipe for heating the water in the still, the other end passing out of the still into a third device

for extracting ammonia, and is then led by a short pipe for supplying distilled water. This water is once more vaporized, the vapor rising to contact with a conical roof, kept cold by water pumped into a chamber above. Upon this roof the vapor condenses, and is collected in a receptacle at its base. From this trough it passes by a pipe through a cooling tank where the doubly distilled water is brought to a proper temperature for absorbing the usual amount of atmosphere. Finally, it passes into the upper end of a vertical aerating tube, reaching to the ground floor about 45 feet. This aerating tube is filled with pure crushed sand-stone. In slowly flowing down this tube every atom of water is exposed to direct contact with the atmosphere contained in the tube, thus receiving its full share of oxygen.

The air supplied to the aerator is first passed through a tank of pure water which removes all impurities, then through a series of heated pipes for killing germs and bacteria, after which it is forced through a second tank of pure water and freed from the dead microbes. It is then forced into the lower end of the aerating tube, in which it rises to meet the water descending, so that the air absorbed is free from all the germs and the water entirely free from all foreign matter. In this state it is led by block-tin pipe to blocktin lined storage tanks. These storage tanks are ventilated by pipes from the aerating tube or hot air pipes, assuring pure air.

The bottles to be filled are placed on a moving platform which carries them through a chamber, heated to the requisite degree for killing all germs that may lurk about the bottles and corks. The sterilized bottles are immediately filled and corked.

This detailed description seems complicated, but is actually very simple, each step being operated by automatic arrangements.

The most unique display in Machinery Hall illustrates the method of handling coffee from the plantation to the palate, as demonstrated by a leading Western importer and roaster of that aromatic berry. This erection of a complete plant showing the modern methods of preparing this beverage for the cup, is the first and only attempt of that nature, in America or Europe. In the space of an area of 300 square feet, the entire process is shown. The berry as it is received from the plantation is first emptied into an elevator feeding the cleaning machines, which removes the fine sand and grit, sticks and strings, hulls and husks, and all close adhering dirt. This is the only handling involved. After that it passes

continuously through the operations of roasting, cooling and storing. The latter is a clever invention of the firm. The coffee is gently drawn up by air suction, leaving the little pebbles behind. Then it falls into a sieve which throws off all chaff freed in the process of roasting, and also removes the broken berries. From the sieve it is carried up by an elevator into a special pulverizing mill. This rapidly converts the still warm berries into a powder for the most delectable of drinks which operation is the finale of this interesting object lesson.

STRICTURES ON CURRENT EDUCATIONAL
TENDENCIES.

THE

CHARLES E. LOWREY, PH.D., BOULDER, COLO.

HE late Professor James W. Bell, Ph.D., who before his death held the chair of psychology in the University of Colorado, and had been for several years a pupil of Wundt, remarked just before his demise: "Possibly all this labor were necessary for discipline, but in the light of the full explanation of it all, I cannot see it so." This was said of the empirical methods of current psychological and pedagogical research.

To burden memory with innumerable com binations of experience such as the human mind is free to devise; to cherish the delusion that each were an isolated fact, whose individuality were never doubted; to devote ourselves to the accurate description of each as a basis of generalization by future generations; these were some of the disproportioned services we have judged inestimable to humanity. Our larger insight does not underestimate the necessity of due experimentation, and of proper record of phenomena; but it does require some mixture of noumena to lend proportion to investigation.

A philosopher remarked to a so-called specialist in infant psychology, "The novelty of your investigations attracts my attention, but for the world I cannot see what you hope to prove." To this the specialist with martyr spirit replied: "The particular merit of my investigation consists in my absolute repudiation of all responsibility for results, let the facts speak wherever found." Said the other: "How chanced you on infant psychology as a subject." Reply: "I thought it neglected."

The spiritual man is the measure of all things, regardless of his own unconsciousness of the act. The specialist was responsible for