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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV

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&rnbers Street.] INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM. 275 metalhrgy and constructive materials, for ceramic .and vitreous manufactures, the decorative arts, guise of various animals, seek to aid 0; hinder its ' ascent. textile manufactures, food, education, chemistry, materia medica, photography, &c. The whole floor is covered with articles illustrative of the arts of construction, such as products .of the clay-fields, fire and brick clays, and terra- -cottas. Cements and artificial stones stand next in order, followed by illustrations of the mode of quarrying real stone ; adjoining these are stones dressed for building purposes, and others carved for ornamental uses. Oriental stone carving is illustrated by a set of magnificent plaster casts from one of the- most famous gates of Delhi, made by order of the Indian Government. The sanitary appliances used in building are likewise exhibited here ; also slate .and its uses, with materials for surface decorations, .and woods for house timber and furniture. Among the more prominent objects are large .models of Scottish lighthouses, presented by the Commissioners of Northern Lights, of St. Peter's at Rome, St Paul's at London, and the Bourse in Berlin, together with a singularly elegant carton- .pierre ceiling ornament, and finely designed mantelpiece, that were originally prepared for Montagu House. In the centre of the hall are some beautiful .specimens of large guns and breechloading fieldpieces, with balls and shells, and a fine model of -the bridge over the Beulah in Westmoreland. A hall devoted to the exhibition of flint and clay products, and illustrations of glass and pottery, is in the angle behind the great and east saloons. 'The art Potteries of Lambeth are here represented by beautiful vases and plaques, and other articles in the style of old Flemish stoneware. There are .also fine examples of the Frenchfuiencr, by Deck -of Paris, including a splendid dish painted by Anker, and very interesting samples of Persian -pottery as old as t b fourteenth century. There is a magnificent collection of Venetian .glass, comprising nearly 400 pieces, made by the Abbot Zanetti of Murano, in Lombardy; while modern mosaic work is exemplified by a beautiful ,reredos by Salviati, representing the Last Supper. The beauty of ancient tile work is here exhibited in some exquisite fragments from Constantinople, These formed, originally, part of the .several decorations of the mosque of Broussa, in Anatolia, which was destroyed by an earthquake. In rich blue on a white ground they display a variety of curious conceptions, one of which represents the human soul shooting aloft as a tall =cypress tree, while good and evil spirits, under the Near these are placed, first, illustrations of colliery work, then of metallurgical operations, and lastly, the manufacture of metals. The first, or lower gallery of this hall, contains specimens of the arts in connection with clothing, and the textile fabrics generally and their processes ; wood, silk, cotton, hemp, linen, jute, felt, silk, and straw-hat making, leather, fur, and also manufactures from bone, ivory, horn, tortoise-shell, feathers, hair-gut, gutta-percha, india-rubber, &c. ; and the upper gallery contains the collection illustrative of chemistry, the chemical arts, materia medica, and philosophical instruments. The department of machinery contains a speci men, presented by the inventor. of Lister's wool combing machine, which, by providing the means of combing long wools mechanically, effected an enormous change in the worsted trade of Yorkshire. * In the front of the east wing is the lecture room, having accommodation for 800 sitters Above it is a large apartment, seventy feet in length by fifty broad, containing a fine display of miner'als and fossils. One of the most interesting features in this department is the large and valuable collection of fossils which belonged to Hugh Miller. The ethnological specimens are ranged in hahdsome cases around the walls. The natural his. tor). hall contains on its ground floor a general collection of mammalia, including a complete grouping of British animals. The first gallery contains an ample collection of birds and shells, &c; the upper gallery, reptiles and fishes. In the hall is suspended the skeleton of a whale seventy-nine feet in length. On the north side of Chambers Street is the new Watt Institution and School of Arts, erected in lieu of that of which we have already given a history in Adam Square. (VoL I., pp. 379, 380.) It was erected in 1872-3 from designs by David Rhind, and is two storeys in height, with a pavilion at its west end, and above its entrance porch the handsome statue of James Watt which stood in the demolished square. Beside this institution stands the Phrenological Museum, on the north side, forming a conjoint building With it, and containing a carefully assorted collection of human skulls some of them being of great antiquity. It was formerly in Surgeon Square, High School Yard. The new Free Tron Church stands here, nearly Sec "Great Industries of Great Britain." VoL I., pp. 107-8; II., b
Volume 4 Page 275
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