and one larger one showing the "Total votes recorded." The voter enters a turn-stile, which, as he moves it on entering, adjusts the machinery, so that when he pulls a knob, a mark is made on the unseen dial which records the vote against the candidate's name voted for, and another on the larger open dial which exposes the total number that his vote makes. There is a "Nobody" knob, which a man may touch if he wishes to scatter his vote, and help nobody. This also is recorded. He cannot vote twice, because the machinery is not adjusted for a second ballot, till a new voter turns and enters the turnstile. In this way all double voting is precluded. It need not be seen or known whom the citizen votes for. The presiding officer knows every moment just how many votes are polled, and at the close, by raising the lid, the whole story is recorded on the dials and told at first sight without mistake and without counting. The machine appears quite simple, and efficient, and arrested much attention in the gallery.

Near this is the Copying Electric Telegraph, placed there by a Mr. Bakewell. It exhibits one of the most surprising and useful results of the application of electricity to the purpose of common writing. The writing is by white letters on a blue ground. The message to be forwarded is written on tin-foil, with varnish. This writing is fixed to a revolving cylinder, which is connected with the conducting wire. At the station where the message is to be received, a piece of paper, saturated with a certain chemical solution, is fixed to a similar cylinder. As soon as the electric current is put in motion, the contact is broken always as the point passes over the writing, the varnish being a non-conductor. As long as the current

is unbroken, the receiving-paper is being changed to a blue color, the writing at the same time, becoming visible and is formed of a number of small and intimately connected square white spots. This Telegraph transmits copies of the hand-writing of correspondents so exactly, that their signatures may be identified. This is copied at the rate of 130 letters per minute. The writing is not, indeed, as clear as in ordinary penmanship, but it is sufficiently distinct for all useful purposes, and is as distinctly legible as copies of letters generally made by copying machines in counting houses. The writing is clearest when the paper is first taken from the machine. Mr. Bakewell will have to improve his chemical solutions so as to make the record more permanent.

Amongst the toys of one of the German States, we notice many figures of men and women, old and young, and of boys and girls in groups, looking like miniature life, and so placed in connexion with an Electric Telegraph, that they are made to jump and dance, and laugh and cry and. otherwise distort their faces; and it seems difficult to understand how they were not all actually alive and self-moved. As a little show, it is worth halting half an hour to witness. The Germans are the greatest toymakers in the world, and very much of their matters in the Exhibition are adapted to the fancy of children, old and young.

Hand-labor cheaper than machine-labor. In this gallery is a specimen of ladies' handiwork, which is designed to show, that on some matters, at least, labor-saving machines have not the advantage over human hands in the cheapness of production. It is a large and beautiful carpet presented to the Queen, and by her sent into the

Palace, and hung up in the gallery for exhibition. The carpet is thirty feet long by twenty feet wide, executed in Berlin wool. It is the production of the leisure hours of a number of ladies, and is a good specimen of their industry and taste, rivalling the finest productions of European looms. Each lady, upon the payment of a guinea, had the material, and a square of two feet, sent her for execution. The square is composed of three hundred and forty stitches on each side. After completion, the squares were returned, and fitted together as a whole. Its cost was £800; but if worked by the loom, it could not have been sold for less than £1000. Her Majesty was so well pleased that the hands of females could thus be more profitably employed than looms, that she insisted on having it carried to the Crystal Palace, and exhibited as a token of the triumphs of her own sex.

The Duke of Northumberland, last Spring, offered a reward of $100 to the inventor of the best Life-Boat. This brought a large number into the Crystal Palace, several of which are exhibited in the western gallery. Amongst these, we notice one presented by Mr. Light, of London. The object of this invention is to render ordinary ships' boats so buoyant, that they become Life-Boats, and are capable of saving the passengers and crew under almost any circumstance. The material employed is extremely buoyant, and is rendered impervious to water or moisture. By filling the spaces between the timbers with this material, and then covering the whole with a thin lining of boards, a boat is rendered so buoyant, that, even when overloaded with passengers, should the seas break over it, there would be no danger of its sinking. Or, should the bottom be stove in, the frame would float and act as a

raft, which the material, from its tenacity and fibrous na ture, would hold together. The process, it is said, can also be applied with advantage to the bulwarks, and between the timbers and ceilings of ships; and it must be evident, that in the event of their going to pieces, each portion would, from its own power of floatation, become a life-buoy. It is also said, that the material can be adapted to any bulk, in any form, and to any part of the ship or boat usually left vacant; and, consequently, that it will not diminish the space for stowing the cargo, and that the mattresses, couches, seats, and all the furniture, can be made the means of saving life in the time of shipwreck. It may also be applied to jackets, belts, life-buoys of all kinds, and for floats for fishermen. The life-belts can be adjusted in ten seconds, and are incapable of being injured by weather or climate.

There was enough in the Palace worth studying. The whole world will derive essential benefit from the new inventions and improvements brought here for the different nations of the earth to profit from. We have not time or room, in this work, for further Walks in the Crystal Palace.

LETTER XXXVIII.

A SCENE NEAR THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

View of the Lake-A miniature Man-of-War-The Queen and her Son coming down from the Crystal Palace-The Embarkation and Sail described.

LONDON, AUGUST 18, 1851.

My Letters, hitherto, have contained descriptions &c. for adult readers; I must write something for the boys good ones for many such, I trust, are amongst our reading friends. It is unnecessary now to describe the three hundred and sixty acres of Hyde Park, on which the Crystal Palace is erected, or to speak further of the external appearance of this immense and brilliant edifice. But suppose yourself to be standing near its east end. Just now, cast your eye to the right and look through the arching trees and over the verdant lawns to a lake of pure water, called the Serpentine, that is long and narrow like a river, running parallel with the Glass Palace. It is an artificial pond, perhaps two miles long by a fourth of a mile wide. It is deep water. The beach is covered with pebbles of flint. Trees grow upon the shores and shade the margin of the lake. Under these trees are circular seats, and long movable benches and settees. Occasionally there are green-houses, arbors and flower gardens. Boathouses, also, project over the water; and pretty wharves