The World's Fair eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 117 pages of information about The World's Fair.

The World's Fair eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 117 pages of information about The World's Fair.

Dublin, which, I dare say, you know is the capital of Ireland, is an elegant city, with fine houses and good streets.  The churches, the castle, the linen hall, exchange, bank, custom-house, and post-office, are all very noble buildings.  There are also parks, gardens, theatres, canals, and other ornamental places throughout the city.  From Dublin have been sent models of carriages, specimens of metals, slates, and linens, and a model of a house made in granite.

[Illustration]

I have now told you, my dear little friends, a great many stories about the industry of all nations, and we have gone through the World’s Show together.  We have seen nearly all the useful and splendid things sent to the Great Exhibition from all parts of the world.  I have told you about Europe, and Asia, Africa, and America; and I must soon leave you.  But before I go, we must have another look at the Exhibition, and one more glance at those few things which we have not as yet seen.

We forgot to examine this magnificent chess-board, worth one thousand two hundred guineas.  You will doubtless wonder why it is such a dear board, but your surprise will cease when you observe that the “checks,” as they are called, are of mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell, while the rim is of beautifully burnished gold, and the chessmen are of gold and silver, elaborately wrought, and ornamented with the portraits of celebrated historical characters; one of them represents the Emperor, Charles the Fifth.  I dare say you would like to play a game with me on this chess-board.  As a companion to this beautiful chess-board, is a very elegant colour box, fit for the Queen, or the most noble young lady in the land, to use for painting with.  And here is a model of the town of Liverpool, with several thousand little people in the streets; and these figures are so exceedingly small, that a thousand of them would fit into an ordinary sized pill box.

In contrast to this specimen of a great town in a minute space, we have in front of the transept a wonderful clock, which is kept in motion by a set of powerful electro magnets, eight in number, on which is wound a length of twenty-five thousand feet of copper wire.  This gigantic time-keeper sets in motion the immense hands on the principal dial, which is twenty-four feet in diameter, besides two smaller ones which are fixed in front of the galleries, at the east and west ends of the building.  I am afraid that it would tire you, were I to attempt to tell you exactly what electricity is, and must therefore satisfy your curiosity, for the present, by letting you know that it is caused by the coming in contact of different substances possessing peculiar properties, which cause them to vibrate, when they touch.

There is another very curious clock in the Exhibition, which will go for a hundred years before requiring to be wound up again; and there is one wheel in it which is said would take ten thousand years to go round once.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The World's Fair from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.