THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3907, 7 March 1881, Page 2

THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

[By Cosmopolitan.]

The great scene shifter at the International Exhibition drama now running at Oarlton, has withdrawn the wool display, and replaced it for a few days, with a BhOw of flowers, fruit and vegetables. The background, with its huge organ, is, unchanged, and so are the side-scenes. The stage manager, attendants, police.-: "men,' genera] utility men, and properties remain as befbrei • '

PJ act 3 in flower are of course, scarce, at this season of the year. Flora has had her day, and her charms and appearance werer^considered, by competent judges, to., be somewhat passee I Plants in flower are very scarce, though the fine display of fuchsias, by Mr George iiimmingtoD, ofKew, were all that could be desired. Pomona, with the cornucopia, of ripened fruits, and other edibleß occupied the place of honor. South Australia and Queensland contributed the' finest collections. The semi-tropical! fruit from Queensland comprised fine examples of ' Jack fruit bananas, grana* dillas, fruit of wine palm, besides five { kinds of pitie-apple, and six kinds of man goe. Squth Australia,' of course, sent oranges, .melons, almonds, filberts, plums, and . apples. One curious exhibit was a block of ice in which were imprisoned some pine apples and grapes, quite visible (though with some degree of i refraction) through the transparent ice. -This display came from the Australian Ice Cjompany. Some enormous parsnips, which gained a first prize, were bSntributed by Wi Woodmason, 'of Malvern. We missed our old friend " the gigantic gooseberry," which, like the great sea-serpent, 'fills so large a place in English newspapers duririg} the' ■'Csilly, "seaaoti !" It msat n&t, however, besup- .. posed that there was .not some beautiful flWers 'at the' afco*. ll .THS [.bouquets we're lovely ; tasteful arrahgements for table decorations were.; in .keen competition, and one lady gained a first priza for button hole bouquets. ; ':'.■■ \ Victoria/ like America, will doubtlejs, from the conditions- under -which -hjer development j^nd ; progress is achieved, become remarkable for labor saying inventions. The patent double - acting stonebreaker is one of them. } j It is a great advance upon the earliest > machines of the kind, which came originally from America. That primitive type of mechanical stonebreaker known as the "Blake" machine, is now ranked as archaic when oontraßted with the greatly improved model by Mr Hope. This perfect machine, like most other things has passed through sucessive stages of development, formidable difficulties being overcome at each, advance untill the present unrivalled result has been achieved. That the public has not been slow in . perceiving its, superiority is eyinced by the large number of these machines ordered Bince it was first ex* hibited in the eastern machinejy annexe. These orders have' not been confined to Victoria, but extend to foreign countries, including even British India ! | The improvements in the double-acting stonebreaker are not so much in the performance of the work %o be done, as in the manner in which it performs it. Up to the period of the International Exhibition; of 1873, when Mr Hope exhibited his first Excehior |machine, the chief improvements were confined to the method of moving the jaw. Mr Hope then went to England for a couple of years. Since his retun to Victoria, this inventive engineer has made important'improvements in the jaws themselves, by the introduction first of the curved jaw, and lastlybf the cubing jaw, the form of which ensures that no stone shall fall vertically between the jaws in an unbroken flake!, and the latter which causes the stone tb be broken into cubes— so essential for good road making— in contradistinction to the spalls and chips which' fall from the laborer's hammer. This drawback ojf the manner in which it performed its work, confined the stonebreakihg machine almost entirely to the manufacture of railway ballast, for which the form of thb stone was of no importance. The great! improvement by which cubical stone is produced, opens out v fresh fields 'and t 'pastures new" for its application. The principle of the cubing jaw is, that the teeth of the fixed jaw alternate. la the lower half the points 1 are in the same vertical line with the bottom of the serrations of the upper half, and the moVeable jaw works point to point instead bf point into bottom, as in the earlier machines. 'The result is that the aperture forms 'such a shape as renders it impossible that the stone can fall through until it has been reduced to the cubial form so much desired. It is the introduction of this cubing jaw more than any .other improvement .whioh ■• has lifted the stonebreakery patented by Mr Arthur -Hope, into the front rank of labor-saving appliance Si " ' : ': Other improvements have been introduced, the mosfi lmp'ortan|; being in the ap^libatibri of the' motive power. This is now supplied by a crankBhaft working a cam. At the back. of ihU cam, towards the top etfd of the machine, is what may be described as a knuckle, theJ"whc(le width of the cam, not f movin4 on a centre, but resting upon a. socket worked 1 by cam, 'and on a•■ bolster which moves to and fro, and at the/ front is" a similar knudkl©;' through which the motion', is passed to the jam. These 'kaiiekiefl7^cting^wtidg^s7tho''Mc'ti6"fris reduced to : a minimum, and they have the peculiarity, of imparting irregular blows — a long fall stroke first, immediately followed by two- half strokes. This has an effect in cubing the etone, not altogether unlike the action of the stonebreaker's hammer. It is, also, worthy bf note that mining and quartz crushing- compaoieß.. are begining to value the services of stonebreakers as an auxilliary to the^r battferjes; It breaks the stone to a uniform' size, and enables each stamp to deal with the material to to be operated upon directly, and |he advantage, • o£;:fln«bling the; stampers to work more regularly and do more work. A reduotion has been made in the weight of the machines, rendering them more -easy of transport, the improved machine weighing now only five tons. The cost has, also been reduced from L 220. to Ll9O. It is, moreover, now rendered so simple, as to be almost impossible to get out of order. It has also, been found practicable to reduce the driving power from six to fonr, and the oublng is more perfect with a slower rate of speed. The stonebreaker has been awarded "First Order of Merit." and Mr Hope, Yarra bank, South Melbourne! we beliye,

is: ; a Candidate for the Emperor of j Germany's prize. Many of the best pictures seen destined to remain in Australia, though not in Victoria. The large painting of " The Gordon Riots," by Seymour Lucas, has been purchased for the Sydney Meusum and Picture Gallerieß. The Sydneyites are also negotiating for the purchase of rthe Colin Hunter, entitled "Salmon Fishers, Loch Fyne." The two best pictures in the Italian.- -Gallery^ " Ii Vecchio Ridicolo," and the " Malade Imaginaire," both by Guardabassi, have also found a purchaser. So far, Victoria has not made a single acquisition to help to enrich her collection of works of art.