SPECIAL REPORT OF MR. HILL, t)N MACHINERY. 407
ferent nations were arranged geographically, as in the Industry Palace, comparisons were easily made.*
The relative space occupied by each of the different nations is given in the note to page 76 of these reports.
Iu regard to the character of the various exhibitions, it may be said in general terms that the American display was more interesting, and attracted more notice than any other. While to Americans the prominent feeling was one of regret that a far greater number of our labor-saving inventions and machines were not there, foreigners were much amazed that among so small a number of exhibits there was so much that was original. The power of our American inventors of seeing the precise object to be attained, and of producing a machine which will attain that object in the most direct and simple manner, regardless of the way in which the same or similar things have been done before, was a matter of general comment, f
* The Exhibition building in London, in 1851, covered 800,000 square feet; in 1862, 971,288 feet. At Paris, in 1867, 1,581,725. The Exposition at Vienna, including the main building, the machinery hall, the east and west agricultural hall and the art- buildings, covered' about 2,000,000 feet, or nearly 50 acres.
t The following extract from a report of Prof. Renleaux, Director of the Industrial Academy of Berlin, illustrates this point:—
“ In the department of inventions there were displayed but a small number of very extraordinary novelties. In this department America held the first place. Her display of machinery was almost wholly original in its character. ***** Upon the whole it may be affirmed that England has in part lost her late and undeniable superiority, or that she is soon to lose it. The young and vigorous activity across the ocean ***** makes, with her original talent, the greatest progress. So that ere long we must look to the west rather than to England. ***** The American aims direct at the desired end, using those means which seem to him the most simple, whether new or well known. ***** The American constructs, in fact, in accordance with the strictest rules of abstract thought, looking on one side °nly to the end which he has marked out for himself., weighing on the other side the methods already in use, or producing new methods without feeling the influence of w hat has been done, and finally strikes direct for that object. ***** a proper consideration of this course of action suggests the most instructive hints for °nr institutions of technical science.”
The terms of the award of the Diploma of Honor, given to Sellers of Philadelphia, ls to the same effect. It was given,— •
“For preeminent achievements in the invention and construction of machine tools, many of which have been adopted as patterns by the constructors of tools in all
countries.”
To the same effect is the declaration of Mr. Charles Hibbs, one of the artisan commission of Great Britain to the Vienna Exposition:
“ There is in the American work such an evident adaptation of means to ends, such a direct aim at the use to be made of the weapon and its various parts, such a palpable thrusting aside of all considerations but those of serviceableness and durability, that the merest glance below the surface impresses one strongly with the thoroughly Practical character of the transatlantic mind.”