Hooker observed a fall of 470
inches in seven months, and on one occasion 30 inches in four hours; the
latter equal to the average annual rainfall of France.

The American machinery, which occupies a position between Norway and
England, is creditable in kind and quality, but fails very far in giving
a correct idea of the multiplicity of our industries. Almost the only
evidence of our textile manufactures are two of Tilt's Jacquard
silk-weaving looms. The telephones of Edison and Gray excite unremitting
astonishment and admiration, and have both received the highest possible
awards. Our wood-working is practically shown in a large variety by Fay
& Co. of Cincinnati, and one or two other special machines by other
makers. The Wheelock engine, which drives all the machinery in our
section of the main building, has very properly been awarded a grand
prize. It is all that can be desired in an engine, and has a singular
simplicity of construction, with few working parts. It is the same which
drove the machinery in the Agricultural Building at the Centennial. The
steam is admitted and exhausted by a valve at each end of the cylinder
placed directly below the port. The cut-off valve is behind the main
valve: the mechanism for operating the valves is on the outside of the
steam-chest, and easily accessible. The valves and seats are made
tapering in their general diameter, and the pressure of steam comes on
one side, also acting to keep the collar in contact with the sleeve.

[Illustration: TWEDDELL'S HYDRAULIC RIVETING-MACHINE.]

The Waltham Watch Company is considered by some of the most influential
European journals as the most important in the American section on
account of the revolution it is making in that important industry. When
the Swiss commissioner went home from the Centennial he published a
letter fairly throwing up the sponge, and when the company's exhibit
appeared for the first time in Europe at an international exposition it
was regarded as carrying the war into Africa. The American system of
making by machinery all the parts of an article--say, of a watch--of a
given grade by means of gauges and templets, so that the parts may be
"assembled," and of such singular exactitude in their making that any
part may be replaced by the corresponding piece of any other watch of
the same grade, has in this manufactory attained its highest results,
greatest precision and most perfect illustration. The whole collection
of w