THE HAND-RAIL CUTTING MACHINE.
PART OF HAND-RAIL MACHINE.
The principal portion of the machine consists of a hollow cast-iron cylinder, round which a strap may be passed to drive it. At one end of this cylinder four cutters are fixed, so that a piece of wood passing between them and through the cylinder, as it revolves, is rounded off to a true circular form of section, and is turned out so smoothly finished as to require scarcely any further work upon it before fixing. In advance of the cutters pressure-rollers are placed, furnished with teeth; and these, as they are turned round by a cranked handle, seize upon a piece of mahogany and force it forward against the cutters, which form, as it were, the jaws of the hollow cylinder, which thus seems to be constantly swallowing lengths of rough mahogany, which escape from it finished. The wooden rail is passed up to the cutters along a groove, the end of which is shown in the small engraving; and opposite each end of the revolving cylinder springs are fixed, which prevent the rail from shifting its position. The hand-rail was all turned out in 21-feet lengths, of which about thirty were completed in the day.
E have mentioned that the actual commencement of the building was made by fixing one of the columns on the 26th of September; and, within a few weeks, more than a thousand men were at work, though, from the great extent of the ground they were spread over, it was difficult to estimate their number, which was, however, made apparent by the rapidity with which the building began to grow. The place presented an animated and interesting scene, which attracted a great number of visitors; and crowds of the fair sex were not deterred by the rough state of the ground from endeavouring to satisfy their proverbial thirst for knowledge. In one part of the ground might be seen the putting together of the wrought-iron roof-girders to the deafening tune of more than a hundred hammers; in another place gutters were being put together by the mile, for which some hundred or two of sawyers were cutting up ship-loads of timber. Three portable steam-engines in various parts were driving the different machinery already described, which, however, was mostly grouped in one place near the transept. The central avenue formed, of course, the great thoroughfare, where teams of horses were constantly passing, dragging the slender columns, or unwieldy-looking girders, to their places, while other teams were engaged in running them up to their final position. Over-head, too, the glaziers' waggons, dotted about the roof, seemed to be running on some new aerial railways; in every direction that the eye turned the busy scene extended.
For carrying on these extensive works an immense number of men were necessarily employed on the spot, besides those occupied in preparing the various parts at different places. The greatest number of men on the ground in any one week was 2,260; and the season of the year frequently rendered it necessary for the workmen to continue their labours after dark, which they did partly by the light of huge bonfires of shavings and odd scraps of wood. The effect of these great fires, which were generally lighted in some part of the main avenue, was exceedingly grand. The light of the tall flames was reflected from the glass of the roof far away into the darkness which concealed all the other parts; whilst occasionally a lantern carried by a workman engaged in fixing the upper columns, or some part of the roof, glimmered like some new star.
On one occasion, when the greatest efforts were being made to push on the progress of the works, no less than twelve large bonfires lighted the men at their midnight toil; and had the building been formed of combustible materials, a passing observer would have imagined that the whole was in flames.