On entering the PALACE OF MECHANICAL ARTS, three elevated traveling cranes running from end to end of the structure, attracted our attention. They had been utilized in the work of construction, as well as in moving the machines presented to view. The platforms erected upon them, gave us occasion to look upon the entire machinery exhibition. The driving power used in the main building and annex was steam; excepting two small sections driven by electric motors. Adjoining the south side of the edifice extended the enormous power plant. It supplied the Machinery Hall with a total steam power of about 3,000 horses generated by twelve engines. The entire plant, comprising over sixty steam-engines, and operating 127 dynamos, represented a most stupendous display of mechanical energy hitherto unequaled. Its total capacity was equivalent to 20,000 H.P. The domestic exhibits located in the western portion of the main building--but mostly in the annex, revealed the marvelous progress made during the last decades in this wonderfully prospering country. Shown by great firms from almost every state and territory were devices of various forms: Motors and apparatuses for the generation and transmission of power--fire-engines and other appliances for extinguishing a conflagration--machine tools and devices for working metals--machinery for the manufacture of textile fabrics and clothing, for cutting wood, for typesetting, printing, embossing, book making and paper working, lithography, and photo-mechanical process, for working-stone, clay, and other minerals. In short, there were machines of every description employed in all industrial pursuits imaginable; yea, even appliances for facilitating the housekeepers' daily duties as laundry- and dish-washing machines. In fact, it must require a considerable effort to excogitate novel labor-saving devices. Nevertheless, man's ever active ingenuity constantly increases the number of meliorated contrivances. The pump exhibit was grouped around a tank of water, comprising an area of 7,500 feet. Here at the junction of the main hall and annex, scores of modern pumps were in active operation. Of the foreign countries we found Germany best represented, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. The other prominent displays were made by France, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Russia, Spain, Italy, Mexico, New South Wales, Austria, and Switzerland. Here, the mechanical engineer was enabled to make studies of incalculable profit for his professional career; and even the lay mind received a vast amount of information.