is turned through exactly one-fifth of a revolution, which has the effect of bringing the next eight carriages to the level of the platforms, and it is again brought to a standstill whilst the change of passengers is taking place; and so on, until the whole freight of say 1,600 persons has been changed during the five stoppages in one revolution, for which about thirty-five minutes are required, and the process of emptying and filling eight carriages at once is repeated. There are first and second class carriages, the charge for the former being two shillings, and for the latter one shilling; so that, reckoning 800 passengers of each class, one turn would bring to the treasury the handsome sum of £120. The sensations experienced in a journey on the Great Wheel are, as already mentioned, comparable to those enjoyed by the aërial voyagers in a balloon, where all perception of proper motion is lost, and it is the world beneath that seems to recede and float away, presenting the while a strangely changing panorama. Many people who have never made a balloon ascent yet know the calm delight of floating in a boat without effort down some placid stream, unconscious of any motion beyond that vaguely inferred from the silent apparent gliding by of the banks. Very similar are, in part, the feelings of the passenger who is almost imperceptibly carried up into the air in a carriage of the Great Wheel, but the vertical direction of the movement, and the gradual expansion of the horizon as the vertex is approached, lend an unwonted novelty to the situation. From the Earl’s Court Wheel the view is both interesting and extensive, for on a clear day the prospect stretches as far as the Royal Castle of Windsor. The “Gigantic Wheel” at Earl’s Court was inaugurated on the 11th July, 1895, in the presence of an assemblage of 5,000 people, including many distinguished personages, who were all treated to a ride. Plate I. shows a portion of the wheel and carriages as in motion. [Illustration: PLATE V. GENERAL VIEW OF THE GREAT WHEEL AT EARL’S COURT. ] [Illustration: FIG. 27.—_Sir Joseph Whitworth._ ] TOOLS.