The interior of the main building was divided into five avenues, the
centre one about ninety feet wide, those next adjoining rather more than
fifty feet, and the outside ones about forty feet wide. Iron columns,
about twenty-three feet apart, formed these avenues and supported arched
ribs for the roof. One end of the building was semicircular, the other
forming an ornamental façade, and about the centre of the length a
transept was formed.
M. Horeau says: "Simplicity, grandeur, ready means of construction, and
of increasing or diminishing the accommodation, and of removal if
required, forming altogether a specimen of the most recent improvements
introduced into the art of building--these are the principal objects
which it has been sought to attain. The whole of the construction is of
iron, without a single piece of wood, the foundation being executed in
brick; the façade to be in metal, porcelain, and glass, the floor of
asphalte, the roof to be principally covered with ornamental thick glass,
in large dimensions, or ground glass with patterns.
"Of the trusses or arched ribs supporting the roof there were to be but
three varieties, each in three pieces, with which the whole of the
building could be erected. This subdivision of the roof-trusses would
have facilitated the conversion of the building for other purposes; for,
taken singly, or in various combinations, they would have formed many
kinds of buildings for ordinary purposes. The attached buildings placed
on the north side would have shown several modes of effecting this. The
ornamental spandrils of the roof-trusses would be formed in stamped-work
out of copper, and gilt.
"The façade shows at a glance the purpose of the building, as well as its
interior disposition, in which the different widths of avenues would
afford space for objects of all varieties of dimensions. The façade
itself was to be formed with tracery or trellis-work of cast-iron, the
lower part being covered with sheet-iron; the cornice and ornamental
panels of porcelain; the medallions in coloured stone-ware; the doors and
inclosures of metal, silvered and gilt; the ornamental details to be
either cast or stamped; the scrolls in the panels being in coloured glass
or mosaic.
"The pediment is crowned with a group of figures representing the Genius
of Industry crowning the Arts and Sciences; in the cornice are placed the
names of all the principal cities of the world, and the names of eminent
men in panels. In the medallions are represented allegorical figures of
the different branches of science and industry. At the angles of the
building are placed trophies, the base of which would serve as
guard-houses."
The engravings will serve to show the general effect of this design in
its interior and exterior.
----
DESIGN BY MESSRS. R. AND T. TURNER, OF DUBLIN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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