2-982-442 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Crystal Palace at Toronto, Canada, 1858. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. R. H. Mackay. 'This industrial palace was erected for the purpose of holding within its walls the annual exhibitions of the Provincial Agricultural Association of Canada West...The walls are chiefly cast iron and [plate] glass, after the design, in a considerably modified sense, of the Crystal Palace of Hyde Park [in London]. The roof is of wood, covered with tin...affording the most perfect security against leakage, at least from any ordinary storm...Twenty-four ventilators, similar in size to those in the main building, ventilate the galleries...300 ten-feet squares, or 30,000 feet of tin, upwards of 300,000 feet of lumber, 9000 feet of glass, 36cwt. of nails, and 98 tons of cast iron, have been used in its construction. The girders were tested to a pressure of eight tons, which is far more than they will he required to sustain. The glass was imported by the builders from Messrs. Chance (Brothers), Birmingham...The cast-iron work - columns and girders - was prepared at the St. Lawrence Foundry, by William Hamilton and Son, founders and machinists. The architects were Messrs. Fleming and Schreiber; and the builders, Messrs. Smith, Burke, and Meldrum'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.