The artist who thus covers the globe, called a pastes, is also a colourer. By long experi ence the artist knows how the various boun daries are to be defined, with pink continents, and blue islands, and the green oceans, con necting the most distant regions. The globe has now to be varnished with a preparation techni cally known as ' white hard,' to which some softening matter is added to prevent the varnish cracking. Four coats of varnish complete the work.
-The globe has to be mounted. The brass meridian ring has been previously accurately graduated ; this operation is comparatively rapid ; but for the largest globes it involves considerable expense. After great trouble Messrs. Malby have succeeded in producing cast-iron rings, with the degrees and figures perfectly distinct ; and these applied to 36-inch globes, instead of the engraved meridians, make a difference of ten guineas in their price. For furniture they are not so beautiful : for use they are quite as valuable. The axis of the globe revolves on the meridian ring, and of course it is absolutely necessary that the poles should be exactly parallel ; this is I effected by a little machine which drills each extremity at one and the same instant ; and the operation is termed poleing the meridian, The mounting of the globe,—the completion of a pair of globes,—is now handed over to the cabinet-maker.
Globes have occasionally been constructed of very large size. Such a one was designed in 1823 by an ingenious mechanician, M. Debut.
gard. The spectator reached a circular gallery in the centre of the globe by a winding stair. The sea was represented by transpa• rencies coloured and varnished ; the land being opaque and tinted, as in ordinary globes. Another was constructed in 1841 by M. Charles Guerin, who constructed another in the Champs-Elysées. It was placed. within an ornamental house of wood ; the globe was more than 30 feet in diameter, was viewed by the spectators from a central gallery, reacheil by a double-winding stair ; an iron framework representing the lines of latitude and longi tude, gave the outline of the globe, and sup ported the varnished calico which stretched over the entire surface, and upon which the map was painted. This exhibition was called the Georama.
But Mr. Wyld, the eminent map publisher, is about to eclipse all previous attempts in this direction. He has paid 30001. for the lease, for a definite period, of the central area in Leicester Square; and on this area he will construct a building for exhibiting an immense globe, 60 feet in diameter. There will be two galleries within it for spectators, at different elevations. The countries, oceans, Sec. will not be merely coloured : they will exhibit many of the features of physical geography. The mountains will be in relief. The globe will be formed of ribs of zinc, in the direction of the meridians, and will be covered with some convenient woven material, on which the lines and colours will be depicted.