EXHIBITION S, INDUSTRIAL. Modern industrial exhibitions differ from the festivals and fairs of ancient times, of which they are a development, chiefly in the fact that they do not aim at immediate and retail sales, but rather for the purpose of showing the progress of industry and of general advertise ment. The fair in its manifold aspects of athletic spectacle, and commercial and artistic concourse, is almost as old as civilization itself. The Olympic fes tivals in Greece brought together mer chants who exhibited their wares. The great fair of Tailtenn in Ireland was likewise an athletic and commercial fes tival, the oldest known in northern Europe. Fairs of this multiple charac ter were known in Egypt and Persia, and seem to have arisen on occasions that brought large numbers of people together, permitting merchants to make exhibition of their wares. Following the usual pathway of civilization, they passed from Greece to Italy and the other countries of Europe, and Charlemagne appears to have favored the establish ment of such a fair in the 9th century in his capital of Aix-la-Chapelle. The most considerable of these fairs in Europe are those of Leipzig in Germany and Nizhni Novgorod in Russia, both of them of respectable antiquity. On a smaller scale similar gatherings have long existed in other countries, but the great expansion of modern industry has resulted in an immense development of the idea, and the industrial exhibition, as it is conceived of to-day, greatly differs from its predecessors in its duration, magnitude, and setting. These exhibi tions now often partake of a national character and are held in the capital or a chief city of the country. Napoleon inaugurated an exhibition in Paris in 1802 which won so much success that similar exhibitions came to be held every three years. Similar exhibitions began to be held in Dublin under the auspices of the Royal Dublin Society, beginning with 1829. The idea had an early vogue in the United States and the American Institute of New York, founded in 1828, initiated a series of industrial exhibi tions. The St. Louis Exposition, which was first opened in 1883, was modeled on the expositions which had by that date attained a great vogue in France. Side by side with the utilitarian aspect an artistic setting was aimed at and the arts as well as commerce and industry were sought to be represented. These exhibitions then came to be a feature in the commemoration of important events or to serve as a close to some large un dertaking finally accomplished. Thus the World's Industrial Cotton Culturist Exposition, held in New Orlaens, La., 1883-1884, was followed by the Califor nia Mid-Winter Exposition, held in San Francisco in 1894. Following these were the Cotton States and Industrial Exposition, held in Atlanta, Ga., 1895; the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, held in Nashville, Tenn., 1897; the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, held in Omaha, Neb., 1898; the Pan-American Exposition, held in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1901; the South Carolina Interstate and West Indies Exposition, held in Charles ton, S. C., in 1902; the Lewis and Clark Centennial American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, held in Portland, Ore., 1905; the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, held in Hampton Roads, Va., 1907; and the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Ex position, held in Seattle, Wash., in 1909. The first exhibitions that partook on their scale the character of the great in ternational expositions of recent years were the Society of Arts exhibition, held in London in 1851, and the Paris Inter national Exposition of 1855. The Lon don exhibition was visited by 6,039,195 people; there were 13,938 exhibitors; and the receipts amounted to $2,444,718, as against $1600,000 expenditure. The Paris Exposition was a much more elab orate affair. It was held in the Champs Elysees in a vast Palais de l'Industrie, 827 feet long by 354 feet wide, designed and solidly built as a home for similar future exhibitions. Round this perma
nent building were grouped other halls devoted to separate arts and industries. It was the greatest and most artistic exposition held up to that date in any country, and almost 5,000,000 people visited it, while the expenditure amount ed to something like $5,000,000. The next great international exhibition held in London in 1862 left as a perma nent memorial the great iron and glass building known as the Crystal Palace. The exhibitors numbered 28,653; the visitors 6,211,103; and the expenditure amounted to roughly $5,000,000. All these exhibitions were again surpassed by that held in the Champs de Mars, Paris, in 1867. The site in this case oc cupied 171 acres, in the center of which was erected a central palace, rectangu lar with circular ends, 1,608 feet in length and 1,247 feet in width, with a great central dome, and provided with gardens and galleries. Concentric gal leries housed the industries of the vari ous countries, with avenues radiating from the central garden. Grouped round the central palace were nearly a hundred structures devoted to industries and arts. The exhibitors numbered 50,226; the expenditure totaled $5,883, 400; the receipts approached $3,000,000 exclusive of subsidies made by the city and the nation. Nearly 10,000,000 people visited the Exposition, and these included visitors from every country on earth. During the early part of the second half of the 19th century industrial exhibitions, having an inter national character, became the rule and these were held in many cities of Europe and America and other countries, includ ing Constantinople, Dublin, Oporto, Havre, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Mel bourne, Sydney, Moscow, and St. Louis. Under the auspices of the Austrian gov ernment an important international expo sition was held in Vienna in 1873, the vis itors to which numbered 7,254,687. The first Centennial anniversary of the Dec laration of Independence was commemo rated by the International Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. The fourth centennial anniversary of the dis covery of America was signalized by the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and this was followed by the California Mid Winter Exhibition held in 1894 at San Francisco. The Paris Exposition of 1900 touched the high-water mark. The site took in an area of 336 acres in the heart of Paris on both banks of the Seine. The erection of the various build ings cost $27,000,000, and several of them were of a permanent character and of great beauty. The exhibition lasted from April 14 to Nov. 11, and was visited by over 50,000,000 people, of whom in one day, Sept. 6, 600,528 are estimated to have passed through the gates. There were 79,712 exhibitors, 31,946 of them French. Edifices were erected by various nations, and the whole represented a wonderful assem blage of the products of the various in dustries and arts throughout the world. In 1915 an international exhibition was held in San Francisco, Cal., to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. On the day the exhibition was opened its cost is said to have totaled over $50,000,000. The exhibition covered a site of 635 acres, and the construction took nearly four years, beginning in October, 1911. There were eight large central palaces, while avenues and courts divided build ings of lesser dimensions from each other. Thirty-six foreign nations took part and some of them erected pavilions. The international industrial exhibition has thus come to play a great part in the life and business of the modern world, and is showing itself capable of continual development, so that wonder ful as these exhibitions have been in the past, it is evident that they are going to assume still more striking forms in the future.