EXPOSITION, Industrial. The promo tion of trade and manufactures by means of collections of works of industry and art has no claim to the merit of novelty. In modern times, however, the idea has been more systematically carried out, and was probably suggested by the good effects produced by two institutions of a like nature— the galleries ,of rare productions of art or nature collected by the wealthy and educated, and the exposure for sale of orna mental and useful articles in the stores of individuals, and more particularly on a large scale at the great fairs which in former times were more important features of commercial enterprise than they now are. The beneficial effect thus derived from the exhibition and com parison of the manufactured products of dif ferent localities could not long escape notice. In England this lcnowledge was brought to practical purposes in the 18th century, when the Society of Arts in 1756-57 not only offered prizes for specimens of manufactures, but ex hibited the works of the competitors. In France an eithibition embracing all kinds of manufac tures was held in the year 1798, and another under the consulate of Bonaparte in 1802, and the gratifying results attained led to the idea of holding them every three years, which was carried out as far as the political troubles of the country would allow. Many exhibitions were subsequently held at different cities on the continent of Europe, and in the British Islands exhibitions of a more or less local nature were held in Dublin, Manchester, Liver pool and Birmingham, as well as in London in the premises of the Society of Arts. All these had been generally successful, but the necessity of having an exhibition on an international scale had become with some a fixed idea. This was first brought fairly before the British public in 1848 by Prince Albert, then president of the Society of Arts. In 1849 the project for an exhibition in which all nations might join began to take a tangible shape; and it was at last determined by government to issue a royal commission to deal with the matter, which was gazetted 3 Jan. 1850. The better to enable the commissioners to enter into contracts and otherwise incur obligations, subscriptions were procured to a guarantee fund, the queen lead ing the list with $5,000. A vast structure of iron and glass, generally designated the Crystal Palace, built from the design of Joseph Paxton, was erected in an incredibly short space of time in Hyde Park, London, and was opened by Her Majesty on I May 1851. The extreme length of the building was 1,851 feet, the width 408 and the height about 64 feet. The entire area was about 19 acres. In the ground floor and galleries there were about eight miles of tables set apart for the exhibitors. The articles sent for eichibition were divided into four great sec tions: ftaw materials, machinery, manufactures and fine arts. The number of exhibitors was about 15,000. The exhibition remained open until 11 October, and the number of visitors dur .ing the 144 days amounted to about 6,170,000. After all expenses were defrayed there was a balance of $700,000 left. The inunense success of the undertaking encouraged the local and national exhibitions of Dublin and New York in 1853 and of Munich in 1854; and the French nation in 1855 opened its first Exposition Uni verselle. The main building was an imposing structure of white stone and of classic architec ture. The buildings were erected in the Champs Elysees, and covered about 24 acres. There were
in all about 24,000 exhibitors, and the contents were pronounced greatly in advance of those exhibited in London in 1851. It was said that continental manufacturers had taken lessons from the British exhibition which the British had failed in fully profiting by, and so exhibited a vast improvement in works in which the latter considered themselves unrivaled. This was fol lowed by the national exhibitions of the Dutch at Haarlem and the Belgians at Brussels, both in 1861, and the following year by the second great international exhibition held in London. It oc cupied a vast brick building, lighted by a roof and two immense cupolas of glass, and erected in the garden of the Horticultural Society at South Kensington. The space covered was about 17 acres. There were 26,348 exhibitors in the industrial division, of whom 8,487 were Brit ish, and in the fine art division 2,305, of whom 990 were British. The aggregate number of visitors from 1 May to 31 October was 6,211,103, giving an average of 36,328 per day. The pro ductions, which came from almost all parts of the globe, were divided into 40 classes, and in cluded manufactures of all kinds— machinery, chemical products, railway plant and ordinary vehicles, animal and vegetable products used in food or manufacture, architecture, painting, sculpture, engraving, etc. This exhibition was also eminently successful and enabled the public to judge of the progress or shortcomings of British home manufactures and art as com pared with others. In 1865 a rather important exhibition was held in Dublin which was a pecuniary failure. The second French Interna tional Exhibition was opened on 1 April 1867, and closed on 3 November. On 1 May 1871 the first of the British annual international exhibi tions of fine arts and industry was opened by the Prince of Wales. On 1 May 1873 the first Austrian international exhibition was opened by the Emperor Franz Josef with great pomp and ceremony. The building was situated in the Prater, or, as it may be called, the park of Vienna and was 2,940 feet in length, with an average breadth of 570 feet. A great exhibition was opened by President Grant at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, upon the occasion of the centennial festival of the American Declaration of Independence. It occupied 60 acres and had nearly 10,000,000 visitors. A third French In ternational Exhibition was held at Paris in 1878; area occupied 140 acres; visitors 17,000, 000. A fourth French International Exhibition was opened by President Carnot in 1889 to commemorate the centenary of the Revolution, the visitors to which numbered over 25,000,000. One of its chief features -.vas the Eiffel tower, of iron, 984 feet high. The series of exhibi tions which were held at South Kensington, London, included The Fisheries (1883), The Health (1884), The Inventions (1885) and the Exhibition of Colonial and Indian products (1886) ; the latter of which was visited by 5,550,749 visitors. Besides these, exhibitions have been held in Edinburgh (1886), at which there were 2,769,632 visitors; Manchester (1887) at which there were 4,765,000 visitors; and Glasgow (1888), with 5,748,379 visitors. In 1899-1900 a huge International Exhibition was held at Paris, but, though visited by about 47,000,000 persons, was not a financial success. It occupied the Champ de Mars and extensive areas on both sides of the Seine.