Tuesday 13 January 2009

The great exhibition of the industry of all nations-1851

Introduction

When queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 started a long period, called “the Victorian Age” in which there were an unprecedented material progress, imperial expansion , political development social reforms with the consequent of a great period of stability and pace.
This features, in fact, were the basis for The development of second industrial revolution, typically dated between 1870 and 1914. It was a second phase of the Industrial Revolution, involving several developments within the chemical, electrical, , petroleum and steel industries. Other key developments during this period include the introduction of steam-driven steel ships, the development of the airplane, Mass production of consumer goods, the perfection of canning, mechanical refrigeration, and other food preservation techniques, and the invention of the telephone. So during this period there was one of the most important exhibition of the industry.

The great exhibition

The events that bring to the Great Exhibition of 1851 were prompted by the success of the French Industrial Exposition of 1844, so it was suggested to the English Government that it would be most advantageous to British industry to have a similar exhibition in London. So the exhibition was intended to raise the level of industrial design, to display production and acquire new and larger markets, to celebrate the modern industrial technology, but also to show at all the people the new invention, lots of this were unknown. It was open in the Crystal Place in Hyde Park for five months and fifteen days from may to October. Crystal Palace was built for these exhibition and it was a palace of glass and steal. Over six million visitors came to see some fourteen thousand exhibitors, of which Great Britain was the most important. At different of the French Exposition “the great exhibition” was very internationally in fact the object came from all the countries, also the colonialist country, like India, Australia, and China. Prince Albert, Victoria’s consort, was an enthusiastic promoter of a self-financing Exhibition of All Nations. He was one of the promoter of the exhibition, in fact he was the president of the Royal Commission for the exhibition and persuaded the government to make these exhibition. The palace was divided in sectors where the states could show own manufactures. There were well represented engineering, raw materials, and scientific instruments, military arms and models, chemicals, naval architecture, philosophical instruments, civil engineering, musical instruments, anatomical models, glass chandeliers, and animal and vegetable manufactures, trains with the new locomotive and the new sewing-machine. There were many electrical applications, although there was as yet little understanding of their potential except in the case of the electric telegraph. A large area was given over to machinery, some of it powered by the Exhibition's own steam engines. The exibitors were Africa, Canada, the West Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, , Persia, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Madeira and Italy, Prussian, Malta, Australia, New Zeeland, China, German and Switzerland. There were the Medieval Court, and the English Sculpture Court, the great British Furniture Court. India showed the own rich ornament. England showed the mineral products; the cotton fabric and carriage courts, leather, furs, minerals and machinery, cotton and woollen power-looms in motion; flax, silk, and lace, rope-making lathes, tools and minerals, marine engines, hydraulic presses, steam machinery.
France was very important, in fact showed its machinery, arms and instruments, and ornamental furniture, occupying two large sectors. Belgium, showed in particular carpets. Austria, showed her beautiful furniture courts; Russia, showed its vases, ornaments and clothes and hats, and at the end the United States, showed in particular the new agricultural machinery like steam-power tractor. In the palace was represented the history of arts and architecture from ancient Egypt to Renaissance. There were a sector where was made a circus and a theatre. After the Great exhibition the Crystal Palace was disassembled and was re-built in Sydeham where it was re-opened in 1854, but in 1936 was destroyed by a fire.
Today the Great Exhibition is became a symbol of the Victorian age.


FEDERICO FALORNI

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