The World Exhibition

Picture this: You're a young girl living in London, you come from a well-off family and you would like to know what the girls in Paris are wearing, what do you do? The answer is simple: Go to the Internet. Now what if I gave you the same scenario and said that the year was 1889 for example, therefore there is no Internet yet, the answer is still pretty simple: Go to the World's Fair in Paris, after all that's what the exhibition stood for.

It was basically a large convention where everything was put on show, including how metal structures could be built in a new way such as the one below:

Eiffel Tower, Paris, unveiled during the 1889 World's Fair

and how an entire building could be made almost entirely of glass like this one:

The Crystal Palace, 1851, built as the main building which housed the Great Exhibition of London
for more information on this building check out my other post:

These buildings are both considered to be great feats of engineering and they were both erected for a World Exposition.

As you can imagine, these exhibitions attracted huge throngs of people simply because it was so hard to gather information on a particular item or trend and these expos made it possible to visit various vendors of the same kind and compare prices and materials. Something each country tried to do was have at least ONE innovative exhibit, whether it was the use of large plates of glass, a building made entirely out of riveted iron or the astonishing sight of an entire city lit up by electricity as revealed in the Chicago exhibit of 1893.

Chicago World Expo with electric light, 1893

These fairs were not meant for just clothes or furniture, they brought together the best of the best from around the world. Clothes makers. carpenters, jewellers, inventors. during the industrial age these were mainly known for all the great inventions and advancements that were shown. Some of these fairs are still held to this very day, however they obviously don't have as much impact on the world as they did back in 1851.

References:

World's fair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. World's fair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_fair#Industrialization_.281851.E2.80.931938.29. [Accessed 25 October 2013].

Unknown, (1889), Eiffel Tower, World's Fair [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Eiffel_tower_at_Exposition_Universelle,_Paris,_1889.jpg
[Accessed 25 October 13].

Unknown, (1851), Crystal Palace, Great Exhibition [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Crystal_Palace.PNG [Accessed 25 October 13].

Unknown, (1893), Chicago Expo in light [ONLINE]. Available at: http://haygenealogy.com/hay/1893fair/1893fair-night3.jpg [Accessed 25 October 13].