The Book of the Fair - Chapter 14



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Chapter the Fourteenth:
Electricity

Alluding to the huge manufacturing systems of Great Britain, her 
innumerable railroads and her ubiquitous marine, it was remarked by 
Emerson that steam is the half of an Englishman. If this be so, it may be 
said with equal truth that electricity is the half of an American, for 
while the earlier discoveries in electric science were made in other 
lands, no nation has displayed such aptness and ingenuity in adapting them 
to practical use. Here the patient and ill requited toil of Samuel Morse 
has fructified into a network of telegraph lines, which carry the tidings 
of the world with the swiftness of thought to every section of the 
republic; here was conceived the plan for the first of our submarine 
cables, and here was invented the telephone, by means of which many 
millions of spoken words are carried daily over the wires. And so with 
apparatus for lighting, motion, the transmission of power, and other 
purposes, our electric lamps and dynamos, our motors and cars being now 
exported to every quarter of the earth. 

And yet today we know no more of what electricity is than did Theophrastus 
or the elder Pliny, both of whom speak of the property of amber for 
attracting such light substances as straws and leaves. We have learned 
that it is not a fluid, as was formerly supposes, that it is not matter, 
any more than are light and heat; but when we say that it is a force, or 
rather the cause of a force, we have said about all that has thus far been 
discovered as to this the most puissant of nature's potencies. It is not 
until recent years that electric power has been applied to practical 
purposes apart from the telegraph, or indeed was supposed to be capable of 
such application. In 1882, for instance, was opened the first central 
station for lighting street and buildings; in 1893 there were nearly 1,300 
stations with 2,500,000 lamps. In 1881 the first isolated plant was 
erected on the shore of Blue Mountain lake; in 1893 there were 3,500 
isolated plants with 1,443,000 lights. In 1885 was built the first 
electric railway with its mile or two of track; 

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in 1893 there were 435 electric railways in operation, with 5,000 miles of 
track and 8,500 motor cars. In many steamship lines on ocean, lake, and 
river vessels are lighted by electricity, while in warfare, in mining, 
metallurgy, mechanics, and in the transmission of power for various 
purposes, it is rapidly coming into use. All this is fully illustrated at 
the Fair, where electricity is almost ubiquitous, for there is hardly a 
corner of the buildings or grounds where its agency is not manifest in one 
form or another. 

To the majority of Exposition sight-seers the most attractive feature in 
connection with the department of Electricity is the illumination of 
grounds and buildings, of fountains and waterways, forming, with the play 
of search-lights, a more striking illustration of the wonders wrought by 
this science than any mere collection of machinery could possibly be. The 
decorative lighting of the grounds is concentrated chiefly on the main 
plaza, the shore line of the central basin, its border of flower beds, and 
the cornice lines of the buildings, rising to a uniform height above the 
court. The outer surface of the Administration buildings, with its dome 
and corona, are also traced in lines of light. Elsewhere exterior 
illumination is restricted to the Wooded island, to loggias and 
colonnades, to Festival hall and the terminal railway station. 

As to interior illumination, the following description by the chief of the 
department may be of interest: "The two problems of lighting, by far the 
most difficult presented, have been the lighting of the Art galleries, 
with their two miles of reflecting screens, and the lighting of the dome 
of the Administration building, which is larger by far than the dome of 
the capitol at Washington. On the floor of this dome, which is octagonal, 
there are in the eight angles as many great spreading candelabra of 
special and beautiful design, each bearing 50 lamps. High up, at the 
spring of the interior dome, is a gallery running clear around it. The 
gallery has a metal railing, and upon this railing are 56 seven-light 
standards, forming a great corona of light 120 feet in diameter. Far up 
above, and through the opening in the top of the false dome, is seen the 
beautiful painting upon the ceiling of the outer dome, as illuminated by a 
circle of arc lights which are themselves hidden from view between the two 
domes." 

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"An effective piece of lighting appears in the Fisheries building. The 
large circular pavilion upon the east is used as an aquarium. Around the 
building are arranged continuous concentric rows of great tanks. The sides 
of these tanks are or clear glass, and are continued in the ceiling by 
stained glass screens, so that the observer walks in a covered corridor 
the sides of which are of glass, and through which can be seen the 
representatives of all the finny tribes disporting themselves in their 
native element. No lights are visible; but the tanks are lighted by 
hundreds of incandescent lamps placed under screens above the tanks, so 
that the light does not strike the eye, but is diffused throughout the 
water, which is illumined as effectively as at noonday." 

In the illuminated city of the Fair the attraction is not in the myriads 
of arc and incandescent lamps, with their elaborate settings, nor in the 
circular electroliers, some of them suspended, as in the hall of 
Manufactures, 150 feet above ground. Rather is it the part that each one 
plays in the general effect, the special feature that its light 
accentuates, all contributing to give to this wondrous display the aspect 
of a veritable fairyland, to raise it, for the moment, almost beyond the 
realm of matter. 

Let us imagine ourselves standing at eventide in the central court, now 
almost a solitude, haunted by the shadows of deserted temples cast athwart 
the plaza. Toward the east darkness is settling over the waters of the 
lake. Northward and to the west a heavy pall of smoke broods over the 
great midcontinent metropolis, and far to the south the lurid flames of a 
blast furnace are faintly visible on the dusky horizon. Suddenly a beam of 
light shoots like a falling star from the lofty dome of the Administration 
building, and a moment later its symmetrical outlines stand out in tracery 
of fire. At its base is a circling wheel of light, and a hundred torches 
further relieve the black abyss beyond. Meanwhile a thousand lamps, 
clustered around the central avenue, have turned the night into day. Thus 
also the other great buildings that encircle the court assume their robes 
of light, with pillars, porticos, and colonnades blending in weird, yet 
brilliant perspective, like the threshold of an enchanted palace. 

From the summit of the Manufactures building a pyramid of dazzling light 
is cast on the dome of the Administration building, throwing into strong 
relief its delicate tracery of gold and white. Then in swiftly changing 
streams of white, green, and blue, purple, 

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yellow and scarlet, three search-lights are turned simultaneously on the 
central court, the basin, the MacMonnies fountain, and the statuary here 
displayed in lavish profusion. In the heroic statue of the republic, with 
its background of double columns shining like pillars of Carrara marble, 
every inch of its golden surface glitters beneath the piercing rays. 
Presently the search-lights sweep the horizon, one of them resting for a 
moment on the graceful figure of Diana, poised against the sky as though 
suspended in mid air. Another is turned toward the lake, casting its 
bright sheen on the waters of Michigan, and striking the sails of a 
passing vessel, whose white wings slowly vanish from sight. Gradually the 
scene grows warmer in its wealth of coloring, and the lights and shades 
more intense in contrast, the copses and groves of wooded island, with its 
garb of verdure, throwing their shadows across the tracery of fire. 

But the climax of all this brilliant display is in the electric fountains 
at the head of the lagoon in front of the Administration building. Here 
are light effects of surpassing loveliness, in rich varying hues, sprays, 
jets, and columns of water appearing as though ablaze in the glow of these 
powerful electric currents. Between them is the MacMonnies fountain, its 
waters iridescent as the rainbow, the centre-piece with its group of 
figures resembling a phantom ship with phantom crew, beautiful but with an 
unearthly beauty. Under these changing colors the vessel seems to float, 
now on a sea of white, and again on a rose-colored expanse, on frosted 
silver or on molten gold. Near by gondolas and electric launches speed 
swiftly to and fro across the lagoon, breaking its resplendent surface 
into a thousand glittering fragments, while from the plaza strains of 
music are wafted into the still night air, and above all is heard the 
ceaseless murmur of the waves, breaking on the shore adjacent, as with the 
low sad monotone of ocean. 

Such is the entertainment offered by night at the Fair, but on no two 
nights alike, presenting a new combination of brilliant effects at each 
illumination, and varied at times with fireworks, the latter, as it would 
appear, somewhat out of place amid this marvellous scenic display, and 
more than once threatening serious disaster to the Exposition buildings 
and their rich contents. No wonder that these artistic glories of the 
night, surpassing even the spectacular marvels of the day, brought 
visitors to the grounds by scores of thousands, and to the management a 
goodly increase of revenue. Under the glow of myriads of lamps the 
architectural symmetry of the design is displayed to excellent advantage, 
the uniform cornice level of the buildings, sixty feet above ground, 
standing clearly forth in tracery of incandescent lights, while encircling 
the basin near its water level an unbroken circle of vari-colored jets, 
each reflected from its glittering surface, gives to the scene a 
brilliance almost too dazzling for human eye to rest upon. 

From this brief description of the Fair by night let us turn to the 
exhibits proper of the department of Electricity, for here also are many 
attractions for every class of visitors. While some portions of the 
Exposition are largely occupied with technical collections, such as are of 
special interest only to those with whose business or studies they are 
connected, here is one that represents the greatest and yet the youngest 
and most progressive of the sciences, one whose marvels, though surpassing 
the wonders of dreamland, are presently to be excelled by others yet in 
store. 

Passing from the railway station along the northern side of the central 
court the visitor will observe in the spacious portico of a building on 
his left, a colossal statue mounted on 

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a pedestal, and on the frieze above it the following inscription: Eripuit 
Coelo Fulmen Sceptrumque Tyrannis. 

In the statue he will recognize that of the great philosopher who, if he 
did not, as the epitaph would have us believe, wrest from the tyrant his 
sceptre, was the first to steal from heaven its lightening. Passing 
through the portal and beneath the arch which encircles it, we find 
ourselves in the hall of Electricity, an edifice somewhat daring in 
design, but with such elements of the picturesque as it special uses would 
permit. Before making further mention of this structure, let us pause for 
a moment within its portico, for here is one of the main architectural 
features of the composition. 

In describing this gem of artistic workmanship, with the facade to which 
it gives emphasis, I cannot do better than adopt the words of one of its 
artificers, Henry Van Brunt, of the Kansas City firm of Van Brunt and 
Howe, to whom I am partially indebted for my sketch of other Exposition 
buildings. 

"On the south side," he says, "it was necessary to make a concession to 
that spirit of grandeur and ceremony which should prevail around the great 
court of the Exposition. Accordingly the vertical line, predominant 
elsewhere in the building as a foil to its long, low, horizontal mass, is 
here subordinate to the spirit of repose. To this end the campaniles on 
the corners are set back from the front, but connected with it by gabled 
pavilions, and the principal entrance on this side is treated as a 
triumphal arch, crowned with a classic pediment containing an escutcheon, 
which bears the electromagnet as a symbol of electricity, and is supported 
on each side by a female figure representing the two principal industries 
connected with this science - electric lighting and the telegraph. Above, 
in contrast with the somewhat fantastic movement of the skylines 
elsewhere, rises a solid elevated attic, forming a severe horizontal 
outline against the sky. This central mass is buttressed on each side by 
great consoles, supporting emblematic statues resting on pedestals, and 
embellished with medallions of Morse and Vail, the American inventors of 
the electric telegraph." 

In the centre of the great portal is the statue of Franklin, by Carl Rohl-
Smith, fifteen feet in height, and one of the best conceptions ever 
presented of the great discoverer, his gaze turned upward toward the 
lowering clouds, in one hand the kite, and in the other the key of which 
all the world has read. Upon the frieze are inscribed in alphabetical 
order around the building the names of more than threescore electricians 
of all nationalities, 

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whose names have become historic, the fame of those who are still among 
the living resting upon the exhibits within. 

In preparing the plan of the Electricity building a space of twenty-three 
feet was adopted as the unit of measurement, fifteen of these modules 
forming the interior width of the building, and five that of the 
longitudinal nave which forms its central feature, the latter intersected 
by a transept of equal width and height. On each side of the nave are 
aisles, one module in width, and above is a series of galleries connected 
by bridges, and to which access is afforded by spacious stairways on 
either side of the principal entrances. To provide for the central areas 
occupied by nave and transept, both are unencumbered with columns, their 
pitched roofs being supported by arched trusses of sufficient height to 
admit of clear-story windows, and with a range of skylights at the foot of 
the pitch. Flat roofs with skylights cover the remainder of the building. 

The area of Electricity hall, apart from galleries, is little more than 
five acres, fronting on the main court 350 feet, and extending about twice 
that distance length-wise toward the lagoon. Hence in this structure, 
small by comparison with its neighbors, but only by comparison, it was a 
part of the design to give to it such features as should mask its 
inferiority of size. But this could not be secured by giving additional 
height to the curtain walls, which must not exceed sixty feet from ground 
to cornice. The bays were therefore fashioned so as to furnish at frequent 
intervals bases for towers, and between them pilasters of the Corinthian 
order, projecting boldly from the piers, and ending in pedestals 
supporting banner-staves, which served also for a continuous series of 
electric lights. Further to emphasize the vertical lines of the building, 
in the centre of its two longer facades the intercepting transept ends in 
a pavilion, flanked with towers, upon which rests an open belvedere with 
rounded attic, supporting a cupola, and ending in candelabra of electric 
lights reflected from the overhanging canopy nearly 200 feet above ground. 
In front of the pavilions are porticos, with columns more than forty feet 
high, and also of the Corinthian order. On the north side, where the 
proximity of the lagoon permits more freedom of style, the portal is 
placed midway between two semi-circular projections, the towers on either 
side resembling those of the east and west pavilions, while on the panels 
of the arch are recumbent figures typical of discovery and investigation. 
Elsewhere the decorative scheme suggests the purposes to which the 
building is devoted, helping with the tall campaniles and their 
intermediate domes, to relieve a too strict conformity to classic models. 

While the main object of the Electrical department, contained for the 
first time in a building of its own, is to display, with competitive 
tests, the working of electrical apparatus in practical use, it is also 
intended to present a history of this science from its very inception, 
with models, and in some instances the actual appliances used by the 
earlier inventors. Of the plant located in Machinery hall mention has 
already been made, and in addition to lighting its power is applied to 
manifold purposes, among them for the operation of an elevated railway 
within the grounds, for mining, milling, and metal work, for exhibits of 
electricity used for artistic effect, and in a word for all the wide field 
in which electric science has gained a permanent foothold. 

Says the chief of the department: "The general scheme to be carried out is 
twofold. The exhibits will be practical, and they will also be popular. 
Every electrical concern and enterprise of any importance in 

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the world will be represented. By means of the practical arrangement of 
the exhibits, by means of their scientific classification, covering the 
entire field of electrical science, by the opportunities afforded to 
compare the results of the more prominent electrical systems in supplying 
electric service for light, power, heat, and commercial purposes, with 
each of these different systems in actual operation side by side, and 
almost under identical conditions, great popular object lessons will be 
presented, which will not only be intensely interesting to the eye and 
sense, but will also be highly educational to the electrical engineer, the 
central station manager, the manufacturer, the student, and the public in 
general. The final object is the enlightenment of the people as to the 
progress of a branch of science and industry yet scarcely out of its 
cradle, and to foreshadow the possibilities of its future." 

In the centre of the building, and forming a part of the exhibits of the 
General Electric company, is the Edison tower, the so-called tower of 
light, its shaft encircled by thousands of miniature lamps, arranged in 
unique innumerable pieces of crystal, and at its base a pavilion, 
surrounded by a circular peristyle, and containing a number of 
electroliers and globes exhibited by a Pittsburgh company, these also 
illumined at night by electricity. Thus, when at the silent touch of an 
unseen hand, the twoer from base to apex is arrayed in robes of 
scintillating and many colored lights, we have here the very incarnation 
of electric science. 

In the company's display are illustrated nearly all the uses to which 
electricity is put, their collection including machinery and apparatus of 
every description from the smallest of lamps to the most powerful of 
dynamos, and from electric toys to motors and motor cars. West of the 
tower of light is a section containing 2,500 specimens of Edison 
incandescent lamps, such as are made at the company's works at Harrison, 
New Jersey, and as declared by the highest courts of justice in Europe and 
the United States, the only lamps that are lawfully manufactured. Lamps 
are also shown in different stages of construction, illustrating the 
experiments of the inventor from their first inception to the perfected 
mechanism of the present day. In one of the compartments is apparatus for 
decorative purposes, so arranged that the quantity of light consumed can 
be regulated and registered by meters. In this section also is the first 
dynamo for incandescent lighting constructed by Edison in 1880 at his 
works at Menlo park, and near it is one of the dynamos used, some ten 
years ago, at a New York station of the Edison Electric Illuminating 
company. Though both are now somewhat out of date, they were regarded at 
the time as among the marvels of the age. The isolated incandescent 
lighting systems, such as are adapted to the use of hotels, theatres, and 
large business buildings are shown in a separate group. 

In its eastern section the company displays its Thomson-Houston arc-
lighting apparatus in a larger oaken pavilion, containing also carbons of 
various grades arrayed in geometric figures, with dynamos and other 
appliances. Elsewhere in this section are the experimental apparatus used 
by Elihu Thomson for high voltage discharge, with portions of trees that 
have been struck by lightning showing the path of the bolt. 

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Among the objects of the department of Electricity was to illustrate the 
possibilities of that science as applied to mining and milling ores, not 
only in the transmission of power but in its direct application to 
purposes for which it could be made available. All this is demonstrated in 
the company's exhibit of machinery and appliances, including engines for 
hauling rock, mining pumps, hoists, drills, dumps, pressure blowers, air 
compressors, and centrifugal fans, with blocks of stone to show the 
working of the drills, and a large water tank to display the operations of 
the pumps. Thus is scientific mining being gradually revolutionized 
through the use of electric apparatus, which is also largely availed of 
for the working and refining of metals. Such machinery is rapidly gaining 
in favor throughout the mineral regions of the continent, from the coal 
mines of Pennsylvania to the gold and silver mines of Colorado, 
California, and Mexico. In addition to their more economic and expeditious 
work, electric appliances can be used to advantage at all seasons of the 
year, for the current in the wires is never checked by frost, and suffers 
no loss from condensation. 

Southwest of the Edison tower is the company's office, and adjacent to 
this its display of electric motors for railway purposes, for power 
transmission, and for general application, with a specimen of such as are 
used in the electric launches which ply on the waterways of the lake. 
There are also derricks, hoists, and a large collection of railway 
apparatus, with photographs displaying among other objects of interest the 
first electric railway built, as I have said, in 1885. Elsewhere in the 
company's collection are magnets, induction coils, converters, and 
transformers; instruments of precision, voltmeters, ammeters, and Watt 
meters; dynamos with direct and alternating currents, and for duplex 
telegraphic service, and apparatus used for war vessels, and for 
electrical construction and repair. 

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Upon the tracks west of the terminal station the company has on exhibition 
what is claimed to be the most powerful electric locomotive in the world. 
It weighs thirty tons, is more than sixteen feet long and eleven in 
height, and has two motors, one at each axle, supplying the power. The 
locomotive is substantially constructed, its cab being of sheet iron with 
a fine interior finish of hard wood. Although the engine has been 
especially devised for railway work, it is proposed to introduce it upon 
suburban and elevated roads, and upon switching and short freight lines. 
An electrical air compressor furnishes power for brakes and whistles. 

In truth there are few exhibitors more fully represented in the various 
branches of the Fair. By this company was furnished the equipment for the 
elevated intramural railroad, with power sufficient to keep in motion on 
its road-bed eighteen trains at a time, and with accommodation for several 
thousand passengers. The electric launches on the lagoons are propelled, 
as I have said, by its motors, the power being furnished by storage 
batteries beneath the deck. The huge iron girders and trusses in the 
Manufactures and other buildings, the monster locomotives in 
Transportation hall, and the heavier groups of statuary were all placed in 
position by its motors, which are also largely used for supplying 
machinery with motive force. Finally the electric fountains and two of the 
search-lights used for illuminating purposes came from the company's 
workshops. 

Adjacent to the exhibits of the General Electric company are those of the 
Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company, by which was installed in 
Machinery hall the great power plant used for lighting the Exposition and 
buildings, capable of supplying simultaneously nearly 200,000 lamps with a 
total capacity of more than 3,000,000 candle-power. In the collection of 
appliances for arc and incandescent lighting, prominence is given to its 
alternating current lighting apparatus; but here and elsewhere are fully 
illustrated all the more recent improvements in the various branches of 
applied electricity. An interesting feature in its display is 

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a profile of Columbus, with decorative scrolls and letters, traced in 
incandescent lamps against a background of terra cotta on the southern 
wall of the Electricity building. 

Elsewhere in its 15,000 feet of floor space, and north of the Edison 
tower, is a darkened room for the display of what are termed high 
potential and high frequency phenomena. Adjacent to this we enter, through 
an archway richly colored in cream and gold, a section containing several 
of the first motors fashioned by the Austrian inventor, Nikola Tesla, with 
apparatus showing the results obtained in the use of high frequency 
alternating currents. Here also is fully illustrated the Tesla polyphase 
alternating current system for the transmission of power, including a 500 
horse-power generator, the switch board at the generating station being 
connected with the one at he receiving or distributing station by an 
overhead four-wire circuit. The insulators that support this circuit are 
of the pattern designed for the San Antonio Light and Power company of 
Pomona, California, by which power up to 10,000 volts can be transmitted 
for 28 miles by an overhead circuit of bare copper wire. 

In its southern section the company has a collection of street railroad 
apparatus, with two powerful multipolar generators, one driven by a 
compound engine, and the other by a belt, with cars equipped with motors 
of the single reduction type, beneath which are galleries permitting 
visitors to examine their interior mechanism. There are also lines of 
switches, ammeters, voltmeters, and circuit breakers, with minor exhibits 
pertaining to the construction and working of such electric railway 
systems as those in which the company's cars carry their thousands daily 
between Chicago and its Fair. 

A large area in the southeastern portion of the hall is occupied by the 
Western Electric company, of Chicago, whose exhibits consist of the 
apparatus which it manufactures, and the various spectacular effects 
produced thereby. The column which flashes forth zigzag lightning, around 
it revolving balls of fire, is one of the ornamental gems of the 
Exposition, and divides attention with the Egyptian temple whose exterior 
walls are decorated with native figures engaged in the manufacture and 
operation of the telephone, fire alarm, electric apparatus, and other of 
the company's devices. Egyptians are manipulating cables, dipping reels of 
wire into insulating baths, and bearing to their queen, typical of 
Chicago, lamps, dynamos, motors, batteries, and other appliances. 

The temple is colored in warm roseate hues, with frieze of old gold and 
stencilling in Egyptian designs, while lotus blossoms and cut-glass 
jewels, lighted by hidden incandescent lamps, form the most striking 
decorations of the main entrances. The interior is divided into two 
compartments, whose rich ceiling and columns of glass are illumined by 
more than 1,000 changing lights, their decorative scheme including the 
lotus, the eagle, and the hooded serpent. Around the walls are show-cases, 
lined with red plush, and containing apparatus of the company's 
manufacture, as switchboards, receiving instruments, recorders, 
galvanometers, a stenographic machine for 

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the use of the blind, a printing machine for telegraph operators, district 
telegraph and police call boxes, electric bells and buttons for hotels, 
elevators, and residences, in short, a collection covering almost the 
entire range of electric supplies. 

But the Egyptian temple and the electric tower by no means complete the 
company's display. Close at hand is a switchboard composed of slabs of 
Tennessee marble mounted in bronzed copper, from which issue the currents 
which supply both these structures, its reverse side showing the various 
connections, and the entrance and distribution of the circuits which 
originate in the company's plant at Machinery hall, half a mile away. Near 
the switchboard are various machines used by the company in manufacturing 
processes, including those which make nuts and screws, which insulate 
wires with silk and paper, braid the stands of conductors, and wind them 
upon spools, and perform a score of operations formerly done by hand. A 
compete exhibit of telephone apparatus is a feature of the display, 
including machines made by its factories in New York, Chicago, and 
Antwerp, and those constructed for the American Bell Telephone company. 
There is a large array of switchboards, showing the different styles 
fashioned within the past decade, with reels of cable covered with lead, 
and insulated with paper instead of cotton and paraffine. 

In this section is the tabulating machine used in United States census 
work, and an ingenious mechanism whose long finger, terminating in an 
incandescent bulb, is continually writing in air the words, Western 
Electric company. Batteries and incandescent lamps are elsewhere grouped, 
and a portion of the space is occupied by a small scenic theatre 
presenting an alpine landscape, over which are cast the changing hues of 
night, dawn, midday, and sunset, thus showing that with skillful 
manipulation electric light may be shorn of its coldness and hardness, and 
endowed with all the rich colors of the natural rays. In a historic 
collection is a large portrait of Moses G. Farmer, and a handbill dated 
1847, advertising the public exhibition of his recently invented electro-
magnetic engine. The Farmer electric cars and incandescent lamps are still 
among the specialties manufactured by the company. 

Adjoining the exhibits of the Western Electric company is a classic 
structure, with two large porticos, representing the American Bell 
Telephone company. At its main entrance is a broad stairway, guarded by 
two figures of the sphinx, over which are large candelabra of bronze, and 
a row of Ionic pillars opening into a court containing fountains of 
tasteful design. Beyond is the temple proper, octagonal in shape, through 
which one may pass to the opposite entrance, or examine the collections in 
either of the side corridors. 

On one of the walls are tabulated statements showing the growth of the 
company's business from 1881 to 1893, and from which it appears that in 
the former year it employed 1,400 persons, and in the latter nearly 10,
000; that at the present time it operates more than 440,000 miles of wire 
in and between the larger cities, and that 552,000 of its telephones are 
in constant use. The map on which is represented its system of long-
distance telephones indicates that Boston, Washington, and Milwaukee are 
at its extremities, with lines between all connecting points of 
importance. 

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Telephones for the use of marine divers and those who travel by water are 
also on exposition. 

In a series of cases covering the entire length of one of the corridors is 
a historic collection, representing the essential features of the 
telephone first constructed by Alexander Graham Bell in January, 1875, 
with subsequent improvements; also the Blake transmitter, the Hughes 
microphone of 1878, and other inventions bearing upon his patents. In the 
opposite corridor is a central telephone office, with a dozen or more of 
operators, where one may observe all the workings of what to most of us 
has long since ceased to be a mystery. Here is also a series of drawings 
and photographs, showing the underground construction of telephone systems 
now generally adopted in the larger cities. Within the inner chamber of 
the pavilion is a life size painting of Bell, and a gallery of photographs 
showing the buildings owned or occupied by company. In the north portico 
beyond is a long-distance telephone connecting with New York, its workings 
daily exhibited and tested. 

West of the space allotted to the Telephone company is pavilion of Grecian 
architecture, whose ceiling is colored in imitation of the mid-day sky. 
Without is a collection of magnets, coils, and dynamos, among the last 
being a generator such as is used in the Calumet Hecla copper mines. A 
space of 30 feet along the western side is occupied by the largest 
switchboard in Electricity hall, specially constructed for exposition, 30 
feet in height, and with a capacity of ten circuits and 30,000 lights. The 
company has also an exhibit of switchboards for arc and incandescent 
lights, with electric motors of many kinds, and a large assortment of 
carbons. 

The Fort Wayne Electric company, whose specialty is the manufacture of 
appliances used in the Wood system, has a large section in this vicinity 
in which are exhibited dynamos, magnets, generators, switches, motors, 
meters, and arc, incandescent, and search lights. Here also is displayed 
the first dynamo built by James J. Wood, in May, 1879, weighing only 
eighty-six pounds, together with the various lights used in several cities 
of metropolitan rank in which the Wood system has been largely adopted. 

In the groups above mentioned are represented the more prominent 
manufactures of electric apparatus and supplies, their collections 
occupying the southern half of the Electricity building, and a portion of 
its northern section. But there are also numerous exhibits of a special, 
and some of them of a specially interesting character extending in 
unbroken array along the walls. Before describing them, in conjunction 
with the gallery display, let us first see what foreign countries have to 
show on the ground floor of the hall. 

Among the German exhibits, occupying a liberal space in the northeastern 
portion of the building, may first be mentioned those of the Allgemeine 
Elektricitatz-Gesellschaft, or General Electrical society, whose 
headquarters are in Berlin, but with numerous branches elsewhere in 
Germany and other European countries. In the centre of its space are 
machines for the combined transmission of power by continuous and 
multiphase currents, the former being supplied by a large electro-motor, 
furnishing 100 horse-power and making about 500 revolutions to the minute. 
By means of such currents power has been transmitted from Lauffen on the 
Neckar to 

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Frankfort-on-the-Main, more than 100 miles apart, this being the longest 
distance to which electric power has been transmitted, though by no means 
the limit of distance. 

An interesting display is the stage-lighting apparatus, so arranged that 
its action may be observed from any point of view. This is the result of 
many years of study and practical experience in collaboration with 
specialists, and is now being largely used in German and other theatres. 
By it are produced the broad glare of noonday, the glow of sunset, the 
silvery shades of moonlight, and the grey hues of dawn, with lightning 
flashes and other intermittent phenomena, all by a single instrument 
connected with colored lamps. Of arc and incandescent lamps there is also 
a number of specimens, with motors and materials for electric railways, 
apparatus for storage batteries, conductors, conducting and insulating 
materials in many varieties, measuring and controlling instruments, 
electric clocks, railroad signals, and appliances for heating and cooking. 

By Siemens and Halske of Berlin is exhibited a railway carriage, driven by 
a three phase current motor, the current transmitted from a distance, and 
reduced by a transformer to the strength required. There are also arc 
lamps which burn, as is claimed, without flickering, with a clearer, 
steadier light than those in ordinary use; there are surveying and 
measuring instruments, and in the gallery is a collection of historic 
apparatus of which mention is made elsewhere in this chapter. 

Among the exhibits by the Nuremberg firm of Schuckert and company the most 
remarkable are the searchlights on the roof of the Manufactures and other 
buildings, as described on a former page. Felten and Guilleaume of 
Carlswerk have a large assortment of wires and cables in coils and cross 
sections, many of them arranged in the form of pyramids, with barbed, 
braided, and other wires of many varieties and in many forms. Hartmann and 
Brown have numerous specimens of apparatus, manufactured at their works 
near Frankfort on the Main, where are produced surveying and measuring 
instruments, galvanometers, magnetometers, Watt-meters, volt-meters, 
ammeters, pyrometers, and whatsoever other meters are known to electrical 
science, with complete equipments for laboratories, and mechanisms for 
applying magnetic tests to iron. Elsewhere in the German section are 
machines and lamps for electric lighting, telegraph and telephone 
instruments and appliances, engraving and electro-plating apparatus, and 
miscellaneous exhibits, as of burglar and fire-alarm signals, lightning 
rods, and electric toys. 

The French section adjoining on the north the exhibits of the General 
Electric company, contains both national and private collections, the 
former chiefly in the northwestern corner of the main floor. Here are 
explained the telegraph and telephone systems organized and operated under 
government control, and there are self-acting instruments registering 
changes in temperature, atmospheric moisture, and direction of wind. In 
one of the cases are machines for testing cables, for ascertaining the 
resistance of electric currents, and for measuring their speed. The 
multiplex telegraphic system of E. Mercadier, director of the polytechnic 
school, is illustrated by a collection of apparatus. By means 

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of rapid alternate currents it is possible to use the same wires with 
multiplex and simple instruments, the former transmitting twelve telegrams 
in one direction, or transmitting and receiving the same number 
simultaneously. Mercadier and others have several multiplex printing 
machines, and there are automatic transmitters, a sextuple telegraph, and 
a model Morse station of four lines. A curious instrument called the 
Caselli autographic telegraph, patented in 1864, has for it object, as yet 
only partially realized, the facsimile transmission of writing. 

On the walls of this section are maps showing the routes of telegraph and 
telephone lines, and diagrams illustrating the development of the 
telegraphic system since 1851. As the exhibit is specially made by the 
department of posts and telegraphs, pictures are also shown of the 
quarters occupied by the government telegraph force. This consists of 
about 900 employees, the department representing a system which embraces 
178,000 miles of wire, and despatches 40,000,000 a year of telegrams. To 
the telephonic systems there are more than 11,000 subscribers. 

Among the private exhibits are large collections of apparatus for 
lighting, power transmission, and miscellaneous purposes. A prominent 
feature is the appliances used for lighthouses, with the most powerful of 
reflectors and revolving beacon lamps, casting a blinding glare as seen at 
night in operation. Of special interest also is the electric cupola and 
furnace of M. Moissan, in which that young French scientist has developed 
a heat up to 9,000 degrees of Fahrenheit. By A. Piat and Sons of Paris and 
Soissons is displayed a hydro-electric riveter, driven by a combination of 
hydraulic pressure and electricity, and largely utilized for bridge work. 
For this and other riveting machines manufactured by the firm special 
advantages are claimed, some of them having been used by the department of 
public works, as for the erection of 1,000 feet spans over the river 
Loire. Elsewhere in the French section are exhibits similar to those of 
Germany and the United States, together with such scientific curiosities 
as electric matches, musical appliances, and apparatus for towing vessels, 
based on the principle of magnetic adherence. 

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In the British section, west of the French exhibits, the most attractive 
feature is the collection of telegraphic apparatus contributed by the 
government, dating back to 1837, including the first specimen of 
underground telegraphs, and the earlier needle and other primitive 
instruments, all contrasting somewhat strangely with the modern appliances 
at their side. Add to these a few private exhibits, with those of the 
London branch of the General Electric company, and we have about all that 
Great Britain has to show us in this department. Among the former may be 
mentioned the display of the Homacoustic Speaking Tube company, consisting 
of attachments for voice tubes, and a homacoustic commutator with electric 
signalling device. 

Near the northwest corner of Electricity hall is a tasteful structure, the 
purpose of which, except for ornament, does not appear until approaching 
close to it we find here a tower-like fabric composed almost entirely of 
carbons, cored and solid, and varying from an eighth of an inch to three 
inches in diameter. This is the exhibit of the Vienna firm of Hardtmuth 
and company, one of the largest of European manufacturers, and by which 
have been overcome the more serious difficulties in supplying a carbon 
adapted to modern conditions. Though more expensive than those of American 
make, it is claimed that this is more than compensated by superior 
efficiency, and thus it is that from the agents of the firm large 
quantities were purchased for use on the incandescent circuits within the 
Exposition grounds, for the illumination of the central court and basin, 
the electric fountains, and the battleship Illinois. 

In the northeastern portion of the hall near an array of noisy 
phonographs, is a collection of silent and motionless instruments which 
have a deep meaning to the Japanese and all other peoples who live in 
dread of earthquakes. It represents the exhibit of the Earthquake 
laboratory of the imperial university of Japan, and the instruments, known 
as seismographs, were invented partly by natives and partly by Europeans, 
not only to record the direction and violence of shocks, but to foretell 
their approach by indicating the slightest tremor of the earth's surface. 
The first earthquake instrument ever constructed, a drawing of which is 
displayed on one of the walls, is claimed as a Japanese invention, and 
bears date A. D. 132. In the more perfect machines of the present day the 
main feature of their construction is that during seismic disturbances 
they work from stationary points, and for minor shocks at least the 
diagrams written on smoked glass and paper are considered by scientists to 
be true measurements of the earth's motions. 

Many instruments are here exhibited, of different patterns and intended 
for various purposes. Upon the slightest disturbance of the earth the 
electric circuit is closed, and the machinery set free which drives the 
recording surfaces on which the diagrams are written. In one style of 
instrument this consists of a smoked glass revolving plate, the lines 
being written upon it by horizontal pendulums and vertical spring levers, 
both motions of the earth being thus registered. But whether the record is 
made in this fashion or by pencils upon bands of paper wound on drums, the 
machinery is kept in motion by electric clock-work, the rate of revolution 
is marked by an electric time ticker, and when convulsion or tremor 
ceases, the current is broken and the mechanism ceases to work. 

Special instruments are used to record violent motions, wave-like 
undulations, and small, local displacements. A type of the last named is 
known as the mantel-piece seismograph, and is intended for the use of 
those who simply wish to know the direction and nature of motion as 
recorded at their own residences. The tremometer 

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is one form of an instrument used to record slight earth tremors, such as 
are common to many countries. Its essential feature is a delicate pointer 
from which electric sparks are discharged upon a band of paper, 
automatically moving across a brass table. If the pointer and the earth 
are at rest, then the holes which are burned are recorded in a straight 
line; otherwise, the bands of paper are perforated in all directions 
around what would be the normal line. A more satisfactory and recent 
method of registering these motions is by means of a continuous photograph 
of a ray of light reflected from a small mirror attached to an extremely 
delicate horizontal pendulum. There are also in this group a clock for 
recording the duration of an earthquake, and several safety lamps which, 
if overturned, are at once extinguished. Under a glass case is a mass of 
wire, bent and twisted in all directions, representing the trend of the 
shocks during the great convulsion of January 15, 1887, the numbers at 
different points indicating the seconds of their duration. 

Near the collection of instruments from the seismological laboratory is a 
series of pictures representing ruined buildings, dark fissures in fields 
and valleys, bridges hurled into rivers, and other effects of such 
convulsions as those of 1887 and 1891. Here alone is a sufficient 
explanation of the interest taken by the Japanese in the study of seismic 
phenomena, whereby they hope eventually to obtain such scientific data as 
will enable engineers to build structures that will withstand the 
strongest shocks and the most complex motions of the earth. 

Electric motors, with their application to street, underground, and mining 
railways, and to machinery in general, are displayed in various portions 
of the hall and galleries, as well as in the Machinery and Transportation 
buildings. On the ground floor a factory at Portland, Maine, has among its 
collection a coffee mill which can be operated either by electrical or 
water power. By the former process it is claimed that coffee may be ground 
at a cost of five cents for every hundred pounds. Other of its exhibits 
are a combined water motor and dynamo, and a combined engine and dynamo, 
both of which are among the most powerful mechanisms of their kind. 

On either side of the southern portal are exhibits of motors, the largest 
by an electric motor company of New York, which has also fans for 
ventilating ships and large buildings, with blowers for forges and 
furnaces, pumps for mining operations and water works, travelling cranes 
and hoists, organ bellows, elevators, mill machinery, and telephone and 
telegraph apparatus. Opposite is the dainty bronze pavilion of the 
Indianapolis company, another manufacturer of electric power machinery. 
Near the western entrance of the hall, the company which operates the 
moveable sidewalk at the lake pier has a large collection of generators, 
motors, dynamos, and appliances for incandescent and arc lighting. For its 
so-called Novak lamp, outlined on the pavilion in letters of light, it is 
claimed that this is the only incandescent lamp that retains to the last 
its original candle power. 

Page 418

The largest manufactures of electrical machinery who exhibit in the body 
of the hall, make a specialty of supplying street, underground, and 
elevated railroads, with their operating apparatus. There are also several 
companies whose operations are restricted to these specialties, a 
Cleveland firm displaying one of the simplest of all such mechanism, a 
single motor suspended on rubber cushions from the trunk frame, so 
protected that it cannot be injured by heat or cold, dust or gravel, 
water, snow, or slush. Another company shows a gearless street-car motor, 
for which it is claimed that few of its appliances will either wear out or 
injure any of the surrounding parts. 

Near these exhibits is a collection of machines made by an electric 
welding company, of Boston, and largely used by manufacturers. The current 
is made to pass through the ends of the metals that are to be welded, the 
heat being generated at the point of contact, and whether it be required 
to fasten strands of wire or the links of a watch chain, or to forge steel 
projectiles of war, the joints of rails, or the chain armor of an iron 
clad, the result is uniform. Shells and other projectiles used by the 
government are welded by this company, and there are here on exposition 
sheets of wrought iron, four inches thick, which have been pierced by 
shells at a distance of ninety feet, their lines of juncture still 
remaining intact. Thus also are welded metallic coils; fences and wheels 
are thus welded, the several processes being daily illustrated by 
machinery in operation. Side by side with small machines worked by hand 
are those whose beds are many feet in diameter, but the adjustments of 
each as so perfect that in every instance the welding is performed with 
the utmost precision. 

On the opposite side of the hall is another exhibit by a Boston firm, 
which also forges by electricity. Both companies manufacture switches, 
rheostats, safely appliances, and various apparatus for the transmission 
and regulation of the electric current, and by several companies are 
displayed cement-like pipes and other conduits, chiefly for underground 
service. Makers of insulated cables and wires, tapes and compounds, are 
mainly represented in the galleries, but on the ground floor a 
Massachusetts company has specimens of its so-called insulac, claimed to 
be impervious to oil and other substances which interfere with electrical 
circuits, and said to possess four times the resistive power of the finest 
grade 

Page 419

of shellac. As the discovery of a perfect insulating compound is one of 
the problems of the day, such exhibits are of special scientific interest. 

In various sections surrounding the main body of the hall is machinery, at 
times in operation, for electrotyping, plating, gilding, and nickeling, 
with such as is used for separating metals from their ores or alloys. A 
Chicago company shows the first electro-magnetic machine, made in 1844 for 
an English firm, claiming that its own apparatus is in the line of direct 
succession. Besides electrotyping and electroplating, this company makes a 
specialty of polishing, lacquering, and buffing, a section of a walrus 
hide, thick and firm as a board, showing the chief material for the wheels 
used in these branches of work. 

In the construction of electrical apparatus, as of other machinery, 
belting plays an important part, and here on exposition many varieties 
specially made for operating dynamos and engines. Some of the belts are 
fastened with cement, and others with wire screws, but as a rule belting 
for heavy machinery should be perforated, and of such there is a large 
collection. By a New Hampshire firm is exhibited what is claimed to be the 
largest piece of link-belting in the world, 200 feet long by five in 
width, with a weight of 4,200 pounds, and in the construction of which 
were used more than 400,000 pieces of leather and metal. 

Of the special mechanisms displayed in the galleries there are also a few 
exhibitors on the ground floor, their groups including appliances for 
lighting purposes, for surgery, dentistry, and the diagnosis of diseases. 
Among the first is a small battery and spark coil which can be attached to 
burners and used for lighting or turning off gas. This, it is claimed, is 
an economical device, for the battery will last a year, and can be 
replaced for twenty-five cents. The largest exhibits of surgical and 
medical instruments are by a New York company, which confines itself to 
such as are used for cauterizing and diagnosis, and by a Philadelphia 
establishment which also covers this ground, and produces besides, small 
dynamos, batteries, coils, condensers, voltmeters, testing keys, and the 
numerous minor forms of electric apparatus used by educational 
institutions. 

In the western galleries of the Electricity building are some of the most 
interesting of its contents, for here are several of the more remarkable 
among recent inventions. First of all may be mentioned the telautograph of 
Elisha Gray, who shares the honors with Edison and Bell in the domain of 
electricity. In 1887 he completed and later simplified the machine by 
which facsimile writings or drawings are transmitted. As now exhibited, it 
consists of two instruments at either end of the telegraph line, both 
contained in a wooden case somewhat smaller than a type-writing machine. 
To the transmitter is attached a pencil, and near its point is a collar, 
to the opposite sides of which are fastened two silken cords, passing 
thence at right angles around a small drum, revolving on a vertical shaft, 

Page 420

to which is attached a toothed wheel, the latter, as it turns with every 
motion of the pencil, acting on the wire with which it is in contact. Two 
wires are thus required to transmit the writing, the escapement wheel of 
the receiving instrument responding to every motion of the drum and the 
toothed wheel of the transmitter. At the receiving end of the line the 
order of the mechanism is reversed, the wheels being mounted on the shafts 
above the drums, with cords running from the latter to aluminum pens of 
the self-feeding or fountain type. As the wheels and drums are of the same 
size, the record made by the receiver is a facsimile of the transmitted 
manuscript. The invention is of special value not only to business men, 
but to journalists, and those engaged in the detection of criminals. 

In addition to the Edison exhibits of electrical appliances, forming a 
portion of the General Electric company's display, is a section in the 
southwest gallery containing the instruments of the Edison Manufacturing 
company; and in this locality, more perhaps than elsewhere in the 
Exposition, is represented the genius of the inventor. When first it was 
reported that Edison had constructed a machine which would store 
conversations, speeches, songs, orchestral music, and any other sounds 
given into its keeping, and reproduce them at any future time there were 
many who refused to believe it, and not until his phonographs were 
displayed at the Paris Exposition of 188, were all the skeptics converted. 
Since that date the sheet of tin foil then used for the purpose has given 
place to the hollow cylinder of wax, upon which, as it revolves, the point 
of the diaphgram cuts the lines of sound. Apart from the amusement derived 
from this machine, it is rapidly finding favor among professional and 
business men, taking the place of the amanuensis, while through its 
records scientists are enabled to make a more thorough investigation as to 
the nature of wave sounds. 

In a brilliantly lighted pavilion is the ingenious exhibit of the 
Commercial Cable company representing an enterprise founded nearly a 
decade ago by John W. Mackay, of California and James Gordon Bennett, of 
New York. In general terms, it consists of a working model of their 
system, showing automatic transmitters, recorders, and other instruments 
of most approved and modern type. The hair lines of the recording machine 
are produced at the rate of about one yard per minute, the message being 
ground out from the other end by the automatic sender. Instead of being 
transmitted from New York to Europe via Nova Scotia and Ireland, the words 
are simply conveyed across the pavilion, but for all practical purposes 
the illustration is compete. In this collection also "faults" cut our of 
cables, showing the nature of the accident or defect, one of the specimens 
having been crushed into an almost shapeless mass and nearly severed by an 
ice-floe. There are also instruments for detecting breaks and injuries 
from whatever cause with a 

Page 421

machine that registers the amount of resistance which the current meets in 
passing through a given cable, each mile of the line being divided into 
units of resistance. When a break occurs in the current, the amount of 
resistance remaining is divided by the number of units to a mile, and thus 
the exact point of the damage is ascertained. In the centre of the group 
is a handsome model of the company's repair shop, Mackay-Bennett, all the 
cable machinery on deck being a reproduction of the actual apparatus, and 
illustrating the process of picking up and laying cables. Specimens of 
perfect cables are also shown, one of the latest pattern being intended 
for shallow waters, and to resist rough usage, for which purpose it is 
covered with short sections of heavy steel tubing, so adjusted as not to 
impair its flexibility. 

As already stated, the majority of the electrical instruments used in 
surgery and dentistry, and in the treatment of various physical ailments, 
are to be found in the galleries. One of the most elaborate exhibits is 
that of a Chicago physician, whose specialty is an electric belt for which 
he claims wonderful cures of nervous affections. However this may be, the 
observer cannot fail to admire the pavilion in which he displays his 
apparatus. Adjacent to the Edison collection, a portion of the space is 
occupied by a handsomely furnished parlor, in which are valuable oil 
paintings. Near by is the exhibit of an electric medical supply company, 
consisting of stethoscopes, batteries, and appliances for electric 
treatment, cautery apparatus, and special contrivances used in surgery or 
dentistry. Among other curiosities is a small rubber cylinder containing a 
galvanic battery and an inhaler, designed to relieve the sufferer from 
nervous and inflammatory disorders. 

In this vicinity are several groups of electrical appliances which 
illustrate the investigations of scientists and manufacturers with a view 
to discover the best insulating agency. There are sheets and conduits, 
compounds displayed in bulk, and various kinds of paint which, it is 
claimed, will effectually shut off the electric current from all 
disturbing influences. One that has attracted much attention is known as 
isolatine, and is exhibited by a New York house, which also shows the many 
chemical substances used in the manufacture and operation of electrical 
appliances.

Elsewhere in this neighborhood may be studied the processes of gold and 
silver plating by electricity, and a simple yet effective machine by which 
any metal may be automatically engraved through the same agency. The 
letters may be automatically engraved through the same agency. The letters 
are securely clamped, and as the stylus follows their outlines an electric 
current is formed, and a corresponding motion imparted to the graver. 
Little practice is required to operate the machine with satisfactory 
results for the simpler kinds of work. In these western galleries are also 
electric doors, automatic guest calls for hotels, burglar alarms, and 
clocks which record the rounds of the night watchman, such as are used by 
the government, and in the buildings of the Exposition. 

Close at hand one may study the system of an electric signal company; in a 
neat railway model marked "dangerous;" he may have a suit of clothes cut 
by an electric machine, or may seat himself in an easy chair while his 

Page 422

boots are polished by electric brushes. Here also is an electric 
incubator, with eggs in process of hatching. In one is a barely 
perceptible palpitation; another is heaving with suppressed activity; a 
third is partially opened, and from a fourth a pulp-like form has drawn 
itself partially into the world, and lays panting over its former prison 
walls, as if gathering strength to free itself. For hatching chickens by 
electricity, as compared with incubation by steam, the advantage is 
claimed that the needed temperature, a little over 100 degrees, can be 
made absolutely uniform, while the machine requires but little attention. 
From the time the egg is placed in the incubator until the chicken comes 
from the shell is an average period of nineteen days. Two jars of Mason 
batteries are sufficient to furnish the heat and operate the thermostat, 
the latter never varying more than one half of a degree. One of the most 
interesting features of this exhibit was the sealing of a machine 
containing a dozen eggs, which remained untouched until the chicken 
emerged in due time, and in as lively condition as though fostered by the 
mother hen. 

Three foreign powers have installed exhibits in the western galleries, 
Austria having chiefly a display of signal clocks and technical 
instruments, and Italy a small collection of china insulators contributed 
by a ceramic society of Milan. France has a large assortment of musical 
instruments, many of them overflow exhibits from the department of Liberal 
Arts, and having no relation to electricity. They consist of beautifully 
finished orchestral pieces, and include some fine specimens of inlaid work 
in wood and pearl, showing what may be done with pianos and other 
instruments in the way of cabinet decoration. There are several French 
inventions, some of which can be played as ordinary pianos, or by 
attaching them to other instruments. The music may be produced 
mechanically by turning a crank, or by electric self-acting machinery, and 
when the harmonies are combined the effect is often pleasing. More than 
fifty pianos are here, ranging in price from a few hundred to several 
thousand dollars. Of the new styles for which superiority is claimed, one 
has a frame of pure steel, and there is a French horn whose mouth is 
beaten from a solid piece of brass. In the gallery opposite this group is 
a row of tastefully furnished booths, the headquarters of the periodicals 
in the United States whose special field is electricity. 

The principle that heat is generated by resistance to the electric current 
is illustrated in several portions of the building. Ovens and furnaces, 
and heating apparatus for railways, houses, factories, and public 
buildings, are exhibited on the ground floor, where also, as has been 
said, several companies show how welding may be accomplished by 
electricity. Other heating appliances are found in the galleries, a 
Wisconsin company which deals in novelties exhibiting a hair curler heated 
by electricity. But the most interesting application of this principle may 
be studied in the north gallery, where the housekeeper may see how her 
home can be comfortably warmed by electricity, and how her cooking may be 
done expeditiously and scientifically. The electric ovens are lined with 
wood and asbestos, which keep the heat within, and are supplied with doors 
of mica, and incandescent lamps and thermometers for ascertaining the 
temperature, and experimenting in all branches of cookery. As in other 
appliances, the electric current is governed by switches, the griddles, 
kettles, coffee-pots, tea-pots, flat-irons, and all other utensils having 
enamelled bottoms, in which are imbedded small copper wires. When the 
current is turned on and passes along the wires, the resistance offered by 
the enamel produces heat, which can be easily regulated and directed. For 
instance, in roasting beef, if one side of the piece is browning more 
rapidly than the other, instead of taking it out and turning it, the 
current is simply increased above or below as the case may require. The 
electric flat-irons weigh about eight 

Page 423

pounds, their upper portions being composed of non-conducting substances. 
Of all the companies which illustrate this phase of household economy, the 
Ansonia, of Chicago, has the most complete exhibit, presenting besides a 
display of cables, switches, batteries, motors, and a historical 
collection, including, as is claimed, the first dynamos. 

In the south gallery opposite are miscellaneous exhibits, one of which, by 
a Philadelphia manufacturer, is specially deserving of note. Upon an 
arched wall space, having a background of light blue, is a large 
eccentric, composed entirely of switches made by the company and upon a 
small display board are the various patterns representing the evolution of 
these appliances. The first is one of a hundred made by means of a hand 
drill, hammer, and chisel, the later varieties, composed of porcelain and 
English ivory china, being of elegant workmanship, and forming a striking 
contrast to the others. Among the exhibits in this portion of the building 
may be mentioned that of a New York house, which presents many fine 
specimens of photo-engraving and electrotyping, the display being of 
plates only; the large pavilion also adjoining containing several cases of 
finely wrought instruments. 

In the southeastern galleries is a pavilion surrounded by great coils of 
cable, and masses of a carbon-like substance, the latter the crude form of 
an insulating material known as kerite. The exhibitors manufacture 
insulating tapes and cables for underground and submarine use. A New York 
firm builds a cabin of wire ducts or conduits, and a Cleveland company 
erects a pillared structure composed of carbon, with pyramids and other 
forms within and around it. A manufactory of the same city occupies a 
considerable space with specimens of its handiwork in polished aluminum, 
brass, and nickel, arranged upon a large sample board which forms a 
background to the section. The specialty is a boiler alarm, which may be 
either in the form of a steam whistle or an electric gong, the danger 
signal being given when the water reaches the highest gauge, and the float 
raising the valve lever which releases the mechanism. 

Safety appliances for the public are seen in the many devices of the 
telegraph systems which have been adopted by the fire and police 
departments of all large cities. A New York company which has furnished 
complete telephone and signal systems for many large cities exhibits its 
apparatus around a square pavilion, on whose cornices are the names of 
municipalities in which they are used. Near this is a booth from which 
float the national colors of Brazil, whose government manufactures its own 
telegraph and telephone instruments, as here represented. A large man is 
displayed locating the telegraph lines of the republic, and in book and 
pamphlet form is described the present condition of the system, and its 
development through native skill and ingenuity. 

The exhibit of the Western Union Telegraph company is contained in a large 
plain pavilion, over whose main entrance are the words, "What hath God 
wrought," forming the first telegraphic message sent by Samuel Morse. In a 
case within is a photograph of this message, and the original Morse 
machine, side by side with the perfected instrument of 1893. Several 
portraits of the great inventor are hung upon the walls, with those of 
Cyrus W. Field, the father of the submarine telegraph system, and Thomas 
T. Eckert, who succeeded Norvin Green as president of the company. The 
pavilions also contains busts of Morse by the sculptor Greenough, and of 
Field, by Hartley. Several of Field's medals and other personal souvenirs 
are included in the collection, 

Page 424

together with a reproduction of the Great Eastern, which laid the first 
cable, the model being loaned by one of her commanders, with various 
apparatus showing the workings of the system, now some quarter of a 
century old. On one of the maps are indicated the locations of the Western 
Union lines, which include 750,000 miles of wire; and on another is a 
model in relief of the bed of the Atlantic ocean, in which may be traced 
the systems operated by the Western Union, Anglo-American, Mackay-Bennett, 
and other submarine companies. This is the first profile chart of the 
kind, and was made by Captain Dutton, formerly of the cable ship Faraday, 
of which also a model may be seen in the company's pavilion. But perhaps 
the most attractive exhibit is the huge, rusty grapnel, with its five 
prongs, which in 1866 recovered the cable lost during the previous year in 
nearly 2,000 fathoms of water. The cable had parted 1,100 miles from 
Valentia; the attempt to recover it was abandoned for a time, and a new 
line constructed. 

With thee exception of the Western Union's exhibit, and a small display of 
dry batteries, Germany occupies all the northeastern galleries with her 
well arranged collections. One large department is devoted to the 
exposition of optical, surgical, electro-medical, and scientific 
apparatus. A curious exhibit is that of artificial eyes, some of them such 
exact imitations of nature that when examined from different positions 
their pupils appear to dilate or contract. Another collection illustrates 
the diseases peculiar to the human eye, and its normal condition as 
observed in the German, Slav, Roman, Gaul, Mongolian, and Negro. In this 
section are some finely executed anatomical models, respiratory apparatus, 
a large operating table, and a complete collection of surgical 
instruments, the last furnished by the purveyor to the Prussian armies. 
More picturesque than these groups is the exhibit made by the German 
postal service, consisting of model post and telegraph offices, as well as 
reproductions of many in operation, and articles which constitute the 
entire working outfit of the department. There are models of telegraph 
towers and of imperial postal cars; telegraph instruments of the Hughes 
type, upon which the operators play as if upon pianos; telephones of 
German make, cumbersome as compared with those of American manufacture, 
and maps showing the distribution of telegraph lines and post offices 
throughout the empire. Telephones enter largely into the system developed 
in Germany, with some 80,000 in use. An important factor of the postal 
service is the pneumatic tube, and in this department is a miniature plant 
showing its operations. In another section are models of mail coaches, 
representative of early and modern plant showing its operations. In 
another section are models of mail coaches, representative of early and 
modern times, while here is also illustrated the service of mounted 
messengers established along the river Spree in the fourteenth century. 

The portion of the gallery which is above the eastern to the building has 
been transformed into a court, approached by a broad stairway, the 
background and dais being festooned in crimson and gold, and bordered with 
evergreens, showing for its central object a bronze bust, mounted upon a 
massive pedestal, of the late Werner von Siemens, the famous German 
electrician and inventor. On either side are busts of Soemmering, 
announced as the inventor of the first galvanized telegraph, in 1809, and 
of Reis, inventor of the first telephone, in 1861. In the background also 
are medallions of Gauss and Weber, proclaimed as the joint inventors of 
the first electro-magnetic telegraph, operated in Gottingen in 1833. 
Fronting the busts and medallions, and arranged on the ledges of the 
enclosure, are the instruments, or their reproductions, designed to 
illustrate the historical development of the application of electricity in 
Germany. Here is the magnetic needle telegraph of Stohrer, 1817, Reis' 
telephone apparatus printing and writing. There are also collections of 
ringing apparatus, electrical appliances and signals for railroads, 
lighting machines, samples of cables chronologically arranged, indicators, 
alarms, stone drills, mineral separators, and clocks, with other 
mechanisms showing that the Germans have won for themselves a leading rank 
in every department of electrical science and invention. 

World's Fair Miscellany

The first general illumination of the Electricity building was on the 
evening of the 31st of May, and attracted many thousands of spectators. By 
eight o'clock the structure was one blaze of light, with myriads of 
incandescent lamps with revolving wheels displaying all the colors of the 
rainbow in ever changing hues, and with unseen pens writing mysterious 
inscriptions on the walls in letters of fire. But in the very centre of 
the building was a huge shrouded figure which loomed ghost-like almost to 
a level with the rafters. Presently the chief of the department stepped 
forward; a moment later the shroud was withdrawn, and the Edison tower and 
the classic pavilion at its base stood revealed in all their cold, chaste 
beauty of outline. But for a few seconds only; the glare of search-lights 
focused upon them, causing their dark surface to shine with a dazzling 
radiance. Then the crystal bulb at the top burst into flame, flashing like 
a crown of diamonds; and finally the entire column was arrayed in robes of 
purple light like a pillar of fire. It was the very apotheosis of 
electricity, and by a thousand voices was shouted the name of him by whom 
these marvels had been wrought. 

The illuminations of grounds and buildings begun in May, were continued 
throughout the term of the Fair, at first on alternate nights, and then 
every night in the week except Sunday nights. Occasionally the admissions 
after dark were larger than during the day; but as the novelty wore off, 
and the average daily attendance gradually increased from 20,000 or 30,000 
to 150,000, the proportion was not maintained. During one of the first 
illuminations, Machinery hall narrowly escaped destruction by fire. The 
shed that inclosed the machinery of the Westinghouse company's engines, by 
which at the moment power was furnished, was set ablaze through the 
burning out of one of the connections, caused by the pressure on the 
wires. Only through the promptitude and coolness of the men in charge a 
conflagration was averted which would have swept the building out of 
existence. 

The light for the fountains with their prismatic hues and chameleon-like 
changes of color, was produced in a subterraneous chamber, with which the 
fountains were connected. The lamps resembled the search-lights on board a 
man-of-war, except that for the lens used at sea was substituted a silver-
lined parabolic reflector, from which the rays were shot upward for a 
distance of 150 feet. The lighting capacity of the lamps was controlled by 
a mechanism similar to clock-work, and could be intensified to a 
brilliancy of 350,000 candle-power. The water effects were also regulated 
in this mystic chamber, to the orifices of which a nozzle was attached, 
and through it the water projected in columns, jets, or sprays, with 
electric light playing upon them in varying hues from color screens 
beneath. 

Page 425

While electric light and power have been prominent factors at former 
expositions, they have never been so largely used and applied to so many 
purposes as at the Chicago Fair. At the Paris Exposition of 1879 there 
were some 1,500 incandescent lamps, and at the New Orleans Cotton 
Centennial in 1881 both arc and incandescent lamps were utilized to good 
effect. At the latter it was for the first time demonstrated that under 
this clear, white light, the delicate tints of flowers are almost as 
plainly visible as beneath the noon-day sun. At the Louisville Exhibition 
of 1883 there were 6,000 Edison lights, and at the one held in Paris in 
1889, there were 1,000 arc and 9,000 incandescent lamps, both considered 
at the time a wonderful display of electric lighting. But in the buildings 
and grounds at Jackson park there were 6,000 arc and 120,000 incandescent 
lamps, the former each of 2,000 candle-power, while motive force of from 4,
000 to 5,000 horse-power was generated for purposes mentioned in the text. 

In the Electrical building was installed apparatus of all descriptions 
excepting generators, which were located elsewhere. Power, for whatever 
purpose used, was furnished and transmittted, as I have said, from the 
station at Machinery hall, the plant being so constructed as to be 
complete in itself, and yet composed of numerous smaller plants. 

The floor of the building was intended to sustain a minimum weight of 150 
pounds to the square foot. By railroad derricks machinery of a weight not 
exceeding fifteen tons could be moved into position, and generating 
machinery up to a weight of twenty-two and a half tons could be handled by 
travelling cranes. 

Neither for illumination nor other purposes were any of the wires placed 
above ground, all being fastened on insulators inclosed by subterraneous 
conduits. The arc lights scattered throughout the park were supported by 
pillars or masts twelve feet high, most of them 50 to 75 feet apart, and 
all arranged with a view to landscape effect. 

Side by side with the Edison exhibit of incandescent lamps was a case 
containing many sections of fibrous vegetable growths, used by the 
inventor in his search for the substance best fitted for a lamp filament. 
The selection finally made was that of a Japanese bamboo, which is now 
extensively cultivated on special plantations. It is said that in arriving 
at this result, Edison travelled many thousands of miles, and expended at 
least $200,000. 

Near the pavilion of the Commercial Cable company a Fort Wayne 
establishment had an exhibit which overtopped all others in the galleries. 
It consisted of iron towers and poles such as are used in railroad 
construction, and for street lighting. 

Nikola Tesla, the so-called wizard of physics, whose current motors are 
mentioned in connection with the Westinghouse company's exhibits, is one 
of the youngest of our great electrical scientists, and yet a man of world-
wide repute. His fame rests mainly on his multiphase alternating motors, 
whereby are produced high potential currents of remarkable frequency. On 
the 25th of August he lectured in the assembly room of Agricultural hall 
before an audience consisting largely of electrical engineers and 
scientists. During his discourse he exhibited a motor or oscillator driven 
by compressed air, which made 80 vibrations to the second, stating that he 
had made others capable of several thousand vibrations to the second. To 
this he attached a dynamo small enough to be slipped into the pocket, and 
yet of considerable power. 

Elsewhere is noticed the exhibit by the seismological laboratory of the 
Imperial University of Japan. As stated, the first instrument to record 
motions of the earth was invented by a Japanese more than seventeen and a 
half centuries ago, but it was not until 1875 that an observatory was 
built for the purpose in Tokyo. The first instrument used was the one 
invented by Palmieri, the director of the observatory on Mount Vesuvius; 
but since 1884 this has been replaced by the Milne instrument, which 
records horizontal and vertical motions, with the time and duration of 
shocks. This year also marks the commencement of a system of investigation 
covering the entire empire, the observatory publishing guides for noting 
and reporting seismic phenomena, with or without the aid of instruments. 
These were distributed among hundreds of officials and others whose 
reports were transmitted free by the post-office. From these maps have 
been made showing the disturbed areas of the 3,800 earthquakes which have 
occurred throughout the empire from 1885 to 1890, as well as their 
relative intensity. Observations since that year have greatly added to 
previous records, especially those of the great earthquake of October 28, 
1891. In this the centre of disturbance was almost in the middle of the 
main island, though with shocks more or less severe almost throughout the 
empire. Within a comparatively small radius over 7,000 people were killed, 
and 142,000 houses totally destroyed. The ground was rent and cracked, 
permanently depressed or upheaved, thousands of landslips were produced, 
water and sand were ejected, multitudes of embankments shattered, railway 
lines twisted, and bridges hurled into rivers which, with other havoc, was 
graphically depicted in the Japanese section of the Electricity building. 

The enormous switchboard exhibited by the Brush Electric company was sold 
through its agents in Yokohama for the use of a power station now being 
erected in Manila, Philippine Islands, he company also furnishing several 
dynamos.