How the Great Exhibitions spawned science museums

Between the mid 1800s and mid 1900s Great Exhibitions – universal, international, national and specialised – represented one of the most efficient ways to blend and disseminate knowledge. These events were symbols of positivism and faith in progress. They were dedicated to the arts as much as to industry, with ample space for science and technology.

Charles Babbage is one of the fathers of computing. He began designing his Difference Engine – a device that could perform complex calculations - in 1822 but never completed it. Babbage enthusiastically welcomed the 1851 World Fair. He wrote that the exhibition was aimed at the development of free trade in raw materials and manufactured goods among all Nations. He claimed it was in everyone's interest that each country could advance in knowledge and industrial skills. At the Universal Exhibition in London in 1862 he exhibited parts of his Analytical Engine, also unfinished.

The Pantelegraph was invented by Giovanni Caselli in the mid 1800s. For the first time, this device gave the chance to send pictures from a distance. First distributed in France and only later appreciated in Italy, it was widely prised at international level during the First Italian Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures, held in Florence in 1861.

Invented in 1855 by the British musician David Hughes, this is in fact an enhanced Morse telegraph. The traditional key used for point-line sequences is replaced by a keyboard with 28 keys, one for each letter of the English alphabet, similar to that of a piano. In 1867, at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, Hughes won the gold medal for this invention that combined the technology behind electromagnetic devices with that of musical instruments. Hughes’ telegraph was later presented at the 1900 World Fair in Paris as a representative technology of the 1800s.

1939 was a pivotal year in the history of television. The first experimental broadcasts were in fact taking place both at the World Fair in New York and at the Exhibition of Italian Inventions which was taking place in Milan, at the Palace of Art, in conjunction with the Leonardesca Exhibition. Thanks to a large window, visitors could watch as filming took place with Magneti Marelli cameras in a 500 sqm recording studio. Television sets had a long vertical Cathode Ray Tube with a screen reflected by a mirror positioned at forty-five degrees.

Aluminium was presented for the first time at the 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris: 12 small ingots, of a total weight of under one kilogram, extracted spending a great deal of time and money. On its first appearance, Aluminium was a precious material, not the revolutionary metal that would change the world. This only happened 30 years later, when a new method to produce it cheaply and abundantly turned it into the ubiquitous material that we all know today.

Could steam engines be replaced by others, more efficient, economical and small, yet equally reliable and functional? The "new gas engine" – created by Barsanti and Matteucci in 1853 – was a first response to this problem. At the Paris World Fair in 1855 industry was in turmoil and by 1860 the wellpublicized Lenoir engine was a success despite its low efficiency. In 1861, in Florence, at the First Italian Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures, the Italian engine called for attention. Patented and perfected until 1866, it disappeared due to production complications. History later celebrated the Otto and Langen engine, identical in essence and champion at the 1867 Paris World Fair.

How can the speed of turbines be regulated with a relatively simple and inexpensive device that can function in all hydroelectric plants? In 1900 the company Ing A. Riva Monneret & C. patented a device that solved this problem posed by the developments of the hydroelectric field in the late 1800s. The technical solution of this control system became a point of reference for all European manufacturers. The president of the company “Costruzioni Meccaniche Riva” Guido Ucelli selected items representing the Italian excellence in 1933 at the Chicago World Fair. Exhibited next to this speed control system was a scale model of the turbines built in 1899 for the Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant.

In 1880 three Italians used this schooner to cross the Atlantic, reach Garibaldi in exile on the island of Caprera and hand him the signatures of fellow immigrants in Uruguay. As a symbol of this adventure, the Leone was exhibited in Milan, in the lake of Villa Reale in via Palestro during the 1881 National Fair. The event took place in the Public Gardens, the Villa Reale Park and the Senate palace. Although not comparable to the great World Fairs, the Milanese event reaffirmed the role of the city as economic and industrial capital of Italy.

This is the type of engine used by the 25 Savoia Marchetti S55X seaplanes that flew across the Atlantic towards Chicago, on occasion of the 1933 World Fair in Chicago. Led by Italo Balbo, Minister of Aviation, they landed in Lake Michigan with a spectacular performance. The event celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Aviation and demonstrated the expertise of Italian industry. Welcomed by the crowd, aviators collected honours and visited the Exhibition, where this engine was exhibited in the Hall of Science alongside other examples of the “Italian genius”.