Engineering reminiscences contributed to "Power" and "American machinist"

by Charles T. Porter

The French Exposition of 1867 was the second in the series of expositions held in Paris at intervals of eleven years, from the first in 1856 to the last, thus far, in 1900. In this exposition the Emperor Napoleon planned to celebrate his entrance uninvited into the select circle of crowned heads by bringing all his new cousins to visit him in his capital. He succeeded pretty well. Asia was represented by the Sultan of Turkey and the Shah of Persia. All the sovereigns of Europe were there (but not all at the same time) with the exceptions of Victor Emmanuel, who said he was too poor to go, and Queen Victoria, who could not be induced to leave her retirement. The sovereign people of the United States were also pretty well represented. One other “emperor” was not there. With the zeal of a new convert, Louis Napoleon had attempted to take advantage of the circumstance that the United States had business enough of their own to attend to, and improve the opportunity to plant monarchical institutions on this continent. Maximilian, a brother of the Emperor of Austria, the first and last Emperor of Mexico, was installed under the protection of French bayonets. Affairs in the United States did not take the turn that Napoleon had hoped for, and in compliance with a courteous request from the President that he would withdraw his troops from Mexico and save him the disagreeable necessity of driving them out, the French withdrew, leaving the unfortunate Maximilian a prisoner in the hands of the Mexicans.

On a day in the summer of 1867, a grand function was celebrated in the Palais de l’Industrie, the building on the Avenue des Champs Elysées in which the exposition of 1856 had been held, for the distribution of gold medals to the successful exhibitors in this exposition of 1867. The Emperor presided, surrounded by sovereigns and their suites, and an assembly of 20,000 invited guests and holders of season tickets. In the midst of the ceremonies, an official entered and handed to the Emperor an envelope. After reading its contents he crossed over to the seat of the Austrian ambassador and placed it in his hands. After reading it the ambassador withdrew with his suite, and the proceedings were continued to their close. That evening the public learned what this envelope contained. It was a cablegram announcing the execution of the quondam emperor, Maximillian, by the Mexican government. From this point the fall of Napoleon proceeded steadily until he became “the man of Sedan.” This dramatic scene, marking the culminating point in his career, has, I believe, escaped the notice of historians.

The main building of the exposition of 1867, the first one held on the Champ de Mars, was designed on a plan that has not been repeated. It was a long building with semicircular ends, built around a narrow open court, the length of which was equal to that of its parallel sides. It was divided among the nations as a Yankee would divide a pie if baked in a dish of similar form, while the various classes of exhibits occupied, in the several nations, spaces equally distant from the central court. Thus, as assumed in the plan, the visitor passing through any radial avenue would see all the exhibits from one country, and passing through an avenue laid out around the central court would see all the exhibits of one class. The fine arts were at the center, much of the statuary in the open court, then decorative art, and so on, class after class, until that of machinery which surrounded the whole, except that outside of this were the restaurants of all nations.

The plan was practically on many accounts a failure, first, from the exceedingly unequal lengths of floor spaces allotted to the different departments, the mean length of the machinery court, for example, being between two and three times that devoted to the fine arts, and, second, that it was utterly inadequate to accommodate the exhibits in many departments. There was no adaptability in the system. The consequence was the erection, in the ample outside area of the Champ de Mars, of an enormous number of separate buildings, by all nations, for particular classes of exhibits, some of which buildings were quite large.

Although I exhibited in the British section, I sympathized deeply with the American exhibitors, who were having lots of trouble. Mr. Seward had appointed as the United States commissioner an American gentleman who had lived in France for twenty years, who was ignorant of America and Americans in a phenomenal degree, and was indifferent and despotic in his treatment of the helpless exhibitors, until their exasperation reached such a pitch that I heard it said every one of them would be glad to pull on a rope to hang him. I will give two illustrations.

Mr. Corliss had been persuaded by Mr. Pickering to send over an engine to drive the United States machinery exhibit. When the engine arrived, it was found that the commissioner, although he had been advised of this arrangement, had paid no attention to it, but had purchased a French engine and installed it already for this purpose. The Corliss engine was set by the side of this one, and ran idle through the exhibition; never had a belt on. To make the matter worse, the French engine was run every Sunday, although the entire United States exhibit was covered up, and, as it could not run longer than a week without stopping for repairs, it was idle for this purpose every Monday, and this arrangement was sustained by the commissioner.

As other nations were putting up separate buildings for the overflow of their exhibits, the commissioner thought the United States should do the same. So in the winter previous he had got a special appropriation for this purpose through Congress, and erected his building. When finished he found it was all a blunder: he had absolutely nothing to put in it. The United States exhibitors were fully accommodated in the main building. What does he do but order enough of them into the side building to fill it, leaving unoccupied spaces in the main building. A number of our most eminent firms were driven there, being refused space in the main building. In the machinery court an enormous empty space was rented by the commissioner to a concern manufacturing collars and cuffs.

So far as space was concerned, the machinery department seemed to have the place of honor. It surrounded all the other classes of exhibits, and was much wider and higher than any other. It had a central gallery which I was told was seven eighths of a mile around. This gallery carried the shafting. The exterior location of this department was necessary, in order to have proper connection with the boilers and systems of piping for both steam and water. Except the American section, which was only one half occupied, it was crowded with exhibits. The engines exhibited in motion in the main building, of which there were a large number, were all condensing engines, water from the Seine being quite convenient.