America at the Fair

by Chaim M. Rosenberg

  The large annex to Machinery Hall housed the powerhouse where 60 engines made by various American manufacturers produced 24,000 horsepower, and 127 dynamos converted the power to electricity sufficient to illuminate the 5,000 arc lamps and 120,000 incandescent lights, run the elevators in the various exhibition halls, and power the electric railroad. George Corliss’s steam engine that dazzled the crowds at the 1876 Philadelphia fair looked small in comparison to the massive Allis engine at work in Chicago. Edward Allis was born in Cazenovia, New York, in 1824 but moved to Milwaukee at age 22. As the owner of tanneries he saw how steam power was fast replacing man and mule. He established the E. P. Allis Company, builder of machinery for the mines, power plants, and factories and was Milwaukee’s largest employer. The Allis machine took up 3,000 feet of floor space in the Machinery Hall annex. On May 1, 1893, the machine rumbled to work seconds after President Grover Cleveland pulled the lever, releasing 2,000 horsepower for the duration of the Fair. In addition to the Allis, the annex contained power machinery built by General Electric, Westinghouse, Edison, Church & Kerr, Fraser & Chalmers, Mackintosh-Seymour, Ball & Wood, Sioux City Engine, Buckeye, Adendroth & Root, Heine, Bancock & Wilcox, Climax, and many other American companies. The boilers, turbines, and dynamos were linked together by pumps, hydraulic equipment, and valves by various manufacturers. 14

  Machinery Hall was designed by the Boston architectural firm Peabody & Stearns. Huge steam powered and smaller hand- or foot-operated machinery filled the main halls. The large annex housed the Fair’s power plant, with 60 steam engines from various American manufacturers generating the equivalent of 24,000 horsepower of electricity to run the machinery at the Fair.

  Steam power, because of the great pressure involved, was still unsafe and explosions and fires were frequent. The task of coordinating and maintaining the various makes of boilers, pumps, compressors, and engines fell to George Ross Green, superintendent of the boiler house in Machinery Hall. Each manufacturer kept its own firemen continually on duty with enough water pressure to put out any fires. In addition, a team of 30 men and three foremen regularly cleaned, oiled, and repaired the machines. One man sat and watched the chimneys all day to make sure that no unusual smoke was emitted, another checked the 1,200 gages and valves. If anything unusual occurred they summoned help by ringing a bell. Twelve thousand gallons of oil per hour were used to produce the power. The oil flowed by pipe from the Standard Oil fields in Whiting, Indiana, 40 miles away, and was stored in an underground tank holding 112,000 gallons. The clean oil did not emit the smell, dirt, or smoke of burning coal. The insurance underwriters required that the oil tank be one-half mile from the exhibition halls to minimize the risk of explosions and fires. The oil was fed into the furnaces by automatic pressure gauges that regulated the flow. The unwieldy mix of 60 steam engines, 127 dynamos, and 50 boilers, made by different manufacturers, worked efficiently and safely throughout the duration of the Fair.

  Henry R. Worthington of New York built mammoth pumping engines used to extract water from mines, and for public waterworks. This vertical engine had a capacity of 40 million gallons per day.

  Machinery on Display

  Over 50 American companies exhibited pump machinery for mining, irrigation, and municipal water supply. One of the largest was the Henry R. Worthington Company of New York, which displayed its powerful steam pumps. The company was founded by Henry Rossiter Worthington, born in New York City in 1817. A mechanical engineer with skills in regulating the flow of water, Henry Worthington designed the steam pumps that controlled the flow of barge traffic along the Erie Canal. His skills were eagerly sought by fast-growing American cities with needs for abundant clean water. In 1854 his company built the pump engines to carry 300,000 gallons of water a day for the municipal waterworks of Savannah, Georgia. The company expanded into sewage disposal. At the Fair, the Worthington Company showcased its vertical pump, some 40 feet tall and capable of pumping 40 million gallons a day. Henry Worthington was once a candidate for vice president of the United States. After his death, his son C. C. Worthington expanded the pumping business to markets abroad.

  Precise measurements of weight, length, and volume were essential in the mass-production and conveyance of goods. One of the American pioneers in measurement was Thaddeaus Fairbanks of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Before scales, Thaddeaus and his brother Erastus were in the business of making wagons, plows, and stoves. The weighing devices of his time, using counterweights, beams, and steelyards, were slow, cumbersome, and inaccurate. Instead, Thaddeaus built a smaller scale made of a series of levers on a platform. This arrangement greatly reduced the need for counterweights and gave accurate readings. In 1831 he rode his horse from Vermont to Washington, D.C., to take out a patent on his platform scale. The brothers built a small factory in their town and soon the Fairbanks’ scale was found in wagon shops, foundries, textile mills, shoe companies, and wherever else weight was measured. After the Civil War business boomed with the U.S. Postal Service buying 3,000 scales and fresh orders coming at the rate of 4,000 a month. Fairbanks opened sale offices in cities across the nation, in London, and other cities abroad. By the 1876 Centennial Exposition the vastly expanded factory was producing 10,000 scales a month and by 1893, Fairbanks of Vermont was making half of all the scales and balances sold throughout the world.

  These illustrations show the growth of Fairbanks Scale Company of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, from a small works in 1830 (above) to a world leader in 1893 (below).

  Seventy American loom companies, mostly from New England, displayed their machinery at the Fair. One of the largest was the Knowles Loom Works of Worcester, Massachusetts, established in 1836 by Lucius James Knowles and his brother Francis. Another Worcester company making intricate looms was founded in 1856 by George Crompton. Both these companies demonstrated the work of their looms at the Fair. The Knowles looms delighted the crowds by producing silk portraits of President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland as well as embroidered handkerchiefs. Nearby, a Crompton power loom made cloth souvenir scarves showing the American eagle. These Worcester companies merged in 1897 to form Crompton & Knowles, which became a world leader in fancy and woolen looms. (In the 20th century Crompton & Knowles changed from loom making into a specialty chemical company, known as CK.) The Whitin Machine Works of Whitinsville, Massachusetts (established 1831), manufactured combing, picking, and carding machines, spinning frames, spoolers, and dobbins for the textile mills. The Draper Works of Hopedale and the Lowell Machine Shop, also of Massachusetts, were other manufacturers of textile machinery present at the Fair.

  For centuries raw silk from cocoons was twisted into thread and wound on spools, all by hand. John E. Atwood invented the machinery to replace hand-spinning. He built a factory on Diving Street in Stonington, Connecticut, to supply the silk works in the surrounding towns. By 1893 Atwood silk machinery was sold across the nation as well as to markets abroad. Silk looms made by the Phoenix Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, and Schaum & Ulinger of Philadelphia, were also on display at the Fair. These mechanical looms made souvenir bookmarks, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, neckties, and scarves showing the portraits of Washington, Lincoln, Cleveland, and other presidents. (Many of the silk souvenirs made at the Fair have endured and are avidly sought after by collectors.) In addition to wool, cotton, and silk looms, there were machines to make linens, tapestries, laces, embroideries, twine, and underwear. The Willimantic Spoon Company demonstrated its nifty spool-winder that wound eight spools at a time, each with 200 yards of thread. The machine automatically cut the thread and tucked the end into a notch at the edge of the wooden spool. The spool-winder labeled the spool, ready for use with the household or factory sewing machine.

  The first newspaper presses appeared in Europe early in the 19th century and before long the new method of printing crossed the Atlantic. George W. Prout, Curtis & Mitchell, and the Golding Manufacturing Company of Boston, were among the earliest American press makers. Many American companies exhibi
ted their wares along Printing Press Row in Machinery Hall. Richard Hoe & Company of New York started in 1834 with hand-operated presses. In 1893 their mechanical presses were capable of printing 90,000 copies of a four-page newspaper in one hour. Andrew Campbell, also of New York, held 50 patents for improvements in printing, folding, and cutting paper. Campbell Printing Press had a separate pavilion at the 1876 Philadelphia fair demonstrating the process of printing a newspaper, complete with live reporters, editors, proofreaders, typesetters, and mechanics. The 1876 press completed 20,000 folded newspaper copies per hour, but the Campbell press shown in 1893 was much faster. There were typesetting machines, bookbinding, paper making, and paper cutting machines. The Beloit Iron Works displayed a large machine capable of making 10 tons of paper each day. The Chicago-based Goss Printing, Michle Printing Press, and the William Bullock Company of New York all had displays. The various presses took turns every day to print the Fair’s own newspaper, the Daily Columbian. Lithography companies produced paintings of elegant homes, favored horses, steamboats, railroads, stock certificates, scenes of American life, and advertisements for companies. Some of the artwork, such as that of the J. Ottmann Lithographic Company of New York, was of a very high order. Ottmann demonstrated his craft with lithographs of the Plaza Hotel, the Murray Hill Hotel, and other distinguished New York buildings. This prominent lithographic company, with 400 artists and craftsmen, occupied a seven-story building at 295 Lafayette Street in New York, known as the Puck Building. The satirical magazine Puck was published there from 1887 until 1916.

  The Medart Patent Pulley Company, located at the corner of Potomac & DeKalb Streets in St. Louis, made pulleys for hoisting and for conducting steamgenerated power along leather belting. This illustration shows the company’s largest six-arm pulley, with a diameter of 96 inches and a cost of $1,010.

  European countries displayed their mechanical prowess as well. The Germans exhibited their rotating printing presses equipped with electrotyping. A German safety match company dazzled the crowds with a machine that shaved blocks of wood to less than one millimeter of thickness, folded the wood, glued the sides, and labeled the boxes. Another machine cut blocks of wood into 24 million match-size sticks a day. The ends of 2,200 matches were dipped together into the igniting materials, dried, and then packed at the rate of 1,800 boxes an hour, needing only two people to operate the machines. The Germans also demonstrated their mining machines, locomotives, electric dynamos, and a machine that made 40,000 envelopes an hour. The British displayed an automatic refreshment stand, for use in factories or department stores. A Leeds company showed its brick-making machinery, complete with kiln and oven. The British displayed high-priced goods such as their fancy bathroom equipment and terra-cotta roof tiles. The French demonstrated their glass-cutting techniques and the Brazilians displayed their methods for cleaning coffee machines. Austria had a display of glassware and embroidered handkerchiefs, and the Belgians showed steel products and fire extinguishers.

  One of the early American wood machinery companies was formed by twin brothers Ralph and Robert Greenlee, born in 1838 on a farm in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Trained as cooper smiths, the brothers saw their opportunity in 1859 after the discovery of oil nearby. Ralph and Robert kept busy making barrels to store the oil. A few years later, the Greenlee twins moved to Chicago where there was a booming demand for barrels to store grain and meat products. Ever inventive, the Greenlee twins expanded to the railroads with their self-contained tie-milling factory built inside a boxcar that could move and lay the next section of track.

  Glove making was once a proud American industry that flourished in Fulton County, New York, for over a century until the 1950s. The area, with its plentiful supply of leather and the abundance of hemlock bark, attracted glove makers from Europe and people and goods from the Erie Canal. Women’s elbow-length leather gloves were the height of fashion at the time, and the upstate New York towns were producing one-third of all the gloves sold in America. The Bonis Bros. Machinery Company of New York demonstrated its glove-making machine at the 1893 Fair. This hand- or foot-powered machine was later adapted for electricity and greatly increased productivity in an industry already plagued by low wages and competition.

  One of the notable exhibits in Machinery Hall was sponsored by the Nordyke & Marmon Company, started in 1851 by Ellis Nordyke, who imported granite millstones from France to grind corn. Nordyke formed a partnership with Daniel W. Marmon and they moved their factory to Indianapolis to make machinery for flour and corn mills. 15

  The long corridors of the Machinery Hall were filled with machines to cut wood or paper, hydraulic machines to raise or lower heavy loads, drills and planers, and machines to make locomotive parts. There were exhibits of envelope-making machines, and machines to crush and grind rock. Also on display were typesetting, printing, book-binding, and paper-folding machines as American companies competed with foreign manufacturers. The huge, clumsy, noisy, and dangerous machines required constant attention. Most of these machines operated on steam power, with pulleys and leather belting. But the next generation of machine design was emerging with the first electric dishwashers and electric refrigerators also on display.

  11. MINING, FISHERIES, HORTICULTURE, SHOES, LIVESTOCK, AND FORESTRY

  Manufactures, Agriculture, Electrical, Transportation, and Machinery were the principal exhibition halls at the World’s Columbian Exposition and deserve close attention. The lesser halls were also filled with thousands of objects but, to keep this account to a reasonable length, only the major themes and highlights in each of them will be discussed.

  Mines and Mining

  The Mines and Mining Building was set between the Electricity and Transportation Buildings and was 700 feet in length and 350 feet wide. The beaux arts–inspired building was designed by Solon Spencer Beman, born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1853. Beman helped design the Connecticut State Capitol and moved to Chicago at the request of George Pullman to build the company town on Chicago’s far South Side. Known as Pullman, the town had the railroad car factory, 1,300 houses for the workers, as well as schools, a theater, and a marketplace. Beman was the architect for Grand Central Station and other notable Chicago structures. He also designed many of the Christian Science churches across the nation; the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana; Proctor & Gamble factories in Cincinnati; and the Pabst brewing company building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

  America’s mineral wealth was displayed in the Mines and Mining Building. The Alleghenies possessed vast deposits of coal and iron, Pennsylvania and Ohio had oil and gas, and Florida had phosphates. Silver and lead came from the Rocky Mountains, gold from California, tin from the Black Hills, and copper from Michigan. Hundreds of millions of dollars and a vast labor force were at work bringing America’s mineral wealth to the surface. By 1890 the annual yield of bituminous and anthracite coal exceeded 150 million tons and American iron ore accounted for one-third to one-half of the world’s production. Some of the largest of America’s companies were at work extracting this wealth. Standard Oil, Frick Coal and Coke, Bethlehem Steel, and the leading mine machinery companies all had displays in the Mines and Mining building. Oil, gas, coal, and iron ore generated some of the greatest fortunes in the history of the United States.

  Standard Oil occupied the north side of the building with an exhibit of the varieties of crude oil found in America and the methods used to extract and refine it. Fossil oil was first struck in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859 and quickly replaced whale oil as the preferred fuel to light lamps. Under the leadership of John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil of Cleveland, Ohio, absorbed its competitors and dominated the American oil market. Rockefeller and his partners formed a single group of trustees that owned companies in different states. Rockefeller fought off efforts to break the trust by moving his headquarters to New Jersey, a state that allowed a single entity to hold shares in companies from other states. Standard Oil sent its oil by underground pipes from Whiting, Indiana to feed
the great steam engines used to generate electric power for the Fair.

  The Mines and Mining Building was designed by Solon Spencer Beman. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Beman made his career in the Midwest. Standard Oil, Frick Coal & Coke, and Bethlehem Steel all had major exhibits in the building.

  The H. C. Frick Coke Company of Pennsylvania displayed a model of its Connellsville coal mine and showed how coke was used in the manufacture of steel. Frick (1849–1919) merged his interests with Andrew Carnegie, and was chairman of the board of the Carnegie Steel Company from 1889 to 1900. In this capacity he broke the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 by bringing in armed Pinkerton guards. In 1901 Carnegie Steel merged into the United States Steel Company.16

  America’s second great steel company, Bethlehem Iron Works of Pennsylvania, was also prominent in the Mines and Mining Building. The giant axle for the Ferris Wheel, standing 45 feet high and weighing 70 tons, was forged with Bethlehem steel. Fraser & Chalmers was one of the nation’s largest makers of mining machinery. The company started in Chicago and later merged with Edward P. Allis & Company of Milwaukee to form Allis-Chalmers. Another mining machinery company at the Fair was the New Hampshire–based Sullivan Machine Company, maker of steam-powered diamond stone-drilling machines. The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company was formed by the merger of Cleveland Iron Mining and the Iron Cliffs Mining Company. These companies used powerful drills and tools, and hoisting equipment to extract deep deposits of iron ore.