Industrial Revolution Flashcards
When was the Great Exhibition and where was it held?
- 1851
- The Crystal Palace
What was the crystal palace made of?
cast-iron and glass
Who was the crystal palace designed by?
Joseph Paxton
What were the key dimensions of he crystal palace?
1,851 feet long, 108 feet high, 408 feet wide
Where was the crystal palace built?
Hyde Park, London
How did Joseph Paxton come about being the architect fo the ‘Great Exhibition’?
He entered a competition where his design was picked among 245 others.
What was Joseph Paxton’s previous architect experience in?
Green houses
What was unique about the crystal palace design?
- It had a Modular system and its part were prefabricated, and its use of glass?
How was the glass installed?
Glazing of the glass was carried out from special trolleys and was fast. one man managed to fix 108 panes in a single day.
293,000 panes were used and 4,500 tons of iron
- the glass was supplied by chance brothers
- Sheets of 4 ft 1 in by 10 in
How long did it take to build?
It took just 2,000 men around 8 months to build and cost about $5 million in todays standards.
What was unique about the cast iron design?
- The hollow pillars that doubled up as drain pipes allowed for 24 miles of guttering to gather rain water and condensation.
When was the crystal palace destroyed?
It was burned down by a fire in 1936. The fire started in an office and burned through the wooden floor. Winston Churchill said “it was the end of an age”
What was the Great Exhibition of 1851?
around 6 million visitors journey to the crystal palace and the ‘Great Exhibition’ to see the industrial revolution and the products being showcased there
Over 13,000 exhibits were displayed from all around the world.
100,000 objects
How much revenue did the ‘Great Exhibition’ achieve in total?
$20 million
started a trend in other countries trying to do the same thing
Who were some famous people who attended the Great Exhibition
Charles Darwin
Charlotte Bronte
Charles Dickens
Lewis Carroll
George Elliot
Alfred Tennyson
Who invented the reaping machine? What was its purpose? What award did it win at the Great Exhibition? When was it invented?
- Cyrus McCormick’s reaping machine
- Drawn by horses, the machine cut the corn and left it lying in swathes in the harvest field
- gold metal
- invented in 1831 and patented in 1851
When was the Exhibition opened? And, who was it opened by?
1 May 1851
by Queen Victoria
What were some of the popular attractions at the Great Exhibition?
- Penny Toilets
- World’s first glass fountain
- Machine Hall
What are “Penny Toilets”? Who were they designed by?
- in the “retiring rooms” were provided public toilets inside private enclosure.
- George Jennings
- 800,000 people “spent a penny” on there penny toilets
Who created the world’s first glass fountain? How tall was it? and how much did it weigh?
- Follett Osler
- 27 feet tall
- four tons of glass
What was the Machine Hall
- Most important are
- On upper roof line
- Needed venalation
- Wanted to display machines in action
- Pictured in illustrated London News
What were some of the important machines in the machine hall?
- Printing machine that could churn out five thousand copies of the illustrated london news an hour and a different edition each day.
- The cotton machiner of Hibber, Platt & son: a series of 15 machines in one room demonstrating the cotton spinning process as cotton was opened, carded, doubled, spun, warped and woven
How many designs did the US send over and how many were displayed?
- 612
- 599
Who was Samuel Colt and what did he make?
Samuel Colt is an American salesman
He made guns and sold “commemorative edition” at the Great Exhibition that had a plack.
- Colt navy Revolver
- Colt Dragoon Revolver
How were Samuel Colt’s guns displayed?
- They were displayed in a way that had all of their parts separated to show that they had exchangeable parts.
What was the style of the British furniture at the time?
Victorian Style
What was emphasized in victorian style?
- Domestic life is important
- Beauty is paramount to living a happy life
- Ornament is necessary
- “Beauty” “domesticity” “ornament”
What are some characteristics of Victorian furniture?
- Handcrafted
- Stained dark colors so you couldn’t see wood inconsistencies
- carved with “curves within curves”
- curved patterns were summetrically placed and repeated.
- more decorative than functional
What were Victorian Pattern books?
- would show pictures that could be used as guids or patterns
- wood carvers, jewelers, painters, porcelain workers would of ten repeat the same patterns but in different outcomes
Who created the Victorian Telegraph and where was the object displayed?
- Cook and Wheatstone and perfected in the United States by Samuel B. Morse
- large decorative box with “victorian curves”
- Displayed at the “Communication Products of Great Britain”
Who created the camera displayed at the Great Exhibition? What were some notable characteristics of the camera?
- Jacques Daguerre
- encased in a simple box with no ornament
- French artist and painter
- partnered with Joseph Nicephore Niepc
Who created the Victorian Scissors? What are some notable characteristics of th victorian scissors?
- Manufactured by the Sheffield Company in silver, displayed at the Great Exhibition 1851
- Individually handcrafted
- Focused on beauty
Who created the Cast Iron Scissors? What are some notable characteristics of the cast iron scissors?
- Displayed also at Great Exhibition
- Machined fabricated in a foundry
- Assembled on assembly line
- Focus on function
Who created the Bentwood chairs? What aware were they given?
What were the unique characteristics of their products?
- The Thonet Brothers created the bentwood chairs.
- They were awarded a bronze metal
- They were created using an industrialized process that included steam-forming machine to soften the wood for bending.
- The chair was then assembled through an assembly line
- only six parts
chair #14
Who was Thomas Shearer and what did he make?
- He created a desk that focused on function
it was individually hand crafted and complex, but uniquely focused on function
When was the first Industrial Revolution? What shifts were made?
- 1760 - 1840
- Transition from agrarian handicraft prodcution (from homes) to one dominate by machine manufacturing
- Began in Britain and then spread to Europe and the united states
- Shift from wood to other biofuels to coal
- steam engine
When was the Second Industrial Revolution? Where were shifts made?
- 1840 - 1870
- Evolution of the steam engine into steam-powered systems: boats, ships, and railways
- Large scale manufacture of machine tools and the increasing use of factories
What did the American Exhibit look like at the Great Exhibition?
The US- plaster model of an American eagle, banner of “Old Glory”
