ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1851. 



PROMIXEXT among the events which have signalized the progress of 

 Science and Art in the course of the nineteenth century, has been the 

 " Great Industrial Exhibition of all Nations," during the year 1851. 

 The conception of the scheme might have originated in any age ; its re- 

 alization could have belonged only to our own. The time, the location 

 selected, the condition of the civilized world, all were propitious to the 

 undertaking ; and its results have surpassed the expectations of its de- 

 signers. A friendly confidence among rival States, a feeling of perfect 

 security, a freedom of commercial intercourse among all nations, facility 

 and cheapness of transportation, the perfection of inventions, and the 

 multiplication of practical applications all these conditions, as they 

 exist now, were requisite for the success of the Exhibition. That its 

 results have been in the highest degree beneficial, in the diffusion of 

 intelligence, promotion of good taste, and the cultivation of friendly 

 intercourse among different people, none can doubt. 



The Exhibition has existed and passed away, but it will remain in 

 history as an exposition and true exponent of the progress and degree 

 of development to which the civilized world had attained, in all 

 branches of science and art, at the close of the first half of the nine- 

 teenth century. 



In the following pages we propose to present a succinct and intelli- 

 gible account of the origin, plan, and construction of the Crystal Palace, 

 with the general history and details of the Exhibition. 



First Building Proposed. The Exhibition having been fully deter- 

 mined upon, and a site for the necessary building chosen, the Commit- 

 tee advertised for plans for a suitable edifice. In accordance with their 

 wishes, 245 designs from different architects were submitted, none of 

 which, however, were entirely satisfactory. A design was then com- 

 posed by the Committee themselves, founded upon the most approved 



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