398 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
Men like Garibaldi, Lamartine, and Louis Kossuth became the dis- 
placed persons of their day, and many of them sought refuge in the 
United States. Yet though all may have seemed lost to these valiant 
liberals, the receding tide of revolution had left its mark, and the smell 
of change was in the air. 
In Great Britain, Queen Victoria had only just completed the first 
decade of her long reign. Things were relatively stable politically, 
and the industrial revolution had passed its first phase. The long train 
of miserable social conditions, which the first impact of the machine 
age had brought to the working classes, had only begun to be amelio- 
rated. But thanks to the zeal of social reformers and enlightened 
industrialists, such as Robert Owens, Britain was learning how better 
to utilize this vast new giant in its midst and, above all, was coming to 
realize that economic stability was intimately associated with well- 
being, and that increased ability to produce on the part of working 
people was basic to any improvement in their standards of living. 
It is hard for us now to realize from what depths these living stand- 
ards have risen, thanks to those applications of science which produced 
the machine age. Just prior to the introduction of steam power, men, 
women, and children labored between 14 and 16 hours a day in poorly 
equipped factories; enjoyed no transportation of any kind; lived in 
windowless and unheated homes; and could not afford the luxury of 
candlelight because candles were taxed. Even the least fastidious 
today would be horrified at the unhygienic conditions which every- 
where prevailed in the absence of even the most primitive types of 
sanitary facilities. In the long, 6-day weeks there was neither money 
nor leisure for any kind of recreation. The average number of a man’s 
acquaintances during his entire lifetime was of the order of only 100. 
Intellectual and cultural activities among the poor were unheard of. 
The rate of infant mortality was enormous and estimated life expect- 
ancy was 30 years. Moves to better these conditions can be traced 
in part to the strong emotional appeal of such tales as Oliver Twist, 
Bleak House, and Martin Chuzzlewit. 
In 1850 the first industrial exposition in the world was held in the 
Crystal Hall in London under the patronage of Queen Victoria and 
the Prince Consort. 
For the United States, which abounded in its great expanses of 
unexploited land and endless national resources, there were no very 
difficult adjustments to make to get into the swing of the industrial 
revolution. It was just coming into full stride as anation. Politically 
the sectional strife between the abolitionist North and the slave- 
holding South had come to an uneasy lull, based upon the com- 
promise of 1850. For the time being, violently partisan points of 
view were submerged by the common desire to take advantage of a 
rapidly expanding economy. 
