The reason for this article was the numerous materials that were finally managed to be systematized into a single whole. As you understand, we will focus on industrial exhibitions that were held in many countries both in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. The Russian Empire was no exception, in which these exhibitions were held regularly until 1917, after which, for obvious reasons, they stopped. But oddly enough, in other states and even on other continents, with a slight delay in time, they also stopped. Maybe there is some kind of causal relationship? Let's get a look. Oddly enough, with all the variety of exhibitions in Russia and abroad, there are very few materials containing their photo catalogs. On domestic resources, they are practically not available for free,but at the same time there is an unimaginable multitude of digitized text reports and catalogs of these exhibitions. In foreign resources, the picture looks a little better, and at the same time there are materials of interest from Russia of that time. A very strange fact. But let's start in order.
The most famous exhibitions are considered to be the World Paris Exhibitions. All interested countries exhibited their products there, and it was this exhibition that set the tone for the global development of everything, from art to the military industry. To be in trend, as they say now, such exhibitions were organized at the state level, in addition to Europe, even in the countries of both Americas, Asia and Africa. There is a lot of information about such events on the network. But let's start with Paris.
It was in such a palace that she passed. There were still other places, but the main action took place here. This is the Champs de Mars palace in Paris. Oddly enough, the palace has not survived to this day. Or another view, after the development of the Field of Mars:
Something the view of the Eiffel Tower is a little strange, some balls are fixed on its supporting parts. Let's take a closer look, but from the other side (both photos of the tower from 1900):
An interesting situation turns out. On the tower of that time there is some kind of arched cornice with lamps, and if you look closely, there are some columns between the arches that look like the columns on the roof of the Champs de Mars palace. What's on the tower now?
Promotional video:
That's right, not at all, and even behind the tower everything is different. But it turns out that everything is simple, the Eiffel Tower itself was originally conceived as "a temporary structure that served as the entrance arch of the Paris World Exhibition of 1889". It turns out that it initially formed a single ensemble with the palace of the Field of Mars, and, accordingly, a single engineering network. This means that the disappearance of the palace and the cornice on the Eiffel Tower is somehow connected. Miracles begin.
But we will be most interested in the Palace of Machines, which has not survived to this day either. Such a lack of preservation for Europe is a very strange phenomenon, but nevertheless a fact is a fact.
It was here that all the world achievements of mechanical engineering of that time were concentrated. And a lot of photographic materials about those exhibitions have survived. Let's delve into them (photo of 1889).
Oddly enough, for some reason, there are many miniature churches among the machines, and some of them show that there are also some mechanisms inside them. For what? It would not have been clear if this photo did not lie in the same collection:
What kind of pumping station is in the background? Is it a water pump at all? For a pump station in such a climatic region, it is too bold a decision; in frost, it would stop functioning almost immediately. Most likely, this is some kind of modernized domed structure that somehow affects the posts on the roof of the building in the background. It is possible that this structure also influenced the posts on the cornice of the Eiffel Tower. When all this was demolished, the cornice on the Eiffel Tower was no longer needed, well, in fact, it was replaced with a simplified one. And before that, he worked like this (photo of 1905):
And our churches, it seems, had something to do with the cars in the pavilion. There are many photos from other exhibitions where similar neighborhood exists.
This is the 1905 exhibition in Geneva. Not entirely noticeable, so I specially enlarged two fragments from this photo.
It turns out that our familiar obelisk with a light bulb at the top is also part of the machine universe. Just do not understand whether the leading or the driven link.
And here the number of churches is generally off scale, especially two canoes circled below are pinned. Personally, I came across them here for the first time. Similar things were present in Paris:
How about us?
Off topic, but characterizes clearly. And nevertheless, at the Amur-Primorsky exhibition in 1898 in Blagoveshchensk (quite provincial for that time) we see this photo:
Thus, again we see an incomprehensible car, circled earlier at foreign exhibitions. In any case, a car means obtaining mechanical energy by converting any other, even another mechanical one (a bicycle, for example). What energy is being transformed here? The steam room has nothing to do with it, otherwise the unit would look different. And the dome at the top once again confirms that in this case natural electrical energy was used, which somehow they managed to get with the help of this spiral Christmas tree. But this is not only present at this exhibition.
As you can see, about a hundred years ago, the masters possessed the secrets of obtaining and using very cheap energy, which is why certain forces not only destroyed this equipment, but also the exhibition pavilions themselves, and powdered everyone who was interested in these exhibitions for five generations ahead.
It is worth writing about the Nizhny Novgorod fair separately, its respectability, both internally and externally, was not inferior to the Paris one.
What do you think is in its place now? That's right, a wasteland in the Kanavinsky district of N. Novgorod, and even on TV it is regularly shown with dreams of reviving the fair. But these dreams in this country, alas and ah, will remain dreams if they do not think of using it as an object for another cutting out. Even if they decide to revive it (somewhere very deeply I admit such an idea), then such functioning churches and pillars will never be built, because the bottom (even they do not decide with us). The columns, as you understand, are the ones that stand on the roofs of the pavilions.
There is a little secret in these columns, thanks to which they can ignite gas-filled lamps, like this:
To understand what this is about, I will give a photo from the same exhibition halls in Paris after 1920:
This is a photo from 1922. As you can see, not a single church, and the exhibition at this place will last for several more years, and all the pavilions will be demolished.
This is 1923 and the same thing. The columns in the building are more like decor, as a flask with a certain substance is not attached to them from top to bottom. And everywhere there is dull electric lighting, executed in the form in which it is now.
So we will not see the Nizhny Novgorod fair for a very long time.
Until next time.
P. S. I found another photo from the exhibition, and I never thought of what kind of unit is depicted on it. Who knows, let me know, I will be very grateful.
