PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS

Page 88 – INTERIOR OF MACHINERY HALL

INTERIOR OF MACHINERY HALL.—Quite different from the view afforded inside any other of the buildings of the Fair was that where the acres of all kinds of modern machinery were exposed in competition. So constructed that the most effective display of such exhibits could be made, the vast hall presented a scene never equaled of its kind before. A common simile in describing the place was to compare its interior with three immense tram houses set side by side and surmounted by a single roof, a structure eight hundred and fifty feet long by five hundred feet in width. This great area had a gallery about it fifty feet in width, and the illustration here makes possible a comprehension of the spectacle the gallery commanded. To the right, extending away into the distance, appears the roadway of the traveling crane, a necessity in this building, since no other means would suffice as well for moving the heavy machinery, one piece of which alone, a gigantic engine, weighed three hundred and twenty-five tons. All the extensive space was divided into squares and parallelograms, called sections, and here, in friendly rivalry, met all the leading nations of the world. The United States, admittedly first in inventions, made the anticipated showing, and Europe endeavored to prove that she had kept abreast in the struggle. The space allotted Germany, for instance, was so crowded that twice the amount might have been occupied to advantage, and so it was with other countries. The view given is over a portion of the foreign sections, Germany appearing in the middle distance.

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