The Centennial
  1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia

The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 (another description ) in Philadelphia and the Brooklyn Bridge show a new faith in technology growing

The Corliss engine that powered the exhibition and the bridge as symbols of two types of engineering dealing with structures and with machines.

• the key measure of efficiency for a structure is strength, for a machine it is power
• structures tend to be more public and machines more for private profit, but both can be examined both aesthetically (is it a work of art?) and on the basis of economics
• art--bridge is connection between cities and symbol of connection, but also can be an object of beauty even if strictly functional
• structures are public and so you want the public to like them so you try to make them attractive
• there is elegance in solving the problem efficiently
• good design is inherently beautiful
• danger of getting too simple and functional--glass box skyscrapers
• you don't have to sacrifice efficiency to beauty
• both need to be understood as part of larger systems

  Brooklyn Bridge

• John Roebling was the foremost bridge designer of his time and had built several other major suspension bridges ( company history )
• he had invented a way of making wire cables that made suspension bridges more economical and he also understood better than other engineers at the time how to make them safe
• the politics of funding the bridge were nasty
• work began on the bridge in Jan. 1870
• John Roebling died of tetanus during construction, his son Washington A. Roebling took up the work but was paralyzed by cassion disease (what scuba divers call the bends--the harmful effects of nitrogen bubbles in the body if you go from high to normal pressure air too quickly).   Washington's wife Emily Warren Roebling became the construction supervisor and saw the bridge to completion.  (more on casualties )
• the bridge made a connection that made possible a larger New York City (at the time it was built Brooklyn was a separate city--Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and Manhattan were consolidated into one city in 1898).
• some people were bothered by its bare utility, they thought of architecture on the basis of decoration
• but aesthetics were changing to celebrate utility--modern architecture wanted to get rid of all that old decoration and celebrate functional form

Corliss Engine

• it wasn't an innovative engine design--though it had been when first introduced in the 1850s
• George Corliss was proud of the quality of his engines
• the smooth quiet working of this intricate huge machine was something people stopped and watched
• it was a symbol not just of American technological expertise but of power and centralization
• After the exhibit was over Corliss at first could not find a buyer for the engine, but then he sold it to George Pullman, who moved it to Pullman, Illinois , for a new factory town making fancy railroad cars
• actually, large steam engines to power factories were very soon to be replaced by electricity in new factories, but many Corliss engines continued in use for years