The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the St Louis World’s Fair, was an international event showcasing cutting-edge engineering, held in 1904. Members
of IMechE planned on attending, and so they wrote to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to suggest that it would be a good opportunity to hold a joint summer meeting in Chicago.
IMechE had held regular summer meetings since 1856. Members delivered papers, visited engineering sites and socialised, while their wives followed a programme of alternate visits and events.
Although previously held in Europe, this was the first time a transatlantic trip had been planned. The scale and timeliness of the organisation is awe-inspiring; it was arranged that IMechE members could visit 191 American works during May and June.
Members travelled by ship to New York. From here they went onwards by rail to Chicago. Over the course of four days, members of IMechE and ASME met to read and discuss technical papers including theoretical applications of wind turbines, and a list of attendee names was published every two or three hours to aid socialising.
At the closing presidential event, there were 80 IMechE members, with 15 of their “accompanying ladies”, and about 350 members from ASME, with over 450 guests.
A smaller delegation then went onwards to tour around America and briefly cross into Canada; and their travels were documented by photographs. St Louis was an architectural, engineering and entertainment highlight of this trip.
All but one of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition’s grand neo-Classical exhibition palaces were temporary structures. They were built with plaster of Paris and hemp on a wooden frame and had to be patched up as they deteriorated during the event.
As well as the engineering on display in the exhibition halls, technological advances were also apparent in the landscaping, architecture and entertainments on show, including the world’s largest pipe organ.
Grand, themed palaces were built. The Palace of Mines and Metallurgy was one of the best, as its architecture sought to unify Egyptian, Greek and Assyrian elements. Decorated obelisks flanked the entrances – with nine acres of space showing mineral resources from around the world and mechanical devices for collecting them.
The Palace of Machinery featured two central towers on the north side, each 265ft high. The building was 1,000ft long, covering 10 acres, and was near the Palace of Electricity, the Palace of Transportation and the power-plant for the exposition. There was also a 14-acre Palace of Manufactures (the ‘shopping centre’) with exhibitors from as far afield as Japan. Displays included textiles, glass and crystal and plumbing equipment, as well as manufacturing processes for steel pens, paper boxes, shoes and hats. Similar in size was the Palace of Varied Industries – packed to the rafters with decorative items.
The Palace of Electricity featured the most up-to-date discoveries, including working dynamos, motors and new electrical machinery. How electricity was used medically was given centre stage, with X-rays and light therapy to the fore.
As well as visiting St Louis, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition would go on to Washington DC, New York, Quebec, Niagara and Boston. The black-and-white photos of the trip (accessible via this link) still make an eye-popping spectacle today.
archives.imeche.org/archive/institution-history/america-1904
Did you know? The Greatest Show on Earth
By the time the World’s Fair closed its doors on 1 December 1904 it’s thought that over 20 million people had visited. What greeted them were halls of art, culture, food, engineering, science and natural history from 62 exhibiting countries as well as 43 American states