The Galerie des Machines of the 1889 Paris World’s Fair

Abstract

The Galerie des Machines of the 1889 Paris World’s Fair JOHN W. STAMPER When the Galerie des Machines was completed for the Paris Inter­ national Exposition of 1889, it was the largest wide-spanned iron­ framed structure ever built (hg. 1). Described at the time as “one of the wonders of the construction age,” it is still seen today as repre­ senting the revolutionary development of iron-building technology during the course of the 19th century.1 Spanning 364 feet 2 inches with twenty giant three-hinged arches, it not only embodied a unique way of covering a large space, it also enclosed a larger area than any previous building—over 900,000 square feet.2 The construction of the Galerie des Machines and other structures of the exposition, particularly the Eiffel Tower, was a remarkable political and economic achievement for the French government. The cost of the fair, nearly 47 million francs, with about one-fifth of that ($1.5 million in 1889 dollars) going toward the Galerie des Machines, was a small price to pay for a country that wanted to represent itself ' Dr. S tamper is an assistant professor of architecture in the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. He thanks Robert Mark, Len Morse-Fortier, and Carl Condit for their suggestions during his research and the Technology and Culture referees for helpful comments on earlier drafts of the article. ’William Walton, Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris, 1889 (Paris, 1889), p. xii. 2The principal sources of technical information on the Galerie des Machines are: “Exposition Universelle,” Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale 3 (1888): 628 — 57; “The Paris Exhibition,” Engineering 45 (April 27, 1888): 419— 20; 45 ( June 1, 1888): 534—37; 47 (May 3, 1889): 415 —54; “Exposition Universelle; chronique des travaux,"La Construction moderne 2 (August 6, 1887): 509—11; 2 (August 13, 1887): 520-22; 3 (July 28, 1888): 501-4; Louis Gonse, “Exposition Universelle de 1889: L’architecture,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 2 (July—December 1889): 484— 86; “Les Fermes de l’Exposition de 1889,” Le Génie civil 13 (May 5, 1888): 1—3; “Les Travaux de l’Ex­ position," Le Génie civil 13 (September 22, 1888): 321—24; 13 (August 4, 1888): 211 — 14; “L’Architecture en fer à l’Exposition de 1889,” Le Génie civil 15 (July 6, 1889): 185 — 89; and William Watson, Paris Universal Exposition, 1889, Civil Engineering, Public Works, and Architecture (Washington, D.C., 1892), pp. 832—61.© 1989 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/89/3002-0003$01.00. 330 The Galerie des Machines of the 1889 Paris World’s Fair 331 Fig. 1.—Interior of the Galerie des Machines. (Arthur Drexler, ed., The Architecture of the École des Beaux-Arts [New York, 1977], p. 453.) 7 1 JL.. ü A l iJr|K L i t» 1«L “ j { r, : favorably in the centenary year of its Revolution.3 It came at a time when unprecedented advances were being made in French industry. The average annual rate ofgrowth ofthe country’s industrial products and investment during the Third Republic exceeded that of all other sectors of the French economy. During the 1880s, industrial invest­ ment replaced basic investment in construction, public works, and 3“Exposition Universelle de 1889,” L’Architecture 2 (1889): 45; “Le Palais des Ma­ chines,” Le Génie civil 15 (May 1889): 15; “The Paris Exhibition,” Engineering 48 (De­ cember 13, 1889): 698—99; Watson (n. 2 above), p. 860; E. T. Jeffery, Paris Universal Exposition: 1889 (Chicago, 1889), pp. 56-57; and “Rapport du directeur des travaux,” L’Exposition de Paris de 1889 6 (1889): 42—43. 332 John W. Stamper transportation as the leading element of investment activity. In ad­ dition, there was a shift of the working population to factory labor as industry gained an increasing proportion of the country’s employ­ ment, capital, and production.4 The implication of economic and po­ litical superiority over rival countries like England was a dominant concern in France throughout the 19th century and helps explain the concentration of economic and technological resources not...