Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd].

Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/1000
    delight and sclf-laudatiou at the result. The Jury system (which we shall presently explain) was established; (Lhd among the nine jurymen we find the well-known names of Molard, Chaptal, Duquesnoy, and Berthard. We find, too, among tlxc exhibitors and prize holders, the names of l^rcguet, Lenoir, Clouet, and Paycn,— men of great celebrity in many departments of manufactures. Such was the third French Industrial Exhibition, or the fii'st strictly National, in which the charges were borne by the state. It is usually spoken of as the First Exposition. It was speedily succeeded by a second. The government determined to make them annual, and to admit provincial towns to an equality with Paris, in respect to specimens admitted; but this determination was not fully carried out, for the second exposition did not take place till 1801. The First Consul had by that time become the patron of science and of art, as of armies and navies; he visited—accompanied by BerthoUet, Monge, and Chaptal—the manufactories of Paris, Eouen, Milan, Lyons, Brussels, Liege, and Aix la Chapelle, and encouraged the workmen by prizes and medals. It was under such auspices that the second National Exposition took place. It was held in the great quadrangle of the Louvre, which was fitted uj) with galleries for the purpose. As compared with its pre- decessor, this exposition was marked by the excellence of its woollens, cottons, carpets, fancy leathers, and printing; and it was made memorable by the first appearance, as an inventor, of the ingenious Jacquard. It is pleasant to bear in mind, at a time when English and French industrial products are about to be placed side by side in friendly competition, that Jacquard in part owed his eminence to the exertions of the English Society of Arts. This society, about the period now under consi- deration, offered a prize for the invention of a loom for weaving fishing-nets ; and Jacquard produced a machine, consequent on this advertisement, which was the means of bringing him into favourable notice by Napoleon. The second exposition was open six days; it counted 229 exhibitors, against 110 in its predecessor ; it was marked by the distribution of sixty medals ; and its Jury contained the dis- tinguished names of Berthollet, Berthoud, Guyton de Morveau, Prony, and Costaz. The year 1802 witnessed the third National Exposition, held in the same place as the second. The days of exhibition were seven, the number of exhibitors was 640, to whom 254 medals, decorations, rewards, and recognitions, were given. The period was marked by much extension of productive art—especially by the iuci-eased appHcation of mechanical and chemical science to facilitate production, and the consequent reduction in price of all articles of popular demand. This exposition was the immediate cause of the establishment of the Socieie cVEncourage- ment, a kind of Society of Arts, which has rendered important service to French manufactures. The fourth Exposition took place in 1806, under the blaze of the Empire, when the Finst Consul had become a King-maker. It was held in a fine building con- stmctcd on the Esplanade cles Invalides, and lasted twenty-four days; there were 1422 exhibitors, among whom 610 honours were distributed. The great and distin- ^nshmg feature of this display were the variety and beauty of the textile goods. Printed cottons, silk and thread lace, blonde, cloth, imitations of Cachemere shawls all these were conspicuous for their beauty in this exposition. Steel and iron manufa^ures, also, presented great mai'ked improvements. It is remarked by Mr. JJigby Wyatt, that the isolation, which for so many years separated in so great a flegrec manufacturing France from the other producing powers of Europe,—while it placed her m many points of view in an unfavourable position,—yet by/om'«^ her energies to supply alone what other kingdoms derived from mutual co-operation and clependance on each other, laid the foundation for that facility and universality of maimfacture which so eminently distinguish her at the present day. b 2