Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania 17022
On May 10, 1876 in Philadelphia, the President of the United
States and the Emperor of Brazil mounted the platform of the giant
Corliss Engine. Each turned a valve lever, setting in motion the
great International Centennial Exhibition as miles of shafting and
hundreds of machines began to operate.
As the United States today moves toward its bicentennial
celebration it may be of interest to take a look at how the
nation’s 100th birthday was observed.
Congress, on March 3, 1871 authorized the president to appoint
two commissioners from each state to a centennial commission. In
1872, an act incorporated a Centennial Board of Finance and
provided for the issuance of $10,000,000 worth of stock. On April
1, 1873, a board of directors was organized.
These preliminaries culminated on May 10, 1876 in the opening of
the Centennial Exhibition in Fair-mount Park, Philadelphia. The
grounds covered 236 acres, with five buildings being constructed at
a cost of $4,500,000. The Main Building, holding scientific,
educational, mining and manufacturing exhibits, covered 20 acres.
It was 1,880 feet long, 464 feet wide and had ‘wings’ 416
and 216 feet long. The 70-foot high roof was supported by trusses
resting on 672 wrought-iron columns, with an elevated square in the
center and towers at the corners.
The Women’s Pavilion, with 15 nations represented, was on an
acre of ground and was the first display of that nature ever
attempted.
The second largest structure was the Machinery Building. This
was 1,402 feet long, 360 feet wide and, with an annex, covered
nearly 13 acres.
Other buildings were Agriculture Hall, Horticulture Hall and an
arts building.
In the middle of Machinery Hall was the Corliss Engine, which
supplied the power to keep the mechanical parts of the exhibition
in motion. This engine was unique.
Two 750-horsepower beam engines had the flywheel between them.
The cranks of both were connected with the same shaft, thus making
the two engines actually a double engine. The gear flywheel
connected under the floor with the 252-foot long main shaft, which
ran crosswise of the building. Shafts 108 feet long ran at right
angles with the main shaft to points under the ends of the separate
lines of overhead shafting.
These 108-foot shafts were connected to the ends of the main
shaft and at two intermediate points. At these two points they were
attached by rests of beveled gear six feet in diameter.
At the ends of these connecting shafts were the main pulleys,
eight in number. Each pulley was connected by a double belt to the
end of an overhead main shaft in the hall. Each could drive a
straight line of shafting 635 feet long. Each of these 635-foot
sections was the length and one-fourth the width of one wing of the
hall. The main shaft was extended beneath the transept and
furnished power in that section.
The diameter of the gear flywheel was 30 feet. It was two feet
across the face. Its weight of 56 tons made it the heaviest cut
wheel produced up to that time. Its 216 teeth were finished so
precisely that 36 revolutions per minute ran noiselessly. The
height of the engine was 39 feet from the main floor and every part
could be reached by means of iron stairs and balconies.
In contrast to the mammoth Corliss Engine, standing next to it
on the platform was the smallest steam engine in the world, shown
by Mr. Levi Taylor of Indianola, Iowa. It rested on a gold
twenty-five cent piece. It was made of gold, steel and platinum and
the whole thing weighed seven grains. The engine alone weighed only
four grains. The stroke of the piston rod was one twenty-fourth of
an inch, and the cutoff was one sixty-fourth. Many of its parts
could be recognized only by the use of a magnifying glass.
Steam engine fans who do not already know, may be interested in
reading a bit about the developer of the Corliss Engine.
George Henry Corliss was born on June 2, 1817, in Easton, N.Y.
His father, a surgeon, felt that George could be better educated in
Greenwich, N.Y., so the family moved there when the boy was eight
years old. In school he early showed an inclination toward
mathematics and mechanics.
As was the custom in those days, George went to work at age 14.
After he worked four years for a storekeeper, his father sent him
to Castleton Academy in Vermont. George studied there for three
years, then returned to Greenwich and opened a store of his
own.
Customers complained about faulty stitching in the shoes which
he sold. Corliss turned his inventive nature to the task and came
up with a machine for sewing boots. He received a patent in 1842
and in 1844 went to Providence, R.I. to try to market his
invention. Fairbanks, Bancroft and Company were interested in
George but not in his machine, and offered him a job. So he sold
the store and went to Providence with his wife, and, by now, two
children. Here he soon invented mechanisms that were to
revolutionize the manufacture of steam engines.
Always alert for better things, Corliss joined John Bar stow and
E. J. Nightingale of Providence in 1848, forming a new company
called Corliss, Nightingale and Company. Here his first steam
engine using the unique Corliss features was built. In 1856 a new
plant was constructed and the company incorporated under the name
of Corliss Engine Company.
What was the great thing Corliss did for the steam engine? He
invented a throttle valve gear actuated by a ball governor to
regulate the amount of steam admitted to a cylinder in response to
the load requirement. This ‘variable cutoff’ prevented the
waste of heat and pressure and resulted in fuel savings under a
partial load.
This giant of industry, who contributed so much to the
nation’s growth, died in Providence, R.I. on Feb. 21, 1888. He
was survived by his second wife, the former Emily Shaw, of
Newburyport, Mass. His first wife, the former Phoebe Frost, of
Canterbury, Conn, died in 1859.
The great Centennial Exhibition lasted six months, closing on
Nov. 10. Total admissions numbered 9,910,966. Of these visitors
7,250,-620 paid admission fees of 50 cents. 753,654 paid 25 cents
and 1,906,692 people were admitted free.
The Corliss Engine was later used for about 30 years by the
Pullman shops near Chicago.
When the nation celebrates its tricentennial in 2076 there will
no doubt be many wonderful sights to see and many great inventions.
Probably nothing will be more remarkable than was the Corliss
Engine when it was shown in 1876 in Philadelphia.
Information gleaned from The Centennial Exposition,
Described and Illustrated by J. S. Ingram, Imperial
Encyclopedia and Dictionary, Vol. 7, Encyclopedia International,
Vol, 5, and Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. 7.
