id 2202 industrial design revolution

Describe aspects of The Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace.

• held in great Britain

• sponsored by the monarchy

• six month run

• 6 million attended

• 15,000 exhibiters (countries, artists, designers, manufacturers, shops)

• “to show the works of industry to all the nations”

Describe the First Industrial Revolution and the Second Industrial Revolution. Which does the Great Exhibition fall under?

first (1760-1840):

• machine manufacturing; steam power; coal

second (1840-1870)

• steam-powered systems; factories

The Great Exhibition falls under the Second Industrial Revolution.

The Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton, 1851

Describe the creation and industrial aspects of The Crystal Palace.

• greenhouse design: introduce as much glass as possible in order to get sunlight in

• designed to be very symmetrical → symmetrical balanced

• made from cast-iron & glass

  • iron girder superstructure & glass “skin”

    • in the iron superstructure: hollow pillars that doubled as drain pipes (24 mi of guttering)

  • skeleton of cast-iron columns supporting a network of girders

• modular system w/ prefabricated parts

  • units were configured into 24 ft modules that were prefabricated and assembled on the site

*review notes

Define “Glazing”

affixing the glass
→ was carried out from special trolleys and was fast

When did the Great Exhibition open and by who?

May 1, 1851 by Queen Victoria

What happened to the Great Exhibition in 1936?

It was destroyed by fire:

• fire in an office, spread through wooden floor

• warming of iron girders

Winston Churchill: “This is the end of an age.”

Name some famous people who attended the Great Exhibition.

Charles Darwin, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson

Describe two popular attractions in the Great Exhibition.

“Retiring Rooms” (only for me) were provided public toilets inside private enclosures (by George Jennings)

“World’s First Glass Fountain” by Follett Osler

What was Machine Hall in the Great Exhibition? What was its purpose? Name two machines that were displayed in this hall.

→located on the upper roof line so they could put in ventilation sites to ventilate machines

→didn’t want to just display machines; wanted to display them in action

1) a printing machine that could churn out 5,000 copies of the Illustrated London News an hour
2) the cotton machinery of Hibbert, Platt & Sons; a series of 15 machines in one room demonstrating the cotton spinning process as cotton was opened, carded, doubled, spun, warped & woven

Describe some items in the Department of the United States in the Great Exhibition.
Name one of the most popular American attractions and its creator (and describe it).

• plaster model of an american eagle

• draped banner of “Old Glory”

• model of a suspension truss bridge by Nathaniel Rider

• pipe organ

→The Reaper by Cyrus McCormick

• invented 1831, Virgina

• revolving reel

• McCormick reaper was awarded the 1st Prize Gold Medal

Describe Samuel Holt’s work in the Great Exhibition.

→ 200 guns “commemorative editions”

• Colt Navy Revolver

• Colt Dragoon Revolver

• displayed to show their parts separated and how they often had interchangeable parts → another way to focus on its efficiency

In the Great Exhibition, in the Department of Great Britain, we find displayed furniture identified as Victorian Design—which is influenced by what? Describe aspects of that influence.

influenced by the aesthetic idea from Queen Victoria:

• “domestic life important”

• “Beauty is paramount to living a happy life.”

• Ornament is necessary

Victorian Design focuses on adding “Beauty” to lifestyle: “domesticity” “ornament”

• it’s individually handcrafted

Describe characteristics of Victorian Furniture.

• usually carved wood

• stained in dark colors

• carved w/ “curves within curves” → curved patterns are symmetrically placed & repeated

• furniture is usually intended for display of decorative objects

Describe characteristics of Victorian chairs.

• small in scale

• intended to be more decorative than functional

• decorative carvings of curbed patterns & added gilt emphasize the “Beautiful”

What were Victorian pattern books?

• would show pictures that could be used as guides/patterns

• wood carvers, jewelers, painters, porcelain workers would often repeat the same patterns but in different materials

Describe the Victorian telegraph that was displayed at the Department of Great Britain.

• was in the “Communication Products of Great Britain” booth

• Cooke & Wheatstone, telegraph, 1850s

• “curves withing curves”

• individually handcrafted

• focus on Beauty

Describe the Daguerre Camera that was displayed at the Department of Great Britain.

• Daguerre Camera, 1851 (Industrial Revolution)

• machine

• encased within a simple box

• no ornament

Describe the differences in Victorian Scissors versus Cast Iron Scissors.

Victorian scissors:

• silver scissors, manufactured by the Sheffield Company in sterling silver (Victorian Design)

• individually handcrafted & focus on “Beauty”, not function

Cast Iron Scissors:

• machine fabricated in a foundry

• assembled on assembly line

• focus on function

  • diff shapes for diff functions: left-handed & right-handed; diff scale, diff sharpness, etc

Describe the industrialized process of the Thonet Brothers’ bentwood chairs.

• made use of steam-forming machine to soften wood

• “bent”, once softened, around curved molds

• assembled on an assembly line

• rods of soften wood molded around metal form

Describe the Thonet brothers’ Chair #14.

(even more focused on efficient manufacture)

• made up of 6 parts

• characterized by “gentle curve”

• not ornamental, but functional

• machine made

• shipped disassembled, 36 in sq. m. box

Describe Thomas Shearer’s desk and whether it fits into Victorian Design or Industrial Revolution Design.

it doesn’t fit into either Victorian nor Industrial revolution design

• it is individually handcrafted (Victorian influence) but no Victorian ornament

• focus on function (industrial influence) but not machine-made

This starts to open up to the next movement: Arts and Crafts Movement

What aspects does the Arts and Crafts Movement take from Victorian Design and Industrial Revolution Design?

It takes handcrafted from Victorian and functional from Industrial Design