The Crystal Palace
It is said that Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, was the dreamer who started the idea of The Great Exhibition of 1851, an unseen exhibition of more than 100 000 objects, all by over 15 000 contributors. The sight was displayed along 10 000 miles, half of which, was occupied by British exhibitions. The objects ranged from magnificent pieces of industrial machinery, like a massive hydraulic press invented by Stevenson, to interesting gadgets and artifacts like a “stiletto or defensive umbrella” -uhm, not so interesting.
There were printing machines, folding pianos, and examples of every imaginable kind of steam machine. Every advanced industrial country sent contributions from France to Canada, and even Russia. 
This last picture depicts the interior of the gigantic glass building that held the exhibition. The famous fountain, standing approximately in the middle of the building, was made of four tons of pink glass, 27 feet high, provided a useful meeting place, as well as cooling the atmosphere.
To sum up, the Great Exhibition of 1851 was a display of technological feats of industry, designed to show the world the posibilities of Science and Technology. It seemed also like a competition of prowess among the elite empires, especially between France and Britain. When we consider everything that was shown in the Exhibition and all the people who were involved I can’t think of anything similar happening in the modern world, Can you?
http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/victorians/exhibition/app_enlarge.html
Nizuniro Altamirano
Blog de Lenguas 
excellent… I think it’s really amazing that in that ancient time people started to believe art was important. But I don’t think any modern country can do such thing, because art and science is not valued like it was before.
Remember to add your name, so I can give credit where it’s due! Anne
http://www.flowofhistory.com/node/653
Might be helpful for ordering events.
Anne
What struck me most of this exhibition was that society at that time was able to admire what they had built and the sense of wonder.
Nowadays we have been able to discover galaxies , and we dont realize how amazing it is .
Perla
The great exhibition is an exceptional example of technology and innovation.
In my point of view that era brought a lot of useful inventions, not only in the technology, also in architecture and literature.
As I see it, technology has improved enormously the last years and it has changed the world with new inventions, but nowadays It has lost the real purpose of the use of technology because the government looks more interesting in create new weapons instead to find a cure for diseases.
Sharon