Summary

In July of 1876, the nation’s 100th anniversary, the World’s Fair was being held in Philadelphia. The Centennial Exhibition was host to 37 nations as part of the Fair. James Bennett made certain that the Fair was thoroughly covered by his reporters. The Herald ran stories every day about the Fair. The most popular attraction at the Exhibition was Machinery Hall that displayed machines of all kinds, most of which were American.

The most popular machine in the hall was the Grand Hall Steam Engine which was also called the Centennial Steam Engine and was the largest machine in the world and was designed by engineer George Corliss. One visitor to the Exhibition was German professor and geographer August Petermann who was astonished by what he saw. He was a proponent of the Open Polar Sea theory. His maps...