The first International Exposition of Electricity in Paris ran from August 15, 1881 through to November 15, 1881 at the Palais de l'Industrie on the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...

. It served to display the advances in electrical technology since the small electrical display at the 1878 Universal Exposition.K. G. Beauchamp, '' Exhibiting electricity'' IET, 1997 , pp.160-165 Exhibitors came from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, as well as from France. As part of the exhibition, the first International Congress of Electricians presented numerous scientific and technical papers, including definitions of the standard practical units

volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). Defin ...

ohm Ohm (symbol Ω) is a unit of electrical resistance named after Georg Ohm. Ohm or OHM may also refer to: People * Georg Ohm (1789–1854), German physicist and namesake of the term ''ohm'' * Germán Ohm (born 1936), Mexican boxer * Jörg Ohm (bor ...

and

ampere The ampere (, ; symbol: A), often shortened to amp,SI supports only the use of symbols and deprecates the use of abbreviations for units. is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). One ampere is equal to elect ...

History

Adolphe Cochery, Minister of Posts and Telegraphs of the time, had initially suggested that an international exposition should be held. This show was a great stir. The public could admire the

dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundati ...

of Zénobe Gramme, the incandescent light, the

Théâtrophone Théâtrophone ("the theatre phone") was a telephonic distribution system available in portions of Europe that allowed the subscribers to listen to opera and theatre performances over the telephone lines. The théâtrophone evolved from a Clément ...

, the electric tramway of Werner von Siemens, the

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...

, an electrical distribution network by Marcel Deprez, and an

electric boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power ...

by Gustave Trouvé. As part of the exhibition, the first International Congress of Electricians, which met in the halls of the Palais du Trocadero, presented numerous scientific and technical papers, including definitions of the standard practical units

and

, the International System of Electrical and Magnetic Units. George Berger was the Commissioner General. Aside from the provision of the building by the French government, the exhibition was privately financed. Organizers would donate profits to scientific works in the public interest.

International Congress of Electricians

This congress was a decisive step in the building of the modern

International System of Units The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. ...

(SI), since

coulomb The coulomb (symbol: C) is the unit of electric charge in the International System of Units (SI). In the present version of the SI it is equal to the electric charge delivered by a 1 ampere constant current in 1 second and to elementary char ...

and

farad The farad (symbol: F) is the unit of electrical capacitance, the ability of a body to store an electrical charge, in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the English physicist Michael Faraday (1791–1867). In SI base unit ...

were defined at this occasion. Main participants include Éleuthère Mascart, William Thomson (who later became Lord Kelvin),

Hermann von Helmholtz Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Associat ...

Rudolf Clausius Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (; 2 January 1822 – 24 August 1888) was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's princip ...

, Gustav Kirchhoff,

Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann (; 2 October 1826 – 24 March 1899) was a German physicist and scientific author. Life Wiedemann was born in Berlin the son of a merchant who died two years later. Following the death of his mother in 1842 he lived w ...

, Carl Wilhelm Siemens and his brother the industrialist Werner von Siemens, who had to renounce to the siemens mercury as the resistance unit (not to be confused with

siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...

, current SI unit of conductance).

Exhibits

Among the exhibits were: * Apparatus for production and transmission of electricity, * natural and artificial magnets, and compasses, * devices used in the study of electricity, * many applications of electricity (sound, heat, light, electroplating, electrochemistry, signage, power, industrial applications, agricultural and domestic), * lightning, * old instruments in connection with electricity. Electric lighting with

incandescent lamps An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...

was one of key developments on display at the exposition, with up to 2500 lamps used to light the venue. The lamps of

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

, St. George Lane-Fox, Hiram Maxim, and Joseph Swan were compared in extensive tests by a committee, including exposition juror William Crookes, to establish the most efficient lamp design. The conclusion was the high resistance Edison lamp was the most efficient, followed by the Lane-Fox, Swan, and Maxim lamps.The Electrical Journal, Volume 9, 1882, page 107
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References

* *Gérard Borvon, ''Histoire de l'électricité, de l'ambre à l'électron'', Vuibert, 2009,

External links

Report on the International exhibition of electricity held at Paris, August to November, 1881
* Gérard Borvon

{{DEFAULTSORT:International Exposition Of Electricity, Paris World's fairs in Paris 1881 in France 1881 festivals Science festivals History of electrical engineering 1880s in Paris