Train - That new train smell 1876 Return Address Label

Colourized photo from 1876 Original title: Machinery Hall, Transept, from north end Photographer: Centennial Photographic Co. Location: 4231 Avenue of the Republic, Philadelphia PA There is just something about that new train smell. Locomotives fresh from the factory, sitting on the showroom floor, ready for a test spin. These beauties have all the extras you didn't ask for, painted up pretty and shiny. The showroom full of weird extras to catch your attention. Don't forget to kick the wheels as is the custom for these sorts of things. The best part is the test drive though. Oh wow, they load up the engine, turn some dials and off we go. People screaming oh my god, we are going to die, as they all jump out of the path. The salesman assures you, its not that they are screaming at you, they are screaming with you. Kidding aside, this is the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA. This fair was considered the first World's Fair in the United States. They had a number of buildings and exhibitors. Over 14,000 businesses set up a display of some kind. This is machinery hall, a place for everything machine. You can see a batch of locomotives on the right, and on the left a number of boats. They introduced the typewriter in this show. Machinery hall was massive, it was the second largest structure in the fair. Made of wood and glass, a massive masonry foundation, wood slats placed right on the dirt. The buildings dimensions was 1400ft by 360ft, with some additional space on the side. It took about 6 months to construct. They had over 558,000 square feet of space to fill, the US filled 2/3rds of it. See that thing in the centre? That was built for this fair, its the Corliss Centennial Steam Engine. It moved, it wasn't a stationary device. It in fact ran all the machines in the entire fair. They had a mile of overhead line belts connected to it. It stood 45ft tall, weighed 650 tons and had 1400 horsepower. After the fair, they packed it up and sent it back to Corliss. Where it was then sold to the Pullman company in Chicago, and was used there till 1910. After that its unknown. Fun Fact: Visitors had access to rolling chairs, a telegraph office and a dinner for 50 cents (about $13 now). For scale you can see the little people on benches in the foreground and in the background. I also think there is a time traveller in this one, a rather sleepy one on the left.