International Inventions Exhibition
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| International Inventions Exhibition | |
|---|---|
 One of the gold medal certificates awarded at the exhibition (this to Hick, Hargreaves and Co. for their Corliss engine supplementary governor & automatic barring engine.). | |
| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Unrecognized exposition |
| Name | International Inventions Exhibition |
| Visitors | three and three-quarters million |
| Organized by | Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales (president of the organising committee) |
| Location | |
| Country | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| City | London |
| Timeline | |
| Opening | 4 May 1885 |
The International Inventions Exhibition was a world's fair held in South Kensington in 1885.[1][2] As with the earlier exhibitions in a series of fairs in South Kensington following the Great Exhibition, Queen Victoria was patron and her son Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, was president of the organising committee.[2] It opened on 4 May[3] and three and three-quarters of a million people had visited when it closed 6 months later.[4]
Countries participating included Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan and the United States as well as the hosts, the United Kingdom.[2]
Attractions included pleasure gardens, fountains and music as well as inventions.[4] One series of concerts including old instruments[5] from Belgium. Other historical exhibits included five heliographs by Niépce[6] with modern photographers such as Captain Thomas Honywood also being present.[1]
Inventions included folding tables,[7] the Sussex trug, lacquer covered wire from OKI,[8] a meter from Ferranti,[9] a 38-stop organ equipped with a new floating-lever pneumatic action,[3] and Philip Cardew won a gold medal for his hot-wire galvanometer, or voltmeter.[10] The Verity Brothers of Leeds won the "highest award for building appliances".[11]
