2-982-101 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of the American Centennial Exhibition: President Grant Starting the Machinery, from a sketch by our special artist, 1876. '...the procession entered Machinery Hall, where all was stillness prior to their coming, and surrounded the great Corliss engine. The President of the United States, the Emperor of Brazil, and Mr. G. Corliss then ascended the platform of the mammoth motor. The President having taken hold of the valve-lever of one engine and the Emperor of that of the other, both gave the turn simultaneously; steam was on; the great walking-beams began to ascend and descend; the engine was in motion; eight miles of shafting and hundreds of machines of all descriptions were in operation, and the International Exhibition of 1876 was at that instant thrown open to the world'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.