The Great Exhibition - Exhibits

Exhibits

The official descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the event lists exhibitors not only from throughout Britain but also from its 'Colonies and Dependencies' and 44 'Foreign States' in Europe and the Americas. Numbering 13,000 in total, the exhibits included a Jacquard loom, an envelope machine, kitchen appliances, steel-making displays and a reaping machine that was sent from the United States.

• The Koh-i-Noor, the world's biggest known diamond at the time of the Great Exhibition.
• The early 8th-century Tara Brooch, discovered only in 1850, the finest Irish penannular brooch, was exhibited by the Dublin jeweller George Waterhouse along with a display of his fashionable Celtic Revival jewellery.
• Alfred Charles Hobbs used the exhibition to demonstrate the inadequacy of several respected locks of the day.
• Frederick Bakewell demonstrated a precursor to today's fax machine.
• Mathew Brady was awarded a medal for his daguerreotypes.
• William Chamberlin, Jr. of Sussex exhibited what may have been the world's first voting machine, which counted votes automatically and employed an interlocking system to prevent over-voting.
• Firearms manufacturer Samuel Colt demonstrated his prototype for the 1851 Colt Navy and also his older Walker and Dragoon revolvers.
• The Tempest Prognosticator, a barometer using leeches, was demonstrated at the Great Exhibition.
• The America's Cup yachting event began with a race held in conjunction with the Great Exhibition.
• George Jennings designed the first public conveniences in the Retiring Rooms of the Crystal Palace, for which he charged one penny.
• Gold ornaments and silver enameled handicrafts fabricated by the Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar from Sindh.
• C.C. Hornung of Copenhagen, Denmark, showed his single-cast ironframe for a piano, the first made in Europe.