The Columbian Exposition, FLW and Arts and Crafts

[Don P]

 "Say what?". That was the first modern Worlds Fair. Electric lights debuted, Victorian cast iron and glass, all white. Pretty much what the craftsman movement was rebelling against. But, Japan sent a temple and a team of craftsmen to reassemble it. It was also the year Wright left Louis Sullivan's firm in Chicago and went out on his own. Look at the wide eaves, timber joinery and well situated on the site;
World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago – Frank Lloyd Wright In Japan (wrightsjapan1905.org)
The Greene brothers also stopped through on their way to California and were influenced by the temple. Pretty neat.

[Al_Smith]

It might be mentioned that electric lighting system was the first commercial use of poly phase alternating current .Tesla came up with that much to the  chagrin of Edisons insistance of using DC current .Score Nickola 1 Thomas zero .Old Tom had put the hex on AC when Tesla first showed it to him .Tesla didn't get mad he just got even .  

[Al_Smith]

On that subject at the time of Tesla and Edison my great grand father ,Fred Smith also worked for Edison .That is until old Tom tried to take credit for the rotary concrete kiln which was all my grand dads idea . As a result Fred went on to make the internal engine bearings for the Spirit of St Louis from a special brass alloy called Non Gran .Later to be the plant engineer for Universal  Atlas Cement in a town near Pittsburgh Pa wher
e he actually improved his previous kiln design.BTW I have some items made from that alloy that are over 100 years old .

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, as soon as Don mentioned the exposition I thought of all those lights I've seen in the photos. The first one with electric and Westinghouse/Tesla won the bid. Old Tom was pretty danged PO'd.
 Funny you mention that Al. When you said your GF worked for Edison I thought "Oh, I'd better keep my mouth shut on this one" not wanting to offend anyone, but then I read the rest of your post and smiled. I have always thought of Edison as a hack and a showman. It was all about the money and publicity, he sure wasn't much of an engineer. I had read a biography about Diesel recently and he had written a letter to his son telling of his visit with Edison during a visit to the states. He was mush less than impressed by Old Tom given his hit and miss approach and trying everything that didn't work before tripping over something that did. Diesel's approach (Tesla's too) was to engineer it out in his mind, doo all the math, visualize the flaws and work on those, then commit it to drawings and a prototype. The both despised Edison and his hack methods. Plus he was known for getting all of 'his great idea and inventions' from the work of others. They did the math and they came up with the concepts and they made them work. Edison just stuck his name on everything and a lot of the stuff with his name on it were things he really didn't fully understand.
 If I recall Tesla was on Edison's payroll for a while until Edison reneged on an agreement and Tesla walked. The rest is history. Edison spent a lot of time and money trying to make Tesla and Westinghouse look foolish, all of which either failed or back fired on him. I wish our school systems would start teaching the truth instead of the myth.
 My Grandfather was an acquaintance of Tesla's because he worked around the corner from Tesla's lab and they met by chance in the park where they both ate lunch. Mt GF wound up making some parts for him for his Waldenclyfe facility in Shoreham, which was not far from where my GF lived in St. James.

 Small world.