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The News in 1851
| The
Great Exhibition |
 The
Great Exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria on the 1st of May at The Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park.
It was conceived by Victoria's German husband, Albert, to symbolize
the industrial, military and economic superiority of Great Britain
and to promote the advancement of industry and science. The Crystal
Palace was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton in only 10 days and is
a huge iron goliath with over a million feet of glass. Millions
of visitors have already been making the journey there and marveling
at the 13,000 exhibits on display, among which are the Jacquard
loom, an envelope machine, tools, kitchen appliances, steel-making
displays and a reaping machine from the United States. The objects
on display come from all parts of the world, including India and
the countries with recent white settlements, such as Australia
and New Zealand. The Crystal Palace itself is almost outshined
by the park, which contains a magnificent series of fountains,
comprising almost 12,000 individual jets. The largest of these
throws water to a height of 250ft. Some 120,000 gallons of water
are flowing through the system when it is in full play. The park
also contains unrivaled collections of statues, many of which
are copies of great works from around the world, and a geological
display which includes a replica lead mine and life-size restorations
of extinct animals, including dinosaurs.
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Submarine cable creates continuous telegraph
link between London and Paris
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 Brothers
Jacob and John Watkins Brett set up the Submarine Telegraph Company
after obtaining landing rights from the French and British authorities
allowing them to lay a submarine cable between the two countries.
On their first attempt in 1850, the cable was brought up by a
French fisherman who thought it was a rare seaweed with a gold
core. Following the failure of their first attempt, the brothers
engaged the services of a railway engineer, Thomas R. Crampton,
to design and supervise the laying of the cable. This cable consists
of a core of four strands of copper wire, covered with a double
layer of gutta percha, then surrounded by a covering of tarred
hemp, this in turn being enclosed in spun yarn with ten galvanised
iron wires wound in a spiral around this. The overall diameter
is 1¼ inches, and the weight between 7 and 8 tons per mile,
giving a total of about 200 tons. Laying began on the 25 September,
HMS Blazer being towed by two tugs, because her boiler, engine,
funnel and masts had been removed to accommodate the cable. Her
escort was HMS FEARLESS. Reluctant as the first cable had been
to reach the sea bed, this one could not reach it quickly enough,
due partly to its weight but mainly to the lack of an efficient
braking system on board Blazer. On arriving a few miles off the
French coast it was found that there was insufficient cable to
complete the laying operation. Temporary measures were made until
another piece of cable arrived from England aboard the tug RED
ROVER. The cable became operational on 13th November 1851 and
the prices for that day on the Paris Bourse were successfully
transmitted to London. The cost, including laying, came up £15,000.
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Lord Palmerston gets the sack
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  Lord
Russell has sacked his foreign minister, Lord Palmerston, after
he had recognised the government formed by Napoleon III in France
without consulting with his fellow cabinet ministers. In the summer
of 1850, Queen Victoria had asked Lord John Russell to dismiss Palmerston.
Russell told the queen he was unable to do this because Palmerston
was very popular in the House of Commons. However, in December 1851,
Palmerston congratulated Louis Napoleon Bonaparte on his coup in
France. This action upset Russell and other radical members of the
Whig party and this time he accepted Victoria's advice and sacked
Palmerston. |
Irish Famine: Too little, too late...
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 The
1841 census recorded an Irish population of 8.2 million.
By now this figure has been reduced to 6.5 million.
The famine was the result of successive crop failures
and the insufficient and ineffective relief Lord John Russell's
government provided for stopping the outbreak of starvation and
disease. Despite the deaths and the massive exodus that resulted
from the famine, leading to a fear in some parts of the country
that sufficient people will not be left to cultivate the land,
the owners of Irish estates have been continuing to evict their
tenants with as much virulence as ever.
Read
the full report from The London Illustrated News.
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"Lindomania" in the U.S.A.
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 Jenny
Lind's U.S. tour has led to an explosion of popularity called
"Jenny Rage" or "Lindomania". After
touring Europe, Jenny Lind was brought on a nationwide tour of
the United States in September 1850 by entertainment promoter
P.T. Barnum. Barnum succeeded in building such great public anticipation
about the "Swedish Nightingale" that 40,000 people showed
up to greet the arrival of her ship in New York harbour. From
her opening concert in New York City's Castle Garden to subsequent
performances in cities and towns across the country, Barnum fueled
public fascination with Lind by orchestrating events and negotiating
Lind-endorsed products (including Jenny Lind songs, clothes, chairs,
and pianos). Throughout the tour, people mobbed her concerts.
Barnum's shrewd promotion of Lind’s character - her modesty,
benevolence, and selflessness - as much as her artistry has created
a new cultural phenomenon: the celebrity. One scholar contends
that because of Barnum’s promotion, Lind has become "the
standard for measuring not just sopranos, or even women artists,
but women".
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 Isaac
Singer's new sewing machine is proving to be a huge commercial
success. It is the first sewing machine where the needle moves
up and down rather than side-to-side and it is powered by a foot
treadle. However, Singer's machine uses the same lockstitch that
Elias Howe had patented in 1846 and Howe is now suing him for
patent infringement. Another American, Walter Hunt, invented the
first sewing machine in 1834, but believing that his invention
would cause unemployment, never applied for a patent. Singer is
now attempting to fight Howe by showing that the invention is
already some 20 years old and that Howe should not be able to
claim royalties for it. In 1844, the British inventor, John Fisher,
also patented a lacemaking machine that was identical enough to
the machines made by Howe and Singer. Sadly, Fisher's patent was
lost in the patent office leaving him without any legal ground
to join in the potentially lucrative patent battle.
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The
Australian Gold Rush |
 In
February, gold was discovered by Edward Hargraves at Summer Hill
Creek in NSW. Edward Hargraves, who had recently returned from
California, claimed that he had noticed similarities between areas
of NSW and California's gold-bearing regions and had therefore
known exactly where to look when he had arrived home. Although
gold was initially found in NSW, it wasn't long before people
discovered it in other States. Victoria was the first and gold
mines have since been established at Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine
and McIvor. By the end of September nearly 1000 miners were digging
for gold on the Ballarat field alone and numbers are swelling
every day.
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"A
Splendid Spread" by George Cruikshank |
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