56
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
from one class to another. In moving around the centre on any given circle, he was always in the same group or class, but went from one nation to another. Admirable as this plan was in theory, grave objections were found in practice. First, it was found impossible to adjust properly either the space devoted to each nation, or the relative space occupied by different groups in each nation. Moreover, the building, arranged in this form, could only be lighted from above, and by experience it has been found very difficult to make roofs so lighted water-proof, when only erected for temporary purposes. Lastly, to the majority of visitors, the arrangement described is extremely confusing, on account of the impossibility of keeping the points of the compass, and of finding desired places of exit, after circulating through the curves of the exhibition building. All these defects would have been greatly exaggerated, had the plan of the Paris Exposition been repeated at Vienna, owing to the vastly greater size of the latter exhibition, which was nearly four times that of the former.
The Austrian authorities decided to abandon the idea of the association of like groups in the different nations, except in certain special cases,—as fine arts, machinery, etc., which were placed in buildings by themselves,—and adopted the plan of comparatively narrow buildings, lighted from the side, in which the only aim was to place the products of each nation by themselves. The main building, or industrial palace, consisted of a hall three thousand feet long and eighty-three feet wide ; and, to give additional space, this was crossed by seventeen transepts, averaging five hundred feet long by fifty- one feet wide. Parallel with this main building, there was erected a machinery hall, twenty-six hundred and fifty-one feet long, and one hundred and sixty-four feet wide. Beyond these were erected another series of buildings for pictures, statuary and other works of art. This arrangement of comparatively narrow buildings, while it gave an opportunity of lighting from the sides by windows under the roof, added very largely to the cost, on account of the great extent of wall in proportion to the space inclosed. It also rendered the work of one who wished to trace any particular branch of production through different nations very difficult, by