By the late 1860s, Corliss began to be recognized internationally for his accomplishments. At the 1867 World's Fair held at Paris, he won the first prize in a competition of the one hundred most famous engine builders in the world. One of its commissioners to the exposition, John Scott Russell, proclaimed of the Corliss valve gear, "A mechanism as beautiful as the human hand. It releases or retains its grasp on the feeding valve, and gives a greater or less dose of steam in nice proportion to each varying want. The American engine of Corliss everywhere tells of wise forethought, judicious proportions and execution and exquisite contrivance."