Machinery Hall housed the 1,400 horsepower Corliss steam engine, an early internal combustion engine, a compressor for refrigeration and ice-making, and Alexander Graham Bell's Telephonic Telegraphic Receiver. Students can discuss the effects of these inventions, and the inter-relationship between science, technology, and the designed world. Students can choose an invention and design a trade card or poster to advertise it. Many photographs in the collection document contemporary lifestyle of the 1870s, in connection with the Centennial, American life, life in other countries, and in general. Students can study the structures at the Centennial and review photographs of consumer goods and interiors.
Students can compare building sizes, styles, and types to buildings in present day Philadelphia.
Historical Research Capabilities Students can use the collection as a basis for research. For example, students might formulate a hypothesis to explain differences in food production, distribution and consumption. They might examine differences in agricultural production, or packaging to formulate a hypothesis. Using other sources, students can research reasons for differences in food production, distribution and consumption. Search on canned foods, confections, farm produce, fruit, meat, Agricultural Hall, agricultural machinery, seeds, cheese, restaurants, drinking fountain, wine, or beer.