INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIESKYOTO UNIVERSITYDATA:Frank Leslie's Historical Register of the United States Centennial Exposition, 1876
In 1876, an international exposition was held in Philadelphia in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The telephone, invented by Bell, became very popular. Rumor has it that the Brazilian Emperor Pedrot II was so surprised that he dropped the receiver from his ear. The exposition at that time was a place where industries and technologies of each country were displayed and people could discover new things that they had never before seen. Many people who had seen the gramophone of Edison, the Eiffel Tower, illuminations, astronomical telescopes, rare trees and flowers etc. must have dreamed of the possibilities of the dawning of a new age.