Electrical appliances exhibited at the 1882 Electrical Exhibition, including chandeliers and the first telegraph instrument. Wood engraving, 1882.

"The Electrical Exhibition at the Crystal Palace This exhibition at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, promises to be by far the most interesting and complete collection of electrical appliances which has ever been organised-of course with the exception of the great display at the Paris Palais de l'Industrie last year. Electrical science has made such enormous strides during the past five years, that few people, until they visit an exhibition of this nature, can realise the widespread extent to which electricity is utilised, the manifold uses to which it can be applied, or the tremendous power which can be developed or set free by its agency. Few visitors could look round the huge hall of the Palais de l'Industrie without experiencing the feeling that electricity is the great force of the future, perhaps destined to work greater revolutions in the civilisation of the world than even steam can claim to have done. Apparently there is no limit to the miscellaneity of its utilisation. It can drive a tram-car or a sewing-machine, it can play a piano or fire a cannon a score of miles distant, or work all the clocks of a town, it can reproduce a far-off speaker's voice, and bring the dialogue of a play or the sounds of an opera to a man's study or a lady's boudoir. With it you can take photographs from a balloon while you yourself stand safely on firm land. It will gild base metal like gold, it will restore a sick man's nervous power or cauterise his wounds, it will propel a boat, it will curb the most restive horse, and perform a thousand other useful services for the master who knows how to control and direct its energy. With the electric telegraph and its attendant marvels all are more or less familiar, and by far the most interesting portion of the exhibition will be the display of the various methods of lighting, which comprise all the best-known systems, and range from the little tube which serves to illuminate a patient's throat to the huge glowing mass of carbon, which placed in a lighthouse, sheds its warning rays for many miles around. The invention of the dynamo-magnetic machine, and particularly the improvementswhich have been wrought in it of late, have now brought electric lighting within the range of public and, indeed, of domestic use, and. we should recommend all disbelievers in the future of lighting by electricity to pay a visit to the Palace, when we fancy that their incredulity will be rudely shaken by the stern evidence which will meet them on every side. For out-door lamps or for illuminating public places they will find the brilliant lamp of the Brush, Siemens, Werdermann, or Jablochkoff systems, while for indoor purposes, the tiny globes of Swan, of Edison, or of Maxim will demonstrate the practicability even of an electrical reading-lamp. Our artist has depicted chandeliers of the Brush and Siemens lights in Nos. 2 and 5, situated respectively in the Tropical Section,and over the glass fountain, while the Edison chandelier in the concert room, which is fitted with 250 incandescent lamps, is shown in Nos. 1 and 4. The photographic balloon, alluded to above, which carries a camera aloft, of which the lens is covered or uncovered by an electric wire manipulated by the operator beneath, is also portrayed, as well as a new-fashioned clock, which spells out every minute, and so impresses the flight of time upon the dullest apprehension. The remainder of the sketches mainly relate to the historical telegraphic display, which is particularly interesting and ranges from the exhibition of such primitive instrument as the old dial telegraph of Sir Francis Ronald's in 1816, and its various successors, including the single current sounder and the five needle apparatus down to the most recent instruments. The exhibition as yet is not fairly in order, but when complete it will be divided into fourteen sections. In conclusion, foremost amongst the exhibits are those of the British Postal-Telegraph Department and the War Office."—The graphic, loc. cit.