Like virtually all other intellectuals who visited the Exposition, Simonin condensed its meaning down to the 680-ton steam engine from the George H. Corliss works in Providence, Rhode Island. The “walking-beam” engine transformed the up-and-down motion of pistons into the circular motion of a flywheel 30 feet in diameter. “Eight miles of shafting” distributed its power to a hall full of “useful machines, all ingeniously contrived,” which spun silk, cut wood, made envelopes, rifled gun barrels, embroidered cloth, and performed dozens of other tasks. They were not wrong in seeing the engine’s
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