The first International Exposition of Electricity ( French : Exposition internationale d'Électricité ) ran from 15 August 1881 through to 15 November 1881 at the Palais de l'Industrie on the Champs-Élysées in Paris , France . It served to display the advances in electrical technology since the small electrical display at the 1878 Universal Exposition . Exhibitors came from the United Kingdom , United States , Germany , Italy and the Netherlands , as well as from France. As part of the exhibition, the first International Congress of Electricians presented numerous scientific and technical papers, including definitions of the standard practical units volt , ohm and ampere .
8-501: Adolphe Cochery , Minister of Posts and Telegraphs of the time, had initially suggested that an international exposition should be held. This show was a great stir. The public could admire the dynamo of Zénobe Gramme , the incandescent light , the théâtrophone (with stereophonic sound ), the electric tramway of Werner von Siemens , the telephone of Alexander Graham Bell , an electrical distribution network by Marcel Deprez , and an electric boat by Gustave Trouvé . As part of
16-547: A committee, including exposition juror William Crookes , to establish the most efficient lamp design. The conclusion was the high resistance Edison lamp was the most efficient, followed by the Lane-Fox, Swan, and Maxim lamps. Adolphe Cochery Louis Adolphe Cochery (26 August 1819 – 13 October 1900) was a French politician and journalist. Born in Paris , he studied Law and soon after soon entered politics, joining
24-745: The Third Republic . During the Paris Commune, he was mandated by the Parliament with missions inside the besieged capital, and, although he had been awarded safe-conduct by Adolphe Thiers, he was the subject of a parliamentary investigation. His talent in finance won him a distinguished voice in the chamber. From 1879 until 1885 he was Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, presiding over the Universal Postal Union Congress in Paris (1878), and founding
32-593: The École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications . In January 1888 he was elected to the Senate. His son Georges Charles Paul Cochery (1855–1914) was also a politician. Georges Cochery Georges Charles Paul Cochery (20 March 1855 – 10 August 1914) was the son of the French politician Louis-Adolphe Cochery . Cochery was deputy of his father's département of the Loiret from 1885 until 1914, five times president of
40-548: The French government, the exhibition was privately financed. Organizers would donate profits to scientific works in the public interest. This congress was a decisive step in the building of the modern International System of Units (SI), since ohm , ampere , coulomb and farad were defined at this occasion. Main participants include Éleuthère Mascart , William Thomson (who later became Lord Kelvin ), Hermann von Helmholtz , Rudolf Clausius , Gustav Kirchhoff , Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann , Carl Wilhelm Siemens and his brother
48-576: The exhibition, the first International Congress of Electricians, which met in the halls of the Palais du Trocadero , presented numerous scientific and technical papers, including definitions of the standard practical units volt , ohm and ampere , the International System of Electrical and Magnetic Units . George Berger was the Commissioner General. Aside from the provision of the building by
56-476: The industrialist Werner von Siemens , who had to renounce to the siemens mercury as the resistance unit (not to be confused with siemens , current SI unit of conductance). Among the exhibits were: Electric lighting with incandescent lamps was one of key developments on display at the exposition, with up to 2500 lamps used to light the venue. The lamps of Thomas Edison , St. George Lane-Fox , Hiram Maxim , and Joseph Swan were compared in extensive tests by
64-697: The staff of the Ministry of Justice after the revolution of February 1848. From the time of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte 's coup of 1851, through the Second French Empire , to May 1869, he devoted himself to journalism (in 1868, he founded the journal Indépendant de Montargis). Then, elected deputy by the department of the Loiret, he joined the group of the Centre-left, and was a supporter of the September 4, 1870 creation of
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