Primary Source in 1851

As I was looking through the New York Times, I spotted an article from way back in October of 1851. I clicked onto the link and I found an article talking about who and what inventions had been brought to the Great Exhibition of 1851. I obviously knew a couple of them brought since we learned about so many in the Industrial Revolution unit. Some inventions that were at the fair that I knew was the Cotton Gin. We all know who and what the Cotton Gin was and so I found it very interesting that it was being showed off at the Crystal Palace. Another one we all know is the Reaping Machine. I remember reading about the reaper and how it saved men from working all day in the fields. Also, inside this primary source were a list of awards that these inventors got for their amazing invention. Some catagories of awards were, Council Medals, Prize Medals, Honorable Mention, and the Money Award. Each award was given to numerous amounts of people, since everybody was split into their own "Class." Each class was filled with the almost the same invention. For example, "Class II" was all food related items that were being showed off. There was maple sugar, soft wheat, flour, etc. Some "Classes" had only one item included in it because that meant that invention was unique and there was nothing else that closely resembled to it. An example of that would be the Mechanical Reclining Chair. It was a very interesting and unexpected find from W. Ragan. This primary source really made me think about how little our world was before the Industrial Revolution. I cant even think about being alive, without a place to stay, having my parents be gone all day and then once they come home all they want to do is sleep, or have none or little food set at my table. I am grateful for the fact that I do have those things, and if it wasn't for all these intelligent thinkers, the world would not be like it is today. Furthermore, primary sources are a good source of data because they teach you a lot about what was happening exactly in the time you are talking/researching about. I find it hard to read a secondary or even third source about the Industrial Revolution because you really don't know what it was all about unless you were actually there.

Attached is just a small snipit of what the article looks like, since the full article is too big to be posted.