Fair game.

The American Institute Fair, started in New York in 1829 was America's first fair and tried to do what all the fairs of the time were doing. "At these fairs were displayed the finest products of agriculture and manufacturing, the newest types of machinery, the most recent contributions of inventive genius . . ." All kinds of doo dads from the best minds of the day. Organized by the American Institute and run pretty much regularly till the turn of the century, the 1829 fair was the first fair on American soil that could be called a world's fair.

Since it was run annually, the attendance wasn't at the levels of European fairs, but drew spectators who came each year to see what was new. Kind of like the the latest cars at the auto shows.

Reading some NY Times articles from the 1880's gives a hint at what the audience could expect.

Electricity was the big thing then and companies vied for eyeballs. One company demonstrated (just how I don't want to know) a "splendid exhibit of electro-medical devices." Sweet Jesus. It gets worse. They apparently had an apparatus for "galvano-cautery" too.

Another company offering wares in the same field had a machine called a water rheostat described as a "marvel of cheapness and efficiency."

And to make you feel all warm inside we have a company offering electric burglar alarms. The description I found of them sounds pretty damned sophisticated, even for now, with keyed entry, on/off for different zones, and timers to set for when you are away. They also made remote gas lighting and extinguishing devises.

Wonder if they made any gas sensing devices.