To observe to learn: Portuguese worker’s visits to the world exhibition

Abstract

From the mid-19th century on, Universal Exhibitions were privileged spaces for the dissemination of progress in science, technology, and industry, at the international level. For this reason - and in line with other countries - in Portugal the government, the institutions offering technical education and the societies connected with the industry, all provided funds to some workers’ representatives, from several different industries, so that they could visit the Universal Exhibitions to study the progresses of technology and industry, presented at those events by various countries. In return, these workers were expected to report on the research they had done during their visits. They were expected to refer the improvements which, in their view, should be introduced in Portugal, in the industrial branches they represented. The main goal of this paper is to analyse some examples of study trips to the Universal Exhibitions taken by Portuguese workers, addressing the way in which the reports submitted by these industrial workers described the exhibitions, and the industries and industrial objects displayed by various countries, as well as the technical innovations and industrial processes shown on those occasions.