How do we explain night photographs showing entire temporary cities—hundreds of acres, hundreds of thousands of lights—blazing with comprehensive electrical illumination decades before most homes had electricity? From Chicago’s White City to San Francisco’s Jewel City, from the Paris Exposition to exhibitions in Brussels, Sydney, and St. Louis, these temporary fairgrounds demonstrated lighting technology so sophisticated it wouldn’t become commonplace in permanent cities for another forty years—yet all were built in months and demolished immediately after.
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