Example for Grade 6: Explanatory – World's Fair - ID: 917

The Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 was one of the most remarkable fairs in history. This is because it had all brand new things: new inventions, new foods to try, and Nikola Tesla’s new lighting system of AC (alternating current) which works better over long distances. Many people may think that these things are not that helpful, but most of the inventions and food at the fair is still very popular today.

Few people actually know why the fair was in Chicago. One reason of why the fair was in Chicago is that the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 had destroyed this magnificent city and cost many lives and homes and also two-hundred million dollars! Chicago wanted to prove that they had cleaned up the city and were trying to help the city’s population grow, so they had planned for the fair to be here. Another reason was that the Industrial Revolution was taking more control. The Industrial Revolution was that the world was trying to build items in factories instead of by hand to be more efficient. The fair had many products that had been produced in factories, as they were testing them. The official reason of the fair, however, was that it was celebrating the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the New World. Even though this reason is not as exciting as the others, it is still just as important as the others had been because without them, there would have been no fair in Chicago in 1893!

The two biggest attractions at the fair were the inventions being shown and the lighting. Some of the inventions that are still used today in modern houses are the fluorescent light bulb, the zipper and the dishwasher. Not to mention the ginormous Ferris Wheel which was brand new back then. The lighting was just as wonderful because in the 1800s light bulbs were new. But even so, there were more lights than many modern day homes! Thousands came just to see the marvelous lights. Everywhere you could have gone, there were lights. The lighting was done by Nikola Tesla and used his new AC or alternating current system which could power more energy over large distances unlike Thomas Edison’s lights which used DC or direct current.

The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago was very important to the world because of the famous people who had gone such as Helen Keller, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Jefferson, not to mention the very famous companies which had gotten started here like Milton Hershey who invented Hershey chocolate bars and H.J. Heinz who invented the Heinz’s company which sells condiments, and should be remembered as one of the most important fairs in history!