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Article: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaslessly into the past.(importance of nostalgia in American history)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- July 1, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925
The great international fair, or Centennial Exposition, held in Philadelphia in 1876 demonstrated how insistently mechanization was modifying the daily habits of the American people. At every turn visitors were confronted by some new or improved machine or appliance. The symbol of the country's expanding industrial prowess was the giant Corliss steam engine, the most powerful and probably the most handsome machine that had ever been constructed by man. Made of highly refined metals, shaped to enormous size yet to precise detail, it had two cylinders bored to a diameter of forty inches, a flywheel thirty feet in ...