From the giant water lily to the crystal palace - the first World's Fair in London 1851

The leaves of the giant water lily Victoria amazonica reach a diameter of up to three meters. In his lecture at the TU Ilmenau Citizens' Campus, Professor Emeritus Bernd Hill, bionicist, technology didactician and innovation researcher, reports on the "legend of the giant water lily", but also on the discovery of this superlative plant on the Amazon. In doing so, Prof. Hill places the researcher and discoverer Thaddaeus Peregrinus Xaverinus Haenke (1761-1816) at the center of his lecture. Little known today, Hill considers Haenke to be just as important as the universal genius Alexander von Humboldt, who lived at the same time.

Using models he made himself, Prof. Bernd Hill explains the plant statics of the giant water lily: How do the giant leaves obtain their stability and load-bearing capacity? Its stabilization principle is so ingenious that it served as a model for the dome architecture of the Crystal Palace in London on the occasion of the 1st World's Fair in 1851. Hill not only recalls the work of architect Joseph Paxton, he also illustrates how the World's Fair enabled the progressive ideas of its organizer Prince Albert, prince consort of Britain's Queen Victoria, to be realized. Thus, in his lecture, Prof. Bernd Hill spans a wide arc "From the giant water lily to the crystal palace - the first World's Fair in London in 1851".

Contact:

Dr. Uwe Geishendorf
Central Institute for Education
+49 3677 69-4675
buergercampus@tu-ilmenau.de