ARU research solves mystery of the Crystal Palace

Published: 16 September 2024 at 11:39

Study reveals it was built so quickly thanks to the use of a standard screw thread

New research has answered the mystery of how the Crystal Palace in London, which at the time was the world's largest building, was constructed in only 190 days.

The study, led by Professor John Gardner of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), has discovered that the Crystal Palace was the first building known to have made use of a standard screw thread - something that's now taken for granted in modern construction and engineering.

Completed just in time for the start of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Crystal Palace was a powerful symbol of Victorian Britain's industrial might. Over 560 metres long and with a giant glass roof supported by 3,300 cast iron columns, it was so large that it would expand by up to 12 inches on a warm day.

However, with the successful design for the Crystal Palace only approved in July 1850, historians have puzzled over the speed of its construction.

That has now been answered by a new study, published in The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology, revealing that the Crystal Palace is the earliest known building to use Whitworth screw threads, later known as British Standard Whitworth (BSW), the world's first national screw thread standard.

The Crystal Palace was originally constructed for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, in the centre of London, before being dismantled and rebuilt in south London in 1854, where it remained until it was destroyed by fire in 1936.

The researchers discovered the use of Whitworth screw threads at the site in Sydenham, south London, both in the remains of the building and the nearby south water tower, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and built to power the fountains in front of the Crystal Palace.

A column bolt from the building was found to correspond to the British Standard Whitworth measurements, while a nut and bolt from the water tower was soaked in oil before a combination of heat, hammering and force revealed measurable screw threads, which again were found to have been made to British Standard Whitworth measurements.

Prior to Joseph Whitworth's invention, no two screws and bolts were alike. As they were not made to a standard measurement it made construction time-consuming, as lost or broken screws and bolts were difficult to replace. The Crystal Palace had 30,000 nuts and bolts, and the researchers believe that the standard thread of these is what allowed the building to be constructed to a remarkably tight schedule.

Professor Gardner of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) carried out the research as part of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship to investigate connections between engineering and literary cultures.

He said:

Photograph by Philip Henry Delamotte, 1854, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

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