[4] The idea of an industrial exposition emerged from discussions led by the Minister of the Interior François de Neufchâteau over how to celebrate the anniversary of the Republic's foundation.

The Directory approved and on 9 Fructidor, Year VI (26 August 1798), François de Neufchâteau notified the government officials that an Exposition of the products of French industry would be held along with the 1 Vendémiaire VII (22 September 1798) anniversary celebration.

The architect Jean-François Chalgrin, who later designed the Arc de Triomphe, undertook the hasty construction of a large circle of porticos surrounding a Temple of Industry.

[5] The exposition opened on 19 September 1798 with a parade led by trumpeters and cavalry, with musicians, soldiers, heralds, manufacturers, the jury and politicians.

[5] Exhibits included an instrument for cataract operations, paintings made from the plumes of exotic birds, a machine for extracting logs from rivers and a device that demonstrated the new metric system of meters, grams and liters.

[6] The Minister of the Interior, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, sent his recommendation for another industrial exposition to the three consuls on 22 Brumaire Year IX (13 November 1800).

[6] 19 gold medals were awarded in total, including seven who had received honorable distinctions in Year VI, and 12 new exhibitors.

[13] The three consuls visited the exposition on the last complementary day (22 September 1801, and distributed 12 gold medals to manufacturers including Jacob Frères.

[14] Chaptal, Minister of the Interior, was not interested in brilliantly executed work or in commonplace manufactures, but valued products for their utility, quantity and price.

In the interim the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, founded in 1801, continued to give prizes for many branches of industry.

[21] The Emperor Napoleon decreed the 1806 exposition on 15 February 1806 after his return from the Austerlitz campaign, and the event was in part to celebrate his victories by exhibiting the fruits of peace.

[24] Jean-Baptiste Launay presented the first model for a dome for the Paris wheat market and two cast iron bridges for the capital.

[26] The government of King Louis XVIII of France, after appointing Élie, duc Decazes to the post of Minister of the Interior, decided to revive the expositions of products of French industry.

[28] The 19 member jury for the 5th exposition was chosen in May 1819, with the Duc de la Rochefoucauld as president and Fernand Chaptal as vice-president and rapporteur.

[30] As with the 1806 exposition, there were five levels of distinction: gold, silver and bronze medals, an honorable mention and a simple citation.

In January 1823 the Minister of the Interior announced that an industrial exposition would be held in the Louvre from 25 August 1823 to 15 October 1823, with the same instructions as in 1819 sent to the departments of France.

Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui wrote an independent history of the exposition in which he attacked high taxes that penalized industry and protectionism that harmed consumers.

[6] Commissioner Thiers notified the departmental prefects of the criteria for submissions, saying that the exhibits should mainly be products for the masses, and ideally would combine high quality and low price.

A new set of categories was used: Fabrics, Chemicals, Metals and Minerals, Fine Arts, Agricultural Utensils, Ceramics, Precision and Musical Instruments, Miscellaneous.

Among the musical instruments and other types of product the jury had difficulty comparing the submissions since they had very varied size, shape and other features.

The most innovative product was a mass-produced Daugerrotype camera cabinet manufactured by Alphonse Giroux, the brother-in-law of Louis Daguerre.

The 1839 exposition attracted considerable interest by foreign manufacturers, and catalogs or reports on it were published in Austria, Germany and Sweden.

Entrants had to fill out a form that gave information about their business including its nature, number of employees, materials used, export and domestic earning and so on.

Hector Berlioz composed and conducted the Hymne à la France, a great symphonic and choral work performed during the opening.

The scheduled 1849 exposition in Paris would demonstrate the legitimacy of the Second Republic, and would provide a platform for declaring that Algiers was now part of France.

It was decided to give agriculture an equal role to manufacturing, so the event was the "Exposition Nationale des produits de l’industrie agricole et manufacturière".

[40] At first it was expected that all exhibits would be held within a single new 22,000 square metres (240,000 sq ft) hall built on the Champs-Elysées, but it was found that separate buildings were need to house some of the larger machines.

The main hall included a large rain-fed reservoir that supplied fire hoses, and 75 guards and firemen were on duty throughout the exposition.

The hall had a large open-air courtyard in its center with a fountain, chairs, statues, flowers and fragrant orange and lemon trees.

It was soon decided to hold a European exposition in London in 1851, The Great Exhibition, where British and foreign products could be compared.