PHOTO: National Diet Library of Japan

Nearly 4.3 million attendees gazed with wonder upon X-ray devices, telegraph machines, and elevators at the 1903 National Industrial Exhibition in Osaka, Japan. It was the first of five industrial exhibitions, which started in 1877, to stay open at night. The effect of the lights was so mesmerizing that a contemporary artist drew the nocturnal scene like a dreamscape, with visitors reacting as if they had stepped through a magical doorway. By putting new technologies in an enchanted setting, the fair also softened the fear of modernization that swept Japan as the country entered a period of rapid transformation.