"...but to Adams the dynamo became a symbol of infinity. As he grew accustomed to the great gallery of machines, he began to feel the forty-foot dynamos as a moral force, much as the early Christians felt the Cross.... Before the end, one began to pray to it; inherited instinct taught the natural expression of man before silent and infinite force. Among the thousand symbols of ultimate energy, the dynamo was not so human as some, but it was the most expressive."

The Education of Henry Adams, chapter 25.

For Adams, the dynamo; for Brussels, the atom. Unlike the Chicago's World's Fair of 1900, the Exposition's first impression upon a visitor its huge aluminum-covered replica of an atom, the official symbol.

Its nine metal spheres gleaming in the daytime and flashing tiny lights at night, the Atomium dominates the Fair. The architecture, too, smacks of modernity and the future. One building looks like a great stone bird; another has a corrugated wall; the roof of the United Nations exhibit hall is a half-sphere. A few of the national pavilions deviate from the functional scheme--Thailand has a charming gilded pagoda; Italy a stucco villa. But for the most part, all the catchwords of the 20th century can describe the Fair--futuristic, atomic-age, electronic, Cinemascopic!

Water is the theme of the landscaping. Inside the pavilions as well as outside--there are artificial pools, fountains, and waterfalls. Nevertheless, it is virtually impossible to find a drinking fountain.

The size of the fairgrounds and the elaborateness of the buildings and landscaping make it difficult to believe that this "city" has a lifetime only six months. Most of the national pavilions are temporary structures, and some will be disassembled and transplanted to their own countries after October. The buildings constructed by the Belgians, however, have greater permanence and many of them were built with the vision that they might someday house the capital of a United Europe.

The Exposition city has its own transportation system, since no private vehicles larger than baby carriages are permitted. Open buses and small motorized carriages constitute the ground transport. Cable cars carry tourists above the Fair. And the Expo has its own "heliport" for aerial sight-seeing and heliocopter service to Amsterdam, Paris and other European cities.

Tired of traveling outdoors, the visitor next explores the interiors of the national exhibit halls. Most tourists head first to the Soviet and American pavilions, resolved to find out which is better.

The magnitude of this controversy has led many people to charge that the Expo is merely a new battlefield for the Cold War. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the American and Russian pavilions are situated next to each other, intensifying the inevitable competition between them. But this poularity battle, while it does exist, is not necessarily a bad thing. A world's fair is intended to summarize a particular era, and the miniature Cold War at Brussels is certainly a realistic portrayal of the world in the year 1958.

Neither East nor West can be credited with a victory at the Exposition. The tactics of the two major powers in their pavilion propaganda are vastly different. Russia has presented a formidable and rather frightening demonstration of her industrial and military prowess. The United States has tried the "soft-sell"; technical exhibits are well-hidden and the emphasis is on "the American way of life." As to which is more effective, that is purely a matter of personal taste.

The American pavilion guides have nicknamed the Soviet pavilion "the refrigerator," and the monicker is appropriate. It is an unaesthetic rectangular building, as cold and impersonal as a Siberian winter. The ground-floor exhibit hall is enormous, and the stolid statue of Lenin keeps a perpetual watch on the crowds.

Agricultural and industrial equipment constitutes the main exhibit. Numerous signs give statistics on the number of Russian workers, the amounts produced. There are photographs of husky Russian women operating factory machines, and an emphasis on women's participation in athletics. There is a new Russian car which resembles a new American car and there is a life-sized model of a modern apartment--but there is no evidence as to how many Soviet citizens can afford these luxuries.

The United States pavilion is characterized by spaciousness. From the exterior it is a round structure fronted by an attractive display of fountains, trees, and American flags.

Inside, one still has the sense of being out-of-doors. The roof has a circular opening almost as large as the enormous pool of water which dominates the main floor. There are real trees inside, and although they are dying, they add to the atmosphere.

The "soft-sell" in presenting the American way of life is evidenced in the main floor exhibit entitled Face of America. Here are such typical trivia of American life as a page-by-page display of a Sunday Times, a football uniform, a showcase filled with election buttons, and a section of California redwood.