In the summer of 1862, Dostoevskii made his first trip to Western Europe. In his account of this journey,Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863), he first broaches the problem of science in connection with his visit to the World Exhibition in London. The Exhibition was devoted to celebrating the achievements of science and technology and was sited in the Crystal Palace, an enormous glass and iron structure, itself a feat of engineering. Victorian Britain was the world centre of industrial development and technological invention. This was the period of heroic materialism, the heyday of faith in material progress and human improvement driven by scientific discovery. The age-old dream of conquering Nature and perfecting human nature and society would now, thanks to science, be achievable on earth. Dostoevskii found the Exhibition 'staggering'; there was nothing remotely like it in backward Russia.