Contemporary inventors serve as role models for the next generation.
“Technology knows no international boundaries . . . great engineers create for the progress of all mankind.” (Lili Réthi, Radio Salzburg Broadcast...
Eggs come in six sizes—jumbo, extra-large, large, medium, small, and peewee—and in three grades—AA, A, and B (grades are United States classifications...
On July 31, 1790, the inventor Samuel Hopkins was awarded the first US patent for a new method of making potash and pearl ash. Potash, later termed...
The refrigerators of the 1920s were deadly. Their motorized compressors easily malfunctioned, allowing the refrigerants—that is, toxic gases—to escape...
Navigating a supermarket today is strikingly different than only three months ago. Store layouts designed over the past 100 years encouraged shoppers...
As any one of my good friends will tell you, I love talking about my experience working in the food industry. From the time I was legally eligible to...
I stared at the search results, unable to make heads or tails of the metal contraptions on my screen. I wanted to be an archivist, not an engineer. I...
One of my favorite artifacts in the museum is the first computer mouse, which is currently on display in the Silicon Valley section of Places of...
In the early 1940s, Henry Booth, a textile jobber and President of Amalgamated Textile Limited, realized that retailers of ready-made suits had to...
John McMullen (1791-1870) and Joseph Hollen, Jr. (1798-1874), both of central Pennsylvania, patented a machine for knitting stockings in 1831. This...
When was the typewriter invented? Let me offer a hint. The first printing press that used movable type (made of porcelain) was invented in the 1040s...
In 1776, Adam Smith began his famous text, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, with what sounded like an anecdote...
Where does ice come from? The refrigerator door, most of us would answer. But the technology to create the kind of “artificial” ice we take for...
In 1847, Charles Clarenbach (circa 1820-1877) and Leopold Herder (circa 1825-1874), both German immigrants, founded Clarenbach & Herder (634 Arch...
During 2016, the National Museum of American History has adopted “America Participates” as its theme. Naturally, my own thoughts have turned to how...
During 2016, the National Museum of American History has adopted “America Participates” as its theme. Naturally, my own thoughts have turned to how...
I like boxes. They’re useful for containing, organizing, and moving “stuff.” Sometimes they hide the “stuff” you don’t want seen. Boxes can also be...
![The reverse side of the John Scott medal, inscribed, “THE SCOTT PREMIUM TO THE MOST DESERVING To John McMullin [sic] of Sinking Valley, Huntingdon County Penna. for a Knitting Machine 1835.”](/sites/default/files/styles/480w_x_330h/public/artifacts-franklin-medal-john-scott-reverse-0011-teaser.jpg?h=2a479378&itok=SfXxEB0j)
