Discoveries & inventions Archives

Digital watches for everyone The hot gift-giving trend of the late '70s

Digital watches: The hottest gift-giving trend of the late ’70s & early ’80s

Watches are popular gift items, and as many as seven out of every 10 digital watches are bought by customers as gifts for someone else. Prices begin as low as about $10 and run up into the hundreds of dollars for either of two different types of digital watches.

Spring’s a-ringin’ with convenient new phones in colorful tones! (1962)

Brightening up your home for spring? Mixing paints? Choosing new draperies? Now's the time to add handy phones in color to complement your own decorating ideas!

How safe are skyscrapers like the Empire State Building? (1931)

Uncle Sam's scientists, armed with every known precision test instrument, have set out to answer the much-debated question of "How safe are skyscrapers?"

The future of the computer age (1967)

A look back at the computer age: "Today's computer revolution is only getting started. In store are amazing new uses for 'electronic brains' that will reshape the industry and alter people's lives."

The home of the future: Space-age inventions (1958-1961)

Imagine getting paid to envision the future -- in ways that were inventive, optimistic, fanciful, logical, silly or surreal, depending on the week? Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, that is exactly what commercial artist and futurist Arthur Radebaugh got to do.

Introducing the microwave oven: Your new kitchen appliance! (1971-1975)

Some microwave oven questions & answers from the early 1970s! Plus tips like: "Just plug it in and turn it on. The food gets hot. The oven stays cool. If you want, you can even cook on paper plates."

Music to your ears: Walkmans & other portable cassette players (1981)

They came without warning, captivating the ears of joggers, students, bicycle riders, commuters and roller skaters. Weighing little more than a pound, they pack more sociological punch than a load of hula hoops. They are personal stereos.

Radioactivity: It’s been in the family for generations (1972)

Radioactivity. It's been in the family for generations. In fact, scientists can tell us just how our remote ancestors are by measuring the radioactivity still in the bones of prehistoric cave dwellers. R... Read more...

Are we entering the atomic age? (1940)

For almost 2,500 years, man was wrong. From the time of Socrates, he had thought of atoms as the smallest particles of matter. In the last century, scientists discovered still tinier particles within atoms. At... Read more...

Music! Comedy! The wonder of Edison’s new phonograph player

The dance music of the Edison Phonograph is irresistible. It offers the most fascinating waltzes and spirited two-steps of the world's, great composers as well as the popular dance music of the hour.

Play time! Popular toys from 1948

Four pages of favorite toys for children This four-page photograph shows 126 Christmas toys, a good cross section of the $300 million worth which US kids -- like the two in the picture -- will find under their... Read more...

Meet Josephine Garis Cochrane, inventor of the dishwasher (1892)

The inventor of the dishwashing machine The patron saint of the emancipated woman of the future will be Josephine Garis Cochrane, the inventor of the dishwashing machine. She will be enshrined in the grate... Read more...

How cats helped create the first iron lung machines for polio victims (1938)

Every year, hundreds of children are suddenly stricken with infantile paralysis (polio). In the past, some lost the use of their breathing muscles and slowly stopped breathing.

Transform your kitchen with a wall-mounted refrigerator! (1956)

This new, revolutionary refrigerator-freezer that hangs from the wall is a completely new and advanced concept of modern living. Truly, it is the most convenient and magnificent refrigerator-freezer ever produced!

The Consolidated B-36: The world’s largest bomber (1951)

Range: Anywhere on Earth -- and your Air Force has it! The Consolidated B-36 can carry a 10,000 pound bomb load to a target 5,000 miles away, drop it, and return to base.

Typewriters and the decline and fall of handwriting (1922)

Handwriting has gone out of style because it gave way to something infinitely better. It was the old story. Hand work could not compete with machine work -- the pen could not compete with the typewriter.

New super-locomotive train capable of 100 MPH (1937)

A 16-cylinder streamlined steam super-locomotive capable of whisking 14 standard Pullman cars along at a speed of 100 miles an hour on a level, straight track will make its appearance soon in the railroad world.

Fotomat drive-in develops friends overnight (1972)

We develop friends overnight Film today - prints tomorrow Shoot the works - Fotomat one-day photo service (Fireworks for Independence Day/Fourth of July) Get your summer's wort... Read more...

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, 100 years later (1905)

To Lewis and Clark belongs the credit for the discovery and exploration of The Oregon Country. They were the first white men, and excepting the narrowly ranging tribes of Indians, to traverse the country.

Watson and Crick discover and model the structure of DNA (1953)

The way life is carried on now seems near discovery By Watson Davis, Director, Science Service Washington -- One of the fundamental problems of living matter is the way life is handled on, that is, how th... Read more...

Her hat designs are far out! Making headgear for astronauts (1965)

United States astronauts who go to the moon may wear headgear designed and produced by a ladies' milliner.

The telephone girls: A look at switchboard operators at work (1899)

To see the telephone girl at her work, to observe her quick, delicate, never-hesitating movements, is a pastime fascinating to the extreme. Each will get between 500 to 600 calls a day. Here, see photographs from New York City phone operators in 1899.