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Discoveries & inventions

Live Jetsons-style in the home of tomorrow! Ideas for retro-futuristic space-age inventions (1958-1961)

Jell-O Salad Gelatin Would you eat jello in celery mixed vegetable flavors (1964)

Jell-O Salad Gelatin: Would you eat jello in celery & mixed vegetable flavors? (1964)

Orange and green vintage Space Fidgit - Fidget toys

Space Fidgit – the cosmic color-changing disc toy from the ’70s and ’80s

Coca cola drink with cocaine -1901

Cocaine-laced Coca-Cola introduced (1886)

Amerigo Vespucci - Martin Waldseemüller map in color

How did America get its name? Find out, plus see some of the oldest maps of the United States

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

IBM Selectric typewriter 1965

Vintage IBM electric typewriters from the ’60s, including the Selectric with swappable round print heads

Wall-mounted refrigerator GE 1956

Forget kitchen cabinets – install a wall-mounted refrigerator! (Yes – this was really a thing in the ’50s)

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison says that people work too hard and worry too much (1913)

Amazing Live Sea Monkeys

Everyone’s favorite instant pets: The (not so) amazing live Sea-Monkeys

Nikola Tesla on an iPad - Click Americana

100 years ago, did Nikola Tesla predict the iPad, Skype, mobile phones & more? (1915)

Thomas Alva Edison holding an incandescent lightbulb c1911

Thomas Edison says electricity will cure everything (1914)

Hula Hoop revival 1972 woman with toy

The ’50s Hula Hoop fad gets millions twirling and whirling (1958)

Marie Curie - Madame Curie - Scientist

Marie Curie tells how she discovered radium (1921)

Observation car on a deluxe overland limited train2

Inside vintage train cars: See a Deluxe Overland Limited Train (1910s)

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

Michael Landon for Kodak cameras - 1977

Michael Landon for Kodak cameras (1977)

Silly Putty Wonder toy of the 20th century (1951)

Silly Putty: Wonder toy of the 20th century (1951)

Pinball wizards: Vintage pinball machines of the 1940s

How to care for cassette tapes - Tech tips from 1975

Now hear this! Top 10 audio cassette tape tips from the ’70s

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

Space age: Amazing retro futuristic homes of the ’60s

The new contact lenses Eyeball spectacles (1931)

The eye-opening invention of contact lenses: The launch of ‘eyeball spectacles’ (1931)

In the ’70s, it wasn’t a party until someone started spraying Silly String

Swatch: The new wave of watches (1980s)

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

Tesla holding a phosphor-coated wireless light bulb

Nikola Tesla’s plan to give free electricity to everyone (1896)

The future Your own personal flying cars, powered by electricity

The future: Your own personal flying cars, powered by electricity (’50s & ’60s)

blue princess telephone 1962

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

1853 Occupational portrait of a woman working at a sewing machine

Who invented the sewing machine? (1909)

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

The future of the computer age (1967)

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

Sony Walkman with cassette

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

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

Are we entering the atomic age? (1940)

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

Play time! Popular toys from 1948

Radior - Radium-infused vanishing cream plus face powder

Bad idea department: Radium face cream & face powder (1919)

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

Typewriters and the decline and fall of handwriting (1922)

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - The Royal Blue

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

Fotomat photo drive-in 1972

Fotomat drive-in develops friends overnight (1972)

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

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

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

New drug found in common soil (1948)

Computer sports challenge players (1978)

Television unveiled: TV finally a reality (1930)

Why grow old Plastic surgery in the 1920s

Why grow old? Plastic surgery in the 1920s

The picture jigsaw puzzle fad (1908)

Male ‘Pill’ shows promise (1976)

The Rubik’s Cube delights – and frustrates – America (1981)

Generations before mobile phones were a thing, ATT 1919

Generations before mobile phones were a thing, AT&T and Bell Telephone launched wireless telephone service (1919)

Photographic proof of the cancer germ (1912)

The retro futuristic new look of TWA (1963)

The retro futuristic new look of TWA (1963)

Asbestos - from the California Department of Public Health

Asbestos: What it is, and where it’s found (1896)

How Thomas Edison shaped our world (1964)

Nikola Tesla - Colorado laboratory 1899

Tesla: What’s the future of electricity? (1912)

Old-fashioned games: Small ideas, big successes (1910)

The Telephone & How We Use It (from 1951)

The rotary-dial telephone and how we use it (1951)

Apple introduces the Macintosh personal computer (1984)

Earth view from the Apollo 11 spacecraft over the moon

Apollo 11 flight plan: The moon landing (1969)

1987’s hottest TVs, VCRs, stereos, cellular phones & more

This suburban house hides something surprising (1972)

New Cadillac design announced (1913)

Edward Jenner - Smallpox vaccine 1790s

Jenner’s smallpox vaccination, 100 years on (1796-1896)

Golden Mask of Tutankhamun

King Tut’s coffin is uncovered (1923)

Phone faster by touching buttons (1965)

Rapid transit by belt conveyor

Would that even work? Public transit concepts for NYC (1900s)

45-rpm single inserts Those old little record spindle adapters

Remember 45-rpm single inserts? Those old little record spindle adapters

Maxell tapes - Blown away guy in chair - 1983

Get blown away by these Maxell cassette tape ads (1980s)

Advance easy-to-read Colorstick pregnancy tests (1987)

Introducing the new easy-to-read pregnancy test sticks (1987)

Nikola Tesla electricity

Tesla: Science will win the next war (1916)

Why the man-eating sharks off Jersey coast? (1916)

Vintage vacuum cleaners from Hoover

Did you know the Commodore VIC computer could do all this? (1983)

Vintage playpens & more: Fold-away baby gear from 1955

Samuel P. Langley's large steam-powered model Aerodrome No. 5 making a successful flight, 1896.

Alexander Graham Bell: Flight is a fact (1896)

Lack of thrust & purpose keep US behind in space race (1959)

Designed to be your first laptop computer (1987)

Artificial daylight made by Tesla (1899)

Meet Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto (1930)

Scientists agree: Martians are a super-race (1920)

Old-fashioned fonts Alphabet typefaces are ever-changing (2)

Like old-fashioned fonts: Alphabet typefaces are ever-changing (1913)

Jack Swigert in space suit NASA

Swigert is ‘swinger’ on Apollo 13 crew (1970)

Summer fun-savers for ’62 from Kodak (1962)

The Dictaphone Time-Master (1955-1958)

Perry Como & Dinah Shore on NBC on color TV (1956)

Dorothy Lamour & Dinah Shore on FM radio (1945)

Microsoft’s hottest tech from 1982

1976 Cobra CB radio

Just how much for your own CB radio? (1976-1977)

All aboard for the moon! (1908)

Ride the rails in style Train cars from the 1940s

Ride the rails in style: Train cars from the 1940s

The Canon Cat word processor (1987)

US Flag Kinemacolor - Examples of colors in movies - moving pictures c1913

Movie star says having color in moving pictures is ‘spooky’ (1913)

Flying the friendly skies Women pioneers of the air (1908)

Flying the friendly skies: Daring women in early airplanes & hot air balloons (1908)

International phone calls (1965)

The metric system is the way of the future (1900)

AT&T on the future of data networking (1987)

King Tutankhamun - Tomb mural

King Tut’s tomb in no-man’s land (1924)

How easy and relaxing spinal anesthesia would make the patient in 1902

The new spinal anesthesia: Put cocaine in the spine (1902)

Where the telephone was born (1875)

Bell & Howell movie cameras (1965 & 1966)

Was Albert Einstein a space alien? (2005)

What kinds of vegetables grow on the moon? (1922)

Launching soon: GPS satellite technology (1976)

The Shrinkage of the Planet, by Jack London (1900)

Polaroid instant cameras: OneStep, Pronto & more (1977)

How to use your dial telephone (1957)

“Flying saucer” Roswell disc mystery is solved (1947)

A peek at antique New England netting (1950)

Weird doings at the Tesla plant (1903)

Swarms of Flying Fortresses

Studebaker Flying Fortress planes for WW2 (1940s)

The latest & greatest AM/FM radios (1970)

Everything you want to know about Atari (1982)

Albert Einstein dies (1955)

Pluto: Kansas farm boy spots new planet (1930)

Little change in the turntable since Edison (1963)

Fax machine revolution conquering all in its path (1989)

GE’s 21st century city at Disneyland (1968)

RCA SelectaVision 1978-ad

Tape your favorite shows – watch them later! RCA’s new VCR (1977)

Tape it with GE’s new family tape recorder (1965)

Lockheed Electra 1958

The Lockheed Electra makes her debut: A leap forward in airline technology… but with a fatal flaw (1958)

The story of 7-Up (1939)

New miracle household cleaner! Formula 409 (1966)

Frigidaire’s ‘wife savers’ home appliances (1968)

Radio Shack’s new cordless telephone (1982)

Cuber’s Thumb: A uniquely 80s injury (1981)

The giant Brontosaurus in Central Park (1905)

Snuggle up to the world’s most complex machine (1968)

Famous invention vintage trading cards

Famous invention trading cards

Pan Am adds DC-8 to their over-ocean jet fleet (1960)

View of the Milky Way in 1870s

Look into space and see the wonderful Milky Way (1890)

Darwin on the fossil record & the Cambrian period (1859)

Wilder makes artificial sunrise: Milks before daylight (1896)

Automobile accessories for the motorcar of 1913

Life growing harder for the people on Mars (1922)

Seiko introduces multi-mode digital alarm watch (1977)

VHS or Beta? The argument for Betamax VCRs (1977)

Sharks ravages on Jersey coast puzzle scientists (1916)

How experts think we’ll live in the year 2000 (1951)

Apple QuickTake digital camera (1994-1997)

The first walk on the moon (1969)

Sylvania cathode ray tubes: Making TV affordable (1946)

United Airlines: The radar line (1958)

No more rabies (1885)

Let the computer do the work (1978)

Try a home computer on for size (1978)

Ham, the first chimp in space (1961)

Unlimited size of universe inspires awe (1949)

The evolution of golf balls (1905)

Found: 19th century shipwreck by Golden Gate Bridge (2014)

Computers… in the home? The family of the future (1978)

Computer programmers in short supply (1969)

Autism easy to define, hard to pinpoint (1974)

Taco Bell chain has 55 drive-ins with $8 million in sales (1966)

Einstein’s wife understands him, but not his theory (1921)

DNA: Gene chemical identified – may lead to source of life (1949)

How nuclear energy can defuse the next oil crisis (1987)

Polaroid: The finest automatic cameras in the world (1968)

New touch-tone dialing has missile-like speed (1965)

World’s largest vessel, the Titanic, being built (1910)

The cathode ray outdone: Radium discovered (1899)

The Kodak Instamatic 104 camera (1961)

I rode Detroit’s mystery car: The Edsel (1957)

Phoneland: Magic land of Christmas surprises (1961)

Why the new measles vaccine is recommended (1965)

Electrical wizards are in session (1899)

Computer brain power of leading nations as of 1968

The story of George Ehret & Hell Gate Brewery (1897)

Fossil whale found on mountain top (1899)

The story of guns: Packages of powder & bullets (1930s)

The future of aeronautics after WWI (1919)

The many wonderful possibilities of ozone (1898)

Invention of the television: A triumph of the engineer (1927)

US nuclear defenses: B-1 Bomber, NORAD & beyond (1977)

The Music Man: Pressing vinyl record albums (1959)

Electrolux refrigerators are almost magical – freezes with heat (1935)

Over a thousand objects in space (1966)

Latest payphones: Airlight booths, walk-ups, drive-ups (1961)

Our first TV star: Felix the Cat

The new RCA Victor Tape Recorder (1957)

Thrilling home movies with the Brownie Movie Camera (1955)

National cash registers figure out exact change! (1957)

Pennsylvania Railroad’s great East-West Fleet (1941)

Everybody’s talking ’bout Royce CB radios (1976)

What winds up the universe? (1927)

New Zenith “Space Command” TV remote control (1957)

New RCA Victor 45 automatic record changer (1949)

7-inch all-transistor Panasonic tiny table radio (1965)

2-part TV set introduced by Philco (1958)

Deck the walls with Westclox electronic clocks (1966)

The easy-to-use Amstrad Word Processor (1987)

Party favorite for all ages: Potato chips in cellophane (1955)

The new Canon AE-1 Program SLR camera (1982)

Homes with telephones lead the economy (1927)

The supermarket check-out cash register (1966)

The telephone can be a wife’s best friend (1967)

Naugahyde: The Nauga’s hide – Vinyl faux leather (1967)

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