While demonstrating a prototype of the Boeing 707 passenger jet, the pilot decided to show just how remarkable the plane was… and flew it upside down. Twice.
Vintage inventions & discoveries
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.
Back in the late ’80s we were happy for some of the first laptop computers, despite being big and heavy with tiny hard drives and huge price tags.
Clyde Tombaugh, a Kansas farmer, loved astronomy, and cemented his name in history by discovering Pluto. Here’s how he found it.
Nikola Tesla filed a US Patent for his improvements on Ben Franklin’s almost 200-year-old lightning rod design.
Jack Swigert, the emergency substitute member of the Apollo 13 crew, is a swinging bachelor with a playboy-type pad — but he would rather fly than play.
What was the Canon Cat? They called it a Work Processor. It could help write and edit, communicate and calculate. It would even dial a phone.
Vintage 1980s cordless phones were the essential step between wired pushbutton phones and today’s modern cell phones. Here’s a look back at the top telephone tech from the 80s!
Radium earned Marie Curie worldwide fame, and changed the face of medicine. Here, she describes how this historic scientific discovery was made.
The Wright Brothers made history with a 12-second flight in 1903. See how their breakthrough launched the modern age of aviation.
The year 1900 was not counted among the leap years – and here’s how they explained why back in 1899.
Henry Ford developed assembly lines for automobile factories, and mass production sparked another industrial revolution. See here how Ford churned out Model T cars!
Have a look at 126 of the most popular toys from the ’40s that millions of kids found under their Christmas trees back in 1948, courtesy of Santa… or from mom and dad.
Through observation, experimentation and genius, scientist Louis Pasteur was able to create the first rabies vaccine – even though he didn’t exactly know what caused the disease.
The pocket Instamatic 110 cameras introduced by Kodak in 1972 were – by ’70s standards – incredibly small, and super-affordable, which led to their huge popularity. See some of these old cameras here!
When King Tut’s tomb was discovered – and then opened – people all over the globe were riveted by the mysterious Tutankhamun and his golden treasures. Here’s what they found.
Walkmans and other portable cassette tape players – ‘personal stereos’ – were hugely popular in the ’70s and ’80s, and packed more sociological punch than a load of hula hoops.
The first article here takes a look back at the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 100 years later, from 1905.
Henry Ford fit a lot of ambition, drive, innovation and industry into his 84 years! Here’s a look back at his career, his beliefs, and how the famous industrialist changed the world.
Producing by far a larger amount of copper than any other country, the United States is extremely fortunate in being able to supply to a great extent the ever-increasing demand for this useful metal.
When the last upheaval came, the whole bottom of the ocean was lifted skyward, and the remains of all kinds of sea life were taken along and left miles inland from the water – which is how this fossilized whale ended up on the top of a mountain.
Fax it! That phrase became as much of a cliche in the ’80s as ‘We’ll do lunch.’ Look at how vintage fax machines quickly outgrew fad status.
Once part of everyday life, now only people of a certain age will remember this stuff. Here are 25 obsolete products most people under 25 have never seen in real life!
While his name might not be as well-known as others, Hudson Maxim was an important American inventor, chemist and author.
Never having to come up from underground? Cars routinely going 130 MPH? Completely automated cleaning? Solar power dominant? See these and many more predictions from 1906!
Among the remarkable discoveries is that of photography, one of the most absolutely new revelations of all that have come upon many generations past and passing.
The car of the future will be weather-proof, and that the sides, front, rear, and roof will probably be made of glass. The entire control of the machine will be simplified, and perhaps located in a set of push buttons.
What can we do with this horrible old kitchen? Frigidaire saves her from covering leftovers. A special storage area in this Frigidaire Frost-Proof Food-life Preserver
Range: Anywhere on Earth — and your Air Force has it! The Consolidated B-36 can carry a 10,000 pound atomic bomb to a target 5,000 miles away, drop it, then return to base.
The history of revolvers, rifles & other guns comes to you from an encyclopedia published in the late 1930s or early 1940s, and offers a unique perspective on these weapons.
Jell-O salad gelatin came in two flavors, celery or mixed vegetable, and both savory salad gelatin mixes made to be a base for vegetables and meats.
Maxell was long one of the leaders in the cassette tape world, and produced one of the most iconic ad campaigns of the era, featuring the man fondly (now) known as ‘blown away guy.’
Radium face cream made its debut in 1905: ‘The radium in the cream energizes the cells of the skin so that they throw off impurities… producing the charming glow of delicate color.’
How did America get its name? The man from whom the continents got their names was an especially fascinating character of the late 15th century.
Every year, hundreds of children were stricken with polio. Before testing iron lung machines on humans, two dozen cats had to die under anesthetic.
Thomas Edison says people work too hard, but that pleasure is as necessary as food. ‘This is an electric age. The pressure was never heavier, nor the grind harder.’
Electricity will cure all the ills of the world, predicts Thomas Edison, whose inventive genius is responsible for the widespread application of electricity.
The Hula Hoop fad had millions of children and adults shaking their hips to make the hoop spin. See what the craze was all about – and how to hoop!
The way life is carried on now seems near discovery (1953) By Watson Davis, Director, Science Service – Rocky Mount Evening Telegram (North Carolina) December
Once electrical power became widely-available in homes, vintage vacuum cleaners debuted, including ones from the famous Hoover brand.
True autism is defined by specific characteristics — characteristics guaranteed to have any mother, babysitter, and even many doctors climbing the wall.
Free electricity for everyone? Here’s a look at some predictions from Nikola Tesla from a century ago – some we have seen, others… well, not yet.
Who invented the sewing machine? That really depends on how much progress has to be made for something to be considered ‘invented.’ Find out more!
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.
The flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia marked the first time a vehicle would be flown into space, returned — and refurbished and used again.
From 1908: The new Hamburger department store is to be a city in itself, a veritable human beehive, with all the complexity of detail characterizing a busy city, save that it will be a metropolis in miniature,
In 1915, an engineer in Arlington, Virginia, was heard in Paris and Hawaii. This was the first trans-continental message ever sent by wireless telephone tech.
Thousands of lives would be lost before it was discovered that simple asbestos – something natural, helpful and seemingly innocuous – would actually lead to many major health problems.[
Here’s a look back from 1964 at the career of “American folk hero” Thomas Edison.
As incredible as it is, the first-person account below, written by polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, is really just the beginning of his story. In 1914,
How to enjoy your GE Porta-Color Television receiver (1967) Introduction Because of the outstanding engineering developments and manufacturing skill of General Electric, you may be assured that
