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Inventions

Poster for Cinématographe Lumière (1896)

Poster From One of the Earliest Public Movie Screenings Is Heading to Auction

The artwork advertised the Lumière brothers’ pioneering Cinématographe

Milwaukee Bucks center Lew Alcindor (13), later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Los Angeles Lakers center Wilt Chamberlain, left, at the L.A. Forum on November 21, 1970.

A Brief History of the One-Size-Fits-All Tube Sock

Originally marketed as sportswear, the tube sock became a stylish accessory thanks to Farrah Fawcett and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Apple I

The Computers That Changed the World

A Seattle museum keeps its vintage computers in working order, so that visitors can experience the evolution of the machine

The Boarding Glasses have two round lenses in front and two on the side, the hollow rims each half filled with blue liquid.

Could These Glasses Cure Your Motion Sickness?

These odd-looking spectacles are the latest invention to try to resolve the common ailment

The Pickup Truck’s Transformation From Humble Workhorse to Fancy Toy

From ‘rusty rattletraps’ to ‘big black jacked-up’ rides, the vehicles symbolize blue-collar identity while flaunting bourgeois prosperity

The Harmony is an all-electric vehicle designed by Texas A&M engineers.

Personal Flying Machines of the Future Won’t Look Much Like Jet Packs

Judging from the GoFly competition, they’re much more likely to resemble flying motorbikes

So gooey, so good.

Let Us Tell You S’more About America’s Favorite Campfire Treat

The gooey snack became popular thanks to technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, which brought cheap sweets to the masses

How Ketchup Revolutionized How Food Is Grown, Processed and Regulated

The condiment really is the perfect complement to the American diet

Playing with Native American instruments, fifth-graders from New York City Public School 276 play with percussion instruments made of pelts and other fibers.

How Native Civilizations Innovated to Conquer the Wilderness

A new activity center at the American Indian Museum in NYC sheds light on the original know-how of the Americas

This house is just 20 micrometers long and features a tiled roof, seven windows, and a chimney.

Scientists Built the World’s Smallest House

Even a mite wouldn’t fit inside this itty-bitty structure

Reebok marketed their slim, pliable Freestyle shoes to aerobics lovers in the 1980s.

A Brief History of America’s Obsession With Sneakers

Invented for athletics, sneakers eventually became status symbols and an integral part of street style

ELIA's blocky characters echo the Roman alphabet, with the goal of making it easier to learn for people who lost sight late in life.

Could This New Tactile Font Help People Who Lose Their Sight Late In Life?

ELIA Frames may serve some blind readers better than braille, but the new system has its skeptics

RUBE GOLDBERG ® is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg Inc. All materials used with permission. rubegoldberg.com. The Art of Rube Goldberg on view March 15–July 8, 2018 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

The Story Behind Rube Goldberg’s Complicated Contraptions

In his time he was a world-famous cartoonist, but today he’s best known for these wacky inventions

This Conductive Paint Turns Walls Into Giant Touchscreens

The interactive surfaces could make “smart” home features much more subtle and affordable

The Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer, or VEST, has 32 vibrating motors distributed around the torso.

Could This Futuristic Vest Give Us a Sixth Sense?

For starters, the new technology—appearing on ‘Westworld’ before hitting the market—could help the deaf parse speech and ambient noise

A lithograph by French caricaturist J. J. Grandville depicts the torture of too much noise.

Why Are We Always Searching For “A Quiet Place?”

Perhaps the real monster is not noise, but instead our own intolerance of unwanted sounds

A Brief History of the Stoplight

How a bright idea shaped our cities and gave the go-ahead to our love affair with the car

To demonstrate Tupperware's patented seal, Brownie Wise tosses a bowl filled with water at a party.

Women Who Shaped History

The Story of Brownie Wise, the Ingenious Marketer Behind the Tupperware Party

Earl Tupper invented the container’s seal, but it was a savvy, convention-defying entrepreneur who got the product line into the homes of housewives

This Inventor Made the Famed D-Day Swimming Tanks

Without Nicholas Straussler, D-Day wouldn’t have been possible. He came up with the design for the Duplex Drives tanks - a key part of the initial invasion

Scientists Create a Super-White Coating, with Help from a Super-White Beetle

The Cyphochilus beetle’s scales boast intricate networks of chitin, a molecule that reflects light with high efficiency

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