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Inventions

A TeleGuide terminal developed in the early 1990s by Swedish phone company Televerket, with IBM and Esselte.

A New Museum in Sweden Is All About Failure

Visit the many examples of products that were short-sighted, short-lived or just silly

The "Albany Fire Protectors" seen in this undated, probably late-19th century photograph, might have used a fire pole.

Fire Poles Saved Time, But They Also Injured Firefighters

Many fire departments across the country have phased out the pole

One of Empa's temperature sensors in the shape of a Braeburn apple

A New Sensor That Looks and Acts Like Fruit Could Reduce In-Transit Produce Waste

Swiss scientists have developed a temperature sensor that provides important data while packed with fruit in transport and storage

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The Patents and Trademarks Behind Jelly Beans

Inventors have been improving the techniques and technologies used to make jelly beans for more than 150 years

Velcro was originally available only in black, but even when it started coming in multiple colors, 1960s fashionistas wanted nothing to do with it.

Before Velcro’s Patent Expired, It Was a Niche Product Most People Hadn’t Heard Of

The hook-and-loop tape’s moment in the sun came after others were free to copy it

This, the first passenger elevator, was installed in a New York department store in 1857. The elevator is not round, though the first passenger elevator shaft, installed a mile north of this store, was.

This Innovator Thought Elevators Should Be Round

Peter Cooper thought that round would be the most efficient shape for elevators, and requested an elevator shaft designed accordingly

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The Patents and Trademarks Behind Lucky Charms Cereal

There’s a lot of food science that goes into those marshmallow clovers

"Numbers are a human invention, and they’re not something we get automatically from nature," says Caleb Everett.

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How Humans Invented Numbers—And How Numbers Reshaped Our World

Anthropologist Caleb Everett explores the subject in his new book, Numbers and the Making Of Us

Playing the flute isn't easy even for some humans, but in the 18th century, inventor Jacques de Vaucanson figured out how to make a machine play it.

This Eighteenth-Century Robot Actually Used Breathing to Play the Flute

It was one of a trio of automata that had functions like living creatures

The first "phone book" (really a one-page sheet) came long before phones like this, but it was an important step towards the printed directories that were ubiquitous in the twentieth century and are now often considered outdated.

The First Telephone Book Had Fifty Listings and No Numbers

It came out less than two years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the device

Iowa State University scientists modeled their artificial leaves after cottonwood leaves.

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Are Artificial Trees the Future of Renewable Energy?

While a new device’s flapping leaves can generate a lot of energy, extracting it is far from a breeze

A solid state radio frequency oven would allow you to cook a whole meal at once.

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This Oven Could Change How We Cook

By using radio frequency technology, it can prepare all the components of a dinner, at the same time, just right

An 1817 illustration of a draisine.

This Wooden Running Machine Was Your Fixie’s Great-Great Grandpa

The draisine was invented as a potential replacement for the horse during a shortage

Benjamin Montgomery succeeded despite being refused a patent.

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With Patents or Without, Black Inventors Reshaped American Industry

American slaves couldn’t hold property, including patents on their own inventions. But that didn’t stop black Americans from innovating in our country

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The Patents Behind the Roses You Receive on Valentine’s Day

You probably never thought of the perennials as inventions, have you?

Smart Glasses

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These “Smart Glasses” Adjust To Your Vision Automatically

The glasses’ liquid lenses change shape according to the distance of objects, making reading glasses and bifocals unnecessary

This is the 517th Xerox model 917 ever made, donated to the Smithsonian in 1985.

Watch the Original 1959 Ad for the First Office-Ready Xerox Machine

When the Xerox 914 entered offices, the working world changed forever

As 19th century urban living became more cramped, some women began to reinvent the domestic sphere with technology.

Women Who Shaped History

These Four Black Women Inventors Reimagined the Technology of the Home

By designating the realm of technology as ‘male,’ we overlook key inventions that took place in the domestic sphere

Preening automaton

Cool Finds

This Robotic Silver Swan Has Fascinated Fans for Nearly 250 Years

It preens, fishes and impresses

One of 50 rooms in the Colonial Revival mansion in Rochester, New York, where George Eastman lived for 27 years.

Visit the Homes of America’s Greatest Inventors

Within these walls, our nation’s most brilliant tinkerers once ate, slept and imagined

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