Some of Oregon's most noteworthy public works projects first saw life on the drawing tables of Frank G. Hutchinson and Harold L. Spooner. Other drawings by the two men were destined to remain dreams. The works shown here represent a small portion of the 110 drawings they produced from 1935 to 1957.
This online exhibit includes biographical sketches and quality images by the artists Frank G. Hutchinson and Harold L. Spooner.
This rare cast-and wrought iron bridge was built in 1872. The bridge was located in Coshocton County, Ohio, crossing Wills Creek on Linton Township Road 144.
It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a rare example of early engineering design by one of the most famous engineers of his time, Squire Whipple. This bridge was designed and patented by him in 1841. He had designed other bridges but this was the most popular. The State of New York accepted this as their official design and it was used extensively on the Erie Canal. his design was illegally copied by many other bridge builders, depriving him of much deserved royalties. In 1847 Squire Whipple wrote his book on the design of bridges using scientific methods. This is the first time a book of this type had been written. It has been revised several times and copies can still be found in some libraries. His methods and formulas are still useful. He was considered one of the top engineers of the 19th Century and was the first honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Rare example of early engineering design by oSquire Whipple. This bridge was designed and patented by him in 1841.
Marshall Nirenberg is best known for “breaking the genetic code” in 1961, an achievement that won him the Nobel Prize. But what exactly is the genetic code? And how did he decipher it? This exhibit will explore genetics research in the 1950s and 1960s and explain the importance of Nirenberg's experiments and discoveries.
"Diciphering the Genetic Code" is an online exhibit that explores Marshall Nirenberg's genetics research in the 1950's and 1960's and explains the importance of his experiments and discoveries. The exhibit includes an eight-section history of genetics research beginning with Gregor Mendel and ending with a copy of Nirenber's article in Science Magazine entitled "Will Society Be Prepared?" Images and descriptions of the instruments used in the lab are provided, as are brief biographies of many of the researchers involved. A glossary and links to related web sites are included. The site is well-designed and approachable, and is a good starting point for understanding the study of genetics.
Science & Society Picture Library represents the collections of the National Museum of Science & Industry, Science Museum, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, National Railway Museum.
The Science and Society Picture Library of the British National Museum of Science and Industry combines collections of the Science Museum, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, and the National Railway Museum all on one website. It allows for searching or browsing of over 35,000 images, each of which can be sent as e-cards, or saved into a "wishlist" for second viewing or ordering reproductions. The images are of decent size to be viewed online, display a caption, and are completely categorized by keywords and fully seachable. This is an amazing resource for anyone interested in images of science and society up to the present day.
Making the Modern World brings you powerful stories about science and invention from the eighteenth century to today. It explains the development and the global spread of modern industrial society and its effects on all our lives. The site expands upon the permanent landmark gallery at the Science Museum, using the Web and dynamic multimedia techniques to go far beyond what a static exhibition can do.
Making the Modern World is a vast online exhibit from the Science Museum of London that covers science and society in the modern era, from traditional research and inventions and engineering, to social sciences and everyday life. There are many ways to explore the hundreds of images, audio files, and texts of the exhibit that begins with “Enlightenments and Measurement” in 1750 and concludes with the “Age of Ambivalence” in 2000. The largest section of the site is the Stories and Timelines, which is in narrative and chronological form. There are guided tours along the themes of “Technology as Passport,” “Women Making the Modern World,” and “Conflict in the Modern World.” The Daily Life Section has six categories that include personal, leisure, work, health, and control, and the stories of nine contemporary people's interactions with technology, some inventors, others learning how to handle a screwdriver and "DIY- Do It Yourself." The Icons of Invention includes more than 100 objects from science, technology, and medicine, while the Learning Modules cover biology, English, chemistry, geography, history, mathematics, and psychology. Throughout the site are subsections called "rich media scenes" with moving images and sound that provide interaction with catalogued images and quizzes within a particular story. Finally, there are basic and advanced search options to navigate quickly to a particular item or term.
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents more than 123,000 members of the civil engineering profession worldwide, and is America's oldest national engineering society. ASCE's vision is to position engineers as global leaders building a better quality of life.
Our heritage enables us to benefit from the experience of those who have preceded us. This is the value of history in any field of endeavor. Our heritage also enables us to enjoy the receive inspiration from the accomplishments of the past, great and small, and gives us a stronger tie with the people who created them.
History and Heritage of Civil Engineering on the website of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) showcases the work of American civil engineering in the past two centuries. The site is attractive and a good resource for an introduction to this field that encompasses many different types of work. There are eleven Landmark Projects in the broad categories of transportation by air, land, and sea, water supply and control, power generation, and structures such as buildings, bridges, and dams. An overview of each type of project is accompanied by an interactive timeline from 3000 BC to 2000 AD that includes major world events. Examples of major projects within each category include images and links to more information. Brief biographies of more than 40 notable engineers are included, again with images and links. A searchable image library has high quality pictures available for download, although there is no way to browse the holdings of this small collection. Finally, in the Resources section there are links to libraries and information available online, as well as a bibliography of print resources.
The Columbia STS-107 mission lifted off on January 16, 2003, for a 17-day science mission featuring numerous microgravity experiments. Upon reentering the atmosphere on February 1, 2003, the Columbia orbiter suffered a catastrophic failure due to a breach that occurred during launch when falling foam from the External Tank struck the Reinforced Carbon Carbon panels on the underside of the left wing. The orbiter and its seven crewmembers (Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David Brown, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla) were lost approximately 15 minutes before Columbia was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space Center. This site presents information about the STS-107 flight, as well as information related to the accident and subsequent investigation by the formal Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
This website from the NASA History Office has a wealth of information about the shuttle Columbia mission itself, the loss of the shuttle in February 2003, and the ensuing investigation. There are formal biographies of crew members, extremely detailed timelines, and a twenty-page document with accompanying acronym list entitled "STS-107 Accident Investigation Ground Track, Events Summary, and Sighting Data." A number of images and links to documents from NASA, Congress, and the White House are available, as is full information about the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, from its charter and members, to the six-volume report. Professionally-compiled bibliogaphies on Space Shuttles, the Columbia accident, and organizational culture are also included. Finally, reflections from the public gathered on the web are collected and displayed, adding individual responses to the loss of the shuttle to this very informative site.
Bridging rivers, gorges, narrows, straits, and valleys always has played an important role in the history of human settlement. Since ancient times, bridges have been the most visible testimony of the noble craft of engineers. A bridge can be defined in many ways, but Andrea Palladio, the great 16th century Italian architect and engineer, hit on the essence of bridge building when he said "...bridges should befit the spirit of the community by exhibiting commodiousness, firmness, and delight." In more practical terms, he went on to explain that the way to avoid having the bridge carried away by the violence of water was to make the bridge without fixing any posts in the water. Since the beginning of time, the goal of bridge builders has been to create as wide a span as possible which is commodious, firm, and occasionally delightful. Spanning greater distances is a distinct measure of engineering prowess.
DeLony provides an extensive overview of the history of bridges, from ancient Indian vine bridges, to Roman stone structures, to the North American viaducts and suspension bridges of today. In doing so, the text-laden website focuses on "World Heritage bridges," those recognized by the World Heritage Committee for their unique and lasting contribution to architecture, technology, and society. Nearly all of the 18 topical sections, each arranged in rough chronological order and covering a different type of structure, contain at least one photo, many of them taken by DeLony himself. A list of possible World Heritage bridges and a sizeable bibliography are at the foot of the essay.
Welcome to my website, the Bell System Memorial. For those of us who were old enough to remember the days of "Ma Bell" you should find plenty of memories on this website of the "good old days" - and perhaps some not-so-good old days - under the Bell System monopoly.
A Switchboard to the History of the Telephone: The Bell System Memorial Website
In the golden days of the Bell telephone monopoly, telephones did not beep, chirp or yodel. Telephones made only one sound: they rang. In those golden days, there was no confusing variety of telephone providers, vying with each other to offer better long distance deals. There was one provider for local and long-distance calls, and this was Bell.
Ma Bell, the company of companies, was much more than a telephone provider: it was a symbol of American enterprise, of innovation and progress. Bell was not a company in the strict sense, but was an aggregate term for AT&T encompassing 24 Bell operating companies that provided local phone services. Under the umbrella was also the AT&T long distance service, an equipment manufacturing arm known as Western Electric, and the research and development division "Bell Laboratories." At the time of its break-up after de-regulation in 1984, Bell was the largest employer in the United States. Bell had not only provided a telephone for the majority of American households, but also a regular income for over a million workers.
The Bell System Memorial website is dedicated to an era of the telephone that was lost with de-regulation. It is a memorial to the technology of the telephone, and a memorial to the workers who made the phones ring. The website is a labor of love by David Massey, a private telephone enthusiast who was not associated with any of the former Bell companies.
The design of the website is clear and intelligent, resembling the functionality of a telephone switchboard: The main index site provides four options for different groups to enter the site: for students and teachers, for former employees, for historians and researchers, and for hobbyists and collectors. By providing these different entrance points, David Massey manages to address a wide audience, and at the same time tailors more specific information to a variety of groups.
When entering through the former employee button, visitors can access a fascinating collection of stories by former AT&T, Western Electric, Bell Labs, and Bell Operating Company employees. In this section, former employees recall "the wonders of working at Ma-Bell." They write about the stages of their careers at Bell, their most extraordinary work experiences, and the comradery among Bell employees. Not all stories reflect a harmonious relationship between the employer and the employees: Peter W. Koch, a former Western Electric installer, tells of a long strike in 1952 to raise the per diem rate for traveling installers by one dollar. In 1958, due to a recession, "about a third of the installers were laid off." Among them was Peter W. Koch, who "was never recalled." This section also gives a sense of the skills that were lost in the course of technological progress. Mary Clemence, who worked as a switchboard operator in Michigan in the mid 1960s, recalls her skills in handling a switchboard from the 1920s. "I've realized for some time that I had an incredibly unique experience using that kind of equipment, at a time when most of the country had direct dialing for local and long distance calls."
In addition to these stories, visitors can access a wealth of material through a navigation bar on the left hand side: a short history of the Bell logo, recordings of Jane Barbe's voice, Yellow Pages for telephone collectors and much more. A search engine helps to find pathways through Bell's A-Z. A What's New page keeps regular visitors up-to-date about additions to the site.
For historians of technology, for students and teachers, for anyone who has phone-nostalgia and wants to have a good time, the Bell System Memorial is the place to go. This website rings.
Katja Hering
Center for History and New Media
April 22, 2004
Am I pregnant? The answer to this age-old question once demanded a combination of guesswork, intuition, and time. In 1978, however, the long wait to know for sure became a thing of the past. Trumpeted by advertisements as “a private little revolution,” the first home pregnancy tests started appearing on drug store shelves that year. A quarter of a century later, innovations promise to make even the telltale thin blue line obsolete. This web site looks at the history of the home pregnancy test—one of the most ubiquitous home healthcare products in America—and examines its place in our culture.
The home pregnancy test works by identifying the presence of the “pregnancy hormone,” human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), in urine. Research that led to a sensitive, accurate test for hCG was done by scientists in the Reproductive Research Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at NIH.
A Thin Blue Line: The History of the Pregnancy Test Kit, an online exhibit at the National Institutes of Health, explores the history of the pregnancy test kit from the laboratory to the digital age and invites women to share their personal stories through an online survey. In addition to the scientific background on the research that led to the development of the test, it also includes an historical timeline of pregnancy testing, as well as early advertisements for the test and portrayals of the test in television. There are excerpts from oral histories and interviews with Judith Vaitukaitis, M.D. and Glenn Braunstein, M.D., who in the early 1970’s collaborated on the experiments that led to the sensitive assay for hCG, the “pregnancy hormone.” The site is an interesting introduction to a modern technology that is so widespread and easily accessible as to be taken for granted.
