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.
Before we continue describing the evolution of ways to mark the passage of time, perhaps we should broadly define what constitutes a clock. All clocks must have two basic components:
a regular, constant or repetitive process or action to mark off equal increments of time. Early examples of such processes included the movement of the sun across the sky, candles marked in increments, oil lamps with marked reservoirs, sand glasses (hourglasses), and in the Orient, knotted cords and small stone or metal mazes filled with incense that would burn at a certain pace. Modern clocks use a balance wheel, pendulum, vibrating crystal, or electromagnetic waves associated with the internal workings of atoms as their regulators.
a means of keeping track of the increments of time and displaying the result. Our ways of keeping track of the passage of time include the position of clock hands and digital time displays.
The history of timekeeping is the story of the search for ever more consistent actions or processes to regulate the rate of a clock.
The history of engineering can be roughly divided into four overlapping phases, each marked by a revolution:
Pre-scientific revolution: The prehistory of modern engineering features ancient master builders and Renaissance engineers such as Leonardo da Vinci.
Industrial revolution: From the eighteenth through early nineteenth century, civil and mechanical engineers changed from practical artists to scientific professionals.
Second industrial revolution: In the century before World War II, chemical, electrical, and other science-based engineering branches developed electricity, telecommunications, cars, airplanes, and mass production.
Information revolution: As engineering science matured after the war, microelectronics, computers, and telecommunications jointly produced information technology.
Research Aids for the Nineteenth Century
The American Museum of the Moving Image is dedicated to educating the public about the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media and to examining their impact on culture and society.
It achieves these goals by maintaining the nation's largest permanent collection of moving image artifacts and by offering exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, seminars, and other education programs.
The American Museum of the Moving Image is dedicated to educating the public about the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media, and examines the impact on culture and society. This site includes information about the museum which is located in New York City, as well as information about collections and museum programming. Most notably, the site includes four online exhibits about the influence of new forms of media on elections, electronic games, the technology behind motion pictures, and an exhibit titled "The Interactive Playground."
The reader will, I hope, agree that the "almost-antiseptic" washing machines of today don't have nearly the charm nor the character, albeit hazardous character, of those our grandmothers used. Our presentation herein is focused on the elegant washing machines which were powered either with gasoline engines or electric motors and were in use from 1900-1935. In 1920 there were over 1300 companies producing washers, and it is feasible here to show only a sampling of the myriad designs and shapes produced. Selected for illustration, are about 5% of the machines in my "hobby museum" located in Eaton, Colorado. Indeed, there is a lot more to see.
Built in 1967 by RCA, the David Sarnoff Library contains a museum, an archive, a library, and this website. Besides Mr. Sarnoff's papers and memorabilia, the Library's holdings include 25,000 photographs and thousands of notebooks, reports, publications, and artifacts related to the histories of RCA Laboratories and RCA. At this site you will find exhibits, timelines, galleries, links, and references.
The David Sarnoff Library is named for the pioneering President of RCA (Radio Corporation of America), a division of General Electric and one of the earliest industry leaders in radio and television technology. The site contains timelines of Sarnoff, RCA, radio, television, and several other topics. A large number of images are also available on a range of subjects such as early television performers and equipment. The site is still under construction, but the final edition will include memoirs of former engineers and workers at the RCA labs.
The purpose of this site is to collect information to create a first-hand, historical record regarding Apple Computer and Claris Corporation. The information and stories that are collected will be preserved for use by students, scholars, universities, and other non-profit organizations.
The Computer History Museum began in 1996 to preserve and celebrate computer history, and the Apple Computer History Weblog introduced in August 2003 is one venture to do just this. Overseen by more than 20 former Apple and Claris employees and the Computer History Museum, the historical purpose of the blog is stated in the introduction. A year-by-year timeline of Apple history from 1976-1993 (because it takes a decade to become “history”) is provided, listing company financial and employee numbers, products, marketplace overviews, and executive staff.
The Computer History Museum began in 1996 to preserve and celebrate computer history, and the Apple Computer History Weblog introduced in August 2003 is one venture to do just this. Overseen by more than 20 former Apple and Claris employees and the Computer History Museum, the historical purpose of the blog is stated in the introduction. A year-by-year timeline of Apple history from 1976-1993 (because it takes a decade to become “history”) is provided, listing company financial and employee numbers, products, marketplace overviews, and executive staff.
The Apple Computer History Weblog began with a promising start. In the first 8 weeks more than 75 stories were collected, although since then only a few more have been added. The medium of collection and presentation is fitting for the intended contributors, and the stories are a fascinating read even for those outside the Apple and Claris community, although attracting new visitors and contributions will be a continual challenge.
Community members can post a comment to a specific year, to a specific category, or begin a new topic. The community is comfortable and not entirely self-congratulatory. A posting entitled “Who Killed Apple Computer " sparked mention in Wired News, among others, and prompted 16 rather full replies in 6 weeks.
The use of blog technology to create a virtual workspace for an existing community with now far-flung members fits this group very well. Familiarity and interest in computer technology is a given, and the desire to commune with former colleagues is present in many members. Repeat contributors to this site comment on different topics is noteworthy, as is the In Memorium section, dedicated to former colleagues.
Critical opinions make it past the vetting process, although the introduction steers the contributor towards stories about the “cool stuff” and “the passion that made everything you did so great and so much fun.”
The design and navigation is simple, however the division of categories and stories can be confusing, as the category sections contain suggested topics rather than related stories. Despite the request for narratives rather than dialog, members have the ability to comment on individual stories. These messages don’t appear in threaded format, however, so viewing the two linked stories together requires more than one browser window. In addition, the author of a particular story is not viewable on the story page unless it was signed by the contributor. Threading the related stories or removing the comment option to prevent related, but unlinked, messages would improve the site and is needed now that there are a large number of messages.
Joan Fragaszy
Center For History and New Media
August 12, 2004
