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Shopper looking through a large bar code as if peering behind a curtain

How We Almost Ended Up with a Bull’s-eye Bar Code

If history had taken another path, bar codes would look dramatically different today.
by Jordan Frith via The Conversation on January 10, 2024
1970s commercial airplane flying over a mountain range

How 1970s California Created the Modern World

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and globally.
by Francis J. Gavin via Engelsberg Ideas on April 3, 2023
A horse trotting photogravure

The Murderer Who Made Movies Possible

When horses gallop, do all four hooves ever leave the ground at once? This episode of The Disappearing Spoon recounts the saga that led to the answer.
via The Disappearing Spoon on May 10, 2022
Magazine illustration depicting fantastical inventions for travel on water, land, and air, titled March of Intellect, by William Heath, c. 1828.

A Utopia of Useful Things

On the nineteenth-century artists and thinkers who pictured a future of abundance powered by steam.
by Michael Rawson via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 24, 2021
Man and woman researching using machines

Where Would We Be Without the Paper Punch Card?

An 80-by-10 grid punched into a paper card helped drive us out of the Industrial Age and into the Data Age.
by Caleb Scharf via Slate on June 23, 2021
Skiers queuing to get on The Dollar lift.

How a Railroad Engineer From Nebraska Invented the World's First Ski Chairlift

The device was part of an elaborate plan on behalf of Union Pacific to boost passenger rail travel in the American West.
by Sarah Kuta via Smithsonian on February 2, 2021
1975 digital camera prototype

How the Digital Camera Transformed Our Concept of History

We’re capturing the mundane as well as the memorable.
by Allison Marsh via IEEE Spectrum on June 30, 2020
Drawing of a lightbulb illuminating an inventor's laboratory.

The Real Nature of Thomas Edison’s Genius

The inventor did not look for problems in need of solutions; he looked for solutions in need of modification.
by Casey N. Cep via The New Yorker on October 21, 2019
Hooded person shining a laser pointer at an airplane in the dark

A Blinding History of the Laser Pointer

They can wreck your eyes, and they can land you 14 years in jail for shining one at a police chopper. But where did they come from?
by Ian Lecklitner via MEL on August 20, 2019
Brochure for Gemini robot.

The Forgotten '80s Home Robots Trend

Alexa’s interface is treated as revolutionary, but you might be surprised to learn of its predecessors from the mid-1980s.
by John Ohno via Tedium on May 24, 2018

The Turn-of-the-Century Pigeons That Photographed Earth from Above

In 1907, a patent application for the pigeon camera was submitted.
by Andrea DenHoed via The New Yorker on April 14, 2018

How Douglas Engelbart Invented the Future

Two decades before the personal computer, a shy engineer unveiled the tools that would drive the tech revolution.
by Valerie Landau via Smithsonian on January 3, 2018
Stereograph titled 'The Toucans' depicting three toucans and a snake amid plants and rocks

Stereographs Were the Original Virtual Reality

The shocking power of immersing oneself in another world was all the buzz once before—about 150 years ago.
by Clive Thompson via Smithsonian on September 21, 2017

Edison vs. Scott

The complicated story behind the invention of sound recording.
by Emma Jacobs via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 31, 2017

Designers On Acid: The Tripping Californians Who Paved The Way To Our Touchscreen World

Ever wondered why email, trash cans, Google Docs and desktops look the way they do? The answer lies in 1960s hippie culture.
by Oliver Wainwright via The Guardian on May 11, 2017

How Andrew Carnegie's Genius and Blue-Collar Grit Made Pittsburgh the Steel City

A third-generation mill worker pays homage to the controversial industrialist.
by Ken Kobus via Zócalo Public Square on April 7, 2017
A young thomas edison poses next to a phonograph

How 19th Century Techno-Skeptics Ridiculed Thomas Edison

At his peak, newspapers loved to tease the inventor. They also feared him.
by Cara Giaimo via Atlas Obscura on February 28, 2017

How Bikes Helped Invent American Highways

Urban elites with a fancy hobby teamed up with rural farmers in a movement that transformed the country.
by Margaret Guroff via What It Means to Be American on September 6, 2016
Map of the transatlantic cable.

The New World Order

The 1850s were a turning point for globalization, from telegraphs to colonization.
by Matthew Karp via Boston Review on September 2, 2016

A Brief History of the Assault Rifle

The genealogy of a killing machine.
by Michael Shurkin via The Atlantic on June 30, 2016
Advertisement highlighting recipes to make with Seabrook frozen vegetables.

Decline and Fall of the Spinach Kings: On the Wilting of a Family Dynasty

A history of wealth, enterprise, and family dysfunction.
by John Seabrook via Literary Hub on June 11, 2025
Typewriter

The QWERTY Keyboard Will Never Die. Where Did the 150-Year-Old Design Come From?

The invention’s true origin story has long been the subject of debate.
by Jimmy Stamp, Ellen Wexler via Smithsonian on February 25, 2025
American Flag with Stars replaced with atoms and stripes replaced by syringes and graduated cylinders

The Rise (and Fall?) of the National Science Foundation

In the ’50s, America declared science an ‘endless frontier.’ We may be reaching the end of it.
by Carly Anne York via The Chronicle of Higher Education on February 21, 2025
Pedestrians walking in the financial district of New York City, 1949.

Brad DeLong’s Long March Through the 20th Century

A sweeping new history chronicles a century of unprecedented economic progress driven by markets and innovation.
by Thomas Strand via Jacobin on December 15, 2024
A barcode.

A Linear Morse Code

How fifty years of barcode magic came to be.
by Chris Myers Asch via What's Gone Right on November 17, 2024
Photo collage showing an anti-abortion rally, a same-sex marriage, and the Supreme Court, among other things.

How U.S. Public Opinion Has Changed in 20 Years of Our Surveys

We took a closer look at how Americans’ views and experiences have evolved on a variety of topics over the last 20 years.
by Jenn Hatfield via Pew Research Center on September 13, 2024
Illustration of man throwing football to sports broadcaster.

Before and After the Contest: Wraparound Sportscasting Through the Ages

National Football League pre- and postgame shows have become a testing ground for novel technology in the waning days of linear television.
by Chloe Lizotte via Mubi on August 1, 2024
Close-up of barcode being scanned.

Happy 50th Birthday to the UPC Barcode – No One Expected You Would Revolutionize Global Commerce

The scanning of a package of gum in an Ohio grocery store in 1974 marked the beginning of an era.
by Jordan Frith via The Conversation on July 25, 2024
A pixellated landscape of buildings, spaceships, and the moon form the background of the coverpage for this article, titled "How Sci-Fi Worlds Have Changed WIth Us"

Who Killed the World?

Explore science fiction worlds from the last few decades – and what these fictional settings tell us about ourselves.
by Alvin Chang via The Pudding on July 12, 2024
Evelyn Nesbit Thaw dodging a camera, 1909.
partner

Overexposed

What happened to privacy when Americans gained easy access to cameras in the Gilded Age?
by Sohini Desai via HNN on July 2, 2024
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