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The first electric car model.

Three Maintenance Philosophies Fought for Control of the Auto Industry

At the very beginning of the auto industry, no less than three radically different design-for-maintenance philosophies fought it out.
by Stewart Brand via Books In Progress on June 29, 2023
Henry Ford

1922: Henry Ford on the Road to Riches

How Henry Ford managed the formation of the Ford Motor Company.
by Henry Ford via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 16, 2023
Person using SUPARS system on old computer

The 1970s Librarians Who Revolutionised the Challenge of Search

A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it.
by Monica Westin via Aeon on June 5, 2023
Calculating machines.

Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control

The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.
by Meredith Whittaker via Logic on May 25, 2023
Child in iron lung.

How the Iron Lung Transformed Polio Care

In 1928, two Americans invented a large metal breathing device that would become synonymous with polio treatment.
by Hannah Wunsch via UnDark on May 19, 2023
Steve Jobs with Apple II computer.

The Birth of the Personal Computer

A new history of the Apple II charts how computers became unavoidable fixtures of our daily lives.
by Kyle Chayka via The New Yorker on May 18, 2023
Flight attendant serving a full meal.

Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

Why were in-flight meals so much better in the past?
by Diana Hubbell via Atlas Obscura on May 8, 2023
Ferris wheel at the Chicago World Fair of 1893.

The Magic Lantern Man

At every stop, he enthralled audiences with a device called a “stereopticon.”
by David Cecelski via davidcecelski.com on May 1, 2023
Drawing of performers and different audio technologies.

The End of the Music Business

A century of recorded music has culminated in the infinite archive of streaming platforms. But is it really better for listeners?
by Ethan Iverson via The Nation on April 10, 2023
A man pressing a button on an early IBM computer.

How an IBM Computer Learned to Sing

The IBM 7094 anticipated the future of music—and also sounded like the Auto-Tuned pop stars of today.
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on March 26, 2023
A man scuba diving.

Filming the Deep: Underwater Film Technologies

The author of a new book, The Underwater Eye, discusses how film enables audiences "to connect to the most remote environment on the planet: the ocean."
by John Plotz, Margaret Cohen via Public Books on March 23, 2023
Chuquicamata in Chile

The Transformative and Hungry Technologies of Copper Mining

Our own world is built from copper, and so too will future worlds be.
by Robrecht Declercq, Duncan Money via Edge Effects on March 16, 2023
Roland Rhythm Composer

What Drum Machines Can Teach Us About Artificial Intelligence

As AI drum machines embrace humanising imperfections, what does this mean for ‘real’ drummers and the soul of music?
by Jack Stilgoe via Aeon on February 28, 2023
Drawing of a fighter plane.

The Real Developmental Engine

Throughout its history, the technology sector has been dependent on the federal budget.
by Jeannette Estruth via The Drift on February 22, 2023
German observation balloon launched near the Somme, September 1916.
partner

Why a Spy Balloon Inspires Such Fear and Fascination

When it comes to protecting our personal privacy, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
by Alison Byerly via HNN on February 19, 2023
Six frames of a rider on his horse going through the motions of trotting.

Palo Alto’s First Tech Giant Was a Horse Farm

The region has been in the disruption business for nearly 150 years.
by Malcolm Harris via The Atlantic on February 8, 2023
Benjamin Franklin, circa 1785.

AI Chatbot Mimics Anyone in History — But Gets a Lot Wrong, Experts Say

A chatbot billed as an educational tool falsely portrays historical figures, including dictators and Nazis, as apologetic for their crimes.
by Daniel Wu via Washington Post on January 31, 2023
The modified SWD M-11/9s used in the Monterey Park Shooting

Monterey Park: Who Made the Gun?

A relic of '80s scofflaw gun culture is still lethal.
by Mathew Dessem via Popula on January 27, 2023
John Von Neumann and computer charts.

The World John von Neumann Built

Game theory, computers, the atom bomb—these are just a few of things von Neumann played a role in developing, changing the 20th century for better and worse.
by David Nirenberg via The Nation on November 28, 2022
Names, dates, and statistics written on lined notebook paper.

The Forgotten Men Behind the Ideas That Changed Baseball

Solving baseball’s enduring puzzles, to those who could even see them, was its own reward. They changed everything but were never given their due.
by Leander Schaerlaeckens via Defector on November 14, 2022
Cartoon of Buckminster Fuller with spirals in his glasses and hands out as if hypnotizing the reader.

Space-Age Magus

From beginning to end, experts saw through Buckminster Fuller’s ideas and theories. Why did so many people come under his spell?
by James Gleick via New York Review of Books on November 3, 2022
Black-and-white photograph of President Dwight Eisenhower smiling at camera from his desk

The Effective Conservative Governance of Ike Eisenhower

The conservative successes of the Eisenhower administration have been too quickly forgotten.
by Geoffrey Kabaservice via The American Conservative on October 15, 2022
Black-and-white illustration of men using several of Thomas Edison's inventions

A Dose of Rational Optimism

"Slouching Towards Utopia" is a rise-and-fall epic—but it is better at depicting the rise than explaining the fall.
by Zachary D. Carter via Dissent on October 7, 2022
Man carrying bundle of sugarcane over his head walking on plank in Guyana sugarcane fields

The Capitalist Transformations of the Countryside

Centuries of capitalism saw the global countryside ruthlessly converted into cheap commodities. But at what cost?
by Sven Beckert via Aeon on October 6, 2022
Two DJs, DJ Aladdin on the left.

Scratch Cyborgs: The Hip-Hop DJ as Technology

Hip-hop DJ culture provides a rich site for exploring how culture and industry can converge and collaborate, as well as how they need each other to move forward.
by André Sirois via The MIT Press Reader on September 22, 2022
Colorful lithograph showing the "Department of Electricity," a building with electrical lights positioned along the water, with a crowd of people entering

Colonizing the Cosmos: Astor’s Electrical Future

John Jacob Astor’s "A Journey in Other Worlds" is a high-voltage scientific romance in which visions of imperialism haunt a supposedly “perfect” future.
by Iwan Rhys Morus via The Public Domain Review on September 14, 2022
Drawing depicting Buckminster Fuller in front of a dome

Buckminster Fuller’s Greatest Invention

His vision of a tech-optimized future inspired a generation. But his true talent was for burnishing his own image.
by Rebecca Onion via The New Republic on August 19, 2022
Black and white photo of people taking fish out of a train car.

Remembering When Fish Rode the Rails

For decades, salmon, catfish, and trout traveled in America's fleet of "Fish Cars."
by Jonathan Feakins via Atlas Obscura on August 2, 2022
Illustration of screens, electronics, and sound waves.

The Hidden History of Screen Readers

For decades, blind programmers have been creating the tools their community needs.
by Sheon Han via The Verge on July 14, 2022
Vannevar Bush portrait

The Atlantic Writers Project: Vannevar Bush

A contemporary Atlantic writer reflects on one of the voices from the magazine's archives who helped shape the publication—and the nation.
by Ian Bogost via The Atlantic on July 11, 2022
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