History Explorer Results (26)
Related Books (2)
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Invention rarely stops when the inventor introduces a new device. Thomas A. Edison and his team worked to improve his electric lighting system for some years after the initial introduction in 1880. This lamp shows the changes made after six years of labor aimed at lowering costs and increasing pr
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
Students can learn more about American railroads during the 20th century. This reference page is included in the online exhibition entitled America on the Move, which focuses on transportation in US history.
Resource Type(s):
Lessons & Activities
Working with a teacher, students will recreate some of the electrical experiments originally performed by Benjamin Franklin between 1746 and 1754. These hands-on experiments highlight Franklin’s innovative contributions to science and government. Visitors will experience static electricity and
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
James Smithson might be surprised to learn about some of the objects in the collections at the institution he established. The Englishman bequeathed his fortune to found "at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge a
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
"Although women's empowerment can have a revolutionary effect on society, it doesn't always look like a revolution. Today, organizations like UN Women work to empower women in rural areas through economic programs that help them “claim their rights to land, leadership, opportunities, and choices
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
Students will learn about Thomas Edison's life in the years after he had become one of the most famous men in the world. At the age of 40, with major inventions behind him, Edison faced a new technical world, which he had helped to create, and the challenge of competing with his ow
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Thomas Edison used this carbon-filament bulb in the first public demonstration of his most famous invention, the first practical electric incandescent lamp, which took place at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory on New Year's Eve, 1879.
As the quintessential American inventor-hero,
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
The ENIAC was a large, general-purpose digital computer built to compute ballistics tables for U.S. Army artillery during World War II. Occupying a room 30 feet by 50 feet, ENIAC—the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer—weighed 30 tons and used some 18,000 vacuum tubes. It could compu
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials, Interactives & Media
Although we might think of fax machines as a relatively recent (if somewhat dated) technology, this episode uncovers the surprising history of the wireless fax machine. Host Tory Altman speaks with Hal Wallace, associate curator of the museum's electricity collection, about this 1930s device that
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials, Primary Sources
Beginning eight days after the first shots of the American Civil War were fired and three days before his wedding, William Steinway’s remarkable diary bears witness to one of the most dynamic periods in American history. This website examines the life of William Steinway and the display of his
Reading Level:
High School,Middle School
When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that woul
Reading Level:
Pre-School,Early Elementary School,Late Elementary School,Middle School
A lyrical reminiscence for the time before electrical illumination made the natural beauty of the night sky so hard to see.