This reaction or "Scotch" turbine had as its antecedent the steam reaction wheel invented in Greek Alexandra by Hero around 100 B.C.. It found widespread hydraulic application in the United States from the beginning of the nineteenth century to mid-century when French-inspired hydraulic turbine design pushed reaction wheels into obsolence.
Mechanical
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Image Credit:
Public Domain (Author's Choice)
Image Caption:
Morris Canal Reaction Turbine
Era_date_from:
1850
1976
The glider was the first heavier-than-air human-carrying aircraft to achieve controlled piloted flight. On his first successful flight, August 28, 1883, John Montgomery soared at about 600 feet. The Montgomery glider's success demonstrated aerodynamic principles and designs fundamental to the modern aircraft.
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Image Credit:
Image Caption:
Montgomery Glider replica, International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, 1996, original glider by John Joseph Montgomery, 1883 - Hiller Aviation Museum - San Carlos, California
Era_date_from:
1883
1996
As a practical conveyance during the horse-and-buggy era, the Monongahela Incline was one of seventeen built and operated in Pittsburgh in the last century. Of the seventeen, the Monongahela and the Duquesne are the only two remaining operating units. While the Mt. Washington Incline was known as a coal-carrying incline plane in 1854, the Monongahela Incline is probably the earliest passenger-carrying incline in the United States and has been in continuous successful service since its construction.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Jason Rosenberg (CC BY 2.0)
Image Caption:
Monongahela Incline
Era_date_from:
1870
1977
Dearborn State: MI Zip: Country: USA Website: https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history/landmarks/233-model-t Creator: Ford Motor Company, Wills, Childe
When Ford Motor Company introduced its new Model T on October 1, 1908, even an inveterate optimist like Henry Ford (1863-1947) could not predict the vast changes that his rather homely new vehicle would produce. What flowed from this series of bold innovations was more than an endless stream of Model Ts — it was the very foundation of the twentieth century itself. The assembly line became the century's characteristic production mode, eventually applied to everything from phonographs to hamburgers.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Don O'Brien (CC BY 2.0)
Image Caption:
Model T
Era_date_from:
1908
2005
This pump, designed by Edwin Reynolds (1831-1909) and built by the Edward P. Allis company, is the major component of one of the earliest water-pollution control systems. It was capable of pumping more than a half billion gallons of water a day, the highest-capacity pump in the world when installed. It still is used during the summer to pump water from Lake Michigan into the Milwaukee River upstream of the downtown area. This maintains a current in the lower portion of the river and greatly reduces the concentration of pollutants.
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Image Credit:
Image Caption:
Milwaukee River Flushing Station
Era_date_from:
1888
1992
The Old Mill, a smock type of windmill, believed to be the oldest operating windmill in the United States. Most of its parts are original. This mill is the sole survivor of four that once stood along the range of hills west of the town of Nantucket. The long spar and wheel rotate the top of the mill and turn the sails into the wind. Inside, visitors can watch the gears as corn is ground into meal, producing about 5 bushels an hour. Documentation of the restoration of the windmill is located at the Nantucket Historical Association's Research Center.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Hiroshi Okugawa (CC BY 2.0)
Image Caption:
Old Mill in Nantucket
Era_date_from:
1746
1992
Designed and constructed in the early 1940s, this laboratory has an unequalled capacity to simulate a wide range of climatic conditions from arctic cold to jungle moisture. Data from tests of some three hundred different aircraft and over two thousand items of equipment has provided information vital to the performance, safety, and reliability of aircraft operating in extremes of weather.
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Image Credit:
Public Domain (United States Air Force)
Image Caption:
McKinley Climatic Laboratory
Era_date_from:
1944
1987
The Belle of Louisville, built in 1914, is the oldest operating “western rivers” steamboat. It has the shallow-draft flat-bottom hull braced by hog-chain trusses, multiple fire-tube boilers, paddlewheel propulsion, and superstructure configuration that were characteristic of hundreds of steamboats that plied America’s rivers during the 19th and 20th centuries
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Bailey Visual Life (CC BY 2.0)
Image Caption:
Belle of Louisville, still in operation
Era_date_from:
1914
2010
At the mountain where the Civil War's Battle Above the Clouds was waged, tourist business has thrived from the building of its first toll road (Whiteside Pike) in 1857 to present day.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Duane Tate (CC BY 2.0)
Image Caption:
Lookout Mountain Incline Railway
Era_date_from:
1895
1991
This steam crawler-tractor emancipated horses from the killing work of hauling trains of sleds over iced roads in the winter woods of the United States and Canada.
Designed, patented (1901), and built by Alvin C. Lombard (1856-1937) of Waterville, Maine, eighty-three "Lombards" were the first practical examples of the often-tried lag or crawler tread that would become the mark of the internal combustion engine-driven agricultural and construction equipment and military tank in current use.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/cliff1066,
Image Caption:
Lombard Steam Log Hauler
Era_date_from:
1910
1982
Innovations
As a practical conveyance during the horse-and-buggy era, the Monongahela Incline was one of seventeen built and operated in Pittsburgh in the last century. Of the seventeen, the Monongahela and the Duquesne are the only two remaining operating units. While the Mt. Washington Incline was known…
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The glider was the first heavier-than-air human-carrying aircraft to achieve controlled piloted flight. On his first successful flight, August 28, 1883, John Montgomery soared at about 600 feet. The Montgomery glider's success demonstrated aerodynamic principles and designs fundamental to the…
Read More
This reaction or "Scotch" turbine had as its antecedent the steam reaction wheel invented in Greek Alexandra by Hero around 100 B.C.. It found widespread hydraulic application in the United States from the beginning of the nineteenth century to mid-century when French-inspired hydraulic turbine…
Read More
The increased light-grasp of this telescope made possible many notable advances in structural cosmology between 1924 and 1930, which have revised our ideas about the universe. One of these advances was that spiral nebulae are galactic units like our own; another was the idea of an expanding… Read More
This wind tunnel complex was developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA's predecessor) to serve the emerging need for supersonic research and development following World War II. The three-testing-section configuration covers Mach number .03-3.5 and utilizes a single…
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This furnace was the focal point of a pre-Industrial Revolution industry town, one of hundreds of furnaces that thrived and failed in the 19th century. The Maryland Iron Company (incorporated 1828) built this furnace along the Nassawango Creek roughly four miles northwest of the Pocomoke River to… Read More
This machine, designed by Alton S. Newell, efficiently reduced automobile bodies into scrap metal for recycling. A body was fed into the shredder at a controlled rate, and rotating hammers, driven by a 500-hp motor, shredded it into small pieces that were easily shipped. The process took about…
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The N.S. Savannah was the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden, New Jersey. The 74 maximum-power thermal megawatt pressurized-water reactor was supplied by the Babcock & Wilcox Company. Nearly 600 feet long with 22,000-tons…
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This is the oldest operating vessel with a diagonal, compound steam engine, with disc valve gear. Operating at a higher pressure than the oscillating-cylinder engines then used in lake steamers, this type of engine was more powerful and efficient, as well as smaller. The compound engine, built…
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Opened July 9, 1904, this lift lock is the highest of its type in the world, transferring boats between two water levels in a single 19.8 m (65 ft.) lift. Designed in place of conventional locks, which would have lengthed the time considerably to transverse a gradual drop, this lift lock was a…
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The Pilatusbahn—the steepest rack railway in the world—has operated successfully since its opening in 1889 over a route of 4.62 kilometers (2.87 miles) between Alpnachstad on Lake Lucerne and Pilatus Kulm, rising 6,791 feet (2,070 meters) above sea level. This results in a gradient of 48%, or a…
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This was the first successful machine for mechanizing the identification and price marking of retail merchandise. At a single stroke of the operating handle, the machine formed a tag from a roll of stock, imprinted it with price and other information, formed a wire staple, and stapled the tag to…
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The economic situation in the whale oil business (for lighting), coupled with the increased demand for lubricants, stimulated growth in the U.S. petroleum industry. The drilling of the heavy, sulfurous, and asphaltic California crude began in the 1870s at the Pico Canyon area, using the…
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In the late 1920s, the automobile cut railroad passenger service by more than half. The debut of the Pioneer Zephyr heralded a comeback in 1934, touring the country and being seen by some two million people in 222 cities.
The Zephyr was the first diesel-powered, stainless-steel…
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Used to lift molten iron to molds where it was cast into pipe, jib cranes were the sole means of conveyance in the pit-casting process. When pit casting was replaced by centrifugal casting in the 1920s, many pits were filled and the cranes were used to produce cast iron fittings or general…
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The Port Washington Power Plant of the Wisconsin Electric Company was the most thermally efficient steam power plant in the world for many years following its opening in 1935. Its design reflected the cumulative experience of the utility's engineers in burning pulverized coal at the Oneida…
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Steam and the inexpensive electricity it could produce brought about dramatic technical growth in the United States. Developed during the last century, reliable and efficient steam engines were the forerunners of today's massive generating facilities. A rare survivor of the period, the Pratt…
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In fulfilling a contract for 25,000 U.S. Army rifles (Model 1841) and a like quantity for the British government, Robbins and Lawrence were the first to achieve interchangeability of parts on a fully practical level, contributing greatly to all subsequent mass production of machine products. This… Read More
This mechanism allowed the manual closing of a well, saved lives and prevented surface oil accumulation at drilling sites, quickly becoming an industry standard. In the early days of oilfield operations, there was no way to control the underground pressures encountered during drilling. When an oil… Read More
The first authenticated discovery of gold in the U.S. occurred on the Cabarrus County farm of John Reed in 1799, sparking the nation's first gold rush. During its peak years, more than a million dollars of gold was recovered a year, making North Carolina a leader in gold production until 1848.…
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