Edison's simple and unprecedented instrument allowed for the first time the permanent recording and reproduction of sound, especially the human voice. On December 6, 1877, Edison put tinfoil around the cylinder, turned the handle of the shaft and, shouting into one of the diaphragms, recorded a verse of Mary Had a Little Lamb "almost perfectly." From this machine evolved the phonographs and record industries of the world.
1870-1879
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Image Credit:
Image Caption:
Edison with his early phonograph
Era_date_from:
1877
1981
In the decade following the Civil War, the Mississippi River began to lose its standing as the primary transport artery in the Midwest. Railroads were taking over, and Chicago was rapidly becoming the center of Midwestern commerce. The Eads Bridge was the first major railroad link over the Mississippi, constructed by the city of St. Louis in an attempt to maintain its dominance as a regional commercial hub.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Patrick Yodarus (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Image Caption:
Eads Bridge
Era_date_from:
1874
1971
Designed by Sam Diescher, son-in-law of the Monongahela's designer John Endres, the Duquesne Incline opened May 20, 1877, as the second of seventeen built and operated in the Pittsburgh area. It has operated with only minor interruptions for the last one hundred years. A preservation group from Duquesne Heights and Mount Washington interceded in 1962 to refurbish this incline to working order. Like the Monongahela, the Duquesne was steam powered and then converted to electric and updated with modern safety devices.
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Image Credit:
Original Image: Courtesy Flickr/Nogwater (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Image Caption:
Duquesne Incline
Era_date_from:
1877
1977
Like other American cities in the late 19th century, Baltimore had grown so quickly its supply system was unable to provide city residents with a dependable supply of water. Two reservoirs built outside the city helped increase capacity, but heavy rainfalls in the largely agricultural area tended to foul this additional water supply. City officials elected to construct a holding reservoir within the city - contained by an earthen dam - where silty water would be allowed to settle. No such project had ever been undertaken in the United States.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Jeff Covey (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Image Caption:
Druid Lake Dam
Era_date_from:
1871
1971
The introduction of steam-powered forging hammers by French and British engineers of the 1830s led to the building of this impressive hammer at Creusot that delivered blows to shape and strengthen iron and steel objects before forging. It was for years the most powerful steam hammer in the world. Yet in 1878 a writer observed that "this formidable mass is capable of ... corking a bottle without breakage."
With a striking capacity of 100 tons and a stroke of 5 meters, it worked massive iron and steel shafts, piston rods, and other forgings for fifty-four years, until its retirement in 1930.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Wikipedia/Christophe Finot (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Image Caption:
Creusot Steam Hammer
Era_date_from:
1876
1981
The Cincinnati Observatory, founded by Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel in 1842, is America’s oldest public/professional observatory. The observatory was situated on Mt. Adams, east of the current downtown Cincinnati; the hill was named for former President John Quincy Adams when he laid the observatory’s cornerstone. In 1873 the observatory was relocated to Mt. Lookout when it became a component of the University of Cincinnati (UC). From 1870s until 1930s the stellar proper motion studies reigned as the observatory’s principal activity.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Wikipedia/Analogue Kid (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Image Caption:
Cincinnati Observatory
Era_date_from:
1873
2007
This collection recognizes the inventive talents of John Moses Browning (1855-1926), a prolific and significant designer of sporting and military firearms, whose designs were known for simplicity, accuracy, and reliability. He held more than 128 patents covering 80 distinct firearms produced by Winchester, Remington, Colt, Fabrique Nationale, Savage, and General Motors (during wartime), among others.
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Image Credit:
Public Domain; Produced prior to 1/1/1923
Image Caption:
Browning Firearms Collection
Era_date_from:
1878
1989
These two water turbines were probably the largest and nearly the most powerful ever built in the United States, supplying direct mechanical power to a manufacturing plant. Their installation between 1871 and 1873 makes them among the oldest surviving water turbines.
A dam at Cohoes diverted water to mills and factories along a power canal system. The vertical-shaft turbines at the mill were said to run at 800 horsepower (600 kilowatt) under a head of 20 feet and were connected to an overhead shaft by bevel gearing.
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Image Credit:
Public Domain; Produced prior to 1/1/1923
Image Caption:
An 1879 sketch of the Boyden Hydraulic Turbine, drawn by James Emerson for his book "Treatise relative to the testing of water-wheels and machinery"
Era_date_from:
1871
1975
Designed in 1873 by Christopher Latham Sholes, with Carlos Glidden, Samuel Soulé and Mathias Schwalbach, the Sholes & Glidden 'Type Writer' was the first commercially successful device that rapidly printed alphanumeric characters on paper in any order.
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Image Credit:
Public Domain (Produced prior to 1/1/1923)
Image Caption:
Sholes & Glidden 'Type Writer'
Era_date_from:
1873
2011
In the mid-1800s Virginia City was America's greatest producer of high-grade silver and gold ore. When mining activities began, natural springs provided water to the camps. As the population grew, the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company was formed to address the need for more water. The company first drew water from tunnels that had been driven into the mountains by prospectors. Water was stored in wooden tanks and sent through pipes into the town.
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Image Credit:
Courtesy Flickr/Jeff Moser (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Image Caption:
Marlette Lake Water System
Era_date_from:
1873
1975
