Summer 2000

Volume 16, Issue 1

FEATURES

An Electronic Victory Against Epilepsy

The vagus-nerve stimulator cuts down on seizures—but no one knows why

Andrew Fuller

Dollars Ex Machina

A machine to do the work of a bank teller? The idea sounded great to everyone—except bankers.

Michael Lamm

East Is West And West Is East And Never The Trains Should Meet

A COMPARISON OF TWO MOUNTAIN RAILROADS

John H. White, Jr.

Going Wireless In 1880

With his telephone just beginning to ignite a communications revolution, Alexander Graham Bell was already coming up with the next big thing

Robert H. Lochte

Making Teflon Stick

Discovering it took luck. Developing it into a successful product took all of Du Pont’s technological resources—and the zeal of one French entrepreneur.

Anne Cooper Funderburg

The Code War

The code-breaking machines of World War II took data-processing technology to its very limits in the era before computers

Stephen Budiansky

The Uranium Rush

How the common prospector won the Cold War, beat the big oil companies, tamed the Colorado Plateau, made and lost a fortune—and got lung cancer for his troubles

Tom Zoellner