Follow our latest blog below:

Entries for 2013

• December 28, 2013 Where’s There’s Smoke… The New Year is always a great time to reassess various elements in our lives.  Everything from health to money is pondered as the clock strikes midnight on January 1st.  One detail that many include in their “things to do” list for the New Year is to replace their batteries in their household smoke and carbon dioxide alarm detectors....
• December 16, 2013 The Perfect Christmas Gift: A Quick History of the Toy Train When you think of your favorite toy from childhood, the odds are good it was your first electric train set. For generations, toy trains have filled the Christmas lists of children of all ages....
• November 26, 2013 A Kitchen Wonder: The Invention of the Food Processor With the holidays here, some of us are going to be spending considerable time in the kitchen. What would the holidays be, after all, without a proper feast to celebrate them? So it seems only fitting to take a moment to commemorate an invention that has proven to be a real time-saver over the years for cooks of all descriptions: the food processor....
• November 20, 2013 Crystals That Tell Time On November 3, the majority of the United States moved our clocks back one hour to mark the end of Daylight Saving Time. Most of those clocks contain a quartz crystal oscillator.  Thanks to a keystone invention by Warren Marrison in 1927, quartz clock technology remains one of the most accurate ways to keep track of the passing seconds, minutes and hours....
• October 28, 2013 The Continuing History of Ethernet Technology This year marks the 40th anniversary of Ethernet, a system invented by engineer and Brooklyn native, Robert Metcalfe. A pioneer in his field, Metcalfe changed the way people worked and communicated....
• October 3, 2013 How Robots Have Changed Manufacturing There’s a keystone in every great invention With Manufacturing Day right around the corner, now is the perfect time to reflect on how manufacturing has improved with the invention of the robot....
• September 20, 2013 Cooling the World: The Birth of the Modern Air Conditioner There’s a keystone in every great invention Even with the transition from summer to fall, many locations of the U.S. and around the globe still require a need to stay cool from nature’s brutal heat, so a celebration of the 111th birthday of the air conditioner is still in order....
• August 30, 2013 A Closer Look at Labor Day There’s a keystone in every great invention Hard to believe but summer is almost over! Despite the fact that the summer season does not official end until September 22, Labor Day weekend usually marks the unofficial end of summer....
• August 20, 2013 I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for (Electronic) Ice Cream (Makers)! There’s a keystone in every great invention Whether it is from the supermarket, your favorite restaurant, or from a colorful truck driving through your neighborhood, ice cream is the treat that brings joy and refreshment to young and old....
• July 22, 2013 GPS: Where Would We Be Without It? There’s a keystone in every great invention In today’s society, people no longer use maps to figure out how to get somewhere. All you have to do is plug in an address or intersection and press go....
• July 8, 2013 Fireworks and Freedom There’s a keystone in every great invention The words to the Star Spangled Banner can evoke many emotions when singing or listening to them.  But, the one verse that many remember around the 4th of July is this: And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there....
• June 26, 2013 A True Revolution: The Invention of the Digital Camera There’s a keystone in every great invention Life before many of today’s inventions cannot even be imagined.  Although the typewriter has some semblance to the current computer keyboard, its everyday functionality is far different from its present day use....
• June 12, 2013 Blowing in the Wind: One Man’s Quest for Power There’s a keystone in every great invention The saying goes that ingenuity is the mother of all inventions and in the case of James Blyth this was very true.  Blyth was born in 1838 in Scotland....
• May 23, 2013 Honoring Veterans: A History of Memorial Day May is the gateway to summer and to pass through it; the first step is Memorial Day Weekend.  Beaches, picnics, gardening are usually at the top of everyone’s agenda.  However, we often forget what the significance of this holiday is and why we observe it....
• May 16, 2013 The Tractor: Pulling the World into the Modern Age Spring has arrived (or at least that’s what the calendar says) and that means another planting season is getting underway across the world’s northern hemisphere.  Unlike a century ago, modern farming is a complex science that relies on all modern technology has to offer....
• April 23, 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition: This is more than Child’s Play April is the month for the popular FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). This educational and technical challenge pits thousands of groups from across the country in regional matches throughout the month of March....
• April 17, 2013 How the Electronic Calculator Changed the World There’s a keystone in every great invention. Before the iPhone and the Kindle, there was the electronic calculator. If you are of a certain age, you remember the days when a calculator was just about the only piece of electronic equipment you would (or could) carry around with you....
• March 26, 2013 March Madness and the Technology of Score-keeping There’s a keystone in every great invention. 2013 marks the 75th anniversary of College basketball’s March Madness, the single elimination tournament that has become almost as famous as the Super Bowl....
• March 1, 2013 How World War I Tank-Treads Led to the Invention of the Snowmobile There’s a keystone in every great invention. Joseph Armand-Bombardier was born in 1907 in a small village in Quebec, QC. His birth took place during a rare April blizzard. If you lived far enough from the big city like the Bombardiers did, winter had a nasty habit of making simple cross-country feel a bit like “Arctic Exploration....
• February 14, 2013 Valentine’s Day, Invention of the EKG, and a Happy Heart There’s a keystone in every great invention. It’s one of the most popular holidays in human history, celebrated around the world. But behind all the chocolates, flowers, teddy bears, and corny romantic movies that form the bulk of Valentine’s Day, in the end it truly is a celebration of the human heart....
• January 28, 2013 From Ploughshares to Primetime: How an Idaho Farm-Boy Invented Television There’s a keystone in every great invention. The initial seeds of genius of any great invention often begin in some obscure place, in a passing conversation, or through a strange set of circumstances....
• January 17, 2013 Emile Berliner and the Invention of the Microphone The use of microphones is fairly commonplace, even in the cold winter months, whether it’s used by an announcer at an NFL game, at one of the many winter award shows, or at the 2nd inauguration of the President of the United States, it is clear that microphones have become an important means for communicating to large crowds whether inside or out....