Great Idea Finder
The Great Idea Finder: Invention of the Microwave Oven
Site includes fascinating facts about the invention of the microwave oven by Perry Spencer in 1945.
Project Britain
Primary Homework Help: The Victorians: Inventions
Find out about several major developments that made travel, communications, and trade easier for many people during the Victorian period.
PBS
American Experience: Technology Timeline: 1752 1990
Short descriptions of important technological innovations produced in America and the date of their introduction.
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: Technology Timeline 1750 1990
Did you ever wonder who invented something, and when it was invented? Go to this interactive timeline that highlights inventors/inventions from 1750-1990. Click on the topic to read a brief paragraph about that invention.
abcteach
Abcteach: Inventors and Inventions
[Free Registration/Login Required] Find several scientific inventors and inventions with activities for students in primary grades through middle school. One lesson in particular integrates technology by focusing on the invention of the...
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Inventions
Investigate past and present inventions, and use the tape player as an example to explore issues inventors must deal with, including patents, theft and technological obsolescence. Use the scientific method to choose, design and develop...
Other
African American Inventors Who've Changed Your Life (Pdf) [Pdf]
Integrated lesson plan focusing on the contributions that African American inventors have made to modern society. Includes rationale, day by day plan, links, and other information.
Other
Edison: His Life and Inventions: The Telephone, Motograph, and Microphone
This site offers the text of a book by Frank Dyer and Thomas Martin published in 1929 on the inventions of Thomas Edison. This particular page discusses Alexander Graham Bell's development of the telephone and the controversy over Thomas...
Other
Pioneers, Inc.: Black Scientists and Inventors
Find brief descriptions of the inventions of many African-American inventors in many fields in the 19th century.
Other
Patent Museum: Egg Beater: Willis Johnson 1884
A brief description to the patent filing and an excerpt from the patent request that Willis Johnson filed for his improvements in the egg beater. Included are drawings submitted with the patent request.
Other
New York Subway History: Beach Pneumatic Transit
Not all inventions turn out to be good ideas! Read about Alfred Ely Beach's idea to build a pneumatic tube under the streets of New York City for subway trains to use.
Enchanted Learning
Enchanted Learning: Inventors & Inventions 1801 1850
This site from Enchanted Learning presents several brief overviews of major early nineteenth century inventors and their inventions. The information is accessible by clicking on the corresponding link.
Library of Congress
Loc: A Historic Message
This site, which is provided for by the Library of Congress, gives information on the first telegraph invented and the first message ever transmitted.
New York Times
New York Times: Crossword Puzzle: Inventors
The New York Times Learning Network has developed interactive & printable crossword puzzles. The theme of this one is Inventors.
Smithsonian Institution
National Postal Museum: Famous Americans: Alexander Graham Bell
Learn brief information from the National Postal Museum on Alexander Graham Bell, American inventor of the telephone, who was featured on the ten cent postage stamp.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Arc Lamp 1876
Fire lighted the night for many centuries. Then came Sir Humphry Davy and the birth of the arc lamp, an invention built upon in the years that followed by many.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Bubble Chamber 1952
To understand a bubble chamber, picture the long, white streak an airplane leaves in its wake. That's water vapor produced by condensation from the plane's hot exhaust. Until the water particles evaporate, you can follow the streak to...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Audion 1906
Two years after Englishman John Ambrose Fleming invented a two-electrode vacuum tube, American inventor Lee De Forest one-upped him by developing a tube with three electrodes.
Other
Black Inventor Online Museum: William Purvis
Read about the African-American inventor, William Purvis, who improved the fountain pen. Included is a list of his other inventions.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Who Am I?
[Free Registration/Login Required] This is a review of famous inventors and people of the Second Industrial Revolution. Activotes questions are included. There is a citation for a United Streaming video clip at the end that could be...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Benjamin Franklin Timeline
[Free Registration/Login Required] This is a timeline of Benjamin Franklin's life. Each flipchart page highlights a high point in Franklin's life.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Birth of the Recording Industry
This site from the Library of Congress is a fine site for information on the birth of the recording industry. Emile Berliner's inventions and improvements related to recording technology are chronicled here. Of special interest are his...
BBC
Bbc Newsround: 'Most Waterproof Material' Invented at Mit
Brief article reports on the creation of the most waterproof material in existence.