Regional Global Firsts

- Industrial Research Lab
- Practical large-scale turbine with concave buckets
- Large AC & DC motors
- Rail passenger transportation (DeWitt Clinton to Albany)
- Commercial electric locomotive
- Ship propulsion system
- Ductile tungsten for electric lights
- Radio broadcast (Union College, 1920 election results)
- Hermetically sealed "Monitor Top" refrigerator
-Vacuum tubes for radio, TV, electronics
- Talking moving picture
- Large screen demonstration of TV (Proctor's Theater)
- Televised news event (Governor Al Smith accepts Democratic Presidential Nomination)
- Television relay
- Largest steel mill motor
- Voice communication to the moon
- Man-made diamonds
- X-ray tube and medical electronics
- Microwave tube
- Facsimile transmission coast to coast
- Cloud seeding
- Saturable reactor animated controlled display sign
- Laser diode
- Amplidyne for radar and industrial control
- Defect-free silicone
- Computerized tomography, MRI, and digital imaging

Largest Regional Historical Artifact The largest artifact is a 5000kw Curtis steam-turbine-generator which revolutionized power generation in 1903. It is owned by the American Society of Chemical Engineers and is in Schenectady. Shown from left are E.W.Rice, W.L.R.Emmet, Edison, George Morrison, Steinmetz, and H.F.T.Erben. The mailboy is unidentified

Some Key Local Figures:

William Coolidge

Join William Coolidge as he demonstrates the ductile tungsten process to Edison and goes on to develop the first x-ray. Learn how this technology evolved into computerized tomography to MRI and further explore the advancements being made for future use.

Ernst F.W. Alexanderson

Ernst F.W. Alexanderson developed television transmission technologies.

Irving Langmuir

Join Irving Langmuir (shown with Edison) who made improvements in lighting and vacuum tubes and won the Nobel Prize for his surface chemistry research. Follow the evolution of new materials to tomorrow's carbon-based nanotubes, stronger than steel and many times more efficient in light output.

Christian Steenstrup

Join Christian Steenstrup when he adapted early refrigeration techniques to develop the first practical home refrigerator, the Monitor Top, named for the gun turret of the Civil War ship Monitor, parts of which were built in Schenectady and Troy.

 

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