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Extra-ordinary
Extraordinary stories behind ordinary things
Who REALLY invented that?
Who invented the battery? Power through the story of portable energy
Who invented the sewing machine? Here’s the story, all sewn up
Who invented spectacles? A long-sighted look back in time
Who invented paper? The strange and ancient story unfolds
Who invented the internet? Log onto humanity’s big invention story
Who invented the compass? Navigate the truth behind the needle
Who really invented football? Get possession of the facts
Who invented the fridge? Put everything on ice and find out
Who invented the toilet? Take a seat and find out
Who invented emoji?
Who invented zero? The notable story of nothing
Who invented 3D printing, and will it really trigger a revolution?
Who invented Braille? The touchy-feely story of a new language
Who invented the espresso machine? Wake up and smell the coffee
Who invented the computer? Here’s the story, bit by bit
The origin stories of everyday things
GLASS
A window into the world of glass
See through 3,500 years of history
RADIATORS
Heat of the moment
The surprising story of the humble radiator
TOOLS
Putting a spanner in the works
How tools (literally) shaped our world
WHEEL
Inventing the wheel
How getting around got easier
REMOTE CONTROL
Changing the channel
The story of the remote control
SMART CARD
The invention in your pocket
The unusual origins of the chip card
It's not just skin deep
The in-depth stories behind beauty and fashion inventions
Online Exhibit
Hair, beauty and health pioneers
From the Tampax patent to Spanx
Online Exhibit
The uplifting story of the bra
1,500 years of the supporting garment
Online Exhibit
Come rain or shine
The History of the Umbrella
Online Exhibit
The fabrication of fabric
How textiles are made
"Creativity is intelligence having fun."
Albert Einstein
How to hold your ice cream
And other food inventions
Who invented the espresso machine?
Who invented the fridge?
Online Exhibit
Giving the people what they want
How vending machines came to be
Online Exhibit
Tapas: A Story of Spanish Food Invention
Bite-size innovation
Online Exhibit
The tasty side of invention
The history of the ice cream cone
Why the cheeseburger almost didn't happen
Online Exhibit
11 life-changing inventions people never thought would catch on
From LOL to legendary
Read
“If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.”
Orville and Wilbur Wright
Stepping it up a gear
Planes, trains, and automobiles
The bicycle
Putting pedal to the medal
Road and rail
Achievements and trailblazers
Flying
How aviation took off
Zeppelin
The infamous airship
Electric vehicles
E-mobility in the 19th century
Motorcycles
Legends in chrome and steel
The aero car
Suspended in Time over Niagara
Did video kill the radio?
From innovations in sound to the invention of the screen
How Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
The life changing invention that almost cost him his marriage
For the record
Emil Berliner and the gramophone
Hold the phone
Ringing in the changes of communication
The Horse Does Not Eat Cucumber Salad
How Philipp Reis invented the telephone
What's on the box
How television came to be
King of the radio waves
Guglielmo Marconi and the invention of the radio
Screen time
The invention of the television
Electric pictures
Before there was smartphones there was phototelegraphy
Tele-visionary genius: John Logie Baird
A man of many firsts
The origins of movies
The Lumière brothers and the Cinématographe
How Cinema Came to Korea
From the magic lantern to Kino-drama
The source of selfies
Developments in photography and film
Online Exhibit
The invention of photography
Discoveries, experimentation, and art
Online Exhibit
How photography, film, and television have evolved
From the magic lantern to cell-phone photos
Online Exhibit
Cameras, in a flash
Astonishing inventions in photography
Online Exhibit
Say cheese!
Meet George Eastman, the creator and founder of Kodak
When scientists captured the rainbow
Inventing the dyes and pigments all around you
True colors
A fine blue sky: the first colour photography
A history of paint and pigments
What the development of paint meant for artists around the world
Dye hard
The race to revolutionise the colour red
Thank you for the music
The technology that revolutionized the world of sound
Online Exhibit
Musical inventions from Ancient China
Instruments unburied after 2,400 years
Online Exhibit
Crashing through history
The story of cymbals
Online Exhibit
How records are made
Amazing vintage photos of vinyl record making
Online Exhibit
The evolution of recorded sound
The birth of the music industry
Online Exhibit
How music entered our living rooms
The gramophone and vinyl records
Online Exhibit
Electronic music's track record
How instruments, devices, and recording studios changed how we hear
Get with the program
The history of programming, coding, and computing
See you later, calculator
The story of early computing
Programmed for success
The history of the computer
From cuneiform to computers
The long history of computing
Secret wartime code breakers become computing pioneers
No Bletchley Park
The Chess Player: The First Computer Game in History
One of Leonardo Torres Quevedo's most futuristic and striking inventions
The ABC of Cryptology
How codes were cracked time and time again
Video
Who invented the computer?
Here’s the story, bit by bit
watch
Video
Who invented the internet?
Log onto humanity’s big invention story
watch
OK Computer
The beginning of the digital age
Online Exhibit
India's First Computer
A look at TIFRAC, the first generation mainframe computer
Online Exhibit
Booting Up: The Rise of the PC
From the 1976 Apple 1 to the smartphone in your pocket
Online Exhibit
Creating a smart world
From the first written characters to present-day robots
Online Exhibit
How the smartphone took over the world
Phone, music player, TV, computer: how the smartphone put it all in your pocket
Explore
Bletchley Park
Home of the codebreakers
Explore
CERN
Birthplace of the world wide web
Explore
The Science Museum
The difference machine
#MakeTheInternet
Someone had to make it, before Kim Kardashian could break it
TRY
BTX: The failed ancestor of the internet
An invention that paved the way
AND TRY AGAIN
The birth of the World Wide Web
How Tim Berners-Lee made a revolutionary proposal
EUREKA!
Switched on
How computers transformed communication
A world of innovation
Take a tour of 18 stories of innovation from around the world, and learn how everything from the compass to the computer came to be.
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Once Upon a Try
A journey of invention and discovery
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Making History
Life-changing inventions and discoveries
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