industrial artifacts review

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magazine articles with a focus on industrial heritage

"Six Ships That Shook the World"
by Roger Archibald
Invention & Technology 
Fall 1997

In the late 1790s America 's tiny navy was the most technologically advanced on earth, thanks to its radical shipbuilding techniques.

U.S. Navy; frigates; USS Constitution; USS Constellation; Joshua Humphreys; sea power; Naval Act; Henry Knox; Josiah Fox; armaments; live oak; hogging; "Old Ironsides"

"Out of Thin Air" 
by Michael D. Haydock
Invention & Technology
Fall 1998

Sheer will and enthusiasm got the Berlin airlift started. Precise logistics and the latest technology kept it from grinding to a halt. 

Berlin airlift; Douglas C-54 Skymaster; Maj. Gen. William Tunner; USAF; Cold War; aviation; Douglas C-47; Tempelhof; Curtis LeMay; light wand

"The Annihilation of Time and Space"
by Curt Wohleber
Invention & Technology Spring/Summer 1991

Critics said no steamboat could cross the Atlantic. Junius Smith disagreed.

transatlantic; paddle steamers; steam packets; P.S. Sirius; P.S. Great Western; Junius Smith; Isambard Kingdom Brunel; British & American Steam Navigation Company; Savannah; Royal William; New York; Cork; Bristol; Dionysius Lardner; Samuel Cunard

"How They Got Planes on Ships"
by T.A. Heppenheimer
Invention & Technology
Summer 1994

Building ships that airplanes could safely land on took most of a decade. Deciding what to do with them took even longer. 

aircraft carriers; zeppelins; Pacific; World War II; USS Langley (CV-1); seaplanes; HMS Furious; USS Lexington; USS Saratoga; USS Ranger; flattops; Midway; Coral Sea; Guadalcanal

"The Airplane That Flew into Space"
by Mark Wolverton
Invention & Technology
Summer 2001

When America's most skillful pilots started flying the rocket-powered X-15, it quickly became clear that Mach 2 was for wimps.

Mach 6.7; Edwards Flight Test Center; B-52; Scott Crossfield; North American Aviation; Neil Armstrong; Robert M. White; Mercury; scramjet

"The Closing of the Aviation Frontier"
by T.A. Heppenheimer
Invention & Technology
Winter 1991

For half a century airplanes flew ever faster, ever higher. Then progress abruptly reached its limits. The reasons are both technical and political.

Aviation; X-2; Mach 3; Chuck Yeager; X-15; F-103; SR-71; XB-70 Valkyrie; B-52; NACA; YF-12A; SST; U-2 spy plane; titanium

"Mercury Rising"
by Thomas D. Jones
Invention & Technology 
Fall 2008

NASA's first manned spacecraft program proved what America could do with collective effort, engineering skill, and determination.

Project Mercury; John Glenn; NASA; Alan B. Shepard; Gordon Cooper; Friendship 7; Langley Research Center; Sputnik; Gagarin; Mercury-Redstone; Atlas

"Straight Up" 
by Curt Wohleber
Invention & Technology 
Winter 1993

Igor Sikorsky's dream was to liberate transportation by introducing a flying machine that could take off and land anywhere. He did it, but it took him a lifetime.

Helicopters; S-51; Andreas Feininger; Curtiss JN-4; Roscoe Turner, Howard Hughes; Charles Lindbergh; American Clipper; Pan Am; Juan Trippe; autogiros

"The Letter That Changed The Way We Fly"
by Frederick Allen
Invention & Technology
Fall 1988

The Douglas DC-3: The plane that shattered records and revolutionized the industry.

DC-1; DC-2; DC-3; Douglas Aircraft Corporation; Ford Tri-motor; Fokker monoplane; United Airlines; Boeing 247

"A Silver Streak"
by Margaret Coel
Invention & Technology
Fall 1986

The streamlined, diesel-powered Zephyr transformed railroading in the 1930s. 

Ralph Budd; Edward G. Budd; Harold L. Hamilton; Charles F. Kettering; Budd Manufacturing Company;
Burlington Route; Chicago World's Fair; shotwelding; stainless steel; 8 pgs., 7 figs.

"The Diesel Revolution"
by Maury Klein
Invention & Technology
Winter 1991

It did more than make trains faster—it swept away a century-old way of life. 

Rudolf Diesel; Adolphus Busch; thermal efficiency and capability of diesel vs.steam; two-cycle diesel engines; 1941 first main-line freight run by diesel; restructuring the shop work force; 7 pgs., 6 figs.

"M-300 to M-10000: the formative years"
by David P. Morgan
TRAINS 
November 1963
 

First gasoline; then distillate

"Doodlebugs;" Chicago Great Western M-3000; Electro-Motive Company (EMC); General Electric traction motors; Winton Engine Company; McKeen conversions; M-10000; 7 pgs., 15 figs.

"9900 to 9908: the custom years"
by David P. Morgan 
TRAINS January 1964

When the customer was always right

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; E.G. Budd Mfg. Co.; No.9900; Zephyr; two-cycle, 8-cylinder inline 201A diesel engine; Electro-Motive; customization; Twin Zephyrs; Illinois Central; 5 pgs. 9 figs.

"Daybreak at La Grange"
by Mike Iczkowski
TRAINS August 1976

How the Judgement Seat was selected.

General Motors; Electro-Motive Coporation; La Grange, Illinois; Richard M. Dilworth; Harold L. Hamilton; Winton Motor Company; Cleveland; Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.; Santa Fe SC switchers; diesel revolution.

"The Rise of the Interstates" 
by T.A. Heppenheimer
Invention & Technology
Fall 1991

How America built the largest network of engineered structures on earth.

Futurama; 1939 World's Fair in New York; early highways; New Jersey Turnpike; Maine Turnpike; tollways; West Virginia Turnpike; Interstate Highway System; Eisenhower; construction equipment

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