Museum of American Exceptionalism
← All wings

Invention

The airplane, the transistor, the internet, GPS. The modern world, made here.

1876–1978 · 10 exhibits
  1. The General Operating Department of the Western Union Telegraph Building in New York, 1875, three decades after the first message.
    1844Open nowWhat Hath God WroughtSamuel Morse tapped four words from Washington to Baltimore, and from that morning on the news no longer had to wait for a horse or a train.40miles, instantly
  2. Bell’s laboratory notebook for 10 March 1876, recording the first sentence ever sent by telephone: “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you.”
    1876Open nowMr. Watson, Come HereAlexander Graham Bell spoke the first sentence ever heard over a wire in Boston. Within his lifetime, America had more than ten million telephones.1876first call
  3. The dynamo room at Pearl Street: Jumbo dynamos coupled straight to their steam engines, from an 1880s engraving
    1882Open nowEdison Lights New YorkEdison made a bulb that lasted, then built the power station, wires and meters to light a city with it.400lamps lit the first night
  4. First flight of the Wright Flyer, Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903
    1903Open nowKitty HawkTwo bicycle makers from Dayton flew the first powered airplane. Every flight since started here.12seconds
  5. The first point-contact transistor (Bell Labs, 1947), on display
    1947Open nowThe TransistorBell Labs, December 1947. The switch inside every chip, phone and computer on earth.3inventors
  6. Rows of iron lungs breathe for polio patients in a hospital ward, about 1953.
    1955Open nowThe Polio VaccineJonas Salk’s vaccine was tested on nearly two million schoolchildren, declared safe and effective, and never patented.1.8Mchildren in the trial
  7. An Intel Core i5-11400 processor die from 2021: a whole computer processor on one sliver of silicon
    1958Open nowThe Integrated CircuitJack Kilby put a whole circuit on one sliver of germanium, and Robert Noyce made it in silicon. Every computer since runs on it.208Btransistors on one chip
  8. A combine harvests wheat on the Palouse, the rolling Washington and Idaho country where USDA breeder Orville Vogel bred America’s first semi-dwarf wheats.
    1968Open nowThe Green RevolutionNorman Borlaug, an Iowa farm boy, bred the wheat that nearly doubled harvests in India and Pakistan.1Blives
  9. BBN Interface Message Processor (IMP), the first ARPANET router
    1969Open nowARPANETUCLA tried to send “LOGIN” to SRI in Menlo Park. Two letters got through. That was the start of the internet.“LO”first message
  10. GPS Block IIR-M satellite in orbit (artist's impression)
    1978Open nowGPSBuilt by the Pentagon to guide ships, planes and bombs, then given to the whole world for free.24satellites