At the mountain where the Civil War's Battle Above the Clouds was waged, tourist business has thrived from the building of its first toll road (Whiteside Pike) in 1857 to present day.
1890-1899
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Duane Tate (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Lookout Mountain Incline RailwayEra_date_from: 1895
1991
This machine is an unusual triple-expansion, three-crank rocker engine, which in its day was a high-capacity unit providing outstanding performance for the Boston Water Works Corporation. Designed by Erasmus Darwin Leavitt, Jr. (1836-1916), Engine No. 3 was installed in 1894 to a high-service pumping facility on the south side of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Brighton.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service)Image Caption: Leavitt-Riedler Pumping EngineEra_date_from: 1894
1973
This is one of several, similar inclines built in western Pennsylvania during the late 19th century. It was designed by Samuel Diescher (1839-1915) after the great flood of 1889, to provide an efficient means of transportation between Westmont and the Conemaugh Valley. (See also the Monogahela and Duquesne Inclines in Pittsburgh.)
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Jeremy Tenenbaum (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Johnstown InclineEra_date_from: 1891
1994
Havemeyer Hall was built between 1896 and 1898 under the leadership of Charles Frederick Chandler. It provided research and teaching facilities for faculty and students specializing in industrial, inorganic, organic, physical, and biological chemistry. Pioneering research done here led to the discovery of deuterium, for which Harold Clayton Urey received the Nobel Prize in 1934. Six others who did research here subsequently received the Nobel Prize, including Irving Langmuir, the first industrial chemist to be so honored, in 1932.
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Image Credit: Public Domain; Produced prior to 1/1/1923Image Caption: Havemeyer HallEra_date_from: 1898
1998
This 350-horsepower Corliss type steam engine is an example of a typical late nineteenth century steam engine. The essential feature of Corliss type engines is the valves that admit steam to and exhaust it from the cylinder. The Corliss valve gear made the engine extremely efficient in steam consumption and was the most efficient system for controlling low to medium speed engines.
This particular engine operated for more than eighty years, having been retired not by age but over concern for stack emissions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The engine was built by the William A.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service)Image Caption: Harris-Corliss Steam EngineEra_date_from: 1895
1985
The historic Folsom Power House #1 marks one of the first successful uses of hydroelectric power in the world and the first successful transmission of power long distance (twenty-two miles to Sacramento). The old Folsom Power House still shelters the machinery generated to drive streetcars and illuminate the city of Sacramento.
The Decew Falls Hydro-Electric Development was a pioneering project in the generation and transmission of electrical energy at higher voltages and at greater distances in Canada. On 25 August 1898 this station transmitted power at 22,500 Volts, 66 2/3 Hz, two-phase, a distance of 56 km to Hamilton, Ontario. Using the higher voltage permitted efficient transmission over that distance. The Cataract Power Company of Hamilton Limited (the predecessor to the Dominion Power and Transmission Company) was organized in 1896.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/ontariopowergeneration (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Decew Falls Hydro-Electric PlantEra_date_from: 1898
2004
Although bottled carbonated beverages were popular by the 1880s, sealing the bottle was a constant problem. Most "stoppers" were of metal and intended for reuse. None sealed adequately, and contact with the cap often contaminated the drink.
In 1892 (Feb 2), William Painter (1838-1906) patented a cheap, single-use metallic cap, crimped over a lip formed on the bottle neck and lined with a thin cork wafer that both formed a leakproof seal and separated drink and metal.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/KMJ (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Crown Cork and Soda Filling MachineEra_date_from: 1892
1994
Early internal combustion engines produced only a few horsepower and were unable to replace steam engines in most applications until about 1890. By then, they were powerful enough for most portable or remote locations and many small manufactures. By 1900, they were replacing reciprocating steam engines for electric generation, and by 1915, they were being considered for all but the largest installations where steam turbines have dominated to date.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/sirbeagle (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Coolspring Power MuseumEra_date_from: 1890
2001
"This is the first Portland cement concrete street built in the United States ... Here started the better roads movement which has given our citizens from coast to coast swift and sure transportation."
- Historic marker, Bellefontaine, Ohio, celebrating the 50th anniversary of America's first concrete pavement, 1941
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Image Credit: Public Domain (Author's Choice)Image Caption: First Concrete PavementEra_date_from: 1893
1976
Innovations
