Skip to main content

1900-1909

Agricultural Engineering Building - University of Wisconsin
Society: ASABEMain Category: Agricultural & BiologicalSub Category: EducationEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1907University of Wisconsin Biological Systems EngineeringMadisonState: WIZip: 53706Country: USAWebsite: https://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/ae-building-uw-2.aspx

American Society of Agricultural Engineers Founded in this Building December 27, 1907

YearAdded:
1982
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/James Steakley (CC BY-SA 3.0)
silver dart airborn
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: VehiclesEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1909Alexander Graham Bell National Historic SiteBaddeckCountry: CanadaWebsite: https://www.aiaa.org/uploadedFiles/About-AIAA/Governance/GovernanceDocs/AnnualReports/AIAA_AnnualReport_2009-2010.pdfCreator: Bell, Alexander Graham

AIAA designated Baddeck, Nova Scotia as a historic site, providing a plaque to commemorate the centennial of the first powered flight in Canada. On February 23, 1909, piloting the “Silver Dart,” J.A. Douglas McCurdy took off from the frozen surface of Bras d’Or Lake at Baddeck Bay, and flew for close to one kilometer before landing safely on ice. The plane had been created by Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell’s Aerial Experiment Association, formed in 1907 to build and fly experimental aircraft.

Image Caption: The AEA Silver Dart, researched and built by the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) under Alexander Graham Bell's tutelage in 1908.
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: AviationEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1903Kitty HawkState: NCCountry: USAWebsite: https://www.aiaa.org/HistoricAerospaceSites/Creator: Wright, Wilbur, Wright, Orville

 On 19 August, the AIAA Historic Aerospace Sites Committee dedicated Kitty Hawk, NC, as a historic aerospace site, following a decades-long negotiation with the U.S Park Service. A historic marker was unveiled at a 0930 hrs ceremony as part of the First Flight Society’s National Aviation Day at Kitty Hawk. At this site on 17 December 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first sustained, controlled heavier-than-air flight of an aircraft, opening a new era of transportation throughout the world.

Image Caption: Soaring flight, by Orville Wright, Kitty Hawk, NC, Oct, 1911.(10469 A.S.)
Mulholland Drive is one of the best-known addresses in the Los Angeles area. It follows the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains, northwest of the city. Movie stars live there, and their homes command sweeping views of the San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles itself. Yet the drive’s namesake, William Mulholland, was neither a Hollywood mogul nor a wealthy landowner. He was the city’s water superintendent from 1886 to 1928.

New York City’s General Post Office unfurls its grand white facade along two full blocks between Thirty-first and Thirty-third Streets on Eighth Avenue. It’s open around the clock all year long (as midnight draws nigh on April 15, representatives of the Maalox and Excedrin concerns pass out free samples to harried taxpayers in the tall marble hall), so at any hour a passer-by may drop in and poke into the alcoves where displays of mail pouches and old photographs and engravings tell the history of the New York postal service.

500 CPS Synchronous Rotary Gap transmitter at Brant Rock, Ma. Ca: 1906.
Society: IEEEMain Category: ElectricEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1906Blackman's PointBrant RockState: MAZip: 02050Country: USAWebsite: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:First_Wireless_Radio_Broadcast_by_Reginald_A._Fessenden,_1906Creator: Reginald A. Fessenden

On 24 December 1906, the first radio broadcast for entertainment and music was transmitted from Brant Rock, Massachusetts to the general public. This pioneering broadcast was achieved after years of development work by Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (1866-1932) who built a complete system of wireless transmission and reception using amplitude modulation (AM) of continuous electromagnetic waves. This technology was a revolutionary departure from transmission of dots and dashes widespread at the time.

YearAdded:
2008
Image Credit: Courtesy Michael Thompson (CC BY-SA 2.5)Image Caption: 500 CPS Synchronous Rotary Gap transmitter at Brant Rock, Ma. Ca: 1906.Era_date_from: 1906
First Operational Use Of Wireless Telegraphy
Society: IEEEMain Category: ElectricEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1899-1902Telkom MuseumCapetownCountry: South AfricaWebsite: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:First_Operational_Use_Of_Wireless_Telegraphy,_1899-1902

The first use of wireless telegraphy in the field occurred during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). The British Army experimented with Marconi's system and the British Navy successfully used it for communication among naval vessels in Delagoa Bay, prompting further development of Marconi's wireless telegraph system for practical uses. The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 will be remembered as the last of the gentleman's wars, the war that marked the end of the Victorian era.

YearAdded:
1999
Image Credit: Courtesy Cardiff Council Flat Holm Project (CC BY 3.0)Image Caption: Post Office Engineers inspect Marconi's equipment on Flat Holm, May 1897Era_date_from: 1899
Society: IEEEMain Category: ElectricEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1901Museo de Torres QuevedoMadridCountry: SpainWebsite: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:Early_Developments_in_Remote-Control,_1901Creator: Torres-Quevedo, Leonardo
In 1902 and 1903 he requested some patents for the system. With the Telekine, Torres-Quevedo laid down modern wireless remote-control operation principles. Torres Quevedo also made some important contributions to aeronautics, a field in which he carried out important research on dirigible balloons.
YearAdded:
2007
Image Credit: Courtesy WikipediaImage Caption: Leonardo Torres QuevedoEra_date_from: 1901
Stevens Pass Railroad Tunnels & Switchback System
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: Rail TransportationEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1900Stevens PassState: WAZip: 98826Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/project/stevens-pass-railroad-tunnels/Creator: Stevens, John F.

In the years following the Civil War, the land west of the Mississippi River was being settled and the Pacific Northwest explored. There remained, however, a large portion of Montana, Idaho, and Washington that contained enormous quantities of timber and minerals, but was not accessible by rail. By far the most grueling stretch was the Stevens Pass area in the Cascade Mountains.

YearAdded:
1993
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/SeattleretroImage Caption: Railroad development in Stevens Pass made accessible a timber and mineral rich region of Montana, Idaho, and Washington.Era_date_from: 1900
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Tunnel
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: NuclearEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1908Hudson RiverNew York City to Hoboken State: NYCountry: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/project/hudson-and-manhattan-rr-tunnel/Creator: Haskin, DeWitt Clinton, McAdoo, William G.

A transportation tunnel under the Hudson River connecting Manhattan and New Jersey was first considered in the 1860s, fueled by New York City's rapidly growing congestion and the inadequacy of existing ferry service to population centers across the river. DeWitt Clinton Haskin, an engineer formerly with the Union Pacific Railroad, started the project in 1874 and subsequently endured an extended lawsuit, several failures of the tunnel wall, and an exhaustion of funds before quitting in 1887 with only 1,600 feet completed. 

YearAdded:
1978
Image Credit: Courtesy ascemetsection.orgImage Caption: The Hudson and Manhattan tunnel was the first large transportation tunnel constructed under a major river in the United States..Era_date_from: 1908
Subscribe to 1900-1909

Innovations

Curtis 500-kW Vertical Turbine

This, the first Curtis vertical turbine built, was constructed by the General Electric Co. for the Newport & Fall River Street Railway Co. It operated in the Newport, R.I., generating station until June 1927. It was transferred to the Harding Street Station of the Indianapolis Power &…

Read More
Leo Baekeland and Bakelite

Around 1907, Belgian-born chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland took two ordinary chemicals, phenol and formaldehyde, mixed them in a sealed autoclave, and subjected them to heat and pressure.

The sticky, amber-colored resin he produced in his Yonkers laboratory was the first plastic ever to be…

Read More
AC Electrification New York, New Haven & Hartford

This was a pioneering venture in mainline railroad electrification and was a proving ground for railroad electrification technology. It established single-phase alternating current as a technical and economical alternative to direct current. This concept exerted considerable influence over…

Read More
Michigan-Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric Plant

This low-head operating plant is representative of nineteenth-century hydropower-plant practice using many small turbines in contrast to twentieth-century use of few large turbines and generators. Its 40,000 horsepower capacity made it the largest in the country using turbines of American design…

Read More
Owens AR Bottle Machine

Only since 1912 have glass jars and bottles been in cheap and plentiful supply for pharmaceuticals, household products, food and beverages, and an endless variety of uses. The bottle-making machine introduced the safety, standardization, quality, and convenience of glass containers. Not only did…

Read More
North Island Main Trunk Railway

The North Island Main Trunk Railway permitted overland travel and development of the New Zealand hinterland. Built under challenging conditions and over difficult terrain, all cuts, fills, and tunneling were minimized by careful use of the topography and by innovative engineering. 

Over…

Read More
The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code continues to impact modern day boilers and other types of pressure vessels.

Published in 1914-15, the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) was the first comprehensive standard for the design, construction, inspection, and testing of boilers and pressure vessels. With adoption in the United States and use in many countries, it has contributed significantly to…

Read More
Bergen County Steam Collection

This collection of equipment—all of it maintained in operating condition and used for educational purposes—was established in 1987. It spans the period from the late 19th century to the 1940s, when steam was the prime motive force for most U.S. industries, including rail and marine…

Read More
Pullman Sleeping Car Glengyle

The Glengyle is the earliest known survivor of the fleet of heavyweight, all-steel sleepers built by Pullman Company. The design was introduced in 1907 as a marked improvement over the wooden version then in use. Some 10,000 were built, in various configurations, the last in 1931. The Glengyle…

Read More
The idea of constructing a rotating boom for hydromechanical tests at the Alden Hydraulic Laboratory originated with Professor Charles Metcalf Allen, head of the lab from 1896 to 1950. The original boom was designed in 1908 by Professor Allen, assisted by two Worcester Polytechnic Institute… Read More
AC Electrification of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (DUPE: IEEE+ASME)

This was a pioneering venture in mainline railroad electrification. It established single-phase alternating current as a technical and economical alternative to direct current. This concept exerted considerable influence over subsequent systems both in the United States and abroad. The major…

Read More

Bremen Airport was founded in 1909. In 1924, German aviation pioneers Henrich Focke and Georg Wulf founded the Focke-Wulf company on the site. On June 26, 1936, Heinrich Focke’s Fw 61, the world’s first fully operational helicopter, made a successful maiden flight at the airport, piloted by…

Read More

During the post-Civil War era, efforts to cultivate the land for higher crop yields resulted in the digging of thousands of miles of ditches to improve land drainage. Accurately graded ditches were needed for open drainage, pipeline trenches and placement of underground agricultural drainage…

Read More
Buffalo Bill Dam

The Buffalo Bill Dam, known as the Shoshone Dam until 1946, was the first mass concrete dam in America. At nearly 325 feet high, it was also the tallest dam in the world at the time of completion.

This was one of the first arch dams in the U.S. to be designed using a mathematical method…

Read More
Cape Cod Canal

The idea of a canal eliminating the costly and dangerous sea trip around the Massachusetts peninsula of Cape Cod was envisioned as early as 1623 by Pilgrim leader Miles Standish. It was not until financier August Belmont became involved in 1906, however, that sufficient funds for the project…

Read More
Cedar Falls Water Supply

Requests for public power in Seattle began in the late 1890s and lead to the voter approval for building the Cedar Falls Water Supply hydroelectric dam plant in 1902. The first municipally developed and owned hydroelectric plant in the United States began operation in October 1904. The facility…

Read More
Chain of Rocks Water Purification Plant

Clarifying the turbid waters of the Mississippi River for use as drinking water was a formidable challenge. The Chain of Rocks Water Purification Plant provided the first application of a system of flocculation, sedimentation, and rapid sand filtration for water purification.

The system…

Read More
Cheesman Dam

The Cheesman Dam was the first major dam in the U.S. to incorporate the gravity arch, and upon completion it was the highest gravity arch stone masonry dam in the world. It is the key structure in Denver's water supply.

Three years into original construction, flooding swept away the…

Read More
Fossil Creek meanders ten miles to the Verde River, dropping some 1,600 feet during its course and, at the turn of the century, enticed miners in the copper-rich Irving area to use a new technology -- hydroelectric power. A seven-mile series of flumes brings the water from a dam below Fossil Spring… Read More
Cortland Street Drawbridge

In 1899, engineers from the City of Chicago's Division of Bridges and Viaducts performed a survey of moveable bridge design in the U.S. and Europe. Their study led to the conclusion that the unusual trunnion bascule design would best meet their needs.

The Cortland Street Drawbridge…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.