The Getty Museum cleverly uses our new media toy, the World Wide Web, to showcase this exhibition of media devices from the past and present. Included are inventions that present visual information or optical illusions, such as Indonesian shadow puppets, magic lantern slides, pop-up books, thaumatropes, and anamorphic images. Both animated and non-animated versions are available, and there are...

The catch phrase of Invent Now, a non-profit organization sponsored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is: "fostering the inventive spirit in all of us." The website posts the Inventors Hall of Fame, featuring men and women responsible for the great technological advances that make human, social and economic progress possible." The annual selection includes inventors nominated by...

How does one build a better mousetrap? It's a recurring question that one might ask of many important objects and inventions. The folks at the Smithsonian American Art Museum are also quite curious about this subject, and they have created this online exhibition to look at a range of inventions patented in the nineteenth century. The remarkable models all come from the collection of Alan...

Jerome "Jerry" Lemelson was, to put it simply, a born inventor. As a young boy growing up on Staten Island, he invented a lighted tongue depressor for his father, a physician. He continued his inventing ways for over forty years, as he averaged one patent a month during that time period. Before he passed away in 1997, he made a generous gift that helped create The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson...