Big machines that changed the world in big ways

Dec18,2023

On October 29, 2019, Leonard Kleinrock and his team used this Interface Message Processor to send the first message to another computer using ARPANET.

Interface Message Processor, 1969

The successor to other Martian rovers like Spirit and Opportunity (RIP), Curiosity is the most advanced machine in human history to ever land on the surface of another planet

Curiosity Rover, 2012

In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a mechanically marvelous machine that unfortunately had the unintended side-effect of sustaining the economy of slavery in the Antebellum south as it made cotton a more valuable crop.

Cotton Gin, 1793

While Galileo isn't credited as the inventor of the refracting telescope, the famous Italian scientist is one of the first to build and explore the night sky with one

Galileo's refracting telescope, 1609

The first Model Ts were completed on September 27, 1908. And while Henry Ford's creation wasn’t the first automobile, the Model T revolutionized Americans’ relationship to cars.

Model T, 1908

The space race didn’t begin with 1957’s launch of Sputnik or Alan Shepard's 1961 orbit, but with the Nazis' V-2 rocket in 1942. 

V-2 rocket, 1942