O Say Can You See?

Electric cars: 100 years ago and today

“At slow speeds it runs on battery power,” transportation curator emeritus William Withuhn explained during my first ride in his 2003 Toyota Prius hybrid car. This was historic; not since the 1910s, when battery-powered cars were common, could mass-market vehicles cruise the streets silently and emission-free. Then, between 2006 and 2011, several manufacturers introduced new all-electric battery cars, betting that motorists would rather plug in at home than plug more and more money into gasoline pumps. Recently I visited a Tesla showroom, spoke with a Nissan LEAF salesman, and even looked at a solar charging station in a suburban shopping center.

The wave of the future? This sleek 1997 EV1 was an experimental electric car made by General Motors that was leased on a limited basis but never reached the market and was quickly discontinued. Broader development and sales of electric cars began a decade later amid rising gasoline prices and growing concerns about air pollution and global warming. Photo by Hugh Talman.

Will consumers accept cars with rechargeable lithium ion batteries as readily as they switched to digital cameras, cell phones, and iPods? Many people think that electric cars are better than gasoline models, not only because of lower operating costs, but because of quicker acceleration and cleaner air. But with so many virtues, why did electric cars disappear in the first place?

Studying the museum’s electric car collection helped me find the answers. In the early 20th century, motorists had a choice of electric, steam, or gasoline cars, and it wasn’t clear that any one type would dominate the market. Electricity was beginning to power home appliances, lights, and streetcars, so it seemed natural to put electric motors and batteries in carriages. Electric vehicles like the museum’s elegant 1900 Riker, utilitarian 1904 Columbia runabout, and well-upholstered 1914 Rauch and Lang were simple to operate, and they were clean, quiet, and comfortable.

This 1914 Rauch and Lang electric was the personal car of Marie D. Gorgas, wife of William C. Gorgas, Surgeon General of the Army. She donated it to NMAH in 1929. Photo by Veronica Conkling.

But cars were expensive, and so was electricity. A sizable market for electric cars developed among wealthy urban women, but price and technical challenges limited the market. An electric car didn’t run very far between charges, and its lead-acid batteries required frequent maintenance. Electricity for recharging batteries wasn’t even available in most of rural America until the 1930s, and Americans had an urge to travel long before then.

An easy-to-operate, electrically powered “parlor on wheels” provided expanded personal mobility for wealthy urban women in the 1900s and 1910s.

Most car buyers in the 1910s and 1920s chose gasoline cars, which were far from perfect but had much longer range between fill-ups. In most people’s minds, gasoline—not the car battery—was bottled lightning. Filling stations could be located anywhere, and before long, gasoline cars symbolized portable energy and expanded personal mobility.

The museum’s 1913 Ford Model T touring car is significant because of what’s not beneath the radiator. The first owner replaced the engine crank with an electric starter, combining the ease of an electric car with the range of a gasoline car. Photo by Harold Dorwin.

In 1912, several makers of gasoline cars dealt a fatal blow to the electric car by taking two of its best features-switch-on starting and electric lighting–and adding them to their own vehicles. The museum’s 1913 Ford Model T touring car still came with a starting crank and acetylene gas headlights, but the first owner replaced them with a state-of-the-art electric starter and electric headlights. By the late 1920s, those features were standard on new cars, and electric cars were all but extinct.

“Electrifying Cars,” an exhibit that opened at the musuem on October 27, 2011, looks at the market for electric cars 100 years ago and today and efforts to combine the advantages of electric and gasoline cars. Left, a 1904 Columbia electric car. Right, a 1913 Ford Model T touring car with an owner-installed electric starter and electric headlights. Photo by Harold Dorwin.

Fast forward to the 1990s, when California required that a percentage of new cars must emit no pollutants. The museum’s 1997 General Motors EV1 electric car is one of several makes and models developed to meet that mandate. Unlike other electric car prototypes, the EV1 was designed and built from scratch. It boasted sophisticated power control systems, lightweight materials, and an aerodynamic shape. But the company decided that the EV1 wouldn’t be commercially viable because of high production costs, and GM and all other manufacturers pulled the plug on electric cars.

Fast forward again to the early 21st century and headlines about escalating gasoline prices, surging global demand for gasoline, strained oil supplies, and global warming. GM introduced the Chevrolet Volt, a new type of electric car that runs on battery power with a gasoline-generator backup, while Nissan, Mitsubishi, Tesla, and Fisker introduced all-electric cars. With sales of electric cars close to 15,000 in 2011, a growing number of Americans are in the mood to turn on, plug in, and drop out of the oil distribution chain.

Roger White is Associate Curator for Road Transportation with the Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Moving Beyond Earth: Innovations in Space

Editor's note: Listen to Matthew Hersch discuss the history behind the development of the space suit. From early high altitude suits, to women’s foundation garments and depictions in popular culture, Hersch covers the amazing story behind one of space exploration’s most important inventions.

This weekend, November 18 and 19, the National Air and Space Museum hosts the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation’s 2011 New Perspectives on Invention and Innovation symposium. This year, it promises to be a stimulating and exciting time as we ponder Moving Beyond Earth: Innovations in Space.

1981, The Space Shuttle program begins with the launch of Columbia, STS-1. Courtesy of NASA.

The task of this gathering is to consider the nature of invention and innovation in space. We, in general, have the belief that the technologies used to engage in spaceflight are by definition innovative. This may be true at some level, but the relationships between technological innovation; various space institutions; innovative concepts, practices, or organizations; and the people associated with each are intrinsically complex. Essentially nonlinear, these relationships allow innovation to take place, no doubt, but there does not seem to be a way to guarantee it. Those who seek to command innovation find that changes in inputs to various aspects of the systems, themselves designed to yield innovative alterations, do not necessarily ensure proportionate positive developments in output. It is non-linearity writ large.

1998, International Space Station begins operations. Photo courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum.

I find such discussions invigorating, and the symposium promises to bring together a range of thinkers about the subject to explore various aspect of space-technology innovation. Engineers such as Larry Williams of SpaceX, Haym Benaroya from Rutgers University, and Pablo de León from the University of North Dakota will offer discussions of some of the vexing questions we have about reaching into space and living and working there once we go there to stay. Historians such as Michael Neufeld of the National Air and Space Museum, Amy Foster of the University of Central Florida, and Matthew Hersch of the University of Pennsylvania unravel the complexity of past space efforts to help illuminate the present. And such policy leaders as scientist and astronaut Tom Jones and American University professor Howard McCurdy chart the course of future endeavors to reach beyond this planet to the larger cosmos.

1926, Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket. Photo courtesy of NASA.

These are just a few of the highlights of the symposium; it promises to be a rousing time, with keen observations and provocative perspectives on the past, present, and future of humanity of space. A full list of symposium sessions and times is available on the Lemelson Center’s website. Come one, come all!

Roger D. Launius is senior curator in the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

At the Heart of the Invention: The development of the Holter Monitor

You probably know someone with a heart condition, someone who had a heart attack or even heart surgery. I know I do. According to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States and the most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD), which can lead to a heart attack. Sobering data.

There are ways to prevent heart disease such as embracing a healthy lifestyle and there are diagnostic tools to monitor our hearts too, thanks to the work of two creative and persistent men, Norman “Jeff” Holter (1914-1983) and Bruce Del Mar (b. 1913-).

Norman "Jeff" Holter

Their collaboration, which spanned two decades, produced a commercially viable heart monitor known as the Holter Monitor Test. The Holter Monitor is a portable device for continuously monitoring heart activity for an extended period of time, typically 24 hours. The monitor records electrical signals from the heart that are sent via a series of electrodes attached to the chest. The data is then analyzed for different sorts of heart beats and rhythms.

Model 445 Mini-Holter Recorder, illustration from a brochure, 1976

Norman “Jeff” Holter, a native of Helena, Montana, was a biophysicist and inventor whose interests were not confined solely to physics. Holter’s interest in studying electrical activity in humans during their daily activities without touching them spawned his lifelong pursuit to develop the Holter Monitor. Holter’s goal was to radio broadcast and record the more obvious electrophysiological phenomena occurring in humans while carrying on their normal activities, rather than having them be inactive.

Patient attached to heart monitoring equipment: slide of a cartoon, undated

Holter’s first broadcast of a radioelectrocardiogram (RECG) took place circa 1947 and required 80 to 85 pounds of equipment, which Holter wore on his back while riding a stationary bicycle. Holter noted in 1982 that “The 85 lb. RECG, while not practical, represented a major breakthrough since before that time a patient had to lie quietly. Our greatest contribution was a radical one and was the beginning of an era where one could take ECG’s on skiers, parachute jumpers, runners, and just about any other type of vigorous physical activity.”

Advertisement for Del Mar Engineering Laboratories, 1965

Holter’s other contribution was to bring the overall size down to less than cigarette package size to be worn inside a man’s jacket handkerchief pocket. With the development of transistors, radioelectrocardiography was made obsolete and it became possible for all of the components to be placed in a single unit small enough for a coat pocket or purse. Holter was issued US Patent 3,215,136 on November 2, 1965, for the Electrocardiographic Means, and The Holter Research Foundation ultimately sold exclusive rights to the patent to Del Mar Engineering Laboratories, who became the acknowledged leader in Holter monitoring technology for over 40 years.

As articles describing the foundation’s invention of these devices began to appear in the professional literature, there was considerable demand from doctors and hospitals for the equipment. Holter was seeking a partner to manufacture his monitor, and finally met a suitable candidate in Bruce Del Mar in 1962.

Bruce Del Mar’s role as an innovator and collaborator with Holter is especially important because his work spurred the development of an entire diagnostic industry. The Del Mar Avionics Holter Monitor Records, 1951-2011, held at the Archives Center, document through correspondence, engineering notebooks, operator’s manuals more than just the invention of a heart monitor. The records reflect the successful collaboration of an independent inventor and a manufacturing firm to problem-solve, develop a solution, and bring to market a diagnostic technology.

Bruce Del Mar

Del Mar wrote in February of 1965, ”We have continually improved circuitry and mechanical details to obtain greater service fidelity, accuracy, response, and reliability. The instruments we are now delivering are performing very well in the field. We should, however, be thinking and actively working ahead on new model improvements for 1966. Can I have your suggestions in this respect? That would be very much appreciated.” The correspondence reveals a deep level of commitment and investment from both parties to work out technical details, successfully market the monitor, and in general keep the project moving forward.

The successful collaboration between the two men would prove to be invaluable for countless numbers of people. To learn more about the Holter Monitor story, see the collection finding aid at the Archives Center’s web site.

Alison Oswald is an archivist with the Lemelson Center and Archives Center at the National Museum of American History. This post originally appeared on the Smithsonian Collections blog. 

Moving beyond Earth . . . and traveling light

On November 18-19, Moving Beyond Earth: Innovations in Space, the Lemelson Center’s symposium, held this year in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, will celebrate fifty years of human spaceflight. One thing we will certainly be hearing about is just how hard it is to lift these bulky manned vehicles off the planet and keep them up there. In the face of such limitations, you have to ask, will humans—as opposed to robot devices—ever make it beyond Earth and the Moon in any meaningful way? How realistic is the possibility of visiting the solar system and beyond firsthand, perhaps even positioning ourselves to colonize other planets?

Hubble Space Telescope photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 3021. This was one of several hosts of recent Type Ia supernovae observed by astronomers to refine the measure of the universe’s expansion rate, called the Hubble constant. Courtesy NASA, ESA, and A. Riess (STScI)

The cancellation of the Space Shuttle Program without a clear plan for what will follow it does not inspire confidence. Having once bounded to the Moon, humans seem to have fallen back to Earth and reverted into stodgy stay-at-homes. In the offing are some promising private initiatives, which our symposium will address. And yet, even were we to gather the courage and political will to venture forth again, can we ever hope to conquer the unimaginably vast times and distances involved? Despite intriguing speculation about wormholes and other futuristic "back doors" through the space-time continuum, current and foreseeable human space exploration must operate in an old-fashioned, mechanistic, Newtonian frame. While technology so often dazzles these days, when it comes to putting flesh-and-blood humans into space for the long term, it can still feel frustratingly sluggish, even clunky.

Saul Perlmutter, pictured with a view of the supernova 1987A in the background. Photo © University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

There are other ways to explore deep space, however. NASA’s unmanned missions into the solar system and beyond have been absolutely spectacular. Who can forget the exploits of the unstoppable Mars Rover—the next best thing to being there? The controversy is ongoing and spirited about whether crewed or unmanned missions are better. But on the grandest scale of cosmic understanding, I was particularly excited by the announcement earlier this month about the research that won the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics. Here was another, even “lighter” way to travel, with technology in the form of improved instrumentation conjuring some of its old magic.

Using ultra-sophisticated space and ground-based telescopes as well as more powerful computers and digital sensors, Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess, members of two competing research teams, shared the Prize for discovering the “accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae.”

Adam Riess. Photo by W. Kirk, Johns Hopkins University, and STScI.  

Journeying on light waves as far back into space and time as human beings ever have, both teams ended up with the same result: they found that light from particular types of exploding stars (type Ia supernovae, to be exact) was much weaker than expected. To astrophysicists, these incredibly precise, unexpected measurements had a stunning implication: the expansion of the universe, dating from the Big Bang, is speeding up at an ever-increasing rate, rather than slowing down as prevailing models had us believe. If this keeps up, states the Nobel awards committee, citing poet Robert Frost, the universe is destined to end “in ice,” with things flying endlessly and hopelessly apart.

Why this is occurring remains a deep mystery; dark energy, that unknown force that seems to make up most of the universe, is an oft-cited culprit. Whatever the cause, the discovery has completely upended cosmology. In fact, taken by surprise, the prizewinning researchers at first couldn’t believe their eyes. As Perlmutter, who won half the Prize, recalled: “[My] team made the discovery in steps, analyzing the data and assuming it was wrong. And after months, you finally believe it…. It’s not quite a surprise anymore. I tell people it’s the longest ‘ah-ha’ experience that you’ve ever had.” (To hear more about the implications of the discovery and the firsthand testimony of the prizewinners, see this Guardian blog.)

Brian  Schmidt.Photo by Tim Wetherell, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

So even as we fixate on space shuttles, space stations, and other human space missions, it is inspiring to see how breakthroughs in scientific instrumentation are fomenting a quiet revolution on another, grander frontier. While I suppose it’s not the best news that our universe is disintegrating into cold nothingness, this year’s Nobel physics prizewinners show how amazingly nimble we can be if we just offload the weight that binds us to Earth. Astrophysicists and cosmologists are indebted, of course, to the spacewalkers who maintained and made crucial repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Through the Hubble, and decades of other space probes, as well as ground-based telescopes, earthbound discoverers have been able to traverse eons of time and parsecs of space (equivalent to about 19 trillion miles) to the very edges of the visible universe, and to make a shocking discovery there. Travel by light and sight, not by the body, is proving to be the ticket for a quick lift into deep space.

Art Molella is Director of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History. This column originally appeared in the October 2011 issue of Prototype, the Lemelson Center’s newsletter.

Remembering Steve Jobs

Yesterday, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, passed away at age 56 after a seven year battle with pancreatic cancer. This collection of thoughts from the staff of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation reflects on Jobs as we knew him best—an innovator who captured our imaginations and changed the world we live in.

Bringing Out the Joy in Invention

Generation4 iPod, 2004.

Last night I was sitting in a taxi when I heard about the tragic early death of Steve Jobs. I will likely never forget when and where I got the news. In one’s lifetime, there are precious few public figures whose death announcements instantly and indelibly imprint our psyches, personally and collectively. In the modern era, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Princess Diana fall into that category. Much as we feel with family members, we took their deaths personally. So, what was it about Jobs? He was a technological and marketing genius, for sure, but, prodigious as they were, these talents alone do not account for the visceral popular reaction to his death.

Rather, I suspect it was because he represented hope. For people around the world, he put a human face on technology, at a time when it can seem indifferent or even threatening. For Americans in particular, Jobs reignited a national romance with invention—he gave us devices we could love—while reviving hope in the nation’s technological and economic future. With his incredible design sense, he linked technology with creativity in its broadest human dimensions. He brought out the joy in invention. And this was true for people of all ages and whatever technical aptitude. True, we became addicted to his products—those signature white ear-buds became the universal sign of our dependency—but, if there can be such a thing, it was a benign addiction.

Only 56 at his death, Jobs was on a roll and Apple was entering the stratosphere. Who knows what kinds of inventions were to emerge from his passionate and fertile mind? That’s what I will really miss. Ironically, while Jobs came to personally symbolize the iPhone and iPad, he was deeply embedded in the corporate enterprise. In this way, he resembled Edison, the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” who is also credited with the invention of the industrial research lab. What Jobs, like Edison, managed to do was to endow technology and a company with his personal magic. That’s why my taxi ride will be one to remember.

Art Molella is the Director of the Lemelson Center.

A Hall-of-Fame Showman

Steve Jobs demonstrating the MacBook Air (2008) From user Aido2002 at WikiCommons.

With the passing of Apple’s Steve Jobs, we’ve lost a brilliant and prolific innovator. But beyond his genius for developing cool technologies, Jobs was also a hall-of-fame showman, with an uncanny knack for generating publicity and “buzz” about Apple’s latest innovations. As the master of the new product demonstration, Jobs followed the blueprint of an earlier inventor-showman, Thomas Edison.

In December 1877, Edison and his associates famously walked into the New York offices of Scientific American, then and now a key journal for scientists and inventors. Without saying a word, Edison turned the crank on a strange contraption, which suddenly spoke in Edison’s tinny, pre-recorded voice: “Good morning! What do you think of the phonograph?”

Like Edison, Jobs’s product demonstrations were highly choreographed and somewhat gimmicky, but they always captured the imagination. In fact, during his first important demo, Jobs borrowed directly from Edison’s playbook. In 1984, Jobs unveiled the revolutionary Apple Macintosh personal computer, and like Edison’s phonograph, the Mac spoke for itself (and tweaked the competition): “Hello, I’m Macintosh…I’d like to share with you a maxim that I thought of the first time I met an IBM mainframe:NEVER TRUST A COMPUTER YOU CAN’T LIFT!” In 2005, Jobs stood on stage at the MacWorld convention and drew the audience’s attention to the little change pocket in his trademark dark blue jeans. He then pulled out the world’s smallest mp3 player, the new iPod Nano, from that tiny pocket. Later, in 2008, Jobs emphasized the thinness of the MacBook Air laptop by pulling it from a standard manila envelope.

Jobs, like Edison, knew that it wasn’t good enough to have a technically superior product—great innovators also had to sell that product by creating a sense of wonder among consumers. Over the last three decades, no one was better at this than Steve Jobs.

Eric Hintz is a historian with the Lemelson Center.

Apple Macintosh (serial # 1) computer, from 1985.

“Hello, I’m a Mac”

When I heard the news about Steve Jobs, I felt as if I had lost a friend, though I had never met the man. Apple has been part of my life for nearly 25 years and I’ve developed a fierce loyalty to the vision of the “two Steves,” Jobs and Wozniak, and to the promise of the legendary 1984 commercial that introduced the Macintosh.

So for me, Steve Jobs’s legacy comprises three critical elements. First, the machines were designed from the outset for people who wanted a tool that they could use without a degree in computer engineering. Eliminating the command line syntax (c:/) and adopting the graphical user interface (GUI) freed users to be creative, letting ideas, not code, dominate. Second, the technology works. As an inventor and innovator, and as many have mentioned, a micromanager, Steve Jobs made sure that Apple products were rock solid (my SE/30 from 1990 still runs). And finally, Steve Jobs knew good design. The elegant, minimalist, and ergonomic look-and-feel of Apple products was often what first attracted new users.

The world will remember Steve Jobs as Apple’s charismatic leader, innovator, showman, savvy businessman, and risk taker. And I’ll continue to think of him as an inspiring friend who I never met.

Joyce Bedi is the Lemelson Center’s Senior Historian.

The “Apple garage.” From user Kyro at Wikicommons.

An Iconic Place of Invention

Few places are as iconic in the lore of modern invention as the “Apple garage.” This humble attachment to Steve Jobs’ parents’ ranch-style home in Los Altos, California, is where he famously teamed up with Steve Wozniak to develop and sell the Apple personal computer. They formed the Apple Computer company here on April Fools’ Day (clearly they had a sense of humor) in 1976.

I believe the enduring fame of this place of invention—a pilgrimage site for computer history buffs—is based on its ordinariness. A lab or factory may seem alien, but most of us know the look, smell, and feel of a garage. To think that our individual personal computers have their roots in such a simple suburban location is somehow endearing. No matter how rich and famous Jobs became, he seemed accessible in part because of the garage story and how it has inspired generations of budding innovators.

Monica Smith is the Lemelson Center’s Exhibition Project Manager.

A “Rock Star” Inventor

Apple II computer, introduced 1977, this example is from 1980.

A critical part of the Lemelson Center’s mission is to empower and energize young people to think creatively and be innovative. This is a difficult and daunting task. We need inventors with “rock star” cachet who capture the imagination of young people. Or, as Jerry Lemelson, the Center’s founder, asked: Why shouldn’t kids view inventors and innovators in the same light as celebrities, athletes, and other famous people? Mr. Lemelson was hopeful that appreciation and respect for the work of those who improved society through invention and innovation would inspire others to do the same.

I wasn’t particularly shocked by the news of Steve Jobs’ passing, but was unexpectedly stricken with a sense of loss. Images and thoughts quickly passed through my mind—Silicon Valley, Apple computers, the Macintosh, Pixar Studios, iPods, iTunes, iPhones, and iPads and how much Jobs had contributed to the modern world in which we live. Selfish as it was, I was saddened that his passing at an early age would deprive the world of many more innovations and creations that were yet to come.

Renowned for his smooth and beguiling presentations, product launches that resembled mass celebrations, and dressed in stylish black ensembles, Jobs must be regarded as an innovation “rock star.” As Patricia Sullivan observed in today’s Washington Post, “Mr. Jobs was the first crossover technology star, turning Silicon Valley renown into Main Street recognition and paving the way for the rise of the nerds . . .”

Confirmation of Jobs’ status as a pop icon was provided this morning by my daughter—a fair arbiter of what is “cool and hip” in the world of 13 year-old middle school youth. She approached me and asked if I knew that Steve Jobs had died. Surprised by the question, I told her that I heard the previous night. She said “Oh, that’s really sad. He made a lot of great things. He was cool.” My daughter may not have a firm grasp of who grows the food she eats, or who makes the clothes she wears, but she is acutely aware of who created the technology devices she uses and holds him in high regard.

The White House released a statement from President Obama this morning that said, in part: “Steve was among the greatest American innovators—brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.” In his unique way, Jobs also made it “cool” for new generations to aspire to do the same.

Jeffrey Brodie is the Deputy Director of the Lemelson Center.