Today in History – “ November 18, 1963 – “Bell Telephone introduces push button telephone, eventually to replace the rotary dial telephone that had dominated the market since its invention in 1891 when Almon Strowger patented the twin inventions of the automatic telephone exchange and the pulse-driven telephone in the home. Although early prototypes had [...]

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Today in History – November 3, 1900 – first U.S. automobile show opens at Madison Square Garden, NYC. Columbia completed 1500 electric- and gasoline-powered vehicles in Hartford, Connecticut during the year and Locomobile of Bridgeport built 750 steamers, representing the top two most successful automobile companies at the time in terms of number of sales. [...]

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Today in History – October 7, 1952 – the barcode was patented: US Patent 2,612,99. The first barcode using the universal product code (UPC) was  scanned many years later on June 26, 1974 by a cashier at a supermarket checkout counter. A shopper named Clyde Dawson handed a cashier at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, [...]

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In honor of  National Manufacturing Week, the Engineering Pathway highlights Manufacturing Engineering Education in September. Check out our Manufacturing Engineering Education Disciplinary Community and related manufacturing engineering educational resources, such as NIST’s Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL) or the Manufacturing Video Library. Find out How Everyday Things are Made with courseware hosted by Stanford’s Alliance for [...]

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Today in History – June 26, 1974 – First barcode using the universal product code (UPC) was scanned by a cashier at a supermarket checkout counter. A shopper named Clyde Dawson handed a cashier at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio named Sharon Buchanan a 10-pack of chewing gum. The gum’s black and white barcode [...]

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