Today in History – November 27, 1895 – The first gasoline-powered automobile race in the United States. The Duryea brothers – Charles and Frank – created their first gasoline-powered “horseless-carriage” in 1893. The Duryeas were bicycle mechanics who built their first car in a workshop located in a building in downtown Springfield, MA. in September [...]

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Today in History – November 22, 1927 – Carl Eliason patented the first snowmobile. Eliason built the prototype snowmobile in a small garage behind his general store over a two year period during his spare time. He purchased the bicycle parts required for the drive train and track assembly from Milwaukee. The small 1924 snowmobile [...]

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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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