“Imagine a vehicle that can drive you five miles for a penny. A vehicle that needs no petrol – just a battery. And that takes…
Browsing: Technology
Launched on5 March 1981, Sir Clive Sinclair’s second home computer (following the ZX80) was a massive success, selling hundreds of thousands across the UK. Available…
America’s first crewed space station – constructed from a modified, uncrewed Saturn V rocket upper stage (S-IVB) – was launched into low Earth orbit by…
The Sound Burger (marketed in the USA as the Mister Disc) was a portable record player that was launched in 1983 by Audio-Technica as their…
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the USA and the Soviet Union raced each other to be first into space. The Soviet Union won. On 4…
Plans for the Space Shuttle were created in 1972 as a way to keep the cost of spaceflight down. The first space shuttle orbiter Enterprise flew in…
On 15 November 1965, Californian Craig Breedlove earned the title of “The Fastest Man on Earth” when he set a land speed record of 600.601…
The world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, catching the Western world by surprise…
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was an attempt by the USA to develop a defence system against incoming nuclear missiles, based in part outside the…
“The Talkboy” was originally a cassette recorder and non-working prop designed and built for the 1992 blockbuster Christmas film Home Alone 2: Lost in New…
Already hugely popular in Japan, Bandai’s Tamagotchis – or “virtual pets” – were all the rage in the US in 1997. Attached to a keychain,…
Telstar, the first television satellite, was launched on 10 July 1962. It was capable of accepting radio transmissions covering 600 telephone and telegraph channels or…
The world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, weighing five pounds twelve ounces, was delivered by a Caesarean operation at Oldham District General Hospital, Greater Manchester,…
Thalidomide was a pharmaceutical ingredient used in medicines in the early 1960s as a sedative, and prescribed mainly to expectant mothers in the early stages…
When the transistor replaced the bulky and unreliable vacuum tube in amplification units, transistors did the job better and were much smaller, making it possible…
Since television licenses first appeared in the UK, the TV Detector Man has been a ghoulish spectre who can allegedly track down telly-watchers by means…
Ampex began manufacturing videotape recorders in the 1950s which used 2″ (5.1 cm) wide tape. The prohibitive price of the units meant only television networks…
Encouraged by the success of Atari, other companies tried dipping their joysticks into the home video game market in 1976. Coleco introduced Telstar Pong, while the…
The technology behind the Sony Walkman – a portable personal device for listening to cassettes – might never have developed without Sony Chairman Akio Morita. Seeking…
In addition to debating whether 2000 or 2001 would mark the “real” beginning of the new millennium, the Western World pondered the effect the Y2K…