The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1402: Franklin and De Chaumont
Episode: 1402 Ben Franklin and Le Ray de Chaumont's house in Paris. Today, Ben Franklin, revolution, and a house in Paris.
Jul 06, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1402
Engines of Our Ingenuity
The story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let’s explore technology’s spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories.
This content is in service of Houston Public Media’s education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team.
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Episodes
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1401: Roosevelt, Remington, and the West
Episode: 1401 Theodore Roosevelt and Frederic Remington defining the West. Today, Roosevelt and Remington go West.
Jul 05, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1401
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1400: Inured to Change
Episode: 1400 Trying to catch the flavor of the past. Today, a look back.
Jul 04, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1400
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2483: Metro
Episode: 2483 Public Transportation and Technology: The Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority. Today, we leave the car at home.
Jul 03, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2483
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3235: Verna Fields, “Mother Cutter”
Episode: 3235 Gender, labor history, and the devaluation of film editing. Today, the mother of all film editors.
Jul 02, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3235
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3317: Railcars
Episode: 3317 Specialized Railcars for Heavy Cargo. Today, how railroads move the unmovable.
Jul 01, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3317
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3316: Research
Episode: 3316 A look at what the word Research really means. Today, let’s think about research.
Jun 30, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3316
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1399: The Circus
Episode: 1399 The passing of the classical circus. Today, we go to a circus.
Jun 29, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1399
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1398: Back to the Beginning
Episode: 1398 Back to the Beginning: First we commit. Then we see. Today, a process within a process
Jun 28, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1398
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1397: John Fitch
Episode: 1397 John Fitch and America's first successful steamboat. Today, America's first steamboat.
Jun 27, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1397
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2480: Stephanie Kwolek and Kevlar
Episode: 2480 Stephanie Kwolek: Inventor of Kevlar. Today, not-so-shining armor.
Jun 26, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2480
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3065: Victor and Eva Saxl
Episode: 3065 Victor and Eva Saxl: Love, War and Homemade Insulin. Today, love, war and insulin.
Jun 25, 2025•3 min•Ep. 3065
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2448: Rachmaninoff Unblocked
Episode: 2448 Sergei Rachmaninoff visits a hypnotist to remove his writer's block. Today, a composer unblocked.
Jun 24, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2448
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3315: History Deep-Sixed
Episode: 3315 In which an engineering failure vanishes from the historical record. Today, a fragment of history quietly disappears.
Jun 23, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3315
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1396: An Engineer Named Calder
Episode: 1396 An engineer named Calder. Today, an engineer takes up sculpture.
Jun 22, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1396
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1395: Worst Airplanes
Episode: 1395 The World's Worst Aircraft: learning what constitutes bad. Today, the worst airplanes ever built!
Jun 21, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1395
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1393: Inventing the Telegraph
Episode: 1393 Early inventions of the electric telegraph. Today, we look at ninety years of electric telegraphy before Morse.
Jun 20, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1393
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2478: Metal Wood
Episode: 2478 Metal Wood: the Evolution of Wooden Golf Clubs. Today, metal wood.
Jun 19, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2478
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2798: Behold the Mighty Transistor
Episode: 2798 Behold the Mighty Transistor. Today, a small item creates a large impact.
Jun 18, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2798
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2597: History and Math
Episode: 2597 Mathematical models of historical events. Today, let's see what mathematics tells us about history.
Jun 17, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2597
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1392: Fog in the Woods
Episode: 1392 The nature of fog and of redwood trees. Today, fog in the forest.
Jun 16, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1392
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1391: The Johnstown Flood
Episode: 1391 The Johnstown Flood. They didn't see it coming. Today, a dam breaks.
Jun 15, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1391
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3133: The Liar That Helped Win D-Day
Episode: 3133 Juan Pujol García: the Liar Who Helped Win D-Day. Today, a great big liar saves the day.
Jun 13, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3133
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2475: Friedrich Fröbel and Kindergarten
Episode: 2475 Friedrich Fröbel and Kindergarten. Today, we play.
Jun 12, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2475
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2934: Molecules of Life
Episode: 2934 Reading the Molecules of Life. Today, we read the molecules of life.
Jun 11, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2934
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2499: Texas Germans
Episode: 2499 Frederick Law Olmsted and the Texas Germans. Today, Texas auf Deutsch .
Jun 10, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2499
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1389: Regrowing Our Forests
Episode: 1389 The supply of wood: trouble along the Equator, good news to the North. Today, some good news and some bad.
Jun 09, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1389
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1388: A Short Discourse of Tunneling
Episode: 1388 A short history of tunneling. Today, let's tunnel our way through history.
Jun 08, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1388
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1387: The Wooden Ships of Mallows Bay
Episode: 1387 The ghost fleet of wooden ships in Mallows Bay. Today, a fleet of sunken ships.
Jun 07, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1387
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1386: Franklin’s Glass Armonica
Episode: 1386 Benjamin Franklin invents the glass armonica -- no mouth organ, this. Today, singing wine glasses.
Jun 06, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1386
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