Inventions

Episode 1019: Greatest American Inventions — The Transistor

At Bell Labs in December 1947, three scientists—John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley—demonstrated a tiny device that would outlast the…

Jul 31 • Newt Gingrich

6:50

Episode 1018: Greatest American Inventions — The Electrical Power System

Every invention in this series—the phone, the internet, the smartphone—depends on one foundational breakthrough.

Jul 30 • Newt Gingrich

6:18

Episode 1017: Greatest American Inventions — The Airplane

Two bicycle mechanics from Ohio, with no college degrees and no government funding, beat every well-financed rival to achieve the impossible.

Jul 29 • Newt Gingrich

4:52

Episode 1016: Greatest American Inventions — The Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell grew up obsessed with the human voice—his family taught elocution and speech to the deaf.

Jul 28 • Newt Gingrich

5:56

Episode 1015: Greatest American Inventions — The Electric Telegraph

In 1844, a painter named Samuel Morse and machinist Alfred Vail shattered the oldest limit on human civilization: the speed of information.

Jul 27 • Newt Gingrich

5:36

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