Your Engineering Heritage:

Seeing Electrical Engineering Accomplishments Up Close  — Without Leaving Home

by Michael N. Geselowitz

Would you like to see Joseph Henry's original electromagnet from 1831? You could visit the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in our nation's capital. How about a light bulb used by Thomas Alva Edison at the historic 1879 New Year's Eve demonstration of the Edison lighting system? East-and west-coasters are both out of luck, unless they want to travel well inland. Although the demonstration took place in Menlo Park (now Edison), New Jersey, the lamp rests at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Michigan. And if you wanted to see Alessandro Volta's "Pile," a trip to Italy would be in order! Well, not necessarily. You can actually "see" all of these things without leaving home by visiting the IEEE Virtual Museum (VM) online at http://www.ieee.org/museum.

The IEEE History Center's latest project, the IEEE VM opened during National Engineers' Week in February 2002. Designed for educators, precollege students (ages 10-18), and the general public, the VM explores and presents the global and social impact of technology and demonstrates the relevance and significance of engineering and engineers to society through a focus on electrical and information technologies. It seeks to contribute to greater knowledge of science and engineering principles among this audience, under the principle of "what was increases our understanding of what is."

Taking the audience through exciting discoveries, inventions and developments of the past, the VM uses interactives and other techniques to show how technologies actually work. This combination of history and technology is unique both on the web and in actual museums. The lack of a physical museum and the use of the web enable the IEEE History Center to craft a more specific message and reach a broader audience than it could through a solid museum. In addition, VM staff can pick and choose images of the best, earliest, or most important examples of technology from among museum collections around the world to make its pedagological points.

Three initial exhibits are currently live, with several others in the works. "Socket To Me! How Electricity Came to Be" covers the "E Behind Everything" — telegraphs and telephones, light and power, radio, television, transistors and chips, computers, nuclear power, and lasers. "The Beat Goes On: How Sounds Are Recorded and Played" encompasses everything from the first sound recordings to the digital age. Visitors can learn about the birth of recording, the Jazz Age, the "talkies," the swing era, Nipper and his friends, and records made from bug juice. It includes a photograph of the original Fleming valve, the first diode electron tube, which is on display at the Science Museum in London. Finally, an exhibit about Thomas Edison just opened. This latest exhibit features many treasures from the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange, New Jersey.

The IEEE History Center will continue to increase content and add new exhibits and artifacts. At the same time, it will produce instructional materials to make the site more useful for educators. So check back often to explore your engineering heritage without leaving your home or office!

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Michael N. Geselowitz, Ph.D., is director of the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Visit the IEEE History Center's Web page at: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/.