Information Age Display The "Information Age" exhibit at the National Museum of American history greatly increases one's appreciation of history and of the historical influence of technology on the world today.

Items seen within the exhibit

Telegraph

Coaxial cable

Phones

Information processing

Stethoscope

Arithmeter

Tabulating Machine

Pantograph

ENIAC

Apple I

FBI

Cathedral" radio

Television

Digital CD ROM

Robots

How the information adds t appreciation

Technological know how of the times

Innovation

Effects on later inventions

In the National Museum of American History, there is an exhibit which captures the inventor within all of us. This exhibit, the Information Age exhibit, has on display hundreds of items, spanning the 150-year length of the Information Age. From the telegraph to the portable computer and digital CD ROM, these devices have helped shape the world around us, and have given us access to a whole new way of life. The "Information Age" exhibit greatly increases one's appreciation of history and of the historical influence of technology on the world today.

Within the Information Age exhibit, there are many categories of items on display. One of these is the telegraph display. First, Samuel Morse's original telegraph transmitter and receiver from 1837 are displayed. Being the first piece of equipment to transmit information in an electronic form, this piece of technology underwent many changes over the years, as represented by the display....

This printer was vital in the telegraph era, as more and more people realized they could easily have crucial information almost immediately. However, according to the display, the telegraph was fairly expensive, so its use was not widespread.
In addition to the telegraph, a basic cable, called the Atlantic cable of 1858, is also on display. Being to forefather to the coaxial cable that would later transform information across the globe, this cable was not well designed, and only stayed operable for a few days. However, later cables would spread the information world across the ocean for the first time, promoting intercontinental communications.

In addition, the Information Age exhibit includes a telephone display, showing the history of the telephone as the world knows it today. Beginning with Alexander Graham Bell's early telephone equipment, including pictures of his early experimental phones, and spanning to the commercial phone of 1877 and the first telephones with a dial, this display shows the evolution of both the phone its self, and the equipment created to handle the calls.

There is also a display involving the processing of information, and the evolution of the machines created to do that task. The Arithmeter, a slide rule used by insurance agents to compute the average life expectancy of clients, and the stethoscope are on display, as are a Tabulating machine and pantograph machine. As the need for this type of information processing grew, so did the machines.…