Exactly 150 years ago today, March 10th, Alexander Graham Bell yelled, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you!" after spilling battery acid on his pants.
Watson heard him in a new way - through an electromagnetic device that helped turn the sound waves into vibrations that could travel across telegraph wire. It's no accident Bell's lab was in the attic of the Charles Williams Jr.'s Manufacturer of Telegraph Instruments building at 109 Court Street in Boston's West End.
Deep in our archives, we have a tremendous amount of material related to the first years of the aviation industry.
Much of it was part of the WH Nichols collection, as the company started by William H. Nichols here in Waltham, manufactured key components for both civilian and defense aircraft. We have blueprints, airfoil calculations, documents relating to the Experimental Air Service of the US military, schematics from the University of Toronto, and correspondence with Curtiss-Wright Corporation.
Our Director of Education, Stephen Guerriero, had a wonderful opportunity to share some time at the MIT Museum.
"What a privilege to be able to speak today at the MIT Museum, and to lead an interactive family workshop with two of the best collaborators I could have - Northeastern University co-op student Lain Orndorff and Massachusetts Bay Community College intern Nicholas Adams.
