The Edison Tech Center

The Edison Tech Center promotes awareness of the past, present, and future of engineering.

Engineers have built our world, and the Edison Tech Center stands as a tribute to the men and women who have a passion for tinkering, experimenting, and inventing. The center is located in the historic Mohawk and Hudson Valley region - one of the centers of North America's engineering legacy.

The Edison Tech Center provides a variety of resources to visitors and educational organizations. The hands-on tactile experience is a very important part of the mission. The greatest engineers of humanity began with an interest of tinkering and hands-on experimentation. The center provides access to incredible artifacts of technological history in the dynamic "engineer's workshop".

Visit us in Schenectady! Click here to get directions.

Online Resources:
If you are looking for online information on engineering past, present, and future browse through our site.

Hall of Fame Page
profiles/information on prominent engineers 1830-today.

Hidden Geniuses
When most people think of pioneers of technology names like Edison, Volta, and Siemens come to mind. Here is a list of unsung heroes of technology that have made a profound impact on our world.

The Pioneer Next Door: The E.T.C. is collecting oral history from living pioneers of technology, The results can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Radio History

History of the Loud Speaker

Electric Cars

Hydroelectric Power Generation and Transmission

Gas Turbines

Lasers

Rocket Guidance

Nuclear Powered Subs

Photovoltaics

More topics to come in the future!

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Engineering Videos:
We have many videos highlighting the history of engineering for the region, and world.

Schenectady Inventions List : A list with links on the numerous developments that happened at GE Schenectady and the Research Lab

Engineering Forum : A place to publish articles on engineering related issues (new)

Capital Region Technological Heritage Map

What defines an engineer?

In the world there are those that dig in the earth and toil in the hot foundries to make the raw materials, there are the thinkers, the scientists, and theorists, but in the middle, on this great boundary between reality and abstraction, there are the engineers. Mixing a potent soup of theory and math with raw steel, copper, and chemicals this is where things happen. These men and woman are located on the proving ground, a place where materials can fail, chemicals can violently combust, theories can prove untrue, and new solutions are crafted on the spot in order to make success. From being coated in grease and sweat inside the machine, to creating new theory and math in the lofty office, engineers occupy the eye of the human storm of progress. This is the place were we salute the real-life wizards!

Thoms Edsion and Dr. Steinmetz in 1922

A Region built on Engineering:

Since 1795 this region has attracted some of the world's greatest engineers: Edison, Westinghouse, Thomson, Steinmetz, Langmuir... just to name a few. It is home to the General Electric Research Lab (GE Global Research Center), Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Lockheed-Martin, RPI, Union College, and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Many of the great developments in electrical and mechanical engineering were discovered here in Schenectady at the GE Research Laboratory, founded in 1901.

From Joseph Henry's electromagnet in 1831 to the invention of television to today's nanoscience, this area has proven integral to the development of world technology. Click Here to see an interactive map of the region and its developments.

Recent Name Change: The Edison Tech Center, formerly known as the Edison Exploratorium, is a 501(c)3 charitable / educational organization chartered under the laws of New York State and is also doing business as the Edison Tech Center. This organization was formed in 2001.

What's New:

7/15/2010 - New web pages began on Speakers, Microphones, Lighting, and Radio
7/6/2010 - New videos released: GE moves to Schenectady 1892, 1901 Baker Electric Car,
7/1/2010 - New videos: Rice Family Legacy, Elihu Thomson Visits Rice, Understanding Arc Discharge Circuits, Wizards of Schenectady Promo
6/18/2010 - Interview about AC pioneer Charles P. Steinmetz with Historian George Wise
6/13/2010 - Union College borrows the Steinmetz 1914 electric car for it's graduation ceremony
6/9/2010 - Announced that are open Tue-Fri 3-6pm every week
6/7/2010 - New web pages on electric cars and early hydropower sites

Current Events:

We are open!

The Edison Tech Center is open after a half year of closure. There are new exhibits ready, and some still under construction. We feature a lighting exhibit with old edison bulbs, early fluorescent from the 1930's, the newest LED's and induction lamps.

*Opening Hours are 3-6 PM Tuesday - Friday

-This summer there will be a premiere of the Wizards of Schenectady, Harold Chestnut documentary. This documentary talks about the many automatic control technologies developed in Schenectady by Dr. Chestnut and his Colleagues. The documentary has been 2 years in the making and features interviews and video collected from the greatest control engineers of our time. There will be repeat showings during the day in our group viewing area.

Multimedia News:

Folsom Power House, Folsom, CA

The Birth of Electrification: we are shooting some of the amazing first sites of power generation in America. The results of the video will be released as 30 minute programs on public television stations, and excerpts will be posted on our YouTube video channel. See the links below.

Mechanicville Powerhouse, 1897 View photos of this historic site and read about Steinmetz's Monocyclic Experiment that was going to rival Westinghouse's established AC power transmission system...

Learn about William Stanley's work with a Siemens AC Generator and his new revolutionary transformer!

Folsom AC Powerplant,1895 - the first commercial 3-phase, 60 Hz power plant, and the longest power transmission to date.

Outstanding Women in Engineering: Nancy D. Fitzroy - Former ASME President, RPI graduate and pioneer in the heat transfer field Nancy D. Fitzroy has been featured in our video program. Three new videos on the internet, and two half hour programs have been released on Public Access channels across the country. If you would like to see our TV shows on your local public access please call Glenn Jarrett - Education materials distribution tel: (315) 351-0032

Outstanding Women in Engineering: Katherine B. Blodgett - See the short video on Katherine Blodgett extracted from the Langmuir's World Documentary.

The Rice Family Legacy. A documentary on this family which influenced the development of electric power in many ways. E.W. Rice worked with Elihu Thomson to create the first full arclight systems. He went on to build General Electric as president. C.W. Rice worked with E.W. Kellogg to develop the modern loudspeaker. See the video to find out more.

The Wizards of Schenectady: Watch the video below to learn about our video series that highlights pioneers of electricity and engineering. For a list of videos see the Wizards webpage.

Recent Feedback from users of the Edison Tech Center website and YouTube Video Channel:

"That was very well explained and really enjoyed watching this movie clip thank you" - YouTube user 6/4/2010

"I love this video clip, thank you for posting, it means a lot to me considering I'll be going into mechanical engineering this fall. I like the last thought, about just being a good engineer since that's all I hope to be."
- YouTube user 7/22/2010

The Edison Tech Center
136 North Broadway
Schenectady, NY 12305
Office: (518) 372-8425

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