Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Fisheye lenses severely distort images for wider views
A curved front element bends light to capture a wider view, trading straight lines for a distorted, panoramic image.
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Slide projectors advance photographs using circular carousels
A rotating tray could hold up to 100 film transparencies, dropping each one into the path of a bright lamp for projection.
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How movies make bullet wounds explode
A squib—a small remotely triggered charge paired with a blood packet—bursts under an actor’s clothing to create the appearance of a bullet wound.
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A Mellotron key could run out of recorded sound
Each key engaged its own length of magnetic tape. On classic models, a sustained note lasted roughly eight seconds before the tape had to rewind when the key…
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The laser was carrying a phone call by 1961
Bell Labs researchers put a telephone conversation onto a laser beam shortly after the first working laser appeared in 1960. Changing the light carried the…
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How 3D glasses trick your eyes with red and cyan
The glasses filter each of two overlaid images so one reaches each eye, and your brain fuses them into a single 3D view.
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Kinetoscopes were private peephole movie viewers
A loop of film passed over a light source, but only one paying customer could watch at a time through the small peephole.
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A fingerprint can make a halogen bulb explode
Oil from a fingerprint can create a hot spot on a halogen bulb's quartz glass, causing uneven heating that may make the bulb crack or explode.
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Gramophones relied entirely on giant acoustic horns
The needle’s vibrations set air moving through a large flared horn, projecting sound into the room without electrical amplification.
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Stage lights utilize metal stencils to cast dark shadows
A small metal stencil called a gobo blocks parts of a spotlight's beam, casting crisp, intricate shadows across the set.
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Holograms trap light interference patterns on glass
A hologram records the interference pattern created when split laser beams meet on a photographic plate. Shine light on the pattern, and it can recreate the…
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A cassette can hide hundreds of feet of tape in your pocket
The magnetic strip is wound tightly between two reels, so a long recording fits into a small plastic shell. Playback transfers the strip from one reel to the…
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Surround sound now treats audio as objects
Object-based audio stores each sound effect as a 3D position rather than assigning it to a particular speaker. The receiver uses those coordinates to route…
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Technicolor used three strips of film
A prism split light into red, green, and blue, and three black-and-white film strips recorded the colors separately. The strips were later dyed and combined…
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Movie sound used to be printed beside the frames
A projector shone light through the wavering optical soundtrack along the film's edge; a photoelectric cell converted its patterns into sound.
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Mirrored balls scatter spotlights across dance floors
Tiny flat mirrors reflect one or two spotlights in many directions, creating a field of light across the dance floor as the ball turns.
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Stop-motion puppets use metal skeletons for rigid poses
A custom-machined metal armature with ball-and-socket joints holds each pose, letting animators move the puppet a fraction of a millimeter between frames…
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Fresnel lenses condense stage lights into intense beams
A Fresnel lens uses concentric, angled rings instead of a heavy glass dome, reducing its weight while focusing scattered light into a bright beam.
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Cyanotypes use iron compounds to make blue photos
Coat paper with iron compounds, place objects on it, and leave it in the sun: ultraviolet light triggers a reaction that leaves a lasting blue silhouette.
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Incandescent bulbs waste most of their energy as pure heat
An incandescent bulb sends electricity through a tungsten filament, which glows white-hot from electrical resistance. About 90% of its energy becomes heat…
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A movie's green screen is a color the software can remove
The editor isolates a color range and replaces it with another image. Green gives digital cameras a strong signal, while blue can work better for a particular…
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An IMAX film reel can weigh over 600 pounds
A 70mm IMAX reel can weigh more than 600 pounds and contain miles of film, so industrial machinery and structural support are needed to move it into the…
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Cathode ray tubes blast electrons at coated glass
A focused electron beam scanned the phosphor-coated glass line by line to build the image.
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Macro lenses magnify microscopic subjects on film
They can focus at very close distances, projecting a magnified image of tiny subjects onto film.
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