The forerunners to Silicon Valley: Striking images from the early 20th century show pioneering American inventors at work... so can you figure out what their bizarre creations are supposed to be?
- Photographers George Washington Harris and Martha Ewing depicted the contraptions that defined the US
- The shots show divers using underwater breathing devices and dentist testing out a dental X-ray machine
- Striking images, taken in Washington, D.C. between 1905 and 1945, span four decades of American history
Striking black and white photographs show pioneering American inventors at work in the early 20th century.
Photographers George Washington Harris and Martha Ewing depicted the contraptions that defined the US as it teetered on the verge of becoming a superpower.
Striking images, taken in Washington, D.C. between 1905 and 1945, capture everything from a trio of divers testing out underwater breathing devices to dentists using an X-ray machine to examine golf balls.
Other shots show astrophysicist Charles Greeley Abbot examining a peculiar silver-disc device that measures solar irradiance and experts perfecting an aircraft propeller in 1922.
The series of evocative photos span four decades of American history, catapulting the viewer through incredible breakthroughs in science, astrophysics and architecture.
A beaming woman perches on a seat with a psychograph - a phrenology machine - on her head. The contraption, invented by Henry C. Lavery claimed to mechanically discern a subject's aptitudes in a number of mental faculties
A bizarre photo shows a trio of divers wearing swimming trunks - with brogues and socks - as they prepare to test out underwater breathing devices
Charles Greeley Abbot, astrophysicist and Secretary of the Smithsonian, examines his device - a silver-disc pyrheliometer which measures direct beam solar irradiance
One striking close-up shot captures a 9-lens aerial mapping camera made by the Fairchild Aerial Camera Corp. for the US Coast & Geodetic Survey. It was built under the direction of Captain O.S. Reading in 1935
One inventor balances precariously on the hood of a car as he gives an innovative auto-safety device demonstration
Vivian Leroy Crisler, an acoustics researcher at the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., looks over a loud speaker horn used in sound penetration tests
One inventor tinkers with the Gorrie Ice Machine patent model - a continuation of the scientist John Gorrie's efforts to create a machine that makes artificial ice - borne out of a necessity to transport ice by boat across lakes
Daniel W. Kessler, of the National Bureau of Standards, kneels beside a device used to test slabs of marble over long periods of time
Dr. B.L. Taylor (left) and Dr. Walter A. Rath (right) use a dental x-ray to examine the cores of golf balls to see if they are centered
A group of people sit at a dinner table at a meat testing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland
Charles Francis Jenkins (second from left) shows his mirror drum television receiver to a group of scientists
Inventors excitedly test out a paragon adjustable and reversible aircraft propeller, which was created by Spencer Heath, on October 11, 1922, at Bolling Field, Washington
One man earnestly tests airplane lenses used in map making at the US Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C
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