Jane E. Boyd

Discover the history of chemistry sets and how these miniature laboratories for children contained much more than their parts.

Winter’s coming, so wrap up and discover the history of home insulation.

How hard can it be to make a gemstone? Plenty hard. People have been trying for almost 2,000 years, but success finally beckoned in 19th-century France.

Do you think of poison ivy as a scurrilous weed to be avoided at all costs? Think again! There was a time when the daring and curious found promise in poison ivy and its rash-inducing relatives.

Neon is a dull and invisible gas until it’s trapped in a tube and zapped with electricity. Literally pulled out of thin air, it became a symbol of progress and an essential component of the electronic age.

Before becoming a synonym for cinema, celluloid was used to imitate expensive materials like ivory, tortoiseshell, and linen.

In the 19th century, chemical oblivion replaced liquor, opiates, and bleeding as the numbing agent of choice for surgeons.

In the early 19th century people dreamed of using light to paint permanent images.

The first balloons, both hot-air and hydrogen powered, drew spectacular crowds and set off a craze—balloonomania!