Technical Tour - Central New Jersey

SELF-GUIDED TECHNICAL HISTORY TOUR OF NEW BRUNSWICK AND CENTRAL NEW JERSEY

This tour was constructed by the Staff of the IEEE History Center For a global map of IEEE Milestones, ASCE Landmarks, and ASME Landmarks, go to the Innovation Map on the Engineering & Technology History Wiki. For a list of other Technical History Tours, please click here.

Marconi Park

New Brunswick, corner of Easton Ave & JFK Boulevard, Somerset, NJ, 40.51529, -74.48895

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Site of the former American Marconi Company transatlantic transmitting station (coal for the transmitter's generators was shipped vi the Delaware and Raritan Canal just across Easton Ave), Marconi Park today contains one of the original buildings (a cottage that housed the workers). The eight 400-ft steel antenna masts supporting the 5,000-foot-long (1,500 m) antenna on the other side of Easton Ave. from the present park were demolished in 1952 to make room for a mall. In 1917, the Unites States Navy appropriated the station (callsign NFF), making it the principal wartime communication link between the United States and Europe. It transmitted Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points speech. See also New Brunswick Marconi Station on Wikipedia

Mine Street, New Brunswick

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An 18th century copper mine ran under Mine Street (40.498744, -74.4500914) and part of what is now the campus of Rutgers University (Murray Hall 40.498744, -74.4500914 ). Nearby French St. commemorates the owner's name, and a few artifacts are in the Rutgers Geology Museum. For more information, see Flooding Brought an End to Mining Operation in Old New Brunswick, New Brunswick Today, October 6, 2014

Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Menlo Park Museum

37 Christie Street, Edison, NJ 08820, + 732 549 3299, www.edisonnj.org/menlopark/museum.asp, 40.56503, -74.33743

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The site of Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park (since renamed Edison in his honor) is an IEEE Milestone. More than 400 patents were issued to Edison while he worked at this site, including the phonograph, his improved incandescent lamp, and the carbon-button transmitter. He also discovered the Edison Effect here. Edison noted in 1883 that when a lamp was fitted with a filament and a plate, an electric current flowed through the vacuum. The research was presented at the first meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (the predecessor to the IEEE) in 1884. The Edison Effect led eventually to the Fleming Valve and to electronics.

Historic Speedwell

333 Speedwell Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07960, +1 973 540 0211, http://speedwell.org/, 40.8120, -74.4812

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Beginning in the early 19th century, New Jersey was a global center of what then was “high-tech.” Samuel F. B. Morse did most of the work on his telegraph system at the home of his partner, Alfred Vail (an IEEE Milestone). The Vail Homestead Farm was also the site of the family’s ironworks (a previous owner had made the machinery for the S. S. Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic). The farm, now known as Historic Speedwell, is a U.S. National Historic Site. It is open to the public and includes displays on ironworking, 19th century New Jersey life, and the invention of the telegraph.

Morris Museum of local history, art and science

6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ 07960, +1 973 971 3700, www.morrismuseum.org , 40.7958922,-74.4507441

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The Morris Museum houses the Murtogh D. Guiness Collection of nearly 700 drawings of 19th century automata and robotic figures, with about 60 on display.

Edison National Historic Site

Main Street and Lakeside Avenue, West Orange, NJ 07052, +1 973 736 0551, http://www.nps.gov/edis/index.htm, 40.783824, -74.233825

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Opened in 1887, his West Orange laboratory for more than forty years, the laboratory created by Thomas Alva Edison in West Orange, New Jersey, had enormous impact on society throughout the world. From this lab came, among other things, the motion picture camera, improved versions of the phonograph, sound movies and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery. Run by the U.S. National Park Service, replete with informative displays and staffed by knowledgeable Park Rangers. Visits include tours of Edison’s nearby mansion, Glenmont. Edison’s West Orange Labs have been designated an IEEE Milestone. The IEEE Milestone plaque can be viewed about .8 km south on Main St. near the post office at Cleveland St.

InfoAge Science/History Learning Center

2201 Marconi Road, Wall, NJ, +1 732 280 3000, http://www.infoage.org 40.1859554,-74.0615791

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The InfoAge Learning Center is on the site of the former Camp Evans the site of the U.S. Army Signal Corps’ major electronics research laboratory, which was important in the development of radar in World War II, in the beginnings of satellite telecommunications (Project Diana was based there), in the application of the transistor, and many more technologies. Prior to its use by the U.S. Army, it was a Marconi station where Armstrong, Alexanderson, and Sarnoff did important radio research.

David Sarnoff Labs

201 Washington Road, Princeton NJ 08543, +1 609 734 2636, http://www.davidsarnoff.org, 40.331685, -74.631637

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Formerly the research laboratories of RCA. Three IEEE Milestone plaques can be viewed on the wall of the building: TIROS weather satellite , RCA Monochrome Compatible Color Television , and Liquid Crystal Display. The lobby has a display of RCAs Emmy Awards.

Sarnoff Collection at The College of New Jersey

The IEEE Life Members Fund of the IEEE Foundation awarded a grant of $19,800 for the establishment of a new study center in connection with The College of New Jersey’s (TCNJ) Sarnoff Collection. Roscoe West Hall, Open Wednesdays, 1:00-5:00 p.m. and Sundays, 1:00-3:00 p.m.

More than 6,000 objects showcasing RCA’s numerous contributions to 20th century electronics and telecommunications, including the first color television picture tube, the first commercially available electron microscope, and early examples of magnetic core computer memories, thin film transistors, and liquid crystal displays.

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