The Vacuum Tube  late 1800s - early 1900s Thomas Edison: Light Bulb (1884) John Fleming: Valve (1904) Lee De Forest: Audion Tube (1906) Henry Ford: Automobile (1896) 1898 Spanish American War 1899 Alexandre Gustave Eiffel designs the Eiffel Tower for the Paris World Exhibition. 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first piloted flight in a powered airplane. 1908 The Ford Motor Company produces the Model T. Thomas Edison, courtesy of Maxfield & Montrose, http://maxmon.com/1883ad.htm Photo of Wright Broghers, courtesy of Katty Hawk, http://www.robinsonresearch.com/TECHNOL/Flight/Wright2.htm Fleming, courtesy of Bridgman, Roger, Electronics, A Collins Eyewitness Guide, http://www.cinemedia.net/SFCV-RMIT-Annex/rnaughton/FLEMING_2.html Model T, courtesy of Henry Ford Museum, http://www.hfmgv.org/histories/showroom/1908/photos.html Statue of Liberty, http://search.corbis.com/default.asp?i=11017840&vID=1&rID=101 Sean Jackson