Edison Tech Center

05/21/2026

Erie Boulevard was once the canal. Electric power was produced at Building 31 (seen here) and powered carbon arc lamps that helped the industrial buildings on Dock Street. George Westinghouse Jr. operated his first businesses in Schenectady and was from Esperance, NY. He later moved to Pittsburgh, PA.

04/23/2026

Rick DeLair's passion for lighting technology history is unmatched! Here he is showing us some of his collection at the Edison Tech Center's workshop on the 2nd floor of our old building in downtown Schenectady.

Resident Lighting Technology History Rick DeLair shows us his rare mercury v***r lamps from GE and Westinghouse with 100, 175 and 400 Watt sizes. First is a ...

04/17/2026

John D. Harnden Jr. was a key electrical engineer in power systems at General Electric with many patents, he founded the Edison Tech Center as it could a provide a workshop and museum focused on electrical and mechanical engineering. Here he is talking in detail about transformers and amplistats history.

Electrical Engineer John D. Harnden Jr. goes into detail about development of transformers, amplistats, jet engine controls, and electronically controlled gu...

04/15/2026

The 2016 Edison Tech Center interview with Lockheed Martin about the Orion Capsule is now seeing new viewers as the capsule is used in the current Artemis Program.

Learn about the capabilities and uses of the Orion crew capsule which will be used on the mission to Mars. From the Lockheed Martin booth at the 31st Space S...

04/10/2026

With IEEE – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

03/24/2026

Almost 10 years ago we shot this interview with an engineer from the James Webb Space Telescope in Boulder, Colorado. The telescope has proven since to be as amazing as they hoped it would be. Thanks to the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society for support in the "Universe of Instrumentation" series.

Dr. Acton from Ball Aerospace tells us about the new space telescope in development. The JWST uses a giant mirror array to look at infrared energy coming fro...

03/20/2026

A presentation we shot at miSci - Museum of Innovation & Science, Schenectady covering the amazing history of the Pallophotophone a few years back. Thanks MiSci and Mr. Hunter for this great talk!

Presentation by Chris Hunter: Early sound recording device 1922 - one of earliest attempts to record sound on film. The pallophotophone recorded wave forms ...

03/16/2026

One of our resident electrical engineers Bill Kornrumpf does an overview of the LED replacement tubes that can be used in a T-10 Fluorescent fixture. Subscribe to the ETC YouTube channel to catch the next video on the shrinking ballast sizes of T-10 fluorescent fixtures.

Electrical Engineer William Kornrumpf does an overview of the LED tube used to replace fluorescent tubes in common overhead lighting fixtures. He describes t...

03/09/2026

Our lighting expert Rick Delair showing a guest the ballast system at our old location on Broadway. See Rick's videos on our YouTube channel where he goes into detail on the historical fluorescent light ballasts!

03/02/2026

Commentary from our Blalock interview on the invention of the polyphase induction motor, a key piece of what made AC power distribution financially possible, and a practical sell to industry.

The Induction Motor was a major breakthrough in the 1880s as it made AC power systems marketable to industry. Nikola Tesla, Oliver Shallenberger and Galileo ...