Ingenuity
Inventions, workarounds, repairs, and technical ideas developed under pressure.
Investigations
They Taught the Lake to Breathe
In 1986, Lake Nyos released an invisible cloud of carbon dioxide that killed about 1,700 people. Then engineers found a way to make the lake vent itself safely.
The Rescue Machine Nobody Had Ever Needed
USS Squalus sank off New Hampshire in 1939 with 33 people trapped alive inside. The Navy used the McCann rescue chamber to bring all 33 survivors to the…
The Cisterns Beneath San Francisco
After San Francisco’s water system failed during the 1906 earthquake and fires, the city built an independent high-pressure firefighting system in 1913. Today it includes pipelines, Bay-water pumping,…
How Petra Made Water Flow Through Stone
UNESCO identifies Petra’s channels, tunnels, diversion dams, cisterns, and reservoirs as a connected water system that conserved seasonal rain and controlled flash floods across the Nabataean city.