United States Patent and Trademark Office Search allows you to find all US Patents from 1790 to the present.     Patents from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only by Patent Number and Current US Classification. boolean search help find this: in: All Fields Title Abstract Issue Date Patent Number Application Date Application Serial Number Application Type Assignee Name Assignee City Assignee State Assignee Country International Classification Current US Classification Primary Examiner Assistant Examiner Inventor Name Inventor City Inventor State Inventor Country Government Interest Attorney or Agent PCT Information Foreign Priority Reissue Data Related US App. Data Referenced By Foreign References Other References Claim(s) Description/Specification AND OR but NOT find this: in: All Fields Title Abstract Issue Date Patent Number Application Date Application Serial Number Application Type Assignee Name Assignee City Assignee State Assignee Country International Classification Current US Classification Primary Examiner Assistant Examiner Inventor Name Inventor City Inventor State Inventor Country Government Interest Attorney or Agent PCT Information Foreign Priority Reissue Data Related US App. Data Referenced By Foreign References Other References Claim(s) Description/Specification in the years: 1976 to present [full-text] 1790 to present [entire database] 1790 to 1975       [PN and CCL only] Free Patents Online is a database with searchable full text of all US patents from # 4,000,000 upward, free .pdf patent copy downloading, and other useful features. find this:   in: US Patents US Patent Applications European Patent documents (EP1200001 to EP1561423) advanced search After free registration, US Patent Search allows you to download full issued patents and patent applications for free. The patents are in the form of TIFF image files, so your browser will require a TIFF viewer plugin, such as AlternaTIFF, which is also free. Enter US patent number: e.g. 5146636, D263515, PP8902, 2003/12345     patent search tutorial The Intellectual Property Digital Library of the World Intellectual Property Organization maintains a free database of international patents filed under the 1970 Patent Cooperation Treaty. WIPO maintains a separate PCT website, and free searchable databases of internationally-registered trademarks and designs, and other intellectual property. They also have a good list of international patent search links. Do not use quotation marks or boolean terms in this search form; instead use the exact/any/all selector box to obtain the desired results. find: the exact phrase any of the words all the words

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The European Patent Office offers free searches of the database of the European patent agency for European patents, US patents, Japanese patents, and other international patents.

Delphion Patent Search offers basic US patent searches only with free registration, and subscription "premium" services, with greater capabilities, but which cost $95 or $210 a month.

Inventors.ca has a good list of world patent & trademark search links.

NASA Tech Briefs has many online engineering articles & .pdf downloads, plus a subscription journal, free in either snail mail hardcopy or .pdf format. They also have a directory of free download tech software.

eFunda stands for "engineering fundamentals". They bill themselves as "the ultimate online reference for engineers", and they might be right.

A to Z of Materials is the "Premier On-Line Materials Information Site, Supplier and Expert Directory." From their home page, you can search for materials by properties, or ask a "natural language" materials question.

Open Channel Software distributes over 250 useful technical freeware programs.

Popular Science
Emphasis on the POPULAR, from the magazine of the same name.
Discover Engineering
An educational site for kids.
Invention Dimension
This site from MIT has an inventor's handbook, invention links and resources, an invention awards program, and profiles a new inventor every week.
Wacky Patent of the Month
A site "devoted to recognizing selected inventors and their remarkable and unconventional patented inventions".
CalTech PhotoNet
A searchable database containing scanned images from CalTech's photo archives, including Einstein, Feynman, Pauling, and many more. The images are free for non-commercial use.
LOC A.G. Bell Papers
An archive of about 1400 papers and notes by Alexander Graham Bell, from the Library of Congress.

PBS Transistorized!
The History of the Transistor website was designed to accompany a PBS television program.
Bell Lab's Laser History
Bell Labs history of lasers and how they work.

RoboHoo Directory
An annotated directory of robotics links, with robotics news, too.
NASA Telerobotics
The NASA Telerobotics Program has as its goal that "by the year 2004, 50% of the EVA-required operations on orbit and on planetary surfaces may be conducted telerobotically". The program covers on-orbit assembly and servicing, science payload tending, and planetary surface robotics. The site includes a photo archive, the Cool Robot of the Week, and links to Internet robot resources.
MIT Humanoid Robotics
The home page for MIT projects to construct an intelligent humanoid robots, including "Cog".
AI Algorithms
In "Fast Marching Methods and Level Set Methods", java applets demonstrate algorithms for tracking moving boundaries, extracting shape from medical scans, guiding robots, etc.

Shape-Memory Alloys
A brief intro to shape-memory alloys from Old Dominion U.
Micro Machines
A gallery of photos of microelectromechanical devices, from Sandia Nat'l Labs.
IAEA World Atomic Power
The comprehensive site from the International Atomic Energy Agency includes news, specifications on 280 research reactors, a 2 million abstract database, info on a proposed thermonuclear experimental reactor, and prodeedings from the 1996 Chernobyl conference.
DOE Renewable Energy
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Dept. of Energy-- information on solar, wind and geothermal power, and a photo library of over 7,000 pictures.
Fuel Cells 2000
Fuel Cell news and FAQ's, plus a bibliography, info on conferences, and about 170 links.
Fuel Cells: Green Power
A 33 page book (in .pdf download format) about fuel cells, from the Los Alamos National Labs.

Charles Babbage Institute
The Charles Babbage Institute is a history of computing and information processing archive and research center at the U. of Minnesota. The archives and collections are searchable, and the site includes links to other history of computing websites.
MIT Computer Lab
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science home page-- much of what makes the Internet and WWW work originated here.
Deep Computing Institute
IBM's DCI reports on their research into parallel processor supercomputing.
Oxford Quantum Computing
FAQ's, tutorials, and links about quantum computing from the U. of Oxford's Centre for Quantum Computation.
Euroquantum.org
The Euroquantum home page, at the U. of Vienna, has tutorials and information on quantum computing research in Europe.
Friction and Wear Studies
Tribology is the study of friction, lubrication, and wear. This site presents 18 case studies in tribology (such as lubricant-induced corrosion), from the National Center for Tribology, in the UK.
Slashdot.com
"News for nerds. Stuff that matters".

TIME Magazine, July 12, 1948, p. 54: SCIENCE: Little Brain Cell    Vacuum tubes are the brain cells of modern technology. Each year, as machines take on more complex jobs, more & more vacuum tubes are needed. But they are tricky to manufacture: they are usually both bulky and fragile. They have to warm up before they can start operating, and they need a continuous current to keep their filaments hot. The men who design electronic nervous systems would like a vacuum tube without these faults.    Last week Bell Telephone Laboratories demonstrated a small, simple device that can do many of the jobs now done by vacuum tubes. Called a "Transistor," it has no vacuum, no glass envelope. It requires no heating current and can start working immediately without a warm-up.    The Transistor is a slim metal cylinder about an inch long... Inside are two hair-thin wires whose points press, two-thousandths of an inch apart, on a pinhead of germanium. A feeble current in the "input" wire controls a much larger current flowing from the "output" wire. Such "amplification" is the essential property of vacuum tubes. The Transistor works on a different principle (by changing the conductivity of the germanium), but it amplifies the input current as much as 100 times.    Transistors are not in production yet, but Bell scientists, to show what their little brain cells can do, demonstrated a radio receiver with vacuum tubes replaced by Transistors. Though not very powerful, it worked fine. Probably the Transistor's first practical assignment will be to amplify currents in telephone circuits, a job now done by vacuum tubes.