1

Singing Tesla coils

In the early 2000s, engineers discovered that Tesla coils could emit tones by modulating the sparks themselves. When programmed, they could play songs using bursts of lightning as notes.

Audiences watched and listened as glowing bolts of electricity "sang" familiar tunes like movie themes. These displays, part science and part spectacle, were a short-lived trend, but they were interesting while they lasted.

Image: Brett Wharton

2

Franklin’s glass armonica

Benjamin Franklin invented many things. Among them, a glass armonica, using spinning glass bowls tuned by size . Players touched the rims with wet fingers to produce pure, haunting tones that seemed to shimmer in midair.

Its ghostly beauty amazed 18th-century audiences. Yet rumors spread that the vibrations could cause fainting or madness, making the momentum of the instrument short-lived.

Image: Karim MANJRA

3

Harry Partch’s microtonal instruments

Frustrated with the limits of Western scales, composer Harry Partch built a system using forty-three tones per octave . He crafted odd instruments from glass, bamboo, and metal to play them.

Performers had to relearn music from scratch, producing sounds that felt alien and ancient at once. His homemade orchestra became a true milestone in America’s experimental environment.

4

The theremin craze

Image: Ryunosuke Kikuno

Invented in the 1920s, the theremin created sound from invisible electromagnetic fields, played by moving hands through the air . It was one of the world’s first electronic instruments.

By the 1950s, its eerie wails filled American sci-fi movies and radio shows. Home versions soon appeared, letting living rooms buzz with strange, ghostlike melodies.

5

The Stroh violin

Back in the days when microphones were not so great at picking up sounds, early studios struggled to capture soft instruments. The Stroh violin solved that by replacing the wooden body with a brass horn that amplified sound directly .

Its brassy, nasal tone worked perfectly for primitive recording gear. Once technology advanced, the mechanical violin faded for good.

Image: Mick Haupt

6

Sun Ra’s cosmic jazz

Jazz mad scientist Sun Ra claimed he was born on Saturn and sent to Earth to spread peace through sound. His Arkestra mixed free jazz, chants, and futuristic costumes into wild multimedia performances .

Audiences never knew what to expect: space helmets, electronic keyboards, or cosmic sermons. His blend of myth, science, and swing launched Afrofuturism, a style of his own.

Image: Matt Artz

7

Singing saw

Rural American musicians once discovered that a regular handsaw could "sing" when bent and bowed like a violin . The flexible steel vibrated with a haunting, "human-like" voice.

The sound carried through old-time folk, gospel, and early film scores. Even today, the singing saw appears in grassroots festivals and soundtracks.

8

Prepared piano

Image: Andrew Petrischev

Avant-garde composer John Cage inserted screws, bolts, and rubber between piano strings, turning each key into a new percussive sound . The result was bizarre but original.

He called it the "prepared piano." Audiences heard rhythms that clanged, thumped, and chimed like a whole percussion ensemble.

9

Moog synthesizer

Image: Adi Goldstein

The Moog was born in the late 1960s with its maze of knobs and wires , and it caused a sensation among musicians. Those who experimented found endless possibilities in its electronic tones .

From the Monterey Pop Festival to Wendy Carlos’s soundtracks for The Shining and A Clockwork Orange , the Moog’s strange bleeps reshaped American pop.

10

The Singing Nun

In 1963, a Belgian nun named Sister Luc-Gabrielle unexpectedly topped U.S. charts with "Dominique," sung in gentle French. Her purity and optimism charmed listeners across the country.

Her hit briefly outshone even the Beatles. Though her fame faded quickly, the story of a shy nun reaching number one remains a sweet oddity, for sure.

Image: Pete F

11

The "Longplayer" experiment

Launched in 1999, "Longplayer" is a music piece designed to play continuously for one thousand years without repeating . It was created by American artists who joined the project to maintain its endless cycle.

The music changes subtly with time, echoing life’s slow rhythm. Its creators call it "a conversation between centuries".

12

Hard-drive symphonies

Image: Borja Verbena

In the 2010s, hobbyists reprogrammed old computer drives to "play" songs by spinning and clicking at different speeds . Each tone came from mechanical motion, not speakers.

Videos of clattering machines performing pop hits can still be found all over YouTube. These homemade orchestras turned computer nostalgia into an art.

1

How the White House gained its name

Originally, the building was called the "President’s House." That only changed after the 1814 fire. During the War of 1812, British troops marched into Washington and set many buildings on fire, including the main one.

Walls were scorched, and smoke damage lingered inside and outside the building. When repairs began, painters coated the building white to cover the burn marks . This resulted in the "White House" nickname. Nearly a century later, Theodore Roosevelt made it official.

2

A hidden underground beneath America’s books

Have you ever heard of the Library of Congress's underground tunnels? Most visitors never see them or learn about them. They connect their buildings, allowing staff to transport rare books and documents safely and efficiently. Fragile, valuable materials had better be protected from the weather, the sunlight, and, well, the people!

3

The Golden Gate Bridge wasn’t supposed to stay red

The reddish color of the Golden Gate Bridge (officially named "International Orange") was supposed to be a temporary priming coat to protect the steel.

However, when engineers looked at the bright color peeking through the fog against the stunning blue and green of the San Francisco Bay, they said, "You know what?" It should stay like that. The Navy proposed painting it black and yellow, but it was never done. The stunning color turned it into one of the most iconic buildings in the world.

4

The Empire State Building wanted to welcome airships

Back in 1931, the Empire State Building’s spire was intended as a mooring mast to serve as a docking station for airships. The idea was that passengers should be able to step directly into Manhattan from the sky!

Sure, it was a futuristic plan, but it was eventually dismissed for being wildly dangerous. Passengers would have had to climb out at dizzying heights in strong winds. Not ideal! And certainly not glamorous.

5

The famous ceiling that got the stars wrong

You may have seen images of Grand Central Terminal’s celestial ceiling —or seen it with your own eyes. But there’s a twist: Did you know that the constellations in it are painted backward?

The way they are represented is as if viewed from outside the universe, rather than from Earth. Whether it was a mistake by the artist or it was an intentional reverse on cosmic perspective, the terminal ceiling has looked like this since its opening in 1913.

6

The president who quietly ran a whiskey empire

George Washington is remembered as a general and a president, of course. But he was also a major whiskey producer. Hidden on the grounds of Mount Vernon was a fully functioning distillery, built in the late 1790s.

By the time of Washington’s death, it was producing nearly 11,000 gallons of whiskey a year. That made him one of the largest distillers in the young United States!

7

The iconic façade didn’t exist during the battle

When you think of the Alamo, you surely picture its iconic façade. However, that structure was not part of the original mission!

During the famous 1836 battle, the building looked far simpler, and it lacked its now-famous curved top. That façade was added decades later by the U.S. Army when the structure was used as a supply depot

8

Why visitors can no longer climb to the torch

Did you ever hear some old relative’s anecdote ot climbing all the way to the top of Lady Liberty’s torch? They weren’t lying: Up until 1916, visitors could. However, around that time, some explosions in a nearby munitions depot sent shockwaves through the statue.

The blast damaged the torch and weakened its structure. For safety reasons, access was permanently closed to the public.

9

The concrete that is still hardening today

The Hoover Dam contains so much concrete that it generates heat as it cures. Engineers knew that if poured as one solid mass, it would take more than a century to cool and could crack.

Instead, they built it using interlocking concrete blocks, each cooled with circulating water. Even so, parts of the dam are still slowly curing today.

10

The building that accidentally cooked its neighbors

When the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in Los Angeles, its gleaming metal exterior stunned visitors. But it also caused an unexpected problem…

The highly reflective steel panels bounced sunlight onto nearby sidewalks and apartments. In some spots, the glare was so intense that it melted materials! As a result, engineers eventually had to dull parts of the surface.

11

The Capitol’s dome isn’t stone

The grand, massive dome atop the U.S. Capitol looks like solid stone, doesn’t it? But, in fact, it is made of cast iron.

In the mid-1800s, stone was considered too heavy and expensive for such an ambitious structure. Cast iron allowed builders to create a taller, more ornate dome that weighs nearly nine million pounds.

1

Pictionary

Image: Kelly Sikkema

Who hasn’t played Pictionary at least once in their life? The whole gameplay boils down to drawing a picture so that others can guess what it is. It’s like "charades" with drawings instead of actions.

While this is a board game, the board itself is the least important part of the game. The only things that matter are the drawings and how people guess what they are. Anybody of any age can get into the game and have a good time.

2

Game of Life

Image: Jaciel Melnik

One of the most popular board games of all time, the Game of Life, was created in 1960. The idea is that you want to end the game with more assets than anyone else. The basic gameplay involves spinning the spinner and making a handful of key decisions at intersections. It is in those moments that you influence which way your "life" will turn out.

The whole game is, like life itself, very luck-driven and not very strategic. This game laid the groundwork for many modern, narrative-driven games.

3

Clue

Image: Towfiqu barbhuiya

Clue was the first mass-market game to make bluffing and deduction an explicit part of the game. During gameplay, you’re always trying to analyze your opponents’ moves and react accordingly.

A game that spawned a million more games, Clue takes its participants on a journey to solve a murder using a series of clues given throughout the session. Even if you never played it (and chances are that you have), you know it.

4

Chutes And Ladders

Image: Biao Xie

Chutes and Ladders was inspired by an ancient Indian board game that originated around the year 200 BC. The game is luck-driven; there is no strategic element to either the ancient or the modern version.

Just like in The Game of Life, the gameplay involves spinning a spinner and advancing the specified amount of spaces it indicates. Ladders move you up higher on the board, and chutes drop you down to lower spaces.

5

Risk

Image: Dave Photoz

Risk has one of the most recognizable boards of any board game, with its colorful map divided into strange countries. The focus is set on one of the oldest of human ambitions: to conquer the world.

It is not the kind of game you want to play if you only have a few minutes to spare, since the entire gameplay can take up to a few hours. But, if you have the time and at least one other player, it is well worth it.

6

Trivial Pursuit

Image: Claudia Wolff

If answering questions about different topics of general human knowledge is your thing, then Trivial Pursuit is definitely your game. The board itself is not the center of the game. It serves the purpose of marking which theme must be answered in each turn and where each player is in the gameplay.

Some prefer the questions about sports, while others hope to get the questions about culture. But there is always something for everyone.

7

Scrabble

Image: John Benitez

Another well-known board game, Scrabble is the foundation of just about every word-based tabletop game that has come since its first appearance in 1948. In this game, the pieces you work with are thrown into a bag and doled out by random chance.

You can make maneuvers to benefit yourself and to block others, but the real advantage is in the hands of those with a strong vocabulary and a good memory to recall the words at the right time.

8

Checkers

Image: Gabriel Meinert

A game so simple that it can be played and enjoyed by children, Checkers is a very straightforward strategy game, similar to Chess in some aspects (especially the board) but simpler in many others.

The gameplay, intended for two players, involves forward movements of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces.

9

Monopoly

Image: Joshua Hoehne

Another all-time modern classic, Monopoly shares a similar objective as the previously mentioned The Game of Life: finishing the game with the most properties and money possible.

Monopoly has many themed versions and variants, including popular culture themes, and digital versions. But the gist in all of them is: roll the dice, buy properties, pay rent to other players, and pray not to land on Boardwalk or Parkway Avenue, especially if there are hotels (unless you own those two).

10

Chess

Image: Randy Fath

Let us finish this list with the Game of Kings itself, Chess : the best-selling game of all time, played by countless generations across the globe. Learning the basic moves is simple; mastering them is something different altogether.

Whether you are an advanced player, an aficionado, or someone who is considering learning it, Chess is good for you. It provides excellent exercise for your brain, infinite hours of fun, and can be played at any age.