Alexander Graham Bell's 1880 photophone vibrated a mirror with speech and reconstructed the sound from a modulated beam of sunlight.

Niuafo'ou's remote mail service used swimmers, canoes, and sealed biscuit tins to exchange letters with passing ships.

Mechanical engineer Elis Stenman built a Rockport summer house whose paper walls and furniture were made by rolling and varnishing old newspapers.

Stanhope novelties placed microphotographs behind tiny lenses hidden in pens, sewing tools, jewelry, and other ordinary objects.

A jeweled folding implement in the British Museum packs dining utensils, writing tools, grooming tools, and two tiny dice into one object.

For the 1925 World’s Fair, André Citroën’s name appeared in giant illuminated letters on three faces of the Eiffel Tower.

Rare Kafka manuscripts, sketches, letters, and a Hebrew-learning notebook eventually joined the Max Brod Archive at the National Library of Israel.

Two trunks intercepted at Heathrow held a survey of Mesopotamian writing so complete that its very perfection helped reveal a modern forgery workshop.

Archaeologists at Fort Stanwix recovered a four-centimeter Frozen Charlotte doll manufactured inside a glass vial whose intended use remains unknown.

John Giorno’s Dial-A-Poem turned answering machines and ordinary telephone lines into a free, citywide poetry broadcast.