Islamic Empire

Wipe the tears from your eyes, the smoke has cleared and we have moved ahead to the mid-7th century to the mid-13th century. The city of Baghdad is a center of learning and innovations that rivaled Ancient Athens and Ancient Rome, a new intellectual epicenter has emerged!

Medieval Scribes

Our Jewish, Muslim, and Christian friends worked to translate these ever important texts in varying languages. Certainly the completion of the double, sometimes triple translation (Greek into Arabic, Arabic into Latin, and sometimes Spanish) is one of the most fruitful scholarly enterprises ever undertaken!

Moveable Type Printing Press

Finally! We get some help. Some folks thought it was nuts to keep writing this stuff out and created a template by carving into a wood block. This actually continued to serve well for illustrations but not for the text. Surely there must be another way! Introducing the – the Moveable Type Printing Press!

Renaissance: Italy, Books, and Bowlcuts

Behold! The Renaissance, a time of renewed interest in the worlds of poetry and music, science, philosophy and art. The Renaissance led to a flowering of music, literature and art, and architecture. Buckle up, because this one is a series of scenes that culminates in an animatronic extravaganza!

Renaissance: Music, Painting, and Sculpture

Making music for private family pleasure or small gatherings played a major role in the 16th century and required new print technology to print musical type which became an important sector for the European book trade.

The Majesty of the Sistine ceiling

The Sistine Chapel ceiling’s most famous panel, entitled “The Creation of Adam.” is painted before our eyes by Michelangelo Buonarroti as we are surrounded by the sounds of Hallelujahs.

Industrial Revolution: “Extra! Extra!”

Fast forward 350 years! This scene of the ride introduces us to the start of the Industrial Revolution – where communication changes from word of mouth over trade routes and books to the daily dissemination of information.

Industrial Revolution: Electric Telegraph

The electric telegraph system sent and received electrical signals over long-distance wires and revolutionized communications in the 1900’s. It took a newly found understanding of electromagnetism to achieve its success.

Industrial Revolution: Telephone

We see a bunch of telephone wires connecting to homes. Based on how well lit the homes appear to be from the windows, we might also guess this is an urban area with electricity in their homes too. This amount of wires is NOT an exaggeration!

Industrial Revolution: Radio

A crucial achievement in communication technology – wireless communication! Radio brings us long distance transmission without the wires (you know, like your magic band!). The technology was around in the early 1900’s and was a useful tool for Naval communications where putting up wires between ships wasn’t feasible.