American Museum of Radio & Electricity

Description:

• Nowadays, I-Pods, MP3s, and DVDs are so much a part of everyday life that it is easy to forget that sound recording is barely 100 years old. At this not-to-be-missed museum in downtown Bellingham, you can examine more than 800 antique radios (mostly pre-1930s wooden table-top models) and lots of other unusual instruments of early electrical technology. Among the displays is a mock-up of the radio room from the Titanic, and if you're lucky, a curator might demonstrate the Tesla coil, which can generate enough electricity to light up a fluorescent light several feet away. There's an original Theremin, sort of a forerunner to modern electronic synthesizers.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010