Picture this. It's 1923, and you're a construction worker, standing in a Kansas field, looking at a fresh trench that goes on for miles and miles… seemingly forever. The Sinclair Oil company dug it for their new pipeline, and now it's your job to take the dirt that's piled up on both sides and smooth it all out with… a shovel, some wood, and a mule. Feeling overwhelmed yet? Well, if necessity is the mother of invention, Capitalism is the father. Because the longer James Cummings watched this exact scene from his nearby farm, the more he reckoned those deep-pocketed oil men would pay big money for a new idea to speed things up. So as those mules and shovels pushed and plodded and dragged along… inspiration struck our mechanically-minded farmer like a summer Kansas thunderstorm! James wrote to Sinclair Oil, and after getting the “OK, show us your idea,” he grabbed local draftsman Earl McCloud and headed to the junkyard. They took a Model T car frame, bolted in tractor parts, added other odds and ends like old windmill springs, and most importantly- attached a large blade to the front capable of pushing a lot of dirt. Sinclair Oil was so impressed that they awarded James and Earl the rest of that pipeline construction contract. And when their groundbreaking innovation (sorry couldn't resist) was later combined with the Holt Company's now famous Caterpillar treads, the bulldozer became virtually unstoppable, and mules all over the world (especially in Kansas) rejoiced.

Illuminating Moments in American History
From the accidental invention of the microwave to the love story of rubber gloves, these 68 animated video shorts (shadow puppet style!) chronicle the history of unexpected American innovation.

Produced, written, and directed by Nathan Marsh. Art and Animation by Joel West and Isaac Windham. Sound by Scott Sprague. Narration by Carol Munse.