Los Angeles
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Classic Saxophone
This type of saxophone was especially popular because it is pitched in the key of C. Popular in the Roaring Twenties, a saxophone pitched in the key of C made it easier to play sheet music from other instruments, including the piano, without having to transpose the music into a different key.
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Edison Lightbulb
This unique lightbulb could be an Edison bulb from the 1890s once owned by Thomas Edison’s chief engineer. In 1879, Thomas Edison discovered that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free lightbulb glowed, but did not last long. He eventually created a bulb that could burn for 1,500 hours. Edison was a prolific inventor—over the course of his life, he drew up 1,093 successful U.S. patent applications, the first when he was only 21.
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Fish Fossil
This intricate fish fossil was discovered by construction workers installing a swimming pool in the Los Angeles area. It is actually a fossil herring called Xyne grex, and dates back to the late Miocene epoch, about 10 to 12 million years ago. The word "xyne" comes from the meaning "comrade"—scientists found thousands of these fish fossils in one concentrated area, as if they all died together in one mass kill.
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Dino Leg Bone
This dinosaur bone is most likely from a Stegosaur, which roamed the Earth in the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. Although they would have likely been fierce adversaries, the Stegosaur and Tyrannosaurnever had the pleasure of meeting each other. The Stegosaur was extinct for about 80 million years before the Tyrannosaur appeared, during the Cretaceous period. While quite large (the Stegosaur weighed approximately four tons), its brain is believed to have been no larger than that of a dog's.
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Antique Rifle
In the 1800s, during the American expansion westward, a good rifle meant the difference between life and death, sustainance and starvation. It also meant protection—not just for the individual, but for the country at large.
