Technology applied to Halloween has made things safer and more fun for the spookiest night of the year.

Kevin Clemens

October 24, 2018

9 Slides

Halloween used to be a neighborhood celebration, with homemade costumes and a flickering candle inside a carved out pumpkin on the front porch. Today, Americans shell out more than $8.4 billion on Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations. The market has grown more than 70% in the past ten years and it continues to grow.

As consumers purchase more of their Halloween needs ready-made, the technology to support the celebration has kept pace. Growing enough pumpkins to supply demand requires agriculture on an industrial scale. Silicon and latex rubber masks are designed by CAD engineers, while the animatronics of home displays and commercial haunted houses requires the skills of mechanical engineers.

Here, then, are a few of the ways that technology and engineering have become part of trick or treat.

Senior Editor Kevin Clemens has been writing about energy, automotive, and transportation topics for more than 30 years. He has masters degrees in Materials Engineering and Environmental Education and a doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in aerodynamics. He has set several world land speed records on electric motorcycles that he built in his workshop.

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