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It can be easy to think that each piece ofhigh technology, every convenience in the modern saving world is a relatively recent invention. Things likesocial media, brain surgery and video games are luxuries that have become widely available over the last hundred years - or less. But in some cases, the things we assume are recent additions to civilization have actually been with us for centuries. Here are 30 inventions with much older backstories than most of us grew up believe. And for some innovations that could go the way to Dodo, consult the25 things that could become obsolete in the next 5 years.

You probably heard thatAlexander Graham Bell Do not deserve all the credit forinvent the phone. But if you think American Italian engineerAntonio Meuckci was the real master behind that, youalways Do not have the right guy. As it turns out, we must come back even further in history to find the real origins.

The first telephone in the world, invented by the Civilization Chemu, was discovered during the excavations in Peru during the 1930s, according to the National Museum of the American Indian of Smithsonian (NMAI). It is only two gourds connected by a string cord and was used by "elite" members of the Chemu company who were not allowed to have a face-to-face contact with their underwear. As a preservative NMAIRamiro Matos explained in an interviewWith the Smithsonian, "It comes from the consciousness of an Aboriginal society without written language." And for other modern innovations, check these25 new brilliant inventions that will make your life so easier.

If you thoughtPong's Beginning in 1972 was the beginning of the video game history, you are off a few decades. The first video game was invented by a physics teacher namedThomas Goldsmith, Jr., whopatented an electronic game Based on military radar screens from the Second World War. The "cathode ray tube fun device", as it called, involved a cathode ray tube connected to an oscilloscope, which used light trajectories to create the effect of missiles being targeted. But Goldsmith, Jr. unfortunately never managed to raise enough funds to release his play in the trade. And if you were aPonglover, check20 things every year 70 children remember.

The conventional history is that the iPod was invented in California in 2001. This can be technically true, but the iPod is far from the first portable music player. This title belongs to the IXI system, created more than 20 years earlier by the amateur inventorKane Kramer And his best boyfriend,James Campbell.

As they launched it to investors, it was the size of a cigarette pack and came up with a display screen and a memory chip that can store three minutes of music to three and a half of music. Not much, of course - and it did not help that no one had personal computers at the time, so they had to visit shops to download a new music. According toCable, their idea "Strangely prefers the iTunes store and just about any modern online music store".

You do not need celluloid to make animation - and a group of discovery caves in Lascaux, France, created during a period when humans have always hunted woolly mammoths, is the proof. The drawings in motion of horses who seem galloping, and birds that seem to patter their wings - could only be considered with glittering grease lamps that have been placed by hundreds around the cave.

AsMarc Azéma, Paleolithic researcher and filmmaker,explained in a paperThe paintings in the cave "have invented the principle of sequential animation, based on the properties of retinal persistence." This has been achieved by showing a series of juxtaposed or superimposed images of the same animal. Demonstrate how it worked, AZEMAmake a videoShowing how cave paintings played tricks on the eyes to make it seem like the animals were really moving. And if you like a good animation movie, here's16 classic family movies to broadcast with your children.

In 1997,Archaeologists discovered an old grave In the French village of Ensisheim which contained the long-term body of a 50-year-old man with two holes in his skull. After a careful examination of the skull, it was determined that the two holes, located near the frontal lobe, were susceptible of surgery rather than a blunt force trauma.

More remarkable, the surgery, which involved drilling there is in more than 7000 man's skull, seems to have been successful. The two healed wounds before the patient's death. Nobody knows exactly what the operation tried to correct, but, according to a writer forDiscoverIt probably involves a lot of "cutting and scraping of age stone tools were certainly up to it. Silex knives are actually sharper than modern scalpels. And for Invention Trivia, see these30 inventions that change the life that were totally accidental.

The kind of automatic door, we took the habit in modern times wasinvented by two Texans in 1954But the concept of an opening of the door of his own will have been imagined by a Greek mathematician and name engineerHero (or Heron) of Alexandria.

Hehas come With the self-opening door as a way to add drama and gravitas to religious ceremonies. The complicated mechanism involved with pulleys and buckets, and aims to make real believers think that a divine entity had opened doors with invisible hands. Hero even had asystem to create the sound of trumpets When the door opened, because a Greek God is not about to make an entry without trumpet fanfare.

Another contribution to global culture by Hero d'Alexandria. The mathematician has also come with aAutomatic distributor type device Ensure that people are no longer delivered to holy water in the Egyptian temples.

T Worked in the same way as today's automatic distributors do: you put coins in the top and the weight of the coin open a valve that lets flow bottle on. But finally, the room slipped out of the tray and the TAC lever to the TAC, and more would be released without additional funds. Thus, thefirst automatic distributors are not trying to attract yourself with sodas or salty snacks, just h sacramental₂O.

The first person to imagine a computer did not have any online shopping or word processing visions; He just wanted a machine to calculate the polynomial functions.Charles Babbage, A British mathematician and mechanical engineer, came with the idea of ​​a computer (or "DIFFERENCE ENGINE N ° 1, "As he called it) in 1821. It was essentially a glorified calculator ... which arrived to weigh around three tons and consisted of 4000 different pieces.

The British government has invested £ 1,700 in its invention, but apparently it was not enough, as Babbage never completed a work prototype. However, this does not mean that it has never seen the light of day: In the 1980s, engineers built their own version of the Babbage computer according to its notes, and it remains displayed at theHistory of Science Museum in Oxford.

There was no TwitterFacebook During the 16th century, but at least for young people in what is today the Netherlands, there was near something. They called it "Alba amicorum,"Latin "books of friends. » Instead, it has the same today the social media, except everything was contained in the physical books that were passed around friends and social knowledge. When it was your turn with the book, you can write gossip on friends, tell jokes, words from your favorite songs, and even militate on politics.

Earle Havens, The Conservative of rare books and manuscripts at Johns Hopkins University,in an interviewthat the similarities are not only a coincidence: "I think the social media is a late form of the book of friendship very often, when the technologies come out, people think of them like this brand new thing that falls from the sky when in. Reality, Facebook is doing simply something we need to do it for a long time ". And if you want to reduce social media, here's20 ways of Genius to kill time without smartphone.

Decades before homewomen had cameras after their movement and all the back so whenSurvivor producerMark Burnett was still a preadolescent-show first reality was presented to a television audience, and on PBS, from all places. TitleAn American family, The 1973 series followed Woman at home Santa Barbarapatch, her husbandThe strong bill, and their five children during a difficult year. The show was a success, with10 million viewers each week watch pat and wedding Bill disintegrate, and see their son launchescloset.

An American family shattered limits: in addition to being the first series of reality, it was also theFirst representation of a gay person on a program of Primetime.

It's notexactly Ice cream - or at least not the recipe that makes children hunt ice cream trucks during summer emperor but RomanNero Claudius Caesar, who lived by 54 C.E. at 86 C.e., allegedly sent his servants to the mountains forCollect fresh snowWhich leaders of Nero would enjoy with honey, nectar and fruit pulp.

But he took innovators from the Tang dynasty to put the "cream" in ice cream. The snow cone of the poor man who went for dessert does not cut it for Chinese emperors. So, about 618 C.E., theyA modified the recipe By adding fermented buffalo milk and goat, which was thickened by flour, flavored with camphor and served as ice. And for more ancient ancecriptions, here is27 facts about ancient Rome that are strangely relevant today.

In 1783, KEEN Amateur Waver and Scientific WatchmakerJ. J. Schweppe introduces theFirst gaseous drink for sale to the public, Colorated with his delicious "soda water" to thirsty customers in Geneva. In just seven years, it was as fast as it moved its factory in London and introduced a new flavor (sparkling lemon) to stand out from competitors.

But the oldest soda in the world is actuallyDr. PepperNo Coca-Cola, like most people believe. The drink was invented in a pharmacy in Waco, Texas, in 1885, a full year before the coke arrived on the market. Dr. Pepper was originally called "Waco", but he was soon renamed after a doctor friend of the owner of the pharmacy,Charles Pepper.

In the 7th century, the Byzantine Empire had a secret weapon to keep the enemies away:Greek fire. Invented by a Syrian refugee and an engineer namedCallinicusIn 678 C.e. It was a very combustible fluid that can be sprayed from a siphon to enemy ships and ignite in contact. It remained pretty much everything he was targeted and the water could not stop him.

The formula is always wrapped in historians suspect mysteries that it contained ingredients such as oil, height, sulfur, pine or cedar resin, and perhaps a lime, but there were also Secret ingredients that made it so unsthallengeable and totally destructive. Apart from all the burning fire, the Greek fire gave Byzantine armies a psychological advantage as well, because "the bellows used to heat the liquid created a terrifying noise" and the spray has been shot at tubes resembling wild beasts. who "seemed to shit fire,"According to a historian.

If you thought the internet was necessary for the diffusion of music, you could not be more false. The concept of music music appeared for the first time in a subsoil of New York, with a gigantic device - about 220 feet longTelharmonium, patented in 1898. Invented by a lawyer namedThaddeus CahillHe mainly transmitted from music through Midtown Manhattan, restaurants, hotels and even houses, by phone.

The music has been realized live on an organ on the first floor, but the magic occurred in the basement, with a device which, according to 1906McClure story, gave "the impression of nothing as much as a machine-occupied machine, or the center of a considerable manufacturing industry".

So how does it work? As theMcClure The journalist explained, the electrical waves of Telharmonium sent by the large central machine are transformed, by the familiar device of the phone, in sound waves and reach our ears as symphonies, lullaber or other music, to the will of the players. "

Almost a century before theNintendo entertainment system Taken the world by the storm, becoming one of the most popular consoles of all time, Nintendo was just a Humble Japanese company specializing in playing cards.Fusajiro Yamauchi, a 29-year-old entrepreneur, launched the company in Kyoto, Japan, in 1889, to produceHanafuda cards (translated as "flower cards"). The cards have become a global-Nintendo phenomenon even made a deal withWalt Disney In 1959 to sellplaying cards with printed disney characters next, which sold 600,000 packages in their first year alone, but were not compared to the video game revolution to follow.

It was the grandson of the son-in-law of Fusajiro,Hiroshi Yamauchi, who took risks with Nintendo, to see if the world would be interested in a video game on an Italian plumber Moustache jumping on barrels projected by an oversized gorilla. Well ... you know how this story ends.

Few ancient Romans had luxury home like kitchens or extravagances dining rooms. When they wanted a hot meal, they got it on the street, a fast food that delivered classic fare for the Romans occupied on the road. Roman Fast Food Restaurants, or "Thermopolia", Which translates into" places where hot drinks are sold "as -were McDonald, but with alcohol.

They opened in the streets, and had large counters where most customers were sitting and sangped on the Roman equivalent of a Big Mac and fries, which apparently involved a lot of lentils, meat, cheese and a Wine spice warmed. as a historianJames Ermatingerexplained in his bookThe world of ancient rome"The food was hot and ready for sale, and was ready to be eaten on the race rather than sit down. »

The said "Baghdad battery, "Just outside Baghdad in 1938, was a pot of clay with an asphalt plug of 250 before our era an iron bar rook through the asphalt, and was surrounded by a copper cylinder . Testing at the General Electric Laboratory High Voltage in Massachusetts showed that the pot had once filled with a substance such as vinegar, and when the researchers made replicas, it wasable to produce up to two volts electricity!

If you need proof that sometimes the most spectacular ideas come from most unlikely places, get this: theoriginal idea for a submarine was first suggested by a innkeeper namedWilliam BourneIn 1578. Certainly, he was also a mathematician of genius. The prototype of Bourne submarine, the plans for which he self-published in his bookInventions or designs, Was made of wood, surrounded by waterproof leather, and was fully powered by rowing. But because he was more of a man of an idea that an engineer, he never had the opportunity to test his theories.

However, in the 1620s,Cornelius van Drebbel, "The inventor of the Court" forJacques I of England,constructed it is generally recognized as the first working submarine. It was basically just a well-isolated rowing boat with 12 rowers traveling under the tagging at depths up to 15 feet below the surface.

When you hear the nameLeonardo DeVinci, Your first thought is probably not, "Oh, it's the guy whoInvented contact lenses" But it's the truth! In his book 1508Eye Codex, Manual D, Da Vinci explained how a cornea could be reinforced by contacting it with water, whether it is immersing a face in a bowl of water or carrying glass hemispheres filled with water.

But it was a little practical idea that was not successfully tested until 1887, when German physiologistAdolf Eugen Fick Creates a heavy blown glass contact lens that protects the cornea with a dextrose solution.

The first mechanical staircase was invented byNathan Ames, A Harvard graduate lawyer who also wrotePoetry on pirates. His patent 1859 for the stairs he called "Turning stairs, "Would allow people to, like Ames described," go up and down a floor of a building to another, without exercising muscle strength. In other words, the only people who use renewable stairs would be "sick, seniors, and infirm".

Although Ames never had around the construction of a set of its innovative stairs, a version of it in first as a turn of novelty to Coney Island in 1896. Created by the engineerJesse Reno, Who called his invention a "inclined lift, "It was just a vertical platform without steps and handrails included so that passengers end up sliding down as children on a playground. Reno insisted that his invention was obviouslysuperior to the vertical elevators... because people are treated by it permanently and without delay and without companion is necessary ".

When you think of 3D movies, you probably think of 1953 classicWaxor 2009 ofAvatar, Who used Reald 3D technology. But 3D has been around a lot, much longer than one of these movies. TheFirst 3D cinematographic fiction was a silent movie 1922 calledThe power of love, A novel about the two lovers who have to murder his misguided before being able to be together.

The original idea of ​​the producerHarry K. Fairalland director of the photoRobert F. ElderThree-dimensional effects were created with a "dual strip" in red and green anaglyphic format "which required members of the public to wear anaglyphic glasses. Whether because of the special effects or parcel, the film does not have Large. He exceeded twice twice in Los Angeles and soon after, in New York, before disappearing forever.

Before the 6th century, rich people used objects like wool and lace, and the poor rinsed in rivers or second-hand leaves or even algae to keep itself clean. But in China, especially among the richest citizens, the paper was the favorite choice for self-cleaning after a bathroom visit. TheFirst record of paper used in the bathroom from the Chinese-official scholarYan ZhituiEN 589 C.E. Of course, the Chinese treated with what kind of paper they used. Yanobserved that "paper on which there are quotes or comments from theFive classics or the names of the wise, I do not dare to use fortoilet. "

In the worldFirst earthquake detection machine was dreamed by the Chinese inventorZhang HengIn 132 C.e., and that looked like somethingGame Of Thrones. It is basically a bronze ship surrounded by eight dragons, each with a small bronze ball in his mouth. How it worked, exactly, is something of a mystery. SomeHistorians have theorized A pendulum in the center of the ship would be moved by a seismic activity, which would lead to one of the dragons to spit a ball and give a general geographical direction of the tremors. Officials could therefore send help.

Designed by the French engineerNicolas-Joseph Cugnot,CE 1769 Early prototypeInvented even before the American Revolution, was a tricycle powered by a stream engine and yes, it was exactly as great as it sounds. There were some disadvantages, of course. He only moved about two miles per hour and he had to stop every 15 minutes to recharge.

In 1771, this caused the first car accident when Cugnot led its creation in a brick wall. Unsurprisingly, his investors quickly lost interest, deciding that a strange bike that takes place as quickly as a very sick horse while looking at considerably Sillier, may not be the wave of the future.

If you lived in an old Rome and that you were quite rich to allow it, a system called "hypocaust"It emerged around 350 BCE could keep your house nice and frightening during the winters. He involved lift the floor of the house at least two feet above the ground with a series of pillars in brick, mortar or concrete. In this space. empty, wouldThe ovens that burned fire constantlyand hot air circulates under the ground and in chimneys integrated into the walls. A little ingenious engineering, as long as you could be comfortable knowing that all your home was based on an endless fire pit.

Modern SMS is not the first time we needed a shortcut during communication with others. With the arrival of the telegraph at the end of the 19th century, people were suddenlycapable of communicating with friends and family who lived far. But it was also expensive-customers were invoiced not per word or phrase, but by letter. So they developed what was called "Telegram style" to reduce costs.

Like aNew York Times The author explained In 1890, a "greeting can be accompanied by a survey of a health survey of the other, which would therefore be expressed:" HW R U Ts MNG? "And the answer would be: 'I'm Pty WL; HW R U?' "Just like children today, basically!

Fax machines did not really become the norm until the 1980s, but their history goes up more than a century before that. The veryFirst fax was invented by the Scottish mechanic and the amateur clockAlexandre bathIn 1843, using mechanisms disposed of the clocks of its creation.

This worked like this: a stylus, as you might find on a recording reader, was mounted on a pendulum, where he scanned a flat metal surface and picked up transmitted images. Because he used the telegraph technology and worked in the same way as the Morse Code, InventorSamuel Morse filed a trial against bath, which has essentially ended with bath fax aspirations.

Twenty years later, physicistGiovanni Caselli Created a more advanced fax device called "pantelegrap, "he revealed toNapoleon BonaparteIn 1860. As the French emperor watched in astonishment, Caselli delivered the signature of a popular French composer over a distance of 140 kilometers between Paris and Amiens.

Chemist and photographerTurner Edward Raymond Used a process that he patented in 1899 involving a rotary disc filter disc to create theVery first color film (which has his children playing on a swing and soldiers walking). Not exactly captivating cinema, but much older than movies that we usually associate with being the first filmed films of color, likeMagician or oz andWandered. Unfortunately, Turner died - of a heart attack at only 30 years - before being able to continue his research and refine the technology.

The beer is so old, the old Sumerians drank it (and sometimes sometimes too much of that) for 2,000 years before the wheel was invented. AsGuide to the World of Beer authorMichael Jackson onceclaims, "There is a perfectly respectable academic theory that civilization has begunwith beer. "

But these first lagors of 6000s B.C. tasted nothing like what we consume today. As a yeast geneticistKevin VANTREPEN explained in an interviewThese Neolithic breweries were "probably a little bitter", because the smaller brewing methods do not prevent the bacteria and had "certain rotten aromas".