Skip to main content

5 Modern Inventions That Are Way Older Than You Think

We live in wondrous times, if you can ignore politics, most news media, most popular music, endemic xenophobia, and occasional outbreaks of horrid violence. OK, let’s try that again: We live in technologically wondrous times. Private companies routinely launch rockets into space, our phones have more data-crunching power than the super computers of yesteryear (or yester-century, anyway), and we have these cylinders in our homes that we can command to play music or answer random trivia questions.

Ah, but let’s not sit too heavily upon our laurels, my fellow modern men and women — many of the fancy, technologically advanced inventions we might think are a product of our times are actually surprisingly old.

Did you know, for example, that the first working mobile phone was developed in New Mexico the 1750s? You did? Well, it wasn’t.You have some remedial history courses to attend, sir. But don’t worry, there are lots of other other inventions that are way older than you think. Like …

The Mobile Phone – 1918

Public Domain

That’s right, the first device that can be fairly termed a mobile phone was invented during the final year of World War I. Alexander Graham Bell famously invented the telephone in the year 1876, and wireless radios were first used in 1901 (with two-way radios following five years later), but it was in 1918 that German military engineers married the two technologies and linked two telephones together without using wires. They did so by combining radio transmission and receiver technology with telephone hardware, creating a more reliable mobile communication device than the erratic radios of the day. The system was used to link trains and stations, so this mobile phone wasn’t one you could carry around in your pocket, but it was certainly mobile. The first personal-sized cellular phone that uses essentially the same technology as today’s devices was unveiled in 1973.

Contact Lenses – 1888

Adolf Fick
Commons/Wikimedia

The first functional contact lenses were developed by a German ophthalmologist named Adolf Fick in the year 1888, though the concept of a vision-correcting lens applied directly to the eye predated his invention by centuries (versions were proposed by Leonardo da Vinci and Descartes in the 16th and 17th centuries, respectively). Fick’s contacts were made of blown glass and were so large that they covered much of the eyeball, including the whites. Their use required application of a liquid between the cornea and the lens, and they could only be worn for short stretches of time (an hour or two at most) before they would cause extreme dryness and discomfort. But they worked, dammit, and probably many years before you would have expected too.

The Automobile – 1769

Public Domain/Wikimedia

More than a hundred years before the first gasoline-powered automobiles were rattling down late 19th-century roadways, a Frenchman named Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot created the first self-propelled vehicle that did not require a track. His fardier à vapeur used a steam engine with three large wooden wheels, and was intended to carry heavy loads over all sorts of terrain, primarily in military applications. In practice, the steam car was slow, poorly balanced, had to be stopped every 15 minutes for the boiler to be re-heated, and once knocked over a brick wall due to poor driving. So while perhaps a proof of concept success, it was a de facto flop.

Condoms – 16th Century

Commons/Wikimedia

While a practical condom was not widely available until the 1800s, the concept dates back at least to the 1500s, and perhaps even farther. Renaissance era Italian physician Gabriele Falloppio is most notable for the fallopian tubes named in his honor, but can also be thought of as the father of the condom. While writing about the then deadly disease syphilis, he proposed use of a linen sheath treated with chemicals be used to cover the penis during sex, thereby preventing transmission of the affliction. These fabric condoms were shorter than later varieties, covering only the glans, and they had to be kept in place with a string. One would understand, then, if a gentleman of the era chose abstinence instead.

Vaccines – 10th Century

Commons/Wikimedia

While today everyone who isn’t an idiot knows that vaccines prevent all sorts of serious disease and don’t cause other ill effects, for most of human history we had no way to prevent viral sickness. However, people have been vaccinating themselves against viruses for longer than you might think. Many regard British surgeon Edward Jenner as the father of vaccination thanks to his 18th-century work using cowpox exposure as a vaccine against the more serious smallpox disease, but evidence of smallpox vaccination actually dates back hundreds of years before his birth. In 10th-century China, a technique involving nasal inhalation of dried smallpox scabs proved effective at preventing later development of the disease. Whether there were anti-vaxxers a thousand years ago is a mystery for the ages.

Editors' Recommendations

Steven John
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven John is a writer and journalist living just outside New York City, by way of 12 years in Los Angeles, by way of…
Everything points to Apple TV+ making a change you’re not going to like
Is an ad-supported tier coming to Apple TV+?
The Apple TV Plus Logo

It turns out that TV worked pretty well under its old model. According to a new report from Business Insider, Apple TV+ may be the latest streaming service that's set to introduce an ad-supported tier and charge those who don't stream with ads a premium fee to access their great shows and movies.

At this point, the report is still speculation, but Apple has made several recent hires in the advertising space that seem to suggest the direction they're planning to take. The company recently hired former NBCUniversal ad executive Joseph Cady to serve as executive vice president of advanced advertising and partnerships, a move that comes following the company's hiring of another former NBCUniversal executive, Jason Frum, who joined Apple's video ad sales team.

Read more
From Gilda Radner to Ali Wong, these are the best female comedians of all time
These women from all generations will make you laugh out loud
Ai Wong comedian 2017 Moontower comedy festival

Hot take: I don’t care for straight male comedians. It’s not that they’re not funny, they’re just … I don’t know, boring? Maybe that’s reductive of me, but I never seem to leave a straight male comedian’s set feeling particularly inspired. And though some may argue that it’s not important for a set to "inspire" its audience, I’d actually argue that the opposite is true. For me, I want to see a comedian use humor to address real issues and say real things about the world, even if they do it in a completely goofy way.

Therefore, I tend to prefer female and female-identified comedians. They’re sharp, tough, and have often seen shit that makes their comedy feel raw and true. Undoubtedly there are male comedians who do this, too, but to a much lesser degree, in my very humble and very personal opinion.

Read more
12 classic sci-fi books everyone should read
If you love science fiction and reading, these classic sci-fi novels are a must
Man reading a book and drinking coffee

It may feel like we were recently living in a science-fiction dystopia life -- and in some ways, we were -- but that doesn't mean that we should simply avoid an entire genre of writing. Hardly. In fact, this is probably the perfect time to explore classic sci-fi books, to see what the masters have written, and maybe even see if someone predicted anything like this. Many, though, simply ignore sci-fi wholly and completely because of an association with robots, aliens, and the like.

Long story short, if you think you don't like sci-fi, you have never read great books from the genre. But indeed, many such books abound, including a number that has delighted generations of readers going back well over 150 years. In fact, one of the best things about so many sci-fi books is their very timelessness. As by definition, this type of fiction breaks away from the norms of the everyday world -- whether slightly twisting things or taking place on entire other worlds -- the stories often feel as fresh and relevant today as when they were published decades ago.

Read more