The last two hundred years were filled with fantastic inventions. Looking back and looking ahead, I marvel at how technology and simple tools have changed. What would my life be like without some of these amazing creations?
What did people do before Joseph Gayetty gave us “The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty’s medicated paper for the water-closet”? Before the invention and production of toilet paper, the options included leaves, communal sponges on a stick, seashells, and stones. Do you see why I called our modern resources fantastic inventions?
In addition to fantastic inventions of hygiene, gaining access to information and instant socialization have changed our world. My middle school students grew up in a world where cell phones were eternal. They couldn’t imagine life without phones with their hands permanently attached to a device. I’m still trying to remember where I laid mine.
I love reading historical accounts of people like Laura Ingalls Wilder and learning how she survived without the modern conveniences we take for granted.
Changing Times
I’m reading The Carving of Mount Rushmore by Rex Alan Smith, published by Abbeville Press in New York in 1985. Smith, in describing the early 1920s, writes:
“It was a time of creative ferment—a time when inventions and creative accomplishments were occurring so rapidly that yesterday’s marvel was today’s commonplace, yesterday’s luxury was today’s necessity, and records set on one day were broken on the next. ..Every day more of even the most modest homes were being equipped with indoor plumbing, and with electricity and such attendant gadgets as electric iceboxes and irons and fans and washing machines.”
So, let’s travel back through the last two centuries to see when our fantastic inventions came about. Below is a timeline quiz on 1800 and 1900 inventions. You can print the quiz and answer key for yourself or play at the next family gathering. Don’t forget to email or comment and let me know how you did on the quiz.
First Inventions
You’ll notice the automobile is not on the list. Clock, steam, and motor-driven vehicles appeared as early as 1649! Carl Benz of Germany is credited with the first engine-driven car, his Motorwagen, which was built in 1885. But we can’t overlook the Flocken Elekrowagen, the first four-wheeled electric car produced by Bavarian inventor Andreas Flocken in 1888.
It isn’t easy to pinpoint some inventions. An inventor may have had the essential idea, but not in a practical form. Another inventor would make improvements. Then, a usable design would emerge. Finally, a person or company would make the device available to the public. I’ve read four washing machine accounts and found four different original inventors mentioned. Who deserves the first inventor credit? Who knows?
Imagine what devices are still to come. I’m hoping for a machine that gently but thoroughly dismantles jigsaw puzzles. That would be a fantastic invention!
Don’t worry, dear family—when I sit down to play the next round of Timeline, I will have forgotten every one of these. Forgetting is something I’m really good at. (Reader, if you enjoyed this quiz, check out the Zygomatic Timeline Twist Card Game.
Play the Fantastic Inventions Game
Centuries-Old Inventions Answer Key
Learn More:
Inventions of the 1920s timeline
Wikipedia – Timeline of United States inventions (1890-1945)
Thought Co. – The Most Important Inventions of the 19th Century
Thought Co. – Top Inventions From the 1950s through the 1990s