10 Forgotten Predecessors Of ‘Modern’ Technologies

Many of the things we call “modern” have been around for decades, centuries, and in some cases, millennia. This includes technologies that we believe to be revolutionary. Although their predecessors are largely forgotten, they were considered to be revolutionary in their time, too.

10 Music Streaming

We stream music over the Internet today, but our grandparents streamed it over the telephone in 1906. The music they streamed was provided by a piece of extinct music equipment called the telharmonium (aka dymanophone), a massive machine that was 18 meters (60 ft) long, weighed 200 tons, and occupied an entire floor. Interestingly, only two people were required to play it. The New Way Things Work David Macaulay Best Price: $1.81 Buy New $29.95 (as of 10:39 UTC - Details)

It was invented by Thaddeus Cahill, who built the prototype in 1901 and began streaming in 1906. Listeners simply called their telephone switchboard operator and requested a connection to the telharmonium station. One of its first users was the famous writer Mark Twain, who said he needed to postpone his death so he could listen to music from the telharmonium. He even traveled to Manhattan just to see the wonderful device that made such “sweet music.”

Unfortunately, the telharmonium suffered several setbacks that finally led to its demise in 1916. First, its signals were so poor at times that listeners only heard faint, distorted music. Second, its wires were laid so close to telephone wires that the sounds of the telharmonium often disturbed phone calls. Finally, its investors felt the returns they received on their investments in the telharmonium were too small.

9 Robots

9-duck-robot

Photo via Wikimedia

The world’s first robot was a wooden dove made by Archytas of Tarentum in 350 BC. The dove, which is sometimes referred to as the world’s first drone, could remain in flight for about 200 meters (650 ft). Hero of Alexandria later came up with a similar bird that could sing. Jacques de Vaucanson of France designed a mechanical duck he called the “clockwork canard.”

The clockwork canard (shown above) could quack, stand, bow, drink, eat, and even poop. However, it could not walk because it stood on a fixed point on a podium that housed the system of pulleys and cables controlling it.

Credit for the first humanlike robot goes to Leonardo da Vinci, who created a “robot knight” in 1495. The knight could stand, sit, walk, raise its arms, move its head, and open and close its mouth. Da Vinci’s robot knight was so good that NASA is using his designs to create a robot that may explore Mars and possibly man the International Space Station.

Amazon.com $25 Gift Ca... Buy New $25.00 (as of 11:45 UTC - Details) 8 Smartwatches

The world’s first smartwatch was the HP-01. It was made by Hewlett-Packard in 1977, 17 years before the world’s first smartphone. Unlike the smartwatches of today, the HP-01 could not make phone calls, send messages, or connect to the Internet.

Instead, it had a timer, stopwatch, calendar, reminder, alarm clock, calculator, and daily planner. It also lacked a touch screen, and users could only interact with it using its 28 buttons. But the buttons were so small that they could only be clicked with a stylus.

The HP-01 was waterproof and powered by three batteries, six chips, and about 38,000 resistors, which was impressive for a time when computers only had two kilobytes of RAM. Two years after its introduction, the HP-01 went out of production due to poor sales. Its premium price—$650 for its stainless steel version and $750 for its gold-coated version—made it too expensive for many consumers.

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