Inventions Which Didn’t Change Over Time
Another invention which has been around for thousands of years is cement. The ancient Egyptians used a type of cement. They used calcined gypsum. The best cement was used by the Romans, and it is thought it was better than what we use today. The Romans figured out how to create cement which would dry underwater and which got harder as years passed by. Supposedly the secret ingredient was volcanic ash. People have struggled for years trying to duplicate the qualities of the Roman cement. Sometimes the simplest of things remain almost unchanged for hundreds and thousands of years. One of these simple inventions is the fork. The ancient Egyptians had forks. Some large ones were used in preparing food. Ancient Greeks had forks, but it is believed the personal fork didn’t come into use until the 4th century in the Eastern Roman Empire. Except for the fact some had two tangs while others had three, ancient forks looked pretty much like the ones we use today. If you thought antibiotics were a recent discovery, you couldn’t be more incorrect. While the discovery is credited to Alexander Fleming in 1928, the ancient Egyptians knew about it. Not only did they know, they put tetracycline into their drinks so they would stay healthy. Tetracycline is considered a modern-day antibiotic, but it really isn’t. It makes one wonder what effect taking this in drinks had on the Egyptians over a long period of time. The rubber ball has been around since 1600 B.C. It was invented by ancient Mesoamericans as far as we can tell. They made different sizes and used them in ball games and burnt them in offerings. The ones we have today are pretty much the same, except for the fact we now have vulcanized rubber. The rubber ball will probably remain the same for the foreseeable future. Another simple invention which has remained just about the same is the pencil. I am talking about those yellow pencils we all are familiar with. The pencil was first described in 1565 by Swiss physician Conrad Gesner as a writing rod in a wooden case. I think this pretty much says it all. One of the few newer related inventions was the mechanical pencil, but it was still a writing rod only in a metal or plastic case and did not displace that familiar yellow pencil. One thing most of us forget is books are very ancient inventions. Yes, there was writing before books on tablets and various other objects such as scrolls and papyrus, but books have been around a very long time. The first printed books appeared in China sometime between 600 to 900 A.D. The methods for creating the early books was wood block printing, which took a lot of time. About 1048 A.D. a Chinese invention made it easier to print books and that was moveable type. Gutenberg improved the process and was given credit by many for inventing movable type, but in fact his method appeared many hundreds of years after the invention. Books have remained pretty much the same since then. Jewelry has remained pretty much the same over the years. There has not been a revolution in it except for the fact it may have gotten cheaper if we are discussing costume jewelry. If a piece of jewelry was dug up and could be made to look like new, modern people who were not experts might think it was a modern piece of jewelry. The major differences which we wouldn’t notice would be the cut of some stones and the methods used to shape the jewelry or add ornate designs around it. Rings are still pretty much the same, but modern rings are somewhat more advanced than those of thousands of years ago. One invention which has managed to still stay around even though it faces high tech competition is the record player. It was invented by Edison and originally used cylinders of wax, but today uses flat records with grooves which a needle plays over as the record spins. The only difference is in the audio system attached to it, but it still works basically the same way that first record player developed by Edison worked. The ball point pen is essentially the same as it was when invented by László Bíró in the 1930s. The ink has been improved and the pen now comes in far less expensive forms, but it is still a ball with ink in paste form flowing over the ball allowing one to write. The concept is almost 90 years old and it doesn’t look like anything will change about it in the near future. Bubble wrap is one of those inventions which is so handy one can’t see it being changed. It was patented in 1964 and has been going strong as a packing material ever since. It is light, not adding to the cost of the item being shipped and highly protective of an object. Other packing materials have come out since the invention, but as an all-around packing material it is great. One of the things which has really amazed me was the invention of Lego. It came out in 1949 and has been getting more and more popular since. It hasn’t been changed, it is still a system of interlocking blocks and is so efficient some companies which specialize in construction have said they are going to adapt the system to full size structures. What could be a greater compliment to an incredible design than that? I guess all this points to one thing, if someone creates something which is really simple to use and gets the job done, it may be around for a long time.
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