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Pre-20th Century Gadgetery

Posted by Zonk on Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:35 AM
from the yay-science dept.
Toys Technology Science
The Byelorussian Hatter writes "Wired, presumably bored to death of Cellphones, Zunes, MairBook Nacs and what-have-you, looks back at the elegant inventions of a less civilized age. 'The Turk was a chess player concealed in a table packed with cogs and gears, contrived to give the appearance of a mighty chess-playing machine. Atop the table, an articulated automaton would be seen to make the moves determined by the master within. One of the 18th and 19th century's many illustrious hoaxes, the Turk is perhaps the greatest gadget that wasn't.'"
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Submission: Pre-20th Century Gadgets by Anonymous Coward
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  • "Ark of the Covenant"? (Score:3, Funny)

    by random_amber (957056) on Sunday February 03 2008, @12:51AM (#22279916)
    What the heck is this in a list of the greatest gadgets for? Push a button and out comes God (to melt faces)?

  • Makes you relize (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2008, @12:55AM (#22279934)
    Makes you relize how far man has NOT come. We think ourselves a group of bad asses right now. We have nearly seemless technology in large parts of the world, I can see and hear people literally years away by foot. I can do amazing things from my home... but is any of this really that far from clockmaking? Its all just extensions of simplier ideas. Clockmaking extends from the idea of gears. All eletronics extend from the idea of harnessing eletricity.. when will we enter a phase where we seek new mediums to harness? Instead of becoming masters of electrons, we master all energy and matter. Etc.. so before we think ourselves genius, rememeber that were but a step into the long journey to true tech. mastery.

    After all, I still have yet to welcome our matter to energy and back converting overlords...

    • Re:Makes you relize (Score:5, Insightful)

      by harlows_monkeys (106428) on Sunday February 03 2008, @02:24AM (#22280256) Homepage
      A while back, I was musing how far we have come. Our ancestors feared the elements, but in my house, they are at my command. I want it colder--it become colder. I want it hotter, it become hotter. I can raise and lower the humidity. I want water to flow, it flows. I want wind, I have wind.

      Then I realized that it isn't me doing any of those things. Someone else built my heating and cooling system, and my plumbing, and ventilation. I'm really no better than a caveman--I just found a much nicer cave to move into.

      • Re:Makes you relize (Score:4, Insightful)

        by dajak (662256) on Sunday February 03 2008, @08:57AM (#22281740)
        So true. When in the 19th century the literary fiction of the medieval flat Earth [wikipedia.org] was invented, I imagine this was to be able to illustrate how Enlightenment scholars revolutionized cosmological views without directly confronting the readers with their own ignorance of those cosmological innovations made centuries earlier.

        People like to think they individually know substantially more than their ancestors, while in reality they just know different things. Medieval peasants knew how to slaughter a cow: we don't. We know how to operate a microwave: they didn't. Only collectively we clearly know more.

        • Re:Makes you relize (Score:5, Interesting)

          by ColdWetDog (752185) on Sunday February 03 2008, @12:34PM (#22283102) Homepage

          Medieval peasants knew how to slaughter a cow: we don't. We know how to operate a microwave: they didn't. Only collectively we clearly know more.

          Let's not get all excited by this "royal we" concept. Some of us can slaughter a cow - you need not be a medieval peasant, just someone who grew up or has worked on a farm or ranch.

          I think your premise is a bit flawed. Clearly, as a society or race or species (however you choice to enclose large groups of humans) "we" understand and can manipulate much larger bodies of knowledge than say, a medieval priest or even royalty. But on an individual level, this is also true. Lots of folks I know can slaughter a cow, at least pretend to fix a microwave, certainly fix an internal combustion engine, use a complex piece of electronic equipment (and I'm not talking about an iPod), shoot a gun, etc. recall the quotation from St. Heinlein:

          A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

    • Re:Makes you realise (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      s/relize/realise
      s/seemless/seamless
      s/Its all/It's all
      s/simplier/simpler
      s/eletronics/electronics
      s/eletricity/electricity
      s/mediums/media
      s/matter. Etc../matter, etc.
      s/rememeber/remember
      s/were but a step/we're but a step
      Recast cliché

      > Makes you relize how far man has NOT come.

      Amen, brother.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tsjaikdus (940791)
      >> All eletronics extend from the idea of harnessing eletricity

      Electronics is just the only survivor in a world of many species. The idea of processing information by itself is (indeed) not new. But many machines have been invented in the past that didn't make it. Then electronics is fast, tiny and can be mass produced for almost nothing. That's why this technology survived and information processing with water, gears, relais, and torque amplifiers did not.

      The same holds for flying cars. The idea is a

    • Makes you relize how far man has NOT come. We think ourselves a group of bad asses right now. We have nearly seemless technology in large parts of the world, I can see and hear people literally years away by foot. I can do amazing things from my home... but is any of this really that far from clockmaking?

      If you were to take a look at the chronology of clockmaking, you'd find that the answer is yes.

      All eletronics extend from the idea of harnessing eletricity.. when will we enter a phase where we seek new mediums to harness? Instead of becoming masters of electrons, we master all energy and matter. Etc.. so before we think ourselves genius, rememeber that were but a step into the long journey to true tech. mastery.

      Yes, we're a long way from forming the Q Continuum. How depressing.

    • I think we have come a long way. I think in the last 100 years we have come an especially long way. What we do need to remember though is even our giants stood on the sholders of giants. We all want to think for some reason the men and women of are time are the first to acomplish anything much beyond rubbing two sticks together but that is hardlay the case.

      Eninstein never could have come up with relativity without being able to acruartely measure time. Those "clock makers" from the past gave him that g

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mdwh2 (535323)
      Obviously there is a long way still to go, but I don't think that means we haven't come far. On the contrary, I was thinking the opposite - how just a hundred years ago, so much of our modern everyday gadgets didn't exist, and would have seemed impossible.

      but is any of this really that far from clockmaking? Its all just extensions of simplier ideas. Clockmaking extends from the idea of gears. All eletronics extend from the idea of harnessing eletricity.. when will we enter a phase where we seek new mediums

  • For an earlier perspective... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by weeboo0104 (644849) on Sunday February 03 2008, @12:57AM (#22279946) Journal
    Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay [online-literature.com] about The Turk in 1836 titled "Maelzel's Chess Player". [wikipedia.org]

  • Call me weird, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ai Olor-Wile (997427) on Sunday February 03 2008, @12:58AM (#22279952) Homepage
    ...haven't we seen our fair share of articles and such things mentioning the Turk and Antikythera mechanism already? I propose that this article wins in the dull department--or perhaps it is merely an unidentified form of blog spam disguised as a popular tech magazine!

    • Re:Call me weird, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by flyingsquid (813711) on Sunday February 03 2008, @01:56AM (#22280136)
      I think it's an interesting concept for an article, but sloppily executed. The Mechanical Turk doesn't really qualify as a "gadget" in the sense of being a portable, high-tech tool. First, it's a fraud, not a device to solve a practical problem, and second it was sufficiently large that you could hide a person inside it, so it wasn't exactly portable. And the Ark of the Covenant? Give me a break. It's not a gadget. It's a box. A decorated box. They also miss some pretty obvious gadgets. The abacus, the slide rule, and the telescope were all high tech, portable pieces of technology.

  • less civilized? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rubycodez (864176) on Sunday February 03 2008, @12:59AM (#22279956) Homepage
    what era had the most inhuman weapons, the worst of all wars, businesses controlling governments to wage war for resources, the worst dictators with the largest body count and count of maimed for life?
    • More specifically, from about 600 AD - 1300 AD. Nasty, nasty stuff. No centralized government, nothing like the Red Cross, no medical treatment worthy of the name, travelers slaughtered for their food, the worst plague in history, untold destruction of knowledge and people... all and all, it's not a time I'd like to visit should I ever get a time machine.
      • there was a centralized government, it was called the Roman Catholic Church. Has a bigger body count by a factor of twenty than the Nazis. still with us.

        You have a misconception about The Plague. killed two million per year at the most. And you'd have to count all victims in all three outbreaks centuries apart to reach the total of 137 million.

        the flu has done worse than that for one year, and has done worse for total victims.

        travelers slaughtered for food is better than millions slaughtered for resource
        • You have a misconception about The Plague. killed two million per year at the most. And you'd have to count all victims in all three outbreaks centuries apart to reach the total of 137 million.

          2 million a year is kind of a big deal when it comprises THREE TO FOUR PERCENT of the european population at the time. It would be equivalent to almost 22 million people dying in europe per year today.
        • Two million? Try about 1/3 to 2/3 of the population of Europe in the 14th century outbreak, to say nothing of the other parts of the world.
    • what era had the most inhuman weapons, the worst of all wars, businesses controlling governments to wage war for resources, the worst dictators with the largest body count and count of maimed for life?

      This is a trick question, isn't it?

    • What era, so far, has the longest life spans and the most people alive at one time living in relative peace?

      Everyone gets so focused sometimes on what's wrong in this day and age that they forget to take a look at what's right. People also have a tendency to judge the world by their own ideals, never mind how unrealistic their ideals are. There has never been an age in known history where war and conflicts for control over resources was not part of the human condition. The free market may not be the most
      • so what era had the biggest wars for resources? where is this free market of which you speak? it's much better that millions are dying a horrible painful death because God didn't want them to use a condom?
    • You're trying to make a point but you're just showing your ignorance of history. I'd go for the 13th century - Genghis Khan's killing off entire civilizations to increase the amount of grazing land for his horses is pretty hard to beat, he'd have entire cities massacred and giant piles of skulls made, and he conquered a huge portion of the civilized world.
    • It's a star wars reference! It wasn't meant to be serious.

    • Re:less civilized? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by TapeCutter (624760) on Sunday February 03 2008, @04:20AM (#22280718) Journal
      I'd argue the body count over the last 50yrs has been extrodinarily low in per capita terms. Another post alluded to the dark ages as an example. Perhaps the height of WW2/1 reached the same level of inhumanity as everday life in the dark ages but the rest of the century has been relatively peacefull in large parts of the planet.

      As for inhuman weapons - Depends on what you mean by inhuman, before the invention of antibotics countless millions of walking war wounded died a slow and horrible death.
    • Less civilized: did not wear digital watches.

  • Amazon's Mechanical Turk (Score:5, Informative)

    by paulthomas (685756) on Sunday February 03 2008, @01:31AM (#22280060) Journal
    In case anyone hasn't put two and two together*, Amazon's Mechanical Turk is named in reference to the chess playing Turk from the article. Amazon's FAQ [mturk.com] has more info.

    * 5, for large values of two.

  • Didn't make the list... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Antarius (542615) on Sunday February 03 2008, @02:04AM (#22280172)

    It didn't make the list, but was vapourware at the time:

    Duke Nukem Forever
  • How about that one couple thousand year old computer/clock/astronomical/big gear thing that I read about on slashdot like a year ago. That thing was pretty bad ass lol. Did they ever find out what that thing did? Was it compatible with the Divx codec?
  • but i do know what it is not

    and what it is not is an hour spent clicking wikipedia links and writing a 6th grade level report

  • I always wonder what it would be like to be a nerd in the Stone Age.
      • I don't know. You could impress your fellow tribesmen with your wits and knowledge, and make them do things for you because of fear or awe. And people could talk back then, so passing knowledge was possible. But you're right, most of your time you would be busy trying to stay alive.

        • Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by sticks_us (150624) on Sunday February 03 2008, @07:38AM (#22281442) Homepage
          Hunter-gatherers (still present today in various locations around the world, btw) spend approximately 1/3 of their day looking for food--just surviving.

          Modern office workers (still present today in various locations around the world) spend approximately 1/3 of their day working so they can pay for their food--just surviving.

          • Hunter-gatherers ... spend approximately 1/3 of their day looking for food--just surviving.

            Modern office workers ... spend approximately 1/3 of their day working so they can pay for their food--just surviving.

            Sources? I'm a "modern office worker", and I know I only spend a few (2 to 2.5) hours a week earning money for food. That's 6.25% of my working hours (assuming a 40-hour week), and just 2.23% of my waking hours (taking a "day" as 16 hours, with eight hours for sleep). Even at minimum wage -- less

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by wkitchen (581276)
            Apples and oranges. Modern office workers spend 1/3 of their day working so they can enjoy material benefits far beyond what the hunter-gatherers can. Thanks to excess productivity, modern people can do things like write books, create and build machines, teach, learn, and many other things that hunter-gatherer societies just don't have time for. Tell me, what are the hunter-gatherer's children doing while the modern office worker's children are spending 1/3 of their day getting an education (class time + ho

        • make them do things for you because of fear or awe
          Right up until they decided you were a which, worlock, some sort of demon, or got to likeing a little too much and figured you'd be a great sacrifice to the gods.

      • Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by TapeCutter (624760) on Sunday February 03 2008, @06:24AM (#22281208) Journal
        "I've learned too much about history to hold any romantic notions about it."

        I think you have your 'ages' mixed up, for example stone henge was built with stone age tech and the people who built it lived in thatched roundhouses, some up to 60' in diameter, they had pens for domesticated animals. Indoor heating and light came from a central fire and the roof had no hole since smoke passed straight thru the thatch.

        There is no denying life was brutally uncomfortable (particularly in cold climates like the UK), but stone age man was intellectually no different to modern man. Even Neanderthals were more advanced than the picture you paint and they were a different species. Stone age people simply thought religion and science were the same thing, and a large chunk of humanity still thinks exactly the same way.

      • Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Oktober Sunset (838224) <.ku.oc.oohay. .ta. .301egapds.> on Sunday February 03 2008, @09:14AM (#22281824)
        of course there were nerds in the stone age, who do you think invented stone axes, and spears? not to mention bows and arrows and spear throwers. It may not seem impressive now but when some cave nerd tyed some animal guts to a bendy stick and used it to catapult tiny spears at animals, must have seemed like a uber dork to his pointy stick waving friends. And don't think it was a simple case of putting together, some cave nerd probably spent many long hours searching for bendy enough wood and trying to get arrows to fly straight, while the other cave men laughed at him. And imagine how much worse it was for ancient Australian nerds, imagine how much the other aborigines laughed at the guy who after hours of careful carving presented a bent stick as the ultimate hunting weapon?

        Prehistory is even categorised by the achievements of nerds, only when some geek decided to find out what happen when you stuck funny looking rocks in a very hot fire did the stone age become the bronze age. Sure being a prehistoric nerd would have been hard work, but rest assured, there were plenty of them, and its thanks to those uber nerds who decided they could represent spoken words using little squiggles on paper that prehistory finally ended.
      • One word: Shaman.

        He's the guy who pays attention to things like seasons and weather, and how the moon moves. The guy who has memorised - because there is no writing - the lineages of everyone in the tribe and the history of heroes and deeds. The guy with the lore of plants and herbs, and which kill, and which heal, and which bring visions of the gods.

        He's the Stone Age nerd, and he's very powerful because of it. Signs in the sky tell him when the buffalo migration is due, and because of this the hunters

  • One of the 18th and 19th century's many illustrious hoaxes, the Turk is perhaps the greatest gadget that wasn't.

    Kinda like Vista.

    • One of the 18th and 19th century's many illustrious hoaxes, the Turk is perhaps the greatest gadget that wasn't.
       



      Kinda like Vista.

      Har har. Well, at least it's good to see that SNL's writers are finding time to expand on their art form during the strike.
  • Come on, no mention of any mechanical calculator? No Babbage machines?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by dajak (662256)
      TFA appears to be biased somewhat towards technological dead ends.

      One thing that for instance popped up in my mind thinking of a pre-20th century gadget is the early 17th century gearbox of the mechanical fireplace spit fork in a castle near Amsterdam. At that time it was inhabited by a friend of scientist Christiaan Huygens (who invented a number of things involving the principle of transmission, including of course the pendulum clock). I have no idea whether it is unique or just rare for that era, and whe

  • Al-Jazari (Score:3, Informative)

    by Deus.1.01 (946808) on Sunday February 03 2008, @11:35AM (#22282690)
    For shame that this article does not mention the father of enginering. He made robots, automatons that were highly complex. I wonder why non of his inventions is mentioned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Jazari [wikipedia.org]

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