45 Modern Technologies That Are Older Than You Probably Thought

Dr. Pepper was released in 1885, one year before Coca-Cola. Even before that carbonated lemonade was widely available in British refreshment stalls in 1833. The first company that sold carbonated water was established in Geneva in 1783. Even before carbonated drinks, in the medieval Middle East, a variety of fruit-flavored soft drinks were widely drunk, such as sharbat, and were often sweetened with ingredients such as sugar, syrup, and honey.

27. Earliest proposed dates for the origin of cheesemaking range from around 8000 B.C. when sheep were first domesticated. Since animal skins and inflated internal organs provided storage vessels for milk, it is probable that the process of cheese making was discovered accidentally by storing milk in a container made from the stomach of an animal, resulting in the milk being turned to curd and whey by the rennet from the stomach.

28. Music streaming was invented in 1897 in New York. It was called the Telharmonium and took up the entire basement of the Broadway building it was located in. It was 220 feet long and it used different sized/cogged gears spinning beneath a pickup (magnetic coil) to create different tones. These different gears and pickups were connected to an organ on the main floor of the building. Key presses would activate the corresponding tone to play from the Telharmonium and it had pedals and such to shape the sound. It delivered this music via the telephone, and subscribers could have the operator connect them.

29. Fidget Spinners have been around since 1993, but it wasn't until 2017 when they became a craze, partly because non-autistic children picked up the practice from autistic classmates. They are sold by shops catering to people with special sensory needs, as a calming device. In general "executive pacifiers" like the fidget spinner have been around since the 1920s or earlier, and include Newton's cradle and the drinking bird.

30. The history of marshmallows goes back as early as 2000 B.C. Ancient Egyptians were said to be the first to make them and eating them was a privilege strictly reserved for gods and for royalty, who used the root of mallow plant species to soothe coughs and sore throats, and to heal wounds. The first marshmallows were prepared by boiling pieces of root pulp with honey until thick. Once thickened, the mixture was strained, cooled, and then used as intended.

Nintendo is mostly known today as a video game company. While video games have certainly been one of their most successful business ventures, they existed a long time before computers were even invented, as a toy company. The company was founded in 1889 when it produced playing cards, which it still does to this day.

32. Death growl, which is usually employed by death metal singers and in other heavy metal styles is centuries old. Growled vocals may have been a part of Viking music. In the 10th century, Arab-Spanish Sefardi Jewish merchant Ibrahim ibn Yaqub visited Denmark and commented on the local music as follows: “Never before I have heard uglier songs than those of the Vikings in Slesvig. The growling sound coming from their throats reminds me of dogs howling, only more untamed.”

33. The sewing needle is over 40,000 years old. Human beings may have begun wearing clothing as far back as 190,000 years ago. Humans already had pants and jackets 20,000 - 12,500 years ago. Dyed flax fibers dated 36,000 years ago found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia suggests that people were wearing clothes at that time.

34. Tesla revolutionized the electric car's image in customers' minds – stylish, comfortable with a nice blend of traditional automotive stuff and futuristic features. However, electric cars are more than a century old. In 1884, over 20 years before the Ford Model T, the first practical production electric car was built in London that used specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.

35. The first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century A.D., in early medieval China. In 589 A.D. the scholar-official Yan Zhitui wrote about the use of toilet paper. An Arab traveler to China in the year 851 AD remarked: “...they [the Chinese] do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities, but they only wipe themselves with paper.”

Medicines made from willow and other salicylate-rich plants can be dated to at least 2000 B.C. in ancient Sumer as well as 1500 B.C. in ancient Egypt. Hippocrates referred to their use of salicylic tea to reduce fevers around 400 B.C. Willow bark extract became recognized for its specific effects on fever, pain, and inflammation in the mid-18th century. By the 19th century, pharmacists were experimenting with and prescribing a variety of chemicals related to salicylic acid, the active component of willow extract. One such formulation was later marketed as aspirin.

37. Most people might think true smartphones were first invented in the late 2000s when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007. The first true smartphone was actually IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator which was launched in 1992. It came with features such as a touchscreen and the ability to send and receive e-mails.

38. As the slogan for a smokeless world has been raised, a new practice called “vaping” has come to the forefront recently, but vaporizers/e-cigarettes were invented back in the 60s. The earliest e-cigarette can be traced to Herbert A. Gilbert, who in 1963 patented “a smokeless non-tobacco cigarette” that involved “replacing burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavored air”. This device produced flavored steam without nicotine. The patent was granted in 1965. This concept never took off because smoking was still fashionable back then.

39. The concept of the “rap battle” has existed since the 5th century, where poets would engage in “flyting,” a spoken word event where poets would insult one another in verse. The Norse god Loki is noted as having insulted other gods in verse. In Anglo-Saxon England, flyting would take place in a feasting hall. The winner would be decided by the reactions of those watching the exchange. The winner would drink a large cup of beer or mead in victory, then invite the loser to drink as well.

40. Autopilots on aircraft look like a modern comfort for the pilots, but they are as ancient as aircrafts themselves. In the early days of aviation, aircrafts required the continuous attention of a pilot to fly safely. The first aircraft autopilot was developed by Sperry Corporation in 1912. That is just 9 years after the Wright Brothers achieved first powered flight in 1903. This autopilot connected a gyroscopic heading indicator and attitude indicator to hydraulically operated elevators and rudder.

Foods similar to pizza have been made since the Neolithic age (10,200 - 4500 B.C.). If a pizza is “flat, baked bread,” then pizzas are as old as the ancient Babylonians. If a pizza is “flat, baked bread with toppings,” then they were invented in ancient Greece.

42. Neurosurgery is considered a highly specialized modern specialty, but Incas appear to have practiced a procedure known as trepanation since the late Stone Age. Trepanation is the surgical process of drilling a small hole in the skull to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases or release pressured blood buildup from an injury. During the Middle Ages in Arabia from 936 to 1013 AD, Al-Zahrawi performed surgical treatments of head injuries, skull fractures, spinal injuries, hydrocephalus, subdural effusions, and headache.

43. The earliest known forms of bowling date back to ancient Egypt. As early as 3200 B.C., balls made out of husks of grains and bound in leather and string were rolled along the ground to play a game similar to modern target bowl games. In Roman Empire about 2000 years ago a similar game was thriving, which eventually evolved into Italian Bocce or outdoor bowling. In about 400 A.D., bowling began in Germany as a religious ritual to cleanse oneself from sin by rolling a rock into a club (kegel).

44. Thousands of years before the modern procedure of electrotherapy was invented, the Ancient Romans successfully treated headaches and mental disorders with electroconvulsive therapy using electric fish.

45. Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world. There is some evidence that beer was produced as early as 6000 B.C, a full 2000 years before the invention and use of the wheel in 4000 B.C. Proven records of beer produced from barley dates to about 3500–3100 B.C. in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, but unproven estimates date back even further to about 10,000 B.C., when cereal was first farmed. Archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilizations.