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Top 100 Gadgets of All Time
akintayo writes "Mobile PC released its list of the top 100 gadgets of all time. The number one gadget was the Apple Powerbook 100. And the list does include some older gadgets, most notably the Abacus at #60. The BBC also has an article on the list."
100. nsi bedazzler, 1970s filler characters
99. swingline 747 stapler, 2002 filler characters
98. pez dispenser, 1927 filler characters
97. mattel intellivision, 1980 filler characters
96. olympus zuiko pearlcorder, 1970 filler characters
95. carl zeiss victory 8 x 42 t*fl binoculars, 2004 filler characters
94. schick electric razor, 1931 filler characters
93. columbia graphophone dictaphone, 1907 filler characters
92. popeil pocket fisherman, 1950s filler characters
91. polar wireless heart rate monitor, 1977 filler characters
90. maelzel metronome, 1816 filler characters
89. rubik's cube, 1974 filler characters
88. black & decker dustbuster, 1979 filler characters
87. radio shack trs-80 model 100, 1983 filler characters
86. tamagotchi, 1996 filler characters
85. hohner harmonica, 1857 filler characters
84. ronco inside-the-shell egg scrambler, 1978 filler characters
83. accusplit memory stopwatch, 1972 filler characters
82. alliance genie garage door opener, 1954 filler characters
81. zippo windproof lighter, 1932 filler characters
80. fisher space pen, 1967 filler characters
79. taser x26, 2003 filler characters
78. korg wt-10 electronic tuner, 1975 filler characters
77. hasbro lite-brite, 1967 filler characters
76. hp omnibook 300, 1993 filler characters
75. laser pointer, 1980s filler characters
74. lux minute timer, 1936 filler characters
73. traxxas t-maxx rc car, 1999 filler characters
72. master lock padlock, 1924 filler characters
71. tyco toys tickle me elmo, 1996 filler characters
70. atari pong c-100, 1976 filler characters
69. cuisinart food processor, 1973 filler characters
68. nokia 5100 series cell phone, 1998 filler characters
67. leatherman pst, 1983 filler characters
66. iridium satellite phone, 1998 filler characters
65. mattel football ii, 1978 filler characters
64. u.s. army p-38 can opener, 1942 filler characters
63. maglite flashlight, 1979 filler characters
62. sony wm-f5 sports walkman, 1983 filler characters
61. motorola bravo numeric pager, 1986 filler characters
60. abacus, 190 a.d. filler characters
59. sextant, 1731 filler characters
58. panasonic toughbook 18, 2003 filler characters
57. mattel magic 8-ball, 1946 filler characters
56. polaroid polavision land video camera, 1978 filler characters
55. super scissors, 1990s filler characters
54. the car alarm key fob, 1990s filler characters
53. powell & lealand compound microscope, 1861 filler characters
52. sony cfs-5000 boom box, 1980s filler characters
51. irobot roomba, 2002 filler characters
50. etch-a-sketch, 1960 filler characters
49. casio cassiopeia e-10, 1996 filler characters
48. sony digital mavica mvc-hd5, 1997 filler characters
47. canadian signal corps c-58 walkie talkie, 1943 filler characters
46. texas instruments speak & spell, 1978 filler characters
45. silva compass, 1933 filler characters
44. fuzzbuster, 1968 filler characters
43. handspring visor, 1999 filler characters
42. h4 marine chronometer, 1761 filler characters
41. rim interactive pager, 1996 filler characters
40. falcon dust-off, early 1970s filler characters
39. apple newton messagepad 120, 1994 filler characters
38. sandisk compactflash card, 1994 filler characters
37. jvc gr-c1 camcorder, 1984 filler characters
36. pulsar quartz digital watch, 1972 filler characters
35. screwpull corkscrew, 1979 filler characters
34. garmin gpscom 170, 1997 filler characters
33. bose quietcomfort headphones, 2000 filler characters
32. radiolan backbonelink and pc cardlink, 1997 filler characters
31. trek thumbdrive, 1999 filler characters
30. jvc hr-3300 vhs vcr, 1976 filler cha
THIS ACCOUNT IS OFFICIALLY RETIRED/RETARDED.
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Keep in mind that this list was in Mobile PC magazine.
ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
I have this pen with me right NOW! How cool is that?
The Fischer company developed the pen with their own money. NASA just used it. Same with Tang. Tang was a little known product until NASA 'discovered' it.
The Space Pen is cool, but not the best pen I have ever used.
They Live, We Sleep
#20 The Swiss Army Knife. I have not had a day go buy where I did not use mine. And I even open a bottle of wine with it once. :)
It's all fun and games until someone loses the key to the handcuffs.
All ratings of this type tend to be biased towards the present. I think this is because how good a thing is roughly equates to someone considering how their life was prior to invention of product and how their life was after invention. In the case of the abacus, we can only speculate at the effect the device had on the lives of people when it was invented. With things that are more recent, we do not need to speculate, we know. Additionally newer things tend to have more funcitonality than previous items, and therefore are more useful in an absolute sense (I can only do math with my abacus, but with my PowerBook 100, I can play solitaire).
Ploughn -Pot
Threshing machine
Clay pot
grist mill
irrigation wheel
waterwheel
hammermill
rotary forge blower
Compass (for measuring distances on a map)
Compass (direction finding)
Theodelite
Semaphore
Telescope
Pot-i
water pump
sanitary latrine
sewers
Aquaduct
(not all in use in "developed" countries)
Separate link, which I can't verify, but here it is--Anatoly Solovyev quote
God damn do I hate the stupid space pen myth. Fischer developed the pen at his own expense, as graphite pencils had the potential to cause problems in the cabin. Remember, kids, graphite conducts electricity, and a tiny little pencil tip floating around the cabin could be a very bad thing. It takes all of ten seconds googling to debunk this stupid urban legend, but I constantly see it brought up over and over again.
So the abacus, in use for centuries, comes in at #60 of all time, but the PowerBook 100, which was in production for a few short years is ranked #1?
The PowerBook 100 was a great machine and all, but let's be serious.
Actually the Powerbook 100 didn't even get produced for a full year, just 10 or 11 months (Oct 91 - Aug 92). And it had a predecessor, the Macintosh Portable. For the day it might have been cool, but it classifies as a luggable these days. And besides, It's not like Apple invented the laptop. Surely there were other better laptops at the time. Otherwise things would be different these days.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
You gotta read the rules man. Sure the printing press was useful. Revolutionary even. But it's bigger'n a bread box innit? So's the steam engine, the automobile, the Jaquardf loom, the Saturn V rocket etc.
Actually the Powerbook 100 didn't even get produced for a full year, just 10 or 11 months (Oct 91 - Aug 92). And it had a predecessor, the Macintosh Portable. For the day it might have been cool, but it classifies as a luggable these days. And besides, It's not like Apple invented the laptop. Surely there were other better laptops at the time. Otherwise things would be different these days.
The PowerBook 100 shipped at the same time the PowerBook 140 and 170 did. The PowerBook 100 was basiclly a microsized Macintosh Portable and was designed by Sony. The PowerBook 140 and 170 were larger, but also faster and were designed by Apple. The PowerBook 100's design goal was compactness, that's why it had an external floppy drive.
I don't remember the original price, but the PowerBook 100 was very overpriced when it shipped. For about the same price as a PowerBook 100 + Floppy drive you could buy a PowerBook 140, which had an internal floppy drive and was faster and had a better screen. The PowerBook 140 also had a NiCad battery rather than the lead acid battery in the PowerBook 100. (Both had about the same runtime though). The PowerBook 100 flopped for price reasons. Apple cleared them out at Costco for $800, less than half the price of the PowerBook 140. That's how I bought mine. For abour $900 I had a shiny new thin PowerBook, external floppy drive, and a nice carrying case. That was an EXTREMELY good deal back in those days. I loved my PowerBook 100, it was a sleek little gizmo. Running Word 5 on it while sitting in a coffee shop was such a hightech, futuristic experience!
The PowerBook 140 and 170 sold well, REALLY well. Apple even sold a PC connection kit to help you sync up your PowerBook to your DOS or Windows 3.0/3.1 PC. For awhile Apple had almost half of the entire notebook marketshare. They were teh first company to put the trackball below the keyboard and inbetween "wrist rests". Prior to the PowerBook, trackballs were often clipped on to the side of notebooks. They shot themselves in the foot by not dropping their prices though. As PC notebooks got cheaper, Apple kept charging $1800 - $4000+ for their Notebooks. And when they finally did come out with the $1300 PowerBook 145b and PowerBook 150, it was just a warmed over PowerBook 140 that was already obsolete the day it hit the market.
Keylock, around 10th century BC
Archimedean Screw, around 3rd century BC
Astrolabe, 2nd century BC
The Sandglass, before the 14th century
First pendulum clock, 1656
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
Sorry to say, but Snopes.com is extremely biased pro-american conservative site. (just compare the proportion of pro-Bush "Trues" and anti-Bush "falses")
1) Pencil leads made of actual lead don't snap. Their writing properties are worse than those made of graphite (still readable enough though), but they are practically unbreakable. So no risk of snapping off, no lead particles, no burning either. A metal-cased graphite pencil is perfectly fire-proof and pretty much break-proof. True both graphite and lead are conductors, but so are almost all items made of metal, and there were quite a few of them. Only snap-off pieces could eventually get into the electronics, but lead doesn't snap so no problem.
2) There was enough of easily flammable materials in the cabin so they would catch fire by themselves in atmosphere of pure oxygen. Not that it would matter, the astronaut wouldn't live long in pure oxygen either.
And before you start about how poisonous lead is, people were using lead-based pencils for hundreds of years before they were replaced by graphite ones.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
If you RTA you will see that they specifically excluded the lightbulb as being a component of a larger device (an electric light fitting).
The flush toilet is an example of another item that would be excluded by their definition of gadget - portable and smaller than a bread box.
Surveyors use a sextant - which was on the list. It's just on a tripod now.
The things you've listed are generally important inventions, but not necesarily gadgets.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Sorry to be nitpicking, but in the paragraph about the Pez #98, they quote the german word 'Pfefferminz'. And they write it with 'tz'! The horror!
Every german schoolkid has to learn this: "Nach l, n, r, das merk dir ja, steht nie tz und nie ck!" (Remember this: No tz and no ck after l, n, r!) Ok, not everyone actually gets it... but anyway.
It's schwarz and not schwartz. It's Maerzen and not Martzen. And it's Pfefferminz, not Pfeffermintz. (And pretzls are actually spelled Brezeln, but that' something completely different.)