Most of the inventions we enjoy every day are just better-engineered versions of something invented between 1880 and 1920, a time that saw the introduction of electric lightbulbs, cars, airplanes, radios, telephones, typewriters, vacuum cleaners, cameras (for both still photos and movies), phonographs, x-ray images and assembly line mass production, among other things.
Electronic computers didn’t come around until the 1940s, but by the 1920s, people were so conditioned to the idea of invention and progress that it’s a safe bet few people from a century ago would be shocked to see the modern world.
Curious, intrigued and even excited, perhaps, but not shocked. They wouldn’t flinch at the droning of an airplane overhead, the ringing of a cell phone in our pockets or the constant babble from a radio or a podcast.
Electronic computers didn’t come around until the 1940s, but by the 1920s, people were so conditioned to the idea of invention and progress that it’s a safe bet few people from a century ago would be shocked to see the modern world.
Curious, intrigued and even excited, perhaps, but not shocked. They wouldn’t flinch at the droning of an airplane overhead, the ringing of a cell phone in our pockets or the constant babble from a radio or a podcast.
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