zep73 Posted June 1, 2020 #1 Share Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) Something I've always found fascinating is the first or oldest item of any kind. It really puts things in perspective, when we compare such a thing to modern standards, and sometimes they're older than expected, giving us a history lesson, that our ancestors were smarter than some of us think, when it came to inventions. Oldest photograph - 1826 Oldest moving picture - 1888 ENIAC - The First Computer - 1945 As you can see, technology is something I find particularly interesting. But don't be limited by that, if you want to contribute with items to this thread! Anything goes! Edited June 1, 2020 by sci-nerd 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Noteverythingisaconspiracy Posted June 2, 2020 #2 Share Posted June 2, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, sci-nerd said: Something I've always found fascinating is the first or oldest item of any kind. It really puts things in perspective, when we compare such a thing to modern standards, and sometimes they're older than expected, giving us a history lesson, that our ancestors were smarter than some of us think, when it came to inventions. Oldest photograph - 1826 Speaking of the first photograph, this is the oldest known photo of people. In the lower left there is a man getting his shoes polished. The long exposure is the reason why only those two relatively stationary people are visible. Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 1838. Edited June 2, 2020 by Noteverythingisaconspiracy 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep73 Posted June 2, 2020 Author #3 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Oldest known melody - ca. 1,400 BC 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piney Posted June 2, 2020 #4 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Oldest known musical instrument. http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/hear-the-worlds-oldest-instrument-the-neanderthal-flute.html 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep73 Posted June 2, 2020 Author #5 Share Posted June 2, 2020 2 minutes ago, Piney said: Oldest known musical instrument. http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/hear-the-worlds-oldest-instrument-the-neanderthal-flute.html 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep73 Posted June 2, 2020 Author #6 Share Posted June 2, 2020 First music video (as we know them) - Bessie Smith - 1929 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jethrofloyd Posted June 2, 2020 #7 Share Posted June 2, 2020 First telephone (Alexander Graham Bell) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Desertrat56 Posted June 2, 2020 #8 Share Posted June 2, 2020 There was a mechanical computer before ENIAC. Charles Babbage called it the difference engine. https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hetrodoxly Posted June 2, 2020 #9 Share Posted June 2, 2020 16 hours ago, sci-nerd said: Something I've always found fascinating is the first or oldest item of any kind. It really puts things in perspective, when we compare such a thing to modern standards, and sometimes they're older than expected, giving us a history lesson, that our ancestors were smarter than some of us think, when it came to inventions. Oldest photograph - 1826 Oldest moving picture - 1888 ENIAC - The First Computer - 1945 As you can see, technology is something I find particularly interesting. But don't be limited by that, if you want to contribute with items to this thread! Anything goes! I thought 'Colossus' built at Bletchley Park was the first electronic computer, 1944. Colossus, the world's first large-scale programmable electronic computer, was constructed in London and installed at Bletchley in January 1944. Inventor: Tommy Flowers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hetrodoxly Posted June 2, 2020 #10 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Stephensons Rocket. The first steam locomotive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hetrodoxly Posted June 2, 2020 #11 Share Posted June 2, 2020 1 hour ago, Desertrat56 said: There was a mechanical computer before ENIAC. Charles Babbage called it the difference engine. https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ Ada Lovelace has been called the world's first computer programmer. What she did was write the world's first machine algorithm for an early computing machine that existed only on paper. Of course, someone had to be the first, but Lovelace was a woman, and this was in the 1840s 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep73 Posted June 2, 2020 Author #12 Share Posted June 2, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, hetrodoxly said: I thought 'Colossus' built at Bletchley Park was the first electronic computer, 1944. Colossus, the world's first large-scale programmable electronic computer, was constructed in London and installed at Bletchley in January 1944. Inventor: Tommy Flowers Colossus was an encryption breaker. There were also a couple of other encryption breakers, like "Bombe" around the same time period, and they could all technically be defined as computer prototypes. The construction of ENIAC started in 1943, and it took two years to complete it. It was not easy to choose which one to credit as the first practical computer, but eventually I decided to choose ENIAC, because work on it began first, and it wasn't limited to narrow tasks, like the encryption breakers. Edited June 2, 2020 by sci-nerd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jethrofloyd Posted June 2, 2020 #13 Share Posted June 2, 2020 First ever video game - Pong. October 1958. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaylemurph Posted June 2, 2020 #14 Share Posted June 2, 2020 3 hours ago, Desertrat56 said: There was a mechanical computer before ENIAC. Charles Babbage called it the difference engine. https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ This is a re-creation. Babbage never actually built one. —Jaylemurph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hetrodoxly Posted June 2, 2020 #15 Share Posted June 2, 2020 1 hour ago, sci-nerd said: Colossus was an encryption breaker. There were also a couple of other encryption breakers, like "Bombe" around the same time period, and they could all technically be defined as computer prototypes. The construction of ENIAC started in 1943, and it took two years to complete it. It was not easy to choose which one to credit as the first practical computer, but eventually I decided to choose ENIAC, because work on it began first, and it wasn't limited to narrow tasks, like the encryption breakers. Ok, there were 10 colossus computors, no1 was running in 1943. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jethrofloyd Posted June 3, 2020 #16 Share Posted June 3, 2020 First Reality TV - Candid Camera 1948 - a show where unknowing people reacted to staged situations on camera was broadcast as the earliest form of reality TV. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter B Posted June 3, 2020 #17 Share Posted June 3, 2020 World's First boardgame: Royal Game of Ur (~2600BC) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hetrodoxly Posted June 6, 2020 #18 Share Posted June 6, 2020 Possible the most important discovery of the 20th century, Penicillin, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming and a team at Oxford university. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Noteverythingisaconspiracy Posted June 7, 2020 #19 Share Posted June 7, 2020 On 6/6/2020 at 7:44 PM, hetrodoxly said: Possible the most important discovery of the 20th century, Penicillin, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming and a team at Oxford university. Probably the greatest accidental discovery. Of course it takes a great scientist to see the practical implications of said accident. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hetrodoxly Posted June 7, 2020 #20 Share Posted June 7, 2020 1 hour ago, Noteverythingisaconspiracy said: Probably the greatest accidental discovery. Of course it takes a great scientist to see the practical implications of said accident. Yes, he noticed mold on a petri dish had inhibited bacteria from multiplying but it took a team of scientists at Oxford many years to make usable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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