Modern Invention in the Home: Everyday Essentials

[wolram]

The every day things in the home, the bath, toilet, cooker, carpet, table, chairs, paint, bed,
cup and saucer, knife, spoon , fork, etc, etc.
Given that your TV, computer, radio are luxuries, how much do we owe to Modern invention in the home.

 

[mgb_phys]

They all pretty much evolved ( were created if you live in Louisiana) out of cruder natural items.
So the difficulty is defining when it stopped being a mound of moss and became a bed, or stopped being a bit of metal/rock and became a knife.

 

[DaveC426913]

Also, they were invented before people thought to keep track of - and give credit to - people who invented stuff.

(Those who track stuff now are the same people who brought us the 'instant classic!' and 'collector's item!' mentality.)

 

[waht]

Ancients Greeks had baths, and possibly Pharaohs of Egypt too.

The table must have evolved from when the cavemen realized they could put something on a large stone, or a collapsed tree.


Paint dates back to cave paintings. I think Neanderthals painted drawings in Spain dating back to 30,000 BC.

 

[rewebster]

The every day things in the home, the bath, toilet, cooker, carpet, table, chairs, paint, bed,
cup and saucer, knife, spoon , fork, etc, etc.
Given that your TV, computer, radio are luxuries, how much do we owe to Modern invention in the home.

that's too much to think about--it makes my head hurt----those things are way too complex to figure out---so, I'm going to just go for an answer so I don't HAVE to think so hard to try to understand it all---


----"ID"

 

[Evo]

Screens on windows to keep bugs out.

 

[DaveC426913]

The table must have evolved from when the cavemen realized they could put something on a large stone, or a collapsed tree.

I imagine the table would have evolved shortly after the chair. I think the modern "feature" of a table is that it has room under it to allow people to be seated at it with their legs in front of them.

 

[rewebster]

I imagine the table would have evolved shortly after the chair. I think the modern "feature" of a table is that it has room under it to allow people to be seated at it with their legs in front of them.

and right after that, the first argument over "who took the big piece of chicken?"

 

[edward]

The every day things in the home, the bath, toilet, cooker, carpet, table, chairs, paint, bed,
cup and saucer, knife, spoon , fork, etc, etc.
Given that your TV, computer, radio are luxuries, how much do we owe to Modern invention in the home.

Not all modern conviences were invented or evlolved without some mishaps and even religious misgivings.

The pressure cooker1 was invented by the French physicist, mathematician and inventor Denis Papin in 1679. Rumour has it that his first pressure cooker exploded while being presented at the Royal Society in London in 1679, which inspired Papin to invent the safety valve. The diarist and horticulturist John Evelyn gives a very positive record from another presentation at the Royal Society three years later. However, it is said that when pressure cookers were first used, some people thought they were the result of witchcraft because of the incessant hissing from the valve. In Germany, the first pressure cookers were sold in 1927.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A15826179


THE HISTORY OF KITCHEN APPLIANCES

http://inventors.about.com/od/kstartinventions/a/kitchen.htm

Many of the items we use daily went though a series of improvements.

 

[hypatia]

The cup and saucer came from Japan, along with the tea. The first cups had no handles, much like the cups still used today in Japan. By 1840 we added the handles, and the cups became finer. Saucers were deep, because the fashion of the day required tea drinkers to pour the hot tea into the saucer, let it cool a bit then drink it out of the saucer. It was called saucering your tea. What to do with your empty cup? Why put it on a Cup Plate of course.

 

[WarPhalange]

So what did people drink out of before cups? Bowls?

 

[DaveC426913]

So what did people drink out of before cups? Bowls?

Streams.

 

[phyzmatix]

Paperclips?

 

[rewebster]

Paperclips?

there was something on TV about that--it was some guy playing with a wire while waiting for a trolley, I believe

 

[phyzmatix]

there was something on TV about that--it was some guy playing with a wire while waiting for a trolley, I believe

Waiting for a trolley?

 

[rewebster]

Waiting for a trolley?

it was back in the teens or twenties went just about every town had them and interurbans of some sort (like the Red Line in CA--)

 

[phyzmatix]

it was back in the teens or twenties went just about every town had them and interurbans of some sort (like the Red Line in CA--)

*ping*...of course!

(I probably shouldn't even admit this, but I had difficulty understanding why someone would sit and wait for a shopping trolley :rofl:)

 

[turbo]

I have made blades from obsidian and flint, and it's pretty darned tough to duplicate the craftsmanship of flint-knappers of thousands of years ago. The great thing about the stone blades is that they are REALLY sharp and can be re-sharpened by knapping new edges. The downside is that they are incredibly brittle. The instruction cards and minimal tool set that I bought were very helpful, though. They guy who marketed the kits used to sell his flakes of obsidian to an outfit that made scalpels for plastic surgeons. A cleanly-knapped flake has an edge only about a molecule thick, which cuts skin cleanly and reduces scarring.

 

[DaveC426913]

*ping*...of course!

(I probably shouldn't even admit this, but I had difficulty understanding why someone would sit and wait for a shopping trolley :rofl:)

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1780154&postcount=2

 

[wolram]

About the only thing i could think of that is needed in the home and is quite modern is copper pipe, and may be insulated copper wire, even then we could do without electricity.
a solid fuel aga to cook on and heat water, gas lights.

 

[phyzmatix]

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1780154&postcount=2

Obviously great minds and all that

:rofl:

 

[WarPhalange]

Toilet paper. It was inevitable, but who was the first to decide to make paper especially for that purpose?

 

[DaveC426913]

Toilet paper. It was inevitable, but who was the first to decide to make paper especially for that purpose?

I don't know who he was, but I'll bet he was left-handed.

You see, the reason we shake hands and salute and everything else with the right hand is because that is the hand we have traditionally eaten with - the clean hand.

On the other hand, all flush toilets are operated with the left hand because of the same traditions.

 

[rewebster]

I don't know who he was, but I'll bet he was left-handed.

You see, the reason we shake hands and salute and everything else with the right hand is because that is the hand we have traditionally eaten with - the clean hand.

On the other hand, all flush toilets are operated with the left hand because of the same traditions.

yeah--the left hand is very sinister.

 

[turbo]

yeah--the left hand is very sinister.

In heraldry, the bar separating the symbols of your families could mirror the direction of a right arm reaching for a sword (bar dexter) or the left arm reaching for a sword (bar sinister). Bar dexter indicated that you were the legitimate son of X and Y and bar sinister indicated that you were the illegitimate son of X and Y. Now you know why Underdog's nemesis was maned Simon Bar Sinister. A little inside joke for the writers to slip past the censors.

 

[Math Jeans]

In heraldry, the bar separating the symbols of your families could mirror the direction of a right arm reaching for a sword (bar dexter) or the left arm reaching for a sword (bar sinister). Bar dexter indicated that you were the legitimate son of X and Y and bar sinister indicated that you were the illegitimate son of X and Y. Now you know why Underdog's nemesis was maned Simon Bar Sinister. A little inside joke for the writers to slip past the censors.

wow.

 

[DaveC426913]

In heraldry, the bar separating the symbols of your families could mirror the direction of a right arm reaching for a sword (bar dexter) or the left arm reaching for a sword (bar sinister). Bar dexter indicated that you were the legitimate son of X and Y and bar sinister indicated that you were the illegitimate son of X and Y. Now you know why Underdog's nemesis was maned Simon Bar Sinister. A little inside joke for the writers to slip past the censors.

A great story but would censors really object to implications of an illegitimate child?

 

[turbo]

A great story but would censors really object to implications of an illegitimate child?

They would have blocked any story-lines about Simon the Bastard!

 

[glondor]

I want to know who invented chicken.

 

[DaveC426913]

I want to know who invented chicken.

Eggs.

 

[~christina~]

Oh look it's a toilet, what?? http://blog.kenlei.com/category/fun/

Now you can laugh until it hurts, or get it so that you'll survive a fire!

Toilet creation timeline:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet#Invention_timeline

 

[Evo]

I don't know who he was, but I'll bet he was left-handed.

You see, the reason we shake hands and salute and everything else with the right hand is because that is the hand we have traditionally eaten with - the clean hand.

On the other hand, all flush toilets are operated with the left hand because of the same traditions.

Being right handed, wouldn't you wipe with your right hand? The handle is on the left because after you wipe, the left would be the clean hand.

I thought the tradition of shaking hands with the right was to prove you were not holding a weapon.

 

[DaveC426913]

Being right handed, wouldn't you wipe with your right hand? The handle is on the left because after you wipe, the left would be the clean hand.

I thought the tradition of shaking hands with the right was to prove you were not holding a weapon.

That too.

But using one's right hand is not simply a personal preference, it is a societal and logistical convention - because of the swords, the saluting and the hand-shaking.

 

[LowlyPion]

I thought the tradition of shaking hands with the right was to prove you were not holding a weapon.

In Arab countries I believe it is quite the opposite. You shake with your right hand because that is the clean hand. The same with regard to eating or preparing food as well. You take food with your right, because reaching for communal food in the middle ... why that would be considered a matter of hygiene as well. Your companions might take offense.

One might imagine that such a custom would arise in a place without toilet paper - like say a desert?

 

[rewebster]

if I remember reading 'right', its because in Europe (roman times/latin) most were right handed and the better you manuevered your hands the more dextrous (dexter 'latin'-right) you were; and, if you were left handed, you were odd (sinister 'latin'-left). --latin for hand is manus --and has many romantic language derivatives -manufacture, manicure, etc.