I’d add the compass and sextant and put them way up on the list.
When they have the fiberglass fishing rod at 100, but the fishing reel at 80, I start to wonder if they’ve really put a lot of thought into the list. When they put the super soaker ahead of the stapler, I get convinced they drew things out of a hat (and where’s the hat on the list:dubious:)
And how about the condom?
I wonder how such an eclectic list could have come together - what were the criteria used to be considered for the list and why are they ranked this way? What is a “gadget” and what makes it important?
Apparently a gadget is something small, although it can be part of a much larger system required to make the gadget work. For example, a smart phone is only a digital camera or walkie talkie without a cellular communications system (with all the technology such a system includes).
A roomba is on the list, but not the steam engine (which can be the size of a 100-ton locomotive or a lunch box). Steam power was a critical element of the industrial revolution, although the roomba will clean your floors. Hmmmm, hard decision (more head scratching).
Many of these gadgets need electrical power to operate, yet generators and motors of all types (except the battery powered electric drill) are missing from the list yet have fundamentally changed our world.
I’m still scratching my head over the list.
I’m with Lumpy–how do we distinguish a gadget from any other type of techological invention?
Does the cotton gin count? How about the pendulum clock? The treadle loom? The Foulard loom? The hypodermic needle? The laser?
I’m suprised to see the portable air conditioner, but not air conditioners in general.
It also seems odd that GPSes didn’t make it onto the list. I suppose you could argue that GPSes actually depend upon satellites and atomic clocks, which are gadgets in their own right. But, then, I don’t see those on the list, either.
it is a magazine that is big on gadgets. it is an article to help sell the magazine.
it isn’t a history magazine that steam or electric power development would have an article in.
it’s not even old gadgets that your grandparents had. it is gadgets that you bought last year, last month or might buy soon.
Yes. Right. We get that. That’s not the point of this thread, as far as I can tell.
Number 17 handheld GPS