# Early inventions that were widespread, then obsolete in a generation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 13, 2015, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026 "2015-07-13T07:18:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/21 "2015-07-13T12:33:43Z")
The Newcomen Atmospheric Engine went from being invented to popular to obsolete in the space of about 60 years - more than a generation (so not sure it really qualifies), but within the lifetimes of some individuals. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/22 "2015-07-13T13:21:43Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Sorry, my friend…not obsolete, merely taking a break. Mullet shall return, with a great vengeance. I’m in Prague and I can confirm that the mullet is alive and well here in the Czech Republic. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/23 "2015-07-13T13:29:53Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Sorry, my friend…not obsolete, merely taking a break. Mullet shall return, with a great vengeance. Mullets are like the Shingles virus of pop culture hair cuts. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/24 "2015-07-13T13:43:30Z")
The fax machine. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/25 "2015-07-13T13:50:29Z")
A bit less than 50 years, but I can’t think of an invention that had a shorter useful timespan previous to the [Optical telegraph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy#Optical_telegraph) in the early 1800’s. Replaced riders for important messages - previously a message took a week to cross Europe with riders, now it took less than a day. Of course, electric telegraphs were much faster, and cheaper since you didn’t need several people at every tower to relay the messages. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/26 "2015-07-13T14:01:28Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#): > > The pager? Cool little gadget, but obsolete within less than 10 years due to the introduction of mobile phones. Upps, just found out that the first one was introduced in the 50s, so were around much longer than I figured. [Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pager) Hey, I still wear a pager. But only because I work in a maximum security environment where portable two-way electronic devices are forbidden. It’s getting tough to find someone to provide pager services these days; many regions in our state are no longer covered by a pager network. Eventually we’ll have to find a way to allow secure mobile phones into our institutions. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/27 "2015-07-13T14:01:50Z")
How about gas lighting? Ah, not a generation, but maybe 100 years. Player pianos – the iPod of the early 20th century. Slide projectors are pretty much obsolete now and I imagine overhead projectors are pretty much marginalized. Mimeographs and ditto machines have been largely replaced by copiers and printers. Armored battleships lasted _maybe_ 100 years, but probably their peak period was 1914-1945. Maybe not obsolete, but you don’t see many TV antennas anymore. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/28 "2015-07-13T14:07:28Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > A bit less than 50 years, but I can’t think of an invention that had a shorter useful timespan previous to the [Optical telegraph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy#Optical_telegraph) in the early 1800’s. Replaced riders for important messages - previously a message took a week to cross Europe with riders, now it took less than a day. Of course, electric telegraphs were much faster, and cheaper since you didn’t need several people at every tower to relay the messages. Ah, finally something properly early. I expect some other inventions of the early industrial age were also superseded rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/29 "2015-07-13T14:17:10Z")
Those X ray machine thingys they used to see if your foot was fitting properly in the shoe at the shoe store. Those didn’t last long at all. But not so much obsolete as not particularly safe. Oh, and the Pony Express. Good idea and it worked. I’m not going to Google it but it only lasted a few years if I recall correctly. ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/30 "2015-07-13T14:24:24Z")
My first marriage ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/31 "2015-07-13T14:27:00Z")
Siphon/vacuum coffee makers and percolators. Both had their turns as the new and better way to make coffee; by the 50s, everyone in the US used percolators. They’re still made, but it’s rare to see one. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/32 "2015-07-13T14:27:48Z")
There’s lot of examples from modern times. I remember tossing draw fulls of Zip drives out. In Japan, the best example would be the magnetic strip telephone cards which were introduced in 1982, and became ubiquitous within just a few years. There were scores of phone booths around the larger stations in Tokyo and Osaka, and the lightweight cards replaced all the heavy 10 yen coins we were forced to carry around. Japan charged metered calls even for local areas, so it was pain. While they aren’t completely obsolete, the sharp decline in public telephones is a witness their current obscurity. I think the OP was looking for something from the past, an excellent example would be the [Penny-farthing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing) or ordinary bicycle. These iconic symbols of the late Victorian era with the large front wheel and smaller rear one, were invented in 1869, became quickly popular and then were as quickly replaced by safety bicycle in 1888. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/33 "2015-07-13T14:28:50Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#): > > The pager? Cool little gadget, but obsolete within less than 10 years due to the introduction of mobile phones. Upps, just found out that the first one was introduced in the 50s, so were around much longer than I figured. [Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pager) > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Hey, I still wear a pager. > > But only because I work in a maximum security environment where portable two-way electronic devices are forbidden. My wife is a doctor at a large university system that still issues pagers to all its physicians. She only carries hers on her on-call nights, but on those nights it’s the primary way for the hospital to reach her. At this point, the medical profession is probably the only thing keeping the pager industry alive. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/34 "2015-07-13T14:31:51Z")
I’m with the definition problems camp. I keep thinking of items which if they’re defined one way, have been long gone, and were really only common for a 20-25 year period, and if they’re defined another, have been going strong for a half-century. To wit- the Walkman. The original Walkman was only really popular from its introduction in the 1980s through probably the early 1990s, at which point the various portable CD players took over, and then the MP3 player from them in the early 2000s, and the smartphone from them not long after that. But if you look at it as the category of “portable music players”, they’ve been going for 35 years now, with no signs of slowing. Same thing for VCRs vs. home video recorders, the cassette answering machine vs. voice mail, and so on, and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/35 "2015-07-13T14:35:57Z")
Lots of comments on this one. Why does anyone think food processors are obsolete and what is used instead. Ours is at least 35 years old and used several times a week and I have looked at models in the dept. store in case it finally bites the dust. We still have an answering machine that is used all the time. I don’t like voice mail from the phone company and I don’t have to pay them ransom to take messages. Fax goes back to the mid 19th century. I still have a fax machine, although it is rarely used. Still there are organizations that want a faxed signature and will not accept an email. Yes, semaphore systems (also called telegraphs) were quickly overtaken by the electric telegraph. Although it is interesting to note that France banned the electric telegraph for some years. A couple cities in eastern have “Telegraph Hills” which were originally named for having semaphore relays on them. There is a book called something like, “The nineteenth century internet” that goes into this in some detail as an instance in which technology moved almost as fast as internet technology. It took well over 100 years for telegraph to finally disappear. It looks like the wired telephone may be well on its way to disappear. Although it started in the late 19th century, by 1900 only about 1% of US homes had a telephone and it didn’t really become ubiquitous until after WWII. I can still recall my grandmother getting phone calls for neighbors during the war. Some third world countries have skipped land lines entirely. But technology moved so slow compared to today that it is hard to imagine a technology going down the tubes within a generation of its invention. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/36 "2015-07-13T14:54:39Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > In Japan, the best example would be the magnetic strip telephone cards which were introduced in 1982, and became ubiquitous within just a few years. . . . Which reminded me of Japan’s [**analogue high-def TV**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_high-definition_television_system). > [@](#): > > The country began broadcasting wideband analog high-definition video signals in the late 1980s using an interlaced resolution of 1035 or 1080-lines active (1035i) or 1125-lines total supported by the Sony HDVS line of equipment. The last transmissions, which duplicated a digital signal, ended on Nov. 30, 2007. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/37 "2015-07-13T15:09:43Z")
The vacuum tube was invented in 1904, and was made obsolete by transistors in 50 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/38 "2015-07-13T15:19:51Z")
> [@bump](#): > > To wit- the Walkman. The original Walkman was only really popular from its introduction in the 1980s through probably the early 1990s, at which point the various portable CD players took over, and then the MP3 player from them in the early 2000s, and the smartphone from them not long after that. The Walkman was really an iconic device for a whole generation, there were so many different makes and models (knockoffs of the original Walkman by Sony). When I close my eyes and try to recall images from my teen years, a Walkman inevitably crops up. I still use MP3 players. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/39 "2015-07-13T15:24:09Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Player pianos – the iPod of the early 20th century. This is a great one. I have a player piano, the guts have been taken out so it’s just a regular old piano now, and when researching it I realized how they became really big for a while and the phonograph just killed the market in no time at all. I’ll throw in Black and White TV. TV really started getting popular around 1950, and by the mid 70’s B&W was rapidly on the way out, to be gone by 1980. Around 20 years of widespread broadcast and 25 years of TV sales before being made obsolete by color. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-inventions-that-were-widespread-then-obsolete-in-a-generation/725026/40 "2015-07-13T15:26:43Z")
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