# Inventions that were behind their time **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334 "2004-09-06T14:55:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/1 "2004-09-06T14:55:27Z")
What inventions are now obvious but somehow eluded people for a long time? I’m talking about things that could have been made for centuries before they actually appeared. Gunpowder is the traditional one. It’s an easy to make product and its ingredients are common. Other simple products would be stirrups, hot air balloons, and windmills. Anyone think of other examples? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/2 "2004-09-06T15:21:57Z")
Can openers The cat flap (in doors) Chimneys Anti-grav platforms Scissors Moveable type Evaporative coolers ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/3 "2004-09-06T15:26:55Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Can openers How many years were people stuck opening cans with sharp rocks and hacksaws before someone thought to design the canopener? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/4 "2004-09-06T15:45:57Z")
Granted, they came around pretty quick, and a type of opener was introduced with canning itself. I’m talking about the super easy to use one with a circular blade that you lazily crank arounr the top. The other kind was a straight edged type of device that is considerably harder to use. [Hard to use](http://www.shomertec.com/item.cfm?Action=Index&variable=460) [Easy to use](http://altura.speedera.net/ccimg.catalogcity.com/210000/213000/213050/Products/6658650.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/5 "2004-09-06T15:47:41Z")
> [@Lamar Mundane](#): > > How many years were people stuck opening cans with sharp rocks and hacksaws before someone thought to design the canopener? _giggle_ “Gentlemen! Behold! I have invented… The Can!” "Great… ummm… what is it for? “You can store food in The Can!” “And then…?” "Well… err… I mean… You can eat it later! “Uh huh. How? Exactly?” “You open The Can!” “With…?” "… … God Damn It! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/6 "2004-09-06T15:52:22Z")
That’s funny! I found the proper name for the device I had in mind: Safety can opener. Which brings up the question: what the hell is a safety can? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/7 "2004-09-06T16:12:03Z")
> [@NoPretentiousCodename](#): > > _giggle_ > > “Gentlemen! Behold! I have invented… The Can!” > > "Great… ummm… what is it for? > “You can store food in The Can!” > > “And then…?” > "Well… err… I mean… You can eat it later! > > “Uh huh. How? Exactly?” > “You open The Can!” > > “With…?” > "… … God Damn It! Genius! ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/8 "2004-09-06T16:19:31Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Granted, they came around pretty quick, and a type of opener was introduced with canning itself. I’m talking about the super easy to use one with a circular blade that you lazily crank arounr the top. The other kind was a straight edged type of device that is considerably harder to use. > > [Hard to use](http://www.shomertec.com/item.cfm?Action=Index&variable=460) > > [Easy to use](http://altura.speedera.net/ccimg.catalogcity.com/210000/213000/213050/Products/6658650.jpg) NCB, I must respectfully disagree. I’ve kept a P-38 can opener on my keyring for years. It’s pathetically easy to use, about as much so as the rotary kind to which your other link leads. Perhaps you are thinking of the bladed kind where you basically had to jam it in the edge of the lid, then lever it up repeatedly as you went, literally tearing a gash around the top of the can, as seen in the Popeye cartoons. I have used these, and they are hard as hell on the wrists. As to inventions after their time: I’d vote for Liquid Paper and the Garden Weasel, myself. Two very simple things that became very popular and very profitable for their creators and marketers. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/9 "2004-09-06T16:26:34Z")
I believe Napoleon’s soldiers were the first to use canned food in warfare (not as a weapon). Jaques: I am so hungry. Ve need food! Pierre: I have ze latest innovation in food. Ze can! There ees food in here that ees as fresh az ze day it was placed in the can! Jaques: Mercie! Ve can share ze food. Pierre: Oiu! How do remove ze food? Jaques: Alaz, ve are thwarted. Ve shall starve! The US postal service finally decided to use self-sticking stamps a few years ago, decades after the sticker was invented. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/10 "2004-09-06T16:41:23Z")
The little slit in the ketchup packets that make them easy to tear open. Where were these in the 70s? Maxi pads with wings. Maxi pads with adhesive in a wide strip, not the little narrow slip that inevitably broke free and allowed the pad to wander. Scrunchies Kethchup squeeze bottles. The new type of seal on the mustard bottles that has a little flap that makes it easy to remove in one peice. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/11 "2004-09-06T16:47:09Z")
According to Michael Palin’s documentaries, Napoleon’s armies were in fact the first to use canned food in the battlefield. They were, however, not the first to use _tinned_ food; their food wasn’t tinned. It was, in fact, bottled, using the techniques our grandmothers would later use “Mason Jars” to achieve. If Palin is to be believed, Napoleon’s armies had to pour their pickled meals out of old wine and liquor bottles. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/12 "2004-09-06T16:48:02Z")
The handle on toilet paper packages!! Honestly, why did it take so long for the packaging people to realise that carrying those is a chore? Especially the big family sized ones. All the packages should have the handle! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/13 "2004-09-06T16:50:56Z")
**Wang** the popeye kind was what I pictured in my mind, but I couldn’t find a pic, so I chose a (apparantly ((in hindsight)) not so similar) type that wasn’t rotary bladed. [This site](http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1800a.shtml) (finally!) has the points I was remembering about can openers and canned food. > [@](#): > > A metal can (or canister) for preserving food was invented in 1810 by a Peter Durand, of London, England. Metal cans (also called tins) could preserve food for a long period of time. To open a can, a person had to use a hammer and chisel; the can opener wasn’t invented for another 50 years. > > The can opener was invented in 1858 by Ezra Warner of Waterbury, Connecticut, USA. Warner’s device used a lever and chisel. Until then, cans were opened using a hammer and chisel; the can opener was invented 50 years after the metal can was invented. > > The can opener was improved in 1870 by William Lyman of West Meridian, Connecticut, USA. Lyman’s device used a rotating wheel and a sharp edge. His can opener only fit one size of can, and first had to pierce the center of the can. > > The modern-day type of can opener (using a serrated wheel) was invented in 1925. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/14 "2004-09-06T17:30:47Z")
The cotton gin. The original model was terribly simple, and people had been carding wool and combing burrs and such out of hair and fur for centuries. There were apparently lots of people around the world working toward such a device when Eli Whitney filed his patent, but why hadn’t someone come up with something so simple 50 years before? Cotton was just as unprofitable, people need cloth as badly, and the technology required was there. So why then, and not before? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/15 "2004-09-07T00:35:26Z")
Buttons as fasteners didn’t appear until the 14th century or so - they had them as decoration but not to hold their clothes together. Granted, they didn’t _really_ need to - my understanding is that the fashion became so much more tightly fitted at the time because scissor technology advanced, also. But surely there were plenty of applications before the cotehardie where a nice button or two would have come in handy. ---
**Author:** ![Spudo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Spudo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spudo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/16 "2004-09-07T00:44:49Z")
Upside down kethcup bottles. I’ve only started to see them recently and have always wondered why they weren’t the original design. I guess whoever invented the ketchup bottle didn’t actually know anything about ketchup. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/17 "2004-09-07T03:22:30Z")
The wheelbarrow. It didn’t appear in Europe until the middle ages—almost 1000 years after it was developed in China. The Stirrup. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/18 "2004-09-07T03:53:19Z")
The phonograph. Think about it: We were making arbitrarily complex clockwork mechanisms back in the Middle Ages, and we had needles and wax since the stone age. There was no fundamental reason in terms of materials or mechanical technology that precluded the phonograph for almost five centuries before its invention. A primitive Edison model (with a wax cylinder and almost no amplification) could have been invented significantly before the Jacquard loom, simply in terms of relative mechanical complexity. The only reason I can think of is that the theory was so far behind. The same thing happened with penicillin. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/19 "2004-09-07T04:12:17Z")
[Frozen lemonade.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_040a.html) ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334/20 "2004-09-07T04:22:48Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Anti-grav platforms > > Moveable type > > Evaporative coolers Moveable type is actually pretty tricky, because you need to develop alloys that don’t shrink. And the romans used evaporative coolers to make ice in the desert. But anti-grav platforms? You got a few lying around that I can borrow next time I move? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-were-behind-their-time/263334.md?page=2)