# Things that could have been invented sooner ... but weren't **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 7, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607 "2010-05-07T05:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/1 "2010-05-07T05:50:15Z")
This is a thread for listing things that could have been invented long before they actually were. By that I mean that all the supporting technology was there, but nobody thought to put it all together. Here’s one: **Animated Cartoons**. 5000 years ago the ancient Egyptians had everything they needed to make animated flip-books using papyrus. But it wasn’t until the 19th century that anybody noticed you could create the illusion of motion by rapidly riffing through a series of drawing. In retrospect it’s kind of amazing that it wasn’t stumbled on earlier. What are some others? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/2 "2010-05-07T07:02:29Z")
The Incas inventing the wheel. Sure, it was already invented, but outside of children’s toys they didn’t have anything with wheels or tires. Imagine the extensive road system they could have had in place by the time the Spanish invaded if they’d put their mind to it. Sorry that’s all I got. Oh yea, [The Master](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/223/why-did-the-peoples-of-the-new-world-fail-to-invent-the-wheel) speaks on the subject of wheels and Incas. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/3 "2010-05-07T07:09:08Z")
anal beads. Humans have had access to string and dried walnuts for years I tell you. Years. I’d say the steam engine. The capacity to make one supposedly existed back in ancient Greece where people would create metal objects with 2 arms at 90 degree angles, then fill it with water and put it over a fire until it started spinning in circles. However it was used as a novelty toy and nobody thought to use that device (using steam pressure to move metal parts) to perform manual labor until the industrial revolution. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/4 "2010-05-07T08:09:07Z")
Archimedes’ screw was devised for moving water. Screws weren’t used as fastening devices until some time later. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/5 "2010-05-07T08:31:33Z")
Stirrups. They could have been invented thousands of years earlier than they were. > [@needscoffee](#): > > Archimedes’ screw was devised for moving water. Screws weren’t used as fastening devices until some time later. I’ve heard Archimedes’ screw itself used as an example of something that could have been invented earlier than it was. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/6 "2010-05-07T12:48:04Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > anal beads. Humans have had access to string and dried walnuts for years I tell you. Years. Cracking. Me. Up. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/7 "2010-05-07T13:05:13Z")
Semaphore and heiloscope telegraphs, but what did old-time people need to send to the far end of the Empire fast? The hovercraft, certainly do-able by 1910 or so. The long-distance trade in natural pond ice, came in about 1850, but possible much earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/8 "2010-05-07T13:31:46Z")
The [Fax machine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax#History) could have been invented about five minutes after the telephone. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/9 "2010-05-07T13:42:54Z")
We had a Panel on this at Arisia a few years ago **Gunpowder** – no reason it couldn’t have been invented earlier **Laser** – it had to wait until the maser had been invented first, and was created by analogy, but there’s no reason discovery had to follow that path. You don’t even really need quantum theory to make a laser. It could’ve been made decades earlier, if, for instance someone working on gas discharges had put parallel mirrors around one **Telescope** – early lenses weren’t of the greatest quality, which is one reason telescopes weren’t built sooner (and the history of the lens itself is controversial), but certainly there were enough good quality lenses to spur work that could have lead to telescopes. there’s certainly at least one documented and credible claim to a telescope decades before Lippershey. And no reason it couldn’t have been done much earlier. **Wheel** it’s mentioned above, but I’ll bring it up again. some people have claimed that the Potter’s Wheel preceded the transportation wheel. But, if so, it’s very surprising that the many American native groups, throughout both Americas, didn’t develop the Potter’s Wheel. They were no slouches at pottery. **Wine** – I’ve brought this up on the Board before. There are native American _Labrusca_ grapes, with natural yeasts on their skins, that ferment and make perfectly good wine (your taste may vary. But _I_ like it). Native American groups had grapes and pottery 9see above). Other people in the world diwscovered and used fermented beverages, including various fruit “wines”. There’s no reason the Americans couldn’t have done the same, independently. **Mechanical Telegraph** – Before Samuel F. B. Morse (and a great many other, less remembered inventors) came up with the electric telegraph, there were Mechanical Telegraphs using various semaphore-like constructions, or sets of boards or triangles in chains to transmit signals rapidly over large distances. The idea was to send a letter at a time between stations separated by distances large enough for fast transmission, but close enough to read the signals – kind of like chains of Signal Fires (as seen in the Lord of the Rings movie), but with more information capacity. These were used in the eighteenth century and perhaps a bit earlier. There’s no reason they couldn’t have been used earlier (although having telescopes – see above – helps by letting you put stations farther apart). In his time-travel novel **Lest Darkness fall** , L. Sprague de Camp has Martin Padway try to set one up in ancient Rome. You could also use light signals – blocked/unblocked sources, or helioscopes reflecting the sun. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/10 "2010-05-07T13:46:39Z")
> [@](#): > > The Fax machine could have been invented about five minutes after the telephone. as your cite indicates, facsimile transmission by wire actually preceded voice over wire by many years. the problem, as I understand it, was synchronizing the rotation rate of the sender and receiver. I’ve seen demonstrations of such systems, and if your rotation rates don’t coincide pretty well, you get gibberish. I remember as a kid in the 1960s reading a comic about a new (real) invention for facsimile transmission. The machine was as big as an early Xerox copier. i suspect they weren’t more heavily used because of cost. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/11 "2010-05-07T13:48:01Z")
When I started writing, **Paul** ’s telegraph cite wasn’t up yet – I didn’t think it took me that long. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/12 "2010-05-07T15:53:52Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > The Incas inventing the wheel. Sure, it was already invented, but outside of children’s toys they didn’t have anything with wheels or tires. Imagine the extensive road system they could have had in place by the time the Spanish invaded if they’d put their mind to it. As it was they did have such a road system, but only for foot and llama traffic. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/13 "2010-05-07T17:14:10Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > Cracking. Me. Up. Hey, if you can crack those walnuts, I’m impressed! ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/14 "2010-05-07T17:23:42Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Hey, if you can crack those walnuts, I’m impressed! No offense, but I don’t think impressing you is worth rectal walnut shards. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/15 "2010-05-07T17:27:04Z")
Maybe ATMs? I seem to recall a banker quoted back in the 1980s as saying they had the technology for them as early as the 1960s and could have saved a lot in expenses if they’d only developed them that early. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/16 "2010-05-07T17:30:17Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The [Fax machine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax#History) could have been invented about five minutes after the telephone. I am now imagining Alexander Graham Bell faxing: “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/17 "2010-05-07T17:43:33Z")
The can opener It took nearly 5 decades after the invention of the metal can to determine that there might be a reason to actually pry one open. There were a lot of hungry people in bomb shelters I’ll bet. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/18 "2010-05-07T17:52:16Z")
The automobile. Reasonably powerful, compact steam engines were available by the 1850’s-mated to a modern chassis and rubber wheels, you have a useful (if primative) automobile. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/19 "2010-05-07T18:17:56Z")
As a joke I made a Roman-era Rolodex out of wood, leather and sheepskin. They could have built one, but _noooooo._ ---
**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:** [May 7, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607/20 "2010-05-07T18:26:57Z")
The windmill. It seems like an obvious concept in retrospect. The ancients used sails to move large ships at sea. But the idea of attaching sails on an axle to a building and using wind as free power source took centuries. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-could-have-been-invented-sooner-but-werent/538607.md?page=2)