This inventions in order quiz asks you to sort four world-changing creations per round, from the oldest to the newest. You'll weigh up printing presses and telescopes, cotton gins and phonographs, zippers and sliced bread, early computers and smartphones. It's a fun way to discover how long some everyday gadgets have been around, and how recently others arrived.
Ask three historians when something was invented and you may get three answers. Is it the year someone first sketched the idea, built a working model, filed a patent or sold it to the public? Many famous inventions also had several people racing toward the same goal at once, so credit often goes to whoever made the version that actually caught on. This quiz uses the dates most commonly cited in textbooks and museums, and keeps each round's dates far enough apart that small disagreements don't change the order.
A handy way to reason through a round is to ask what each invention depends on. Anything electronic needs electricity, which became practical in homes only in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Anything digital needs computers, which arrived during and just after World War II. Mechanical inventions powered by hand, water or steam usually come earlier.
Inventions also tend to arrive in clusters. Breakthroughs in one area spark a rush of new ideas nearby, which is why some decades seem packed with landmark gadgets. Spotting those waves is half the fun of an ordering quiz, and you may be surprised by which familiar objects are older than you think.
Put these in order: earliest first
Answer: Gutenberg's printing press (c. 1440), then Telescope (1608), then Electric battery (1800), then Telephone (1876)
Alessandro Volta's battery gave us the word volt, the unit used to measure electrical pressure.
Put these in order: earliest first
Answer: Franklin's lightning rod (c. 1750), then Cotton gin (1793), then Stethoscope (1816), then Howe's sewing machine (1846)
The first stethoscope was a simple wooden tube invented by French doctor René Laennec.
Put these in order: earliest first
Answer: Dynamite patented (1867), then Phonograph (1877), then Benz motor car (1886), then Wright brothers' airplane (1903)
Alfred Nobel's fortune from dynamite and other explosives later funded the Nobel Prizes.
Put these in order: earliest first
Answer: Marconi's radio (1895), then Electronic television (1927), then Transistor (1947), then Handheld cell phone call (1973)
The first handheld cell phone call was made on a New York City street by Motorola engineer Martin Cooper.
Put these in order: earliest first
Answer: Modern zipper (1913), then Sliced bread (1928), then Velcro patented (1955), then Post-it Notes go on sale (1980)
Pre-sliced bread was first sold in Chillicothe, Missouri, using Otto Rohwedder's slicing machine.
Put these in order: earliest first
Answer: ENIAC computer unveiled (1946), then First email between computers (1971), then World Wide Web (1989), then iPhone (2007)
Ray Tomlinson picked the @ sign for email addresses because it rarely appeared in names.