Well here we are, human history's most advanced race. Everything we have or everything we use is on the cutting edge of technology, right? I bet you know where this is going. Actually we are not very advanced at all in some areas. If one were to take away modern electronics and anything connected with it, we would be left with some pretty old technology in some areas. Have I lost my mind, after all we are modern man? Well I just ran a mind check, it all seems to be there, which is quite an accomplishment at my age.

Look at all our roadways, bridges, buildings and structures. Look at some of the material that has made these wonders possible. By golly, it is cement. Cement, the same material that the Romans used over 2,000 years ago. This material allowed Rome to become one of the greatest countries in the world. Oh sure, the mixture may have changed a little and we do have new types of cement that can bear up better under stress but the basic material is the same. If the ancient Romans were alive today, they could have constructed many of our structures we use today with their cement. They didn't have the type of cement that allowed them to go up over thirty stories without steel reinforcement as we do today, but they could have built some of our bridges and roadways. They even had cement that dried under water, like we use today, to build supports for these bridges. You would think that we could have found a better replacement for this material in these thousands of years.

Did you have your eyes checked lately? Hope you don't need glasses. If you do, you can feel confident that the concept of wearing glasses is well tested. The first magnifying glass was invented in the 11th century. Eyeglasses were invented in the 13th century.by Salvino D'Amate in Italy. They didn't have glass lenses but used polished crystal that was very thick, so thick that each lens was about 1 1/2 inch thick. Imaging having to wear these babies, after a few days your nose would be worn off from dragging it on the ground. Plastics have helped us reduce the weight, not only of the lenses, but also of the frames. The early glasses were just two circles with a crude hinge connecting them. So you say that I forgot about sun glasses a relatively modern invention? I didn't forget. Even sunglasses are about 260 years old. They were invented in 1752 by James Ayscough and believe it or not, he even made them with clear glass. He decided that this didn't do the trick so he recommended against their use and recommended tinted glass.

One of the most obvious of the ancient inventions that is in universal use today and which our society couldn't function without, is the wheel. The wheel seems to be used on everything, yet this invention is truly ancient. The wheel is so old that we don't know when it was invented. The oldest wheel we have found was in Mesopotamia and was over 5,500 years old. I don't want to exaggerate here, but it seems that the wheel might be in as many as half the devices we use. Some devices have many different forms of wheels in them. Look at your car. Sure it has four wheels but these are only on the outside. It has a steering wheel doesn't it? The transmission is made up of gears that are forms of wheels. The knobs on your radio are wheels. Even the vent controls and heater controls might be wheels on some cars. Do you use electricity in your home. Does the electric company come and check your meter? The meter ic controlled by a wheel spinning inside. Even your laptop computer may use wheels. Does it have a wheel on the side to raise and lower the volume of the sound, my does? The mouse may use a ball, that is a form of wheel.

One ancient invention that is very close to us every day is clothing. Today we cover our bodies with fancy cloths and synthetics but the earliest clothing was thought to be made of grasses and animal skins. No one knows when cloth was first invented but pieces of cloth have been found in Egypt and south America that date back over 6,600 years. Cloth may be much older but there may be little chance of finding older examples because they would have disintegrated Linen is believed to be one of the earliest examples of cloth. So here we are, walking around with some of the same types of cloth on our backs that our very ancient ancestors wore.

Ah, you are having a steak dinner, but how do you cut that nice piece of steak? You could try using a stick but that wouldn't work too well. How about a rock? Nope, doesn't work. I know, you could use a knife. A knife is a very ancient invention that started out just being a rock that was chipped to form a sharp edge.Flint was one of the favorite rocks to use because a new edge could be put on it rather easily. Knives were usually used to skin animals. So how old is the oldest knife? Oh only about 2.5 million years. Talk about something lasting a long time, the knife may hold the record. Copper knives have been found that date back to 2,300 B.C. The exact date of the first metal knife is unknown but they were one of the first tools made as metal technology became known.

 

To my friends that live in an apartment building, I just want to let them know that the Romans had these buildings They were several stories high and the poorer you were, the higher you had to climb. Even the indians in the western part of the U.S. had apartment buildings over 1,000 years ago. They built them on cliffs and they were several stories high. So you see, the idea of the apartment building is over 2,000 years old and still going strong.

If you write letters you are using ancient technology. Read a good book lately? More ancient printing technology. Set off fireworks, again ancient technology. I could go on and on, but what is the purpose after the point is made? So here we are, the super advanced humans still using the technology of our ancient ancestors. By the way, we still use much of the mathematics of the ancient Greeks. It seems that maybe we haven't advanced as fast in some areas as we originally believed.