Sometimes things that are discovered are used one way, but years or even hundreds of years later it is realized that they have other uses. A case in point is either. We hear many medical horror stories from all through the middle centuries. Arms and legs removed without anesthetic, along with many other extremely painful operations that we don't even dare to think about. All this took place because there was no anesthetic at the time, or was there? It seems there was, but no one realized it. Ether was discovered in 1275 by chemist Raymundus Lullius. Can you imagine the suffering that could have been done away with if it had only been used as an anesthetic? Maybe they couldn't figure out how to manufacture it since it wasn't synthesized until 1540 or maybe no one felt it was important enough to even think of making. You see, not much was thought of it when it was discovered, it certainly was never thought of as an anesthetic. It wasn't even called ether until 1730, before that it was known as sweet vitriol. Here is the funny thing, it was used to treat different illnesses. I just don't see how someone didn't notice that it put you to sleep? Surely there must have been times when either too much was administered or some worker breathed in too much and became unconscious? It wasn't until 1842 that ether was used to render someone unconscious for a painless operation.

The first electrical battery was invented somewhere around 600 B.C. to 224 A.D. No one is exactly sure of the date. I wouldn't be surprised if they find out it is even older than that. Scientists were puzzled for many years on what could have been the use for a storage battery so early in human history. They came up with all sorts of theories such as medicine men using them to treat sickness, but it wasn't until a few years ago that someone realized that ancient people had a knowledge of electroplating metals. Once they found that out, it seemed obvious to them that this was what the battery was used for. Here we had a society that knew about electricity, yet its uses were extremely limited. We went thousands of years before we ever harnessed electricity's power. We may have harnessed electricity, but we still don't know exactly what it is to this day.

Modern man has a habit of thinking that he is very advanced. He also has a habit of forgetting some of the inventions of the past. We picture ourselves as having some of the most advanced weapons in the world. We have bombs, rifles, flame throwers and such. Wait did I say flame throwers? We have discovered that the Ancient Greeks were far more advanced then we ever suspected. It is beginning to look like they had machines, automation and computers of a sort. They also used flame throwers and they were very similar to the ones used today by the military. They had sort of a pump affair where they could pump flame, maybe in the form of Greek Fire, a very potent type of flame that can't be put out with water. It is believed that the flame would shoot out between 10 and 15 feet and once it got on you, you were really in trouble. Greek fire was a sort of primitive napalm.

The first fire balloon was invented in China around 180 A.D. The west got the idea in 1782. What I find very interesting is the fact that even though the fire balloon, or hot air balloon as we now know it, was invented so early in China, they never seemed to recognize the fact of how powerful an invention they had. I have never seen any indication that they tried to build manned balloons. Yet they had kites for over 2500 years and there is a record of manned kite flight. A human actually flew on a kite and legend has it that his name was Yuan Huang-T'ou and this was in the 6th century. By the 13th century it was common for men to fly on kites in China. The first manned balloon fight didn't occur until October 15, 1783 in the west.

Many of us wear eyeglasses today. What most of us don't realize is that they are a relatively old invention. So who was the first to use them? History states that the Emperor Nero used them to watch gladiatorial games. Eye glasses were well know in the Arab world by the 10th century and in Italy by the 13th century. When Marco Polo went to China he stated that he saw many pairs of eye glasses there. In 1784 Ben Franklin invented bifocals. You can see, that is not a pun, that eye glasses are nothing new.

Another ancient invention that is quite common today are sandals and shoes. No one knows exactly how far back sandals go, but they were quite common around 1600 B.C. in Mesopotamia. A little know fact about shoes is that up until about 1850, there was no such thing as a left shoe or a right shoe. Both shoes were made the same and to fit either foot. Sounds a bit uncomfortable to me.

Hey is it raining out, better get you your ancient umbrella. Yes ancient is the correct word since the umbrella is over 4,000 years old. It was first used as a device to shelter one from the sun. They had them in ancient Assyria, China, Egypt and Greece just to name a few places. Somewhere along the way someone decided to make the umbrella waterproof. It is assumed that the ancient Chinese were the ones to do this.

Next time you use something, just stop for a second and think about it. Could it be an ancient invention that you thought was modern? You never know.