Incredible Technologies From The Past That Just Look Odd Today – Design You Trust

Incredible Technologies From The Past That Just Look Odd Today

300 Year Old Library Tool that Enabled a Researcher to Have Seven Books Open at Once, yet Conveniently Nearby (Palafoxiana Library, Puebla)

Twenty years ago, you would have been the coolest kid on the block for carrying a Nokia 3310. But time flies and technological innovation accelerates along with it. Today, we live in a world ruled by touch screens, face recognition, and machine learning, so imagine what the technology was like a century ago, or two.

In order to find out, we’re taking you on a historical roller coaster to see what ancient technologies defined the future a hundred years ago. From motorized roller-skate salesmen in 1961, aka the proud ancestors of today’s hoverboards, to giant mechanical tricycles from 1896 and orgone accumulators of the ’50s, these are some of the most interesting retro-historical devices.

Some were truly incredible, others look kinda cool, and the rest… make you think “what on earth were they thinking?”

More: Reddit h/t: boredpanda

350 Year Old Pocket Watch Carved From A Single Colombian Emerald

In 1955, This Tiny Electric Narrow Gauge Train Was Installed In New York’s Holland Tunnel To Monitor Traffic Speed

A British Couple Sleeps Inside A “Morrison Shelter” Used As Protection From Collapsing Homes During The WWII ‘Blitz’ Bombing Raids… March 1941

Robo-Vac, A Self-Proppeled Vacuum Cleaner Part Of Whirlpool’s Miracle Kitchen Of The Future, A Display At The 1959 American National Exhibition In Moscow, 1959

The World’s Oldest Surviving Diving Suit: The Old Gentleman, From 1860

This Car Is A French ‘Delahaye 175s Roadster’, Introduced At The Paris Motor Show In 1949. Only One Was Ever Made. It Was Recently Sold At Auction For Around Five Million Dollars.

Philco Predicta Television From The Late 1950s

Motorola Vice President John F. Mitchell Showing Off The Dynatac Portable Radio Telephone In New York City In 1973

Kodak K-24 Camera, Used For Aerial Photography During Ww2 By The Americans

A Rail Zeppelin And A Steam Train Near The Railway Platform. Berlin, Germany, 1931

The Old “Telefontornet” Telephone Tower In Stockholm, Sweden, With Approximately 5,500 Telephone Lines C. 1890

Helen, An American Indian Telephone And Switchboard Operator, Montana, 1925

Motorized Roller-Skate Salesman In California, 1961

Soviet Peasants Listen To The Radio For The First Time, 1928

A Thin TV Screen (Only 4 Inches Thick) With An Automatic Timing Device To Record TV Programs For Later Viewing Is The Wave Of The Future As Shown At The Home Furnishings Market In Chicago, Illinois, On June 21, 1961

One-Wheel Motorcycle, Germany, 1925

The Open Side View Of An Old Calculator

FBI’s Fingerprint Files, 1944.

TV Glasses Decades Before Google Glass, 1960s

The Hindenburg Takes Shape, 1932

The First Public Demonstration Of A Computer Mouse, Graphical User Interface, Windowed Computing, Hypertext And Word Processing, 1968

Bikes For Your Feet

Jay Ohrberg’s ‘Double Wide’ Limousine. Built By The Man Who Also Created The ‘American Dream’ Superlimo

The ‘Isolator’ , By Hugo Gernsback: A Helmet For Insulating The Senses Against Distraction; From The Journal Science And Invention, Vol. 13, No. 3, July 1925

Orgone Accumulator, A Device Sold In The 1950s To Allow A Person Sitting Inside To Attract Orgone, A Massless ‘Healing Energy’. The Fda Noted That One Purchaser, A College Professor, Knew It Was “Phony” But Found It “Helpful Because His Wife Sat Quietly In It For Four Hours Every Day.”

1911: Chester Mcduffee And His Ads Diving Suit, Aluminum Alloy Weighing 485 Lbs/200 Kg

A Man With A Punt Gun, A Type Of Large Shotgun Used For Duck Hunting. It Could Kill Over 50 Birds At Once And Was Banned In The Late 1860s

A 5mb Hard Disk Drive Being Loaded Onto A Plane, In 1956

Using A Two-Horn Listening Device At Bolling Field In Washington, D.c., In 1921 Before The Invention Of Radar, To Listen For Distant Aircraft

If you want more awesome content, subscribe to 'Oh, Design You Trust,' our brand new Facebook page! Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

More Inspiring Stories

This Artist "Paints" An Extraordinary 3D Portraits In Virtual Reality
Innovative Umbrella That Keeps Your Camera Dry When Shooting In The Rain
Virtual Reality Device Allows Users to Wander the Forest through the Eyes of an Animal
Bizarre Beauty Pageants: Vintage Photos Of Hot Dog Queens From The Mid-Century
Photos Of 20 Wonderful Reliant Regal Cars
Vintage Snapshots Of Freaky Halloween Costumes That Give You A Nightmare
An Abstracted Lamborghini Is The Basis For The Bizarre-Looking Lo Res Car From United Nude
The "Super Brain" Phone Cabin
Shocking Lightning Photos in Fujian
No One Knows Who Took These Superb Hand-Colored Albumen Prints Of Japan In The 1890s
Rare Photographs of a Very Young Diego Maradona From the Late 1970s and Early 1980s
Selfies From The Past: Celebrating A Birmingham Community’s Selfies From 40 Years Ago
Low-Budget Glamour Shots That Are Just Too Terrible For Words
If Modern Internet Companies Existed In 1970s - Early 1990s
You Will Be Amazed By This Super Cool Looking Land Rover Defender D90 'Retro Vibes'
Interference
Scandinavian Airlines Pulled Out Vintage Images Of Old Menu Cards And In-Flight Meals
Vanity’s Heaven: Spectacular Retro Inspired Collages by Moon Patrol
The BMX Daredevils of the 70s and 80s: Flying High and Jumping Low
Still Life in 1960s New York in Beautiful Memorabilia Photographs by Evelyn Hofer
Oceanco Debuts Unique 115-Meter-Long Megayacht That Will Truly Sail You In Style
18-Year-Old Teddy Boy George Photographed by Friend Jurgen Vollmer in 1961 at Rabenstraße Stop in Hamburg
Monsters from Outer Space: Glorious Covers for German Sci-Fi Magazine "Terra"
This Is How The Practical Miniatures For Blade Runner 2049 Were Created