Thousands of adults stepping into the workforce each day have never known a world without the Internet. Still, among the endless stream of gadgets that define our daily routines, there are 10 cool gadgets that laid the groundwork for today’s digital convenience. It’s a humbling reminder that we’re only a couple of generations removed from an era that could fairly be called an informational dark age.
10 Cool Gadgets: Historical Devices That Paved Modern Tech
10 Based Services
Before personal computers became household staples, the telephone reigned supreme as the only device capable of a two‑way exchange of information. Consequently, many of the instant facts we now glance at on smartphones first appeared as phone‑based services. For instance, virtually every populated U.S. region once offered a simple number you could dial to hear the current time and temperature—services that sprang up near the turn of the century and, in some locales, persist to this day.
By the mid‑20th century, telephone services began to branch out: multi‑user “party lines” functioned as early social networks, while radio stations experimented with on‑demand music through request lines. These innovations hinted at the interactive possibilities we now take for granted.
Fast forward to the 1990s, and the most beloved of these services was Moviefone, which essentially performed the role of today’s Fandango—providing showtimes and ticket bookings via a simple phone call. Though the phone line was retired in 2014, the brand lives on as an app, a testament to its lasting influence.
9 Video Dating
While contemporary dating apps dominate the scene, the core idea of matchmaking through personal profiles predates the internet and can be traced back to a quirky fad known as video dating. The inaugural service, Great Expectations, launched on Valentine’s Day 1976, inviting members to pay an annual fee, fill out detailed profiles, and record candid videos describing their ideal dates at local Member Centers.
As the concept caught on, niche video‑dating services proliferated, mirroring today’s specialized apps and generating billions in revenue throughout the 1970s and 1980s. However, the rise of online matchmaking—starting with Match.com’s debut in 1995—quickly eclipsed the format, leading to Great Expectations’ nationwide franchise shuttering a few years later.
8 Pocket Video Games
When video games burst onto the scene in the early 1970s, enthusiasts immediately dreamed of taking the arcade experience on the go. The technology of the era, however, kept true portability out of reach. Undeterred, inventive firms pushed the limits, delivering the closest thing to a pocket‑sized arcade.
Mattel’s early attempts used red LED dots and dashes to simulate action, while later entrants like Tiger and Nintendo turned to LCD displays for crude animation. Nintendo’s Game & Watch series proved especially popular, even offering dual‑screen models and loose adaptations of arcade hits such as Donkey Kong.
7 Bulletin Board Systems
By the mid‑1980s, dial‑up modems were spreading, yet the modern Internet as we know it had not yet emerged. Instead, a sprawling, disconnected network of Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) served as the era’s proto‑websites, letting users dial in, post messages, exchange files, and even hunt for illicit software.
Because long‑distance phone charges remained steep, BBSs tended to cluster locally. In the early 1990s, as modest chat and gaming features appeared on these boards, the broader Internet began to capture public imagination. Though the rise of the web largely eclipsed BBS culture, a surprising number—over 300—still operate today, primarily across the United States.
6 Cartrivision
The VCR became a household staple in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but before its dominance a bold contender tried to seize the market: Cartrivision, the first home video recorder marketed in the United States. Launched in 1972, Cartrivision arrived as a bundled set—including a TV—and was sold under various brand names.
The system recorded broadcast TV onto plastic cartridges, each holding up to an hour of video, and could also capture monochrome home movies via a camera attachment. Hollywood studios even released rental films on these cartridges, but the design required a special rewinder, ensuring each rental could be viewed only once.
Unfortunately, the device suffered from poor picture quality and a prohibitive price—roughly $9,000 in today’s dollars—leading to its spectacular failure. Yet a 1973 Washington Post interview hinted at its legacy: an investor predicted it would “put pornography back in the home where it belongs,” presaging the home video boom.
5 The Mikiphone
The Sony Walkman revolutionized portable music in the 1980s, yet the quest for a pocket‑sized listening device began even earlier. In 1924, the Mikiphone emerged—a gramophone the size of a modern CD case—promising “an orchestra in your pocket.”
This compact contraption required a modest assembly process and employed a resonator for sound amplification instead of a conventional speaker. Operated by a hand crank, the Mikiphone could play full‑size records, showcasing a remarkable feat of early 20th‑century engineering.
4 The Zoopraxiscope
Eadweard Muybridge, a renowned British photographer working in America, received a commission in 1877 to resolve a long‑standing riddle: do all four of a horse’s hooves leave the ground while galloping? To answer, Muybridge rigged a series of cameras triggered by trip wires, capturing each phase of the animal’s stride.
The resulting images were transferred onto a proprietary disc format and projected using Muybridge’s own invention, the Zoopraxiscope—a circular projector that produced the world’s first moving pictures. In effect, Muybridge created nearly 100 loops of both human and animal motion that resemble today’s GIFs. Seventy‑one of these discs survive at Kingston Museum, alongside the sole Zoopraxiscope ever built, confirming that indeed all four hooves lift off the ground.
3 The Iter Auto
It may seem astonishing, but the first commercial navigation aid predates both GPS satellites and modern digital maps. In 1932, Italian engineers introduced the Iter Auto, a console attached to a vehicle’s speedometer that employed interchangeable scrolling maps to guide drivers to their destinations.
This device was pioneering—it displayed the driver’s real‑time position on the map, a concept that worked flawlessly as long as the driver avoided wrong turns. However, trips often required multiple map scrolls, forcing motorists to pull over and swap them out periodically. Though the Iter Auto never achieved mass market success, it foreshadowed the navigation systems that would become ubiquitous over six decades later.
2 The Hogg Selfie Stick
Selfie sticks may seem like a recent craze, but their lineage stretches back nearly a century. In 1926, Arnold Hogg—grandfather of modern‑day photographer Alan Cleaver—crafted a rudimentary selfie stick to capture a grainy black‑and‑white family portrait. The device mirrors today’s popular sticks in form and function, complete with a telescoping arm and a hand‑held camera.
Cleaver recalls his grandfather’s cheeky grin in the photo and notes that Hogg kept using his invention until his death in 1972. Though Cleaver jokes that contemporary selfie sticks have made us “insular” and reliant on gadgets, he admits it would have been nice if Hogg had patented his early invention.
1 The Telharmonium
While music streaming platforms dominate today’s listening habits, the first service to broadcast music directly to telephone receivers predates both smartphones and the modern Internet. In the early 1900s, callers could ask an operator to connect them to the Telharmonium—a massive 200‑ton contraption that generated electronic music and sent it through the telephone line.
The Telharmonium comprised an intricate maze of relays, alternators, transformers, and switchboards linked to two specialized keyboards. Musicians performed around the clock, their output transformed into electrical signals that produced eerie, tinkling tones. A paper funnel attached to the receiver amplified the sound, compensating for the era’s lack of electronic amplifiers.
A 1906 New York Times article praised the invention, prompting Mark Twain to visit. Twain famously remarked, “Every time I see or hear a new wonder like this I have to postpone my death right off… I couldn’t possibly leave the world until I have heard this again and again.”