Edna Mode once said never look back darling it distracts from the now however in this video we'll be doing just that revisiting Technologies places and everyday items that we're all familiar with and seeing how they've transformed way beyond recognition over time from the first telephones and headphones to the bizarre original appearance of fruits here are things that originally looked totally different strollers babies are expensive eighteen thousand dollars in the US to be precise that is Hospital fees for delivering a baby not to literally buy one anyway if you are in the market for a baby chances are you'll need a stroller and while all types of hot rods are available now the original concept was quite different back in the days if your parents didn't have many options when it came to transporting their little Terrors besides carrying them perhaps in a basket or using a sling like even my homegirl mother Mary sported a sling with Baby J dog at least according to a 1306 painting by geoto however a strange series of events would eventually see the unexpected invention of the stroller William Kent was an 18th century British architect and Furniture designer back in his day he was kind of a big deal so much so people often employed him to design all types of things in 1733 the third Duke of Devonshire employed William to design a transportation device to amuse his kids while on the go to that William whipped up a four-wheel cart hauled by a goat no less you might call it a goat cart shockingly despite the precariousness of allowing a farm animal to trawl your children around these goat wagons reportedly became very popular among High Society I mean sure kids and goats are an adorable mixture and I can see some serious hijinks occurring if you let them ride off unattended so it's just as well that in the 1830s American toy maker Benjamin Potter Crandall created a safer parent-controlled goat-free design and while this and later adaptations which came to be known as perambulators certainly made traveling with a baby a lot easier it wasn't initially a popular choice outside of the upper classes it took the ever influential Queen Victoria buying one in 1847 for strollers to become widely popular and from there it was plain sailing right up until humans started putting Chihuahuas in strollers those poor things ancestors were wolves God damn it have some respect laughs the telephone it's hard to imagine a world without phones in fact right now 91.4 percent of the world's population have a mobile phone what's more research is indicated that on average we spend around a third of our waking hours on the darn things so to who do we owe the pleasure or rather blame it all started with cups and strings we all know that two cups are cans joined by a taunt piece of string can transmit sound this works because the speaking person's voice vibrates their cup and these vibrations travel along the stretch string inducing the same vibration in the other cup replicating the input sound amazingly these types of devices have been found to have existed in very basic forms since as early as the 7th Century in Peru constructed of gourds and Twine and while this seems like juvenile fun its simple idea of sending sound information via a wire would inspire a whole new technology the telephone inventors new long distance communication could be achieved if they use these same principles on a much larger scale but instead of using string a series of Genius inventors ultimately figured out that sound could be converted into an electric signal and transmitted through metal wire the idea was there it was just a matter of who would get there first and in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell officially invented the telephone unlike your phone which probably fits snugly in the palm of your hand the phone bill developed after several iterations was a hefty Contraption made up of two parts a transmitter and a receiver the transmitter had a cylinder piece which you can imagine being like the cup the user would speak into this and their voice would create sound waves causing a diaphragm inside to vibrate which in turn vibrated a magnet inside an iron cylinder this generated an electrical signal which traveled through the wire and magnetized a coil in the receiver vibrating another diaphragm and replicating the original sound waves at the receiving end and thus telecommunication was made possible over the years thanks to constantly developing technology the design of the telephone has streamlined and has seen more redesigns than Madonna now Alexander Graham Bell might have figured out telecommunication but who is responsible for smartphones and when exactly did the first smartphone appear the idea is generally credited to IBM who in 1994 created the Simon while the term smartphone hadn't yet been coined IBM branded their device as a quote personal Communicator this packed all the essential trimmings of a smartphone such as calling capability email a calculator calendar and a world clock all eased by touch screen and a stylus in many ways the Simon showcase technology that was way Beyond its time but unfortunately didn't sell very well well it packed a ton of tech it cost an eye-watering 900 and had a measly one hour battery life which made it a no deal for most people so it sold only 50 000 units and was pulled from the shelves after just six months it seems a touchscreen phone just didn't excite people enough in 94. they were more occupied by the groundbreaking technology of flip phones I mean hey you can't deny how fun they were logos every good brand needs a good logo and occasionally Brands might tweak theirs in order to appeal to the modern eye something I know all do well however here we'll be looking at some logos that have changed way beyond recognition first up take a look at the McDonald's logo the company began in 1937 when Patrick McDonald opened a hot dog and hamburger stand called air Dome however in 1940 his son's Maurice and Richard took over and renamed it McDonald's barbecue represented by this logo realizing that their sales were mainly coming from their hamburgers the logo was soon changed to this but it wasn't until 1952 that the name would officially change to Simply McDonald's the first official logo of the McDonald's brand would be this little guy who I think is meant to be a burger patty by 1960 though it was sayonara to this fella as the iconic golden arches were ushered in inspired by the unique architecture that had been utilized in their restaurants over the prior decade and while the Arches have certainly evolved since then the core logo has essentially remained the same another huge company that's overhauled its logo is Apple while the company might be known for its minimal and Ultra Modern design lines their original logo in 1976 looked more medieval than futuristic the present logo is very clearly and simply an apple the same cannot be said for the original designed by Ronald Wayne which showed Isaac Newton said beneath an apple tree apple must have seen how well overly complicated this was as just a year later it was changed to the much more on brand and now iconic design which was simplified again from rainbow color to black and gray in subsequent decades continuing our logo Voyage now besides Abba Ikea is probably the best thing to come from Sweden and just look at its blue and yellow logo you can very clearly recognize its Swedish Heritage however when opening in 1951 founder ingvar comprad actually wanted this red logo as he felt it represented the low prices nevertheless just three years later in 1954 Ikea traded that in for this brown logo which if you ask me gives kind annotations of turd but as opposed to low priced Furniture it wouldn't be until 1967 that the Ikea logo would be introduced however Real History was made in 85 when they gifted us those sweet sweet meatballs truly Sweden's finest export foreign beauty products if there's one thing that can be said to change decade by decade it's beauty trends and with those changing Trends there have been some hilarious changes in the Technologies used to carry out the trends of the day for starters for those who wear makeup there's now an excellent product known as setting spray which prevents makeup from wearing off or running due to sweater moisture however in 1947 such a Wonder didn't exist So Max Factor the Cosmetics company founded by Maximilian Factor orits no joke fashioned a rather interesting solution behold hang over Heaven mainly geared towards actresses on hot film sets the contraption allowed them to cool their faces all the while keeping their makeup in place it was essentially a wearable ice cube tray with sealed cubes filled with water that could be Frozen not surprisingly this didn't catch on perhaps it just wasn't cool enough much to the trauma of most people who live through the 80s perms are back but did you know the first proper perm machine wasn't intended to curl hair but to straighten it in 1928 African-American hairdresser Marjorie Joyner patented a helmet-like machine which clamped hair and one inch sections and used an electrical current to heat it resulting in the hair being straightened and while it allowed women of all ethnicities to sports trade locks it could also be used to allow Caucasian women to sport curly dues too sure the beauty of the result is very much open to debate but the appearance of the device itself is undeniably terrifying the things we do for beauty huh speaking of which I think I might just bring back my perm ha fruit sprouting from the earth fruit is one of Mother Nature's Best inventions however not all fruit we know today is as Mother Nature originally intended beginning with bananas in their purest form bananas were nowhere near as tasty and easy to consume as they are today considering that they like their wild counterparts that are still found in certain parts of the world today originally had tough thick skins and huge seeds inside which would make most of them almost inedible you see the bananas we're familiar with have been selectively bred over Centuries by humans to drastically decrease the size of their seeds by breeding the plants with the most favorable characteristics together as a result the seeds can barely even be spotted in modern bananas but even more modern varieties of banana have changed a lot in recent centuries between the 1870s and 1950s the most popular type of banana in the USA was the grow Michelle which while it might look similar was very different to the bananas we peel open today the grow Michelle was said to be creamy Rich sweet Tangy and by all accounts far superior to the modern banana so if this banana was so perfect then why doesn't it exist today well for all its benefits the grow Michelle had one Achilles heel Panama disease this fungal disease would spread through the soil and infect the banana trees causing them to wilt and no longer produce this disease tore through banana plantations destroying crops and by the late 1950s The Grooming shell could no longer be commercially produced thus concluding its cycle is the world's most popular banana which begs the question what the hell are we eating today well they call it the Cavendish banana you see Growers knew of Panama disease even back in the late 1800s so in the early 1900s researchers began developing a disease-resistant banana resulting in grow Michelle's less tasty but close enough cousin the Cavendish banana which dominates Supermarket shelves today but it's not just our beloved bananas that have had a glow up watermelons too yep the refreshing watermelons we devour during hot summer days are actually considerably different to the ones of yesteryear I mean just check out this 17th century painting by Giovanni stanchi if you take a look at what is supposed to be a pair of melons [Music] you'll see they both have six triangular segments filled with a swirly flesh that is full of large dark seeds crop breeding expert and Professor James nine Hoist reveres the painting claiming that it perfectly captures the early form of this now beloved fruit the watermelon is said to have first originated in northeastern Africa and was domesticated as a source of both water and food around 4 000 years ago since then it's been selectively bred to have fewer seeds less rind and more succulent sugary red flesh man with all this altering of natural produce it's got me thinking maybe scientists could make brussels sprouts taste a bit less like pork laughs Santa Claus it was Christmas Eve last year the night was drawing in and I had left my cookies out for Santa overcome with excitement I couldn't sleep where she at there were strange noises coming from downstairs it must have been Santa I gleefully bounded through the door but to my horror all I saw was Mom and Dad putting gifts beneath the tree and that was how I found out that Santa isn't real this however sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to find the origins of Santa and let's just say he hasn't always been the Jolly fat man we know in Christian Traditions around the world the Saints are each celebrated with their own Feast Day the specific day of the year when people will feast in their honor one of the most beloved is Saint Nicholas a 4th Century Greek Bishop who was revered for his generosity to the poor during the Middle Ages people began celebrating his feast day December 6th by giving children gifts the evening before over time this tradition's date slid over to the 24th and 25th and resulted in Saint Nicholas evolving into a somewhat magical character associated with Christmas gifts and children throughout Europe so how did Saint Nicholas go from being a priest to a jolly old fat man well interestingly enough this change happened thanks to settlers and of all places New York City early Dutch settlers brought their Traditions to the American colonies including to New Amsterdam known as New York today these Traditions included a mythologized version of Saint Nicholas who they referred to as Santa Claus whose mythology had taken on elements of the Pagan god Odin a God who flew the sky on an eight-legged horse starting to see the similarities by the 19th century writers musings on Christmas and Santa Claus cultivated the character Santa Claus the first example of this was Washington Irving's 1809 book knickerbocker's history of New York where he penned the idea of Saint Nick soaring through the sky in a wagon and delivering presents to children in 1821 poem The Children's Friend by Arthur J Stansberry first introduced the idea of a flying reindeer sleigh but it was Clement Clark Morse 1822 poem commonly known as the night before Christmas that would really Pioneer the classic Santa tropes it included the eight reindeer and their names Santa going down the chimney plus his red cheeks and chubby physique thus was born the Santa we know and love though looking at some vintage photos it seems that throughout the year some people have had skewed interpretations of Old Saint Nick with some hideous festive Mass yikes I dig solemn traditional 4th Century Saint Nicholas over that monster City any day New York the classic eurocentric perspective of U.S history Tells A Tale of Christopher Columbus discovering America in 1492 but the reality is he and his merry men were little more than trespassers the Americas were of course already inhabited by the Native Americans but as Europeans gradually flock to the new world the native lands were changed beyond recognition over centuries the Europeans and their culture spread throughout America resulting in what is now the United States and one spot that is beyond recognition is none other than New York before townhouses and skyscrapers New York's iconic borough of Manhattan or as the natives called it manahata was a blooming state of vegetation and it had been inhabited by the linape tribe for centuries not only them but Wildlife too such as otters mink and even bears in fact there's considerable evidence that Times Square was once a beaver pond but in 1624 the Dutch arrived and claimed as New Amsterdam that however was short-lived as the English snatched the land and christened it New York in 1664. come the
1700s and European immigration boomed as many sought after land wealth and freedom not to mention the influx of Africans due to the slave trade the city rapidly evolved from a farm town to an economic Hub as its rows of neighborhoods and buildings sprung up New York City's population was rapidly growing and by the 19th century Architects were running out of space so to paraphrase 80's pop star Yaz the only way was up excited by the novel idea of very tall buildings made possible by evolving Construction Technologies like high-strength steel framing the city's business owners began stretching the limits of just how high they could go coining the term skyscraper in the 1880s these big builds began back in the mid-19th century with constructions like the latting observatory and iron-raced wooden tower that stood 315 feet tall and lorded over the area around modern day Bryant Park Until the tower burned down in 1856 with the turn of the 20th century familiar buildings such as the Chrysler Building began sprouting from the ground 1930 saw the Empire State building's iconic rise and this Snowball Effect continued resulting in the ones nature-rich manohata truly becoming Manhattan the concrete jungle this iconic City however has had some more recent Transformations beginning with Times Square this spot once home to Beavers had become known as Longacre Square by the 1870s when New York skyscrapers had begun popping up at the beginning of the 20th century it already boasted a wealth of theaters restaurants and highbrow hotels though even with some elaborate signs it was still a far cry from the LED screen billboard Wonderland it is today even back then though advertisers saw it as a prime spot for advertising and thus it was gradually adorned with ads from every corner of the market it was only renamed Times Square in four after the Times newspaper constructed the central skyscraper for their offices this building no longer owned by the times is now called one Times Square and is strangely mostly unused say for the lucrative billboard space on its walls despite time Square's impressive condition today after the Great Depression hit in the 1930s the affluent area gradually declined into squalor what were once prestigious theaters and restaurants became x-rated shops and smutty shows and crime of all kinds grew highly prevalent by the 1970s the Times Square area recorded the most crime complaints in the whole city however the 80s soon rolled around and there was a new zest for life it was probably all that jazzercising and New York's mayor's pledged to get Times Square back to its former glory by the 90s the smut had been cleared up and safety returned bringing with it more sightseers than ever and hence higher-paying advertisers with Billboards bigger and brighter than the square it ever seen now for the next stop on our NYC transformation tour since first being unveiled on October 28 1886 the Statue of Liberty has become not only the matriarch of New York but a global icon but did you know she used to look considerably different the year was 1865 and French political intellectual and anti-slavery activist Edward de la ballet proposed the idea of Lady Liberty as a token of friendship from France to the U.S the statue would Mark the US's Centennial of Independence and democracy values the two Nations shared designed by French sculptor Frederick Auguste Bartoli Lady Liberty was an amalgamation of three main Inspirations the first was Colombia the female National personification of the United States the second was libertas the Roman goddess of freedom and the last interestingly was the male Roman god of sun Soul Invictus like some kind of Godly Frankenstein the Statue of Liberty was born but did you know she was never originally Green in fact when she first made her trip across the Atlantic she was actually the shiny orange brown of the Copper from which she was crafted you see when exposed to the elements copper undergoes a chemical reaction known as patination causing it to turn a blue-green color the statue's creators would have most likely been well aware of this change given their expertise in working with copper but lady Liberty's chameleon color change still likely left a lot of confused 19th century New Yorkers wondering whether their new cover Landmark was feeling a little blue in her new home headphones for most people headphones are an essential item Lord knows I'd be lost without mine and yet not too long ago they didn't even exist in order to understand how headphones came about though we're going to have to talk yet again about the telephone and the Technology's early days to call someone via telephone you would have to first speak with a telephone operator who would manually connect your call Via a central switchboard these stations were packed with operators each tending to their own batch of collars so having all their cause amplifies would have been incredibly noisy and impractical Ezra Gilliland a 19th century inventor created what many consider the beginning of headphones his device which built on Alexander Graham Bell's patented speaker technology consisted of an earpiece which rested on the user's shoulder and a microphone that perched on the other allowing the user to listen and speak at the same time essentially it was a primitive version of a headset I mean just imagine gaming with that thing on before long the idea of headphones evolved into some something for entertainment purposes rather than purely function with the removal of the microphone an introduction of a much smaller form factor the electrophone was released in England in 1895. with neither radio nor Spotify being a thing during the early 1890s our Victorian Pals weren't really able to enjoy music without actually going to the theater so the electrophone was invented as a subscription service available in London whereby subscribers could listen to a live performance through specially designed headphones with the tunes being broadcast over a telephone line as they elegantly held the stethoscope-shaped headphones beneath their chins they could party hard from the comfort of their own parlors with subsequent Evolutions in headphone Tech like the development of a hands-free head mounted strap being driven by global Military interest in the product it wasn't long before headphones began to resemble the ones we know today nowadays wireless tech makes wearing earphones and headphones unbelievably easy and convenient so next time you curse your earpod falls out of your ear spare a thought for the poor old souls who had to walk around with these things mounted to their heads whenever they wanted to hear sound electronically London Bridge a London Bridge one of the most iconic landmarks from its stunning neo-gothic aesthetic to its ingenious hydraulic drawbridge oh wait sorry now that's Tower Bridge this is London Bridge okay so London Bridge isn't much of a looker however did you know there has been four different versions of it historians theorize that the original was Forged Way Back in 43 A.D by the Romans when they founded the city of londinium at the time this bridge over the Thames was most likely a pontoon Bridge meaning one made up of planks of wood laid across anchored boats this provided a useful trade route Crossing and for this reason London Bridge has remained in the same spot ever since after the Romans vamus from Britain in 383 A.D it's believed that various
wooden iterations of London Bridge were constructed across the Thames none of which lasted long but in 1176 priest Peter of coal Church began efforts to build a sturdier Stone one this took 33 years to build but it impressively lasted another 600. its appearance and function however were particularly interesting rather than just being a structure to get you from point A to B londoners maximize the real estate by actually building houses on the bridge in fact the bridge was once home to some 500 people it was a treacherous trail of teetering timber-built houses bustling with tenants merchants and commuters this closely packed bustling setup was all a ten hazardous proven once in 1212 and again in 1633 when fires tore through the houses but Like a Phoenix Rising From the Ashes London Bridge remained steadfast with the help of some repairs however the abodes on the bridge would be torn down for good in the 1750s to widen the bridge for simple unobstructed travel for merchants and pedestrians alike by the early 1800s after years of fires and partial collapses London Bridge was in terrible condition so the government decided to build a brand new bridge 100 meters west of the original spot the New London Bridge was opened in 1831 and for about 130 years it was okay however by 1962 it was discovered that London Bridge was in fact following down and couldn't bear the weight of increased car traffic so yet again London Bridge was rebuilt giving us its current iteration designed by engineered Harold Knox King she really ain't much of a beauty though if you do want to see the beauty of the previous London Bridge then just head on out to Lake Havasu City in Arizona no really after tearing down London bridge in the 60s the city of London decided to auction it off Robert P McCullough founder of Lake Havasu City bought the bridge for seven million dollars had it shipped to the states and over the course of three years rebuilt London Bridge in Arizona isn't that about the most American thing you ever heard the pyramids the Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and at an impressive 4 500 years old it hasn't done bad true it suffered a bit of wear and tear and we all but did you know it originally looked totally different at one time Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world ruled by pharaohs who were believed by their subjects to be anointed by the gods and thus existing somewhere between the human and the Divine due to this people believed it was crucial to keep the pharaoh's Majesty intact even after death they would bury them with everything they would need in the afterlife such as gold food furniture and other offerings all contained within the sturdy structure of the pyramid the shape of which not only allowed support for huge constructions but has also been suggested as resembling the sun's rays and worship of the life-giving sun god raw but how are these Divine vessels built and what did they originally look like it's a common misconception that the pyramids were built by the enslaved but most archaeologists and historians today actually believe the workers were most likely paid native Egyptians some twenty thousand men are thought to have handled around 2.3 million blocks of stone over the course of 20 years to create the Great Pyramid of Giza and while their hard work has certainly stood the test of time there are some important features that haven't survived according to Professor Muhammad Magid of the Czech Institute of egyptology the Great Pyramid was originally cased in a fine white Limestone which gave it a smooth bright finish that reflected the Sun not just that but it was also topped with a gold caps down known as a pyramidian though this has since either been lost or stolen with the sun beaming onto the white Limestone and refracting from the gold tip it's easy to see why the Egyptians believed this would help their pharaohs transcend into a Divine realm interestingly it's believed that these wide casing Stones were largely removed and later repurposed for other constructions by Egyptian rulers there's even evidence to suggest this happened during the iconic reign of Tutankhamun besides this earthquakes rain and other forms of natural erosion have left the pyramids looking a little worse for wear now with over 11 million subscribers here it'd be amazed I'd like to think if we all work together we could build a pretty greed stone monument preferably in the shape of my face but I'm sure you're busy so I'd accept you leaving a like comment or even subscribing after all it's what the gods would want remote controls with the rise of smart TVs you can do just about anything on your TV now heck my channel analytics say there's about a 51 chance you're watching on a TV right now now this fancy TV usage is aided by a whole host of different digits and dials on our remote controls however back in TV's infancy remotes looked wildly different experiments with television technology began in the late 1920s but it was the post-world War II 1950s when TV's popularity boomed becoming a staple in a reported 80 percent of American homes by 1960. however in TV's earlier days something was missing the remote and no no one was sat on it the remotes just weren't widely available back then you had to plot all the way to the TV just to change the channel positively ghastly but while remotes remain fairly uncommon until the 60s one early remote had actually been invented in the year 1950 by TV manufacturers Zenith with its Advent meaning users didn't have to get up to control the TV they aptly caught it lazy bones its design however was hugely different by today's standards Not only was it attached by wire but it was a handheld bullet shape with only three functions volume tuning and power for this customers would pay an extra thirty dollars which FYI is roughly equivalent to 377. in 2023 while customers appreciated
the ease of a remote a common complaint was that the bulky cable was an unsightly Hazard eager to improve Zenith hit back with the flashmatic in 1955 the first wireless remote this worked by using a light beam to communicate with receivers on the TV though it worked poorly in the natural edit daytime its design helped Pioneer Wireless technology though its shoddy execution meant that the TV would start going haywire if the sun Shone brightly on one of its remote light sensors not ideal when you're deeply invested into an F episode of I Love Lucy and that folks is a wrapper today let me know which old-fashioned design you found the most interesting and be sure to like And subscribe catch you in the next one foreign [Music]
2023-09-09