Everyday Inventions That Are Barely Older Than You

It’s easy to forget that so many of the most basic conveniences of modern life are, well… modern.
...And we’re not talking about cutting edge tech like Peloton bikes and smartphones. Some things you’ve used every day of your life haven’t been around that much longer than you have!

To read more about things we use that were invented more recently than you may have thought, go here:

#inventions #recent #weirdhistory

[miltonbates]

Barely older than me?...Maybe on a geological scale.

[lauriebak]

Now I understand my mother’s and grandmother’s obsession with having and displaying dishes (fine china) that were rarely used. A status thing.

[j.a.weishaupt]

I can assure you that a sofa made in the 1700s is not barely older than I am. It’s even older than my grandparents’ grandparents.

[NewMessage]

Had no idea sitting and laying down were such recent inventions, but I wish someone would inform my boss at work.

[jeffaltier]

Arguably, the first modern novel was Don Quixote, written in the early 1600's. Now, I feel old, but not that old.

[markedis]

Trenchers are not specially made, it is the bottom of a round ‘cob’ loaf. When they were cooked in brick ovens the bottom was very hard and a bit burned so they cut them off and hey presto a trencher. All of the sauces and gravy soaked in and softened the crust so many times people ate the trencher too hence the phrase for someone who eats heartily being “a good trencherman”.

[robintauber]

My grandpa referred to the sofa as "the Chesterfield". Now I know what that was all about.

[joecab]

These things are barely older than you!
(Shows a bunch of stuff 200+ years old)

[kurtwagner]

The "fact" that mideval people ate at feasts with bare hands mostly is a myth.
In fact mideval feasts had a pretty strict manner code

[williamdavid]

This is what the narrator sounds like when he doesn't smoke his newports.

[KINGBADASS]

Funny you mention superman in your supermarket segment as originally, the Kent’s owned & operated a general store not a farm(technically they originally had a farm but them sold it & opened a general store in the silver age) The farm didn’t come back in the comics until the Christopher Reeves movie & was then ported back over to the comics themselves by writer John Byrne in the late 1980’s. You also should have mentioned that the first novel was not in fact Pride & Prejudice but was actually The Tale of Genji, a semi factual account of Heian(or high medieval) Japanese court life written by the noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century.

[bornagainbuddhist]

The best invention that has helped the most people is running water...
Indoor plumbing....

[edibleapeman]

This just in: both US presidential candidates are older than highways, and nearly as old as the outdoor picnic.

[thebigmarbowski]

2:40 I believe that's called maintenance, my man. You want to drive on a high traffic highway that hasn't been repaired since 1992? I bet you'd be the first to complain.

[jons.]

...and the Marquis de Spork actually invented this design in the 1500s, but it wasn't discovered until the "lost" roasted chicken recipe was found in the Colonel Sanders estate in 1996! Haha!

[laffy]

I was actually shocked to just learn that we only stopped using animal hair tooth brushes and made nylon bristles in 1937!! And what we know of vanity dentistry really didn’t start until the 80s!! (Veneers did exist but didn’t come into “common” use until around this time)

I also kinda want to add this: I realize again, toilets had already been invented but. My mom was born 1956 in a small town in Canada. They didn’t get an actual bathroom till the 60s. Used an outhouse.

[Lucy-guuk]

When I was a little girl we lived in London, a small 2 room apartment, my parents and us three kids. We had a bath tub in the kitchen and went potty in the outhouse in the backyard. Us little kids usually used a pot in the house.

[joikww]

Ceramic and wooden bowls were pretty common already in 14th century. Maybe if like ditch sleeping poor then you didn't have but if you had roof and walls propably did have bowl or cup.

[dennislogan]

I grew up so poor in the 80's (in the USA) that I shared a bed with my 2 brothers during all of high school and my 2 sisters slept on single beds. We all 5 slept in the same bedroom. This was for 6 years.

[NotMyWar]

The interstate highway system is an amazing accomplishment. It still amazes me.