Cartoon 750: The more things change…

There is a saying, “the more things change, the more they remain the same”. I was thinking about devices that would still be instantly familiar across centuries and have actually greatly gained in popularity. The first one that came to mind was the camera. 

Photography first made a dramatic appearance in America with pictures of the old West and the Civil War. The cameras of the time were huge affairs requiring specialized knowledge. They were also dangerous.

However it was not until the 1950s that photography really took off in America for ordinary people. People everywhere were using the Kodak Brownie camera. It was durable, lightweight and easy to operate.

Today we take a camera for granted. It is part of our smart phone package. In fact the newer smart phones have two cameras. One facing rear and one facing forward. The one facing forward is to allow video chatting. We also see today were the high end digital cameras at 10+ mega pixels are eclipsing the traditional 35 millimeter cameras. What would marvel our visitor from the past would be the way we create pictures as digital images and share them through the air.

There is a much older technology that would be instantly recognizable and useable that had its origins in the 18^th and 19^th century. The oldest is the pipe organ. Nearly a century later is the piano. Musicians such as Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Liszt would have no problem sitting down at either instrument today and playing away [presupposes organ is a grand cathedral or major concert hall pipe organ].