nunosempere.github.io/ea/techprior/database.csv

1	Technology	URL	URL2	L1	L1.a	L1.b	L2	L3-a	L3-b	L3-c	L4	L4.a	L5	L5.a	L6	L6.a	L7	L7.a	L8	L9	Comments	Is there plausibly a discontinuity	Size of the (plausible) discontinuity	Discontinuity at the beginning of the technology?	Year of the first big discontinuity	Year since start	Year since start or since 1750
2	History of aviation	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aviation	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_aviation	-630	-630	NA	1810	1783	1783	1783	1783	1949	1909	1949	1922	1949	1969	NA	1965	1958	Early pioneers were recklessly insane. The Wright brothers were a discontinuity.	Yes. With the Wright brothers, who were more analytical and capable than any before them.	Big	No	1902	2532	152
3	History of ceramics	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery#History; http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/masterpieces-of-ceramics-timeline/	-29000	NA	29000	1939	NA	-29000	NA	-29000	-29000	NA	1650	-460	1850	1300	1850	NA	NA	Where by “ceramic” I mostly mean pottery. In the Chalcolithic period in Mesopotamia, Halafian pottery achieved a level of technical competence and sophistication, not seen until the later developments of Greek pottery with Corinthian and Attic ware. Hinduism discourages eating off pottery Pottery was hardly seen on the tables of elites from Hellenistic times until the Renaissance, and most medieval wares were coarse and utilitarian, as the elites ate off metal vessels. Imports from Asia revived interest in fine pottery, which European manufacturers eventually learned to make, and from the 18th century European porcelain and other wares from a great number of producers became extremely popular. The Indigenous Australians never developed pottery.[80] After Europeans came to Australia and settled, they found deposits of clay which were analysed by English potters as excellent for making pottery. Less than 20 years later, Europeans came to Australia and began creating pottery. Since then, ceramic manufacturing, mass-produced pottery and studio pottery have flourished in Australia. Pretty good by -460; see http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/masterpieces-of-ceramics-timeline/ Really good by the 1300s. When was glazing invented? - Sooner, but by the 1300s it was refined.	Probably not.
4	History of cryptography	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cryptography	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_cryptography	NA	NA	NA	1883	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1553	1553	1917	1917	1977	1977	1991	NA	Some technologies don't easily lend themselves to being ranked on an absolute scale. For example, it seems more natural to rank military technology, or cryptography by comparison to the code-breaking capabilities of their age, rather than on an absolute scale. Still.	Yes. Plausibly with the invention of the one-time pad.	Medium	No
5	History of cycling	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_bicycle	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cycling; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocipede#Boneshaker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_bicycle#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandy_horse	1817	NA	1817	NA	NA	1817	1819							1885					Yes. With its invention. The dandy horse (immediate antecessor to the bicycle) was invented in a period where there were few horses, but it could in principle have been invented much earlier, and it enabled humans to go much faster.	Small	Yes
6	History of film	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope	https://www.infoplease.com/arts-entertainment/movies-and-videos/movie-timeline	1872	NA	1872	NA	1872	1877	1878	1894	1894	1902	1902	1915	1915	1954	1954	1915	1900	Computer effects be just an afterthought. Difficult to separate films from earlier technologies, such as flipbooks. Chaplin films be entertaining.	Probably not.
7	History of furniture	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furniture	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chair#History	-30000	NA	-30000	NA	NA	NA	NA	-30000	-30000	-3100	1880	NA	NA	NA	NA	-30000	NA	Chairs are relatively recent! It was not until the 16th century that chairs became common.[11] Until then, people sat on chests, benches, and stools, which were the ordinary seats of everyday life. The number of chairs which have survived from an earlier date is exceedingly limited; most examples are of ecclesiastical, seigneurial or feudal origin	Maybe. Maybe with the invention of the chair. Maybe with the Industrial Revolution. Maybe in recent history with invention of more and more comfy models of chairs (e.g., bean bags)	Small	No
8	History of glass.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_glass	NA	-3600	NA	-3600	NA	NA	NA	NA	-3600	1887	100	1887	1000	1960	1400	NA	1000	NA	“The logic performed by telephone switching relays was the inspiration for the digital computer. The first commercially successful glass bottle blowing machine was an automatic model introduced in 1905.[42] The machine, operated by a two-man crew working 12-hour shifts, could produce 17,280 bottles in 24 hours, compared to 2,880 bottles made by a crew of six men and boys working in a shop for a day. The cost of making bottles by machine was 10 to 12 cents per gross compared to $1.80 per gross by the manual glassblowers and helpers.”	Yes. In cheapness and speed with the industrial revolution	Medium	No
9	Nuclear history	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons	NA	1914	1914	1924	1934	1939	1945	NA	1945	NA	1945	NA	1945	NA	1952	NA	1964	1945	NA	Yes. Both with the explosion of the first nuclear weapon, and with the explosion of the (more powerful) hydrogen bomb	Big	Yes	1945	31	31
10	History of the petroleum industry	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_petroleum_industry#	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt	-2000	NA	-2000	NA	NA	NA	NA	-2000	-2000	762	762	1860	1900	1950	1950	1950	1900	Petroleum was used in antiquity as asphalt, and in China as fuel as well.	Yes. Petroleum had been used since ancient times, but it took off starting in ~1850	Big	No	1850	3850	100
11	History of photography	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography	NA	1719	1760	1719	NA	NA	NA	NA	1839	1900	1860	1900	1900	1925	1963	1980	1860	1930	Other links: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/oldest-pictures-in-american-history; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_photography_technology; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_photography . It's really frustrating that when searching the history of cameras, photos of said cameras abound, but not photos taken *by* them.	Probably not.		No
12	History of printing	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offset_printing	-1000	NA	-1000	NA	NA	NA	NA	955	2000	1455	2000	1455	2000	1851	2000	1600	1520	I'm surprised that the press wasn't invented by Gutemberg. Ambiguities as to when printing became cheap; one could buy a printer for 100 bucks in the 2000s.	Yes. With Gutenberg. Hardware overhang from having used printing for a more difficult problem: Chinese characters vs latin alphabet	Big	No	1450	2450	-300
13	History of rail transport	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport#Ancient_systems	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diolkos	-600	NA	-600	NA	NA	NA	NA	1550	NA	1550	1784	1914	1930	1964	NA	1930	1880	NA	Yes. With the introduction of iron, then (Bessemer process) steel over wood, and the introduction of steam engines over horses. Great expansion during the Industrial Revolution.	Medium	No
14	History of robotics	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_robots#1900s	NA	-1600	NA	-1600	1948	NA	NA	NA	-222	1980	1997	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1750	1952	Progress was made in the 20th and early 21st centuries, but, in an absolute sense, they’re not “pretty good” yet.	Maybe. But the 18th-21st centuries saw more progress than the rest combined.	Small	No
15	History of spaceflight	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_spaceflight	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verein_f%C3%BCr_Raumschiffahrt	1865	1865	NA	1903	1927	1944	1957	1957	NA	1969	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1957	Note that historical development of capabilities isn’t linear, i.e., knowhow was lost after the Apolo programme.	Yes. With the beginning of the space race.	Big	Yes	1957	92	92
16	History of water supply and sanitation	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_water_supply_and_sanitation	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_water_supply_and_sanitation_by_country	-3000	NA	-3000	NA	NA	NA	NA	-3000	-3000	1000	1000	1900	1900	1950	1950	NA	NA	History highly nonlinear, i.e., Roman t aqueducts were not improved upon during the Middle ages. Also, each of the major cultural theaters kind of did their own thing. Further, access to water supply is still one of the Sustainable Development Goals. That is, countries such as Afghanistan don’t really have universally good water supply. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals	Yes. With the Industrial revolution and the push starting in the, say, 1850s to get sanitation in order (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_sludge); the discovery/invention of activated sludge might also be another discontinuity. But I’d say it’s mostly the “let us, as a civilization, get our house in order” impulse that led to these inventions.	Medium	No
17	History of rockets	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rockets	NA	969	NA	969	1687	NA	NA	NA	969	NA	1792	NA	1943	NA	1969	NA	1815	1792	Difficult to judge the adequacy of military technology, because it is always dependent on the capabilities of the enemy. Note that the Wikpedia-category of rocket isn’t well defined, and includes both fire arrows and space rockets.	Yes. With Hale rockets, whose spinning made them more accurate. Then with de Laval nozzles (hypersonic rockets; went from 2% to 64% efficiency). Then plausibly with Germany’s V2 rocket (the German missile program costed levels comparable to the Manhattan project).	Big	No	1888	919	138
18	History of artificial life	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_artificial_life	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology#Synthetic_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachimoji_DNA#Description https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XDNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeno_nucleic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_laboratorium	NA	NA	NA	1948	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	Two/three branches to artificial life: soft (program), hard (a robot, automata) and wet. That is, either trying to manipulate or do something similar to the biological life we know, or trying to program it.	Probably not.
19	History of calendars	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_calendars	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time	NA	NA	NA	1079	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1793	1793	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	Calendars are terrible. All I want is a unix epoch calendar without leap seconds in the style of the French revolution calendar (i.e., fractional time makes sense:: 1.4312h = 1h 43min 12secs). Leap seconds are the invention of the devil. “the original Jalali calendar based on observations (or predictions) of solar transit would not have needed either leap years or seasonal adjustments.”	Probably not. Maybe with the Khayyam calendar reform in 1079 in the Persian calendar, but it seems too precise to be true. “Because months were computed based on precise times of solar transit between zodiacal regions, seasonal drift never exceeded one day, and also there was no need for a leap year in the Jalali calendar. [...] However, the original Jalali calendar based on observations (or predictions) of solar transit would not have needed either leap years or seasonal adjustments.”
20	History of candle making	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_candle_making#Middle_Ages	NA	-500	NA	-500	NA	NA	NA	NA	-500	NA	-500	NA	1750	1834	1850	1875	NA	NA	I truth, candle-making is too general a category; almost as general as “burning things to produce light”.	Yes. With industrialization: “The manufacture of candles became an industrialised mass market in the mid 19th century. In 1834, Joseph Morgan, a pewterer from Manchester, England, patented a machine that revolutionised candle making. It allowed for continuous production of molded candles by using a cylinder with a moveable piston to eject candles as they solidified. This more efficient mechanized production produced about 1,500 candles per hour, (according to his patent ". . with three men and five boys [the machine] will manufacture two tons of candle in twelve hours"). This allowed candles to become an easily affordable commodity for the masses”	Small	No
21	History of chromatography	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chromatography	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatography#History	1855	NA	1855	NA	NA	NA	NA	1952	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1950	1952	The field is pretty unknown to me.	Probably not. Any of the new types could have been one, though.
22	Chronology of bladed weapons	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_bladed_weapons#Bronze_Swords	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c94vhjGsC8M	-1700	NA	-1700	NA	NA	NA	NA	-600	NA	-216	802	NA	NA	1233	NA	NA	NA	The field is pretty unknown to me.	Probably not. Though the Spanish tercios were probably discontinuous
23	History of condoms	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_condoms	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._One_Package_of_Japanese_Pessaries	1564	NA	1564	NA	NA	NA	NA	1564	1940	1940	1940	1957	1957	NA	NA	1960	1564	NA	Probably not
24	History of the diesel car	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_diesel_car	1878	NA	1878	1895	1878	1895	1929	1929	NA	1935	NA	1986	NA	NA	NA	2000	NA	Half-way category error; the more natural thing may have been “history of the diesel *engine*.	Yes. In terms of efficiency: the diesel engine’s point is much more efficient than the gasoline engine.	Medium	No
25	History of hearing aids	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hearing_aids	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_trumpet	1634	NA	1634	NA	NA	NA	NA	1634	NA	1850	NA	1920	NA	1985	NA	1850	NA	NA	Probably not
26	History of aluminium	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#History	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aluminium	-500	NA	-500	1797	1530	1824	1856	1856	1950	1900	1950	1900	1950	1950	NA	1950	1957	L3 fields refer to the refinement, rather than to the creation of Aluminium.	Yes. With the Bayer + Hall–Héroult processes in terms of cheapness.	Big	No	1886	2386	136
27	History of automation	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation#History	NA	-270	NA	-270	1868	NA	NA	NA	1788	NA	1905	NA	1960	NA	NA	NA	1975	NA	Field unfamiliar to me. Also, field which generates discontinuities in other fields.	Maybe. If so, with controllers in the 1900s, or with the switch to digital in the 1960s. Kiva systems, used by Amazon, also seems to be substantially better than the competition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Robotics	Medium	No
28	History of radar	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_radar#Significance	NA	1887	NA	1887	1862	NA	NA	NA	1935	NA	1941	NA	1941	NA	1941	NA	1980	1945	Developed extremely fast simultaneously by different countries during WWII, in relative secrecy	Yes. Development was extremely fast during the war.	Big	No	1934	47	47
29	History of radio	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_radio	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_radio	1892	NA	1892	1865	1890	1894	1894	1903	1955	1903	1955	1920	1955	1960	1960	1955	1915	NA	Yes. The first maybe discontinuity was with Marconi realizing the potential of electromagnetic waves for communication, and his superior commercialization. The second discontinuity was a discontinuity in price as vacuum tubes were replaced with transistors, making radios much more affordable.	Big	No	1957	65	65
30	History of sound recording	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sound_recording	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_audio_formats	1853	NA	1853	1877	NA	NA	NA	1896	1979	1925	1979	1930	1979	1966	1999	1979	1940	Unclear when the physics of sound where first rigorously understood. I'm also putting the Walkman as the first cheap product, and Napster as the first cheap and great instance.	Maybe. There were different eras, and any of them could have had a discontinuity. For example, magnetic tape recordings were much better than previous technologies	Small	No
31	History of submarines	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_submarines	NA	NA	NA	-415	NA	NA	NA	NA	1690	NA	1864	NA	1888	NA	1955	NA	1900	1864	NA	Yes. Drebbel's submarine "seemed beyond conventional expectations of what science was thought to have been capable of at the time." It also seems likely that development was sped up during major conflicts (American Civil War, WW1, WW2, Cold War)	Small	No
32	History of television	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_television	https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-evolution-of-televisions	1884	NA	1884	NA	NA	1908	NA	1922	1960	1955	1960	1980	2000	NA	NA	1960	1945	NA	Maybe. Work on television was banned during WW2 and picked up faster afterwards. Perhaps with the super-Emitron in the 1930s (“The super-Emitron was between ten and fifteen times more sensitive than the original Emitron and iconoscope tubes and, in some cases, this ratio was considerably greater”)	Medium	No
33	History of the automobile	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_automobile	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_motor_and_engine_technology	1672	NA	1672	1824	NA	NA	NA	1886	1908	1908	1908	1938	1938	NA	NA	1908	1914	Ford's automation was a discontinuity	Yes. In speed of production with Ford. Afterwards maybe with the Japanese (i.e., Toyota)	Big	No	1913	241	163
34	History of the battery	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_battery	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_commercial_battery_types	1749	NA	1749	NA	1749	1749	1791	1800	NA	1960	NA	1980	NA	NA	NA	1920	NA	NA	Maybe. There have been many types of batteries throughout history, each with different tradeoffs. For example, higher voltage and more consistent current at the expense of greater fragility, like the Poggendorff cell. Or the Grove cell, which offered higher current and voltage, at the expense of being more expensive and giving off poisonous nitric oxide fumes. Or the lithium-ion cell, which seems to just have been better, gotten its inventor a Nobel Price, and shows a pretty big jump in terms of, say, voltage.	Small	No
35	History of the telephone	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone	1667	NA	1667	NA	1667	1667	1871	1877	1960	1877	1960	1915	1960	1970	1970	1960	NA	NA	Probably not. If so, maybe with the invention of the automatic switchboard.
36	History of the transistor	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_transistor	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_MOSFET#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_junction_transistor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triode https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrode https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_count https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer	1925	NA	1925	1947	1925	1947	1947	1953	1953	1969	1977	1975	1990	1990	2000	1957	1957	Unclear where the boundaries of the concept are; i.e., triodes and other amplifiers serve similar functions	Maybe. Probably with the invention of the MOSFET; the first transistor which could be used to create integrated circuits, and which started Moore’s law.	Big	No	1957	32	32
37	History of the internal combustion engine	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_internal_combustion_engine	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morland https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/car-technology/a19854205/the-evolution-of-the-combustion-engine/	1660	NA	1660	1824	1671	1794	1807	1823	NA	1886	NA	1939	NA	1955	NA	1900	NA	NA	Probably not. If so, jet engines.
38	History of manufactured fuel gases	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_manufactured_fuel_gases	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1789	1794	1801	1803	1826	1812	1826	1870	NA	NA	NA	1826	NA	NA	Probably not.
39	History of perpetual motion machines	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_machines	NA	750	NA	750	1912	1150	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	No. None of them work, but I’m a fan of Cox's timepiece (uses variations in atmospheric pressure), and Brownian rachets.	No.
40	History of the motorcycle	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_motorcycle	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_dynamics	1867	NA	1867	NA	NA	NA	NA	1884	1946	1915	1946	1923	1946	NA	NA	1915	NA	NA	Probably not. If there is, perhaps in price for the first Vespa in 1946
41	History of multitrack recording	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_multitrack_recording	http://raymondscott.blogspot.com/2009/08/les-paul-raymond-scott.html	1881	NA	1881	NA	NA	NA	NA	1950	1990	1964	1990	1967	1995	1970	2000	1955	NA	NA	Maybe. It is possible that Les Paul’s experimenting was sufficiently radical to be a discontinuity.	Small	Yes
42	History of nanotechnology	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nanotechnology	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multigate_device#GAAFET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_force_microscopy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applications_of_nanotechnology	1959	NA	1959	1981	1960	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1981	Technology hasn’t even gotten started	Probably not
43	Oscilloscope history	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope_history	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope https://books.google.at/books?id=Ac5iYqHCcucC&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false	1884	NA	1884	NA	NA	NA	NA	1899	1947	1931	1947	1961	NA	1990	NA	1930	1945	I’m particularly unsure about this technology; my intuitive mapping from reading about the topic to “how good was this at this date” feels particularly thin.	Probably not. However, there were many advances in the last century, and any of them could have been one.
44	History of paper	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_paper	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_wasp	-179	NA	-179	105	NA	NA	NA	-179	1900	200	1900	NA	1900	NA	1900	1500	105	NA	Maybe. Maybe with Cai Lun at the beginning. Probably with the industrial revolution and the introduction of wood pulp w/r to cheapness.	Small	No
45	History of polymerase chain reaction	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_polymerase_chain_reaction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUBJtHwHASA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis	1971	NA	1971	1983	1957	1971	1984	1986	NA	1986	NA	1986	NA	1986	NA	1990	1986	Some ambiguities and fights about the “true inventor”	Yes. Polymerase chain reaction *is* the discontinuity; a revolutionary new technology. It enabled many new other technologies, like DNA evidence in trials, HIV tests, analysis of ancient DNA, etc.	Big	Yes	1984	13	13
46	History of the portable gas stove	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_portable_gas_stove	NA	1929	NA	1929	NA	NA	NA	1932	1934	1936	1934	1936	1934	1936	NA	NA	1936	NA	“Unfortunately Lafares design, however brilliant, was not enough to stop the German ranks marching over his homeland in 1940 after only 6 weeks. The majority of réchaud de gaz de dirigeant were melted down into what can only be assumed as scrap metal for the German war machine. However, from Jeu Lafare's stove the idea was adapted in various forms around the world during World War II and afterwards.”	Probably not
47	History of the roller coaster	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_roller_coaster#History	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Mountains https://www.britannica.com/topic/roller-coaster#ref910739	1784	NA	1784	NA	NA	NA	NA	1817	1845	1817	1845	1925	1959	1975	1975	1930	NA	Encyclopedia Britannica mentions precursors from the 15th century. Unclear if this is an error	Probably not
48	History of the steam engine	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_steam_engine	http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=afq1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_turbine	100	NA	100	NA	1551	1663	1698	1775	NA	1775	NA	1804	NA	1850	NA	1775	1775	I’m unclear on how large the improvement was from one type of engine to the next. Also interesting how Watt delayed the adoption of high pressure engine because he felt they were too dangerous and prone to explode (they were)	Maybe. The Newcomen engine put together various disparate already existing elements to create something new. Watt’s various improvements also seem dramatic. Unclear abou the others.	Medium	No
49	History of the telescope	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telescope	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_stone	1608	NA	1608	1754	NA	1608	1608	1609	NA	1758	NA	1990	NA	NA	NA	1700	1632	NA	Maybe. If so, maybe after the serendipitous invention/discovery of radio telescopy	Small	No
50	History of timekeeping devices	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_timekeeping_devices#Pocket_watch	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_clock#Persia	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	-2000	-2000	1100	1930	1750	1930	1927	1975	NA	NA	I’m unclear how expensive a clock was before the industrial revolution	Maybe. Plausibly with the industrial revolution in terms of cheapness, then with quartz clocks, then with atomic clocks in terms of precision.	Medium	No
51	History of wind power	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wind_power#Early_Middle_Ages	NA	-5500	NA	-5500	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	800	NA	1930	NA	NA	NA	1930	1973	Bias against old technology with unclear descriptions (i.e., non-European)	Maybe. If there is, maybe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wind_power#Danish_development Tvindcraft	Small	No