What are some old inventions still in use today?

Question

I'm thinking mousetrap.

Answer 1

PAPER!  it was invented by the chinese many dynasties ago.

Answer 2

A lightning rod is a pole on a building with an 'earth' wire which attracts the electricity down it to ground harmlessly instead of expending at the roof top (blowing it off, setting fire to building, killing occupants, etc). Ben Franklin is said to have invented it and proved lightning and the new stuff, 'electricity', were the same thing - late 1700s.

As others have said - bow and arrow, paper, pottery/houseware (not the microwave, of course), basic fishing gear, hand-held weapons, early firearms/gunpowder, heaps of things.

The Archimedes s***w' is a type of pump used to raise water from rivers or pools. It is still used around the world, although powered by engines not animals or people in the West. It was invented before 200BC (can't remember date, might be about 300BC) and is probably installed along levees in USA where floods are common to pump water back into rivers, etc, when flood threatens.

As to the two most important 'old' inventions:

Fire - or at least controlled fire for heating and cooking (and maybe in warfare, too, with fire arrows and the like). [Pre-history!]

Wheel!! Machinery depends on wheels, normal or cog-wheeled, just about everything else does, including transport, of course.

And, as you mentioned mousetrap, Archimeded played a role there, BTW. Although 'levers' like the crowbar were known before him (the Pyramids would not have been possible without them and the roller - a type of wheel variation), he was the one that worked out the principle behind how they worked. [Like BF and lightning, which had been around long before Mankind.] The traditional spring mousetrap relies on combining the turn of a round bit ['wheel'] with the force of closure based on the force/distance calculations of a leverage formula. (Not that the inventor of the original one would have ever thought about it in terms of force/distance/mass/etc.)

Answer 3

Really old, huh? Ok how about:

Gunpowder

The wheel

Knives

Axes

Bows

Arrows

Baskets

Pottery

Guns

The fireplace

Utensils for cooking and eating with

Canteens

Maps

Compasses

Telescopes

Sun dials

Surveyors tools

Ox/donkey carts

The wheelbarrow

Shovels

Paper

Ink

Pens

Mirrors

Candles

Oil lamps

Bells

Musical instruments

As for what a lightning rod, it was an invention by Ben Franklin to prevent lightning striking a house and catching it on fire. You might still see it on some houses. People would put one or more lightning rods up on the roof of their houses so as to prevent lightning damage. A lightning rod is this metal rod that sits up on the roof with a wire running from the roof down to the ground. Thusly rather than strike the Roof the lightning would strike the lightning rod and then run down to the ground. You're going back to the mid to late 1700s for that particular invention.

Answer 4

door

Answer 5

Fire

Lever

Wheel

s***w

Block and Tackle

Nail

Pottery

Spear

Club

Answer 6

Probably the most common old invention still in use today is the wheel. Just imagine where we would be without wheels!

Answer 7

can opener, light bulb, gas lantern, candle, bottle, vase, pots, pans, cups, utensils, wheel, houses, camera, guns, bow and arrow, time/watches, chairs, table,doors, door k***s, boats,farming, etc.....

Answer 8

The wheel, it's one of the most ancient & important inventions.

The Zero, it even became more important today with the development of information technology.

Answer 9

Eye glasses...

Answer 10

Benjamin Franklin's lightening rod.  I can look out my back window and see one still in use.  Also, bricks, anchors, maps, thermometers and tumbler locks.

Answer 11

light bulbs

bicycles

hammer

club

guns

printing press

bow and arrow

ninja sword

silverware

clothes

cars

food

Answer 12

Howzabout......scissors?