We humans have a terrible sense of time. When we think of the past, we tend to lump historical events and inventions into neat, easy-to-understand boxes. We assume that modern conveniences belong strictly to the modern age, and that ancient history is just rocks, scrolls, and people wearing tunics.
But history is rarely that neat. In fact, our timeline of human innovation is packed with strange overlaps and mind-bending anachronisms. Some of the everyday items you have sitting in your house right now were invented before your great-grandparents were born. Some of the companies you buy from today were doing business while knights were still riding horses into battle. And some living things on this planet are older than the rings of Saturn.
It is easy to assume that our modern world is entirely separated from the distant past. But history is sticky. Good ideas tend to stick around, outlasting empires, wars, and sweeping technological revolutions.
In this article, we are looking at things you probably interact with or know about that have existed for far longer than you might think. We are keeping it simple, skipping the boring history lessons, and getting straight to the facts that will completely mess with your perception of time.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
- The Fax Machine was invented in 1843, thirty years before the telephone.
- The Cigarette Lighter was invented three years before the friction match.
- Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a playing card company.
- Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.
- Vending Machines existed in the 1st Century AD to dispense holy water.
- Sharks have been around longer than trees and the rings of Saturn.
- 3D Movies first hit theaters back in 1922.
Technology You Probably Thought Was Modern
When we think of technology, we think of the 20th and 21st centuries. But human beings have always been clever problem solvers. Some of our most “modern” tech is actually centuries old.
The Fax Machine (Invented in 1843)
If you had to guess when the fax machine was invented, you might say the 1970s or 1980s. It feels like peak office culture from a bygone era of bulky suits and giant computers. But the fax machine is actually older than the telephone.
Scottish inventor Alexander Bain received a patent for the first fax machine in 1843. He figured out how to use clockwork mechanisms and pendulum synchronization to scan images and send them over telegraph wires. This means that, theoretically, Abraham Lincoln could have sent a fax during the American Civil War. The first commercial fax service, the Pantelegraph, opened in 1865, connecting Paris and Lyon. Today, despite emails and instant messaging, fax machines are still heavily used in the medical and legal fields because they offer secure, hard-copy transmission.
3D Movies (Debuted in 1922)
Most people associate 3D movies with the 1950s drive-in theater craze, or maybe the release of James Cameron’s Avatar in 2009. But the first confirmed 3D movie shown to a paying audience happened over a century ago.
In September 1922, a silent film called The Power of Love was screened at the Ambassador Hotel Theater in Los Angeles. The filmmakers used a dual-camera setup to record the movie, and audience members were given special glasses with red and green lenses, called anaglyph glasses. Those exact same flimsy cardboard glasses were still being used in movie theaters 80 years later to show movies like Spy Kids 3D.
Vending Machines (1st Century AD)
The concept of putting a coin into a slot and getting a product back sounds like a product of the Industrial Revolution. But it is much older than that.
The first vending machine was invented by a Greek engineer named Hero of Alexandria in the 1st Century AD. His machine was not dispensing sodas or chips; it was dispensing holy water in temples. The user dropped a coin into a slot at the top. The coin fell onto a pan connected to a lever. The weight of the coin opened a valve that let a specific amount of water flow out. Once the coin slid off the pan, the valve closed.
Submarines (1620)
When we think of submarines, we usually imagine World War II U-Boats or modern nuclear-powered vessels. But the first working submarine was built over 400 years ago in 1620.
Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel built a submarine for King James I of England. He built it out of a wooden frame covered in greased leather to keep it watertight. It was powered by oarsmen rowing underwater. Drebbel reportedly tested his invention in the River Thames, carrying several passengers underwater for three hours. This means that people were exploring beneath the waves while the Pilgrims were just stepping off the Mayflower onto Plymouth Rock.
Contact Lenses (1887)
It feels like a modern luxury to ditch your glasses for an invisible pair of lenses. But the idea is old. Leonardo da Vinci first sketched the concept of altering vision by submerging the eye in water back in 1508.
The first actual pair of contact lenses that could be worn, however, was manufactured in 1887 by a German glassblower named F.E. Muller. A year later, a German physiologist named Adolf Fick made the first successful pair of full-scleral contact lenses. They were made entirely of heavy blown glass and covered the entire eye, not just the pupil. You could only wear them for a couple of hours because they cut off all oxygen to the eye, but the concept of contact lenses was officially a reality before the first airplane ever took flight.
Brands and Companies With Deep Roots
Sometimes, a business model is just so good that it survives centuries of changing markets, wars, and shifting consumer habits. These companies didn’t just invent something cool—they built empires that lasted longer than most actual empires.
Nintendo (Founded in 1889)
When you think of Nintendo, you think of Mario, Zelda, and the Switch. You think of the 1980s video game crash and the birth of the NES. But Nintendo was actually founded over 130 years ago.
In 1889, a craftsman named Fusajiro Yamauchi started a small business in Kyoto, Japan, called Nintendo Koppai. He produced handmade Hanafuda playing cards. The cards became insanely popular, especially among the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia), who used them for underground gambling. Nintendo spent its first 70 years making playing cards before attempting other businesses like taxi companies, instant rice, and “love hotels,” before finally hitting it big with video games in the 1970s.
Zildjian Cymbals (Founded in 1623)
If you look at the drum kit of almost any famous rock band, you will probably see a cymbal with the Zildjian logo stamped on it. From Ringo Starr of The Beatles to Dave Grohl of Nirvana, Zildjian has been the gold standard for cymbals.
But this company is almost 400 years old. It was founded in 1623 in Constantinople (now Istanbul) during the Ottoman Empire. An Armenian alchemist named Avedis Zildjian was trying to create gold by mixing base metals. He failed at making gold, but he accidentally created an alloy of copper, tin, and silver that produced incredibly loud, musical sounds without shattering.
The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire gave him the name Zildjian, which means “son of a cymbal maker.” The secret recipe for that metal alloy has been passed down through the family ever since, surviving wars, the fall of empires, and a move to the United States in 1929. Today, Zildjian is the oldest family-owned business in America.
Stella Artois (Brewing Since 1366)
If you go to a bar today and order a Stella Artois, you are drinking a brand with roots stretching back to the Middle Ages.
While the exact “Stella Artois” recipe and name as we know it today was launched as a Christmas beer in 1926, the brewery it comes from, the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium, has been brewing beer since 1366. The brewery originally served the hunters of the local area. The horn logo you see on every modern Stella Artois bottle is a direct homage to the original 14th-century Den Hoorn brewery.
Everyday Items We Take For Granted
Some things are so simple and perfect that they never needed an upgrade. They were invented, perfected quickly, and just stayed exactly the same for centuries.
The Lighter (1823) vs. The Match (1826)
This is one of the most famous chronological facts that messes with people’s heads. Most people assume that matches are older than lighters. A match is just a stick of wood with chemicals on the end, right? A lighter requires mechanical parts, gas, a flint, and a striking wheel. Surely, the simple stick came first.
Wrong. The first lighter, known as Döbereiner’s lamp, was invented in 1823 by a German chemist named Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner. It was a bulky, dangerous device that passed hydrogen gas over a platinum sponge to create a flame.
The first friction match, the kind you strike against a rough surface, wasn’t invented until three years later in 1826 by an English chemist named John Walker. So, before you could light a candle with a simple wooden match, you had a mechanical device that created fire on demand.
Flush Toilets (c. 1700 BC / 1592 AD)
We tend to think of indoor plumbing as a modern luxury that replaced the outhouse sometime in the late 19th century. But humans have been flushing their waste away for thousands of years.
The earliest known flush toilets were used by the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete around 1700 BC. They had elaborate drainage systems where water was poured into latrines to flush waste into clay pipes underneath the palaces.
The modern flush toilet, complete with a water tank and a flush valve, was invented by Sir John Harington in 1592 for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I. He called his invention the “Ajax.” The Queen had one installed in Richmond Palace. However, it didn’t catch on with the general public because London lacked the sewer infrastructure to handle it until the 1800s.
Central Heating (Ancient Rome)
Coming home to a warm house in the winter feels like the peak of modern living. No fires to chop wood for, just a thermostat on the wall. But the Ancient Romans had this figured out over 2,000 years ago.
The Romans invented a system called the hypocaust. They built their homes, villas, and public bathhouses on raised floors supported by stone pillars. Underneath the floor, slaves would keep a large wood-burning furnace blazing. The hot air and smoke from the fire would circulate through the empty space under the floor and rise up through flues built into the walls, warming the entire building evenly without any smoke entering the living areas. When the Roman Empire collapsed, the technology was largely lost in Europe for over a thousand years.
Institutions and Nature That Mess With Our Timelines
Finally, let’s look at things that aren’t inventions or companies, but institutions and living organisms that make human history look like a tiny blip on the radar.
Oxford University (Founded 1096)
When we think of the Aztec Empire, we think of ancient history. We think of pyramids, human sacrifice, and a civilization lost to time. When we think of Oxford University, we think of modern education, Harry Potter-style buildings, and brilliant minds.
But Oxford University is significantly older than the Aztec Empire. The city of Tenochtitlan (the capital of the Aztec Empire, now Mexico City) was founded in 1325. Teaching at Oxford began in 1096, and it grew rapidly from 1167 when King Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.
This means that while the Aztecs were just beginning to build their empire, Oxford students were already sitting in lecture halls, complaining about their tutors, and drinking in local pubs. Oxford is also older than the printing press (invented around 1440), meaning for its first 300 years, students learned entirely from handwritten manuscripts.
Sharks (450 Million Years Old)
If you look into the ocean today, you are looking at animals that belong to an entirely different age of the planet. Sharks are older than almost everything you can think of.
Sharks have been swimming in our oceans for roughly 450 million years. To put that in perspective, trees only appeared on Earth about 390 million years ago. Sharks are older than trees.
They are also older than the rings of Saturn, which scientists now believe are only 10 to 100 million years old. Sharks have survived four out of the five mass extinction events on Earth, including the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs. They are nature’s most perfect surviving design.
Why Do These Timelines Feel So Weird?
It is called “chronological snobbery,” a term coined by C.S. Lewis. It is the assumption that people from the past were primitive, less intelligent, and incapable of the kind of problem-solving we have today.
We look at old photos in black and white and assume the world was less vibrant. We look at history books and compress thousands of years into a few pages, losing the sheer scale of time in the process. We forget that a human brain living in the year 500 BC or 1600 AD was just as capable of complex engineering, business strategies, and creativity as a brain today. They just had different tools to work with.
When we learn that Nintendo is 130 years old, or that a fax machine predates the telephone, it shakes us awake. It reminds us that human progress is not a straight line going upward. It is messy. Ideas get invented, forgotten, and reinvented. Companies adapt or die. But truly brilliant concepts—whether it is an alloy for a cymbal, a machine that dispenses water, or the perfect design of a predator in the ocean—have an incredible way of simply never leaving.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the absolute oldest company still operating today?
The oldest continuously operating company in the world is Kongo Gumi, a Japanese construction company. It was founded in 578 AD. They specialize in building and repairing Buddhist temples. They operated independently for over 1,400 years until they were absorbed by a larger construction group in 2006, but they still operate under their original name today.
Are there any living animals older than dinosaurs besides sharks?
Yes! Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as “living fossils” because they have been around for about 450 million years, predating the dinosaurs by hundreds of millions of years. Their appearance hasn’t changed much in all that time, and their unique blue blood is incredibly valuable in modern medicine for testing the safety of vaccines and medical devices.
Did Abraham Lincoln actually use a fax machine?
No. While the technology for the fax machine (invented by Alexander Bain in 1843) existed during Lincoln’s lifetime, it was not practically used in American government or by the public during his presidency. The telegraph was the main mode of rapid communication during the Civil War. It wasn’t until the late 1860s in Europe that commercial fax services became viable.
Is it true that the lighter is older than the match?
Yes. The first lighter, Döbereiner’s lamp, was invented in 1823. It used a chemical reaction between zinc and sulfuric acid to create hydrogen gas, which was ignited by a platinum sponge. The modern friction match (the kind you strike on a box) was not invented until three years later, in 1826, by John Walker.
Why did the Romans lose the technology for central heating?
When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th Century AD, the infrastructure, wealth, and engineering knowledge required to build and maintain complex systems like the hypocaust disappeared. Europe entered the Early Middle Ages, where simple open hearths and fireplaces became the standard way to heat homes for the next thousand years.
