When exploring the evolution of technology in the Digital Age, the major milestones—computers the size of apartment rooms, first-ever gaming consoles and other groundbreaking inventions—are already familiar. However, it is important to realize that there are smaller, yet equally significant inventions that shaped the modern world today. From telegraphs that first bridged long-distance communication to the first digitized timekeeping devices that were the heartbeat of punctuality, there have also been smaller tech milestones that impacted our daily lives.
Calculator and clocks
Some of the simplest pieces of technology, calculators and clocks, didn’t come in digital versions until the late 1950s and 1960s. Although today they are seen as simple, everyday objects, their development played a large role in the Digital Age and served as some of the first stepping stones in the development of the advanced electronics we use today.
The first use of digital technology in clocks came in 1883, when the first digital display pocket watch was created. Although mechanical springs were used to make the clock tick, simply changing the display was the first step in the eventual complete digitalization of these devices. Developed by Austrian engineer Joseph Pallweber, the pocket watch used a new “jump-hour” mechanism, which used two dials to rotate the display of minutes and hours on the watch face. Since the digital display replaced the traditional analog clock arms, the numbers in the display would “jump” from one hour to the next, without the gradual shift of the hour hand that analog watches had. Jump-hour mechanisms are still used today in digital display watches. Decades later, the first digital alarm clock was invented in 1956, followed shortly by the first all-electronic desktop calculator, called ANITA.
The name ANITA stands for A New Inspiration To Arithmetic and the ANITA did just that, inspiring a new age in mathematics and technology. Like many early electronics, ANITA was much larger than calculators are today. The size of a small laptop, ANITA weighed almost 33 pounds. Five years after the release of ANITA, a new company joined the calculator development: Texas Instruments. Originally founded in the 1930s as Geophysical Services Inc, Texas Instruments used its established foothold in the semiconductor industry to begin developing calculators of their own. In 1967, Texas Instruments released the first commercially successful calculator, the TI-2500 Datamath. The Datamath was significantly smaller than its predecessor, weighing just 2.5 pounds and the size of a small book—30 pounds lighter than the ANITA. Since the Datamath, Texas Instruments has continued to make more portable calculators, with the TI-30 becoming one of the first pocket-sized, battery-powered devices that helped popularize electronic calculators in everyday life.
Telegraphs to telephones
In today’s world, instant communication across the world happens on the daily, with access to the internet and long-distance calls allowing for connection on the international level. However, communication wasn’t nearly as instant in the past. The development of the handheld devices we treasure today is the result of decades of innovation and continuous improvement in communication technology, starting with the telegraph.
In the year 1844, a man by the name of Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message from Washington D.C. to his assistant in Maryland, which famously read “What hath God wrought?”The message traveled the 40 miles in a matter of minutes, marking the beginning of the leap into communication technology. Although the telegraph, with the need for physical electrical wires and an operator to decode and translate the messages, looks a lot different than the cell phones we use today, many of the principle ideas behind its invention inspired the development of our handheld devices. Morse’s invention revealed that messages could be transmitted via electrical signals across long distances and that it could be done at speeds previously unimaginable.
In the years following, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, aiming to send full voice messages instead of the morse code that telegraphs sent. Bell’s invention converted sound vibrations into electrical signals, a concept that allowed for long-distance, two-way voice communication. However, physical landlines had their drawbacks, as they required connection to telephone wires used for transmitting the messages. Improvements to the telephone developed in the early 1900s, with the invention of switchboards allowing multiple users to communicate in connected calls. Landlines and wall-mounted telephones would stick around until the 1940s and 1950s, when mobile radio communications allowed for car phones to connect to the telephone networks.
In 1973, Martin Cooper at Motorola made the first ever handheld mobile phone call, leading to the development of true mobile phones. Like the ENIAC and ANITA, the first mobile phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, was massive compared to their modern counterparts. Weighing almost 2.5 pounds, the “brick phone” allowed for only 30 minutes of talking time and cost almost $4,000. Continual advancements in the field of mobile communication shaped and reshaped long distance communication several times over, with new innovations appearing every decade or so that lead to the smartphones of today.
While major technological milestones often dominate the spotlight, inventions like calculators, clocks, telegraphs and early telephones have been equally impactful. These developments laid the foundation for modern technology, transforming how we communicate and interact with the world. From the first digital clocks to the first mobile phones, these innovations paved the way for the connected, digital world we live in today. Even seemingly modest advancements have had a lasting influence on our daily lives.
