January 2000
It has been said that Victorians invented the idea of invention, the concept that one could create a new device that would improve life. The Victorian period was a great time of science and discovery. Some of these inventions changed history, whereas others were simply odd gadgets, footnotes of a period of creativity and imagination.
When one looks at everything that was invented in the Nineteenth Century, as well as all the scientific concepts that had their origin in the Victorian mind, it seems that there is little that we in the Twentieth Century can call our own. As we enter the last year of the century, it gives us pause to reflect on how much we owe to those who invented modernity.
Many today are declaring this the end of the century as well as the end of the millennium, as if we count from 0 to 9 to make 10. This problem is not unique to the unenlightened masses of the twentieth century; the same hubbub arose in 1899. On a related note, the Y2K Bug, sometimes called the Millennium Bug, really has nothing to do with the Millennium. It is more accurately called the Century Bug. Had computers been built in the nineteenth century and used only two digits for the year, come 1900, those computers would have the same problem distinguishing dates. For those running Steampunk campaigns, or others in which computers exist in the Victorian era, a Century Bug might add some drama to your campaign.
Just as many are using the advent of 2000 to look back at the developments of the "century," so did people in 1899. It is easy to produce a large list of inventions of the 1800's (see the Timeline): steam-powered ships, cars and industrial machinery, electric lights, cars, power plants, batteries, flashlights, gas-powered automobiles, the telegraph, the telephone, photography, the zeppelin, anesthetics, aspirin, the hypodermic needle, repeating pistols, the Gatling gun, dynamite, the refrigerator, typewriter, dishwasher, fax machine, phonograph, motion pictures...the list goes on and on. Although it was never built, Charles Babbage worked out all the elements of modern computing. There are other devices that were conceived in the nineteenth century that did not come into fruition until the twentieth.
But an important insight is revealed by considering what the New York Times in 1899 listed as the number one invention of the century: the friction match. The ability to carry around a small packet of sticks that enable you to produce fire on demand safely was a significant advantage. These days, that need is pretty much limited to smokers, or for recreational purposes such as cookouts. In the nineteenth century, the ability to make a fire was a necessity.
I originally titled this article Everything was Invented in the Nineteenth century. Hyperbole, to be sure, but to what degree?