Electric Drill

Loosely modeled after the grip of the Colt .45, the first electric power drill was introduced in 1916 by Black & Decker. Forty-five years later, the company released a cordless version.

Wi-Fi Router

Since its introduction in 2000, Wi-Fi has made its way into more than 9000 devices, from phones to TVs. According to a Wi-Fi Alliance poll, 75 percent of young Americans say they would give up coffee before Wi-Fi.

Pocket Calculator

Math nerds couldn't slip the first all-transistor calculator (1957) into their shirt pockets: The three-unit IBM 608 weighed 2400 pounds. Anyway, at $83,210, it was too pricey. By 1976, four-function pocket calculators weighed a few ounces and cost a few dollars.

Polaroid Camera

In 1943, Jennifer Land, 3, watched her father, Edwin, take photos: "Why can't I see the pictures now?" Her plea was answered in 1948, when Polaroid--the company her father headed--began selling instant film and cameras. It spent 10 years and $250 million developing the iconic SX-70, which debuted in 1972. The expenditure nearly sank the firm, but by 1974 the camera was a hit: It spit out 1 billion prints that year.

Leatherman

Invented in 1983 by Tim Leatherman, the Pocket Survival Tool (PST) has 14 tools, including a can opener, pliers, a file and four screwdrivers. Today, the Leatherman Surge features 21 tools.

Circular Saw

The quest to downsize and repurpose the spinning blades used in sawmills led to the 1923 invention of the worm-drive circular saw by one Edmond Michel. The Michel Electric Handsaw Company was later renamed Skilsaw Inc., hence the early nickname for all circ saws.

Cassette Tape

Invented by Philips in 1962, this format began outselling vinyl on a per capita basis in the U.S. in the early 1980s before yielding later in the decade to the CD.

Car Jack

Richard Dudgeon invented the compact, portable hydraulic jack, in 1851. when he was just 32 years old. Now a staple of every auto shop and pit row in the land, its original habitats were shipyards and railroad repair shops.

Ballpoint Pen

The Reynolds Rocket, America's first ballpoint pen, cost $12.50 when it went on sale at Gimbels in 1945. Adjusting for inflation, $12.50 in 1945 dollars equals about $150 today. At $3.29 per dozen, that's 546 Bic pens.

Outboard Motor

Ole Evinrude. It's the first name in outboard motors, and his 1909 two-stroke boat motor practically created the industry. However, it was Cameron Westerman, a Yale engineering student, who built the first outboard motor in America. Waterman patented his four-stroke outboard in 1905, and went on to sell hundreds of motors before Ole Evinrude founded the company that took outboards to the masses.

CD-ROM

Early computer games required multiple floppies; Alone in the Dark, for example, took four. The CD-ROM, packed with huge stores of animation and gaming data, allowed kids to upload one disc and disappear into the Myst.

Charcoal Grill

For George Stephen, there was no joy in grilling. Every time he fired up his open-top backyard brazier pit, de rigueur in 1951, he "was smoking up the neighborhood and burning up half of what I cooked." A welder at the Weber Brothers Metal Works, Stephen built a solution by adapting materials typically used to make steel buoys for Chicago's harbor. A year later, the Weber kettle was born.

Lunchbox

A fixture on American work sites since the 19th century, the lunchbox became a cultural sensation at the midpoint of the 20th century. Between 1950 and 1970, 120 million branded lunchboxes shot off store shelves. The origin of the lunchbox boom dates to 1954, when Aladdin Industries launched the Hopalong Cassidy-branded kit ($2.39). In the first year alone, Aladdin sold 550,000 units more than it had the previous year.

Zipper

When inventor and farm implement salesman Whitcomb Judson unveiled his newly patented "clasp-locker"--which featured a central guide that hooked together the fastening clasps when pulled upward--at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the odd-looking and ungainly device failed to impress. The modern zipper didn't come about until the 1920s, when Goodyear put an improved version of the fastener on its Zipper galoshes.

Tape Measure

The modern, spring-loaded tape measure was created by Alvin Fellows in 1868. Fellows' work improved upon an earlier model by encasing the tool in plastic and attaching it to a spring clip to lock the tape in place until its release. Yet despite the spring tape measure's timeless utilitarianism, it didn't start outselling the wooden ruler until the 1940s; the gadget sped up construction during a major building boom: 14.1 million houses in a decade.

Electric Toothbrush

U.S. Navy submariners didn't have much to smile about: Subsisting on mushy canned food for months on end, they got almost zero gum stimulation. Electric toothbrushes came aboard in 1959, solving the problem. They later found a wider audience--and inspired the invention of another vibrating device (but that's a gadget for an entirely different article).

Stopwatch

When the TAG Heuer Mikrograph stopwatch was invented in 1916, it allowed the measurement of time with unprecedented accuracy--down to 1/100 second. This precision led to major changes in the sports world, including records such as the world's first sub-4-minute mile by the U.K.'s Roger Bannister (3:59.4, May 6, 1954). Digital stopwatches accurate to 1/1000 second debuted in 1971.

Printer

Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet cost $3500 when it came out in 1984. Today, lasers are cheap, but their ammo isn't--a toner cartridge for a $100 laser jet costs $68.

Electric Blanket

Breakfast-cereal inventor and Battle Creek Sanitarium superintendent Dr. John Harvey Kellogg devised dozens of alternative medical treatments for his patients, and advocated sleeping outdoors to promote general wellness. His "thermo-electric" blanket enabled residents--Warren G. Harding, Amelia Earhart and Henry Ford among them--to enjoy the benefits of fresh air regardless of the season.

Chain Saw

Enormous "tree-cutting machines" date back to the 1920s, but 30 years later, backyard warriors were using solo saws to prune trees and cut firewood.

DVD Player

The prototype DVD player, developed in 1994 by Toshiba, was a pile of circuit boards nicknamed the "fire watchtower." Though unstable, it proved that DVD quality crushed that of VHS. Players came out in 1996; the first DVD movie release, Twister, in 1997.

Can Opener

Canned food was invented for the British Navy in the early 1800s--but the modern can opener didn't come along until 1870, when American William Lyman created a simple device with a cutting wheel that rolls around the can's rim. Previously, can-opening instructions for British sailors read, "Cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer."

Swiss Army Knife

Carl Elsener, a Swiss journeyman cutler, thought it was a disgrace that Swiss soldiers carried German-made knives. In 1890, he introduced the first Swiss Army Knife, the Modell 1980, which had a blade, an awl, a can opener and a screwdriver.

Spincast Fishing Reel

In 1949, the Zero Hour Bomb Company faced extinction, with its patent for an oilfield time bomb running out. Then R.D. Hull, an itinerant watchmaker, barber, and inventor, presented the company with plans for an easy-to-use, enclosed-spool fishing reel. Zero Hour rebranded itself as Zebco and stayed in business, selling thousands of the reels.

Flashlight

Although a flashlight is a relatively simple device--a small electric bulb with a power switch--it wasn't invented until 1896 simply because it required a portable power source: the dry cell battery. Early carbon filament bulbs were inefficient and the batteries weak, mustering just enough current to keep the light on for a few seconds at a time--hence, flashlight.

 Toaster

People have been toasting bread since the days of the Holy Roman Empire; for a thousand years, the job was done by simply holding the bread over an open flame. In 1919, however, a plant mechanic in Stillwater, Minn., finally got fed up with the burnt toast in his company cafeteria. So, Charles Strite built a box that incorporated heating elements that browned both sides of the bread at once, a variable timer and springs to eject the bread. Originally intended for restaurants, the toaster is now in 90 percent of American homes; 12 million of the gadgets are sold annually.

Hearing Aid

According to the National Institutes of Health, only one out of five people who could benefit from a hearing aid actually wear one.

Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (1990)

 Years before the Pocket PC, there was the Poqet PC. About the size of a videotape, the Poqet was pricey ($2000), but it ran off-the-shelf applications and could go for weeks on two AA batteries. Highly praised during its brief life, the Poqet vanished from the market after its manufacturer was acquired by Fujitsu. As with seemingly every interesting computer of yore, it still has its devotees, including Bryan Mason, proprietor of the informative Poqet PC Web Site.

 

Jakks Pacific TV Games (2002)

 For decades, the Atari 2600's black joystick has symbolized the raw spirit of early console video gaming. How fitting, then, that the joystick itself evolved into an entire video game console in 2004, when a small toy company called Jakks Pacific launched the phenomenally successful TV Games line. The TV Games controller/game console hooks directly to standard inputs on a television and runs off batteries. Atari TV Games was the first version, bundling ten of the most popular classic Atari games from the 1980s--Pong, Asteroids, Breakout, and more--in a controller that looked just like the original Atari VCS  joystick.

Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (1989)

 It didn't quite fit into a shirt pocket, and its non-QWERTY keyboard wasn't the most intuitive of input devices. But long before the PalmPilot 1000 or even the Newton MessagePad, the first Sharp Wizard helped popularize the concept of a small, lightweight electronic address book and calendar, thereby becoming the granddaddy of the modern personal digital assistant.

Learjet Stereo-8 (1965)

 They're the butt of jokes these days, but 8-track tapes and decks changed car audio forever. The Stereo 8, which first appeared as an option on Fords, had minimal controls and was often mounted under the dashboard with ugly U-brackets, but aesthetics weren't the point. With an 8-track in your car, you were no longer at the mercy of local radio station playlists. That was a very big deal at a time when only the largest cities had stations that played what was then known as "album rock." And the sound! In those days 8-tracks blew the doors off anything coming from a radio station, despite their infamous fadeouts when the tracks switched. The 8-track didn't last all that long, falling out of favor in the early 1970s as smaller, more convenient cassette tapes (and later CDs) came along.

Sony Aibo ERS-110 (1999)

 Sony's $1500 robotic pet, the ERS-110, was cuter than your average mutt and a whole lot smarter. Advanced artificial intelligence allowed it to learn from its environment, as well as sit, stand, roll over, and act puppyish. Later "breeds" recognized your voice commands and featured a built-in Webcam, so you could hire Aibo to babysit the kids.

Polaroid Swinger (1965)

 In the mid-1960s, no gift for teens and preteens was cooler than the $20 Polaroid Swinger instant camera. (Okay, it actually cost "nineteen dollars and ninety-five," as immortalized in one of the catchiest ad jingles of the decade.) The Swinger's big innovation was its pinchable photometer button: When the shot's light was just right, the word "YES" lit up in the viewfinder. Of course, the newbie photographers for whom the camera was intended were likely to focus more on the "YES" than on the actual composition of the shot.

Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)

 The first portable two-way radios introduced during World War II weighed up to 35 pounds apiece, but the HT-220 weighed just 22 ounces--in part because it was the first portable radio to use integrated circuits instead of discrete transistors. Back then it was a favorite of the Secret Service; today it enjoys a small but fiercely dedicated following of radio geeks.

 

Connectix QuickCam (1994)

 How techie were you in the mid-1990s? Found at your desk--typically astride a huge 17-inch CRT monitor--this fist-size grey globe signified connectedness. You were part of the QuickCam generation, embracing Internet video in its infancy, sending short, choppy, and highly pixelated greyscale moving images over (most likely) the office or college LAN. The QuickCam's image quality left much to be desired, but its low price and unique design--a spheroid "eye" set in a pyramid-shaped base (which, despite appearances, worked surprisingly well as a tripod substitute)--made it a popular starter Webcam for video-crazy, pioneer digerati. Much more advanced QuickCams are still available from the line's current owner, Logitech.

Iomega Zip Drive (1995)

This little blue external storage drive, roughly the size of a paperback book, was an instant sensation, giving average computer users their first taste of easy backup and relatively rugged 100MB storage media. The only storage technology ever mentioned by name on HBO's Sex and the City, the Zip Drive was available for both Macs and PCs; the Mac version connected to the SCSI port and the PC version hooked up via the parallel port. You could see the disk through a clear window built into the top of the drive, and it was always a pleasure to see the yellow LED light, which meant everything was working well. However, if the drive clicked too much (a phenomenon also known as the Click of Death), you were in trouble. You still have one somewhere, don't you?

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)

 This early "portable" phone measured more than a foot long, weighed close to 2 pounds, and cost a whopping $3995. But with Motorola's DynaTAC 8000X--aka The Brick--you could for the first time walk and talk without that dratted cord. Generally considered the first mobile phone, the DynaTAC 8000X had enough juice for an hour of talk time and enough memory to hold 30 numbers. And the device's Formica-style enclosure was the envy of anything that Ma Bell had to offer.

Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.0 (1998)

 A do-it-yourself robotics system for the masses, Lego Mindstorms made building machines more fun than should be allowed. An interactive community helped promote different designs and creativity, so you were never at a loss as to what to do with all of those Lego pieces and parts. And one of the early expansion kits included a robotic R2-D2. (Sure, it was just a wireframe, not a solid replica, but it could still carry your Coca-Cola can.)

 

Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (1997)

 The REX redefined the notion of portable. This credit-card-size device was powered by two watch batteries, measured just a quarter of an inch thick, and was designed to fit into a notebook's PC Card slot. Its design was simple--just a black-and-white, 160-by-98-resolution screen, and five navigational buttons to access such functions as calendar, contacts, and even memos. Although you couldn't enter data into the first version (about $179 with cradle), the REX proved a convenient portable companion.

 

Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)

 The first mainstream optical mouse earned its place on our list by eliminating one of computer technology's most pervasive annoyances: the accumulation of gunk inside a mechanical mouse. Optical mice actually existed long before Microsoft's groundbreaking product, but they were expensive and required special pads. The Intellimouse Explorer (and its simultaneously introduced siblings, the Intellimouse Optical and the Wheel Mouse Optical) brought gunk-free pointing devices to the great unwashed masses and their great unwashed desks (and laps, and armchairs, and many other places you'd never dream of using a mechanical mouse).

 

iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002)

 A robot that does housework? Sign me up! With more than 2 million users, the Roomba is considered by many to be the first commercially successful domestic robot. The 14-inch-wide vacuum cleaner may look like an oversize hockey puck, but its brilliant design lets it avoid obstacles while sucking up every speck of dirt--including those dust bunnies cowering under the couch.

 

Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)

 Sanyo was the first to bring a camera phone stateside, although it wasn't the first to introduce such a device to the world--that credit goes to Sharp, which released the J-SH04 in Japan in 2000. Sanyo's SCP-5300 took 640-by-480-resolution snapshots, and according to PC World's first look, the clamshell phone was easy to use. But the quality of the photos was mediocre, and the only ways to get images off the phone were to send it to another person's cell phone or e-mail address or to upload them to Sprint PCS's Web site (the handset was available exclusively to Sprint customers). But, hey, it's almost impossible to find a cell phone without a camera these days.

Sony Betamax (1975)

 Few gadgets have had a bigger impact than the first stand-alone video cassette recorder. Shortly after the Betamax appeared, Sony was sued by the movie studios; in 1984 the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Sony's favor, finding that beneficial uses of the new technology (time-shifting TV programs) outweighed potential harms (video piracy). (The version pictured here is the SL-6300 from 1975, in a high-end wooden case.) The Betamax changed our lives and helped spawn the $20 billion video rental industry, but it couldn't compete with JVC's cheaper VHS devices and eventually disappeared.

Commodore 64 (1982)

 The best selling computer of all time still appears to be the Commodore 64: Estimates of this PC's sales range from 15 million to 22 million units. The first C64 cost $595 and came with 64KB of RAM, a 6510 processor, 20KB of ROM with Microsoft BASIC, 16-color graphics, and a 40-column screen. (How times have changed!) It also was the first PC with an integrated sound synthesizer chip, according to Ian Matthews of Commodore.ca.

Nintendo Game Boy (1989)

 In the old days, kids couldn't wait till they were old enough to get their first two-wheeler. Now they yearn for their first Game Boy. The original handheld, as shown at CyberiaPC.com, featured a black-and-green LCD and a slot for matchbook-size game cartridges. Later versions became smaller and more powerful but maintained backward compatibility with the original, so you could take your favorite games with you as you grew. The Game Boy's lock on the handheld game market remained virtually unchallenged--at least until the Sony PlayStation Portable arrived this year.

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)

 In the early 1980s, when people talked about "portable computers" they meant luggable monstrosities like the 24-pound Osborne I. Then Radio Shack introduced the Model 100, the first popular notebook. Starting at $799, this 4.25-pound featherweight boasted built-in word processing and other apps, and its internal modem let road warriors get online at a zippy 300 bits per second. More than 20 years later, the full-travel keyboard on the TRS-80 is still pretty impressive.

 

Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)

 The marvel of this $15.95 camera was its easy loading system. Kodak wanted to eliminate amateur errors and make photography foolproof. To do this, the company put the film for this camera--and its successors--into a plastic cartridge. The user could pop the cartridge in and out, and not worry about exposing the film to light or misaligning it so that it wouldn't advance. To illuminate the subject, you placed a flashbulb in a little compartment on the camera's top that popped open. The camera was hugely popular: It is estimated that tens of millions of Instamatic-type cameras were sold.

Hamilton Pulsar (1972)

 A wristwatch with no springs, gears, or hands? In 1970, when venerable U.S. timepiece maker Hamilton announced the Pulsar, the first solid-state watch, the concept was so revolutionary that nobody seemed to care that its LED screen actually displayed the time only when you pressed a button. The first Pulsars were $2100, solid-gold jobs, but a steel model was eventually available for a thriftier $275; everyone from Gerald Ford to Roger Moore was a fan. 

 

 

Zenith Space Command (1956)

 The first widely used TV remote control had four buttons (power, volume, channel up, channel down) but no batteries; press a button, and a tiny hammer inside the remote would strike an aluminum rod, transmitting an ultrahigh-frequency tone to control the set. The Space Command ruled the living room for more than 25 years before being replaced by remotes using infrared technology. And thus a nation of couch potatoes was born.

Handspring Treo 600 (2003)

 The quest for the perfect palmtop/phone hybrid hit a new milestone with the Treo 600, released by upstart Palm competitor Handspring (the company founded by Palm founders Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky) before that company was itself swallowed by Palm. Slim enough to fit in a pocket, yet wide enough to hold a BlackBerry-esque QWERTY keyboard, the Treo quickly became the It gadget of 2003-2004, eclipsed only by its own successor, the Treo 650.