{"version":"1","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/","url":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/index.json","schema":"https://lastcodex.org/data/schema.json","search":"Download this index and filter/search locally; no server-side search endpoint or query parameters.","domains":[{"id":"survival","name":"Fire & Shelter","description":"How to make fire, find safe water and build a shelter with what the land provides.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/survival/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/survival/index.html.md"},{"id":"agriculture","name":"Agriculture & Livestock","description":"Growing crops and raising animals year after year on the same land.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/agriculture/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/agriculture/index.html.md"},{"id":"food","name":"Food & Preservation","description":"Turning a harvest into food that keeps until the next one.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/food/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/food/index.html.md"},{"id":"medicine","name":"Medicine & Hygiene","description":"Hygiene, remedies and the discoveries that made infections treatable.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/medicine/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/medicine/index.html.md"},{"id":"materials","name":"Materials & Chemistry","description":"Clay, metals, glass and rubber, and the heat and chemistry that transform them.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/materials/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/materials/index.html.md"},{"id":"tools","name":"Tools & Making","description":"The tools used to make other tools, from knapped flint to the lathe.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/tools/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/tools/index.html.md"},{"id":"building","name":"Building & Cities","description":"Walls, bridges, water supply and drains for people who live close together.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/building/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/building/index.html.md"},{"id":"mechanics","name":"Mechanics","description":"Levers, gears and pulleys that change the direction or magnitude of a force.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/mechanics/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/mechanics/index.html.md"},{"id":"energy","name":"Energy & Prime Movers","description":"Machines that put water, wind and heat to work.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/energy/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/energy/index.html.md"},{"id":"electricity","name":"Electricity & Electronics","description":"Producing, carrying and using electric current.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/electricity/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/electricity/index.html.md"},{"id":"optics","name":"Optics & Imaging","description":"Lenses and instruments for seeing distant objects, observing tiny details and recording images.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/optics/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/optics/index.html.md"},{"id":"communication","name":"Writing & Communication","description":"Writing things down, copying them and sending messages over a distance.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/communication/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/communication/index.html.md"},{"id":"land-transport","name":"Land Transport","description":"Moving people and loads over land, from the cart to the railway.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/land-transport/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/land-transport/index.html.md"},{"id":"navigation","name":"Ships & Navigation","description":"Building boats, sailing them and finding the way at sea.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/navigation/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/navigation/index.html.md"},{"id":"aviation","name":"Aeronautics","description":"How people learned to fly, first with balloons, then with wings.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/aviation/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/aviation/index.html.md"},{"id":"everyday","name":"Textiles & Everyday Life","description":"Thread, cloth and the household objects people use every day.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/everyday/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/everyday/index.html.md"},{"id":"measure","name":"Time & Measurement","description":"Clocks, scales, rulers and thermometers, and the numbers needed to count and measure.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/measure/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/measure/index.html.md"},{"id":"defense","name":"Defence & Fortification","description":"Weapons and fortifications: how they work and how they changed warfare. Explosives are covered without any making instructions.","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/defense/","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/defense/index.html.md"}],"inventions":[{"id":"control-of-fire","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Control of Fire","subtitle":"Light, heat and cooked food","summary":"Controlling fire means keeping a flame alive, moving it, and in the end lighting it at will. Human ancestors used fire at least a million years ago, and it gave them warmth, light, protection and cooked food.","description":"How fire burns, how to make an ember with a bow drill and keep the fire safe, and how human ancestors were using fire at least a million years ago.","year":-1000000,"approx":true,"domain":"survival","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":100,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":[],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/control-of-fire/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/control-of-fire.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/control-of-fire/index.html.md"},{"id":"writing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Writing","subtitle":"Knowledge that outlives memory","summary":"Writing records language with visible marks that another person can read back later, far away or long after the writer has died. It arose independently several times; among the earliest examples are tablets from southern Mesopotamia of around 3300 BCE, on which temple accountants pressed and drew signs while the clay was still damp.","description":"How counting tokens became writing, how to make a clay tablet and reed stylus, and writing's history from Uruk around 3300 BCE to the first alphabet.","year":-3300,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":97,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/writing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/writing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/writing/index.html.md"},{"id":"internet","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Internet","subtitle":"Networks joined through shared protocols","summary":"The Internet joins separate computer networks through shared rules for addressing and forwarding data. Robert Kahn proposed an open architecture for it around 1972 and worked out the protocol design with Vinton Cerf from 1973. Gateways, later called routers, pass packets from one network to the next; email and the Web run over this system.","description":"The Internet joins networks by passing packets between them: IP addresses, routers, the origins of internetworking and a paper model of how it works.","year":1972,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":95,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["computer"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/internet/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/internet.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/internet/index.html.md"},{"id":"printing-press","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Printing Press","subtitle":"Movable type, copied by the thousand","summary":"The printing press presses inked metal type onto damp paper with a wooden screw, so one page of text can be copied hundreds of times in a day. Gutenberg combined it with cast movable type and oil-based ink around 1440, and within fifty years printing had spread across Europe.","description":"How Gutenberg's wooden screw press and cast metal type printed books from about 1440, how type, ink and press were made, and how printing spread.","year":1440,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":95,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","iron-smelting","writing","steel","timber-framing","leather-tanning","oil-press","writing-ink"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/printing-press/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/printing-press.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/printing-press/index.html.md"},{"id":"steam-engine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Steam Engine","subtitle":"Heat turned into motion","summary":"A steam engine turns the heat of a fire into movement by using steam to drive a piston. Thomas Newcomen's engine of 1712 pumped water out of mines, and James Watt's improvements from 1765 onwards made steam power cheap enough to drive the factories of the Industrial Revolution.","description":"How Newcomen's atmospheric engine of 1712 pumped mines dry with steam and a vacuum, what building one took, and how Watt's separate condenser cut its fuel.","year":1712,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":4,"difficulty":5,"importance":95,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting","gear","piston-pump"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-engine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/steam-engine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-engine/index.html.md"},{"id":"stone-tools","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Stone Tools","subtitle":"The first cutting edge","summary":"Most stone tools are pieces of rock broken in a controlled way to give a sharp edge for cutting, scraping or chopping. They are the oldest known technology: the earliest date back about 3.3 million years, and people still made some into the twentieth century.","description":"How flint breaks in a cone to give a sharp edge, how to knap a flake and a hand axe safely, and 3.3 million years of stone tools from Lomekwi to Brandon.","year":-3300000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":95,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":[],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/stone-tools/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/stone-tools.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/stone-tools/index.html.md"},{"id":"image-sensor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Semiconductor image sensor","subtitle":"Turning light into electrical signals","summary":"A semiconductor image sensor converts a pattern of light into electrical signals, using architectures developed from the early 1960s. In the CCD variant, charges collected in silicon are transferred to an analogue output whose measurement can then be digitised.","description":"From early semiconductor devices in the 1960s to CCD and CMOS sensors: converting light, storing charge and reading the pixels of an image.","year":1963,"approx":true,"domain":"optics","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":94,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["integrated-circuit","aluminium"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/image-sensor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/image-sensor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/image-sensor/index.html.md"},{"id":"coinage","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Coinage","subtitle":"Stamped metal, trusted value","summary":"Coinage combines a prepared weight of metal with a recognisable stamp. Electrum coins first appeared in western Anatolia, where their designs helped users identify issues and relied on trust in the issuer.","description":"Coinage joins a weight of metal to a recognisable stamp: the beginnings of electrum coins in Lydia and Ionia in western Anatolia.","year":-650,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":92,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-16","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coinage/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/coinage.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coinage/index.html.md"},{"id":"drinking-water","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Drinking Water","subtitle":"Draw, settle, filter, boil","summary":"Safe drinking water starts with a protected source, such as a lined and covered well dug uphill and well away from latrines and animal pens. When the water is doubtful, settling, slow sand filtration and boiling remove or kill most of the germs behind diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid, but none of them takes out dissolved chemicals.","description":"Making water safe to drink: guard the well, settle, strain, sand-filter and boil. The story runs from Cypriot wells of 8400 BCE to the Broad Street pump.","year":-8400,"approx":true,"domain":"survival","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":92,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","pottery","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/drinking-water/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/drinking-water.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/drinking-water/index.html.md"},{"id":"integrated-circuit","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Integrated circuit","subtitle":"Components and connections on a chip","summary":"An integrated circuit, or microchip, brings components and their connections together on a semiconductor. Werner Jacobi filed a patent in 1949 describing several amplifier stages on one semiconductor. Counters developed in the 1950s, followed by the work of Kilby and Noyce, explored different forms of integration.","description":"Integrated circuits combine components and connections on a chip: Jacobi's patent, early counters and planar silicon manufacturing.","year":1949,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":92,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["transistor"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/integrated-circuit/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/integrated-circuit.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/integrated-circuit/index.html.md"},{"id":"wheel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Wheel & Axle","subtitle":"Rolling instead of dragging","summary":"A wheel turning on an axle lets a load roll instead of scraping along the ground, so the rubbing moves to a small, greased bearing. Wheeled carts appeared in Mesopotamia and Europe around 3500 BCE, and the same idea later turned winches, mills and waterwheels.","description":"Why a wheel on an axle beats dragging a load, how to make a solid plank wheel, and its history from carts of about 3500 BCE to the spoked wheel and tyre.","year":-3500,"approx":true,"domain":"land-transport","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":92,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","plain-bearing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wheel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/wheel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wheel/index.html.md"},{"id":"animal-domestication","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Animal domestication","subtitle":"Breeding wild animals into herds","summary":"Domestication is the slow process by which people brought wild animals to live and breed under their control, until they became different from their wild ancestors. The dog came first: ancient DNA identifies dogs at Pınarbaşı in Türkiye about 15,800 years ago. Sheep, goats and cattle followed in southwest Asia about 10,500 years ago, kept first for meat and later for milk, wool and pulling power.","description":"How wolves, wild sheep and aurochs became domestic animals, how to weave a hazel sheep hurdle, and the history of dogs, herds and breeds.","year":-13800,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":[],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/animal-domestication/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/animal-domestication.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/animal-domestication/index.html.md"},{"id":"antisepsis","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hygiene & Antisepsis","subtitle":"Stopping the spread of germs","summary":"Hygiene and antisepsis cut the routes that germs take from one person to the next: hands, instruments, dressings and water. Washing with soap, keeping water apart from sewage, chemicals that kill germs on wounds and heat that sterilises tools made childbirth and surgery far safer in the second half of the nineteenth century.","description":"How soap, heat and antiseptics stop germs, how to wash hands and boil tools, and the story from Semmelweis in Vienna in 1847 to Lister's carbolic spray.","year":1847,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["soap","microscope","drinking-water","distillation","sewerage"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/antisepsis/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/antisepsis.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/antisepsis/index.html.md"},{"id":"automobile","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Automobile","subtitle":"An engine, wheels and the controls to manage them","summary":"An automobile brings engine, transmission, steering and brakes together. Benz's three-wheeler lays their connections open to view.","description":"Follow the Benz three-wheeler's belt, chains, steering and brakes to see how an automobile turns engine rotation into controlled travel.","year":1886,"approx":false,"domain":"land-transport","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["combustion-engine","wheel","vulcanized-rubber","bicycle","gear"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/automobile/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/automobile.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/automobile/index.html.md"},{"id":"braille","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Braille","subtitle":"Reading with the fingers","summary":"Braille arranges raised dots in a six-position cell for reading and writing by touch.","description":"The six-position braille cell, tactile reading, writing with a slate and the development of the system around 1825, before publication.","year":1825,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing","paper"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/braille/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/braille.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/braille/index.html.md"},{"id":"computer","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Computer","subtitle":"A machine with its program in memory","summary":"A computer is a programmable calculating machine; the modern kind keeps its program in its own memory and works in binary, with switches that are either on or off. The first to run a program from electronic memory was the Manchester “Baby”, on 21 June 1948, and phones and laptops still follow its plan.","description":"How a stored-program computer adds with logic gates and runs its fetch-execute cycle, a half adder to build, and the Manchester Baby of 21 June 1948.","year":1948,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["transistor","positional-numerals","light-bulb","telegraph"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/computer/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/computer.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/computer/index.html.md"},{"id":"generator","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Electric Generator","subtitle":"Motion turned into current","summary":"An electric generator turns mechanical motion into electric current by moving a magnet and a coil of wire past each other. Michael Faraday found the principle in 1831, and almost all the electricity used today still comes from machines built on it.","description":"How a generator turns motion into current by induction, how to build a hand-cranked alternator, and its history from Faraday in 1831 to power stations.","year":1831,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["battery","iron-smelting","wire-drawing","gear","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/generator/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/generator.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/generator/index.html.md"},{"id":"iron-smelting","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Iron Smelting","subtitle":"Wider adoption around 1200 BCE; ore, charcoal and a bloomery","summary":"Iron smelting extracts metal from ore heated with charcoal in a small clay furnace supplied with air by bellows. This bloomery normally produces a solid, low-carbon lump called a bloom, which the smith consolidates and forges into wrought iron.","description":"How a bloomery turns iron ore and charcoal into a bloom of iron at about 1,200 °C, how to run a small smelt, and iron's spread from around 1200 BCE.","year":-1200,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze","charcoal","bellows"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/iron-smelting/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/iron-smelting.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/iron-smelting/index.html.md"},{"id":"irrigation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Irrigation","subtitle":"Leading water to the crops","summary":"Irrigation brings water to crops that rain alone cannot feed, either by letting it run down gently sloping canals or by lifting it from a river or a well. The earliest known canals were dug on the dry plains of Mesopotamia about eight thousand years ago, and the same plains showed early on that a field watered without drainage can slowly turn salty.","description":"How irrigation brings water to crops by canal, shaduf or Archimedes screw, how to lay out a small canal with an A-frame, and Iraq's canals of c. 6000 BCE.","year":-6000,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/irrigation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/irrigation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/irrigation/index.html.md"},{"id":"penicillin","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Penicillin","subtitle":"An antibiotic made by a mould","summary":"Penicillin is a substance made by Penicillium moulds that kills many kinds of bacteria by stopping them from building their cell walls. Alexander Fleming noticed it in 1928, and an Oxford team turned it into the first mould-derived antibiotic in wide medical use during the Second World War.","description":"How penicillin stops bacteria from building their walls, how Oxford and American factories made it in the 1940s, and Fleming's mouldy dish of 1928.","year":1928,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","vaccination","antisepsis"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/penicillin/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/penicillin.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/penicillin/index.html.md"},{"id":"plough","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Plough","subtitle":"Opening the soil for seed","summary":"A plough is pulled through the ground to cut and loosen the soil before sowing. The first ards only scratched a furrow; the mouldboard plough, which turns the soil over, opened up the heavy, wet lands of northern Europe.","description":"How an ard scratches the soil and a mouldboard plough turns it, how to carve a wooden ard, and ploughing from the marks at Sion, Switzerland, c. 5000 BCE.","year":-5000,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope","animal-domestication"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/plough/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/plough.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/plough/index.html.md"},{"id":"positional-numerals","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Positional Numerals","subtitle":"Digits worth what their place says","summary":"In a positional numeral system a few digits are enough to write any number, because each digit's value depends on the place it occupies. With a zero to mark an empty place, sums, products and divisions can be worked out in writing, column by column, instead of on a counting board.","description":"How place-value numbers and zero work, how to add and multiply on a pebble counting board, and their history from Ur in 2043 BCE to Fibonacci in 1202.","year":-2050,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/positional-numerals/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/positional-numerals.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/positional-numerals/index.html.md"},{"id":"vaccination","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Vaccination","subtitle":"Teaching the body in advance","summary":"Vaccination trains the immune system with a weakened, killed or partial form of a germ, so the body can fight off the real disease later. Edward Jenner showed in 1796 that cowpox protects against smallpox, and two centuries later vaccination made smallpox the first human disease to be eradicated.","description":"How vaccines train the immune system, how they have been produced from arm-to-arm lymph to mRNA, and their history since Jenner's cowpox trial of 1796.","year":1796,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":90,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vaccination/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/vaccination.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vaccination/index.html.md"},{"id":"grain-storage","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Granaries","subtitle":"Keeping the harvest dry","summary":"A granary keeps harvested grain dry and away from animals until it is needed for food. At Dhra’ in the Jordan Valley, people built raised-floor stores around 9300 BCE, before cereals were domesticated. Notched stones supported wooden beams and an earthen floor, leaving a space beneath the grain.","description":"How granaries keep grain dry and protect it from pests, and how the early stores at Dhra’ supported raised wooden floors on notched stones.","year":-9300,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":89,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","quern","harvest"],"reviewed":"2026-10-31","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/grain-storage/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/grain-storage.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/grain-storage/index.html.md"},{"id":"anaesthesia","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Anaesthesia","subtitle":"Surgery without pain or awareness","summary":"Anaesthesia is the medical practice of taking away pain, and often awareness, so that an operation can be done. Since a public demonstration with ether in Boston in 1846, trained anaesthetists, monitoring and oxygen have made it routine, and together with antisepsis it turned surgery from a last resort into ordinary care.","description":"How general, regional and local anaesthesia block pain, how hospitals keep them safe, and their history since Ether Day in Boston in 1846.","year":1846,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["distillation","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/anaesthesia/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/anaesthesia.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/anaesthesia/index.html.md"},{"id":"bound-codex","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bound book","subtitle":"Folded sheets held together by sewing","summary":"A book made from gatherings brings together sheets folded and sewn along their folds. This form, the codex, allows readers to turn leaves and go straight to a passage. The earliest surviving examples use papyrus or parchment; a small paper gathering is enough to understand its construction.","description":"How folded sheets form a gathering, how sewing holds them together, and how the codex developed alongside the scroll as a form of the book.","year":100,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","needle-and-hand-sewing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-31","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bound-codex/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bound-codex.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bound-codex/index.html.md"},{"id":"electric-motor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Electric Motor","subtitle":"Current turned into rotation","summary":"An electric motor turns current into rotation: a coil carrying current between magnet poles is pushed sideways, and a commutator or a rotating field keeps that push acting in one direction. Moritz Jacobi's motor of 1834 delivered far more power than any before it, and motor-driven systems now use about half the world's electricity.","description":"How an electric motor turns current into rotation, how to build a paper-clip motor from one cell, and its history from Faraday to Jacobi's motor of 1834.","year":1834,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["battery","iron-smelting","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/electric-motor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/electric-motor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/electric-motor/index.html.md"},{"id":"lathe","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Lathe and screw thread","subtitle":"The machine that makes machines","summary":"A lathe spins a piece of wood or metal between two centres while a cutting tool shapes it, so that the surfaces it leaves are round about one axis. Fitted with a lead screw and change gears, as in Henry Maudslay's iron lathe of about 1800, it cuts screw threads of a chosen pitch, and those screws became the basis of standard bolts, interchangeable parts and precise measurement.","description":"How a lathe turns wood and metal and cuts screw threads, how to build a pole lathe, and its history from ancient Egypt to Maudslay's lathe of about 1800.","year":1800,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["gear","steel","measures-and-standards","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lathe/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/lathe.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lathe/index.html.md"},{"id":"mining","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Mining and Quarrying","subtitle":"Reaching minerals underground and keeping the workings safe","summary":"Mining takes useful minerals out of the ground, from open pits and quarries or through shafts and tunnels. A working mine must hold up the rock around it, get rid of the water that seeps in and bring fresh air to the miners. At Lion Cavern in Eswatini, people were already cutting haematite out of a cliff about 46,000 years ago.","description":"How mines and quarries reach the ore, hold up the rock, drain water and bring in air, from chert pits in Egypt to Agricola's shafts and the canary.","year":-44000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":1,"difficulty":3,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-20","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mining/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/mining.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mining/index.html.md"},{"id":"reinforced-concrete","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Reinforced Concrete","subtitle":"Steel for tension, concrete for compression","summary":"Reinforced concrete is concrete with steel bars cast inside it, placed where the member will be stretched. The concrete takes the squeezing and the steel the pulling, so a flat beam or slab can span an opening where plain concrete or stone would crack.","description":"How steel bars take the tension that concrete cannot, how to cast a small reinforced lintel, and the story from Lambot's boat of 1848 to prestressing.","year":1848,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":5,"difficulty":3,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["portland-cement","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/reinforced-concrete/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/reinforced-concrete.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/reinforced-concrete/index.html.md"},{"id":"steam-turbine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Steam Turbine","subtitle":"Steam spinning the world's generators","summary":"A steam turbine lets steam expand through rows of fixed and moving blades, turning its pressure into speed and that speed into the rotation of a shaft. Charles Parsons coupled one to a dynamo in 1884; turbines of this kind now drive the generators that produce most of the world's electricity.","description":"How steam expanding through fixed and moving blades turns a generator, how to build an air-driven model, and Parsons's first turbo-dynamo of 1884.","year":1884,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-engine","steel","generator"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-turbine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/steam-turbine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-turbine/index.html.md"},{"id":"steel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Steel","subtitle":"Iron with just enough carbon","summary":"Steel is iron with a small, controlled share of carbon, usually between about 0.1 and 1.5%. It is forged hot; with enough carbon it can be hardened by heating and quenching, then tempered to make it tougher at some cost in hardness.","description":"How carbon, quenching and tempering make steel hard or tough, how to harden and temper a chisel, and steelmaking from about 1000 BCE to Bessemer and Linz.","year":-1000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting","charcoal"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/steel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steel/index.html.md"},{"id":"synthetic-nitrogen-fertilizer","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser","subtitle":"Nitrogen from the air for the fields","summary":"Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser carries nitrogen taken from the air by industry to the roots of crops. Nearly all of it now starts as ammonia made from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen by the Haber-Bosch process. An experimental works at Westeregeln, in Germany, began making calcium cyanamide fertiliser from the nitrogen of the air at the end of 1904, arc works followed in Norway from 1905, and the first ammonia synthesis plant started at Oppau, in Germany, in 1913.","description":"How industry turns the nitrogen of the air into fertiliser, from the cyanamide and arc works of 1904–1905 to Haber-Bosch ammonia, and what it costs.","year":1904,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["generator","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/synthetic-nitrogen-fertilizer/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/synthetic-nitrogen-fertilizer.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/synthetic-nitrogen-fertilizer/index.html.md"},{"id":"web","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"World Wide Web","subtitle":"Documents joined by addresses and links","summary":"The World Wide Web connects documents through links followed in a browser. Tim Berners-Lee proposed it at CERN in 1989, bringing together resource addresses, an exchange protocol and a document language. Working software in 1990 made it possible to move between information held on different computers.","description":"The Web connects documents through URLs, HTTP, HTML and browsers, from CERN's early work to a pair of linked local pages.","year":1989,"approx":false,"domain":"communication","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["internet"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/web/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/web.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/web/index.html.md"},{"id":"windmill","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Windmill","subtitle":"Wind turned into flour","summary":"A windmill catches the wind with large sails and passes that energy, through a train of wooden and iron gears, to a millstone that grinds grain. From the twelfth century to the coming of steam it was, with the water wheel, the main source of mechanical power in Europe. Older windmills with a vertical axis were already turning in Sistan, between Iran and Afghanistan, by the tenth century.","description":"How a windmill grinds flour through sails, gears and millstones, how a tower mill is built, and windmills from 10th-century Sistan to the Dutch polders.","year":900,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":88,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["gear","water-wheel","rope","timber-framing","quern"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/windmill/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/windmill.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/windmill/index.html.md"},{"id":"blood-transfusion","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Blood transfusion","subtitle":"Giving blood from one person to another, safely matched","summary":"A blood transfusion passes blood, or one of its parts, from a donor into the vein of a patient who has lost blood or cannot make enough of it. It became safe once doctors could match blood groups and keep blood from clotting. The first transfusion into a person was made in Paris on 15 June 1667, with the blood of a lamb.","description":"How blood groups decide which blood a patient can receive, how stored blood reaches the vein, and transfusion from the lamb of 1667 to the blood bank.","year":1667,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["surgical-instruments"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/blood-transfusion/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/blood-transfusion.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/blood-transfusion/index.html.md"},{"id":"crop-rotation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Crop Rotation","subtitle":"Keeping fields fertile year after year","summary":"Crop rotation changes what grows on a field from one year to the next, and uses fallow, manure and legumes to give back what the harvests take away. It keeps the soil fertile and starves the pests of each crop; in Europe it led from a resting year every other year to rotations with no fallow at all.","description":"How rotating crops, fallow, manure and legumes keep a field fertile, a four-plot garden plan, and the history from Hesiod's fallow around 700 BCE.","year":-700,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["plough"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/crop-rotation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/crop-rotation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/crop-rotation/index.html.md"},{"id":"flash-memory","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Flash memory","subtitle":"Stored charge and erasure in groups","summary":"Flash memory retains data when power is removed. It is programmed electrically and erased in groups of cells.","description":"Flash memory stores charge: floating-gate cells, EEPROM, NOR and NAND connections, block erasure and complete storage devices.","year":1980,"approx":true,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["integrated-circuit"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flash-memory/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/flash-memory.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flash-memory/index.html.md"},{"id":"harvest","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Harvest and threshing","subtitle":"From standing wheat to stored grain","summary":"Harvesting cuts the ripe cereal, threshing knocks the grain out of the ears, and winnowing blows the chaff away before the grain is dried and stored. Foragers in the Levant were reaping wild cereals with flint sickles about 15,000 years ago, and hand methods of this kind fed most of the world until the reaping machines of the nineteenth century.","description":"How wheat is reaped, threshed with a flail, winnowed and stored dry by hand, and 15,000 years of harvesting from flint sickles to the first combine.","year":-13000,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/harvest/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/harvest.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/harvest/index.html.md"},{"id":"oral-rehydration","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Oral rehydration","subtitle":"Salt, sugar and water against cholera","summary":"Oral rehydration therapy replaces the water and salts lost in diarrhoea with a drink of clean water, salts and glucose in a fixed balance, which the gut keeps absorbing even during cholera. Proved in trials in Dhaka and Calcutta in 1968 and packed in standard sachets since the 1970s, it is credited with saving tens of millions of children.","description":"How a drink of water, salts and glucose rehydrates a child with diarrhoea or cholera, the danger signs that need a clinic, and the 1968 trials behind it.","year":1968,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":5,"difficulty":2,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["drinking-water","measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oral-rehydration/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/oral-rehydration.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oral-rehydration/index.html.md"},{"id":"rammed-earth","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Rammed earth","subtitle":"Earth compacted between formwork panels","summary":"Rammed earth forms a wall by compacting damp soil between two formwork panels. The grains pack together under the rammer, and clay binds them as the wall dries. This unfired-earth technique is documented in Neolithic China and has been used for houses, platforms and enclosing walls.","description":"How damp earth becomes a wall when rammed in layers inside formwork, and the roles of clay, water, compaction and protection from rain.","year":-4000,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","timber-framing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-31","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rammed-earth/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/rammed-earth.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rammed-earth/index.html.md"},{"id":"road-construction","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Road construction","subtitle":"Carrying traffic on layers of stone","summary":"A built road spreads the weight of traffic over the ground and keeps that ground dry. Builders lay coarse stone below and finer material above, raise the centre so rain runs off into side ditches, and finish the top with slabs, packed broken stone, timber or a coat bound with tar. Some of the oldest are timber trackways across bogs, such as one in Lower Saxony built in 4629 BCE.","description":"How a road carries traffic on layers of stone and keeps its ground dry, a layered model road in a tray, and roads from Neolithic trackways to tarmac.","year":-4630,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/road-construction/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/road-construction.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/road-construction/index.html.md"},{"id":"seed-saving","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Seed selection and saving","subtitle":"Choosing plants, keeping the next crop alive","summary":"Saving part of a harvest for sowing means choosing parent plants, allowing their seeds to mature and keeping those seeds alive in storage. Peas are an easy crop to learn on; the practice itself goes back to the first cereal farmers of Southwest Asia.","description":"Choose healthy peas, dry their seeds and store labelled lots for sowing: a practical guide with the long history of seed selection.","year":-8500,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["harvest"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/seed-saving/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/seed-saving.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/seed-saving/index.html.md"},{"id":"sewerage","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sewers and sanitation","subtitle":"Keeping waste away from water","summary":"Sanitation keeps human excreta away from drinking water, food and hands, with a latrine where houses are scattered or a network of sewers where they crowd together. A sewer carries wastewater downhill to a treatment works, where solids settle out and microbes break down the dirt that remains before the water goes back to a river.","description":"How traps, sewers and treatment works keep excreta out of water, how a safe pit latrine is built, and drains from Mohenjo-daro c. 2500 BCE to Bazalgette.","year":-2500,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["drinking-water","bricks","pottery","lime-mortar"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sewerage/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sewerage.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sewerage/index.html.md"},{"id":"transformer","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Transformer","subtitle":"Raising and lowering the voltage","summary":"A transformer is two coils of wire on one iron core: an alternating current in the first induces a voltage in the second, higher or lower according to the ratio of their turns. It lets power travel at high voltage over long lines and arrive at the voltage appliances use, and it is the main reason alternating current became the standard for the world's grids.","description":"How two coils on an iron core raise or lower an AC voltage, a safe low-voltage bench demonstration, and the closed-core transformer of Budapest, 1885.","year":1885,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":3,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["generator","iron-smelting","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/transformer/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/transformer.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/transformer/index.html.md"},{"id":"water-turbine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Water Turbine","subtitle":"Falling water turned into electricity","summary":"A water turbine is a bladed runner that water under pressure drives at high speed, either inside a closed casing or from a jet. It takes energy from a fall of water, like the water wheel, but in a far smaller and faster machine, and since the 1880s it has driven the generators of hydroelectric plants.","description":"How a water turbine turns falling water into electricity, the Pelton, Francis and Kaplan designs, and Fourneyron's first industrial turbine of 1827.","year":1827,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":86,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["water-wheel","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-turbine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/water-turbine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-turbine/index.html.md"},{"id":"airplane","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Aeroplane","subtitle":"Lift, thrust and control","summary":"An aeroplane is a powered machine heavier than air that flies on fixed wings, with an engine to drive it forward and movable surfaces to steer it. Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first controlled, sustained powered flights at Kitty Hawk on 17 December 1903.","description":"How a wing makes lift and a pilot steers on three axes, how the Wright brothers built their Flyer, and the first powered flight on 17 December 1903.","year":1903,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["combustion-engine","aluminium","bicycle","wire-drawing","weaving","kite"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/airplane/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/airplane.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/airplane/index.html.md"},{"id":"blast-furnace","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Blast Furnace","subtitle":"Liquid iron from a shaft that never goes out","summary":"A blast furnace is a tall shaft furnace that turns iron ore into liquid cast iron and can work for long periods without stopping. The iron melts in it and gathers in the hearth under a layer of slag. Cast iron was in use in China by the fifth century BCE at the latest, the oldest furnace yet excavated, at Jiudian in Henan, dates from the fourth or third century BCE, and blast furnaces reached Europe in the Middle Ages.","description":"How a blast furnace turns ore into liquid cast iron, why it never stops, and its history from Chinese cast iron to Darby's coke and Neilson's hot blast.","year":-500,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":5,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting","bellows","charcoal"],"reviewed":"2026-10-20","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/blast-furnace/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/blast-furnace.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/blast-furnace/index.html.md"},{"id":"combustion-engine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Internal Combustion Engine","subtitle":"Small explosions, steady power","summary":"An internal combustion engine burns fuel inside a closed cylinder and lets the hot gas push a piston, which turns a crankshaft. Nicolaus Otto's four-stroke gas engine of 1876 set the pattern still used in most car, boat and generator engines.","description":"How a four-stroke engine turns burning fuel into rotation, how its parts were made, and its history from Lenoir to Otto's 1876 engine and Diesel.","year":1876,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-engine","iron-smelting","steel","distillation","lathe","flywheel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/combustion-engine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/combustion-engine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/combustion-engine/index.html.md"},{"id":"copper-smelting","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Copper Smelting","subtitle":"Copper won from ore with charcoal and a blast of air","summary":"Copper smelting draws the metal out of ore heated with charcoal in a strong blast of air. Green ores such as malachite give up their copper in one step, while sulphide ores must first be roasted and melted into an intermediate called matte. The oldest analysed traces of the process, slag from Belovode in Serbia, date from about 5000 BCE.","description":"How charcoal turns green malachite into copper and why sulphide ores need roasting, a small crucible smelt, and the history from about 5000 BCE.","year":-5000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","pottery","stone-tools","charcoal","bellows"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/copper-smelting/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/copper-smelting.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/copper-smelting/index.html.md"},{"id":"gear","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Gears","subtitle":"Teeth that trade speed for force","summary":"A gear is a wheel with teeth that mesh with the teeth of another wheel, so one shaft can drive another without slipping. By choosing the number of teeth, a builder trades speed for force, changes the direction of motion or holds an exact ratio.","description":"How gears trade speed for torque through their tooth counts, how to make a wooden face wheel and lantern pinion, and gears from China in the 4th century BCE.","year":-350,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gear/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/gear.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gear/index.html.md"},{"id":"hut","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hut","subtitle":"A frame of branches under a covering of leaves and grass","summary":"A hut is a shelter built from what grows nearby: a frame of branches or poles carrying a covering of leafy branches, grass, reeds, bark or hides. The oldest huts whose walls survive stood at Ohalo II, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, about 23,000 years ago: oval brush huts raised over shallow hollows dug into the ground.","description":"How a hut of branches and grass keeps out rain and wind, how to build a dome of bent saplings, and the brush huts of Ohalo II, 23,000 years old.","year":-21000,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hut/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hut.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hut/index.html.md"},{"id":"measures-and-standards","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Measures and standards","subtitle":"The cubit, the balance and the metre","summary":"A measure is a length, weight or volume agreed in advance, and a standard is the object that holds it: a rod, a set of stones or a vessel, kept safe and copied. Egypt measured in cubits, palms and fingers, balance weights spread from Mesopotamia from about 3000 BCE, and the same work of keeping and copying references led to the metre and the kilogram.","description":"How a standard fixes a unit, how to make a cubit rod, a balance and matching weights, and measurement from the weights of c. 3000 BCE to the metre.","year":-3000,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/measures-and-standards/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/measures-and-standards.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/measures-and-standards/index.html.md"},{"id":"paper","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Paper","subtitle":"A cheap surface for memory","summary":"Paper is a thin mat of plant fibres, beaten in water, caught on a screen and dried until the fibres bond to one another. Lighter than bamboo slips and cheaper than silk or parchment, it carried writing and then print from Han China to the rest of the world.","description":"How plant fibres bond into a sheet, how to make paper by hand with a mould and deckle, and its history from a Han map of about 150 BCE to the machine.","year":-150,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paper/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/paper.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paper/index.html.md"},{"id":"portland-cement","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Portland Cement","subtitle":"The binder that hardens under water","summary":"Portland cement is limestone and clay burnt together at about 1,450 °C into hard nodules called clinker, then ground with a little gypsum. With water it hardens by a chemical reaction, even under water, and bound with sand and gravel it makes concrete, the most used building material in the world.","description":"How Portland cement is burnt to clinker at 1,450 °C and hardens with water, how to mix concrete by hand safely, and its history since Aspdin's 1824 patent.","year":1824,"approx":false,"domain":"building","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["lime-mortar","roman-concrete","measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/portland-cement/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/portland-cement.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/portland-cement/index.html.md"},{"id":"rope","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Rope & Cordage","subtitle":"Twisted fibres that hold the world","summary":"Traditional rope is made of short fibres twisted into yarns, the yarns into strands and the strands into rope, giving a line far longer and stronger than any single fibre. Neanderthals were already twisting cord more than 40,000 years ago, and people have used rope ever since to tie, haul, lift and rig.","description":"How twisted fibres make a strong rope, how to make cord by hand and lay rope with a crank, and its history from a Neanderthal cord over 40,000 years old.","year":-44000,"approx":true,"domain":"survival","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":[],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rope/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/rope.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rope/index.html.md"},{"id":"synthetic-plastics","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Synthetic plastics","subtitle":"Materials built from long molecules made in chemical plants","summary":"Synthetic plastics are materials made of very long molecules built by chemists from small ones, which can be shaped while soft and then keep their form. Some soften again each time they are heated; others set for good in the mould. The first fully synthetic plastic was Bakelite, which Leo Baekeland made from phenol and formaldehyde in 1907. Today more than 400 million tonnes of plastics are produced each year, mostly from oil and natural gas.","description":"What synthetic plastics are, why some remelt and others do not, how they are moulded, a hot-water shaping test, and the history from Parkesine to Bakelite.","year":1907,"approx":false,"domain":"materials","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["distillation","wood-distillation","hydraulic-press","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/synthetic-plastics/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/synthetic-plastics.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/synthetic-plastics/index.html.md"},{"id":"transistor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Transistor","subtitle":"A switch without moving parts","summary":"A transistor is a small piece of semiconductor in which a weak current or voltage controls a much stronger current, so it can amplify a signal or act as a switch. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain made the first one at Bell Labs in December 1947, and chips now hold billions of them.","description":"How a transistor lets a small current or voltage control a larger one, how the first germanium devices were made, and its story since Bell Labs in 1947.","year":1947,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["radio"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/transistor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/transistor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/transistor/index.html.md"},{"id":"water-wheel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Water Wheel","subtitle":"A river turned into work","summary":"A water wheel turns the flow or fall of water into rotation, which gears then pass to millstones, hammers, bellows or pumps. From the third century BCE until the nineteenth century it was the main source of mechanical power after people and animals.","description":"How a water wheel turns falling water into power for mills, how to build a small overshot wheel, and water wheels from about 300 BCE to the turbine.","year":-300,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wheel","gear","quern","plain-bearing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-wheel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/water-wheel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-wheel/index.html.md"},{"id":"weaving","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Weaving","subtitle":"Threads crossed into cloth","summary":"Weaving makes cloth by passing a thread, the weft, over and under a set of stretched threads, the warp, row after row. The loom keeps the warp taut and opens it so that the weft crosses in one pass; the warp-weighted loom drawn here goes back to the Neolithic and lasted in northern Europe into the Middle Ages; it survives in a few places.","description":"How a loom crosses weft and warp to make cloth, how to build and use a warp-weighted loom, and its history since the Çatalhöyük cloth of about 6700 BCE.","year":-6700,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/weaving/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/weaving.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/weaving/index.html.md"},{"id":"welding","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Fusion welding","subtitle":"Joining metal by melting it","summary":"Fusion welding joins pieces of metal by melting their edges together, usually with some added metal, so that they cool into a single piece. Bronze founders were already doing it in the 7th or 6th century BCE, pouring molten bronze between the cast parts of large statues in South Arabia and then in Greece. The heat later came from a gas flame or an electric arc: Benardos and Olszewski patented carbon-arc welding in 1885, Fouché and Picard built an oxy-acetylene torch around 1903, and coated electrodes, then gas-shielded arcs, spread welding through industry.","description":"How fusion welding joins metal by melting it with a gas flame or an electric arc, the hazards of the work, and its history from ancient bronze statues.","year":-600,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":85,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/welding/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/welding.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/welding/index.html.md"},{"id":"wind-turbine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Wind Turbine","subtitle":"Wind turned into electricity","summary":"A wind turbine is a rotor of long, wing-shaped blades that the wind turns, driving an electric generator at the top of a tower. Small ones charge batteries; large ones, with rotors more than a hundred metres across, feed the grid through a transformer.","description":"How a wind turbine turns wind into electricity and why the Betz limit caps it at 59%, how to build a battery charger, and Blyth's wind dynamo of 1887.","year":1887,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":84,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["windmill","generator","lead-acid-battery","steel","ball-bearing","electric-motor","transformer"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wind-turbine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/wind-turbine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wind-turbine/index.html.md"},{"id":"needle-and-hand-sewing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Needle and hand sewing","subtitle":"A polished eye carries the thread","summary":"A polished bone needle carries plant thread through two edges. Its eye saves feeding the thread separately through every hole; a seam in flexible bark demonstrates the action without requiring woven cloth.","description":"Shape a bone needle, smooth its eye and join two strips of flexible bark with plant thread, while tracing the history of hand sewing.","year":-38000,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":3,"importance":83,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/needle-and-hand-sewing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/needle-and-hand-sewing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/needle-and-hand-sewing/index.html.md"},{"id":"stethoscope","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Stethoscope","subtitle":"Carrying sound through a hollow tube","summary":"A stethoscope carries sound to the ear. Laennec’s rigid wooden tube preceded the flexible, two-ear instrument; interpreting the sounds requires clinical training.","description":"From Laennec’s wooden tube to two-ear instruments: sound transmission, medical history and a paper model beside a closed clock.","year":1816,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":83,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/stethoscope/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/stethoscope.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/stethoscope/index.html.md"},{"id":"arch","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Arch and Vault","subtitle":"Stones that hold each other up","summary":"An arch spans an opening with wedge-shaped blocks that press on one another, so the whole curve works in compression and pushes outward on its supports. Drawn out in depth it becomes a vault, turned about its axis a dome: the forms that roofed tombs, bridges, aqueducts and cathedrals for over five thousand years.","description":"How an arch of wedge-shaped blocks carries weight in pure compression, how to build a small brick arch on centering, and arches since c. 3500 BCE.","year":-3500,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":82,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bricks","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/arch/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/arch.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/arch/index.html.md"},{"id":"bellows","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bellows","subtitle":"Moving air with a flexible chamber","summary":"Bellows are an air pump built around a flexible chamber. Opening it draws air in through a valve, and closing it drives the air out through a nozzle as a jet that makes a fire burn hotter. The oldest that survive are clay pot bellows from a copper smelting workshop in eastern Crete, of the late third millennium BCE.","description":"How bellows draw air in through a flap valve and blow it into a fire, how to build a hearth bellows, and the pot bellows of the Bronze Age.","year":-2100,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":82,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["leather-tanning","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bellows/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bellows.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bellows/index.html.md"},{"id":"paddy-rice-cultivation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Paddy rice cultivation","subtitle":"Rice grown in level, bunded, flooded fields","summary":"A paddy is a level field closed by low earth banks, called bunds, and kept under a few centimetres of water while rice grows. A channel brings the water in through a cut in the bund, the soil is churned into mud so that the water does not drain away, and the field is emptied before harvest. The oldest probable rice fields, found with their ditches at Hanjing in eastern China, are 8,400 to 8,000 years old.","description":"How a paddy field holds a shallow sheet of water for rice, how to make a small bunded rice plot, and paddies from Neolithic China to water-saving today.","year":-6200,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":82,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","seed-saving","irrigation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paddy-rice-cultivation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/paddy-rice-cultivation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paddy-rice-cultivation/index.html.md"},{"id":"quarantine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Quarantine","subtitle":"Keeping apart those who may carry a disease until it would have shown","summary":"Quarantine keeps people, animals or goods that may have been exposed to a contagious disease apart from everyone else for a fixed time, long enough for the disease to show itself. In 1374 an ordinance for the town of Reggio, in northern Italy, kept people who had nursed plague patients apart for ten days, and in 1377 Ragusa, today Dubrovnik, ordered travellers from plague areas to spend thirty days apart before entering the city. Ports around the Mediterranean then built lazarettos, and the forty days many of them imposed gave the practice its name.","description":"How quarantine outlasts a disease's incubation, a tabletop game that shows it, and its history from the Reggio ordinance of 1374 to modern health law.","year":1374,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":82,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/quarantine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/quarantine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/quarantine/index.html.md"},{"id":"quipu","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Quipu","subtitle":"Accounts tied into cords","summary":"A quipu, also called a khipu, preserves information in the arrangement of its cords and knots. Inka numerical quipus organise values into units, tens and hundreds; colours and attachments provide further distinctions. UNESCO reports a quipu at Caral, long before the Wari and Inka examples.","description":"How a quipu records numbers in cords and knots, with Inka decimal positions, a simple counting exercise and the history of Andean traditions.","year":-2500,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":82,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-31","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/quipu/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/quipu.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/quipu/index.html.md"},{"id":"transformer-network","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Transformer architecture","subtitle":"Weighting relationships within a sequence","summary":"The Transformer is a neural network architecture published in 2017 by Ashish Vaswani and his coauthors. It processes sequences through attention, numerical transformations and position information; the original model has an encoder and a decoder, studied particularly for machine translation.","description":"The 2017 Transformer explained through attention, positions, encoder and decoder, with a local calculation of weights and masking.","year":2017,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":82,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["computer"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/transformer-network/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/transformer-network.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/transformer-network/index.html.md"},{"id":"aluminium","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Aluminium","subtitle":"Alumina turned into metal by electricity","summary":"Aluminium is the most common metal in the Earth's crust, but it is locked in oxides that fire and charcoal cannot break. Since 1886 it has been made by refining bauxite to alumina, dissolving the alumina in molten cryolite and splitting it with a large direct current.","description":"How aluminium is made from bauxite: the Bayer refinery, the Hall–Héroult cell used since 1886, and why recycling saves about 95% of the energy.","year":1886,"approx":false,"domain":"materials","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["generator","water-turbine","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/aluminium/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/aluminium.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/aluminium/index.html.md"},{"id":"ball-bearing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Ball bearing","subtitle":"Consistent balls for industrial rotation","summary":"Balls roll between two grooved rings to support a turning shaft. Industrial bearings need hard surfaces and closely controlled geometry; a wooden model turned by hand shows the motion.","description":"How the rings, balls and cage of a ball bearing share the load, how Fischer's 1883 machine made balls alike, and a wooden model to turn.","year":1883,"approx":false,"domain":"mechanics","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["lathe","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/ball-bearing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/ball-bearing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/ball-bearing/index.html.md"},{"id":"battery","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Battery","subtitle":"Chemistry that pushes a current","summary":"A battery turns chemical reactions at two electrodes, separated by an electrolyte that conducts ions, into a steady electric current. Alessandro Volta's pile of zinc, copper and brine was the first in 1800, and every cell since, from the telegraph jar to the lithium phone battery, works on the same principle.","description":"How a battery turns chemistry into current, how to stack a zinc and copper pile at home, and its history from Volta's letter of 1800 to lithium-ion.","year":1800,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze","paper","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/battery/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/battery.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/battery/index.html.md"},{"id":"bread","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bread","subtitle":"Ground grain, water and heat","summary":"Bread is a dough of ground grain and water, often leavened, baked until it sets. Hunter-gatherers in Jordan were already baking flatbread about 14,400 years ago, before anyone farmed cereals.","description":"How gluten and yeast make bread rise, a sourdough loaf baked in a wood-fired oven, and 14,400 years of baking since a flatbread found in Jordan.","year":-12400,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","harvest","quern"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bread/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bread.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bread/index.html.md"},{"id":"canning","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Canning & Pasteurisation","subtitle":"Seal, heat, keep the microbes out","summary":"Canning seals food in a jar or tin and heats it enough to kill the microbes that would spoil it; the closed lid stops new ones getting in. Nicolas Appert published the method in 1810, Louis Pasteur explained it half a century later, and his gentler heat treatment, pasteurisation, made milk, wine and beer safer to drink.","description":"How canning kills microbes with heat and a vacuum seal, how to use a boiling-water bath safely against botulism, and its history since Appert in 1810.","year":1810,"approx":false,"domain":"food","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","iron-smelting","control-of-fire","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/canning/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/canning.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/canning/index.html.md"},{"id":"compass","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Magnetic Compass","subtitle":"A needle that points north","summary":"A magnetic compass is a magnetized needle, free to turn, that lines itself up with the Earth's magnetic field and so shows north in any weather. Described in China in the eleventh century and at sea in Europe by about 1190, it let sailors hold a course out of sight of land and under cloud.","description":"How a magnetized needle finds north, how to make a simple compass with a needle and a lodestone, and its history from Shen Kuo's China in 1088 to the sea.","year":1088,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting","steel","paper"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/compass/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/compass.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/compass/index.html.md"},{"id":"drill","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Drilling machine","subtitle":"Turning a bit and feeding it into the work","summary":"A drilling machine holds a cutting bit in a spindle, turns it and pushes it straight into the work, so that a hole is cut square to the surface at a steady feed. The oldest known drawing of a powered machine of this family, a water-driven borer for wooden water pipes, is in a German manuscript of about 1420–1440; the first printed picture of a machine for boring cast guns appeared in Venice in 1540. Pillar drills with bevel gears and a feed hand wheel were at work in British engineering shops in the first half of the 19th century, before the twist drill of 1863 and the electric hand drill of 1895.","description":"How a drilling machine turns and feeds its bit, how to drill cleanly with a geared hand drill, and its history from a water-driven borer of about 1430.","year":1430,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","gear","plain-bearing","water-wheel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/drill/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/drill.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/drill/index.html.md"},{"id":"light-bulb","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Incandescent Light Bulb","subtitle":"A glowing filament in a vacuum","summary":"An incandescent lamp makes light by passing current through a thin filament until it glows white-hot, inside a glass bulb emptied of air so that the filament does not burn. Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison made it practical in 1879, and it lit homes and streets for more than a century.","description":"How an incandescent bulb makes light from a white-hot filament in a vacuum, how the first lamps were made, and the carbon lamps of Swan and Edison in 1879.","year":1879,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["generator","glass","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/light-bulb/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/light-bulb.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/light-bulb/index.html.md"},{"id":"orthopaedic-immobilization","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Splints and casts","subtitle":"Holding a broken bone still while it heals","summary":"A splint or a cast holds a broken bone still so that its ends can knit in line. The oldest known splints, boards of palm bark wrapped in linen, were found on a thigh bone and a forearm in Egyptian tombs of the Fifth Dynasty, around 2450 BCE. Plaster bandages, introduced in 1852, became the standard cast.","description":"How splints and casts keep a broken bone still while it knits, how to practise splinting on a cardboard arm, and their history from Egypt to plaster.","year":-2450,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","flax-processing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/orthopaedic-immobilization/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/orthopaedic-immobilization.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/orthopaedic-immobilization/index.html.md"},{"id":"pottery","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pottery","subtitle":"Clay turned to stone by fire","summary":"Pottery is clay shaped while wet and then fired until it changes for good into a hard, stone-like material. Foragers in southern China were making clay pots, probably for cooking, about 20,000 years ago, long before farming.","description":"How fire turns wet clay into stone-like ware, how to coil and bonfire an earthenware pot, and pottery's history from Chinese pots of 20,000 years ago.","year":-18000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pottery/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pottery.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pottery/index.html.md"},{"id":"quern","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Querns and grinding","subtitle":"A stationary stone and a handstone turn grain into meal","summary":"A stationary quern supports the grain while a handstone, pushed backwards and forwards with both hands, crushes and grinds it. Gathered wild cereals can be processed this way before farming. The mechanism needs two suitable stones; using their product as food also depends on the stones being sound and clean.","description":"A saddle quern and handstone grind grain with a back-and-forth motion. Learn how they work, choose sound stones and handle meal safely.","year":-21000,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/quern/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/quern.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/quern/index.html.md"},{"id":"radio","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Radio","subtitle":"Messages without wires","summary":"Radio sends signals through space as electromagnetic waves, made by a rapidly oscillating current in one wire and picked up by another wire far away. Guglielmo Marconi turned laboratory experiments into a working wireless telegraph in 1895, and broadcasting of speech and music followed in the early twentieth century.","description":"How a spark transmitter and a coherer sent Morse by radio waves, how to build a crystal set, and radio history from Marconi's 1895 tests to KDKA in 1920.","year":1895,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["telegraph","generator"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/radio/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/radio.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/radio/index.html.md"},{"id":"railway-track","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Railway track and points","subtitle":"Rails that guide the wheels, and switches that choose the way","summary":"A railway track is a road that steers the wheels: two rails held a fixed distance apart on cross sleepers, with flanged wheels running on top. Points, also called switches, move a pair of tapered rails to send a train from one line onto another. The oldest track made to hold wheels is the Diolkos, a paved way with two grooves across the Isthmus of Corinth, built around 600 BCE. Wooden rails served the mines of 16th-century Europe, and in 1767 an English ironworks began covering its wooden rails with cast-iron plates.","description":"How rails guide flanged wheels and how points send a train onto another line, a model switch to build, and the track from the Diolkos to iron rails.","year":-600,"approx":true,"domain":"land-transport","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wheel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/railway-track/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/railway-track.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/railway-track/index.html.md"},{"id":"sail","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sail","subtitle":"Catching the wind to move a boat","summary":"A sail is a sheet of cloth or matting raised on a mast to catch the wind and move a boat. Set at the right angle, it drives the boat with the wind behind or across it, and by zigzagging, even towards where the wind comes from. The oldest possible picture of one, on a painted disc found in Kuwait, dates from between 5500 and 5000 BCE.","description":"How a sail pushes a boat downwind and works like a wing across it, how a square sail is made, and its story from a painted disc of c. 5000 BCE in Kuwait.","year":-5000,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope","weaving","needle-and-hand-sewing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sail/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sail.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sail/index.html.md"},{"id":"steam-locomotive","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Steam Locomotive","subtitle":"Steam power on rails","summary":"A steam locomotive is a steam engine on wheels that carries its own fuel and water and hauls trains along rails. Richard Trevithick ran the first one in Wales in 1804, and Robert Stephenson's Rocket of 1829 set the pattern that most later locomotives followed: a boiler full of fire tubes, a blast pipe under the chimney and cylinders driving the wheels directly.","description":"How a steam locomotive turns fire and water into pull, from fire tubes to blast pipe, a crank model to make, and its story from Penydarren in 1804.","year":1804,"approx":false,"domain":"land-transport","tier":4,"difficulty":5,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-engine","wheel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-locomotive/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/steam-locomotive.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-locomotive/index.html.md"},{"id":"surgical-instruments","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Surgical instruments","subtitle":"Tools to cut, grasp, explore and stop bleeding","summary":"Surgical instruments are the surgeon's hand tools: blades that cut, forceps that grasp, probes that explore, hooks that hold tissue aside and clamps that stop bleeding. A bronze lancet is named in the laws of Hammurabi, king of Babylon around 1750 BCE, and a Roman surgeon's house at Rimini held about 150 instruments of bronze and iron.","description":"How scalpels, forceps, probes and clamps cut, hold and stop bleeding, how to make spring tweezers, and surgical tools from Babylon to the detachable blade.","year":-1750,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/surgical-instruments/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/surgical-instruments.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/surgical-instruments/index.html.md"},{"id":"surveying","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Surveying and maps","subtitle":"Land measured and drawn to scale","summary":"Surveying measures the lengths, angles and heights of a piece of land so that it can be marked out again or drawn at a fixed reduction on a sheet. Field plans on clay survive from about 2100 BCE, and the same craft later mapped whole countries from one measured baseline and a network of triangles.","description":"How land surveyors measure lengths, angles and heights and turn them into a map to scale, with a field survey to try and plans from Umma, c. 2100 BCE.","year":-2100,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["measures-and-standards","rope","writing","irrigation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/surveying/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/surveying.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/surveying/index.html.md"},{"id":"timber-framing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Timber framing and joinery","subtitle":"Beams locked by joints and pegs","summary":"Timber framing builds the skeleton of a house or barn from heavy squared beams, locked together by cut joints and wooden pegs with few or no nails. The oldest joinery dated by tree rings is in oak well linings that Neolithic farmers in central Europe made with stone tools around 5255 BCE.","description":"How a timber frame stands on pegged mortise-and-tenon joints and braces, how to cut a drawbored joint, and a history that starts in a well dug c. 5255 BCE.","year":-5255,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/timber-framing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/timber-framing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/timber-framing/index.html.md"},{"id":"vacuum-tube","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Vacuum tube","subtitle":"Steering electrons through empty space","summary":"A vacuum tube, or valve, is a sealed glass bulb emptied of air in which a heated filament gives off electrons that travel to a metal plate. With two electrodes it lets current pass one way only; with a wire grid between filament and plate, a small voltage controls a large current. In 1883 Thomas Edison applied for a patent on a lamp with an extra electrode used to indicate the supply voltage, and in 1904 John Ambrose Fleming used such a tube to detect radio waves. Tubes then ran radio, the long-distance telephone and the first electronic computers.","description":"How a vacuum tube lets electrons cross empty space, how the diode rectifies and the triode amplifies, and its history from Edison's indicator lamp of 1883.","year":1883,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["light-bulb","battery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vacuum-tube/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/vacuum-tube.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vacuum-tube/index.html.md"},{"id":"vernier","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Vernier scale","subtitle":"Reading between divisions","summary":"A sliding scale turns the alignment of two marks into a fraction of a main scale division.","description":"A vernier reads fractions of a scale division through aligned marks: a 2.3 mm example, caliper measurement and the limits of accuracy.","year":1631,"approx":false,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vernier/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/vernier.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vernier/index.html.md"},{"id":"woodblock-printing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Woodblock printing","subtitle":"A carved block that repeats a page","summary":"Woodblock printing transfers text or an image from a wooden block carved in relief. Ink covers the raised parts; paper is laid over them and rubbed from the back. The same block can produce repeated impressions.","description":"Ink on a carved block’s raised surfaces transfers to paper by rubbing. Woodblock printing is attested in China in the seventh century.","year":650,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":80,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","writing-ink","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/woodblock-printing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/woodblock-printing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/woodblock-printing/index.html.md"},{"id":"frame-saw","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Frame saw","subtitle":"A thin blade held in tension","summary":"A frame saw keeps a thin blade straight by stretching it in a frame. In the joiner's bow saw, a twisted cord pulls the tops of two wooden arms together, the arms bear on a crossbar, and their lower ends pull the blade tight. Roman painters showed frame saws at work before 79 CE.","description":"How a frame saw keeps a thin blade taut with a crossbar, a cord and a toggle, how to assemble one safely, and its history since Roman Herculaneum.","year":79,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":79,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/frame-saw/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/frame-saw.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/frame-saw/index.html.md"},{"id":"adhesives","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Glues and bonding","subtitle":"Joining materials through adhesion","summary":"Glues hold surfaces together through adhesion. Plant resins and animal glues provide different ways to join materials and make useful objects.","description":"From prehistoric plant adhesives to animal glues, discover how surface adhesion and the strength of a bond hold materials together.","year":-198000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-16","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/adhesives/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/adhesives.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/adhesives/index.html.md"},{"id":"celestial-navigation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Celestial Navigation","subtitle":"A ship's position read from the sky","summary":"Celestial navigation finds a ship's position from the height of the Sun, Moon and stars above the horizon. Latitude comes from the Pole Star, which Portuguese pilots measured with a quadrant around 1460, or from the noon Sun; longitude needs the time at a home meridian, which chronometers and lunar tables supplied from the 1760s.","description":"How the Pole Star, the noon Sun, a sextant and a chronometer fix a ship's position, a card quadrant to make, and the story from about 1460 to GPS.","year":1460,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["compass","sail","positional-numerals","measures-and-standards","mechanical-clock"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/celestial-navigation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/celestial-navigation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/celestial-navigation/index.html.md"},{"id":"distillation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Distillation","subtitle":"Separating liquids by boiling and condensing","summary":"Distillation separates the parts of a liquid by heating it until part of it turns to vapour, then cooling that vapour back into liquid in another vessel. Described in Roman Egypt around 300 CE, it has given pure water, perfumes and essential oils, alcohol for medicine and, since the nineteenth century, the fuels refined from crude oil.","description":"How a still separates liquids by boiling and condensing, how to make drinking water with a solar or pot still, and its history since Roman Egypt, c. 300.","year":300,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","control-of-fire","bronze","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/distillation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/distillation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/distillation/index.html.md"},{"id":"lime-mortar","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Lime and lime mortar","subtitle":"Burnt stone that turns back to stone","summary":"Lime is limestone burnt in a kiln until it gives off carbon dioxide, then slaked with water into a white putty or powder. Mixed with sand, it has made mortar and plaster for thousands of years, and it sets by taking carbon dioxide back from the air and turning into stone again.","description":"How limestone is burnt, slaked and turned into lime mortar that sets back into stone, how to lay it, and 12,000 years of lime plaster since Nahal Ein Gev.","year":-10000,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lime-mortar/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/lime-mortar.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lime-mortar/index.html.md"},{"id":"medical-protective-equipment","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Medical protective equipment","subtitle":"Gowns, masks and gloves that keep infection away from those who give care","summary":"Medical protective equipment is what doctors, nurses and carers wear so that blood, body fluids and germs do not reach their skin, eyes, nose or mouth, and are not carried on to the next patient: gloves, gowns and aprons, masks, respirators and eye protection. The oldest solid evidence of a garment worn for this purpose is the costume of the plague doctors of Rome in 1656. Rubber gloves and gauze masks entered the operating room in the 1890s, and single-use equipment spread from the 1960s.","description":"How gowns, masks, respirators and gloves keep infection off carers, why removal is the risky step, a glove practice, and their history since 1656 in Rome.","year":1656,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","needle-and-hand-sewing","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/medical-protective-equipment/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/medical-protective-equipment.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/medical-protective-equipment/index.html.md"},{"id":"milling-machine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Milling machine","subtitle":"A turning cutter and a moving table","summary":"A milling machine cuts metal with a rotating cutter that has many teeth, while the work, clamped on a table, is moved past it along guided slides. It shapes flat faces, slots, grooves and gear teeth. Janello Torriani, clockmaker to Charles V, built a machine with a rotating file to cut the teeth of clock wheels, which the chronicler Ambrosio de Morales described in 1575. Milling machines for general work were in use in American arms factories by 1818, and Brown & Sharpe's universal milling machine of 1862 added the knee that still carries the table of many machines.","description":"How a milling machine shapes metal with a turning cutter and a moving table, a hand-driven milling test in wax, and its history from Renaissance clock engines.","year":1575,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","gear","plain-bearing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/milling-machine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/milling-machine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/milling-machine/index.html.md"},{"id":"oil-well","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Oil well","subtitle":"Drilling down to petroleum and pumping it up","summary":"An oil well is a narrow hole drilled down to a layer of rock that holds petroleum, lined with steel pipe, through which the oil comes up, on its own or lifted by a pump. The familiar nodding pumpjack works a piston pump at the bottom of the hole through a long string of rods. Wells were drilled for oil in Trinidad in 1857 and at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, where Edwin Drake's well drew prospectors to the region.","description":"What an oil well is, how a pumpjack lifts oil from a pump at the foot of the hole, and its history from the 1850s to Spindletop.","year":1857,"approx":false,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":5,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["piston-pump","steam-engine","steel","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oil-well/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/oil-well.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oil-well/index.html.md"},{"id":"piston-pump","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Piston Pump","subtitle":"Water raised by valve and piston","summary":"A piston pump moves water with a plug that slides up and down in a cylinder, between two valves that let the water pass one way only. Ctesibius of Alexandria is credited with the force pump, in the third century BCE; the suction pump, which draws water up from below, came into wide use in late medieval Europe and ended up on village wells all over the world.","description":"How a piston pump lifts water with two valves, why suction stops near 10 m, how to make a small hand pump, and its history since Ctesibius, c. 270 BCE.","year":-270,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze","leather-tanning"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/piston-pump/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/piston-pump.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/piston-pump/index.html.md"},{"id":"roofing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Roofing","subtitle":"Shedding rain with overlapping tiles","summary":"A roof covering sheds rain from a building. Overlapping pieces laid on a sloping frame, each one covering the joint below it, carry the water from the ridge to the eaves: bundles of reed or straw in a thatched roof, plates of fired clay in a tiled one. Fired clay tiles already roofed large houses in mainland Greece in the middle of the third millennium BCE.","description":"How thatch and clay tiles shed rain by overlapping, how to tile a small model roof, and roof tiles from Bronze Age Greece and China to Rome.","year":-2500,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","timber-framing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/roofing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/roofing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/roofing/index.html.md"},{"id":"seed-drill","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Seed Drill","subtitle":"Sowing seed in rows at an even depth","summary":"A seed drill opens a narrow furrow, lets seed run into it at a steady rate and leaves it covered, so the crop comes up in straight rows at an even depth. The oldest known is the Mesopotamian seeder plough, a plough fitted with a seed funnel, shown on seals of the third millennium BCE and described in a Sumerian manual copied around 1700 BCE. Chinese farmers pulled a three-legged drill by the first century BCE, and wheel-driven drills appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century.","description":"How a seed drill opens furrows and meters seed into them, how to build a model roller feed, and its history from the Sumerian seeder plough to Tull.","year":-2400,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["plough","seed-saving"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/seed-drill/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/seed-drill.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/seed-drill/index.html.md"},{"id":"solar-cell","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Solar cell","subtitle":"Sunlight turned into current","summary":"A solar cell is a thin slice of semiconductor in which light frees electrons and a built-in electric field drives them out as a current, with no moving parts and no fuel. Bell Labs showed the first practical silicon cell in 1954, and solar power supplied 8.7% of the world's electricity in 2025.","description":"How a silicon solar cell turns light into current at a p–n junction, how to set up a small 12 V panel system, and its story since Bell Labs in 1954.","year":1954,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["transistor","battery","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/solar-cell/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/solar-cell.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/solar-cell/index.html.md"},{"id":"surgical-sutures","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Surgical sutures","subtitle":"Closing a wound with needle and thread","summary":"A surgical suture holds the edges of a wound together with thread carried by a needle, so that the tissue can knit with a narrow scar. The oldest known mention is in the Edwin Smith papyrus, an Egyptian surgical treatise copied around 1600 BCE, which tells the surgeon to draw gaping wounds together with stitches.","description":"How a stitch holds a wound closed while it heals, how to practise stitches and a square knot on a pad, and sutures from ancient Egypt to synthetic thread.","year":-1600,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["needle-and-hand-sewing","flax-processing","bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/surgical-sutures/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/surgical-sutures.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/surgical-sutures/index.html.md"},{"id":"ultrasound-imaging","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Ultrasound imaging","subtitle":"Seeing inside the body with echoes","summary":"Ultrasound imaging draws a picture of the inside of the body from echoes. A probe pressed on the skin sends short bursts of sound, far above the range of hearing, and listens for the faint echoes that come back from the boundaries between organs and tissues. The time each echo takes gives its depth, its strength gives its brightness. In 1948 George Ludwig, at the US Naval Medical Research Institute, began detecting gallstones in animal tissue by their ultrasonic echoes; two-dimensional images followed in 1952, and today the method is used from pregnancy checks to the heart.","description":"How a probe turns sound echoes into a picture of the body, a sonar range-finder that maps a table, and its history from the echo trials of the 1940s.","year":1948,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":78,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["vacuum-tube"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/ultrasound-imaging/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/ultrasound-imaging.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/ultrasound-imaging/index.html.md"},{"id":"grafting-and-cuttings","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Grafting and cuttings","subtitle":"Keeping varieties through living stems","summary":"A living cutting grows its own roots; a graft joins a scion to a compatible rootstock. Both preserve useful plants through living tissue, careful orientation and protection from drying.","description":"Root a living hardwood cutting and understand grafting through polarity, cambial contact and moisture, with a history of plant propagation.","year":-3500,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":76,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope","harvest"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/grafting-and-cuttings/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/grafting-and-cuttings.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/grafting-and-cuttings/index.html.md"},{"id":"insulated-electric-cable","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Insulated electric cable","subtitle":"Carrying current inside a sheath that does not conduct","summary":"An insulated cable carries electric current along a metal conductor wrapped in a material that does not conduct, so the current cannot escape into the ground, into water or into another conductor. In 1795 Francesc Salvà, in Barcelona, described wires wrapped in pitch-coated paper and bound into a cable. In 1816 Francis Ronalds buried a telegraph wire in glass tubes in his garden at Hammersmith. Cables now carry power and signals under streets and across the seabed.","description":"How an insulated cable keeps current in its conductor, what its copper, insulation, sheath and armour do, and its history since Salvà's cable of 1795.","year":1795,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":76,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["copper-smelting","wire-drawing","glass","paper","lead-smelting","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/insulated-electric-cable/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/insulated-electric-cable.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/insulated-electric-cable/index.html.md"},{"id":"plain-bearing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Plain bearing","subtitle":"A shaft turning on a film of lubricant","summary":"A plain bearing supports a turning shaft by letting it slide in a close-fitting hole, with grease or oil between the surfaces. At speed the shaft can ride on a thin film of oil without touching the bearing at all. The oldest evidence comes from potters of the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia, whose turntables rotated on a peg in the fifth millennium BCE.","description":"How a plain bearing carries a shaft on a film of oil, how to make a split wooden bearing, and its history from pivoting turntables to white metal.","year":-4700,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":76,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/plain-bearing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/plain-bearing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/plain-bearing/index.html.md"},{"id":"sternpost-rudder","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sternpost rudder and hull","subtitle":"Holding a course, keeping the sea out","summary":"A sternpost rudder is a flat blade hung on hinges at the back of a ship and turned with a tiller, so that the water flowing past it swings the stern and points the ship. It works with a hull of keel, frames and planks, sealed at every seam, that keeps the sea out and resists the wind's sideways push.","description":"How a sternpost rudder steers a ship and a planked hull keeps the sea out, how to build a skiff, and the rudder from Han China to Winchester, c. 1180.","year":1180,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":76,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["sail","rope","iron-smelting","timber-framing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sternpost-rudder/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sternpost-rudder.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sternpost-rudder/index.html.md"},{"id":"bricks","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bricks","subtitle":"Standard blocks of earth","summary":"A brick is a block of clay shaped to a set size, dried in the sun or fired in a kiln, so that walls can be built from identical, easily handled units. Shaped mud bricks were in use in the Near East before 7500 BCE; fired bricks came thousands of years later and went on to carry cities, aqueducts and factory chimneys.","description":"How clay hardens into brick, how to mould and dry mud bricks by hand, and a history that starts at Tell Aswad in Syria before 7500 BCE.","year":-7500,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bricks/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bricks.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bricks/index.html.md"},{"id":"bronze","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bronze","subtitle":"Copper and tin, harder together","summary":"Bronze is copper alloyed with a little tin, usually about a tenth. It is harder than copper, melts at a lower temperature and fills a mould well, and from the fourth millennium BCE it gave its name to an age of tools, weapons, vessels and statues.","description":"Why copper with about 10% tin is harder, how bronze is cast by the lost-wax method, and the Bronze Age from the fourth millennium BCE to Uluburun.","year":-3300,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","control-of-fire","charcoal","copper-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-16","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bronze/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bronze.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bronze/index.html.md"},{"id":"charcoal","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Charcoal","subtitle":"Wood cooked slowly under earth","summary":"Charcoal is wood heated with so little air that it chars instead of burning, leaving a light, black fuel made mostly of carbon. Used by metalworkers since at least the fifth millennium BCE, and later made in earth-covered clamps and pits, it gave smiths the heat and the reducing gas they needed to win copper and iron from their ores.","description":"How wood chars into charcoal at 280 to 500 °C, how colliers built and tended an earth clamp, and why copper smelters relied on it from about 4500 BCE.","year":-4500,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/charcoal/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/charcoal.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/charcoal/index.html.md"},{"id":"hydraulic-press","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hydraulic press","subtitle":"Multiplying force with water","summary":"A hydraulic press multiplies force with water. A small hand pump forces water into a closed cylinder, and the wide piston in it, the ram, pushes with a force as many times greater as its area is larger than the pump piston's, while moving that much less. Blaise Pascal described the principle in a treatise written around 1651 to 1654 and published in 1663. Joseph Bramah patented a working press in London in 1795; a leather collar that tightens under pressure made it seal, and its presses packed cloth, hay and oil seeds before growing into the forging presses of the 20th century.","description":"How a small pump and a closed cylinder of water multiply force, a two-syringe demonstration, and the press from Pascal to Bramah's 1795 patent.","year":1795,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["piston-pump","iron-smelting","leather-tanning"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydraulic-press/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hydraulic-press.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydraulic-press/index.html.md"},{"id":"neonatal-incubator","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Neonatal incubator","subtitle":"A warm, closed box for babies born too early","summary":"A neonatal incubator is a closed box of warm, moist air in which a newborn, most often one born too early, is kept and watched. A baby born before term loses heat faster than it can make it, and many once died of cold in their first days. A double-walled tub warmed with water was in use at the St Petersburg foundling hospital by 1835, and Paris doctors made the closed incubator a hospital tool from 1880.","description":"How an incubator keeps a premature baby warm with heated, moving air, a model warm box to build, and its history from the 1835 warming tub to the Isolette.","year":1835,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["thermometer","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/neonatal-incubator/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/neonatal-incubator.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/neonatal-incubator/index.html.md"},{"id":"oil-lamp","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Oil and fat lamp","subtitle":"A wick feeds a small flame from a liquid fuel reserve","summary":"A pool of fat, a shallow hollow and a wick can keep a small flame in one place. Paleolithic stone lamps came long before the shaped pottery reservoirs that held vegetable oil.","description":"From animal fat in a stone hollow to pottery oil lamps: how a wick feeds a flame, and what early lighting reveals about its makers.","year":-18000,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oil-lamp/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/oil-lamp.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oil-lamp/index.html.md"},{"id":"oil-press","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Oil press","subtitle":"Crush, press and separate","summary":"An intact olive gives up little oil when simply squeezed. Crushing opens the flesh; a mat holds the resulting paste while a press drives out its liquid. The collected juice still needs separating before the oil can be drawn off.","description":"Crush olives, press their paste and separate oil from water: the workings and history of the oil press, with a safe demonstration.","year":-3300,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","basketry","pottery","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oil-press/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/oil-press.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oil-press/index.html.md"},{"id":"telephone","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Telephone","subtitle":"A voice carried down a wire","summary":"A telephone turns the vibrations of the voice into a varying electric current, sends it along a wire, and turns it back into sound at the other end. Alexander Graham Bell patented it in March 1876; the following year Bell's magnet telephones were in commercial use, and carbon microphones and exchanges soon made it a public service.","description":"How a telephone turns the voice into a current and back, how to wire two speakers into a phone with no battery, and its history since Bell's 1876 patent.","year":1876,"approx":false,"domain":"communication","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["telegraph"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/telephone/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/telephone.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/telephone/index.html.md"},{"id":"writing-ink","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Writing ink","subtitle":"Colour carried onto a surface","summary":"Writing ink leaves colour on a surface. Carbon inks, plant dyes and iron gall inks produce different kinds of marks. In Egypt, vessels bearing ink inscriptions come from tomb U-j at Abydos, towards the end of the fourth millennium BCE. Invisible inks later served the needs of secret correspondence.","description":"From ancient Egyptian inks to hidden messages: pigments, plant dyes and the ways writing leaves a lasting mark on a surface.","year":-3300,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":75,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/writing-ink/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/writing-ink.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/writing-ink/index.html.md"},{"id":"dugout-canoe","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Dugout canoe","subtitle":"A boat hollowed from a single trunk","summary":"A dugout canoe is a boat cut from one tree trunk. The builder shapes the outside, hollows the inside and leaves a floor and two walls thick enough to hold together. The oldest known, found in a peat bog at Pesse in the Netherlands, is a small pine boat made around 8000 BCE.","description":"How a hollowed trunk floats and why it rolls, how to carve a model dugout and test it, and the story of the oldest boat known, from Pesse, c. 8000 BCE.","year":-8000,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":74,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dugout-canoe/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/dugout-canoe.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dugout-canoe/index.html.md"},{"id":"fishing-nets-and-traps","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Fishing nets and traps","subtitle":"Knotted mesh and inward funnels","summary":"A net intercepts fish in a sheet of mesh; a basket trap leads them through an inward funnel into a chamber. Knotted cord and assembled rods make two kinds of passive fishing gear, each requiring its own construction and regular inspection. The oldest dated net, from Antrea in Karelia, was lost around 8300 BCE.","description":"Make a small knotted net with a gauge, fit floats and weights, and build a basket trap model with an inward funnel and opening back.","year":-8300,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":74,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope","basketry"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fishing-nets-and-traps/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/fishing-nets-and-traps.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fishing-nets-and-traps/index.html.md"},{"id":"paint","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Paint","subtitle":"Coloured grains held in a binder","summary":"Paint is a coloured powder, the pigment, carried in a binder that turns from a liquid into a solid film once it is spread. Ochre, charcoal and chalk were ground and bound with fat, milk, egg, glue, gum, oil or lime to colour bodies, objects and walls. About 100,000 years ago, at Blombos Cave in South Africa, people mixed ground ochre with crushed bone and charcoal in two abalone shells.","description":"How a pigment and a binder form a coat of paint, how to make egg tempera with ochre, and paint from Blombos Cave to fresco, oil and the tube.","year":-98000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":74,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paint/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/paint.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paint/index.html.md"},{"id":"terrace-farming","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Terrace farming","subtitle":"Level fields built up a slope","summary":"Terrace farming turns a hillside into a staircase of level fields. Each step is held up by a wall of stone or earth, and its flat bed keeps the rain where it falls instead of letting it run off with the soil. Low walls across the slopes east of the Dead Sea have been dated to about 6000 BCE, and dated terraces in Yemen and Judea go back to the fourth millennium BCE.","description":"How a terrace holds soil and water on a slope, how to build a small dry-stone terrace wall, and terracing from the Dead Sea and Yemen to the Andes.","year":-6000,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":74,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","seed-saving"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/terrace-farming/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/terrace-farming.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/terrace-farming/index.html.md"},{"id":"wheelbarrow","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Wheelbarrow","subtitle":"Sharing the weight with a wheel","summary":"A wheelbarrow carries its load on one wheel and two handles: the wheel takes part of the weight, and the person at the handles lifts the rest, balances the load and pushes. The oldest secure images of it come from Han China in the early second century CE, and western Europe used it from the late twelfth century.","description":"How a wheelbarrow shares the weight between wheel and hands, how to build a small model that measures it, and its history from Han China to medieval Europe.","year":120,"approx":true,"domain":"land-transport","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":73,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wheel","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wheelbarrow/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/wheelbarrow.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wheelbarrow/index.html.md"},{"id":"capacitor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Capacitor","subtitle":"Holding electric charge between two plates","summary":"A capacitor holds electric charge on two conductors kept apart by an insulator. Connected to a voltage it fills with charge, and it can give that charge back to a circuit in a fraction of a second. The first was the Leyden jar, found in 1745 by Ewald von Kleist in Pomerania and early in 1746 in Leiden. Capacitors now tune radios, smooth power supplies and store energy for short bursts.","description":"How a capacitor holds charge between two plates, how it differs from a battery and a supercapacitor, and its history since the Leyden jar of 1745.","year":1745,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["glass","tin-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/capacitor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/capacitor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/capacitor/index.html.md"},{"id":"flywheel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Flywheel","subtitle":"Storing motion in a heavy turning wheel","summary":"A flywheel is a heavy wheel that stores energy while it turns. It takes up the surplus when the drive pushes hard and gives it back when the push weakens, so the machine keeps a steadier speed. The oldest examples are probably perforated pebbles from the Jordan Valley, about 12,000 years old, that served as spindle whorls.","description":"How a flywheel stores energy and carries a crank past its dead points, how to build a hand-cranked test wheel, and its history since spindle whorls.","year":-10000,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flywheel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/flywheel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flywheel/index.html.md"},{"id":"gyroscope","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Gyroscope","subtitle":"A spinning rotor that holds its direction","summary":"A gyroscope is a fast-spinning rotor held in rings that pivot at right angles, so that its axle can point in any direction. While it spins, the axle keeps its direction in space however the stand is moved, and a push on it makes it swing sideways. The oldest known example is the Machine made for Johann Bohnenberger at Tübingen by 1810; Léon Foucault named the instrument in 1852.","description":"How a gyroscope keeps its axis and precesses, how to build a gimbal model, and its history from Bohnenberger's machine of 1810 to the gyrocompass.","year":1810,"approx":false,"domain":"mechanics","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["lathe","plain-bearing","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gyroscope/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/gyroscope.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gyroscope/index.html.md"},{"id":"horse-collar","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Horse Collar","subtitle":"The horse pulls with its shoulders","summary":"The horse collar is a stiff, padded ring that rests against a horse's shoulders, with the traces hooked to it near the shoulder joints. The horse can throw its weight into the load without pressing on its windpipe, and in medieval Europe it took over much of the ploughing and hauling once done by oxen.","description":"How a padded horse collar lets a horse pull from its shoulders, how to size and fit one, and its history since a Dunhuang mural of about 480 CE.","year":480,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["leather-tanning","rope","needle-and-hand-sewing","animal-domestication"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/horse-collar/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/horse-collar.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/horse-collar/index.html.md"},{"id":"lead-acid-battery","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Lead-Acid Battery","subtitle":"Electricity kept in lead and acid","summary":"A lead-acid battery stores electricity in plates of lead and lead dioxide standing in dilute sulfuric acid, gives it back as current, and can be recharged hundreds of times. Gaston Planté built the first cell in 1859; with Camille Faure's pasted plates of 1881 it became an industrial product, and it still starts most of the world's cars.","description":"How a lead-acid battery stores and returns electricity, how to size, charge and look after one safely, and its story from Gaston Planté's cell of 1859.","year":1859,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["battery","generator","vulcanized-rubber","glass","distillation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lead-acid-battery/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/lead-acid-battery.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lead-acid-battery/index.html.md"},{"id":"phonograph","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Phonograph","subtitle":"Writing sound into a groove and reading it back","summary":"A phonograph records sound as a groove and plays it back from the same groove. Speaking into a mouthpiece makes a thin diaphragm vibrate, and a point fixed to it presses a track of dents into tinfoil on a turning cylinder; running the point along that track again makes the diaphragm move as before and reproduces the sound. Charles Cros described the idea in a sealed note in April 1877, and Thomas Edison's workshop built its cylinder machine, the first shown outside the laboratory, at the end of that year.","description":"How a phonograph records sound as dents in a groove and plays it back, how to hear a record with a paper cone and a needle, and its history since Scott.","year":1877,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["lathe","tin-smelting","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/phonograph/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/phonograph.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/phonograph/index.html.md"},{"id":"rolling-mill","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Rolling Mill","subtitle":"Two rolls turning in opposite directions that squeeze metal thinner and longer","summary":"A rolling mill makes metal thinner by squeezing it between two rolls that turn in opposite directions. The metal loses thickness and gains length, and a set of screws fixes the gap between the rolls. Leonardo da Vinci drew a hand-cranked mill for rolling tin in a notebook of about 1497, and the Paris mint was rolling coin metal by 1551.","description":"How two rolls turning against each other squeeze metal thin, how to roll a copper strip in a hand mill, and the rolling mill from Leonardo to Cort.","year":1497,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["gear","plain-bearing","bronze","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-20","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rolling-mill/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/rolling-mill.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rolling-mill/index.html.md"},{"id":"shoemaking","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Shoemaking","subtitle":"From bark sandals to shoes built on a last","summary":"A shoe protects the underside of the foot with a sole held in place by an upper. Sewn leather shoes are built around a last, a wooden model of the foot: the wet leather of the upper is stretched over it and the sole is then sewn or nailed on. The oldest footwear dated directly, sandals of twined sagebrush bark from Fort Rock Cave in Oregon, is about 10,500 years old.","description":"How a shoe is shaped on a last and its sole sewn on, how to make a one-piece laced leather shoe, and footwear from Fort Rock sandals to machines.","year":-8500,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope","needle-and-hand-sewing","leather-tanning"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/shoemaking/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/shoemaking.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/shoemaking/index.html.md"},{"id":"spear","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Spear and leister","subtitle":"A point at the end of a shaft","summary":"A spear is a long shaft with a point at one end, held in the hands to thrust or thrown by hand. The oldest surviving one is the carved tip of a yew spear from Clacton-on-Sea in England, about 400,000 years old. For fishing, people made the leister, a spear with a central point between barbed side prongs that hold the fish.","description":"How a wooden spear and a pronged fishing leister work, how to split a green sapling into a fish gig, and 400,000 years of spears since Clacton.","year":-398000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/spear/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/spear.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/spear/index.html.md"},{"id":"thermometer","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Thermometer and barometer","subtitle":"Temperature and air pressure read on glass","summary":"A thermometer shows temperature as the length of a liquid thread in a fine glass tube, read against a scale fixed by melting ice and boiling water. Its companion, the barometer, weighs the air by the height of the liquid column the atmosphere can hold up: about 760 mm of mercury at sea level.","description":"How a liquid thermometer and a mercury barometer work, how to make and calibrate simple ones, and their history since the first weather network of 1654.","year":1654,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","measures-and-standards","positional-numerals","distillation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/thermometer/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/thermometer.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/thermometer/index.html.md"},{"id":"threshing-machine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Threshing machine","subtitle":"Beating the grain out with a spinning drum","summary":"A threshing machine knocks the grain out of the ears and separates it from the straw with moving beaters. The first, patented by the Edinburgh advocate Michael Menzies in 1734, worked a row of flails with a crank. The design that lasted was Andrew Meikle's of 1786, in which rollers feed the sheaves to a fast drum carrying beater bars; horses, water, wind and later steam drove it.","description":"How a threshing machine beats grain out of the ears with a spinning drum, how to build a hand-cranked model, and its history since a flail machine of 1734.","year":1734,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["harvest","gear","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/threshing-machine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/threshing-machine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/threshing-machine/index.html.md"},{"id":"wire-drawing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Drawing iron wire by hand","subtitle":"A steel drawplate and tongs turn soft iron rods into wire","summary":"A short rod of soft iron passes through successively smaller holes in a steel drawplate. Tongs pull it longer and thinner, while the smith checks for cracks, removes scale and prepares the iron for another pass.","description":"Hand drawing soft iron wire with a steel drawplate: straight pulls, iron-specific annealing, lubrication and workshop safety.","year":1100,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":72,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wire-drawing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/wire-drawing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wire-drawing/index.html.md"},{"id":"basketry","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Basketry","subtitle":"An esparto basket in two-strand twining","summary":"Two working strands cross around a basket's uprights to hold its shape. Preserved esparto baskets from Cueva de los Murciélagos show hunter-gatherers using this technique in southern Spain.","description":"How an esparto basket holds together: paired strands, uprights and a folded rim, with a small making exercise and evidence from Mesolithic Spain.","year":-7500,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/basketry/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/basketry.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/basketry/index.html.md"},{"id":"canal-lock","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Canal lock","subtitle":"A water staircase for boats","summary":"A canal lock is a walled chamber with gates at each end, in which a boat is raised or lowered from one level of a waterway to the next by letting water in or out. It first appears in China in 984, took its modern form with the mitre gates of Renaissance Milan, and let canals climb over hills.","description":"How a canal lock lifts a boat from one level to the next with gates and paddles, how to pass one safely, and its history from China's Grand Canal in 984.","year":984,"approx":false,"domain":"navigation","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["sail","irrigation","bricks","lime-mortar","measures-and-standards","gear"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/canal-lock/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/canal-lock.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/canal-lock/index.html.md"},{"id":"centrifugal-governor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Centrifugal governor","subtitle":"Holding a machine's speed with spinning weights","summary":"A centrifugal governor keeps a machine close to a set speed. Two heavy balls on hinged arms spin with a shaft driven by the machine; when it runs too fast they swing out and rise, and a lever closes the valve, sluice or sails that feed it. Millwrights used it on windmills, where Thomas Mead patented one in 1787, before Boulton and Watt fitted it to steam engines in 1788.","description":"How a centrifugal governor holds a machine's speed with two spinning balls, how to make a hand-cranked model, and its history from windmills to Watt.","year":1787,"approx":false,"domain":"mechanics","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["windmill","gear","iron-smelting","steam-engine"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/centrifugal-governor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/centrifugal-governor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/centrifugal-governor/index.html.md"},{"id":"firearms","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Firearms","subtitle":"From the match to the automatic gun","summary":"A firearm throws a projectile out of a tube with the gas of burning gunpowder. Chinese soldiers carried bronze hand guns by the late thirteenth century, and one found in Heilongjiang is dated from its context to about 1288. Over the following six centuries the way of lighting the charge passed from a hand-held match to the matchlock, the flintlock and the percussion cap, loading moved to the breech, and in 1884 Hiram Maxim patented a gun that used each shot to load and fire the next.","description":"How a firearm turns burning powder into a push, and how its lock changed from the match to the flintlock, the percussion cap and the automatic gun.","year":1288,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["gunpowder","bronze","iron-smelting","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/firearms/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/firearms.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/firearms/index.html.md"},{"id":"fishing-rod-and-hook","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Fishing rod and hook","subtitle":"A baited point at the end of a line","summary":"A fishing hook is a small curved point tied to a line. The fish takes it with the bait, and when the line comes tight the point goes into its mouth. A rod carries the bait farther out and softens the pull of the fish. The oldest hooks known were ground from sea-snail shell about 23,000 years ago and found in Sakitari Cave on Okinawa.","description":"How hook, line, float and rod catch a fish, how to make a simple rod and a carved bone hook, and hooks ground from shell 23,000 years ago.","year":-21000,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fishing-rod-and-hook/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/fishing-rod-and-hook.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fishing-rod-and-hook/index.html.md"},{"id":"glass","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Glass","subtitle":"Melted sand you can see through","summary":"Glass is sand melted with a flux such as soda and a little lime, then cooled before it can crystallise, so that it sets into a hard solid that lets light through when it is pure. Made first as beads in Mesopotamia, it became an everyday material once glassblowers in the eastern Mediterranean learned to inflate it on a pipe in the first century BCE.","description":"Why molten sand sets into clear glass, how a glassblower gathers, blows and anneals a vessel, and its history from beads of 2500 BCE to float glass.","year":-2500,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/glass/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/glass.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/glass/index.html.md"},{"id":"harrow","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Harrow","subtitle":"Teeth dragged over ploughed ground to break the clods","summary":"A harrow is a frame set with teeth, or a bundle of branches, dragged over ploughed ground. It breaks the clods into fine soil, levels the ridges and covers the seed. Sumerian administrative texts of about 2400 BCE already record fields harrowed several times after ploughing.","description":"How a harrow breaks clods and levels ploughed ground, how to make a small hand harrow, and its history from Sumer and Rome to the disc harrow.","year":-2400,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["plough"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/harrow/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/harrow.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/harrow/index.html.md"},{"id":"jacquard-loom","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Jacquard loom","subtitle":"Punched cards choose the warp threads","summary":"The Jacquard loom is a hand loom topped by a machine that chooses, for every pass of the weft, which warp threads rise. A chain of punched cards does the choosing: where a card has a hole, a hook catches on a rising bar and lifts its thread. Joseph-Marie Jacquard completed the machine in 1804, building on punched paper and cards tried there from 1725, and it let one weaver make figured silks that had needed a helper pulling cords.","description":"How a Jacquard loom reads punched cards to lift warp threads, how to make a card-and-pin model, and its history from the draw loom to Babbage.","year":1804,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","paper","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jacquard-loom/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/jacquard-loom.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jacquard-loom/index.html.md"},{"id":"leather-tanning","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Leather Tanning","subtitle":"Raw hide, oak bark and months in pits","summary":"Tanning turns a raw animal hide, which soon rots when wet and dries hard as wood, into leather that stays supple and resists decay far better. In the pit method the hide is cleared of hair and flesh, then left for months in water and crushed oak bark, whose tannins bind to the fibres of the skin.","description":"How oak-bark tannins turn raw hide into leather, how a hide was limed, scraped and tanned for a year in pits, and early tanned leather in Egypt.","year":-1500,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/leather-tanning/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/leather-tanning.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/leather-tanning/index.html.md"},{"id":"mechanical-clock","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Mechanical Clock","subtitle":"Time cut into equal beats","summary":"A mechanical clock lets a falling weight turn a train of gears, and an escapement lets the train move forward only one small step at a time. The first ones were built in Europe at the end of the thirteenth century, large iron machines in church towers that struck the hours on a bell.","description":"How a weight-driven clock counts time with a verge-and-foliot escapement, how to build a wooden model, and tower clocks from c. 1300 to Huygens's pendulum.","year":1300,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["gear","iron-smelting","rope","sundial"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mechanical-clock/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/mechanical-clock.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mechanical-clock/index.html.md"},{"id":"microscope","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Microscope","subtitle":"A world too small to see","summary":"A microscope uses one or more lenses to show things too small for the eye to see. Compound instruments with two lenses in a tube appeared in the Netherlands around 1600, and in the 1670s Antoni van Leeuwenhoek's single tiny lenses showed bacteria and single-celled life for the first time.","description":"How a microscope magnifies with an objective and an eyepiece, how to make a Leeuwenhoek-style ball-lens microscope, and its history since about 1590.","year":1590,"approx":true,"domain":"optics","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["eyeglasses"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/microscope/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/microscope.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/microscope/index.html.md"},{"id":"obstetric-forceps","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Obstetric forceps","subtitle":"Two curved blades that cradle a baby's head in a difficult birth","summary":"Obstetric forceps are two curved steel blades that are slipped one at a time around a baby's head and locked together, so that a doctor can guide the head out when a birth stops progressing. They were first used by the Chamberlen family of surgeons in London early in the seventeenth century, who kept them secret for more than a hundred years.","description":"How the two blades of obstetric forceps fit around a baby's head and lock, a cardboard model, and forceps from the Chamberlens' secret to today.","year":1630,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","surgical-instruments"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/obstetric-forceps/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/obstetric-forceps.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/obstetric-forceps/index.html.md"},{"id":"pencil","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pencil","subtitle":"A solid mark in a wooden grip","summary":"A pencil is a stick of solid marking material held in a casing for the hand. Its modern lead is graphite fired with clay, set between two glued strips of wood. The oldest known description and picture of a pencil are in a book on fossils that Conrad Gessner published in Zurich in 1565.","description":"How a pencil leaves its mark, how a lead of graphite and clay is glued between two strips of cedar, and its history from Gessner's book of 1565.","year":1565,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","adhesives","frame-saw"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pencil/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pencil.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pencil/index.html.md"},{"id":"resistor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Resistor and rheostat","subtitle":"Opposing a current by a known amount","summary":"A resistor is a part made to oppose an electric current by a known amount, turning some of the electrical energy into heat. A rheostat is a resistor whose value can be changed while current flows. Georg Ohm published the law that links current, voltage and resistance in 1827. In 1840 Moritz Jacobi and Charles Wheatstone showed instruments for adjusting the resistance of a circuit, and Wheatstone named his the rheostat in 1843.","description":"How a resistor limits a current and turns energy into heat, how to make a pencil-lead dimmer, and the history from the rheostats of 1840.","year":1840,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["battery","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/resistor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/resistor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/resistor/index.html.md"},{"id":"roman-concrete","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Roman Concrete","subtitle":"Lime, volcanic ash and rubble","summary":"Roman concrete is lime mortar packed around lumps of stone or broken brick; in its best-known form the mortar contains volcanic ash. The ash makes it set hard even under water, and it carried the vaults of Rome, its harbours and the unreinforced dome of the Pantheon, still the largest of its kind.","description":"How lime and volcanic ash made Roman concrete set even under water, how to cast a small test block, and its history from about 200 BCE to the Pantheon.","year":-200,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bricks","control-of-fire","lime-mortar"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/roman-concrete/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/roman-concrete.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/roman-concrete/index.html.md"},{"id":"rotor-cipher-machine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Rotor cipher machine","subtitle":"Wired discs that change the alphabet at every letter","summary":"A rotor cipher machine enciphers each letter by sending an electric current through wired discs, the rotors, which turn after every key press, so the substitution alphabet changes from one letter to the next. Two Dutch naval officers had one built in the Dutch East Indies in 1915; the German Enigma is the best-known descendant.","description":"How a rotor cipher machine changes its alphabet at every letter with wired rotors, a reflector and a plugboard, from the Dutch machine of 1915 to Enigma.","year":1915,"approx":false,"domain":"communication","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["cipher-disc","typewriter","battery","wire-drawing","gear","light-bulb"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rotor-cipher-machine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/rotor-cipher-machine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rotor-cipher-machine/index.html.md"},{"id":"salt-preservation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Salting & Curing","subtitle":"Drawing water out to stop decay","summary":"Salting preserves meat, fish and vegetables by drawing water out of them and out of the microbes that would spoil them. People were boiling brine for salt in eastern Europe by about 6000 BCE, and salted pork, herring and cod fed armies, sailors and cities until refrigeration.","description":"How salt draws water out of food and microbes, how to ferment sauerkraut safely, and salting from brine boiled in Romania around 6050 BCE to salt cod.","year":-6050,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/salt-preservation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/salt-preservation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/salt-preservation/index.html.md"},{"id":"sand-casting","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sand Casting","subtitle":"A mould packed round a pattern, used once and broken up","summary":"Sand casting shapes metal by pouring it into a hollow left in packed sand by a pattern. The sand mould is broken up after each casting, while the pattern can be used again and again, so the same object can be made many times. In China, coins were being cast in two-part sand moulds under the Northern Wei, a dynasty that ended in 534.","description":"How a sand mould is packed round a pattern and poured, how to cast lead-free pewter in green sand, and sand casting from Chinese coins to Darby's pots.","year":500,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-20","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sand-casting/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sand-casting.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sand-casting/index.html.md"},{"id":"soap","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Soap","subtitle":"Fat and ash against germs","summary":"Soap is made by boiling or mixing fat with a strong alkali, which splits the fat into glycerol and the salts of fatty acids that lift grease and dirt into water. Recipes for soap-like cleaners go back to Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE; cheap industrial alkali made soap an everyday product in the nineteenth century.","description":"How fat and lye turn into soap and why it cleans, cold-process soapmaking with the safety steps, and a history that starts in Babylon around 2800 BCE.","year":-2800,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/soap/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/soap.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/soap/index.html.md"},{"id":"submarine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Submarine","subtitle":"A boat that sinks and rises at will","summary":"A submarine is a boat that can sink, travel under water and come back up when its crew chooses, by taking water into tanks to become heavier and driving it out to become lighter. Cornelis Drebbel tried the first one reported to have gone under water in the Thames from about 1620, a decked-over rowing boat made watertight with greased leather.","description":"How a submarine dives and surfaces with ballast and trim, how to make a bottle model, and its history from Drebbel's rowing boat to nuclear power.","year":1620,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["leather-tanning","piston-pump","iron-smelting","sternpost-rudder","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/submarine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/submarine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/submarine/index.html.md"},{"id":"sulfuric-acid-production","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sulfuric acid production","subtitle":"The industrial acid made by burning sulfur","summary":"Sulfuric acid is a strong acid made in industry from sulfur, at first in lead chambers and today by the contact process with a solid catalyst. It became a base of the chemical industry, and most of it now goes into phosphate fertilisers. It was already being prepared in Europe by the sixteenth century, and from the 1740s Joshua Ward's works near London made it on a commercial scale by burning sulfur.","description":"How sulfuric acid became an industrial product, from Ward's works of the 1740s and the lead chambers of 1746 to the contact process, and its uses.","year":1500,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["glass","lead-smelting","distillation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sulfuric-acid-production/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sulfuric-acid-production.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sulfuric-acid-production/index.html.md"},{"id":"telegraph","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Electric Telegraph","subtitle":"Written messages sent along a wire","summary":"The electric telegraph sends messages along a wire as pulses of current from a battery, switched on and off with a key and read at the far end by an electromagnet. William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented a needle telegraph in Britain in 1837, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrated their recording telegraph in 1838, and within thirty years cables linked continents.","description":"How the electric telegraph sends Morse code along one wire, how to build a key and sounder on a table, and its story from Cooke and Wheatstone in 1837.","year":1837,"approx":false,"domain":"communication","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["battery","writing","wire-drawing","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/telegraph/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/telegraph.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/telegraph/index.html.md"},{"id":"telescope","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Telescope","subtitle":"Bringing the distant close","summary":"A telescope gathers light from a distant object with a lens or a mirror and enlarges the image it forms. Spectacle makers in the Netherlands made the first ones in 1608, and Galileo's improved instruments showed mountains on the Moon in late 1609 and four moons circling Jupiter in January 1610.","description":"How a telescope gathers light and magnifies, how to build a Galilean telescope that magnifies 10 times, and its history since Lipperhey in 1608.","year":1608,"approx":false,"domain":"optics","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["eyeglasses"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/telescope/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/telescope.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/telescope/index.html.md"},{"id":"water-electrolysis","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Water electrolysis","subtitle":"Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen with a current","summary":"Water electrolysis passes an electric current through water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen, which rise as bubbles at the two electrodes, twice as much hydrogen as oxygen. Two Dutch chemists reported decomposing water with electric discharges in 1789; the voltaic pile made it a steady process in 1800, and it is now one of the ways hydrogen is made.","description":"How an electric current splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, a small battery demonstration, and its history from the sparks of 1789 to electrolysers.","year":1789,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":70,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["capacitor","glass","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-electrolysis/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/water-electrolysis.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-electrolysis/index.html.md"},{"id":"candle","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Candle","subtitle":"A wick that feeds on its own solid fuel","summary":"A candle is a wick set in a fuel that stays solid at room temperature, such as tallow or beeswax. The flame melts a small pool at the top, the wick draws the liquid up, and its vapour burns. Etruscan bronze stands with prongs for candles, from about the middle of the sixth century BCE, are the oldest firm evidence.","description":"How a candle melts its own fuel and feeds it up the wick, how to dip beeswax tapers, and its history from Etruscan stands to paraffin wax.","year":-550,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":68,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["oil-lamp","rope","bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/candle/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/candle.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/candle/index.html.md"},{"id":"drum","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Drum","subtitle":"A stretched skin struck over a hollow body","summary":"A drum is a skin stretched over the opening of a rigid hollow body and struck with the hand or a stick. The skin vibrates, and the body and the air inside it shape the sound. Clay drums survive from the Neolithic: several hundred from Central Europe, the oldest from about 3600 BCE, and others from sites of the Dawenkou culture of eastern China.","description":"How a struck skin makes a drum sound, how heads are laced, pegged, glued or screwed, how to make a clay pot drum, and the clay drums of the Neolithic.","year":-3600,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":68,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/drum/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/drum.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/drum/index.html.md"},{"id":"slide-rule","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Logarithms and the slide rule","subtitle":"Multiplying by adding two lengths","summary":"A logarithm turns a multiplication into an addition: add the logarithms of two numbers and you get the logarithm of their product. The slide rule, made around 1622 from Napier's logarithms and Gunter's scale, does that addition with two sliding rulers, and engineers used it until pocket calculators replaced it in the 1970s.","description":"How logarithms turn multiplication into addition, how a slide rule works, how to make one from card, and its story from Oughtred, c. 1622, to the HP-35.","year":1622,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":68,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["positional-numerals","measures-and-standards","printing-press"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/slide-rule/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/slide-rule.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/slide-rule/index.html.md"},{"id":"toothbrush","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Toothbrush","subtitle":"Scrubbing the teeth with fibres, from chewed twigs to bristles","summary":"A toothbrush scrubs the film of bacteria off the teeth with the tips of many fibres. The oldest clear description is of the chew stick, a twig whose chewed end frays into a brush, in Buddhist texts in Pali that were written down in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE. Bone handles drilled for tufts of bristle have been found in Tang-dynasty pits in China, from 618 to 907 CE, and nylon replaced animal bristle from 1938.","description":"How a toothbrush cleans teeth, from Buddhist chew sticks and Japanese tufted twigs to bone and nylon brushes, with a wire-tufted brush to make for tools.","year":-100,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":68,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paintbrush"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/toothbrush/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/toothbrush.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/toothbrush/index.html.md"},{"id":"biowaste-composting","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Composting","subtitle":"Letting waste rot in air into food for the soil","summary":"Composting is the controlled rotting of plant and food waste in air. Bacteria and fungi break the waste down in a heap that heats up as they work and leave a dark, crumbly compost that feeds the soil. Around 160 BCE Cato listed what a Roman farmer could make compost from and told him to keep a large dunghill.","description":"How microbes turn kitchen and garden waste into compost in an airy heap, how to build a garden bin, and composting from Cato's Rome to today.","year":-160,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":66,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["harvest"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/biowaste-composting/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/biowaste-composting.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/biowaste-composting/index.html.md"},{"id":"frame-beehive","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Frame beehive","subtitle":"Movable frames spaced to the bees' own measure","summary":"A frame beehive holds each honeycomb in a wooden frame that hangs in a box without touching the walls, the floor or the next comb. The gap left around every frame, the bee space, is too narrow for the bees to fill with comb and too wide for them to seal shut, so any comb can be lifted out, inspected and put back. Lorenzo Langstroth built his top-opening frame hive in 1851 and patented it in 1852.","description":"How the bee space keeps every comb of a frame hive movable, how to make a spare hive frame, and beekeeping from Egyptian smoke to Langstroth.","year":1851,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":66,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["frame-saw","steel","bellows","control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/frame-beehive/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/frame-beehive.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/frame-beehive/index.html.md"},{"id":"hydrogen-fuel-cell","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hydrogen fuel cell","subtitle":"Electricity from hydrogen and oxygen","summary":"A hydrogen fuel cell makes electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen on two electrodes separated by an electrolyte, with water and heat as the only products. Unlike a battery it is fed from outside and works as long as gas arrives. Christian Schönbein observed the effect in 1838, he and William Grove reported it in 1839, Grove built a gas battery of fifty cells in 1842, and in the 1960s fuel cells powered the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft.","description":"How a fuel cell turns hydrogen and oxygen into electricity and water, a pencil-lead demonstration, and its history from 1838 to Apollo.","year":1838,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":66,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["water-electrolysis","battery","glass","wire-drawing","sulfuric-acid-production"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydrogen-fuel-cell/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hydrogen-fuel-cell.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydrogen-fuel-cell/index.html.md"},{"id":"line-shaft","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Line shaft","subtitle":"One engine, many machines, through shafts and belts","summary":"A line shaft is a long rotating shaft that carries the power of one engine to many machines. Hung under the ceiling of a mill or workshop, it drives each machine through pulleys and flat belts, so that a single water wheel, steam engine or electric motor can work a whole room. A wall painting of 1167 in the Yanshan temple, in northern China, shows one water wheel whose long axle works both trip hammers and a mill. In Europe, the silk mill built about 1721 at Derby on the Italian model ran the machines of five floors from one water wheel.","description":"How a line shaft carries one engine's power to many machines, how to build a hand-cranked model, and its history from a Chinese mill painted in 1167.","year":1167,"approx":false,"domain":"mechanics","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":66,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["water-wheel","gear","plain-bearing","leather-tanning","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/line-shaft/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/line-shaft.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/line-shaft/index.html.md"},{"id":"staff-notation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Staff notation","subtitle":"Pitch and duration written on lines","summary":"Staff notation writes music on a set of parallel lines. The height of a note on a line or in a space gives its pitch, a clef at the start names one line, and the shape of the note gives its length. The oldest staff, one line for each step of the scale, is in the Musica enchiriadis, a treatise of the late ninth century, and Guido of Arezzo brought lines and clefs into chant books in the early eleventh century.","description":"How staff notation fixes pitch with lines and clefs and length with note shapes, and its history from a ninth-century treatise to printed music.","year":900,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":66,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing","writing-ink"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/staff-notation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/staff-notation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/staff-notation/index.html.md"},{"id":"tuning-fork","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Tuning fork","subtitle":"A pitch held in vibrating steel","summary":"A tuning fork provides a reference pitch through the vibration of two metal prongs. Musicians and acousticians compare its sound with a voice or an instrument; a resonating box makes it easier to hear.","description":"Two steel prongs vibrate to provide a reference pitch: the tuning fork helps musicians tune instruments and compare sounds.","year":1711,"approx":false,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":66,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tuning-fork/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/tuning-fork.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tuning-fork/index.html.md"},{"id":"aqueduct","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Aqueduct","subtitle":"Water carried by gravity alone","summary":"An aqueduct brings water from a distant spring to a town in a channel that falls very slightly along its length, so that gravity alone keeps the water moving. The Romans built hundreds of them, in tunnels, in covered trenches and on arcades such as the Pont du Gard, and some carried tens of thousands of cubic metres a day.","description":"How an aqueduct moves water by gravity alone, how to lay out a gentle fall, and its history from Assyria's Jerwan bridge (c. 690 BCE) to the Pont du Gard.","year":-690,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bricks","measures-and-standards","lime-mortar","irrigation","arch","surveying"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/aqueduct/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/aqueduct.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/aqueduct/index.html.md"},{"id":"condom","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Condom","subtitle":"A thin barrier against pregnancy and infection","summary":"A condom is a thin sheath, today usually made of natural rubber latex, used during sex as a barrier. It prevents pregnancy and lowers the risk of passing on sexually transmitted infections, HIV among them. In the tenth century the Persian physician al-Akhawayni described a sheath made from an animal's gall bladder, and in the 1560s the anatomist Gabriele Falloppio described a medicated linen sheath against syphilis. Condoms are now made by the billions every year on dipping lines, and each one is tested before it is packed.","description":"How a latex sheath acts as a barrier, how factories dip and test condoms by the billion, and their history from a tenth-century Persian sheath to latex.","year":975,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["flax-processing","weaving","animal-domestication"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/condom/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/condom.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/condom/index.html.md"},{"id":"conways-game-of-life","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Conway’s Game of Life","subtitle":"Patterns from a local rule","summary":"John Conway’s Game of Life follows living and dead cells on a square grid. A single local rule, applied everywhere at once, produces patterns that remain still, repeat or travel. You can work through the generations with counters or explore them on a computer.","description":"Conway’s Game of Life uses eight neighbours and a birth and survival rule to evolve patterns simultaneously across a square grid.","year":1970,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["computer","paper"],"reviewed":"2026-10-16","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/conways-game-of-life/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/conways-game-of-life.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/conways-game-of-life/index.html.md"},{"id":"flute","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Flutes","subtitle":"Finger holes and separate pipes","summary":"A flute makes sound when a jet of breath strikes an edge and sets the air in a tube vibrating. On a flute with finger holes, the player changes the pitch by opening and closing holes. On panpipes, the lips move from pipe to pipe, and each pipe gives its own note.","description":"Flutes and panpipes use an air jet to sustain resonance. Finger holes or the choice of pipe determine the pitch of the sound.","year":-40000,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flute/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/flute.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flute/index.html.md"},{"id":"gunpowder","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Gunpowder","subtitle":"The explosive behind guns and mining","summary":"Gunpowder, or black powder, is a mixture of saltpetre, charcoal and sulfur that burns extremely fast, giving off hot gas and a cloud of solid smoke. Chinese alchemists came across it in the ninth century, and over the following five hundred years it became the propellant of rockets, guns and cannon, then a tool for mining and building.","description":"Why black powder burns without air and pushes rather than shatters, and its history from Chinese alchemists of the ninth century to guns and mines.","year":850,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","charcoal"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gunpowder/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/gunpowder.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gunpowder/index.html.md"},{"id":"horseshoe","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Horseshoe","subtitle":"An iron rim nailed to the hoof","summary":"A horseshoe is a curved plate of iron nailed under a horse's hoof, so that the metal wears away on hard or stony ground instead of the horn. The nails pass through the outer hoof wall, which has no feeling. The Romans tied iron soles called hipposandals onto hooves; the oldest securely dated nailed shoes come from Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries, among them one from Winchester.","description":"How an iron shoe nailed through the hoof wall protects a horse's foot, how to forge a practice shoe from a bar, and the shoe since Roman hipposandals.","year":826,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting","animal-domestication"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/horseshoe/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/horseshoe.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/horseshoe/index.html.md"},{"id":"lighthouse","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Lighthouse","subtitle":"A tower and a turning light that mariners can name","summary":"A lighthouse is a tower that carries a light high enough to be seen far out at sea, marking a coast, a danger or a harbour entrance. In many large lights a lens gathers the lamp into beams that turn and sweep the horizon, and the rhythm of flashes tells mariners which light they see. The oldest excavated lighthouse towers, on the Greek island of Thasos, date from the 6th century BCE; the Pharos of Alexandria, completed about 280 BCE, was the largest and most celebrated of antiquity.","description":"How a lighthouse turns a lamp into sweeping beams with a Fresnel lens, how flash patterns name each light, and its history since antiquity.","year":-550,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["oil-lamp","lime-mortar","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lighthouse/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/lighthouse.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lighthouse/index.html.md"},{"id":"lithography","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Lithography","subtitle":"Printing from flat stone with grease and water","summary":"Lithography prints from a flat surface. An image is drawn with a greasy crayon or ink on a fine-grained limestone. Because grease and water repel each other, oily printing ink clings to the greasy drawing and is refused by the damp bare stone, and a sheet pressed against the stone takes the image. Alois Senefelder, a playwright in Munich, began printing from stone in 1796 and soon worked out this purely chemical method. Lithography made drawings, maps and sheet music cheap to reproduce, and its successor, offset printing, remains in wide use.","description":"How lithography prints from a flat stone because grease and water repel each other, and its history from Senefelder's Munich stones of 1796 to offset.","year":1796,"approx":false,"domain":"communication","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["paper","printing-press"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lithography/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/lithography.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lithography/index.html.md"},{"id":"papyrus","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Papyrus making","subtitle":"Pith strips pressed into a writing sheet","summary":"Papyrus is a writing support made from the pith of an aquatic plant. Thin strips are laid in crossing layers, pressed and dried into sheets, which can be joined to make a roll.","description":"Two pressed layers of pith strips form a papyrus sheet, a writing material attested in Egypt around 3000 BCE before surviving papyrus texts.","year":-3000,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","weaving"],"reviewed":"2026-11-01","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/papyrus/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/papyrus.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/papyrus/index.html.md"},{"id":"sugar-refining","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sugar making","subtitle":"From sweet juice to crystals","summary":"Sugar making draws the sweet juice out of sugar cane, sugar beet or maple sap, boils away most of its water and lets sucrose crystallise from the thick syrup. The crystals are then separated from the dark liquor left around them, molasses. In the first century CE, Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder described a white, brittle honey from Indian reeds that was used as a medicine.","description":"How cane or beet juice is cleaned and boiled down until sugar crystallises, how to grow sugar crystals safely, and sugar from India to the beet factories.","year":50,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","pottery","bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sugar-refining/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sugar-refining.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sugar-refining/index.html.md"},{"id":"tin-smelting","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Tin Smelting","subtitle":"Heavy black ore washed, then reduced with charcoal","summary":"Tin smelting turns cassiterite, a heavy black tin oxide, into metal by heating it with charcoal in a strong blast of air. The tin melts at only 232 °C and runs out of the fire. Crucibles with tin-rich residues from Göltepe in Turkey, of the third millennium BCE, are the oldest published evidence, and tin made bronze possible.","description":"How heavy cassiterite is washed from gravel and reduced with charcoal, a small crucible smelt, and tin from Bronze Age Anatolia to Cornish blowing houses.","year":-3000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","charcoal","stone-tools","water-wheel","bellows","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tin-smelting/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/tin-smelting.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tin-smelting/index.html.md"},{"id":"x-ray","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"X-Ray Imaging","subtitle":"Seeing through the body","summary":"X-ray imaging sends invisible, penetrating rays through the body onto a plate or detector, so that bones and dense tissues cast shadows. Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the rays in Würzburg on 8 November 1895, and by early 1896, weeks after he announced them, doctors in Europe and America were using them to find fractures and bullets.","description":"How X-rays pass through flesh and show bones, how the first tubes worked, safe experiments with light, and Röntgen's discovery in Würzburg in 1895.","year":1895,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":65,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["generator","photography"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/x-ray/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/x-ray.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/x-ray/index.html.md"},{"id":"hourglass","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hourglass","subtitle":"Measuring time with falling grains","summary":"An hourglass measures a set interval: dry sand runs from one glass bulb into another through a narrow neck, at a rate fixed by the neck and the grains. The oldest known picture of one is in Ambrogio Lorenzetti's fresco of Good Government in Siena, painted in 1338–1339.","description":"How an hourglass measures time with falling sand, how its two bulbs are joined and calibrated, and its history from a 1338 Siena fresco onwards.","year":1338,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":64,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","rope","bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hourglass/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hourglass.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hourglass/index.html.md"},{"id":"hydroponics","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hydroponics","subtitle":"Growing plants with their roots in a nutrient solution","summary":"Hydroponics grows plants without soil, with their roots in water that carries the mineral nutrients they need. The solution does the work of the soil, while the roots are kept in the dark and given air. In 1860 the botanist Julius Sachs published experiments in which plants grew to seed in such solutions, and in 1937 William Gericke gave the method its name.","description":"How plants grow without soil in a solution of mineral salts, how to grow a lettuce in a jar without a pump, and the history from Sachs’s jars of 1860.","year":1860,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":64,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydroponics/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hydroponics.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydroponics/index.html.md"},{"id":"abrasive-machining","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Abrasive drilling and sawing","subtitle":"Cutting stone with sand","summary":"Abrasive drilling and sawing cut a material harder than the tool by rubbing loose hard grains, usually wet quartz sand, against it with a moving tube, blade or cord. The tool only carries the grains, which scratch away tiny particles. The oldest known traces are on jade rings from Xiaonanshan in north-east China, cut with a cord and sand about 9,000 years ago. In central Europe, Early Neolithic farmers of the Linear Pottery culture, from about 5500 BCE, sawed slabs of greenstone into axe blanks and drilled their shaft holes with hollow tubes, fine sand and water. Egyptian masons later cut granite in the same way with copper, and diamond core drills apply the principle with grains fixed in the tool.","description":"How loose sand drills and saws stone under a soft tube or blade, how to drill a tile with a copper pipe, and its history up to diamond drills.","year":-7000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/abrasive-machining/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/abrasive-machining.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/abrasive-machining/index.html.md"},{"id":"anaerobic-digestion","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Anaerobic digestion and biogas","subtitle":"Fuel gas from waste that rots without air","summary":"Anaerobic digestion is the breakdown of wet organic matter by microbes in a closed tank with no air. It gives biogas, a fuel made mostly of methane and carbon dioxide, and a digested slurry that is spread on fields. In the mid-1890s gas from a covered sewage tank at Exeter, in England, was burnt in lamps.","description":"How microbes in a sealed tank turn manure and sewage into methane-rich biogas, how a bottle model shows it, and its history from Volta to Exeter.","year":1895,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["sewerage","bricks","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/anaerobic-digestion/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/anaerobic-digestion.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/anaerobic-digestion/index.html.md"},{"id":"bimetallic-thermostat","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bimetallic thermostat","subtitle":"Holding a temperature with a strip that bends","summary":"A bimetallic thermostat holds a temperature steady with a strip made of two metals joined face to face. One metal expands more than the other when warmed, so the strip bends, and its movement opens or closes a damper, a valve or an electric contact. Jean Simon Bonnemain described a heat regulator moved by the unequal expansion of iron and brass in 1782; Andrew Ure named the riveted strip a thermostat around 1830.","description":"How a strip of two metals bends with heat and works a damper or a switch, how to make a foil-and-paper thermostat, and its history from Harrison to Ure.","year":1782,"approx":false,"domain":"measure","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","bronze","thermometer"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bimetallic-thermostat/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bimetallic-thermostat.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bimetallic-thermostat/index.html.md"},{"id":"bordeaux-mixture","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bordeaux mixture","subtitle":"Copper and lime against vine mildew","summary":"Bordeaux mixture is a fungicide of copper sulphate and lime in water, sprayed on vines to protect them from downy mildew. It dries to a blue-green coating that keeps the spores of the disease from entering leaves and grapes. In 1882, in the Médoc, the botanist Alexis Millardet noticed that vines sprinkled with copper sulphate and lime had escaped the disease, and in 1885 he presented the treatment, worked out with the chemist Ulysse Gayon.","description":"How copper and lime protect vines from downy mildew, Millardet’s discovery in the Médoc between 1882 and 1885, and the copper it leaves in the soil.","year":1882,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["copper-smelting","lime-mortar"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bordeaux-mixture/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bordeaux-mixture.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bordeaux-mixture/index.html.md"},{"id":"dental-restorative-materials","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Dental fillings","subtitle":"Closing a hollowed tooth with a material that sets in place","summary":"A filling closes a tooth after the decayed part has been removed, with a material soft enough to pack into the hole that then turns hard. The oldest known fillings, about 13,000 years old, are lumps of bitumen mixed with plant fibres and hairs in two incisors from Riparo Fredian, in Tuscany. Silver amalgam was the usual filling from the nineteenth century until resins bonded to the tooth replaced it.","description":"How fillings close a decayed tooth, from bitumen 13,000 years ago to amalgam and bonded resins, with a soap and plaster test of how a cavity holds them.","year":-11000,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","adhesives"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dental-restorative-materials/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/dental-restorative-materials.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dental-restorative-materials/index.html.md"},{"id":"electric-heating-element","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Electric heating element","subtitle":"Turning an electric current into useful heat","summary":"An electric heating element is a conductor made to turn an electric current into heat, in a kettle, an oven, an iron or a water heater. The oldest patent for one was granted in the United States in 1859 to George B. Simpson, for a coil of platinum wire laid in the grooves of a soapstone slab and fed by batteries. Nickel-chromium wire, patented by Albert Marsh in 1906, and the sheathed element, a coil packed in magnesium oxide inside a metal tube, patented by Charles C. Abbott of General Electric in 1921, made heating elements durable.","description":"How an electric heating element turns current into heat, why its wire does not burn through, and its history from a platinum coil of 1857.","year":1857,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["resistor","battery","wire-drawing","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/electric-heating-element/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/electric-heating-element.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/electric-heating-element/index.html.md"},{"id":"obstetric-vacuum-extractor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Obstetric vacuum extractor","subtitle":"A suction cup that helps draw out a baby's head","summary":"An obstetric vacuum extractor is a cup that holds on to a baby's scalp by suction, with a handle to pull on, so that a doctor or midwife can help a stalled birth to finish. A naval surgeon tried a glass cupping cup on a baby's head around 1706, and the metal cups of Yves Couzigou and Tage Malmström made the method common after 1946.","description":"How a vacuum cup holds on to a baby's scalp, how much pull it can bear, a suction cup test, and the ventouse since 1706.","year":1706,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","piston-pump"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/obstetric-vacuum-extractor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/obstetric-vacuum-extractor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/obstetric-vacuum-extractor/index.html.md"},{"id":"paper-recycling","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Paper recycling","subtitle":"Pulping used paper into new sheets","summary":"Paper recycling turns used paper back into pulp. The sheets are churned in water until the fibres come apart, cleaned of staples, plastic and ink, and formed into new paper. In Japan, shukushi, a grey paper remade from written sheets, is on record by the early eleventh century and was long used for imperial orders.","description":"How used paper is pulped, screened and de-inked to make new sheets, how to make a recycled sheet by hand, and its history from Heian Japan onwards.","year":1000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paper-recycling/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/paper-recycling.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paper-recycling/index.html.md"},{"id":"pipe-organ","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pipe organ","subtitle":"Steady wind, keys and tuned pipes","summary":"A pipe organ is a wind instrument played from a keyboard. Air kept at a steady pressure fills a wind chest, and each key opens a valve that lets it into pipes tuned to one note each. Ancient writers credit the first, the hydraulis or water organ, to Ctesibius, an engineer in Alexandria in the third century BCE.","description":"How a pipe organ turns steady wind into notes with a wind chest, keys and tuned pipes, from the water organ of Alexandria to church organs.","year":-250,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["flute","piston-pump","bellows","adhesives"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pipe-organ/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pipe-organ.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pipe-organ/index.html.md"},{"id":"typewriter","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Typewriter","subtitle":"Printing letters one keystroke at a time","summary":"A typewriter prints text one character at a time from a keyboard. Each key swings a typebar whose raised letter strikes an inked ribbon against the paper, and a spring pulls the carriage one letter space along after every stroke. The oldest surviving typed letters were written in 1808 by Countess Carolina Fantoni on a machine that Michael Adler attributes to Pellegrino Turri and Italian sources to her brother Agostino Fantoni, and the Sholes and Glidden, sold by Remington from 1874, was the first to be made in large numbers.","description":"How a typewriter turns a keystroke into a printed letter and steps the carriage along, how to build a one-key model, and its history since 1808.","year":1808,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing","paper","writing-ink","steel","gear","weaving"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/typewriter/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/typewriter.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/typewriter/index.html.md"},{"id":"winemaking","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Winemaking","subtitle":"Turning grapes into wine by fermentation","summary":"Wine is made by letting yeasts ferment the sugar of crushed grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The oldest chemical traces of grape wine come from pottery jars of about 6000–5800 BCE found in two Neolithic villages of Georgia, in the South Caucasus.","description":"How yeasts turn crushed grapes into wine, how to make a small batch of red wine safely, and the history of wine since Neolithic Georgia.","year":-6000,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":62,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/winemaking/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/winemaking.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/winemaking/index.html.md"},{"id":"bow-and-arrow","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bow & Arrow","subtitle":"Stored energy released at a distance","summary":"A bow stores the effort of the archer's arms in its bent limbs and releases it in a fraction of a second, sending an arrow much faster and farther than a hand could throw it. Small stone points from South Africa suggest that people were shooting arrows about 64,000 years ago, and the bow stayed a weapon of hunting and war until firearms replaced it.","description":"How a bow stores the archer's effort in its limbs, how a yew longbow is made, and 64,000 years of archery from Sibudu Cave to the Mary Rose.","year":-62000,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope","adhesives"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bow-and-arrow/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bow-and-arrow.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bow-and-arrow/index.html.md"},{"id":"cable-stayed-bridge","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cable-stayed bridge","subtitle":"A deck hung from towers by straight stays","summary":"A cable-stayed bridge hangs its deck from straight cables, the stays, that run from tall towers to points along the deck. Each stay lifts part of the deck and pulls it towards the tower, which is pressed straight down when the two sides balance. Carl Imanuel Löscher published a timber design of this kind in 1784, early stayed bridges collapsed at Dryburgh in 1818 and at Nienburg in 1825, and the type returned in steel with the Strömsund Bridge in Sweden in the mid-1950s.","description":"How stays carry a bridge deck from tall towers, a tabletop model with string stays, and stayed bridges from Löscher's 1784 timber design to Strömsund.","year":1784,"approx":false,"domain":"building","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","wire-drawing","timber-framing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cable-stayed-bridge/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cable-stayed-bridge.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cable-stayed-bridge/index.html.md"},{"id":"cipher-disc","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cipher disc","subtitle":"Two turning alphabets that change the key","summary":"A cipher disc is a pair of lettered rings, one fixed and one turning on a common pin. Each setting of the inner ring gives a different substitution alphabet, so the writer can change alphabets in the middle of a message. Leon Battista Alberti described the device in Rome in 1466–1467.","description":"How a cipher disc of two turning alphabets enciphers a message, how to make one in card, and its history from Alberti in 1466 to the Civil War.","year":1466,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing","bronze","paper"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cipher-disc/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cipher-disc.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cipher-disc/index.html.md"},{"id":"cotton-gin","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cotton gin","subtitle":"Pulling the fibre off the seed","summary":"A cotton gin separates cotton fibre from the seeds it grows on. Roller gins pinch the fibre between turning rollers and leave the seed behind; saw gins drag it off with teeth. The oldest known gins come from India, by the fifth or sixth century CE. Eli Whitney's toothed gin, patented in 1794, made short-staple cotton profitable across the American South and raised the demand for enslaved labour there.","description":"How a cotton gin pulls fibre off the seed, how to make a small hand model, and the gins of India, China and the American South.","year":500,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["gear"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cotton-gin/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cotton-gin.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cotton-gin/index.html.md"},{"id":"crane","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Crane & Pulley","subtitle":"Lifting more than you weigh","summary":"A crane lifts a load by trading distance for force: a rope runs through several pulleys and onto a drum turned by a winch or a treadwheel, so that a few people can raise a stone many times their own weight. Greek builders used cranes from the late sixth century BCE, and Roman and medieval builders used them to raise temples and cathedrals and to load ships.","description":"How a crane trades distance for force with pulleys and a treadwheel, how to rig a tabletop model, and its history since Greek temples of about 515 BCE.","year":-515,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope","wheel","timber-framing","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/crane/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/crane.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/crane/index.html.md"},{"id":"dental-drill","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Dental drill","subtitle":"Spinning a small cutter fast enough to carve into a tooth","summary":"A dental drill spins a small cutter, the bur, fast enough to cut away enamel and dentine. The oldest drilled teeth, holed with flint points turned by a bow, come from Mehrgarh in Pakistan, dated to between about 5200 and 4700 BCE by tooth enamel, where earlier estimates said 7000 to 5500 BCE. Foot treadles drove the drill from 1871, and air turbines have spun it at hundreds of thousands of turns a minute since 1957.","description":"How a dental drill spins its bur, from the flint bow drills of Mehrgarh to treadle engines and air turbines, with a bow-drill test on a plaster tooth.","year":-5000,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dental-drill/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/dental-drill.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dental-drill/index.html.md"},{"id":"flax-processing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Flax processing","subtitle":"From retted stems to fibre for linen","summary":"Flax processing turns the stems of the flax plant into long, clean fibre that can be spun into linen. The stems are pulled, left wet until microbes loosen the fibre from the wood, then dried, broken, scutched and combed. The oldest linen whose flax is not in doubt comes from Nahal Hemar, a cave in the Judean Desert, and dates from about 8000 BCE.","description":"How flax stems are retted, broken, scutched and hackled into fibre for linen, a small trial at home, and the history of flax from about 8000 BCE.","year":-8000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flax-processing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/flax-processing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/flax-processing/index.html.md"},{"id":"fountain-pen","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Fountain pen","subtitle":"A pen that carries its own ink","summary":"A fountain pen carries its own ink. A reservoir in the barrel feeds a split metal nib through a feed whose fine channels let ink run down and air come up, so the ink flows while the nib touches the paper and stays put the rest of the time. The oldest known description of how to make such a pen is Daniel Schwenter's, printed in cipher in a Nuremberg handbook of secret writing around 1620.","description":"How a fountain pen feeds ink to its nib and lets air back in, how to make a reservoir for a dip pen, and its history from Schwenter's quill of about 1620.","year":1620,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing-ink","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fountain-pen/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/fountain-pen.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fountain-pen/index.html.md"},{"id":"koji-fermentation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Koji fermentation","subtitle":"Growing a mould on cooked grain so that its enzymes ferment food","summary":"Koji is steamed rice, barley, wheat or soybeans on which a mould, most often Aspergillus oryzae, has been grown until it is full of enzymes. Mixed with more grain, beans, salt or water, those enzymes turn starch into sugars and proteins into smaller pieces, the first step of sake, miso and soy sauce. Moulds grown on rice were already used to ferment a drink at Shangshan, in southern China, some 10,000 to 9,000 years ago.","description":"How a mould grown on steamed rice fills it with enzymes that make sake, miso and soy sauce, an iodine test with dry koji, and 10,000 years of history.","year":-8000,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","harvest"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/koji-fermentation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/koji-fermentation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/koji-fermentation/index.html.md"},{"id":"lead-smelting","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Lead Smelting","subtitle":"Lead from galena, and the silver hidden in it","summary":"Lead smelting draws lead out of galena, a grey lead sulphide that often carries some silver. The ore gives up its lead in a fire that need not be very hot, and cupellation then separates the silver. The oldest object proved to be of smelted lead, from Ashalim Cave in the Negev, dates from 4300 to 4000 BCE. Lead fumes and dust are poisonous.","description":"How galena gives up its lead, how cupellation draws silver from it, and lead smelting from the Negev about 4000 BCE to the boles of medieval England.","year":-4200,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lead-smelting/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/lead-smelting.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lead-smelting/index.html.md"},{"id":"mirror","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Mirror","subtitle":"Sending light back to form an image","summary":"A mirror is a surface smooth and bright enough to send light back in good order, so that the eye sees an image of whatever stands in front of it. The oldest securely dated mirrors are pieces of polished obsidian, a black volcanic glass, laid in graves at the Neolithic town of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia during the first half of the seventh millennium BCE. Later mirrors were made of copper and bronze, then of glass backed with metal: lead under the Roman Empire, an amalgam of tin and mercury in Venice from the early sixteenth century, and from 1835 a thin film of silver.","description":"How a mirror forms an image that seems to lie behind it, and its history from polished obsidian at Çatalhöyük to bronze, Venetian glass and silver.","year":-6500,"approx":true,"domain":"optics","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mirror/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/mirror.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mirror/index.html.md"},{"id":"photography","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Photography","subtitle":"Light that leaves a trace","summary":"Photography fixes the image formed by a lens on a surface that light changes chemically. Nicéphore Niépce made the oldest surviving camera photograph in 1826 or 1827, and the daguerreotype, made public in Paris in 1839, was the first process sold to the public, with cameras and plates on sale within weeks.","description":"How a lens and light-sensitive chemistry fix an image, a pinhole camera and cyanotype to make at home, and photography from Niépce's 1827 view to Kodak.","year":1827,"approx":true,"domain":"optics","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","eyeglasses"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/photography/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/photography.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/photography/index.html.md"},{"id":"playing-cards","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Playing cards","subtitle":"A pack of suits and ranks with identical backs","summary":"A pack of playing cards is a set of stiff paper cards with identical backs, each face marked with a suit and a rank. The first certain record comes from China in 1294, when two gamblers were caught at Enzhou with paper cards and the blocks used to print them. Mamluk Egypt had packs of 52 cards in four suits, and cards reached Europe in the 1370s.","description":"How a pack of cards works, how cards were printed and stencilled, and their history from China in 1294 through Mamluk Egypt to Europe.","year":1294,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","writing-ink","adhesives"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/playing-cards/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/playing-cards.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/playing-cards/index.html.md"},{"id":"refrigeration","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Refrigeration","subtitle":"Pumping heat out of a box","summary":"Refrigeration keeps a space colder than its surroundings by making a liquid boil inside it, so that it soaks up heat, then carrying the vapour outside, compressing it and turning it back into liquid. Jacob Perkins patented the first closed vapour-compression machine in London in 1834; ammonia machines ran breweries and ships by the 1870s, and electric home refrigerators spread from the late 1920s.","description":"How a refrigerator pumps heat out of a box with a boiling liquid, a safe clay-pot cooler to make, and the history from Perkins's ether machine of 1834.","year":1834,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-engine","piston-pump","thermometer","distillation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/refrigeration/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/refrigeration.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/refrigeration/index.html.md"},{"id":"sword","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sword","subtitle":"A long blade fixed to a hilt","summary":"A sword is a long blade fixed to a hilt, made to cut, to thrust or both. The blade carries the edges and the point, and the hilt gives the hand a grip, a guard and a counterweight. The oldest swords known, of copper alloyed with arsenic, come from Arslantepe in eastern Turkey: some from a palace in levels dated to about 3400–3000 BC, others from a royal tomb of about 3000–2900 BC.","description":"How a sword's blade, guard, grip and pommel work together, how to make a card and foam display model, and its history since Arslantepe.","year":-3300,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["copper-smelting","bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sword/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sword.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sword/index.html.md"},{"id":"torch","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Torch","subtitle":"A bundle of burning wood carried by hand","summary":"A torch is a bundle of dry wood that burns at one end while the other end stays cool enough to hold. It casts a light all around that moves with its bearer. Torch marks on the walls of Chauvet cave show that people carried such lights underground about 30,000 years ago.","description":"How a hand torch of dry branches burns, what traces it leaves in caves, and how torch marks in Chauvet cave date it to about 30,000 years ago.","year":-28000,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/torch/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/torch.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/torch/index.html.md"},{"id":"water-clock","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Water clock","subtitle":"Measuring time with flowing water","summary":"A water clock measures time with water running out of a vessel or into it, read against marks on its wall. The oldest written record is the tomb inscription of the Egyptian official Amenemhet, around 1500 BCE, and the oldest surviving clock was carved for Amenhotep III in the fourteenth century BCE.","description":"How a water clock measures time with flowing water, how to make and mark a simple one, and its history from Egypt around 1500 BCE to Athens and China.","year":-1500,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":60,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-clock/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/water-clock.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-clock/index.html.md"},{"id":"cofferdam","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cofferdam","subtitle":"Building on a riverbed pumped dry","summary":"A cofferdam is a temporary watertight enclosure built in a river, a lake or the sea, so that the water inside can be pumped out and a foundation laid on a dry bed. Vitruvius, writing about 25 BCE, described one with two walls of timber, clay rammed between them and water-lifting wheels to empty it. Since the early 20th century they have also been made of interlocking steel sheet piles.","description":"How a cofferdam keeps water out while a foundation is built, how to make a working model in a tub, and its story from Vitruvius to steel sheet piles.","year":-25,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["water-wheel","basketry"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cofferdam/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cofferdam.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cofferdam/index.html.md"},{"id":"dental-prosthetics","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Dental prostheses and implants","subtitle":"Replacing lost teeth with crowns, bridges and anchors in the bone","summary":"A dental prosthesis replaces a lost tooth or covers a broken one: a crown caps a tooth, a bridge hangs a false tooth from its neighbours, a denture can be taken out, and an implant anchors a new tooth in the jawbone. The oldest known appliance, a band of pure gold, comes from an Etruscan-period tomb at Satricum, south of Rome, around 630 BCE. Titanium implants that bone grows onto have been placed in patients since 1965.","description":"How crowns, bridges, dentures and implants replace teeth, from Etruscan gold bands to titanium implants, with a model bridge made on wooden teeth.","year":-630,"approx":true,"domain":"medicine","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["dental-drill","dental-restorative-materials"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dental-prosthetics/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/dental-prosthetics.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dental-prosthetics/index.html.md"},{"id":"dice","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Gaming dice","subtitle":"Marked faces for a draw left to chance","summary":"Dice are objects with marked faces, thrown so that chance picks the result. A fair cubic die gives every face the same chance because its six faces are alike and its weight sits at the centre. Cubic dice appear in the third millennium BCE: a fired clay die from Tepe Gawra, in northern Iraq, dates to 2800–2500 BCE. Casting sticks marked on one face, the main means of drawing chance in Egypt from the Predynastic period, are older.","description":"How a die gives every face the same chance, how to make a fair one from hardwood, and the history of dice from knucklebones and Ur to the cube.","year":-2800,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dice/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/dice.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dice/index.html.md"},{"id":"igloo","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Igloo","subtitle":"A vault of snow blocks laid in a spiral","summary":"An igloo is a dome of snow blocks laid in a rising spiral, so that it closes over itself without a frame or scaffold. Inuit of the central Canadian Arctic lived in large ones through the winter and still build small ones as shelters on hunting trips. Snow houses melt every spring, and the clues to their age are the knives used to cut the blocks. Snow knives became common in the eastern Arctic with the Dorset culture, which took shape between about 800 and 500 BCE. The Thule people, ancestors of the Inuit, who arrived from Alaska around the thirteenth century, also built snow houses.","description":"How Inuit build a snow house in a rising spiral, why its low entrance traps the cold, how to make a small snow shelter safely, and the history of the igloo.","year":-500,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":1,"difficulty":3,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["oil-lamp","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/igloo/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/igloo.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/igloo/index.html.md"},{"id":"kite","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Kite","subtitle":"A wing held on a line","summary":"A kite is a light wing held against the wind by a line. Air flowing past the tilted sail pushes it up and back, and the pull of the line holds it in place. The oldest clear account comes from China in 549, when paper kites carrying an edict on a long cord were flown from a besieged palace city.","description":"How a kite flies on its line, how to build a small paper and bamboo kite safely, and its history from the paper kites of 549 to weather science.","year":549,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","rope","adhesives"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/kite/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/kite.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/kite/index.html.md"},{"id":"solar-power-tower","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Solar power tower","subtitle":"A field of mirrors that heats a boiler at the top of a tower","summary":"A solar power tower uses a field of sun-tracking mirrors, the heliostats, to send sunlight onto a receiver at the top of a tower. The concentrated light heats water into steam, or heats molten salt that can be stored, and the heat drives a steam turbine. Giovanni Francia built the first tower plant at Sant'Ilario, near Genoa, in the mid-1960s.","description":"How a field of tracking mirrors heats a receiver on a tower to make steam, how to build a small mirror model safely, and the history from Francia to Gemasolar.","year":1965,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["mirror","steam-turbine","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/solar-power-tower/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/solar-power-tower.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/solar-power-tower/index.html.md"},{"id":"soldering-iron","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Electric soldering iron","subtitle":"Joining wires and parts with molten tin","summary":"An electric soldering iron is a tool heated by an electric current, usually a copper bit warmed by a resistance wire, used to melt solder, an alloy of tin, onto a joint so that wires and components hold together and conduct. Irons heated in a fire were already used to join the lead strips of stained-glass windows in the twelfth century; in 1880 Charles Ball applied for a patent on an iron heated by an electric current.","description":"How an electric soldering iron heats a copper bit to melt solder, how to make a sound joint safely, and its history from Theophilus to the iron of 1880.","year":1880,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["copper-smelting","tin-smelting","lead-smelting","resistor","insulated-electric-cable"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/soldering-iron/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/soldering-iron.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/soldering-iron/index.html.md"},{"id":"washing-machine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Washing machine","subtitle":"Washing, rinsing and spinning laundry in a drum","summary":"A washing machine moves laundry through water and detergent, rinses it and removes much of the water by wringing or spinning. In October 1677 Robert Hooke recorded and drew in his diary a device made by Sir John Hoskins for rinsing fine linen. In January 1752 the London monthly The Gentleman's Magazine printed an illustrated description of a machine for washing linen. In 1765 Gotthard Friedrich Stender, a pastor in Courland, described an English washing tub, and Jacob Christian Schäffer of Regensburg brought out an improved machine the next year. Hand-cranked tubs and drums led to electric machines in the early 20th century and to the automatic drum machine, sold by Bendix from 1937.","description":"How a drum washing machine tumbles, rinses and spins the laundry, and its history from 17th-century rinsing devices to automatic machines.","year":1677,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["soap","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/washing-machine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/washing-machine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/washing-machine/index.html.md"},{"id":"water-tap","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Water tap","subtitle":"Opening and shutting a flow of water by hand","summary":"A tap lets water out of a pipe or a vessel and stops it again: a part inside closes the passage, either a pierced plug turned by a quarter turn or a soft washer screwed down onto a seat. The oldest taps known for certain are Roman and bronze: one from the ships of the emperor Caligula on Lake Nemi (37–41 CE), others from Pompeii, buried in 79 CE; a bucket with a tap above a basin still makes a simple handwashing station.","description":"How a water tap opens and closes, from the Roman plug cock to the screw-down tap with its washer, a bucket handwashing station, and Pompeii's bronze taps.","year":40,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":58,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze","aqueduct","leather-tanning"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-tap/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/water-tap.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-tap/index.html.md"},{"id":"bicycle","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bicycle","subtitle":"Two wheels driven by the legs","summary":"A bicycle is a two-wheeled machine that the rider balances by steering and drives with the legs, through pedals, a chain and a sprocket on the rear wheel. It grew from Karl Drais's wooden running machine of 1817 into the chain-driven safety bicycle of 1885, which, fitted with air-filled tyres, lets a person cover a given distance on a small fraction of the energy needed to walk it.","description":"How a bicycle stays upright and turns leg work into speed, how to make a running machine, and its history from Drais's 1817 machine to the Rover.","year":1817,"approx":false,"domain":"land-transport","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wheel","iron-smelting","steel","gear","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bicycle/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bicycle.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bicycle/index.html.md"},{"id":"cheese","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cheese","subtitle":"Milk that keeps for months","summary":"Cheese is milk whose protein has been curdled, drained of its whey and often salted and ripened, so that it keeps far longer than fresh milk. Milk-fat residues in perforated Neolithic pots show that farmers in Europe were making it more than 7,000 years ago.","description":"How rennet or acid turns milk into curd, how to make paneer at home, and cheese from Neolithic pottery sieves of over 7,000 years ago to factories.","year":-5500,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","salt-preservation","animal-domestication"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cheese/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cheese.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cheese/index.html.md"},{"id":"chess","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Chess","subtitle":"A battle of pieces with different moves","summary":"Chess is a game for two players on a board of 64 squares, each with sixteen pieces of six kinds that move in different ways. The aim is to trap the opposing king. The game is first named in Persian and Sanskrit texts of about 600, it reached Europe through the Islamic world, and its modern form dates from the late 15th century, when the queen and the bishop gained their long moves.","description":"How chess pieces move and how a game is won, how to make a board and a simple set, and its history from chaturanga to the new queen of the late 1400s.","year":600,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/chess/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/chess.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/chess/index.html.md"},{"id":"coffee-processing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Coffee processing and roasting","subtitle":"From red cherry to roasted bean","summary":"Coffee processing turns the ripe fruit of the coffee shrub into a dry green bean, and roasting turns that bean brown, brittle and fragrant. The fruit is either dried whole or stripped of its pulp and sticky coating before drying, then hulled. Written accounts place the first coffee drinking among Sufis in Yemen in the fifteenth century.","description":"How coffee cherries become green beans by the dry or wet method, what roasting does to them, a safe trial at home and a history from Yemen around 1450.","year":1450,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coffee-processing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/coffee-processing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coffee-processing/index.html.md"},{"id":"crossbow","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Crossbow","subtitle":"A bow held drawn by a trigger lock","summary":"A crossbow is a short, stiff bow fixed across a wooden stock. Its string is drawn back once and held by a catch, so the shooter can take aim without effort and loose the shot with a trigger. Bronze trigger mechanisms from tombs at Qufu, in eastern China, date from the 6th century BC, and in medieval Europe the crossbow served in sieges, at sea and in the hunt.","description":"How a crossbow holds a drawn bow on a nut and looses it with a trigger, a safe model of its lock, and its history since Chinese bronze triggers.","year":-550,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bow-and-arrow","bronze","horn-working","iron-smelting","adhesives"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/crossbow/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/crossbow.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/crossbow/index.html.md"},{"id":"dyeing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Dyeing","subtitle":"Colour fixed in the fibre","summary":"Dyeing makes colour part of a fibre: the dye enters the yarn or cloth and stays through washing. Most plant dyes, such as madder and weld, give stronger and faster colours with a mordant, usually alum, while indigo is made soluble in a vat and turns blue again in the air.","description":"How mordants fix madder and weld and how an indigo vat works, the traditional way to dye wool, and 6,200-year-old indigo from Peru to Perkin's mauve.","year":-4200,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope","pottery","control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dyeing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/dyeing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/dyeing/index.html.md"},{"id":"eyeglasses","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Eyeglasses","subtitle":"Lenses that extend a working life","summary":"Eyeglasses are a pair of lenses held in a frame in front of the eyes to correct presbyopia, long sight, short sight or astigmatism. They appeared in Italy in the 1280s as reading aids for older people; lenses for short sight followed in the fifteenth century and side arms in the eighteenth.","description":"How reading glasses correct presbyopia, how to make medieval rivet spectacles of bone and copper wire, and their history from Italy in the 1280s.","year":1286,"approx":true,"domain":"optics","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/eyeglasses/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/eyeglasses.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/eyeglasses/index.html.md"},{"id":"food-smoking","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Food smoking","subtitle":"Drying and flavouring food in wood smoke","summary":"Smoking treats meat, fish and cheese with the smoke of smouldering wood. The smoke dries the surface and leaves phenolic compounds that slow some microbes and the souring of fats, as well as colour and flavour. It does not sterilise food. The oldest written instructions are those of Cato the Elder, about 160 BCE, for salted hams hung in smoke for two days.","description":"How wood smoke dries and protects meat and fish, the difference between cold and hot smoking, and smokehouses from Cato's hams to the Chorkor oven.","year":-160,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","salt-preservation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/food-smoking/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/food-smoking.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/food-smoking/index.html.md"},{"id":"fresnel-lens","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Fresnel lens","subtitle":"A thin lens made of concentric steps of glass","summary":"A Fresnel lens is a converging lens with most of its glass taken away. Its curved face is cut into concentric rings, each keeping the slope of the matching zone of an ordinary lens, so the lens bends light in the same way while staying thin and light. Buffon proposed a lens ground in steps in 1748, for a burning glass. Augustin Fresnel had such lenses built from separate pieces of glass, and the first one lit a lighthouse at Cordouan, in France, on 25 July 1823.","description":"How a stepped lens bends light like a thick lens with far less glass, how to measure one and make a beam, and its history from Buffon to plastic sheets.","year":1748,"approx":false,"domain":"optics","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","eyeglasses","oil-lamp"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fresnel-lens/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/fresnel-lens.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fresnel-lens/index.html.md"},{"id":"gelatin-production","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Gelatin production","subtitle":"Dissolving the collagen of skin and bone in hot water, then setting and drying it","summary":"Gelatin is the collagen of skin, bone and fish skin taken apart by heat and dissolved in hot water. The raw material is first steeped to loosen it, the warm extract is cleared and thickened, and on cooling it sets into a jelly that is then dried. Crude gelatin is hide glue. In the cave of Nahal Hemar, in Israel, a coating of collagen and plant resin on a human skull has been dated directly to 8920 to 8430 BCE, and baskets from the same layer are lined with cattle collagen.","description":"How the collagen of skin and bone dissolves in hot water and sets into gelatin, a kitchen test with leaf gelatin, and its history since the Neolithic.","year":-8430,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gelatin-production/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/gelatin-production.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gelatin-production/index.html.md"},{"id":"instant-noodles","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Instant noodles","subtitle":"Noodles cooked in steam, dried in hot oil or air, softened again by hot water","summary":"Instant noodles are wheat noodles cooked in steam and then dried, most often by a short bath in hot oil, sometimes in hot air, so that they keep for months and turn soft again in a few minutes of hot water. Nissin put the first ones, Chicken Ramen, on sale in Japan on 25 August 1958, after Momofuku Ando had worked out the frying method in a small workshop behind his house.","description":"How steamed noodles are dried in hot oil or hot air so that hot water softens them in minutes, a kitchen test, and their history since Chicken Ramen in 1958.","year":1958,"approx":false,"domain":"food","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["quern","oil-press"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/instant-noodles/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/instant-noodles.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/instant-noodles/index.html.md"},{"id":"jeans","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Jeans","subtitle":"Riveted work trousers of indigo twill","summary":"Jeans are work trousers of denim, a cotton twill woven with an indigo-blue warp and a white weft, whose pocket corners are held by copper rivets so that hard wear does not tear the seams. The Reno tailor Jacob Davis made his first riveted pants around the turn of 1871, and in 1873 he and the San Francisco merchant Levi Strauss obtained a patent for the rivets.","description":"How denim is woven and dyed, why jeans have rivets, how the pieces are cut in stacks and sewn, and the history from Jacob Davis's riveted pants of 1870–71.","year":1870,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","dyeing","cotton-gin","copper-smelting","needle-and-hand-sewing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jeans/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/jeans.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jeans/index.html.md"},{"id":"nautical-knots","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Nautical knots","subtitle":"Loops, hitches and bends that hold a ship's ropes","summary":"Sailors' knots are a small set of loops, hitches, bends and stoppers that tie a rope to a post, a ring, a cleat or another rope, hold under load and can still be untied by hand. A ship of about 2566 BCE, buried in pieces beside the pyramid of Khufu at Giza, had most of its parts tied together with knotted rope, and coils of knotted ship's rope were stored at Mersa Gawasis, an Egyptian harbour on the Red Sea, around 1800 BCE.","description":"How sailors' knots hold by friction, how to tie a bowline, clove hitch, cleat hitch and figure-eight, and Egyptian ship's rope from about 2566 BCE.","year":-2566,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/nautical-knots/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/nautical-knots.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/nautical-knots/index.html.md"},{"id":"paintbrush","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Paintbrush","subtitle":"A tuft of hair that carries paint","summary":"A paintbrush is a tuft of hair, bristle or plant fibre fixed to a handle. Dipped in paint, the tuft holds the liquid between its hairs and lets it out again when it is drawn across a surface. Potters of the Yangshao culture in China were painting with pointed brushes by about 4000 BCE, and fine brushes are still made by tying a bundle of hair and setting it in a ferrule.","description":"How a brush holds paint between its hairs and lets it flow, how to tie a round brush in a quill, and brushes from Neolithic China to the metal ferrule.","year":-4000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paint","rope","adhesives"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paintbrush/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/paintbrush.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paintbrush/index.html.md"},{"id":"pigeon-post","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pigeon post","subtitle":"Messages carried home by homing pigeons","summary":"A pigeon post carries written messages with homing pigeons, which fly back to the loft where they live. The birds are taken away in baskets, given a small message and released, and they bring it home. The oldest solid accounts come from the siege of Mutina in 43 BCE.","description":"How homing pigeons carry messages back to their loft, how a pigeon post is set up and run with care for the birds, and its history since 43 BCE.","year":-43,"approx":false,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing","paper","basketry"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pigeon-post/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pigeon-post.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pigeon-post/index.html.md"},{"id":"railway-air-brake","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Railway air brake","subtitle":"Brakes on every car, worked by air from the locomotive","summary":"The railway air brake lets the driver brake every vehicle of a train at once from the locomotive. A steam-driven pump compresses air into a reservoir, and a pipe running the length of the train carries it to a brake cylinder on each car. In the automatic form, each car keeps its own reservoir and a triple valve that applies the brakes whenever the pressure in the pipe falls, even if a hose bursts or the train breaks in two. Samuel Cunliffe Lister patented a compressed-air railway brake in England in 1848. George Westinghouse's patent of 13 April 1869 made the air brake practical, and his automatic brake followed a few years later.","description":"How a triple valve turns a drop of pressure in the brake pipe into braking on every car, a safe model of the principle, and the brake since 1848.","year":1848,"approx":false,"domain":"land-transport","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-locomotive","piston-pump","vulcanized-rubber"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/railway-air-brake/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/railway-air-brake.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/railway-air-brake/index.html.md"},{"id":"safety-lamp","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Safety lamp","subtitle":"A flame caged in wire gauze for gassy mines","summary":"A safety lamp is an oil lamp whose flame is enclosed so that it cannot set fire to the firedamp of a coal mine. In the best-known form, Humphry Davy's, a cylinder of fine iron gauze lets air in and keeps the flame inside. The first safety lamp was described by William Clanny in 1813, and Davy and George Stephenson each produced their own in 1815.","description":"How a wire gauze cage keeps a lamp flame from igniting firedamp, how miners read gas in the flame, and the lamps of Clanny, Stephenson and Davy.","year":1813,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["oil-lamp","wire-drawing","glass","bellows","candle"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/safety-lamp/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/safety-lamp.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/safety-lamp/index.html.md"},{"id":"saxophone","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Saxophone","subtitle":"A single reed on a conical brass tube","summary":"The saxophone is a wind instrument with a conical brass tube, sounded by a single cane reed clamped to a mouthpiece. Its wide tone holes are closed by padded cups worked through keys, and an octave key lifts every note an octave. Adolphe Sax had a bass saxophone at the Brussels industrial exhibition of 1841 and patented a family of eight saxophones in Paris in 1846.","description":"How the saxophone's reed, conical tube, keys and octave vent make its notes, a reed-and-tube demonstration, and Adolphe Sax's instrument of 1841 to 1846.","year":1841,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["copper-smelting","wire-drawing","leather-tanning"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/saxophone/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/saxophone.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/saxophone/index.html.md"},{"id":"sericulture","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sericulture","subtitle":"Raising silkworms and reeling silk","summary":"Sericulture is the raising of silkworms for their silk. The caterpillars of the domestic silk moth feed on mulberry leaves and each spins a cocoon from one continuous filament, which is unwound in hot water together with the filaments of other cocoons to make a thread. Silk fabric wrapped children buried in central China around 3500 BCE, and at one of these sites, Wanggou, a team of the China National Silk Museum identified the silk as that of the domestic silkworm.","description":"How silkworms are raised on mulberry and their cocoons reeled into silk thread, a small trial at home, and the history of silk since about 3500 BCE.","year":-3500,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","basketry"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sericulture/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sericulture.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sericulture/index.html.md"},{"id":"sheet-metal-shear","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sheet-metal shear","subtitle":"A straight blade sliding past a fixed one","summary":"A sheet-metal shear cuts sheet and plate between two hardened steel blades that slide past each other with a very small gap. In the guillotine shear a long straight blade, set at a slight slant, moves down in guides past a fixed one and cuts across the whole width of a sheet. Metalworkers' shears are listed among the tools of a workshop in the early 12th century, and steam-driven shearing machines were built in British engineering works in the first half of the 19th century. On 31 January 1843 George Thorneycroft of Wolverhampton was granted a patent for a shear for wide plates of sheet iron, whose slanted upper blade, driven by eccentrics, moved in straight guides.","description":"How a guillotine shear cuts sheet metal between two blades with a small gap, how to cut aluminium cleanly with snips, and the history of metal shears.","year":1843,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","rolling-mill","steam-engine"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sheet-metal-shear/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sheet-metal-shear.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sheet-metal-shear/index.html.md"},{"id":"spinning-wheel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Spinning Wheel","subtitle":"Fibre into thread, faster","summary":"A spinning wheel twists loose fibre into yarn with a spindle driven by a large wheel, much faster than a hand spindle. The wheel with a flyer, known in Germany by about 1480, also winds the yarn onto a bobbin while it spins, so that spinning and winding no longer alternate.","description":"How a spinning wheel and its flyer twist fibre into yarn and wind it on, how to build a simple wool wheel, and its spread from Asia around 1000 to Gandhi.","year":1000,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wheel","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/spinning-wheel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/spinning-wheel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/spinning-wheel/index.html.md"},{"id":"tank","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Tank","subtitle":"An armoured fighting vehicle on tracks","summary":"A tank is a fighting vehicle with a steel hull, guns fired from inside its armour, and two tracks that carry it over broken ground. It was born in Britain in 1915, when trench warfare had brought the armies of the Western Front to a halt, and engineers in Lincoln built Little Willie, the first working tank. Tanks went into battle at Flers-Courcelette in 1916, and the French Renault FT of 1917, with its gun in a turret that turns all the way round, set the pattern of later tanks.","description":"How a tank's tracks, armour, engine and turret work together, and its history from the trenches of 1915 and Little Willie to the Renault FT.","year":1915,"approx":false,"domain":"defense","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["continuous-track","combustion-engine","steel","firearms"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tank/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/tank.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tank/index.html.md"},{"id":"tea-processing","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Tea processing","subtitle":"Turning fresh leaves into green, black or white tea","summary":"Tea processing turns the young shoots of the tea plant into dry leaves that keep. Its central skill is the control of oxidation: green tea is heated soon after picking, while black tea is rolled and left to darken before it is dried. The oldest tea that survives as dried leaf consists of bundles of tea buds from the tomb of the Chinese emperor Jing, who died in 141 BCE.","description":"How withering, rolling, oxidation and heat make green, black and white tea from the same leaf, how to process tea at home, and its history in China.","year":-141,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["basketry","iron-smelting","charcoal"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tea-processing/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/tea-processing.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tea-processing/index.html.md"},{"id":"tipi","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Tipi","subtitle":"A cone of poles under a cover of sewn hides","summary":"A tipi is a cone of long poles wrapped in a roughly semicircular cover of sewn bison hides, later of canvas: the portable home of the peoples of the North American Plains. Rings of stones that held down lodge covers become common on the northwestern Plains about 4,500 years ago, and in 1541 the Coronado expedition described hide tents whose poles were dragged by dogs.","description":"How a tipi of poles and bison hides stands up to the wind and draws its smoke, how to make a small model, and its history from stone rings to canvas.","year":-2500,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","needle-and-hand-sewing","rope","leather-tanning"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tipi/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/tipi.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tipi/index.html.md"},{"id":"toothpaste","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Toothpaste","subtitle":"A paste or powder that cleans the teeth and protects the enamel","summary":"Toothpaste is a paste brushed onto the teeth to clean them, and most kinds now contain fluoride, which makes the enamel harder for decay to attack. The Ebers papyrus, written in Egypt in the 16th century BCE, already gives preparations for the teeth and gums, and Greek and Roman writers recorded tooth powders of ground stone, shell and ash. Tooth powders and pastes sold in jars gave way to pastes in collapsible tin tubes from the late 1880s, and a fluoride toothpaste first won the acceptance of the American Dental Association in 1960.","description":"What toothpaste contains, how fluoride protects the enamel, how much to use, and its history from Egyptian remedies to the toothpaste tube.","year":-1500,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["pottery","tin-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/toothpaste/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/toothpaste.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/toothpaste/index.html.md"},{"id":"tungsten-extraction","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Tungsten Extraction","subtitle":"A metal too refractory to melt, won from its ore as a powder and pressed into shape","summary":"Tungsten melts at a higher temperature than any other metal, so it cannot be smelted and cast like iron or copper. It is won from its ores as a fine powder and shaped from that powder into bars, wire and the hard carbide of cutting tools. The Elhuyar brothers first isolated the metal at Bergara, in the Basque Country, in 1783.","description":"How tungsten is won from wolframite and scheelite as a powder and worked into wire and carbide, from the Elhuyar brothers in 1783 to Coolidge's filament.","year":1783,"approx":false,"domain":"materials","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["mining","charcoal"],"reviewed":"2026-10-20","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tungsten-extraction/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/tungsten-extraction.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tungsten-extraction/index.html.md"},{"id":"turning-grille-cipher","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Turning grille cipher","subtitle":"Letters rearranged through a rotating mask","summary":"A turning grille distributes a message’s letters through openings in a mask. Each quarter-turn reveals new cells; the resulting transposition can be undone with the same grille.","description":"A cut-out paper mask turns over a fixed grid to rearrange the letters of a message, then lets the recipient recover their original order.","year":1745,"approx":true,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":1,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","writing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/turning-grille-cipher/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/turning-grille-cipher.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/turning-grille-cipher/index.html.md"},{"id":"underfloor-heating","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Underfloor heating","subtitle":"Warming a room from the floor up","summary":"Underfloor heating warms a room through its floor. Hot gases from a fire, or warm water, pass through a space, channels or pipes beneath it, and the whole floor grows warm and gives off its heat gently and evenly. Heated floors appear in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, in Greek baths in Sicily and in houses in Korea; modern systems pump warm water through pipes laid in the floor.","description":"How heat from a furnace or warm water passes through a floor, a warm-water test under a tile, and heated floors from Greek baths and the ondol to today.","year":-300,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire","bricks"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/underfloor-heating/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/underfloor-heating.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/underfloor-heating/index.html.md"},{"id":"waste-sorting","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Waste sorting","subtitle":"Screens, magnets and air jets on the belt","summary":"Waste sorting splits mixed refuse or collected recyclables into streams that can be sold and used again. Conveyors carry the waste past rotating drums that sort it by size, magnets that lift out steel, spinning magnetic rotors that throw aluminium aside and sensors that blow chosen items off the belt with air. In 1876 the refuse works of Manchester's Health Committee were already sifting dry refuse on sieves worked by steam.","description":"How a sorting line splits waste with screens, magnets, eddy currents and air jets, how to try the principle on a table, and its history.","year":1876,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-engine","electric-motor"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/waste-sorting/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/waste-sorting.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/waste-sorting/index.html.md"},{"id":"waste-to-energy","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Waste to energy","subtitle":"Steam and current from the refuse that is left","summary":"A waste-to-energy plant burns the household waste that is not recycled and turns its heat into electricity and, often, heat for buildings. Its flue gas must be cleaned, and its ash still holds metals worth recovering. In 1876 Manchester was already using the heat of its refuse furnaces, and in 1893 Halifax first made electricity from town refuse.","description":"What a waste-to-energy plant does with leftover household waste, the electricity and heat it supplies, how its pollution is controlled, and its history.","year":1876,"approx":true,"domain":"energy","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["steam-engine","generator"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/waste-to-energy/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/waste-to-energy.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/waste-to-energy/index.html.md"},{"id":"wired-circuit-board","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Wired circuit board","subtitle":"Parts screwed to a board and joined by wires","summary":"A wired circuit board holds the parts of an electrical circuit on a rigid insulating board, with each part screwed down and each connection made by its own length of wire. An experimental radio receiver built on a mahogany base around 1905 survives in the Science Museum in London, and in the 1920s radio sets built this way were called breadboards; the Atwater Kent company of Philadelphia brought out seven such models in 1923. Printed circuits took over from the 1940s, but a working circuit can still be built by hand with a board, screws and wire.","description":"How 1920s radios were built on a wooden board with every part joined by its own wire, how to wire a simple board safely, and what replaced it.","year":1905,"approx":true,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":2,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["resistor","capacitor","insulated-electric-cable","soldering-iron","radio"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wired-circuit-board/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/wired-circuit-board.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wired-circuit-board/index.html.md"},{"id":"zinc-extraction","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Zinc Smelting","subtitle":"A metal that leaves the fire as a vapour and has to be caught as it cools","summary":"Zinc is hard to smelt because it turns to vapour at the heat needed to free it from its ore, then burns back to oxide in the air. Zinc metal was first produced by distillation in closed clay vessels. Zawar in Rajasthan was distilling zinc on an industrial scale by the early Middle Ages, China followed under the Ming, and Europe in the eighteenth century.","description":"Why zinc leaves the fire as a vapour, how closed retorts and condensers caught it, and zinc smelting from medieval Zawar and Ming China to electrolysis.","year":1000,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["mining","charcoal","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-20","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/zinc-extraction/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/zinc-extraction.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/zinc-extraction/index.html.md"},{"id":"zipper","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Zipper","subtitle":"Two rows of teeth locked and unlocked by a slider","summary":"A zipper closes an opening with two fabric tapes, each carrying a row of identical small elements. A slider running along them brings the rows together at an angle so that each element locks into the next, and a wedge inside it parts them again. Whitcomb Judson of Chicago applied in 1891 for a patent, granted in 1893, on the first fastener of interlocking clasps worked by a slider. Gideon Sundback replaced the hooks with identical nesting elements in a patent granted in 1917, the form still in use.","description":"How the slider of a zipper locks and parts two rows of identical elements, how to repair a slider that has loosened, and its history from Judson to Sundback.","year":1891,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":55,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/zipper/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/zipper.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/zipper/index.html.md"},{"id":"cavity-wall","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cavity wall","subtitle":"Two leaves of masonry with air between","summary":"A cavity wall is built as two separate skins of masonry with a gap between them, tied together across it. Rain that soaks through the outer skin runs down its inner face and is led back outside, so the inner skin stays dry, and the gap can hold insulation. About 25 BCE Vitruvius advised building a thin second wall a little way inside a damp wall, with vents to the open air.","description":"How a cavity wall keeps rain away from the inner leaf and holds insulation, how to show it with bricks and a hose, and its history from Vitruvius.","year":-25,"approx":true,"domain":"building","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":54,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bricks","lime-mortar","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cavity-wall/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cavity-wall.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cavity-wall/index.html.md"},{"id":"tofu","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Tofu","subtitle":"Soy milk set into a block","summary":"Tofu is a fresh food made by setting cooked soy milk into a soft gel, sometimes drained and pressed into blocks. Heat, a coagulant and a cloth turn dry beans into something that can be sliced. A Chinese text from around 965 gives its earliest surviving written mention.","description":"How cooked soy milk sets into tofu: beans, food-grade coagulants, cloth and a press, with safe preparation and a history attested around 965.","year":965,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":53,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","weaving","quern"],"reviewed":"2026-10-15","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tofu/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/tofu.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/tofu/index.html.md"},{"id":"battery-recycling","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Battery recycling","subtitle":"Lead and lithium won back from spent cells","summary":"Battery recycling recovers the metals and other materials of used batteries and keeps their lead, acid and flammable cells out of ordinary waste. From lead-acid batteries the industry recovers lead, plastic and acid; from lithium-ion batteries, cobalt, nickel, copper and lithium. In Britain, factory regulations of 1903 for accumulator works already covered the recovery of lead from old plates.","description":"What is recovered from used lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries, why the work is hazardous and closely regulated, and how the recycling trade grew.","year":1903,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":5,"difficulty":5,"importance":52,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["lead-acid-battery","lead-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/battery-recycling/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/battery-recycling.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/battery-recycling/index.html.md"},{"id":"biodiesel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Biodiesel","subtitle":"Vegetable oil turned into a fuel for diesel engines","summary":"Biodiesel is a fuel for diesel engines made from vegetable oils or animal fats. An alcohol, usually methanol, splits each fat molecule into three thinner molecules, fatty acid esters, and frees the glycerol that held them together. The Belgian chemist Georges Chavanne patented the use of such esters as fuel in 1937, and a bus ran on them between Brussels and Leuven the following year.","description":"What biodiesel is, why turning vegetable oil into esters makes it burn well in a diesel engine, and its history from Chavanne's 1937 Belgian patent.","year":1937,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":52,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["oil-press","distillation","combustion-engine"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/biodiesel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/biodiesel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/biodiesel/index.html.md"},{"id":"chocolate-making","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Chocolate making","subtitle":"From fermented seed to chocolate","summary":"Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree. They are fermented in their pulp, dried, roasted, shelled and ground into a fatty brown paste, which can be drunk, pressed into cocoa butter and cocoa powder, or mixed with sugar and extra butter into a bar. The oldest traces of cacao, in pottery from Ecuador, are about 5,300 years old.","description":"How cacao seeds become chocolate: fermenting, drying, roasting, grinding, pressing and tempering, a safe home recipe and a history from about 3300 BCE.","year":-3300,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":52,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","quern","control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/chocolate-making/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/chocolate-making.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/chocolate-making/index.html.md"},{"id":"mancala","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Mancala","subtitle":"Sowing seeds round a board of pits","summary":"Mancala is a family of board games played by sowing: a player lifts all the seeds from one pit, drops them one by one into the next pits and captures according to where the last seed falls. Several hundred versions have been described in Africa and Asia. The earliest dated boards that may be mancala come from Matara, in Eritrea, and date from the 6th to the 8th century.","description":"How mancala sowing and captures work, how to make a two-row board with 48 seeds, and what is known of the game's history, from Aksum to Kalah.","year":600,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":52,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mancala/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/mancala.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mancala/index.html.md"},{"id":"oyster-farming","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Oyster farming","subtitle":"Catching young oysters and raising them","summary":"Oyster farming raises oysters from their drifting larvae. The farmer sets out hard surfaces on which the young settle, then grows them on the shore bed, in mesh bags on low trestles or hanging in deeper water until they reach market size. The oldest written record is of the oyster beds that Sergius Orata made near Baiae, in Campania, before 91 BCE.","description":"How young oysters settle on collectors and grow in bags, how to make a lime-washed tile collector, and the story from Roman oyster beds to Arcachon.","year":-95,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":52,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope","pottery","lime-mortar","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oyster-farming/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/oyster-farming.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/oyster-farming/index.html.md"},{"id":"airship","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Airship","subtitle":"A balloon with an engine and a rudder","summary":"An airship is a gas balloon with engines, propellers and rudders, so that it can travel against or across the wind instead of drifting. Henri Giffard made the first powered flight in one on 24 September 1852, from Paris to Élancourt, with a steam engine hung under a long envelope. Rigid zeppelins later carried passengers across oceans, until the fire of the Hindenburg in 1937.","description":"How an airship floats on its lifting gas and is driven and steered, the non-rigid, semi-rigid and rigid kinds, and Giffard's steam airship of 1852.","year":1852,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["hot-air-balloon","steam-engine","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/airship/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/airship.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/airship/index.html.md"},{"id":"alarm-clock","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Alarm clock","subtitle":"A signal set to sound at a chosen hour","summary":"An alarm clock gives a signal at a time chosen in advance, to wake a sleeper or to mark the moment for a task. Vitruvius, writing after 27 BCE, describes water clocks by Ctesibius of Alexandria, an engineer of the 3rd century BCE, whose wheels sounded trumpets and threw out stones. In 1198 a water clock at the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, in England, sounded before matins and woke the monk in charge of the vestry. Later alarms dropped metal balls when burning incense cut a thread, rang a bell when a pin set in the dial of an iron clock came round, or lit a candle.","description":"How an alarm clock releases a signal at a set hour, how to build a water-drip alarm, and its history from the water clocks of Ctesibius.","year":-270,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["water-clock","bronze"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/alarm-clock/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/alarm-clock.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/alarm-clock/index.html.md"},{"id":"automatic-railway-coupler","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Automatic railway coupler","subtitle":"Cars that couple by bumping together","summary":"An automatic coupler joins two railway cars when they are pushed together, and parts them when a lever at the side of the car is pulled, so that nobody has to step between the cars. William C. Bussey of Illinois patented a coupling that locked itself when one car ran against another on 17 July 1847, and Ezra Miller's self-coupling hook of 1863 was fitted to passenger cars. Eli Janney's knuckle coupler of 1873, whose two curved jaws close on each other like hooked fingers, became the standard of North American railways, and a law of 1893 required automatic couplers on cars in interstate traffic in the United States.","description":"How a knuckle coupler closes and locks when two cars meet, a card model to make, and the self-acting coupler from 1847 to Janney's knuckle.","year":1847,"approx":false,"domain":"land-transport","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-locomotive"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/automatic-railway-coupler/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/automatic-railway-coupler.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/automatic-railway-coupler/index.html.md"},{"id":"beer","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Beer","subtitle":"Grain sugars fermented into alcohol","summary":"Beer is made by turning the starch of sprouted grain into sugar and letting yeast ferment that sugar into alcohol. Chemical traces of barley beer go back to the fourth millennium BCE in western Iran, and brewing has followed farming almost everywhere cereals were grown.","description":"How malting, mashing and yeast turn barley into beer, a 10-litre kitchen brew, and its history from Iran around 3500 BCE to pure yeast in 1883.","year":-3500,"approx":true,"domain":"food","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","bread"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/beer/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/beer.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/beer/index.html.md"},{"id":"beverage-carbonation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Beverage carbonation","subtitle":"Forcing carbon dioxide into water so that it sparkles when the bottle is opened","summary":"Carbonation makes a drink sparkle by dissolving carbon dioxide in it under pressure and closing it in before the gas can escape. When the bottle is opened the pressure falls and the extra gas comes out as bubbles. Gabriel-François Venel described an artificial sparkling water to the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1750; Priestley, Nooth and Schweppe then turned the trick into apparatus and a trade.","description":"How carbon dioxide dissolves in water under pressure and leaves it as bubbles, a safe test with two bottles, and artificial sparkling water since 1750.","year":1750,"approx":false,"domain":"food","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","distillation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/beverage-carbonation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/beverage-carbonation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/beverage-carbonation/index.html.md"},{"id":"body-armor","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Body Armour","subtitle":"Scales, mail, plate and fibre to stop a blow","summary":"Body armour is clothing that takes a blow in place of the body. The oldest known pieces are armour plates of bone and horn from graves at Rostovka, in western Siberia, dated to about 2100 BC. Coats of bronze scales laced onto linen or leather were worn by chariot warriors in the Near East in the 15th century BC. Mail of interlinked iron rings followed around 300 BC, then suits of steel plate in late medieval Europe, and in the 1970s vests of synthetic fibre tested against firearms to official standards.","description":"How scales, mail, plate and fibre stop a blow, a card model of scale armour, and the history of body armour from Bronze Age Siberia to police vests.","year":-2100,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze","weaving","needle-and-hand-sewing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/body-armor/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/body-armor.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/body-armor/index.html.md"},{"id":"go-game","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Go","subtitle":"Surrounding territory with stones","summary":"Go is a game for two players who take turns placing black and white stones on the intersections of a ruled board, each trying to surround more of it than the other. A stone or group left with no empty point beside it is captured and removed. Chinese texts of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE already name the game, and the oldest complete boards found, stone slabs ruled with 15 to 17 lines each way, come from tombs of the Han dynasty.","description":"How go is played on the points of a ruled grid, how stones are captured, how to make a board and stones, and the game's long history in China.","year":-400,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/go-game/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/go-game.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/go-game/index.html.md"},{"id":"hydraulic-manipulator","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hydraulic manipulator arm","subtitle":"Joints moved by oil under pressure","summary":"A hydraulic manipulator arm is a chain of rigid booms joined by pins, in which each joint is moved by its own hydraulic cylinder. A pump sends oil under pressure, and an operator, or later a controller, opens valves that send it to one side or the other of each piston. Small cylinders can thus lift heavy loads and place them precisely. In 1947 Vaino Holopainen and Roy Handy built a hydraulic backhoe in the United States; their firm, Wain-Roy, filed a patent in 1948 for a tractor backhoe whose boom, dipper stick and stabiliser each had their own cylinders. The arms of loader cranes, excavators and early industrial robots work on the same principle.","description":"How oil under pressure moves each joint of a loader crane or digger arm, a model driven by syringes of water, and the arms of HIAB and Wain-Roy.","year":1947,"approx":false,"domain":"mechanics","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["hydraulic-press","crane","combustion-engine"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydraulic-manipulator/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hydraulic-manipulator.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydraulic-manipulator/index.html.md"},{"id":"jet-pump","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Jet pump","subtitle":"A fast jet that drags another fluid along, with no moving parts","summary":"A jet pump moves one fluid with another: a fast jet of water, steam or air leaves a nozzle and drags the surrounding fluid along with it, with no piston, wheel or valve. The oldest known description is the water trompe that Giambattista Della Porta saw in Rome blowing furnaces, printed in his Natural Magic in 1589.","description":"How a fast jet drags another fluid along with no moving parts, from the forge trompe described in 1589 to Giffard's injector, lab water pumps and well pumps.","year":1589,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jet-pump/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/jet-pump.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jet-pump/index.html.md"},{"id":"mercury-extraction","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Mercury extraction","subtitle":"Freeing quicksilver from cinnabar","summary":"Mercury, the only metal that is liquid at room temperature, is won almost entirely from cinnabar, a red ore of mercury and sulfur that gives up its metal as a vapour when heated. The oldest known description of making it from cinnabar was written by the Greek Theophrastus in about 315 BCE. For centuries the great mines of Almadén, Idrija and Huancavelica supplied the mercury that refined American silver, at a heavy cost to the health of their workers.","description":"How mercury is freed from cinnabar by heat, the mines of Almadén, Idrija and Huancavelica, silver amalgamation, and the poisoning of the miners.","year":-315,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["mining","control-of-fire","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mercury-extraction/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/mercury-extraction.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mercury-extraction/index.html.md"},{"id":"molten-salt-thermal-storage","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Molten salt thermal storage","subtitle":"Solar heat kept in tanks of hot salt for the night","summary":"Molten salt thermal storage keeps the heat of a solar power plant in large insulated tanks of melted nitrate salt, so that the plant can make steam and electricity after sunset or under clouds. Cold salt at about 290 °C is heated in the receiver to about 565 °C and kept in a hot tank until it is needed. The French Thémis tower, connected to the grid in 1983, used molten salt both to carry and to store its heat.","description":"How tanks of hot and cold molten salt store solar heat for electricity at night, a safe model with warm water, and the history from 1980s tests to Gemasolar.","year":1983,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["solar-power-tower","steel","steam-turbine"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/molten-salt-thermal-storage/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/molten-salt-thermal-storage.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/molten-salt-thermal-storage/index.html.md"},{"id":"music-box","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Music box","subtitle":"A pinned cylinder plucking a steel comb","summary":"A music box plays a tune by itself: a brass cylinder set with fine steel pins turns slowly and plucks the tuned teeth of a steel comb, driven by a clock spring and held to an even speed by a small air brake. The positions of the pins encode the tune. The oldest dated example is a watch by Michel-Joseph Ransonnet of Nancy, its case dated 1772, in which a pinned barrel plucks six steel teeth through sprung levers. In 1796 the Geneva watchmaker Antoine Favre made a carillon whose pins caught steel blades, without bells or hammers.","description":"How a music box's pinned cylinder, steel comb, lead weights and governor play a tune, with a hand-cranked demonstration and a history from the 1770s.","year":1770,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steel","mechanical-clock","lead-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/music-box/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/music-box.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/music-box/index.html.md"},{"id":"parachute","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Parachute","subtitle":"A canopy that slows a fall","summary":"A parachute slows a fall by opening a wide cloth canopy above the load, so that the drag of the air soon balances its weight. An Italian engineer drew the idea around 1470. In 1783 Louis-Sébastien Lenormand tried it at Montpellier and gave it its name, and in 1797 André-Jacques Garnerin came down under one from a balloon over Paris.","description":"How a parachute canopy slows a fall and how a pilot chute pulls it open, with its history from drawings of about 1470 to the silk parachutes of 1919.","year":1783,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["weaving","rope","needle-and-hand-sewing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/parachute/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/parachute.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/parachute/index.html.md"},{"id":"pitfall-traps","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pitfall traps","subtitle":"A pit the animal cannot climb out of","summary":"A pitfall trap is a hole that an animal falls into and cannot climb out of. Hunters dug pits on the paths animals used, often in long rows joined by fences, and hid the openings. The oldest known trap pits, on the island of Tanegashima in southern Japan, were dug between about 38,000 and 34,000 years ago.","description":"How pitfall traps catch animals that cannot climb back out, from trap pits dug in Japan about 36,000 years ago to the elk pits of Scandinavia.","year":-34000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pitfall-traps/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pitfall-traps.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pitfall-traps/index.html.md"},{"id":"potters-wheel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Potter's Wheel","subtitle":"Shaping clay by rotation","summary":"A potter's wheel is a heavy disc that spins on a vertical axis, so that clay set at its centre can be shaped evenly all round by the potter's hands. It began in the Near East as a slow turntable more than six thousand years ago; the fast wheel, which stores enough momentum to throw a pot from a lump of clay, followed.","description":"How a potter's wheel and its flywheel let you centre and throw clay, how to build a kick wheel, and its history in the Near East from about 4000 BCE.","year":-4000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["pottery","flywheel","plain-bearing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/potters-wheel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/potters-wheel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/potters-wheel/index.html.md"},{"id":"steam-bath","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Steam bath","subtitle":"Sweating in a room of hot stones and steam","summary":"A steam bath is a small closed room heated until the people inside sweat, usually by stones warmed in a fire, with water thrown on the stones to raise bursts of steam. The Finnish sauna, the Russian banya, the Mesoamerican temazcal and the sweat lodge of the Plains are all forms of it. One of the earliest known is at Puerto Escondido in Honduras, from about 1100–900 BCE; the earliest in the Maya lowlands is at Cuello in Belize.","description":"How a steam bath stores heat in stones and makes steam, how a Finnish smoke sauna is built and heated, the safety rules, and sweat baths from the Maya on.","year":-1000,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-bath/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/steam-bath.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/steam-bath/index.html.md"},{"id":"textile-recycling","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Textile recycling","subtitle":"Tearing worn cloth back into fibre","summary":"Textile recycling recovers the fibres of worn clothes and cloth. Rags are sorted by fibre and colour and torn apart by a toothed drum into loose fibre, which is spun again with some new fibre or made into felt, padding and insulation. Re-spun rag wool, called shoddy, was first made at Batley in Yorkshire in about 1813.","description":"How worn textiles are sorted and torn back into fibre for yarn, felt and insulation, how to recover wool by hand, and shoddy from Batley, about 1813.","year":1813,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","water-wheel","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/textile-recycling/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/textile-recycling.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/textile-recycling/index.html.md"},{"id":"trebuchet","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Trebuchet","subtitle":"A falling weight that hurls stones","summary":"A trebuchet is a great see-saw for throwing stones. A heavy box of earth or stones on the short arm of a pivoting beam falls and swings the long arm up, and a sling at its tip hurls the shot. Pulling crews worked the first trebuchets in ancient China; the counterweight machine appears in the late 12th century, first drawn in a manual written for Saladin around 1180 to 1187, and it remained the heaviest artillery until cannon took its place.","description":"How a counterweight trebuchet turns a falling weight into a throw, a soft-ball tabletop model, and its history from China to castle sieges.","year":1180,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["rope","timber-framing","iron-smelting","crane"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/trebuchet/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/trebuchet.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/trebuchet/index.html.md"},{"id":"vulcanized-rubber","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Vulcanised Rubber","subtitle":"Sap made tough with sulphur","summary":"Vulcanised rubber is rubber whose long molecules have been tied together, first by heating natural rubber with sulphur, so that it stays elastic in heat and cold instead of turning sticky or brittle. Charles Goodyear in the United States hit on the effect in 1839; he and Thomas Hancock in Britain made the process reliable in the early 1840s, and it made rubber usable for tyres, hoses, seals and footwear.","description":"How sulphur ties rubber molecules into an elastic network, how latex becomes tyres and hoses, and Goodyear's hot stove of 1839 and Hancock's patent.","year":1839,"approx":false,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":50,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vulcanized-rubber/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/vulcanized-rubber.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vulcanized-rubber/index.html.md"},{"id":"absorption-refrigerator","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Absorption refrigerator","subtitle":"Cold from a flame, with ammonia dissolved in water","summary":"An absorption refrigerator makes cold from heat. Liquid ammonia boils inside the cold box and takes heat from the food; water then soaks up the vapour, and a flame or an electric heater drives the ammonia out of the water again so the cycle can start over. Ferdinand Carré patented a machine working with ammonia and water in France in 1859. A continuous version with no moving parts, invented in Stockholm in 1922, still cools caravans and boats.","description":"How an absorption refrigerator makes cold from a flame with ammonia and water, why its circuit stays sealed, and its history from Carré's 1859 patent.","year":1859,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":48,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["refrigeration","steel","oil-lamp"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/absorption-refrigerator/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/absorption-refrigerator.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/absorption-refrigerator/index.html.md"},{"id":"cooling-tower","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cooling tower","subtitle":"Condenser water cooled by letting a little of it evaporate","summary":"A cooling tower cools the warm water that leaves the condensers of a power station or a factory by letting it fall through a stream of air, so that a small part of it evaporates and carries off the heat. The cooled water goes back to the condenser. A first tower drawing its air by chimney draught, built of timber by Hans Joachim Balcke, was tried at Nuremberg in 1894, and the tall concrete hyperboloid shell came from the Netherlands during the First World War.","description":"How a cooling tower cools condenser water by evaporation, a small model to build with warm water, and its history from Balcke's 1894 tower to concrete shells.","year":1894,"approx":false,"domain":"energy","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":48,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["steam-engine","piston-pump","steel","reinforced-concrete"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cooling-tower/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cooling-tower.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cooling-tower/index.html.md"},{"id":"hydrometer","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hydrometer","subtitle":"Reading density from a float","summary":"A hydrometer is a weighted float with a scale on its stem. It sinks deeper in a light liquid than in a dense one, so the depth at which it settles gives the density. The oldest description is in a letter from Synesius of Cyrene to Hypatia around 400, and the alcoholometer applies it to the strength of spirits.","description":"How a hydrometer reads the density of a liquid, how to make a simple one from a straw, and its history from a letter of c. 400 to the alcoholometer.","year":400,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":48,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","bronze","measures-and-standards","distillation","paper"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydrometer/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hydrometer.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hydrometer/index.html.md"},{"id":"sitar","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sitar","subtitle":"Gourd, movable frets and sympathetic strings","summary":"The sitar is a long-necked lute of North India, plucked with a wire plectrum. A dried gourd forms its body, curved metal frets tied to the hollow neck can be moved to suit each raga, and fine sympathetic strings under the frets ring when the played strings sound their notes. Mughal paintings show it in the first half of the eighteenth century.","description":"How the sitar's gourd, movable frets, curved bridge and sympathetic strings shape its sound, and what the evidence says about its 18th-century origin.","year":1740,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":48,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wire-drawing","adhesives","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sitar/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sitar.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sitar/index.html.md"},{"id":"book-cipher","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Book cipher","subtitle":"Secret letters keyed to a printed book","summary":"A book cipher hides a message by pointing into a book that both correspondents own in the same printed edition. Each word or letter is replaced by its place in the book, such as page, line and word. Girolamo Cardano described the method in 1557.","description":"How two copies of the same printed book serve as the key of a cipher, how page, line and word numbers replace a message, and its history since 1557.","year":1557,"approx":false,"domain":"communication","tier":3,"difficulty":1,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["writing","printing-press"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/book-cipher/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/book-cipher.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/book-cipher/index.html.md"},{"id":"clothes-iron","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Clothes iron","subtitle":"Smoothing cloth with heat, weight and steam","summary":"A clothes iron smooths cloth with a hot, flat, heavy base, often helped by moisture. In China, bronze pan irons go back to the Warring States period (475–221 BCE): one was found at Tiemulike, in Xinjiang. A bronze pan of the Western Han period carries an inscription naming it the ironing pan of the household of Princess Yangxin, sister of the emperor Wu (reigned 141–87 BCE). Chinese irons held burning charcoal; European irons were heated in the fire or filled with a red-hot slug; electric irons were patented in 1882 and gained thermostats and steam in the 1920s.","description":"How an iron takes the creases out of cloth with heat, weight and moisture, and its history from Chinese bronze pans to steam irons.","year":-300,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["bronze","charcoal","weaving","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/clothes-iron/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/clothes-iron.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/clothes-iron/index.html.md"},{"id":"combination-lock","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Combination lock","subtitle":"Opening by setting discs, not by turning a key","summary":"A combination lock opens without a key: discs, rings or wheels, each with a notch, must all be turned to one setting before the bolt can move. The oldest known example is a small bronze lock from a box buried in a woman's grave of the Roman imperial period in Athens; the oldest dated one is on a brass casket made in Iran in 1197.","description":"How a combination lock opens when notched wheels line up under a fence, how to make a card model, and its history from a Roman grave in Athens.","year":1197,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["lock-and-key","bronze","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/combination-lock/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/combination-lock.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/combination-lock/index.html.md"},{"id":"continuous-track","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Continuous track","subtitle":"A road that the vehicle lays down and picks up again","summary":"A continuous track is an endless belt of hinged plates that runs around a vehicle's wheels, so that the vehicle lays down its own road in front and picks it up behind. Spreading the weight over a long strip of ground keeps heavy machines from sinking into mud, peat or snow. Richard Lovell Edgeworth patented in 1770 a carriage that laid down its own road of wooden planks, and John Barry in 1821 and George Cayley in 1825 patented endless railways. Steam log haulers in Maine put it to work in the early 1900s, and tractors, bulldozers and earth movers have used it ever since.","description":"How an endless track spreads a vehicle's weight and how it steers, a cardboard model with a rubber band, and the history of the track since 1770.","year":1770,"approx":false,"domain":"land-transport","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wheel","gear","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/continuous-track/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/continuous-track.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/continuous-track/index.html.md"},{"id":"deadfall-trap","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Deadfall trap","subtitle":"A raised weight released by a trigger","summary":"A deadfall trap kills by dropping a heavy log or stone on an animal that disturbs its trigger. The weight is raised beforehand and held in a fragile balance, so a light touch brings it down. Wooden sticks from Cougar Mountain Cave in Oregon, about 12,000 years old, are read by the team that dated them as the oldest known deadfall triggers.","description":"How a deadfall trap uses the weight of a raised log or stone, from 12,000-year-old triggers in Oregon to the kulema of Siberian sable hunters.","year":-10000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/deadfall-trap/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/deadfall-trap.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/deadfall-trap/index.html.md"},{"id":"duct-tape","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cloth adhesive tape","subtitle":"From rubber plaster to duct tape","summary":"Cloth adhesive tape is a strip of woven cloth coated on one face with a sticky layer of rubber, so that it holds under light pressure without water or heat. A patent of 1845 by William Shecut and Horace Day already spread a rubber mass on cotton to make medical plasters. Duct tape, its best known form, began as a waterproof cloth tape for the US Army during the Second World War and took its name from heating ducts after the war.","description":"How cloth tape sticks under light pressure, how to measure its grip with a simple peel test, and its history from the rubber plasters of 1845.","year":1845,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","adhesives","distillation"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/duct-tape/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/duct-tape.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/duct-tape/index.html.md"},{"id":"fishing-reel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Fishing reel","subtitle":"Storing and winding line on a spool","summary":"A fishing reel is a spool fixed to the rod that holds far more line than the rod is long. The angler can let a strong fish run, wind the line back when it tires and cast the bait well out. The clearest early description comes from Chinese poems of about 870, which tell of a single wheel with a horn handle that chirped as the line ran out.","description":"How a reel stores and winds line, why clicks, gears and fixed spools were added, how to make a wooden reel, and the reel from Tang China to Kentucky.","year":870,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["fishing-rod-and-hook","plain-bearing","gear"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fishing-reel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/fishing-reel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fishing-reel/index.html.md"},{"id":"gear-pump","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Gear pump","subtitle":"Liquid carried between meshing teeth","summary":"A gear pump moves a liquid with two toothed wheels that mesh inside a close-fitting casing. Where the teeth come apart, liquid flows into the spaces between them; it is carried round the outside of each wheel and pushed out where the teeth mesh again. Johannes Kepler devised a valveless gear pump for draining mines: in 1602 he ordered a brass model from two Augsburg craftsmen, who never delivered it, and Jost Bürgi made one in 1604; a book printed in Lyon in 1719 describes one sunk in a well and turned from a hand wheel to raise water. Gear pumps now circulate engine oil, feed fuel and drive the hydraulics of tractors and building machines.","description":"How two meshing gears carry liquid round a close-fitting casing, a hand-cranked model to build, and the gear pump from a book printed in Lyon in 1719.","year":1602,"approx":false,"domain":"mechanics","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["gear"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gear-pump/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/gear-pump.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/gear-pump/index.html.md"},{"id":"headphones","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Headphones","subtitle":"Two electric receivers held to the ears for listening alone","summary":"Headphones are a pair of small electric receivers held against the ears by a band over the head, so that one person can listen alone with both hands free. In the oldest type, a permanent magnet pulls on a thin iron disc and the incoming current strengthens or weakens that pull, so the disc vibrates and sends sound into the ear. The earliest known head-worn pair is in a patent filed in July 1879 by Andrew C. Hubbard of Danbury, Connecticut.","description":"How headphones turn a current into sound with a magnet and an iron disc, how to make a simple receiver, and their history since a head telephone of 1879.","year":1879,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":5,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["telephone","steel","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/headphones/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/headphones.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/headphones/index.html.md"},{"id":"hot-air-balloon","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hot-Air Balloon","subtitle":"Rising on warm air","summary":"A hot-air balloon rises because the heated air inside its envelope is lighter than the cooler air around it. The Montgolfier brothers, who had flown a small model indoors in 1782, first showed one in public in France in 1783, and on 21 November of that year their balloon carried two men over Paris, the first human flight in free air.","description":"Why hot air lifts a balloon, how to make a tissue-paper model with a hair dryer, and the Montgolfier flight that took two men over Paris in 1783.","year":1783,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","control-of-fire","weaving","basketry","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hot-air-balloon/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/hot-air-balloon.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/hot-air-balloon/index.html.md"},{"id":"jaw-harp","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Jaw harp","subtitle":"A plucked tongue sounded through the mouth","summary":"A jaw harp is a small instrument with an elastic tongue fixed at one end to a frame. Held against the lips and plucked or jerked by a string, the tongue vibrates, and the player's mouth acts as a resonator that brings out one overtone after another. The oldest known are thin bone harps from Shimao in northern China, dated to about 2000 BCE.","description":"How the tongue of a jaw harp and the player's mouth make a melody, how to make a bamboo string harp, and the bone harps of China c. 2000 BCE.","year":-2000,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jaw-harp/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/jaw-harp.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/jaw-harp/index.html.md"},{"id":"perfume-extraction","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Perfume extraction","subtitle":"Capturing the scent of flowers","summary":"Perfumers draw the scent out of flowers, peel and spices without a still in three main ways: by soaking them in oil or fat, by washing scented fat with alcohol, and by pressing the oil out of citrus peel. Tablets from Girsu, in Sumer, already record the making of scented oil around 2400 BCE, and the oldest step-by-step recipes, from Assur, date from around 1200 BCE.","description":"How perfumers capture the scent of flowers in fat, oil and alcohol or press it from citrus peel, with a safe enfleurage to try and its history since Sumer.","year":-2400,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["oil-press","pottery","control-of-fire","animal-domestication","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/perfume-extraction/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/perfume-extraction.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/perfume-extraction/index.html.md"},{"id":"poker","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Poker","subtitle":"Betting on a hidden hand of five cards","summary":"Poker is a family of card games in which each player bets on a hand of five cards that the others cannot see. Hands are compared by a fixed ranking based on rarity, and a player can win without showing a card if everyone else folds. The oldest eyewitness account describes a game on a Mississippi steamboat in December 1829, played with only twenty cards.","description":"How poker ranks hands and uses betting and bluff, how to play a hand of draw poker, and its history from an 1829 Mississippi steamboat onward.","year":1829,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":1,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["playing-cards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/poker/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/poker.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/poker/index.html.md"},{"id":"pregnancy-test","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Biological pregnancy test","subtitle":"Detecting a hormone through its effect on an animal","summary":"A biological pregnancy test detected pregnancy from the effect a woman's urine had on a laboratory animal. The urine of a pregnant woman carries a hormone made by the placenta, and that hormone acts on the ovaries or testes of a mouse, a rabbit, a frog or a toad. Selmar Aschheim and Bernhard Zondek described the reaction in Berlin in 1927. For several decades specialist laboratories ran these tests at a doctor's request, until tests based on antibodies made the animals unnecessary.","description":"How a hormone made by the placenta was once detected through its effect on a mouse, a rabbit or a frog, from Berlin in 1927 to the first antibody tests.","year":1927,"approx":false,"domain":"medicine","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["microscope","glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pregnancy-test/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pregnancy-test.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pregnancy-test/index.html.md"},{"id":"rotary-converter","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Rotary converter","subtitle":"Turning alternating current into direct current with one machine","summary":"A rotary converter is a single rotating machine that turns alternating current into direct current, or the reverse. Its armature winding is connected both to slip rings and to a commutator, so it runs as a motor on the alternating side and acts as a generator on the direct side. Charles Bradley described the idea in a patent application of 1887, and converters fed the direct-current tramways and railways of the early 20th century.","description":"How one rotating machine turns alternating current into direct current, a hand-turned low-voltage model, and the substations of the electric tramways.","year":1887,"approx":false,"domain":"electricity","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["generator","electric-motor"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rotary-converter/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/rotary-converter.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rotary-converter/index.html.md"},{"id":"scarecrow","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Scarecrow","subtitle":"A human figure that keeps birds off the crop","summary":"A scarecrow is a figure dressed as a person and set up in a field or garden to keep birds away from the seed and the ripening crop. Birds soon learn that it never moves, so it works only for a while unless it is moved and changed. The oldest clear mention is in the Letter of Jeremiah, a Jewish text probably written in the third or second century BCE, which compares idols to a scarecrow in a cucumber field. Roman poems from about 35 BCE describe wooden statues of the god Priapus guarding gardens against birds and thieves.","description":"How a scarecrow frightens birds and why they get used to it, how to make one for a garden, and its history from antiquity to modern effigies.","year":-200,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["seed-saving","rope","weaving"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/scarecrow/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/scarecrow.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/scarecrow/index.html.md"},{"id":"self-climbing-tower-crane","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Self-climbing tower crane","subtitle":"A crane that adds sections to its own mast","summary":"A self-climbing tower crane makes its own mast taller. A frame around the top of the mast carries the jib and its machinery; a hydraulic cylinder pushes this frame and everything above it up by the height of one section, and a new section is rolled in through an opening in its side. The crane can thus keep its hook above a building that rises floor by floor. Such cranes appeared in the mid-1950s, in France and in Germany. According to its own history, the French maker Potain built a crane with a climbing cage of this kind, raised at first with cables; hydraulic cylinders later replaced the cables. In the same period, Liebherr designed its self-climbing 25H in Germany.","description":"How a tower crane lifts its top and slides a new section into its own mast, a syringe-jack model to build, and the climbing cage from the 1950s.","year":1955,"approx":true,"domain":"mechanics","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["crane","steel","hydraulic-press","electric-motor"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/self-climbing-tower-crane/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/self-climbing-tower-crane.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/self-climbing-tower-crane/index.html.md"},{"id":"sewing-machine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sewing Machine","subtitle":"A thousand stitches a minute","summary":"A sewing machine joins cloth with stitches formed mechanically, most often by locking an upper thread, carried by a needle with its eye near the point, around a lower thread held in a shuttle or bobbin case. Barthélemy Thimonnier's chain-stitch machine of 1830 was the first put to work in a factory; Elias Howe's lockstitch patent of 1846 and Isaac Singer's machine of 1851 made it an industrial and household tool.","description":"How a sewing machine locks two threads into a stitch, a large lockstitch model to make, and its history from Thimonnier's 1830 machine to Howe and Singer.","year":1830,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["gear","iron-smelting","weaving","steel","lathe","needle-and-hand-sewing","flywheel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sewing-machine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sewing-machine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sewing-machine/index.html.md"},{"id":"spring-traps","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Spring traps","subtitle":"Energy stored in bent wood or steel","summary":"A spring trap catches an animal with energy stored in bent wood or steel and set free by a trigger, so that jaws, flaps or a noose close on it. The oldest pictures proposed as spring traps are Egyptian: a bird-trap hieroglyph attested from the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BCE), and pigeon traps painted around 2000 BCE in a tomb at Beni Hasan. The oldest surviving examples are wooden treadle traps from the bogs of northern Europe and Ireland, placed in the Bronze Age by pollen analysis and in the 6th and 7th centuries CE by radiocarbon.","description":"How spring traps store energy in bent wood or steel, from wooden bog traps and mole traps to steel jaw traps and the laws that now restrict them.","year":-2500,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["rope","stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/spring-traps/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/spring-traps.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/spring-traps/index.html.md"},{"id":"stroboscopic-animation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Stroboscopic animation","subtitle":"Making drawings move with slits and flashes","summary":"A stroboscopic animation device shows a series of pictures, each drawn a little further along a movement, one after another and each for an instant in the same place, so that the eye sees a single figure in motion. The Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau described the first, a slotted disc viewed in a mirror, in 1832. Simon Stampfer made the same discovery independently in Vienna: Thomas Renoldner dates his device to 1832, and Stampfer published it and obtained an imperial privilege for it in 1833. In the slotted disc, the zoetrope and the film projector a moment of darkness separates the pictures, while the praxinoscope replaces the slits with a ring of mirrors.","description":"How spinning slotted discs and drums turn a row of drawings into motion, from Plateau's phenakistiscope of 1832 to the shutter of a film projector.","year":1832,"approx":false,"domain":"optics","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paper","mirror"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/stroboscopic-animation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/stroboscopic-animation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/stroboscopic-animation/index.html.md"},{"id":"sundial","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Sundial","subtitle":"Telling time with a shadow","summary":"A sundial tells the time from the shadow that the Sun casts on a marked surface. The oldest surviving examples come from Egypt in the fifteenth century BCE, and until mechanical clocks spread in the late Middle Ages it was the main way to divide the day.","description":"How a sundial tells the time from a shadow, how to lay out a horizontal dial for your latitude, and its history from Egypt's shadow clocks of c. 1450 BCE.","year":-1450,"approx":true,"domain":"measure","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","measures-and-standards"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sundial/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/sundial.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/sundial/index.html.md"},{"id":"torsion-catapult","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Torsion Catapult","subtitle":"Artillery powered by twisted sinew rope","summary":"A torsion catapult throws arrows or stones with the energy of twisted rope. Its arms are thrust through tight skeins of sinew held in a wooden frame, and drawing the string back twists the skeins further. Greek engineers developed it in the 4th century BC; Duncan Campbell reads Athenian arsenal lists as showing torsion machines probably in store by 330/329 BC, and the Romans used its descendants until late antiquity.","description":"How a torsion catapult stores energy in twisted skeins of sinew, a soft-ball tabletop model, and its history from Greek arsenals to the onager.","year":-330,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["crossbow","rope","bronze","iron-smelting","crane"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/torsion-catapult/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/torsion-catapult.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/torsion-catapult/index.html.md"},{"id":"vertical-greenhouse","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Vertical greenhouse","subtitle":"A glass tower that carries its plants up and down on moving trays","summary":"A vertical greenhouse grows plants in a tall glass tower and keeps them moving. Two endless chains carry hanging trays of pots up one side and down the other, so that every plant takes its turn in the bright upper part of the tower and passes a trough of water or nutrient solution at the bottom. The Austrian engineer Othmar Ruthner put the first one to work in 1963, and towers of his design were built in Austria, Germany and several other countries.","description":"How a glass tower greenhouse carries its plants up and down on endless chains, how to build a hand-turned pot wheel, and the towers of the 1960s.","year":1963,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":5,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass","steel","electric-motor","hydroponics"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vertical-greenhouse/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/vertical-greenhouse.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/vertical-greenhouse/index.html.md"},{"id":"wood-distillation","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Wood distillation","subtitle":"Charcoal, tar, wood vinegar and methanol from wood heated without air","summary":"Wood distillation heats wood in a closed vessel with no air, so that it breaks down instead of burning. The vapours are cooled into tar and a sour watery liquor, wood vinegar, which holds acetic acid and wood spirit, or methanol; charcoal stays behind. Johann Rudolf Glauber described the condensing of wood vinegar in the late 1640s, and until the 1920s distilling wood was the chief source of methanol.","description":"How heating wood without air yields charcoal, tar, wood vinegar and methanol, why the liquor is dangerous, and the history of wood distillation since Glauber.","year":1648,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":4,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["distillation","iron-smelting","bricks"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wood-distillation/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/wood-distillation.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wood-distillation/index.html.md"},{"id":"wood-waste-recovery","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Wood waste recovery","subtitle":"Chipping sawmill leftovers into mulch, fuel and boards","summary":"Wood waste recovery takes the slabs, offcuts, shavings and sawdust of sawmills and joinery shops, and the branches cut by tree surgeons, and turns them back into raw material. Chipped and sorted, the same stream becomes mulch for gardens, pressed logs and pellets for stoves, and boards bonded with resin. In 1603 Hugh Plat, in London, described coal balls made with the sawdust of sawn boards, and in 1924 William H. Mason, at Laurel, Mississippi, turned the chips a sawmill burned as waste into hard boards.","description":"How sawmill offcuts, shavings and sawdust are chipped and reused as mulch, fuel pellets and particleboard, and the history of the trade since 1603.","year":1603,"approx":false,"domain":"materials","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":45,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["frame-saw","adhesives","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wood-waste-recovery/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/wood-waste-recovery.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/wood-waste-recovery/index.html.md"},{"id":"berimbau","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Berimbau","subtitle":"A struck bow with a gourd against the belly","summary":"The berimbau is a musical bow from Brazil: a wooden stave bent by a single steel wire, with an open gourd tied near its lower end. The player strikes the wire with a thin stick, changes the note by pressing a coin or a stone against it, and colours the sound by moving the gourd towards and away from the belly. Gourd bows played by Africans in Brazil were drawn and described from the 1810s.","description":"How the berimbau's wire, coin and gourd make its notes and its wah sound, how to string one, and the gourd bows of Africans in Brazil from the 1810s.","year":1814,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":42,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/berimbau/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/berimbau.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/berimbau/index.html.md"},{"id":"nine-mens-morris","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Nine men's morris","subtitle":"Making mills on a board of three squares","summary":"Nine men's morris is a game for two players on a board of three nested squares joined at the middle of their sides, which gives 24 points. Each player places nine counters, then moves them along the lines, and three in a row, called a mill, removes an enemy counter. The oldest dated boards come from the floor of a Buddhist stupa of the 2nd or 3rd century CE in the Swat valley of Pakistan and from a slab reused in a burial of the 3rd or 4th century near Van, in Turkey.","description":"How nine men's morris is played on 24 points, how a mill takes a counter, how to draw a board, and its history from Roman tiles to Alfonso X.","year":250,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":1,"importance":42,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/nine-mens-morris/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/nine-mens-morris.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/nine-mens-morris/index.html.md"},{"id":"pressure-coffee-maker","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pressure coffee maker","subtitle":"Coffee pushed up by steam","summary":"A pressure coffee maker uses the pressure inside a closed, heated boiler to drive hot water through a bed of ground coffee into a separate chamber. In 1822 Louis Bernard Rabaut received an English patent for a pot in which steam pressure forced boiling water up through the coffee. The aluminium moka pot of the 1930s is its best-known form.","description":"How a pressure coffee maker drives hot water up through ground coffee with steam and air, and its history from Rabaut's patent of 1822 to the moka pot.","year":1822,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":42,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["coffee-processing","iron-smelting","tin-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pressure-coffee-maker/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pressure-coffee-maker.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pressure-coffee-maker/index.html.md"},{"id":"autogyro","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Autogyro","subtitle":"A rotor turned by the wind of flight, and a propeller to pull it along","summary":"An autogyro is an aircraft held up by a rotor that no engine turns in flight: the air flowing up through the rotor keeps it spinning, while an ordinary propeller pulls or pushes the machine forward. Juan de la Cierva's C.4 made the first autogyro flight at Getafe, near Madrid, in January 1923, thanks to blades hinged so that they could flap.","description":"How an autogyro's free rotor is spun by the air flowing up through it, why Cierva hinged the blades, and its history from the C.4 of 1923 to sport gyroplanes.","year":1923,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["airplane","combustion-engine"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/autogyro/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/autogyro.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/autogyro/index.html.md"},{"id":"camouflage","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Camouflage","subtitle":"Paint and patterns that make an object hard to see","summary":"Camouflage is the art of making a made object hard to see by painting it. It uses three main principles found in animals: matching the colours of the background, breaking up the outline with contrasting patches, and shading the object darker on top and lighter below so that it looks flat. Around 390 the Roman writer Vegetius advised dyeing the sails and ropes of scout ships a sea-blue colour so that they would not be seen. In 1898 the naturalist Richard Kearton described an imitation tree trunk of painted cloth that hid a photographer and his camera from birds, and in 1902 the painter Abbott Thayer and Gerome Brush patented a way of painting ships with countershading. During the First World War, the French army set up a unit of artists to apply it.","description":"How background matching, disruptive patches and countershading hide an object, a tabletop test with two painted tubes, and the history since the 4th century.","year":390,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":4,"difficulty":1,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["paint"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/camouflage/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/camouflage.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/camouflage/index.html.md"},{"id":"coffee-depulper","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Coffee pulper","subtitle":"A rasping roller that strips the skin and pulp from fresh coffee cherries","summary":"A coffee pulper strips the red skin and sweet pulp from freshly picked coffee cherries without harming the two beans inside. A turning roller with a rough copper surface drags each cherry against a fixed plate set just wider than a bean: the cherry bursts, the slippery beans are held back and the skin is carried through. A letter of 1765 from the lieutenant governor of Dominica, printed in London in 1774, already describes West Indian coffee passed through a mill before soaking, and Laborie published the oldest detailed description of such a mill in London in 1798.","description":"How a rasping roller and an adjustable plate strip the pulp from coffee cherries, a cherry test of the gap, and the pulper since the West Indies of the 1760s.","year":1765,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["coffee-processing","copper-smelting","steel","wire-drawing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coffee-depulper/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/coffee-depulper.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coffee-depulper/index.html.md"},{"id":"horn-working","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Horn working","subtitle":"Softening horn with heat and pressing it into shape","summary":"Horn is the hard sheath of keratin that grows over a bony core on the heads of cattle, sheep and goats. Heated in water or over a fire, it softens enough to be opened out, pressed flat, bent or moulded, and it sets again in its new shape as it cools. Horn workers made combs, spoons, cups, buttons and thin translucent panes from it until plastics replaced it. Among the oldest known horn objects are combs from Predynastic Egypt, about 3900–3500 BCE; in Poland, horn cores with working marks at Kopydłowo date from about 3600–3400 BCE.","description":"How horn is taken off its core, softened with heat and pressed flat or moulded, how to shape a piece safely, and the history of the horner's craft.","year":-3700,"approx":true,"domain":"materials","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["animal-domestication","stone-tools","control-of-fire","pottery"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/horn-working/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/horn-working.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/horn-working/index.html.md"},{"id":"lock-and-key","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Lock & Key","subtitle":"A bolt that only its key frees","summary":"A lock holds a bolt in place until a key of the right shape releases it. Wooden pin locks were in use in the ancient Near East, and the same principle, refined in the nineteenth century, works in most door cylinders today.","description":"How a wooden pin lock works and how to make one, from the Assyrian palace of Khorsabad in the 8th century BCE to the flat key Linus Yale Jr. patented.","year":-700,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":2,"difficulty":3,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-14","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lock-and-key/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/lock-and-key.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/lock-and-key/index.html.md"},{"id":"manual-food-grinder","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Hand mincer and grater","subtitle":"A crank-driven screw that cuts food at a perforated plate","summary":"A hand mincer turns pieces of meat or other food into a fine, even mince: a screw driven by a crank pushes them forward against a perforated plate, where a cross-shaped knife turning with the screw cuts off whatever comes through the holes. The oldest dated description found is an American patent of 1845 for a sausage-meat machine with spiral wings and a revolving cutting plate; the same drive can turn a grating drum.","description":"How a hand mincer cuts food between a turning knife and a fixed plate, how to use one safely, the grating drum, and its history since an 1845 patent.","year":1845,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/manual-food-grinder/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/manual-food-grinder.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/manual-food-grinder/index.html.md"},{"id":"multitool","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Multitool","subtitle":"Several tools folding into one handle","summary":"A multitool gathers several small tools in one handle that fits in a pocket. Each tool turns on a pin and folds into the handle when it is not needed, and in most folding knives a flat steel spring holds it open or shut. Roman craftsmen of the 3rd century CE already made folding sets with a knife, a spoon, a fork and a spike, and the idea was taken up again by the Swiss officer's knife of 1897 and by pocket tools built around pliers from 1983.","description":"How a folding multitool holds its tools with a spring, how to make a simple two-tool folder, and its history from Roman sets to pocket pliers.","year":250,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bronze","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/multitool/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/multitool.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/multitool/index.html.md"},{"id":"mycelium-materials","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Mycelium materials","subtitle":"Plant waste bound into solid shapes by a growing fungus","summary":"Mycelium materials are solid shapes grown from plant waste. Chopped straw, stalks or sawdust are packed into a mould with a living fungus, whose fine threads spread between the pieces and knit them into one block. Drying the block stops the growth and leaves a light material used for packaging and insulation. Shigeru Yamanaka and Reiko Kikuchi of the Japanese firm Ajinomoto obtained in 1991 a United States patent, one of the earliest, on fibres bonded by a growing fungus.","description":"How a fungus grows through chopped plant waste in a mould and binds it into a light solid, how to grow a block from a kit, and its history since 1991.","year":1991,"approx":false,"domain":"materials","tier":5,"difficulty":2,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["harvest"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mycelium-materials/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/mycelium-materials.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/mycelium-materials/index.html.md"},{"id":"pearl-culture","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pearl culture","subtitle":"Making molluscs grow pearls","summary":"Pearl culture makes a living mollusc coat an object with nacre, the material of its own shell. In the usual modern method a small piece of mantle from another oyster is placed with a shell bead in the oyster's gonad, and its cells grow into a sac that lays nacre on the bead. The oldest written method comes from Song China, about 1080; Linnaeus grew round pearls in freshwater mussels in the 1750s, and the modern industry of round sea pearls took shape in Japan early in the 20th century.","description":"How a graft of mantle makes an oyster coat a bead with nacre, how pearl farms work, and pearl culture from Song China to Mikimoto, Mise and Nishikawa.","year":1080,"approx":true,"domain":"agriculture","tier":3,"difficulty":4,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["oyster-farming"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pearl-culture/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pearl-culture.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pearl-culture/index.html.md"},{"id":"protective-goggles","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Protective goggles","subtitle":"Shielding the eyes from glare, impacts and water","summary":"Protective goggles hold a shield in front of the eyes against glare, flying particles, splashes or water. The oldest known pairs are snow goggles of walrus ivory from the Bering Sea region, about 2000 years old: a narrow slit in front of each eye cut the glare of sunlit snow. Industrial eye protectors were patented in the nineteenth century, and swimmers began to seal goggles against water in the early twentieth.","description":"How goggles shield the eyes from glare, impacts, splashes and water, from Arctic snow goggles of carved ivory to sealed swimming goggles.","year":100,"approx":true,"domain":"optics","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","rope","control-of-fire"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/protective-goggles/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/protective-goggles.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/protective-goggles/index.html.md"},{"id":"rotary-mercury-vacuum-pump","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Rotary mercury vacuum pump","subtitle":"Emptying lamps with a drum turning in mercury","summary":"A rotary mercury vacuum pump empties lamps and electronic tubes with a rotating part in which mercury acts as a liquid piston. In Wolfgang Gaede's pump of 1905, each curved chamber of a drum draws in gas from the vessel as it rises out of the mercury and, going down again, pushes the gas into the casing, from which a second pump removes it. F. Schulze-Berge had described a rotary mercury pump that could be driven mechanically in 1893; Gaede's was made in large numbers for the lamp and tube industries.","description":"How a drum turning in mercury pumped gas out of lamps and tubes, a mercury-free model of its cycle, and mercury air pumps from Swedenborg to Gaede.","year":1893,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["piston-pump","electric-motor","mercury-extraction"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rotary-mercury-vacuum-pump/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/rotary-mercury-vacuum-pump.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rotary-mercury-vacuum-pump/index.html.md"},{"id":"war-hammer-and-mace","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"War hammer and mace","subtitle":"A heavy head at the end of a short shaft","summary":"A mace is a short shaft with a heavy head, and a war hammer carries a hammer face and a spike on the same kind of shaft. Both strike with weight rather than with an edge. Stone maceheads appear in the Near East in the tenth millennium BC; in Europe, steel maces and war hammers were made from about 1300 to fight men in plate armour.","description":"How a mace and a war hammer deliver a blow, why flanges and beaks were made for armour, a soft foam model, and maceheads since the tenth millennium BC.","year":-9500,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":40,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/war-hammer-and-mace/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/war-hammer-and-mace.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/war-hammer-and-mace/index.html.md"},{"id":"atmospheric-diving-suit","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Atmospheric diving suit","subtitle":"A rigid shell that keeps the diver at surface pressure","summary":"An atmospheric diving suit is a rigid shell, shaped to hold one person, that keeps its diver at the air pressure of the surface however deep it goes, so that the diver needs no decompression afterwards. The oldest known ancestor is the oak barrel in which John Lethbridge, of Newton Abbot in Devon, worked under water from 1715, his arms out in the sea through two holes.","description":"How a rigid diving suit keeps its diver at surface pressure, why its joints are the hard part, and its history from Lethbridge's barrel of 1715 to JIM.","year":1715,"approx":false,"domain":"navigation","tier":4,"difficulty":5,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["glass","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/atmospheric-diving-suit/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/atmospheric-diving-suit.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/atmospheric-diving-suit/index.html.md"},{"id":"bagh-chal","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bagh chal","subtitle":"Four tigers hunting twenty goats","summary":"Bagh chal, the tiger's move, is a hunt game from Nepal for two unequal sides: four tigers against twenty goats on a grid of 5 by 5 points joined by straight and diagonal lines. A tiger captures by jumping over a goat, and the goats win by hemming in all four tigers. The oldest dated description was written down in 1933 by the zoologist Sunder Lal Hora, from an old man of Nepali origin in the Teesta valley below Darjeeling.","description":"How bagh chal is played, four tigers against twenty goats on a grid of 25 points, how to draw a board, and what is known of the game's history.","year":1933,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":1,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bagh-chal/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bagh-chal.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bagh-chal/index.html.md"},{"id":"battering-ram","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Battering Ram","subtitle":"A swinging beam against gates and walls","summary":"A battering ram is a heavy beam driven again and again against a gate or a wall. In its developed form the beam hangs by ropes inside a roofed shed on wheels, so the crew only has to swing it, while hides on the roof protect them from fire and missiles. Texts from Ebla in Syria mention rams with a metal tip in the 24th century BC, and rams remained a standard siege engine until late antiquity.","description":"How a battering ram works as a suspended pendulum under a hide-covered shed, how to build a tabletop model, and its history from Ebla to the Romans.","year":-2400,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["timber-framing","rope","wheel","copper-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/battering-ram/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/battering-ram.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/battering-ram/index.html.md"},{"id":"cotton-candy-machine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Cotton candy machine","subtitle":"A spinning head that flings melted sugar out into threads of sugar glass","summary":"A cotton candy machine melts sugar in a heated head that spins fast and flings it out through small openings at its rim. The jets stretch into threads that cool in the air before the sugar can crystallise, so they set as a glass, and pile up in the surrounding bowl as a light floss. William Morrison, a Nashville dentist, and the confectioner John C. Wharton applied for the first patent in December 1897.","description":"How a spinning, heated head turns sugar into threads of sugar glass, a cold demonstration of the throw, and its history since the patent filed in 1897.","year":1897,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["sugar-refining","gear"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cotton-candy-machine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/cotton-candy-machine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/cotton-candy-machine/index.html.md"},{"id":"enclosure-traps","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Enclosure traps","subtitle":"A way in with no way back","summary":"An enclosure trap lets an animal in and stops it getting out again. The way in may be a drop it can jump down but not climb back, an entrance closed behind it, or an opening that can be pushed in one direction only. The oldest dated examples are the desert kites of eastern Jordan, stone walls that guided herds into enclosures in the Neolithic, in the 8th or 7th millennium BCE. In the mountains of northwestern Spain, villagers caught wolves in round stone corrals baited with a live goat or sheep.","description":"How enclosure traps let animals in but not out, from the desert kites of Jordan and the elephant pens of ancient India to the stone wolf corrals of Spain.","year":-7000,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["stone-tools"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/enclosure-traps/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/enclosure-traps.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/enclosure-traps/index.html.md"},{"id":"siege-tower","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Siege Tower","subtitle":"A moving timber tower to reach the walls","summary":"A siege tower is a tall timber tower on wheels, pushed up to a city wall so that attackers can shoot down on the defenders or climb onto the wall. Its storeys are linked by stairs and its outside is covered against fire. Letters from Mari on the Euphrates already describe siege towers in the 18th century BC, and such towers were still built for the siege of Jerusalem in 1099.","description":"How a siege tower stays upright and protects its crew, a cardboard model to test its stability, and its history from Mari to the helepolis and Jerusalem.","year":-1780,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["timber-framing","wheel","rope"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/siege-tower/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/siege-tower.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/siege-tower/index.html.md"},{"id":"ultrasonic-humidifier","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Ultrasonic humidifier","subtitle":"Cool mist torn from water by sound","summary":"An ultrasonic humidifier adds water to the air without boiling it. A ceramic disc under a shallow pool of water vibrates far above the range of hearing, raises a small fountain at the surface and tears off a fog of fine droplets, which a fan blows into the room. Robert Wood and Alfred Loomis reported fogs raised by intense ultrasound in 1927, and in 1951 Friedrich Tillmann applied in Germany for a patent on a humidifier for rooms that worked this way. Hospital nebulizers used the effect in the 1960s, and compact models for homes and offices followed in the 1970s. Because the mist carries whatever is in the water, the tank must be kept clean.","description":"How a vibrating ceramic disc turns water into a cool mist, a small low-voltage build with an atomizer module, and its history from the fogs of 1927 to homes.","year":1951,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":5,"difficulty":3,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["electric-motor","vacuum-tube"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/ultrasonic-humidifier/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/ultrasonic-humidifier.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/ultrasonic-humidifier/index.html.md"},{"id":"windsock","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Windsock","subtitle":"Showing where the wind comes from","summary":"A windsock is a tapered tube of fabric that turns on top of a mast so that its open mouth faces the wind. It shows at a glance where the wind comes from, and how far it stands out gives a rough idea of its strength. Aviation dictionaries printed in 1917 already list the wind cone among the words of the airfield, and airport rules now fix its size and colours.","description":"How a windsock shows the wind's direction and rough strength, how to sew a small one for the garden, and its history on airfields since the 1910s.","year":1917,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":5,"difficulty":1,"importance":35,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["weaving","needle-and-hand-sewing","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-18","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/windsock/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/windsock.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/windsock/index.html.md"},{"id":"bicycle-bell","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bicycle bell","subtitle":"A struck dome that warns the way ahead","summary":"A bicycle bell warns people ahead with a short, bright ring: a hammer strikes the rim of a thin metal dome and springs away from it so the dome can ring. The oldest dated evidence found is an English patent of 1879 for a gong rung by studs on the wheel, which says such gongs were already struck by the spokes; geared rotary bells with a thumb lever followed in the 1890s.","description":"How a bicycle bell rings, from the struck dome to the geared rotary bell, how to make a single-stroke bell, and its history since an 1879 patent.","year":1879,"approx":false,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":32,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["bicycle","gear","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bicycle-bell/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bicycle-bell.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bicycle-bell/index.html.md"},{"id":"eccentric-motor-vibrator","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Eccentric-mass vibrator","subtitle":"Shaking with an off-centre weight","summary":"An eccentric-mass vibrator is an electric motor with a weight fixed off-centre on its shaft. As the weight spins, it tugs the motor first one way and then another, and the whole device shakes. United States patents of the early twentieth century already used this rotating unbalanced weight in electric massagers; today the same principle buzzes in phones and pagers and shakes the vibrating screens of industry.","description":"How a spinning off-centre weight makes a motor shake, how to build a small vibrating walker, and the history from early electric massagers to pagers.","year":1904,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":4,"difficulty":2,"importance":30,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["electric-motor","insulated-electric-cable","vulcanized-rubber"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/eccentric-motor-vibrator/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/eccentric-motor-vibrator.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/eccentric-motor-vibrator/index.html.md"},{"id":"fly-trap","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Fly trap","subtitle":"A narrow entrance into a glass chamber","summary":"A funnel fly trap holds insects inside a vessel with a narrow entrance. In domestic glass fly traps, they enter underneath and climb through the inward-rising base. They are drawn by a sweet liquid poured into the base, in which they end up drowning. Feet keep this route clear, while a stopper closes the neck above. The Yale Peabody Museum holds a Victorian example made entirely of glass.","description":"The glass fly trap has an entrance underneath, an inward-rising base and a stopper, with a history from hand blowing to mass production.","year":1800,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":30,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["glass"],"reviewed":"2026-10-17","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fly-trap/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/fly-trap.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/fly-trap/index.html.md"},{"id":"paper-guillotine","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Paper guillotine","subtitle":"Cutting a whole stack of sheets in one stroke","summary":"A paper guillotine cuts through a whole stack of paper or card in one stroke. The stack is squared against a back gauge and squeezed by a clamp, and a long straight knife comes down between guides just in front of the clamp. The oldest surviving dated example is a crank-driven paper trimmer patented in the United States in 1834, the year of a New York binding on which the conservator Jeff Peachey has found guillotine marks; the American Bookbinders Museum places the introduction of the guillotine in the 1820s. Guillaume Massiquot, whose name the French massicot carries, patented his machines in 1844 and 1852.","description":"How a guillotine clamps a stack of paper and cuts it with one stroke of a straight knife, and its history from bookbinders' ploughs to the massicot.","year":1834,"approx":true,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":30,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["paper","steel","iron-smelting","lathe"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paper-guillotine/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/paper-guillotine.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/paper-guillotine/index.html.md"},{"id":"pedal-boat","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pedal boat","subtitle":"A boat driven by the legs of its crew","summary":"A pedal boat is moved by the legs of the people on board, who push pedals or tread on a wheel that turns a paddle wheel or a propeller. Pedalling leaves the hands free. Chinese histories say that Li Gao, a Tang prince and provincial governor who died in 792, had warships built with two wheels that the crew trod. Wheel boats fought on Chinese lakes in the 12th century. Today pedal boats are mostly small pleasure craft, and a pedal-driven hydrofoil reached 18.5 knots in 1991.","description":"How pedals turn a paddle wheel that pushes water backwards, a rubber-band paddle boat to make, and pedal boats from Tang China to the modern pedalo.","year":784,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":30,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["dugout-canoe","water-wheel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pedal-boat/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pedal-boat.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pedal-boat/index.html.md"},{"id":"pulsejet","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Pulsejet","subtitle":"A jet engine that burns in a rapid string of puffs","summary":"A pulsejet is a jet engine with very few moving parts: a tube in which combustion takes place in a rapid string of puffs, each one driving hot gas out of the rear and pushing the engine forward. The French inventor Charles de Louvrié described such an engine in 1865, and its best-known use was in the German Fi 103 flying bomb of 1944, nicknamed the buzz bomb for its noise.","description":"What a pulsejet is, why it buzzes and shakes, and its history from de Louvrié's design of 1865 to the Argus engine of 1944 and the tip-jet helicopter.","year":1865,"approx":false,"domain":"aviation","tier":5,"difficulty":4,"importance":30,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pulsejet/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/pulsejet.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/pulsejet/index.html.md"},{"id":"water-scarecrow","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Water scarer","subtitle":"A bamboo tube that fills, tips and knocks on a stone","summary":"A water scarer, called sōzu or shishi-odoshi in Japan, is a bamboo tube on a pivot that fills with running water, tips forward to empty, then falls back onto a stone with a sharp knock. It repeats this for as long as the water flows, and the noise was meant to drive deer, boar and birds away from crops. The oldest known mention is a Japanese poem in an anthology of 1305, about the sound of a sōzu growing rare as its water slackens.","description":"How a pivoting bamboo tube fills, tips and knocks on a stone to scare animals, how to build a small garden one, and the history of the Japanese sōzu.","year":1305,"approx":false,"domain":"agriculture","tier":2,"difficulty":2,"importance":30,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["stone-tools","plain-bearing"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-scarecrow/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/water-scarecrow.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/water-scarecrow/index.html.md"},{"id":"caxixi","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Caxixi","subtitle":"A woven rattle with a gourd base","summary":"The caxixi is a small closed basket rattle from Brazil, woven of straw, vine or cane into a bell shape, with a flat round base cut from a gourd and a handful of dry seeds inside. Shaken, the seeds strike the hard base and the woven wall. Berimbau players hold it in the hand that strikes the bow, so that it sounds with every stroke. The oldest known description of a bow player with a basket rattle is by James Wetherell, British vice-consul in Bahia, published in 1860; Peter Fryer dates the passage to 1856.","description":"How the caxixi's seeds, woven wall and gourd base make its sound, how it is played with the berimbau, how to weave one, and its uncertain origins.","year":1860,"approx":true,"domain":"everyday","tier":1,"difficulty":2,"importance":28,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["basketry"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/caxixi/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/caxixi.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/caxixi/index.html.md"},{"id":"bee-venom-collector","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Bee venom collector","subtitle":"An electric frame at the hive entrance that gathers the venom of honeybees","summary":"A bee venom collector gathers the venom of honeybees without killing them. A flat frame strung with fine wires over a sheet of glass is slipped into the entrance of a hive, and a weak electric shock makes the bees walking on it sting the glass. The venom dries there on the glass. Chemists first used electric shocks to make bees sting in 1954, and the hive collector described by Allen Benton and his colleagues in 1963 became the model for most later designs.","description":"How an electric frame at the hive entrance makes honeybees sting a glass plate, why the bees survive, and the history of venom collection since 1954.","year":1954,"approx":false,"domain":"tools","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":25,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["frame-beehive","glass","wire-drawing","transformer"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bee-venom-collector/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/bee-venom-collector.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/bee-venom-collector/index.html.md"},{"id":"coilgun","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Coilgun","subtitle":"Pulling iron along a barrel of coils","summary":"A coilgun moves a projectile with magnetism instead of burning powder. A row of coils of wire around its barrel pulls an iron projectile along it, one coil after another. Charles Grafton Page described a 'magnetic gun' in 1845, and in 1903 Kristian Birkeland's attempt to sell an electromagnetic cannon ended in a short circuit.","description":"How a row of coils pulls an iron projectile along a barrel, and the history of the coilgun from Page's magnetic gun of 1845 to the lunar mass driver.","year":1845,"approx":false,"domain":"defense","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":25,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":true,"prerequisites":["battery","wire-drawing","iron-smelting"],"reviewed":"2026-10-22","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coilgun/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/coilgun.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/coilgun/index.html.md"},{"id":"military-flail","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Military flail","subtitle":"A striking head on a flexible joint","summary":"A military flail joins a striking head to its handle by a flexible link, so that the head swings out ahead of the hand. Two kinds are well attested: the long war flail held in both hands, which grew out of the threshing flail, and the short horseman's flail with a weight on a strap or chain. The oldest heads of horseman's flails found in central and eastern Europe, mostly of bone, come from Avar cemeteries of the 7th and 8th centuries.","description":"How a war flail's flexible joint works, which flails are well attested and which are doubtful, a soft model of the joint, and its history since the Avars.","year":600,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":25,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["harvest","iron-smelting","leather-tanning"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/military-flail/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/military-flail.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/military-flail/index.html.md"},{"id":"current-powered-cable-boat","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Current-powered cable boat","subtitle":"A boat that winds itself upstream with the river's own force","summary":"A current-powered cable boat uses the river itself to travel upstream. Paddle wheels hung over its sides are turned by the current, and their shaft winds in a rope anchored upstream, so the boat hauls itself against the flow. The Sienese engineer Mariano di Jacopo, called Taccola, sketched such boats in manuscripts of the 1430s and 1440s, and French authors of the 1820s published theories of the aquamoteur. A related craft, the reaction ferry, crosses a river on a cable using the current alone.","description":"How paddle wheels turned by the current wind a boat upstream on a rope, a gutter model to make, and the self-hauling boat from Taccola to the aquamoteur.","year":1440,"approx":true,"domain":"navigation","tier":3,"difficulty":3,"importance":20,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["water-wheel","rope","dugout-canoe"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/current-powered-cable-boat/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/current-powered-cable-boat.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/current-powered-cable-boat/index.html.md"},{"id":"shuriken","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Shuriken","subtitle":"Small Japanese blades made to be thrown","summary":"A shuriken is a small Japanese blade made to be thrown, a weapon small enough to be held inside the hand, as its name says. The two main forms are the bō-shuriken, a straight spike, and the shaken, a flat plate with several points, better known as the throwing star. The great dictionary of the Japanese language cites a chronicle of about 1602 that already names the cross-shaped shuriken, and many martial schools of the Edo period taught their use as a secondary art.","description":"How a straight shuriken and a throwing star fly, a flat display model that is never thrown, and their history in Japanese martial schools from about 1600.","year":1602,"approx":true,"domain":"defense","tier":3,"difficulty":2,"importance":20,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["iron-smelting","steel"],"reviewed":"2026-10-19","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/shuriken/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/shuriken.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/shuriken/index.html.md"},{"id":"monowheel","language":"en","textLanguage":"en","availableLanguages":["en","fr","de","es","it","pt"],"title":"Monowheel","subtitle":"A vehicle that rides inside its single wheel","summary":"A monowheel is a vehicle with a single wheel so large that the rider sits inside it. A smaller wheel, pressed down by the rider's weight, rolls along the inside of the rim, and the big wheel turns as long as that small wheel is driven. Richard Hemming of New Haven, Connecticut, patented a hand-cranked one on 13 July 1869. In the early 1930s John Archibald Purves showed a motor-driven version, the Dynasphere. In a monowheel the rider's frame tends to swing round inside the wheel when braking or accelerating hard.","description":"How a rider sitting inside one large wheel drives it with a roller on the inner rim, a toy-car model to make, and the monowheel from Hemming's 1869 patent.","year":1869,"approx":false,"domain":"land-transport","tier":4,"difficulty":3,"importance":15,"status":"reviewed","sensitive":false,"prerequisites":["wheel","bicycle"],"reviewed":"2026-10-21","url":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/monowheel/","jsonUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/data/en/inventions/monowheel.json","markdownUrl":"https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/monowheel/index.html.md"}]}