What Would You Take Back to Impress the Victorians?

I suggest one codicil to the question - "with a power source to run it."

Demonstrating a computer wouldn't be particularly impressive without electricity (and the Internet...).

Actually then I suppose you recommend taking the AC dynamo.

However by even the 1880s Voltaic battery power was in common use for telegraphic signaling as was utilized during the US Civil War.

Lincoln was known to habitat the telegraph office more than any other place.

Certainly computers were of great utility prior to the internet.

Telephones were just on the horizon.

The Victorians were big into furniture, so they would likely have been impressed by the Barcolounger.

Of course then since they didn't have television, and you do have to get up to put some more wood on the fire, it may have not been all that grand an invention.

Still since Steam engines, telegraph, machine guns, were already around, I think the Barcolounger chair would have really impressed Victorians.

P.S. As said, far as I understand the Victorians liked furniture, and indoor plumbing, so maybe nice toilets and the Barcolounger would have really appealed to their particular interests at the time.

My Time Machine!

Wow... good thought provoker. Would the populace of 1880 America be impressed by a piece of moon rock? A laser pointer? A cloned sheep? Frozen Dinners?

I'll wait to see what the group comes up with. Should be interesting...

I don't go for ANY of these. A piece of rock - why would they believe you it came from the moon? A bright light in a tube - hardly an unforseen development. A sheep you can't prove is cloned. And a frozen dinner that they could have made (in winter!) if they wanted to.

Would you be wearing that, or would you also take a hot model (not that you aren't) to show it off?

I'll be wearing two - one around each thigh.

I think the hot model qualifies as "a power source to run it"!

How about an E-Book loaded with numerous pictures of future engineering and aerospace marvels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book

Multiple impressions (including the E-Book reader which also helps authenticate that the pictures are of real developments and not just some hoax) for the price of one in a handy compact form. Yes you could take a laptop but it would likely crash, and with no way to get the data out your stuck with a paperweight! Additionally I believe E-Books are coming out with self-contained solar panels built it, so one less problem. Keep it simple!

Who can beat that suggestion!

The entire Don Garlits Museum and 10,000 gallons of assorted fuels. I'm still impressed.

I'm sure Tsar Bomba would make quite the impression.

After about an hour of looking at Ilyusians, (Whatever), Yaks, Antonovs, (Whatever), further reading about cluster balloon flights, fame, suicide and Darwin awards, I'm back to where I was set off from.

Furniture, yair, furniture. Yair, the lawn chair and balloons!

During the Great Balloon Wars it was common for combatants to fail at meeting in any effective way facilitating any effective combat between themselves in the element they had chosen for their combat.

As it turned out the Balloon Wars were abandoned...

Still some lawn chairs may be found.

Fame thrower.

Oh I dunno... how about an Encyclopedia... or even just a comprehensive history of the 20th century... just to mess with their heads.

and you didn't stipulate which country... when you say victorian, you would typically be referring to the citizens of the British Empire under Queen Victoria. There might be some Americans who would stipulate that it was not the Victorian era, but the Rutherford B. Hayes era..., or even the Russian age of... Rasputin? et cetera...

Chris

I was thinking along similar lines... I was thinking a good world history book. It would be like Nostradamus to them, eh?

Oh I dunno... how about an Encyclopedia... or even just a comprehensive history of the 20th century... just to mess with their heads.

careful.......you may be labeled as a witch or heretic.

assorted vaccines; polio would be one...

I like this and Conrad's answer, though I do think they had the smallpox vaccine.

For sure antibiotics such as penicillin ought to be impressive.

I know I for one have never ever wanted to go back in time prior to the development of modern dentistry.

A surgeon with antibiotics and penicillin in his travel kit.

detail stock market info. Or maybe sporting results to take to the local odds makers.

I'd bring back my paycheck and cash it... 'Look people of the past! A real modern marvel! An insignificant amount turned into riches!' It's like the alchemists of past trying to turn everything into gold... Hey wait, can I go back and forth?

Only problem it would be post dated.... Banks will not cash that...

My Road King Classic with plenty of fuel and a Uzi.

A plumbing and solar water heater for dummies book. If I remember my history correctly, sanitation was a big issue at that time.

I would take some magazines and newspapers.

I would want to show them what is going to happen to their descendents and the direction that the moral fiber of the people is going.

I'm going to shock them with showing pictures of their great granddaughters walking down the streets half naked and their sons painting their faces with gothic make up and listening to music that deals with gang violence.

I'm going to show them statistical figures on how our educational system has declined in relation to the rest of the world.

I'm going to show them information in how our government has pulled the wool over their eyes and are as corrupt as the mafia.

I think you have a poor understanding of what Victorian life was like behind the prim and proper facade. Maids and servants being abused, children up chimnies, the work house.
It was probably great fun if you were an upper middle class male.

Del

What I'm getting at is presenting them with information on what the future holds. I think actual color photographs would floor them alone. Jets flying at the speed of sound would overwhelm them. Maybe even bring them a Playboy magazine and tell them these are sold at newsstands.

http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=SEE&um=1&q=child+chimney+sweeps&sa=N&start=20&ndsp=20

Try the above link and find out what humans do to other humans while keeping a cozy living environment. Same thing happens today, just more subtle and maybe not in chimneys. Imagine giving them an industrial size vacuum cleaner as a gift from the future. They would think you are the chimney god.

Nuuf now, Ky.

Then you never read some of the required classics in British schools.......

Check this out:-

The Water-Babies

Thanks for those links, Andy and Chris. Indeed, I do not believe I have ever read the story.

After reading (just the Wiki abstract, will read the story later), it occurs to me that mankind has learned and forgotten many, many things.

<Sigh>

Go see Oscar Wilde first and tell him about the "sons painting their faces with gothic make up", though I don't think you should expect shock or outrage.

Dear boy, if there's one thing worse from people from the future talking about about you, it's people people from the future not talking about you.
Oscar

(Almost) well put Noel, but I think you are a Coward for not signing your name.....

Assuming we are talking about 1880, or any date up to about 25th August 1888, I would take a good book back about the Jack the Ripper murders and make sure that a policeman/men were positioned to catch him before they started!!!!

An iPhone and the description of what it can do (GPS, wirelessly telecommunicate, compute, play music, capture/edit/show moving pictures, tell time almost perfectly, etc.) Granted, little of this could actually be demonstrated... but the explanation of how it all works would include a lot of the history of technology development in the last century.

Obviously, things like internet, GPS, Cell phones etc.. would not be very impressive because of the massive infrastructure needs that did not exist during that period. I am thinking my HP48GX would be pretty impressive, or maybe a lap top (though the batteries would not last very long and it would only get a few demonstration uses). The HP 48 would have a built in power supply that last for a reasonably long time, is very portable and easy to demonstrate a huge capability that is way past those of the victorian age. Plus you would not need a huge complicated network of supporting equipment to demonstrate it to the Victorians, some of which you may not be able to even develop in a reasonable amount of time in that era.

Maybe a digital camera, a laptop and a portable printer. though it would be a bit bulky and awkward for demonstrations of that age to very many people and battery life would be very short.

A perfect set of false teeth. No, not the glistening ones they wear on talk shows, just you natural looking ones.

I would hope that I could take more then one item. Would like to be fully clothed when I get there.

Any one of us would have the most important item all ready on our persons to impress the people of that time. Our Minds. One hundred and thirty years of progress. Anyone of us should have enough knowledge to stir them up pretty good.

Now to get their attention something simple like a ball point pen,disposable razor, laser pointer.

I believe the ballpoint pen was invented in the 1880s, so it might not be all that impressive for the time. The disposable razor would likely be perceived as a fancy razor, as the technology was available at that time to make something similar, though not with a plastic encasement obviously, so it would not be disposable. The laser pointer might be amazing at first, but I would guess they might wonder what purpose it might serve (i would hate to have to explain the applications for a laser pointer to people who are unaware of the technology). Now infrared goggle might be interesting, or even a F-22, afterall they had the fuel available for use in jets back then, just was not used for jets. I wonder if there is a size limit, could you bring back a nuclear aircraft carrier. This would be good since it would make a big impact and would be self sustaining for many years, and you could get the fuel to keep the jets flying ( parts might be a problem after a while). I bet you Viagra or penicillin would go over really big (probably both, b/c the capabilities to use one might necessitate the need to use the other prior).

The good point is there were no penicillen resistant sexually transmitted diseases then.

You also wrote:-

I bet you Viagra or penicillin would go over really big

If that doesn't happen with viagra, your Prick is broken! Or?

You going back to wow them or conquer them. Their men and their ladies both I see.

A refillable butane lighter, One of the torch types and a can of butane.

tobacco was used everywhere then along with many other burnables.

I don't think they will be impressed by cell phones. It will not work. You will have to take two cellphones, a cellphone tower and a service provider representitive to bill you and make sure the phones works... That is 4 items... I think my MacBook Pro will impress. and on it is all the pics of other modern marvels. Can end it with a movie like Avatar. That will scare the hell out of them though!

They would not be impressed by that which they could not understand, they would be alarmed.

They would lock all you silly buggers away in Bedlam.

Not me,I only wanted to catch Jack the Stripper!

If we are talking about 1880 or earlier, a simple lightbulb (DC, with a battery attached) would most likely impress mightily...A night time aerial photo of a modern city would most definitely impress...

An F-18A, fully loaded.

The landing maybe challenging but you can rough it eh

A UH-60 Blackhawk maybe better

Well done Chris. It's a pity a don't have enough time to read all posts on CR4 but this

Here one was very well written.

The bottom line is:

If you have nothing other to present than hardware, with out vision, it will not be enough. Infecting people with enthusiasm, a great gift, present, is the name of the game. "They" (the people in the past) will get board quicker than one could say "I've seen that some where before!". Humans are immensely intelligent, you know?!!

What ever you show or tell, sell, offer etc. to someone, beware the stupidity of the observer. Wrong time wrong place, any thing could happen. Right place, right time, good for revolutions to start. There is never a lack of fuel to start one but it takes courage to go all the way and follow ones visions and not be afraid of the lack of anything. It will be provided, thank dog. (I apologize to the [silenttologists])

It will come, if "it" has gravity. (not only matter can have gravity but ideas, philosophies, music and basically any form of human expression can have a pull, which is not defined as in a vague apple falling off the tree (symbol/anecdote), but in daily exchanges of "new" things. It just happens.

I do not think that any of our achievements would mean much to them. Well, maybe a set of well operating dentures. They would understand that. I have a date with my dentist soon, you see?

We live in great and challenging times and have so many friends and so much knowledge about eff all. The interesting thing is that they would adjust faster to our life style (I would anticipate) than we could to theirs. That makes us human, we can adapt to the future and trying out the past, again and again, is a waste of precious time.

I want to look into the eyes of children and see the same kindred spirit I see when they make discoveries, today, never mind what subject I come up with to seek their attention. Youth will always be ahead and I am not talking fashion or other crippling warts on our societies.

Like pearls for the indigenous, all over the world, just a hundred years ago. Coming to think of it, there would be places, not far from here, that would be just as vulnerable as they were 5000 years ago. ( They still call a chopper "mixmassa, belong Jesus"

They will gain and we will have to suffer, for eating the fruit of wisdom, while witnessing their down fall and doing eff all about it.

I hope I am not alone, life's a tank, Ky.

That's Epic Ky! GA

Cool! I like to think of Henry Ford's idea as a Foot Print and on the thread topic if a like Foot Print of the electric generation we know today were introduced in 1875 Henry may have built electric cars and the age of petroleum may have been less damaging to our health.

some previous thoughts to support these words...

I'd go to Atlanta, and bring an air conditioner (with generator). I think an air conditioner would make a big impression with the people who dressed like this:

Dear JayGeeBSE,

Thanks for initiating this discussion. I am always myself proud whenever I can comeup with any sort of similar spur for thought here.

I am caused to wonder now what we might imagine a time traveler from the future would choose to bring back to us in our present, that would impress us.

I'd collect up all the 'junk' items from this thread:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/49204/American-Made-Products-A-Letter-to-Lowe-s

Bring it with me, and trade it for items that would last...

Wow, I'm so glad I started this thread. It certainly got people thinking. Though some of the ideas seemed odd to say the least - like the person who thought a pair of dentures (which the Victorians could make anyway) would impress them more than a fast car or an iPad!

I think I'm leaning towards a laptop computer of some kind, preferably one with a webcam and some user friendly programming language installed. A shame there would be no internet but at least it wouldn't need major impossible-to-recreate infrastructure like runways or high octane petrol - the Victorians could make DC power for charging using a generator or chemically.

a ball point pen is pretty good... as they were still using quills I think...

I think taking something that was used then but extremely improved would be excellent like our grain processing capability or marine navigation, methods of food safety etc.. Those things on the cutting edge then would not be familiar to the average folks so I'd concentrate on they're perception more than my indulgence towards making and impression.

TITLE 29

TITLE 29-LABOR

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sup_01_29.html

In the late 1800s, the average American worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, just to make a basic living? Children as young as 5 and 6 years old worked in mills, factories, and mines all across the country.

Remember, don't wear white after Labor Day!