Chart for history of technology

November 11, 2014 4:49 AM

I'm looking for a comprehensive chart to help me understand the history of technology. This can be either an online "chart" or a paper chart. I want a chart that covers the entire history of mankind, but given how much technology was invented in the last century or so, I would like one that covers modernity too. Does anyone have any recommendations?
posted by casebash to Technology (4 answers total)

I don't have one for the entire history of technology, but here's one that pretty comprehensively covers the history of UNIX. The same author also made charts for programming languages and Windows.
posted by Poldo at 4:56 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

This book might scratch some of that itch: The What on Earth? Wallbook of Science and Engineering: A Timeline of Inventions from the Stone Ages to the Present Day. It's a large format item with accordion foldout pages, so more like a chart/diagram than a book.
posted by msbubbaclees at 5:21 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

You could get The Timetables of Technology used for basically the cost of shipping. It has separate columns for General, Architecture & Construction, Communication, Energy, Food & Agriculture, Materials, Medical Technology, Tools & Devices, and Transportation. It stops at 1993, but to give you an idea about how much is in it, each two-page spread starts covering less than a decade (i.e. has more and more detail) starting around the mid-1700s / page 168, and for 1960-1993 (pages 393-453), each two-page spread is roughly one year [there are some overview pages of ordinary text in there too].
posted by Monsieur Caution at 5:27 AM on November 11, 2014

Evolution of the web is great.
posted by shoesietart at 12:12 PM on November 11, 2014