Chicken or Egg

Which came first? #14 · Inventions

Chicken or Egg, October 14: The chainsaw, The fax machine, Surgical anesthesia, The can opener, The typewriter, Sliced bread

Puzzle #14, Inventions, Wednesday, October 14, 2026. Six things, one order. Here is the answer, earliest to latest.

1. 1
   The chainsaw1830

   The first chainsaw was a hand-cranked surgical tool for cutting bone, built around 1830.

2. 2
   The fax machine1843

   Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images over wire in 1843, before the telephone existed.

3. 3
   Surgical anesthesia1846

   Ether was demonstrated publicly in Boston in 1846. The patient reported feeling nothing.

4. 4
   The can opener1858

   Ezra Warner's can opener arrived 48 years after the can. Until then, a hammer and chisel.

5. 5
   The typewriter1868

   Sholes and Glidden's 1868 machine gave us QWERTY. Mark Twain was an early customer.

6. 6
   Sliced bread1928

   Otto Rohwedder's slicing machine debuted in Chillicothe, Missouri in 1928. Television beat it by a year.