A gadget is an ingenious piece or even a complex mechanical device. Gadgets can be called gizmos. They may consist of electronic equipment, appliances, and other devices which facilitate the carrying out of a particular activity in a particular place or situation. The word ‘gadget’ first appeared in newspapers and other printed materials in the 18th century.
Gadgets have come a long way since then. Today, there are a variety of new features available in the market, which enable gadgets to perform many tasks more quickly and efficiently. Gadgets like digital cameras, camcorders, wireless phones, handheld computers, laptops, tablet computers etc. have made our lives much simpler. To buy the latest version of this machine in India is no more a headache, thanks to a wide range of options available online.
A gadget may be anything from a digital camera to an electric appliance, like a stove, to a small electronic appliance like a radio controlled car, calculator or a watch. Gadgets, generally speaking, are defined as any one of a number of electrical devices that enable some practical activity to take place. Gadgets have come a long way since the days of ‘radio controlled cars’, ‘radio controlled houses’, and ‘radio controlled boats’. Nowadays, different kinds of gadgets come along with their own sets of accompanying accessories, in the form of wires, cords, cables, wires, batteries etc.
Gadgets have come a long way from simply being a hardware device to being a software program and it all depends on the function that needs to be performed. Gadgets, the first introduced, were in the form of hand held devices which enabled simple tasks like lighting up a room, showing the time etc. but as newer versions of these hand held devices came out, new and unique features were introduced and new gadget may have come up as the latest version.
The French gidget was the very first gadget to light up the room. It is considered to be the first modern day gadget. A French gidget was an electrical device which consisted of a metal body, a glass dome cover and four candles. The device worked by allowing one candle to rotate on its axis depending upon the rotation of the other three candles. This had made the room extremely bright as well as the four candles gave off a lot of light.
In the 20th century, a lot of different kinds of gadgets came up, like the vacuum cleaner, the coffee maker, the hair dryer and the car wash etc. Though many of these gadgets had a particular function, there was a general absence of a gadget which was required for every single purpose. In the United States, there was no such need for a gadget, a washing machine worked fine. But this changed in the mid 1980s, when a lot of companies started to manufacture dishwashers which were not only highly functional, but also incorporated a number of functions.