Everything we have today came from some original invention possibly created millions of years ago. Inventions are like dominoes one person invents something. Then that inventions falls on some one else. Suddenly he gets an idea and builds off that original idea, and so forth, until you have created a society much like ours today.
With so many great inventions of the past each one building off another it’s hard to pick just 10 don’t you think? Think to yourself for a minute, what are the most important inventions to your life? can you organize them based on the order in which they had to be invented?
For instance we never would have had a wheel barrel if no one invented the wheel.
While your thinking on that here is my list including a little information about each of these inventions that I hold so dear.
The first is the wheel. Without this invention none of what we have now would have been possible. The wheel is the single most important invention in Mans history. Originally invented sometime prior to 3500 B.C. it is one of our oldest and greatest inventions. Scientists today still don’t know exactly when, or who invented the first wheel.
The second on my list the light, The light actually has quit an extensive history, having been first invented in 1800 by Humphry Davy using a home made battery. By connecting this homemade battery to a carbon filament he created the first light bulb. The electrical charge transferring through the high resistance carbon filament generated light.
It was considerably later when the light idea was expanded upon. In 1860 an English physicist Joseph Wilson Swan developed a longer lasting version of the light. By changing the carbon filament he was able to make the light last considerably longer. He began demonstrating his new invention in England.
In 1877, Charles Francis Bush manufactured some carbon arcs to light the square in Clevland Ohio. These lights where only used by a great few people. Finally the one we all know well as the so called inventory of the light… Thomas Edison continued to work on the light, and finally found, a perfect combination of materials to produce a very long lasting, and bright filament.
In 1903, Willis R. Whitney developed a treatment for the filament which would prevent the bulb from blackening and that is the light as we know it today a prime example how every new inventions expands on an older one.
My third greatest invention the air conditioner. The first air conditioning unit came into existence in 1902. Exactly 1 year after Haviland Carrier graduated. Haviland Carrier was working for Brooklyn Painting Plant when an issue arose with the printing paper. The changes in temperature caused the ink to be misaligned in the printing press. This first air conditioning unit allowed for the first aligned 4 color printing press to come into existence.
My fourth greatest invention the refrigerator. The first refrigerator was demonstrated by William Cullen in 1748. Later in 1805 Oliver Evans designed the first refrigerator, which operated on Vapors rather then liquid. Without the refrigerator those of us living in hot regions would find it very hard to keep food, and grocery stores would be impossible so be VERY grateful for this invention.
My fifth greatest invention the automobile. Karl Friedrich Benz in 1885 constructed the first gasoline powered automobile. There where others before, but this is the one most resembling a car, and the first to use our current fuel source gasoline. This was also the first working Combustion engine design in general. The beginning of all the oil problems we have today. Hurray for combustion engines!
My sixth greatest invention. The first console was invented in 1972 the Magnavox Odyssey, invented by Ralph H. Baer. The Odyssey was only moderately successful. Once Atari’s arcade game Pong made video games popular, the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry.
My seventh greatest invention. The computer – The first digital computer ABC started being developed by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff, and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937, and was completed in 1942. The first PC or personal computer was not developed until 1975 by Ed Roberts, who released the altaire 8800. In 1981 IBM released the first True programmable storable printer capable Personal Computer.
My eighth greatest invention the phone. Alexander Graham Bell founder of bell south also known as AT&T invented the first telephone based off the original telegraph systems. The telephone was based off the same wires as a telegraph. He was able to create a 2 way communication system for Speech. Alexander Graham Bell’s notebook entry of, 10 March 1876 describes his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, “Mr. Watson – come here – I want to see you.” And so the telephone was born.
My ninth greatest invention is the internet. Early stages of the internet where not designed for non military personnel, and where intended as an impenetrable military communications network. By tapping into the telephone grid the military was capable of getting a digital signal to any computer in any facility, even if many lines had been cut. The origin of the term inter net, or the Web was created from the idea that there are millions of lines underneath the ground spanning from house to house, pole to pole, and network to network much like a web. If any one of these connections goes down you simply reroute around it. This network was eventually interconnected with the others in the 1980s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. In the early 90’s the World Wide Web began gaining popularity.
My tenth and final greatest invention the e-mail. In 1971 the first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson. This first email was simply a test message, sent right back to himself. However this message was sent across the ARPA network an early version of the internet when it was still in it’s military phase.
This kind of topic really makes you think back and realize that we owe, so much to some of the first inventors. An invention like the wheel alone seems small at first, but in contrast it really would have ruined the bigger picture had it never been invented in the first place. Can you imagine a world without the wheel? Without early civilisations, transportation systems, the horse and carriage, wheel barrels, and more just think. Would we even be here today? Wheels where used to create pullies for raising and lowering sails. So without the wheel Columbus may never have landed in the united states, and where would that leave America?
Have you finished your list?
Where any of the items in mine on yours?
Why not join Helium and display your list so I can read it now?
