Where would we be without these inventions
1: The Compass
In the ancient days people navigated using the stars in the skies, but obviously this didn’t work so well because of day time and cloudy nights. So the first compass ever invented was created by the Chinese somewhere between the 9th and 11th century
2: The combustion engine
Decades of engineering by many scientists went in to designing and creating the internal combustion engine, the way it works is by the combustion of fuel releases a high-temperature gas which expands and applies force into a piston, moving it, and there for combustion engines convert chemical energy into mechanical work. Very fascinating stuff indeed, the engine ushered in the Industrial age and enabled us to invent a huge variety of machines such as the modern cars and aircrafts
3: The Telephone
There were several inventors that did pioneering work with electronic voice transmission, but Alexander Graham was the first to get a patent for the electric telephone in 1876. His invention quickly took off and completely revolutionised the global business and communication
4: The light bulb
Light bulbs changed the world by first allowing us to work more hours in the day and not only in the day time. Thomas Edison is credited as the primary inventor of the light bulb because he created a completely functional lighting system in 1879. Interesting enough, as well as changing the business world, the light bulb also changed people’s sleep patterns. Instead of going to bed when it gets dark and sleeping in segments throughout the night, we now stay up until we feel tired and sleep 7 to 8 hours in one go
5: Penicillium
One of the most famous invention stories. In 1928 the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed a Petri dish full of bacteria that was left open in his lab, The sample had become contaminated with mold, and he noticed that everywhere that was mold, the bacteria died. That mold turned over the years to penicillium and during the the next two decades chemists purified it and developed the drug as we know it today. Penicillium fights a huge number of bacterial infections in people without hurting them
6: The pill
Invented in the late 1930’s by the chemist Russell Marker, The pill, or contraception has helped the human race in the form of stabilising out population and increasing the standard of lives for families. It has also helped by giving men and women the opportunity to have sex for leisure and not just procreation. It is believed that by the end of the century our number of population will stabilise.
7: The internet
Does it really need an explanation? Used by billions all over the world, It was developed by countless of people over the years but the person who most often credited with the invention of the internet is computer scientist Lawrence Roberts, in the 1960’s. He and his team built a communication network to connect the computers in the U.S defence Department ARPA ( Advanced Research Projects Agency ) and from there on the story is known
8: Apple Ipod
This little device changed how we listen to music forever, together with the iTunes software and the device large internal storage capacity it now means you didnt have to carry large CD’s with you and the sleek design also helped the sales
9: Mozilla Firefox
This was the first browser to end the dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser and it was open source so it appealed to Windows users that didn’t want to be locked into Microsoft’s software ecosystem. But as we all know, since than Firefox has been left in the dust by Google’s Chrome browser which is now the most popular browser in the world
10: The Nintendo Wii
came out in the middle of the console wars that happened in the early 2000s between Sony’s Playstation and microsoft’s Xbox. The Nintendo team built a game console where the players take a physical part in the games. The Wii controller detects movement in three dimensions. Later this invention inspire number of other motion controllers including Microsoft’s Kinect
11: iPhone
The first touch screen mobile phone, the iPhone brought a new era of smartphones and has since spawn an entire industry where electronic manufacturers all over the world are developing their own models of the device. Apple has now sold over 700 million iPhones and it is set to break their own record with it’s new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s plus
12: Kindle
Not the first e-reader on the market, but Amazon just took the e-reader market by storm by offering seamless integration with its online ebook store. right now Amazon controls around 80 per cent of the ebook market in the UK and all other competitors just step out of the market
13: Electric cars
These cars are the future of transportation, its a fact. But currently there are only 30 mass production high-way capable all electric passenger cars on the market. But if you take the environmental benefits these cars have it makes an attractive option for many people. The world’s best selling highway electric car is the Nissan Leaf, with sales of over 170,000 units in 35 countries
14: IMB Watson
The artificially intelligent computer system that is capable of answering questions in natural language. In 2011 it took part in the famous American quiz show Jeopardy and was able to beat the two all-time greatest champions at their own game. This step represented an important milestone in the development of artificial intelligence and it will be interesting to see how this field will look in the future
15: Google’s driverless car
Currently only in testing mode in California, but the company said it wants to roll them out to the general public by 2017. These cars have a maximum speed of 25mph and are designed to be perpetually in motion. If this concept takes off, it will completely change the way we move around cities in the near future
