INVENTIONS

When we talk about inventions we talk about technologies and engineering master pieces that changed the standard of living of mankind forever. It defines possibility and expectation for the future. But inventions is not all about technologies and engineering it is more than that. Every piece of invention happened in history says a lot about the biological limits of human thought and imagination. There is a saying that ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and its so true. Whenever there was a survival stake or a need for advancement in technology, spark of curiosity burst in few people mind that later on changes the flow of human history. During the technology feeding in the late 1990s many experts declared the internet one of the most important inventions since the industrial revolution. However, after the happening of the past few years that perspective has changed. While the internet and the world wide web have certainly impacted the lives of many millions of people it is certainly not the greatest inventions of the past millennium, in fact it might not even make the top ten.

Internet surfing might be fun, but it represents a far smaller increment in the standards of living than achieved by the extension of day into night achieved by electric light, the revolution in factory effeciency achieved by the electric motor, the flexibility achieved by the chemical industry, the first sense of live two way communication achieved by the telephone, the arrival of live news and comfort achieved by the urban sanitation and indoor plumbing.

Now how can we consider an invention the greatest above all other inventions ? How can we rank them and on which criteria ? Well its a very difficult task to accomplish , who I am to decide which invention is better than other. We cant because every invention have its own significance and the period in which the particular invention happened was essential for the upliftment of the society of that period. When we connect the dots its becomes more clear that those inventions had paved the way out which was vital for our survival. The world in which the millinial like us are living right now is the result of thousands the hours of work put in by those great figures that pushed the human race forward. As quoted by Steve Jobs ‘ THEY ARE THE ONES WHO SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY - THEY ARE NOT FOND OF RULES. YOU CAN QUOTE THEM, DISAGREE WITH THEM, GLORIFY OR VILIFY THEM, BUT THE ONLY THING YOU CANT DO IS IGNORE THEM BECAUSE THEY CHANGE THINGS, THEY PUSH THE HUMAN RACE FORWARD, AND WHILE SOME MAY SEE THEM AS THE CRAZY ONES, WE SEE GENIUS, ENOUGH TO THINK THAT THEY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD , ARE THE ONES WHO DO’. Now lets us put every emotional or rational significance of camparing aside and lets rank inventions across history which are basically my picks of top 10 inventions.

Fire.

Dated back 1.7 to 2 mya. First question is wheather fire is discovered or invented. Its controversial, different religions have their own postulation about the orign of fire. The greek story mythical orign of fire is my favourite subjective story of all. I will put a link below about the story , go check it out. But lets see it through scientific perspective. Fire on earth is an invention but fire inherently an ever lasting , ever existing phenomena of the universe. Fire had let human to dominate its surrounding and ecosystem and is one the key ingredient’s that sat human at the top of food chain. Fire helped humans during freezing cold winters acted as an artificial sun during nights. Helped them to cook and roast raw food resulted better digestion. Help to kill bacteria and other deadly microbes, increasing life expectancy.

https://www.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth/creationMan.html

Wheel

Inventor : Mesopotamians

Date : 3500 BCE

Most inventions do not appear out of thin air or from the ingenious brain of brilliant scientist, but evolve from something already in existence. Wheels were first used by humanity for creation of pottery, the revolving potters wheel. After 300 years, the wheel was put on a chariot and the rest is history. Wheels are ubiquitous in our everyday life, facilitating our transportation and commerce. Mesopotamians should not however claim sole deed to this invention. Wheels were found in graves in northern Caucasus, and wheels also appear on a clay pot from Poland, this earlier evidences dates back to around 3500 BCE.

Nail.

Inventor : Ancient Egyptians

Date : 250 BCE

Hand made nails are individually forged. Nails were among the first metal objects made by hand. Early nails were usually square in section, and the head of each was formed simply by turning over one end to make an L shaped. Such nails were expensive to produce, and they were so valued that people sometimes burned their houses when moving in other to retrieve nails from the ashes for reuse.

Compass

Inventor : Han Dynasty China

Date : 206 BC

The magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han dynasty and Tang Dynasty. Later used for navigation during the Chinese Song Dynasty( 960 - 1279 AD ). It is one of the greatest invention of mankind that helped Roald Amundsen, Norwegian Explorer to reach South Pole, Robert Peary to reach North Pole. Helped Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese explorer and the first european to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean and therefore, the West and the Orient. And most importantly helped Columbus discover America ‘ one of the most important events in mankind's history ‘.

Compass of Han Dynasty

Writing

Inventor : Ancient Sumerians

Date : 3400 BCE

Writing was an important step in the advancement of civilisation. Back in time, for million of years people stored information in a single place - the brain. Unfortunately, the human brain is not a good storage device for empire sized database, for 3 main reason : 1. Capasity is limited and also the information retrieving ability 2. Human die and brain dies with it 3. Most importantly, human brain has been adapted to store and process only particular type of information. The first ro overcome the problem were the ancient Sumerians, who lived in southern Mesopotamia. The data processing system invented by Sumerian is called ‘Writing’. Writing is a method for storing information through material signs.

Symbols engraved in rock by Sumerians

Printing press

Inventor : Johannas Gutenberg

Date : 1450

Writing was an important method devised by the Sumerian. By the early 15th century only few books were produced and they reached a limited number of people. Such books were usually of a religious nature, handwritten in Latin, and copied by clerks for clergy and the nobility. It was only when printing press was developed that knowledge and ideas were spread more widely. Its an game changing invention that vastly increases the dissemination of information.

First Printing Press

Internal Combustion Engine

Inventor : Sir Samuel Morland

Date : 1794

Sir Samuel Morland, an English Inventor used gun powder to drive water pumps, creating the first rudimentary internal combustion engine, but its was not until 1794 that Robert Street actually built a comprehensive engine. In 1879, Karl Benz designed and build the four stroke engine that powered the first automobile. Most common internal combustion engine are the four stroke gasoline powered, spark - ignition engine which are also used in aeronautic industry.

First Internal combustion engine sketch

Telephone

Inventor : Alexender Graham Bell

Date : 1876

In the 1870s Edinburgh born Alexender Graham Bell was working on a way to improve the telegraph. Although this was well established as a means of long distance communication, the fact that only one message could be sent at any one time made it extremely limited. Bells original idea was to create a harmonic telegram using multiple pitches to transmit more than on message at the same time. While working on this, an idea came to him for a more elaborate system - one that could transmit not only the dots and dashes Morse code, but actual speech. Early telephone were far from practical. But soon however, they developed their invention into one of the most important modes of communication in the modern world and the technology for sending information via electrical signals form the basis of modern communication.

Alexender Graham Bell trying to change history.

Light bulb

Inventor : Thomas Alva Edison

Date : 1879

The invention of the light bulb transformed our world by removing our dependence on natural light , allowing us to be productive at any time day or night. Several inventors were instrumental in developing the revolutionary technology through out the 1800s Thomas Edison is credited as the primary inventor because he created a completely functional lightening system, including a generator and wiring as well as carbon filament bulb.

Thomas Edison with the Electric lamp

Turing Machine

Inventor : Alan Turing

Date : 1936

The father of Computer Science Professor Alan Turing. The man behind the digital world we live in today. Turing machine as described by Alan Turing are simple abstract computational devices intended to help investigate the extent and limitations of what can be computed. All the devices that you can see where the foundational dogma applies : Input - processing - output are all turing machines. This man had changed the pace of human advancement contributed and impacted so much for our society that we can pay the debt of it. But died in misery because of some foolish, stupid, unnatural, meaningless laws of British justice system.

John Von Neumann with the Turing Machine

So these are my top 10 greatest inventions . Its was really hard for me to pick them as the top 10 because apart from these there are many inventions that impacted our lives but as I said earlier cherry picking top 10 is based on personal preference. Inventions such as airplane, vaccine, antibiotics, battery, fountain pen, railway, internet and many more all of them are important and we can see it when we try to connect the dots of our past.