We have all heard the expression: “The greatest invention since the wheel.”
Actually, during the course of our research on this subject, we discovered that there was at least one important invention that preceded the wheel.
To find out which, you’ll need to browse our Life Daily list of the most significant inventions in the history of the world.
The other interesting fact which emerged, was that no invention was created in a vacuum. Each one was simply a development of previous inventions created by other inventors years, decades or even centuries before.
Usually the original inventor is not the one who receives the credit, but rather the last inventor who made the last critical improvement.
1. The Plow
No one knows when the plow was invented, or who was the inventor. It developed independently in a number of regions, and was in use in prehistoric times.
Before the plow, humans were subsistence farmers or hunter/gatherers. They had to find enough food to survive on a daily basis.
Plows made farming so efficient that people could harvest far more food than they needed to survive and they could trade the surplus for goods or services. So began the concept of commerce; one could say that the plow is responsible for the creation of human civilization.
2. The Wheel
Before the invention of the wheel in 3500 B.C., humans were severely limited in their ability to transport anything on land.
Wheeled carts enabled the movement of both goods and people over great distances. Now, life would be inconceivable without the wheel, in one form or another.
3. The Nail
Nails were the key to the growth of civilization. They were invented more than 2,000 years ago in the Ancient Roman period. Nails only became possible after humans developed the ability to cast and shape metal.
Previously, wood structures were built by interlocking adjacent boards geometrically – a much more arduous construction process.
4. The Compass
Ancient mariners navigated by the stars, but that method didn’t work during the day, or on cloudy nights.
The first compass was invented by the Chinese between the 9th and 11th century; it was made of lodestone, a naturally-magnetized iron ore. Later the idea was taken up, and improved upon, by Arab and European mariners.
The compass enabled navigation far from land thus increasing sea trade and contributing to the Age of Discovery.
5. The Printing Press
The German, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press around 1440. Printing presses dramatically increased the speed with which book copies could be made, and thus led to the rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge for the first time in history. Twenty million volumes had been printed in Western Europe by 1500.
6. The Steam Engine
Before the invention of the steam engine, most products were made by hand. Water wheels and draft animals provided only limited power. The Industrial Revolution – possibly the greatest change over the shortest period of time in the history of civilization – was a direct result of this invention.
The concept of using steam to power machines had been around for thousands of years. In 1712 Thomas Newcomen was the first to harness that power for useful work. But, in 1769, James Watt modified a Newcomen engine and made it a far more practical way to do work.
He also developed a way for the engine to produce rotary motion, and that is why it is Watt who is usually recognized as the inventor of the steam engine.
7. The Internal combustion engine
Internal combustion engines convert chemical energy into mechanical work.
Decades of engineering by many scientists went in to designing the internal combustion engine,so it is difficult to pinpoint any one inventor.
However, the earliest confirmed patent of the 4-cycle engine, was registered in 1861 by Alphonse Beau de Rochas. A year earlier, Christian Reithmann made an engine which may have been the same, but it’s unknown since his patent wasn’t clear on this point.
In 1862 the German inventor, Nikolaus Otto, was the first to actually build and sell the engine.
8. The Telephone
Several inventors did pioneering work on electronic voice transmission. Consequently many of them filed intellectual property lawsuits when Alexander Graham Bell was awarded a patent for the electric telephone in 1876.
The significance of the telephone, leading to its modern version – the mobile phone – can hardly be underestimated.
9. The Light Bulb
Light bulbs changed the world by allowing mankind to function 24 hours a day.
Some two dozen people were instrumental in inventing incandescent lamps throughout the 1800s, but Thomas Edison is credited as the primary inventor because he created a completely functional lighting system in 1879.
10. The Refrigerator
It’s difficult to pinpoint a single inventor of the refrigerator, because the concept was widely known and gradually improved over the course of about 200 years. Oliver Evans developed a design in1805, but never manufactured it. Many believe that Carl von Linde’s 1876 design is the actual precursor of the modern refrigerator. Dozens of inventors, including Albert Einstein, would refine or improve refrigerator designs over the decades.
11. The Contraceptive
Birth control pills, condoms, and other forms of contraception, sparked a sexual revolution in the developed world by allowing men and women to have sex for leisure rather than procreation.
Contraceptives have also drastically reduced the average number of offspring per woman in many countries; thus the human population is gradually leveling off.
12. The Computer
There is no single inventor of the modern computer, although British mathematician Alan Turing is considered eminently influential in the field of computing. Mechanical computing devices were in existence in the 1800s, but electronic computers were only invented in the 20th century.
The problem is how much we rely on them from day to day. Computers let us store vast amounts of information and retrieve a given piece of it almost instantly. The disturbing fact is that we have created a world which can no longer function without computers.
13. The Internet
The global system of interconnected computer networks, known as the Internet, is used by billions of people worldwide. Countless people helped develop it, but the person most often credited with its invention in the 1960s is the computer scientist Lawrence Roberts.
However, the generally accepted “Father of the Internet”, as we use it today, is Tim Berners-Lee. In 1990 he developed HTML, which was followed a year later by the WWW (World Wide Web) – a series of sites and pages that are connected with links.
From the wheel to the Internet in a few thousand years! Considering that humans have existed on Earth for around 200,000 years, and given the increase in the rate of invention, it’s quite frightening to contemplate what can happen even in the next decade.
Perhaps the most significant inventions in the history of the Earth are yet to come!
Which invention do YOU think was the most significant? Do you think we missed another important invention?
You can share your thoughts simply by using the comments feed below.
