20 discoveries and inventions that have qualitatively changed the life of mankind. Not necessarily large-scale, like the hadron collider, but unlike it, it is noticeably useful and necessary

ALCOHOL. Our ancestors invented alcohol - the "stealer of the mind" (6-10 thousand years BC) in order to overcome fear of the forces of nature. Judging by the popularity and mass distribution of alcohol in the world, people are still terribly afraid of snow and rain. Especially men after payday...

PACEMAKER. The first clinical trials of the pacemaker took place in 1927. It was on wires, and now it is being implanted directly into a person, turning him almost into a robot. It turns out that the heart can be controlled - note unfortunate lovers!

A COMPUTER. Many people know that the first programmable computer was created by Georg Schutz from Stockholm and shown in 1855 at the World Exhibition in Paris. But few people know that Georg Schutz was rumored to be our boyfriend Zhora Shuts, so we can say that the father of the computer is from Russia!

TELEPHONE. The first telephone was patented in 1876 in the USA by the inventor Alexander Bell, and there was no bell in it (it was invented by another engineer already 2 years later!), And the first subscriber was called with the help of ... a whistle. A sort of prototype of a special police phone.

PHOTO. The first decent photograph was taken in 1826 by the Frenchman Joseph Niepce using a camera obscura and was called ... "View from the window." It is amazing that cameras have improved fantastically since then, but the views from the windows continue to be shot ...

FRIDGE. It was invented by a doctor - in 1850, the American John Gorey came up with an apparatus that produces artificial ice. In 1927, the industrial production of refrigerators began in the USA, in the USSR it was 10 years late. But some of our 1937 refrigerators are still working!

NUCLEAR POWER. People direct nuclear energy, over the discovery of which physicists led by Rutherford fought, both to the positive - in nuclear submarines and power plants, and to the negative - remember Hiroshima. It's like a magic wand - depending on whose hands it falls into ...

THE INTERNET. In 1969, by order of the US Department of Defense, only 4 (!) Computers at different universities were united by a common micronetwork. Very slowly, other machines joined them, but in 1989, the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented a way to exchange texts on the Web - and away we go, the World Wide Web intertwined!

WHEEL. Presumably invented in Mesopotamia (4,000 BC), the wheel looked like a simple wooden circle with a hole in the center, and became the basis for the construction of the most complex structures: from spinning wheels, mills and potter's wheels to a car with flashing lights.

HAIR DYE. It seems that the invention of hair dye is nonsense compared to the hadron collider? And why then did the Gauls, Saxons and even Neanderthals fight over this? Officially, paint was invented at the end of the 19th century, but the technology was “honed” in 1932. The very one that gave the world Marilyn Monroe and Dmitry Kharatyan.

DIAPERS. Magic panties that add sleep at night were invented in 1957 by American Victor Mills, who was tired of washing diapers for his grandchildren. At first, everyone turned up their noses at the "plastic shorts" of an eccentric grandfather, but he stubbornly experimented on his grandchildren - and made mankind happy! And it all started with laziness and lack of sleep!

PENICILLIN. They say that the scientist Alexander Fleming, who conducted experiments on bacteria in 1928, accidentally overlooked the cups with microorganisms, mold appeared there, and ... And the scientist guessed that it was no coincidence that the bacteria died around the mold - it destroyed them! This is how penicillin was invented!

REMOTE CONTROLLER. It seems to be nonsense - the remote control, and why write about it among the inventions of the aircraft and the discovery of nuclear energy, but remember what happens in the house when it is lost? The Americans invented this "magic wand" in 1950, and the British improved it on the BBC. And among the Russians, he became "pet number 1"!

X-RAY. "Magic rays", which allow you to see the human body from the inside, was discovered in 1895 by the German professor Wilhelm Roentgen. For the presentation, he took an x-ray of his wife's hand with a wedding ring! It's a shame that the Russians explored the X-rays 10 years before the German, but got distracted by something ...

PLANE In 1881, the first aircraft was patented by the Russian inventor Mozhaisky, but there was only one problem - he could not take off. A truly flying airplane was designed by the Americans, the Wright brothers - in 1903 it flew 260 meters! However, after all, Baba Yaga flew on a mortar with us - maybe the championship is still ours?

TELESCOPE. In 1608, the Dutch spectacle master Johann Lippershey demonstrated the "magic pipe" for the first time, and a year later Galileo looked directly into space with its help. When it seems that our Earth is a grain of sand in the Universe, you can always look through a microscope - it narrows your horizons ...

A TELEVISION. TV is made by thousands of people, and more than one invented it. The “father” of TV is considered to be our Vladimir Zworykin (who worked, however, for the Americans), who invented the iconoscope in 1923, but dozens of scientists put their hands on the “box”. By the way, at the beginning of the twentieth century. the idea of ​​TV was considered pseudoscientific. Good idea, by the way...

CONTRACEPTIVES. In ancient Egypt, unfortunate women were forced to protect themselves ... with crocodile dung and chew parsley. To the sex happiness of mankind, in 1855 the first rubber condom was invented, and a hundred years later, hormonal contraceptives, but many continue to chew parsley - just in case ...

WATER PIPES. The invention of plumbing (1 thousand years BC) is not only a technical step forward, but also a social one: the more water a person consumes, the more advanced he is. The first Russian water supply system made of wooden pipes appeared in Veliky Novgorod, and it was obviously not turned off for summer maintenance in those days ...

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. It first bore fruit in 1978 in the UK - where scientists "gave birth" to a girl, Louise Brown, the world's first test-tube baby. In the USSR, this happened for the first time in 1986 - and again a girl, which is not surprising: women (even small ones!) Are more curious and more active than men!

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Mankind could not exist without constant progress, finding and implementing new technologies, inventions and discoveries. Today, many of them are already outdated and there is no need for them, while others, like a wheel, still serve.

The whirlpool of time swallowed up many discoveries, and some waited for their recognition and implementation only after tens and hundreds of years. Numerous questions were asked to find out which inventions of mankind are the most significant.

One thing is clear - there is no consensus. Nevertheless, a universal ten of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind was compiled.

Surprisingly, it turned out that the achievements of modern science have not shaken the significance of some basic discoveries for most people. Most of the inventions are so old that it is hard to give the exact name of their author.

Fire. The first place is hard to argue. People have discovered the beneficial properties of fire for a long time. With its help, it was possible to warm up and illuminate, change the taste properties of food. Initially, man dealt with "wild" fire arising from fires or volcanic eruptions. Fear was replaced by curiosity, so the flame migrated to the cave. Over time, a person learned to make fire himself, which became his constant companion, the basis of the economy, protection from animals. As a result, many subsequent discoveries became possible only thanks to fire - ceramics, metallurgy, steam engines, etc. The path to making fire on your own was a long one - for years, people maintained domestic fires in their caves until they learned how to get it using friction. Two sticks of dry wood were taken, one of which had a hole. The first was placed on the ground and pressed. The second was inserted into the hole and began to quickly rotate between the palms. The wood was heated and ignited. Of course, such a process required some skill. With the development of mankind, other methods of obtaining an open fire arose.

Wheel. The Povozka is closely connected with this discovery. Scientists believe that rollers, which were placed under stones and tree trunks during their transportation, became the prototype of the wheel. Probably, then someone observant noticed the properties of rotating bodies. So, if the log-skating rink in the center was thinner than along the edges, then it moved more evenly, without deviating to the sides. People noticed this, and a device appeared, now called a ramp. Over time, the design changed, from a single log there were only two rollers at the ends connected by an axis. Later, they generally began to be made separately, fastening only then. So the wheel was discovered, which immediately began to be used in the first wagons. Over the next centuries and millennia, people worked hard to improve this important invention. At first, solid wheels were rigidly connected to the axle, rotating with it. But at the bend, the heavy wagon could break. And the wheels themselves were imperfect, they were originally made from a single piece of wood. This led to the fact that the first wagons were rather slow and clumsy, and strong but unhurried oxen were harnessed to them. A major step in evolution was the invention of a wheel with a hub mounted on a fixed axle. To reduce the weight of the wheel itself, they came up with the idea of ​​cutting cuts in it, reinforcing it with transverse braces for rigidity. In the era of the Stone Age, it was impossible to create a better option. But with the advent of metals into human life, the wheels received metal rims and spokes, it could rotate ten times faster and was no longer afraid of stones and wear. Fast-footed horses began to be harnessed to the wagon, the speed increased noticeably. As a result, the wheel was a discovery that gave perhaps the most powerful impetus to the development of all technology.

Writing. Few will deny the significance of this invention for the entire development of mankind. Where would the development of our civilization go if at a certain stage we would not have learned to fix the necessary information with certain symbols. This allowed it to be preserved and transmitted. Obviously, without writing, our society in its present form would simply not exist. The first forms of symbols for the transmission of information arose about 6 thousand years ago. Before that, people used more primitive signals - smoke, branches ... Later, more complex methods of data transmission arose, for example, the Incas used knots for this. Laces of different colors were tied into various knots and attached to a stick. The addressee deciphered the message. Letters of this kind were also practiced in China and Mongolia. However, writing itself appeared only with the invention of graphic symbols. Pictographic letters were adopted first. On them, in the form of a drawing, people schematically depicted phenomena, events, objects. Pictography was widespread back in the Stone Age, and there was no need to learn much about it. But this type of writing was not suitable for conveying complex thoughts or abstract concepts. Over time, conventional signs denoting certain concepts began to be introduced into pictograms. Thus, crossed arms symbolized exchange. Gradually, primitive pictograms became clearer and more defined, writing became ideographic. Its highest form was hieroglyphic writing. First, it originated in Ancient Egypt, then spread to the Far East - Japan, China. Such symbols already made it possible to reflect any thoughts, even the most complex ones. But for an outsider to understand the mystery was very difficult, and for someone who wanted to learn to read and write, it was necessary to learn several thousand characters. As a result, only a few could master this skill. And only 4 thousand years ago, the ancient Phoenicians came up with an alphabet of letters and sounds, which became a model for many other peoples. The Phoenicians began to use 22 consonants, each of which denoted a separate sound. The new writing made it possible to convey any word in a graphical way, and it became much easier to learn writing. Now it has become the property of the whole society, this fact has served the rapid spread of the alphabet around the world. It is believed that 80% of the alphabets common today have Phoenician roots. The last significant changes in the Phoenician letters were made by the Greeks - they began to designate with letters not only consonants, but also vowels. The Greek alphabet, in turn, formed the basis of most European ones.

Paper. This invention is closely related to the previous one. The Chinese were the inventors of paper. It's hard to call it a coincidence. Since ancient times, China has been famous not only for its love of books, but also for its complex system of bureaucratic management with constant reports. That is why there was a special need for inexpensive and compact writing material. Before paper appeared, they wrote on silk and bamboo tablets. However, these materials were ill-suited—silk was expensive, while bamboo was heavy and unwieldy. It is said that a whole cart was required to transport some of the compositions. The invention of paper came from the processing of silk cocoons. Women boiled them, and then, spreading them out on a mat, ground them to a homogeneous mass. Water was filtered out of it, getting silk wool. After such treatment, a thin fibrous layer remained on the mats, which, after drying, turned into paper suitable for writing. Later, for its purposeful preparation, they began to use defective cocoons. Such paper was called cotton and was quite expensive. Over time, the question arose - is it possible to make paper not only from silk? Or any fibrous raw material, preferably of plant origin, is suitable for these purposes. The story goes that in 105 a certain official Cai Lun was able to create a new grade of paper from old fishing nets. Its quality was comparable to silk, and the price was much lower. This discovery became important both for the country and for the whole civilization. People received high-quality and affordable material for writing, an equivalent replacement for which they never found. The following centuries brought several important improvements to papermaking technology, and the process itself began to develop rapidly. In the 4th century, paper finally replaced bamboo planks; it soon became known that it was possible to manufacture from cheap plant materials - tree bark, bamboo and reed. This was especially important, because it is bamboo that grows in China in huge quantities. Production secrets were kept in the strictest confidence for several centuries. But in 751, some Chinese, in a collision with the Arabs, were captured by them. So the secret became known to the Arabs, who for five centuries profitably sold paper to Europe. In 1154, paper production was established in Italy, and soon the craft was mastered in Germany and England. In subsequent centuries, paper became widespread, conquering new areas of application. Its significance is so great that our era is even sometimes called "paper".

Gunpowder and firearms. This European discovery played a huge role in the history of mankind. Many people knew how to make an explosive mixture, the Europeans were the last of the civilized peoples who learned how to do it. But it was they who managed to derive practical benefit from this discovery. The first consequences of the invention of gunpowder were the development of firearms and a revolution in military affairs. Social shifts followed - invincible knights in armor retreated before the fire of cannons and rifles. Feudal society received a severe blow from which it could no longer recover. As a result, powerful centralized states arose. Gunpowder itself, many centuries before its appearance in Europe, was invented in China. An important component of the powder was saltpeter, which in some parts of the country was generally found in native form, resembling snow. Setting fire to a mixture of saltpeter with coal, the Chinese began to observe small outbreaks. At the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries, the properties of saltpeter were first described by the Chinese physician Tao Hong-jing. Since then, this substance has been used as an integral part of some drugs. The appearance of the first sample of gunpowder is attributed to the alchemist Sun Si-miao, who prepared a mixture of sulfur and saltpeter, adding pieces of locust wood to them. When heated, a strong flash of flame arose, which was recorded by the scientist in his treatise Dan Ching. The composition of the gunpowder was further improved by his colleagues, who empirically established three main components - potassium nitrate, sulfur and coal. The medieval Chinese could not scientifically explain the effects of the explosion, but soon adapted to use gunpowder for military purposes. However, this did not have a revolutionary effect. The fact is that the mixture was prepared from crude components, which gave only an incendiary effect. Only in the XII-XIII centuries did the Chinese create a weapon that resembled a firearm, and a rocket and a firecracker were also invented. Soon the Mongols and Arabs learned the secret, and from them the Europeans. The second discovery of gunpowder is attributed to the monk Berthold Schwartz, who began to grind a crushed mixture of saltpeter, coal and sulfur in a mortar. The explosion scorched the tester's beard, but the idea came to his mind that such energy could be used to throw stones. At first, the gunpowder was floury, and it was inconvenient to use it, since the powder sticks to the walls of the barrels. After that, they noticed that it is much more convenient to use gunpowder in lumps and grains. This also gave more gases when ignited.

Communication means - telephone, telegraph, radio, Internet and others. Even 150 years ago, only steamship mail remained the only way to exchange information between Europe and England, America and the colonies. People learned about what was happening in other countries with a delay of whole weeks and even months. So, news from Europe to America went for at least 2 weeks. That is why the advent of the telegraph radically solved this problem. As a result, a technical novelty appeared in all parts of the planet, allowing news from one hemisphere to get to another in a matter of hours and minutes. During the day, interested parties received business and political news, stock reports. The telegraph made it possible to transmit written messages over distances. But soon the inventors thought about a new means of communication that could transmit the sounds of a human voice or music to any distance. The first experiments on this issue were carried out in 1837 by the American physicist Page. His simple but illustrative experiments proved that it was in principle possible to transmit sound by means of electricity. A series of subsequent experiments, discoveries and implementations led to the appearance in our life today of the telephone, television, the Internet and other modern means of communication that turned the life of society upside down.

Automobile. Like some of the greatest inventions that preceded this list, the automobile not only influenced its own era, but spawned a new one. This discovery is not limited to the transport sector alone. The automobile has shaped the modern industry, spawned new industries, and reshaped manufacturing itself. It has become massive and in-line. Even the planet has changed - now it is surrounded by millions of kilometers of roads, and the environment has deteriorated. And even human psychology has changed. Today, the influence of the car is so multifaceted that it is present in all spheres of human life. There were many glorious pages in the history of the invention, but the most interesting one refers to the first years of its existence. In general, the speed with which the car reached its maturity cannot but impress. In just a quarter of a century, an unreliable toy has turned into a mass and popular vehicle. There are about a billion cars in the world today. The main features of a modern car were formed 100 years ago. The forerunner of the gasoline car was the steam car. Back in 1769, the Frenchman Kunyu created a steam cart that could carry up to 3 tons of cargo, moving, however, at a speed of up to 4 km / h. The machine was clumsy, and working with the boiler was hard and dangerous. But the idea of ​​locomotion by steam captivated followers. In 1803, Trivaitik built the first steam car in England, which could carry up to 10 passengers, accelerating up to 15 km / h. Onlookers of London were delighted! The car in the modern sense appeared only with the discovery of the internal combustion engine. In 1864, the vehicle of the Austrian Markus was born, which was driven by a gasoline engine. But the glory of the official inventors of the car went to two Germans - Daimler and Benz. The latter was the owner of a factory for the production of two-stroke gas engines. Funds were enough for leisure and development of their own cars. In 1891, the owner of a rubber factory, Edouard Michelin, invented a removable pneumatic tire for a bicycle, and 4 years later, tires began to be produced for cars. In the same 1895, tires were tested during races, although they were constantly punctured, but it became clear that they give cars a smooth ride, making the ride more comfortable.

Electric lamp. And this invention appeared in our life recently, at the end of the 19th century. At first, lighting appeared on the streets of cities, and then it entered residential buildings. Today, the life of a civilized person is hard to imagine without electric light. This discovery has huge implications. Electricity revolutionized the energy industry, forcing the industry to change significantly. In the XIX century, two types of light bulbs became widespread - arc and incandescent lamps. The first to appear were arc bulbs, the glow of which was based on such a phenomenon as a voltaic arc. If you connect two wires connected to a strong current, and then push them apart, then a glow will appear between their ends. This phenomenon was first observed by the Russian scientist Vasily Petrov in 1803, and the Englishman Devi described such an effect only in 1810. The use of a voltaic arc as a source of illumination was described by both scientists. However, arc lamps had an inconvenience - as the electrodes burned out, they had to be constantly moved towards each other. Exceeding the distance between them entailed a flicker of light. In 1844, the Frenchman Foucault developed the first arc lamp in which the length of the arc could be adjusted manually. Already 4 years later, this invention was applied to illuminate one of the squares in Paris. In 1876, the Russian engineer Yablochkov improved the design - the electrodes, replaced by coals, were already parallel to each other, and the distance between the ends always remained unchanged. In 1879, the American inventor Edison set out to improve the design. He came to the conclusion that for a long and bright glow of a light bulb, a suitable material for the thread is needed, as well as the creation of a rarefied space around. Edison conducted a lot of experiments on a grand scale, it is estimated that at least 6 thousand various compounds were tested. The research cost the American $100,000. Edison gradually began to use metals for the thread, eventually settling on charred bamboo fibers. As a result, in the presence of 3 thousand spectators, the inventor publicly demonstrated the electric light bulbs he developed, illuminating not only his house, but also several neighboring streets. The Edison light bulb was the first to have a long service life and be suitable for mass production.

Antibiotics. This place is given to wonderful medicines, in particular, penicillin. Antibiotics have become one of the main discoveries of the last century, turning medicine around. Today, not everyone realizes how much they owe to such medicinal preparations. Many will be surprised to learn that even 80 years ago tens of thousands of people died from dysentery, pneumonia was a deadly disease, sepsis threatened the death of almost all surgical patients, typhoid was dangerous and difficult to cure, and pneumonic plague sounded like a death sentence. But all these terrible diseases, like others, previously incurable (tuberculosis), were defeated by antibiotics. The drugs had a significant impact on military medicine. Previously, most of the soldiers died not from bullets at all, but from festering wounds. After all, millions of bacteria-cocci penetrated there, which caused pus, sepsis, gangrene. The maximum that the surgeon managed to do was to amputate the affected part of the body. It turned out that it is possible to fight dangerous microorganisms with the help of their own counterparts. Some of them in the course of their life activity emit substances that are capable of destroying other microbes. This idea appeared in the 19th century. Louis Pasteur discovered that anthrax bacilli are killed by some other microbes. Over time, experiments and discoveries gave the world penicillin. For seasoned field surgeons, this medicine has become a true miracle. The most hopeless patients got up on their feet, having overcome blood poisoning or pneumonia. The discovery and creation of penicillin is considered one of the most significant discoveries in the history of all medicine, giving a huge impetus to its development.

Sail and ship. The sail arose in a person's life a long time ago, when there was a desire to go to sea and build boats for this. The first sail was an ordinary animal skin. The sailor had to hold it with his hands and constantly orient it relative to the wind. When people came up with the idea to use masts and yards, it is not known, but already on the most ancient images of ships from the time of the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, various devices for working with a sail, rigging, are visible. Thus it is clear that the sail originated in prehistoric times. It is believed that the first large sailboats appeared in Egypt, and the Nile became the first navigable river. Every year the mighty river overflowed, cutting off cities and regions from each other. So the Egyptians had to master navigation. At that time, ships played a much greater role in the economic life of the country than carts on wheels. One of the first types of ships is the barge, which is already more than 7 thousand years old. Her models have come down to us from temples. Since there were few forests in Egypt for the construction of the first ships, papyrus was used for these purposes. Its features determined the design and shape of the ships. They were a sickle-shaped boat, connected from bundles of papyrus, while the bow and stern were bent upwards. The ship's hull, for strength, was pulled together with cables. Over time, trade with the Phoenicians gave the country the Lebanese cedar, and the tree firmly entered shipbuilding. Compositions of 5 thousand years ago give reason to believe. That then the Egyptians used a straight sail, mounted on a two-legged mast. It was possible to sail only downwind, and with a side wind, the mast was quickly removed. Approximately 4600 years ago, a one-legged mast began to be used, which is still used today. The vessel became easier to walk, it got the ability to maneuver. However, at that time, a rectangular sail was very unreliable, and besides, it could only be used with a fair wind. So it turned out that the main engine of the ship of that time was the muscular strength of the rowers. Then the maximum speed of the ships of the pharaohs was 12 km / h. Merchant ships traveled mainly along the coast, not going far out to sea. The next step in the development of ships was made by the Phoenicians, who initially had excellent building materials. 5 thousand years ago, with the beginning of the development of maritime trade, the Phoenicians began to build ships. At the same time, their sea vessels initially had design features from boats. Stiffening ribs, covered with boards on top, were installed on single-trees. The idea of ​​such a design of the Phoenicians may have prompted the skeletons of animals. In fact, this is how the first frames that are still used today appeared. It was the Phoenicians who created the first keel ship. At first, two trunks connected at an angle acted as a keel. This gave the ships more stability, becoming the basis for the future development of shipbuilding and defining the look of all future ships.

There are inventions in the world created for our entertainment, comfort and coziness, such as a lighter or kitchen utensils. Undoubtedly, they are very useful, and unusually practical. At the same time, there are also innovations that have completely changed the way we live - inventions that have influenced the history and way of life of man.

In this article, I offer for your consideration a list of 10 inventions ranging from 800,000 years old to several decades old, all of which, however, have made our lives easier and more convenient. Representing various aspects of life, all these inventions play a huge role in human life.

Fire

Imagine the face of an ancient man who first made fire, and did it on his own, without the help of lightning or a forest fire. New archaeological digs in Israel claim that Day X occurred about 800,000 years ago, when Homo erectus, Homo erectus, still dominated the planet. This species of man was the first of our ancestors to learn how to make fire by hitting silicon (a type of quartz) on another mineral containing metal. The spark that jumped out as a result of the impact of two stones created the fire.

The advent of this technology was a breakthrough for man: suddenly he had a warm, bright parking lot, processed food and a completely new menu of products that could be cooked on a fire.

Wheel

Despite the hackneyed invention, it undoubtedly has a place in the top ten, because it is not just an innovation, but the invention of inventions, since the wheel technology was subsequently used in many iconic inventions. The first wheel known to science dates back to 3500 BC and was found in Mesopotamia. Initially, the wheel was used for pottery. Then, apparently realizing the potential of the invention, people began to use the wheel in transport, which significantly expanded the human habitat.

Concrete

Another example of an important innovation that disappeared during the Dark Ages was concrete, an early recipe known to the ancient Egyptians (according to scientists, it was used in the construction of the pyramids). The ancient Romans adopted the technology from their Eastern counterparts, and actively used it in the construction of, for example, the Roman Pantheon, a monument that has survived to this day.

The technology of mixing cement and binders such as sand and water had all but disappeared by the 18th century, when the English engineer John Smeaton improved the composition of concrete. This material is still the main source of building material in the construction of bridges, dams, roads and buildings.

Electricity

Where would humanity be without electricity? Well, for sure, you would not read this list. It is hard for a modern person to imagine a time when the world did without electricity. However, thanks to the efforts of scientists such as Nikola Tesla, Michael Faraday and Thomas Edison, by the end of the 19th century, the world learned about electricity. The invention was so successful that the first electric stations appeared in the USA by the 1880s. However, for a long time, electricity remained only the lot of big cities. By the 1930s, only 10% of the villages were connected to the electricity grid.

Microscope

Most inventions are the result of thinking big. The microscope, a mechanical creation that made it possible to see a completely different life, is an example of the fact that discoveries can be made on such a small scale.

The first microscope used light and lenses to optically magnify small specimens. Created in the late 16th and early 17th centuries by Dutch craftsmen, the first scientific use of the microscope dates back to the Englishman Robert Hook, who decided to examine a louse and a flea under the instrument.

A television

Television is a classic example of how engineering innovations, developed separately from each other, could, combined into a single device, revolutionize the way people live.

One of the most significant inventions of the 20th century began with the concept of a device that played moving pictures to music. However, the world decreed otherwise, and by 1920 television became a reality, but the post-war period is usually called the "era of television."

Antibiotics

Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was very difficult to live to old age - every day dozens of potential killers were waiting for a person, from tubercle bacilli to other dangerous infections.

That all changed in the 1930s when Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin, an antibiotic that could successfully fight bacterial infections. This discovery became one of the most important discoveries in medicine, and began to save people's lives immediately after the start of production. It is to the success of penicillin that the modern pharmaceutical industry owes its heyday.

A computer

The Internet has turned the computer into a truly fantastic device, but would cyberspace exist without the appropriate hardware support? The computer is another invention whose fate was not so rosy at first, despite the fact that most historians point out that the first programmable computer, the Z3, was invented by the German engineer Konrad Zuse in the 30s. A secret project sponsored by the Nazi government was destroyed during the war. However, the original technology used by the German scientist to create the Z3 lives on today.

Iron processing

Iron is one of the most common metals on Earth, and steel - its alloy - is an indispensable material. Moreover, the processing of iron is as important today as it was thousands of years ago. Iron was first worked around 3,500 years ago in Anatolia (in present-day Turkey), the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age was a major driver for agriculture in the ancient world, as stronger iron tools enabled people to work the land better. A more advanced weapon, although it led to a series of aggressive wars, also contributed to a more flexible development of society, its consolidation.

flush toilet

The flush toilet may be considered a modern invention, but even ancient societies successfully used this object of public life. As early as 5,000 years ago, private houses in Pakistan had toilet bowls connected by pipes to a drainage system. Unfortunately, the invention was lost with the Dark Ages that came to Europe. Again, flush toilets replaced holes in the floor and wooden chairs with a hole, only in the 16th century, when the English aristocrat John Harrington created a toilet for Queen Elizabeth I using a flush mechanism.

“Scientists have found that pizza for breakfast is healthier than sugary cereal, and heavy music has a calming effect” - almost every day we can read something like this in the news. This information is interesting for the general development, but does not carry any vital importance, and if we did not know it, nothing would change. But all these discoveries and a hundred others come from research that helps us better understand the world around us and ourselves. Indeed, before the most ingenious discoveries, not everyone could even imagine them. Some scientific research, as a result, led to the fact that inventions were born that changed human life and the course of history. After all, today we simply cannot imagine ourselves without them. What kind of discoveries are we talking about?

1. Wheel

Photo: jackmac34/pixabay (CC0 Creative Commons)

Undoubtedly, it should be put at the top of the list. The wheel is one of the first inventions that truly shook the world. The first wheel began to be used as early as 8 thousand years BC, and from that moment a person’s path to a technical breakthrough began: first, primitive transport, then the movement of goods, construction using complex wheel mechanisms, gear wheels in more complex mechanisms - the wheel rolled our humanity gradually forward .

2. Electricity

Photo: jplenio/pixabay (CC0 Creative Commons)

This is not just a discovery that has simplified our daily lives. It has become an integral part of our existence in everyday life, mass production, everywhere. Since its discovery, knowledge about electricity has improved, improved, new technologies have been introduced, and now we even have electric vehicles. To understand how important this is in our lives and how much it would be different without it, imagine humanity without electricity. This is the absence of light, and all the gadgets that we use: computers, smartphones, cashless payments. There would be no Internet and television. And all this would affect not just comfort, but the mental development of a person, unemployment, political literacy, freedom of speech and the dissemination of information. And this is only the most basic.

3. Telegraph and telephone

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The telegraph laid the foundation for the invention of the telephone. While the first one transmitted messages using signals and their decryptions, the telephone made it possible for a person to communicate directly with an interlocutor from any part of the country and even the world.

Imagine how much life has changed when people were able to communicate with each other even far away, without waiting for letters for a long time. No one else can steal, hide a letter or write it for another person. No one will be able to convey a false message. After all, you just call, your voice is heard and everything falls into place. What we are already accustomed to is a real miracle for human communication. After all, imagine how narrowed your social circle would be if you lived in a time without a phone and could only talk with those who live nearby.

4. Computer and Internet

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Another invention that is used today in everyday life and in most areas of activity. The work of banks, social networks, online stores, tons of information free for anyone - all this is possible only thanks to a computer and the Internet.

Human communication has gone even further than it was with the phone - now we can communicate via video messages, send each other photos, write, record voice messages and videos, share information and do it as conveniently as possible - after all, when someone might not have time to reach the phone approach, then the message on the Internet will be read as soon as the interlocutor goes online.

5. Plane

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This invention not only changed the course of history, it allowed a person to surpass himself, conquer the heavens and gain previously unknown strength and power. It changed the course of wars, it allowed people to move to the other side of the world in unimaginably short time, transport goods around the world, explore new areas. Indeed - one of the most important discoveries for mankind, which we still admire.

6. Anesthesia

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Invented in 1846, anesthesia has become a real salvation for people. Now, without it, we cannot imagine any operation, even of medium complexity. And before, after all, operations were more like terrible torture! At most, alcohol or mandrake extract could dull the patient's pain, but he could simply die from cardiac arrest due to pain. Modern anesthesia has made it possible to perform complex operations and save a lot of human lives. After all, the patient is not conscious and does not feel pain, due to which he lies motionless - which gives the doctor the opportunity to do his job more accurately.

7. Penicillin

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If we talk about saving human lives, then this historically important discovery should also be remembered. After all, it is difficult to imagine how much less people would live on Earth today if penicillin would not have sat down. His appearance in 1928 was a real breakthrough in medicine and predetermined our future. Antibiotics were among the first drugs that could fight staphylococci, syphilis and tuberculosis.

These are far from all important historical discoveries, but only an example of how the brilliant mind of one or more people can change the future.

Main photo: Free-Photos/pixabay (CC0 Creative Commons),
ipicgr/pixabay (CC0 Creative Commons)

Victoria Demidyuk

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October 8, 1945 American Percy Spencer applied for a patent for a microwave oven. But it all started with a project to develop weapons - they improved the quality of radars, and they invented a microwave oven. Sometimes the fate of the world depends on luck, and not on the efforts that a person makes to change it for the better. To be convinced of this, it is enough to ask the inventors, to whom we owe extremely useful inventions. Each of them changed our lives in one way or another, but they did it quite by accident, thanks to a fortunate combination of circumstances or, conversely, an unsuccessful experiment. That's why we decided to talk about five random inventions that have changed a person's life.

Microwave

The microwave oven was born thanks to a happy coincidence. And it all started with a project to develop weapons. Engineer Percy Spencer was involved in the development of radar technology in one of the largest companies in the world's military-industrial complex Raytheon. In 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, he was doing research to improve the quality of radar. During one of the experiments, Spencer discovered that the chocolate bar that was in his pocket had melted. Contrary to common sense, Spencer immediately discarded the idea that chocolate could melt under the influence of body heat - like a true scientist, he seized on the hypothesis that the invisible radiation of the magnetron had somehow affected the chocolate. After a series of experiments, the first water-cooled microwave oven weighing about 350 kg was created. It was supposed to be used in restaurants, airplanes and ships - i.e. where food needs to be heated quickly.

Penicillin

Antibiotics are undoubtedly overused in our world, but prior to their introduction, human life was subject to many dangerous infections. Penicillin was the first antibiotic discovered by the young bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming in 1929. In 1928, he noticed that one of the plastic plates with pathogenic staphylococcus bacteria in his laboratory was moldy. Nevertheless, Fleming left the lab for the weekend without washing the dirty dishes. After the weekend, he returned to his experiment. He examined the plate under a microscope and found that the mold had killed off the bacteria. Fleming named the mold Penicillium notatum and began to study it. It soon became clear that the mold was capable of killing other bacteria and could be applied to small animals without harming their health. This mold turned out to be the main form of penicillin. This discovery is considered one of the greatest in the history of medicine. The significance of Fleming's discovery became clear only in 1940, when mass research began on a new type of antibiotic drug. Today, antibiotics are widely used in medicine, they account for 15% of all medicines sold in the world.

Matches

We can no longer imagine a world without electricity and the Internet, but imagine that you have no matches and are forced to make fire with flint or stones. For the accidental invention of matches, we can thank the British pharmacist John Walker and his sticks for mixing chemicals. One day in 1826, John noticed a dried chemical lump on one of his wooden tools and tried to scrape it off. In response, the wand produced sparks and flames. John Walker called his invention "friction fires" and sold them in drugstores in boxes stocked with sandpaper to carve the fire. At first, matches were made of cardboard, later they began to be made of wood. John decided not to patent the invention, making it the property of mankind, which did not prevent other, more enterprising manufacturers from recording the invention in their name and prohibiting John from producing it.

Safety glass

Safety glass is widely used in the automotive and construction industries. Today it is everywhere, but when the French scientist Edouard Benedictus accidentally dropped an empty glass flask on the floor in 1903 and it did not break, he was very surprised. As it turned out, a solution of collodion was stored in the flask before, the solution evaporated, but the walls of the vessel were covered with a thin layer of it. At that time, the automotive industry was intensively developing in France, and the windshield was made from ordinary glass, which caused many injuries to drivers, which Benedictus drew attention to. He saw real life-saving benefits in using his invention in automobiles, but the automakers found it too expensive to manufacture. For the first time such glasses began to be used in gas masks during the First World War, and, only due to their success, in 1930 they began to equip cars. Today, the windshield does not shatter into sharp fragments in a collision.

Super glue

in 1942, Dr. Harry Coover worked for Eastman Kodak, a company known for its cameras and accessories. He was faced with the task of creating a transparent plastic that could be used for gun sights - this was happening at the height of World War II, and everyone knew very well what kind of money revolves in the military industry. At first, Coover was upset because the resulting material - cyanoacrylate - quickly hardened, stuck to anything, and only spoiled the laboratory equipment. Without realizing that he had invented one of the most versatile adhesives of all time, Coover ruefully ditched the adhesive and continued to sweat on creating transparent plastic. Some time later, he discovered that the cyanoacrylate container was stuck to the bottom of the wastebasket and could not be peeled off in any way. And only years later, in 1958, he realized that his invention could bring considerable benefits to mankind. The most tangible benefit was the ability of the glue to instantly seal wounds - it saved the lives of many soldiers during the Vietnam War. In 1959, the extraordinary abilities of the glue were demonstrated to the world - a car was lifted over a busy street with a crane, which was allegedly held in a stable position thanks to superglue.