a great invention essay

November 1, 2013

What Are the 10 Greatest Inventions of Our Time?

Before you consider, here are a few opinions from Scientific American readers in 1913 on what makes a great invention

By Daniel C. Schlenoff

A competition sponsored in 1913 by Scientific American asked for essays on the 10 greatest inventions. The rules: “our time” meant the previous quarter century, 1888 to 1913; the invention had to be patentable and was considered to date from its “commercial introduction.”

Perception is at the heart of this question. Inventions are most salient when we can see the historical changes they cause. In 2013 we might not appreciate the work of Nikola Tesla or Thomas Edison on a daily basis, as we are accustomed to electricity in all its forms, but we are very impressed by the societal changes caused by the Internet and the World Wide Web (both of which run on alternating-current electricity, by the way). A century from now they might be curious as to what all the fuss was about. The answers from 1913 thus provide a snapshot of the perceptions of the time.

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The airplane: The Wright Flyer for military purposes, being demonstrated at Fort Myer, Va., in 1908. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

Following are excerpts from the first- and second-prize essays, along with a statistical tally of all the entries that were sent in.

The first-prize essay was written by William I. Wyman, who worked in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C., and was thus well informed on the progress of inventions. His list was:

1. The electric furnace (1889) It was “the only means for commercially producing Carborundum (the hardest of all manufactured substances).” The electric furnace also converted aluminum “from a merely precious to very useful metal” (by reducing it’s price 98 percent), and was “radically transforming the steel industry.”

2. The steam turbine, invented by Charles Parsons in 1884 and commercially introduced over the next 10 years. A huge improvement in powering ships, the more far-reaching use of this invention was to drive generators that produced electricity.

3. The gasoline-powered automobile. Many inventors worked toward the goal of a “self-propelled” vehicle in the 19th century. Wyman gave the honor specifically to Gottleib Daimler for his 1889 engine, arguing: “a century's insistent but unsuccessful endeavor to provide a practical self-propelled car proves that the success of any type that once answered requirements would be immediate. Such success did come with the advent of the Daimler motor, and not before.”

4. The moving picture. Entertainment always will be important to people. “The moving picture has transformed the amusements of the multitude.” The technical pioneer he cited was Thomas Edison.

5. The airplane. For “the Realization of an age-long dream” he gave the laurels of success to the Wright brothers, but apart from its military use reserved judgment on the utility of the invention: “It presents the least commercial utility of all the inventions considered.”

6. Wireless Telegraphy. Systems for transmitting information between people have been around for centuries, perhaps millennia. Telegraph signals got a speed boost in the U.S. from Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail. Wireless telegraphy as invented by Guglielmo Marconi, later evolving into radio, set information free from wires.

7. The cyanide process. Sounds toxic, yes? It appears on this list for only one reason: It is used to extract gold from ore. “Gold is the life blood of trade,” and in 1913 it was considered to be the foundation for international commerce and national currencies.

8. The Nikola Tesla induction motor. “This epoch-making invention is mainly responsible for the present large and increasing use of electricity in the industries.” Before people had electricity in their homes, the alternating current–producing motor constructed by Tesla supplied 90 percent of the electricity used by manufacturing.

9. The Linotype machine. The Linotype machine enabled publishers—largely newspapers—to compose text and print it much faster and cheaper. It was an advance as large as the invention of the printing press itself was over the painstaking handwritten scrolls before it. Pretty soon we won’t be using paper for writing and reading, so the history of printing will be forgotten anyway.

10. The electric welding process of Elihu Thomson. In the era of mass production, the electric welding process enabled faster production and construction of better, more intricate machines for that manufacturing process.

The electric welder invented by Elihu Thomson enabled the cheaper production of intricate welded machinery. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

The turbine invented by Charles Parsons powered ships. Assembled in numbers, they provided an efficient means of driving electrical generators and producing that most useful commodity. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

The second-prize essay, by George M. Dowe, also of Washington, D.C., who may have been a patent attorney, was more philosophical. He divided his inventions into those aiding three broad sectors: production, transportation and communication.

1. Electrical fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. As natural fertilizer sources were depleted during the 19th century, artificial fertilizers enabled the further expansion of agriculture.

2. Preservation of sugar-producing plants. George W. McMullen of Chicago is credited with the discovery of a method for drying sugar cane and sugar beets for transport. Sugar production became more efficient and its supply increased by leaps and bounds, like a kid on a “sugar buzz.” Maybe this is one invention we could have done without. But I digress.

3. High-speed steel alloys. By adding tungsten to steel, “tools so made were able to cut at such a speed that they became almost red hot without losing either their temper or their cutting edge” The increase in the efficiency of cutting machines was “nothing short of revolutionary.”

4. Tungsten-filament lamp. Another success of chemistry. After tungsten replaced carbon in its filament, the lightbulb was considered “perfected.” As of 2013 they are being phased out worldwide in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs, which are four times as efficient.

5. The airplane. Not yet in wide use as transportation in 1913, but “To [Samuel] Langley and to the Wright brothers must be awarded the chief honors in the attainment of mechanical flight.” In 2013 the annoying aspects of commercial airline flying make transportation by horse and buggy seem a viable alternative.

6. The steam turbine. As with Mr. Wyman, the turbine deserved credit not only “in the utilization of steam as a prime mover” but in its use in the “generation of electricity.”

7. Internal combustion engine. As a means of transportation, Dowe gives the greatest credit to “Daimler, Ford and Duryea.” Gottleib Daimler is a well-known pioneer in motor vehicles. Henry Ford began production of the Model T in 1908 and it was quite popular by 1913. Charles Duryea made one of the earliest commercially successful petrol-driven vehicles, starting in 1896.

8. The pneumatic tire. Cars for personal transportation were an improvement on railways. “What the track has done for the locomotive, the pneumatic tire has done for the vehicle not confined to tracks.” Credit is given to John Dunlop and William C. Bartlet, who each had a milestone on the road (pun intended) to successful automobile and bicycle tires.

9. Wireless communication. Marconi was given the credit for making wireless “commercially practical.” Dowe also makes a comment that could apply equally to the rise of the World Wide Web, stating that wireless was “devised to meet the needs of commerce primarily, but incidentally they have contributed to social intercourse.”

10. Composing machines. The giant rotary press was quite capable of churning out masses of printed material. The bottleneck in the chain of production was composing the printing plates. The Linotype and the Monotype dispensed with that bottleneck.

The essays sent in were compiled to come up with a master list of inventions that were considered to be the top 10. Wireless telegraphy was on almost everyone’s list. The “aeroplane” came in second, although it was considered important because of its potential, not because there were so many airplanes in the sky. Here are the rest of the results:

There were also mentions for Luther Burbank's agricultural work (23); Louis Pasteur and vaccination work (20); acetylene gas from carbide (17); mercury-vapor lamp (7); preservation of sugar-producing plants (7); combined motion picture and talking machine (10); Edison's storage battery (6); automatic player piano (4); Pulmotor (a respirator machine) (4); telephone (4).

The motion picture: The hard-working Thomas Edison helped make this entertainment form technically viable. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

The full contents of all the prize-winning essays is available with a subscription to the Scientific American archives .

89 Invention Essay Topics & Examples

Looking for a topic about invention that changed the world? You’re in the right place! Find the best invention essay examples and title ideas below.

🏆 Top Invention Essay Examples

📱 interesting invention speech topics, 👍 good essay topics on invention, ❓ invention research questions.

An invention is an innovative method, device, or process. Whether it is a small improvement or a radical breakthrough, an invention is something that changes production processes and the everyday life of people. Both the wheel and a super-modern smartphone are examples of inventions.

In your invention essay, you might want to discuss the importance of inventing in our life. Another option is to talk about a famous or your favorite invention. Want to get more ideas? In this article, we’ve gathered the best invention essay examples, speech topics, and titles. Go on reading to learn more.

• Electricity Is the Most Important Invention This process began centuries ago, yet its most active stage was launched in the middle of the nineteenth century, and one of the major moving forces of the rapid technological development was the reception and […]
• The Inventions of Thomas Edison Many new developments appeared due to Edison’s achievements, who was one of the founders of the practical application of current. The introduction of compressed current energy marked the transition to a new technological era.
• The Invention of Internet Several events led to the advancement of the internet in the world today. The level of computer literacy in the world played a leading role in the advancement of internet as teachers and students wanted […]
• Ancient Chinese Contributions and Inventions Trying to point to ten most useful inventions and contributions of the Ancient China, it was really difficult to select the most necessary ones as Ancient China is famous for its contribution into the development […]
• The Flute Advancement and Its Invention The volume of the flute is dependent on the resonator’s size, the size of the air stream or the velocity of the air stream.
• Golden Age of Islam: Inventions and Success in Science The achievements of the Muslim technology and science contributed to the development of the Western society and helped Europe come out of the Dark Ages.
• Dynamite Invention Influence on Politics, Society, and Economy The duality of the impact of the invention of dynamite is present in each of the three major civilizational areas mentioned above.
• Inventions That the World Would Do Without For instance, the invention of communication technology has been of great help to the entire world because of the convenience and reliability it has come with.
• Umbrella and Its Invention in Different Cultures An umbrella in ancient China was not only the item of sun protection, but it was also a symbol of a high rank and nobility of its owner.
• Discovery Versus Invention: Understanding, Comparison and Principles of the Subject The earlier example of gods invented to explain cosmology is an area where the knowledge was true for its time in the sense that it organized the universe and the world, but was later replaced […]
• Papyrus: Its Invention and Impact on the World The invention of papyrus paper by the Egyptians changed the scene since papyrus-paper proved to be the ideal writing material of the time.
• The Gunpowder Invention and Its Impacts on the World In the present times, the production of gunpowder still goes on as a continuation of the works of the ancient alchemists from China.
• Invention of Photography and Its Social Impact Although photography was invented in its full form only in 1835, an understanding of the social impact that was a result of the invention of photography is rightly portrayed by Azoulay in his article “The […]
• Invention in Writing It refers to the creation of new ideas in relation to the question given or the use of old ideas to come up with new ideas in writing.
• Impact of the Invention of the Camera on Art The invention of the camera immensely impacted the arts, especially in terms of painting. On the other hand, the camera’s invention spurred the development of new art directions, namely, Realism and Impressionism.
• Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention It was a very short notice and since I had counted on working on my telephone project in the spring of 1870, I was at first not ready to move with my parents.
• The Invention of Development On being sworn in as the president of the United States, Rist notes, Truman introduced the term, underdevelopment, as a new concept of regarding the impoverished regions of the world.
• Invention of Light Bulbs by Davy: Ethical Issues This was a pivotal moment when Humphrey picked up an interest in the field of electrochemistry in the year 1808 because it led to discovery of the most famous invention in his life which was […]
• Phonograph Invention and Evolution The time period the phonograph was invented and the circumstances that led to the invention. The invention and advancement of the phonograph and its operations has had a part to play on other inventions.
• The Progressive Era and Its Technological Inventions Moreover, the period marked the shift from the agrarian to the urban society, and many critics referred to it as the age of reforms in American history.
• Nikola Tesla’s Inventions and Achievements It is interesting to discuss that Tesla’s AC system led to the event in the history of the scientific and commercial world called the war of the currents.
• Two Inventions Comarison: Telephone and Internet However, the history of the first inventor of the telephone is shrouded in mystery with the name of Elisha Gray attached with the invention of the first telephone.
• “Invention as a Social Act” Analysis The paper is divided into four parts: social aspects of the invention, invention as a dialectical process, invention as an act, and classical criteria for a social view of the invention.
• Optical Tools: History of Invention and Consequential Development Nevertheless, as the socio-cultural progress in this part of the world continued to gain a powerful momentum, the idea of using lenses to create optical devices began to appeal to more and more intellectually advanced […]
• Ancient Chinese Inventions History In this article, I highlight some of the inventions and contributions and examine four that I consider to be outstanding. A sample of these inventions and contributions include “silk, tea, porcelain, paper, printing, gunpowder, the […]
• US Inventions: Electronic Appliances and Transport Facilities Fortunately, the inventions of recorders, compact disks, and radio led to the spread of the music in other parts of the world.
• Biomimicry: Inventions Inspired by Nature The main idea or aim of biomimicry is that nature is able to provide humanity with brilliant solutions that can and need to be used.
• Apple Company: Development, Inventions, Expansion This essay provides an insight into the development of the Apple Company and the various personalities that have contributed to its growth.
• Computers: The History of Invention and Development It is treated as a reliable machine able to process and store a large amount of data and help out in any situation.”The storage, retrieval, and use of information are more important than ever” since […]
• The Invention of Cinema at the End of the XIX Century First attempt to introduce the idea of moving pictures traces back to middle of the seventeenth century, when Athanasius Kircher “who projected crude hand-painted images of the Devil…on the wall of a darkened chamber by […]
• Marcel Duchamp’s Invention of ‘The Readymade’ In his invention of readymade art, Duchamp based his artwork on the belief that creative art was not made from the perspective of the artist but from the point of view of the spectator who […]
• Inventions of the Ancient Romans The Romans built some of the most impressive buildings in the world, including the Pantheon and the Colosseum. Thus, the Romans were ahead of their time, and their legacy continues to shape modern engineering and […]
• The Invention and the Power of Music This moment was the beginning of a practical study of the benefits of music therapy for the mental and physical condition of a person.
• Walter Benjamin’s Article: The Invention of Photography In “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, Walter Benjamin discusses how the invention of photography and other mechanical reproduction forms has changed how people perceive works of art.
• Spectrophotometers: Invention and Development Jensen explains that spectrophotometers can be used to make measurements where previous methods were unable to, like measuring the amount of light absorbed by a substance at different wavelengths.
• The Motion Picture Invention and Inventors John Isaac played a key role in helping Eadweard to develop a technology used to take the first motion picture of a galloping horse.
• The Lego Company’s Inventions and Reinvention Hasbro and Barbie, the Lego company has the capacity to widen its range of products and diversify. The Lego company realized the importance of its community, and effectively used it in order to improve its […]
• Testing New Invention: Blender Switch The purpose of the analysis will be to determine if the proportion of returned blenders with new switches were deferent from the proportion of blenders with old switches.
• Social Needs: Inventions and Innovations The Pony Express was birthed in 1861 in the US with the primary goal of delivering mail and in the same breath, Coleman Sellers invented a Kinematoscope.
• Radio Technology Invention and Development In 1906 he broadcasted a Christmas concert, including his voice and violin play with the help of 400-foot towers to the ships of the United Fruit Company, which were equipped with Marconi’s radios. In 1922 […]
• The Invention of Daguerreotypes Overall, the work on the daguerreotypes began in 1727, when Schulze introduced his important innovations into photography; it continued in the beginning of the 1800s, when the rudimentary camera obscura was created and actively used; […]
• Ancient Chinese Inventions and Contributions In spite of this stereotype, China is the Motherland of many inventions of the past. Gunpowder is one of the most significant and well-known inventions of ancient China.
• “John Koza Has Built an Invention Machine” by Jonathon Keat In other words, a new scientific solution of a genius can be appropriate only when the society draws to a head with a little bit mere understanding of the scientific flow at a definite epoch […]
• Photography: Brief History of Invention At that time all images produced were in black and white and eventually all masters of the art came to believe that the only artistic way to record photographic images was in black and white. […]
• Airplnane: Description of the Invention The credit for the invention of the first powered airplane goes to the Wright brothers Orville and Wilbur. The worlds first powered, sustained and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air airplane was achieved by the Wright […]
• Rome and the Invention of the West In ” The Aeneid,” Virgil tells of the adventures of the hero of the Trojan war, Aeneas, who was destined by the gods to stay alive after the destruction of Troy to come to Italy […]
• Sickle Cell Disease and Scientific Inventions The disease is caused by a gene that is linked to the production of mutant hemoglobin. This is due to advance treatment and management of the disease”.
• The Enable Talk Gloves: Invention’s Pros & Cons The gloves have special sensors that turn the signs into texts on a smartphone that also turns the texts into speech. This invention will impact the participation of people with speech problems in the activities […]
• Television, Its Invention and Technical Evolution The history of television involves the contribution of several engineers from different parts of the world. This paper seeks to explore the technical evolution of the television from its invention to the current developments.
• Visual Communications and Technological Inventions The invention of the printing press altered the history of the world the most notable one being the reduction of the power of the church.
• New Product Invention: Australian Tourism This project will be beneficial because the hotels in the region have since been overwhelmed by the current flow of the visitors.
• Collective Invention During Industrial Revolution The major similarity between collective invention and heroic individual invention is that both provided important source of innovations during the early stages of industrialization.
• Telescope and Microscope Discovery Combo The paper will look into the history of the discoveries and their effects in the development of the human well beings as well as the enhancement of the human understanding of the surrounding nature in […]
• Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope As he famously used to say, the Kinetoscope did with the eye the same thing the phonograph did to the ear.
• The Invention of Television According to Street, Paul Nipkow developed the Nipkow disc in 1884, which was capable of transmitting pictures by use of a cable. In the earlier times, it was hard to send a message for its […]
• Aviation Industry and Its Prominent Inventions The above are some of the most influential aviation inventions ever made in the history of the industry. Given the failure in the development of manned aircraft by Russia, it is safe to conclude that […]
• Luc Sante “The Invention of the Blues” and John Jeremiah Sullivan “Unknown Bards” Personally, I have found the article “The Invention of the Blues” by Sante important because it explains in details the origin of the music genre.
• Modeling, Prototyping and CASE Tools: The Inventions to Support the Computer Engineering Despite the fact that the engineering is constantly being enriched with the new notions and techniques which add the new ways and methods to make the process of engineering quicker and flawless, the science still […]
• The Period Encompassing the Invention of Cinema Therefore, because of the establishment of the photographic film at that time that required the use of great illumination, the application of the electric spotlight that was introduced in 1904 in theatres became essential in […]
• How Did the Invention of Agriculture Allowed Stable?
• How Did the Invention of the First American Transcontinental Affect the Nation?
• How Has the Invention and Use of Television Affected Human Life?
• How Has the Invention of Contact Lenses Affected People’s Sight?
• How Has the Invention of Social Media Affected Human Life Over Time?
• How Has the Invention of Vaccines Helped the World?
• How Remix Culture Fuels Creativity and Invention?
• How Did Television Change Since Its Invention?
• How the Bit Was Born: Claude Shannon and the Invention of Information?
• How Has the Invention and Use of the Computer Changed Lives in the 21st Century?
• How Venture Capital Works: Invention and Innovation Drive?
• Was Modern Art Greater Influenced by the Invention of the Camera or Kindergarten?
• What Are the Invention That Changed the 20th Century?
• What Brought About the Invention of Response Cards?
• What Did the Invention of the Bicycle as an Alternative Model?
• What Can the Invention Be Made for a Healthier?
• What Inspires Leisure Time Invention?
• What Invention Would the World Be Better off Without, and Why?
• Which Invention Has Had the Most Significant Effect on Our Lives in the Last Two Hundred Years?
• Which Invention Was More Important: The Internet or the Telegraph?
• Which Invention Has Made the Most Impact on Our Lives?
• What Was Invented in 2021?
• Why Is the Internet Most Important Invention?
• Why the Gatling Gun Is an Invention of Great Importance to the Science of Warfare?
• Computers: The Greatest Invention of the Century?
• Does Compulsory Licensing Discourage Invention?
• The Microscope: Science’s Greatest Invention?
• Bicycle Research Topics
• Electronics Engineering Paper Topics
• Industrial Revolution Research Ideas
• Leonardo da Vinci Questions
• Inspiration Topics
• Software Engineering Topics
• Thomas Jefferson Ideas
• Vaccination Research Topics
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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35 of the most revolutionary inventions that shaped our world

From ancient tools to the latest digital advances, these human inventions changed the world and transformed life on earth..

Christopher McFadden

An old steam train

Steven_Kriemadis/iStock  

• Humans are a very creative species.
• We stood on two feet from the very first day; we’ve been building things.
• But. some are more important in the grander scheme of history than others.

Human inventions and technologies have shaped civilizations and transformed life on Earth. As expectations and capabilities evolve, each generation cultivates its innovative thinkers.

From the invention of the wheel to the development of the Mars rover, many of these inventions have been genuinely revolutionary, even if that wasn’t always apparent then.

Most significant inventions don’t have just one inventor. Instead, they have been developed separately by many people, or many people have had a hand in their evolution from basic concepts to valuable inventions .

Here is a list of our top picks of revolutionary inventions that changed the world:

1. The invention of the wheel was a big deal

LordRunar/iStock  

The wheel is an original engineering marvel and one of the most famous inventions . This basic technology not only made it easier to travel but also served as the foundation for a vast number of other innovative technologies.

However, interestingly, the wheel is not that old. The oldest known wheel is from Mesopotamia, around 3500 B.C. By then, people had made metal alloys, built canals and sailboats, and made complicated instruments like harps.

This delay is because the primary intention here was not the wheel itself, which was likely invented the first time someone saw a rock rolling along, but the combination of a wheel and a fixed axle that allows the wheel to be connected to a stable platform. Without the fixed axle, the wheel has minimal utility. 

2. The compass ranks up there with the most important inventions

Diego Rayaces/iStock  

Some believe this relatively modern invention  was first created for fortune-telling and “geomancy.” It was only later that it was adapted for navigational purposes. The Chinese most likely invented the earliest compasses similar to those we use today around 200 BC.

Earlier forms of the compass were made of lodestone, a naturally-occurring form of the mineral magnetite. Evidence suggests civilizations may have also used lodestones for similar purposes as early as the sixth century BCE. At some point, possibly around 1050 AD, people began suspending the lodestones so they could move freely and use them for navigation.

A description of a magnetized needle and its use among sailors occurs in a European book written in 1190 AD, so by that time, it is likely that using a needle as a compass was commonplace.

3. The modern world wouldn’t exist without the automobile

A330Pilot/iStock  

Some people credit the birth of the modern car to the German inventor Karl Benz, who patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen in 1886. However, automobiles had been in the works since 1769, when Nicolas-Joseph Cugno developed the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation.

Over the years, many people contributed to the development of the automobile and its constituent parts. At the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford devised ways to make cars cheap enough for most people to buy. These techniques then became standard, with General Motors and Chrysler following suit. 

The history of the automobile reflects a worldwide evolution. Many people had to work together to make the internal combustion engine and the other parts that make automobiles. Dozens of spin-off industries were also involved, including oil and steel.

4. The steam engine was a true revolution in technology

imagedepotpro/iStock  

A Spanish mining administrator named Jerónimo de Ayanz is thought to have been the first to develop a steam engine. He patented a device that used steam power to pump water from mines. 

However, Englishman Thomas Savery , an engineer and inventor, is usually credited with developing the first practical steam engine in 1698 AD. His device was used to draw water from flooded mines using steam pressure. In developing his engine, Savery used principles set forth by Denis Papin, a French-born British physicist who invented the pressure cooker. 

In 1711, another Englishman, Thomas Newcomen, developed an improvement in the engine. Later, in 1781 AD, James Watt, a Scottish instrument maker employed by Glasgow University, added a separate condenser to Newcomen’s engine, which allowed the steam cylinder to be maintained at a constant temperature — dramatically improving its functionality.+ He later developed a double-rotating steam engine that, by the 1800s, would power trains, mills, factories, and numerous other manufacturing operations.

The world would never be the same again.

5. Concrete is another great invention

alvarez/iStock  

Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials today. It’s a composite material made from a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, Portland cement, and water, which can be spread or poured into molds and forms a mass resembling stone on hardening.

One of concrete’s key ingredients is cement, which is thought to have been devised in 1300 BC . Later, cement would be combined with other materials to make a substance more akin to what we know as concrete today. The Romans, for example, are famed for their concrete; many structures built using it still stand today. But it could be older than that.

Middle eastern builders coated the outside of their clay fortresses with a thin, moist layer of burned limestone, which chemically reacted with gasses in the air to form a hard, protective surface.

Around or before the third millennium BC, Nabataean traders or Bedouins built the first concrete-like structures in the southern Syria and northern Jordan regions . By 700 BC, the significance of hydraulic lime was known, which led to the development of mortar supply kilns for the construction of rubble-wall houses, concrete floors, and underground waterproof cisterns.

Around 3000 BC, the Egyptians used early concrete forms as mortar in their building. In 1824, Portland cement was invented by Joseph Aspdin of England. George Bartholomew laid down the first concrete-paved street in the US in 1893, which still exists.

By the end of the 19th century, steel-reinforced concrete was developed. In 1902, August Perret designed and built an apartment building in Paris using steel-reinforced concrete. This building had wide admiration and popularity for concrete and influenced the development of reinforced concrete. n 1921, Eugène Freyssinet pioneered reinforced-concrete construction by building two colossal parabolic-arched airship hangars at Orly Airport in Paris.

6. Crude oil distillates fuel the modern world

Fahroni/iStock  

Without gasoline, there would be no transportation industry as we know it today.

Gasoline is a fuel derivative of crude oil , and it is called “gas” in the United States and “petrol” in many other English-speaking places worldwide.

More specifically, petrol is a transparent, crude oil-derived liquid used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. Interestingly gas was initially discarded as an unwanted byproduct.

Before the discovery and commercialization of gasoline, the fuel of choice was a blend of alcohol, usually methanol and turpentine, called camphene. Later, this would be primarily replaced by kerosene. The first oil well dug in the US, in 1859, in Pennsylvania, refined the oil to produce kerosene. Although the distillation process also produced gasoline, this was discarded as a byproduct. The method of distillation refining only produced about 20 percent of gasoline from a given amount of crude petroleum.

However, once it was discovered that the internal combustion engine ran best on light fuels like gasoline, the refining process was refined. In 1913, a new process began to be used to produce gasoline more easily using chemical catalysts and pressure. The new thermal cracking process doubled the efficiency of refining and made refining gasoline more practical.

7. Locomotives have proved to be powerful tools

kojihirano/iStock  

Locomotives can carry a large number of passengers with comfort while also being able to haul heavy loads over long distances. While tracks, or rails, have been used for carrying wagons since the sixteenth century, the history of modern train travel is just over 200 years old.

Richard Trevithick, a British engineer, built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive in the United Kingdom in 1804. It used high-pressure steam to drive the engine. On February 21, 18044, the world’s first steam-powered railway journey occurred when Trevithick’s unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway in Wales. 

However, Trevithick’s locomotives were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track than in use. The commercial appearance of train networks came in the 1820s. In 1821, George Stephenson was appointed as an engineer for the construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which was opened as the first public steam-powered railway in 1825. In 1829, he built his famous steam engine,  Rocket , and the age of railways began. 

8. The invention of the airplane was a quantum leap in tech

Pgiam/iStock  

On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight. This was a day that would be remembered for all time.

Flying machines had been dreamt up since Leonardo da Vinci’s time and likely long before. But thanks to the work of countless inventors over several centuries, the Wright Brothers became the first to achieve controlled powered flight.

Beginning with their work on gliders, the duo’s success laid the foundation for modern aeronautical engineering by demonstrating what was possible.

9. Fire might be the most crucial invention of all

ArtistGNDphotography/iStock  

Though fire is a natural phenomenon, its discovery as a useful tool marks a revolution in the pages of history . The controlled use of fire likely predates the emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens .

There is evidence of cooked food from around 1.9 million years ago — long before the evolution of Homo sapiens . There is also evidence of the controlled use of fire by our ancestors,  Homo erectus , beginning around 1,000,000 years ago. 

Flint blades burned in fires have been dated to roughly 300,000 years ago. There is also evidence that fire was used systematically by early modern humans to heat treat stone to increase its ability to flake for use in toolmaking around 164,000 years ago.

According to a heavily debated hypothesis, using fire for cooking allowed the larger brain of our species to develop in the first place by allowing hominids to eat a wider variety of foods.

From the past to the present, fire has been used in rituals, agriculture, cooking, generating heat and light, signaling, industrial processes, agriculture, and as a means of destruction. It can easily be considered one of the greatest inventions that changed the world. 

10. The nail is an underrated invention

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The nail is one of the most important and arguably underrated inventions . Before the invention of nails, wood structures were often built using rope to interlock adjacent boards. Some cultures developed sophisticated woodworking techniques to interlock wooden structures together.

We can’t be entirely sure when the first metal nails were developed, but bronze nails dating from around 3400 BC have been found in Egypt. These were later replaced by iron and steel over time, with most made by hand.

Hand-wrought nails were the norm until the 1790s and early 1800s. Today, nails are readily mass-produced and are so common most people take them for granted.

11. Humans have been using tools for as long as we know

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As with fire, using tools likely predated the evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens and may stretch back 2.6 million years or more. Today, several animal species are also known to use tools. 

Anthropologists believe using tools was an essential step in the evolution of humans . Some of the earliest tools may have been sticks, stones, and fire. However, almost anything can be a tool, depending on its use.

12. The lightbulb is another crucial invention

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The light we use today in our homes and offices comes from a bright idea from over 150 years ago. Electric lights were pioneered in the early 19th century by Humphry Davy, who experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires between his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light.

His invention was known as the electric arc lamp. Over the next seven decades, other inventors also created “lightbulbs,” but these were incapable of commercial application. 

In 1850 an English physicist named Joseph Wilson Swan created a “light bulb” by enclosing carbonized paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb. But without a good vacuum, his bulb had too short a lifetime for commercial use. However, in the 1870s, better vacuum pumps became available, and Swan developed a longer-lasting lightbulb.

Thomas A. Edison improved on Swan’s design by using metal filaments, and in 1878 and 1879, he filed patents for electric lights using different materials for the filament. Electric Light Company began marketing its new product.

13. The mastery of electricity was a tremendous feat

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Electricity has become a basic need for daily life and is another essential invention. Of course, electricity has been around all along, but the practical applications to effectively use it first needed to be invented.

Alessandro Volta is generally credited with discovering the first practical ‘battery.’ He invented his voltaic pile in 1799. It consisted of discs of two different metals, such as copper and zinc, separated by cardboard soaked in brine. 

In 1831, British scientist Michael Faraday discovered the basic principles of electricity generation. The electromagnetic induction discovery revolutionized energy usage. The rise in electricity usability is now the backbone of modern industrial society.

14. The battery is another great invention

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The earliest device based on the principles of what would become the battery may date back to the Parthian empire, around 2,000 years old. The old battery consisted of a clay jar filled with a vinegar solution, into which an iron rod surrounded by a copper cylinder was inserted.

This device might have been used to electroplate silver. But, as mentioned in the previous entry, the inventor of the first electric battery was Alessandro Volta, who developed the pile battery.

After that, in 1800 AD, William Cruickshank designed the trough battery, an improvement on Alessandro Volta’s voltaic pile.

Batteries had a breakthrough in 1859 AD with the invention of the first rechargeable battery based on lead acid by the French physician Gaston Planté. The Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) battery was introduced in 1899 by Waldemar Jungner. 

15. The printing press democratized information

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Before the Internet’s ability to spread information, the printing press helped information travel around the globe. 

German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg is often credited with inventing the printing press around 1436 AD, although he was far from the first to automate the book-printing process. Woodblock printing in China dates back to the 9th century, and Korean bookmakers were printing with moveable metal type a century before Gutenberg.

Johannes Gutenberg’s machine, however, improved on the already existing presses and introduced them to the West. By 1500 AD, Gutenberg presses were operating throughout Western Europe, producing vast quantities of written materials, from individual pages to pamphlets and books.

16. Morse Code and the telegraph machine greatly sped up communication

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The telegraph was developed between the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse and other inventors, and it revolutionized long-distance communication.

The system works by sending electrical signals that are transmitted by a wire laid between stations. In addition, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed a code, eventually called Morse code , for the simple transmission of messages across telegraph lines. Based on the frequency of usage, the code assigned a set of dots (short marks) and dashes (long marks) to the English alphabet and numbers.

According to some scholars, the telegraph was instrumental in laying the foundations for modern conveniences like telephones and computer code.

17. The advent of steel was of great importance

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Bronze was the first metal forged for use by humans. However, bronze is relatively weak. Iron was probably smelted throughout the Bronze Age, although it was seen as an inferior metal that was not as hard or durable as bronze. The use of iron became more widespread after people learned how to make steel, a much harder metal made by heating iron with carbon. Around 1,800 BC, a people along the Black Sea called the Chalybes began using iron ore to create sturdy wrought iron weapons with around 0.8 percent carbon.

Cast iron, with about 2-4 percent carbon, was first made in ancient China around 500 BC. The Chinese metalworkers built large furnaces to smelt iron ore into a liquid and poured this into carved molds. Around 400 BC, Indian metalworkers invented a smelting method that used a clay receptacle called a crucible to hold the molten metal. The workers put bars of wrought iron and pieces of charcoal into the crucibles, then sealed the containers and inserted them into a furnace.

This wrought iron melted and absorbed the carbon in the charcoal. When the crucibles cooled, they contained ingots of pure steel – a much stronger, less brittle metal than iron. The later development of the blast furnace led to even stronger steel. British engineer Henry Bessemer developed a process that blasted air through molten pig iron to create carbon-free, pure iron in 1856 AD.

The famous invention of the Bessemer Process  paved the way for the mass production of steel, making it one of the world’s biggest industries. Now steel is used in the creation of everything from bridges to skyscrapers.

18. Transistors are vital for modern electronics

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The transistor is an essential component in nearly every modern electronic gadget. In 1926 AD, Julius Lilienfeld patented a field-effect transistor, but the working device was not feasible as it was.

In 1947 AD, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley developed the first practical transistor device at Bell Laboratories. The trio was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for this invention.

Transistors have since become a fundamental piece of the circuitry in countless electronic devices, including televisions, cellphones, and computers, making a remarkable impact on technology.

19. Antibiotics have saved countless lives

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Antibiotics have saved millions of lives by killing and inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch first described the use of antibiotic drugs in 1877 AD.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming identified penicillin, derived from a mold species.

Throughout the 20th century, antibiotics spread rapidly and proved a significant living improvement, fighting nearly every known infection and protecting people’s health. But, their overprescription and use could soon render them ineffective .

20. Contraceptives changed women’s lives forever but are arguably controversial

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The prevention of pregnancy has a surprisingly long history.

The history of contraceptives dates back to around 1500 B.C., where records indicate that ancient Egyptian women would mix honey, sodium carbonate, and crocodile dung into a thick, solid paste called pessary and insert it into their vaginas before intercourse. However, many researchers believe old-world birth control methods are ineffective and possibly life-threatening.

The first known form of condom (from a goat bladder) was used in Egypt around 3000 B.C. In 1844 AD, Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanization of rubber, which led to the mass production of rubber condoms.

In 1914 AD, with a monthly newsletter called “The Woman Rebel,” Margaret Sanger, a nurse and sex educator from New York state, first coined the term “Birth control.” Later, Carl Djerassi successfully created a progesterone pill that could block ovulation.

“The Pill” was approved for sale in 1960 and launched an international revolution that allowed women to determine when they would have children and freed them from unplanned pregnancies, which could derail their lives. 

21. The harnessing of x-rays was a major medical advancement

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Since x-rays are a natural phenomenon, nobody can claim to have “invented” them. But, the development of the X-ray machine is undoubtedly one of the epoch-making advancements in medicine.

And they were discovered by accident by physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. While testing whether cathode rays could pass through some glass, he noticed a glow from a nearby chemically coated screen.

Because of the unknown nature of the rays, he named them x-rays. Through his observation, he learned that x-rays could be photographed when they penetrate human flesh.

In 1897 AD, x-rays were used during the Balkan war to find bullets and broken bones inside patients. In 1901 AD, he received the Nobel prize in physics for his work.

22. The refrigerator is another hugely important invention

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Over the last 150 years, refrigeration has offered us ways to preserve food, medicines, and other perishable substances. Before its conception, people often cooled their food with ice and snow or purchased only what they could use immediately.

James Harrison built the first practical vapor compression refrigeration system. However, the first widespread commercial refrigerator was the General Electric “Monitor-Top” refrigerator, which became available in 1927. The introduction of Freon revved up the refrigerator market in the 1930s by providing a safer, low-toxicity alternative to previously used refrigerants.

23. Television has changed many aspects of our lives

The invention of the television was the work of many individuals. Although TV plays an integral part in our everyday lives, it rapidly developed during the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of the work of several people.

In 1884, a 23-year-old German university student, Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow, patented the image rasterizer, a spinning disk with a spiral pattern of holes, so each hole scanned a line of an image. 

The first demonstration of the instantaneous transmission of images was by Georges Rignoux and A. Fournier in Paris in 1909 AD. In 1911 AD, Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Zworykin created a system that used a mechanical mirror-drum scanner to transmit crude images over wires to a cathode ray tube or in a receiver. But the system was not sensitive enough to allow moving images.

In the 1920s, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird used the Nipkow disk to create a prototype video system. In 1925 AD, Baird gave the first public demonstration of televised images in motion. Later, in 1927 AD, he demonstrated the transmission of an image of a face in motion using telephone lines. This is widely regarded as being the world’s first public television demonstration. 

24. The camera was another significant technological development

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This modern invention has witnessed many phases of evolution — camera obscura, daguerreotypes, dry plates, calotypes, SLRs, and DSLRs. In 1826 AD, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier to click what is credited as the first permanent photograph.

With technological advancements, Digital cameras were introduced, which saved images on memory cards rather than using film. The history of the digital camera began with Eugene F. Lally’s idea to take pictures of the planets and stars.

Later, Kodak engineer Steven Sasson invented and built the first digital camera in 1975 AD. It was built using parts of kits lying around the Kodak factory. The camera was about the size of a breadbox, taking 23 seconds to capture a single image. 

Today, every smartphone has at least one built-in camera that can take videos.

25. The computer is, possibly, the greatest invention of the last Millenium

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In the early 19th century, the “father of the computer,” Charles Babbage, conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer. From those first tentative steps, the journey to the modern computer began.

Although there’s no single inventor of the modern computer , the principles of modern computer science were set out by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper, “ On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem .” Today, computers stand as the symbolic representation of the modern world.

26. Email is an often overlooked significant invention

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Most developers of early mainframes and minicomputers developed similar but often incompatible mail applications. Over time, these became linked by a web of gateways and routing systems.

Many US universities were part of the ARPANET, which increased software portability between its systems. That portability helped make the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) increasingly influential. The first ARPANET email was sent in 1971 AD.

Ray Tomlinson is credited with inventing one common feature of the email system that we know today. In 1972 AD, while working as an ARPANET contractor, Tomlinson used the @ symbol to denote sending messages from one computer to another.

By the mid-1970s, email had taken on the form we recognize today. In the present day, most official business communication depends on email.

27. The Internet has changed the world

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Like other inventions, the Internet has no single “inventor. ” Instead, it has evolved. It originated around the 1950s, along with the development of computers.   

The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s, with the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. ARPANET adopted the TCP/IP protocols in 1983, and from there, researchers began to assemble the “network of networks” that became the modern Internet.

28. The World Wide Web is the modern-day equivalent of the printing press

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The Internet is a networking infrastructure, whereas the World Wide Web is a way to access information over the Internet medium.

The father of the World Wide Web is the British computer scientist and legend Tim Berners-Lee. The Web was initially conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes worldwide.

Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first proposal for the World Wide Web in March 1989 and a  second proposal in May 1990 . Berners-Lee worked with Belgian systems engineer Robert Cailliau to formalize the proposal, including describing a “WorldWideWeb” in which “hypertext documents” could be viewed by “browsers.”

By the end of 1990, Berners-Lee had the first Web server and browser up and running at CERN. Only a few users had access to the computer platform that ran the browser, so development soon started on a more spartan browser, which could run on any system. 

29. Currency was an important invention

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From materials like livestock to shells, precious metals, and coins, the currency has taken various forms throughout history. Due to frequent shortages of coins, and portability issues, banks issued paper notes as a promise against payment of precious metals in the future.

The use of a lightweight substance, like paper, as a currency may have originated in China during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC. 

The switch to paper money, rather than money based on precious metals, relieved governments during crisis times. Thus, it changed the face of the global economy with a vital step in a new monetary system.

30. Credit cards are arguably another important invention

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At the dawn of the 20th century, most people paid for everything with cash.

The idea of the credit card  was introduced around 1950 by Ralph Schneider and Frank McNamara, founders of Diners Club, which allowed diners to sign for their meal and then pay later. While technology advances, paying for daily purchases with credit has become the norm.

While a bane to many people’s lives today, their sensible use can be very beneficial.

31. The ATM lets you get your cash on demand

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The invention of the ATM (Automated Teller Machine) is significant to modern banking. According to the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), there are millions of ATMs installed worldwide.

Customers can make various transactions using an ATM, such as cash withdrawals, check balances, or credit mobile phones. Many experts believe that the first ATM was the creation of Luther Simjian, called Bankograph.

In 1967, John Shepherd-Barron led the team that came up with a bright idea of a money vending machine implemented by a London bank called Barclays. These machines used single-use tokens that had been impregnated with radioactive carbon-14. The machine detected the radioactive signal and matched it against a personal identification number entered on a keypad. 

Soon, rival cash dispenser systems began to emerge, including one that used a reusable plastic card instead of a radioactive token. Dallas Engineer Donald Wetzel is said to have devised the first automated banking machine used in the U.S.

32. The telephone and mobile phones have shrunk the world

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Telephone history conceivably started with the human desire to communicate far and wide.

“Mr. Watson, come here, I want you,” were the immortal first words ever spoken on a telephone. Alexander Graham Bell said them on March 10h, 1876 AD, to his assistant Thomas Watson. This moment would change communications forever.

With the arrival of the mobile phone in the 1980s, personal communications were no longer shackled to cables.

The clever invention of the cellular network supported the revolution of the telephone industry. From bulky mobile phones to ultrathin handsets, mobile phones have come a long way. John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola demonstrated the first handheld device in 1973, starting a technological revolution we still live in today.

33. The robot has, and will continue to, change the world

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Robotic devices perform complicated, repetitive, and sometimes dangerous tasks. The word “robot” first appeared in R.U.R. ( Rossum’s Universal Robots ), a play written by Czech playwright Karl Capek in 1921. Coincidentally, the word “robotics” was popularized by a science-fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, in his short story “Runabout,” published in 1942.

But robots have a very long history. Around 3000 B.C, mechanical, human figurines were used to strike the hour bells in an Egyptian water clock. This marked the first mechanical design. As time flew, more designs and devices evolved. 

The foundation for modern robots was laid in the 1950s by George C. Devol, who invented and patented a reprogrammable manipulator called “Unimate.”

In the late 1960s, Joseph Engleberger acquired the patent to the Unimate and modified them into industrial robots. For this, he is often called “the Father of Robotics.” They are genuinely inventions that changed the world and are only just getting started.

34. Guns have been a force for good and bad

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Weapons have been used since the dawn of humanity. But it is undeniable that guns and gunpowder have revolutionized the world. Gunpowder was invented in China around the 9th century, but it may have originally been used for fireworks initially. One early firearm consisted of a bamboo tube that used gunpowder to fire a spear and was used in China around 1000 AD.

Another early type of portable firearm was the fire lance, a black-powder–filled tube attached to the end of a spear and used as a flamethrower; shrapnel was sometimes placed in the barrel so that it would fly out together with the flames. 

Gunpowder was made more potent by increasing the amount of saltpeter. This, in turn, meant that a more robust barrel was needed, the bamboo was replaced by metal, and the projectiles were replaced by smaller pieces of metal that fit into the barrel more tightly.

By the mid-to-late 14th century, knowledge of gunpowder and firearms had reached Europe, and smaller, portable hand-held cannons were developed, creating a type of personal firearm. The problem of needing to reload frequently was solved with the invention of a hand-driven machine gun called the Gatling gun. Richard J. Gatling invented it during the American Civil War. As the tech has continued to evolve, each following model has become more deadly. 

35. Films were another important invention

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Almost everyone loves to watch movies like love stories, comedies, dramas, horror, suspense, action, fiction, biography, etc. A film is also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film, photoplay, or flick. The word “film” originates from the fact that a photographic film has been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures.

Early inspiration for movies came from plays and dance, which had elements common to film: scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, and storyboards. Later in the 17th century, lanterns were used to project animation, achieved by various mechanical slides.

In March 1895, the first motion picture film shot with a Cinématographe camera was La Sortie de leucine Lumière a Lyon (Workers leaving the Lumière factory at Lyon). The commercial, public screening of ten of the Lumière brothers’ short films in Paris on December 28, 1895, is often thought of as the start of projected cinematographic motion pictures.

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With time, movies have evolved to include sound, color, and advanced digital technology. 

And that is your lot for today.

There have been tools for as long as there have been human beings. While simple in design, in the beginning, modern tools are highly complex engineering. Entirely what we’ll be inventing in the future is anyone’s guess, but rest assured, we will continue to make things for as long as our species exists.

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

Christopher McFadden Christopher graduated from Cardiff University in 2004 with a Masters Degree in Geology. Since then, he has worked exclusively within the Built Environment, Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Consultancy industries. He is a qualified and accredited Energy Consultant, Green Deal Assessor and Practitioner member of IEMA. Chris’s main interests range from Science and Engineering, Military and Ancient History to Politics and Philosophy.

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The Stories Behind 20 Inventions That Changed the World

You might find it impossible to imagine a world without your smartphone, or have trouble remembering a time when Wi-Fi wasn’t everywhere, but many of today’s most relied-upon technologies would not have been possible—or even dreamed of—if it weren’t for the game-changing inventions that came before them. And while it’s easy to take many of the marvels of design and engineering we interact with on a daily basis for granted—think toilets, seat belts, and suspension bridges—it’s just as easy to overlook how a handful of more surprising inventions, like the Super Soaker or the pizza saver, have affected the world around us. From blood banks to barcodes and beyond, here are the stories behind 20 inventions that changed the world.

1. Suspension Bridges

Suspension bridges are nothing new; there’s one in China that until recently used bamboo that’s at least 1000 years old , and may be over 2000. But the modern suspension bridges that came along in the 1800s were something else altogether: They were cheaper to build, easier to repair, and provided plenty of leeway in case of flooding. Eventually, the bridges allowed for passage over far larger bodies of water and could withstand violent storms and the ever-increasing weight of foot and vehicle traffic in cities (not to mention drastically cutting down travel times). In the middle of the 19th century, engineer John A. Roebling saw that the Allegheny Portage Railroad was using breakable hemp ropes, leading him to create a way to spin and manufacture wire rope, a technology Roebling would soon put toward suspension bridges. Eventually, the wire could be spun and anchored on site , which helped speed up the construction process.

Roebling’s innovations led to his designs for the Niagara River Gorge Bridge, the Sixth Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, and the famed Brooklyn Bridge in the second half of the 19th century. Though the Brooklyn Bridge was John Roebling’s basic design, his son, Washington, took over the project as chief engineer following his father’s death in 1869. Then, after Washington became mostly confined to his home following a battle with decompression sickness (or “the bends”), his wife, Emily, took on many of his responsibilities. During a time when women were kept far away from STEM fields, Emily learned about cable construction, stress analysis, and other principles of suspension bridge engineering, and was a key figure in the completion of the project.

Today, suspension bridges are located in all corners of the globe, allowing people to safely and easily travel across great chasms and bodies of water. And these bridges are no longer suspended only over simple rivers— Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo Bridge stretches 12,828 feet across the Akashi Strait and features a main span that is 6527 feet long.

Dry and flush toilets have been around for thousands of years, and while many of us take these pieces of porcelain hardware for granted these days, there’s no doubt that life would look much different—and much worse—without them. “Toilets are the key to a thriving, healthy society,” Kimberly Worsham, sanitation expert and founder of FLUSH (Facilitated Learning for Universal Sanitation and Hygiene), tells Mental Floss. Having a designated place to do your business cuts back on outbreaks of infectious diseases like cholera and typhoid—both rampant in urban areas before flush toilets (and indoor plumbing and sewers) were widely used. And in the case of dry toilets, the waste deposited there can be processed for agricultural use.

Typically, people date the modern flush toilet to John Harington, godson to Queen Elizabeth I , but there were flush toilets well before he got involved (one in Knossos, which dates back to the 16th century BCE, was even connected to a sewer). “Flush toilets like his had been available to Western Europe during the Roman Empire, but after Rome fell, Europe essentially resorted to sh***ing outside again,” Worsham says. “All of those systems fell into disrepair.” (Other areas of the world, like East Asia and areas of the Middle East, still used toilets even as Western Europe went backward.)

The options available at the time Harington was innovating were chamber pots, garderobes—which Worsham describes as “dreadful closets with holes in the ground”—or going to the bathroom outside. Harington wanted to bring the toilet back in and make going to the bathroom a more comfortable experience, but his invention left a lot to be desired: Instead of connecting to a sewer, it had a pipe that went straight down into a lower chamber that would eventually need to be emptied by some unlucky person. Even worse, its design meant that the toxic, flammable gases released when urine and poop decompose could come wafting back up, creating potentially deadly situations. It didn’t catch on; Harington built just a handful of models.

Then, in 1775, a Scottish watchmaker named Alexander Cumming developed the S-trap, a piece of plumbing that attaches to the back of the toilet. “This was revolutionary because it used water in the trap to keep the toxic gasses from getting back into the home and the poo and pee from easily sliding back into the toilet,” Worsham says. “Once Cumming patented his design, we had something like a flush toilet renaissance.” Tinkering with toilets commenced in earnest, with people like Thomas Crapper (who, according to Worsham, “created a killer marketing campaign for toilets”) getting involved. Once materials to make toilets became cheaper, they became more common, and the world got much safer. “We saw mortality rates decline,” Worsham says. “It also made our living spaces far less sh***y—literally.” Bodily waste deposited into flush toilets went into sewers or septic tanks, which meant it wasn’t on the street or in drinking water.

That said, there’s still a long way to go to make sure everyone has access to a toilet: According to Worsham, “1 in 4 people in the world lack access to basic toilets, and 1 in 2 lacks access to safely managed toilets—toilets where the waste is never put back into the environment untreated.” Without toilets, people are sicker and miss both work and school more often, which can lead to poverty traps and inequality. Thankfully, toilet tinkering hasn’t stopped: “There have been some really great projects by social enterprises and non-governmental organizations in different parts of the world working to build newer, better, more environmentally-friendly toilets,” Worsham says. “There’s also been some really neat innovation in integrating fecal waste from the toilets with organic waste—a.k.a. food scraps—and treating them to create great agricultural products like fertilizer and animal feed. We’re thinking circular economies here, and it’s exciting.”

3. The Walkman

Though many of today’s kids didn’t know what a Walkman was until they saw Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill flaunt one in 2014’s  Guardians of the Galaxy , they pay unofficial homage to the device every time they play a song on their smartphone. Transistor radios had been around since the 1950s, but it was Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka who really revolutionized the idea of playing whatever you want wherever you are (provided that you had the cassette tape on hand). For Ibuka, he really wanted something he could use to listen to music on flights. The Sony Walkman debuted in Japan in 1979 (and the U.S. in 1980) and quickly became the It Girl of the ’80s. The Walkman itself was compact, lightweight, and portable, and so were its headphones. As new devices debuted over the years—from Sony’s Discman to Apple’s iPod to smartphones and the Bluetooth headphones of today—the focus on those qualities never wavered.

4. The Pill

By the end of the 19th century, bicycles were offering women a relatively cheap, easy form of independence. Their movements, and the clothing they wore , became less restricted. Decades later, a new item would hit the market and further revolutionize women’s rights: the Pill.

Hormonal birth control pills (often shortened to just the Pill) weren’t the first oral contraceptive ; people had long relied on various concoctions, such as drinking mercury or toxic pennyroyal. By the early 20th century, a push for better contraceptives was rising in the U.S.—Margaret Sanger opened America’s first birth control clinic in 1916, for example, though it was raided and shut down. Work on a contraceptive pill didn’t begin until the 1950s. A biologist named Gregory Goodwin Pincus and a gynecologist named John Rock, with encouragement and funding from Sanger and wealthy philanthropist Katharine McCormick, teamed up to develop a “magic pill” that could prevent pregnancy. “I would argue that effective contraception was probably in the whole of the 20th century the most important change for women,” Linda Gordon, author of Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America , told Allure .

When the Pill first hit the market in 1957, it was only approved to help regulate menstruation [ PDF ]; even after the FDA approved the Pill for contraceptive use in 1960, it still wasn’t readily available. In some U.S. states, it remained illegal for unmarried women to purchase the pill until 1972. Oral contraceptives have evolved since their original debut; today, there are many brands on the market, and people can now choose from a variety of monophasic, biphasic, and triphasic options, which provide varying amounts of estrogen and progestin.

The creation of the Pill did more than give women control over their sexual health and fertility—it allowed them to choose to marry later, seek additional education, and advance in their careers. As Vanessa Grigoriadis wrote in New York magazine, “These days, women’s twenties are as free and fabulous as they can be, a time of boundless freedom and experimentation, of easily trying on and discarding identities, careers, partners. The Pill, which is the most popular form of contraception in the U.S., is still the symbol of that freedom.”

5. Super Soaker

For decades, squirt guns were flimsy pieces of plastic that could barely muster enough power to water a houseplant. Then the first Super Soaker—then called the Power Drencher—hit the market in 1990, bringing along with it a Schwarzenegger-esque machismo and a sophisticated air-pressure system that promised to drench unsuspecting targets from far further than previous water guns. The allure of wreaking havoc at family get-togethers and school functions was apparently too much for kids to pass up, and more than 2 million guns flew off the shelves in its debut year. Al Davis, the former executive vice president of Larami, wrote in his book Super Soaker that “The deliveries would come into the stores, and the clerks wouldn’t even have time to put them on the shelves. They’d just take them out of the boxes and sell them to the kids waiting in line for them.”

In its first 25 years on the market, more than 175 different variations of the high-powered water gun were released, racking up over $1 billion in sales in the process. Hasbro bought Larami and the Super Soaker brand in 1995 , and to this day, the company continues to release bigger models that promise to unleash more water-fueled mayhem every summer.

When the Strong National Museum of Play inducted the Super Soaker into its National Toy Hall of Fame in 2015, former Curator Patricia Hogan noted, “[The] Super Soaker had a big impact on neighborhood play. The small squirt guns of the past had required close-in work to engage the opposition. The long, drenching reach of Johnson’s invention requires a quick retreat from a soggy assault or a good chase, meaning that kids with Super Soakers do some serious sprinting. Calculating the distance to target and the physics of velocity and arc requires kids to use their brains. Contemplating strategies and tactics and puzzling out plans forces kids to analyze the best approaches to triumphal ends. And if kids get soaked in the process? It’s all good clean fun.”

None of this would have been possible if not for the outside-the-box thinking of former NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson. He got the idea for the Super Soaker while testing a new type of heat pump he had created that used water as a coolant in the early 1980s. While the heat pump worked fine, he also realized it was pretty fun to shoot concentrated streams of water from the pump across his bathroom.

“I was having trouble getting people to understand the hard science inventions I had like a heat pump or the digital measuring instrument,” Johnson told Forbes . “I thought the toy was something anyone could look at and appreciate.”

Though Johnson holds over 100 patents and worked on NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter, his reinvention of the water gun, from 29-cent novelty to summer staple, is something that generations of kids—and some unwitting bystanders—will never forget.

6. The Blood Bank

Less than a century ago, patients requiring a blood transfusion were in a race against time. There was no organized network for people to donate blood, and because blood was difficult to preserve, there was no way to store it for future use. Patients had to find their own blood donors before it was too late.

In 1937, after devising a technique for preserving blood for up to 10 days, physician Bernard Fantus set up the nation’s first “ blood bank ” at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital. People could make “deposits” of their own blood for their own use or to be given to others with matching blood types.

At about the same time, surgeon Charles R. Drew figured out a method for separating plasma from whole blood, and found that if whole blood wasn’t necessary, blood transfusions could be successfully performed with plasma alone . Plasma could be dried for long-term storage in blood banks. As World War II decimated Europe, Drew and the American Red Cross launched a groundbreaking program to collect donated plasma in the U.S. and ship it to Britain, essentially creating a national system for blood donation. During the war, he collaborated with the Red Cross to set up “bloodmobiles”—mobile blood donation centers that made sustaining blood banks more practical. Today, about 13.6 million units of whole blood and red blood cells are collected in the U.S. each year, saving countless lives.

7. Space Telescopes

When Lyman Spitzer proposed the invention of a space telescope in the 1940s, humans could look at our universe only through land-based instruments. Earth’s atmosphere acted like a veil between the land-based telescopes and space, blurring images and hindering detection of far-off celestial phenomena. Spitzer’s research paved the way for the Hubble Space Telescope, the first space-based major optical telescope , launched in 1990 and named for the American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble .

Over its three decades in orbit, Hubble has determined the age of the universe (13.8 billion years), accurately measured the distance to a neighboring galaxy, and spotted numerous moons and exoplanets, in addition to revealing the beauty of the universe through stunning photographs . “The Hubble space telescope has brought about a visual revolution, more significant than any recent work of art in transforming the way we see ourselves and the cosmos,” art critic Jonathan Jones wrote in The Guardian . This year, NASA is scheduled to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most technologically advanced space telescope ever built, to unravel more secrets of space.

8. The Pizza Box and Pizza Table

The pizza industry has undergone numerous innovations in recent decades, but one element that has remained largely the same is the box your pie comes in. Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan changed the game in the early 1960s when he worked with Triad Containers in Detroit to develop the modern pizza box. Prior to this, pizzas were delivered in bags or paperboard bakery boxes. These containers were flimsy and often crumpled under the intense heat of the pie before they reached their destinations. Domino’s corrugated cardboard containers were much more durable. They withstood grease and kept pizzas warm while releasing steam through strategically placed openings. Most importantly, the sturdy boxes were stackable , opening the door to mass deliveries.

But there was one area where the simple design fell short: The top of the box sometimes collapsed and stuck to the top of the pizza. The answer to this issue was the pizza saver , which Carmela Vitale patented in 1985. Shaped like a miniature patio table, the plastic device keeps the box lid separate from the pizza, thus keeping the cheese and toppings intact throughout the delivery journey. Vitale was a city council member—not a pizza salesperson—but she had eaten enough delivery pizza to notice a problem and come up with an ingenious solution.

One fall evening in 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen, a German physics professor, was experimenting with the conduction of electricity through low-pressure gases when he accidentally discovered a mysterious ray capable of making a chemical-coated screen fluoresce a few yards away. He went on to put objects between the tube and the screen to see the shadows they produced—and when he tried it with a hunk of lead, he saw shadows of not just the lead but the bones in his hand. Further experimentation showed that the screen could be replaced by a photographic plate—and the X-ray was born.

Röntgen named it X-strahlen — strahlen being German for “beam” or “ray,” and X being used in mathematics to indicate an unknown quantity [ PDF ]. Röntgen's discovery revolutionized the way doctors detect disease and injury, from breast cancer to broken bones. Today, X-rays are also used to find cracks in everything from aircraft wings to nuclear reactors—helping make the modern world quite a bit safer. “Thanks to [Röntgen's] invisible light,” radiologist Richard Gunderman wrote in The Conversation, “we now operate with a much deeper understanding of the universe we inhabit, the molecules and cells of which we are composed[,] and the diseases that threaten our lives.”

10. Wildlife Cams

The first “wildlife cams” were invented by Pennsylvania Congressman and photography enthusiast George Shiras around the end of the 19th century. He got the idea from a hunting technique used by the Ojibwa tribe called jacklighting, in which a fire is built in a pan and placed in the front part of a canoe while the hunter sits in the bow. “The glow makes it possible to distinguish the animal, whose attention is caught by the flames, causing it to stand still with an expectant air,” Sonia Voss, who curated an exhibition of Shiras’s photographs, told National Geographic. “At the rear of the canoe, the hunter, cast into the shadows, only needs to aim between the animal’s eyes, which reflect the flames and stand out like two bright beacons in the night. In the photographic version, the fire is replaced by a kerosene lamp and the trigger of the rifle by the shutter release of the camera.” Later, Shiras graduated to cameras equipped with flash and tripped by a string.

Today, critter cameras have evolved to be so light that they can be strapped to marine life, are battery powered so they can be left in nature for months at a time, and have been attached to robots to get closer to dangerous creatures than ever before, giving us an unprecedented look into the lives of the animals we share the planet with, and the world they inhabit—and helping us make plenty of scientific discoveries along the way. Thanks to wildlife cameras, we know that fishers are breeding in Washington state for the first time in decades; the hairy-nosed otter—the world’s most endangered otter species—is once again lurking within Malaysia; and the rare Siamese crocodile is still slyly slipping around the waters of Thailand. Cameras have also snapped footage of previously unknown species , such as Tanzania’s grey-faced sengi (a species of elephant shrew). In 2020 , trail cameras were essential in allowing scientists to continue their field research and gather data remotely during long stretches of COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions.

11. Duct Tape

Duct tape was the brainchild of Vesta Stoudt, an Illinois mom whose two sons were in the Navy. Stoudt worked at Green River Ordnance Plant packing and inspecting boxes of ammunition. The boxes were sealed with paper tape, dipped in wax, and had a tab to open them. Stoudt noticed that the boxes had a flaw: The tape was flimsy and tabs often tore off, which meant that soldiers couldn’t quickly open the boxes when they were under fire. Why not create a cloth-based waterproof tape to seal the boxes? She asked her supervisors, but they weren’t supportive, so she escalated the matter … straight to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt . “I suggested we use a strong cloth tape to close seams, and make tab of same,” she wrote. “It worked fine, I showed it to different government inspectors they said it was all right, but I could never get them to change tape.”

The president sent her letter to the War Production Board, her idea was approved, and the rest is history. Duct tape has been a quick fix for everyone from your average joe to physicists (who use it on their particle accelerators ) to astronauts (duct tape helped them make repairs on the moon ). When the three crewmembers of Apollo 13 were forced to transfer to the lunar module, duct tape helped them survive— according to Northrop Grumman, the vessel was designed to hold two people for 36 hours, but after the accident, had to hold three for over 86 hours. They used the adhesive (along with cardboard, plastic bags, and space suit components) to adapt their square carbon dioxide filters to the module's round holes. Jerry Woodfill, a NASA engineer who assisted the team from the ground, later told Universe Today , “Of course … the solution to every conceivable knotty problem has got to be duct tape! And so it was.”

12. Barcodes

On June 26, 1974, a grocery store cashier at Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, passed a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum over a scanner—and the item and price were automatically registered. It was the first time an item with a barcode had ever been purchased.

The inventors behind this marvel of commerce were N. Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver, who envisioned a system of lines that could identify consumer products by using encoded information read by an optical scanner. It all started when Silver, a grad student at Drexel, overheard the president of a local food chain talking to the dean about the need to automatically obtain product information. The dean wasn't interested in pursuing the idea, but Silver mentioned it to his colleague Woodland, who thought the idea had so much promise that he quit his job and moved to Florida to pursue it. Ultimately, Woodland devised a system inspired by Morse code (which he had used as a Boy Scout) as well as the movie sound systems of the 1920s. It was later refined with help from IBM employee George Laurer, and became the basis for getting through checkout lines faster.

Today’s standard barcodes are known as universal product codes, or UPC-A, and are comprised of 12 digits. The first is a product category—3 denotes a health-related item, for example, while the rest point to the manufacturer and specific product. The more recent QR barcodes commonly recognized by smartphones can deliver information in an instant. Barcodes are used across a variety of industries and can boost productivity eight to 10 times compared to manual data entry. It all makes for a much speedier transaction, but not always: Aldi grocery employees sometimes memorize popular product barcodes so heavy items can remain in the cart.

13. Seat Belts

The idea of a seat belt for transportation safety doesn't begin with Nils Bohlin, the Swedish engineer who conceived of a three-point shoulder and lap belt for automobiles in 1958. Other innovators, like 19th century aviator George Cayley, recognized a need to keep humans from being ejected out of planes and other moving vehicles. But it was Bohlin, a Volvo engineer, who sought to improve upon the two-point lap belts, which could sometimes do more harm than good in the event of an accident. (At high speeds, the belts were capable of causing internal injuries.) By stabilizing the torso with a shoulder strap, drivers and passengers were kept in place without resorting to the more burdensome four-point belts worn by pilots or an earlier Y-shaped belt placed over the stomach. In what could only be described as an act of corporate selflessness, Volvo allowed any car manufacturer to duplicate the belt. At the time of Bohlin’s death in 2002, it was estimated his invention had saved well over a million lives.

14. The Microwave

During World War II, engineer Percy Spencer aided the U.S. war effort through his work on magnetrons—tubes that generate electromagnetic waves for radar—while working for tech company Raytheon. His work didn’t end with the war. In 1945, Spencer was tinkering with magnetrons when he noticed the peanut cluster candy bar in his pocket had suddenly transformed into a “gooey, sticky mess.” It didn’t take long for him to realize the magnetron’s microwaves were responsible, prompting him to develop a microwave oven that people could use to heat food more deliberately. The refrigerator-sized “Radarange” debuted in the mid-1940s and was originally meant for restaurants and airplanes rather than regular homes. (Its $1250 price tag—nearly $17,000 today—would have made widespread success in that realm unlikely anyway.)

Designs improved and costs decreased over time, and the 1967 edition of the Radarange was a hit among homemakers. By the mid-1970s, the microwave oven—eventually just “the microwave”—was becoming a mainstay in U.S. kitchens, and not just for leftovers. Manufacturers marketed the appliance as a faster, easier, (literally) cooler alternative to conventional ovens. “Make the greatest cooking discovery since fire,” actress Barbara Hale said in a 1972 Radarange ad that Mad Men ’s Don Draper surely would have wished he’d come up with himself. A 1971 ad for General Electric’s Just-A-Minute oven emphasized that “with the special timer, control settings, and recipe booklet that come with the oven, practically all the guesswork is taken out of cooking,” a boon to unconfident cooks everywhere. Full-fledged cookbooks cropped up, too— Madame Benoit’s Microwave Cook Book , Barbara Kafka’s The Microwave Gourmet , and so on—featuring everything from duck à l’orange to “ Elegant Beef Dinner .” One 1978 cookbook even recommended making pie in the microwave (to get around the lack of browning, it was advised, just throw some yellow food coloring in there). And when Swanson debuted its plastic, microwave-safe trays in 1986, the microwave and the TV dinner entered into a marriage of convenience that worn-out adults would rely on for decades to come.

15. The Can Opener

Decades after people started storing food in tin cans, someone finally came up with a way to crack them open that didn’t involve a chisel and a hammer (or some other dangerous tool). In the mid-19th century, a series of inventors built what were known as lever knives—not too dissimilar to the can opener on a modern Swiss Army Knife, and by 1870, William Lyman innovated a design that included a rotary cutte. But it wasn’t until the 1920s that Charles Arthur Bunker arrived on the scene with a patent that featured handles you squeeze together to safely puncture the lid and a handle you twist to propel a sharp little wheel along the rim. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because today’s manual can openers are pretty much the same.

Like the button (which dates back thousands of years, though the buttonhole is a more recent innovation) and the zipper (invented in the 19th century) that came before it, Velcro revolutionized clothing—and we have old-fashioned curiosity to thank for its invention. In the 1940s, George de Mestral and his dog returned from a hunting trip covered in burdock burrs. Intrigued, de Mestral whipped out his microscope to find out what, exactly, made the burrs stick. He discovered that the burrs were covered in little hooks, and that provided de Mestral, a serial inventor, with a burst of inspiration: If he could create a fabric that mimicked the burrs’ hooks, and combine it with fabric loops those hooks could latch into, he’d have a middle ground between fasteners like buttons and zippers.

It took him some time to find a manufacturer to create his fabric; many didn’t think it could be done. But de Mestral persevered and continued to innovate on his idea until he had a product that worked, and Velcro—a trademarked combination of the French words velours and croche , meaning “velvet” and “hook,” respectively—debuted in the early ‘60s. Since then, it has proved as useful as de Mestral thought it would: NASA has used it to anchor equipment in space missions and during walks on the moon ; Mead made use of the material as fasteners on its iconic  Trapper Keepers ; and, of course, it’s used in shoes and clothing , where it’s particularly helpful to people who have difficulty with zippers and buttons (or their caretakers ).

17. Air Conditioning

Since its introduction at the turn of the 20th century, the air conditioner has transformed the quality of life in regions with warm climates—but the first modern air-conditioning unit wasn’t invented for people at all. It was created for a printing press.

In 1902, a 25-year-old engineer named Willis Carrier was asked to come up with a way to control the humidity at the Sackett & Wilhelms printing plant in Brooklyn, where the sweltering summer days frequently messed with the color register. After early tests with rollers, burlap, and calcium chloride brine, Carrier hit on a device that sent chilled water through heating coils. The system was installed later that same summer at the printing plant alongside fans, perforated steam pipes, and other accouterments. It was a huge success, and reportedly had the same cooling effect as 108,000 pounds of ice per day.

Carrier's invention was sold everywhere from flour mills to razor factories, and air-conditioning went on to reshape both architecture (by allowing for skyscrapers where people didn't broil on top floors) and nations, making the development of modern metropolises in sun-scorched places like Singapore, Shanghai, the Sun Belt, and Dubai possible. It also, of course, made everyday life more pleasant (and productive) for millions, if not billions. Ironically, the large amount of energy air conditioners consume has contributed to climate change , making the need for artificial cool air more vital than ever. “It’s not a matter of going back to the past. But before, people knew how to work with the climate,” Malaysian architect Ken Yeang told The Guardian . “Air conditioning became a way to control it, and it was no longer a concern. No one saw the consequences. People see them now.”

The story of the invention of the radio is about a race against time between two scientists—and the power of patents.

Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, sent and received his first radio signals in 1894, and patented his invention in 1896 in England. Three years later, Marconi sent wireless signals across the English Channel, and two years after that, he claimed that he received a message sent from across the Atlantic (that claim, however, is controversial).

At roughly the same time Marconi was at work in Europe, inventor Nikola Tesla was working on a similar invention in America. Tesla invented the Tesla coil —which sent and received radio waves—in the 1890s. He was all set up for a long-distance experiment in 1895, but a fire broke out in his lab, interrupting the experiment. Two years later, Tesla applied for his patent in the United States.

Marconi and Tesla’s paths converged in 1900, when Marconi applied for a patent in the U.S.—which was denied because Tesla’s had been approved earlier that year.

Undaunted, Marconi continued to apply, and in 1904, the U.S. declared him to be the creator of the radio. This, along with the fact that Marconi had won a Nobel Prize for the technology, enraged Tesla. In 1915, he sued Marconi for patent infringement , but lacked the financial resources to pursue the case.

But beyond the courtroom drama, radio was already at work transforming the world. In 1910, it helped catch Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, a man who was accused of killing his wife and escaping to Canada on a ship with his lover; he was caught thanks to Marconi’s wireless telegraph, which sent radio waves, and a very clever ship captain . On August 31, 1920, the first radio news program was broadcast by a station in Detroit, and the first ad played on the radio in 1922 , changing the world of advertising. Radio was also used during both World Wars.

From protests, music, famous speeches, and political unrest, the radio has broadcast many iconic moments and connected the world in a way Marconi and Tesla probably never imagined. Some have gone so far as to say that radio changed everything ; as Jack Lule wrote in his book , Understanding Media and Culture , the radio became “an instrument of social cohesion as it brought together members of different classes and backgrounds to experience the world as a nation.”

As for who came out on top in the radio patent war? Tesla finally got his victory in 1943, when the Supreme Court upheld that his patent had priority. But it was a win the inventor never got to celebrate: He had passed away earlier that year.

19. Aquariums

While keeping fish as pets may have begun with the Romans, the first glass aquarium wasn’t created until 1832, when seamstress-turned-scientist Jeanne Villepreux-Power got tired of studying dead specimens in her lab. Observing marine life wasn’t as easy as observing animals on land, and she wanted to come up with a way to keep cephalopods—especially the paper nautilus—alive outside of the ocean.

To further her research, Villepreux-Power created three different types of aquariums: one for indoor study, one for shallow water, and one to be anchored to the ocean floor. The indoor glass aquarium allowed her to discover that the Argonauta Argo produced its own shell at the larva stage, as well as the fact that the animals can repair their shells within a few hours. She also came up with the idea of repopulating rivers using fish raised in aquariums. (Unfortunately, most of Villepreux-Power’s research was lost in a shipwreck, and she never rewrote her findings.)

Many would improve on her work, from Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (who turned a terrarium upside down) to Anna Thynne (who created the first marine aquarium filled with coral and seaweed) to Robert Warington [ PDF ] (who published his findings after managing to keep the environment in a 12-gallon tank stable). Two decades after Villepreux-Power’s invention, the first public aquarium opened in London in 1853; a few years after that, P.T. Barnum built an aquarium inside his Barnum’s American Museum in New York, which visitors enjoyed for until the museum burned down in 1865.

Since then, aquariums have become a favorite pastime for people around the world: According to American Humane , 700 million people around the world visit zoos and aquariums annually. Like zoos, aquariums can help with conservation efforts and protect endangered species—and like zoos, they can be controversial, as we debate how humane it is to keep large marine mammals like dolphins, orcas, and beluga whales in tanks much smaller than their natural environments. Still, many aquariums aren’t just for entertainment, but are also focused on exactly what Villepreux-Power was when created an aquarium in the first place: studying and learning.

20. The Lightbulb

Lighting a home used to be a hazardous experience: Open flames on candles and in fireplaces could set things ablaze. The gas lamp , invented near the end of the 18th century, was a definite upgrade, but it had its own set of issues, from fumes to being hard to maintain to the potential for explosions.

Enter: the lightbulb.

While Thomas Edison is often credited with inventing the lightbulb, there were many scientists and researchers who worked on a version of the device before Edison. Inventors like Humphry Davy (creator of the arc lamp) demonstrated how electricity could be used to create light. In the first half of the 19th century , a series of improvements were made—so much so that in the 1840s later-Sir William Grove was able to give a lecture fully illuminated by electric light. But the light was exceedingly expensive, up to 4 shillings an hour (16 pounds or $22 in today’s money) and early lightbulbs themselves were both expensive to make and unreliable.

There wasn’t a breakthrough until 1878, when chemist Joseph Swan replaced the expensive platinum filament with a cheaper carbonized paper one that also had longevity. Edison demonstrated his lightbulb in 1879, one year after Swan. After a long patent infringement lawsuit, the two decided to combine forces and formed the company Edison-Swan United. Later in life, Edison would choose his lighting system as his greatest invention.

Even Edison and Swan’s bulb wasn’t perfect, however, and many scientists continued to improve on its design—including patent expert Lewis Latimer , who streamlined and improved the carbon filament by encasing it in cardboard instead of bamboo, an innovation that allowed for longer-lasting bulbs.

It’s not hyperbole to say that the modern lightbulb changed how society functioned. Beyond making the home safer, it helped cut back on health problems created by things like gas fumes and smoke inhalation, paved the way for longer working hours, impacted building design, and kicked off the creation of massive infrastructure like the electric grid. Lightbulbs went into everything from cars to airplanes to trains, increasing the rate of travel—and making it much safer. And the lightbulb has left its mark symbolically, too. “Even though this invention, Edison’s bulb, is 135 years old at this point,” Ernest Freeberg, author of The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America , said in 2015 , “we still use [it] as the universal symbol for a great idea, for a stroke of inventive genius, for this Eureka moment.” Today, scientists work on improving the lightbulb every year, leading to more energy-efficient bulbs—and joining the long line of scientists and engineers whose bright ideas have changed history.

A version of this story ran in 2020; it has been updated for 2023.

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11 Innovations That Changed History

By: Evan Andrews

Updated: May 5, 2023 | Original: December 18, 2012

1. The Printing Press

Prior to the rise of the Internet, no innovation did more for the spread and democratization of knowledge than Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press . Developed around 1440 in Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg’s machine improved on already existing presses through the use of a mold that allowed for the rapid production of lead alloy-type pieces. This assembly line method of copying books enabled a single printing press to create as many as 3,600 pages per day. By 1500 over 1,000 Gutenberg presses were operating in Europe, and by 1600 they had created over 200 million new books. The printing press not only made books affordable for the lower classes, but it helped spark the Age of Enlightenment and facilitated the spread of new and often controversial ideas. In 1518 followers of the German monk Martin Luther used the printing press to copy and disseminate his seminal work “ The Ninety-Five Theses ,” which jumpstarted the Protestant Reformation and spurred conflicts like the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). The printing press proved so influential in prompting revolutions, religious upheaval and scientific thought that Mark Twain would later write, “What the world is today, good and bad, it owes to Gutenberg.”

2. The Compass

Magnetic compasses may have been made somewhat obsolete by satellites and global positioning systems, but their impact on early navigation and exploration was inestimable. Originally invented in China , by the 14th century compasses had widely replaced astronomical means as the primary navigational instrument for mariners. The compass provided explorers with a reliable method for traversing the world’s oceans, a breakthrough that ignited the Age of Discovery and won Europe the wealth and power that later fueled the Industrial Revolution . Most importantly, the compass allowed for interaction—both peaceful and otherwise—between previously isolated world cultures.

3. Paper Currency

Throughout much of human history, money took the form of precious metals, coins and even raw materials like livestock or vegetables. The inception of paper money ushered in a bold new era—a world in which currency could purchase goods and services despite having no intrinsic value. Paper currency was widely used in China in the ninth century, but did not appear in Europe until the late 1600s. Spurred on by frequent shortages of coins, banks issued paper notes as a promise against future payments of precious metals. By the late 19th century many nations had begun issuing government-backed legal tender that could no longer be converted into gold or silver. The switch to paper money not only bailed out struggling governments during times of crisis—as it did for the United States during the Civil War —but it also ushered in a new era of international monetary regulation that changed the face of global economics. Perhaps even more importantly, paper currency was the vital first step in a new monetary system that led to the birth of credit cards and electronic banking.

While early human societies made extensive use of stone, bronze and iron, it was steel that fueled the Industrial Revolution and built modern cities. Evidence of steel tools dates back 4,000 years, but the alloy was not mass-produced until the invention of the Bessemer Process, a technique for creating steel using molten pig iron, in the 1850s. Steel then exploded into one of the biggest industries on the planet and was used in the creation of everything from bridges and railroads to skyscrapers and engines. It proved particularly influential in North America, where massive iron ore deposits helped the United States become one of the world’s biggest economies.

5. The Electric Light

While they are easy to take for granted, all it takes is a short power outage to remind us of the importance of artificial lights. Pioneered in the early 19th century by Humphry Davy and his carbon arc lamp, electric lights developed throughout the 1800s thanks to the efforts of inventors like Warren de la Rue, Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Alva Edison . It was Edison and Swan who patented the first long-lasting light bulbs in 1879 and 1880, liberating society from a near-total reliance on daylight. Electric lights went on to be used in everything from home lighting and street lamps to flashlights and car headlights. The complex networks of wires erected to power early light bulbs also helped lead to the first domestic electrical wiring, paving the way for countless other in-home appliances.

6. Domestication of the Horse

Since their domestication some 5,500 years ago, horses have been inextricably tied to human development. They enabled people to travel great distances and gave different cultures the chance to trade and exchange ideas and technology. Equine strength and agility meant that horses could also carry cargo, plow farmland and even clear forests. Perhaps most influential of all, horses changed the nature of war. Nothing was more feared than a horse-drawn chariot or a mounted warrior, and societies that mastered the use of cavalry typically prevailed in battle.

7. Transistors

A criminally under-appreciated innovation, the transistor is an essential component in nearly every modern electronic gadget. First developed in late 1947 by Bell Laboratories, these tiny semiconductor devices allow for precise control of the amount and flow of current through circuit boards. Originally used in radios, transistors have since become an elemental piece of the circuitry in countless electronic devices including televisions, cell phones and computers. The amount of transistors in integrated circuits doubles nearly every two years—a phenomenon known as Moore’s Law—so their remarkable impact on technology will only continue to grow.

8. Magnifying Lenses

Magnifying lenses might seem like an unremarkable invention, but their use has offered mankind a glimpse of everything from distant stars and galaxies to the minute workings of living cells. Lenses first came into use in the 13th century as an aid for the weak-sighted, and the first microscopes and telescopes followed in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Figures like Robert Hook and Anton van Leeuwenhoek would go on to use microscopes in the early observance of cells and other particles, while Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler employed the telescope to chart Earth’s place in the cosmos. These early uses were the first steps in the development of astonishing devices like the electron microscope and the Hubble Space Telescope . Magnifying lenses have since led to new breakthroughs in an abundance of fields including astronomy, biology, archeology, optometry and surgery.

9. The Telegraph

The telegraph was the first in a long line of communications breakthroughs that later included radio, telephones and email. Pioneered by a variety of inventors in the 18th and 19th centuries, the telegraph used Samuel Morse’s famous Morse code to convey messages by intermittently stopping the flow of electricity along communications wires. Telegraph lines multiplied throughout the 1850s, and by 1902 transoceanic cables encircled the globe. The original telegraph and its wireless successors went on to be the first major advancements in worldwide communication. The ability to send messages rapidly across great distances made an indelible impact on government, trade, banking, industry, warfare and news media, and formed the bedrock of the information age.

10. Antibiotics

A giant step forward in the field of medicine, antibiotics saved millions of lives by killing and preventing the growth of harmful bacteria. Scientists like Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister were the first to recognize and attempt to combat bacteria, but it was Alexander Fleming who made the first leap in antibiotics when he accidentally discovered the bacteria-inhibiting mold known as penicillin in 1928. Antibiotics proved to be a major improvement on antiseptics—which killed human cells along with bacteria—and their use spread rapidly throughout the 20th century. Nowhere was their effect more apparent than on the battlefield: While nearly 20 percent of soldiers who contracted bacterial pneumonia died in World War I , with antibiotics—namely Penicillin—that number dropped to only 1 percent during World War II . Antibiotics including penicillin, vancomycin, cephalosporin and streptomycin have gone on to fight nearly every known form of infection, including influenza, malaria, meningitis, tuberculosis and most sexually transmitted diseases.

11. The Steam Engine

Cars, airplanes, factories, trains, spacecraft—none of these transportation methods would have been possible if not for the early breakthrough of the steam engine. The first practical use of external combustion dates back to 1698, when Thomas Savery developed a steam-powered water pump. Steam engines were then perfected in the late 1700s by James Watt, and went on to fuel one of the most momentous technological leaps in human history during the Industrial Revolution . Throughout the 1800s external combustion allowed for exponential improvement in transportation, agriculture and manufacturing, and also powered the rise of world superpowers like Great Britain and the United States. Most important of all, the steam engine’s basic principle of energy-into-motion set the stage for later innovations like internal combustion engines and jet turbines, which prompted the rise of cars and aircraft during the 20th century.

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Essays on Inventions

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The 10 Inventions that Changed the World

The U.S. librarian of Congress ranks history's most important innovations.

Thomas Edison liked to say that he never failed. He succeeded every now and again with an invention that would change the world. The rest of the time, he tried thousands of other things with only one fault—that they would never work.

That’s the sort of spirit and tenacity that leads to progress, says Carla Hayden , the U.S. librarian of Congress. The library keeps archives of many of America’s copyrights and blueprints, so National Geographic asked Hayden to list what she considers 10 of the most meaningful advances in history—the inventions and innovations responsible for the trappings of modern life.

Ranking innovations is more art than science. Can you really compare a camera to an airplane? But while progress is incremental, it’s also exponential; it builds on itself. The printing press allowed literacy to spread and thinkers to share ideas and, thus, invent more things.

Modern inventions tend more toward improving than transforming: an app that connects the world in a better way, planes that fly farther, faster. But there’s still room, every so often, for dramatic advances like, say, 3-D printing or the Internet. “There will be more great leaps,” says Hayden. “We have a momentum and acceleration I think we can all feel.”

Top 10 innovations

• Printing press
• Personal computer
• Refrigeration

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Thomas Edison

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When was Thomas Edison born?

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan , Ohio , on February 11, 1847.

When did Thomas Edison die?

Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange , New Jersey .

Thomas Edison unveiled the phonograph —which reproduced sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus following a groove on a rotating disc—in December 1877. The public’s amazement surrounding this invention was quickly followed by universal acclaim. Edison was projected into worldwide prominence and was dubbed the Wizard of Menlo Park.

How did Thomas Edison change the world?

Thomas Edison played a significant part in introducing the modern age of electricity . His inventions included the phonograph, the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone , the incandescent lamp , the first commercial electric light and power system, an experimental electric railroad , and key elements of motion-picture equipment.

Recent News

Thomas Edison (born February 11, 1847, Milan , Ohio , U.S.—died October 18, 1931, West Orange , New Jersey) was an American inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world-record 1,093 patents . In addition, he created the world’s first industrial research laboratory .

Edison was the quintessential American inventor in the era of Yankee ingenuity. He began his career in 1863, in the adolescence of the telegraph industry, when virtually the only source of electricity was primitive batteries putting out a low-voltage current . Before he died, in 1931, he had played a critical role in introducing the modern age of electricity . From his laboratories and workshops emanated the phonograph , the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone , the incandescent lamp , a revolutionary generator of unprecedented efficiency , the first commercial electric light and power system, an experimental electric railroad , and key elements of motion-picture apparatus , as well as a host of other inventions.

Edison was the seventh and last child—the fourth surviving—of Samuel Edison, Jr., and Nancy Elliot Edison. At an early age he developed hearing problems, which have been variously attributed but were most likely due to a familial tendency to mastoiditis . Whatever the cause, Edison’s deafness strongly influenced his behaviour and career, providing the motivation for many of his inventions.

In 1854 Samuel Edison became the lighthouse keeper and carpenter on the Fort Gratiot military post near Port Huron , Michigan , where the family lived in a substantial home. Alva, as the inventor was known until his second marriage, entered school there and attended sporadically for five years. He was imaginative and inquisitive, but, because much instruction was by rote and he had difficulty hearing, he was bored and was labeled a misfit. To compensate, he became an avid and omnivorous reader. Edison’s lack of formal schooling was not unusual. At the time of the Civil War the average American had attended school a total of 434 days—little more than two years’ schooling by today’s standards.

In 1859 Edison quit school and began working as a trainboy on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron. Four years earlier, the Michigan Central had initiated the commercial application of the telegraph by using it to control the movement of its trains, and the Civil War brought a vast expansion of transportation and communication . Edison took advantage of the opportunity to learn telegraphy and in 1863 became an apprentice telegrapher.

Messages received on the initial Morse telegraph were inscribed as a series of dots and dashes on a strip of paper that was decoded and read, so Edison’s partial deafness was no handicap. Receivers were increasingly being equipped with a sounding key, however, enabling telegraphers to “read” messages by the clicks. The transformation of telegraphy to an auditory art left Edison more and more disadvantaged during his six-year career as an itinerant telegrapher in the Midwest, the South, Canada , and New England . Amply supplied with ingenuity and insight, he devoted much of his energy toward improving the inchoate equipment and inventing devices to facilitate some of the tasks that his physical limitations made difficult. By January 1869 he had made enough progress with a duplex telegraph (a device capable of transmitting two messages simultaneously on one wire) and a printer , which converted electrical signals to letters, that he abandoned telegraphy for full-time invention and entrepreneurship.

Edison moved to New York City , where he initially went into partnership with Frank L. Pope, a noted electrical expert, to produce the Edison Universal Stock Printer and other printing telegraphs. Between 1870 and 1875 he worked out of Newark , New Jersey , and was involved in a variety of partnerships and complex transactions in the fiercely competitive and convoluted telegraph industry, which was dominated by the Western Union Telegraph Company . As an independent entrepreneur he was available to the highest bidder and played both sides against the middle. During this period he worked on improving an automatic telegraph system for Western Union’s rivals. The automatic telegraph, which recorded messages by means of a chemical reaction engendered by the electrical transmissions, proved of limited commercial success, but the work advanced Edison’s knowledge of chemistry and laid the basis for his development of the electric pen and mimeograph , both important devices in the early office machine industry, and indirectly led to the discovery of the phonograph . Under the aegis of Western Union he devised the quadruplex, capable of transmitting four messages simultaneously over one wire, but railroad baron and Wall Street financier Jay Gould , Western Union’s bitter rival, snatched the quadruplex from the telegraph company’s grasp in December 1874 by paying Edison more than $100,000 in cash, bonds, and stock, one of the larger payments for any invention up to that time. Years of litigation followed.

20 inventions that changed the world

From the wheel 5,500 years ago to the birth control pill, these 20 inventions had huge ramifications and have helped humans shape the world around us.

2. Printing press

3. penicillin, 5. light bulb, 6. telephone, 7. internal combustion engine, 8. contraceptives, 9. internet, 11. use of fire, 12. concrete, 13. magnifying glass, 14. batteries, 15. marine chronometer, 16. airplane, 17. refrigerator, 18. nuclear energy, 19. vaccines.

Humans are naturally curious and creative, two traits that have led our species to many scientific and technological breakthroughs. Since our earliest ancestors bashed a rock on the ground to make the first sharp-edged tool, humans have continued to innovate. From the debut of the wheel to the launch of Mars rovers, several of these key advancements stand out as especially revolutionary. Some inventions are thanks to one eureka moment, but most of our most pioneering inventions were the work of several innovative thinkers who made incremental improvements over many years. Here, we explore 20 of the most important inventions of all time, along with the science behind the inventions and how they came about.

Before the invention of the wheel in 3500 B.C., humans were severely limited in how much stuff we could transport over land, and how far. The wheel itself wasn't the most difficult part of "inventing the wheel." When it came time to connect a non-moving platform to that rolling cylinder, things got tricky, according to David Anthony, an emeritus professor of anthropology at Hartwick College.

"The stroke of brilliance was the wheel-and-axle concept," Anthony previously told Live Science . "But then making it was also difficult." For instance, the holes at the center of the wheels and the ends of the fixed axles had to be nearly perfectly round and smooth, he said. The size of the axle was also a critical factor, as was its snugness inside the hole (not too tight, but not too loose, either).

The hard work paid off, big time. Wheeled carts facilitated agriculture and commerce by enabling the transportation of goods to and from markets, as well as easing the burdens of people travelling great distances. Now, wheels are vital to our way of life, found in everything from clocks to vehicles to turbines.

David Anthony is professor emeritus and curator emeritus of anthropology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. He has done extensive archaeological fieldwork in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Anthony is the author of "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" (Princeton, 2007) and has co-authored studies including the finding that humans first rode horses 5,000 years ago .

German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press sometime between 1440 and 1450. Key to its development was the hand mold, a new molding technique that enabled the rapid creation of large quantities of metal movable type. Though others before him — including inventors in China and Korea — had developed movable type made from metal, Gutenberg was the first to create a mechanized process that transferred the ink (which he made from linseed oil and soot) from the movable type to paper.

With this movable type process, printing presses exponentially increased the speed with which book copies could be made, and thus they led to the rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge for the first time in history. In her book “ The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe ” (Cambridge University Press, 2012), late historian Elizabeth L. Eisenstein wrote, “printers’ workshops would be found in every important municipal center by 1500.”  It has been estimated that up to twenty million volumes had been printed in Western Europe by 1500, although Eisenstein estimates that it was around eight million.

Among other things, the printing press permitted wider access to the Bible, which in turn led to alternative interpretations, including that of Martin Luther, whose "95 Theses" a document printed by the hundred-thousand sparked the Protestant Reformation.

It's one of the most famous discovery stories in history. In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-filled Petri dish in his laboratory with its lid accidentally ajar. The sample had become contaminated with a mold, and everywhere the mold was, the bacteria was dead. That antibiotic mold turned out to be the fungus Penicillium, and over the next two decades, chemists purified it and developed the drug penicillin , which fights a huge number of bacterial infections in humans without harming the humans themselves.

Penicillin was being mass-produced and advertised by 1944. This poster attached to a curbside mailbox advised World War II servicemen to take the drug to rid themselves of venereal disease.

About 1 in 10 people have an allergic reaction to the antibiotic , according to a study published in 2003 in the journal Clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology. Even so, most of those people go on to be able to tolerate the drug, researchers said.

Related: What causes allergies?

Ancient mariners used the stars for navigation, but this method didn’t work during the day or on cloudy nights, making it dangerous to travel far from land. 

The first compass was invented in China during the Han dynasty between the 2nd Century B.C. and 1st Century A.D.; it was made of lodestone, a naturally-magnetized iron ore, the attractive properties of which they had been studying for centuries. However, it was used for navigation for the first time during the Song Dynasty, between the 11th and 12th centuries,

Soon after, the technology to the West through nautical contact. The compass enabled mariners to navigate safely far from land, opening up the world for exploration and the subsequent development of global trade. An instrument still widely used today, the compass has transformed our knowledge and understanding of the Earth forever.

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 this revolutionary technology throughout the 1800s; Thomas Edison is credited as the primary inventor because he created a completely functional lighting system, including a generator and wiring as well as a carbon-filament bulb like the one above, in 1879.

As well as initiating the introduction of electricity in homes throughout the Western world, this invention also had a rather unexpected consequence of changing people's sleep patterns . Instead of going to bed at nightfall (having nothing else to do) and sleeping in segments throughout the night separated by periods of wakefulness, we now stay up except for the 7 to 8 hours allotted for sleep, and, ideally, we sleep all in one go.

Several inventors did pioneering work on electronic voice transmission — many of whom later filed intellectual property lawsuits when telephone use exploded — but it was Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell who was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone on March 7, 1876 (his patent drawing is pictured above). Three days later, Bell made the first telephone call to his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying "Mr Watson, come here — I want to see you," according to author A. Edward Evenson in his book, “ The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876: The Elisha Gray-Alexander Bell Controversy and Its Many Players ” (McFarland, 2015).

Bell’s inspiration for the telephone was influenced by his family. His father taught speech elocution and specialized in teaching the deaf speak, his mother, an accomplished musician, lost her hearing in later life and his wife Mabel, who he married in 1877, had been deaf since the age of five, according to Evenson. The invention quickly took off and revolutionized global business and communication. When Bell died on Aug. 2, 1922, all telephone service in the United States and Canada was stopped for one minute to honor him.

In these engines, the combustion of fuel releases a high-temperature gas, which, as it expands, applies a force to a piston, moving it. Thus, combustion engines convert chemical energy into mechanical work. Decades of engineering by many scientists went into designing the internal combustion engine, which took its (essentially) modern form in the latter half of the 19th century. The engine ushered in the Industrial Age, as well as enabling the invention of a huge variety of machines, including modern cars and aircraft.

Pictured are the operating steps of a four-stroke internal combustion engine. The strokes are as follows: 1) Intake stroke — air and vaporised fuel are drawn in. 2) Compression stroke - fuel vapor and air are compressed and ignited. 3) Power stroke — fuel combusts and the piston is pushed downwards, powering the machine. 4) Exhaust stroke — exhaust is driven out.

Not only have 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, they have also drastically reduced the average number of offspring per woman in countries where they are used. With fewer mouths to feed, modern families have achieved higher standards of living and can provide better for each child. Meanwhile, on the global scale, contraceptives are helping the human population gradually level off; our number will probably stabilize by the end of the century. Certain contraceptives, such as condoms, also curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Natural and herbal contraception has been used for millennia. Condoms or ‘sheaths’ have existed in one form or another since ancient times, according to scholar Jessica Borge in her book “ Protective Practices: A History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business ” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), with the rubber condom developed in the 19th century. Meanwhile, the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive pill in the United States in 1960 and by 1965, more than 6.5 million American women were on the pill, according to author Jonathan Eig in his book, “The Birth of the Pill: How Four Pioneers Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015).  

Scientists are continuing to make advancements in birth control, with some labs even pursuing a male form of "the pill." A permanent birth-control implant called Essure was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002, though in 2016, the FDA warned the implant would need stronger warnings to tell users about serious risks of using Essure. 

Related: 7 surprising facts about the pill

The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that is used by billions of people worldwide. In the 1960s, a team of computer scientists working for the U.S. Defense Department's ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) built a communications network to connect the computers in the agency, called ARPANET, the predecessor of the internet. It used a method of data transmission called "packet switching", developed by computer scientist and team member Lawrence Roberts, based on prior work of other computer scientists. 

This technology was progressed in the 1970s by scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, who developed the crucial communication protocols for the internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), according to computer scientist Harry R. Lewis in his book “ Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science ” (MIT Press, 2021). For this, Kahn and Cerf are often credited as inventors of the internet”.

In 1989, the internet evolved further thanks to the invention of the World Wide Web by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research). According to CERN , "the basic idea of the WWW was to merge the evolving technologies of computers, data networks and hypertext into a powerful and easy to use global information system." The development of the WWW opened up the world of the internet to everybody and connected the world in a way that it had never been before.  

Related: Inventor of World Wide Web snags computer science's top prize

This key invention dates back more than 2,000 years to the Ancient Roman period and became possible only after humans developed the ability to cast and shape metal. Previously, wood structures had to be built by interlocking adjacent boards geometrically a much more arduous construction process.

Until the 1790s and early 1800s, hand-wrought nails were the norm, with a blacksmith heating a square iron rod and then hammering it on four sides to create a point, according to the University of Vermont . Nail-making machines came online between the 1790s and the early 1800s. Technology for crafting nails continued to advance; After Henry Bessemer developed a process to mass-produce steel from iron, the iron nails of yesteryear slowly waned and by 1886, 10 percent of U.S. nails were created from soft steel wire, according to the University of Vermont. By 1913, 90 percent of nails produced in the U.S. were steel wire.

Meanwhile, the invention of the screw - a stronger but harder-to-insert fastener -  is usually ascribed to the Greek scholar Archimedes in the third century B.C., but was probably invented by the Pythagorean philosopher Archytas of Tarentum, according to David Blockley in his book “ Engineering: A Very Short Introduction ” (Oxford University Press, 2012).

The use of fire is one of humankind's most powerful early inventions and radically changed the way our ancient ancestors lived. Offering warmth and the ability to cook foods such as meat, the campfire was also a social gathering place. Fire also provided some protection against predators. 

The exact date fire was discovered has long remained a mystery, with some studies suggesting it was first used by hominins in Kenya 1 million years ago to cook meat. Other evidence suggests that Neanderthals in Europe and Asia harnessed fire , while Homo sapiens evolving in Africa mastered the skill of creating fire. More recently, archaeologists in Israel found evidence of hominin fire use dating to 1.5 million to 2 million years ago.

Ancient Romans are credited as one of the first societies to use concrete in architecture, with Roman bathhouses and iconic sites such as the Colosseumand Pantheon dome constructed using concrete mixed with volcanic ash, lime, and seawater. Incredibly, many of these ancient buildings are not only standing, but remain in good condition some 2,000 years later — a testament to the longevity of Roman concrete . However, the ancient Egyptians used a crude form of concrete in their buildings much earlier in 3000 B.C., employing forms of concrete mixed with ash and salt water to create mortar. One study concluded that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza might have been built using concrete . Concrete is strong in compression but breaks easily in tension, so the invention of reinforced steel-concrete toward the end of the 19th century in France, which lends concrete some of steel's tensile strength, enabled concrete to be used more widely in construction.

Franciscan friar and Oxford University scholar Roger Bacon first developed the magnifying glass in 1268. Sometimes dubbed "Britain's first scientist,"' Bacon's magnifying glass built on research by Muslim scholars .

However, the use of optical tools dates back much further. Evidence suggests that as early as 700 B.C., people in ancient Egypt noticed that they could look through crystals to improve vision.

The first battery dates back to 1800, when Italian physicist Alessandro Volta wrapped stacked discs of copper and zinc in a cloth, submerged it in salty water and discovered that it conducted energy. In 1802, Scottish professor William Cruickshank invented a variation of Volta's design known as the trough battery , which consisted of 50 discs of copper and zinc in a wooden box filled with a salt solution to conduct energy. However, it was French physicist Gaston Planté who invented the first practically used battery, in 1859. Modern variations on Planté's rechargeable lead-acid battery are still used in cars today.

The 15th century marked the beginning of the great voyages of discovery by adventurers and sea merchants and the development of a global ocean trade network . Trading vessels carried highly prized silk, spices, salt, wine and tea across often-treacherous seas for months on end. After the loss of four ships at sea in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 , seafarers realized they needed an accurate way to determine longitude when out of sight of land.

In 1714, the British parliament offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could solve the problem. Carpenter John Harrison won the bounty in 1735 with his marine chronometer. What is perhaps even more remarkable is that Harrison was a self-taught clockmaker. His ingenious timekeeping device was powered by the rocking motion of the ship rather than by gravity and could be used by sailors to accurately calculate longitude at sea.

The ability for humans to fly has captured the imagination of inventors for centuries, with the first human-operated flight taking place in 1783 when Joseph-Michael and Jacques-Ètienne Montgolfier took to the skies in a hot air balloon. In 1853 British engineer George Cayley designed the first glider to successfully take flight, but it wasn’t until 1903 that Orville and Wilbur Wright's plane became the first airplane to have a successful voyage. It not only took off from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina using its own power; it flew and landed without destruction, unlike many earlier aircraft inventions. The Wright brothers were inspired by watching' birds in flight. The glider took a page from birds' wings but had a 32-foot (10 meters) wingspan.

Refrigeration in some form has been around for thousands of years. Depending on the climate, ice or cold water was used to keep food cold in ancient times. But artificial refrigeration didn't come until 1748, when the physician William Cullen  first demonstrated evaporative cooling. Further breakthroughs came in 1834, when a vapor-compression system was developed by American engineer Jacob Perkins . In 1876, German engineer Carl von Linde came up with a process of liquifying the gas, ushering in the era of commercial refrigeration. In 1913, American engineer Fred Wolf invented the first domestic refrigerator , and as demand for fresh produce grew, so did the number of households with refrigerators.

Nuclear energy was first discovered in the 1930s by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi , who found that bombarding atoms with neutrons could split them, generating huge amounts of energy. He went on to develop the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. This successful experiment led to the development of several nuclear plants in the 1950s, with Idaho launching the first nuclear plant in 1951 with electricity produced from atomic energy at its Experimental Breeder Reactor I site. Obninsk in the former Soviet Union became the first grid-connected nuclear power plant in the world in 1954, while Shippingport nuclear plant, Pennsylvania became the first commercial nuclear plant in 1957.

Nuclear power remains widely used around the world today, generating approximately 10% of global energy .

One problem is that existing nuclear power plants use fission to split atoms, and this produces radioactive substances that take ages to decay. And the risks of nuclear disasters, such as those at Chernobyl and the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, highlight the challenges of fission-based nuclear power.

So scientists are working to create usable nuclear fusion reactors, which could theoretically generate clean, limitless energy. In 2022, scientists reported a minor breakthrough: a fusion reactor that generated more energy than was put into it. However, we're still a long way from a usable fusion reactor , experts say.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 2 million to 3 million lives are saved annually thanks to vaccinations against contagious diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and measles.

The earliest rudimentary vaccination is thought to date back to the 10th century in China, when people inoculated small scratches in the skin with small doses of smallpox to provide protection against the disease. But in 1796, English physician Edward Jenner discovered that milkmaids rarely caught or died of smallpox because they were previously infected by the cowpox virus , also called Vaccinia. So he used cowpox to develop a smallpox vaccine. He inoculated an 8-year-old boy with cowpox and then with smallpox, and the boy never caught the deadly scourge. Jenner's experiment led to the creation of a smallpox vaccine and his work is regarded as the start of immunology. In 1980, smallpox was declared officially eradicated by WHO. But scientists continue to develop new life-saving vaccines — most notably, the coronavirus vaccines that played a large role in combatting the pandemic .

Like many famous inventions, the X-ray was discovered by accident. In 1895, German engineer and physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was undertaking a two-month study into the potential of radiation. In an experiment testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass, he noticed that the radiation was able to pass through screens of considerable thickness, leaving a shadow of solid objects. He soon discovered that X-rays could pass through human tissues to show a clear picture of the skeleton and organs. A year later, a group of physicians took the earliest X-rays on patients . These observations led to the development of radiology as we know it today and has since helped medical professionals diagnose broken bones, tumors, organ failures and more.

Editor's Note: This story was updated to correct the location of Edison's lab. It was Menlo Park, New Jersey, not Menlo Park, California.

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Natalie Wolchover was a staff writer for Live Science from 2010 to 2012 and is currently a senior physics writer and editor for Quanta Magazine. She holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Tufts University and has studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with the staff of Quanta, Wolchover won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing for her work on the building of the James Webb Space Telescope. Her work has also appeared in the The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Writing on Mathematics, Nature, The New Yorker and Popular Science. She was the 2016 winner of the  Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, an annual prize for young science journalists, as well as the winner of the 2017 Science Communication Award for the American Institute of Physics. 

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What’s the greatest invention of all time?

We have been inventing things for millions of years. but which is the best of them.

An introduction by Samantha Weinberg

Nearly two thousand years ago, three elderly Chinese men sat in the gardens of Changle Palace, arguing about what was the greatest invention of all time.

“Tools made of rock,” said one, banging his fist on the delicate carved table.

“Paper,” said another, slamming the side of his hand.

“No, scissors!” cried the third, making chopping movements in the air. And so a game was invented.

This little tale is an invention too. We do not know exactly when Rock, Paper, Scissors was dreamed up, nor how, since in the time of Han there were fewer ways of recording the events of the day: no photographs (invented by Louis Daguerre in 1836), no sound recordings (the phonautograph was first used in 1857) and no reliable method of storing and passing on information (more of that later).

But the fact that the game existed then, and did not before, means that it is an invention. It may not be a contender for the greatest of all time, but rock, paper and scissors most certainly are. Inventions, for the purposes of this debate, are tangible—technologies and processes, rather than more nebulous things such as ideas, principles and imaginings. Children might feel that Father Christmas (first recorded in 1616) is the greatest invention of all time, but we are ruling him out.

Tools fashioned of rock, or stone, were probably the earliest inventions worthy of the name. First used in the Paleolithic Age, around 2.6m years ago, they mark an essential progression, from proto-human to human. With simple tools, fashioned by pummelling one piece of rock against another to produce a sharp edge, early man began to shape the world according to his needs, to build rudimentary shelters, to hunt and flay animals for food and clothing. Just about everything else followed from there. There is virtually nothing about the way we live today that would have been possible without those first stone tools.

But does longevity alone qualify stone tools for the crown? I’m not convinced; theirs was a long, slow grind to efficacy, and in most forms they’ve long been eclipsed. The blade, however—of which scissors are just a manifestation, albeit an ingenious one—has been in constant use since it was first invented at the start of the Ages of Metal, some 400,000 years ago. Think of knives, swords, spears, axes, the guillotine…uh-oh. Although we depend on the blade for much of what we now take for granted, from cutting up our food to making the electronics which crowd our daily life, there’s a little too much of the chop and slash about blades to make them my greatest of all time.

So how about the third of our Chinese gents’ suggestions: paper? Invented by an imperial courtier named Ts’ai Lun in 105AD, it was deemed so precious and important that successive Chinese dynasties kept it secret for six centuries. Not something that the Dragons of today’s Den, with their greedy eyes and piles of cash, would be inclined to do.

It is thanks to paper that we know about its invention. The ability to keep a written record is the foundation of mass learning. While the alphabet was invented around 2,000BC (at the same time as another useful device, the umbrella), it wasn’t easy to pass around heavy stone tablets, or to manufacture and preserve papyrus scrolls in great numbers. The invention of paper led inexorably to books, the printing press, newspapers and magazines, to sacred texts, art, photography and music scores, handed down through generations. And yet, here we are at the dawn of what may, finally, become a paperless society. Paper may cover stone, but it is cut by scissors and burned by fire—another of the foundations of our society.

There are more. Tracing a line through time, you keep bumping into inventions that precipitate many others. Invention nearly always fulfils a need, but it is also an agent of change and how you measure that change depends on who you are and when you lived. Let’s move our game to 1820s London; three learned gentlemen are gathered at the new headquarters of the Royal Society, in Burlington House, scratching their wigs over what was the greatest invention of the previous century.

“ ’Tis surely the internal combustion engine [1794],” said one, “for ’tis changing the nature of transport. Men and goods can move great distances in the wink of an eye.”

“Nay! Consider vaccination [1796],” his friend responded. “Jenner’s work is saving lives.”

“Aye, and what of the electrical motor?” said the third. “The implications of what young Faraday is doing today will light up the lives of our grandchildren.”

Three more worthy contenders. But change the cast again, and the suggestions will be different. Put women on the chairs, and we might vote for the contraceptive pill (Carl Djerassi, 1960) which, by handing us the responsibility for our own fertility, freed us to run our own lives. Blind people might point to Braille (1824), astronomers to the telescope (1609), miners to the safety lamp (1815). Around my kitchen table, the suggestions were diverse and revealing: the Xbox 360 (son, aged 11), the bridle (daughter, 9), and the iPad (father, 80). Or not so diverse in the case of the menfolk.

In December 1999, the writer and thinker Umberto Eco was asked to name his greatest inventions of the millennium. He plumped for four things: the stern-mounted rudder, without which, he said, “Columbus could not have sailed to America and the history of the millennium would have been rather different”, and, more important than the rudder even, beans, peas and lentils. Pulses, in my book, although important both for nutrition and genetics, cross the line from invention to discovery, so they’re out.

There is hardly any concrete thing in our world today that didn’t start off as an invention, from the fish hook (c. 35,000BC) to a particular favourite of mine, the ice-rink cleaning machine (1948). The difficulty comes in picking the greatest. How do you measure the wheel against the space shuttle? I am taking the greatest to mean the invention that has had the greatest impact on the most people in a relatively immediate sense; power equals energy over time. And for that, we don’t have to look very far back at all.

If I had been writing this article 22 years ago, it would have taken much longer. I would have had to traipse around libraries, wade through encyclopedias and newspaper cuttings, and bother a host of people with a stack of questions. Instead, I’ve been sitting at home, in front of a flickering fire (c. 1.4m BC), drinking tea (first recorded in the 10th century BC; teabags patented 1903), tapping at my laptop (1983), and distilling what I’ve found by trawling the world wide web.

In 1989, a youngish British physicist, Tim Berners-Lee, was trying to work out a way to share information with colleagues at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN (1954). They were already using the internet (1972), then a sort of scaled-up messaging facility that enabled files to be sent from one computer network to another. But Berners-Lee devised a way to store the pages in a central information bank, much like the great library of Alexandria (3rd century BC), only infinitely bigger.

Knowledge and information are in themselves of incalculable value, and sometimes danger, but the web is much, much more. Already this morning, I have performed all the vital functions of the home-worker: checked the weather forecast, bought a train ticket, played a game of Scrabble and sent a birthday message to a friend across the world. Thanks to the web, we can sit at home and be connected; we can work and be parents at the same time. I can share videos of my children with friends and family around the world, whether they like it or not, and send an article to a young scientist living in the Comoro Islands, halfway from Tanzania to Madagascar.

The web has transformed at least a dozen fields: education, news, book publishing, music, finance, networking, dating, charity donations, shopping, language-learning, cartography, medicine, hypochondria and the way we talk to friends. But above all it has fanned the movement for democratic change in countries whose inhabitants used to be hobbled by the fear that they were alone. The web enabled them to reach out, find support at home and abroad, and muster the courage to overthrow their tyrants. It helped them bring in the promise, at least, of a brighter dawn. Ask a young Egyptian, Tunisian or Libyan to name the greatest invention, and they might well choose the world wide web.

Paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors, scissors cut paper, but the web trumps them all.

Edward Carr The Blade

Go into the kitchen and find a chopping board, a tomato—not too ripe—and your favourite knife. To be sure that the knife is sharp, run the tip of your finger down the edge and feel it catch the tiny ridges on your skin. Place the tomato on the board and draw the blade across it. At first, you will sense the surface resistance, then a slight give as blade eases through flesh to the board beneath, like the keel of a boat running into the sand.

The stainless-steel blade in your hand barely differs from the sharp-edged flint and obsidian that our ancestors knapped from a core of rock two or three million years ago. The first flints were scrapers and knives for skinning and butchering animals. Larger stones, fixed to wooden handles, served as axes for chopping and adzes for smoothing rough wood. The smallest became arrowheads and spear-tips. From the beginning, technology both brought life and took it away.

The blade is so familiar that we tend to overlook its technical refinement. Pressure equals force divided by area: the thin surface at the cutting edge concentrates moderate forces into extreme pressures. By minimising the area, the teeth of a serrated blade concentrate the force still further. With a blunt knife, you have to exert a large force to make a cut—and you have a squashed tomato. But a sharp one can give us a surgeon’s incision; axes and saws generate enough pressure to slice through trees and rock; fine wires shave off a wafer of silicon for etching integrated circuits.

Some technologies, like steam-power and the candle, have come and mostly gone. Others have been optional—the Incas, Aztecs and Native Americans got by without the wheel. Only the blade has been with people everywhere and throughout history. In fact, as the first tool, the blade opened a new world bursting with unimagined possibilities—and we are not done exploring them yet. Elegant and enduring, the blade was the breakthrough on which everything else is built.

Roger Highfield The Scientific Method

All great inventions rest on understanding how things work. And the greatest of all is the über-invention that has provided the insights on which other inventions depend: the modern scientific method, the realisation that we cannot grasp the way the world works by rational thought alone.

To gain meaningful insights into the scheme of things, logic has to be accompanied by asking probing questions of nature. To advance understanding, we need to devise rational conjectures and probe them to destruction through controlled tests, precise observations and clever analysis. The upshot is an unending dialogue between theory and experiment.

Unlike a traditional invention, the scientific method did not come into being at a particular time: its history is complex and stretches back long before 1833, when the term “scientist” was coined by the English polymath William Whewell. The method is not a concrete gadget like Gutenberg’s press, the computer or the Pill. Nor is it a brainwave like the non-geocentric universe, the Indo-Arab counting system or the theory of evolution. It is a fecund way of thinking on which the modern world rests. In relatively few generations, the rigorous application of the method has bootstrapped modern society through a non-linear accumulation of both knowledge and technology. Its impact on everyday life is ubiquitous and indisputable, even though a surprising number of people, including some senior politicians, have only a feeble grasp of its significance.

As one example, let’s look forward a few decades to an invention which is destined to end the energy crisis, change the global economy and curb climate change at a stroke: commercial fusion power. This invention, like nearly all others, is inconceivable without the scientific method, in this case the insights that it gives into the process by which the Sun and other stars transmute matter, transforming hydrogen into helium to release astounding amounts of energy. This invention will rest on the application of a diverse range of scientific insights, whether in the creation of reactor materials that can withstand unbelievable pummelling by subatomic particles or the design of affordable superconducting magnets that can confine plasma ten times hotter than the Sun’s core.

The scientific method has changed life, culture and everything, and set the stage for a reassessment of our place in the universe. It is the mother of all invention.

Tom Standage Writing

The greatest invention of all must surely be writing. It is not just one of the foundations of civilisation: it underpins the steady accumulation of intellectual achievement. By capturing ideas in physical form, it allows them to travel across space and time without distortion, and thus slip the bonds of human memory and oral transmission, not to mention the whims of tyrants and the vicissitudes of history.

Its origins are prosaic: it was invented by accountants, not poets, in the 4th millennium BC, as a spur of the counting system with which farming societies kept track of agricultural goods. At first transactions were recorded by storing groups of shaped clay tokens – representing wheat, cattle or textiles – in clay envelopes. But why use tokens when pressing one into a tablet of wet clay would do instead? These impressions, in turn, were superseded by symbols scratched or punched into the clay with a stylus. Tokens had given way to writing.

As human settlements swelled from villages to the first cities, writing was needed for administrative reasons. But it quickly became more flexible and expressive, capable of capturing the subtleties of human thought, not just lists of rations doled out or kings long dead. And this allowed philosophers, poets and chroniclers to situate their ideas in relation to those of previous thinkers, to argue about them and elaborate upon them. Each generation could build on the ideas of its forebears, making it possible for there to be species-wide progress in philosophy, commerce, science and literature.

The amazing thing about writing, given how complicated its early systems were, is that anyone learned it at all. The reason they did is revealed in the ancient Egyptian scribal-training texts, which emphasise the superiority of being a scribe over all other career choices, with titles like “Do Not Be Soldier, Priest or Baker”, “Do Not Be a Husbandman” and “Do Not Be a Charioteer”. This last text begins: “Set thine heart on being a scribe, that thou mayest direct the whole earth.” The earliest scribes understood that literacy was power – a power that now extends to most of humanity, and has done more for human progress than any other invention.

Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu The Transistor Radio

The greatest invention of all is the transistor radio (and radio wave signals), first developed by Bell Laboratories in the 1940s. I admire straightforward technology that solves complex, human problems. Where there are still holes in the web, radio waves travel powerfully around the world. And one of the wonderful things about the transistor is that it is portable.

Spreading conversations to improve access to knowledge and quality of life is a huge task. Information opens the mind and motivates the spirit. A more informed person can make a better choice. Radio is the only way to reach so many people at the same time with the same information. It made news instant. It changed the way we listened to music. It spoke the language of the people. In rural Africa, where I live, radio is still the most pervasive, accessible, affordable and flexible mass medium. It gives people a louder voice to air and solve agricultural problems, improve farm production, strengthen specialist knowledge in their communities, protect their health and reduce poverty.

Radio is sustainable, interactive and inclusive. Even illiterate smallholder farmers can suddenly be both heard and informed. They can shape opinions, enjoy the give-and-take of informed dialogue and become decisive agents in their industry’s development. People tend to relate to information best when it originates from their own communities.

I was inspired to launch a network that gives poor rural farmers, especially women, daily access to information on crop production, livestock rearing, soil management, national and international markets. This information is used to negotiate with traders, to decide whether to go to market, and which market to visit or supply. It has been used to analyse prices over time, to help make decisions about diversifying or producing out-of-season crops. It can even be used to help subsistence farmers find opportunities for alternative income. Educational programmes broadcast over simple radios have improved crop and livestock yield and household income.

Nick Valéry The Flush Toilet

More even than the miracle of antibiotics, the flush toilet has done most to rid us of infectious disease. Without plumbed sanitation within the home to dispose of human waste, we would still be living in a brutal age of cholera, dysentery, typhus and typhoid fever—to say nothing of bubonic plague.

The flush toilet was invented, and re-invented, many times. Indoor toilets first appeared in the Indus Valley over 4,000 years ago. The Romans built their latrines over drains carrying running water that discharged into a fetid Tiber. Legend has it that Queen Elizabeth I was too embarrassed to use the flush toilet built for her by her godson, Sir John Harington, for fear that the roar of the rushing water would inform the palace of the royal bowels being evacuated.

But it is only in the past century and a half that the water closet has graced more humble abodes. After Prince Albert died of typhoid in 1861, a grief-stricken Queen Victoria demanded that piped water and sewage treatment be installed throughout Britain. A decade later, her son Prince Edward came close to dying of the same disease, and word about the need for flush toilets went out across the land. From Britain, it spread to France, and thence the rest of Europe and the world.

The father of the modern lavatory was not, as myth would have it, Thomas Crapper, whose name, in blue Gothic script, embellished the inside of many a Victorian lavatory bowl. If anyone can lay claim to the title, it is Alexander Cummings, a watchmaker in Bond Street, who was granted the first patent for a flush toilet in 1775. The popular toilets made by Crapper’s workshop in Chelsea were based on a later siphon design, patented in 1819 by an employee named Albert Giblin.

The lavatory has changed little since Crapper’s time. Water trapped in an S-shaped bend keeps the stench at bay, while allowing the waste to be siphoned off. Pulling a chain, or pressing a handle, opens a valve that causes water in a cistern to gush into the bowl. When it is empty, a floating ballcock closes the valve, and the tank refills under pressure from the water supply. Tweaks over the years have simplified the valve system and reduced the water needed. The flushing toilet still hasn’t reached everyone, but it has done billions a great service.

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The 6 Most Influential Inventions of the Past 100 Years

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Why nintendo switch online is my favorite way to play retro games, this new browser is a productivity miracle.

Over the past few decades, technology has taken some huge steps. We've gone from clunky computers to sleek tablets, from paper cash to cryptocurrency, and from phone calls and letters to DMs and FaceTime. Things certainly have changed drastically, but what were the big milestones that changed the game in the world of tech?

1. The Smartphone

If you're part of the GenZ era, you might not remember a time when smartphones weren't the norm. Well, before the late noughties, smartphones were still a thing of the future. This was a time when flip phones and "brick" phones ruled the world.

While the first (very, very basic) smartphone was technically created by IBM in the early 90s, the first classic smartphone was released in the late 2000s. However, everyone's idea of the first smartphone is different. Many believe it was the iconic iPhone, released in June 2007. This phone changed the world in a sense, with 6.1 million units being sold in the space of a year.

People's expectations of what a phone could do were certainly met or exceeded with the release of the first iPhone, and millions around the world are now loyal to the brand. Many brands then followed suit, with Samsung, LG, HTC, and Nokia releasing their own smartphones. Now, smartphones are the norm globally, and their capabilities continue to improve.

2. Electric Cars

In recent years, global warming has become a huge concern for governments, companies, and individuals alike. And, we all know that a huge contributor to global warming is the release of greenhouse gases from petrol and diesel vehicles. This is where the electric car can make a huge difference.

Related: Common Questions About Electric Cars You Always Wanted to Ask

The electric car isn't exactly a modern concept, with the first invented in the late 1800s. However, electric cars weren't a huge topic of interest at this point, and it wouldn't be for another hundred or so years before electric cars were put into mass circulation.

In 1996, General Motors released an electric car named the EV1. But, people still mostly favored petrol and diesel cars at this point. It wasn't until the early 2010s that electric cars became more commercially successful, especially with the widespread commercial availability of Tesla electric cars, a company that brought fame and wealth to entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Tesla rose to success in the mid-2010s, and now many more car companies are developing and releasing their own electric or hybrid models.

3. 3D Printers

3D printers have now made things never thought possible a reality. These awesome devices can three-dimensionally print objects by building up one layer at a time using a method called fused depositional modeling (or FDM).

Where 3D printing becomes important is its applications in a number of industries. Currently, 3D printing can be used to produce customizable end-use parts, prototype products, and produce jewelry and accessories.

However, most notably, 3D printers are now being considered in the production of synthetic organs for transplant patients. Developing organs in this way could eliminate the risk of organ rejection from the patient's body and could rapidly reduce the number of people on transplant waiting lists around the world. Pretty exciting stuff!

What would we do without Wi-Fi ? This amazing creation has changed how we work, shop, communicate, and more.

The US-based Wi-Fi Alliance coined and trademarked the term "Wi-Fi" in 1998. This technology uses radio frequencies to transmit information between different devices, allowing for Wi-Fi.

However, it took some time for Wi-Fi to become as popular as it is today. This is because, for Wi-Fi to be used, you need devices that support it. And, it wasn't until the early-to-mid 2000s that such devices became widely available to the public. However, once laptops, phones, and other popular devices were able to support Wi-Fi, it soon became a worldwide success, and it is now an essential part of the lives of millions.

5. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has been a hot topic of debate for some time now. This technology essentially simulates human intelligence to do things that traditional tech couldn't dream of.

Related: Should AI Be Treated Like Humans?

The idea of artificial intelligence has been around for hundreds of years, reaching as far back as the 14th century AD, when a Catalan poet and theologian conceptualized a very rudimentary version of AI. However, it was not till 1955 that the term "artificial intelligence" was officially coined. This coining came with the invention of the first AI computer program, developed by Allen Newell, Herbert Simon, and Cliff Shaw.

Though it has been almost 70 years since the development of the first AI program, the technology is still on shaky ground. We still haven't created a strong form of artificial intelligence, and the perfection of this technology is estimated to be a decade or two away, at least. However, AI is already being used in many different areas, including medicine, speech recognition, robotics, and more.

Most of us can still remember a time when we had to whip out the A-Z paper map when we wanted to get somewhere. Well, thanks to GPS, paper maps are now mostly a thing of the past.

The first GPS, or Global Positioning System, was invented by the US Department of Defense in 1973. The first satellite was developed and launched by the US Air Force and was launched a year later. But, it wasn't until 1993 that a full system of 24 satellites was launched to create the first fully functional GPS.

GPS satellites work by sending and receiving signals from devices on Earth, such as your phone or laptop. It measures the time it takes for a signal to reach it from Earth and then uses an atomic clock to determine a device's location. Pretty nifty stuff!

Since then, GPS has become useful in many areas, including travel, security, and even fitness. Next time you use your phone to find your way somewhere or to track the run you just went on, you have GPS to thank.

In 20 Years, This List Will Be Twice as Long!

With the rapid advancement of technology these days, we'll probably see many more amazing inventions that will change the game in the not-so-distant future. We can only imagine what amazing technology will be part of our lives in 20 years, but it sure is exciting to think about!

• Technology Explained

Mankind's Greatest Inventions

From the wheel to the first use of pigment, many of mankind’s most influential innovations are impossible to trace. More recent inventions, like the printing press, the steam engine and the satellite are more easily credited. Regardless of where they originated, these inventions speak of who we are, where we are from and of course, where we are headed.

Read more about Ancient History

Ancient inventions we still use today

Since prehistoric times, humans have ground earth and minerals to create pigments. Early decorations show a simple earthy palette including ochre, umber, black and white. As time passed new pigments were discovered. Blue, the first so-called synthetic pigment, was discovered by the ancient Egyptians who are credited with advancing the total palette size two-fold. Principles of colour theory, guiding painters in their choices, are apparent as far back as the 15th century in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists and thinkers. The modern era has witnessed a bold approach to colour as further pigments - many artificially created - have become available. The works of artists like Vincent van Gogh are renowned for their vivid and creative use of colours.

Empire builders: greatest Inventions

Textile, including cloth and fabric of all types, has been produced since prehistoric times. Textiles are some of the most versatile items on Earth; they provide shelter and clothing, sails and containers, flags and even art. The endless usages of textiles are often dependent on the type of material used, whether it is extracted from animals, plants, minerals or more recently, synthetics - often made from petroleum. The adaptability of textiles is further enhanced by their use as a canvas for prints and decorations. Basic textiles can denote religious beliefs while originality can identify certain fashion designers and vice versa. Examples of printed textile from China have been discovered from as early as the 3rd century. Today, the options are endless.

Early evidence of the wheel - an invention that many of us will have not have gone without using for a single day in our entire lives - dates from the 4th millennium BC. It has proven impossible to credit a single culture with the actual invention of the wheel, as depictions of its use appear in artefacts of seemingly independent cultures across the globe. The earliest example is seen on a ceramic vase called the Bronocice pot, dated 3635-3370 BC, and unearthed in modern-day Poland in 1976. The vase depicts a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by a pair of animals. Over millennia the wheel has been refashioned by a variety of cultures; particularly notable additions include spokes, attributed to the Harappan civilization and the rubber tyre, attributed to an Irishman named John Boyd Dunlop. By 2015, over 1.7 billion tyres are expected to be sold across the globe. It's fair to say that the wheel may well roll to the top as the most popular invention of all time.

Read more about Science and Technology

7 important Japanese inventions from history

Aqueducts have been used to convey water from as early as the time of the ancient Egyptians and the Harappan Civilization. The word originates in Latin - aquae ductus, combining aqua (water) and ducere (to lead) - and indeed it was the Romans civil engineering expertise led to the construction of hundreds of aqueducts throughout their Empire - many of which still survive today. Exceptionally fine examples include France's Pont du Gard and Spain's Aqueduct of Segovia. Rome itself is home to eleven ancient aqueducts all of which supplied fresh water to the densely populated urban centres. Beyond delivering drinking water, aqueducts have been used for irrigation, transportation and flood control.

Great Scottish inventors who changed the course of history

The printing press.

Prior to 1455, books were primarily the objects of the wealthy and powerful, but with the invention of Johann Gutenberg’s printing press, books and critically the information they contained, became accessible to a far wider population. The Chinese had invented a printing method involving engraved blocks to produce books as early as the 9th century, but the process was arduous and the result often poor. Gutenberg’s wooden press borrowed elements from the local Rhineland winepresses and involved movable individual characters of type made of metal alloy. It could quickly produce multiple texts at a high quality standard. The result was nothing less than revolutionary. The process invented by Gutenberg was so technically innovative that it remained relatively unchanged for four centuries. His printing process spread swiftly across Europe, with many presses constructed almost identical to his, and with it came a remarkable surge in learning. Gutenberg’s invention and the resulting democratisation of knowledge is considered by historians to have been critical to the Renaissance and led to the Scientific Revolution and the Reformation.

The Antikythera Mechanism: The 'computer' from Ancient Greece

The telescope.

Historians disagree on who should be credited with the invention of the telescope, but the earliest patent on record was petitioned by a Dutch lens maker, Hans Lippershey, in 1608 for an optical telescope. Later that century, Isaac Newton successfully built a reflecting telescope and since then a great number of technological advancements have led to today's wide assortment of astronomical instruments ranging from radio to Gamma-ray telescopes. The best known telescope today is the Hubble Space Telescope which has been orbiting the Earth since 1990. It is as equally revered for the data it collects as for the popular images of the Cosmos it captures. The most remarkable of which is perhaps the shot of the Carina Nebula taken in 2010 and released on the telescope's 20th anniversary. The image shows the top of a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas complete with jets of gas being fired off by infant stars. If you consider this a far cry from a 17th century spectacle shop - imagine what astronomy has for us over the next 400 years.

The most influential early vaccination involved a milkmaid, an eight-year-old boy and an English physician named Edward Jenner in the 1770s. Jenner observed that milkmaids who suffered from cowpox, a far less dangerous disease, didn’t generally later suffer from smallpox. When milkmaid Sarah Nelmes, came to see him about the cowpox blisters on her hands he extracted some of the pus and used it to inoculate the son of his gardener. Once the boy was fully recovered from the ensuing fever, Jenner carried out a series of tests all of which resulted without infection. The results were nothing short of revolutionary. The 20th century saw vaccines for polio, developed by Jonas Salk, along with diphtheria, measles, mumps and rubella. Today, vaccines have become routine in many countries - their impact immeasurable.

Read more about British History

Ada Lovelace changed computing one hundred years after her death

The invention of gunpowder is attributed to the Chinese and is thought to have been discovered in the search for a magical potion that, ironically, would provide eternal life. Dating as far back as the 9th century, it spread with the Mongol conquests led by Genghis Khan, quickly falling into the hands of the Arabs, Indians, and eventually Europeans. Ancient weapons employing gunpowder include an array of fearsome devices, from fire-bomb-tossing catapults used by the Mongols, to torpedoes, cannons and hand-held cannons used by the Arabs. Although the technology was quickly put to use for military purposes, it wasn't long before it was repurposed for further usages, from clearing mines to constructing canals in 17th century Europe.

Read more about Tudor History

Penny for the guys: What happened to the Gunpowder Plot conspirators?

Steam engine.

Steam powered engines date as far back as the ancient Greeks, but it wasn't until a series of significant advancements in the 18th and 19th centuries that their influence would reach boiling point. Successive advances made from 1698 to 1802 by Savery, Newcomen, Leupold, Smeaton, Watt, Trevithick and Evans led to steam engines becoming the dominant source of power at the turn of the 20th century. Powering pumps, spinning mules, power looms, and transportation on sea and land, steam engines literally generated the Industrial Revolution. One of the most profound shifts in the history of mankind, the Industrial Revolution marked the end of the agricultural-based economy for many societies, and introduced us to a life with machines.

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The satellite.

Since the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into outer space by the Soviet Union in 1957, space programs in various countries have launched literally thousands of satellites. Used for both civilian and military purposes, these satellites orbit the Earth - not to mention the Sun and other planets - and provide a wide range of services from communication and observation to navigation and weather reporting. Our daily lives have become dependent on satellites for a number of communication purposes, most commonly for telephones and television which involve either an antenna or a satellite dish to capture the signal. Today large companies, like Google and Boeing, and government organizations, like the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, sponsor the development of highly advanced communications satellites - including the recently launched GeoEye-1 which contains a camera with enough power to zoom in, from over 400 miles away, on home plate at Yankee Stadium.

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8 Inventions That Made Our Lives Easier

Skylar Clarine is a fact-checker and expert in personal finance with a range of experience including veterinary technology and film studies.

Over the past two centuries, many people have used their knowledge, skills, and experience in order to create a host of inventions that have made the world a much better place for us to live.

Here are eight paramount discoveries and innovations that have improved our standard of living and have given us the opportunity to pursue our personal and business endeavors in a more comfortable and prosperous fashion.

Key Takeaways

• Paper money, invented by China, kickstarted economies by removing the need to barter with goods.
• Vaccinations helped reduce illness and deaths, and local anesthesia made surgeries easier for patients.
• The first automobile is believed to have been invented by Karl and Bertha Benz.
• The first digital computer was created in 1937.

Banknote (Paper Currency): Tang Dynasty of China—7th Century

China is not only credited with having invented paper, but it is also generally recognized as the first country in the world to use paper money. The paper money system helped improve economies worldwide by moving them away from bartering .

Vaccinations: Edward Jenner—1796

Edward Jenner's work is widely regarded as the foundation of immunology. Jenner is well renowned worldwide for his innovative contribution to immunization and the ultimate eradication of smallpox.

Local Anesthesia: William Morton—1846

William Morton was one of the first individuals to demonstrate how ether could be used to remove the pain of operations. His use of anesthesia was displayed at a public demonstration to the surgeons of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on Oct. 16, 1846, where John Collins Warren excised a tumor from a patient's neck. William Morton wasn't necessarily the first to discover or invent anesthetics, but his name is most commonly referenced when speaking of the first practitioners to use the drug. In fact, for several years, various controversies and litigation surrounded the credit for the development of anesthesia.

Antibiotics: Alexander Fleming—1928

Alexander Fleming discovered the active substance he termed "penicillin" while working on the influenza virus. Fleming made this discovery by observing that mold had developed accidentally on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mold had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to experiment further and found that a mold culture prevented the growth of staphylococci, which verified his discovery. To this day, penicillin is used to treat a host of bacterial infections.

Pasteurization: Louis Pasteur—1862

Louis Pasteur developed the process now known as "pasteurization," which is a process of heating food to a specific temperature for a definite length of time and then cooling it immediately to reduce the number of viable pathogens that may cause disease. Dairy products, canned foods, juices, syrups, water, and wines are the primary products that are pasteurized today.

Modern Automobile: Karl Benz—1886

Karl Benz patented all of the processes that made the internal combustion engine feasible for use in cars. Karl Benz and his wife, Bertha Ringer Benz, were the founders of the Mercedes-Benz automobile manufacturing company.

Modern Alternating Current Electrical Supply System: Nikola Tesla—1891

Nikola Tesla filed for seven U.S. patents in the field of polyphase alternating current motors and power transmission. Tesla's patents comprised a complete system of generators, transformers, transmission lines, motors, and lighting. Tesla is also credited with the invention of the radio. However, a patent dispute with the Marconi Company resulted, ultimately leading to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling for Tesla after his death.

Electronic Digital Computer: John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry—1937

John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry constructed the first electronic computer with vacuum tubes while working for Iowa State College. The Atanasoff-Berry computer was the first digital computer. It introduced the concepts of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits. The Atanasoff-Berry machine never reached the production stage and remained a prototype.

While this list consists of well-known and distinguished inventors, it is important to note that their works were built upon the ideas and labor of many people in order to create the final product or service that we enjoy and use today. Many of the contributors to a key invention or innovation often go unremembered and uncompensated. Hopefully, governments worldwide will strive to resolve this problem by implementing a more equitable patent system.

The most recent significant step toward accomplishing this goal in patent law was the passage of the America Invents Act on Sept. 16, 2011. The passage of this Act moved the U.S. patent system from a "first to invent" to a "first to file" system, which means that all parties know upfront that if they have a good idea for an invention, they need to be the first to file a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to protect their intellectual property rights. Passage of this Act also eliminated delays previously experienced through interference proceedings and allowed a patented product to come to market in an expedited manner.

What Can Be Invented to Make Life Easier?

If you can think of something that makes life easier, you can probably create it. Computers, design applications, three-dimensional printers, and other technological innovations make the creation process much easier now than in the past.

What Is the Difference Between a Patent and an Invention?

An invention is something created by someone. A patent grants the exclusive rights to the patent filer. Patents generally last for a specific period, based on the type of patent it is—in the U.S., the term for a utility patent is 20 years.

What Inventions Changed Life?

There are hundreds of inventions that have changed the way we live. One of the most significant was agriculture, which moved us from hunter/gatherers to farmers and reduced human migratory patterns. The printing press and steam engine are two other notable inventions attributed with drastically changing life.

For current entrepreneurs , the 2011 change in U.S. patent law, with the use of low-cost, powerful personal computers and the affordability of the ever-expanding internet, should provide a much greater business environment for establishing a successful small business.

We have already seen a number of relatively new and successful companies that have benefited from online intangible business models. Examples include Google, Amazon, eBay, YouTube, LinkedIn, Craigslist, Wikipedia, and PayPal, to name a few. With the U.S.'s progressive patent law , new online businesses have an additional advantage for establishing a successful small business operation.

Pickering, John. " The History of Paper Money in China ." Journal of the American Oriental Society , vol. 1, no. 2, 1844, pp. 138.

Riedel, Stefan. " Edward Jenner and The History of Smallpox and Vaccination ." Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings , vol. 18, no. 1, January 2005, pp. 21-25.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Reynolds-Finley Historical Library. " Morton, William T. G. (1819-1868) ."

Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine. " The Origins of Anesthesia ."

Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health. " Penicillin: 83 Years Ago Today ."

Mitchell, Jessica. " 19th Century Developments in Food Preservation ." Tenor of Our Times , vol. 8, no. 13, Spring 2019, pp. 93-96.

Mercedes-Benz Group. " Company History: The First Automobile, 1885–1886 ."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. " Nikola Tesla: Alternating Current Motor ."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. " Nikola Tesla ."

Iowa State University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. " History of Computing ."

Iowa State University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. " Clifford Berry .'

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. " Leahy–Smith America Invents Act ."

United States Patent and Trademark Office. " 2701 Patent Term [R-07.2022] ."

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21 Most Important Inventions of the 21st Century

The human race has always innovated, and in a relatively short time went from building fires and making stone-tipped arrows to creating smartphone apps and autonomous robots. Today, technological progress will undoubtedly continue to change the way we work, live, and survive in the coming decades.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the world has witnessed the emergence of social media, smartphones, self-driving cars, and autonomous flying vehicles. There have also been huge leaps in energy storage, artificial intelligence, and medical science. Men and women have mapped the human genome and are grappling with the ramifications of biotechnology and gene editing. 

We are facing immense challenges in global warming and food security, among many other issues. While human innovation has contributed to many of the problems we are facing, it is also human innovation and ingenuity that can help humanity deal with these issues. These are 21 strategies that could avert climate disaster . 

24/7 Wall St. examined media reports and other sources on the latest far-reaching innovations to find some of the most important 21st-century inventions. In some cases, though there were some precursor research and ancillary technologies before 2001, the innovation did not become available to the public until this century. This list focuses on innovations (such as touch screen glass) that support products rather than the specific products themselves (like the iPhone). 

It remains to be seen if all the technology on this list will continue to have an impact throughout the century. Legislation in the United States may limit the longevity of e-cigarettes, for example. But some of the inventions of the last 20 years will likely have staying power for the foreseeable future. Here are some inventions that are hundreds of years old but are still widely used today .

Click here to see the 21 most important inventions of the 21st century

1. 3D printing

Most inventions come as a result of previous ideas and concepts, and 3D printing is no different. The earliest application of the layering method used by today’s 3D printers took place in the manufacture of topographical maps in the late 19th century, and 3D printing as we know it began in 1980.

The convergence of cheaper manufacturing methods and open-source software, however, has led to a revolution of 3D printing in recent years. Today, the technology is being used in the production of everything from lower-cost car parts to bridges to less painful ballet slippers and it is even considered for artificial organs.

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2. E-cigarettes

While components of the technology have existed for decades, the first modern e-cigarette was introduced in 2006. Since then, the devices have become wildly popular as an alternative to traditional cigarettes, and new trends, such as the use of flavored juice, have contributed to the success of companies like Juul.

Recent studies have shown that there remains a great deal of uncertainty and risk surrounding the devices, with an increasing number of deaths and injuries linked to vaping. In early 2020, the FDA issued a widespread ban on many flavors of cartridge-based e-cigarettes, in part because those flavors are especially popular with children and younger adults.

3. Augmented reality

Augmented reality, in which digital graphics are overlaid onto live footage to convey information in real time, has been around for a while. Only recently, however, following the arrival of more powerful computing hardware and the creation of an open source video tracking software library known as ARToolKit that the technology has really taken off.

Smartphone apps like the Pokémon Go game and Snapchat filters are just two small popular examples of modern augmented reality applications. The technology is being adopted as a tool in manufacturing, health care, travel, fashion, and education.

4. Birth control patch

The early years of the millennia have brought about an innovation in family planning, albeit one that is still focused only on women and does nothing to protect against sexually transmitted infections. Still, the birth control patch was first released in the United States in 2002 and has made it much easier for women to prevent unintended pregnancies. The plastic patch contains the same estrogen and progesterone hormones found in birth control pills and delivers them in the same manner as nicotine patches do to help people quit tobacco products.

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5. Blockchain

You’ve likely heard about it even if you don’t fully understand it. The simplest explanation of blockchain is that it is an incorruptible way to record transactions between parties — a shared digital ledger that parties can only add to and that is transparent to all members of a peer-to-peer network where the blockchain is logged and stored.

The technology was first deployed in 2008 to create Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, but it has since been adopted by the financial sector and other industries for myriad uses, including money transfers, supply chain monitoring, and food safety.

6. Capsule endoscopy

Advancements in light emitting electrodes, image sensors, and optical design in the ’90s led to the emergence of capsule endoscopy, first used in patients in 2001. The technology uses a tiny wireless camera the size of a vitamin pill that the patient swallows. As the capsule traverses the digestive system, doctors can examine the gastrointestinal system in a far less intrusive manner. Capsule endoscopy can be used to identify the source of internal bleeding, inflammations of the bowel ulcers, and cancerous tumors.

7. Modern artificial pancreas

More formally known as closed-loop insulin delivery system, the artificial pancreas has been around since the late ’70s, but the first versions were the size of a filing cabinet. In recent years, the artificial pancreas, used primarily to treat type 1 diabetes, became portable. The first artificial pancreas (the modern, portable kind) was approved for use in the United States in 2016.

The system continuously monitors blood glucose levels, calculates the amount of insulin required, and automatically delivers it through a small pump. British studies have shown that patients using these devices spent more time in their ideal glucose-level range. In December 2019, the FDA approved an even more advanced version of the artificial pancreas, called Control-IQ, developed by UVA.

8. E-readers

Sony was the first company to release an e-reader using a so-called microencapsulated electrophoretic display, commonly referred to as e-ink. E-ink technology, which mimics ink on paper that is easy on the eyes and consumes less power, had been around since the ’70s (and improved in the ’90s), but the innovation of e-readers had to wait until after the broader demand for e-books emerged. Sony was quickly overtaken by Amazon’s Kindle after its 2007 debut. The popularity of e-readers has declined with the emergence of tablets and smartphones, but they still command loyalty from bookworms worldwide.

9. Gene editing

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and a separate team from Harvard and the Broad Institute independently discovered in 2012 that a bacterial immune system known as CRISPR (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) could be used as a powerful gene-editing tool to make detailed changes to any organism’s DNA. This discovery heralded a new era in biotechnology.

The discovery has the potential to eradicate diseases – for example by altering the genes in mice and mosquitoes to combat the spread of Lyme disease and malaria – but is also raising ethical questions, especially with regards to human gene editing such as for reproductive purposes.

10. High-density battery packs

Tesla electric cars have received so much attention largely because of their batteries. The batteries, located underneath the passenger cabin, consist of thousands of high-density lithium ion cells, each barely larger than a standard AA battery, nestled into a large, heavy battery pack that also offers Tesla electric cars a road-gripping low center of gravity and structural support.

The brainchild of Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel, these battery modules pack more of a punch than standard (and cheaper) electric car batteries. These packs are also being used in residential, commercial, and grid-scale energy storage devices.

11. Digital assistants

One of the biggest technology trends in recent years has been smart home technology, which can now be found in everyday consumer devices like door locks, light bulbs, and kitchen appliances. The key piece of technology that has helped make all this possible is the digital assistant. Apple was the first major tech company to introduce a virtual assistant called Siri, in 2011, for iOS.

Other digital assistants, such as Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa, have since entered the market. The assistants gained another level of popularity when tech companies introduced smart speakers. Notably, Google Home and Amazon’s Echo can now be found in millions of homes, with an ever-growing range of applications.

12. Robot heart

Artificial hearts have been around for some time. They are mechanical devices connected to the actual heart or implanted in the chest to assist or substitute a heart that is failing. Abiomed, a Danvers, Massachusetts-based company, developed a robot heart called AbioCor, a self-contained apparatus made of plastic and titanium. AbioCor is a self-contained unit with the exception of a wireless battery pack that is attached to the wrist. Robert Tools, a technical librarian with congestive heart failure, received the first one on July 2, 2001.

13. Retinal implant

When he was a medical student, Dr. Mark Humayun watched his grandmother gradually lose her vision. The ophthalmologist and bioengineer focused on finding a solution to what causes blindness. He collaborated with Dr. James Weiland, a colleague at the USC Gayle and Edward Roski Eye Institute, and other experts to create the Argus II.

The Argus II is a retinal prosthesis device that is considered to be a breakthrough for those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited retinal degenerative condition that can lead to blindness. The condition afflicts 1.5 million people worldwide. The device was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2013.

14. Mobile operating systems

Mobile operating systems for smartphones and other portable gadgets have enabled the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile gadgets thanks to their intuitive user interfaces and seemingly endless app options. Mobile operating systems have become the most consumer-facing of computer operating systems. When Google first purchased Android Inc. in 2005, the operating system was just two years old, and the first iPhone (with its iOS) was still two years from its commercial debut.

15. Multi-use rockets

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk may not necessarily be remembered for his contributions to electric cars innovations, but rather for his contributions to space exploration. Musk’s private space exploration company, SpaceX, has developed rockets that can be recovered and reused in other launches — a more efficient and cheaper alternative to the method of using the rockets only once and letting them fall into the ocean.

On March 30, 2017, SpaceX became the first to deploy one of these used rockets, the Falcon 9. Blue Origin, a space-transport company founded by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, has launched its own reusable rocket.

16. Online streaming

Online streaming would not be possible without the convergence of widespread broadband internet access and cloud computing data centers used to store content and direct web traffic. While internet-based live streaming has been around almost since the internet was broadly adopted in the ’90s, it was not until the mid-2000s that the internet could handle the delivery of streaming media to large audiences. Online streaming is posing an existential threat to existing models of delivering media entertainment, such as cable television and movie theaters.

17. Robotic exoskeletons

Ever since researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, created in 2003 a robotic device that attaches to the lower back to augment strength in humans, the demand for robotic exoskeletons for physical rehabilitation has increased, and manufacturing has taken off. Wearable exoskeletons are increasingly helping people with mobility issues (particularly lower body paralysis), and are being used in factories. Ford Motor Company, for example, has used an exoskeleton vest that helps auto assemblers with repetitive tasks in order to lessen the wear and tear on shoulders and arms.

18. Small satellites

As modern electronics devices have gotten smaller, so, too, have orbital satellites, which companies, governments, and organizations use to gather scientific data, collect images of Earth, and for telecommunications and intelligence purposes. These tiny, low-cost orbital devices fall into different categories by weight, but one of the most common is the shoebox-sized CubeSat. As of October 2019, over 2,400 satellites weighing between 1 kg (2.2 lbs) and 40 kgs (88 lbs) have been launched, according to Nanosats Database.

19. Solid-state lidar

Lidar is an acronym that stands for light detection and ranging, and is also a portmanteau of the words “light” and “radar.” The technology today is most often used in self-driving cars. Like radars, which use radio waves to bounce off objects and determine their distance, lidar uses a laser pulse to do the same.

By sending enough lasers in rotation, it can create a constantly updated high-resolution image map of the surrounding environment. The next steps in the technology would include smaller and cheaper lidar sensors, and especially solid state ones — no spinning tops on the cars.

20. Tokenization

If you have ever used the chip embedded in a credit or debit card to make a payment by tapping rather than swiping, then you have benefited from the heightened security of tokenization. This data security technology replaces sensitive data with an equivalent randomized number – known as a token – that is used only once per transaction and has no value to would-be hackers and identity thieves attempting to intercept transaction data as it travels from sender to recipient. Social media site classmates.com was reportedly the first to use tokenization in 2001 to protect its subscribers’ sensitive data. Tokenization is also being touted as a way to prevent hackers from interfering with driverless cars.

21. Touchscreen glass

Super-thin, chemically strengthened glass is a key component of the touchscreen world. This sturdy, transparent material is what helps keep your iPad or Samsung smartphone from shattering into pieces at the slightest drop. Even if these screens crack, in most cases the damage is cosmetic and the gadget still works. Corning Inc., already a leader in the production of treated glass used in automobiles, was asked by Apple to develop 1.3-mm treated glass for its iPhone, which debuted in 2007. Corning’s Gorilla Glass is still the most well known, though other brands exist in the marketplace.

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Inventors And Inventions Essay & Paragraph In English

In this article you can read a brief paragraphs essay about inventors and inventions. I hope you will find following composition a meaningful for all class students.

The process of creating something new that has value is known as invention. This could be a new product , a new process, or a new way of doing something. Taking what already exists and making it better, faster, or cheaper is a common method of invention.

Table of Contents

500 Words Paragraph Inventions

Individual inventors’ hard work and dedication have resulted in many great inventions. These inventors are frequently enthusiastic about their work and devote a significant amount of time to developing their concepts. Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb, and Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin, are two well-known inventors.

Individuals do not, however, create all inventions. Sometimes groups of people collaborate to create new products or processes. The Wright brothers, for example, were not the only people involved in the development of the first airplane. They had a team of people who helped them with their ideas and prototypes.

Inventions have transformed society as we know it, making life easier and more efficient for people. Some inventions, such as cell phones and televisions, have changed the world so dramatically that they have become an essential part of everyone’s daily lives. Inventions improve our lives in a variety of ways, including improved health care, transportation, communication , and more!

As you can see, great inventors create some of the most important things in life. People make the world go round by creating new things that benefit everyone, whether they do so alone or as part of a team. Whether it is cute cat videos on YouTube, an app to help you hail a Left, or even a good old- fashioned light bulb inventions have improved our lives!

What do they imply? Is not invention the process of creating something new and valuable? Is this to say that anything goes?

No way, no how. For example, if I went outside right now and made fire out of thin air, I would be creating something new, but it would be worthless, so it would not be an invention. Something must be valuable to someone in order to meet the definition of invention. It could be value to the creator, such as a new toy they created for themselves, or value to others, such as a new medical procedure that saves lives. Creating things that are useful and valuable to someone is what invention is all about.

Who was the inventor of the light bulb? The light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison. He spent a lot of time working on different versions of the light bulb and came up with the idea of using electricity to power lights.

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

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Essay on Invention

Students are often asked to write an essay on Invention in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Invention

The magic of inventions.

Inventions are the creations of brilliant minds. They are new devices, methods, or processes made from innovative ideas. Inventions have shaped our world, making life easier and more interesting.

Types of Inventions

Inventions can be physical, like the telephone, or conceptual, like mathematical formulas. They can also be improvements of existing things, like the smartphone.

Impact of Inventions

Inventions have a great impact. They can change how we live, work, and play. For instance, the internet has transformed communication and information access.

Inventing the Future

Inventing is about solving problems and imagining new ways to do things. It’s a key part of progress and the future of our world.

250 Words Essay on Invention

The genesis of invention, the role of necessity.

The axiom “necessity is the mother of invention” holds true. The need to solve problems or improve existing conditions often sparks the flame of invention. For instance, the invention of the wheel was driven by the need for easier transportation, while the development of the internet was a response to the need for global connectivity.

The Power of Curiosity

However, necessity alone can’t fuel invention. It’s the marriage of necessity and curiosity that truly births invention. Curiosity pushes us to question the status quo, to seek answers, and to venture into the unknown. It’s this curiosity that led to inventions like the telescope, which expanded our understanding of the cosmos.

The Impact of Invention

Inventions have a profound impact on society. They revolutionize industries, transform lifestyles, and redefine societal norms. The printing press democratized knowledge, the steam engine propelled the Industrial Revolution, and digital technology is reshaping our world today.

Conclusion: The Continuum of Invention

Invention is a continuum, a never-ending journey of discovery and improvement. Every invention is a stepping stone to the next, creating a chain reaction of progress. As we stand on the brink of a new era of innovation, the power of invention promises to continue shaping our collective destiny.

500 Words Essay on Invention

Introduction to invention.

Invention is a creative process that has been the cornerstone of human progress. It is the act of bringing ideas or objects together in a novel way to create something that did not exist before. Inventions have shaped and reshaped our world, influencing every aspect of our lives, from communication and transportation to healthcare and entertainment.

The Essence of Invention

Invention and society.

Inventions have profound impacts on society. They can stimulate economic growth, improve living standards, and even redefine societal norms. The invention of the printing press, for instance, revolutionized information dissemination, fostering literacy and the spread of new ideas. Similarly, the invention of the internet transformed the way we communicate, access information, and conduct business.

Invention and Technological Advancement

Technological advancements are often the result of inventions. For instance, the invention of the transistor led to the development of the digital computer, which has since revolutionized many fields, from data processing to artificial intelligence. Technological inventions, in turn, often spur further inventions, creating a cycle of innovation.

The Role of Invention in Scientific Discovery

Challenges and ethical considerations in invention.

However, invention is not without its challenges and ethical considerations. The process of invention often requires significant resources, and there is always the risk of failure. Moreover, some inventions can be used for harmful purposes or have unintended negative consequences. For example, the invention of nuclear technology has brought both the potential for clean energy and the threat of nuclear weapons. Therefore, it is crucial to consider the ethical implications of inventions and to strive for responsible innovation.

In conclusion, invention is a powerful force that drives human progress. It is a process of creative problem-solving that leads to new products, technologies, and scientific discoveries, with far-reaching impacts on society. However, it also brings challenges and ethical considerations that need to be carefully managed. As we continue to invent and innovate, we must strive to do so in a way that benefits society and minimizes potential harm.

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Invention - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Inventions are new solutions to problems that have not previously been tried or implemented. They are often the result of creativity, ingenuity, and hard work. Inventions have the potential to change the world and make a significant impact on our daily lives. They can come in various forms, such as technology, machinery, software, medical devices, and much more. Inventions aim to improve the quality of life, simplify processes, increase efficiency, and solve complex issues. Despite being challenging and time-consuming, inventors continue to work towards creating ideas that will positively influence the world.

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• Most important Invention: The Computer
• Necessity Is the Mother of Invention
• Invention, Innovation, and Progress
• Computer as The Best Invention of 20th Century
• Thomas Edison and the Invention of the Light Bulb
• Invention of telephone
• Television is a Great Invention
• Television is the Best Invention Ever
• Necessity is the mother of all invention
• Necessity is he Mother of Invention
• The Microscope: Science’s Greatest Invention
• Computer Invention: Pro and Con
• Invention: The Hot Air Balloon
• Gorgeous Invention – Firework
• Scientific Invention of Integrated Circuit
• Invention of Dynamite
• Invention Of The Micro Computer Computer Science Essay
• Wright Brothers- Invention of Airplane and Its Impacts
• Recent Scientific Invention of Semiorganic NLO Crystals
• Tracing the development of the piano from before its invention to nowadaysIntroductionNowadays

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Paris 2024: Sporting highlights of the Olympic Games 

Picture by 2024 Getty Images

Following 16 spectacular and memorable days of Olympic competition, the baton has passed to LA28 after a star-studded Closing Ceremony at the Stade de France.

But while the world eagerly anticipates the next summer Games in the City of Angels, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights from the City of Light.

From Noah Lyles and Julien Alfred 's sensational 100m finals to Leon Marchand , Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh ripping it up in the pool, here are some of the highlights of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 .

Artistic Gymnastics: Simone Biles' triple gold comeback

Simone Biles ' success at Paris 2024 marked the completion of one of the greatest bounce-backs in Olympic history . The 27-year-old American, who withdrew from Tokyo 2020 , returned to win three more golds and one silver in Paris. She led the American women to the team title at the outset of the artistic gymnastics competition, and followed with golds in the all-around and the vault, with her silver coming in the floor exercise.

It capped off a career of seven Olympic golds, two silvers and two bronzes over three Olympics Games, going back to Rio 2016 . Her celebrated return was the top ticket for celebrity spectators, with Biles delivering an inspiring performance with a message of redemption that went beyond sport.

Gold medallist Katie Ledecky of the United States with her gold medal after winning the women's 1500m freestyle final at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena on 31 July 2024.

Swimming: Four medals each for Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh

These Games further solidified the legend of Team USA’s Katie Ledecky , swimming in her fourth Olympics. The 27-year-old swimming icon added four more medals at Paris 2024 — two golds, one silver and one bronze, a performance highlighted by her fourth consecutive gold medal in the 800m freestyle, a feat only matched by Michael Phelps .

The 17-year-old Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh also had weighty expectations on her coming into Paris 2024 , and she not only met them but exceeded them, winning four Olympic medals — three gold and one silver. McIntosh earned gold in the 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly and 200m IM, with silver in the 400m freestyle. McIntosh became the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games.

Noah Lyles of Team USA crosses the line to win the men's 100m final at Paris 2024

Athletics: Noah Lyles' 100m sprint

The showmanship, the confidence, the claims — Team USA’s Noah Lyles backed it all up on 4 August as the men’s 100m sprint took centre stage for the night's final event at the Stade de France . The orchestrated buildup, complete with lasers, led to a show that delivered on every promise.

The fastest men in the world lined up... and in a flash, it was over, with a dramatic photo finish as Lyles caught Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson at the finish line. Lyles took the gold with a personal best time of 9.784 seconds, ahead of Thompson’s 9.789. “Goodness gracious, I'm incredible," said Lyles — the newly minted Olympic gold medallist and the fastest man in the world.

Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain won the women's 800m gold medal at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Athletics: Keely Hodgkinson charges to victory in 800m for Great Britain

Team GB's Keely Hodgkinson would not settle for silver this time. The 22-year-old Hodgkinson, the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, snapped to setting the pace early. The pre-race favourite shrugged off any nerves to hold off an outside attack from Kenya’s Mary Moraa , then found that top gear in the final straight to pull away and charge to victory at a time of 1:56.72.

Hodges was a textbook-perfect race — no notes — for her maiden Olympic title.

French swimming sensation Léon Marchand was also cool out of the pool at Paris 2024, as he celebrated with fans at Champions Park, near the iconic Eiffel Tower, on 6 August 2024.

Swimming: Leon Marchand, four-time gold medallist and host-nation star of Paris 2024

The pressure was on for the 22-year-old swimming sensation Leon Marchand heading into Paris 2024 . Would he rise to the occasion for his home country or sink under the pressure? And wow, did he rise, kick, pull and glide his way to four Olympic individual gold medals, breaking Michael Phelps's 400m IM and 200m IM records and finishing with a bronze in the men’s 4 x 100m medley relay.

As the medals piled up, so did the Marchand frenzy. The entire country went along for the ride, with deafening cheering, and not just at the Paris La Defense Arena venue. Across France, in cafés and city centres, the chants of “Leon, Leon, Leon” rang out. Viva Marchand!

Gold medallist Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis of Sweden set a new world record in the men's pole vault at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on 5 August 2024.

Athletics: 'Mondo' Duplantis's pole vault world record

The stage was set for greatness in the Stade de France , with the chant of “Mondo, Mondo, Mondo!” ringing across the stadium. The Swede, Armand “Mondo” Duplantis , did what he does best, breaking the Olympic record with a jump of 6.10m to defend his gold medal and then raising the bar higher to 6.25m.

The stadium watched in silence as Mondo began his ran up. He flew over the bar, setting a new world record height. His feat was met with roars of approval from fans who had witnessed the greatest jump — and jumper — in history.

Pauline Ferrand Prévot of France celebrates winning gold in the women's mountain bike cross-country final at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on 28 July 2024 in Elancourt, France.

Mountain biking: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Tom Pidcock must-see cycling

It was the dominant Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and the confident Brit Tom Pidcock — both of them reigning XC mountain bike world champions and, in Pidcock's case, the reigning Olympic champion — who had hearts soaring and racing in the mountain bike finals.

Ferrand-Prévot, in her final Olympic mountain bike cross-country competition , pedaled her way to a storybook ending, winning an Olympic gold medal in a perfect finale to her dominant mountain biking career. Moreover, she got to do it at home in France — chef’s kiss.

Pidcock’s bid to defend his Olympic gold medal culminated with an audacious final lap against France's Victor Koretzky , looking for his own storybook ending at home. Koretzky was denied by Pidcock, who overcame a tire puncture to make up a 34-second deficit, catching up to the Frenchman and then making a harrowing pass to take the lead and win in a finish that many fans and viewers have yet to recover from.

Gold medallist Yuto Horigome of Japan, flanked by American silver medallist Jagger Eaton on the left and bronze medallist Nyjah Huston on the right at the men's street finals in Paris, France.

Skateboarding: Men’s street skateboarding finals decided in three-way battle

It came down to the final three in what is being called the greatest men’s skateboard final of all time. The defining moment belonged to three titans of the street contest scene: the defending gold medallist from Japan in Yuto Horigome , the USA’s Nyjah Huston — the 15-time X Games champion looking to cap his career with the elusive Olympic gold medal — and the unwavering fellow American competitor Jagger Eaton .

The contest came down to the trio battling in the final trick section, each one-upping the other, landing the heaviest of tricks under the most intense pressure. Minds were blown, Tony Hawk was speechless and NBC commentator Ryan Sheckler called it "the gnarliest final of competitive skateboarding I’ve ever seen” as Horigome defended his gold ahead of Eaton and Huston.

Sha'Carri Richardson crosses the finish line to win the women's 4x100m relay gold for Team USA

Athletics: Women's 4x100 … and here come the United States!

The Americans were heavy pre-race favourites as the reigning world champions in the women’s 4x100, but the win was not a given. At the race's midpoint, the US, with Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry on the first and second legs, were in third.

But Paris 2024 200m champion Gabby Thomas began gaining ground in the third leg, passing the baton to the anchor leg and 100m silver medallist Sha'Carri Richardson , who hit top form, finding another gear to speed past rivals Great Britain and Germany, a sideways look before she burst across the finish line to defend the gold medal for Team USA in 41.78 seconds, a season's best.

Gabriel Medina in a barrel during day three at Teahupo'o on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, where the surfing events for Paris 2024 were held.

Surfing: Teahupo’o goes huge for men’s Round 3

A highlight that was not a final medal round took place thousands of kilometres away in Tahiti, where the Olympic surfers woke to a massive swell: Teahupo’o had turned on. The men’s Round 3, on Monday June 29 , saw massive, powerful barrels roll in, with the world’s best surfers pulling in deep and emerging with hands in the air. It was a day that transcended sport and delivered something genuinely soul-stirring.

The competition saw the highest scores of the Olympic Games, with Brazil’s Gabriel Medina , the eventual bronze medallist, earning a 9.90, exiting the wave with the fly-away kickout seen around the world. The day of competition exemplified the best surfing and the very best of the incredible Teahupo’o wave.

A'ja Wilson of the United States passes the ball while being defended by Marieme Badiane of France during their women's gold medal final at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on 11 August 2024.

Basketball: USA vs France twice over

And you couldn’t have scripted it better: USA vs. Olympic host nation France in both men’s and women’s basketball finals, with both contests decided in the gripping final minutes.

The all-star USA men’s team brought it home 98-87 in the gold medal final, led by Steph Curry in his Olympic debut shooting four of his eight three-pointers in the final minutes and scoring 24 points, while Kevin Durant and Devin Booker finishing with 15 points each and LeBron James had 14. This marked a fifth straight US gold medal in men's basketball going back to Beijing 2008 .

The women’s final between these two nations was even tighter and more dramatic. The USA’s A’ja Wilson was everywhere on the court, scoring 21 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks. The game was decided in the final second as a jump shot by France’s Gabby Williams went in as time expired, sending the audience into raptures as the French thought the game had been tied — but Williams had just left the three-point area when she delivered that shot, and a two-point bucket wasn't enough for the hosts and the USA won by the narrowest of margins: 67-66 in a game for the ages . With that great escape, the US women had won their eighth Olympic gold medal in a row.

Athletics: Julien Alfred makes history for Saint Lucia in women’s 100m

It all happened in the blink of an eye; Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred burst out of the blocks ahead of the field. The three-time NCAA champion kept her lead, holding off pre-race favourite Sha’Carri Richardson to win gold in 10.72 seconds .

The win marks a momentous occasion for Saint Lucia, as it is its first Olympic medal in the Games' history.

Related content

Tim Walz's military record: What to know about potential VP's National Guard service

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive yet plain-spoken VP candidate from America’s heartland to help her win over rural, white voters.

“I’m pleased to share that I’ve made my decision: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate,” Harris said via text to supporters. “Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president.”

We look at Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran, and his military career over the years.

More: Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' VP pick: Minnesota governor named running mate: Live updates

How long was Walz in the military?

Walz served in the military for 24 years, enlisting in the Nebraska National Guard at 17 in 1981 and then transferring to the Minnesota National Guard in 1996. He retired in 2005 to begin his successful run for the U.S. House, representing Minnesota as command sergeant major, among the highest ranks for enlisted soldiers. His battalion went on to deploy to Iraq shortly after Walz's retirement.

Walz specialized in heavy artillery and had proficiency ribbons in sharpshooting and hand grenades.

But during the 21 years that Walz spent working with large artillery pieces, he suffered hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears, Minnesota Public Radio reported. He was allowed to continue his service after undergoing surgery, which partially resolved his hearing loss.

Where did Walz serve, and what did he do in the National Guard?

During his service, Walz responded to natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, and was deployed overseas for months at a time, according to MPR.

In 2003, he was sent to Italy, where he served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway for joint training with other NATO militaries.

Walz told MPR that he reenlisted in the National Guard after the September 11 attacks but never saw active combat in his years in the military.

Stars and Stripes reported in 2020 that Walz credited his Army experience with helping him steer Minnesota through the COVID-19 pandemic as governor.

As governor of Minnesota, Walz is commander in chief of the 13,000-soldier Minnesota National Guard. “I’m certainly proud of my military service, but it’s one piece of me,” he told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018. “It doesn’t define me.”

Reuters and USA TODAY reporter Tom Vanden Brook contributed to this story.

To Become the GOAT, Simone Biles First Had to Be a Turtle

She sealed her legacy with four medals at the Paris Games. She created it by being herself and going at her own pace.

Credit... Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

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By Juliet Macur

Juliet Macur, who has covered Simone Biles’s career since Biles was 18, reported from Paris.

• Aug. 5, 2024

To end the Olympics she once thought would never happen for her, Simone Biles began her floor exercise routine on Monday and did what she was made to do: flip and twist and thrill an arena filled with people there to watch her.

Every time Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, landed one of her wildly difficult tumbling passes, the crowd seemed to shout, “Wow!” all at once. And when she was done, standing alone on the floor in her sparkly leotard, the spectators rose to honor her — perhaps as much for her entire career as for a brilliant but flawed floor routine.

Biles stepped out of bounds twice during the routine, which was by far the most difficult that any of the finalists attempted. As a result, she did not win, as expected. Instead, she received the silver medal, while Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, her rival, won the gold by just over three one hundredths of a point. The American Jordan Chiles, one of Biles’s close friends, won the bronze.

When Chiles’s bronze medal was announced, she cried — and Biles smiled and laughed while hugging her.

Three years earlier, Biles withdrew from nearly all of her events at the Tokyo Games after becoming disoriented in the air, a moment that prompted her to consider quitting the sport. On Monday, she finished the Paris Games with three gold medals and one silver. (Earlier in the day, she finished fifth on the balance beam after losing points because of a fall.)

Her imperfect final performances did little to dull her luster at these Games. On each day she competed, celebrities dotted the stands, making gymnastics — already a marquee sport of the Olympics — seem like the hippest club in Paris. There were Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande, and sports legends like Serena Williams, Michael Phelps and Stephen Curry. After a day at the water polo venue, Flavor Flav, the rapper, said how much he admired Biles and wanted “to meet her, shake her hand and give her a hug and tell her how proud I am of her.”

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