Moscow, April 4 - “Vesti. Economy". Very often, scientific discoveries are the result of many years of careful work by a number of scientists who purposefully work in a particular direction. However, it also happens that discoveries happen unexpectedly, and sometimes they become a side effect of research that goes in a completely different direction. Below we will talk about the "accidental" inventions that have become part of our daily lives.
Microwave
Surprisingly, the microwave oven was invented almost by accident. How exactly the engineer-inventor Percy Spencer made his great discovery is legendary. Some sources claim that, passing by a working magnetron, he felt sweets melting in his pocket. According to another version, Spencer heated a sandwich on the magnetron. Be that as it may, it never occurred to anyone before him to use microwave radiation for cooking. It was while working at Raytheon in the 1940s that Spencer made an invention that, despite all his previous services to the country, glorified him more and more widely - throughout the world. The patent for the microwave oven was issued in 1946, and the first microwave oven called "Radarange" was released in 1947. These were very bulky ovens - almost human height, weighing more than 300 kg, they were very different from those microwaves that we use today. And their price was high - about $3000. Only in the 1960s was mass production of household microwave ovens, affordable (about $ 500) and relatively small in size, established.
Quinine is the main alkaloid of cinchona bark with a strong bitter taste, which has antipyretic and analgesic properties, as well as a pronounced effect against malarial plasmodia. This allowed for a long time to use quinine as the main treatment for malaria. Today, more effective synthetic drugs are used for this purpose, but for a number of reasons, quinine finds its use at the present time. Cinna bark has been used since the 17th century to relieve three-day fevers. The plant was introduced to Europe around 1633, and its beneficial properties were first mentioned in 1639. The Jesuits of Lima reported to Rome the use of the plant to alleviate the intermittent fever that raged every summer in that city. The plant was then popularized in Europe. According to legend, the beneficial properties of quinine were discovered by a certain person who, suffering from a fever, ended up in the forest. He drank the water at the roots of the cinchona tree. The water had a bitter taste, but he continued to drink this water, and he became better. When he recovered, he went home and told the story about the healing properties of the tree.
The history of radiographic studies begins in 1885. It was then that Wilhelm Roentgen first managed to register the darkening of photographic plates, which occurred under the influence of radiation of a special spectrum. At the same time, the scientist discovered that when any part of the human body is irradiated, an image of the skeleton remains on the photographic plate. This discovery formed the basis of the method of medical imaging. Prior to this, it was not possible to examine internal organs and tissues during human life. In 1894, Roentgen was engaged in experimental work, investigating an electric discharge in glass vacuum tubes. On November 8, 1895, he studied the properties of cathode rays. It was already dark, he began to get ready to go home, turned off the light. And I saw that the barium synergistic screen, behind which the cathode tube was located, was glowing. It was strange, because the electric light could not make it glow, the cathode tube was covered with a cardboard cover, but, as it turned out, not turned off. He turned off the receiver - the glow disappeared. At the same time, neither a cardboard case, nor a meter-long layer of air between them were an obstacle to radiation. This phenomenon could not but interest the scientist. He began to test the ability of this radiation to pass through various objects and materials. Some missed them, others didn't. That is, some substances reflected these rays, others partially, and others did not reflect at all. He called these rays X-rays. After that, for about 50 days, the scientist worked, investigating these rays. He proved that it was the cathode tube that emitted such rays. Accidentally or not, he put his hand under the rays and saw an image of the bone structures of the hand. It turned out that the soft tissues of the hand passed the light of the new radiation well, and the bone structures, on the contrary, like metal, turned out to be completely impermeable to the rays.
Radioactivity
The French physicist Henri Becquerel made the discovery of radioactivity in 1896. The reason for the experiment was the study of X-rays by Roentgen. At the same time, the scientist made the assumption that they are associated with such a phenomenon as luminescence. And it is likely that this kind of glow is impossible without cathode rays. Becquerel decided to study the hypothesis put forward by Roentgen. He was interested in whether luminous substances can emit rays that have the ability to penetrate through opaque partitions. To answer this question, Becquerel took a photographic plate, wrapped it in black film, placed a copper cross covered with uranium salt on top and placed it in the sun. Some time later, he developed the film. It turned out that it turned black exactly in those places where the cross was located. This indicated that uranium is capable of creating radiation that passes through opaque objects and acts on a photographic plate. At that moment, Becquerel believed that the reason for the glow of uranium was the sun. Investigating a large number of chemical compounds, Becquerel determined that only substances containing uranium are capable of emitting rays that penetrate dark paper. This is how the discovery of radioactivity was made.
Velcro fastener "Velcro"
The idea of the invention came in 1941 to the Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral, the patent was received in 1955. Georges de Mestral used to remove burdock heads from his dog's hair after walking with his dog. Once he examined them under a microscope, thanks to which he saw tiny hooks, with their help, heads cling to animal hair. So de Mestral came up with the idea of Velcro. It took the engineer years of trial and error to implement it, as a result of which the inventor realized that Velcro is best made from nylon. In 1955, de Mestral was finally able to patent his invention. Astronauts, scuba divers and skiers were the first to use textile fasteners. Over time, Velcro fasteners have become widespread, becoming a common part of everyday clothes and shoes.
Sugar substitute
In 1879, Konstantin Fahlberg worked at Johns Hopkins University under Professor Ira Remsen. They studied derivatives of bitumen (coal tar). In the process, a very sweet substance, ortho-sulfobenzoic acid or ortho-sulfobenzimide, was accidentally synthesized, which Fahlberg later gave the name saccharin. In 1879, Fahlberg, together with Ira Remsen, published an article in a German magazine about a new scientific discovery; in English, a slightly expanded article was published in 1880. In 1884, Fahlberg, having actually appropriated the discovery, received a patent for the invention and independently organized the mass production of saccharin in Germany.
pacemaker
Wilson Greatbatch made the classic mistake of pulling the wrong part out of the box. Thus, a device was born that saved the lives of millions of people. In 1956, Greatbatch worked on an animal heart rate recorder at the University of Buffalo. He reached into his desk drawer and took out a resistor of the wrong size, connecting it to the circuit. When the scientist turned on the device, he heard a rhythmic sound that resembled the beating of a human heart. Today, more than half a million pacemakers are implanted each year.
LSD Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann first synthesized the compound lysergic acid in 1938, but did not discover its psychopharmacological effects until five years later when he accidentally ingested a substance that was called "acid" in the 1960s counterculture. The drug began to work when he was cycling home. That day, April 19, was later memorialized by drug lovers. They called it "Bicycle Day".
Plasticine
William Harebutt was born in 1844. In 1874, after graduating from the National School of Arts (the future Royal College of Art) in London, he moved to Somerset, where he headed the School of Art and Design in Bath, and three years later, together with his wife Bessie, opened his own Exemplary School of Art. While teaching sculpture, the students used the clay to complete the teacher's assignment. In the first lessons, everything was fine, but as the assignments became more difficult, many students no longer had enough lesson time to complete the project. Unfinished clay sculptures quickly dried out and became hard, making it much more difficult to work on a sequel. William decided to make life easier for his students and started looking for alternative materials. At home, he experimented by mixing various substances and squeezing water from the resulting mixtures using a garden roller. After trying several hundred mixtures, Herbutt found that the mixture of chalk (calcium carbonate), petroleum jelly, and aliphatic fatty acids (mainly stearic) had the best properties. The mass was non-toxic, had the desired consistency, was easily kneaded by hands, softened and melted when heated, and most importantly, it always remained plastic and soft, not drying out at all even in a month or two. In 1897, Haerbutt began distributing new material to students before class. But rumors about his invention spread among the artistic community of the city, and many artists and sculptors began to turn to Herbutt with a request to give them some plastic mass.
Penicillin
Hundreds of human lives have been saved during the use of antibiotics in medical practice. The discovery of penicillin made it easy to rid people of those diseases that until the beginning of the 20th century were considered incurable. The credit for the invention of penicillin belongs to medical scientist Alexander Fleming. He was a professor in the laboratory of St. Mary of the City of London. The main theme of his scientific activity is the growth and properties of staphylococci. He made the discovery of penicillin by accident. Fleming was not famous for his special accuracy, rather, on the contrary. One day, after leaving unwashed cups of bacterial cultures on his work table, a few days later he noticed that mold had formed. He was interested in the fact that in the space around the mold, the bacteria were destroyed. Fleming named the substance secreted by mold. He named it penicillin. After conducting a large number of experiments, the Scientist was convinced that this substance can kill various types of pathogenic bacteria.
Viagra was originally intended to treat high blood pressure. However, during clinical trials, men who used this drug told their doctors about the same side effect of its use, which was expressed in prolonged and increased erections. But for the initial ideas, Viagra turned out to be practically ineffective, so the doctors decided to completely shift the focus of prescribing this drug to men suffering from erectile dysfunction.
In 1889, the German physiologist Oskar Minkowski, in order to show that the significance of the pancreas in digestion is far-fetched, set up an experiment in which he removed the pancreas from a healthy dog. A few days after the start of the experiment, Minkowski's assistant, who was monitoring the laboratory animals, noticed a large number of flies that flocked to the urine of the experimental dog. After examining the urine, he found that the dog excretes sugar in the urine. This was the first observation that made it possible to link the work of the pancreas and diabetes mellitus. However, the practical isolation of insulin belongs to a group of scientists at the University of Toronto. For this revolutionary discovery, McLeod and Banting were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923.
Vulcanized rubber
The inventor of the vulcanization method is the American Charles Goodyear (1800-1860), who since 1830 has been trying to create a material that can remain elastic and durable in heat and cold. He treated rubber resin with acid, boiled it in magnesia, added various substances, but all his products turned into a sticky mass on the first hot day. The discovery came to the inventor by accident.
In 1839, while working at the Massachusetts rubber factory, he once dropped a lump of rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove. Contrary to expectation, it did not melt, but, on the contrary, charred, like skin. In his first patent, he proposed exposing rubber to copper nitrite and aqua regia. Subsequently, the inventor discovered that rubber becomes resistant to temperature effects when sulfur and lead are added. After numerous tests, Goodyear found the optimal vulcanization regimen; he mixed rubber, sulfur and lead powder and heated this mixture to a certain temperature, as a result of which rubber was obtained, which did not change its properties either under the influence of sunlight or under the influence of cold. Its most unusual feature was elasticity.
Cornflakes
The history of corn flakes dates back to the 19th century. The owners of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, Dr. Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg, were preparing some kind of cornmeal dish, but they urgently needed to leave on urgent matters of the boarding house. When they returned, they found that the corn flour, which was under strict control, had slightly deteriorated. But they still decided to make a dough out of the flour, but the dough curled up and turned out to be flakes and lumps. The brothers fried these flakes out of desperation, and it turned out that some of them became airy, and some acquired a pleasant crispy texture. Subsequently, these cereals were offered to Dr. Kellogg's patients as a new dish, and served with milk and marshmallows, they were very popular. By adding sugar to the cereal, Will Keith Kellogg made it more palatable to a wider audience. So in 1894, the original corn flakes were patented by the American physician John Harvey Kellogg. In 1906, the Kelloggs began mass-producing a new type of food and founded their own company.
The discovery of Teflon happened by chance, like many scientific discoveries. It happened on April 6, 1938. The glory of the discoverer belongs to Dr. Roy J. Plunkett. He worked in one of the DuPont laboratories in New Jersey. At that time, Plunkett studied the properties of freons. Once, he froze tetrafluoroethylene under strong pressure, as a result of which a waxy white powder was obtained, which later demonstrated amazing properties. Two years later, the release of a new material was already launched, and the world recognized it under the name "Teflon".
Super glue
impact resistant glass
Safety glass is widely used in the automotive and construction industries. Today it is everywhere, but when the French scientist (as well as the artist, composer and writer) Edouard Benedictus accidentally dropped an empty glass flask on the floor in 1903 and it did not break, he was very surprised. As it turned out, a solution of collodion was stored in the flask before, the solution evaporated, but the walls of the vessel were covered with a thin layer of it. At that time, the automotive industry was intensively developing in France, and the windshield was made from ordinary glass, which caused many injuries to drivers, which Benedictus drew attention to. He saw real life-saving benefits in using his invention in automobiles, but the automakers found it too expensive to manufacture. In 1944, Volvo applied it to cars.
The name "Vaseline" was patented in the United States as a trademark and trademark on May 14, 1878. The well-known cosmetic and therapeutic agent was invented and patented by the English chemist Robert Chesbrough, who emigrated to America. In this invention, the scientist was "helped" by oilmen. When the oil boom began in 1859, Chesbrough, communicating with oil workers, became interested in sticky oil - a paraffin-like mass that, during oil production, stuck to drilling rigs and clogged pumps. He noticed that workers constantly use this mass for burns and cuts as a successful wound healing agent. The scientist began to experiment with the mass and managed to isolate useful ingredients from it. With the resulting substance, he smeared his numerous burns and scars received during the experiments. The effect was amazing - the wounds healed, and quite quickly. In the future, Chesbro continued to improve the amazing wound-healing ability of this substance and, trying on himself, observed the result.
Compared to the shiny electronic inventions that fill our lives today, the plow doesn't seem to shine very much. This is a simple tool designed to cut furrows in the soil, preparing it for fertilization and planting crops. But if not for the plow, there would probably be no other inventions on our list.
No one knows who invented the plow or when it first appeared. It is possible that it was developed independently in different regions, and was developed in the prehistoric era. Before the plow, people were mainly engaged in hunting or gathering. Their life depended solely on finding enough food to survive from season to season. Growing food brought a certain stability to life, but it was difficult and time consuming to do it by hand. The advent of the plow changed everything.
The plow made work in the field easier and faster. Improvements in plow design made working with the soil so efficient that people began to harvest far more food than they needed to survive. They began to sell the surplus for goods or services. And if you can get food through trade, you have more time in your day-to-day life to do things other than growing food, such as producing goods and services that food growers might need.
The ability to trade and store materials led to the invention of writing, counting, fortifications, and military technology. As the population became involved in these matters, the cities grew. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was the plow that allowed human civilization to take place.
The wheel is another invention so ancient that we don't know who first invented it. The oldest wheel and axle mechanism we found near Ljubljana, Slovenia, is about 3100 BC. e.
The wheel made the transport of goods faster and more efficient, especially when attached to horse-drawn chariots and wagons. But if it were only used for transportation, the wheel would not be such a grandiose invention. Moreover, the lack of quality roads limited the usefulness of the wheel for thousands of years.
The wheel can be used for many other things, not only for transporting grain on a cart. Tens of thousands of other inventions make use of the wheel, from the waterwheel of a mill to the gears and parts that enabled ancient cultures to build complex machines. Cranks and rollers engage the wheels. A lot of modern technology uses wheels: centrifuges, electric and internal combustion engines, jet engines, power plants and much more.
printing press
As with many inventions on this list, the person who, in our opinion, invented the printing press (Johannes Gutenberg in the 1430s) simply improved existing technologies and made them useful and efficient enough to gain popularity. The world was already using paper and block printing - the Chinese got to that point as early as the early 11th century - but their sophisticated language kept the technology from spreading. Marco Polo brought the idea to Europe in 1295.
Gutenberg combined the idea of block printing with a screw press (used in the production of wine and olive oil). He also developed metal printing blocks, which were much more durable and easier to manufacture than hand-carved letters on wood. Finally, advances in ink and paper manufacturing helped revolutionize the entire mass printing process.
The printing press made it possible to record enormous amounts of information and distribute it around the world. Until then, only the wealthy could afford books, but mass production brought down the price of them extremely. The printing press enabled many other inventions, but in a much more subtle way than the wheel. Through the spread of knowledge, billions of people received an education that they later used to create their own inventions in the following centuries.
Cooling
The refrigerator is a great thing, using the ability of substances to absorb and unload heat when the pressure and state of the substance changes (usually from gas to liquid and vice versa). It is difficult to single out one inventor of the refrigerator as the idea was widely known and gradually improved over nearly 200 years. Some point to the design of a steam compressor designed by Oliver Evans in 1805, others point to the design of a true precursor to the modern refrigerator, like the one you have in your kitchen, by Carl von Linde in 1876. Dozens of inventors, including Albert Einstein, improved or added to the design of the refrigerator over the years.
In the early 20th century, when natural ice harvesting was still common, large industries such as breweries began using ice machines. By the time of the First World War, collected ice in the industry had become a rarity. However, it was not until the 1920s, with the advent of safe refrigerants, that refrigerators became the norm.
The ability to store food for long periods (and even during transportation when refrigerated trucks were developed) has dramatically changed the food industry and the eating habits of people around the world. There was easy access to fresh meat and dairy even during the hot summer months, and there was no need to collect and ship natural ice - which, moreover, has never kept up with the growth of the world's population.
Connection
It may not be fair to lump the telegraph, radio, and television into one “invention,” but advances in communications technology have increased the usefulness and efficiency of the field as a whole ever since Samuel Morse invented the electric telegraph in 1836 (working on something completely different, of course). The telephone essentially repeated and improved this idea, providing people with voice communication over a copper wire, as opposed to purely text signals prescribed by Morse code. These communication methods worked point-to-point and required an extensive infrastructure of wires to function.
Wireless transmission of signals using electromagnetic waves excited many inventors around the world, and in the early 20th century, Guglielmo Marconi popularized it. Eventually, sound could be transmitted wirelessly, and engineers gradually improved image transmission. Radio and television became the new mainstay of communications, as they allowed messages to be sent to thousands or millions of people if they had receivers.
The development of communication technology has effectively reduced the world's distances. In just 120 years, we have gone from a world in which it took several weeks for news to spread around the country, to a world in which we can see firsthand what is happening on the other side of the globe. The advent of mass communications has changed our relationships and provided easy access to information.
steam engine
Before the invention of the steam engine, most products were made by hand. Water wheels and draft cattle were the only "industrial" capacities, of course, with their limitations. The Industrial Revolution, which is perhaps one of the biggest changes that has occurred in a short period of time in the history of civilization, rode forward on the steam engine.
The idea of using steam to power machines was born thousands of years ago, but the creation of Thomas Newcomen in 1712 was the first to use this energy for useful work (pumping water out of mines in most cases). In 1769, James Watt modified the Newcomen engine by adding a separate condenser, which greatly increased the power of the steam engine and made it more practical to operate. He also developed a way to get rotational motion with the help of an engine, which also added efficiency. Actually, Watt is considered the inventor of the steam engine.
Newcomen's and Watt's engines used the vacuum of condensed steam to move pistons, rather than the pressure of expanding steam. Because of this, the engines were bulky. Richard Trevithick and others subsequently created high-pressure steam engines that were small enough to fit on a train. Steam engines not only ensured the rapid production of goods in factories, but were also installed on steam locomotives and steamships that transported goods around the world.
Although the steam engine has been eclipsed by the electric engine and internal combustion engine in the fields of transportation and energy, the idea still finds application. Most of the world's power plants actually generate electricity using steam turbines, whose steam is heated by burning coal, natural gas, or a nuclear reactor.
If the steam engine mobilized industry, the automobile mobilized people. The idea of personal transportation has been around for many years, but Karl Benz's 1885 Motorwagen, powered by an internal combustion engine of his own design, is universally regarded as the first automobile. Henry Ford's improvements in the manufacturing process - and effective marketing - ensured that prices fell and desire rose among would-be auto owners in America. Europe soon followed.
The effect of the appearance of the car in commerce, society and culture is difficult to overestimate. Many of us can jump in a car and go wherever our heart desires, which effectively expands the size of any community we want to be in, or brings shops and friends closer. Our cities are largely designed and built with car access in mind, roads and parking take up a lot of space, and a significant chunk of the state budget is allocated to them. The automotive industry has generated tremendous economic growth around the world, but has also produced a lot of pollution along with it.
If the items on this list have anything in common, it's that no major invention was born by one genius or one inventor. Every invention builds on previous designs, and the person usually associated with the invention is usually the one who made it commercially viable. It's the same with a light bulb. You probably think that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but in the 1870s, dozens of other people worked on this idea, and along with them, Edison with his incandescent lamp. Joseph Swan worked on it in the UK, and both inventors joined forces to form one company, Ediswan.
The light bulb itself works by transmitting electricity through a high-resistance wire (known as a filament). The excess energy generated by the resistance propagates as heat and light. In a glass light bulb, the filament is held in a vacuum or inert gas to prevent ignition.
You might think that the light bulb changed the world by allowing people to work at night or in dark places (well, it kind of is), but we already had relatively cheap and efficient gas lamps and other light sources by then. Important is the infrastructure that was built to provide electricity to every home, it has changed the world. Today, our lives are filled with devices connected to outlets everywhere. We owe this to the glass bulb.
Computer
A computer is a machine that takes information, manipulates it in some way, and produces new information. The modern computer does not have a single inventor, although the ideas of the British mathematician Alan Turing are considered to be of the utmost importance in the field of computing. Mechanical computing devices existed in the 1800s (sometimes there were devices that can be identified as computers, even in ancient times), but electronic computers did not appear until the 20th century.
Computers are capable of performing complex mathematical calculations at incredible speeds. When they are run by experienced programmers, they produce incredible things. Some of the advanced military aircraft could not fly without constant computer adjustments in the control process. Computers sequence the human genome, allow us to launch spacecraft into orbit, control medical equipment, and allow us to enjoy movies and video games.
Every day using the benefits of computers, we do not even imagine how dependent on them. They allow us to store and retrieve vast amounts of information almost instantly. Many of the things we take for granted in the world could not function without computers, from cars and telephones to power plants.
The Internet, a network of computers spanning the entire planet, allows people to access virtually any information hosted anywhere in the world at any given time. Its impact on business, communications, the economy, entertainment, and even politics cannot be overestimated. The Internet may not have changed the world in the same way that a plow has, but it can certainly be put on the same level as a car or a steam engine.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) created ARPANET in the late 1960s. This network of connections between computers was intended for military and scientific research. Other computer networks began to appear around the world in the next few years, and by the late 1970s, scientists had created a single protocol, TCP/IP, that allowed computers on any network to communicate with computers on another network. This was, in fact, the birth of the Internet, but it took 10 or more years before other networks around the world adopted the new protocol, making the Web truly global.
The Internet is such a powerful invention that we are perhaps only just beginning to see the effects it is having on the world today. The ability to disseminate and rebuild information with such efficiency is only accelerating with time. At the same time, some fear that our dependence on communication, work, play and online business is destroying local communities and leading to social exclusion. But like any invention, the benefits of the Internet outweigh the downsides of using it.
What invention would you put on our list?
At the very beginning of this article, I have to explain something. You could live without any of these inventions. However, in that case, your life would be only half as comfortable, and a quarter less fun than it is now. And yes, you've probably heard of some of the inventions listed below. But do you know why they are so important? Or what's the point of them, for that matter? In any case, please be indulgent with me and you will understand everything by reading to the end.
This list pays tribute to the inventions we see as we go about our daily business. We may notice them, or we may not see them at all, or casually look at them through the routine of our lives, but for some reason simply do not notice their importance. Below are those inventions that at one time were not advertised and transferred the burden of glory to all those that became known to the whole world (I mean TV and light bulbs!) And you know what? This is about more than mere inventions. We are talking about all those people who were deprived of their rights and those who worked hard without receiving any benefit or reward. This article is dedicated to all those who worked hard, enduring hardships and hardships, without receiving anything in return. It's also dedicated to the guy who did all the math homework for a pretty girl in eighth grade. People, let's show them some respect.
10. Sextant, 1757
The idea to create something like a sextant came to John Hadley and Thomas Godfrey around 1731, although they both conceived it independently. The two scientists worked on a similar system for calculating coordinates, and yet it was simple and straightforward to use. In 1759, John Beard used an earlier design to create the sextant, a device that is still in use today.
So what is the importance of this invention? The sextant turned out to be one of the simplest navigators for sailors, allowing them to determine the geographical latitude of their location. After all, for thousands of years they relied only on the North Star. However, before the invention of the sextant, they did not have an accurate way to measure geographic longitude. This meant that many of them had been shipwrecked for this reason, or strayed far from their correct course. The invention of the sextant made crossing the oceans, or any large body of water, very easy, allowing more goods to be shipped to distant ports and more travel to be made than ever before.
9. Steel frame, 1884
After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, there was a demand for buildings that were safer than those made of stone and wood. Search for the name William Le Baron Jenney and you'll find the story of the man who designed the world's first steel-framed building. Interestingly, (according to popular legend) the idea came to him after he set his sights on a wire birdcage that could support the weight of a book. The weight of the construction of the first such building in the world, created according to his project, was only a third of the weight of a stone building of the same size. For this reason, from now on, architects could build taller houses. This is exactly the discovery that allowed mankind to build high-rise buildings.
8. Turing machine
I know this may annoy some people, but first of all, I'll point out that the Turing machine is just something hypothetical (and how was it even called an actual invention?). Secondly, I will add that it is quite popular among those who have heard of Alan Turing. However, this "under-invention" is an important contribution to modern computing systems, and it also represents something that the average person may have heard only in passing.
So what is a Turing machine? Basically, it's a long strip of paper that runs under a marker attached to a mechanical arm that can do three things: write "0", write "1", or go back and erase all characters. So why is this so important, you ask? Well, it's a long story, but it has an abbreviated version and shows that any modern computer can be taught binary coding - the main language of every electronic computing device ever invented in our world. And this is a very important matter.
7. Archimedean screw, 3rd century BC
The ancient Greek inventor Archimedes was perhaps the world's first genius. He is credited with creating a variant of the water-lifting mechanism, as well as formulas for determining the density of irregularly shaped objects, not to mention the long history when he coined the term "Eureka". However, one of Archimedes' most successful inventions is his water pump model. His invention was widely used among the ancient Greeks, but even today the so-called screw pump is used everywhere. Its main advantage is that it does not clog with dirt. That is why you can find such a design even in modern wastewater treatment plants where your tap water is treated.
6. Gregorian calendar, 1582
Invented by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the aptly named Julian calendar consisted of eleven months of 28 to 31 days, with a leap year occurring every four years. Although it may have been extremely accurate by those standards, but the 11.5 extra minutes that it added to itself every year led to the fact that from the moment of its creation until 1500 it ran 10 days ahead of the solar calendar. The Gregorian calendar, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, was created to solve this problem. Each year, the calendar shifts from the solar year by an additional 26 seconds, which add one day to it every 3323 years. Interesting fact: The Gregorian calendar was not adopted in Greece until 1923, and Turkey waited until 1927 before using it. Some countries (Ethiopia, Iran, Afghanistan and others) have not adopted this calendar - they count the time in their own way.
5. Vacuum tube
Vacuum tubes have existed since before our time. If you ask your parents, grandparents about them, they may even know a little more about it than you do. These little things are the forerunners of the modern resistor, the main component in any electronic device. At one time they were a little bigger. Because of the size of each vacuum tube and the number of tubes needed to run a computer, they literally took up an entire room. But they were also significantly slower and less efficient than a resistor. But without them, we wouldn't even have the technology to build smartphones...
4. Alternating current
Okay, again I have to admit, this is technically more than just a revelation (not to mention that everyone has at least heard the acronym for this type of electricity – yes, it's the name of an AC/DC rock band). However, the generator that first produced this type of current, created in the 1830s by Faraday himself, is a highly efficient invention that, as I said, most people are not even aware of. Simply put, such a generator converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, which, of course, is what powers every device we use.
3. Semiconductor
Computers again? Yes! Don't blame me, these are the times! A semiconductor is essentially a thin silicon wafer that can carry an electrical charge, but not very well. Combined with transistors (small devices that can stop, receive, or switch electrical signals), silicon semiconductor chips can be programmed to do amazing things. Semiconductors are the basis for the microprocessors in our computers, so yes, as with vacuum tubes, Turing machines, and AC, without them, we wouldn't be able to see half of the fun online cat photos that we currently do.
2. Pasteurization, 1863
In 1863, Louis Pasteur finally opened the eyes of the world to such a thing as microbes. Before this discovery, we really had no idea what it was that made us sick. Until then, everything was blamed on sinful behavior and the punishment of the gods. Pasteur's contribution to science was very important. First, he discovered that diseases are caused by microorganisms. Secondly, he found that they could be combated with heat as well as disinfectants.
1. Nitrogen Fixation, 1918
Now that I look back at this list, I feel like I've filled in my own lack of knowledge regarding the devices that make up the modern computer that I used to compile this list. Therefore, I decided that I should save one of the most important inventions for last, although it is fundamentally different from the previous ones. Fritz Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his work on nitrogen fixation. He discovered that (given the addition of high pressure and a catalyst), ammonia could be created by carrying out a chemical reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen. The result of this discovery was the ability to produce fertilizer on a large scale (which Carl Bosche had already done) and a method that allowed farmers to grow more food in less time on a smaller area.
Every year or decade there are more and more scientists and inventors who give us new discoveries and inventions in various fields. But there are inventions that, once invented, change our way of life in the most enormous way, moving us forward on the path of progress. Here are just ten great inventions that have changed the world we live in.
List of inventions:
1. Nails
Inventor: unknown
Without nails, our civilization would surely collapse. It is difficult to establish the exact date of the appearance of nails. Now the approximate date of the creation of nails is in the Bronze Age. That is, it is obvious that nails could not have appeared before people learned how to cast and form metal. Previously, wooden structures had to be built using more complex technologies, using complex geometric structures. Now the construction process has become much easier.
Until the 1790s and early 1800s, iron nails were made by hand. The blacksmith would heat a square iron bar and then beat it on four sides to create the sharp end of the nail. Machines for making nails appeared between the 1790s and the early 1800s. Nail technology continued to evolve; After Henry Bessemer developed the process to mass-produce steel from iron, the iron nails of yesteryear gradually fell out of favor, and by 1886, 10% of nails in the US were made from mild steel wire (according to the University of Vermont). By 1913, 90% of the nails produced in the US were made from steel wire.
2. Wheel
Inventor: unknown
The idea of a symmetrical component moving in a circular motion along an axis existed in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Europe separately at different time periods. Thus, it is impossible to establish who and where exactly invented the wheel, but this great invention appeared in 3500 BC and became one of the most important inventions of mankind. The wheel facilitated work in the areas of agriculture and transportation, and also became the basis for other inventions, ranging from carriages to clocks.
3. Printing press
Johannes Gutenberg invented the manual printing press in 1450. By 1500 twenty million books had already been printed in Western Europe. In the 19th century, a modification was made, and the iron parts replaced the wood ones, which speeded up the printing process. The cultural and industrial revolution in Europe would not have been possible were it not for the speed with which the printing press made it possible to distribute documents, books and newspapers to a wide audience. The printing press allowed the development of the press, and also gave people the opportunity to educate themselves. The political sphere would also be unthinkable without millions of copies of leaflets and posters. What can we say about the state apparatus with its endless number of forms? All in all, a truly great invention.
4. Steam engine
Inventor Story by: James Watt
Although the first version of the steam engine dates back to the 3rd century AD, it was not until the early 19th century with the advent of the industrial age that the modern form of the internal combustion engine emerged. It took decades of design, after James Watt made the first drawings, according to which the combustion of fuel releases high-temperature gas and, as it expands, puts pressure on the piston and moves it. This phenomenal invention played a decisive role in the invention of other mechanisms such as automobiles and airplanes that changed the face of the planet we live on.
5. Bulb
Inventor: Thomas Alva Edison
The invention of the light bulb was developed during the 1800s by Thomas Edison; he is credited with the title of the main inventor of a lamp that could burn for 1500 hours without burning out (invented in 1879). The idea of the light bulb itself does not belong to Edison and was expressed by many people, but it was he who managed to choose the right materials so that the light bulb burned for a long time and became cheaper than candles.
6. Penicillin
Inventor: Alexander Fleming
Penicillin was accidentally discovered in a petri dish by Alexander Fleming in 1928. The drug penicillin is a group of antibiotics that treats several infections in humans without harming them. Penicillin was mass-produced during World War II to rid military personnel of STDs and is still used as the standard antibiotic against infections. It was one of the most famous discoveries made in the field of medicine. Alexander Fleming received the Nobel Prize in 1945, and newspapers of the time wrote:
"To defeat fascism and liberate France, he made more whole divisions"
7. Phone
Inventor: Antonio Meucci
For a long time it was believed that Alexander Bell was the discoverer of the telephone, but in 2002 the US Congress decided that Antonio Meucci had the right to primacy in the invention of the telephone. In 1860 (16 years earlier than Graham Bell), Antonio Meucci demonstrated an apparatus that could transmit voice over wires. Antonio called his invention Telektrofon and applied for a patent in 1871. This set the stage for one of the most revolutionary inventions that almost everyone on our planet has in their pockets and on their desks. The telephone, which later also developed as a mobile phone, has had a vital impact on mankind, especially in the fields of business and communication. The expansion of audible speech from inside one room to the whole world is a feat unparalleled to this day.
8. Television
Zworykin with an iconoscope
Inventor: Rosing Boris Lvovich and his students Zworykin Vladimir Konstantinovich and Kataev Semyon Isidorovich (not recognized as a discoverer), as well as Philon Farnsworth
Although the invention of television cannot be attributed to one person, most people acknowledge that the invention of modern television was the merit of two people: Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1923) and Philo Farnsworth (1927). It should be noted here that in the USSR Kataev Semyon Isidorovich was engaged in the development of a TV using parallel technology, and Rosing described the first experiments and principles of operation of electric television at all at the beginning of the 20th century. Television was also one of the greatest inventions that has evolved from mechanical to electronic, from black and white to color, from analog to digital, from primitive models without a remote to intelligent, and now all to 3D versions and small home theaters. People usually spend about 4-8 hours a day watching TV, and this has greatly affected family and social life, as well as changed our culture beyond recognition.
9. Computer
Inventor: Charles Babbage, Alan Turing and others.
The principle of the modern computer was first mentioned by Alan Turing and later the first mechanical computer was invented in the early 19th century. This invention has really done amazing things in more areas of life, including the philosophy and culture of human society. The computer has helped launch high-speed military aircraft, put spacecraft into orbit, control medical equipment, create visual images, store vast amounts of information, and improve the functioning of cars, telephones, and power plants.
10. Internet and World Wide Web
Map of the entire computer network for 2016
Inventor: Vinton Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee
The Internet was first developed in 1973 by Vinton Cerf with the support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Its original use was to provide a communications network to research laboratories and universities in the United States and to expand overtime. This invention (along with the World Wide Web) was the main revolutionary invention of the 20th century. In 1996, over 25 million computers were connected via the Internet in 180 countries, and now we even had to switch to IPv6 to increase the number of IP addresses, since IPv4 addresses were completely exhausted, and there were about 4.22 billion of them.
The World Wide Web, as we know, was first predicted by Arthur C. Clarke. However, the invention was made 19 years later in 1989 by CERN employee Tom Berners Lee. The web has changed the way we think about various areas, including education, music, finance, reading, medicine, language, etc. The web is potentially superior all the great inventions of the world.
It happens that scientists spend years and even a decade in order to present a new discovery to the world. However, it happens in a different way - inventions appear unexpectedly, as a result of a bad experience or a simple accident. It's hard to believe, but many devices and drugs that have changed the world were invented by accident.
I offer the most famous of these accidents.
In 1928, he noticed that one of the plastic plates with pathogenic staphylococcus bacteria in his laboratory was moldy. However, Fleming left the lab for the weekend without washing the dirty dishes. After the weekend, he returned to his experiment. He examined the plate under a microscope and found that the mold had killed off the bacteria. This mold turned out to be the main form of penicillin. This discovery is considered one of the greatest in the history of medicine. The significance of Fleming's discovery became clear only in 1940, when mass research began on a new type of antibiotic drugs. Thanks to this accidental discovery, millions of lives were saved.
Safety glass
Safety glass is widely used in the automotive and construction industries. Today it is everywhere, but when the French scientist (as well as the artist, composer and writer) Edouard Benedictus accidentally dropped an empty glass flask on the floor in 1903 and it did not break, he was very surprised. As it turned out, a solution of collodion was stored in the flask before, the solution evaporated, but the walls of the vessel were covered with a thin layer of it.
At that time, the automotive industry was intensively developing in France, and the windshield was made from ordinary glass, which caused many injuries to drivers, which Benedictus drew attention to. He saw real life-saving benefits in using his invention in automobiles, but the automakers found it too expensive to manufacture. And only years later, when during the Second World War, triplex (this was the name of the new glass) was used as glass for gas masks, in 1944 Volvo used it in cars.
pacemaker
The pacemaker that is now saving thousands of lives was invented by mistake. Engineer Wilson Greatbatch was working on a device that would record heart rate.
One day, he inserted the wrong transistor into the device and discovered that oscillations arose in the electrical circuit, which are similar to the correct rhythm of the human heart. Soon, the scientist created the first implantable pacemaker - a device that delivers artificial impulses for the heart to work.
Radioactivity
Radioactivity was discovered by accident by the scientist Henri Becquerel.
This was in 186, when Becquerel was working on the phosphorescence of uranium salts and the recently discovered x-rays. He conducted a series of experiments to determine whether fluorescent minerals could emit radiation when exposed to sunlight. The scientist faced a problem - the experiment was carried out in winter, when there was not enough bright sunlight. He wrapped the uranium and photographic plates in one bag and began to wait for a sunny day. Returning to work, Becquerel discovered that the uranium had been imprinted on a photographic plate without sunlight. Later, together with Marie and Pierre Curie (Curie), he discovered what is now known as radioactivity, for which, together with a scientific married couple, he later received the Nobel Prize.
Microwave
The microwave oven, also known as the "popcorn oven", was born precisely due to a happy coincidence. And it all began - who would have thought! - from a project to develop weapons.
Percy LeBaron Spencer is a self-taught engineer who developed radar technology for Raytheon, one of the largest companies in the global military-industrial complex. In 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, he was doing research to improve the quality of radar. During one of the experiments, Spencer discovered that the chocolate bar that was in his pocket had melted. Contrary to common sense, Spencer immediately discarded the idea that chocolate could melt under the influence of body heat - like a true scientist, he seized on the hypothesis that chocolate was somehow "affected" by the invisible radiation of the magnetron.
Any sane man would immediately stop and realize that the "magic" heat rays passed within a few centimeters of his dignity. If the military were nearby, they would certainly have found a worthy use for these "melting rays". But Spencer thought of something else - he was delighted with his discovery and considered it a real scientific breakthrough.
After a series of experiments, the first water-cooled microwave oven weighing about 350 kg was created. It was supposed to be used in restaurants, aircraft and ships - i.e. where food needs to be heated quickly.
Vulcanized rubber
It will hardly shock you to learn that rubber for automobile tires was invented by Charles Goodyear - he became the first inventor whose name was given to the final product.
It wasn't easy to invent a rubber capable of handling the top speed and car racing that everyone has been dreaming of since the day the first car was made. And in general, Goodijr had every reason to say goodbye forever to the crystal dream of his youth - he kept going to prison, lost all his friends and almost starved his own children, tirelessly trying to invent stronger rubber (for him it turned almost into an obsession ).
So, it was in the mid-1830s. After two years of unsuccessful attempts to optimize and strengthen conventional rubber (mixing rubber with magnesia and lime), Goodyear and his family were forced to take refuge in an abandoned factory and fish for food. It was then that Goodyear made a sensational discovery: he mixed rubber with sulfur and got a new rubber! The first 150 bags of rubber were sold to the government and…
Oh yes. The rubber was of poor quality and completely useless. The new technology proved to be ineffective. Goodyear was ruined - for the umpteenth time!
Finally, in 1839, Goodyear wandered into a general store with another batch of failed rubber. The people gathered in the store watched the crazy inventor with interest. Then they started laughing. Enraged, Goodyear hurled the wad of rubber onto the hot stove.
After carefully examining the burnt remains of rubber, Goodyear realized that he had just - quite by accident - invented a method for the production of reliable, elastic, waterproof rubber. Thus, an entire empire was born from the fire.
Champagne
Many people know that Dom Pierre Perignon invented champagne, but this 17th-century monk of the Order of St. Benedict did not at all intend to make wine with bubbles, but quite the contrary - he spent years trying to prevent this, since sparkling wine was considered a sure sign poor quality winemaking.
Initially, Pérignon wanted to cater to the tastes of the French court and create an appropriate white wine. Since it was easier to grow dark grapes in Champagne, he came up with a way to get light juice from it. But since the climate in Champagne is relatively cold, the wine had to ferment for two seasons, spending the second year already in the bottle. The result was a wine filled with bubbles of carbon dioxide, which Pérignon tried to get rid of, but to no avail. Fortunately, the aristocracy of both French and English courts liked the new wine very much.
Plastic
In 1907, shellac was used for insulation in the electronics industry. The costs of importing shellac, which was made from Asian beetles, were enormous, so chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought it would be a good idea to invent an alternative to shellac. As a result of experiments, he received a plastic material that did not collapse at high temperatures. The scientist thought that the material he invented could be used in the production of phonographs, however, it soon became clear that the material could be used much more widely than expected. Today, plastic is used in all areas of industry.
Saccharin
Saccharin, a well-known sugar substitute for weight loss, was invented due to the fact that the chemist Konstantin Fahlberg did not have the healthy habit of washing his hands before eating.
This was in 1879, when Fahlberg was working on new ways to use coal tar. Having finished his working day, the scientist came home and sat down to supper. The food seemed sweet to him, and the chemist asked his wife why she added sugar to the food. However, the food did not seem sweet to the wife. Fahlberg realized that it wasn't really the food that was sweet, but his hands, which he hadn't washed before dinner as usual. The next day, the scientist returned to work, continued research, and then patented a method for obtaining an artificial low-calorie sweetener and began its production.
Teflon
Teflon, which made life easier for housewives around the world, was also invented by accident. DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett studied the properties of freon and froze gaseous tetrafluoroethylene for one of the experiments. After freezing, the scientist opened the container and found that the gas was gone! Plunkett shook the canister and peered into it, where he found a white powder. Fortunately for those who have made an omelette at least once in their lives, the scientist became interested in the powder and continued to study it. As a result, the very Teflon was invented, without which it is impossible to imagine a modern kitchen.
Ice cream waffle cones
This story is a perfect example of a chance invention and a chance encounter that had a worldwide impact. And it's quite tasty too.
Until 1904, ice cream was served on saucers, and it wasn't until that year's World's Fair, held in St. Louis, Missouri, that two seemingly unrelated foods became inextricably linked.
At that particularly hot and muggy World's Fair of 1904, the ice-cream stand was doing so well that all the saucers quickly ran out. A nearby stall selling Zalabia, thin waffles from Persia, was not doing well, and its owner came up with the idea of rolling the waffles into a cone and putting ice cream on top. This is how ice cream in a waffle cone was born, and it seems that it is not going to die in the near future.
Synthetic dyes
It sounds strange, but it's a fact - synthetic paint was invented as a result of an attempt to invent a cure for malaria.
In 1856, the chemist William Perkin was working on the creation of artificial quinine to treat malaria. He did not invent a new cure for malaria, but he got a thick dark mass. Looking closely at this mass, Perkin found that it gives off a very beautiful color. So he invented the first chemical dye.
His dye turned out to be much better than any natural dye: firstly, its color was much brighter, and secondly, it did not fade or wash off. Perkin's discovery turned chemistry into a highly lucrative science.
Potato chips
In 1853, in a restaurant in Saratoga, New York, a particularly cranky customer (railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt) constantly refused to eat the French fries he was served, complaining that they were too thick and wet. After he turned down several plates of increasingly thinly sliced potatoes, the restaurant's chef, George Crum, took revenge by fried some waffle-thin potato slices in oil and served them to the customer.
At first, Vanderbilt began to say that this last attempt was too thin, and it was impossible to stick it on a fork, but after trying a few pieces, he was very satisfied, and all the patrons of the restaurant wanted the same thing. As a result, a new dish appeared on the menu: "Saratoga chips", which was soon sold all over the world.
Post-it stickers
The humble Post-It stickers are the result of a casual collaboration between a mediocre scientist and a disgruntled churchgoer. In 1970, Spencer Silver, a researcher for the large American corporation 3M, was working on a strong adhesive formula, but was only able to create a very weak adhesive that could be removed with little or no effort. He tried to promote his invention in the corporation, but no one paid attention to him.
Four years later, Arthur Fry, a 3M employee and member of the church choir, was greatly annoyed by the fact that the pieces of paper he kept in his hymn book as bookmarks kept falling out when the book was opened. During one worship service, he remembered Spencer Silver's invention, had an epiphany (perhaps a church is the best place to do it), and then applied some of Spencer's weak, but paper-friendly glue to his bookmarks. It turned out that the little sticky notes did just the right thing, and he sold the idea to 3M. Trial promotion of a new product began in 1977, and today it is already difficult to imagine life without these stickers.
