50 inventions that changed the world...

My dear friends,
Here I share an article from " Times of India " dt.18th Novemeber 2007 for your references:


Since time immemorial, thousands of inventions by man have gone on to transform the world. Here is a list of 50 (in alphabetical order) that may have played a bigger part than most:

Abacus- 190 AD

Use of the abacus, with its beads in a rack, was first documented in China in about 190 AD. The Chinese version was the speediest way to do sums for centuries and, in the right hands, can still outpace electronic calculators.

Aspirin- 1899

Little tablets of acetylsalicylic acid have probably cured more minor ills than any other medicine. Hippocrates was the first to realise the healing power of the substance. At the turn-of-the-century, German chemist Felix Hoffman perfected the remedy.

Barbed wire- 1873

The world's most divisive invention was conceived not to keep people in or out, but cows.

Barcode- 1973

Barcodes were conceived as a kind of visual Morse code by a Philadelphia student in 1952. Now, black stripes have appeared on almost everything we buy.

Battery- 1800

In 1780s, Italian physicist Luigi Galvani discovered that a dead frog's leg would twitch when he touched it with two pieces of metal. His friend, professor Alessandro Volta made the first battery which were voltaic cells stacked in a Voltaic pile.


Bicycle- 1861

First devised as a gentleman’s plaything in the 1820s, the push-powered hobby-horse quickly evolved to become the most classless form of transport.

Bra- 1913

New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob is widely considered to be the inventor of the modern bra, which she devised as an alternative to unsightly corsets.

Button- 1235

Ancient Greeks fastened tunics using crude buttons and loops, but it took the buttonhole to popularise the little discs of perforated plastic that adorn our clothes today.

Camera- 1826

Though British polymath William Talbot was the inventor of one of the earliest cameras, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the earliest surviving photograph on a pewter plate in 1826.

Compass- 1190

Sailors in China and Europe independently discovered lodestone - a magnetic mineral that aligned with the North Pole - in the 12th century. By 1190, Italian navigators were using lodestone to magnetise needles floating in bowls water.

Bicycle- 1861

First devised as a gentleman’s plaything in the 1820s, the push-powered hobby-horse quickly evolved to become the most classless form of transport.

Bra- 1913

New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob is widely considered to be the inventor of the modern bra, which she devised as an alternative to unsightly corsets.

Button- 1235

Ancient Greeks fastened tunics using crude buttons and loops, but it took the buttonhole to popularise the little discs of perforated plastic that adorn our clothes today.

Camera- 1826

Though British polymath William Talbot was the inventor of one of the earliest cameras, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the earliest surviving photograph on a pewter plate in 1826.

Compass- 1190

Sailors in China and Europe independently discovered lodestone - a magnetic mineral that aligned with the North Pole - in the 12th century. By 1190, Italian navigators were using lodestone to magnetise needles floating in bowls water.

Light bulb- 1848

Joseph Swan in fact developed a bulb before Edison, but the pair later joined forces and today share credit for creating the gadget we perhaps take for granted more than any other.

Locks- 2000 BC

Egyptians were the first to put things under lock and key about 4,000 years ago .

Microchip- 1958

US engineer Jack Kilby built the world's first monolithic integrated circuit, or microchip that changed the world of computing.

Mobile phone- 1947

The first mobile phone service was introduced by Bell Laboratories in Missouri in 1947.

Paper- 105 AD

The Chinese began using bark, bamboo fibres, hemp and flax to mill the first reams almost 2,000 years ago, but it took centuries for paper to envelop the world.

PC- 1977

Steve Jobs, whose Apple II, launched in 1977, was the first consumer PC to resemble the machines that went on to transform our lives.

Printing press- 1454

The Chinese were the world's first printers – they practised block printing as early as 500 AD – but a German goldsmith called Johannes Gutenberg was the first to construct a press.

Radio- 1895

Alexander Popov, a Russian, and the Italian-Irish inventor Guglielmo Marconi, separately sent and received the first radio waves. Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio message (three dots for the letter 'S') in 1901.

Telephone- 1876

Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell raced to make the first working phone in the 1870s, Bell winning in a photo-finish.

Television- 1925

Scotsman John Logie Baird first demonstrated TV to the public in 1925.

The internet- 1969

Conceived by the US Department of Defense in the 1960s, the internet, together with the World Wide Web, invented in 1989 by Brit techie, Tim Berners-Lee, has shrunk the world like no other invention.

The Match- 1826

The Stockholm-based chemist John Walker was the first to discover that when a stick coated in potassium chlorate and antimony sulphide was brushed across stone, it created a flame.

The Pill- 1951

The contraceptive pill was developed by a team headed by Carl Djerassi, a chemist, in 1951, but wasn't marketed in the UK until 1962.

Wheel- 3500 BC

The wheel surely deserves a place near the top of any "greatest inventions" list. The earliest evidence of a wheel – a pictograph from Sumeria (modern day Iraq) – dates back to 3500 BC; the device rolled West soon after that.

Zip- 1913

Credit for the device's invention goes to Gideon Sundback. In 1913, the Swedish engineer made the first modern zip to fasten high boots.

Honourable mentions:

and arrow- 30,000 BC, CD- 1965, Cardiac pacemaker- 1958, Credit card- 1950, Drum- 12,000 BC, Dynamite- 1867, Fish hook- 30,000 BC, GPS- 1978, iPod- 2001, Kettle- 1891, Microscope- 1590, Plough- AD 100, Rubber band- 1845, Sewing machine- 1830, Spectacles- 1451, Syringe- 1844, Telescope- 1608, Umbrell- 2400 BC, Walkman- 1979, Weighing scales- 5000 BC

Still the technology being developed on these innovations and updated periodically by so many research scientists and technicians to benefit the Universe.

Subbu