The Greatest Inventions In The Past 1000 Years

Dept of History Ohio State ^ | January 21, 2022 | Larry Gormley

[Zuriel]

While steel was certainly nothing new, the Bessemer process put steel production on steroids, and thus a vast increase in steam being harnessed.

Steel is the common denominator is everything it seems. It’s either in the product or helped deliver the product, or both.

[Romulus]

Only the very rich, and only when water supplies were ample. Plus, they had no flush toilets.

Flush toilets and mechanical refrigeration are in my top ten.

[Fiji Hill]

Although it wasn’t created by a single inventor, the steam engine should definitely be on the list. Besides greatly influencing transportation and industrial production, it facilitated mass literacy when it was paired with the printing press.

[Dr. Sivana]

Although Baird demonstrated the first television in January, 1926 I’m not sure he patented his invention before Philo Farnsworth patented his all electric television in January 1927.

I understand that the technology that real TVs actual used what based on Farnsworth design. Except for some early color TVs, I don't know of any spinning disks that weere usaed to receive real broadcasts.

[Fiji Hill]

Surviving clay tablets and containers record the use of waterborne vessels as early as 4000 BCE BC.

FIFY

[Dr. Sivana]

No quibbles here... but Bell insisted that his telephone be answered by saying “Ahoy” instead of the common hello. Was he a frustrated sailor?

I would maintain that the telegraph was a bigger deal than the telephone. No telegraph, no telephone which in some ways is just a refinement of the telegraph.

[Fiji Hill]

The pants pocket—invented sometime in the nineteenth century.

[Fiji Hill]

Bell insisted that his telephone be answered by saying “Ahoy” instead of the common hello. Was he a frustrated sailor?

"Ahoy" (spelled "ahoj") means "hi" in Czech.

[Gay State Conservative]

What have The Romans Ever Done for US?

[Stevenfo]

The inventors are all White males.

[DMZFrank]

That versatile machine that is now vilified and maligned by the enviro-lunatic climate alarmists, the internal combustion engine, which enabled practical applications of power for heavier then air craft and the automobile and tractor.

[Fiji Hill]

The inventors are all White males.

So any nonwhite who uses these inventions is guilty of cultural appropriation.

[Grampa Dave]

Yep somewhere between 4000 to 6000 years ago.

[oldvirginian]

The mechanical TV was laser disc before the laser disc. You had to load a pre-recorded disc into the TV. While a wonder in it’s day it didn’t last long. The last mechanical units entered the gadget graveyard in the 1930’s. Paul Gottlieb Nipkow developed the mechanical TV in 1884.
I don’t know if the disks could be rewritten but it was an invention with a limited life and I expect only the wealthy could afford the unit and the disks.

[powerset]

Even though the article was written in 2000, the latest invention listed — the computer — was dated 1939! (”Ohio State Dept. of Pre-WWII History” maybe?)

By 2000, the transistor and integrated circuit (1947-1960s) had transformed *all* of electronics, especially computers, which would otherwise have still been fairly rare rather than ubiquitous.

Also, even by 2000, cell phones and the Internet had already been invented, as evidenced by the fact that they were both being used pretty widely by ordinary people.

[stateofit]

Cooler with wheels

[oldvirginian]

I was going to include the telegraph as well because it had such an impact on life world wide. Settlers in the US could send messages across the country if they were close to a telegraph office, businesses in New York could communicate with businesses on the west coast and later the world, the Union used the telegraph to great effect during the War Between the States (Lincoln had a terminal set up in the White House), and reports of the wars in Europe.
Yeah, the telegraph was very important.

[PIF]

Even the telescope and eyeglasses go back that far - just because they were both rediscovered later, does not make them new.

[oldvirginian]

“Ahoy” (spelled “ahoj”) means “hi” in Czech.”

I don’t think Alexander Graham Bell was Czech or knew any of the Czech language. Still, two syllables whichever you use.

[Dr. Sivana]

I would be inclined to replace vaccinations with “anti-biotics”, which I think had an even greater impact.