BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel

Subject: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Nov 13 - 10:52 PM

The Atlantic {The Technology Issue, November 2013) asked a dozen scientists, historians and technologists to rank the top innovations since the wheel. Here are their results. (I tend not to agree with all of them, although they are very persuasive in their reasoning. I, for instance, would rank the telephone higher, simply because for the first time we could hear each other's voices – we could be present together - in the same slice of time)

Any thoughts?

Ranking of 50 Greatest Inventions

50: The combine harvester, 1930s
49: The assembly line, 1913
48: The lever, third millennium B.C
47: The nail, second millennium B.C
46: Anesthesia, 1846
45: Television, early 20th century
44: Air-conditioning, 1902
43: The abacus, third millennium B.C.
42: Paper money, 11th century
41: Rocketry, 1926
40: The sailboat, fourth millennium B.C.
39: Oil drilling, 1859
38: Scientific plant breeding, 1920s
37: Cement, first millennium B. C.
36: The steam turbine, 1884
35: Oil refining, mid-19th century
34: The Gregorian calendar, 1582
33: Pasteurization, 1863
32: The cotton gin, 1793
31: Archimedes' screw, third century B.C.
30: The moldboard plow, 18th century
29: Photography, early 19th century
28: Radio, 1906
27: The mechanized clock, 15th century
26: The telegraph, 1837
25: Alphabetization, first millennium B.C.
24: The telephone, 1876
23: The sextant, 1757
22: The green revolution, mid-20th century
21: Nuclear fission, 1939
20: The pill, 1960
19: Industrial steelmaking, 1850s
18: The automobile, late 19th century
17: The compass, 12th century
16: The personal computer, 1970s
15: The airplane, 1903
14: Gunpowder, 10th century
13: Refrigeration, 1850s
12: Sanitation systems, mid-19th century
11: Nitrogen fixation, 1918
10: The steam engine, 1712
9: The internet, 1960s
8: Vaccination, 1796
7: The internal combustion engine, late 20th century
6: Paper, second century
5: Optical lenses, 13th century
4: Semiconductor electronics, mid-20th century
3: Penicillin, 1928
2: Electricity, late 19th century
1: The printing press

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 21 Nov 13 - 11:00 PM

I would add Jell-O, never mind, that's another thread!

Seriously, and appropriate for any music website, I think musical notation was a great invention.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 12:37 AM

They left out the Lithium battery, noted for blowing up more computers than any other invention (along with two or three Tesla automobiles - so far). ???

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 02:49 AM

I do note little presence of the more fundamental devices for electrical power generation and distribution. There was some argument about how to proceed but without the acceptance of AC power that permitted efficient(?) distribution, and the "invention" of our vast distribution networks, several of the others mentioned most likely would never have come to be.

And without the invention of the vacuum tube (or valve for the Brits?) and especially the triode tube, it's unlikely that anyone would have thought about the invention of transistors, since there would have been no devices that needed "better switches. (Probably omitted because most of the newer generation of scientists don't remember what one looked like.)

There is also no mention of a number of "inventions" associated with distribution of clean water and disposal of sewage, but maybe that's because we still haven't really decided on a "best way" to do it for enough people.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,musket wondering
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 03:03 AM

I was going to be flippant and propose the pickled egg. . However.

Preserving of foods, whether recognised today as pickling, smoking or drying out is a reason why civilisation could progress. Hunter gatherer no longer being a year round occupation led to thinking time, innovation and invention.

So. . Preserving foods. Got to be a couple of thousand BC, at the very least.





Also, the dating for some of the above is very, dare I say, geographically selective?

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 03:33 AM

It's interesting to note how many of those inventions are turning out to be mixed blessings. It's ironic that, in a few generations time, when we've eroded the world around us to such an extent that we've rendered ourselves extinct, there will be (by definition!) no-one around to list which of those inventions made the greatest contributions to our demise!

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 04:19 AM

The condom - timeless - and timely...

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 04:32 AM

MRI scanner, and X-rays, essential for diagnosis. Also, the umbrella. I think antiseptics need a mention too, and the electron microscope. Condoms are proving to be even more valuable, as they can protect against HIV and other STDs. How about power looms? And discovery of plastics? My old mum used to say (in a voice of impending doom) "Man will kill himself with his own invention!" so I tend to agree with Shimrod.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 04:46 AM

Without the discovery of the adhesive properties of chicken blood we'd have had no airplanes in WWI. (That's all that held the wood together.) It would be difficult to name an inventor, or a date of the invention since primitive/prehistoric people used the same glue to hold their tools and weapons together.

The "improved" freeze dried blood avoided the need for fresh blood, and greatly improved the smell in the airplane factories; but the invention of casein glue probably did more for the health of the workers.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 04:56 AM

Glass.

Without which there'd be no civilisation...

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 06:08 AM

They forgot sliced bread...

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 09:12 AM

I was going to say "the condom" but I see Will Fly got there first. Another notable omission of an item which revolutionised society was the pill.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 09:25 AM

The greatest invention of all time was the second telephone.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 12:31 PM

45: Television, early 20th century
45a: The remote control mute button, barely in time

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 12:38 PM

The pill is included in the list, Richard B. #20

In the article their conversations detail their processes of thinking, and note that some of man's inventions went nowhere, so to speak, without a further invention down the road.

In the same issue there is also an article on the likeliest inventions coming up.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 12:46 PM

The condom - timeless - and timely...

The Gates foundation recently announced selection of the winners for their contest to "design a better condom." From around 800 entries, the several winners each received a $100,000 prize, with the possibility of an additional award for "development and marketing" of any of the winning ideas.

It seems that a main concern was the difficulty of "installing" existing devices in dark or dimly lit places.

I'm a little puzzled about why those who can't find it in the dark to put one on would think they're going to do anything with it to require a condom, but I'm sure there's an explanation.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 01:06 PM

Bic pens
Credit cards
Online shopping

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 01:42 PM

The next great ones?

Nuclear fusion (France is in the process of building a fusion reactor).

Fuel cell vehicles. (Toyota will market in 2015)

Stem cell treatments of disease and injury (Already being used but only the beginning!)

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 01:57 PM

An all-purpose, universal, all singing all dancing cure for cancer.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Big Ballad Singer
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 02:47 PM

The electric guitar. Hands down, one of the greatest inventions ever.

If it were not for the atonal cacophony created by millions of hack amateurs, some of us would never have retreated into the world of folk music and acoustic instruments!

Oh, and 34A: Gregorian chant, or at least the systematization of melodies for chant used in the Catholic Church. Pope Gregory III (IIRC) was basically responsible for both preserving already very old musical traditions AND for furthering the development of Church music, which played an integral part in the musical education of so many brilliant composers and instrumentalists.

Of course, I'd select the diatonic harmonica and crawfish etouffe, but that's just me :)

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 03:25 PM

If I can remember the details from a mid-1950s article in "The Guitar Review," a high quality magazine published irregularly by the New York Classic Guitar Society—

During World War II, during a meeting of the Washington, D. C. Classic Guitar Society, honored guest Andrés Segovia was bemoaning the fact that he was about to embark on a concert tour of South America and he was nearly out of guitar strings.

At the time, classic guitar strings were made out of sheep gut, and during WW II, few, if any, firms were making them. And his supply was dangerously low. "I may soon have to hang up my beloved guitar," sighed Segovia.

An Air Force General, a Gen. Lindenman, if I recall the article correctly, told Segovia that he had an idea and could he borrow a set of strings. Tremulously, Segovia fished in his guitar case, and handed him a set. In the meantime, other attending members dug into their cases and gave several precious sets to Segovia, to see him through the tour.

Several weeks later, when Segovia returned from the tour, Gen. Lindenman presented him with a large package of guitar strings. "I have some friends in the DuPont family, and they had the strings analyzed and tried to duplicate them with nylon."

Segovia put a set on his guitar, tuned them up, played a few scales and chords—and smiled! "This is a new day for the classic guitar," he pronounced.

DuPont did not want to make the strings themselves, but they would supply the necessary technology and materials to anyone who would. The first to come forward was a man named Albert Augustine, and Augustine strings were the first nylon guitar strings to appear on the market.

Back in the mists of antiquity, someone was feeding me the line that "You really don't know how great a classic guitar can sound if you haven't tried gut strings!" I went to the Broberg House of Music and asked Dora Brobert (the little falcon who sat behind the counter) if she had any gut strings. She looked at me as if I had suddenly gone insane, and dug a set out of a drawer. I tried them on my Martin 00-28-G, and—

Absolutely stank! They wouldn't stay in pitch and they were inconsistent from fret to fret. And within three days, one of them popped.

So—back to the nylon strings.

Despite the efforts in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century of virtuoso guitarists like Fernando Sor, Francisco Tàrrega, Ferdinando Carulli, Matteo Carcassi, et al, it's no wonder the classic guitar nearly died out as a serious musical instrument!

I now have a considerably more up-scale guitar than my original Martin, and I used D'Addario EXP strings. They sound great on my guitar and they seem to last forever!

So—it may not be a major breakthrough in medicine or world peace, but I nominate the nylon string for classic guitars as one of the greater inventions.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 04:09 PM

Keep 'em coming, lads!

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 04:18 PM

Q -

Fuel cell vehicles. (Toyota will market in 2015)

I saw a fuel cell auto ca. 1968. It had the minor fault of exploding and blowing the "carburetor" off fairly frequently, but otherwise performance wasn't too bad. The same company then was also working on "metal hydride" fuel storage system for the car, with similar success. I'm not sure whether the same guys have been still working on it recently.

Tesla had planned on trial marketing of their Li ion battery powered car last year. So far I believe the reports have been that three of them "burned to the ground" when the batteries blew up.

People mostly don't understand the very long separation between the hallucination and the marketable product, but of course that doesn't mean we have to stop hoping.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 06:19 PM

Rocketry, 1926? We Americans have a song about the War of 1812 that mentions that art. There were rockets in China in the 15th century.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 06:47 PM

Re:   rockets.

I think there might be an important difference there. The Chinese rockets, and as far as I know, the 1812 rockets were powered with solid fuel—gun powder. You light the sucker and from then on you have no control over the length of the burn or the aim of the rocket, other than hoping it would go where you wanted it to go. Used for either fireworks displays or as a weapon.

Robert H. Goddard lauched a multi-stage, liquid-fueled rocket in 1914.   This was an important milestone toward spaceflight because the liquid fuel could be valved and controlled, or shut off if needed. He also successfully applied three-axis control, gyroscopes, and steerable thrust to rockets, to effectively control their flight.

A VERY important milestone in eventual space flight.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 07:09 PM

The 1926 event was when Goddard launched a successful rocket flight from his aunt's farm. The newspapers covered it, and mocked his ideas about the possibility of eventual space flight and maybe even going to the moon.

Obviously, the man is demented!!

But the Germans, it seems, were most interested. This interest eventually led to the development of the V-2, which caused a bit of consternation across the channel toward the end of WWII. When the Allies finally found their rocket testing sites, they discovered the A-9 A-10, a two-stage intercontinental missile, as yet untested.

The Germans were also within a few months of a workable atomic bomb!

That was kind of a narrow squeak!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 07:35 PM

Number one. Language.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 08:02 PM

Velcro.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: gnu
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 08:18 PM

Reading the posts above, a whole lot of comments came to mind. Then I read Kendall's post re number one.. "Language."

No comment.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: frogprince
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 09:12 PM

But...did the wheel come before language? I kinda doubt that. : )

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: frogprince
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 09:14 PM

Maybe Kendall is thinking of some of the language he's invented while working on antique "wheels" that he's owned.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Nov 13 - 09:23 PM

An awful lot of those actually pre-date the dates given. Sanitation systems existed in Rome and in Minoan Crete long before the 19th Century, and rocketry goes way, way back (unless liquid-fueled rockets are meant).

But for for the greatest good, I'd go for clean running water.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: eddie1
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 02:27 AM

The three greatest inventions since the wheel must be the second, third and perhaps, fourth wheel!
Eddie

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 02:57 AM

Wireless bodhrán microphones.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 04:19 AM

I believe it was Smithsonian magazine that ran a rather detailed "history of the wooden pencil" some time back. That should surely be included as a significant invention, although few now would know how to do anything with one.

The printing press is appropriately at the top of the list, but there's no mention of the typewriter that let eveyone sort of be his/her own "printer."

The sewing machine also was omitted, probably because the contributors think clothing "just happens" in a back room at WalMart(?). Without the sewing machine (and the feed sack) farmers in the central US would all have run around naked for several decades, so maybe they thought that's just a "social innovation" rather than an invention.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 07:02 AM

I might be wrong but I don't think anybody has mentioned iron and steel from the blast furnace.

I know we have had iron from the hittites a long time ago - but until the blast furnace and coal/coke nearly all iron was made on a small scale using charcoal and beaten into shape by the blacksmith.

The blast furnace led to loads of iron, melting, casting, forging and the Industrial Revolution

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 08:48 AM

Algebra, without which we could not quantify all the nice engineering stuff, or figure out many of the Car Guys' puzzlers. ("You can only do it if the answer is 'two.'")

And we absolutely cannot leave out the bicycle, which introduced rubber tires and chain drive which allowed automobiles, motorcycles, and airplanes to come into being.

And the bicycle of the late 70s is the best of all human engineering, period. A person on a bicycle uses less energy per distance than any other machine, or human or animal on Earth.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 09:35 AM

But what was the best thing before sliced bread, Pete?

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 09:41 AM

Unsliced bread.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 10:28 AM

Anesthesia

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Fergie
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 03:36 PM

An Englishman, a Scots man and an Irishman were interviewed for a radio program. The compare posed the following question. "What do each of you think is the greatest achievement of mankind?"
The English chap suggest that it was the kidney transplant. When asked to justify his choice he replied that if it wasn't for the kidney transplant his wife would be dead.
The Scot suggest that the liver transplant was his choice, because if it wasn't for the liver transplant he himself would be dead.
The Irishman ponder for a moment and said "I've listened to my fellow contributors and I understand there reasoning, but I'd like to suggest that the greatest invention ever has got to be the Venetian blind". "Why do you consider the Venetian blind to be the greatest invention of all time?" asked the perplexed interviewer. "Well just think about it" replied the Irishman "If it wasn't for the Venetian blind, it would be................................................                                                                                                      







curtains for everybody"

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 05:36 PM

Surely the most important invention after the wheel has to be the brake?

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 06:15 PM

One might think some people believe that the horn is more important than the brake, although a few seem to believe it's "the finger" that really counts.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: kendall
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 06:53 PM

An Englishman, a Pole and a German were discussing which is the most important invention.
German. firearms
Englishman. boats
Pole. The thermos bottle.

German says, "What? the thermos" ? why do you say that.
Pole says, "The thermos keeps stuff cold, yes"?
"Yes"
"Or it keeps it hot, yes?"
"Yes"
Pole, "How does it know the difference"?

I'll get me hat.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 07:11 PM

long handled shovel

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 07:37 PM

Do you refer to the celtic spade? If so, I might well concur!

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 07:56 PM

Well Steve we call it a,oh never mind it's now Sunday ( catholic thing.8)

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 04:17 AM

Where i live now they used to use them to plaster reed walls and high ceilings.Fling it up then give it the back of the shovel.Leaving a lovely tidy finish,no mess.Never seen it done myself. some used to shape simple coving with them been told.Like to of seen em at it.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 04:36 AM

Yeah but these mad professor types who keep inventing things;

They tend to call a spade an earth inverting horticultural implement.

I've thought of another, even better than the pickled egg I offered earlier -

The peg winder.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 04:48 AM

Your pushing at an open door with me re the pickling.Wheelie bins is another, even though everyone hates them.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 10:02 AM

Not patented for the application, but the Gator Grip Universal Socket is the "better peg winder."

The retractable pins in the socket will grip any shape/size knob, and with the adaptor from Home Despot you can have an electric peg winder. Most pegs turn easily enough by hand though.

Not having the "crank handle" makes it a little more compact in your gitar case too.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 11:26 PM

The microchip. Thanks, Jack!

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Van
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 04:10 AM

Why the production line? Made men slaves to a machine.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 06:58 AM

The useful invention that required the production line was the idea of making several machines/devices with interchangeable parts. While the idea may have displaced the few artisans who could make a whole device badly, it did permit many more workers, each to be skilled at a variety of more narrow/specific skills, to be used even for relatively simple products, and hence arguably increased the jobs accessible to a broader number of workers, with specialized but numerous skills, and made more complex products affordable for more of the people to use.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 07:55 AM

The retractable pins in the socket will grip any shape/size knob

Sounds bloody painful to me...

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Van
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 07:15 PM

John I'm willing to bet that you would sooner have an artisanal built guitar or whatever you play than something churned off on a belt. More affordable etc or not still men controlled by machines and expert at tightening a few bolts, not making the whole gadget.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 07:43 PM

I think I'll cast a vote for **toilet paper**... I've read a bit about procedures prior to its general use. (I have SEEN corn cobs and the Sears catalog when I was young, but I don't remember ever having to use them)

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Joe_F
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 08:15 PM

http://come-to-think.livejournal.com/27578.html

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 08:28 PM

Bill D - A fellow I worked with for a while had previously worked for one of the US TP makers, and described regular meetings where they compared products from all over the world whenever their reps went somewhere.

The conclusion then (quite a while ago) was that the Brits hadn't yet mastered the ability to make anything but "John Wayne**" toilet paper.

** "Don't take sh*t off of anybody."

(I've heard since that they may have made some progress, but of course every invention requires some development.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 10:14 PM

I actually spent more than half my life being unable to get really good TP, and because I never even heard of a bidét until about 20 years ago, I had problems.... and used a large amount of TP.
Now, I can buy at least 2 quite good types(Kleenex 'Cottonelle' preferred)..plus their paper towels which can be moistened and used for final 'clean-up' without tearing.

Life is good, and I can use either hand at the dinner table

....and I hope that the UK's situation has improved...

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 01:13 AM

Yes, it has, Bill. We now have proper ply-tissue by Kleenex, Andrex &c, unlike the horrible old Bronco or Izal of my youth. Makes all the difference ~~ as well as being adaptable for all sorts of other kleenup jobs around the place.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 01:59 AM

Our TP has been good enough for decades that 30 years ago I found that a box of "facial tissues" disappeared from my desk in an average time of about 3 hours.

The problem ceased when I started using the "Kleenex" that came in rolls.

(Seeing ways to misuse stuff for purposes for which it was not intended is the mark of the true craftsperson, isn't it?)

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 04:38 AM

No musical instruments at all?

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,musket again
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 04:39 AM

"Home Despot"? I take it the Bush family have branched into hardware stores.

I'll see if that device thingamajingy is available over here. Thanks for the tip.



I reckon the best invention since the wheel had to be the axle for fairly obvious reasons.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 06:46 AM

We still use that heavy-gauge tracing paper-type stuff with "Property of London County Council" on every sheet (nicked a lifetime's supply from the school stockroom in '72). Failing that, there's always sliding down a grassy slope (don't use the same place more often than once a fortnight though - even I'm not that 'ard). Wassup with you soft lot with your namby-pamby "absorbent" muck"!

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 11:06 AM

HA, Steve Shaw!... I used to use these products for a truly 'complete' cleansing experience, but having lost 33 lbs in just a year, I decided that proving my mettle was not worth the blood transfusions twice a week! Now, in my old age, I have decided on comfort.

-----------------------------

John: "(Seeing ways to misuse stuff for purposes for which it was not intended is the mark of the true craftsperson, isn't it?)"

Oh indeed! If you have ever been to The Yard Store, down on Central (and how could you live in Wichita and not go there?), you will know how I developed the art of 'adapting' stuff. I worked at The Yard for almost 3 years from 1975-to early '77. Now I have a workshop full of stuff I have rescued from oblivion and converted to necessities! (Did you know that the screw tops to plastic laundry soap bottles, in various sizes, make useful dust collection system adapters?☺)

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 12:36 PM

Unsolicited advertising CDs & DVDs make excellent drinks coasters.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 01:13 PM

Unsolicited advertising CDs & DVDs make excellent drinks coasters.

But when they get a little water scum on them from a cold drink they're so slick the beer can slides off of the dashboard.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Amos
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 02:06 PM

One of them has to be replaceable underwear. BEfore the advent of high-speed automated weaving, underwear only got changed when you peeled it off to wash it and then put it back on again. Let's hear it for fruit of the loom! A major contributor to public health.

I am personally fond of the thermos bottle. When you put something hot in it, it keeps it hot. If you put something cold in it, it keeps it cold. So HOW does it KNOW???

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 05:36 PM

You're supposed to change it???

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 06:17 PM

short shorts for Women

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 07:14 PM

"some" women...

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 05:50 PM

Uh. . . .   CLICKY.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bert
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 06:19 PM

I remember seeing a comic strip a few years back which claimed the the best invention since the wheel was ---- The Axle ----

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,musket noting
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:24 AM

I wish I could draw cos I thought of my axle contribution (above) all by my lonely self. Time to strut.

Of course, football (real football, not your American thing with a rugby ball gap between adverts with body padding) has to be the best invention.

Without it we wouldn't have Sheffield Wednesday.

Without Sheffield Wednesday we wouldn't have religion.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 10:16 AM

I would take issue with some of the inventions as being significant. Given 50 that is inevitable.

However there is an Oxford Professor who was on UK TV only this week proving that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were not in Babylon but in Nineveh (present-day Mosul). The significance ofd this is that she was quite clear that they used the Archimedian Spiral to lift water that had already come 700 Km from the mountains. So the date for that invention would be at least 500 years earlier. Given that the Greeks were the ones listing the 7 wonders of the ancient world and visited them like modern-day tourists - maybe Archimedes was one such.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:17 PM

Don...YUP! (although, that will suit some guys just fine.)

It reminds me of an old rhyme that stuck in my flypaper mind... (catches lots of stuff, but randomly)

"Sure, deck your limbs in pants
Yours are the limbs, my sweeting
You look divine as you advance
Have you seen yourself retreating?"
    -Ogden Nash

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:25 PM

Bill D ... in interests of accuracy ~~~

"...your LOWER limbs..."

~M~ OLP · [Official Legendary Pedant]

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 01:10 PM

Ah right! I remember now...I knew it didn't look right... even after I checked it with Google.

~ßill~ [tending toward pedantry myself, but sometimes afflicted with CRS.. ;>)]

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 01:16 PM

(found on page 222 of one of my 4 volume set of Nash's poetry vol 4 is "Many Long Years Ago") I shoulda gone to the source..

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 12:46 PM

Without it we wouldn't have Sheffield Wednesday.

Without Sheffield Wednesday we wouldn't have religion.

Without Sheffield Wednesday we'd have a much poorer League One next season. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Nov 13 - 04:22 AM

The original list requires a correction, since it shows the telephone as being invented in 1876.

Archaeologists have recently reported that a telephone made ~1,200 years ago has been found in South America. (It was actually found, they think, about 80 years ago, but has "languished" in a museum until someone wrote a paper on it.)

It appears to have consisted of two gourds connected by a 75 ft piece of string ... .

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 30 Nov 13 - 09:42 PM

A Blueberry tree?


blueberry tree

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,musket noting
Date: 01 Dec 13 - 02:48 AM

I heard that Shaw. ..

A long trip back from Blackpool yesterday. And you know where that is near. ....

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 01 Dec 13 - 09:00 AM

More on sliced bread:


Sliced bread

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Amos
Date: 01 Dec 13 - 11:45 AM

ONe of the greatest inventions of all time has got to be the oscillating taut string. It gave us banjos, fiddles, pianos, cellos, insight into harmonics and wave-lengths and opened the door to all kinds of subsequent discoveries about waves.


A

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Dec 13 - 08:34 PM

Just so y'all won't think I was joking about the 1,200 year old telephone:

Can You Hear Me Now?

"There's a 1,200-year-old Phone in the Smithsonian Collections
One of the earliest examples of ingenuity in the Western Hemisphere is composed of gourds and twine."

By Neil Baldwin
Smithsonian magazine, December 2013


[There's even a nice photo of it.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Dec 13 - 08:41 PM

Amos may want to note that it also uses an oscillating taut string, although that's more of a discovery than an invention. Using a vibrating string to make a telephone (or even a banjo) is an invention.

Ocean waves have been discovered too, but using them to generate electric power is a possible invention (yet to be practical?).

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: Amos
Date: 01 Dec 13 - 09:43 PM

A fine distinction, John, and duly noted; to be precise, the making taut of a string or fiber and making it oscillate for some purpose was an important advance. Probably buried in prehistory though.

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Dec 13 - 11:04 PM

The first guy (or gal) who made a bow and shot an arrow with it likely discovered the oscillation. The bow itself was an invention based on the oscillation of a stretched string, although we seldom think of a single quarter-cycle in terms of it being a "vibration."

At first sight, it seems a little odd that so many applications of transverse vibrations of a string are well known, but there are exceedingly few inventions based on the longitudinal vibrations of one. One such (musical) invention is documented as being more than a hundred years old, but few people seem to have heard of it.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 12:12 AM

I seem to remember a question which caused the team some lucubration on that old, 1940s, BBC Home Service radio show called The Brains Trust, in which a panel of various mavens endeavoured to answer listeners' questions, as to whether Mathematics were an invention or a discovery. [Which, eh?]

There are many phenomena, both physical and intellectual, to which the question of this distinction may be applied, are there not?

Perhaps that's another thread?

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 05:25 PM

Heidi Klum

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 05:28 PM

Heidi Klum holding a Hamilton 992B and nothing else

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 05:29 PM

Heidi Klum, holding a Hamilton 992b pocket watch and playing a Martin D-28

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 05:33 PM

Heidi Klum holding an executive order outlawing Jell-o while checking the time on the 992B and strumming on the D-28

Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel
From: GUEST,iain
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 02:45 AM

I would place writing, the mass production of iron and steel and alternating electricity immediately after the wheel.