BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel

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.

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,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 - 05:28 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 - 05:25 PM

Heidi Klum

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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 30 Nov 13 - 09:42 PM

A Blueberry tree?


blueberry tree

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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: Don Firth
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 05:50 PM

Uh. . . .   CLICKY.

Don Firth

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: GUEST,olddude
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 06:17 PM

short shorts for Women

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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 04:38 AM

No musical instruments at all?

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 11:26 PM

The microchip. Thanks, Jack!

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: 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: 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 - 04:17 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
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 07:56 PM

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