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21 Nov 13 - 10:52 PM (#3577912) Subject: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Ebbie 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 |
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21 Nov 13 - 11:00 PM (#3577914) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: ChanteyLass 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. |
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22 Nov 13 - 12:37 AM (#3577925) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 02:49 AM (#3577932) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 03:03 AM (#3577934) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,musket wondering 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? |
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22 Nov 13 - 03:33 AM (#3577937) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,Shimrod 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! |
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22 Nov 13 - 04:19 AM (#3577950) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Will Fly The condom - timeless - and timely... |
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22 Nov 13 - 04:32 AM (#3577956) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,Eliza 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. |
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22 Nov 13 - 04:46 AM (#3577960) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 04:56 AM (#3577964) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Jack Blandiver Glass. Without which there'd be no civilisation... |
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22 Nov 13 - 06:08 AM (#3577983) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Pete Jennings They forgot sliced bread... |
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22 Nov 13 - 09:12 AM (#3578017) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Richard Bridge 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. |
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22 Nov 13 - 09:25 AM (#3578019) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Steve Shaw The greatest invention of all time was the second telephone. |
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22 Nov 13 - 12:31 PM (#3578076) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D 45: Television, early 20th century 45a: The remote control mute button, barely in time |
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22 Nov 13 - 12:38 PM (#3578080) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Ebbie 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. |
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22 Nov 13 - 12:46 PM (#3578086) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 01:06 PM (#3578097) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Q (Frank Staplin) Bic pens Credit cards Online shopping |
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22 Nov 13 - 01:42 PM (#3578112) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Q (Frank Staplin) 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!) |
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22 Nov 13 - 01:57 PM (#3578114) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,Eliza An all-purpose, universal, all singing all dancing cure for cancer. |
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22 Nov 13 - 02:47 PM (#3578122) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Big Ballad Singer 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 :) |
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22 Nov 13 - 03:25 PM (#3578131) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Don Firth 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 04:09 PM (#3578143) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST, Ebbie Keep 'em coming, lads! |
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22 Nov 13 - 04:18 PM (#3578146) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 06:19 PM (#3578181) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Joe_F 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. |
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22 Nov 13 - 06:47 PM (#3578188) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Don Firth 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 07:09 PM (#3578190) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Don Firth 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 |
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22 Nov 13 - 07:35 PM (#3578201) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,kendall Number one. Language. |
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22 Nov 13 - 08:02 PM (#3578206) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Steve Shaw Velcro. |
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22 Nov 13 - 08:18 PM (#3578210) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: gnu Reading the posts above, a whole lot of comments came to mind. Then I read Kendall's post re number one.. "Language." No comment. |
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22 Nov 13 - 09:12 PM (#3578217) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: frogprince But...did the wheel come before language? I kinda doubt that. : ) |
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22 Nov 13 - 09:14 PM (#3578220) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: frogprince Maybe Kendall is thinking of some of the language he's invented while working on antique "wheels" that he's owned. |
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22 Nov 13 - 09:23 PM (#3578222) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Rapparee 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. |
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23 Nov 13 - 02:27 AM (#3578257) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: eddie1 The three greatest inventions since the wheel must be the second, third and perhaps, fourth wheel! Eddie |
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23 Nov 13 - 02:57 AM (#3578260) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Seamus Kennedy Wireless bodhrán microphones. |
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23 Nov 13 - 04:19 AM (#3578264) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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23 Nov 13 - 07:02 AM (#3578305) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Les in Chorlton 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 |
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23 Nov 13 - 08:48 AM (#3578326) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,saulgoldie 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 |
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23 Nov 13 - 09:35 AM (#3578344) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Steve Shaw But what was the best thing before sliced bread, Pete? |
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23 Nov 13 - 09:41 AM (#3578348) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Pete Jennings Unsliced bread. |
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23 Nov 13 - 10:28 AM (#3578360) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: dick greenhaus Anesthesia |
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23 Nov 13 - 03:36 PM (#3578439) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Fergie 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" |
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23 Nov 13 - 05:36 PM (#3578457) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Ian Hendrie Surely the most important invention after the wheel has to be the brake? |
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23 Nov 13 - 06:15 PM (#3578462) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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23 Nov 13 - 06:53 PM (#3578468) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: kendall 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. |
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23 Nov 13 - 07:11 PM (#3578474) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST long handled shovel |
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23 Nov 13 - 07:37 PM (#3578481) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Steve Shaw Do you refer to the celtic spade? If so, I might well concur! |
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23 Nov 13 - 07:56 PM (#3578485) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST Well Steve we call it a,oh never mind it's now Sunday ( catholic thing.8) |
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24 Nov 13 - 04:17 AM (#3578532) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST 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. |
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24 Nov 13 - 04:36 AM (#3578540) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,Musket 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. |
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24 Nov 13 - 04:48 AM (#3578542) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST Your pushing at an open door with me re the pickling.Wheelie bins is another, even though everyone hates them. |
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24 Nov 13 - 10:02 AM (#3578621) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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24 Nov 13 - 11:26 PM (#3578841) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Stilly River Sage The microchip. Thanks, Jack! |
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25 Nov 13 - 04:10 AM (#3578880) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Van Why the production line? Made men slaves to a machine. |
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25 Nov 13 - 06:58 AM (#3578933) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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25 Nov 13 - 07:55 AM (#3578944) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Steve Shaw The retractable pins in the socket will grip any shape/size knob Sounds bloody painful to me... |
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25 Nov 13 - 07:15 PM (#3579166) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Van 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. |
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25 Nov 13 - 07:43 PM (#3579172) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D 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) |
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25 Nov 13 - 08:15 PM (#3579176) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Joe_F http://come-to-think.livejournal.com/27578.html |
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25 Nov 13 - 08:28 PM (#3579179) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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25 Nov 13 - 10:14 PM (#3579191) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D 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... |
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26 Nov 13 - 01:13 AM (#3579200) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: MGM·Lion 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~ |
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26 Nov 13 - 01:59 AM (#3579203) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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26 Nov 13 - 04:38 AM (#3579227) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST No musical instruments at all? |
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26 Nov 13 - 04:39 AM (#3579229) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,musket again "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. |
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26 Nov 13 - 06:46 AM (#3579257) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Steve Shaw 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"! |
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26 Nov 13 - 11:06 AM (#3579345) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D 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?☺) |
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26 Nov 13 - 12:36 PM (#3579367) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: MGM·Lion Unsolicited advertising CDs & DVDs make excellent drinks coasters. ~M~ |
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26 Nov 13 - 01:13 PM (#3579377) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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26 Nov 13 - 02:06 PM (#3579397) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Amos 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??? |
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26 Nov 13 - 05:36 PM (#3579433) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas You're supposed to change it??? John |
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26 Nov 13 - 06:17 PM (#3579440) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,olddude short shorts for Women |
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26 Nov 13 - 07:14 PM (#3579456) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D "some" women... |
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27 Nov 13 - 05:50 PM (#3579462) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Don Firth Uh. . . . CLICKY. Don Firth |
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27 Nov 13 - 06:19 PM (#3579468) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bert I remember seeing a comic strip a few years back which claimed the the best invention since the wheel was ---- The Axle ---- |
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28 Nov 13 - 03:24 AM (#3579531) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,musket noting 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. |
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28 Nov 13 - 10:16 AM (#3579622) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Mr Red 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. |
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28 Nov 13 - 12:17 PM (#3579651) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D 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 |
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28 Nov 13 - 12:25 PM (#3579654) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: MGM·Lion Bill D ... in interests of accuracy ~~~ "...your LOWER limbs..." ~M~ OLP · [Official Legendary Pedant] |
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28 Nov 13 - 01:10 PM (#3579676) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D 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.. ;>)] |
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28 Nov 13 - 01:16 PM (#3579680) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Bill D (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.. |
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29 Nov 13 - 12:46 PM (#3579970) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Steve Shaw 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. :-) |
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30 Nov 13 - 04:22 AM (#3580116) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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30 Nov 13 - 09:42 PM (#3580303) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,Ed T A Blueberry tree? blueberry tree |
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01 Dec 13 - 02:48 AM (#3580333) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,musket noting I heard that Shaw. .. A long trip back from Blackpool yesterday. And you know where that is near. .... |
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01 Dec 13 - 09:00 AM (#3580389) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,Ed T More on sliced bread: Sliced bread |
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01 Dec 13 - 11:45 AM (#3580422) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Amos 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 |
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01 Dec 13 - 08:34 PM (#3580560) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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01 Dec 13 - 08:41 PM (#3580562) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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01 Dec 13 - 09:43 PM (#3580573) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: Amos 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. |
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01 Dec 13 - 11:04 PM (#3580579) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: JohnInKansas 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 |
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02 Dec 13 - 12:12 AM (#3580582) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: MGM·Lion 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~ |
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02 Dec 13 - 05:25 PM (#3580811) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,olddude Heidi Klum |
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02 Dec 13 - 05:28 PM (#3580816) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,olddude Heidi Klum holding a Hamilton 992B and nothing else |
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02 Dec 13 - 05:29 PM (#3580818) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,olddude Heidi Klum, holding a Hamilton 992b pocket watch and playing a Martin D-28 |
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02 Dec 13 - 05:33 PM (#3580820) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,olddude Heidi Klum holding an executive order outlawing Jell-o while checking the time on the 992B and strumming on the D-28 |
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03 Dec 13 - 02:45 AM (#3580916) Subject: RE: BS: 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel From: GUEST,iain I would place writing, the mass production of iron and steel and alternating electricity immediately after the wheel. |
