The article on the topic: “dream book running herd” provides relevant information...
The history of mankind is closely connected with constant progress, development of technology, new discoveries and inventions. Some technologies are outdated and become history, others, such as the wheel or sail, are still in use today. Countless discoveries were lost in the whirlpool of time, others, not appreciated by their contemporaries, waited for recognition and implementation for tens and hundreds of years.
Editorial Samogo.Net conducted her own research designed to answer the question of which inventions are considered the most significant by our contemporaries.
Processing and analysis of the results of online surveys showed that there is simply no consensus on this matter. Nevertheless, we managed to form an overall unique rating of the greatest inventions and discoveries in human history. As it turned out, despite the fact that science has long moved forward, basic discoveries remain the most significant in the minds of our contemporaries.
First place undoubtedly took Fire
People early discovered the beneficial properties of fire - its ability to illuminate and warm, to change plant and animal food for the better.
The “wild fire” that broke out during forest fires or volcanic eruptions was terrible for man, but by bringing fire into his cave, man “tamed” it and “put” it into his service. From that time on, fire became a constant companion of man and the basis of his economy. In ancient times, it was an indispensable source of heat, light, a means of cooking, and a hunting tool.
However, further cultural achievements (ceramics, metallurgy, steelmaking, steam engines, etc.) are due to the complex use of fire.
For many millennia, people used “home fire”, maintaining it year after year in their caves, before they learned to produce it themselves using friction. This discovery probably happened by accident, after our ancestors learned to drill wood. During this operation, the wood was heated and, under favorable conditions, ignition could occur. Having paid attention to this, people began to widely use friction to make fire.
The simplest method was to take two sticks of dry wood, and make a hole in one of them. The first stick was placed on the ground and pressed with the knee. The second one was inserted into the hole, and then they began to quickly and quickly rotate it between the palms. At the same time, it was necessary to press hard on the stick. The inconvenience of this method was that the palms gradually slid down. Every now and then I had to lift them up and continue rotating again. Although, with some skill, this can be done quickly, yet due to constant stops, the process was greatly delayed. It is much easier to make fire by friction, working together. In this case, one person held the horizontal stick and pressed on top of the vertical one, and the second quickly rotated it between his palms. Later, they began to wrap the vertical stick with a strap, moving which to the right and left you can speed up the movement, and for convenience, they began to put a bone cap on the upper end. Thus, the entire device for making fire began to consist of four parts: two sticks (fixed and rotating), a strap and an upper cap. In this way, it was possible to make fire alone, if you pressed the lower stick with your knee to the ground and the cap with your teeth.
And only later, with the development of mankind, other methods of producing open fire became available.
Second place in the responses of the online community they ranked Wheel and Cart
It is believed that its prototype may have been rollers that were placed under heavy tree trunks, boats and stones when dragging them from place to place. Perhaps the first observations of the properties of rotating bodies were made at the same time. For example, if for some reason the log roller was thinner in the center than at the edges, it moved more evenly under the load and did not skid to the side. Noticing this, people began to deliberately burn the rollers in such a way that the middle part became thinner, while the sides remained unchanged. Thus, a device was obtained, which is now called a “ramp.” In the course of further improvements in this direction, only two rollers at its ends remained from a solid log, and an axis appeared between them. Later they began to be made separately and then rigidly fastened together. Thus the wheel in the proper sense of the word was discovered and the first cart appeared.
In subsequent centuries, many generations of craftsmen worked to improve this invention. Initially, solid wheels were rigidly attached to the axle and rotated with it. When traveling on a flat road, such carts were quite suitable for use. When turning, when the wheels must rotate at different speeds, this connection creates great inconvenience, since a heavily loaded cart can easily break or tip over. The wheels themselves were still very imperfect. They were made from a single piece of wood. Therefore, the carts were heavy and clumsy. They moved slowly, and were usually harnessed to slow but powerful oxen.
One of the oldest carts of the described design was found during excavations in Mohenjo-Daro. A major step forward in the development of transportation technology was the invention of a wheel with a hub mounted on a fixed axle. In this case, the wheels rotated independently of each other. And so that the wheel rubs against the axle less, they began to lubricate it with grease or tar.
To reduce the weight of the wheel, cutouts were cut out in it, and for rigidity they were reinforced with transverse braces. It was impossible to think of anything better in the Stone Age. But after the discovery of metals, wheels with a metal rim and spokes began to be made. Such a wheel could rotate tens of times faster and was not afraid of hitting rocks. By harnessing fleet-footed horses to a cart, man significantly increased the speed of his movement. It is perhaps difficult to find another discovery that would give such a powerful impetus to the development of technology.
Third place rightfully occupied Writing
There is no need to talk about how great the invention of writing was in the history of mankind. It is impossible to even imagine what path the development of civilization could have taken if, at a certain stage of their development, people had not learned to record the information they needed with the help of certain symbols and thus transmit and store it. It is obvious that human society in the form in which it exists today simply could not have appeared.
The first forms of writing in the form of specially inscribed characters appeared about 4 thousand years BC. But long before this, there were various ways of transmitting and storing information: with the help of branches folded in a certain way, arrows, smoke from fires and similar signals. From these primitive warning systems, more complex methods of recording information later emerged. For example, the ancient Incas invented an original “writing” system using knots. For this purpose, wool laces of different colors were used. They were tied with various knots and attached to a stick. In this form, the “letter” was sent to the addressee. There is an opinion that the Incas used such “knot writing” to record their laws, write down chronicles and poems. “Knot writing” was also noted among other peoples - it was used in ancient China and Mongolia.
However, writing in the proper sense of the word appeared only after people invented special graphic signs to record and transmit information. The oldest type of writing is considered pictographic. A pictogram is a schematic drawing that directly depicts the things, events, and phenomena in question. It is assumed that pictography was widespread among various peoples during the last stage of the Stone Age. This letter is very visual, and therefore does not require special study. It is quite suitable for transmitting small messages and for recording simple stories. But when the need arose to convey some complex abstract thought or concept, the limited capabilities of the pictogram were immediately felt, which was completely unsuited to recording what could not be depicted in pictures (for example, such concepts as vigor, courage, vigilance, good sleep, heavenly azure, etc.). Therefore, already at an early stage in the history of writing, the number of pictograms began to include special conventional icons that denote certain concepts (for example, the sign of crossed hands symbolized exchange). Such icons are called ideograms. Ideographic writing also arose from pictographic writing, and one can quite clearly imagine how this happened: each pictorial sign of a pictogram began to become increasingly isolated from others and associated with a specific word or concept, denoting it. Gradually, this process developed so much that primitive pictograms lost their former clarity, but gained clarity and definiteness. This process took a long time, perhaps several thousand years.
The highest form of ideogram was hieroglyphic writing. It first appeared in Ancient Egypt. Later, hieroglyphic writing became widespread in the Far East - in China, Japan and Korea. With the help of ideograms it was possible to reflect any, even the most complex and abstract thought. However, for those not privy to the secrets of the hieroglyphs, the meaning of what was written was completely incomprehensible. Anyone who wanted to learn to write had to memorize several thousand symbols. In reality, this took several years of constant exercise. Therefore, in ancient times, few people knew how to write and read.
Only at the end of 2 thousand BC. The ancient Phoenicians invented a letter-sound alphabet, which served as a model for the alphabets of many other peoples. The Phoenician alphabet consisted of 22 consonant letters, each of which represented a different sound. The invention of this alphabet was a big step forward for humanity. With the help of the new letter it was easy to convey any word graphically, without resorting to ideograms. It was very easy to learn. The art of writing has ceased to be the privilege of the enlightened. It became the property of the entire society, or at least a large part of it. This was one of the reasons for the rapid spread of the Phoenician alphabet throughout the world. It is believed that four-fifths of all currently known alphabets arose from Phoenician.
Thus, from a variety of Phoenician writing (Punic) Libyan developed. The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek writing came directly from Phoenician. In turn, on the basis of the Aramaic script, Arabic, Nabataean, Syriac, Persian and other scripts developed. The Greeks made the last important improvement to the Phoenician alphabet - they began to denote not only consonants, but also vowel sounds with letters. The Greek alphabet formed the basis of most European alphabets: Latin (from which French, German, English, Italian, Spanish and other alphabets in turn originated), Coptic, Armenian, Georgian and Slavic (Serbian, Russian, Bulgarian, etc.).
Fourth place takes after writing Paper
Its creators were the Chinese. And this is no coincidence. Firstly, China, already in ancient times, was famous for its book wisdom and complex system of bureaucratic management, which required constant reporting from officials. Therefore, there has always been a need for inexpensive and compact writing material. Before the invention of paper, people in China wrote either on bamboo tablets or on silk.
But silk was always very expensive, and bamboo was very bulky and heavy. (An average of 30 hieroglyphs were placed on one tablet. It is easy to imagine how much space such a bamboo “book” must have taken up. It is no coincidence that they write that a whole cart was required to transport some works.) Secondly, only the Chinese for a long time knew the secret of production silk, and papermaking developed from one technical operation of processing silk cocoons. This operation consisted of the following. Women engaged in sericulture boiled silkworm cocoons, then, laying them out on a mat, dipped them into water and ground them until a homogeneous mass was formed. When the mass was taken out and the water was filtered out, silk wool was obtained. However, after such mechanical and thermal treatment, a thin fibrous layer remained on the mats, which, after drying, turned into a sheet of very thin paper suitable for writing. Later, workers began to use rejected silkworm cocoons for purposeful paper production. At the same time, they repeated the process that was already familiar to them: they boiled the cocoons, washed and crushed them to obtain paper pulp, and finally dried the resulting sheets. Such paper was called “cotton paper” and was quite expensive, since the raw material itself was expensive.
Naturally, in the end the question arose: can paper be made only from silk, or can any fibrous raw material, including plant origin, be suitable for preparing paper pulp? In 105, a certain Cai Lun, an important official at the court of the Han emperor, prepared a new type of paper from old fishing nets. It was not as good as silk, but was much cheaper. This important discovery had enormous consequences not only for China, but also for the whole world - for the first time in history, people received first-class and accessible writing material, for which there is no equivalent replacement to this day. The name of Tsai Lun is therefore rightfully included among the names of the greatest inventors in the history of mankind. Over the following centuries, several important improvements were made to the papermaking process, allowing it to develop rapidly.
In the 4th century, paper completely replaced bamboo tablets from use. New experiments have shown that paper can be made from cheap plant materials: tree bark, reed and bamboo. The latter was especially important since bamboo grows in huge quantities in China. The bamboo was split into thin splinters, soaked in lime, and the resulting mass was then boiled for several days. The strained grounds were kept in special pits, thoroughly ground with special beaters and diluted with water until a sticky, mushy mass was formed. This mass was scooped out using a special form - a bamboo sieve mounted on a stretcher. A thin layer of mass along with the mold was placed under the press. Then the form was pulled out and only a sheet of paper remained under the press. The compressed sheets were removed from the sieve, piled, dried, smoothed and cut to size.
Over time, the Chinese have achieved the highest art in paper making. For several centuries, they, as usual, carefully kept the secrets of paper production. But in 751, during a clash with the Arabs in the foothills of the Tien Shan, several Chinese masters were captured. From them the Arabs learned to make paper themselves and for five centuries sold it very profitably to Europe. Europeans were the last of the civilized peoples who learned to make their own paper. The Spaniards were the first to adopt this art from the Arabs. In 1154, paper production was established in Italy, in 1228 in Germany, and in 1309 in England. In subsequent centuries, paper became widespread throughout the world, gradually conquering more and more new areas of application. Its significance in our lives is so great that, according to the famous French bibliographer A. Sim, our era can rightfully be called the “paper era.”
Fifth place occupied Gunpowder and Firearms
The invention of gunpowder and its spread in Europe had enormous consequences for the subsequent history of mankind. Although the Europeans were the last of the civilized peoples to learn how to make this explosive mixture, they were the ones who were able to derive the greatest practical benefit from its discovery. The rapid development of firearms and a revolution in military affairs were the first consequences of the spread of gunpowder. This, in turn, entailed profound social changes: armor-clad knights and their impregnable castles were powerless against the fire of cannons and arquebuses. Feudal society was dealt such a blow from which it could no longer recover. In a short time, many European powers overcame feudal fragmentation and became powerful centralized states.
There are few inventions in the history of technology that would lead to such grandiose and far-reaching changes. Before gunpowder became known in the West, it already had a long history in the East, and it was invented by the Chinese. The most important component of gunpowder is saltpeter. In some areas of China it was found in its native form and looked like flakes of snow dusting the ground. Later it was discovered that saltpeter is formed in areas rich in alkalis and decaying (nitrogen-delivering) substances. When lighting a fire, the Chinese could observe the flashes that occurred when saltpeter and coal burned.
The properties of saltpeter were first described by the Chinese physician Tao Hung-ching, who lived at the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries. Since that time, it has been used as a component of some medicines. Alchemists often used it when conducting experiments. In the 7th century, one of them, Sun Sy-miao, prepared a mixture of sulfur and saltpeter, adding to them several shares of locust wood. While heating this mixture in a crucible, he suddenly received a powerful flash of flame. He described this experience in his treatise Dan Jing. It is believed that Sun Si-miao prepared one of the first samples of gunpowder, which, however, did not yet have a strong explosive effect.
Subsequently, the composition of gunpowder was improved by other alchemists, who experimentally established its three main components: coal, sulfur and potassium nitrate. The medieval Chinese could not scientifically explain what kind of explosive reaction occurs when gunpowder is ignited, but they very soon learned to use it for military purposes. True, in their lives gunpowder did not have the revolutionary influence that it later had on European society. This is explained by the fact that for a long time the craftsmen prepared the powder mixture from unrefined components. Meanwhile, unrefined saltpeter and sulfur containing foreign impurities did not give a strong explosive effect. For several centuries, gunpowder was used exclusively as an incendiary agent. Later, when its quality improved, gunpowder began to be used as an explosive in the manufacture of land mines, hand grenades and explosive packages.
But even after this, for a long time they did not think of using the power of the gases generated during the combustion of gunpowder to throw bullets and cannonballs. Only in the 12th-13th centuries did the Chinese begin to use weapons that were very vaguely reminiscent of firearms, but they invented firecrackers and rockets. The Arabs and Mongols learned the secret of gunpowder from the Chinese. In the first third of the 13th century, the Arabs achieved great skill in pyrotechnics. They used saltpeter in many compounds, mixing it with sulfur and coal, adding other components to them and setting up fireworks of amazing beauty. From the Arabs, the composition of the powder mixture became known to European alchemists. One of them, Mark the Greek, already in 1220 wrote down in his treatise a recipe for gunpowder: 6 parts of saltpeter to 1 part of sulfur and 1 part of coal. Later, Roger Bacon wrote quite accurately about the composition of gunpowder.
However, another hundred years passed before this recipe ceased to be a secret. This secondary discovery of gunpowder is associated with the name of another alchemist, the Feiburg monk Berthold Schwartz. One day he began to pound a crushed mixture of saltpeter, sulfur and coal in a mortar, which resulted in an explosion that singed Berthold’s beard. This or other experience gave Berthold the idea of using the power of powder gases to throw stones. He is believed to have made one of the first artillery pieces in Europe.
Gunpowder was originally a fine flour-like powder. It was not convenient to use, since when loading guns and arquebuses, the powder pulp stuck to the walls of the barrel. Finally, they noticed that gunpowder in the form of lumps was much more convenient - it was easy to charge and, when ignited, produced more gases (2 pounds of gunpowder in lumps gave a greater effect than 3 pounds in pulp).
In the first quarter of the 15th century, for convenience, they began to use grain gunpowder, which was obtained by rolling the powder pulp (with alcohol and other impurities) into a dough, which was then passed through a sieve. To prevent the grains from grinding during transportation, they learned to polish them. To do this, they were placed in a special drum, when spun, the grains hit and rubbed against each other and became compacted. After processing, their surface became smooth and shiny.
Sixth place ranked in the polls : telegraph, telephone, Internet, radio and other types of modern communications
Until the middle of the 19th century, the only means of communication between the European continent and England, between America and Europe, between Europe and the colonies was steamship mail. Incidents and events in other countries were learned about with a delay of weeks, and sometimes even months. For example, news from Europe to America was delivered in two weeks, and this was not the longest time. Therefore, the creation of the telegraph met the most urgent needs of mankind.
After this technical novelty appeared in all corners of the world and telegraph lines encircled the globe, it took only hours, and sometimes minutes, for the news to travel along electrical wires from one hemisphere to the other. Political and stock market reports, personal and business messages could be delivered to interested parties on the same day. Thus, the telegraph should be considered one of the most important inventions in the history of civilization, because with it the human mind achieved the greatest victory over distance.
With the invention of the telegraph, the problem of transmitting messages over long distances was solved. However, the telegraph could only send written dispatches. Meanwhile, many inventors dreamed of a more advanced and communicative method of communication, with the help of which it would be possible to transmit the live sound of human speech or music over any distance. The first experiments in this direction were undertaken in 1837 by the American physicist Page. The essence of Page's experiments was very simple. He assembled an electrical circuit that included a tuning fork, an electromagnet, and galvanic elements. During its vibrations, the tuning fork quickly opened and closed the circuit. This intermittent current was transmitted to an electromagnet, which just as quickly attracted and released a thin steel rod. As a result of these vibrations, the rod produced a singing sound, similar to that produced by a tuning fork. Thus, Page showed that it is in principle possible to transmit sound using electric current, it is only necessary to create more advanced transmitting and receiving devices.
And later, as a result of long searches, discoveries and inventions, the mobile phone, television, Internet and other means of communication of mankind appeared, without which it is impossible to imagine our modern life.
Seventh place ranked in the top 10 according to survey results Automobile
The automobile is one of those greatest inventions that, like the wheel, gunpowder or electric current, had a colossal influence not only on the era that gave birth to them, but also on all subsequent times. Its multi-faceted impact extends far beyond the transport sector. The automobile shaped modern industry, gave birth to new industries, and despotically restructured production itself, giving it a mass, serial, and continuous production character for the first time. It transformed the appearance of the planet, which was surrounded by millions of kilometers of highways, put pressure on the environment and even changed human psychology. The influence of the car is now so multifaceted that it is felt in all spheres of human life. He became, as it were, a visible and visual embodiment of technological progress in general, with all its advantages and disadvantages.
There have been many amazing pages in the history of the car, but perhaps the brightest of them dates back to the first years of its existence. One cannot help but be amazed by the speed with which this invention has gone from inception to maturity. It only took a quarter of a century for the car to turn from a capricious and still unreliable toy into the most popular and widespread vehicle. Already at the beginning of the 20th century, it was identical in its main features to a modern car.
The immediate predecessor of the gasoline car was the steam car. The first practical steam car is considered to be a steam cart built by the Frenchman Cugnot in 1769. Carrying up to 3 tons of cargo, it moved at a speed of only 2-4 km/h. She also had other shortcomings. The heavy car had very poor steering control and constantly ran into the walls of houses and fences, causing destruction and suffering considerable damage. The two horsepower that its engine developed were difficult to achieve. Despite the large volume of the boiler, the pressure dropped quickly. Every quarter of an hour, to maintain pressure, we had to stop and light the firebox. One of the trips ended in a boiler explosion. Fortunately, Cugno himself remained alive.
Cugno's followers were luckier. In 1803, Trivaitik, already known to us, built the first steam car in Great Britain. The car had huge rear wheels about 2.5 m in diameter. A boiler was attached between the wheels and the rear of the frame, which was served by a fireman standing on the back. The steam car was equipped with a single horizontal cylinder. From the piston rod, through the connecting rod and crank mechanism, the drive gear rotated, which was meshed with another gear mounted on the axis of the rear wheels. The axle of these wheels was hinged to the frame and turned using a long lever by the driver sitting on a high beam. The body was suspended on high C-shaped springs. With 8-10 passengers, the car reached speeds of up to 15 km/h, which, undoubtedly, was a very good achievement for that time. The appearance of this amazing car on the streets of London attracted a lot of onlookers who did not hide their delight.
The car in the modern sense of the word appeared only after the creation of a compact and economical internal combustion engine, which made a real revolution in transport technology.
The first gasoline-powered car was built in 1864 by the Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus. Fascinated by pyrotechnics, Marcus once set fire to a mixture of gasoline vapor and air with an electric spark. Amazed by the force of the ensuing explosion, he decided to create an engine in which this effect could be used. In the end, he managed to build a two-stroke gasoline engine with electric ignition, which he installed on an ordinary cart. In 1875, Marcus created a more advanced car.
The official fame of the inventors of the car belongs to two German engineers - Benz and Daimler. Benz designed two-stroke gas engines and owned a small factory for their production. The engines were in good demand, and the Benz business flourished. He had enough money and leisure for other developments. Benz's dream was to create a self-propelled carriage powered by an internal combustion engine. Benz's own engine, like Otto's four-stroke engine, was not suitable for this, since they had a low speed (about 120 rpm). When the speed dropped slightly, they stalled. Benz understood that a car equipped with such an engine would stop at every bump. What was needed was a high-speed engine with a good ignition system and an apparatus for forming a combustible mixture.
Cars were rapidly improving Back in 1891, Edouard Michelin, owner of a rubber products factory in Clermont-Ferrand, invented a removable pneumatic tire for a bicycle (a Dunlop tube was poured into the tire and glued to the rim). In 1895, production of removable pneumatic tires for cars began. These tires were first tested in the same year at the Paris - Bordeaux - Paris race. The Peugeot equipped with them barely made it to Rouen, and then was forced to retire from the race, as the tires were continuously punctured. Nevertheless, experts and car enthusiasts were amazed at the smooth running of the car and the comfort of driving it. From that time on, pneumatic tires gradually came into use, and all cars began to be equipped with them. The winner of these races was again Levassor. When he stopped the car at the finish line and stepped onto the ground, he said: “It was crazy. I was doing 30 kilometers per hour!” Now at the finish site there is a monument in honor of this significant victory.
Eighth place - Light bulb
In the last decades of the 19th century, electric lighting entered the life of many European cities. Appearing first on the streets and squares, it very soon penetrated into every house, into every apartment and became an integral part of the life of every civilized person. This was one of the most important events in the history of technology, which had enormous and varied consequences. The rapid development of electric lighting led to mass electrification, a revolution in the energy sector and major shifts in industry. However, all this might not have happened if, through the efforts of many inventors, such a common and familiar device as the light bulb had not been created. Among the greatest discoveries of human history, it undoubtedly holds one of the most honorable places.
In the 19th century, two types of electric lamps became widespread: incandescent and arc lamps. Arc lights appeared a little earlier. Their glow is based on such an interesting phenomenon as a voltaic arc. If you take two wires, connect them to a sufficiently strong current source, connect them, and then move them apart a few millimeters, then between the ends of the conductors something like a flame with a bright light will form. The phenomenon will be more beautiful and brighter if, instead of metal wires, you take two sharpened carbon rods. When the voltage between them is high enough, a light of blinding power is formed.
The phenomenon of a voltaic arc was first observed in 1803 by the Russian scientist Vasily Petrov. In 1810, the same discovery was made by the English physicist Devi. Both of them produced a voltaic arc using a large battery of cells between the ends of charcoal rods. Both of them wrote that the voltaic arc can be used for lighting purposes. But first it was necessary to find a more suitable material for the electrodes, since charcoal rods burned out in a few minutes and were of little use for practical use. Arc lamps also had another inconvenience - as the electrodes burned out, it was necessary to constantly move them towards each other. As soon as the distance between them exceeded a certain permissible minimum, the light of the lamp became uneven, it began to flicker and went out.
The first arc lamp with manual adjustment of the arc length was designed in 1844 by the French physicist Foucault. He replaced charcoal with sticks of hard coke. In 1848, he first used an arc lamp to illuminate one of the Parisian squares. It was a short and very expensive experiment, since the source of electricity was a powerful battery. Then various devices were invented, controlled by a clock mechanism, which automatically moved the electrodes as they burned.
It is clear that from the point of view of practical use, it was desirable to have a lamp that was not complicated by additional mechanisms. But was it possible to do without them? It turned out that yes. If you place two coals not opposite each other, but in parallel, so that an arc can form only between their two ends, then with this device the distance between the ends of the coals always remains unchanged. The design of such a lamp seems very simple, but its creation required great ingenuity. It was invented in 1876 by the Russian electrical engineer Yablochkov, who worked in Paris in the workshop of academician Breguet.
In 1879, the famous American inventor Edison took up the task of improving the light bulb. He understood: in order for the light bulb to shine brightly and for a long time and have an even, unblinking light, it is necessary, firstly, to find a suitable material for the filament, and, secondly, to learn how to create a very rarefied space in the cylinder. Many experiments were carried out with various materials, which were carried out on a scale characteristic of Edison. It is estimated that his assistants tested at least 6,000 different substances and compounds, and over 100 thousand dollars were spent on experiments. First, Edison replaced the brittle paper charcoal with a stronger one made from coal, then he began to experiment with various metals and finally settled on a thread of charred bamboo fibers. That same year, in the presence of three thousand people, Edison publicly demonstrated his electric light bulbs, illuminating his home, laboratory, and several surrounding streets with them. It was the first long-life light bulb suitable for mass production.
penultimate, ninth place in our top 10 occupy Antibiotics, and in particular - penicillin
Antibiotics are one of the most remarkable inventions of the 20th century in the field of medicine. Modern people are not always aware of how much they owe to these medicinal drugs. Humanity in general very quickly gets used to the amazing achievements of its science, and sometimes it takes some effort to imagine life as it was, for example, before the invention of television, radio or steam locomotive. Just as quickly, a huge family of various antibiotics entered our lives, the first of which was penicillin.
Today it seems surprising to us that back in the 30s of the 20th century, tens of thousands of people died annually from dysentery, that pneumonia in many cases was fatal, that sepsis was a real scourge of all surgical patients, who died in large numbers from blood poisoning, that typhus was considered a most dangerous and intractable disease, and pneumonic plague inevitably led the patient to death. All these terrible diseases (and many others that were previously incurable, such as tuberculosis) were defeated by antibiotics.
Even more striking is the impact of these drugs on military medicine. It’s hard to believe, but in previous wars, most soldiers died not from bullets and shrapnel, but from purulent infections caused by wounds. It is known that in the space around us there are myriads of microscopic organisms, microbes, among which there are many dangerous pathogens.
Under normal conditions, our skin prevents them from penetrating into the body. But during the wound, dirt entered the open wounds along with millions of putrefactive bacteria (cocci). They began to multiply with colossal speed, penetrated deep into the tissues, and after a few hours no surgeon could save the person: the wound festered, the temperature rose, sepsis or gangrene began. The person died not so much from the wound itself, but from wound complications. Medicine was powerless against them. In the best case, the doctor managed to amputate the affected organ and thereby stopped the spread of the disease.
To deal with wound complications, it was necessary to learn to paralyze the microbes that cause these complications, to learn to neutralize the cocci that got into the wound. But how to achieve this? It turned out that you can fight microorganisms directly with their help, since some microorganisms, in the course of their life activity, release substances that can destroy other microorganisms. The idea of using microbes to fight germs dates back to the 19th century. Thus, Louis Pasteur discovered that anthrax bacilli are killed by the action of certain other microbes. But it is clear that resolving this problem required enormous work.
Over time, after a series of experiments and discoveries, penicillin was created. Penicillin seemed like a real miracle to seasoned field surgeons. He cured even the most seriously ill patients who were already suffering from blood poisoning or pneumonia. The creation of penicillin turned out to be one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine and gave a huge impetus to its further development.
And lastly, tenth place ranked in survey results Sail and ship
It is believed that the prototype of the sail appeared in ancient times, when people just started building boats and ventured out to sea. In the beginning, simply stretched animal skin served as a sail. The person standing in the boat had to hold and orient it relative to the wind with both hands. It is unknown when people came up with the idea of strengthening the sail with the help of a mast and yards, but already on the oldest images of the ships of the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut that have come down to us, one can see wooden masts and yards, as well as stays (cables that keep the mast from falling back), halyards (lifting gear and lowering sails) and other rigging.
Consequently, the appearance of a sailing ship must be attributed to prehistoric times.
There is much evidence that the first large sailing ships appeared in Egypt, and the Nile was the first high-water river on which river navigation began to develop. Every year from July to November, the mighty river overflowed its banks, flooding the entire country with its waters. Villages and cities found themselves cut off from each other like islands. Therefore, ships were a vital necessity for the Egyptians. They played a much greater role in the economic life of the country and in communication between people than wheeled carts.
One of the earliest types of Egyptian ships, which appeared about 5 thousand years BC, was the barque. It is known to modern scientists from several models installed in ancient temples. Since Egypt is very poor in timber, papyrus was widely used for the construction of the first ships. The features of this material determined the design and shape of ancient Egyptian ships. It was a sickle-shaped boat, knitted from bundles of papyrus, with bow and stern curved upward. To give the ship strength, the hull was tightened with cables. Later, when regular trade with the Phoenicians was established and large quantities of Lebanese cedar began to arrive in Egypt, the tree began to be widely used in shipbuilding.
An idea of what types of ships were built then is given by the wall reliefs of the necropolis near Saqqara, dating back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. These compositions realistically depict the individual stages of the construction of a plank ship. The hulls of ships, which had neither a keel (in ancient times it was a beam lying at the base of the ship’s bottom) nor frames (transverse curved beams that ensured the strength of the sides and bottom), were assembled from simple dies and caulked with papyrus. The hull was strengthened by means of ropes that covered the ship along the perimeter of the upper plating belt. Such ships hardly had good seaworthiness. However, they were quite suitable for river navigation. The straight sail used by the Egyptians allowed them to sail only with the wind. The rigging was attached to a two-legged mast, both legs of which were installed perpendicular to the centerline of the ship. At the top they were tightly tied. The step (socket) for the mast was a beam device in the ship's hull. In the working position, this mast was held by stays - thick cables running from the stern and bow, and it was supported by legs towards the sides. The rectangular sail was attached to two yards. When there was a side wind, the mast was hastily removed.
Later, around 2600 BC, the two-legged mast was replaced by the one-legged one that is still in use today. The single-legged mast made sailing easier and gave the ship the ability to maneuver for the first time. However, the rectangular sail was an unreliable means that could only be used with a fair wind.
The main engine of the ship remained the muscular power of the rowers. Apparently, the Egyptians were responsible for an important improvement in the oar - the invention of rowlocks. They did not yet exist in the Old Kingdom, but then they began to attach the oar using rope loops. This immediately made it possible to increase the stroke force and speed of the vessel. It is known that selected rowers on the ships of the pharaohs made 26 strokes per minute, which allowed them to reach a speed of 12 km/h. Such ships were steered using two steering oars located at the stern. Later they began to be attached to a beam on the deck, by rotating which it was possible to select the desired direction (this principle of steering a ship by turning the rudder blade remains unchanged to this day). The ancient Egyptians were not good sailors. They did not dare to go out to the open sea with their ships. However, along the coast, their trading ships made long journeys. Thus, in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut there is an inscription reporting on the sea voyage carried out by the Egyptians around 1490 BC. to the mysterious land of incense Punt, located in the region of modern Somalia.
The next step in the development of shipbuilding was taken by the Phoenicians. Unlike the Egyptians, the Phoenicians had an abundance of excellent building materials for their ships. Their country stretched in a narrow strip along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Vast cedar forests grew here almost right next to the shore. Already in ancient times, the Phoenicians learned to make high-quality dugout single-shaft boats from their trunks and boldly went to sea with them.
At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, when maritime trade began to develop, the Phoenicians began to build ships. A sea vessel is significantly different from a boat; its construction requires its own design solutions. The most important discoveries along this path, which determined the entire subsequent history of shipbuilding, belonged to the Phoenicians. Perhaps the animal skeletons gave them the idea to install stiffening ribs on single-tree poles, which were covered with boards on top. Thus, for the first time in the history of shipbuilding, frames were used, which are still widely used.
In the same way, the Phoenicians were the first to build a keel ship (initially, two trunks connected at an angle served as the keel). The keel immediately gave the hull stability and made it possible to establish longitudinal and transverse connections. Sheathing boards were attached to them. All these innovations were the decisive basis for the rapid development of shipbuilding and determined the appearance of all subsequent ships.
Other inventions in various fields of science were also recalled, such as chemistry, physics, medicine, education and others.
After all, as we said earlier, this is not surprising. After all, any discovery or invention is another step into the future, which improves our lives, and often prolongs it. And if not every, then very, very many discoveries deserve to be called great and extremely necessary in our lives.
Alexander Ozerov, based on the book by Ryzhkov K.V. "One Hundred Great Inventions"
The greatest discoveries and inventions of mankind © 2011
Just two decades ago, people could not even dream of such a level of technological development as exists today. Today, it takes only half a day to fly halfway around the globe, modern smartphones are 60,000 times lighter and thousands of times more productive than the first computers, today agricultural productivity and life expectancy are higher than ever in human history. Let's try to figure out which inventions became the most important and, in fact, changed the history of mankind.
1. Cyanide
Although cyanide seems controversial enough to be included on this list, the chemical has played an important role in human history. While the gaseous form of cyanide has been responsible for the deaths of millions of people, it is the substance that is the main factor in the extraction of gold and silver from ore. Since the world economy was tied to the gold standard, cyanide was an important factor in the development of international trade.
2. Airplane
Today, no one doubts that the invention of the "metal bird" had one of the greatest impacts on human history by radically reducing the time required to transport goods or people. The invention of the Wright brothers was enthusiastically received by the public.
3. Anesthesia
Before 1846, any surgical procedure was more like some kind of painful torture. Although anesthetics have been used for thousands of years, their earliest forms were alcohol or mandrake extract. The invention of modern anesthesia in the form of nitrous oxide and ether allowed doctors to calmly operate on patients without the slightest resistance on their part (after all, the patients did not feel anything).
4. Radio
The origins of radio history are highly controversial. Many claim that its inventor was Guglielmo Marconi. Others claim that it was Nikola Tesla. In any case, these two people did a lot to enable people to successfully transmit information through radio waves.
5. Telephone
The telephone has been one of the most important inventions in our modern world. As with all major inventions, who was the inventor is still debated. What is clear is that the US Patent Office issued the first telephone patent to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. This patent served as the basis for future research and development of electronic sound transmission over long distances.
6. World Wide Web
Although everyone thinks of it as a very recent invention, the Internet existed in an archaic form in 1969 when the United States military developed the ARPANET. But the Internet came into existence in its relatively modern form only thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, who created a network of hyperlinks to documents at the University of Illinois and created the first World Wide Web browser.
7. Transistor
Today it seems very easy to pick up the phone and call someone in Mali, the US or India, but this would not be possible without transistors. Semiconductor transistors, which amplify electrical signals, have made it possible to send information over long distances. The man who pioneered this research, William Shockley, is credited with creating Silicon Valley.
8. Atomic clock
Although this invention may not seem as revolutionary as many of the previous items, the invention of the atomic clock was crucial in the advancement of science. Using microwave signals emitted by changing energy levels of electrons, atomic clocks and their accuracy have made possible a wide range of modern modern inventions, including GPS, GLONASS, as well as the Internet.
9. Steam turbine
Charles Parsons' steam turbine literally changed the development of mankind, giving impetus to the industrialization of countries and making it possible for ships to quickly overcome the ocean. In 1996 alone, 90% of the electricity in the United States was generated by steam turbines.
10. Plastic
Despite the widespread use of plastic in our modern society, it only appeared in the last century. The waterproof and highly pliable material is used in virtually every industry, from food packaging to toys and even spacecraft. Although most modern plastics are made from petroleum, there are growing calls to return to the original version, which was partly organic.
11. Television
Television has had a long and storied history that dates back to the 1920s and continues to this day. This invention has become one of the most popular consumer products around the world - almost 80% of households own a television.
12. Oil
Most people don't think at all when they fill up their car's tank. Although people have been extracting oil for thousands of years, the modern oil and gas industry emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century. After industrialists saw all the benefits of oil products and the amount of energy generated by burning them, they raced to make wells for the extraction of “liquid gold.”
13. Internal combustion engine
Without the discovery of the efficiency of combustion of petroleum products, the modern internal combustion engine would have been impossible. Considering that it began to be used literally in everything from cars to agricultural combines and mining machines, these engines allowed people to replace backbreaking, painstaking and time-consuming work with machines that could do the work much faster. The internal combustion engine also gave people freedom of movement as it was used in cars.
14. Reinforced concrete
The boom in the construction of high-rise buildings only occurred in the mid-nineteenth century. By embedding steel reinforcing bars (rebar) into concrete before pouring it, people were able to build reinforced concrete man-made structures that were many times larger in weight and size than before.
There would be far fewer people living on planet Earth today if there were no penicillin. Officially discovered by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, penicillin was one of the most important inventions/discoveries that made the modern world possible. Antibiotics were among the first drugs that were able to fight staphylococci, syphilis and tuberculosis.
16. Refrigerator
Harnessing heat was perhaps the most important discovery to date, but it took many millennia. Although people have long used ice for cooling, its practicality and availability were limited. In the nineteenth century, scientists invented artificial refrigeration using chemicals. By the early 1900s, almost every meat packing plant and major food distributor was using refrigeration to preserve food.
17. Pasteurization
Half a century before the discovery of penicillin, many lives were saved by a new process discovered by Louis Pasteur—pasteurization, or heating foods (originally beer, wine, and dairy) to a temperature high enough to kill most spoilage bacteria. Unlike sterilization, which kills all bacteria, pasteurization only reduces the number of potential pathogens to a level that makes most foods safe to eat without risk of contamination, while still maintaining the flavor of the food.
18. Solar battery
Just as the oil industry sparked industrial development in general, the invention of the solar cell allowed people to use a renewable form of energy in a much more efficient way. The first practical solar cell was developed in 1954 by Bell Telephone scientists, and today the popularity and efficiency of solar cells has increased dramatically.
19. Microprocessor
Today people would have to forget about their laptop and smartphone if the microprocessor had not been invented. One of the most widely known supercomputers, ENIAC, was built in 1946 and weighed 27,215 tons. Intel engineer Ted Hoff created the first microprocessor in 1971, packing all the functions of a supercomputer into one tiny chip, making portable computers possible.
20. Laser
The stimulated emission amplifier, or laser, was invented in 1960 by Theodore Maiman. Modern lasers are used in a variety of inventions, including laser cutters, barcode scanners, and surgical equipment.
21. Nitrogen fixation
Although it may seem like a bit of a stretch, nitrogen fixation, or the fixation of molecular atmospheric nitrogen, is "responsible" for the explosion of human populations. By converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, it became possible to produce highly effective fertilizers that increased agricultural production.
22. Conveyor
Today it is difficult to overestimate the importance of assembly lines. Before their invention, all products were made by hand. The assembly line, or assembly line, allowed the development of large-scale production of identical parts, greatly reducing the time it took to create a new product.
23. Oral contraceptives
Although tablets and pills have been one of the main methods of medicine that have existed for thousands of years, the invention of the oral contraceptive was one of the most significant innovations. It was this invention that became the impetus for the sexual revolution.
24. Mobile phone/smartphone
Now many people are probably reading this article from a smartphone. For this we must thank Motorola, which back in 1973 released the first wireless pocket mobile phone, which weighed as much as 2 kg and required as much as 10 hours to recharge. To make matters worse, at that time you could only chat quietly for 30 minutes.
25. Electricity
Most modern inventions would simply not be possible without electricity. Pioneers such as William Gilbert and Benjamin Franklin laid the initial foundation on which inventors such as Volt and Faraday began the Second Industrial Revolution.
Our country is rich in talented scientists and inventors, whose work has made a huge contribution not only to the development of their own country, but also has become the property of world science and culture. Many of the brilliant scientists, whose inventions are used by the whole world, are unfairly forgotten or even unknown in their homeland.
We invite you to get acquainted with the best inventions and the most significant scientists, engineers and discoverers from Russia who deserve recognition.
01. VCR
Alexander PonyatovThe first working prototype and production model of the VCR was developed by the American company AMPEX, which was founded in 1944 by a Russian emigrant, Kazan engineer Alexander Matveevich Ponyatov.
The company name Ampex is an acronym formed from the first letters of the creator’s name and the word “experimental” - Alexander M. Poniatoff EXperimental.
At the beginning of its journey, the company was engaged in the production and development of sound recording equipment, but in the first half of the 50s it reoriented itself to the development of video recording devices and media for them.
At that time, there was already experience in recording images from a television screen, but recording devices required an incredibly large amount of tape. AMPEX invented a way to record images perpendicular to tape using rotating head units. The invention received quick recognition, and already in November 1956, a news broadcast was broadcast on the CBS television channel, which was recorded on Alexander Ponyatov’s VCR.
In 1960, the company and its founder received an Oscar for their invention, which made enormous contributions to the film and television industries.
The name of Alexander Ponyatov was little known to the general public in the USSR, however, in the USA, after the death of the engineer in 1982, the American Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, noting his outstanding contribution to the development of television technology, established the “Gold Medal named after. Poniatoff" (SMPTE Poniatoff Gold Medal), awarded for achievements in the field of magnetic recording of electrical signals.
Being and living far from his homeland, Alexander Ponyatov never ceased to miss his native land, how else can one explain the massive planting of birch trees at the main entrance of all AMPEX company offices. Alexander Matveevich personally ordered this.
02. Tetris
Alexey Pajitnov with his son About 30 years ago in the Soviet Union, a certain puzzle called “Pentamino” was very popular. Its essence was to construct figures on lined fields. The popularity of the puzzle reached such a level that special collections with problems were created and published, where some of the pages were devoted to solving problems from previous issues of the collections.
This game, from a mathematical point of view, was an excellent test for a computer system. In this regard, Alexey Pajitnov, a researcher at the USSR Academy of Sciences, developed a computer program similar to a puzzle for his “Electronics 60”. There was not enough capacity to create the classic version of the puzzle, where the field consisted of 5 cubes, so the field was reduced to 4 cells and a system for falling pieces was created. This is how one of the most popular computer games in the world appeared - Tetris.
Despite the modern development of technology, Tetris is still very popular, and other games for smartphones and computers are being developed based on it.
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03. Galvanoplasty
Moritz Hermann Jacobi is a German and Russian physicist and inventor. In Russian style - Boris Semenovich Jacobi. Plastic products that have a thin metal coating have entered our lives so long ago that we no longer notice the difference. There are also metal products that are coated with thin layers of other metals, and exact metal replicas of products with a non-metallic base.
This opportunity arose thanks to the brilliant physicist Boris Jacobi, who invented the “galvanoplasty” method. The electroforming method involves depositing metals onto molds to produce perfect copies of the original objects.
This method is widely used in many manufacturing areas around the world and is extremely popular due to its simplicity and high cost-effectiveness.
Boris Semenovich Jacobi became famous not only for the discovery of galvanoplasty. He also built the first electric motor, a telegraph machine that printed letters.
Until the summer of 2017, the grave of the great scientist Boris Semenovich Jacobi looked like this, despite the fact that it is under state protection!
The grave of Boris Semyonovich Jacobi Restoration was planned by an initiative group from St. Petersburg, but there is still no exact information about the work carried out.
04. Electric cars
The end of the 19th century was characterized by a huge increase in popularity for electric transport and vehicles without internal combustion engines. In those days, every self-respecting engineer developed and designed an electric car. The cities were small in size, so a range of several tens of kilometers on a single charge was quite enough for comfortable use of cars.
One of the enthusiasts was Ippolit Romanov, who created several decent models of electric vehicles, which for many reasons were not commercially successful.
The first Russian electric car and its creator - Russian engineer-inventor - Ippolit Vladimirovich Romanov Moreover, he designed an electric multi-passenger vehicle that was capable of carrying 17 passengers and developed a city route map. This project was supposed to become the progenitor of modern trams, but it was not destined to come to fruition due to the lack of the required number of investors.
However, Ippolit Romanov is considered one of the first inventors of electric vehicles, which are currently extremely popular, and the first inventor of the progenitor of the modern tram.
05. Electric arc welding
Nikolai Nikolaevich Benardos is a Russian engineer, inventor of electric arc welding, spot and seam contact welding. An electric arc welding method that relies on the physical action of an electric arc that is created between an electrode and pieces of metal. This method was patented in 1888 by Nikolai Benardos, a native of Novorossiysk Greeks.
The invention of this method made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of various types of installation work, as well as increase the speed of their implementation and the level of reliability. After its invention, the method spread extremely quickly throughout the world and, in less than 50 years, took a leading position in many areas where fastening metal structures is necessary.
Despite hundreds of his inventions, including electric arc welding, the inventor did not gain fame and died in 1905 alone and in poverty.
06. Helicopter
The first person in the world to design and build a helicopter was Russian engineer Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky. The first production models, called R-4, were created in 1942.
Igor Sikorsky In addition, Igor Sikorsky was one of the first inventors and testers of multi-engine aircraft, which at that time were considered too dangerous and uncontrollable.
In 1913, Sikorsky managed to lift into the air a four-engine Russian Knight aircraft, and in 1914 he set a record for flight duration, covering the distance between St. Petersburg and Kiev on an aircraft of this type.
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07. Color photographs
Self-portrait of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky. January 1, 1912, Library of Congress The first color printing was invented at the end of the 19th century, however, photographs of that time were distinguished by a colossal shift in spectra, which made the quality of the images far from ideal.
The domestic photographer spent a long time studying the technology of color photography; he paid special attention to the chemical component of the process. Thanks to painstaking work in 1905, he managed to invent and patent a unique substance to increase the sensitivity of a photographic plate. This chemical reagent significantly improved the quality of color photographs and stimulated the development of color photography throughout the world.
- Article
Humanity has made a huge number of discoveries throughout the history of its existence. Inventions have helped people become stronger and overcome many diseases, tame the forces of nature and improve their lives. We will describe only 10 discoveries, familiar to everyone, that changed history and greatly influenced the development of human civilization.
Fire
Fire scared ancient people no less than animals. He had enormous destructive power, bringing death and destruction. Man was able to “tame” fire. People learned to cook food, heat their homes in winter, and protect themselves from predatory and dangerous animals. The “taming” of fire marked the beginning of the development of trades and crafts: weapons, dishes, and production tools appeared.
Wheel and cart
By inventing the wheel, humanity received a convenient way of transportation. People began to populate and develop new lands. After the discovery of metal, wheels became stronger and carts were able to withstand long distances. People learned to harness horses in them, and the speed of movement increased tenfold.
Writing
It took people several thousand years to turn naive drawings, knots and notches into real writing. Pictograms, drawings of men and animals appeared, denoting an action or concept, for example, the writing of Ancient Egypt. Later they were replaced by hieroglyphs and the alphabet: we still use them. The rapid development of civilization and the exchange of knowledge between different cultures and peoples began.
Paper
Writing allowed people to store information, and paper made it accessible to millions of people. Before the invention of paper, writing materials were very expensive. Almost 2000 years ago, the Chinese Cai Lun created an inexpensive type of paper from cotton ropes, in 751 it was brought to the Middle East by the Arabs, and then, through the Spanish Moors, the paper came to Europe. In the 12th century, the first production appeared in Italy.
Gunpowder and firearms
Gunpowder is also a Chinese invention. Gunpowder appeared in Europe in the late Middle Ages. Gradually, firearms, cannons and arquebuses, replaced the bow and arrows. Knights in heavy armor, armed with swords, could no longer sit in their castles during a siege. The world began to change: the feudal system and many small appanage estates were replaced by strong powers with trained armies.
Automobile
The car shortened distances and increased travel speed several times. The car became the founder of a new era of humanity. Production grew rapidly, people built millions of kilometers of roads. The world has completely changed. Unfortunately, this invention brought many environmental problems to the planet that people have to solve.
Light bulb
The electric light bulb made a real revolution. The light we use every day is the result of many years of work by many inventors. Electricity and its small representative, the light bulb, deserve one of the honorable places in the history of discoveries.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics have saved millions of lives for humanity. Thanks to antibiotics, such terrible deadly diseases as plague, typhus, dysentery, tuberculosis, and sepsis (blood poisoning) have receded.
Sail and ship
The sail and the ship, just like the invention of the wheel and cart on land, the discovery of the sail and the creation of the ship gave new lands to humanity. One can only imagine what fear the ancient people had to overcome when they dared to leave the earth’s surface and set sail across the vast endless sea.
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As Plato said, science rests on sensations. The 10 random scientific discoveries given below are further confirmation of this. Of course, no one has canceled scientific schools, scientific work, and, in general, entire lives devoted to science, but luck and chance can sometimes also do their job.
Penicillin
The invention of penicillin - a whole group of antibiotics that makes it possible to treat many bacteriological infections - is one of the long-standing scientific legends, but in reality it is just a story about dirty dishes. Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming decided to interrupt his laboratory research on staphylococcus in the laboratory and took a month's leave. Upon arrival, he discovered strange mold on the abandoned dishes with bacteria - mold that killed all the bacteria.
Microwave oven
Sometimes a light snack is all it takes to make a scientific discovery. American engineer Percy Spencer, who worked for the Raytheon company, one day, walking past a magnetron (a vacuum tube that emitted microwaves), noticed that the chocolate in his pocket had melted. In 1945, after a series of experiments (including an exploding egg), Spencer invented the first microwave oven. The first microwave ovens, like the first computers, looked bulky and unrealistic, but in 1967, compact microwave ovens began to appear in American homes.
Velcro
Not only can snacks be beneficial for science, but so can a walk in the fresh air. While traveling through the mountains in 1941, Swiss engineer George Mestral noticed a burdock that had clung to his pants and the fur of his dog. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the burdock hooks clung to everything that had the shape of a loop. This is how the Velcro type fastener appeared. In English it sounds like "Velcro", which is a combination of the words "velvet" (corduroy) and "crochet" (crochet). The most notable user of Velcro in the 60s was NASA, which used it in astronaut suits and to secure objects in zero gravity.
Big Bang Theory
The discovery of today's dominant theory of the origin of the Universe began with noise similar to radio interference. In 1964, while working with the Holmdel antenna (a large horn-shaped antenna that was used as a radio telescope in the 1960s), astronomers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias heard a background noise that puzzled them greatly. Having rejected most of the existing causes of noise, they turned to Robert Dicke's theory, according to which the radiation residues from the Big Bang that formed the Universe became background cosmic radiation. 50 kilometers from Wilson and Penzias, at Princeton University, Dicke himself was searching for this background radiation, and when he heard about their discovery, he told his colleagues: “Guys, this looks like a sensation.” Wilson and Penzias later received the Nobel Prize.
Teflon
In 1938, scientist Roy Plunkett was working on how to make refrigerators more suitable for the home and replace the then-available refrigerant, which consisted primarily of ammonia, sulfur dioxide and propane. After he opened the container containing one of the samples he was working on, Plunkett discovered that the gas inside had evaporated, leaving behind a strange, slippery rosin-like substance that was resistant to high temperatures. In the 1940s, the material was used in a nuclear weapons project and a decade later in the automobile industry. It was only in the 60s that Teflon began to be used in the way that is familiar to us - for non-stick cookware.
Vulcanizate
In the 1830s, vegetable rubber was used to make water-repellent boots, but it had one big problem - instability to high and low temperatures. It was believed that rubber had no future, but Charles Goodyear disagreed with this. After years of trying to make rubber more durable, the scientist stumbled upon what would become his greatest discovery entirely by accident. In 1839, while demonstrating one of his last experiments, Goodyear accidentally dropped rubber on a hot stove. The result was a charred leather-like substance in an elastic rim. Thus, the rubber became resistant to temperatures. Goodyear made no profit from his invention, and died leaving huge debts. Already 40 years after his death, the still famous company “Goodyear” took his name.
Coca-Cola
The inventor of Coca-Cola was not a businessman, a candy merchant, or anyone else who dreamed of getting rich. John Pemberton just wanted to invent a normal cure for headaches. A pharmacist by profession, he used two ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts. When his laboratory assistant accidentally mixed them with carbonated water, the world saw the first Coca-Cola. Unfortunately, Pemberton died before his mixture became one of the most popular drinks on Earth.
Radioactivity
Bad weather can also lead to a scientific discovery. In 1896, French scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel conducted an experiment on a crystal enriched with uranium. He believed that sunlight was the reason the crystal burned its image onto the photographic plate. When the sun disappeared, Becquerel decided to pack his things to continue the experiment on another clear day. A few days later, he took the crystal out of his desk drawer, but the image on the photographic plate lying on top was, as he described, hazy. The crystal emitted rays that fogged the plate. Becquerel did not think about the name of this phenomenon and suggested continuing the experiment to two colleagues - Pierre and Marie Curie.
Viagra
Angina is the common name for chest pain, especially spasms in the coronary arteries. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has developed a pill called UK92480 to narrow these arteries and relieve pain. However, the pill, which failed in its original purpose, had a very strong side effect (you can probably guess what it was) and was later renamed Viagra. Last year, Pfizer sold $288 million worth of those little blue pills.
