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Greatest inventions?

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    #92
    Jimbob1977
    Registered Users Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    The train.

    It was one of the high points of the Industrial Revolution.

    Paved the way for advances in cars and planes.

    Imagine taking a few days to travel from Cork to Dublin by stagecoach. Now the 19th century citizen could complete the journey in 3 hours.

    Now people and products could be transported quickly and cheaply from A to B.


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    #93
    Franz Von Peppercorn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    Tell me how wrote: »
    I'm not sure the smartphone qualifies as greatest invention of 21st century (granted none of us can predict the future).

    It's an upgrade on existing technology not truly revolutionary as such although it has been disruptive.

    I suspect the remaining 82 years in this century will give us something to surpass it's significance.

    A revolutionary product doesn’t have to have revolutionary parts.

    People seem to have forgotten the internet though. I personally think the 20C needs a few entries.


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    #94
    jester77
    Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Underfloor heating, coming in from a cold day, throw off the shoes and that glorious feeling of warmth as you walk through the house.


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    #95
    donegal_man
    Registered Users Posts: 5,733 ✭✭✭donegal_man


    The nail. One of our earliest and simplest technologies. Think of all the variations of it in use all around us.


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    #96
    Wheeliebin30
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,593 ✭✭✭Wheeliebin30


    Harnessing Electricity.

    Think an out life without it.

    Always think the geniuses who invented such wonderful things are too easily forgotten.


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    #97
    Skylinehead
    Registered Users Posts: 11,690 ✭✭✭✭Skylinehead


    Beasty wrote: »
    May not be very eco-friendly, but the Saturn V rocket "launched" the exploration that could ultimately prolong the existence of the human race.

    You could go back further than Saturn V, trace it back to Mercury-Redstone, and then the Jupiter ballistic missiles that were the basis of that, and then even to the Nazi V2s that Wernher von Braun earned his rocket credentials on...and of course the Soviet R7 ICBMs that enabled Gagarin to go up in the first place. Weapons of mass destruction were the enabler for space exploration.


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    #98
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,966 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Del2005 wrote: »
    That sounds like a fusion reactors. They promise the world and has been 10 years from being successful for 40 years.
    Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter..
    - Lewis Strauss , 1954.


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    #99
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,966 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Shenshen wrote: »
    The alphabet.
    The Irish invented nothing.

    The alphabet means letters and sounds. You can pronounce the letters and get the meaning from the sounds.

    Or as the early Irish did you can put gaps of nothingness between groups of letters - and now everyone can understand meanings without having to verbalise them.


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    #100
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,220 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Slow sand filtration of potable water. Done in Scotland first, I think. This was the biggest health revolution. Bigger than vaccination.


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    #101
    matchthis
    Registered Users Posts: 1,870 ✭✭✭matchthis


    The aqueduct?


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    #102
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    Has to be the Printing Press.


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    #103
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,966 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »
    Has to be the Printing Press.
    The problem with a lot of inventions is that they can't happen before the time is right.

    The Chinese had wood cut printing for ages.

    But in Europe there were developments in metal technology that made casting type easy. More people were rich enough to buy books. Spectacles were a recent invention that meant it was worth learning to read, because you'd still be able to read later in life.

    And general increases in wealth meant people could afford new, or at least newer clothes. So for the first time there's a supply of rags and that means it's cheaper to make paper than ever.

    Also there wasn't a single state to suppress subversive printing, in the way lots of technologies were in China.


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    #104
    Franz Von Peppercorn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    The problem with a lot of inventions is that they can't happen before the time is right.

    The Chinese had wood cut printing for ages.

    But in Europe there were developments in metal technology that made casting type easy. More people were rich enough to buy books. Spectacles were a recent invention that meant it was worth learning to read, because you'd still be able to read later in life.

    And general increases in wealth meant people could afford new, or at least newer clothes. So for the first time there's a supply of rags and that means it's cheaper to make paper than ever.

    Also there wasn't a single state to suppress subversive printing, in the way lots of technologies were in China.

    Also the alphabet was easier.


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