Amazing inventions from the past

wendell borton

Watched this bbc docu about clockwork devices, jacquet-droz's writer @23 mins was way ahead of its time in the 18th century and probably the first computer.

MadsL

Two words: Nikola Tesla

Triangla

A much older computer was discovered a few years ago dating from ancient Greece. Over 2000 years old.

Awesome stuff.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/06/extraordinary-2000-year-old-computer

MadsL

OK, some more words.

120 years ago at the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Tesla demonstrated that you could wirelessly transmit electricity.

In the 1930s Tesla reportedly invented a particle beam weapon.

Earthquake machine; In 1898, Tesla claimed he had built and deployed a small oscillating device that, when attached to his office and operating, nearly shook down the building and everything around it

greedygoblin

The 2000 year old Antikythera mechanism

shedweller

The Stirling Engine.

CrazyRabbit

Religion. The ability to controls large populations of people without the need for an expensive army. In fact, it can generate a large amount of wealth instead. Genius.

tosspot15

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Religion. The ability to controls large populations of people without the need for an expensive army. In fact, it can generate a large amount of wealth instead. Genius.

Only 7 posts in, I'd expect somebody with over 7000 posts would know better by now :mad:

o1s1n

MadsL wrote: »

OK, some more words.

120 years ago at the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Tesla demonstrated that you could wirelessly transmit electricity.

In the 1930s Tesla reportedly invented a particle beam weapon.

Earthquake machine; In 1898, Tesla claimed he had built and deployed a small oscillating device that, when attached to his office and operating, nearly shook down the building and everything around it

I've bolded the important parts. People can claim anything. Until they produce the goods and demonstrate it a scientific setting it's all just sci fi

The Tesla Coil is indeed fantastic though. Love the way it fries Allied GIs.

ronjo

o1s1n wrote: »

I've bolded the important parts. People can claim anything. Until they produce the goods and demonstrate it a scientific setting it's all just sci fi

The Tesla Coil is indeed fantastic though. Love the way it fries Allied GIs.

Would you doubt Tesla though?

HighClass

MadsL wrote: »

Two words: Nikola Tesla

Shame that Edison screwed him over.

Muise...

Lots of great inventions have to gestate a long time before the world catches up and is able to manufacture and apply them. Sometimes the world doesn't even know it needs it yet. I was going to mention Babbage's engine, not least because it was Ada Lovelace Day last week and she never gets enough credit for that one. But I bet it's even less well known that Hollywood siren Hedy Lamarr invented the frequency-hopping technology that is now used in mobile phones. People are great for turning military equipment into an oul chat.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hedy-lamarr-not-just-a-pr

The fact that at the dawn of motoring, many of the earliest horseless carriages were electric because they were easier to develop than internal combustion ones.

Then they were overtaken and the rest is history.

If only a decent battery system had been developed at the turn of the (20th) century.

Duckworth_Luas

It was all aliens, some call them ancient!

MadsL

o1s1n wrote: »

I've bolded the important parts. People can claim anything. Until they produce the goods and demonstrate it a scientific setting it's all just sci fi

Tesla is all the more interesting for his ambiguity.

brimal

Concorde.

This week marked 10 years since it was retired.

cml387

MadsL wrote: »

Tesla is all the more interesting for his ambiguity.

In fairness a lot of his work was lost in a fire at his lab.

KKkitty

Surprised no one has mentioned the wheel or the pencil.

Standard Toaster

The F1 engines that powered the Apollo missions to the moon. A work of art, 100% success rate too.

Each F-1 engine had more thrust than three Space Shuttle Main Engines combined, the power generated by five of these engines was best conceptualized by author David Woods in his book How Apollo Flew to the Moon—"The power output of the Saturn first stage was 60 gigawatts. This happens to be very similar to the peak electricity demand of the United Kingdom."

And to think each one was hand made, each with their own subtle differences. Great article here worth a read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKtVpvzUF1Y

cml387

Well give the credit to Werner Von Braun, as the engines were just uprated versions of the rocket engine he designed in the 1930's.

Chazz Michael Michaels

Writing.

Adamantium

"I worked for the Duke of Wellington when he invented the wellington boot, and the earl of Sandwich when he invented the sandwich, but I suppose my happiest time was working for Lord Strap-on". - Frankie Boyle

Standard Toaster

cml387 wrote: »

Well give the credit to Werner Von Braun, as the engines were just uprated versions of the rocket engine he designed in the 1930's.

True, some credit due but there where thousands of people involved. But your right, the Americans would not have made it to the moon full stop without Von Braun's input.

Wibbs

Have a gander at what the ancient Greeks came up with.

greedygoblin

Wibbs wrote: »

Have a gander at what the ancient Greeks came up with.

They invented gayness.

cml387

Standard Toaster wrote: »

True, some credit due but there where thousands of people involved. But your right, the Americans would not have made it to the moon full stop without Von Braun's input.

Oh absolutely.I didn't mean to take anything away from the people behind the Apollo programme.

Consider that the lunar module was only flown twice in space before the moon landing, and one of those missions was just in Earth orbit to test the docking systems. Apollo 7 was the first test manned flight of the Saturn 5, and in the next mission they headed off to the moon.

It seems unbelievable today what they achieved.

Greenmachine

Some really cool machines.

oceanman

what did nikola tesla ever invent that was tested and found to work?

somuj

oceanman wrote: »

what did nikola tesla ever invent that was tested and found to work?

ohhhhhhhhh emmmmmmm geeeeeeeee

Adamantium

cml387 wrote: »

Oh absolutely.I didn't mean to take anything away from the people behind the Apollo programme.

Consider that the lunar module was only flown twice in space before the moon landing, and one of those missions was just in Earth orbit to test the docking systems. Apollo 7 was the first test manned flight of the Saturn 5, and in the next mission they headed off to the moon.

It seems unbelievable today what they achieved.

Whats even more amazing was how on Apollo 13 they used the LEM and its engines to course correct on the return to Earth, something which it was never even designed for simulated or , all without the use of computers and electronics, using the stars and Earth as references (they couldn't afford to use the extra amps so they had to turn almost everything off).

Ok that's its more human ingenuity than actual invention, but by all odds they should have died and to think they would still be floating in space :eek:

During the crisis in 1970 , A NASA engineer thought up the idea by himself on his drive to work one morning of using the onboard suits, materials,duck tape, plastic bags to build the device that would convert the astronauts poisonous CO2 back to oxegen to prevent suffocation.

Ron Howard thought what actually happened was too unrealistic and out there for audiences to believe, so they went with this scene in the film were a group of engineers build it together.

NASA was so badass back in the day, that it beat Hollywood at its own game for real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q

biko

Hammer, best invention ever.

Before that we didn't have ham!

greedygoblin

Chazz Michael Michaels wrote: »

Writing.

Gutenbergs printing press is one that is often overlooked. It allowed the more widespread dissemination and recording of information, improved education etc., in essence laying the groundwork for most of the major advances made over the following centuries.

Mike747

The synchronized machine guns WWI era fighter planes were equipped with.

Wibbs

Wibbs wrote: »

Have a gander at what the ancient Greeks came up with.

Lead sheathing c. 350 BC To protect a ships hull from boring creatures

I must use that the next time some politician doorsteps me.

Muise...

biko wrote: »

Hammer, best invention ever.

Before that we didn't have ham!

Telegram to biko STOP That's not in the past though STOP Somewhere in the world, it is always Hammer Time.

NuckingFacker

I came up with a yoke for taking Pizza out of the oven without it falling off back in 1984. Ok, amazing is pushing it a bit, but..

Allan Blandford

Allan Blandford wrote: »

The Bessler wheel of 1712 was a wheel that spun perpetually, in tests carried out it could lift loads including a piano which the invented used the wheel to hoist it to the upstairs of his house .
The inventor Johann Bessler took the secret of how the wheel worked with him to the grave .

Perpetual motion machines are and will always be fraud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessler_wheel#Allegations_of_fraud

In November 1727, Bessler's maid, Anne Rosine Mauersbergerin, ran away from Bessler's household and testified under oath that she had turned the machines manually from an adjoining room, alternating in that job with Bessler's wife, his brother Gottfried, and Bessler himself. 's Gravesande refused to accept the maid's testimony, writing that he paid "little attention to what a servant can say about machines". By then, 's Gravesande was embroiled in an academic dispute with members of Isaac Newton's circle about the possibility of gravity-powered perpetual motion, which 's Gravesande persistently defended based partly on his belief that Bessler, though "mad", was not a fraud

Allan Blandford

Deleted User wrote: »

Perpetual motion machines are and will always be fraud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessler_wheel#Allegations_of_fraud

OK , thanks for that , i realize now that it was a fraud and have deleted my post .

kowloon

Deleted User wrote: »

I must use that the next time some politician doorsteps me.

That took me longer than it should have.

I'll add the sewing needle and, if nobody has mentioned it yet, affordable mechanical clocks.

kowloon

kowloon wrote: »

That took me longer than it should have.

I'll add the sewing needle and, if nobody has mentioned it yet, affordable mechanical clocks.

Accurate mechanical clocks were far more important for navigational purposes as well, in fact they were a life saver.

I should add medical knowledge that discovered that typhoid was caused by contaminated water.

kowloon

Deleted User wrote: »

Accurate mechanical clocks were far more important for navigational purposes as well, in fact they were a life saver.

I should add medical knowledge that discovered that typhoid was caused by contaminated water.

On a flight tomorrow, think I'll be bringing Longitude for a read now that you've reminded me that I have a copy.