Inventions that shaped the World as we see It.

Man has always been creative, which led them to live a better life and upgrading them to their better versions. These versions not only changed their way of living or lifestyle, but also their interaction with nature and among themselves. The changed interaction further changed the nature itself and shaped the world as we see it today.

Agriculture: 

You can’t consider a milestone in human civilization as, civilization is considered to start at this point

with domestication of wild plants and animals around 10000 years ago. It made human independent of availability of wild animals and risking their life in hunting ferocious animals. One of the major advantages of agriculture is that it allowed our early ancestors to settle in a place and develop in that particular place and the place. It changed man from nomadic barbarian to civilized developed human being. Although it is one of the greatest invention of all the time but it (mainly farmers) is quite underrated in present world, and that is not quite a good thing.

Wheel: 

Although it’s place and time of discovery is not specified yet, it is considered to originate in late Neolithic era by Elamites (an ancient civilization of modern day Iran) as their sculptures portrayed it

much before the other civilization. A significant advancement of wheel is observed in bronze era. After a lot more modification for number of functions, it can be observed in every machine nowadays in different forms. From a wrist watch you are carrying to the airplane that is carrying you, there are wheels everywhere around you. It will be interesting to take a look at the structure, it is circular. And the amazing thing about a circle is that it is continuous, and that allow a great advantage machines using wheel, as that machine is able to use it in a continuous order without bringing about any change in it’s configuration.

Compass:

 In compass we exploit the directional nature of magnet mainly magnetic field, this property was first reported to be exploited by Chinese Han dynasty, and was made up of naturally occurring magnetic ore of iron, lodestone. Later magnet was used in navigation by Chinese Song dynasty in the 11^th century. It allowed explorers to explore more without fearing of getting lost. Exploration allowed man to find resources that were hidden from them. More amount and variety of resources allowed them to build something that they never built, and made them more eligible to explore. 

Steam engine:

 A great work of transforming energy was invented in the era of renaissance by an English inventor named Thomas Newcomen at around 1712, later modified by James Watt to such extent that often it is mistaken that James Watt invented it. It works on first law of thermodynamics, which tell us about indestructibility of energy. In steam engines heat energy was used for conversion into mechanical energy. Steam engine changed the way of transport. It was faster, cheaper and reliant than others and granted man a great flexibility in transport of goods and themselves as well.   

Cement:

 A great mortar used since centuries. The building you see around and the roof under which you are reading this are all made up of cement (unless it is of steel and glass). Before glass and steel, cement was the sole dominator over the building industries. But, still it holds its domination as it is strong, durable and cheap. The cement we used today was formulized by French and British engineers in the 18^th century. In the history of development of cement John Smeaton is a landmark. Cement allowed man to create something long lasting and strong, which allowed them to create something to hide from nature’s rage and safekeeping of their development and resources for the future generation.

Electricity (both AC and DC):

 Electricity was all around and even inside of all of the living beings, but it was the man who attempted to domesticate it. There were free charges, thunderstorms and “Thunderer of the Nile” (as Egyptians called electric eel). But, it was the man who took interest in those deadly things. Thales of Miletus is known as the earliest researcher on electricity. Then with advancements the study became more deeper and more names like Benjamin Franklin, William Gilbert, Alessandro Volta, Galvani, Michael Faraday, James Maxwell, Thomas Alva Edison, Nikola Tesla and many more. Among them today’s household electricity is result of work of Thomas Edison (DC) and Nikola Tesla (AC). Though earlier AC was considered as dangerous but with time it became the most acceptable one. Today we can’t imagine our lifestyle devoid of electricity. Even the device on which you are reading this article is running in electricity. Electricity powered the civilization to do something really more.

Printing press:

 Paper was invented a long ago but it was the printing press that really enhanced the production of

paper. Germany, 1440, a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg just gave a push to the civilization. He invented the printing press and Bible became the first book, which was printed. Printing press was an efficient device in spreading knowledge and facts across the globe. With printing press the heavy price tag upon the books vanished as more copies were made available, and book no longer stayed a symbol of richness, but still book kept its position tight in being the symbol of knowledge. The printing press enlightened the civilization. Knowledge was made available to more so that more can be created.

Radio transmission:

 Communication has always played a significant role in development. Every animal are believed to posses their own way of communication, but man is believed to possess the most advanced version of mode of communication. Man developed language a long ago but it’s transmission was confined to a short physical distance for a really very long time. Until it was November 1894, British colonized Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose succeeded in transmitting millimeter range microwave in Kolkata, India. And within a year of this success, in 1895 an Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in transmitting radio signal across English Channel.

And these success made human develop a system that no other animal possess, a truly long range communication system, which is able to communicate across the globe. It allowed man the freedom to express and exchange ideas. And exchanging of idea left a significant footmark on the road that civilization followed.   

Transistor: 

Welcome to the modern world. After the development of radio transmission, a need for a device was felt which can amplify the signals. And then came the transistor, invented by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain at Bell laboratory in 1948. The modern era is considered as the era of information and it (information) needs management, transistors perform that job well. Earlier heavy vaccum tubes were in use in computers and other advanced electronic devices, which need a control over the flow of electron. But, vaccum tubes had a whole sum of drawbacks like heating, size and delicacy. Then on arrival of transistors things get smaller as they replaced vaccum tubes. Transistors are superior to vaccum tubes in every aspect, they don’t get heated, they are small, they are easy to carry and they are cheap and are not so delicate. Transistor made data handy. Even your mobile has a lot of transistors inside it. And it is true for every modern instrument or so called gadgets.   

Antibiotics:

 Although antibiotics are not invented but they have a great impact on shaping the world as we see it today. The discovery of antibiotics was accidental but, it was the greatest discovery of the 20^th century. Alexander Flemming when after coming back on September 3, 1928 from a vacation observed that one of the petri dish containing staphylococcus was not as it should have been, on thoroughly observing he found a rare strain of Penicillium notatum as the cause of that unusualness (inhibition of growth of staphylococcus). Later, in 1942 Ernst Chain, Howard Florey and Edward Abraham succeeded in isolating the compound that caused the phenomenon Flemming observed, the Penicillin. Antibiotics were hugely used by US army in World War 2, to combat wounds. Antibiotics saved an estimated 80000000 to 200000000 lives and still counting. It raises the average life expectancy from 47 years in pre antibiotics day to an impressive 78.8 years. Undoubtedly  antibiotics has an immense role in increasing the population, hence enhancing the chance to get more creative ideas that can bring such turning point in the pathway of civilization.

Camera:

 The mind of man has a great memory but it is limited at some points. So he decided to create something that will cover and keep every detail of the memory. So, the photography came into action. It changed the range of our vision, you can have a view of savannah even while sitting at your home. Camera has an extensive role in investigation, entertainment, education, research, refreshing memory and obviously in photography. Photography allowed a student to imagine an explosive reaction, images allow an explorer to get attracted. It has broadened the way we see the world and hence to explore a lot just sitting at our very own home.

Television (TV):

 Literally it confers seeing far and does so. It coupled with camera provide us a vision across the globe. It is a great way of communication and also preferred by governments across the globe as it allows them to reach crores of people at the same time. From J.L. Baird’s television in 1925 to today’s smart TV, television has never lost it’s popularity. It in a way connected people across the globe through some channels. Nowadays social media is doing that job well, but television is still as popular as it was.

Computer: 

A man made machine that is replacing man from his job, best suits the definition of computers. They are doing so as they are both efficient and accurate at least than man. It is just about a century old, but is successful in drawing a deep scar on society and civilizations. Although it was started as ENIAC, requiring large space and huge number of educated manpower, it ended up in a pocket and taking a job of many. Computer suits best to creator who are creative, it does a lot of work for them and at last building and something more to the society. But computer was never made intending leaving people jobless, it was intended to do things faster and calculate something that a man can never do, like analyzing all those data of black whole and synchronizing them into a simple picture. But, computer hastened the civilizations, creating new niche for job and employment. Man now can bring dreams into reality.

Plastics:

 This substance or poly-ethene (one of the earliest made plastics) is a very useful molecule. Invented accidentally but was accepted consciously due to its characteristics like rigidity, flexibility, light
weightiness and low production cost made it really popular among industrialists and customers (people). But, all of them were unaware of it as a potent pollutant. It wrapped the world as its character says it is long lasting and really hard to be digested or one can consider it as absolute non-reactive substance, reacting to none of the naturally occurring molecules to get decomposed.  Plastic is a real problem nowadays. It’s characteristics caused it’s raise and popularity. At the beginning nobody did noticed the ill effect of plastics, as small things seems harmless. Within just few decades it spread across the world wrapping it and suffocating nature. By the time plastic became one of the integral part of human life and simultaneously globally accepted symbol of pollution and natural damage.

Internet:

 In around the hype of cold war in the 1960s the Advanced Research Project Agency of the United State Department of Defense funded research into interlinking of computers and sharing data among themselves and ended up developing ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network). Later on August 6, 1991 it was made available to common people across the globe. It allowed man to communicate across the horizon in a moment of blink. Soon it became too popular to be used by governments for their announcements. With time and significant modification it became a source of every solution, ultimate platform to connect people and companies to overlook their workers. It also allowed news to diffuse faster and ideas too. When ideas are reaching more people there is always a increase in chance in transformation of the idea into reality. And, hence increase the chance of speeding up the civilization.

“The history of civilization, the great advances that made it possible, is not a story of cynics or doom criers. It is a gallant chronicle of the optimists, the determined people, men and women, who dreamed great dreams and dared to try whatever it took to make them come true.  ”   - Reagan