Russian discoveries that changed the world. Inventions and discoveries of Russian scientists that changed the world
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 has also 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 generally 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 PoniatovThe first working prototype and serial model of the VCR was developed by the American company AMPEX, which was founded in 1944 by a Russian emigrant, Kazan engineer Alexander Matveyevich Poniatov.
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 recording images from a television screen, but the recording devices required an incredibly large amount of tape. AMPEX invented a way to record an image perpendicular to the tape using rotary head units. The invention was quickly recognized, and already in November 1956, a news broadcast was broadcast on the CBS television channel, which was recorded on Alexander Poniatov's VCR.
In 1960, the company and its founder received an Oscar for their invention, which made a huge contribution to the film and television industry.
The name of Alexander Poniatov was little known to the general public in the USSR, but in the United States, after the death of the engineer in 1982, the American Society of Film and Television Engineers, celebrating his outstanding contribution to the development of television technology, established the “Gold Medal to them. Poniatov” (SMPTE Poniatoff Gold Medal), awarded for achievements in the field of magnetic recording of electrical signals.
Being and living far from the Motherland, Alexander Poniatov did not stop missing his native land, otherwise how to explain the mass planting of birches at the main entrance of all AMPEX offices. This was personally ordered by Alexander Matveevich.
02. Tetris
Alexey Pajitnov with his son About 30 years ago in the Soviet Union there was a very popular puzzle called "Pentamino". Its essence was to build figures on lined fields. The popularity of the puzzle reached such a level that special collections with problems were created and printed, where part of the pages was devoted to solving problems from previous issues of the collections.
This game, from the point of view of mathematics, was an excellent test for a computer system. In this regard, Alexei Pajitnov, a researcher at the USSR Academy of Sciences, developed a computer program by analogy with a puzzle for his "Electronics 60". To create a classic version of the puzzle, where the field consisted of 5 cubes, there was not enough power, so the field was reduced to 4 cells and a system for falling pieces was created. Thus, one of the most popular computer games in the world, Tetris, appeared.
Despite the modern development of technology, Tetris is still very popular, and other games for smartphones and computers are being developed on its basis.
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03. Electroplating
Moritz Hermann Jacobi is a German and Russian physicist and inventor. In the Russian way - 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 copies of products with a non-metal base.
This opportunity came about thanks to the brilliant physicist Boris Jacobi, who invented the method of "galvanoplastics". The method of electroforming consists in the deposition of metals on molds, which makes it possible to reproduce perfect copies of the original objects.
This method is widely used in many industries around the world and is very popular due to its simplicity and high cost-effectiveness.
Boris Semenovich Jacobi became famous not only for the discovery of galvanoplastics. He also built the first electric motor, a telegraph machine that prints letters.
Until the summer of 2017, the grave of the great scientist Boris Semyonovich Jacobi looked like this, despite the fact that it is under state protection!
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 vehicles
The end of the 19th century is characterized by a huge rise in popularity towards electric vehicles 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 run of several tens of kilometers on a single charge was enough for comfortable use of cars.
One of the enthusiasts was Ippolit Romanov, who created several decent models of electric vehicles, which, for a variety of 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-seat transport that was capable of carrying 17 passengers and developed an urban route scheme. This project was supposed to become the progenitor of modern trams, but it was not destined to come true due to the lack of the required number of investors.
Nevertheless, Ippolit Romanov is considered one of the first inventors of electric vehicles, which are currently very 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. A method of electric arc welding, which is based on the physical effect of an electric arc that is created between the electrode and pieces of metal. This method was patented in 1888 by Nikolay 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 the invention, the method spread very quickly around the world and, in less than 50 years, took a leading position in many areas where metal structures are needed to be fastened.
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 the Russian Vityaz four-engine aircraft into the air, and in 1914 set a record for the longest flight, covering the distance between St. Petersburg and Kyiv on an aircraft of this type.
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07. Color photos
Self-portrait of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky. January 1, 1912, US Library of Congress The first color type printing was invented at the end of the 19th century, however, the photographs of that time were distinguished by a colossal shift in the spectra, which made the quality of the images far from ideal.
The domestic photographer has been studying the technology of color photography for a long time, 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 the photographic plate. This chemical reagent significantly improved the quality of color photographs and stimulated the development of color photography throughout the world.
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20 discoveries and inventions that have qualitatively changed the life of mankind. Not necessarily large-scale, like the hadron collider, but unlike it, it is noticeably useful and necessary
ALCOHOL. Our ancestors invented alcohol - the "stealer of the mind" (6-10 thousand years BC) in order to overcome fear of the forces of nature. Judging by the popularity and mass distribution of alcohol in the world, people are still terribly afraid of snow and rain. Especially men after pay...
PACEMAKER. The first clinical trials of the pacemaker took place in 1927. He was on wires, and now he is implanted directly into a person, turning him almost into a robot. It turns out that the heart can be controlled - note unfortunate lovers!
A COMPUTER. Many people know that the first programmable computer was created by Georg Schutz from Stockholm and shown in 1855 at the World Exhibition in Paris. But few people know that Georg Schutz was rumored to be our boyfriend Zhora Shuts, so we can say that the father of the computer is from Russia!
TELEPHONE. The first telephone was patented in 1876 in the USA by the inventor Alexander Bell, and there was no bell in it (it was invented by another engineer already 2 years later!), And the first subscriber was called with the help of ... a whistle. A sort of prototype of a special police phone.
PHOTO. The first decent photograph was taken in 1826 by the Frenchman Joseph Niepce using a camera obscura and was called ... "View from the window." It is amazing that cameras have improved fantastically since then, but the views from the windows continue to be shot ...
FRIDGE. It was invented by a doctor - in 1850, the American John Gorey came up with an apparatus that produces artificial ice. In 1927, the industrial production of refrigerators began in the USA, in the USSR it was 10 years late. But some of our 1937 refrigerators are still working!
NUCLEAR POWER. People direct nuclear energy, over the discovery of which physicists led by Rutherford fought, both to the positive - in nuclear submarines and power plants, and to the negative - remember Hiroshima. It's like a magic wand - depending on whose hands it falls into ...
THE INTERNET. In 1969, by order of the US Department of Defense, only 4 (!) Computers at different universities were united by a common micronetwork. Very slowly, other machines joined them, but in 1989, the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented a way to exchange texts on the Web - and away we go, the World Wide Web intertwined!
WHEEL. Presumably invented in Mesopotamia (4,000 BC), the wheel looked like a simple wooden circle with a hole in the center, and became the basis for the construction of the most complex structures: from spinning wheels, mills and potter's wheels to a car with flashing lights.
HAIR DYE. It seems that the invention of hair dye is nonsense compared to the hadron collider? And why then did the Gauls, Saxons and even Neanderthals fight over this? Officially, paint was invented at the end of the 19th century, but the technology was “honed” in 1932. The very one that gave the world Marilyn Monroe and Dmitry Kharatyan.
DIAPERS. Magic panties that add sleep at night were invented in 1957 by American Victor Mills, who was tired of washing diapers for his grandchildren. At first, everyone turned up their noses at the "plastic shorts" of an eccentric grandfather, but he stubbornly experimented on his grandchildren - and made mankind happy! And it all started with laziness and lack of sleep!
PENICILLIN. They say that the scientist Alexander Fleming, who conducted experiments on bacteria in 1928, accidentally overlooked the cups with microorganisms, mold appeared there, and ... And the scientist guessed that it was no coincidence that the bacteria died around the mold - it destroyed them! This is how penicillin was invented!
REMOTE CONTROLLER. It seems to be nonsense - the remote control, and why write about it among the inventions of the aircraft and the discovery of nuclear energy, but remember what happens in the house when it is lost? The Americans invented this "magic wand" in 1950, and the British improved it on the BBC. And among the Russians, he became "pet number 1"!
X-RAY. "Magic rays", which allow you to see the human body from the inside, was discovered in 1895 by the German professor Wilhelm Roentgen. For the presentation, he took an x-ray of his wife's hand with a wedding ring! It's a shame that the Russians explored the X-rays 10 years before the German, but got distracted by something ...
PLANE In 1881, the first aircraft was patented by the Russian inventor Mozhaisky, but there was only one problem - he could not take off. A truly flying airplane was designed by the Americans, the Wright brothers - in 1903 it flew 260 meters! However, after all, Baba Yaga flew on a mortar with us - maybe the championship is still ours?
TELESCOPE. In 1608, the Dutch spectacle master Johann Lippershey demonstrated the "magic pipe" for the first time, and a year later Galileo looked directly into space with its help. When it seems that our Earth is a grain of sand in the Universe, you can always look through a microscope - it narrows your horizons ...
A TELEVISION. TV is made by thousands of people, and more than one invented it. The “father” of TV is considered to be our Vladimir Zworykin (who worked, however, for the Americans), who invented the iconoscope in 1923, but dozens of scientists put their hands on the “box”. By the way, at the beginning of the twentieth century. the idea of TV was considered pseudoscientific. Good idea, by the way...
CONTRACEPTIVES. In ancient Egypt, unfortunate women were forced to protect themselves ... with crocodile dung and chew parsley. To the sex happiness of mankind, in 1855 the first rubber condom was invented, and a hundred years later, hormonal contraceptives, but many continue to chew parsley - just in case ...
WATER PIPES. The invention of plumbing (1 thousand years BC) is not only a technical step forward, but also a social one: the more water a person consumes, the more advanced he is. The first Russian water supply system made of wooden pipes appeared in Veliky Novgorod, and it was obviously not turned off for summer maintenance in those days ...
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. It first bore fruit in 1978 in the UK - where scientists "gave birth" to a girl, Louise Brown, the world's first test-tube baby. In the USSR, this happened for the first time in 1986 - and again a girl, which is not surprising: women (even small ones!) Are more curious and more active than men!
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Two decades ago, people could not even dream of such a level of technological development as it exists today. Today, it takes only half a day to fly half the globe, modern smartphones are 60,000 times lighter and thousands of times more powerful than the first computers, today agricultural productivity and life expectancy are higher than ever in the history of mankind. Let's try to figure out which inventions have become the most important and, in fact, changed the history of mankind.
1. Cyanide
Although cyanide seems rather controversial to include on this list, the chemical has played an important role in human history. While the gaseous form of cyanide has caused the deaths of millions of people, it is this substance that is the main factor in the extraction of gold and silver from ore. Since the world economy has been tied to the gold standard, cyanide is an important factor in the development of international trade.
2. Plane
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 needed to transport goods or people. The invention of the Wright brothers was enthusiastically received by the public.
3. Anesthesia
Until 1846, any surgical procedure was more like some kind of excruciating torture. Although anesthetics have been used for thousands of years, their earliest forms were nothing more than alcohol or mandrake extract. The invention of modern anesthesia in the form of nitrous oxide and ether allowed doctors to safely operate on patients without the slightest resistance from them (after all, patients did not feel anything).
4. Radio
The origins of radio history are highly controversial. Many claim that Guglielmo Marconi was its inventor. Others claim that it was Nikola Tesla. In any case, these two people have done a lot to enable people to successfully transmit information through radio waves.
5. Phone
The telephone has been one of the most important inventions in our modern world. As with all major inventions, there is still debate about who invented it. One thing is clear: the US Patent Office granted 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
While everyone thinks it's a very recent invention, the Internet existed in its archaic form in 1969 when the United States military developed the ARPANET. But the relatively modern Internet came about 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 that picking up the phone and calling someone in Mali, the US or India is very easy, but it 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
While this invention may not seem as revolutionary as many of the previous points, the invention of the atomic clock was crucial in the advancement of science. Using microwave signals emitted by varying levels of electron energy, atomic clocks and their accuracy have made possible a wide range of modern modern inventions, including GPS, GLONASS, and the Internet.
9. Steam turbine
The steam turbine of Charles Parsons 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 electricity in the US was generated by steam turbines.
10. Plastic
Despite the ubiquity of plastic in our modern society, it only appeared in the last century. The waterproof and highly pliable material is used in almost every industry, from food packaging to toys and even spacecraft. While most modern plastics are made from petroleum, there are increasing calls to go back 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 families have a TV.
12. Oil
Most people do not think at all when they fill the tank of their car. Although people have been extracting oil for millennia, the modern oil and gas industry emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century. After industrialists saw all the advantages 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 not have been possible. Given that it has started to be used literally everywhere: from cars to agricultural combines and mining machines, these engines have allowed people to replace back-breaking, painstaking and time-consuming work with machines that can do this work much faster. The internal combustion engine also gave people freedom of movement since it was the one used in automobiles.
14. Reinforced concrete
The boom in the construction of high-rise buildings happened only in the middle of the nineteenth century. By embedding steel reinforcing bars (reinforcing bars) into concrete before it was poured, people were able to build reinforced concrete artificial structures 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 has been limited. In the nineteenth century, scientists invented artificial refrigeration using chemicals. By the early 1900s, almost every meatpacking plant and major food distributor was using artificial refrigeration to preserve food.
17. Pasteurization
Half a century before the discovery of penicillin, a new process discovered by Louis Pasteur, pasteurization, or heating food (originally beer, wine, and dairy products) to a temperature high enough to kill most spoilage bacteria, helped save many lives. Unlike sterilization, which kills all bacteria, pasteurization only reduces the number of potential pathogens to a level that makes most foods usable without fear of contamination, while still preserving the taste of the food.
18. Solar battery
Just as the oil industry sparked a boom in the industry as a whole, the invention of the solar battery allowed people to use a renewable form of energy in a much more efficient way. The first practical solar battery was developed in 1954 by Bell Telephone scientists, but today the popularity and efficiency of solar panels 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, putting all the functions of a supercomputer into one tiny chip, making portable computers possible.
20. Laser
The stimulated light emission amplifier or laser was invented in 1960 by Theodor Meyman. Modern lasers are used in a variety of inventions, including laser cutters, barcode scanners, and surgical equipment.
21. Nitrogen fixation
Although it may seem overly pompous, nitrogen fixation, or fixation of molecular atmospheric nitrogen, is "responsible" for the explosion of the human population. By converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, the production of highly effective fertilizers was made possible, which 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 conveyor allowed the development of large-scale production of the same parts, greatly reducing the time it took to create a new product.
23. Oral contraceptives
Although the pill and pill has been one of the main methods of medicine that has been around for thousands of years, the invention of the oral contraceptive has been one of the most significant innovations. It was this invention that became the impetus for the sexual revolution.
24. Mobile phone / smartphone
Now, many of you are probably reading this article from your smartphone. Thanks to Motorola for this, back in 1973 they released the first wireless pocket mobile phone, which weighed as much as 2 kg, and it took as much as 10 hours to recharge it. To make matters worse, at that time one could only chat quietly for 30 minutes.
25. Electricity
Most modern inventions would simply be impossible without electricity. Pioneers such as William Gilbert and Benjamin Franklin laid the initial foundation upon which inventors such as Volt and Faraday launched the second industrial revolution.
1918 - Mass spectrometer
University of Chicago professor Arthur Dempster (1886-1950) revolutionized chemical analysis with an instrument that measured the weight of isotopes in minutes and detected the chemicals present. The Toronto inventor also discovered uranium-235, a fissile type of heavy metal atom. Later, the scientist participated in the Manhattan Project.
1921 - Tetraethyl lead
The efficiency of carburetor engines is directly dependent on the compression ratio, but increasing the compression ratio causes misfiring -<детонацию>, and this in turn adversely affects the operation of the engine. Thomas Midgley (1889-1944), laboratory worker in Dayton, Ohio, spent 5 years researching anti-knock fuel additives. This additive was lead, which was used until recently, until new alternatives gradually replaced this pollutant. Another invention of T. Midgley was freon, a fire-resistant coolant, which has now been replaced by new types of coolers.
1923 - Business management
Alfred P. Sloan (1875-1966), long before Stephen Cowie and Tom Peters, pioneered modern corporate governance. It helped him save the corporation<Дженерал Моторс>from collapse and make it the most powerful in the world. He also applied a type of management with an independent board of directors, executive and financial committees - a balance of power, which by now is a thing of the past. He empowered business units that had proven to be financially efficient with decision-making power, a style that became widespread.
1923 - Multi-plane camera
Walt Disney (1901-1966) and Madame Roy's brother turned a small animation studio into grand entertainment, from the adventures of Mickey the Mouse to feature films (<Фантазия>, <Золушка>, <Питер Пэн>). Disney's biggest contribution to cinema is considered to be the multi-angle camera. Whereas in the traditional way of animation the cells were stacked on top of each other, giving a shallow image depth, the multiplane camera placed each cell on a separate level and thus the elements of the scene could move independently, closer to reality.
1924 - Mutual Fund
L. Sherman Adams, Charles H. Leroyd and Ashton L. Carr founded the Massachusetts Investors Trust, which became the first worldwide unlimited investment fund with a capital of $50,000. In 5 years, using brokerage channels for accessing the stock market, the fund increased its assets to $14 million Today, investment in mutual funds is $6.1 trillion.
1924 - Food freezing
Before Clarence Birdseye (1886-1956), cooking and cryogenics had nothing in common. After leaving college, Birdseye worked as a naturalist for the American government. In Labrador, his attention was drawn to the method of freezing, which was used by the natives to preserve the taste of fresh fish. Experimenting with other foods, Birdseye improved the freezing process and in 1924 opened a frozen seafood company in New York. By 1934, Birdseye's frozen meats and vegetables filled the refrigerators of grocery stores across the country.
1925 - Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs)
Theodore Newton Weil (1845-1920), who retired after his second term as president of ATT, merged the engineering departments of ATT and Western Electric. The research results were<обречены>for success: 6 Nobel Prizes and other awards. His name is associated with achievements such as the transistor, the push-button telephone, digital signaling and switching, optical communications, and the digital signal processor. Today, Bell Labs has shrunk to a division of Lucent Technologies.
1926 - Rocket engine
Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945) - Clark University physicist. Inspired by H. G. Wells<Война миров>, he devoted most of his professional life to developing mathematical theories of propellants and theorizing that a rocket engine could develop enough thrust to fly into space. Goddard applied his theories when launching the first rocket, which took place in 1926 on a field near the city of Auburn (Massachusetts). The rocket, which externally was a 3-meter projectile with a liquid-fuel engine in the nose, rose only 12 m. This short flight was the first giant step in rocket science.
1927 - Television
Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1906-1971), at the age of 15, presented his chemistry teacher with a project for electronic transmission of images over long distances. After 4 years, he developed the imaging cathode ray tube, a vacuum tube in which phosphorus glowed when exposed to electrons. In 1927, he first transmitted an electronic image - a horizontal line. In later life, Farnsworth worked on missile control systems and nuclear fusion control, but his first invention remained the most significant.
1928 - Penicillin.
After serving in field hospitals for years. World War I Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) persistently but unsuccessfully tried to find a means to combat infections, which brought more casualties than weapons. One day, while cleaning out his cluttered lab and sorting through old medical utensils, he discovered that a mold had killed the staph bacteria. In 1945 he won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of penicillin.
1929 - Synthetic rubber
The Belgian Julius Niuland (1878-1936), a graduate of the Catholic University of Notre Dame, was fond of clothing and artificial fabrics. In 1929, he discovered that acetylene could polymerize into an elastic substance. Two years later, DuPont, who funded the research, advertised the resulting material as neoprene. Synthetic rubber is still used today in cable insulation, diving suits, and refrigerator sealing.
1930 - Jet engine
Sir Frank Whittle (1907-1996), while still a cadet at the Royal Air Force Military School, wrote a dissertation that would radically change the future of aircraft construction. He predicted that propeller engines would be replaced by an aircraft engine using a system of turbines and compressed air to ignite atomized fuel. Whittle patented his work in 1930, but spent another 10 years getting a turbine-powered aircraft into the air. In 1941, during a test flight, the first jet aircraft reached a speed of 595 km / h, which far exceeded the capabilities of a propeller-powered aircraft.
1933 - Frequency modulation
Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890-1954), creator of modern radio. By 1913, he had found a way to amplify radio signals with a feedback loop. During World War I, he improved signal reception and tuning with a superheterodyne circuit that converted high frequency signals to intermediate frequency signals. His main idea was that data should be transmitted using radio signals that vary in frequency and not in amplitude (AM). This idea made it possible to get rid of most of the interference characteristic of AM radio transmissions. Armstrong was tried to be stopped by those who invested heavily in the development of amplitude modulation, but in the end the victory went to frequency modulation.
1933 - Drywall.
One of the smartest ideas in building after brick, which was unveiled in 1933, is stucco workpiece. This made it possible to reduce the huge costs for the production of interior finishing works. The blank, which is a mixture of recycled paper and a cheap mineral - gypsum, has a low cost. As experts say, this is dirt between two layers of garbage, for which money is paid. Product invented by U.S. Gypsum (<Гипс>), today they are produced by many, but the name remains the same - Sheetrock (sheetrock).
1934 - Investment appraisal
For most of history, investing has been about emotional choices.<куда инвестировать>. Benjamin Graham (1894-1976) and David Dodd (1895-1988), professors at Columbia University, during<большого краха>published a book<Анализ финансовой деятельности компаний>, which became the first rational justification for the assessment of the stock and bond market. This work plays the role of a kind of bible for investors. Warren Buffett is Graham and Dodd's most famous student.
1934 - Nylon.
Due to shortages during World War I, Wallis Hume Carosas (1896-1937), a student at Tarkio College, was assigned to head the Department of Chemistry. He later achieved a professorship at Harvard and then worked at a research center<Дюпон>. There he created the first synthetic fiber. Caroses failed to see the success of nylon, which became not only a substitute for silk stockings, but also found wide use in industry. In April 1937, in a state of depression, he committed suicide.
1937 - Blood bank
Bernard Fantouche (1874-1940), seized with an idea<запасов крови>similar to those that were intended for wounded soldiers during the First World War, he created the first blood bank at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
1937 - Pulse code modulation
Alec H. Reeves (1902-1971), engineer for International Telephone & Telegraph, ushered in the era of digital communications. Reeves developed a communication device that converted audio signals into electronic pulses, transmitted them over ordinary telephone lines, and then the pulses were converted back to an analog signal at the receiving location.
1938 - Xerography.
Chester Floyd Carlson (1906-1968), a New York patent lawyer, was overwhelmed with the job of copying patent applications. In 1934, he began developing a device that could transfer an image from an illuminated photographic plate onto a blank sheet of paper. After 4 years, he succeeded. In 1946, he made a deal with the Haloid Co., which produced the first commercial copy machine.
1939 - Automatic transmission (AKP)
Earl Thompson, owner of an old Fierce-Arrow with a noisy gearbox, has spent 30 years researching ways to soften shifting. As a result of his work, Hydra-Matic appeared - the first AMS. As soon as Oldsmobile used automatic transmission in their cars in 1940, it immediately received 25,000 orders. Automatic transmissions were also used by the American troops - they were installed in light tanks during the Second World War.
1939 - Helicopter
The practical implementation of Igor Sikorsky's (1889-1972) obsession with vertical flight brought about changes in the way warfare, rescue and travel were carried out. Sikorsky, Russian by birth, fled to the United States from the Bolsheviks and the revolution. There he founded Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corp. (now a division of United Technologies), where he developed the amphibious assault aircraft and the amphibious aircraft, both types of aircraft that launched air travel to South America. In 1931, he patented the design of the helicopter: the main rotary engine at the top and the vertical rotary engine at the tail, which provided unique maneuverability to the device, a great achievement of the project. In September 1939, he built the first VS-300 helicopter.
In 1935, Sir Robert Watson-Watt (1892-1973), a physicist from Scotland, was admitted to the State Physics Laboratory, where he developed the first radar technologies. Using a shortwave radio device, he determined how electromagnetic waves should be reflected from distant objects so that they could then be amplified and analyzed by a signal processing device. As a result, the first radar station (RLS) appeared, and with it all modern navigation systems.
1942 - Electronic computer
John W. Atanasoff (1903-1995), physicist at Iowa State College, sketched the idea for the first computer on a napkin just after<вечера с виски и прогулки на автомобиле со скоростью 160км/ч>. As a result of the work, such important and still applied ideas as a regenerative memory device, a binary arithmetic device, and the addition of certain logic gates to create an electronic adder appeared. He completed his 300 kg table-sized device in 1942. Although his ideas had already been applied to the ENIAC computer, Atanasoff was only recognized after a patent hearing in 1973.
1945 - Nuclear energy.
For 4 days in August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, killing more than 200 thousand people. Nuclear explosions marked the end of World War II and the beginning of the nuclear age. In 1957, in the area of the city of Shippingport (Pennsylvania), the world's first nuclear reactor was launched, which supplied Pittsburgh and surrounding territories with electricity. But hopes for a complete transition of the United States to nuclear energy were not destined to come true due to an accident in the Three Mile Island region in 1979.
1947 - Cell phone
D.H. Ring, an employee of Bell Labs, dreamed of building a mobile communication system using low-power transmitters located in prescribed service areas. However, the decision of the US Federal Communications Commission to limit the number of radio frequencies for mobile communications delayed the development of the idea. The decision of the federal commission remained without revision until 1968.
1947 - Microwave
Percy L. Spencer (1894-1970), Raytheon engineer, brought the kitchen into the space age. In 1945, while standing by the operating tube of the magnetron, the main component of shortwave radars, Spencer noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket was beginning to melt. He experimented with corn kernels, which he placed on a pipe, and made a discovery. In 1947, the world's first microwave oven Radarange appeared.
1947 - Snapshot.
By working on light polarization, Edwin Herbert Land (1909-1991) was able to reduce glare in glassware, lamps, and military goggles. After working with non-polarizing filters, Land invented a camera that developed pictures in seconds.
1947 - Transistor
John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain worked under William R. Shockley at Bell Labs. They noticed that when electrical signals were applied to the contacts of the germanium crystal, the output power was higher than the input power. All three received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956.
1947 - Tupperware plastic tableware
Earl Silas Tupper (1907-1983) began to develop his commercial talent at the age of 10, when he delivered family-owned products from door to door. In 1938 he left the company<Дюпон>where he was an engineer and founded Tupper Plastics Co. Tupper developed a process for the production of tough, fat-free plastic from black polyethylene slag by refining it. This is how plastic products (Tupperware) appeared - plastic dishes, bowls and cups with airtight, waterproof lids. But his real achievement was the multi-level marketing organization he created from a growing army of housewives.
1948 - Long-playing record (LP)
Peter Carl Goldmark (1906-1977) loved music. However, the cellist and pianist from Budapest did not like the short playing time of 78 rpm records. By slowing down the record to 33 1/3 rpm and using softer vinyl instead of shellac, Goldmark was able to increase the number of spiral grooves and double the playing time. The long-playing record, or LP, became a kind of catalyst for the music industry, as it allowed classical works to be recorded in their entirety.
1949 - Magnetic core storage device
An Wang (1920-1990), physicist, was born in Shanghai. He worked at the Computing Laboratory at Harvard University, where he developed<устройство управления передачей импульсов>, the first way to store information on a computer without the use of large magnetic drums.
His real breakthrough was the use of electricity to control the polarity of thousands of tiny ring-shaped ferrite magnets. Jay Forrester, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, modified magnetic core memory, after which it served as the basis for high-speed computer memory until it was replaced by microprocessors. Wang sold the memory patent to IBM for $400,000. He created his own company, Wang Laboratories, which was the first to produce desktop calculators and minicomputers. Wang Laboratories was actively developing, but after the death of Wang ceased to exist.
1952 - Thorazine (chlorpromazine)
Henri Laboriat (1914-1995), French-born surgeon, spent many years looking for a way to reduce the suffering of patients after anesthesia. He found a way out: before the operation, patients were given chlorpromazine (trade name - Thorazine). He also convinced the brother-in-law of one of his colleagues, a psychiatrist, to use this remedy for the treatment of mentally ill patients. As a result, patients who only walked for a long time were able to communicate with people. The drug blocks the dopamine (dopamine) that causes schizophrenia, and patients can live outside of a psychiatric hospital. The US Food and Drug Administration approved this remedy in 1952.
1954 - FORTRAN programming language
John W. Backus (1924) led a group of engineers at IBM that developed the first high-level programming language. In the course of replacing the abstract assembly language with English words and well-known algebraic symbols, the Fortran language appeared, which became the language of physical sciences and is the basis of almost every programming language.
1954 - Polio vaccine.
In 1952, Jonas Salk (1914-1995) and Albert Sabin (1906-1993) worked hard on a vaccine against polio, a virus that inflames nerve cells in the spinal cord and can cause paralysis, muscle atrophy, and death. In the same year, 52,000 Americans contracted polio, of which about 3,000 died. Salk, an expert on influenza diseases, used his acquaintance with D. Basil O'Connor, president of the National Foundation, to create an antiviral vaccine by injecting the virus into the body in sufficient quantities to produce antibodies. Salk tested the effect of the vaccine on himself and his family members and in March 1953 announced the results on the radio<Си-Би-эС>. A year later, they began to vaccinate the population, as a result, cases of paralytic outcome from poliomyelitis fell from 13.9 per 100 thousand in 1954 to 0.5 in 1961. Salk became a hero. He later participated in the work on a vaccine against HIV infection.
Sabin considered oral vaccination to be more effective. In 1957, they conducted field trials of the vaccine. In June 1961, the American Medical Association approved the Sabin vaccine. From 1962 to 1964, more than 100 million Americans were vaccinated, and by the mid-1960s, the easy-to-administer Sabin vaccine became the go-to vaccine. The disease has been eradicated.
1955 - Fast food (Fast Food)
Ray Kroc (1902-1984), despite his thriving milkshake machine business, realized he could make more money making hamburgers. In 1955 he opened the first diner<Макдоналдс>in Des Plaines (Illinois). The Golden Arches have changed the American landscape and turned restaurants into thriving businesses like Kemmons Wilson's hotels. Kroc became a national figure by making money out of nothing.
1956 - Container shipping
Malcolm McLean (1913-2001), a trucking magnate, was dissatisfied with the pace at which cargo was delivered domestically and internationally. Changing the design of the truck trailer in the manner of a railway car and a ship's hold made it possible to speed up the loading procedure. The first cargo ship with containers on board left New Jersey in 1956, starting a new industry that set a precedent for FedEx.
1956 - Drive.
Reynold B. Johnson of IBM developed the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Control Reader). The device consisted of 50 rotating magnetic disks with a diameter of 60 cm, which were located one above the other. The read-write mechanism moved between disks, providing faster access to data than magnetic tape. After the capabilities of the device were demonstrated at the World's Fair in Brussels in 1958, magnetic tape media was abandoned.
1956 - Optical fiber.
Once, when Narinder Kapani was still living in India, the teacher told him that light only propagates by reflected light in a straight line. Kapani took this statement as a challenge. In 1956, he empirically derived the term<волоконная оптика>: A bundle of flexible glass rods coated with a reflective material transmitted the image from one end to the other without distortion and with minimal loss of light. Later to<оптическим волноводам>the laser beam was also assigned. However, the development of high-speed fiber-optic communication took several decades.
1956 - Ampex VRX-1000.
Charles Paulson Ginsburg (1920-1992) joined Ampex in 1952. Video recording devices of that time worked at an unnecessarily high speed - 6 m / s, so the consumption of video film was very high. In his Ampex VRX-1000, Ginsburg used recording heads that rotated at high speed, which significantly reduced the speed of the tape drive. Ginsburg's invention redefined the future of analog audio and video recorders.
1958 - Implantable electronic pacemaker.
Wilson Greatbatch (1919) accidentally installed the wrong resistor in a heartbeat monitor. He noticed that the impulse signal of the device began to imitate the beating of the heart. After making design changes to the device, he assembled 50 pacemakers in his backyard shed. Ultimately, the device was tested on dogs and humans.
1958 - Laser.
Three people claim to have each invented the laser, a device for amplifying light by stimulated emission of radiation. However, the patent for the invention belongs to Gordon Good. At first, an intense light beam was used for cutting and drilling metals and other materials. In 1964, Kumar Patel, an employee of Bell Labs, invented the dioxide laser, with which surgeons were able to perform highly complex operations using a photon beam instead of scalpels.
1959 - Triple buckle seat belt.
Niels Bohlin (1920-2002), a Swedish engineer, came to the position of head of the safety department of the Volvo car company from Saab Aircraft, where he was involved in the work on the pilot's ejection device. 14 years before the invention of airbags, he put forward the idea that the use of a seat belt that would hold the upper and lower body of a seated person in place would reduce the number of injuries among drivers and passengers. But it didn't just end with the device: Bolin had to spend years persuading both car manufacturers and the government to make the seatbelt part of the standard equipment in cars. According to representatives of the US Department of Transportation, a seat belt saves the lives of 12,000 Americans every year.
1959 - Integrated circuit
Robert Noyce (1927-1990), an electrical engineer at Fairchild, and Jack S. Kilby (1923), an electrical engineer at Texas Instruments, are equally credited as the masterminds of the information age. Without knowing each other, they solved the problem of minimizing the discrete elements of a computer circuit board and transferring them to a wafer of silicon (Noyce) and germanium (Kilby). This greatly increased the performance of the computer and at the same time reduced its cost. The two companies eventually agreed to share the patents, but Fairchild was the first to mass-produce chips. The integrated circuit is still the key achievement of the electronic era.
1962 - Satellite Telstar 1.
Thanks to this invention, we can call our cousin/brother in Vilnius, who in turn can watch the American Football Cup championship. The first commercial communications satellite was built by John R. Pierce (1910-2002) at Bell Labs. It took $ 3.5 million to put the satellite into orbit. The device was used to transmit television signals from Europe to the United States and transatlantic telephone communications. Pierce left Bell Labs in 1971 for Stanford University, where he taught and wrote science fiction novels under the name of J. J. Capling. He introduced the term<транзистор>but not many people know about it.
1962 - Modem.
Without this device, the Internet is impossible. The device was developed in the 1950s and was intended to improve the quality of data transmission in the US northern air defense zone. With the help of a modem, computers could communicate with each other, while the data was converted into analog signals that were transmitted over telephone lines. The first commercial model of a modem from AT&T, the Bell 103, appeared 40 years ago and transmitted data at a speed of 300 bps. Modern modems transmit data at a rate of one million bits per second.
1964 - Family of mainframe computers.
IBM's System/360 line of computers included a range of commercial computer models in which a single programming language was used. Thus, customers who were moving up in the company only needed to take the software with them. Gen M. Amdahl, creator of the System/360 line, left IBM in 1970 with the idea of creating a competitive computer model.
1968 - Mouse
At a computer conference in San Francisco, Douglas Engelbart, an expert at Stanford Research Institute, made a strong impression on a crowded audience with his presentation of a prototype Windows program, teleconferencing, and a wooden device he called a mouse. Two decades later, Engelbart's invention has become a familiar PC accessory.
1969 - ATM.
For years, bankers have been talking about automatic cash machines. Donald Wetzel, a former minor league baseball player and IBM sales manager, received credit to develop the first working model of an ATM. VP of product planning for Docutel and later manufacturer of automated baggage handling equipment installed the first ATM at Chemical Bank's Long Island, New York branch. The first ATMs operated offline. Today, about 1.1 million ATMs are interconnected around the globe. Wetzel left Docutel and created companies that sold banking equipment.
1969 - Charge-coupled device
George Smith and Willard Boyle, scientists at Bell Labs, sketched out the idea of a light-sensitive circuit that could record images in just an hour. Ultimately, the mechanism for storing and transmitting video images without the use of videotape was applied to video cameras, and by 1975 Bell Labs produced a broadcast camera. The same operating principle has been applied to fax machines and telescopes.
1969 - Internet
Who knew that the military-industrial complex would become the godmother for online pornography? In order for scientists working in the interests of the US military to communicate with each other via computer, the Arpanet network was created, consisting of two terminals at Stanford and the University of California at Los Angeles. Later, the State Science Foundation, using the same technology, created a network with greater bandwidth, which is the basis of the existence of the Internet to this day. As the commercialization of the network increased, Arpanet merged with the Internet.
1970 - Relational database
Edgar F. Thad Codd, a mathematician and graduate of Oxford University, was engaged in research in the field of computers, in 1970 he developed the concept of a relational database. Earlier databases were organized in a strict order; Codd's idea was that disparate groups of data could be combined using common fields. However, IBM management supported a more primitive system. However, the relational database is now the standard and the foundation of Larry Ellison's Oracle fortune.
1970 - CD.
James T. Russell (1931), a physicist at the Battelle Memorial Institute Laboratory (Richland, Washington) and an amateur sound engineer, tried his best to improve the sound of his old vinyl records. He put forward the idea of digitizing music and recording it on a photosensitive disk using light flashes. This would allow the computer to read music without physical contact with the source, which immediately solved the problem of aging and wear. The first CDs were from phonograph records. Russell went on to develop CD-ROM technologies (memory readers), which are now widespread and allow you to create not only music, but also DVD and software discs. Last year, 3 billion recording discs were sold.
1971 - Microprocessor.
Robert Noyce, a member of Fairchild's integrated circuit design program, co-founded the chip manufacturing company Intel. A group of specialists from this company, led by Marsyan (Ted) Hoff (1937), took another step in the miniaturization of computers, fitting the CPU into a single chip. The first microprocessor model, designed for the Japanese calculator company Busicom, could perform 60,000 operations per second, like the 30-ton ENIAC computer built two decades earlier. Try today to give Intel a loan for the development of a microcircuit with the expectation that they will later buy out all the rights (except for the rights to microcircuits for calculators) for $60,000.
1971 - Answering machine.
In the 90s of the 19th century, Valdemar Paulsen patented a prototype of a modern answering machine - a telegraph phone, consisting of a telephone set, steel wire and an electromagnet. However, the commercial model of the device, suitable for sale on the market, appeared after 7 decades. PhoneMate's first answering machine, the Model 400, weighed 4 kg and could store up to 20 messages on a roll of tape. Today, 67% of American households use the lighter and cheaper phones from PhoneMate.
1972 - Computed tomographic image.
For more than 7 decades, doctors have used X-rays to penetrate the human body, but they could only see the skeleton. Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack, working separately, created a method in which crystals were used instead of X-ray film, a camera rotated around a person, and a computer compared the resulting multiple images. As a result, it was possible to obtain a detailed image of the internal organs of the human body. Shortly thereafter, chemistry professor Paul Lauterber published a paper proposing nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, which led to the development of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, which provides three-dimensional images of internal organs.
1972 - Ethernet technology.
Robert Metcalfe, of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, was responsible for setting up a single, high-speed network. His term (<стандарт локальных сетей>) means a system of wires and chips that allow computer systems to connect to each other at a local level without drowning each other out. His real achievement is Xerox's technology collaboration with Digital Equipment and Intel, which has made Ethernet technology the industry standard and is now the most widely used technology for LANs. In 1979, Metcalfe founded 3Com to develop Ethernet technology.
1972 - UNIX/C operating system.
The first operating system written in C that is still in use around the world. Bell Labs researchers Dennis Ritchie (1941) and Kenneth Thompson (1943) developed a system based on simple discrete commands that was used in multitasking devices and supported by users: one user could run a spell check while another was creating a document. Currently, C programming exists in various forms and implementations. Today, UNIX continues to be used to control most Internet servers and major economies.
1972 - Video games.
Nolan Bushnell (1943) came up with another way to keep the youth busy: he created Pong, a rough electronic tennis game, of which a home version was released later. Bushnell's Atari game became the top seller in the video game market, but was ultimately outclassed by the game<Пиццерия>. Now Sony and Microsoft have monopolized the industry that Bushnell started, and their US revenues exceed those of the film industry.
1974 - Catalytic afterburner.
After the US Congress passed the Air Pollution Control Act (1970), Corning scientists Rodney Bagley, Irwin Lachman, and Ronald Lewis began developing an idea that allowed automakers to reduce emissions. As a result, scientists have created a ceramic honeycomb coating that is used in the exhaust system of a car and converts 95% of pollutants into water vapor and carbon dioxide.
1976 - Recombinant DNA.
Robert Swanson, a 29-year-old entrepreneur, and Herbert Boyer, a professor at the University of California (San Francisco), have teamed up to commercialize Boyer's major advances in "recombinant DNA" - technology - creating combinations of DNA molecules that can bring great benefits to humanity, like insulin for diabetics, growth hormones for children, and antibodies for cancer patients. The two members founded the first biotech company, Genentech. The company rose to prominence in 1980 with $35 million in profits. Swanson died in 1999. Today, the company has a market value of $17 billion and sales of $2.2 billion.
1976 - Personal computer.
Apple co-founders Steven P. Jobs (1955) and Steven Wozniak (1950) made the PC as marketable as sports cars, ushering in the PC era. But because the company never took the business market seriously, its success has been much more modest than that of its larger competitors, which have always embraced Apple's design and marketing innovations. Wozniak resigned in 1985. In the same year, Jobs was forced to leave the company, but in 1997 he was invited to lead the work on the transformation of the company.
1977 - Cash management accounts.
After meeting with members of the Stanford Research Institute, Thomas Christie, Chief Accountant<Мерил Линч>, proposed the idea of a single account, which provided for the issuance of a checkbook, foreign exchange services, a Visa credit card and brokerage services. The idea remained without development, and the company<Мерил>almost forgot about her. Ultimately, the idea spread widely, inspiring those who dreamed of creating megabanks.
1979 - Spreadsheet
Daniel Bricklin (1951) and Bob Frankston (1949) invented the VisiCalc computer program, which freed accountants and other professionals from hours of paperwork by making it easier to record financial data and speed up comparative analysis. The VisiCalc program became in some way a contribution to the computerization process, as it showed the real possibilities of using a PC. Due to legal problems, VisiCalc was sold to Lotus, which used a spreadsheet in version 1-2-3 of the program.
1984 - Liquid crystal display.
Liquid crystals, which exist between solid and liquid states, were discovered by the Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer in 1888. After 80 years, two independent groups of scientists from RCA Labs and Kent (Utah) created the first liquid crystal display based on a generalization of the results of exposure to crystals by electric charges. At first, liquid crystal displays were used in watches. By 1984, it was possible to improve the resolution of liquid crystals, which made it possible to transmit images, and not just text, and laptops and portable computers appeared.
1987 - Mevacor ("Mevacor").
It took Merck scientists more than 35 years to create Mevacor, a cholesterol-lowering drug. The tablet blocks the enzyme that is responsible for the formation of mevalonic acid, the acid does not affect the liver, and cholesterol is not produced. Under the leadership of P. Roy Vagelos, CEO of Merck, the scientists created Zocor, a second-generation drug that proved that taking all cholesterol-lowering drugs reduced the risk of heart attack. In 1995, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Zocor as a heart attack prevention drug, which greatly increased demand for the drug from people who had already suffered a heart attack.
1991 - World Wide Web.
Tim Berners-Lee, a software consultant, developed the Enquire program that documented the interconnection of computers around the world, making cyberspace travel a reality. In 1993, Marc Andreessen created the Mosaic program, which allowed you to view images and text. Two years later, Netscape's search engine ushered in the era of online advertising.
1995 - Internet business.
Enticed by a new form of business, Jeffrey Bezos began selling books online at Amazon.com, and Pierre Omidiar launched Ebay, an online marketplace. Hundreds of other entrepreneurs followed suit, selling everything from bicycles to chewing gum.
2000 - Automated sequencer.
Using 300 high-speed DNA sequencing machines, genetics guru J. Craig Venter revolutionized the scientific world: his company Celera Genomics, in just over two years, on a $270 million budget, managed to decipher the complete human genetic code. Studying genetic differences among people will allow scientists to more effectively diagnose and ultimately cure diabetes and schizophrenia.
We live in a unique time! It takes only half a day to fly around half the Earth, our super-powerful smartphones are 60,000 times lighter than the original computers, and today's agricultural production and life expectancy are the highest in the history of mankind!
We owe these tremendous achievements to a small number of great minds - scientists, inventors and artisans who have come up with and developed the products and mechanisms on which the modern world is built. Without these people and their great inventions, we would go to bed at sunset and be stuck in a time when there were no cars or telephones.
In this list, we will talk about the most important and decisive recent inventions, their history and significance in the development of mankind. Can you guess which inventions we are talking about?
From the methods of disinfecting food and making it safer, to the toxic gas that helped form the basis of international trade, to the invention that led to the sexual revolution and liberated people, each of these creations has had an impact on people's lives in the most direct way. Learn about 25 amazing inventions that have changed our world!
25. Cyanide
While cyanide is a rather grim way to start this list, the chemical has played an important role in human history. While its gaseous form has caused the death of millions of people, cyanide is the main factor in extracting gold and silver from ore. And since the world economy was tied to the gold standard, cyanide served and continues to be an important factor in the development of international trade.
24. Airplane
There is no doubt that the invention of the “iron bird” had one of the greatest impacts on human history.
Drastically reducing the time it takes to transport people and goods, the airplane was invented by the Wright brothers, who built on the work of previous inventors such as George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal.
Their invention was readily accepted by a significant part of society, after which the “golden age” of aviation began.
23. Anesthesia
Until 1846, there was little difference between surgical procedures and painful experimental torture.
Anesthetics have been used for thousands of years, although their early forms were much more simplified versions, such as alcohol or mandrake extract.
The invention of modern anesthesia in the form of nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) and ether has allowed doctors to operate without fear of causing pain to their patients. (Bonus fact: cocaine is said to have been the first effective form of local anesthesia since it was used in eye surgery in 1884.)
22. Radio
The history of the invention of the radio is not so clear: someone claims that it was invented by Guglielmo Marconi, someone insists that it was Nikola Tesla. In any case, these two men relied on the work of many famous predecessors before successfully transmitting information via radio waves.
And although this is already a common thing today, try to imagine that in 1896 you told someone that you could transmit information over the air. You would be mistaken for insane or possessed by demons!
21. Telephone
The telephone has become one of the most important inventions of the modern world. As is the case with most great inventions, its inventor and the people who made a significant contribution to its appearance are discussed in heated debates and discussions to this day.
The only thing known for certain is that the first patent for a telephone was issued by the US Patent Office to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. This patent served as the basis for further research and development of electronic sound transmission over long distances.
20. “The World Wide Web, or WWW
Although most of us assume that this invention is recent, the Internet actually existed in its obsolete form as early as 1969, when the US military developed the ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network).
The first message that was planned to be transmitted over the Internet - "log in" ("log in") - disabled the system, so only "lo" could be sent. The World Wide Web as we know it today began when Tim Berners-Lee created the hypertext document network and the University of Illinois created the first Mosaic browser.
19. Transistor
It seems that there is nothing easier than picking up the phone and contacting someone in Bali, India or Iceland, but nothing would have happened without a transistor.
Thanks to this semiconductor triode, which amplifies electrical signals, it became possible to transmit information over great distances. The man who was one of the inventors of the transistor - William Shockley - founded the laboratory that stood at the origins of the creation of Silicon Valley.
18. Quantum clock
Although it may not seem as revolutionary as many of the things listed above, the invention of quantum (atomic) clocks was decisive for the development of mankind.
Using microwave signals emitted by changing energy levels of electrons, quantum clocks have made possible a wide range of modern inventions with their precision, including GPS, GLONASS and the Internet.
17. Steam turbine
The steam turbine of Charles Parsons pushed the boundaries of human technological progress, giving power to industrialized countries and helping ships to cross vast oceans.
The engines work by rotating the shaft using compressed water vapor to generate electricity - one of the main differences between a steam turbine and a steam engine, which made a revolution in the industry. In 1996 alone, 90% of all electricity generated in the US was produced by steam turbines.
16. Plastic
Despite its ubiquitous use in modern society, plastics are a relatively recent invention, dating back only a hundred plus years.
This moisture-resistant and incredibly pliable material is used in almost every industry - from food packaging to toys and even spacecraft.
Although most modern plastics are made from petroleum, there are increasing calls for a return to the original version, which was partially natural and organic.
15. Television
Television has a long and storied history that began in the 1920s and has continued to evolve to the present day with modern features such as DVDs and plasma panels.
As one of the most popular consumer products worldwide (nearly 80% of households own at least one television set), this invention was the cumulative result of numerous previous advances that led to a product that became a major influencer of public opinion in the middle of the 20th century.
14. Oil
Most of us don't think twice before filling up our car's gas tank. Although mankind has been extracting oil for a millennium, the modern gas and oil industry began its development in the second half of the 19th century - after modern street lamps appeared on the streets.
Having appreciated the huge amount of energy that is generated by burning oil, industrialists rushed to build wells for the extraction of "liquid gold".
13. Internal combustion engine
If there were no productive oil, there would be no modern internal combustion engine.
Used in many areas of human activity - from cars to agricultural combines and excavators - internal combustion engines make it possible to replace people with machines that can perform overwhelming, painstaking and time-consuming work in a matter of time.
Also, thanks to these engines, a person received freedom of movement, since they were used in the original self-propelled vehicles (cars).
12. Reinforced concrete
Until the advent of reinforced concrete in the middle of the 19th century, mankind could safely erect buildings only up to a certain height.
The incorporation of steel reinforcing bars before pouring the concrete has strengthened it so that the man-made structures are now able to carry much more weight, allowing us to build buildings and structures even larger and taller than ever before.
11. Penicillin
Today, there would be far fewer people on our planet if it were not for penicillin.
Officially discovered by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, penicillin was one of the most significant inventions (mostly discoveries) that made our modern world possible.
Antibiotics were among the first medicines to properly deal with staphylococcus aureus, syphilis, and tuberculosis.
10. Cooling
The taming of fire was perhaps the most important discovery of mankind to date, but it would take more than one millennium until we tamed the cold.
Although mankind has long used ice for cooling, its practicality and availability has been limited for some time. In the 19th century, humanity made significant progress in its development after scientists invented artificial cooling using chemical elements that absorb heat.
By the early 1900s, almost every meatpacking plant and large wholesaler was using artificial refrigeration to store food.
9. Pasteurization
Helping to save the lives of many people half a century before the discovery of penicillin, Louis Pasteur invented the process of pasteurizing, or heating food (originally beer, wine, and dairy products) to a temperature high enough to kill most putrefactive bacteria.
Unlike sterilization, which kills all bacteria, pasteurization, while preserving the palatability of the product, only reduces the number of potential pathogens, reducing it to a level at which they are not capable of harming health.
8. Solar battery
Just as oil fueled the development of industry, the invention of the solar battery has allowed us to use renewable energy in a much more efficient way.
The first practical solar battery was developed in 1954 by specialists from the Bell Telephone laboratory based on silicon. Over the years, the efficiency of solar panels has increased dramatically along with their popularity.
7. Microprocessor
If the microprocessor had not been invented, then we would never have known about laptops and smartphones.
One of the most widely known supercomputers - ENIAC (ENIAC) - was created in 1946 and weighed 27.215 kg. Intel electronics engineer and world hero Ted Hoff developed the first microprocessor in 1971, putting the functions of a supercomputer on a single small chip, making portable computers possible.
6. Laser
An acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, the laser was invented in 1960 by Theodore Maiman. The amplified light is anchored through spatial coherence, which allows the light to remain focused and concentrated over long distances.
In today's world, lasers are used almost everywhere, including laser cutting machines, barcode scanners, and surgical equipment.
5. Nitrogen fixation (nitrogen fixation)
While the term may seem overly scientific, nitrogen fixation is actually responsible for the dramatic increase in the human population on Earth.
By converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, we have learned how to produce highly effective fertilizers, thanks to which, on the same plots of land, it became possible to increase production volumes, which significantly improved our agricultural products.
4. Assembly line
The impact of the inventions that have become commonplace, which they had in their time, is rarely remembered, but the importance of the assembly line cannot be overestimated.
Before his invention, all products were painstakingly made by hand. The assembly line allowed for the mass production of identical components, greatly reducing the time to produce a new product.
3. Birth control pill
Although pills and tablets have been one of the main methods of taking medicine for thousands of years, the invention of the birth control pill was the most revolutionary of them all.
Approved for use in 1960 and now taken by more than 100 million women worldwide, this combined oral contraceptive was the main impetus for the sexual revolution and changed the dialogue about fertility, largely shifting the responsibility of choice from men to women.
2. Mobile phone / smartphone
Chances are you're currently reading or browsing this list on your smartphone.
While the first widely known smartphone was the iPhone, which hit the market in 2007, we have Motorola, its "ancient" predecessor, to thank for that. In 1973, it was this company that released the first wireless pocket mobile phone, which weighed 2 kilograms and took 10 hours to charge. To make matters worse, it could only be spoken for 30 minutes before the battery needed to be recharged again.
1. Electricity
Most of the modern inventions on this list wouldn't even be remotely possible were it not for the greatest of them all, electricity. As long as one thinks that the Internet or the plane should top this list, both of these inventions should be grateful to electricity.
William Gilbert and Benjamin Franklin were the pioneers who laid the initial foundation upon which such great minds as Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday and others were based, sparking the Second Industrial Revolution and opening era of lighting and electricity.