Top 11 Inventions that Changed the World forever 


 

"Nothing is permanent in this world except change."

You might have come across this quotation more than once in your lifetime. This quotation has a deep and true meaning, which is valid for anyone and everyone living on this Earth. These changes are phases of developments, as these changes are the medium through which, developments take place. A few of these changes have been named as “Inventions” and “Discoveries”. The only small difference between Inventions and Discoveries is Inventions are things that are already there, but we just have to get our hands on them and render them to be useful are Discoveries, whereas things for humans’ benefit, that are made up from scratch are Inventions.

Few of the top inventions that were made since the beginning of human life are mentioned below:

1. Fire
The most important discovery of all time since ages is that of fire. Without fire, nothing can work. If we consider any small thing, let it be cooking to any large thing, let it be a steam engine, nothing can work without the help of fire. And the most amusing fact is that the discovery of fire was actually an accident. Heat was produced due to friction, when two stones got rubbed against each other. This heat gave rise to fire in the dry hay, and marked one of the most crucial discoveries ever made by human beings. Luckily, this discovery took place in the early centuries by the cave men.

2. Wheel
Another invention made by the cave men, that altered the face of Earth. This invention was surely not a mistake, but came into life through observation and use of mind. Transporting goods from one place to another just by pushing or pulling them seemed to be tiring and a difficult task to do, so the cave men gave it some thought, observed the structure of trees, and tried making such circular things on which, they could balance a plate and could keep their goods on them for the purpose of transportation. The job became much easy and less cumbersome.

3. Electricity
Salute to Sir Thomas Alva Edison, who thought of flying a kite in the stormy weather, with a metallic key attached to one end of the thread, which he held in his hand. As soon as the electric current from the clouds stroked the kite, the current started flowing and as he touched the key, he felt an electric current passing through his body, as his feet touched the ground, giving the effect of Earthing. This marked the beginning of discovery of electricity, which enabled other discoveries like those of light bulbs, air conditioners etc. Now, a time has come, when we can’t even survive for a couple of hours without electricity.

4. Cotton Gin
So, the clothes you wear, I hope they are a necessity for you! But have you ever wondered, from where did these clothes came? Does mother nature provide readymade clothes? I have never seen clothes growing on trees or insects wearing them. Well, this all is obtained from the raw materials of cotton or silk. Cotton grows on plants and are separated for further processing, which includes the process of weaving etc. but the first process that it goes through is separation of cotton seeds from the fluffy cotton. Hand Separation used to take a large amount of time, causing less productivity, so Cotton Gin machines used to perform same operations in a very less amount of time, hence acting as a huge invention.

5. Paper and Pen
If we go in the Pyramids of Egypt or any such historical monument, we will find inscriptions on the walls, showing the people of that time performing various chores. That was a way of saving the current data so that the future people could learn, how the past was. This also give us an information that the task of writing and conveying messages through drawings was developed a long time before the discovery of pen and paper. It can easily be inferred from these early drawings that it took a large amount of effort to draw these things, as they didn’t have many developed instruments to perform those tasks. So, with the discovery of paper and pen, this task became much easier. The use if paper and pen became extremely common in all fields of work, and is the best way of communication and storing data.

6. Steam Engine
After the blueprints were made, James Watt put in much more efforts to mark an important invention, which changed the way we live. The invention was that of Steam Engine. Steam is a powerful fuel for locomotive. This idea first came in the mind of James Watt, who started putting in most of his time thinking about getting a practical use of Steam into daily life, when finally he ended up in the discovery of Steam Engine, which remained a method of inexpensive transportation for hundreds of years.

7. Automobiles
A new discovery is said to be important, only if it is more useful than the discovery of its previous kind. The idea of Steam Engine saw a downfall after the discovery of Internal and External Combustion Engines, but if we see properly, they all work on the procedures of Steam Engine only. So the discovery of Steam Engine was a base for the discovery of much more widely used mode of transportation called Automobiles. Now, wherever you see, you will find hundreds of automobiles crossing the streets to reach their destinations.

8. Airplane
Thanks to Wright Brothers, who gave the idea of flight. Although much before they gave their design, Leonardo da Vinci, the great artist, whose masterpiece is said to be “Mona Lisa” gave a working design of an airplane, but that design couldn’t be developed, so he didn’t come in much limelight because of his airplane design. The Wright Brothers were the first ever to make a working model of an airplane, which actually marked a flight, and began an era of a quick mode of transportation.

9. Telephone
“Ring! Ring!.. Hello!” A common thing that we hear everywhere around us. This revolutionary invention changed the way we talk! The cell phones we use nowadays, saw their ancestral beginning when Sir Alexander Graham Bell came across the revolutionary idea of joining two cups with the help of thread at their bottom ends. One would talk from one cup and the other would be able to listen from the other end. This is the base of all the telephone companies nowadays. It cannot be wrong to say that Sir Graham Bell did revolutionized the world, as now, we don’t see even a single person without a phone in his hands or in his pocket.

10. World Wide Web
Popularly called by the name “Internet”, it began for US Military for the purpose of sending and receiving mails and other data within the system, but the technology caught a much faster pace and within no time, Internet became the basic necessity of mankind. It seems an amusing fact that it just has been 3 decades since the beginning of World Wide Web, and the in the present generation, even kids depend on this Internet for completing as basic thing as their homework. Internet has influenced our life in each and every possible manner, and will keep on doing the same for the rest of our lives.

11. Facebook
I know that you might be laughing right now that How can Facebook be in the list of Top inventions, but tell me yourself, how many times do you type “facebook[dot]com” in your browser’s address bar? How many hours each day, you use Facebook for? I can bet on it that you might be checking your News Feed at least once everyday! Well, that is what Facebook is. Extremely addictive, but extremely helpful on the same hand. You get the ability to connect with your long lost friends, get to know what is going in the world, can flirt with people, or can publicize your event . Not only Facebook, but all the Social Networking sites provide this platform for the general public, looking for a way to connect to the world. After all, Man is a social animal!

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VOCABULARY WORDS:
1. Crucial (adj.) ~ decisive or critical, especially in the success or failure of something
2. Cumbersome (adj.) ~ slow or complicated and therefore inefficient
3. Convey (v.) ~ transport or carry to a place
4. Infer (v.) ~ deduce or conclude (information) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements
5. Downfall (n.) ~ a loss of power, prosperity, or status
6. Flirt (v.) ~ behave as though attracted to or trying to attract someone, but for amusement rather than with serious intentions

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. What is the difference between invention and discovery?
2. According to the article, what are the most important inventions of all time? Discuss their use briefly.
3. Which of the abovementioned invention has the most impact on your everyday life? In what way?
4. What invention not mentioned above do you think is also very crucial to humankind? Discuss your answer.