The Top 5 Inventions That Changed The World
Humans have always been an extremely innovative species, and it’s this innovation that has allowed us to become the dominant lifeforms on our planet. While we were little more than apes at one point, our discoveries and subsequent inventions quickly saw us begin to start the beginnings of civilisation.
The more the populations grew, the more knowledge was passed on, and the more we began to experiment with the resources around us. And while almost every invention has been important to our development, even something fun like online roulette Australia, some were so monumental that they changed us as a species forever.
1. The Wheel
The wheel was first invented around 3500 BC, and before that humans were extremely limited in how many items they were able to transport, which was a problem for our ancestors who were nomadic by nature.
But the wheel was just one part of the invention, and the axle – that came soon after – made all the difference, allowing us to create carts that could be pulled by pack animals. This completely revolutionised the way we could move around, and was the precursor to advanced agriculture and trade.
2. The Light Bulb
Before there were artificial sources of light, such as candles, all of our work would come to an end when the sun went down. Candles ultimately changed this, allowing us to stay up longer into the night, and giving us the chance to get more hours out of the day.
But the light bulb, which came around in the 1800s, was a much more important invention. Thomas Edison’s new device paved the way for electricity to make its way into homes across the United States.
3. The Telephone
Expanding on the expansion of electrical systems, our next big invention was the telephone. It changed the way we dealt with communication as a whole, and for the first time we were able to pick up a device that allowed us to instantly connect and talk to someone in a completely different place.
Patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, which he called “the electrical speech machine”. It was an instant hit, and quickly saw growth around the world within the next few decades. When Bell died in 1922, all telephones lines when down for a minute to honour his contributions to the world.
4. The Internal Combustion Engine
There’s no denying that modern transportation ultimately led to the rise of globalisation. Our ability to now move at long distances and at high speed gave us a new type of travel that allowed us to spread across continents in record time.
This was all made possible by the internal combustion engine, which was first created during the latter half of the 19th century at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
5. The Printing Press
The printing press was invented in 1440, and it gave us a new way to mass-produce news and media that was accessible to everyone.
This quickly led to information and knowledge becoming much more widespread, and it’s estimated that by 1500, over 20 million volumes had been printed in Western Europe alone.
