List of major inventions in the world, 20

1. Ancient Inventions

1. Compass

The compass is a simple instrument used to determine direction. Formerly known as Si Nan. The main component is a magnetic needle (commonly known as a magnet) that is mounted on a shaft and can rotate freely. The magnetic needle can be kept in the tangent direction of the magnetic meridian under the action of the earth's magnetic field. The north pole of the magnetic needle points to the geographical south pole, and this property can be used to identify directions.

Commonly used in navigation, geodesy, travel and military. The N of the compass refers to the north, the E refers to the east, the W refers to the west, and the S refers to the direction. A compass is a pointing instrument made by using the north-south polarity of a magnet in the earth's magnetic field. It comes in many shapes. As early as the Warring States Period, Chinese ancestors had used natural magnets to make Sinan's spoons to indicate directions.

During the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, Ma Jun used magnets and differential gears to create a mechanical device that could indicate direction - the compass. Shen Kuo, a scientist in the Song Dynasty, recorded the method of making a magnetic needle for pointing in his "Mengxi Bi Tan". Later, it developed into a compass with a magnetic needle and an azimuth disk integrated into one. As late as the late Northern Song Dynasty, the compass had been used for navigation; in the Southern Song Dynasty, the compass had been used to guide travel and economic and cultural exchanges, playing a great role.

2. Papermaking

About 3,500 years ago in the Shang Dynasty, China had characters carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, called oracle bone inscriptions. In the Spring and Autumn Period, bamboo was used to Chips and wood chips replaced tortoise shells and animal bones and were called bamboo slips and wooden slips. Oracle bones and bamboo slips are both heavy and heavy. Hui Shi, a thinker during the Warring States Period, loved reading. Every time he went out on a study tour, he would be followed by five carts full of bamboo slips, so there is an allusion to the saying that he learned to be rich in five carts.

In the Western Han Dynasty, among the court nobles, silk or tissue paper was also used to write. Silk is a general term for fine silk and silk fabrics. When writing on silk, silk is easy to write on. Not only can you write more than bamboo slips, but you can also draw on it. However, it is expensive and can only be used by a few royal nobles. Paper already existed in the early Western Han Dynasty in the 2nd century BC, but Cai Lun only transformed paper.

Papermaking was introduced to Japan via Korea in the 7th century. It spread to the United Arab Emirates in the mid-8th century.

In the 12th century, Europe followed China's methods and began to set up factories. In the first year of Emperor Yuanxing of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 105), Cai Lun, based on summarizing the experience of his predecessors in manufacturing silk woven crystals, used trees to make silk woven crystals. Skin, torn fishing nets, rags, hemp heads, etc. were used as raw materials to make plant fiber paper suitable for writing. Only after improving papermaking technology did paper become a commonly used writing material.

3. Movable type printing

It began with the engraving printing of the Sui Dynasty. It was developed and perfected by Bi Sheng during the reign of Renzong of the Song Dynasty, resulting in movable type printing, which was passed to Mongolia. He came to Europe, so later generations called Bi Sheng the ancestor of printing. Chinese printing is the forerunner of modern human civilization, creating conditions for the widespread dissemination and exchange of knowledge. ?

Block printing is to use a knife to carve protruding reverse writing on a piece of wood, and then add ink and print it on the paper. Every time a new book is printed, the board has to be carved from scratch, which is very slow. If there is an error in engraving, you have to start over again, and you can imagine the hard work.

The "Diamond Sutra" printed in the ninth year of Xiantong (868) in the Tang Dynasty is the earliest extant printed matter in the world with an imprinting date. During the Qingli period of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, commoner Bi Sheng invented movable type printing based on the popularization of woodblock printing. It is carved with clay, each character is printed, and is burned to make a character seal. Arrange the characters one by one and inlay them on the iron plate. After grilling, pressing and other processes to make the printing plate, it can be printed.

4. Gunpowder

Gunpowder, as the first type of explosive mastered by mankind, originated from the alchemy of ancient China. Ancient alchemists used the gold and stone medicines nitrate and sulfur that they had mastered as early as the Han Dynasty. After long-term alchemy practice, they invented gunpowder at least before the third year of Yuanhe (808) of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty, and used it in the late Five Dynasties and early Northern Song Dynasty. Create gunpowder weapons for arson.

Through the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, various firearms such as rockets, fire guns, and fire guns have reached the point of becoming hot. The invention of gunpowder played a major role in the development of world science and technology. Modern black powder was developed from ancient Chinese gunpowder.

2. Modern inventions

1. Radio

In the early 20th century, almost no one could imagine that an electromagnetic wave could be transmitted without any metal wires or cables as conductors. travel any meaningful distance. So how is it possible for a radio signal to travel along the surface of the Earth? Of course it can travel in a straight line off the horizon.

But Guglielmo Marconi believed that radio waves could travel along the surface of the Earth if certain conditions were provided. In 1895, in Italy, his birthplace, he launched a radio signal that traveled 1.5 miles; 6 years later, on December 12, 1901, Marconi, who was only 27 years old, created a miracle. The radio antenna, securely attached to the high-flying kite, transmitted a Morse code "S."

It traveled approximately 2,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. The signal was sent from the town of Pordehu in Cornwall, England, and arrived in St. John's, Newfoundland, where it was received, in less than a second. Marconi heard three faint ticks. This is the sound announcing the birth of the communications industry and the first shock wave of the arrival of the electronic age.

2. Airplane

On December 17, 1903, before the sun went down, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright were able to make an airplane they used wood, wire and cloth. The completed plane flew for 59 seconds. But few newspapers are willing to comment on this matter, because the idea of ??humans flying into the sky and becoming the contemporary Daedalus and Icarus is considered ridiculous by most sane people.

But once it succeeds, the development of this business will be extremely rapid. In fact, just 15 years later, if not all the components of a modern aircraft, then at least the idea for them had been born.

3. Plastic

After learning about the invention of plastic, the happiest person in the world is the elephant. For hundreds of years, ivory has been the standard ingredient in everything from knife handles to billiard balls. In the 1880s, the dwindling supply of ivory and the rise of billiards triggered a crisis.

Phelan & Cowland, the largest billiard ball manufacturer in the United States, eagerly offered a gold reward worth $10,000—a considerable reward—to anyone who could provide a synthetic substitute for ivory. The "inventive genius".

It wasn’t until 1907 that Leo Baekeland, a Belgian inventor who had made huge profits for inventing photographic paper for taking fast-moving photos, accidentally invented phenol and formaldehyde. compound.

This first pure synthetic plastic, phenolic plastic, has the functions of heat protection, electricity protection and corrosion protection. It doesn't just benefit the game of pool. One of the great things about plastic is its versatility, being used in everything from telephones to toilets, ashtrays to airplane parts.

By 1968, young graduates looking for a job in a promising and successful industry had to listen to one word - plastic.

4. Television

The inventor of television was British electronic engineer John Baird. In 1923, he applied for a patent for his device that could produce 8-line images. . The first television set was sold at the end of 1930. In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast the world's first regulated television program. Since then, mankind has entered the television era. Today, people use satellites and other means to spread television signals to every corner of the earth.

5. Penicillin

People say that penicillin is the most contributed drug of this century. Its inventor is the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming. In 1928, during a bacterial culture experiment, the inventor accidentally discovered that a mold later known as penicillin was devouring the bacteria he was cultivating in a petri dish.

Based on the results of Fleming's research, after ten years of hard work, researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK finally found a way to extract this mold and put it into medical treatment trials. In 1943, in order to treat soldiers injured in World War II, the Allied forces began to put penicillin into industrial production. For more than half a century, penicillin saved countless lives and prompted people to pay attention to the research and development of the antibiotic family.

6. Nuclear weapons

The atomic age began in 1942. In order to defeat the Axis fascists, the highest authorities in the United States decided to launch the "Manhattan Project" aimed at developing atomic weapons. On July 16, 1945, a mushroom cloud soared from the Los Alamos Atomic Energy Research Center in New Mexico, USA, and the world's first atomic bomb exploded successfully.

On August 6 and 9 of that year, the United States dropped two atomic bombs named "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The Emperor of Japan subsequently announced an unconditional surrender. The atomic bomb seemed to have contributed greatly to the victory of World War II, but mankind has been living in the shadow of terrible atomic weapons ever since.

7. Computers

The computer is the foundation for human society to enter the information age, but it was born because of war. In 1943, in order to decipher the German code, the British mathematician Alan Turing designed the first electromechanical computer called "Giant". Although this was only a hypothetical computer for decoding, it pioneered computer technology. The first of its kind, computer technology has developed rapidly since then.

In 1947, the transistor computer was born; in 1959, the integrated circuit computer was born; in 1970, the large-scale integrated circuit computer was produced; starting in the 1980s, a new generation of microcomputers emerged. On this basis, mankind has ushered in a new era of the Internet.

8. DNA

On February 28, 1953, the famous British geneticist Francis Crick announced that he had "discovered the secret of life." Crick and his American colleague James Watson have been devoted to the research of life sciences for many years. They finally discovered the double helix molecular structure of DNA that determines the inheritance of life from the cell nucleus and deciphered the genetic code of humans, plants and animals. .

This discovery initially revealed the secrets of life, promoted research and treatment of various diseases, and also promoted human research on improving food structure. In the first two decades of the next century, it will be possible to use gene therapy to eliminate genetic defects and conquer cancer, heart disease, hemophilia, diabetes and other fatal disorders.

The results of human research on the molecular structure of DNA are undoubtedly of great significance to human research on life and treatment of diseases, but they also make people face the moral crisis caused by it, such as the development of cloning technology. This creates a problem for humans themselves.

9. Contraceptive pills

In 1954, American physician Gregory Pincus invented the contraceptive pill, which is a mixture of two hormones that inhibit female ovulation. The reason why the contraceptive pill is listed as one of the greatest scientific achievements of the twentieth century is that it liberates women from passive reproduction. From then on, women can independently control their fertility and decide whether to have children according to their own wishes. According to Your own situation determines when to get pregnant.

More importantly, it breaks the shackles that restrict women's sexual freedom, empowers them to go out of the family and participate in social work, and ultimately expands women's influence in social politics, economy, culture and other aspects.

10. Artificial Satellite

On October 4, 1957, in order to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the victory of the October Revolution, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial earth satellite in human history, marking the The beginning of an era. On April 2, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Gagarin entered space in a spacecraft and became the first person to enter space. On July 20, 1969, two American astronauts landed on the moon in a spacecraft.

Satellites can transmit television and radio program signals, and can also provide services for aviation, maritime navigation, weather forecasting, scientific and technological information, etc., thereby greatly "shrinking" the earth. In order to further explore the mysteries of the universe, humans have placed many probes on the main planets of the solar system, and a grand plan to establish an international space station is also brewing.

11. Organ transplantation

In 1967, South African surgeon Christian. Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant. Since then, as medicines and medical equipment have become more and more advanced, medical scientists have gradually solved problems such as infection of transplanted organs, and successfully performed transplants of limbs, livers, skin, retinas and even testicles.

The medical community believes that the next frontier of organ transplantation is brain cell transplantation to cure stubborn medical diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. In the next century, medical scientists will work hard to overcome the problem of xenogeneic organ transplantation and transplant organs from other animals into humans.

12. In vitro fertilization

British girl Louise Brown is the world's first in vitro fertilization, 33 years old. In 1978, her mother's egg and her father's sperm were successfully mated in a test tube and she was conceived. Since then, in vitro pregnancy technology has continued to develop and improve. In 1984, the embryo freezing technology was successfully tested; in 1990, the embryo transfer technology was successfully tested.

The success of in vitro fertilization has given great hope to infertile couples, but it has also caused people to worry about a moral issue. For example, when a woman is in her 50s or even 60s, If you give birth to a child through in vitro fertilization technology, the old man may die when the child is still underage, so who will raise the orphan?

13. Phonograph

In 1877, Edison He discovered that the diaphragm in the telephone microphone would vibrate with the sound of voices, so he experimented with a short needle and got a lot of inspiration from it. The speed of speaking can cause the short needle to vibrate in different ways. Then, in turn, this vibration must also be able to produce the original speaking sound, so he began to study the problem of sound reproduction.

On August 15, Edison asked his assistant to make a "weird machine" consisting of a large cylinder, a crank, a receiver and a diaphragm according to the drawing. After it was made, he gently rubbed the end of the needle against it. The tin foil rotated and the other end was connected to the receiver. Then Edison cranked the crank and sang into the receiver. Then he put the needle back in place, cranked the crank again, and then the machine played back Edison's voice.

In December, Edison publicly displayed this "tinfoil cylinder phonograph", which caused a sensation all over the world.

14. Electric light

Contrary to people's common understanding, Edison was not the original inventor of the electric light. Edison improved the electric light.

As early as 1801, a British chemist named Humphrey Davy used platinum wire to produce electricity in the laboratory; in 1810, he invented the method of using two electrified carbon rods. The "electric candle" that was illuminated by the arc that occurred between them was considered the earliest prototype of the electric light. After nearly 30 years of research, another British electrical engineer, Joseph Swan, made a vacuum light bulb that used carbon filaments to energize and emit light in December 1878.

The reports about Swann's light bulb inspired Edison a lot. In October 1879, Edison finally succeeded in making an incandescent light bulb with carbonized fiber as the filament, which he called a "carbonized cotton filament incandescent lamp." He then put it into mass production and established a company to set up power stations, transmission grids and other corresponding infrastructure. Electric light bulbs soon became common in the United States.

During this period, he continued to improve his technology and finally decided to use tungsten filament as the filament, which he called the "tungsten lamp" and has been used to this day. Edison also became recognized as the inventor of the electric light.

15. Telescope

In 1608, the Dutch Middelburg optician Hans Lippershey built the world's first telescope.

Once, two children were playing with several lenses in front of Li Boer's shop. They looked at the weathercock on the church in the distance through the front and back lenses, and they were very happy.

Li Bolser picked up two lenses and took a look. The weathercock in the distance was greatly magnified. Lieber raced back to the store and put two lenses in a tube. After many experiments, Hans Lieber invented the telescope. In 1608, he applied for a patent for the telescope he made and complied with the authorities' requirements to build a pair of binoculars. It is said that dozens of telescope opticians in the town claimed to have invented the telescope.

At the same time, the German astronomer Kepler also began to study telescopes. He proposed another astronomical telescope in "Diopters". This telescope was composed of two convex lenses and was similar to Galileo's telescope. Different, it has a wider field of view than the Galilean telescope. But Kepler did not build the telescope he described.

Scheiner first made this kind of telescope between 1613 and 1617. He also followed Kepler's suggestion and made a telescope with a third convex lens. The inverted image became a direct image. Scheiner built 8 telescopes and observed the sun one by one. No matter which one, he could see the same shape of sunspots.

Therefore, he dispelled many people's illusion that sunspots may be caused by dust on the lens, and proved that sunspots are indeed observed. Scheiner installed special light-shielding glass when observing the sun, but Galileo did not add this protective device. As a result, he injured his eyes and was almost blind in the end.

In order to reduce the chromatic aberration of the refractor telescope, Huygens of the Netherlands built a telescope with a barrel length of nearly 6 meters in 1665 to explore the rings of Saturn. Later, he also built a telescope with a length of nearly 41 meters. telescope.

16. Air conditioning

In late 1902, the first modern, electrically powered air conditioning system was invented by Willis Carrier (1876-1950). The difference between its design and Wolff's design is that it not only controls the temperature, but also controls the humidity of the air to improve the quality of the production process at a printing factory in Bucklin, New York.

This technology provides a low heat and humidity environment, making the paper area and ink arrangement more accurate. Later, Carrier's technology began to be used in the workplace to improve production efficiency, and the Carrier Engineering Company was established in 1915 to cope with the surge in demand.

With gradual development, air conditioning began to be used to improve the comfort in homes and cars. Sales of residential air conditioning systems didn't really take off until the 1950s. Built in 1906, the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is of special significance in architectural engineering and is known as the world's first air-conditioned building.

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