Inventions that changed the world

Horse Power - domestication

Horses were domesticated around five and a half thousand years ago, and changed the course of human history. Domestication allowed people to travel long distances, and for different cultures to mix - facilitating trade, exchange of ideas, and technological advancement.

Horses’ great strength and agility transformed industry, particularly in agriculture where they would be used to plow land, and clear woodland.

In war and battle, strategic use of chariots and cavalry units often made the difference between victory and defeat.

World Wide Web

In 1964, Arthur C Clarke predicted the World Wide Web. He said that by using satellites we would one day be able to contact each other, wherever we are in the world.

“[People] will no longer commute, they will communicate.”

25 years later in 1989, a CERN employee, Tim Berners Lee, invented a way for scientists to share information from all over the world.

And by the end of 1990, Berners-Lee had created the first web server and browser.

In 1991 his software became available to colleagues using CERN computers. In August of that year he announced the World Wide Web software on internet newsgroups, and interest quickly spread around the world.

Arthur C Clarke

Tim Berners-Lee (Sir Tim Berners-Lee)

Vaccines

Edward Jenner administering a vaccine

Variolation is a now obsolete method of immunising people. It was done by taking pus from an infected person and smearing it on a small cut in the skin of a healthy person. This method was practised as early as the 17th century.

However, Edward Jenner, a British physician and scientist, is considered to be the founder of vaccinology.

Jenner observed that “milkmaids” often contracted cowpox but rarely small pox. He hypothesised that the less dangerous cowpox virus could provide some immunity to smallpox.

In 1798 he developed the first smallpox vaccine, and later developed vaccines for cholera, anthrax, tetanus and polio.

More world-changing inventions:

Sources:

www.history.com/news/11-innovations-that-changed-history
www.interestingengineering.com/35-inventions-that-changed-the-world