Question

I ranked the steam engine as one of the half dozen most important inventions in history – explaining how, even if obsolete nowadays, it was the first engine able to generate power, a technology that revolutionized our ability to do something we could never do before. Choose five other inventions you think would similarly round out the top half dozen, and make a good case as to how each merits the important position you gave it in the progress of science, technology, or society. Think historically and comprehensively.

inventions( Printing press, light bulb, telegraph, the wheel, microscope)

Answer 1

1. The printing press

For the past few centruries keeping the record has been important part of human civilization. It has helped humans store the information and knowledge physically and helped in technology advancement for the coming generations of mankind. Printing press was an invention that allowed mass production of text for the first time. The printing press has influenced human communication, religion, and psychology in numerous ways.

The printing press was invented by Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg. in 1448, using a loan from his brother-in-law Arnold Gelthus, he began developing a moveable type printing press. By 1450, the Gutenberg printing press was in full operation printing German poems. With the financial aid of Johann Fust, Gutenberg published his 1282 page Bible with 42 lines per page. This bible, more commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible, was considered the first mass-produced book in history because 180 copies were printed.

Merits

• use of paper - The most effective paper is made from pulped plant fiber. It is portable and easy to use medium for printing using printers till date. initally cave walls, tree bark, stone, clay, wood, wax, metal, papyrus, vellum, and parchment were used to store information. For example, cave paintings, in which pictures were drawn on cave walls, were impossible to transport and difficult to see without light.
• literacy rate - people became more educated and wise as newspapers and books become popular and were available in large number for people to gain knowledge.
• impact on science - The printing press influenced communication in numerous ways. The printing press also allowed scientists of all fields to compare their findings with others. Scientific theories started to form on a large scale because more supportive evidence was accessible. In mathematics, a field which relies heavily on uniform systems, mathematicians were able to build upon other works as they became available.
• impact on relegion - Religion was impacted by the printing press in several ways. As the amount of written communication increased, ideas spread easily. Religious ideas were no exception.
• impact on psychology - The printing press has influenced psychology in several major ways. Before the printing press, people were apt to believe that the text they were reading was true because only the most noteworthy information was recorded. Since the printing press became popular at the end of the eighteenth century, everything from medical textbooks to treaties on astrology were widely distributed. With so much original research circulating, it is no surprise that much of it was contradictory. People became less willing to accept the judgment of a single individual or a group of individuals. As a result, a more critical approach to understanding emerged.

2. The light bulb

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Army released bacteria in hundred of tests in areas of high population density throughout the country. Agents dropped light bulbs containing the bacteria in the New York subway. The bacteria used in the tests posed little risk to the welfare of the public, unlike a possible attack of a biochemical nature. The demonstration proved that a terrorist attack potentially could expose millions of people to harmful organisms by simply using a light bulb. In 1996, the light bulb was used again in a similar government-operated experiment . The Special Operations Division of the United States dropped light bulbs filled with rare, non-pathogenic bacteria to test the vulnerability of New York to a biological attack.

The use of light bulbs was an unusual but effective method for releasing bacteria. The light bulbs used today are similar to the one Edison invented in the late 19th century, and are seldom regarded as complex or important technology. However, they proved to be useful in a modern and significant study regarding biological warfare and have heavily impacted industry and technology since their invention.

The first light bulb prototype, called the arc lamp, was developed by English chemist Humphrey Davey. The lamp produced an electric arc that emitted light as the current passed through an ionized gas. Warren De la Rue, invented his own light bulb in 1940.De la Rue‘s light bulb, with its vacuum and filament design, more closely resembled the light bulb that would be patented by Edison years later. In 1880, after vacuum techniques had improved, both Swan and Edison produced a useful light bulb. However, Edison received the most credit for the invention of the incandescent light because he also developed the power lines and other equipment necessary to integrate it into a practical lighting system

Merits

• domestic electricity - The invention and development of the light bulb has had a profound impact on history. The impact was first noticed when networks of wires used to power the first electric lights were erected across the country and later the world. The light bulb had essentially prompted domestic electrical wiring.
• revolution in economy - the electrification process made a new market and companies made a large profits and provided the employment and taxes made money for the governments.
• modern technology - However, the older bulbs are inefficient, only converting approximately five percent of the energy they consume into light. Modern energy efficient light bulbs get rid of are known as CFLs, or Compact Fluorescent lamps, consume seventy-five percent less energy and last ten times longer than older light bulbs. These bulbs can reduce a homeowner‘s electric bill by thirty to seventy percent.

3. Telegraph

Before the telegraph, people used various methods for communication at a distance. The earliest method, which only worked for relatively short ranges, was the use of visual and auditory signals such as flags, fire, and drums. One interesting device was the semaphore, which had a pair of arms, which the operator would place at different angles to form letters.

People began using wires and waves to transmit printed messages in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first electric telegraph was the product of much research and was not simply a sudden invention. At first, inventors tried to use pitch balls and sparks, but they were unsuccessful. Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic cell, which powers devices utilizing low voltages and high currents and was used in the first telegraph. In addition to Volta, Orsten Sturgeon, Faraday, and Henry made important discoveries in electromagnetism that made the telegraph possible.

Merits

• distress signals - Without the telegraph, ships in distress, such as the Titanic, would be stranded without help.
• impact in war - The ability to send telegrams brought obvious advantages to those conducting war. Secret messages were encoded, so interception alone would not be sufficient for the opposing side to gain an advantage. There were geographical constraints on intercepting the telegraph cables, but once radio was used, interception could be much more widespread.
• study of telegraphy - the branch of science and technology that studies the principles of establishing telegraph communication, develops methods for transmitting telegraph signals and the equipment required by these methods, and evaluates the quality of data transmission over telegraph channels.
• modern technology - The telephone eventually replaced the telegraph. The newer device had an advantage over the older one because it eliminated the need for an operator and because it provided a means for direct voice communication at a distance. In contrast to a telegraph, a telephone works by converting sound waves into similar electromagnetic waves on the transmitting end. These waves are then changed back to the original form on the receiving end.

4. The wheel

The wheel stands out as the OG of engineering marvels and one of the most famous inventions that influenced numerous other things. This primitive technology made it easier for all of us to travel. From the archeological excavations, the oldest known wheel is from Mesopotamia, around 3500 B.C. As a result of advancement in the new and innovative design of wheels, industrialization could take root. The wheel serves a vital purpose in our lives, and we couldn’t imagine the world without them.

a wheel is a circular block of a hard and durable material at whose center has been bored a circular hole through which is placed an axle bearing about which the wheel rotates when a moment is applied by gravity or torque to the wheel about its axis, thereby making together one of the six simple machines.

Merits

• transportation - When placed vertically under a load-bearing platform or case, the wheel turning on the horizontal axle makes it possible to transport heavy loads.
• pottery - when placed horizontally, the wheel turning on its vertical axle makes it possible to control the spinning motion used to shape materials (e.g. a potter's wheel).
• steering - when mounted on a column connected to a rudder or a chassis mounted on other wheels, one can control the direction of a vessel or vehicle (e.g. a ship's wheel or steering wheel).
• energy transmission - when connected to a crank or engine, a wheel can store, release, or transmit energy (e.g. the flywheel).

5. Microscope

A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using such an instrument. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.

There are many types of microscopes, and they may be grouped in different ways. One way is to describe the way the instruments interact with a sample to create images, either by sending a beam of light or electrons to a sample in its optical path, or by scanning across, and a short distance from the surface of a sample using a probe. The most common microscope (and the first to be invented) is the optical microscope, which uses light to pass through a sample to produce an image. Other major types of microscopes are the fluorescence microscope, the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope) and the various types of scanning probe microscopes

Although objects resembling lenses date back 4000 years and there are Greek accounts of the optical properties of water-filled spheres (5th century BC) followed by many centuries of writings on optics, the earliest known use of simple microscopes (magnifying glasses) dates back to the widespread use of lenses in eyeglasses in the 13th century. The earliest known examples of compound microscopes, which combine an objective lens near the specimen with an eyepiece to view a real image, appeared in Europe around 1620. The inventor is unknown although many claims have been made over the years. Several revolve around the spectacle-making centers in the Netherlands including claims it was invented in 1590 by Zacharias Janssen and/or Zacharias' father, Hans Martens, claims it was invented by their neighbor and rival spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey (who applied for the first telescope patent in 1608), and claims it was invented by expatriate Cornelis Drebbel who was noted to have a version in London in 1619.

Merits

• revolution in science - microscopes and its study has brought the revolution in the field of science. we are now able to see surfaces morphology, micro-structures etc at as small as the molecular level. the nature is whole different and has vast things that can be studied at this level.
• biology - the microscopes have contributed alot to study of biology. micro-organisms like bacteria, viruses etc that we were aware of from centruies but had never seen them, microscopes made it possible.
• healthcare - many advancements have been made in the healthcare with the help of microscopes. from studing the human body and its components to the treatment of dieseases that were once fatal. even in the modern day the scientists are working hard to study the newly spread corona virus (covid-19) with the help of microscopes and find a vaccination from it to save mankind and make history.