- Yeah, the human race invented a lot of cool stuff,
but nothing beats the emoji.
What better way to express yourself.
The human race is an incredible species.
Every year we are continuously inventing new and amazing
things that make our lives better.
But there have been some specific inventions in the past
that were so amazing they changed the world forever.
Here are the 10 greatest inventions that changed the world.
Number 10 is the compass.
It's like early GPS, which is something I definitely
need 'cause I have no sense of direction.
In the past, civilizations were bound by their
respective land masses.
So ancient mariners couldn't get far navigating by
stars during daylight or cloudy nights.
It was actually the Chinese during the Quin Dynasty
from 221 to 206 B.C. who invented the first compass
using load stones containing iron oxide that aligned
itself with north and south.
And by the eighth century A.D. load stone magnetized
needles were standard navigation devices aboard most ships.
Through trade, the compass found its way into the hands
of European as well as Arab societies.
And the compass replaced astronomical navigation by the
fourteenth century.
It was this device that ignited the age of discovery.
For me it was GPS that ushered in the age of discovery,
because before that I would just get lost a lot.
It was scary.
Number nine is gunpowder.
Now don't let the hippies and peaceniks fool you.
Yes, gunpowder may have resulted in deaths in the past,
but it also helped human civilization expand
as well as consolidate.
Chinese alchemists invented gunpowder during the ninth
century when they discovered carbon from charcoal plus
an oxidizer forms carbon dioxide that creates energy.
It was that energy that could propel fireworks.
But the Song Dynasty soon realized its raw power
against the hostile mongols.
Gunpowder eventually found its way into the Middle East
as well as Europe along the Silk Road in the 13th Century,
allowing cannons and guns to pierce armor and destroy
castle walls.
Prior to its invention, military combat was exclusive
to knights with broad swords, battle axes,
and bow and arrows.
Okay, so gun powder did result in the death of a lot
of people, but fireworks!
Fireworks are good.
Okay, a lot of people died, but fireworks.
Number eight is the printing press.
The printing press democratized knowledge beyond a small
collection of religious scholars who regurgitated what
they read to the illiterate masses.
Believe it or not, books were almost exclusively written
by monks about religious matters so only men of God
and noblemen could actually read,
but that all changed in 1439 when Johannes Gutenberg
invented the printing press in Mainz, Germany.
His device used moveable type that could be mechanized
to print up to 36 hundred pages a day.
By 1500, one thousand Gutenberg presses were in use.
And by 1600, 200 million books had been published
in Europe, sparking the Age of Enlightenment.
Today we also use them to print books, of course,
but we also use them to print comics about cats
and Mad Magazine.
What a time to be alive.
Number seven is the steam engine.
Every motorized vehicle we use today from cars
to rocket ships would not be possible without
the invention of the steam engine.
Knowledge about the power of steam has existed since the
first century A.D.
But it was English inventor and engineer, Thomas Avery,
who harnessed its raw power in 1698.
From there, steam powered improvements in transportation,
agriculture and manufacturing allowed super powers like
Great Britain and the United States
to expand their influence.
The steam engine's principle of energy into motion
set the stage that allowed for innovations like internal
combustion engines and jet turbines that
keep the world moving today.
Look at that, and you thought Thomas the Tank Engine
was just a silly cartoon.
He's an engineering marvel.
Toot toot.
Number six are contraceptives.
Ever since humans have started making babies,
they have also tried to not make babies.
Coitus interruptus as it's officially called,
dates all the way back to the Old Testament.
In addition, ancient Egyptians used crocodile dung
to absorb sperm,
Chinese concubines drank deadly mercury after sex,
and Middle Ages Europeans tied weasel testicles
to their thighs.
Primitive condoms were even made out of goat bladders
that were somewhat effective in 3000 B.C.
Monk, Cronk have a go at you now.
Just let me get goat. (chuckles)
American inventor, Charles Goodyear, was the first one
to patent the condom in 1884 using vulcanized rubber
techniques also patenting cervical caps called womb veils.
But it still took another century for effective
contraception to be created when Austrian scientist,
Carl Djerassi, created the progesterone pill
that blocks ovulation.
And finally in May of 1960,
the FDA officially approved the pill.
That also brought along the Sexual Revolution,
as well as bell bottoms for some reason.
It's a weird time.
Number five is the light bulb.
It's actually hard to overstate the importance of the
light bulb for civilization,
but here's one way.
Spend the whole day with your eyes closed.
Life before light bulbs was literally in the dark,
with most people just going to bed after sundown,
because there was nothing else to do or see.
Thomas Edison is typically credited with the invention
of the light bulb, but it was actually British Humphry
Davey who invented the first electric light in 1802.
Other inventors like Warren De La Rue helped advance
the light bulb by coiling platinum in 1840.
But Thomas Edison filed the first patent for a practical
incandescent lamp in 1878 for everyday use.
The light bulb has since changed mankind's sleeping
patterns and allowed us to become nocturnal.
And also allowed us to not get eaten by scary things
that go bump in the night.
Number four is the refrigerator.
Is your refrigerator running?
Then you better go catch it, because without the ability
to keep your food cold, a hostile bacteria party
in your body is assured.
Refrigeration has been around since about 1000 B.C.
in China, but later in about 500 B.C. Egyptians and Indians
used earthen pots to make ice and later cellars,
caves and salts to keep food fresh.
Scotsman William Cullen observed in the 1720's that
evaporation has a cooling effect.
That propelled Englishman Michael Fairaday's discovery
that liquified ammonia causes cooling.
The science behind modern compression refrigeration.
Commercial refrigeration became available in 1890,
and General Electric's "The Guardian" became available
in homes by 1911.
As of today, 99.5% of American homes have a refrigerator,
which accounts for about 20% of energy consumption
worldwide.
Well, us North Americans definitely love to eat our food.
Specifically Chick-Fil-A and In and Out, mmmmm.
If there's leftovers, you can't throw them out.
You gotta store them somehow.
Delicious!
Number three is penicillin.
Picture this, before antibiotics,
pneumonia and diarrhea were the number one killers
in a civilized world.
Ancient civilizations used antibiotics without
understanding bacteria, like the Egyptians,
who treated wounds with moldy bread.
Huh, I'm shot.
Just put a piece of bread on it.
German physician, Paul Ehrlich discovered the first
modern antibiotic arsphenamine in 1909 to treat Syphilis.
But the real game changer in modern medicine,
was the clumsy discovery in 1928 by Scottish microbiologist,
Alexander Fleming, who left cultures undiscovered in
his lab during his vacation and discovered the fungus
pena cilium.
The pena cilium notatum that had grown created bacteria
free zones and thus penicillin the wonder drug was born.
It reduced the pneumonia deaths during World War Two
down to 1% and extended human life spans by decades.
All because a guy couldn't keep a clean work area.
Learn from that, kids, don't clean up ever.
Just kidding, I don't want your parents to kill me.
Number two is the telegraph.
Before the telephone, the internet, or even Tinder,
the telegraph modernized long distance communications
and launched the Information Age.
Ancient civilizations used drum beats and smoke signals
to exchange information between distances,
but minor things like weather could interfere with
effective communication while letters carried on ships
often came too late.
Samuel Morse, of Morse code fame, changed all of that
when he used his single circuit telegraph to send the
first dots and dashes message from Washington DC
to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1844.
By 1866 a telegraph line connected the United States
with continental Europe, which changed the way humanity
communicated and impacted everything,
including government, trade, banking, industry,
warfare, and media.
And if you think you don't have patience now,
imagine back then when you had to wait for a "I love you"
by doot, doot doot, doot doot doot.
It's just annoying.
And number one is the internet.
My personal favorite thing, I live here.
For all of you that use the internet on a regular basis
to communicate with people,
back in the day people actually used to talk to each other.
I know, it's crazy.
Now the internet doesn't really have a single inventor,
but it all began with a paper written by Leonard Kleinrock
in 1961 called
"Information Flow in Large Communication Nets."
1969 was huge because we put a man on the moon.
But the US defense department also launched the advanced
research projects agency network known as ARPA Net.
It was that, that created the internet communication
protocols that we use today.
The internet for decades was exclusive to military
and universities who shared large swaths of information
on closed networks.
But in 1991, the world wide web was created by
Tim Berners Lee that democratized the internet that
we now know.
Now we can eat, shop, and date
without even leaving the house.
Remember outside?
I don't.
And those were the 10 greatest inventions that changed
the world.
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Thank you guys for watching,
and I'll see you next time on the inter webs.
(evil laugh) Bye.