The great inventions that have shaped our civilization

Here are the greatest inventions. What is great? It is an invention that is often difficult to discover and has great importance to humans in terms of their survival or use in everyday life. Sometimes these factors are better appreciated when one travels to an area of the world where they were not discovered.  For example, think what the New World would have looked like if someone had figured out what we call the Roman arch. Yes, there was a work-around in using a trapezoidal shape for doors and windows, but it certainly was a limiting factor when building a bridge or aqueduct. Another obvious limitation is a written language that facilitates the transfer and accumulation of knowledge for centuries. Lastly, think how the wheel (and axle) is omnipresent in today’s world, but it is such a difficult concept to originate, that it probably developed only in one place.

List of Great Inventions

1. Agriculture

2. Air Flight

3. Alcohol

4. Architecture and Construction Technologies

5. Aquaculture

6. Aqueducts

7. Asphalt

8. Barbed Wire

9. Bread

10. Buildings and Their Technologies

11. Chemistry

12. Cities and Their Technologies

13. Clocks

14. Compass

15. Computers

16. Communication Technologies

17. Construction Materials

18. Dams

19. Electricity Production and Use

20. Electronics

21. Fasteners

22. Fire

23. Fisheries

24. Food Preservation

25. Formal Education

26. Fortifications

27. Glass

28. Gunpowder

29. Guns and Weapons

30. Household Appliances

31. Internet

32. Knives and Other Cutters

33. Language: Spoken and written

34. Manufacturing and Its Technologies

35. Mathematics and Physics

36. Medicine

37. Metallurgy

38. Meteorology

39. Money

40. Musical Instruments

41. Optics

42. Organization

43. Patent System

44. Plastics

45. Pottery

46. Power Engines

47. Power Generation

48. Printing press

49. Radio and Television

50. Recording: Sight and Sound

51. Religion

52. Rope and Cord

53. Sewers and Treatments

54. Scientific Method

55. Textiles

56. Time Measurement

57. Tools

58. Railroads

59. Scale (weight)

60. Ships

61. Space Technologies

62. Toilets

63. Transport Animals

64. Wheel and Axle

65. X-rays