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US5901666A - Pet display clothing - Google Patents

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A vest or belt is integrally formed with tubular, pet receiving passageways which extend around the wearer's body and terminate in pocket-like chambers for feeding and retrieval. Outer wall portions of the passageways are transparent so that a pet moving along the passageways can be seen by a spectator.

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In our current times, it may seem as if we are constantly bombarded with exciting new innovations and discoveries. However, many of the new ideas and technologies that are shaping our modern world often can be traced back centuries in their origins. Humans have the impressive ability to keep innovating and pushing onward.

There are a number of inventions throughout history that may have contributed more than others to advance civilization and technological development. As you probably guessed, today we are going to look at some of these inventions.

Let's look at some of the inventions that revolutionized history.

1. The Wheel (3500 BC) - Let's Get Things Rolling

One early invention that altered the history of humanity was the wheel. Although, the wheel is not really as old as you may think. The first wheel was likely developed sometime around 4000 B.C. By that time, humans were already casting metal alloys, constructing canals and sailboats, and even designing complex musical instruments such as harps.

In fact, the key innovation was not the wheel itself, which was likely invented the first time someone saw a rock rolling along, but the combination of the wheel and a fixed axle, which allows the wheel to be connected to a stable platform. Without the fixed axel, the wheel has very limited utility.

Evidence suggests that the first device to use the wheel and axle combination was a true potter's wheel, which is freely-spinning and has a wheel and axle mechanism. These were developed in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria) sometime around 4000 BCE. The oldest surviving example, which was found in Ur, dates to around 3100 BCE, and there is evidence of wheeled vehicles by the late 4th millennium BCE.

2. The Compass (c. 200 BC)

The compass has helped humans to explore and navigate around the world. In today's world of satellites and GPS, it may seem irrelevant, but it was an important invention in its day.

However, the compass may have originally been created for spiritual purposes and only later adapted for navigational purposes. The earliest compasses were most likely invented by the Chinese, around 200 BC. Some were made of lodestone, which is a naturally-occurring form of the mineral magnetite.

There is also evidence that other civilizations may have used lodestone for navigation or for spiritual purposes. At some point, possibly around 1050 CE, people began suspending the lodestones to allow them to move freely, and using them for navigation. A description of a magnetized needle and its use among sailors occurs in a European book written in 1190, so by that time, it is likely that the use of a needle as a compass was commonplace.

3. Waterwheel

Awater wheelis amachinethat converts the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, such as awatermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel and a number ofbladesorbucketsarranged on the outside rim forming the driving car.

The water wheel was invented independently in a number of places. Some of the earliest were developed by the ancient Greeks, who used it for both irrigation and milling, beginning sometime in the period between the 3rd and 1st century BC.

By at least the 1st century AD, the Eastern Han Dynasty was using horizontal water wheels for milling and to power the piston-bellows used to forge iron ore into cast iron.

There are also ancient Indian texts dating to the 4th century BC that refer to devices that may have been some of the first water wheels, but this is yet to be confirmed.

4. Calendar

The notion of a calendar, in the sense of keeping track of how many days have passed, is likely quite old - at least as old as writing itself. The first "calendars" were based on the phases of the Moon, as this would have been easy to track.

However, the lunisolar calendar, in which months are based on the lunar cycle, but years are solar - bringing the seasons into line so that, for example, the grain was harvested in the same lunar month each year - was used in the early civilizations in the Middle East and in Greece. The formula may have been invented in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BCE .

Many civilizations continued to use a lunar calendar, which had fewer days than the solar year. In order to keep the months from moving around too much, an extra month would often be added every other year. The ancient Romans used a system similar to this, but by around 46 BC, the system had broken down, so that civic events and religious holidays were occurring during the wrong season. Julius Caesar thus introduced a new system, which set the length of the months and the year to align with the solar year. This was the Julian calendar.

This worked well, but was still off by enough so that it gained a day every 128 years. To fix the error, the Gregorian calendar, which most of the world uses today was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.

5. Ancient Concrete

We live in a world that is built using materials held together with concrete. Concrete is a composite material madefrom a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, Portland cement, and water, which can be spread or poured into molds and forms a mass resembling stone on hardening.

One of the key ingredients of concrete is cement, and the origins of cement may stretch back to 3000 BC. At this time, the Egyptians were using early forms of concrete as a mortar in their building.

Around 1300 BC, builders in the Middle East were coating the outside of their clay fortresses with a thin, moist layer of burned limestone. This would chemically react with gasses in the air to form a hard, protective surface. By 700 BC, the significance of hydraulic lime was known, which led to the development of mortar kilns for the construction of rubble-wall houses, concrete floors, and underground waterproof cisterns.

The ancient Greeks and Romans used a form of concrete which included Pozzolana, which uses an aluminum and silica mixture that reacts with calcium hydroxide at room temperature and in the presence of water to form a substance that acts as cement. It was very strong - one reason why so many Greek and Roman ruins survive today.

In 1824, Portland cement was invented by Joseph Aspdin of England. George Bartholomew had laid down the first concrete street in the US during 1891, which still exists.

By the end of the 19 th century, the use of steel-reinforced concrete was developed. In 1902, using steel-reinforced concrete, Auguste Perret designed and built an apartment building in Paris. This building garnered a lot of admiration and popularity for concrete, and eventually influenced the development of reinforced concrete.

In 1921, Eugène Freyssinet pioneered the use of reinforced concrete construction by building two colossal parabolic-arched airship hangars at Orly Airport in Paris.

6. Clock (725 AD) - the First Mechanical Clock

Imagine modern civilization without having a sense of time? Depending on your point of view, this is either wonderful or horrible. Humans have used devices to measure time for thousands of years - the current system of time measurement, based on 60 seconds to the minute and 60 minutes to the hour, was created by the Sumerians around 2000 BC.

The earliest timepieces used the movement of the sun (sundials) or water (waterclocks). Other early "clocks" include the candle clock, the time stick, and the hourglass.

The earliest known mechanical clock used a water-powered escapement mechanism to transfer rotational energy into intermittent motion, and was developed in Greece around the 3rd centuryBC. In the 10th century AD, Chinese engineersinvented clocks which used mercury-powered escapement mechanisms, and Arabic engineersinvented water clocks that were driven by gearsand weights in the 11th century.

The first mechanical clocks that used gear trains to advance the mechanism, called a verge escapement, were invented in Europe at around the start of the 14th century. These were the standard until the pendulum clock was invented in 1656.

Pendulum clocks were the most accurate timepieces until the 1930s, when quartz clocks were invented, followed by atomic clocks after World War II.

7. The Printing Press

The printing press is a prominent part of the foundation on which modern civilization was built upon.

German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the printing press around 1436, although he was not the first to automate the printing process. Woodblock printing in China dates back to the 9th century, and Korean bookmakers were printing with moveable metal type around 100 years before Gutenberg.

Johannes Gutenberg's machine, however, improved on the already existing presses and introduced them to the West. By 1500, Gutenberg presses were operating throughout Western Europe, with a production of 20 million materials, from individual pages, to pamphlets, and books.

The printing press not only allowed the mass production of newspapers and pamphlets, it also lowered the price of printed materials, making books and newspapers accessible to many, and fostering literacy.

The impact of the printing press in history was described by Mark Twain as, " What the world is today, good and bad, it owes to Gutenberg."

8. The Steam Engine - The Invention that Started a Revolution

A Spanish mining administrator named Jerónimo de Ayanz is thought to have been the first person to develop a steam engine. Hie patented a device that used steam power to propel water from mines.

However, it is Englishman Thomas Savery, an engineer and inventor, who is usually credited with developing the first practical steam engine, in 1698. His device used steam pressure to draw water from flooded mines. In developing his engine, Savery had used principles set forth by Denis Papin, a French-born British physicist who invented the pressure cooker.

In 1711, another Englishman, Thomas Newcomen, improved on the steam engine, and in 1781, James Watt, a Scottish instrument maker employed by Glasgow University, added a separate condenser to Newcomen's engine, which allowed the steam cylinder to be maintained at a constant temperature - dramatically improving its functionality. He later developed a double rotating steam engine that, by the 1800s, would be powering trains, mills, factories, and numerous other manufacturing operations - kickstarting the Industrial Revolution.

9. Vaccines - One of the Most Important Inventions for Medicine

The history of vaccination actually dates back farther than you might think. The practice of variolation - smearing a small cut in the skin with cowpox to give immunity to smallpox was practiced in 17th century China.

In the West, Edward Jenner is considered the founder of vaccinology, after noticing that "milkmaids" often suffered from cowpox but rarely from smallpox and hypothesized that the less dangerous cowpox virus could confer some immunity to smallpox. In 1796, he inoculated a 13 year-old-boy with cowpox, then exposed him to smallpox - demonstrating an early form of vaccination.

In 1798, the first smallpox vaccine was developed.

Louis Pasteur's experiments later led to the development of live attenuated cholera vaccine and inactivated anthrax vaccine in humans (1897 and 1904, respectively).

In 1923, Alexander Glenny perfected a method to inactivate tetanus toxin using formaldehyde, creating a tetanus vaccine. The same method was used to develop a vaccine against diphtheria in 1926.

Viral tissue culture methods developed from 1950-1985, and led to the advent of the Salk (inactivated) polio vaccine and the Sabin (live attenuated oral) polio vaccine.

10. The Steam-Powered Train - Chugging Along with the Industrial Revolution

The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, a British engineer . It used high-pressure steam to drive the engine. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along a tramway in Wales.

The first commercially successful steam locomotive, the Salamanca, was built in 1812-13 by John Blenkinsop. In 1814, George Stephenson built a steam engine, the Locomotion No. 1, based on Blenkinsop's design.

In 1821, Stephenson was appointed as an engineer for the construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which was opened as the first public steam-powered railway in 1825. His Locomotion became the first steam locomotive to haul passengers on a public railway. In 1829, he built his famous steam engine, Rocket, and the age of railways had begun.

11. Electric Battery - Volta's Remarkable Feat

In the 1800s, people did not have continuous electric lines that carried a constant supply of power. So, the production of electricity was not at all an easy task.

The battery may actually date back almost 2,000 years, to the Parthian empire. Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient battery consisting of a clay jar filled with a vinegar solution, into which an iron rod surrounded by a copper cylinder was inserted. These batteries might have been used to electroplate silver.

Alessandro Volta is generally credited with discovering the first practical battery. He invented his batteryin 1799, it consisted of discs of two different metals, such as copper and zinc, separated by cardboard soaked in brine.

In 1802, William Cruickshank invented the Trough battery, an improvement on Volta's voltaic pile. Batteries had a breakthrough in 1859, with the invention of the first rechargeable battery based on lead-acid by the French physician Gaston Planté. The Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) battery was introduced in 1899 by Waldemar Jungner.

12. Computer (1822) - The First Mechanical Computer by Babbage

Computers are one of humanity's greatest inventions. Initially built for doing complex mathematical calculations, the bulky computers of the past have evolved into machines that sit on almost every desktop and are carried in our pockets.

Mechanical engineer Charles Babbage laid the foundation for this remarkable and most reliable invention, along with Ada Lovelace, who created the first programs. In the early 19 thcentury, the "father of the computer" conceptualized and developed an early mechanical computer. Although there's no single inventor of the modern computer, the principle was proposed by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper.

13. Refrigerator - Beating the Heat

According to the report of 2009 by the U.S Department of energy, 99% of US homes have at least one refrigerator. This statistic itself is representative of the popularity of the refrigerator in the modern world. The great invention helps keep perishable food products fresh much longer.

The first vapor-compression refrigerator was patented in 1835 by Jacob Perkins, based on a theory put forward earlier by Oliver Evans. British engineer James Harrison built the first mechanical refrigeration system, to create ice, in around 1851. He founded the Victorian Ice Works and is often called "the father of refrigeration". In 1873, he demonstrated that meat kept frozen for months remained perfectly edible.

However, the first refrigerator to be manufactured for widespread use was the General Electric "Monitor-Top" refrigerator of 1927. While it helped to rev up industrial processes initially, it became an industry itself later on.

14. Telegraph (1830-1840) - The Communication Device that Introduced the Morse Code

In the early 19th century, the development of the battery allowed current to be used in a controlled environment. Then, in 1820, Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851) demonstrated the connection between electricity and magnetism. After this, scientists and inventors began experimenting with both batteries and electromagnetism to develop some kind of communication system.

In the 1830s, the British team of Sir William Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone developed a telegraph system using magnetic needles that could be pointed around a panel of letters and numbers using an electric current. Around the same time, Samuel Morse worked to develop an electric telegraph of his own, eventually producing a single-circuit telegraph that worked by pushing the operator key down to complete the electric circuit of the battery. This sent the electric signal to a receiver at the other end.

At the same time, Morse and Alfred Vale also created what is now called Morse code to transmit messages across telegraph wires.

15. Steel - From Pins to the Brooklyn Bridge

Source: Wlodi/Wikimedia

The weight to strength ratio has made steel a preferred choice of builders over other materials. For example, while Bronze was the first metal forged for use by humans, it is relatively weak. Around 1,800 BC, people along the Black Sea began using iron ore to create sturdy wrought iron weapons. The even-stronger cast iron was first made in China, beginning around 500 BC.

Around 400 BC, Indian metalworkers invented a smelting method that used a clay dish to hold ingots of wrought iron and pieces of charcoal. When these were inserted into a furnace, the wrought iron melted and absorbed the carbon in the charcoal. When the crucibles cooled, they contained ingots of pure steel - which was much stronger and less brittle than iron.

In 1856, British engineer Henry Bessemer developed a process that blasted air through molten pig iron to create carbon-free, pure iron.

The Bessemer Process paved the way for the mass production of steel, making it one of the biggest industries on the planet. Today steel is used in the creation of everything from bridges to skyscrapers.

16. Electric Bulb (1880) - Lighting Up the World

Electric lights were pioneered in the early 19th century by Humphry Davy, who experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires between his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. His invention was known as the electric arc lamp.

Over the next seven decades, other inventors also created "lightbulbs." However, the filaments used tended to break after a few days of use, making them impractical.

In 1850 an English physicist named Joseph Wilson Swan created a "light bulb" by enclosing carbonized paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb. But without a good vacuum, his bulb had too short a lifetime for commercial use. However, in the 1870s, better vacuum pumps became available and Swan was able to develop a longer-lasting lightbulb.

Thomas A. Edison improved on Swan's design by using metal filaments and in 1878 and 1879 he filed patents for electric lights using different materials for the filament. He eventually discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1200 hours. This discovery made commercially manufactured light bulbs commercially feasible.

17. The Airplane (1903) - Making the Flying Dream Come True

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the visionaries who believed that powered flight was possible. He made several designs for flying machines, although there is no evidence that any were actually constructed.

Many other flying machines were dreamed up since da Vinci's time, and powered flight was achieved thanks to the work of countless inventors over the centuries. It was the Wright Brothers who became the first people to achieve controlled, powered flight. Beginning with their work on gliders, the duo's success laid the foundation for modern aeronautical engineering by demonstrating what was possible.

On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight.

Now humans can cover thousands of miles in a matter of hours thanks to the achievement of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

18. Transistors (1947) - The Secret of Modern Day Computing

The electronics age owes its inception to transistors used to amplify electric signals. These replaced the bulky vacuum tubes that came before.

In 1926, Julius Lilienfeld patented a field-effect transistor, but the working device was not feasible. In 1947 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley developed the first practical transistor device at Bell Laboratories. Their invention won the trio the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics.

Transistors have since become a fundamental piece of the circuitry in countless electronic devices including televisions, cellphones, and computers, making a remarkable impact on technology.

19. ARPANET (1969) - The Early Internet

The Internet has no single "inventor." Instead, it has evolved over time. It started in the United States around the 1950s, along with the development of computers.

The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s, with the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. By the 1970s, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP) was developed by Vinton Cerf, which enabled computers to communicate with each other. ARPANET adopted the TCP/IP protocols on January 1, 1983, and from there, researchers began to assemble the "network of networks" that became the modern Internet.

The Internetis a networking infrastructure, whereas the World Wide Web is a way to access information using the Internet. The father of the World Wide Web is considered to be British Computer Scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, who created the Web to allow information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world.

In 1989 and 1990, Berners-Lee worked with Belgian systems engineer Robert Cailliau to formalize a proposal for the web architecture, including describing a "WorldWideWeb" in which "hypertext documents" could be viewed by "browsers."

A Long Way Indeed!

Looking back at these ground-breaking inventions, one thing is clear - our desire to improve and innovate. We see a society that invented the wheel to tread ground quickly, who mastered the skies and waves. It is truly remarkable and something that we will continue to do for ages to come! What major inventions will be created in the coming decade?

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19 Great Inventions That Revolutionized History

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In our current times, it may seem as if we are constantly bombarded with exciting new innovations and discoveries. However, many of the new ideas and technologies that are shaping our modern world often can be traced back centuries in their origins. Humans have the impressive ability to keep innovating and pushing onward.

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1. Mechanical Clock
Timekeeping devices have emerged since the ancient world, but it was not until the Middle Ages that the technology was invented that allowed for mechanical clocks to accurately keep track of time. The knowledge of not only what hour it was, but even what minute and second it was, would change the way people scheduled their days and work patterns, especially in urban areas.
2. Printing Press
While printing technology had been developed in 11th century China, it was the 15th century German Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press that started a new era of the mass production of books. Until the rise of computers in the 20th century, books and the printed word would remain the dominant form of media for the world's knowledge.
3. Gunpowder
Gunpowder was invented in China sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries, and it did not take long it to be used in weapons. As the Mongols spread its knowledge throughout Eurasia in the 13th century, it would revolutionize warfare and make previous military technology obsolete.
4. Water and Wind Mills
While mills were in used from antiquity, it would be in the Early Middle Ages that they became very popular. Throughout the medieval period, new and ingenious forms of mills were invented, which allowed people to harness the energy from natural forces like rivers and wind, a process that continues to the present-day.
5. Coffee House
It did not take long after the drink of coffee emerged in 15th century Arabia that coffee houses became popular in Arabic and Ottoman lands. These kind of establishments would spread into Europe during the early modern era, changing not only how people ate and drank, but creating new ways of social interaction.
6. Eyeglasses
Although we are not sure who can be credited with the invention of eyeglasses, this device could be found in Western Europe the latter years of the 13th century. Its ability to correct vision problems makes it a much it one of the most useful medieval inventions and a great benefit to hundreds of millions of people today.
7. Public Library
The Library of Malatesta Novello in Cesena, Italy is considered to be first ever public library in the world. Opened in 1452, the building was owned by the city commune and allowed for readers to freely make use of its collection. Today, public libraries are common throughout much of the world.
8. Flying Buttress
One of the architectural innovations associated with Gothic churches from the 12th century, the flying buttress allowed buildings to have much higher ceilings, thinner walls and larger windows. The ideas behind these innovations would influence architectural design into modern times and allow for the construction of larger and more spacious buildings.
9. Paper money
The first known version of paper money dates back to seventh century China. It has a very important advantage over coins made from precious metals - they were much easier to transport around, which proved to be a great benefit to merchants. However, the concept of placing value on a marked piece of paper was slow to catch on. In the 13th century the Mongols tried to introduce paper money into the Middle East, but it became an immediate failure. It would take until the 17th century before regular bank notes would be circulating in Europe, but it is now the common way currency is issued.
10. Quadrant and Astrolabe
While these devices were known about in ancient times, it was during the Middle Ages that Arabic astronomers refined and improved upon them. Being able to measure the distance between two objects, they proved to be useful instruments in astronomy, navigation and surveying. Eventually these devices would be replaced by more modern inventions, but the concepts behind the quadrant and astrolabe have remained important for science and technology.

Learn more:
Time and Clocks in the Middle Ages The Printing Press: As An Agent of Social Change The civil uses of gunpowder: demolishing, quarrying, and mining (15th-18th centuries). A reappraisal The role of the monasteries in the development of medieval milling Spectacles through the ages and period inaccuracies Salisbury Cathedral and Its Diversity of Flying Buttresses Building a Model Astrolabe

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Ten Medieval Inventions that Changed the World - Medievalists.net

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1. Mechanical Clock Timekeeping devices have emerged since the ancient world, but it was not until the Middle Ages that the technology was invented that allowed for mechanical clocks to accurately keep track of time.

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Technology is a core component of the human experience. We have been creating tools to help us tame the physical world since the early days of our species.

Any attempt to count down the most important technological inventions is certainly debatable, but here are some major advancements that should probably be on any such list (in chronological order):

1. FIRE - it can be argued that fire was discovered rather than invented. Certainly, early humans observed incidents of fire, but it wasn't until they figured out how to control it and produce it themselves that humans could really make use of everything this new tool had to offer. The earliest use of fire goes back as far as two million years ago, while a widespread way to utilize this technology has been dated to about 125,000 years ago. Fire gave us warmth, protection, and led to a host of other key inventions and skills like cooking. The ability to cook helped us get the nutrients to support our expanding brains, giving us an indisputable advantage over other primates.

2. WHEEL - the wheel was invented by Mesopotamians around 3500 B.C., to be used in the creation of pottery. About 300 years after that, the wheel was put on a chariot and the rest is history. Wheels are ubiquitous in our everyday life, facilitating our transportation and commerce.
Circa 2000 BC, Oxen drawing an ancient Egyptian two-wheeled chariot. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
3. NAIL - The earliest known use of this very simple but super-useful metal fastener dates back to Ancient Egypt, about 3400 B.C. If you are more partial to screws, they've been around since Ancient Greeks (1st or 2nd century B.C.).

4. OPTICAL LENSES - from glasses to microscopes and telescopes, optical lenses have greatly expanded the possibilities of our vision. They have a long history, first developed by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, with key theories of light and vision contributed by Ancient Greeks. Optical lenses were also instrumental components in the creation of media technologies involved in photography, film and television.

5. COMPASS - this navigational device has been a major force in human exploration. The earliest compasses were made of lodestone in China between 300 and 200 B.C.
Circa 1121 BC, An ancient Chinese magnetic chariot. The figure, pointing to the south, moves in accordance with the principle of the magnetic compass. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
6. PAPER - invented about 100 BC in China, paper has been indispensible in allowing us to write down and share our ideas.

7. GUNPOWDER - this chemical explosive, invented in China in the 9th century, has been a major factor in military technology (and, by extension, in wars that changed the course of human history).

8. PRINTING PRESS - invented in 1439 by the German Johannes Gutenberg, this device in many ways laid the foundation for our modern age. It allowed ink to be transferred from the movable type to paper in a mechanized way. This revolutionized the spread of knowledge and religion as previously books were generally hand-written (often by monks).
1511, Printing Press, from the title page of 'Hegesippus' printed by Jodocus Badius Ascensius in Paris. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
9. ELECTRICITY - utilization of electricity is a process to which a number of bright minds have contributed over thousands of years, going all the way back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, when Thales of Miletus conducted the earliest research into the phenomenon. The 18th-century American Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with significantly furthering our understanding of electricity, if not its discovery. It's hard to overestimate how important electricity has become to humanity as it runs the majority of our gadgetry and shapes our way of life. The invention of the light bulb, although a separate contribution, attributed to Thomas Edison in 1879, is certainly a major extension of the ability to harness electricity. It has profoundly changed the way we live, work as well as the look and functioning of our cities.

10. STEAM ENGINE - invented between 1763 and 1775 by Scottish inventor James Watt (who built upon the ideas of previous steam engine attempts like the 1712 Newcomen engine), the steam engine powered trains, ships, factories and the Industrial Revolution as a whole.
circa 1830: An early locomotive hauling freight. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
11. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE - the 19th-century invention (created by Belgian engineer Etienne Lenoir in 1859 and improved by Germany's Nikolaus Otto in 1876), this engine that converts chemical energy into mechanical energy overtook the steam engine and is used in modern cars and planes. Elon Musk's electric car company Tesla, among others, is currently trying to revolutionize technology in this arena once again.

12. TELEPHONE - although he was not the only one working on this kind of tech, Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell got the first patent for an electric telephone in 1876. Certainly, this instrument has revolutionized our ability to communicate.

13. VACCINATION - while sometimes controversial, the practice of vaccination is responsible for eradicating diseases and extending the human lifespan. The first vaccine (for smallpox) was developed by Edward Jenner in 1796. A rabies vaccine was developed by the French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur in 1885, who is credited with making vaccination the major part of medicine that is it today. Pasteur is also responsible for inventing the food safety process of pasteurization, that bears his name.

14. CARS - cars completely changed the way we travel, as well as the design of our cities, and thrust the concept of the assembly line into the mainstream. They were invented in their modern form in the late 19th century by a number of individuals, with special credit going to the German Karl Benz for creating what's considered the first practical motorcar in 1885.
Karl Benz (in light suit) on a trip with his family with one of his first cars, which was built in 1893 and powered by a single cylinder, 3 h.p. engine. His friend Theodor von Liebig is in the Viktoria. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
15. AIRPLANE - invented in 1903 by the American Wright brothers, planes brought the world closer together, allowing us to travel quickly over great distances. This technology has broadened minds through enormous cultural exchanges-but it also escalated the reach of the world wars that would soon break out, and the severity of every war thereafter.

16. PENICILLIN - discovered by the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, this drug transformed medicine by its ability to cure infectious bacterial diseases. It began the era of antibiotics.

17. ROCKETS - while the invention of early rockets is credited to the Ancient Chinese, the modern rocket is a 20th century contribution to humanity, responsible for transforming military capabilities and allowing human space exploration.

18. NUCLEAR FISSION - this process of splitting atoms to release a tremendous amount of energy led to the creation of nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. It was the culmination of work by a number of prominent (mostly Nobel Prize-winning) 20th-century scientists, but the specific discovery of nuclear fission is generally credited to the Germans Otto Hahn and Fritz Stassmann, working with the Austrians Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch.
Austrian nuclear physicist Lise Meitner (1878 - 1968) congratulates German chemist Otto Hahn (1879 - 1968) on his 80th birthday, Gottingen, Germany, 8th March 1959. The pair collaborated for 30 years in the study of radioactivity, work which culminated in the discovery of nuclear fission. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
19. SEMICONDUCTORS - they are at the foundation of electronic devices and the modern Digital Age. Mostly made of silicon, semiconductor devices are behind the nickname of "Silicon Valley", home to today's major U.S. computing companies. The first device containing semiconductor material was demonstrated in 1947 by America's John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Labs.

20. PERSONAL COMPUTER - invented in the 1970s, personal computers greatly expanded human capabilities. While your smartphone is more powerful, one of the earliest PCs was introduced in 1974 by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) via a mail-order computer kit called the Altair. From there, companies like Apple, Microsoft, and IBM have redefined personal computing.
Cover photo: a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci
(BONUS) 21. THE INTERNET - while the worldwide network of computers (which you used to find this article) has been in development since the 1960s, when it took the shape of U.S. Defense Department's ARPANET, the Internet as we know it today is an even more modern invention. 1990s creation of the World Wide Web by England's Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for transforming our communication, commerce, entertainment, politics, you name it.

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Technology is a core component of the human experience. We have been creating tools to help us tame the physical world since the early days of our species. Any attempt to count down the most important technological inventions is certainly debatable, but here are some major advancements that should probably be on any such list (in chronological order): 1.

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After the fall of Rome in the West during the 5th Century AD, the power vacuum it created forced its former conquests into centuries of bitter warfare, famine, disease, and conflict.

Yet despite the constant fear of death, there was enough calm during the Middle Ages for great leaps forward in science and invention in Europe.
RELATED: 19 GREAT INVENTIONS THAT REVOLUTIONIZED HISTORY
What are some of the most important inventions from the Middle Age?

Far from being a period of little to no technological progress, the Middle Ages had its fair share of new inventions, like any other period of history.

These 18 medieval inventions and how they made it to Europe are prime examples. Some of them were so important that they would ultimately pave the way to certain aspects of the world we live in.

The following list is far from exhaustive and in no particular order.

1. The Printing press was revolutionary

The printing press may well be the most important invention of the medieval era. It would eventually wrench control of information distribution from the State and the Church and lay the groundwork for Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment.

Although Johannes Guttenberg's famous press was developed in the 15th century, the movable type system can be traced in history back to around 1040, in China. Without it, the modern world would be a very different place indeed.

2. The Coffee House was ahead of its time

Coffee is thought to have been first introduced to the Ottoman Empire sometime in the 15th century and it quickly took the Ottoman world by storm.

Coffee was first introduced to Europe in the 16th century, and by the 17th century, it had become popular all across the continent.

But the real importance of coffee in Europe was not the bitter brew, but the coffee houses that sprang up to serve it. These quickly became centers of social activity and communication, and were some of the only places where different classes of people could mix freely. In England, they were often called "penny universities," because for the price of a penny anyone could purchase a cup of coffee and engage in stimulating conversation.

3. The heavy plow led to the Agricultural Revolution

The widespread introduction of the heavy plow around the 9th century revolutionized farming in Europe.

Earlier plows, commonly called the ard or scratch-plow, was suited for the sandy soils and climate of the Mediterranean but was unsuitable for the heavy soils found in most of northern Europe. As a result, north European settlement before the middle ages was limited areas with lighter soils.

Heavy plows, in contrast, introduced an asymmetric plowshare, to cut the soil horizontally, a colter, to cut the soil vertically, and a mouldboard, to turn the cut sods aside to create a deep furrow.

The invention of the heavy plow made it possible to plow areas with clay soil, which was more fertile than the lighter soil types. This increased crop yields tremendously and led to economic growth and the rapid growth of cities and trade - especially in Northern Europe.

4. Verge escapement/mechanical clocks replaced hourglasses

The development of the verge escapement would lead to the creation of the first mechanical clocks in around 1300 AD. By the 15th century, they had become widespread around Europe.

They would become the standard timekeeping device until the pendulum clock was invented in 1656.

5. Paper 'money' is older than you think

Although paper "promissory notes" had been in existence for centuries, the first recorded use of government-issued paper money was in 9th Century China. These notes were a promise by the ruler to redeem them later for some other object of value, usually coin . These early credit notes were usually for a limited duration . They were intended primarily for merchants, to replace the need to carry around quantities of metals that were very heavy, and could easily be lost or stolen.

By the 1120s, the Chinese government had started to produce its own state-issued paper money using woodblock printing, and these were in widespread circulation.

Travelers brought news of the government-issued Chinese paper currency back to Europe in the 13th century, but the notes wouldn't become common in Europe until the late-1600s.

6. The hourglass was a great way of keeping time

The hourglass first appeared in Europe in the 8th century AD, however, there is little evidence of its use there until the early 14th century, when it first began appearing in European ship inventories. It was likely first used on ships because the bobbing waves didn't affect its accuracy.

By the 15th Century, they were common sights on ships, in churches, and in industries. They were the first dependable, reusable, and fairly accurate means of measuring time and would only be superseded with the invention of the mechanical clock.

7. Gunpowder changed the world

Gunpowder is a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal. Chinese monks first discovered the mixture in the 9th century CE, possibly while devising medicines. The technology reached the Middle East around the 13th century and was brought to Europe by traders and crusaders soon afterward.

Sir Roger Bacon conducted experiments to find the best ratio of ingredients and is generally credited with arriving at the modern formula and with describing in detail the process for making gunpowder.

8. The blast furnace first appeared in Switzerland and Germany

Blast furnaces may have their origins as early as the 1st Century AD in China, but they make their first appearance in Europe in the 1200s. These early blast furnaces were very inefficient by modern standards.

The oldest European examples were built in Durstel and Lapphyttan in Switzerland and Sauerland in Germany. There is also some tentative evidence of earlier ones in Järnboås, Sweden that date to around 1100 AD.

9. Liquor was a Medieval thing

Distillation may well have been known in ancient times - in the fourth century B.C., Aristotle wrote about applying distillation to wine and other liquids, and there is evidence that the process was used as far back as 1800 BC to produce perfumes. The Chinese may have used distillation to produce alcohol from rice in around 800 BC, and the production of distilled spirits was reported in Britain before the Roman conquest.

In around the 10th century, the alembic came into use. This was a distillery, consisting of two vessels connected by a tube. The first distilled spirits were made from sugar-based materials, primarily grapes and honey to make grape brandy and distilled mead. In the 11th century, Avicenna invented a coiled pipe which allowed the vapor to cool down more effectively than in previous stills.

Most historians believe that true alcohol-producing stills appear to have first appeared in Europe around the 13th Century.

10. The wheelbarrow was invented in the Middle Ages

The earliest-known wheelbarrows that there is archaeological evidence for, were one-wheeled carts that date to second-century China. These placed the wheel in the center of the barrow. There may have been earlier instances of wheelbarrows in use earlier in China and ancient Greece, but the evidence is not conclusive.

The first wheelbarrows in medieval Europe appeared sometime around 1170 - 1220. These featured a wheel at or near the front, as in modern wheelbarrows.

By the 15th Century, they became commonplace for everything from mining to construction.

11. The flying buttress is an iconic Middle Age development

Flying buttresses are an iconic architectural feature of Gothic architecture and are often found in medieval cathedrals. They first appeared in the 12th Century and remain awe-inspiring today.

Flying buttresses consist of an inclined beamcarried on a half archthat projects from the wallsto a pierwhich supports the weight and horizontal thrust of a roof, dome, or vault. The weight of these structures are carried by the flying buttress away from the building and down the pierto the ground.

The addition of flying buttresses enabled buildings to become much taller and more elaborate in design, allowing for higher ceilings, thinner walls, and much bigger windows.

12. The spinning wheel was invented in India

Spinning wheels may have their origin in India sometime between the 5th and 10th Century AD. There is evidence they were in use in China at about 1000 AD. They reached Europe via the Middle East, by around 1400. The spinning wheel replaced the earlier method of hand spinning, in which the individual fibers were drawn out of a mass of wool held on a stick, or distaff, twisted together to form a continuous strand, and then wound on a second stick.

A series of inventions and improvements to the spinning wheel over the next several centuries converted the spinning wheel into a powered, mechanized machine that would help drive the Industrial Revolution.

13. The tidal mill first appeared in Ireland

Water and windmills have been known to have been employed since antiquity, and early examples in Europe include evidence of tidal mills from 6th century Ireland, and an ancient Roman mill in London on the River Fleet. However, they did not come into common use in Europe until the 11th century, when a number were built along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

14. Pintle-and-gudgeon stern-mounted rudders shrank the world

Pintle-and-gudgeon stern-mounted rudders were a major innovation during the Middle Ages. Prior to their existence, boats and large ships were maneuvered using oars or quarter-rudders. Unlike modern rudders, which are mounted on the stern, quarter-rudders were mounted on the sides of ships. Their use limited the size of ships.

The pintle-and-gudgeon was a hinge device that allowed the rudder to be mounted on the stern, however, it took a change in hull design, and the appearance of the full-rigged ship, before the pintle-and-gudgeon rudder could finally supplant the quarter-rudder in around the 14th century.

Without the stern-mounted rudder, and the larger, full-rigged ships, the European Age of Discovery could not have happened.

15. Eyeglasses made everything clear

Source: Pom'/Flickr

The ancient Romans may have used some type of magnifying glass for reading, but the first wearable glasses known to history appeared in Italy during the 13th century.

English monk Sir Roger Bacon made the first definitive reference to eyeglasses in the 13th century, when he outlined the scientific principles behind the use of corrective lenses in his Opus Majus (c.1266).

In a sermon given by a Dominican Friar called Giordana da Pisa in 1305, he wrote: "It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making eyeglasses, which make for good vision..."

This invention would significantly improve the quality of life for the visually impaired to this day - as the writer will attest.

16. Treadmill cranes made building easier

Treadmill cranes were simple wooden, man-powered, hoisting and lowering devices developed and widely used throughout the Middle Ages.

They can often be seen depicted in images and paintings of the period during the assembly of monolithic buildings like castles and cathedrals.

There is evidence that similar treadmill cranes were used during Roman times, but the technology fell into disuse with the end of the Roman Empire. They were reintroduced into Europe around the 13th century, and the first definitive reference to a treadwheel - referred to as a m agna rota - was in a French manuscript dating to around 1225 AD.

In the Middle Ages, they would become commonplace at harbors, mines, and, obviously, on building sites.

17. Cannon changed warfare forever

The earliest cannons may date to 12th century China, where there is a depiction of what appears to be a cannon in the Dazu Rock Carvings in Sichuan, dated around 1128 AD.

The oldest existing cannons originate from 13th century China, and include the famous Wuwei Bronze Cannon (1227 AD), the Heilongjiang hand cannon (1288 AD), and the Xanadu Gun (1298 AD). According to some Arab historians, the Mamluks used a cannon against the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, although it is not clear how "cannon" is being defined. In Europe, the French may have used a version of the cannon against England's Edward III at Cambrai, in 1339.

However, one of the first recorded uses of canon in warfare was by the `English forces of Edward III, who used them to help defeat the French in the Battle of Crecy in 1346.

Within a few decades, most major combatants were using cannons. There are reliable reports that the French used them during a siege in 1375, Balkan gunners fired on Venetian ships in 1378, and the Ottomans reportedly used them in 1389 at the First Battle of Kosovo.

18. The astrolabe was an early computer

Astrolabes were elaborate, multi-use tools that could, in some ways, be considered early computers. They were invaluable for astronomers and navigators in working out the altitude of a given celestial body at different latitudes.

It is not known who invented the astrolabe, or exactly when it was developed. Claudius Ptolemy, a famous Greek astronomer who lived during the 2nd century AD left records suggesting he used a three-dimensional instrument similar to the astrolabe to make calculations.

Early astrolabes may also have been in use in the 5th Century AD, but the devices reached their peak in sophistication during the Middle Ages, and may have inspired the later development of mechanical clocks.

And that's your lot for today.

Have we missed any other key medieval inventions? If so, feel free to mention them in the comments below.

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18 Inventions That Shaped Europe in the Middle Ages

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After the fall of Rome in the West during the 5th Century AD, the power vacuum it created forced its former conquests into centuries of bitter warfare, famine, disease, and conflict. Yet despite the constant fear of death, there was enough calm during the Middle Ages for great leaps forward in science and invention in Europe.