Top 20 Greatest Inventions of All Time...Big Think: 1. Use of Fire by Man 2. Wheel 3 ???

[Stuart G]

https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/top-20-greatest-inventions-of-all-time

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.

rest at article..

[Doodley]

1. I think I nailed it.

Any list of greatest inventions should include the flushing toilet. If we had cars and computers and had to poop in a ditch, it just wouldn't be the same!

[Stuart G]

2. Here is more information on flushing toilet (if you want more) ..hit link below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet

[sarge43]

3. Second that.

Nothing like using an outhouse in the winter at night to make you appreciate the luxury of a flush toilet.

I'd put pottery, metal working and weaving on that list.

I'd substitute telegraph for telephone. The first practical use of electricity and the first rapid very long distant communication.

/on edit/Agricultural should be number 2.

[Stuart G]

4. An invention we take for granted - road stoplight pole, (Red Light, Orange and Green)

I think they got the idea from railroads warning lights, (red and green poles) Yes, How many lives a year does that idea save?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Rope and string.

In his 1956 book The Marlinspike Sailor, marine illustrator Hervey Garrett Smith wrote that rope is “probably the most remarkable product known to mankind.” On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

“Everybody knows about fire and the wheel, but string is one of the most powerful tools and really the most overlooked,” says Saskia Wolsak, an ethnobotanist at the University of British Columbia who recently began a PhD on the cultural history of string. “It’s relatively invisible until you start looking for it. Then you see it everywhere.”

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-long-knotty-world-spanning-story-of-string/

[Stuart G]

6. Thank You ...K and R your post...Great Post..

[sarge43]

7. Good point.

Without string, no waving, no sails among all those other things.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. No clothes.

[sarge43]

9. Fur and leather covers what needs to be covered, but cloth is better. n/t

[Disaffected]

12. Fig leaves

are also known to work.

[abqtommy]

10. Even the trained professionals can't agree on a "greatest" list so I won't try to get into a

dispute. I do agree that the controlled use of fire brought many technical advances and is rightly number 1! If a person has any interest I recommend doing your own research. It's not only very rewarding for dispelling ignorance, it also tends to keep us out of trouble by acting as a positive distraction...

[BuffaloJackalope]

11. Um ... agriculture?

[Stuart G]

13. Great point..Modern agrigulture has saved all of us.

[denbot]

14. #3, Tool making.

That split us from what has gone before. Very few animals make and use tools, none do it as well as humans.

[Stuart G]

15. I thought of 2 more, 1. thermostat 2. water purification systems.

..The thermostat regulates heat in cars, business buildings, stores, homes, etc. In general, we take the thermostat completely for granted.
.. Modern water purification systems involve a number of inventions: pumps, water pools, circulation system, and most important....filters. The system filters the water and then after filtering, moves it to where it is needed. Now, people take that one for granted too. It is indeed nice to have clean pure water coming out of the faucet...
.. That took a while to achieve. And I am very grateful for those 2 inventions that have allowed human beings to live in a number of places that they could otherwise not live.