inventions of the 19th century. From grateful descendants

The inventions of the 19th century laid the scientific and practical foundation for the discoveries and inventions of the 20th century. The nineteenth century became the springboard for the breakthrough of civilization. In this article I will talk about the most significant and outstanding scientific achievements nineteenth century. Tens of thousands of inventions, new technologies, fundamental scientific discoveries. Cars, aviation, spacewalks, electronics… You can list for a long time. All this became possible in the 20th century thanks to the scientific and technological inventions of the nineteenth century.

Unfortunately, in one article it is impossible to tell in detail about each invention created in the century before last. Therefore, in this article, all inventions will be described as briefly as possible.

inventions of the 19th century. The Age of Steam. rails

The nineteenth century was golden for steam engines. Invented in the eighteenth century, it was increasingly improved, and by the middle of the nineteenth century it was used almost everywhere. Plants, factories, mills...
And in 1804, the Englishman Richard Trevithick installed a steam engine on wheels. And the wheels rested on metal rails. It turned out the first steam locomotive. Of course, it was very imperfect and was used as an amusing toy. The power of the steam engine was only enough to move the locomotive itself, and a small cart with passengers. The practical use of this design was out of the question.

But after all, a steam engine can be put more powerful. Then the steam locomotive will be able to carry more cargo. Of course, iron is expensive and the creation of a railway will cost a pretty penny. But the owners of coal mines and mines knew how to count money. And from the middle of the thirties of the century before last, the first steam locomotives went along the plains of the Metropolis, hissing steam and scaring away horses and cows.

Such clumsy constructions made it possible to sharply increase the turnover. From the mine to the port, from the port to the steel furnace. It became possible to smelt more iron, and from it to create more machines. So the steam locomotive dragged technical progress forward.

inventions of the 19th century. The Age of Steam. Rivers and seas

And the first steamboat that was ready for practical use, and not just another toy, splashed down the Hudson with paddle wheels in 1807. Its inventor, Robert Fulton, installed a steam engine on a small riverboat. The engine power was not great, but still the steamer made up to five knots per hour without the help of the wind. The steamer was a passenger one, but at first few dared to step on board such unusual design. But gradually things got better. After all, steamships were less dependent on the vagaries of nature.

In 1819, the Savannah, a ship with sailing equipment and an auxiliary steam engine, crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. For most of the journey, the sailors used a fair wind, and the steam engine was used during calm. And 19 years later, the steamship Sirius made the crossing of the Atlantic only with the help of steam.

In 1838, the Englishman Francis Smith installed a propeller instead of bulky paddle wheels, which was much smaller and allowed the ship to reach greater speed. With the introduction of screw steamers, the centuries-old era of handsome sailboats came to an end.

inventions of the 19th century. Electricity

In the nineteenth century, experiments with electricity led to the creation of many devices and mechanisms. Scientists and inventors conducted many experiments, deduced the fundamental formulas and concepts used in our 21st century.

In 1800, the Italian inventor Alessandro Volta assembles the first galvanic cell - the prototype of the modern battery. A disc of copper, then a cloth soaked in acid, then a piece of zinc. Such a sandwich creates an electrical voltage. And if you connect such elements together, you get a battery. Its voltage and power directly depend on the number of galvanic cells.

1802, Russian scientist Vasily Petrov, having designed a battery of several thousand elements, receives the Voltaic arc, the prototype of modern welding and a light source.

In 1831, Michael Faraday invented the first electric generator which can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Now there is no need to burn yourself with acid and collect countless metal mugs together. On the basis of this generator, Faraday creates an electric motor. So far, these are still demonstration models that clearly show the laws of electromagnetic induction.

In 1834, the Russian scientist B. S. Yakobi designed the first electric motor with a rotating armature. This motor can already find practical application. The boat, driven by this electric motor, goes against the current along the Neva, carrying 14 passengers.

inventions of the 19th century. Electric lamp

Since the forties of the nineteenth century, experiments have been going on to create incandescent lamps. A current passed through a thin metal wire heats it up to a bright glow. Unfortunately, the metal hair burns out very quickly, and the inventors are struggling to increase the life of the light bulb. Various metals and materials are used. Finally, in the nineties of the nineteenth century, the Russian scientist Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin presents the electric light bulb that we are used to. This is a glass flask from which air is pumped out; a spiral of refractory tungsten is used as a filament.

inventions of the 19th century. Telephone

In 1876, American Alexander Bell patented the "talking telegraph", the prototype of the modern telephone. This device is still imperfect, the quality and range of communication leave much to be desired. There is no call familiar to everyone and to call a subscriber you need to whistle into the phone with a special whistle.
Literally a year later, Thomas Edison improved the telephone by installing a carbon microphone. Now subscribers do not need to yell heart-rendingly into the phone. The communication range increases, a familiar handset and a call appear.

inventions of the 19th century. Telegraph

The telegraph was also invented in the early nineteenth century. The first samples were very imperfect, but then there was a qualitative leap. The use of an electromagnet made it possible to send and receive messages faster. But the existing legend about the inventor of the telegraph alphabet, Samuel Morse, is not entirely true. Morse invented the very principle of coding - a combination of short and long pulses. But the alphabet itself, numerical and alphabetic, was created by Alfred Weil. Telegraph lines eventually entangled the entire Earth. There were submarine cables linking America and Europe. The huge data transfer rate also made a significant contribution to the development of science.

inventions of the 19th century. Radio

Radio also appeared in the nineteenth century, at its very end. It is generally accepted that the first radio was invented by Marconi. Although his discovery was preceded by the work of other scientists, and in many countries the primacy of this inventor is often questioned.

For example, in Russia, Alexander Stepanovich Popov is considered the inventor of the radio. In 1895, he introduced his device, called the lightning detector. Lightning during a thunderstorm caused an electromagnetic pulse. From the antenna, this pulse entered the coherer - a glass flask with metal filings. Electrical resistance decreased sharply, the current went through the wire winding of the bell electromagnet, a signal was heard. Then Popov repeatedly upgraded his invention. The transceivers were installed on warships of the Russian Navy, the communication range reached twenty kilometers. The first radio even saved the lives of fishermen who broke away on an ice floe in the Gulf of Finland.

inventions of the 19th century. Automobile

The history of the car also dates back to the nineteenth century. Of course, connoisseurs of history can also remember the steam car of the Frenchman Cugno, the first exit of which took place in 1770, by the way, the first exit ended and the first accident, the steam cart crashed into the wall. Cugno's invention cannot be considered a real car, it is more of a technical curiosity.
Daimler Benz can be considered the inventor of a real car, which is suitable for everyday practical use.

Benz made his first ride in his car in 1885. It was a three-wheeled carriage, with a gasoline engine, a simple carburetor, electric ignition and water cooling. There was even a differential! Engine power was just under one horsepower. The motor crew accelerated to 16 kilometers per hour, which, with a spring suspension and simple steering, was quite enough.

Of course, other inventions preceded the Benz car. So, a gasoline, or rather a gas, engine was created in 1860. It was a two-stroke engine that used a mixture of light gas and air as fuel. The ignition was spark. In its design, it resembled a steam engine, but it was lighter and did not require time to ignite the firebox. Engine power was about 12 horsepower.
In 1876, a German engineer and inventor, Nikolaus Otto, designed a four-stroke gas engine. It turned out to be more economical and quiet, although more complex. In the theory of internal combustion engines, there is even the term "Otto Cycle", named after the creator of this power plant.
In 1885, two engineers, Daimler and Maybach, designed a light and compact carburetor engine that runs on gasoline. This unit installs on its tricycle Benz.

In 1897, Rudolf Diesel assembles an engine in which the mixture of air and fuel is ignited by strong compression, and not by a spark. In theory, such an engine should be more economical than a carburetor. Finally the engine is assembled and the theory is confirmed. Trucks and ships now use engines called diesels.
Of course, dozens and hundreds of automotive little things are being invented, such as the ignition coil, steering, headlights, and much more, which made the car comfortable and safe.

inventions of the 19th century. Photo

In the 19th century, another invention appeared, without which existence seems to be unthinkable now. This photo.
Camera - obscura, a box with a hole in the front wall, has been known since ancient times. Even Chinese scientists noticed that if the room is tightly draped with curtains, and there is a small hole on the curtain, then on a bright sunny day, an image of the landscape outside the window appears on the opposite wall, although it is upside down. This phenomenon was often used by magicians and negligent artists.

But only in 1826 the Frenchman Joseph Niepce found more practical application a box that collects light. On the sheet of glass, Joseph applied a thin layer of asphalt varnish. Then the first photographic plate was installed in the apparatus and ... In order to get an image, it was necessary to wait about twenty minutes. And if this was not considered critical for landscapes, then those who wanted to capture themselves in eternity had to try. After all, the slightest movement led to a spoiled, blurry frame. And the process of obtaining an image was not yet like that which had become familiar in the twentieth century, and the cost of such a “picture” was very high.

A few years later, chemicals more sensitive to light appeared, now there was no need to sit, staring at one point and be afraid to sneeze. In the 1870s, photographic paper appeared, and ten years later, photographic film replaced heavy and fragile glass plates.

The history of photography is so interesting that we will definitely devote a separate large article to it.

inventions of the 19th century. Gramophone

But a device that allows you to record and reproduce sound appeared almost at the turn of the century. At the end of November 1877, the inventor Thomas Edison presented his next invention. It was a box with a spring mechanism inside, a long foil-covered cylinder, and a horn outside. When the mechanism was started, it seemed to many that a miracle had happened. From the metal bell came, albeit softly and unintelligibly, the sounds of a children's song about a girl who brought her lamb to school. And the song was sung by the inventor himself.
Edison soon improved this device, calling it the phonograph. Instead of foil, wax cylinders began to be used. Recording and playback quality has improved.

If instead of a wax cylinder a disc made of durable material is used, the volume and duration of the sound will increase. The first disk made of shell was used in 1887 by Emil Berlinner. The device, called the gramophone, gained great popularity, because it turned out to be much faster and cheaper to stamp records with records than to record music on soft wax cylinders.

And soon the first record companies appeared. But this is the history of the twentieth century.

inventions of the 19th century. Warfare

And of course, technological progress has not bypassed the military either. Of the most significant military inventions of the nineteenth century, one can note the massive transition from muzzle-loading smoothbore guns to rifled firearms. There were cartridges in which gunpowder and a bullet were a single whole. There was a bolt on the guns. Now the soldier did not have to separately pour gunpowder into the barrel, then insert the wad, then push the bullet and again the wad, wielding a ramrod during each operation. The rate of fire has increased several times.

The queen of the fields, artillery, has also undergone similar changes. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, gun barrels have become rifled, dramatically increasing the accuracy and range of fire. The loading now took place from the breech, and instead of the cores they began to use cylindrical shells. Gun barrels were no longer cast from cast iron, but from stronger steel.

Smokeless pyroxylin powder appeared, nitroglycerin was invented - an oily liquid that explodes with a small push or impact, and then dynamite - all the same - the same nitroglycerin mixed with binders.
The nineteenth century gave the generals and admirals the first machine gun, the first submarine, sea mines, unguided rockets and armored steel ships, torpedoes, and instead of red and blue uniforms, suitable only for parades, the soldiers received a comfortable and inconspicuous uniform on the battlefield. The electric telegraph began to be used for communication, and the invention of canned food greatly simplified the provision of food to the armies. Many of the wounded were saved by the invention of anesthesia in 1842.

inventions of the 19th century. Match

In the nineteenth century, a lot of things were invented, sometimes invisible in everyday life. Matches were invented, the most seemingly simple and ordinary thing, but for the appearance of this small wooden stick, the discoveries of chemists and designers were needed. Special machines were created for the mass production of matches.

1830 — Thomas McCall of Scotland invents the two-wheeler

1860 - Pierre Michaud from France modernizes the bike by adding pedals to it

1870 — James Starley of France creates a modification of a bicycle with a large wheel

1885 — John Kemp from Australia makes cycling safer

1960 race bike appears in the USA

In the mid-1970s, mountain biking appeared in the USA.

inventions of the 19th century. Stethoscope

Remember going to the doctor - the therapist. A cold touch to the body of a metal round, the command "Breathe - do not breathe." This is a stethoscope. He appeared in 1819 due to the reluctance of the French physician Rene Laennec to put the ear to the body of the patient. At first, the doctor used tubes made of paper, then made of wood, and then the stethoscope was improved, it became even more convenient, and modern devices use the same principles of operation, the hundred and first paper tubes.

inventions of the 19th century. Metronome

To train beginning musicians to get a sense of rhythm, the nineteenth century invented the metronome, a simple mechanical device that clicked evenly. The frequency of sounds was regulated by moving a special weight on the scale of the pendulum.

inventions of the 19th century. metal feathers

The nineteenth century brought relief to the saviors of Rome - the geese. In the 1830s, metal feathers appeared, now there was no need to run after these proud birds in order to borrow a feather, and there was no need to correct steel feathers. By the way, the penknife was originally used for the constant sharpening of bird feathers.

inventions of the 19th century. ABC for the blind

While still a toddler, the inventor of the alphabet for the blind, Louis Braille became blind himself. This did not stop him from learning, becoming a teacher, and inventing a special method of 3D printing, now the letters could be felt with your fingers. The Braille alphabet is still used today, thanks to it, people who have lost their sight or have been blind from birth have been able to gain knowledge and get an intellectual job.

In 1836, an interesting structure appeared in one of California's endless wheat fields. Several horses pulled a wagon that made noise, creaked, screeched, frightened crows and respectable farmers. The wagon's wheels spun, the chains rattled, and the blades of knives gleamed. This mechanical monster was devouring wheat and spitting out straw that no one wanted. And the wheat accumulated in the belly of the monster. It was the first grain harvester. Later, harvesters became even more productive, but they also required more and more traction power, up to forty horses or oxen were pulled through the fields of mechanical monsters. At the end of the nineteenth century, the steam engine came to the aid of horses.

Petrakova Ekaterina, Tolmacheva Alina

The Greatest Inventions of the 20th Century research project is an overview greatest discoveries and inventions of mankind of the 20th century, which qualitatively changed our lives.

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The Greatest Inventions of the 20th Century

Probably everyone knows what aviation, car, computer, Internet, television are? Now it is difficult to find a child who would not know how to understand computers and mobile phones, but hardly any of them thought, “Who invented all these things?” and that is why we decided to conduct a study, who is the founder of all these things, and that's what we got ...

A vibration

In 1903, bicycle manufacturers, the Wright brothers, made the first ever motorized flight. In 1930, British engineer Frank Whittle registered a patent for a jet engine. As a result of research in 1939, the German company Heinkel created the first He-178 jet aircraft.

In 1949, Britain's Comet, the first passenger jet, began flying, the forerunner of the famous Boeing 747, which two decades later made international flights fast, comfortable and cheap. Today, aeronautical engineers are predicting the future of mega-aircraft capable of carrying up to 700 passengers.

TV

The greatest right to be considered the father of television is the Scottish engineer John Logie Bird. In 1923, he filed a patent for a device that produced an eight-line image, which led to the sale of what was later called "TV" in the 1930s. In 1932, the British BBC began regular television broadcasting for the first time in history. Today, television reaches any point on the earth - through relay stations or radio relay lines, via cables or satellites. Philosophers are still arguing whether this is a boon or a disaster for civilization.

Televisions have changed a lot during this time and here is an example of this:

P penicillin

The miracle cure of the century was discovered in 1928 by the Scottish researcher Alexander Fleming, who noticed that mold killed the culture of bacteria he had grown. It took a decade before this discovery received wide use. Scientists from the University of Oxford have found a way to clean the mold, allowing it to be used medically. In 1943, the industrial production of penicillin began, significantly accelerated by the Second World War. Penicillin has saved countless lives and started a whole family of antibiotics.

D fission of an atomic nucleus

The atomic era began in 1942 when the Manhattan Project facility at the University of Chicago exceeded the critical mass threshold. The first atomic bomb explosion took place on July 16, 1945 at the Los Alamos test site, New Mexico. Two bombs, uranium and plutonium, exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki the very next month. After the war, the rivalry between the USSR and the USA dragged the world into a dangerous arms race. Today at developed countries nuclear energy is widely used for peaceful purposes.

A computer

The first electromechanical computer, Colossus, was created by the British mathematician Alan Turing in 1943 to crack Nazi encryption codes. Subsequent inventions have reduced the size of the computer and increased its speed by thousands of times. The transistor (1947), the integrated circuit (1959), and the microprocessor (1970) accelerated data processing. HDD(1956), the modem (1980) and the mouse (1983) made this data more accessible. The future lies with computers built into wristwatches and refrigerators that remind the owner that the house has run out of milk.

DNA

On February 28, 1953, British scientist Francis Crick told his friends at the Eagle Pub in Cambridge: "I've discovered the secret of life!" Crick and American James Watson discovered that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the carrier of heredity.

Revealing the genetic code of humans, animals and plants has made it possible to increase resistance to disease and improve the quality of food. In the coming decades, humanity is expected to gain the possibility of gene therapy for cancer, heart disease, hemophilia, diabetes and many other dangerous diseases.

Human DNA is only 1% different from monkey DNA.

Laser

This device is based on the theory of radiation stimulation formulated by Albert Einstein back in 1917. But it took 40 years before Gordon Gould, a doctoral student at Columbia University in New York, turned the idea into reality. This discovery dragged Gould into a 30-year battle over patent priority. Meanwhile, his discovery has found countless applications, from welding and medicine to computers and video.

T organ transplant

The key date is 1967, when South African physician Christian Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant. As related branches of medicine have developed to reduce transplant rejection, doctors have mastered the replacement of hands, intestines, skin, and retinas. Today on the agenda are brain cell transplantation, which will cure Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and "xenotransplantation" - transplantation of animal organs to humans.

To osmic flights

The space age began on October 4, 1957 with the launch of the first Soviet satellite. The first man in space was a citizen of the USSR Yuri Gagarin in 1961. In 1969, American astronauts landed on the surface of the moon. Later, the countries of Western Europe, China and Japan made spacewalks.

Today, satellites serve to establish cheap and high-quality telephone communications, television and data transmission. And also for navigation, weather forecasting and obtaining scientific data. Unmanned vehicles travel to other planets. In the near future, it is planned to create long-term manned stations in near-Earth orbit.

Astronauts chose military fighter pilots under the age of 35, up to 175 cm tall, weighing up to 75 kg. (According to other sources: age up to 30 years, height up to 170 cm, weight up to 70 kg), as well as endurance, health and of course a lot of training.

1961 1963

Internet

In 1969, the world's first switched packet data transmission between two remote computers took place in Southern California. The secret Pentagon project became a worldwide social and cultural phenomenon thanks to the easy-to-use and intuitively transparent ideology of hyperlinks and transitions developed in 1989 by Briton Tim Bernes-Lee without a single central database.

Today, the number of Internet users has reached 183 million; by 2003, according to some estimates, it may exceed one billion.

The list, as you can see, is quite impressive. The people of the 20th century did not waste their 100 years in vain. And yet the main discovery of the second millennium occurred long before our century. Johannes Gutenberg is recognized as the Man of the Millennium. However, this is not the opinion of France Press, but the Sunday Times.

M plentiful phone

Many are interested in the question of who invented the mobile phone. Most people believe that there is no specific inventor of the mobile phone, but this is not the case, although the primacy in this matter is still disputed by various companies.

The idea for a cell phone was first proposed by Bell Laboratories, part of AT&T. True, it was originally planned to produce phones for use exclusively in cars. In parallel, the development of cell phones was carried out by Motorola, which had already managed to release portable radio stations at that time.

The name of the man who first invented the mobile phone is Martin Cooper, who at that time headed Motorola's portable communications department. However, even in his own company, Cooper did not immediately find support. Employees of the company did not believe that such a success awaited his idea in the future.

A significant day in the history of mobile phones - April 3, 1973, it was then, leisurely strolling through Manhattan, Martin Cooper called directly from the street to Joel Engel, head of research at Bell Laboratories. Cooper's choice was not accidental: AT&T had developed mobile communications technology earlier, and the two companies were in competition to see whose communications would be more practical and easy to use. Thus, Cooper showed his victory over competitors.

Today, mobile phones have undergone significant changes, have significantly decreased in size, and now it is simply impossible for a modern person to imagine his life without them.

Automobile

According to the information provided on my website, the very first car in the world was powered by a steam engine. Of course, this unit can and can be called a car, but something doesn’t turn around. Under the concept of a car, I associate a vehicle that is quite compact, easy to handle and, to some extent, reliable. All these definitions are clearly not suitable for machines of the 19th century. In addition, it is necessary to organize the serial production of cars so that they are available for use by a wide range of people. What exactly cannot be said about those piece copies, well, with the exception of some. So let's try together to find the answer to the question - who invented the first car?

Daimler and Benz, as the founders of the automotive industry.

Time passed, and the cars did not change. We can say that the evolutionary process in this industry has come to a standstill. How the internal combustion engine was invented and the very first car appeared before the world in 1885 - the tricycle of Karl Benz. The car was quite unpretentious, it was a kind of invention of Kulibin, only it was set in motion not by muscular strength, but gasoline engine. Almost at the same time, Gottlieb Daimler invented the motor-driven bicycle, and a year later, the motor-powered “carriage”.

The first car in the world Benz car Benz history of the first car

The first car in the world was invented by Karl Benz in 1886. It received public recognition and was put into industrial production. It was a three-wheeled vehicle, with a 1.7-liter engine, which was located horizontally. The large flywheel protruded strongly from the rear. This vehicle was controlled using a T-shaped steering wheel.

At this point, the history of the first car comes to new level, because Benz was the first to offer customers a ready-made and usable prototype of a modern car, and Daimler was the first to launch a functional car engine into production.

A feature of this car was that it used a water-cooled engine. At the same time, the engine and flywheel were located horizontally. The crankshaft was open. Through a simple differential, with the help of a belt and chains, the engine drove the rear wheels.

Three years later, "Benz" released the first four-wheeled cars. Based on a three-wheeled design, they seemed too old-fashioned at the time. But, despite their slowness and primitiveness, they were distinguished by simplicity, accessibility, in terms of Maintenance repair and durability.

The now widely known model, named after his daughter, Mercedes, was published at the very end of 1900 and became, according to historians, the prototype of the modern car.

The very first car was an ordinary cart, which was equipped with a steam engine that was able to produce the power needed to move the car and the driver. Such the first steam car was created in 1768 and there was only one copy, which is quite logical, since there was simply no need for such machines.

The very idea of ​​moving from horse-drawn carriages to mechanized carriages is a real breakthrough, which can be compared to the transition from the usual preservation of fire among cavemen to its production.

Almost everyone who is interested in the history of the development of science, engineering and technology has at least once in his life thought about which way the development of mankind could go without knowledge of mathematics or, for example, if we didn’t have such a necessary subject as a wheel, which became almost basis for human development. However, only key discoveries are often considered and paid attention to, while less known and widespread discoveries are sometimes simply not mentioned, which, however, does not make them insignificant, because each new knowledge gives humanity the opportunity to climb a step higher in its development.

The 20th century and its scientific discoveries turned into a real Rubicon, crossing which, progress has accelerated its pace several times, identifying itself with a sports car that is impossible to keep up with. In order to stay on the crest of the scientific and technological wave now, not hefty skills are needed. Of course, you can read scientific journals, various kinds of articles and works of scientists who are struggling to solve a particular problem, but even in this case, it will not be possible to keep up with progress, and therefore it remains to catch up and observe.

As you know, in order to look into the future, you need to know the past. Therefore, today we will talk about the 20th century, the century of discoveries, which changed the way of life and the world around us. It should be noted right away that this will not be a list best discoveries century or some other top, this will be a brief overview of some of those discoveries that have changed, and possibly are changing the world.

In order to talk about discoveries, it is necessary to characterize the concept itself. We take the following definition as a basis:

Discovery - a new achievement made in the process of scientific knowledge of nature and society; the establishment of previously unknown, objectively existing patterns, properties and phenomena of the material world.

Top 25 Great Scientific Discoveries of the 20th Century

1. Planck's quantum theory. He derived a formula that determines the shape of the spectral radiation curve and the universal constant. He discovered the smallest particles - quanta and photons, with the help of which Einstein explained the nature of light. In the 1920s, quantum theory developed into quantum mechanics.
2. Discovery of X-rays - electromagnetic radiation with a wide range of wavelengths. The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen greatly influenced human life, and today it is impossible to imagine modern medicine without them.
3. Einstein's theory of relativity. In 1915, Einstein introduced the concept of relativity and derived an important formula relating energy and mass. The theory of relativity explained the essence of gravity - it arises due to curvature four-dimensional space, and not the result of the interaction of bodies in space.
4. Discovery of penicillin. The fungus Penicillium notatum, getting into the culture of bacteria, causes their complete death - this was proved by Alexander Flemming. In the 40s, a production was developed, which later began to be produced on an industrial scale.
5. De Broglie waves. In 1924, it was found that wave-particle duality is inherent in all particles, not just photons. Broglie presented their wave properties in a mathematical form. The theory made it possible to develop the concept of quantum mechanics, explained the diffraction of electrons and neutrons.
6. Discovery of the structure of the new DNA helix. 1953 was received new model structure of the molecule, by combining the X-ray diffraction information of Rosalyn Franklin and Maurice Wilkins and the theoretical developments of Chargaff. She was brought out by Francis Crick and James Watson.
7. Rutherford's planetary model of the atom. He deduced a hypothesis about the structure of the atom and extracted energy from atomic nuclei. The model explains the fundamentals of the laws of charged particles.
8. Ziegler-Nath catalysts. In 1953 they carried out the polarization of ethylene and propylene.
9. Discovery of transistors. Device consisting of 2 p-n junctions that are directed towards each other. Thanks to his invention by Julius Lilienfeld, the technique began to shrink in size. The first working bipolar transistor was introduced in 1947 by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain.
10. Creation of a radiotelegraph. Alexander Popov's invention, using Morse code and radio signals, first saved a ship at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. But the first to patent a similar invention was Gulielmo Marcone.
11. Discovery of neutrons. These uncharged particles with a mass slightly larger than that of protons made it possible to penetrate the nucleus without obstacles and destabilize it. Later it was proved that under the influence of these particles, the nuclei are divided, but even more neutrons are produced. So the artificial one was discovered.
12. Method of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Edwards and Steptoe figured out how to extract an intact egg from a woman, created optimal conditions for her life and growth in a test tube, figured out how to fertilize her and at what time to return her back to her mother's body.
13. The first manned flight into space. In 1961, it was Yuri Gagarin who was the first to realize this, which became the real embodiment of the dream of the stars. Mankind has learned that the space between the planets is surmountable, and bacteria, animals and even humans can easily live in space.
14. Discovery of fullerene. In 1985, scientists discovered a new kind of carbon - fullerene. Now because of their unique properties it is used in many devices. Based on this technique, carbon nanotubes were created - twisted and cross-linked layers of graphite. They show a wide variety of properties: from metallic to semiconductor.
15. Cloning. In 1996, scientists succeeded in obtaining the first clone of a sheep, named Dolly. The egg was gutted, the nucleus of an adult sheep was inserted into it and planted in the uterus. Dolly was the first animal that managed to survive, the rest of the embryos of different animals died.
16. Discovery of black holes. In 1915, Karl Schwarzschild put forward a hypothesis about the existence of a black hole whose gravity is so great that even objects moving at the speed of light - black holes - cannot leave it.
17. Theory. This is a generally accepted cosmological model, which previously described the development of the Universe, which was in a singular state, characterized by infinite temperature and matter density. The model was started by Einstein in 1916.
18. Discovery of relic radiation. This is the cosmic microwave background radiation, which has been preserved since the beginning of the formation of the Universe and fills it evenly. In 1965, its existence was experimentally confirmed, and it serves as one of the main confirmations of the Big Bang theory.
19. Approaching Creation artificial intelligence. It is a technology for building intelligent machines, first defined in 1956 by John McCarthy. According to him, researchers to solve specific problems can use methods of understanding a person that may not be biologically observed in humans.
20. The invention of holography. This special photographic method was proposed in 1947 by Dennis Gabor, in which, with the help of a laser, three-dimensional images of objects close to real are recorded and restored.
21. Discovery of insulin. In 1922, the pancreatic hormone was obtained by Frederick Banting, and diabetes mellitus ceased to be a fatal disease.
22. Blood groups. This discovery in 1900-1901 divided the blood into 4 groups: O, A, B and AB. It became possible to properly transfuse blood to a person, which would not end tragically.
23. Mathematical information theory. Claude Shannon's theory made it possible to determine the capacity of a communication channel.
24. Invention of Nylon. Chemist Wallace Carothers in 1935 discovered a method for obtaining this polymeric material. He discovered some of its varieties with high viscosity even at high temperatures.
25. Discovery of stem cells. They are the progenitors of all existing cells in the human body and have the ability to self-renew. Their possibilities are great and are just beginning to be explored by science.

There is no doubt that all these discoveries are only a small part of what the 20th century showed to society, and it cannot be said that only these discoveries were significant, and all the rest became just a background, this is not at all the case.

It was the last century that showed us the new boundaries of the Universe, saw the light, quasars (superpowerful sources of radiation in our Galaxy) were discovered, the first carbon nanotubes with unique superconductivity and strength were discovered and created.

All these discoveries, one way or another, are just the tip of the iceberg, which includes more than a hundred significant discoveries over the past century. Naturally, all of them have become a catalyst for changes in the world in which we now live, and the fact remains undeniable that the changes do not end there.

The 20th century can be safely called, if not the “golden”, then certainly the “silver” age of discoveries, but looking back and comparing new achievements with the past, it seems that in the future we will have quite a few interesting great discoveries, in fact, the successor of the last century, the current XXI only confirms these views.

Since ancient times, people have tried to translate dreams and fantasies into reality in order to simplify and diversify their lives. We will list several inventions of the 20th century that changed the usual outlook on life.

1. X-rays

The KVN joke says that the X-ray was invented by the deacon Ivanov, who told his wife: "I can see right through you, bitch." In fact, electromagnetic radiation was discovered at the end of the 19th century by the German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen. Turning on the current in the cathode tube, the scientist noticed that a nearby paper screen, covered with barium platinocyanide crystals, emits a green glow. According to another version, the wife brought X-ray dinner, and when she put the plate on the table, the scientist noticed that her bones were visible through the skin. It is well known that Wilhelm for a long time refused to receive a patent for an invention, not considering his research a full-fledged source of income. X-rays can be safely attributed to the discoveries of the 20th century.

2. Plane

Since ancient times, people have tried to create an aircraft and rise above the ground. But only in 1903, the American inventors, the Wright brothers, managed to successfully test their Flyer - 1, equipped with an engine. He was in the air for a full 59 seconds and flew over the Kitty Hawk Valley 260 meters. This event is considered the moment of the birth of aviation. Today, without aircraft, it is impossible to imagine either business development or recreation. The Steel Birds are still the most fast view transport.

3. Television

Not so long ago, the TV was considered a prestigious thing that emphasizes the status of the owner. At different times, many minds worked on its development. Back in the 19th century, the Portuguese professor Adriano De Paiva and the Russian inventor Porfiry Bakhmetiev independently put forward the idea of ​​the first device capable of transmitting an image over wires. In 1907, Max Dieckmann demonstrated the first television receiver with a 3x3 screen. In the same year, a professor at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, Boris Rosing, proved the possibility of using a cathode ray tube to convert an electrical signal into a visible image. In 1908, the Armenian physicist Hovhannes Adamyan received a patent for a two-color apparatus for transmitting signals. In the late 20s of the 20th century, the first television was developed in America, assembled by Russian emigrant Vladimir Zworykin. He managed to break the light beam into blue, red and green colors and to get color image. He called his sample "iconoscope". However, in the West, the "father of television" is considered the Scotsman John Lodge Bird, who patented a device that creates an image of eight lines.

4. Mobile phone

The first telephone was demonstrated at the end of the 19th century, and the first mobile phone appeared in the 70s of the twentieth century. When Martin Cooper, an employee of Motorola from the department for the development of portable devices, showed his colleagues a kilogram tube, they did not believe in the success of the new invention. Walking around Manhattan, he called from his "brick" Joel Engel, head of research at competitor Bell Laboratories, and was the first to put new technologies into practice. Fifteen years before Cooper, the Soviet scientist Leonid Kupriyanovich also successfully conducted a similar experiment. Therefore, the question of who owns the palm in the field of portable devices is quite controversial. One way or another, "mobile phones" became the discovery of the 20th century, and have already firmly entered our lives.

5. Computer

Today it is difficult to imagine life without a computer, laptop or tablet. But until recently, such devices were used exclusively in scientific purposes. In 1941, the German Konrad Zuse created the Z3 mechanical computer, which had all the properties of a modern computer, but worked on the basis of telephone relays. A year later, American physicist John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry began to develop the first electronic computer but never completed the project. In 1946, John Mauchly continued the baton and presented the world with the first electronic computer, ENIAC. Decades passed before huge machines that took up entire rooms turned into compact devices. The first personal computers appeared only in the late 70s of the last century.

6. Internet

Scolding those who like to sit in front of the TV, we forget that the main danger is the World Wide Web, the Network, the Matrix, the ubiquitous Internet. The idea to create high-quality and reliable communication, which is difficult to eavesdrop, arose in the 50s of the twentieth century. During the Cold War, the US Department of Defense used the ARPA project to transmit data over a distance without the use of mail and telephone. The Universities of California, Santa Barbara, Utah and the Stanford Research Center developed and implemented the ARPAnet. In 1969, she connected the computers of these universities, after 4 years other institutions joined, and with the invention of E-mail, the number of people who wanted to communicate on the network began to grow exponentially. There are already 3 billion Internet users in the world today.

7. VCR

In 1944, the Russian communications engineer Alexander Mikhailovich Ponyatov founded the AMPEX company in America, naming it with his initials and adding EX - short for "excellent" ("excellent"). Poniatov was engaged in the production of sound recording equipment, but in the early 50s he focused on the development of video recording. He fixed the signal across the tape with a rotating head unit, and on November 30, 1956, the first recorded CBS news went on the air. And in 1960, his company received an Oscar for outstanding contribution to the technical equipment of the film and television industry.

More than 30 years ago, the Pentomino puzzle was popular in the USSR: on a checkered sheet of paper, it was necessary to correctly fold curly blocks of five squares. From a mathematical point of view, such a puzzle was considered an excellent test for a computer. And Aleksey Pajitnov, a researcher at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, wrote a program for his Electronics 60. Due to the lack of power, one cube had to be removed, and it turned out "Tetramino". Later, the figures began to fall into the "glass". This is how Tetris was born. It was the first computer game from behind the Iron Curtain. And although many new toys have appeared since then, Tetris remains the discovery of the 20th century and still attracts with its apparent simplicity and real complexity.

9. Electric car

In the last third of the 19th century, a real "electrical fever" swept the world. Many inventors struggled to create an electric car. In small towns, a mileage of 60 km on a single charge was quite acceptable. By 1899, the enthusiastic engineer Ippolit Romanov created several models of electric cabs, as well as an electric omnibus for 17 passengers. He also developed a scheme of city routes and received a work permit, however, under his own responsibility. Then the project of Ippolit Romanov was considered commercially unprofitable. However, his omnibus became the progenitor of the modern trolleybus, the appearance of which undoubtedly belongs to the achievements of the 20th century.

10. Parachute

For the first time the idea of ​​​​creating a parachute came to mind Leonardo da Vinci. And a few centuries later, with the advent of aeronautics, regular jumps from balloons to which half-open parachutes were hung. In 1912, the American Barry jumped with such a parachute from an airplane, and was able to land successfully. And engineer Gleb Kotelnikov made a silk parachute and packed it into a compact satchel. To test how quickly it opens, tests were carried out on a moving car. So the brake parachute was invented as an emergency braking system. On the eve of the First World War, the scientist patented his invention in France, and it became an achievement of the 20th century.

The last century was full of life-changing discoveries, and the inventions of the 20th century have changed the lives of many generations. Watch Absolute Geniuses on Eureka HD to learn more about the people who changed the course of history.

The 20th century was rich in all kinds of discoveries and inventions, which in some ways improved, and in some ways complicated our life. However, if you think about it, there were not so many inventions that truly changed this world. We have collected some of the most-very inventions, after which life will never be the same again.

20th century inventions that changed the world

Aircraft

The first flights on devices lighter than air (aeronautics) were made by people back in the 18th century, it was then that the first balloons filled with hot air appeared, with the help of which it was possible to fulfill the old dream of mankind - to rise into the air and soar in it. However, due to the impossibility of controlling the direction of flight, dependence on the weather and low speed, the balloon did not suit mankind in many ways as a transport.

The first controlled flights on vehicles heavier than air occurred at the very beginning of the 20th century, when the Wright brothers and Alberto Santos-Dumont independently experimented with light gliders equipped with motors. Exactly these aircrafts became the prototype of passenger liners, which in decades connected countries and continents and allowed the world to become truly global, significantly accelerating the movement of passengers over long distances and becoming one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.

Antibiotics

In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered that on samples infected with the common green mold Penicillium , colonies of staphylococcus bacteria do not develop. It became obvious that the fungus secretes a substance that has a detrimental effect on bacterial cells. it accidental discovery, made in the 20th century, became one of the most significant in the history of medicine, as it helped to isolate first penicillin (1938), and then other antibiotic substances, with the help of which deadly bacterial diseases were cured.

Unfortunately, the advent of antibiotics has also brought with it some negative consequences that have also changed the world. The widespread and not always justified use of antibiotics leads to the fact that known bacteria mutate, acquiring forms that are resistant to drugs. This phenomenon poses a danger to humanity, as it complicates the treatment of bacteria infected with resistant forms and requires long and expensive research to find new antibiotics.

Nuclear weapon

In August 1945, the most powerful explosions in the history of the planet sounded in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the United States of America tested the first nuclear weapon, opening new page in the history of means of destruction. Long years of studying radioactive materials have borne fruit, humanity has managed to split the atom and obtain an energy source with colossal destructive power. In 1949, a nuclear weapon was tested for the first time. Soviet Union. In subsequent years, Great Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea joined the "nuclear club". The emergence of nuclear weapons and the very rapid increase in their number in the process cold war marked the beginning of a new era - from now on, humanity could actually destroy the planet in a matter of hours, turning it into a desert unsuitable for most organisms.

However, despite all the potential danger of a new type of weapons, many researchers believe that its presence rather played a positive role in the history of the planet, since since its inception, members of the nuclear club have never waged large-scale wars among themselves. The most dangerous weapon on the planet has become a kind of insurance against military conflicts, because now “everyone will lose” in it. This factor will be the most powerful deterrent in all conceivable international conflicts for many years to come.

Semiconductor electronics

For a long time, vacuum tubes were one of the main components of electronic devices, the use of which significantly limited the possibilities of technology: the lamps took a long time to heat up to reach operating parameters, had big size, low reliability and very high heat dissipation.

Work on the development of devices based on semiconductor elements began in the 1920s, but for a long time their use was not widespread. Even during the Second World War, when the demand for computers and radio stations was as high as ever, they were still made mainly on a tube basis. The first bipolar transistor was created in 1947, and the first MOS transistor, which forms the basis of all modern electronics, in 1960. Both types of transistors were based on semiconductors, which opened up almost limitless possibilities for improving electronics and microprocessors. Today, almost any household appliance, even children's Railway on batteries or a mixer, they have a microcircuit based on semiconductor elements inside the case. And for all electronic and computing devices, from calculators to laptops, semiconductor elements form the basis of the design. The performance of the elements of a modern audio player or TV (not to mention smartphones or computers) far exceeds the tube computers that occupied several rooms in research laboratories half a century ago.

spacecraft

The first spacecraft, an artificial Earth satellite, was successfully launched in 1957, about 25 years after the start of the Soviet space program. From that moment on, man began to explore not only the planet, but also the nearest outer space. After 4 years, Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut in the history of mankind, became the hero of the whole world. Human spaceflight and a visit to the moon (first made by US astronauts in 1969) are considered among the most significant achievements of mankind.

In addition to the invaluable contribution to science made by the space programs of the USSR, the USA and some other countries, the launch of spacecraft forever changed many areas of ordinary people's lives. Satellite Internet, INMARSAT communications, GPS navigation, Google Maps photos, images of celestial objects from the Hubble telescope, weather forecasts - this is just an incomplete list of what we owe to one of greatest inventions 20th century - a spacecraft launched by man.

Internet

October 29, 1969 is considered the birthday of the Internet, when the first two nodes of the ARPANET network, located at a distance of 640 km - at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) - had a communication session. Within 4 years, thanks to the transatlantic cable, the network became international, connecting the USA, Great Britain and Norway.

Today it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the World Wide Web. Today, the number of regularly using the Internet reaches 2.5 billion people. Another proof that the world has changed beyond recognition due to it is that today the largest companies in the world are not railway monopolies, oil giants, automakers and banks, but IT corporations like Apple, Google and Microsoft, which are still 40 years old. no one heard back.

What do you think is the most important invention of the 20th century?