History's Great Inventions
What is the world's greatest invention?
The number one invention in the world is electricity, because without it, we stop. Everything is running on electricity. Look at our gadgets, look at our homes, look at light. Without it, we don't have incubation for premature babies. Without it, we don't have toast in the morning. How about Starbucks without electricity? Come on, you have to have electricity. That, to me, is the single most unique invention and the distribution of electricity I think is pretty phenomenal.
What are the top inventions of all time?
For me the top ten best inventions of all time in no particular order are: electricity the creation and distribution of it. Penicillin - without it half of us would be dead. The printing press, Guttenberg not only has enabled people to be literate, but he has really had global implications in terms of how we our communicate information. The telephone I think is a phenomenal invention. Aeroplanes and computing, the sonogram, which I know a lot of people don't realize, but the sonogram helps us to locate fish, oil and helps us monitor foetus development. That's a ‘biggie'; people don't realize that, that's the ‘sneaker'. Cameras, digital in particular, I think are a phenomenal invention. Hydrogen cell fuel is phenomenal and glasses for people to read. And the last one is IPod. Now there is one other invention that was done in 1810 that was done by Peter Durand, and it was the metal can. And I know people say Campbell Soup – “hello!?” Up to that point is was impossible to preserve foods. But one guy figured out a way to can and preserve food. And when that happened you can see a direct correlation for supermarkets developing. And people not getting as sick. And food distribution became a very huge industry. Without cans we do not have supermarkets.
How often does an invention change the world?
In my experience, you see what I call amazing inventions come out about every two or three years; something that changes the marketplace. The Internet has not only changed the way that the world does business, but that was an invention. And now programmers that actually invent different ways in harnessing the part of the Internet are servicing every month. I mean, if you take a look at Videojug, how phenomenal this side is, if you take a look at Yelp, if you take a look at Flicker: all of these websites, they have a patent on them. That's an invention, it's a program. So, that's changing all the time. In terms of a real product, where you can touch it, see it outside of the Internet space, every couple of years there's a product that comes around that's just absolutely, remarkable, phenomenal.
How did Eli Whitney and the cotton gin change the world?
What was unique at the time was, cotton was a very unique product and they were just learning how to spool it but when you look at the cotton manuf, cotton harvesting process it was laborious bacuse you have to take out these cotton seeds so he invented a very unique machine at the time with very little resources that enabled him to process acres of cotton in hours versus weeks and that gave rise to the garment textile industry and enabled cotton farmers to provide cotton for everything that we wear today. So wtihout Eli we wouldn't be wearing these cool clothes and it would be, and if we did it would be very expensive so he was able to find out, find a process to produce more efficiencies in the marketplace with mechanized machinery versus labor.
How did Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone change the world?
Without telephones, we would be in the stone age. Telephones in the beginning, were a very unique way of communicating. People still, to this day, accept it as part of our life. It was actually invented less than a hundred years ago, when it was brought to market. Now I can take a cell phone and call anywhere in the world, crystal clear. Alexander Graham Bell was the father of communication, and with communication you have a better exchange of ideas in addition to better information.
How did Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization change the world?
A lot of people don't realize that up until Louis Pasteur and his science work, we didn't know why we were getting sick, because there's basically problems with food. Bacteria. And he was able to determine that a lot of our food groups and food products needed to be refrigerated, and he also came up with a number of different medicines and ideas to help us live a healthier life. So without Louis Pasteur, we would still be eating tainted foods and tainted milk and having tremendous sickness from that.
How did Steve Wozniak and the personal computer change the world?
What makes Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak so unique, definitely they have two spots in the hall of inventors, is that computer up until Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak developed Apple was very difficult to process. What they invented was an easier way or humanistic way of computing. Instead of having a trash code to delete a file they graphically created a trash can so you take the file drag it to the can open it and throw it away. Just like what are you doing at home. They humanized the computer and that's what they are so unique about. Another unique aspect about Steve Jobs and Wozniak is that right from the beginning they understood that music was critical to their audience. Their consumers loved music and loved design. The first beginning when you have the Commodore 64 and that developed again to the Apple 30 i and SE and Quadra, Performa, all of this developments, you have the infancy and the first five years but every five years they have a major shift, major transformation. Twenty-five years into making computers they have harnessed the most powerful electronic gadget and the harnessed the most interesting topic of music. They control distribution music more efficiently, cheaper, and faster with more style than anyone could imagine. They've done it in less than four years. The iPod has singularly changed the way music has been distributed and listened to.
