Technological discoveries of the 20th century. The greatest inventions of the 20th century

A discovery was made by Max Planck, which explained to the entire scientific world how energy behaves inside an atom. Based on these data, Einstein created quantum theory in 1905, and after him Niels Bohr was able to create the first model of the atom. This gave impetus to electronics, nuclear energy, development and. All scientists used these data in their discoveries. Thanks to this discovery, the world has become so high-tech.

Discoveries recently assessed

The third important discovery was made in 1936 by John Keynes. He developed the theory of self-regulation of a market economy. His books and the ideas put forward in them helped to develop and create a classical school, which is still taught in universities of higher education. Thanks to his work, macroeconomics appeared as.

The fourth important discovery was made in 1911 by Kamerling-Oness. He first introduced the concept of superconductivity. This is a state in which some materials may have zero resistance. The contribution of this discovery is that thanks to such materials it became possible to create strong magnetic fields, which are needed to create the conditions for numerous experiments. Thanks to the capabilities of conductivity, much smaller power lines are already being created. Superconductors are parts of most serious scientific equipment.

The fifth discovery was made in 1985, when it was possible to detect ozone holes that arise in the atmosphere due to the emission of large quantity freons. Restoring the ozone layer is very important to prevent the penetration of large amounts solar radiation to the ground. Reducing the amount of ozone affects the incidence of cancer and the life of animals and plants.

Thanks to this discovery, humanity has taken measures to reduce emissions of bromine- and chlorine-based freons and replace the substance with fluorine-containing freons. But the most important thing is that people are thinking about preserving the planet and how to avoid environmental destruction as a result of anthropogenic activities.

1900 paper clips - Johann Vaaler, Norway.

1900 sound cinema - Leon Gaumont, France.

1900 airship - Ferdinand von Zeppelin - German airship designer.

1901 safety razor - King Camel Gillette, American merchant.

1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright are American engineers who make the first airplane flight.

1903 crayons - "Crayola", USA.

1904 diode - John Ambrose Fleming, British electrical engineer.

1906 pianola - automatic - "Automatic Machinery and Tool Company", USA.

1906 fountain pen - Slavoljub penkala, Serbian inventor.

1907 washing machine - Alva J. Fisher.

1908 assembly line - Henry Ford, American engineer.

1908 Geiger counter - German physicist Hans Geiger and V. Müller invented a device for detecting and measuring radioactivity.

1909 Louis Bleriot, a French engineer, flew over the English Channel.

1909 Robert Edwin Peary - American explorer who finally reached the North Pole.

1910 Alfred Wegener - German geophysicist, author of the theory of continental drift.

1910 mixer - George Smith and Fred Osius, USA.

1911 Roald Amundsen - Norwegian explorer, first to reach the South Pole.

1912 Robert Falcon Scott - British military officer, second to reach the South Pole.

1912 reflector - Belling Co., USA.

1913 autopilot - Elmer Spirit (USA).

1915 gas mask - Fritz Haber, German chemist.

1915 cardboard milk cartons - Van Wormer - USA.

1915 Heat-resistant glassware - Pyrex Corning Glass Works, USA.

1916 microphone - USA.

1916 tank - William Tritton, British designer.

1917 Electric Christmas tree lights - Albert Sadakka, Spanish American.

1917 shock therapy - UK.

1920 hair dryer - Racine Universal Motor Company, USA.

1921 Albert Einstein, an American physicist originally from Germany, formulated the theory of relativity.

1921 lie detector - John A. Larsen (USA).

1921 toaster - Charles Straight (USA).

1924 adhesive plaster - Josephine Dixon, USA.

1926 black and white television - John Logi Baird, Scottish inventor.

1927 device artificial respiration- Philip Drinker, American medical researcher.

1928 Penicillin is the first antibiotic discovered by Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist.

1928 chewing gum - Walter E. Diemer, USA.

1929 yo-yo - Pedro Flores, Philippines.

1930 multi-storey car park - Paris, France 1930 Digital Watch- penwood numecron.

1930 duct tape - Richard Drew, USA.

1930 frozen prepared foods - Clarence Birsey, USA.

Circa 1930 bra.

1932 parking meter - Carlton Magee, American inventor.

1932 electric guitar - Adolphus Rickenbucket, USA.

1933 - 1935 radar - Rudolf Kuehnhold and Robert Watson - watt.

1934 nylon stockings - Wallace Hume Carothers, American chemist.

1936 food baskets and carts - Sylvan Goldman and Fred Young, USA.

1938 copier - Chester Carson, an American lawyer, contributed to the development of xerography.

1938 ballpoint pen - Laszlo Biro.

1939 DDT - Paul Muller and Weismann - Switzerland.

1940 mobile phone - Bell Telephone Laboratories, USA.

1943 scuba - Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French oceanographer.

1946 electronic computer - John Presper Eckert and John Moakley, USA.

1946 microwave oven - Percy LeBaron Spencer, USA.

1948 player - CBC Corporation, USA.

1949, January 10, the release of vinyl records begins.
RCA - 45 rpm.
Columbia - 33.3 rpm.

1950 remote control - Zenith Electronic Corporation, USA.

1950 credit card - Ralph Schneider, USA.

1951 liquid paper- Bette Nesmith Graham, USA.

1952 rubber gloves - UK.

1954 transistor radio - Regency Electronics, USA.

1955 Lego designer - Ole Kirk Christiansen, Denmark.

1956 contact lenses, USA.

1957 ultrasound - Professor Ian Donald, Scotland.

1957 Vivian Ernest Fuchs - first to cross Antarctica.

1958 Barbie doll - Rude Handler, USA.

1958 hula hoop - Richard P. Niir and Arthur Melvin, American inventors.

1959 microchip - Jack Kilby, USA.

1959 ship on air cushion- Christopher Cockerell, British engineer.

1960 laser - Theodore Maiman, American physicist.

1961 space shuttle, USA.

1961 Alan Bartlett Shepard is the first American to go into space aboard the Freedom 7 capsule.

1961 Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin - Russian cosmonaut, the first man in space.

1962 John Herschel Glenn Jr. - The first American to fly around the earth.

1962 industrial robots - "Unimation", USA.

1963 cassette recorder - Phillips, Netherlands.

1964 bullet train - Japan.

1965 virtual reality - Ivan Slacherland, American scientist, computer technology specialist.

1968 computer mouse - Douglas Engelbart.

1969 first people. American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the moon.

1970 artificial heart - Robert K. Jarvik, USA.

1970 fire alarm - Pitway Corporation, USA.

1971 body armor - Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist who invented fiber.

1972 computer games- Nolan Bushnell, USA.

1973 Wobot, the first humanoid robot - Japan.

1977 Internet - Vinton Surf, USA.

1978 personal computer - Stephen Jobs and Stefan Wozniak.

1979 audio player - "Sony", Japan.

1980 Rubik's cube - Hungarian professor Erno Rubik.

1981 video camera - Sony, Japan 1981 CD - Japan and the Netherlands 1983 satellite television- "USA Satellite Communications Inc", USA 1988 airbags - Toyota, Japan 1980s laptop computer - Cleve Seaclair, UK 1998 "Mad Dog 2", solar car - UK.

To paraphrase the classic - if ballpoint pens did not exist, they would have to be invented. All the convenience of a ballpoint pen can be fully appreciated only by those who have had the opportunity to write with fountain pens and liquid pens.

With the arrival of ballpoint pens on the stationery market, schoolchildren could breathe a sigh of relief. Blots, blotters, notebooks covered in ink, smeared hands and face are a thing of the past. After all, previously the student’s task was not so much learning to write, but the ability to handle pens and inkwells.

The advent of ballpoint pens

The main inconvenience of fountain pens and liquid pens was the need to regularly wet the pen with ink, which was still acceptable at school, but significantly slowed down any processes in the adult world - from political to industrial. A special need for transformation was observed where pilots were forced to use pencils. The idea of a permanent supply of ink to the writing unit of the pen was considered by inventors for a long time. The first analogs of a pen with a ball built into the writing tip were discovered on the territory of modern Armenia in a drawing dated 1166. Subsequently, the idea of a rotating tip was returned to repeatedly - 350 patents were issued in the USA alone. But the official inventors are the American John D. Loud and the Hungarians Laszlo and Georg Biro, who patented non-leak handles.

The idea to organize our own production of ballpoint pens in the Soviet Union arose in 1949. It was not in the traditions of the Soviet state to purchase patents, especially for public consumption. Therefore, based on the best world samples, domestic copies were created. The production of ballpoint pens was carried out by local industrial enterprises and industrial cooperation. The quality of the product was so low that the appearance of the first ballpoint pens passed without a stir. The problem was the poor design of the writing unit. The complex procedure for refilling the balloon again created inconveniences - a ball was removed from the tip, a new portion of ink was pumped through the resulting hole with a syringe, and the ball was rolled back into the sphere. There were even stationary refill points. The quality of the ink, for the production of which they began to use a mixture of castor oil and rosin, left much to be desired. At that time, the Union did not have the technological capabilities to eliminate these shortcomings, the pens ceased to be in demand and were no longer produced. The production of ballpoint pens resumed in 1965 at the Kuibyshev Ball Bearing Plant. Then Swiss equipment was purchased for the production of writing units and it was possible to find out the recipe for Parker ink. However, the introduction of ballpoint pens into mass culture occurred in the early 70s. The popularization of the model was hampered by educational standards, according to which great importance was attached to the formation of handwriting. The technical capabilities of a ballpoint pen did not make it possible to implement the requirements for “writing out” letters that existed at that time. For a long time, the problem was the issue of components - replacing a covered refill was extremely difficult, you had to buy a new one. But with the solution of these issues, a design boom for ballpoint pens began in the Union. Sets of colored pens, automatic, two-, four-, and six-color ballpoint pens began to be produced. Interesting fact: among the Kremlin leaders, M.S. was the first to sign documents with a Parker ballpoint pen. Gorbachev. Previous leaders preferred either pencils or solid ink devices.

The principle of a ballpoint pen is quite simple - at its end there is a small ball that rolls along the surface of the paper and leaves behind traces of ink that seeps into a small gap between the walls. But this invention was made not so long ago - in 1888, and the pen became widespread only in the 20th century, after the creation of the modern model.

History of the invention of the ballpoint pen

Until the end of the 19th century, all writing instruments that used ink required constant dipping into the inkwell. It was inconvenient to write, it took a long time, and there were ugly blots on the paper. Engineers began to think about how to make a pen with ink supply. In 1888, American engineer John Loud patented the principle of a pen with a special reservoir for ink, which was fed through thin channels to a tip with a round hole. There was no ball in the small hole at the end of the pen yet, but this device already made it possible to write on paper without dipping it into ink. Although this pen was far from perfect: it also made blots, although less often than feathers.
In 1938, a Hungarian journalist named Biro invented the ballpoint pen. modern design: First of all, he placed a small ball in the hole, which allowed the ink to be retained and prevent blots from entering, and also made writing more pleasant. In addition, Biro made special ink for such pens - while watching newspapers being printed, he noticed that the ink on them dried out much faster. True, they were too thick to use in a pen, but he perfected their formula.

History of the development of the ballpoint pen

A lot of time has passed since the advent of the modern design of a ballpoint pen - more than seventy years, but its principle and structure have hardly changed. Even the very first such pens had excellent characteristics, and most importantly, they were distinguished by a large supply of ink and low ink consumption.
The first buyers of ballpoint pens were pilots - for them it was important that the writing instrument did not “leak”, since at high altitudes this was a common phenomenon: the pressure in the air is higher.
The first ballpoint pens appeared in the Soviet Union after World War II. Soviet engineers had to make the ink themselves, since the owner of the company that produced the most famous Parker pens refused to cooperate with Stalin. Production of the pens began in 1949, but they were too expensive for widespread distribution.
It wasn't until 1958 that ballpoint pens dropped in price enough to become widely used. In 1965, they began to be produced using Swiss equipment, and soon the pens began to be issued in schools. Soon this product became one of the most popular; today most handles have this design.

First controllable aircraft

In December 1903, the first controllable aircraft was created by the Wright brothers, called Flyer 1. This was not the first aircraft in history, but its main feature was its advanced new theory flight “on three axes of rotation.” It was this theory that allowed aircraft manufacturing to develop further, focusing the attention of scientists not on the installation of more powerful parts, but on the efficiency of their use. Flyer 1 stayed in the air for almost a minute, flying 260 meters.

Computer

The invention of the computer and the first full-fledged programming language is credited to the German engineer Konrad Zuse. The first fully functional computer was presented to the public in 1941 and was called the Z3. It should be noted that the Z3 had all the properties that computers have today.
After the war, the Z3, like its predecessors, was destroyed. However, its successor Z4 survived, from which sales of computers began.

Internet

Initially, the Internet was conceived by the US Department of Defense as a reliable channel for transmitting information in case war broke out. Several research centers were commissioned to develop the first network, which eventually were able to create the first Arpanet server. Over time, the server began to grow, and more and more scientists connected to it to exchange information.
The first remote connection (at a distance of 640 km) was made by Charlie Cline and Billy Duvalley. This happened in 1969 - this day is considered the birthday of the Internet. After this operation, the sphere began to develop at tremendous speed. In 1971, a program for sending email was developed, and in 1973 the network became international.

Space exploration

The stumbling block in the 20th century in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union was developments in space exploration. The first artificial satellite was launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957.
The first scientist who put forward the idea of creating a rocket traveling between planets was K. Tsiolkovsky. By 1903, he managed to design it. The main thing in his development was the formula he created for the speed of an aircraft, which is used to this day in rocket science.
The first vehicle to go into space was the V-2 rocket, launched in the summer of 1944. It was this event that laid the foundation for further accelerated development, demonstrating the great capabilities of missiles.

Inventions of the 20th century that changed our lives

Since ancient times, people have tried to make dreams and fantasies come true in order to simplify and diversify their life. We will list several inventions of the 20th century that changed the way we look at life.
1. X-rays

A KVN joke says that X-ray was invented by clerk Ivanov, who told his wife: “I can see right through you, bitch.” In fact, electromagnetic radiation was discovered in late XIX century by the German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen. Having turned on the current in the cathode tube, the scientist noticed that a nearby paper screen covered with barium platinocyanide crystals was emitting 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 reliably known that Wilhelm for a long time refused to obtain a patent for an invention, not considering his research to be a full-fledged source of income. X-rays can easily be considered one of the discoveries of the 20th century.

2. Airplane

Since ancient times, people have tried to create a flying machine and rise above the earth. But only in 1903, the American inventors the Wright brothers managed to successfully test their Flyer 1, equipped with an engine. It was in the air for a full 59 seconds and flew 260 meters over the Kitty Hawk Valley. This event is considered the moment of the birth of aviation. Today, it is impossible to imagine either business development or recreation without airplanes. "Steel birds" are still the fastest mode of transport.

3. Television

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

19th century inventions

Inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries are very numerous. The most significant are photography, dynamite, and aniline dyes for fabrics. In addition, cheaper methods for producing paper and alcohol were discovered, and new medicines were invented.

Technical inventions of the 19th century were of great importance in the development of society. Thus, with the help of the telegraph, people were able to transmit messages within a few seconds from one end of the world to the other. The telegraph was invented in 1850. A little later, telegraph lines began to appear. Graham Bell invented the telephone. Today people cannot imagine life without this discovery.

Inventions of the 19th century from different countries of the world were brought to an exhibition in 1851 in England. About seventeen thousand exhibits were present. In subsequent years, other countries, following the example of England, also began to organize international exhibitions of the latest achievements.

Inventions of the 19th century became a powerful impetus for the development of chemistry, physics, and mathematics. A feature of this period was the widespread use of electricity. Scientists of that time were studying electromagnetic waves and their influence on different materials. Electricity also began to be used in medicine.

Michael Faraday noticed the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction, and James C. Maxwell developed the electromagnetic theory of light. Heinrich Hertz proved that electromagnetic waves exist.

Inventions of the 19th century in the fields of medicine and biology were no less significant than in others. scientific fields. A great contribution to the development of these industries was made by: Robert Koch, who discovered the causative agent of tuberculosis, Louis Pasteur, who became one of the founders of microbiology and immunology, Claude Bernard, who laid the foundations of endocrinology. In the same century, the first X-ray image was obtained. French doctors Brissot and Lond saw a bullet in the patient's head.

There were also inventions in the field of Astronomy in the 19th century. This science began to develop rapidly in that era. Thus, a section of Astronomy appeared - Astrophysics, which studied the properties of celestial bodies.

Dmitry Mendeleev made a great contribution to the development of chemistry by discovering the Periodic Law, on the basis of which a table of chemical elements was created. He saw the table in a dream. Some predicted elements were subsequently discovered.

The beginning of the 19th century was marked by the development of mechanical engineering and industry. In 1804, a car was demonstrated at steam engine. In the 19th century, the internal combustion engine was created. This contributed to the development of faster means of transportation: steamships, steam locomotives, cars.

In the 19th century, railways began to be built. The first was built in 1825 by Stephenson in England. By 1840, the length of all railways was about 7,700 km; at the end of the 19th century it was about 1,080,000 km.

It is believed that people began to use computers in the 20th century. However, their first prototypes were invented already in the previous century. The Frenchman Jacquard discovered a way to program a loom in 1804. The invention made it possible to control the thread using punched cards, which contained holes in certain places. Using these holes, thread was supposed to be applied to the fabric.

Invented at the end of the 18th century, lathes found widespread use in industry in the 19th century. The equipment was successfully replaced manual labor, processing metal with high precision.

The 19th century is rightly called the century of the “industrial revolution”, railways and electricity. This century had a huge impact on the worldview and culture of mankind, changing its value system. Invention electric lamps, radio, telephone, engine and many other discoveries turned human life upside down at that time.

The 20th century went down in history thanks to the large number important events. During these hundred years, two world wars happened, man went into space, and the state for the first time announced the transition to a post-industrial society. All this would have been impossible without relevant discoveries in various fields of knowledge. They were the impetus for further development.

The most important discoveries

The first major discovery was penicillin. This molecule became the world's first antibiotic and saved the lives of millions of people during the war. In 1928, biologist Alexander Fleming noticed during an experiment that ordinary mold destroys bacteria. In 1938, two scientists who continued to work on the properties of penicillin were able to isolate its pure form, on the basis of which the substance was produced as a medicine. All this gave a huge impetus to medicine in the research and creation of new medicines, thanks to which doctors around the world can fight most diseases.
A discovery was made by Max Planck, which explained to the entire scientific world how energy behaves inside an atom. Based on these data, Einstein created quantum theory in 1905, and after him Niels Bohr was able to create the first model of the atom. This gave impetus to electronics, nuclear energy, the development of chemistry and physics. All scientists used these data in their discoveries. Thanks to this discovery, the world has become so high-tech.

Discoveries recently assessed

The third important discovery was made in 1936 by John Keynes. He developed the theory of self-regulation of a market economy. His books and the ideas put forward in them helped develop economics and created a classical school that is still taught in universities of higher education. Thanks to his work, macroeconomics emerged as an independent science.
The fourth important discovery was made in 1911 by Kamerling-Oness. He first introduced the concept of superconductivity. This is a state in which some materials may have zero resistance to electricity. The contribution of this discovery is that thanks to such materials it became possible to create strong magnetic fields, which are needed to create the conditions for numerous experiments. Thanks to the capabilities of conductivity, much smaller power lines are already being created. Superconductors are parts of most serious scientific equipment.
The fifth discovery was made in 1985, when it was possible to detect ozone holes that arise in the atmosphere due to the release of large amounts of freons. Restoring the ozone layer is very important to prevent large amounts of solar radiation from reaching the Earth. Reducing the amount of ozone affects the incidence of cancer and the life of animals and plants.
Thanks to this discovery, humanity has taken measures to reduce emissions of bromine- and chlorine-based freons and replace the substance with fluorine-containing freons. But the most important thing is that people are thinking about preserving the planet and how to avoid environmental destruction as a result of anthropogenic activities.

Medical inventions of the 20th century. Top 10 medical discoveries of the 20th century

What 10 medical discoveries revolutionized medicine? This is what our article is about. In general, there are many ratings of everything in the world on the website top10reiting.com. Many discoveries were made without any purpose, simply as an experiment, and in the future they played a significant role in saving people with dangerous diseases.

Penicillin

Consider such a strange drug as penicillin, which saves from severe protracted gangrene and pneumonia that could not be cured and was fatal. It was discovered by a British scientist, in which he contributed his negligence by not washing the test tube after the microbes he was studying. In the future, this played an important role, which led to the drug “Penicillin”, which was used as an antibiotic.

Let us now consider a very popular research such as DNA. Which did not save human destinies. This discovery was recognized by all scientists of the world, as English scientists created a molecule by collecting all the information about the DNA of all living creatures on earth, from bacteria to humans, and came to the common idea that the structure of cells is the same for everyone. They made a significant contribution to the development of genetics as such.

Organ transplant

Organ transplantation was unknown until the 20s; no one dared to carry out such a thing with a person, but a doctor from America decided to take a risk, who transplanted the kidney and liver of a living person into a living one, without having a fatal outcome.

A large-scale device such as ultrasound plays a big role in the present time, and all thanks to those waves that penetrate a person and mirror the process in the body. The original origin of radioactivity and subsequent research through nuclear physics led to the development of radiobiology, from which the changes took place. ionizing radiation on living organisms.

Vacuum conception

Another name for in vitro conception, which facilitates fertility, the process is expensive and painstaking, its essence lies in the fact that the family of a healthy man is taken and placed in the female uterus, where conception occurs under the supervision of a specialist doctor, the danger lies with the woman as rejection and such actions can occur will have to be interrupted, but in modern conditions such cases are unlikely.

Phacoemulsification

Destruction of the lens using vibration vibrations that destroy the nucleus. The advantage of this operation is that the incision is small, it is practically invisible. Operations often occur without complications, and another artificial lens is installed in place of the previous lens, which performs all the same functions as the natural one.

Prosthetics

Prosthetics. Medicine has stepped forward long distance in the field of mechanics, namely, scientists created a prosthesis, an artificial part of the body, an organ, a German scientist, thanks to his findings, many now have arms and legs, as well as hearts and eyes. But closer to the 21st century, prosthetics have become such that they cannot be distinguished from natural ones.

Immunology

Immunology has made its contribution to science, which helps to cope with viruses and diseases in the early stages and stopping them. Mechnikov has developed a serum that helps the body overcome the early stages.

A disease of unknown origin, which has not been discovered to this day, but helps to maintain a balance in life with the help of insulin, a hormone that lowers blood sugar thanks to beta cells. Back in 1969, they began to study this disease, but they could not find a solution to what the body still lacked to reduce sugar. In Toronto there was a development that was not the first stage, but with a final ending.

Vitaminology

The body is so fragile that it does not have time to fight many diseases; frequent illnesses, viruses, and a decline in immunity are associated with a lack of vitamins in the body. For the first time, the teachings of Resche came to this discovery and began to develop and combine vitamins different groups After conducting more than one study, he came to the division of vitamins into groups and made an immunological table.

Today, a parachute designed for a soft landing with high altitude, has become a common item used all over the world. The subject, which is so familiar to everyone, has gone through a long and interesting way through the centuries, acquiring a modern appearance.
The great Leonardo da Vinci, who became the author of many useful devices and the mechanisms of Renaissance Italy, he did not ignore the parachute, developing the design of a simple apparatus with a stretched dome area, approximately equal to the area modern. A design similar to a conical device is preserved in a 15th century manuscript. However, the ingenious invention remained only on paper.
Several decades later, the Italian Fausto Veranzio, impressed by da Vinci’s sketches, published the treatise “New Machines” in 1595. The treatise depicts a drawing of a man flying from a tower, suspended from a six-meter dome, attached at the edges to wooden frame. In 1617, Veranzio made his dream come true by descending on a piece of square canvas from the bell tower of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.

Achievements and losses

The following centuries revealed to the world several dozen inventors who contributed to the development of the parachute. Some died while testing their devices.

In 1777, the Frenchman de Fontanges designed a version of the “flying cape” parachute. A criminal was chosen to test the "cloak". In the presence of law enforcement officers, the inventor and spectators, repeat offender Jacques Doumier climbed the Parisian arms tower and jumped. The flight went well, and the death penalty for the criminal skydiver was abolished.

Soon the Frenchman Louis Sebastian Lenormand modernized the design of Fausto Veranzio. The device looked like an umbrella-shaped canvas dome with slings, glued on the inside with paper to reduce air permeability. In addition, Lenormand invented “parachute” by combining the Greek “para” and the French “chute” into one word, which literally translates as “against the fall.”

André Jacques Garnerin is the first person to jump from a hot air balloon. On October 22, 1797, at an altitude of 1 kilometer above Parc Monceau in Paris, he cut the lines connecting the basket to the eight-meter dome.
Garnerin's wife, Jeanne Genevieve, followed her husband's example, becoming the first woman in the world to complete the jump.

In the 19th century, jumping from heights became popular among traveling parachutists and circus performers. Aerial acrobats made money by performing risky stunts. One of the most famous was Charles Laroux, who created an anti-fall device similar to a large umbrella for a circus trick. The device resembled a strange semi-automatic parachute with 12 wedges, which were connected by slings to a belt belt. The device was fixed to the side of the balloon with a special string with a spring, which opened during the jump, and the parachute was disconnected from the balloon. Laroux died during testing during the flight.

In 1880, Erwin Baldwin invents the automatic parachute. While making a jump, the cord securing the structure with the ball broke under the weight, filling the dome with air.

2 years later, Lev Stevenson creates a traction ring, and Herman Latheman uses a new principle for deploying a parachute from an elongated bag.

Creation of the first aviation parachute

Over time, hot air balloons replaced airplanes. As aviation developed, so did the number of casualties. The parachute as a rescue device for pilots has become a pressing issue.

In 1910, Lev Makarovich Matsievich, a legend of Russian aeronautics, died during demonstration flights in St. Petersburg. Impressed by the tragedy, Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov, a theater actor, became eager to construct an aviation parachute. A year later, having completed his work, he created a reliable, compact and lightweight device that was assembled into a backpack, attached to the pilot using a harness. At the bottom of the backpack there were springs that, when the pull ring was pulled out, ejected a silk dome, into the edges of which a thin elastic cable was sewn. The invention, the free-action backpack parachute RK-1, which immediately gained recognition abroad, was registered by Kotelnikov in 1913 in France. The use of the device in Russia began only in the First World War.
Thus, a simple actor played a vital role in the development of world aviation. Over time, backpack parachutes have improved and changed, but the principle of operation remains the same.

Video Great inventions of the 20th century. "De facts from de Jura"

In the 15 years since the beginning of the new millennium, people have not even noticed that they have found themselves in another world: we live in another solar system, we can repair genes and control prosthetics with the power of thought. None of this happened in the 20th century

Genetics

The human genome has been completely sequenced

Robot sorts human DNA in petri dishes for a project The Human Genome

Human Genome Project ( The Human Genome Project) began in 1990, a working draft of the genome structure was released in 2000, and the complete genome in 2003. However, even today additional analysis of some areas has not yet been completed. It was mainly carried out at universities and research centers in the USA, Canada and the UK. Genome sequencing is critical to drug development and understanding how the human body works.

Genetic engineering has reached a new level

IN last years developed a revolutionary method for manipulating DNA using the so-called CRISP-mechanism. This technique makes it possible to selectively edit certain genes, which was previously impossible.

Mathematics

Poincare's theorem has been proven

In 2002, Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman proved Poincaré's theorem, one of the Seven Millennium Problems (important mathematical problems whose solution has not been found for decades). Perelman showed that the original three-dimensional surface (if there are no discontinuities in it) will necessarily evolve into a three-dimensional sphere. For this work he received the prestigious Fields Medal, an analogue Nobel Prize in mathematics.

Astronomy

Dwarf planet Eris discovered

Eris was first photographed on October 21, 2003, but was noticed in photographs only at the beginning of 2005. Its discovery was the last straw in the debate about the fate of Pluto (whether it should continue to be considered a planet or not), which changed the usual image solar system(see pp. 142–143).

Water discovered on Mars

In 2005, the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe discovered large deposits of water ice near the surface - this is very important for the subsequent colonization of the Red Planet.

Physics

Global warming - faster than expected

In 2015, scientists from the World Glacier Monitoring Center at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), led by Dr. Michael Zemp, working together with colleagues from 30 countries, found that the rate of melting of glaciers on Earth to date, compared with the average for the 20th century, increased two to three times.

Quantum teleportation discovered

Such teleportation differs from the teleportation that science fiction writers like to talk about - with it, matter or energy is not transferred over a distance. Experiments on the transfer of quantum states over long distances have been successfully carried out over the past 15 years by at least a dozen scientific groups. Quantum teleportation is very important for the creation of ultra-secure ciphers and quantum computers.

The existence of graphene has been experimentally confirmed

Its two-dimensional (one atom thick) crystal cell exhibits unusual electrophysical properties. Graphene was first obtained by Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov in 2004 (Nobel Prize for 2010). It is planned to be used in electronics (in ultra-thin and ultra-fast transistors), composites, electrodes, etc. In addition, graphene is the second strongest material in the world (carbyne is in first place).

The existence of quark-gluon plasma has been proven

In 2012, experiments by physicists working with the RHIC accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) were included in the Guinness Book of Records with the wording “for the most high temperature obtained in laboratory conditions." By colliding gold ions in an accelerator, scientists achieved the emergence of quark-gluon plasma with a temperature of 4 trillion ° C (250 thousand times hotter than in the center of the Sun). About a microsecond after the Big Bang, the Universe was filled with just such plasma.

Higgs boson discovered

The existence of this elementary particle, which is responsible for the mass of all other particles, was theoretically predicted by Peter Higgs back in the 1960s. And it was found during experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 (for which Higgs, together with Francois Englert, received the 2013 Nobel Prize).

Biology

People were divided into three enterotypes

In 2011, scientists from Germany, France and several other research centers proved that, according to the genetics of the bacteria that inhabit us, people are divided into three categories, or enterotypes. A person’s enterotype manifests itself in different reactions to food, medications and diets, and therefore it became clear that there are no universal recipes cannot exist in these areas.

First synthetic bacterial cell created

In 2010, scientists from the Craig Venter Institute (one of the leaders in the race to decipher the human genome) created the first completely synthetic chromosome with a genome. When it was inserted into a bacterial cell devoid of genetic material, it began to function and divide according to the laws prescribed by the new genome. In the future, the synthetic genome will make it possible to create vaccines against new viral strains in hours, not weeks, to produce effective biofuel, new food products etc.

Successfully recorded and re-recorded memories

Since 2010, several research groups (USA, France, Germany) have learned to record false memories in the brains of mice, erase real ones, and also turn pleasant memories into unpleasant ones. It hasn't reached the human brain yet, but it won't be long now.

“Ethical” (not from embryos) pluripotent stem cells obtained

In 2012, Shinya Yamanaka and John Gurdon won the Nobel Prize for their 2006 discovery of producing mouse pluripotent stem cells through epigenetic reprogramming. Over the next decade, at least a dozen scientific groups have made impressive progress in this area, including with human cells. This heralds imminent breakthroughs in cancer therapy, regenerative medicine, and human (or human organ) cloning.

Paleontology

Dinosaur soft tissue discovered for the first time

Mary Schweitzer led the scientific team that described collagen isolated from the femur of Tyrannosaurus rex

In 2005, University of North Carolina molecular paleontologist Mary Schweitzer discovered soft tissue in the fossilized limb of a juvenile tyrannosaurus from Montana (65 million years old). Previously, it was believed that any proteins would decompose within a few thousand years at most, so no one looked for them in fossils. After this, soft tissue (collagen) was found in other ancient samples.

Neanderthal and Denisovan genes have been discovered in humans

Participants of the international symposium “Transition to the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia: cultural dynamics and development of the clan” Homo» inspecting the excavation site in central hall Denisova Cave

From the work of two scientific groups, it became clear that from 1 to 3% of the genome of the average European or Asian goes back to Neanderthals. But every modern individual has dissimilar Neanderthal alleles (different forms of the same gene), so the total amount of “Neanderthal” genes is much higher, up to 30%. The “heirs” of the Neanderthals (crossing occurred about 45 thousand years ago) are mainly Europeans; Asians in their genome contain traces of interbreeding with another hominid - “Denisovan man”. The cleanest Homo sapiens- natives of the African continent.

Medicine

Breathing reveals early stage of lung cancer

A year ago, a group of Israeli, American and British scientists developed a device that can accurately identify lung cancer and determine what stage it is in. The device is based on a breath analyzer with a built-in nanochip. NaNose, capable of “sniffing out” a cancerous tumor with 90% accuracy, even when the cancerous nodule is practically invisible. We should soon expect analyzers that will be able to detect other types of cancer by “smell.”

The first fully autonomous artificial heart was developed

American company specialists Abiomed developed the world's first fully autonomous permanent artificial heart for implantation ( AbioCor). An artificial heart is intended for patients who cannot treat their own heart or implant a donor heart.

Bionics

Biomechanical devices and prostheses controlled by thought have been created

American Zach Water tested a bionic leg prosthesis by climbing the stairs to the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower skyscraper in Chicago.

In 2013, the first prototypes of “smart” prostheses with feedback(emulation of tactile sensations), which allow a person to feel what the prosthesis “feels”. In the 2010s, devices separate from humans were created, controlled only through a mental interface (sometimes with invasive contacts, but more often it looks like a head hoop with a dry electrode) - computer games and exercise machines, manipulators, vehicles, etc.

Electronics

The petaflop barrier has been crossed

In 2008, a new supercomputer in Los Alamos (USA) began operating at a speed of more than a quadrillion (one thousand trillion) operations per second. The next barrier, exascale (quintillion operations per second), will be reached in the coming years. Systems with such incredible speed are needed primarily for high-performance computing - processing data from scientific experiments, climate modeling, financial transactions, etc.

Photo: Alamy, SPL, Newscom / Legion Media, SPL / Legion Media (X2), Photo courtesy of North Carolina State University, Reuters / Pix-Stream, Alexander Kryazhev / RIA Novosti, Reuters / Pix-Stream, Michael Hoch, Maximilien Brice / © 2008 CERN, for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration, AP / East News

American film inventor Thomas Edison, who was able to make this form of entertainment technically feasible

The competition, sponsored by Scientific American in 1913, required participants to write essays on the 10 greatest inventions of “our time” (from 1888 to 1913), and the inventions had to be patentable and dated to the time of their “industrial introduction.”

Essentially, this assignment was based on historical perception. Innovation seems more remarkable to us when we see the changes it brings about. In 2016, we may not give credit to Nikola Tesla or Thomas Edison. of great importance, since we are accustomed to using electricity in all its forms, but at the same time we are impressed by the social changes that the popularization of the Internet has entailed. 100 years ago people probably wouldn’t have understood what we were talking about.

Below are excerpts from the first and second prize essays, along with a statistical tally of all entries submitted. First place was awarded to William I. Wyman, who worked at the US Patent Office in Washington, thanks to which he was well aware of scientific and technological progress.

Essay by William Wyman

1. The 1889 electric furnace was “the only means capable of producing carborundum” (the hardest man-made material at that time). She also transformed aluminum from "merely valuable to a very useful metal" (reducing its cost by 98%) and "radically changed the metallurgical industry."

2. Steam turbine, invented by Charles Parsons, mass production of which began over the next 10 years. The turbine significantly improved the power supply system on ships, and was later used to support the operation of generators that produced electricity.

The turbine, invented by Charles Parsons, powered the ships. When given in sufficient quantity, they drove generators and produced energy

3. Gasoline car. In the 19th century, many inventors worked on creating a “self-propelled” car. Wyman mentioned Gottlieb Daimler's 1889 engine in his essay: "A century's persistent but unsuccessful quest to create a practically self-propelled car proves that any invention that meets the stated requirements for the first time becomes successful immediately. Such success came to the Daimler engine.”

4. Movies. Entertainment will always be of great importance to everyone, and "the moving picture has changed the way many people spend their time." The technical pioneer Wyman cited was Thomas Edison.

5. Airplane. For “the realization of a centuries-old dream,” Wyman praised the invention of the Wright brothers, but at the same time emphasized its military applications and doubted the general usefulness of flying technology: “Commercially, the airplane is the least profitable invention of all those under consideration.”

Orville Wright conducts a demonstration flight at Fort Mere in 1908 and fulfills the requirements of the US Army

Wilbur Wright

6. Wireless telegraphy. Various systems have been used to transmit information between people for centuries, perhaps even millennia. In the US, telegraph signals became much faster thanks to Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail. Wireless telegraphy, invented by Guglielmo Marconi, later evolved into radio and thus freed information from cables.

7. Cyanide process. Sounds toxic, doesn't it? This process appears on this list for only one reason: it was performed to extract gold from ore. “Gold is the lifeblood of commerce,” and in 1913 international trade relations and national currencies were based on it.

8. Nikola Tesla's asynchronous motor. “This landmark invention is largely responsible for the widespread use of electricity in modern industry,” writes Wyman. Before electricity was available in residential buildings, the car alternating current, designed by Tesla, generated 90% of the electricity consumed in production.

9. Linotype. This machine allowed publishers—primarily newspaper publishers—to compose text and produce it much faster and cheaper. This technology was as advanced as the printing press was considered at one time in relation to the handwritten scrolls that preceded it. It is possible that soon we will stop using paper for writing and reading, and the history of printing will be forgotten.

10. Electric welding process from Elihu Thomson. During the era of industrialization, electric welding allowed for faster production rates and better, more sophisticated machines for the manufacturing process.

Electric welding, created by Elihu Thomson, significantly reduced the cost of producing complex welding equipment

Essay by George Dow

The second best essay, by George M. Dowe, also from Washington, was more philosophical. He divided all inventions into three supporting sectors: manufacturing, transport and communications:

1. Electrical fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. As natural sources of fertilizer became depleted in the 19th century, artificial fertilizers enabled further agricultural expansion.

2. Preservation of sugar-containing plants. George W. McMullen of Chicago is credited with discovering a method for drying sugar cane and sugar beets for transportation. Sugar production became more efficient and soon sugar supplies increased significantly.

3. High-speed steel alloys. By adding tungsten to steel, "tools thus made could cut with great speed without sacrificing the hardening or cutting edge" The increased efficiency of cutting machines has been "nothing short of a revolution"

4. Lamp with tungsten filament. Another advance in chemistry: With tungsten replacing carbon in the filament, the light bulb is considered “improved.” As of 2016, they are being phased out worldwide in favor of compact fluorescent lamps, which are 4 times more efficient.

5. Airplane. Although it was not yet widely used for transportation in 1913, "Samuel Langley and the Wright brothers should receive major honors for their contributions to the development of powered flight."

6. Steam turbine. As in the previous list, the turbine deserves praise not only for its "use of steam as a prime mover" but also for its application in "electricity generation."

7. Internal combustion engine. In terms of transportation, Dow credits "Daimler, Ford and Duryea" the most. Gottlieb Daimler is a well-known pioneer of motor Vehicle. Henry Ford ( Henry Ford) began production of the Model T in 1908, which remained very popular until 1913. Charles Duryea created one of the earliest commercially successful gasoline vehicles after 1896.

8. A pneumatic tire that was originally invented by Robert William Thomson, a railway engineer. “What the track did for the locomotive, the pneumatic tire did for vehicles not tied to railroad tracks.” However, the essay acknowledges John Dunlop and William C. Bartlett, each of whom made major contributions to the development of automobile and bicycle tires.

9. Wireless communication. Dow praised Marconi for making wireless communications "commercially feasible." The author of the essay also left a comment that can be attributed to the development of the World Wide Web, stating that wireless communications were “developed primarily to meet the needs of commerce, but along the way it contributed to social interaction.”

10. Typesetting machines. The giant rotary press could produce enormous volumes of printed material. The weak link in the production chain was the assembly of printing plates. Linotype and monotype helped get rid of this shortcoming.

All submitted essays were collected and analyzed to create a list of inventions that were perceived as the most significant. Wireless telegraphy was in almost every text. "Airplane" came in second, although it was considered important only because of the potential of the aircraft. Here are the rest of the results:

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

20th century inventions that changed the world

Aircraft

People made the first flights on lighter-than-air vehicles (aeronautics) 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 long-standing dream of mankind - to rise into the air and soar in it. However, due to the inability to control the direction of flight, dependence on weather and low speed balloon in many ways it did not suit humanity as a means of transport.

The first controlled flights on heavier-than-air vehicles 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 airliners, which over the decades connected countries and continents and allowed the world to become truly global, significantly speeding up 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 samples contaminated 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. This 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 also brought with it some negative consequences that also changed the world. The widespread and not always justified use of antibiotics leads to the fact that known bacteria mutate, taking on forms that are resistant to drugs. This phenomenon poses a danger to humanity because it complicates the treatment of bacteria infected with resistant forms and requires lengthy and expensive research to find new antibiotics.

Nuclear weapon

In August 1945, the most powerful explosions in the history of the planet were heard in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the United States of America tested the first nuclear weapon, opening a 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 a source of energy with colossal destructive power. In 1949, nuclear weapons were tested for the first time by the 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 during the Cold War marked the beginning 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 to live in.

However, despite all the potential danger of a new type of weapon, many researchers believe that its presence rather played a positive role in the history of the planet, since since its appearance, 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 argument in all conceivable international conflicts for many years to come.

Semiconductor electronics

Long time as one of the main components electronic devices were vacuum lamps, the use of which significantly limited the capabilities of the 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 needs for computers and radio stations were greater than ever, they were still manufactured primarily 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, was created in 1960. Both types of transistors were based on semiconductors, which opened up practically limitless possibilities to improve electronics and microprocessors. Today, almost any household appliance, even children's Railway battery-powered or mixer, have a microcircuit inside the body based on semiconductor elements. 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-based 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, approximately 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. 4 years later, Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut in human history, became a hero of the whole world. Human spaceflight and the visit to the moon (first accomplished 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 life ordinary people. Satellite Internet, INMARSAT communications, GPS navigation, Google Maps photographs, images of celestial objects from the Hubble telescope, weather forecasts - this is just an incomplete list of what we owe to one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century - the spacecraft launched by man.

Internet

The birthday of the Internet is considered to be October 29, 1969, when a communication session was held between 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). 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 people regularly using the Internet reaches 2.5 billion people. Another proof that thanks to her the world has changed beyond recognition 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 away no one heard back.

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