Inventions that changed the world

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

We've been inventing things since prehistory, via people who lived thousands of years ago. Many of these inventions helped shape the world we live in today. More recently in history, innovations like the printing press, the automobile, antibiotics, photography, and, of course, the Internet have furthered our progress and deepened our knowledge—inventions that truly changed our world.

So, what have we to be thankful for? Click through and discover the inventions and their inventors.

The steam engine

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The world's first commercially used steam-powered device, a steam pump, was invented by British engineer Thomas Savery (c. 1650–1715) in 1698. It was used for pumping flood water from mines.

The railroad

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

British mining engineer Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) is responsible for inventing the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive, which also became the first-ever locomotive to haul a train, an event that took place on a tramway in Wales on February 21, 1804. Pictured is Trevithick's original blueprint.

Fire

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The natural phenomenon that is fire changed the course of human evolution. The oldest unequivocal evidence of the earliest control of fire dates as far back as 400,000 years, to Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. But there is evidence to suggest controlled use of fire by our ancestors, Home erectus, began earlier, around one million years ago.

The wheel

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The oldest known wheel is from Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), created around 3500 BCE by the Sumerian people for use in shaping pottery. This was 300 years or so before somebody inserted rotating axles into solid discs of wood to invent the chariot.

The refrigerator

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

Scottish inventor James Harrison (1816–1893) is regarded as a pioneer in the field of mechanical refrigeration, though the first patent was issued to American inventor Albert T. Marshall, in 1899. The first widespread refrigerator was the General Electric "Monitor-Top" refrigerator of 1927. Pictured here is a model from 1934. The product offered the world new ways to preserve food, medicines, and other perishable substances.

The compass

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The Chinese are credited with inventing the first crude compass, sometime around 200 BCE. It was made of lodestone, a naturally magnetized stone of iron. It wasn't until the 11th century that they developed a magnetic compass that could be used for navigation.

The automobile

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725–1804) is credited with inventing the first working self-propelled mechanical land vehicle, the fardier à vapeur, in 1769. This was the world's first automobile.

Gasoline

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

Originating in the oil fields of Pennsylvania in 1859, gasoline, a fuel derivative of petroleum, was initially discarded as a byproduct after the distillation of oil to produce kerosene. It wasn't until 1887 when Carl Benz developed a gasoline-powered automobile that the byproduct was recognized as a valuable fuel.

The telegraph machine

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

Samuel Morse (1791–1872) led the way in developing the telegraph, a device that sent electric signals across wires. He also invented Morse code, an alphabet or code in which letters are represented by combinations of long and short light or sound signals. Pictured is the machine used to send the first telegraph messaged from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore on May 24, 1844.

The telephone

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

It was over this instrument (pictured) that on March 10, 1876 the first "Hello" sounded, or more specifically when Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) spoke the sentence, "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you." Bell was speaking to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, using his invention, a telephone transmitter. It was the first phone call made in history.

Pasteurization

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) pioneered the world's understanding of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization. His research in the 1860s demonstrated that thermal processing would deactivate unwanted and potentially harmful microorganisms, a procedure used widely today in the dairy industry and other food processing industries to achieve food preservation and food safety.

Antibiotics

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

A number of scientists can lay claim for advancing the use of antibiotics, including Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in the late 1800s. But it is the discovery by Scottish microbiologist Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) of penicillin in 1928— the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance—that remains one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of medicine.

The printing press

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The advent of the printing press helped information travel around the globe. It was invented in Germany, around 1440, by goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400– 1468).

The banknote

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The first known banknote was developed in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, starting in the 7th century. This also makes China the first country in the world to use paper money.

Hand tools

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The evolution of hand tools can be traced back to the Stone Age. During the Iron Age, iron replaced bronze, and tools became even stronger and more durable. The Romans refined theirs to shape what is similar to those being produced today. Pictured is a prehistoric flint sickle used in harvesting grain.

The computer

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

British mathematician and mechanical engineer Charles Babbage (1791–1871) can lay claim for inventing the first mechanical computer in the 1820s. But equal kudos goes to Alan Turing, who designed and built the code-busting Colossus, the world's first electronic programmable computer, at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire in 1943.

The ATM

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

Various names are associated with the invention of the ATM (Automatic Teller Machine). But it is Armenian-American entrepreneur Luther George Simjian (1905–1997) that most people credit with making cash deposits and withdrawals through a hole in the wall a seamless transaction.

Email

The steam engine, The railroad, The wheel, The refrigerator, The compass, The automobile, Gasoline, The telegraph machine, The telephone, Pasteurization, Antibiotics, The printing press, The banknote, Hand tools, The computer

The advent of the Internet made possible the development of email. The first was sent in 1971. Incidentally, a computer programmer named Ray Tomlinson (1941–2016) is credited with choosing to use the @ symbol to separate the user name from the name of their machine, a scheme which has been used in email addresses ever since.

Post Related