What do you think was the most important invention from the 1800's

[greenbriar]

who was the inventor?

What was the invention?

Why did it change the world?

[Aristus]

1. First thing that popped into my head was the hot-air balloon invented by the Montgolfier Brothers

It reinforced Leonardo Da Vinci's belief that logic, design, and proper scientific application would get human beings off the ground and able study the world from up above.

[hobbit709]

22. That was 1783.

[Aristus]

26. Yeah. I realized after I posted that the time period mentioned was the 1800s, not the 18th Century.

Oh well... :dunce:

[many a good man]

2. Dunno, but I can tell you the best invention of the 1900s

My grandmother, who died last month at the age of 103, said the best invention of her lifetime was the washing machine. She had little use or care for any of the other inventions.

[greenbriar]

4. I thank GOD I never had to use one of those!

can you imagine the time that think would have consumed

[many a good man]

10. Grandma would have said to you

think about the time it took to wash the family clothes without one!

[sarge43]

19. Yup.

We can start with just prepping enough hot water: hand pump inside if you were lucky, outside for most, wood stove, keeping those monsters working is a special skill set in itself, five gallon pots of hot water to drag around (water weighs eight pounds a gallon). Weather permitting could be done outside in hugh iron kettles over an open fire. Minimum the whole day had to be put aside to do the wash.

The good old days weren't.

[hippywife]

18. It was an incredible convenience

in its day. You can't truly view the impact of an invention by looking at it from the future, but from the past that spawned it.

[madamesilverspurs]

39. Our wringer machine had a hand crank

to operate the wringer. I can remember my mother feeding the edge of the garment between the rollers, then I'd jump up and grab the handle, my weight bringing the handle down and 'helping' to squeeze the water out. Mom would raise the handle up, and we'd go around again. Then we'd take all the wrung-out clothes and hang them on clothesline in the yard; the process created some incredible wrinkles, so of course I got to learn to help with the ironing when I got old enough. To this day, if ain't permanent press I don't buy it!

[many a good man]

43. My Grandma still had one when I was a kid

I heard horror stories of other little children who lost their fingers in those terrifying rollers!

[tXr]

3. the bicycle.

I don't know who invented it, but IMHO it is the best invention of all time.

The invention of the modern 'safety' bicycle contributed in turn to the introduction of paved roads and greater societal freedom for women, among other things.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. I'd say the first practical steam locomotive.

There were people playing around with steam engines before the 19th century but something that would really be reasonably practical engines were built by George Stephenson in the 1820s.

Why is it important? It was really the first fast method to get around long distances on land. It revolutionized the transport of goods and thus revolutionized agriculture and industry. And it really changed how people moved. Look at the American migration west. Or the Czarist ambitions to build the Transiberian and all the political and social changes of both. It changed warfare- see the railroad as applied to the U.S. civil war for great examples. Steam engine design inspired and changed maritime transport as well. You had other great inventions in the 19th century as well, but the railroad spanned nearly the entire century and constantly grew and evolved. It continued to grow and evolve half-way into the 20th century as well. There's really remarkable history between Stephenson's little 0-2-2 rocket and those big beautiful 4-8-8-4 "Big Boys" of the thirties and forties.

[guitar man]

15. I agree

Steam locomotives were a revolutionary step forward in so many ways. And they were art in motion too, they had a magic that diesel- electrics will never come close to matching. I'm really partial to the 4-6-2 Pacifics myself, there is a lot of grace and balance in the design.

[david13]

6. I would have to say steam engines and bicycles and trains. Which were more

developed, rather than invented. They had all been conceived and made in various forms, I think prior to 1800. The internal combustion engine was also invented in the 1800's, to be technical, but not really developed until into the 1900's.
But why? These things did not really change the world. They have just grown. And consumed.
dc

[zonkers]

7. Joseph Nicephore Niepce. 1826/7 First photograph taken with camera obscura. Changed it all.

.

[greenbriar]

8. No Tesla fans?

?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. You mean a fan of his inventions, or Tesla himself?

Cause Tesla himself was a total dick.

[greenbriar]

13. the inventions

I hadn't heard about Tesla being a jerk

[kentauros]

23. That may be a reference to this aspect to his character:

Nevertheless, Tesla displayed the occasional cruel streak; he openly expressed his disgust for overweight people, once firing a secretary because of her weight. He was quick to criticize others' clothing as well, on several occasions demanding a subordinate to go home and change her dress.

While ignoring this aspect:

Tesla was prone to alienating himself and was generally soft-spoken. However, when he did engage in a social life, many people spoke very positively and admiringly of him. Robert Underwood Johnson described him as attaining a "distinguished sweetness, sincerity, modesty, refinement, generosity, and force." His loyal secretary, Dorothy Skerrit, wrote: "his genial smile and nobility of bearing always denoted the gentlemanly characteristics that were so ingrained in his soul." Tesla's friend Hawthorne wrote that "seldom did one meet a scientist or engineer who was also a poet, a philosopher, an appreciator of fine music, a linguist, and a connoisseur of food and drink."

Doesn't seem like that much of a jerk to me :D

[billyclem]

20. Not really a dick,

just very fond of multiples of 3 and pigeons. Very, very fond of pigeons, especially the one he called his wife. At least he wasn't very fond of money.

[kentauros]

11. Yeah, I'm a fan of Tesla

and his inventions :D

But I don't remember when he invented a/c power. I didn't think that happened until the early 1900s...

[greenbriar]

14. some info

A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891.<1> It is used to produce high voltage, relatively high current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations and they consist of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits. Tesla used these coils to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, x-ray generation, high frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the transmission of electrical energy without wires for point-to-point telecommunications, broadcasting, and the transmission of electrical power.

[kentauros]

24. He was also the inventor of radio.

Marconi was wrongfully given the patent by a reversal decision in the Patent Office, and the Supreme Court later reversed that decision, though not soon enough to benefit Tesla.

[flvegan]

12. I have to say the automobile.

Karl Benz, technically the first person to put an internal combustion engine together with wheels and steering to create the car. It would be many years before Cadillac defined the modern setup (3 pedals, steering, a gear lever and a key to start it).

[old mark]

37. I agree.

Do we get free Mercedes's for advertising them?

mark

[flvegan]

38. It's only fair, don't you think?

[old mark]

42. I want a blue one. nt

[Grey]

16. Indoor plumbing....

If you have ever had to use the outhouse when it's -40 you know what I mean.
Helping people stay cleaner and healthier, it's a good thing.

[sarge43]

21. And the cheap mass produced soap to go with it. n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

28. Yeah. I'm a fan of that.

[sarge43]

17. Telegraph

Officially, Samuel Morse, 1837, but many people came up with variations before him.

First time in history instant communication over long distances. This machine I'm using is its great-great grandchild. We're living through the revolution that began when it came on line. And, I think, the first practical use of electricity as a power source.

[Ikonoklast]

25. The McCormick Reaper.

Cyrus McCormick revolutionized harvesting, until then a backbreaking, time-consuming job, and helped feed the world by increasing crop yields through more efficient harvesting of grain, eliminating or diminishing loss.

International Harvester is a going concern to this very day.

[phasma ex machina]

30. My extended family includes farmers.

The cab of combine in action feels like a big old lawnmower. A finely tuned, very expensive, piece of machinery good for about two years of heavy use from cutters who follow the harvest from Texas to Canada.

[Ikonoklast]

35. Those pro cutting crews certainly keep that equipment busy.

The friend whose operating authority I run under farms soybeans and has a rotary White and a bigger IH.

He uses the smaller White with an 15' head on the hill ground he leases, and the 715 IH with a 20' head on the flat river bottoms.

I'll help him out, along with his brother who takes two or three weeks vacation from his job with harvesting every fall.

We have both combines cutting, and the other guy runs the tractor trailer with the end dump up to storage at the grain leg.

That White combine is thirty years old, and still runs and cuts like a top. They were way ahead of their time in design, very rugged and reliable.

But, only cutting 504 acres every year keeps the total operating hours pretty low.

[Brother Buzz]

27. Henry Bessemer's process of making steel

It was a process for making steel fast and cheap by blasting air into the molten iron to oxidize the impurities. Andrew Carnegie learned of the process in England and brought it to the US. He made a ton of money making RR rails, and lots of other things. He sold the company to a group of investors headed by JP Morgan for 500 million dollars. Carnegie personally pocketed 250 million.

Carnegie set up a trust fund "for the improvement of mankind." This included the building of 3,000 public libraries, the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Carnegie Institution of Washington for research into the natural and physical sciences. Carnegie also established the Endowment for International Peace in an effort to prevent future wars.

Henry Bessemer's process of making steel made the public libraries accessible to the general public in the early 1900's. Many are still in use today; I use one.

[phasma ex machina]

29. Electrical generators, vacuum tubes, and telephones were the precursors of the Inet.

Bank on a plethora of inventors taking credit for each.

[baldguy]

31. The Dewey Decimal System. Melvil Dewey 1876

Allowing easy organization & retrieval of massive amounts of information.

[gmoney]

32. Mass production assembly line

made products affordable for the masses... of course, it was also the beginning of the end in some ways.

or was that 1700s?

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

This week is our fourth quarter 2009 fund drive. Democratic Underground is
a completely independent website. We depend on donations from our members
to cover our costs. Please take a moment to donate! Thank you!

[AwakeAtLast]

36. You don't look like you were invented in the 1800's, Grovelbot

Nice try!

[Odin2005]

34. Telegraph.

[kixat2550]

40. the bike

[XRubicon]

41. That's easy- antiseptics

The whole sanitation thing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adK-S7v12IY&feature=related