Greatest invention
Twenty-five inventions that changed the world, from the wheel to the smartphone. Which mattered most?
Tier list by PairTier · 25 items
- Wheel — Wheeled vehicles appear in Mesopotamia and Europe around 3500 BC.
- Writing — Developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt around 3200 BC, letting knowledge outlive memory.
- Paper — Invented in China; papermaking is traditionally credited to Cai Lun around AD 105.
- Printing press — Johannes Gutenberg's movable-type press of around 1440 made books cheap and plentiful.
- Compass — The magnetic compass, developed in China, transformed sea navigation from around the 11th century.
- Gunpowder — Discovered in China around the 9th century and later reshaped warfare worldwide.
- Eyeglasses — Invented in Italy in the late 13th century, extending working life for millions.
- Mechanical clock — Weight-driven clocks appeared in Europe in the late 13th century and changed how people kept time.
- Telescope — Appeared in the Netherlands in 1608 and was soon turned to the heavens by Galileo.
- Microscope — Developed in the late 16th century; Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used it to discover microorganisms.
- Steam engine — Thomas Newcomen's engine of 1712 and James Watt's improvements powered the Industrial Revolution.
- Vaccination — Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine of 1796 began the fight that eradicated the disease.
- Electric battery — Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile of 1800 was the first source of continuous electric current.
- Photography — Pioneered by Niépce in the 1820s and made practical by Daguerre in 1839.
- Telephone — Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876.
- Light bulb — Practical incandescent lamps by Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan around 1879–80 lit up homes and cities.
- Automobile — Karl Benz's Patent-Motorwagen of 1886 is regarded as the first practical car.
- Airplane — The Wright brothers made the first powered, controlled flight in 1903.
- Radio — Guglielmo Marconi pioneered wireless telegraphy in the 1890s, leading to broadcast radio.
- Antibiotics — Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, and antibiotics went on to save millions of lives.
- Television — Developed in the 1920s by pioneers such as John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth.
- Transistor — Invented at Bell Labs in 1947; the building block of all modern electronics.
- Computer — Electronic digital computers emerged in the 1940s and now run almost everything.
- Internet — Grew out of ARPANET (1969) and the TCP/IP protocols to connect billions of people.
- Smartphone — Pocket computers with touchscreens, popularised by the iPhone in 2007.