Where would we be without inventions? They surround us in every facet of our lives, from the time we wake in the morning to lights out at night.
Our world would still be sticks and stones without inventions. But somewhere along the line, Thorg decided to take a vine and fasten a stick to a rock. And the world forever changed.
I am not an inventor. I can wiggle my way through most situations, figuring out a way to complete a task. But to devise a “never before” method is mostly beyond my brain’s parameters.
That’s not to say I’m not fascinated with inventions and those who invent. I recently read an article entitled “Twenty Inventions That Change the World.”
Some of the usual suspects appeared on the list. Lightbulbs. Toilets. Seatbelts. X-Rays. Blood Banks. The Pill. Barcodes.
Then, they listed some inventions which surprised me slightly. But technically, don’t all new contraptions change the world? Some of those listed: Air Conditioning. Suspension Bridges. Space Telescopes. Pizza Boxes. Wildlife Cams. Microwave Ovens. Can Openers. Velcro. Duct Tape. Walkmans.
However, the one on the list that may have had the most societal impact, in my opinion, is the radio. The story is interesting, and many of you may already know it. This invention was all about a race against time between two scientists. Mostly, their quest for the patent.
The first was Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor. And the second, Nikola Tesla, in America.
Marconi sent and received his first radio signals in 1894 and patented his invention in England in 1896. Three years later, Marconi sent wireless signals across the English Channel. Clearly, he showed success.
At the same time, Nikola Tesla worked away in America on the exact same thing. Tesla invented the Tesla coil. His device sent and received radio waves, and its successes came in the early 1890s.
Tesla set up a long-distance experiment in 1895, but a fire broke out in his lab and halted the demonstration. Nonetheless, two years later, Tesla applied for his radio patent in the United States, 1897.
Basically, the two men teed off in 1900. That’s when Marconi came to the U.S. and applied for a patent here. He was denied because Tesla’s application was approved earlier that year.
But you know how men ca n be when they get into a pissing contest. Marconi continued to apply. Then, in 1904, the U.S. declared him to be the creator of the radio. This sent Tesla through the roof. And also the fact that Marconi had won a Nobel Prize for technology.
They peed on the wall some more. In 1915, Tesla sued Marconi for patent infringement but lacked the financial resources to pursue the case.
All during their fighting, the radio began transforming the world.
On August 31, 1920, the first radio news program was broadcast by a station in Detroit. Advertisers were slow on the uptake. It took two years for the first ad to get on the radio in 1922. The snowball rolled.
But, the radio did many other things along the way. It gave us everything from protests to famous speeches. Political unrest to wars. And of course, music and entertainment. Perhaps this was our first brush with social media, albeit a one-way stream. The radio began to connect the world, probably in a way Marconi and Tesla probably never imagined.
Back to the radio patent war. When the dust settled, Tesla finally got his victory in 1943. The Supreme Court ruled that his patent was the real deal. Truthfully, it didn’t matter much to Tesla. He died earlier that year.
And finally, the last item on the list was The Super Soaker, saying it surpassed the measly and weak squirt gun. I’m fairly certain a man wrote the list, as everyone knows the squirt gun is superior. It requires cunning and finesse. And the Super Soaker is just another version of a pissing contest.
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“The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
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“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”
― Albert Einstein
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“The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.”
― George Carlin
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The inventions that changed the world. Well. Maybe.
