30 Inventions That Put Their Mark on the World

MODERN AIR CONDITIONING – USA, 1902

The first workable electric air con unit was invented by American engineer Willis Carrier in 1902. Artificial cooling enables people to live comfortably in hot places, and cities such as Phoenix and Dubai would be virtually uninhabitable in summer without this technology.

 

PENICILLIN – ENGLAND, 1928

In September 1928, Scottish physician Alexander Fleming first isolated penicillin in his basement lab at St Mary’s Hospital in London. Quite possibly the single most important medical advance of the 20th century, antibiotic penicillin has transformed medicine and significantly increased human longevity.

 

THE TRANSISTOR – USA, 1947

Believe it or not, many experts regard the transistor as one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. An essential component of most modern electronics, the first working transistor was created at AT&T’s Bell Labs in 1947 by engineers John Bardeen and Walter Brattain.

 

THE CONTRACEPTIVE PILL – USA, 1950S

Co-developed by American biologist Gregory Goodwin Pincus in the early 50s, the combined oral contraceptive pill helped initiate the women’s liberation and sexual revolution movements of the 60s and 70s, and has revolutionized women’s lives and society in general.

 

THE CELL PHONE – USA, 1973

Most people these days would be lost without their mobile device. The first handheld mobile cell phone, a bona fide brick of a device, was invented by a team of Motorola engineers led by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper and unveiled in 1973.

 

THE WORLD WIDE WEB – SWITZERLAND, 1989

While the internet was developed in the US during the late 60s, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the first system for distributing information on the global network in 1989 at CERN in Switzerland, and named his creation the World Wide Web. The rest is, of course, history.