# The Greatest Inventions in History **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2002, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190 "2002-04-17T18:36:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/1 "2002-04-17T18:36:58Z")
List your picks, and why. These are the inventions and developments that made our civilization possible. I’ll start out with three. 1. Fire. Enables humans to survive in freezing climates, cook, and work metal. 2. The wheel. You can have a civilization without it, but only at a primitive level. Makes transportation of people and goods possible. 3. Written language. History itself could not begin until the dead could communicate with the living and pass along all they have learned. There are many others to list, but why should I have all the fun? ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/2 "2002-04-17T18:43:31Z")
Beer. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/3 "2002-04-17T19:11:00Z")
Printing press ---
**Author:** ![EVO95](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@EVO95](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EVO95)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/4 "2002-04-17T19:12:09Z")
Beer again. ---
**Author:** ![abel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@abel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/5 "2002-04-17T19:20:56Z")
1. Clothes 2. Manmade shelter (houses, tents, etc.) 3. Sliced Bread ---
**Author:** ![abel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@abel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/6 "2002-04-17T19:29:55Z")
Oh, and the Internet, cause we all know it’ll get mentioned sooner or later. Might as well be sooner. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/7 "2002-04-17T20:30:01Z")
[nitpick] Fire wasn’t an invention, it was a discovery. [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Clever\_Hans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Clever\_Hans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clever_Hans)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/8 "2002-04-17T20:51:24Z")
Written language, may be the most important but lets face it due to this little discovery we also have to deal with things like Paul Ruebens Auto-biography. Iron, steam engines, shake and bake. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/9 "2002-04-17T21:53:41Z")
Many Washingtonians will agree with me on this particular day that refrigeration and air conditioning are fine inventions indeed. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/10 "2002-04-17T22:24:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bernse \* > \*\*[nitpick] > > Fire wasn’t an invention, it was a discovery. > > [/nitpick] \*\* I knew someone would mention this. True, fire as a natural phenomenom was a discovery. However, the ability to create fire AT WILL and use it as a tool is, in my opinion, an invention. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/11 "2002-04-17T22:33:27Z")
Cheese. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/12 "2002-04-17T22:38:49Z")
I would tend to agree with you. However, _The ability to create fire at will_ was not in the OP. If it was, the nitpick would not have been mentioned. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/13 "2002-04-17T22:50:08Z")
I liked Mel Brooks’ _2000 Year Old Man_ one-word answer, \*\* “Onan.” \*\* You can figure out for yourselves what the invention was. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/14 "2002-04-17T22:54:45Z")
The chimney. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/15 "2002-04-17T23:25:02Z")
According to _Donnie Darko_, antibiotics. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/16 "2002-04-18T00:06:41Z")
Birth control. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/17 "2002-04-18T00:10:16Z")
bunt cake. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/18 "2002-04-18T00:34:16Z")
Harnessing electricity. Splitting the atom. You know, if you leave that stuff alone for long enough, it’s kind of fun to drink it. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/19 "2002-04-18T00:50:23Z")
As much as I love technology, I think social inventions have been the most important. Laws, property rights, democracy. These are harder to pin down to one individual or time. ---
**Author:** ![funkynige](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@funkynige](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funkynige)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190/20 "2002-04-18T01:09:36Z")
Mathematics - without it there’d be no computers, CDs, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-inventions-in-history/104190.md?page=2)