The Greatest Mechanical invention

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The tractor is just a devolopment of the traction engine which is just a portable steam engine which is just development (in power) of the water wheel which is just an alternative to the windmill which was probably first. However these items being largely associated with producing a food surplus and hence overpopulating the planet leading to its destruction are anytrhing but of vaue to the human race.

The wheel is of little importanvce to civilisation as many never used it eg Incas, and on early trade routes pack animals only were used.

I vote for the umberella which has inspired more good songs than tractors.

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by Graham Meek on 10/10/2012 14:51:54:

Hello All,

……………………….

I would have thought the Plough would have featured somewhere in the suggestions, and the simple screw thread, without the latter there is not going to be a tractor, or how do you keep the chuck on the lathe and how do you get the jaws to shut? I did think Jim was onto this when he mentioned Whitworth……………

Gray,

 

Hi Gray,

Did you not see my suggestion above (on page 1 of the thread)?

Best regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 10/10/2012 15:17:04

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Before the screw thread, we used tapered pins and wedges etc to hold things together.

A rudimentory lathe can made with a couple of sharp pieces of wood or bone for the centres, metal or stone for the cutting tool, and powered by a man, that would be plenty good enough to start all kinds of balls rolling for the improvement of life.

Martin.

[speelwerkParticipant @speelwerk]

I would go for windmill, much older than the steam engine and when we have

consumed all the fossil fuel with our other "great inventions" we can still use it.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Toss up between inclined plane or lever

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by blowlamp on 10/10/2012 15:21:32:

Before the screw thread, we used tapered pins and wedges etc to hold things together.

A rudimentory lathe can made with a couple of sharp pieces of wood or bone for the centres, metal or stone for the cutting tool, and powered by a man, that would be plenty good enough to start all kinds of balls rolling for the improvement of life.

Martin.

Hi Martin,

Of course we did, but the screw thread allowed a much wider range of equipment to be built including precision and delicate instruments – I haven't yet seen a micrometer based on wedges and although there have been primitive lathes since ancient times it took the screw thread to make it so versatile and accurate.

I wouldn't trust a vehicle on the motorway held together with wedges, but seriously the production of a positive, quick change interchangable fixing device allowed the industrial revolution to really take off.

But…..If we are to go back that far, as I said it would be the first hammer leading eventually to early civilisation more tools, settled lives, substantial buildings and surplus food allowing specialisation of labour …………. and the first lathes.

Best regards

Terry

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by jason udall on 10/10/2012 16:57:39:

Toss up between inclined plane or lever

Hi jason,

the screw thread is just an inclined plane around a cylinder to make a helix.  No such thing as a spiral staircase,  A spiral is flat like a clockwork spring, The staircase is helical.

Regards

T

Edited By Terryd on 10/10/2012 17:27:54

[mickParticipant @mick65121]

The kettle, without it Watt wouldn't have invented the steam engine, or given engineers the means to make hot tea to help ponder the next big mechanical engineering problem.

[AndyfParticipant @andyf]

Windmills and waterwheels might have a place on the list, harnessing natural energy to do useful work, and coming well before the first practical steam engine, being that of Newcomen in 1712.

Andy

[magpieParticipant @magpie]

I vote for the 18V cordless hammer.( See hazard frought tools on Model engine maker website. )

Cheers Dek.

P.S. I do'nt know how to do links.!!!

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Pizza gets my vote as the top invention. Oh, the wheel is very handy I grant you, lathes are based on the wheel, etc. but pizza goes a lot better with beer than the wheel.

JD

(PS can't take any credit for the above, read it somewhere else recently and had a larf, thought I'd try and give someone else one.)

[Ian AbbottParticipant @ianabbott31222]

It has to be the lever. And by extension, any reduction gear.

And Mick, Watt didn't invent the steam engine, he just improved Newcomen's engine.

As a runner up, the still, as in 12 year old scotch.

Ian

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I'll second the grain mill – wind or water. The need to grind corn drove the development of machinery to harness wind and water power to give a rotary motion. The whole of the industrial revolution was built upon this expertise. Mind you, pizza is pretty important as well – though it must have anchovies and capers.

Rod

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Gentlemen,

I would say that hand tools come first for me because without them nothing would have got to the lathe, steam engine and tractor etc

Martin P

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi I reckon it's the geometry set, so all the clever clogs could draw out the plans for all the inventions that all the other clever clogs could make and give jobs to the tractor drivers, turners, millwrightes, kettle and pizza makers, ect. ect. which then made all the bankers rich so we could have something to moan about.

But a bycycle was better than a first class walk to work. I think my mum (God rest her soul) would have said that the washing machine and sewing machine would have been top of the list. Oh and the vacuum cleaner.

Regards Nick.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

It is the Anvil, that the first Blacksmiths used to shape and mould wrought iron and steel.

Clive

[magpieParticipant @magpie]

I bet they use 18V cordless hammers these days Clive.

Dek

[SteamshyParticipant @steamshy]

I Think it has to be the wheel, used much for transport, grinding corn in the early years, train wheels, Lathe gearwheels, airoplane wheels, wheelbarrow wheels ,In fact anything used for transportation. But having said that about transportation, We havnt made any real advances in the 50 or so years, Still seems to take forever to get to town.

Andy

[mickParticipant @mick65121]

Hi. Ian

Probably explains why I failed my GCSE history

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi,

If we are talking about the modern world the flush toilet and sewerage system (think of it as a huge complex machine) must be up there with the best. Cleaned up the cities got rid of common killer diseases such as cholera from the general population, saved countless lives worlwide, and made the place smell a lot better. Although the pumping stations used the steam engine they could just as easily have used water or wind powered pumps.

Regards

Terry

PS. I forgot to say it also provides a quiet and peaceful reading room where one is unlikely to be disturbed, 

T

Edited By Terryd on 11/10/2012 09:42:04

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Posted by Terryd on 11/10/2012 09:39:58:

Regards

Terry

PS. I forgot to say it also provides a quiet and peaceful reading room where one is unlikely to be disturbed,

T

Edited By Terryd on 11/10/2012 09:42:04

Yup, and if you're Wi-Fi enabled you can post from there as well

Martin.

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Posted by Graham Meek on 11/10/2012 10:13:29:

Hello All,

I see the thread returned briefly in the form of Pizza's to the food element I mentioned earlier.

Whilst many have commented on the wheel, what about the Gear Tooth, with all it's derivatives, it appears the Greek's were making a gear driven computer 2000 years ago.

Gray

Yes, the Antikythera Mechanism – a fantastic documentory from the BBC that's well worth looking for, if it's still available on iPlayer or Youtube.

Martin.

[DurhambuilderParticipant @durhambuilder]

Nobody has mentioned the dynamo / generator yet, think of the world without electricity……

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

There are so many diverse directions that inventions and processes have gone its hard to see and choose any particular mechanical invention.

As one process is started it goes into the next, for example iron ore smelting/bronze/tin etc and then the refining of iron metals into steel and all its variations without which non of this 'Future' would have happened so fast.

The wheel is only part of it and its progression into the pneumatic tyre so beloved of us all now. To drive that tyre you need steel and gears, then an automotive drive, carbon fuel or electric.

this brings us to the petro chemical industry where oil and fuel are found but also coal is a fuel so we are back to the blast furnace.

I see it as a giant, 'Thread' picture with threads leading all over and interjoining into every process.

One aspect is the making of glass and the first windows, 'Bulls eye' glass where a glass balloon was blown and then pierced and spun into a sheet of glass with a dimple in the middle. But that was a progression of something else, not an invention but a process.

So what was the first invention ? the cleaved Flint to cut with or the pierced fish bone as a needle.

The band is so broad I doubt if any one thing is first ! As a simple native, all he needs is a spear and a bow and some arrows and something to cut with, modern man cannot survive without constant music and fags and alchohol and TV. The rest follows as a progression.

Clive

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

Has to be the wheel. No wheel, no transport of anything heavy from A to B, or gears or engines or clocks or machine tools or flour mills or just about any machine that does useful work advancing our technology or watermills draining and reclaiming land or printing presses or….

[Author]

Posts