Business ideas that changed the world
There are a huge number of ideas for creating your own business – as they say, for every taste and color. So many things have already been invented that it is very difficult to create something radically new. Basically, everyone uses ideas that have already been invented by someone. Let’s dig a little into history and remember the greatest inventions of talented people. Now it’s hard to imagine what our life would be like if we hadn’t invented:
Physics teacher Robert Godard was an avid fan of Wells’ War of the Worlds. Being engaged in science, he devoted most of his time to the study of combustible rocket fuel. He believed that someday real space flights, described in his favorite work, will become available to mankind. Robert Godard launched his first rocket in 1926, and it was powered by a liquid propellant rocket engine. Then the rocket was able to rise up only six meters, however, this marked the beginning of the global exploration of space by mankind.
Television (1927)
Philo Taylor Farnsworth began his journey to creating television when he was only fifteen years old. At this age, he presented his first project on the electronic transmission of images over a distance. A few years later, the idea of a cathode-ray device was born in his head – a tube that converts optical information into an electrical signal and vice versa. Finally, at 22, Farnsworth was able to create a fully electronic image for the first time. This marked the beginning of the television that we have today. Farnsworth had other inventions, for example, in the field of nuclear fusion, but he will forever remain in history as the man who created television.
Penicillin (1928)
The most powerful antibiotic was discovered by the physician Alexander Flemming. All his life he dreamed of inventing a drug that could save people from terrible infections. And then one day he drew attention to an unwashed cup in which the mold destroyed all the bacteria. So he “gave birth” to penicillin – a substance obtained from mold fungi. Alexander Flemming received the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
Pocketbook (1935)
British publisher Allen Lane once faced such a problem – when the train is delayed, there is absolutely nothing to do at the station. In the shops nearby you can buy something to read, but usually these are either huge heavy books or magazines with a lot of unnecessary pictures. The former are very inconvenient to use on the road, and viewing the latter is unlikely to take much time. And then Lane had an idea—in train stations, at bus stops, at airports, and so on. small, handy books should be sold that could be easily taken with you on the road. In other words, these books should fit in your pocket. Allen Lane embodied his idea with the help of Penguin Books, which he opened precisely in order to popularize this format of books and teach people that pocket-sized literature can also be of high quality and interesting.
LPs (1948)
Peter Goldmark was an ordinary engineer who liked to listen to music in his spare time. The only thing that annoyed him was the short recordings on the records. So an ordinary engineer turned into an inventor: he created his own records at a speed of 33 revolutions per minute. He also began to use another material for making records – polymer vinyl. So the records have become better and longer-playing. This invention greatly influenced the music industry, because it was on such records that a lot of musical product was produced.
Pacemaker (1958)
The thing that saved millions of lives was invented by pure chance. Engineer Wilson Greatbatch was developing a transistor that could record heart sounds. At some point, he accidentally inserted a resistor into the equipment incorrectly and noticed that the device began to create a rhythm that completely matched the rhythm of the heart. Wilson realized that this device could control the work of the human heart. After conducting many experiments, pacemakers went “to the masses” and began to save lives.
Modem (1979)
If the modem had not been invented, the Internet would not have appeared. It is impossible to imagine modern life without the Internet. The first modem was released by Hayes Microcomputer Products for the Apple II computer. The modem was running at 300 bits per second. For comparison, the speed of modern modems is millions of bits per second.
World Wide Web (1990)
The first web browser was created by programmer Tim Berners-Lee. The program was extremely simple, had a text display and only a couple of primitive images. Since 1993, this software has been in the public domain, meaning there are no patent rights to it.