In praise of simple, maybe elegant inventions.

[Ptah]

I show you the watering can handle.

Works at any angle.










What human creation fascinates you?

[ThomCat]

1. Bread.

Bread totally fascinates me. There are so many different types, and variations on themes, and it's totally amazing that we ever learned how to leaven and bake this stuff.
:9

[Ptah]

3. That's what I'm talking about.

How was that discovered?

I love bread and baking.

:hi:

[unpossibles]

73. I've heard that leavening - much like alcohol - was discovered by mistake

wild yeast in the air got in people's dough and made it rise. Crazy, huh?

[asthmaticeog]

77. Leavening and alcohol come from the same place.

I've got a preferment going right now for this weekend's baguettes and it smells like pungent, stale beer. Bread starter, like beer, is just water, grain and yeast. Yeast consumes any fermentable sugars present and expels CO2 (which either rises the dough or carbonates the beer) and ethanol (which either bakes out of your bread or gives you a nice warm glow when you sip your beer). Same basic process, the difference between simple beer and simple bread is all in the proportions of the ingredients and how you handle them.

[unpossibles]

82. actually, I know

I was an artisan baker for over 8 years, and am quite familiar with the pet which is starter.

:)

[asthmaticeog]

84. I might be needing to ask you for some pointers!

I like a hard crust, but I think mine's a bit much. If you *can* answer off the top of your head without observing what I'm doing, how can I back off the crustiness a bit?

[redqueen]

85. Isn't it amazing?

Each rising loaf is alive...

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. The rabbit-ear corkscrew, the sun-dial, and the button and button-hole

[Ptah]

6. I think the first sundial was a tree.

Corkscrew from barnyard observation.

[Rabrrrrrr]

34. So? They're still elegant inventions.

[Ptah]

36. Yes, I'm sad that you thought that I was trying to diminish your contribution.

Is it true that clockwise is derived from the flow of a northern hemisphere shadow?

[Rabrrrrrr]

45. It sounded like you were diminishing them for being "observed" inventions.

I'm glad you do not feel that way!

As to your question, I have no idea as to the answer, but it would certainly make sense.

[Ptah]

98. Dept of Redundancy Dept:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. here are a couple:

safety pin:


paper clip:

[Ptah]

8. Excellent!

extra points for metal content.

:hug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

16. really simple --

:hug: :hi:straight pins:

[Ptah]

18. Steam engines

[Tuesday Afternoon]

20. How is it

that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
and on that note, I present the wheel...

[Ptah]

23. Wheels on a truck

[Tuesday Afternoon]

25. damn...look at all the snow !!

a couple of more...
a hammer:


and a nail:

[blueraven95]

76. I read, years ago, somewhere that the inventor of the safety pin

came up with it in a dream, IIRC. I aways thought that was cool.

[ashling]

91. DO NOT OPEN SAFETY PINS WHILE ASLEEP

Do not try this at home.
The Inventor of the Safety Pin was a trained professional.

In light of your post, I thought a safety warning was in order
:rofl:

[hvn_nbr_2]

94. Lots of inventions and discoveries come from dreams

Singer got the aspect that he was consciously missing to make a sewing machine work.

Whoever discovered the benzene ring in chemistry got his main clue from a dream.

I used to know some others but don't remember them.

[darkstar]

5. On a similar theme

And why they persisted so long in the face of this simple idea:

[Ptah]

9. Ah yes, the screw thread adapted to hydraulics.

:thumbsup:

[krispos42]

102. Two spigots instead of one?

Yeah, that always annoyed the hell out of me!

[Ptah]

105. ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=7591453

[grannylib]

7. Just about any kind of machinery - it amazes me that people can

think up the machines themselves, and build machines to make the parts to build the machines...I work in manufacturing and I'm constantly blown away by mechanical innovation.

[Ptah]

12. I feel very lucky to be paid to make things from metal.

[grannylib]

90. I love watching OC Choppers; I just really love watching the

process of fabrication. It's funny how similar in some weird ways metal fabrication is to sewing - pattern making, making pieces fit or fasten together - the material and the methods may be different, but I have always seen similarities.
I think it'd be just killer to spend a day in the shop with those guys - fuck the paintball and the skeet shooting; just teach me how to use the tools!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

113. How cool! I want to learn how to do artistic welding. n/t

[Stuart G]

10. Something many people use every day..

..a ballpoint pen....

[Ptah]

13. I have trouble imagining how those are made.

:shrug:

[lost-in-nj]

11. Hi Ptah!!!

well

I want to know who was the first person to say

lets eat....

lobster
clams
oysters
cow (beef)
lamb
mushrooms
basil (et all seasonings)

and what in HELL were they thinking???

who made pasta??
rice??
CHOCOLATE?!?!!??

things like that

[Ptah]

14. That's what I'm thinking about tonight.

We do stand on the shoulders of previous humans.

I like many of the things we have conceived.

[redqueen]

87. Dammit... I thought I'd be the first to post it.

Still, that's only a variation on it... so... :P

[NanceGreggs]

52. When I was married to my first husband ...

... we got into a family discussion after Christmas dinner about men who had shown incredible courage. The usual feats were mentioned: Columbus setting out to find the New World that he couldn't even be sure existed, the first astronauts, etc.

My father-in-law got the last word when he said, "The bravest man who ever lived was the first one who looked at a lobster and said, 'I/m gonna eat that.'"

No one could top it.

[unpossibles]

74. I wonder these things a lot too, especially with sharp, pointy food

who looked at an artichoke or pineapple and thought, "that looks good!" Whoever it was, I'm glad they did.

[Stuart G]

15. So many things we just take for granted....

How about indoor plumbing? (a nice way to talk about it)

[Ptah]

17. Flush toilets.

Add water, waste is gone.

:thumbsup:

[Jade Fox]

83. Invented by the peaceful, creative, egalitarian Minoans......

Minoans of Crete, some 4000-5000 years ago.

http://www.gadling.com/2007/09/13/greetings-from-crete-4000-year-old-flush-toilet-no-longer-flush/

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. May I introduce you to the P38

The soldier's best friend. (Or at least it used to be- is it still in use?)

[Ptah]

24. And on a side note, My father built the P-38 for Lockheed before serving in the South Pacific.

And, yes, the P-38 opener is a simple, effective device.

:patriot:

[Drum]

66. I wouldn't go camping without it!

:D

[quakerboy]

21. Ive got 2

Nuclear Reactors

<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Woven Bacon

<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[Ptah]

26. Love that woven bacon.

[quakerboy]

43. seriously try it

best invention. Way better than sliced bread. fo sho.

[redqueen]

88. Woven bacon?

I must learn more about this...

[bridgit]

22. zzzit-zzzit: The Transistor

[Ptah]

27. Come on baby, light my fire

[bridgit]

29. without doubt!!

[Ptah]

31. .

[Manifestor_of_Light]

114. Thank you, Sir Isaac Newton!

He invented the Newtonian reflector telescope, which all later reflector designs (such as the kind with multiple reflecting mirrors such as Schmidt-Cassegrains) have improved on.

[bicentennial_baby]

28. Not exactly an invention, per se, but this lights my fire:

:)

[Ptah]

30. Geomtery is my passion

[bicentennial_baby]

35. nice! I like this one too, even though I have bad memories

of Econ 201:

[sammythecat]

38. I envy those like yourself who have a knack for this.

I know just enough to appreciate why you say it is a passion, but, unfortunately, it never came easily for me. It's like an art for which I have no skill, but I can understand the appeal.

[Ptah]

42. It just happened to me.

I remember the moment I understood that with a pencil, compass and a straight edge
any thing could be constructed.

[sammythecat]

32. The carrot peeler

Couldn't be simpler and (imho) can't be improved.

Elegant. Plus, I get a kick out of using it.

[Ptah]

37. I do appreciate the simple things.

:hi:

[sammythecat]

41. Me too.

[Ptah]

46. That's Large Simple.

[harmonicon]

58. Man, I don't know what it is, but I want one.

How's the fuel economy?

[sammythecat]

118. Yeah, I want one too

I think it'd be a sure-fire babe magnet.

Fuel economy? Probably not so good. It weighs 91 million pounds and travels at less than 200ft/hr.

I posted a link with lots of info just below here.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

115. What is that humongoid metal monster called?

Do you dig highways with it?

[sammythecat]

117. It's called the "Bagger 288"

built by Krupp in 1978. It's used in large strip mining operations. In that picture it was driving itself 22 miles from one mine to another. They had to build a temporary earthen bridge over that highway to protect the surface because, get this, that thing weighs 45,500...TONS! It's the biggest moving machine ever built.

There's two pages of info and pictures of it at this site: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2006/11/biggest-and-hungriest-machines.html

If something like this interests you, I bet you could while away some hours at that site. I did. It's a pretty extensive site and it's just full of pictures and info on a whole bunch of weird and fascinating stuff. It's really worth checking out.

[Pierre.Suave]

33. this

I know a kid from my days at the U of Michigan that was in engineering school, his goal in life was to invent something as simple and useful as the fork.

I wish him luck.

[Ptah]

39. Does he have a patent yet?

:shrug:

[Pierre.Suave]

47. I doubt it

when he does, I will let you know.

[Ptah]

49. Well, I'm sorry to hear you bud is such a slacker.

[Pierre.Suave]

55. Thats not very nice

he has only been out of school for one and a half years...

[Ptah]

57. I wasn't being nice.

[Duer 157099]

40. Still my favorite multitasker:

[Ptah]

44. OMG!

The ultimate, a clamp!

[mainegreen]

75. Hell. Yes. n/t

[liberaltrucker]

48. Beer. More a discovery than an invention.

C2H5OH has soothed the savage beast since time immemorial.

My organic chem prof once said that man learned how to make
booze before he learned how to make soap. Says a lot about
our priorities, huh?

:hi: Nice to see ya!

[Ptah]

50. I love you, bro

[liberaltrucker]

53. Back atcha

**looks for relevant pics to no avail**

:pals:

[redqueen]

89. Ah... but has it really soothed the savage breast?

Alcohol seems to make as many people violent as it relaxes.

:shrug:

[liberaltrucker]

101. Like any other drug, depends on the person

If one is prone to violence, any mood-altering drug, including alcohol, may
lower his inhibitions to the point he'd snap. Good examples are cases in which
anti-depressants cause suicidal thoughts.

My point, as a level-headed person, is I can be pissed off at you for some real
or imagined transgression. We sit down, have a drink, and discuss the issue.
99.999% of the time, we come to some compromise.

Hell, the Declaration of Independence was written in a tavern in Philadelphia.

:patriot:

[skater314159]

51. Here are mine:

Postits! Without them, I would forget soooo much! (I have mind fog and memory problems sometimes, so I write things on postits constantly)



And with respects to Arthur Weasley:
?size=572&uid=%7B1FD657E6-416E-45F7-A891-1E7B751E2C54%7D

Plugs!!!

[Ptah]

54. Postits are the bomb.

When I paid some tuition for my daughter the week,
the receipt was a postit.

It was tuition for the School of Hard Knocks.

[Cabcere]

56. When I was in sixth grade, we had to write an essay on the most useful invention

(at least, in our eyes). A friend of mine wrote her essay on the hair scrunchie, and although I gave her a hard time about it, covered hair ties are actually pretty amazing. :) (I've tried putting my hair up with a regular rubber band before, and it HURTS - I don't know how my mom used to deal with it!)

So, yeah. To the mighty scrunchie/hair tie! :toast:






Edited for equal representation.

[harmonicon]

59. flushable toilet definitely wins, but eye glasses come in second

Of course corrective lenses aren't all that simple, but the concept is (for the lenses and the glasses). Definitely elegant.

[Solon]

60. A device that makes practically all of our technology, and civilization possible...

[Ptah]

62. With a lever, we can build.

[The Animator]

61. The Katana

[Ptah]

63. Very little doubt the function driven form there.

simply powerful.

[marzipanni]

64. Olive grasper

and its bigger cousin, a flexible pick-up tool-
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/was_1991_3324887

[Ptah]

69. A delicate solution!

:thumbsup:

[Drum]

65. Kick/Nom after just reading the OP...

excellent launch of a post, Ptah, and way to do it.

:thumbsup:

Can't wait to read downthread.... :)

[Drum]

67. Corrective lenses, aka eyeglasses & contact lenses.

These inventions constantly enhance my life on Earth.

Without them, I'd be wandering in a blurred world.

[Ptah]

68. And we have Ben Franklin to thank for

bifocals.

[eppur_se_muova]

71. Unproven postulate: eyeglasses triggered the European Renaissance.

Unprovable, but interesting to speculate on.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

116. Me too!!

People with perfect vision have no grasp of how important our glasses are to us with bad vision.

I wouldn't be able to drive or do much of anything without falling down. I'm quite nearsighted. And now I'm in bifocals.

I'm just thankful I have full color and stereoscopic vision. And now they make nice looking glasses.

[trof]

70. Nobody mentioned the thermos?

A vacuum flask is a vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than their environment by interposing an evacuated region to provide thermal insulation between the contents and the environment. The vacuum referred to is used for thermal insulation; the contents are not in vacuum conditions.

The vacuum flask was invented by physicist and chemist Sir James Dewar in 1892 and is sometimes referred to as a Dewar flask after its inventor. The first vacuum flasks for commercial use were made in 1904 when a German company, Thermos GmbH, was formed. Thermos, their tradename for their flasks, remains a registered trademark in some countries but was declared a genericized trademark in the US in 1963 as it is colloquially synonymous with vacuum flasks in general; in fact it is far more common to speak of a domestic thermos than a vacuum flask.
A vacuum flask is a vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than their environment by interposing an evacuated region to provide thermal insulation between the contents and the environment. The vacuum referred to is used for thermal insulation; the contents are not in vacuum conditions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_flask

[mikeytherat]

72. The thermos rules!

As a coffee-drinking, traveling musician, he thermos is one of the most important things EVER.

Wish I could find another like my favourite red thermos. No idea who manufactured it (all logos and ID long since gone), but it will keep six cups of coffee nice and toasty for almost 24 hours.

mikey_the_rat

[trof]

78. After I dropped the second one

and heard the glass liner shatter, I bought an all stainless steel one.

[CBGLuthier]

79. movable type

Whether it was actually Gutenberg or not it certainly changed the world.

[MilesColtrane]

80. Velcro.

And, the Swiss Army Knife.

Two inventions that make Switzerland a first ballot Invention Hall of Fame country.

(Although, this particular model is not so simple.)

[Greyskye]

81. Velcro...

I have a huge hi-res version of this that I use as my desktop sometimes.

[redqueen]

86. Archimedes' screw.

<3

[cloudbase]

92. The flossmate

Makes what you're doing easier and more effective.
No moving parts.
Intuitive to use. Aggies could likely figure out how to use it, if somebody read the instructions to them.

From a design and engineering viewpoint, it is an elegant tool.

[taught_me_patience]

93. greatest invention ever...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

104. And its greatest use...

[liberaltrucker]

106. Duct tape and baling wire can fix ANYTHING

Or jerry-rig it till ya get to the shop!

:toast:

[leeroysphitz]

95. My fave so far:

Teh Interocitor.



Simple enough that even an EARTH MAN can assemble it yet versatile enough to disintegrate matter, pilot unmanned air craft, allow real time voice, data and video and I'll bet it can even rip MP3s and remove red eye from your digital pictures (that it can take. From anywhere.)


Edited to add: an EARTH MAN or WOMAN can assemble it. (Sorry Dr. Adams!)

[FloridaJudy]

96. A recent contribution

To the "why didn't anybody think of this before?" category. Brush on super-glue:

No more struggling with the teeny tubes and straight pins, no more unmanageable globs gluing your fingers together.

I'm convinced a woman came up with this. One day, she was putting on nailpolish, and suddenly thought "Hmm. I wonder...."

[wovenpaint]

97. the drop spindle

ancient and simple way to spin yarn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlkJBsYrOlg&feature=related

[Ptah]

109. Yes!

Simple and effective!

:thumbsup:

[WinkyDink]

99. The humble needle-threader:

[Skittles]

108. ooh

I hear you WinkyDink - it's the ONLY way I can thread a needle now :o

[AwakeAtLast]

100. Gotta go with the mortar and pestle

[krispos42]

103. The differential gear

Without which automotive travel would be most difficult.

[Skittles]

107. those rubber things that enable me open jars

yes INDEED :D

[Ptah]

110. and chopsticks

we can't forget chopsticks.

[Recovered Repug]

111. The zipper.

And whoever discovered coffee.

[chknltl]

112. democracy

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. (Spock)

I believe that there can be no better form of government and it will be the government of choice for peace-loving humans as long as humanity persists.

[steelemagnolia]

119. White Out eom