161–170 of 583 posts
They're in season two now, with a second set of 50 things.
Every podcast is about a simple invention that had a huge impact.
Incidentally the Haber-Bosch Process (mentioned in this thread) is number two, after the diesel engine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Things_That_Made_the_Modern...
Washing Machine. Recent iterations are more complex( repair engineer could plug into ours and diagnose all sorts of things, including checking results of previous washes), however the principle behind it isn't that complex. It has made life easier for so many households.
So I would put up soap as a contender. Simple, saves hundreds of thousands of life, prevents diseases and so forth.
But soap, as an invention, is embedded in the modern practice of washing, which requires our modern knowledge of germs and diseases, as well as our modern effective plumbing system to bring the clean water and dispose of the dirty water.
Of course if it didn't require those it wouldn't be modern.
a Pen
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think a layperson can understand even the basic principle behind AM, let alone the actual device. It's not as "simple" as washing your hands.
I seem to recall building small AM transmitters in elementary school. I don't remember if I used a transistor or not. I think it was easy to construct the capacitor and the inductor. (I build it in the early 70's and don't really remember how.) We also made crystal diode radios, but I have no idea how to construct a diode from scratch, so maybe those are not simple.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A few weeks ago I was going through some stuff in our storage unit and found an originally very nice suitcase. It's of no value to me now because it has no wheels. Imagine how much more difficult air travel would be without the wheels!
I don't have to imagine it. We had 2 massive suitcases when I was a kid that were built like tanks. You actually had to be pretty thoughtful when you put them into the trunk because of their size. But here's the thing. You pulled up to the terminal back then, parked, got out. Walked away from the car and checked your bag right there on the sidewalk if you weren't getting there at some weird hour and then said bye to…