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To address one point, the safety bicycle was the point in the development of the bicycle that made it possible for women to ride while wearing long skirts. Thi
by yahappynow 11y ago
To address one point, the safety bicycle was the point in the development of the bicycle that made it possible for women to ride while wearing long skirts. This was a huge step for women's autonomy as it allowed women a way to travel independently. So yes, the safety bicycle was a big deal, though I agree that it's nonsense to try to rank decades.
http://www.annielondonderry.com/womenWheels.html http://www.annielondonderry.com/womenWheels.html
- AnkhMorporkian 11y agoI don't think it's really nonsense to try to rank decades, as long as you have some specified criteria. For inventions by lasting impact, some decades are clearly superior to others. The 1750s, for instance, basically had nothing. I can't find a single thing invented in the 1750s that we still use today or inspired further inventions directly. I'm sure there's a couple, but I would argue that since it's hard to find them they're relatively unimporant. The first decade of the 1800s? The first modernish battery, the arc lamp, morphine, the steam locomotive, the first automobile, the steamboat. Perhaps it's silly to rank decades, but I don't think it's nonsense.
- abecedarius 11y agoBen Franklin invented the lightning rod in the 1750s. Harrison's marine chromometer. Achromatic lenses: interestingly, they were really from the 1730s and then sat on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achromatic_lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achromatic_lens. The navigational sextant: also found in Newton's unpublished writings. (But I'm disinclined to feel smug about these delays, compared to some bits of computing history.) "First high-quality cement using hydraulic lime since Roman times." The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_escapement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_escapement. Lind's treatment of scurvy, and an early attempt at vaccination. Some chemistry of practical import. So, I agree: the 1800s beat the 1750s in the invention cage-fight. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1750_in_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1750_in_science and following, from which I left out science and math discoveries.
- AnkhMorporkian 11y agoI don't know how the lightning rod didn't come up in my googling! Total aside, re: the chronometer, the 1750s definitely was not when it came into existence. He may have refined the design during that time, but the H1 chronometer was completed during the 1730s. I'm not sure if there's an exact date around for its completion.
- abecedarius 11y agoFWIW, I got that from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1759_in_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1759_in_science (search for "H4").
- lmm 11y agoH4 was the one that was good enough, no?
- AnkhMorporkian 11y agoThe H4 was completed in 1761.
- Tloewald 11y agoSure but how is this not a "variation on a theme"? The iPod and the iPhone were hugely impactful despite, in some sense, merely being variations on a theme. I'm all for the safety bicycle being considered very significant historically, but it's no less a variation on a theme (technically or scientifically) than the iPhone or the iPod.