An
Invention is defined "as a
device, method or process developed from study and experimentation." When an
invention is created, it can be protected by a patent. A patent is a set of
exclusive rights / rules / guidelines granted by a state / national government
body given to an inventor for a limited period of time in exchange for a public
disclosure of an invention. Sometimes a device/machine is invented before there
is a need. For example, the can opener was invented 48 years after cans were
introduced, and traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar. It
is known that, most of the time an invention is created because of a need. For
example, before the invention of the thermometer, the brewers of beer used to
check the temperature by dipping their thumb into the mixture to find whether
the temperature was appropriate for adding yeast. If it was too hot, then the
yeast would die. This is where we get the proverb "The Rule of the Thumb". Many historians consider the wheel,
the spear, the knife, and the arrow as the earliest inventions. They were
created because of the need to hunt, provide protection and transportation. The
earliest inventions were made out of what was available to the people. Wood was
used for spears shafts. Rocks were used for the blade of a spear or a knife.
Bones were used for needles. Some of the most important inventions are considered
to be cotton gin, automobile, telephone, electric light, printing press, steam
engine, camera, computer, sewing machine and the television.
Some of the most famous inventors are Newton,
Archimedes, Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Edison, Johannes Gutenberg, Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington Carver,
Eli Whitney, Wright Brothers, John Baird, Henry Ford, George Eastman, Heinrich
Hertz & so many other great people.