2. MOUSETRAP
James Henry Atkinson was the British inventor who in 1897 invented the
prototype mousetrap called the "Little Nipper". The Little Nipper is the classic
snapping mousetrap that we are all familiar with that has the small flat wooden
base, the spring trap, and the wire fastenings.
The Little Nipper slams shut in 38,000s of a second and that record has never
been beaten. This is the design that has prevailed until today. This mousetrap has
captured a sixty percent share of the British mousetrap market alone, and an
estimated equal share of the international market.
FAX MACHINE
The first fax machine was invented by Scottish mechanic and inventor
Alexander Bain. In 1843, Alexander Bain received a British patent for
“improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements
in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs”, in laymen's terms a
fax machine.
3. CONCRETE
Concrete was invented (1849) by Joseph Monier, who received a patent in 1867. Joseph
Monier was a Parisian gardener who made garden pots and tubs of concrete reinforced
with an iron mesh. Reinforced concrete combines the tensile or bendable strength of
metal and the compressional strength of concrete to withstand heavy loads. Joseph
Monier exhibited his invention at the Paris Exposition of 1867. Besides his pots and tubs,
Joseph Monier promoted reinforced concrete for use in railway ties, pipes, floors, arches,
and bridges.
PENICILLIN
Originally noticed by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne, in 1896. Penicillin was
re-discovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming working at St. Mary's Hospital in
London in 1928. He observed that a plate culture of Staphylococcus had been
contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold
were being dissolved. Curious, Alexander Fleming grew the mold in a pure culture and
found that it produced a substance that killed a number of disease-causing bacteria.
Naming the substance penicillin, Dr. Fleming in 1929 published the results of his
investigations, noting that his discovery might have therapeutic value if it could be
produced in quantity.
4. BAR CODE
These boring sets of black and white lines can now be found on almost
every single item bought from a shop. At first glance, it seems hard to see
how they possibly made any impact on the world, but they have
fundamentally changed the way we shop. Norman Woodland first
developed an early form of the bar code in 1949 by combining ideas from
movie soundtracks and Morse code to help him speed up store checkouts.
They now stores to instantly access product details, prices and stock levels
with a sweep of a laser.
1935 – CAT’S EYES
Anyone who’s a driver knows how valuable Cat’s Eyes are when driving at
night. This device was invented by the Englishman Percy Shaw, born in
Yorkshire in 1890. He invented it after he had been driving on a dark,
winding road on a foggy night. He was saved from going off the side of the
hill by a cat, whose eyes reflected his car’s lights.
5. CAN
British merchant Peter Durand made an impact on food
preservation with his 1810 patenting of the tin can. In 1813,
John Hall and Bryan Dorkin opened the first commercial
canning factory in England. In 1846, Henry Evans invents a
machine that can manufacture tin cans at a rate of sixty per
hour. An significant increase over the previous rate of only
six per hour.
MOWN LAWN
The first patent for a mechanical lawn mower described as a
"Machine for mowing lawns, etc." was granted on August 31,
1830 to engineer, Edwin Beard Budding (1795-1846) from
Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.
6. LIGHT BULB
1809 – Humphry Davy an English chemist, invented the
first electric light. Davy connected two wires to a
battery and attached a charcoal strip betwween the
other ends of the wires. The charged carbon glowed
making the first arc lamp.
TELEPHONE
Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Edinburgh,
Scotland. He moved to Canada when he was 23 and
only then migrated to the USA. He was British so Brits
can rightly claim the telephone is a British invention.
