Here is a presentation of 10 inventions that changed the world... You could have a discussion in your class and ask your students to add to the list.

1. Inventions that changed
the world
Top ten inventions that changed our lives

2. Who invented?
That’s a tough question to answer!
An invention can change things but no invention is created in vacuum.
Every invention was built on previous inventions made years, decades
or centuries ago.
It usually isn't the original inventor who gets all the credit, but rather
the inventor who made the one crucial improvement that made it
easier to use.

3. The printing press
Johannes Gutenberg, a German
goldsmith invented the Gutenberg
press, an innovative printing
machine, in the 1430s
Knowledge spread quickly

4. The steam engine
Powered the factories, trains, and ships that helped in the
growth of industries
Thomas Savery, an English military engineer and
inventor who in 1698, patented the first crude
steam engine. Thomas Newcomen invented the
atmospheric steam engine in 1712. James Watt
improved Newcomen's design and invented what
is considered the first modern steam engine in
1765.

5. The automobile
Transformed daily life, our culture, and our landscape
In 1885, Karl Benz designed and built the world's
first practical automobile to be powered by an
internal-combustion engine.

6. The light bulb
In 1809, Humphry Davy, an English chemist,
invented the first electric light. In 1878, Sir Joseph
Wilson Swan, an English physicist, was the first
person to invent a practical and longer-lasting
electic lightbulb (13.5 hours) with a carbon fiber
filament. In 1879, Thomas Alva Edison invented a
carbon filament that burned for forty hours.
It lit up our lives !

7. The camera
Changed journalism, art, culture, and how we see ourselves
In 1814, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first
photographic image with a camera. However, the
image required eight hours of light exposure and
later faded. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre is
considered the inventor of the first practical
process of photography in 1837.

8. The sewing machine
The first functional sewing machine was
invented by the French tailor, Barthelemy
Thimonnier, in 1830. In 1834, Walter Hunt built
America's first (somewhat) successful sewing
machine. Elias Howe patented the first lockstitch
sewing machine in 1846. Isaac Singer invented
the up-and-down motion mechanism.
A stitch in time saved nine!

9. Telephone
1875, Alexander Graham Bell built the first
telephone that transmitted electrically the
human voice.
Our voices travelled…….

10. The Airplane
The first plane was invented by
Wilbur
and Orville Wright in 1903.
Transformed travel, warfare, and our view of the world

11. The Radio
Nikola Tesla invented the first radio, but
it wasn't promoted until Guglielmo
Marconi did so in 1895. Their work
enabled the first radio transmission to
occur on December 12, 1901
Ideas spread and cultures were brought together by electronic
mass media

12. Television
Brought the world into people’s homes
John Logie Baird is remembered as the
inventor of mechanical television in the
early twentieth century

13. Discuss how each of these inventions changed the lives of
people!
Think of other inventions that changed the world.
Can you name some inventions that might have harmed
us?

14. Earlier inventions
There were many earlier inventions like :
•The wheel
•The plough
•Paper
•The compass
Discuss how each of these might have changed people’s lives
significantly
If you had the chance what would you have liked to invent and why?

15. Acknowledgement:
http://inventors.about.com/od/famousinventions/tp/topteninvention.htm
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovations-list/309536/
http://www.geniusstuff.com/blog/list/10-inventions-changed-world/