There are fun inventions, such as Silly Putty and Slinkys, that make our world a little more interesting. There are really good inventions, like zippers and Tupperware, that are amazing in their practicality. And then there are those innovations to which we can credit a shift in the way we live — inventions that affect history and change how we live every day.
These 10 inventions, ranging in time from 800,000 years ago to the past few decades, have all markedly changed how we live for the better. Representing all aspects of life, each played an important role in the course of human history.
The flush toilet may seem like a modern invention, but several ancient societies had a handle on the idea. As early as 5,000 years ago in both Pakistan and in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, toilets in private home bathrooms linked with public drainage systems and carried waste away with water. Another idea lost to Europe during the Dark Ages, flush toilets (as opposed to holes in the ground with stone or wood seats, or simple pots) reappeared in the 16th century, when an English noble named John Harington built an indoor toilet with flushing mechanism for Queen Elizabeth I.
Concrete
Another example of an important innovation that disappeared during the Dark Ages, early forms of poured concrete first appeared in ancient Egypt (even in the pyramids, according to recent studies). The ancient Romans almost certainly observed it there, historians say, and then mastered the technique using concrete in monuments such as the Pantheon in Rome, that survive intact to the present day. The mixture of cement and binding aggregates such as sand and water virtually disappeared until the 1700s, when English engineer John Smeaton improved concrete's composition. The building material is still the most commonly-used construction material, forming the base for bridges, dams, roads and buildings.
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