This is an old news item, but one that brings a smile to my face still.
Listeners to BBC Radio 4 were asked to vote for the most significant invention since 1800. To the surprise of many the bicycle won by a wide margin - 59%. The next highest was the transistor at 8%. The computer came in at 6% and the internet at 4%.
Each technology was submitted by a different expert. Prof. Wolff made a convincing case for the bicycle. People ended up choosing "the bicycle for its simplicity of design, universal use, and because it is an ecologically sound means of transport."
I can't argue with that.
A bit more explanation is from this article:
Explaining his choice, Prof Wolff said the bicycle's social impact had been far-reaching.
"The provision of affordable personal transport which then became the motorbike, the motor car and the aeroplane made people different," he said.
"It changed humanity by allowing us to do something which was otherwise difficult or restricted to people who had a lot of money and could afford a coach or horse."
The reason for the vote in the first place came from Lord Alec Broers' series of 2005 Reith lectures "Triumph of Technology".
Broers was a bit bitter that something as simple as the bicycle won the vote:
He expresses surprise that in a recent poll, which asked the public to rank Britain's greatest inventions, the bicycle was chosen over electricity generation, the jet engine, the discovery of DNA and the invention of vaccinations.
"To place it ahead of the fundamental accomplishments of Faraday, Stephenson, Maxwell, Thomson, Whittle, and Crick and Watson demonstrates in my mind a profound misunderstanding of the contribution of advanced technologies to our lives," he says.
Yup, we're just a bunch of ignorant SOBs.
Comments
Anonymous (not verified)
vaccinations or the bicycle?
Fri, 08/10/2007 - 17:35"[Broers] expresses surprise that in a recent poll, which asked the public to rank Britain's greatest inventions, the bicycle was chosen over electricity generation, the jet engine, the discovery of DNA and the invention of vaccinations."
Hmm... the better part of humanity has never had access to reliable electricity, air travel or gene therapy. Bicycle travel and haulage has transformed the 'developing world', and has more potential to do more, for less money, than electricty, jets or DNA knowledge. Oh yeah, bicycles serve a purpose or two in the 'developed world' also!
Nevertheless, the greater importance of vaccinations or the bicycle would be an interesting discussion.
anthony
vaccinations or bicycle?
Sat, 08/11/2007 - 02:40Yes, it would.
And if one would prefer the clear complexion of the milkmaid to the shapely thighs and buttocks of the cyclist would also be an interesting discussion, and not unrelated. :-)
Anonymous (not verified)
smooth thighs
Sun, 08/12/2007 - 13:38Now, should we make our youth travel to the farm by bicycle, and milk cows for summer employment, we'd have smooth and shapely thighs without the trouble of modern epidemiology!
anthony
chicken pox/cow pox
Mon, 08/13/2007 - 03:00Vaccinations are easy, fast, usually painless, and covered by OHIP.
Milking cows in order to avoid chicken pox is not really required any more. Most parents opted, and continue to opt, for their kid's to get the vaccinations available. Most of us who grew up here and are less than a certain age have benefited from this. Chicken pox can be fatal, but usually isn't. But It used to leave people with awful scars, often on their face. Chicken pox can still scar, but doesn't as often. Milkmaids, having been exposed to cow pox would not have been as susceptible to chicken pox and, therefore, would have a clear complexion not having been scarred by chicken pox. Today we vaccinate for chicken pox. When I was a kid our parents used to have "chicken pox parties" where parents would expose their kids to another kid who had chicken pox "to get it over with."
Today we would have other reasons to send our kids to milk cows, like building character, getting in touch with the land, to be with family, or understanding food, to name but a few of the possible reasons.
Smooth thighs? Did I say smooth thighs or did I say shapely thighs?
Many avid and frequent cyclists don't have smooth thighs so much as shapely thighs. Often you can see at least some muscle definition in their thighs. That's OK by be. I also like smooth thighs. The kind of thighs I like best of all I'll discus on adult forums; I'm sure you understand. But cyclists are one of the groups who have sexiest thighs, and that's just one of the many benefits of cycling.
I'm not out to dismiss or diminish vaccinations. Polio was an awful disease, and I'm glad that because of vaccinations I never had any of my own peer group affected by Polio. My parent's peers were; I've heard only some of the stories. I would have to look up Measles, Mumps, and Rubella because no one I've ever known has been affected by this; I've never had a reason to know. I take it for granted that I won't get it, and that my kids can't get it. And thankfully so. The same is true for the other diseases that routine vaccinations cover. I may need a booster shot once in a while that's trivial to get; it's my doctor's worry, not mine.
But I do so love my bicycle, to ride it, to clean it, to fix it, to shop for it. And to be near other cyclists, and to watch cyclists and their bicycles, and to see how the very presence of cyclists on or with their bicycles improve our streets. Bicycles and cyclists are so much more palpable than not getting an almost forgotten disease.
And that is why I think many people find the bicycle more relevant, and why they would have voted it to be the most important invention.
anthony
taken for granted
Sat, 08/11/2007 - 02:20Mobility, especially personal mobility, for most of our history has been limited to how far we could take ourselves under our own power. How far could we walk, run, paddle in a day? The wealthy had horses and chariots carriages. We even learned to harness the wind, but again that was for the rich, or those who worked on these boats. But you were generally limited to your own neighborhood, unless you hired a driver and coach from the local livery.
Then came the railways. Initially they linked cities together, later neighborhoods with what we've come to appreciate as public transit. The stations often became hubs of activity in their immediate vicinity. Hotels, markets, liveries, even town halls were moved to be close to the train stations because people walked when they arrived at their destinations. But rail would an invention too old to qualify. for this.
Next came the bicycle. It was truly personal, and it was cheap. It was still your own power, but you could travel at least 5 times farther than walking. And you could carry more, or else carry it more comfortably than you could walking. This time did not last long before the automobile came around, but it started what the automobile promised. Travelling long distances, finding new places, enjoying the trip as just much, if not more, than the destination.
The promise has fallen far short of the reality, and we don't seem to want to change this. I think Douglas Adams had it right when he described the car this way:
As for health and medical inventions, we humans have either "well it can't happen to us" or "well that's life" thing hen it comes to death and disease. We truly take our health for granted as much as we can. We prefer to live life, to travel, rather than think about our mortality. Besides, it was Pasteur who started our medical revolution with the discovery of germs. The rest mostly follows. As for DNA, which could still become a very major revolution, we still haven't yet reached the promised benefits. Besides, DNA is not an invention so much as a discovery. While our medical capabilities are better now it's been more because of discoveries than because of true inventions.
The jet is not personal, not any more than other form of public transit. We tolerate it because it takes us further faster, saves us time to enjoy destinations rather than spending the time getting there. We don't, generally, like being treated like cattle. And we don't like the documentation, the justification of our travel, the loss/delay of our luggage, or the many other hassles that out of country jet travel brings.
Electricity only improved our quality of life with convenience and time savings. It didn't change it too much. We could still cook, keep food cool (Ice boxes) and light our homes without it Some things that electricity brought were almost natural extensions of this: like radio & TV. We had Art before too, and gramophones, and even newspapers. It's just more, faster.
Transistors, IC's and computers, and then computer networks, miniaturization, and digitization were again simply "more", "faster", and "more convenient".
Motors are again something that gave us more power more conveniently. We first pulled rail cars with draught animals, and the car is nothing more than a horesless carriage. It's an evolution, not a revolution.
But it was the bicycle that changed us personally more than any of those other things. And it was the bicycle that made many of those even possible. Take air travel: The Wright brothers were bicycle mechanics before "inventing" flight. It was their work with bicycles than made them think of banking turns. The bicycle's strong, spoked wheel and pneumatic tires made the motorcycle and car possible. It was even the cyclist's that first lobbied to get roads paved.
So yeah, I would agree. The bicycle is the most important invention of the last 200 years.