What the British did for the world :) (inventions)

[PinkFloyd]

Football?

not to forget the best music
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[fatiain]

Iirc Britan colonised more countries than the above put together..

But we didn't invent colonialism did we?

Anyway we kept the locals in check

 

[Pumpkinstew]

Iirc Britan colonised more countries than the above put together..

Just in Africa?
A lot of African nations have French as the official language.

If you mean worldwide, then probably.

The concept of Imperialism was around waaaay before the British Empire.
At least 2 millenia.

 

[ElRazur]

Just in Africa?
A lot of African nations have French as the official language.

If you mean worldwide, then probably.

The concept of Imperialism was around waaaay before the British Empire.
At least 2 millenia.

Yes but i think worldwide is more suited here.

No not really most countries with french as official languages are the ones in the Eastern part of africa (about 5 or 6 of them)

 

[marin]

Penicillin - Alexander Fleming

Don't forget Howard Florey & Ernst Chain who did all the hard work of to purify, isolate and concentrate penicillin, all Fleming did was keep a dirty lab, but he did discover the original properties of penicillain.

My dad used to work with Ernst Chain at Imperial College as a Chemical Engineer, Fleming only did a very small part in the history of penicillin but for some reason always gets the recognition for it.

When I was born, the nurse asked my mother what my dad's job was, she told him that it was Chemical Engineer, the nurse said there was no such job, my mother told her that all the people who's lives had been saved by penicillan during the war would not have been here if it had not been for Chemical Engineers.

 

[AJUK]

On the computer front, Charles Babbage invented the Difference Engine (although it is disputed as someone else is supposed to have conceived it first but didn't build it so tough titty) which was a mechanical mathematical device and is commonly accepted as the worlds first computer. That was 1822, while the rest of the world were still fighting with pointy sticks. Granted, the fps on Doom 3 weren't great but it was better than anyone elses at the time.

A British inventions list - it would just be easier to list the things we didn't invent. Britain > *

/feels patriotic

 

[AJUK]

Anyway we kept the locals in check

Or the 'fuzzywuzzies' as they were often known as.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Slavery?

So you think Britain invented slavery?
Go do some homework.
Brits were slaves way before blacks were.

 

[AJUK]

Brits were slaves way before blacks were.

Yep, we have the so called civilised Romans to thank for that contribution to humanity.

 

[VeNT]

Yep, we have the so called civilised Romans to thank for that contribution to humanity.

not the greeks, or the egiptians?

 

[ElRazur]

So you think Britain invented slavery?
Go do some homework.
Brits were slaves way before blacks were.

No they didnt but im sure they left their mark on the scene in Africa alone than any other "Colonial masters"

 

[AJUK]

not the greeks, or the egiptians?

I don't think the Greeks used slaves but you are right about the Egyptians, they certainly did, or was it aliens who built the pyramids.

Anyhow, I am sure that slavery has been used since man walked upright by many civilisations, the one thing that can't be disputed is that Britain certainly did not invent it although we were the first to abolish it.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

No they didnt but im sure they left their mark on the scene in Africa alone than any other "Colonial masters"

But they couldn't have done it without the black slave masters selling their own people.

 

[Aod]

not the greeks, or the egiptians?

egyptians

 

[i know nothing]

The Hovercraft - Sir Christopher Cockerell
Cling Film - Alan Mainstone
Tin Can - Peter Durand
Cats Eyes - Percy Shaw
Cordite - James Dewar & Frederick Abel
Fax Machine - Alexander Bain
Sewing Machines - Thomas Saint

 

[kitten_caboodle]

FOCUS magazine did a run down of the 100 best inventions and number one was the flushing toilet and I agree 1,000%.

A link that is far more interesting than it actually should be

Linky Linky

 

[ElRazur]

But they couldn't have done it without the black slave masters selling their own people.

Please, i cant belive im reading this from someone who say i should get my fact straight!

Now you go do your home work and you will find out that the White man Tricked the Village leaders and elders into selling their people via gift - rubbish ones like guns, rums, mirror and gun powder!
And when the trick stop having the desired effect, the white man used force to take them - fact.

Oh by the way, they aint "Black slave masters" but village chief, priest, or elders. (another common misconception).

 

[Flibster]

and the Father of the modern computer, Alan turing who did so much in his life that i will list the lot.

To be honest - Tommy Flowers deserves the credit a lot more.

He designed and built the first programmable electronic computer. Colossus.

The recreation at Bletchley Park is now operational as well and looks fabulous. Will get some of my pictures form the weekend up soon.

Also :

1939-40: Built the Bombe, machine for Enigma decryption

The Bombe was an improvement and redesign of the Bomba used by the Polish Cryptoanalists. Yup - we have to thank the Poles for breaking the Enigma first.

How? They 'borrowed' an Enigma over a weekend *without the Germans knowing* and stripped and rebuilt it and found out how the rotors were wired and how it worked.

Also - the Bombe does not decode enigma. Same as Colossus does not decode the Lorenz cyphers. It assists in giving potential rotor settings and some of the stecker settings for the front of the machine. The Bombe was first set using a crib that

These were then fed into a modified Type X machine *modified to act like an Enigma* and the message was attempted to be decoded to see if came up good. the first 2 groups of 3 letters should be the same...eg ABC ABC as that was the encoding that the operator used.

Sorry...

Although - for me Sir Frank Whittle is a god/
And Colin Chapman - done more for F1 that anyone will really know.

Simon/~Flibster

 

[jonnyc90]

Rugby, cricket,America, Australia, iPod (well the designer was British-Jonathan Ive)
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_british_inventors.htm
Quite a lot really

 

[locutus12]

To be honest - Tommy Flowers deserves the credit a lot more.
**Snip**

Ive never even heard of Tommy Flowers, but if he did something then great, stick his name down, the date he did it and a brief discription of the field he worked in and what he did, but please dont wast an entire post trying to discredit one person to favour another .

sorry to burst patriotic bubbles, but the concept of the Submarine was originally invented by DaVinci.

his was a sortof turtle-shaped thing with Oars stuck through greased leather flaps to stop the water getting in.

he never built it, but did design it.

im sorry, im sure William Bourne meant to go to italy and find those manuscripts that didnt come to light untill after his death that showed DaVinci had an idea for a boat that could go under water but he just didnt have time, darn it.

he didnt "design" it, he had scribbled out a basic idea for it, he had neither the materials or the engineering knowledge to attempt to design anf build it and as such he doesnt get the credit for it.

Colonialism of several african countries? Slavery? Brain drain?

Grow up, it was 200 years ago and quite frankly we owe the african nation squat untill it can ellect governments that wont steel all the money we give the continent for its own private wars and own coffers, you had sticks, we had guns, we occupied africa for the natural resources, yes it wasnt fair or right by todays standards but thats life, get over it.

p.s. we didnt invent slavory, dont be a pillock.




I want all of you to READ THIS:


After all the threads like "britain sucks" and such, i just thought it would be nice to put a possitive side, yet somehow weve got people bitching about plagerism and the slave trade, IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS THAT, DO IT ELSE WHERE. this was supposed to be abit of fun, just a little something to show that despite britains problems past and present, we have done good things too.