What do you think is the greatest innovation in history?

Ralphy1

Ralphy1

Well-known Member
So many things come to mind, the steam engine, the airplane, electricity, etc., but for me the flush toilet, though mundane, was the most practical...
 

In terms of what? There are so many options.

I agree about the plumbing though. The Paris and London sewers were extremely important in terms of public health but of course sewers and drains were not really new concepts. They existed in the ancient lands around the Mediterranean in the era of Egypt and Rome.

I grew up in a house that was not connected to the sewer and it was none too pleasant.
 
Yes, cesspools! And they overflowed on occasion into the yard and even back up thru the kitchen sink!
 

No. We had a pan in a brick sentry box that was separate from the house.
Once a week the night cart came around and a smelly man in shorts and singlet took away the full pan and left us a clean empty one.

Except when they went on strike.

We knew when the night cart was coming down the street. First, there was the smell and second, every dog was going ballistic.
 
Well, as a former airline pilot, you know that I am going to say the airplane has to be pretty close to the top. Flying is what connected the world by making travel quick and easy compared to ships or rails. I am not saying that it is number one, but certainly in the top five. The planes have also been great in wartime, but let's not talk about that.

When you are a young Marine laying in the fields in Vietnam and being held down by gunfire and artillery from the enemy, no sound is sweeter than that of the F-4's coming in hot and low to get you out of a bad situation.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
No. We had a pan in a brick sentry box that was separate from the house.
Once a week the night cart came around and a smelly man in shorts and singlet took away the full pan and left us a clean empty one.
Click to expand...

Ours used to come in the daytime and put a pump into the cesspit..He was exactly the same..shorts and a vest..

He used to have a personal swarm of flies that followed him wherever he went...

Dirty job!!!
 
Our guy that used to pump our cesspool into a big smelly truck was always smoking a corncob pipe...
 
The cordless electric drill.

A lot of rural properties in this area still have septic tanks, but emptying them is a more hygenic process these days. I used to see the tankers that cleared them out - they had slogans on the side like "The Motion is carried" or "Poetry in motion".
 
A/C. ;) Actually, I could have lived without it. When I was a kid, I remember only having window fans that were not bad. And taking trips to Florida in a VW Beetle with no a/c. But.......I'm glad I have it today.
 
Ralphy1 said:
Our guy that used to pump our cesspool into a big smelly truck was always smoking a corncob pipe...
Click to expand...

Yeah..you could smell it before it arrived...

We had an outside loo at the bottom of the garden..the biggest spiders lived in there..my father used to have to come down with me and dispose of them..

What a wimp!!
 
LOL QS..I remember those stupid belts..and your sanitary towel used to be like a dog's tail..wagging behind you..
 
For better or worse my vote goes to the development of the internet. Guttenburg's press was voted the important invention of all time, and the reason was that it got information into the hands of the common folks. The internet has enabled us to disseminant information in a flash. We can travel to foreign lands, soar to the moon, read news stories as they are happening all without leaving home.
 
Bonnie said:
Electricity and plumbing are nice .. but life without my computer would be brutal...:p
Click to expand...

Wrongly quoted post, meant to quote the person who voted what Bonnie quoted. I vote for Electricity and plumbing all the way, if they said I had to make a choice over everything else mentioned, I would definitely pick E & P hands down, no outhouse for me. Even the campsites I camped at had regular toilet facilities.
 
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