Everyday inventions you are grateful for (apart from bicycles)

[Sterlo]

I think they still do in Yorkshire

Oi, watch it you. We have houses here, the tin bath next t'hearth is great as long as the whippet gets out first. We even have a few roads, not sure about this new fangled tarmac stuff though.

 

[presta]

There are so many things we all take for granted it's difficult to know where to even start, but agriculture, division of labour, writing, paper, money, banking, germ theory of disease, potable water, vaccines, & anaesthetics would all have to come very high on the list.

Beyond the basic welfare needs that these satisfy, others with a large effect on our modern lifestyle might be:
Education
Industrialised agriculture
Steam engine - enabled the production of mechanical power
Electromagnetism - enabled the production of electrical power
Transistor - enabled the processing of information

That's a bit of a biased list though, because I know little of chemistry & materials science, and their contributions to the production of synthetic materials.

 

[Paulus]

Central heating.
The whole building is warm instead of just one or two rooms.
My parents maisonette had a coal fire in the front room. None of the bedrooms or the bathroom had heating in.
During a particularly cold winter my mum used to turn the gas oven on and open the door to get some extra heat in the place.

 

[Jameshow]

The humble tin opener try living without one for a week!

 

[Punkawallah]

Never needed that....my sexy smile always did the job.

Your sexy smile helped heal wounds? Amazing!

 

[classic33]

Cheese

Why does cheese need lubrication?

 

[Profpointy]

washing machine.

the idea of doing laundry without one daunts me, somewhat

When I bought my first place a washing machine and a sofa were my first purchases - place came with a cooker. It was a year or two before I bought a telly or fridge, or even a proper bed.

 

[Dave7]

Why does cheese need lubrication?

Depends where you are putting it

 

[winjim]

Depends where you are putting it

I apologise in advance for this clip.

View: https://youtu.be/CIXQoRhBZpM?si=CRH3hcxKySWKVU0p

 

[iandg]

Bean to cup

 

[Sharky]

My Mum's sister, I believe, sufferred from a "Hole in the Heart" and after being unwell for some time, died a young lady in about 1940 a long time before I appeared.
My Mum always said that if had been "now", in the 1980's or 1990's, they would have operated and probably saved her.

I am grateful for all the medical advances that have been made in the last 50 years.

 

[Accy cyclist]

The microwave oven.

I'l glad I found what I was going to say on your post number 5 and not had to go all the way through the messages to post 56 (the last one as I post) to find someone's posted it before! Yes, It's the microwave for me as well. I've used one for 44 years, since my parents got their first one. We had a few mishaps at first, like putting plates with gold gilt in the microwave, and uncracked eggs in to boil them, but we got there in the end.

 

[slowmotion]

The polio vaccine. Some of exact contemporaries caught it in the Fifties. It was just luck.

 

[Chris S]

I'l glad I found what I was going to say on your post number 5 and not had to go all the way through the messages to post 56 (the last one as I post) to find someone's posted it before! Yes, It's the microwave for me as well. I've used one for 44 years, since my parents got their first one. We had a few mishaps at first, like putting plates with gold gilt in the microwave, and uncracked eggs in to boil them, but we got there in the end.

I just search the thread for the key word e.g. 'microwave'.

 

[Andy in Germany]

With today's filthy weather, Akubra hats have come to the top of my list.

Looking at the state of the river, flood defences may well be up there soon.