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Original poster

To wonder how some things were invented?

123 replies

malificent7 · 17/02/2023 06:46

I love knitting and crochet but who looked at a sheep and thought to spin the wool into yarn and then use hooks/ needles to create clothes?! I know the process evolved rather than being the brainchild of a single person but still.

Also tv/ internet. How do pictures end of on thesescreens seemingly out of nowhere?!

Care to add any more?

OP posts:
00100001 · 17/02/2023 06:47

How did they look at sand, know to heat it up and turn it into a see through product called glass....?

neverknowinglyunreasonable · 17/02/2023 07:00

It was my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother who invented knitting. Wonderful lady. Not sure about the TV.

SmokyForTheWin · 17/02/2023 07:02

Chips.
Who first looked at a potato and thought 'i know, I'll chop it into sticks then dump it in hot oil.'

Shouldbesleeping8 · 17/02/2023 07:04

neverknowinglyunreasonable · 17/02/2023 07:00

It was my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother who invented knitting. Wonderful lady. Not sure about the TV.

What? Really? A quick google says its origins are either Arabic or Egyptian and thousands of years ago....

dudsville · 17/02/2023 07:05

"Necessity is the mother of invention". So in the case of wool and knitting some folks were cold, and knitting was not the next step!

R0ckets · 17/02/2023 07:06

I often think this about food. Thinking about how complex the process for making so many staple foods is, how did people stumble onto mixing just the right ingredients in the right quantities and selecting the best cooking methods.

Also who the fudge first saw a chicken lay an egg and decided to not only cook it but then eat it...

Latenightreader · 17/02/2023 07:06

00100001 · 17/02/2023 06:47

How did they look at sand, know to heat it up and turn it into a see through product called glass....?

I had a book as a child which suggested it came from the observation of lightning strikes on sand. One of my archaeology books may answer this, but can't check it until next week...

donttellmehesalive · 17/02/2023 07:09

I do wonder how really complicated things were ever discovered, made or built.

I would have looked at two separated bits of land and thought 'if only there was a way to bridge that gap so that people could cross' but then also 'that looks impossibly complicated and hard to do' before having a nap.

PurpleFlower1983 · 17/02/2023 07:11

The Egyptians fascinate me, responsible for all sorts, what an innovative group of people.

SmokyForTheWin · 17/02/2023 07:11

R0ckets · 17/02/2023 07:06

I often think this about food. Thinking about how complex the process for making so many staple foods is, how did people stumble onto mixing just the right ingredients in the right quantities and selecting the best cooking methods.

Also who the fudge first saw a chicken lay an egg and decided to not only cook it but then eat it...

Me too. Cake, for example. 'Let's take that raw egg, mix it with flour & sugar, and see what it tastes like after we've cooked it. ' 🤔

neverknowinglyunreasonable · 17/02/2023 07:11

Shouldbesleeping8 · 17/02/2023 07:04

What? Really? A quick google says its origins are either Arabic or Egyptian and thousands of years ago....

Show quote history

Please don't believe everything you read online (except the stuff about my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother inventing knitting, that's definitely true)

Ifailed · 17/02/2023 07:14

Also who the fudge first saw a chicken lay an egg and decided to not only cook it but then eat it..

Monkeys and apes eat eggs, so it's reasonable to assume early humans did as well. There's evidence of cooking from at least 300,000 years ago so cooking eggs would be a logical assumption.

Mindymomo · 17/02/2023 07:14

My late FIL was always making things. He put a spring in the base of a tissue box so that tissues were on top to get out easy. He also made quite a few gadgets in his house, which we were sure he could have taken further, but he just liked tinkering in his work-shed. I often find myself saying who on earth came up with this and that.

JunkinDonuts · 17/02/2023 07:14

Bricks and concrete etc.
Did someone think one day...hmm, if I put all these powders together, shape them into a rectangle and bake it on an oven, I wonder how it will turn out?

Original poster
malificent7 · 17/02/2023 07:15

But how did a cold person think...i know...if I get 2 long needles and move them this way and that I can knot them into a piece of fabric?

Who thought to stretch wool over a wheen to make yarn? We are clever.

OP posts:
Original poster
malificent7 · 17/02/2023 07:15

Wheel*

OP posts:
EthicalNonMahogany · 17/02/2023 07:16

I partly love this thread and then partly marvel at the softness of our lives. Early inventions were built out of life being absolutely gruelling all the time... to not have a sense of that is incredible, and us idly chatting about them, using the insanely powerful tool of the Internet, is almost the definition of decadence! In our attitude to history this thread is like people in Sci fi novels who lounge in the pleasure gardens without realising the planet is run by subterranean slaves.

Mamette · 17/02/2023 07:18

donttellmehesalive · 17/02/2023 07:09

I do wonder how really complicated things were ever discovered, made or built.

I would have looked at two separated bits of land and thought 'if only there was a way to bridge that gap so that people could cross' but then also 'that looks impossibly complicated and hard to do' before having a nap.

You might not have a nap if you were starving and there was food on the other island though.

As pp said necessity is the mother of invention.

FusionChefGeoff · 17/02/2023 07:18

Onions!!

Which cavewoman, who after stripping away the layers and her eyes started streaming thought 'I know I'll try eating this'

Surely you'd assume it was poisonous??

TroysMammy · 17/02/2023 07:25

Things like this blow my mind too but I'd like to know who for example decided and why that a piece of wood between two rooms should be called a door?

Thatsnotmybee · 17/02/2023 07:25

What gets me is that multiple people across the world invented the same things. How did they all come up with similar ideas? And the development of language baffles me. Who decided "ah yes, we'll call this grass" and then somehow get everyone in an entire country to use the same word?

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 17/02/2023 07:28

TroysMammy · 17/02/2023 07:25

Things like this blow my mind too but I'd like to know who for example decided and why that a piece of wood between two rooms should be called a door?

I always find it interesting that the English word 'window' is very different from French and German because ours comes from Old Norse whereas they went with the Latin word.

F0Xinthesnow · 17/02/2023 07:28

Smoking is a weird one. I wonder how that started

sashh · 17/02/2023 07:33

SmokyForTheWin · 17/02/2023 07:11

Me too. Cake, for example. 'Let's take that raw egg, mix it with flour & sugar, and see what it tastes like after we've cooked it. ' 🤔

Show quote history

More likely someone dropped some random stuff on the floor and couldn't waste it so scraped it all together.

And of course Yorkshire pudding was invented by an angel.

ToAllTheStars · 17/02/2023 07:34

I often think of things like this. It's fascinating.

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