Energy radiant
Classification
Radiant energy is fire, heat, sun, light, and nuclear energy. There are 35 prehistoric uses of fire. Of the Top 100 inventions, one third directly require fire or heat in some form for the invention. A second third of the Top 100 require fire or heat indirectly for the invention.
Inventions from the ORAL ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Control of Fire | 250,000 BCE | Africa (1) | ||
35 PREHISTORIC USES OF FIRE | ||||
1) Heat | ||||
2) Light | ||||
3) Nutrition from cooking | ||||
4) Protection/shelter | ||||
5) Sterilize water | ||||
6) Charcoal to restart fire | ||||
7) Clearing land for crops | ||||
8) Signaling | ||||
9) Burning waste | ||||
10) Cremation | ||||
11) Repel insects | ||||
12) Cauterize wounds | ||||
13) Hardening wood/stone | ||||
14) Drying objects, clothes/food | ||||
15) Food preservation, smoking meat | ||||
16) Waterproofing with smoke | ||||
17) Migration in cold climates | ||||
18) Drive animals | ||||
19) Smoke out bees for honey | ||||
20) Drive out holed animals | ||||
21) Bending wood (Bow) | ||||
22) Burn out canoes | ||||
23) Black pigment, charcoal | ||||
24) Char wood to decrease rot | ||||
25) Remove seed chaff | ||||
26) Smoke tobacco | ||||
27) Scar/tatoos | ||||
28) Burning hair off hides | ||||
29) Warfare | ||||
30) Religious ceremonies | ||||
31) Detoxify botulism | ||||
32) Glue from birch bark | ||||
33) Ink from charcoal and glue | ||||
34) Toothpaste | ||||
35) Soap |
Inventions from the TOKENS ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Kiln | furnace | 6000 BCE | Sumer | Mesopotamia |
Bow drill | for starting fires | 4500 BCE | Indus River | |
Oil lamp | radiating light | 4000 BCE | Egypt |
Inventions from the WRITTEN ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Oven | for bread baking | 3000 BCE | Egypt | |
Candle | radiant light | 3000 BCE | Egypt/Crete | |
Bellows | for smelting | 2500 BCE | Mesopotamia | |
| ||||
HISTORIC TOP 100 FIRE USES | ||||
1) Control of FIRE | ||||
2) Smelting copper, bronze, iron | ||||
3) Steam engine | ||||
4) Internal combustion engine | ||||
5) Black gunpowder | ||||
6) Glass, optical lenses | ||||
7) Ceramics | ||||
8) Fission power | ||||
9) Artificial satellite | ||||
10) Semiconductor electronics | ||||
11) Smokeless gunpowder | ||||
12) Plastics | ||||
13) Steam turbine | ||||
14) Nitrogen fixation (Haber-Bosch process) | ||||
15) Concrete | ||||
16) V-2 rocket | ||||
17) Petroleum refining | ||||
18) Soap | ||||
19) Stainless steel | ||||
20) Aluminum | ||||
21) Fiberoptics | ||||
22) Nail | ||||
23) Screw | ||||
24) Photovoltaic cell, silicon | ||||
25) Fusion technology | ||||
26) Oxy-acetylene torch welding | ||||
27) Safety bicycle | ||||
28) Saw | ||||
29) Gears | ||||
30) Axe, wedge, chisel | ||||
31) Rivet | ||||
32) Synthetic diamond | ||||
33) Disposable hypodermic syringe | ||||
34). Polyester, synthetic fiber polymers |
Inventions from the ALPHABET ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Blast furnace | for smelting ores | 400 BCE | China | |
Lighthouse | for navigation | 250 BCE | Alexandria, Hellenistic Egypt | |
Torch | sulfur and lime | 100 AD | Rome |
Inventions from the NUMBERS ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Sulfur matches | 577 AD | China | ||
Windmill | wind power | 650 AD | Persia | |
Black gunpowder | sulfur, charcoal, potassium nitrate | 850 AD | Wei Boyang | China |
Firelance | first firearm | 950 AD | China | |
Bomb | explosive | 1221 AD | China | |
Hand cannon | firearm | 1250 AD | China | |
Bronze cannon | weapon/artillary | 1326 AD | China | |
Musket | true firearm | 1350 AD | China |
Inventions from the PRINT ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Rifle | grooves in barrel | 1498 AD | Gaspard Kollner | Austria (20) |
Flintlock ignition | 1612 AD | Marin Le Boureoys | France | |
Steam engine | pump for mines | 1698 AD | Thomas Savory | UK |
Improved Watt compressor | steam engine | 1765 AD | James Watt | UK (16) |
Shrapnel shell | explosive fragmentation | 1784 AD | Henry Shrapnel | UK |
Percussion cap firearm | 1807 AD | Alexander John Forsyth | UK | |
Internal combustion engine | engine cylinder combustion | 1807 AD | Nicephore Niepce | France |
Breach loaded rifle | 1810 AD | John H. Hall | USA | |
Friction match | 1826 AD | John Walker | UK | |
Cylindrical bullet | 1830 AD | Henri-Gustave Delvigne | France | |
Revolver | practical, functional | 1835 AD | Samuel Colt | USA |
Inventions from the WIRED ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Safety match | 1844 | Gustaf Erik Pasch | Sweden | |
Nitroglycerin | more powerful than gunpowder | 1846 | Ascanio Sobrero | Italy |
Metal cartridge bullet | percussion cap base | 1846 | Houiller | France |
Repeating rifle | 1849 | Walter Hunt | USA | |
Internal combustion engine | gas | 1859 | Etienne Lenoir | France |
Henry rifle | 1860 | Benjamin Robert Henry | USA | |
Machine gun | Gatling gun | 1862 | Richard Gatling | USA |
Torpedo | 1864 | Giovanni Luppis, Robert Whitehead | Austria/UK | |
Springfield rifle | breech loading | 1865 | Springfield Armory | USA |
Dynamite | powerful explosive | 1867 | Alfred Nobel | Sweden |
Winchester 73 | rifle | 1873 | Winchester Co. | USA |
Cathode ray tube | predates television | 1878 | William Crooks | UK |
2 stroke engine | gasoline | 1879 | Karl Benz | Germany |
Light bulb filament | carbonized bamboo | 1879 | Thomas Alva Edison | USA |
Smokeless gunpowder | 3x more powerful than black gunpowder | 1884 | Paul Vielle | France (37) |
Maxim machine gun | 1884 | Hiram Maxim | USA/UK | |
Lever action rifle | Winchester | 1987 | John Moses Browning | USA |
Electric toaster | 1893 | Crompton Co. | UK | |
Diesel engine | compression ignition | 1893 | Rudolf Diesel | Germany |
Pull chain light switch | 1986 | Harvey Hubbell | USA | |
Flashlight | wireless lighting | 1896 | David Misell | UK |
Air conditioner | commercial | 1902 | Willis Carrier | USA (50) |
Flamethrower | 1915 | Richard Fiedler | Germany | |
Tungsten light filament | longer lived lightbulb | 1916 | Irving Langmuir | USA |
Submachine gun | 1918 | Theodor Bergmann | Germany | |
Pop up toaster | 1919 | Charles Strite | USA |
Inventions from the WIRELESS ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Tommy gun | 45 mm portable machine gun | 1920 | John Thompson | USA |
Geothermal power plant | 1921 | John D. Grant | USA | |
Zippo lighter | 1932 | George Blaisdell | USA | |
Nuclear fission of heavy nuclei | uranium, thorium | 1938 | Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Fritz Straussmann | Germany/Austria |
Bazooka | anti-tank weapon | 1942 | Clarence Hickman, Edward Uhl, Leslie Skinner | USA |
Napalm | incendiary weapon | 1942 | Louis Feiser, Harvard U. | USA |
Nuclear fission chain reaction | 1942 | Enrico Fermi, U of Chicago | USA | |
Assault rifle | 1944 | Hugo Schmeisser | Germany | |
Microwave oven | not portable | 1945 | Percy L. Spencer | USA |
Uranium, Little Boy, fission bomb | gun type mechanism, Manhattan project | 1945 | J. Robert Oppenheimer et al. | USA |
Plutonium, Fat Man, fission bomb | implosion mechanism, Manhattan project | 1945 | J. Robert Oppenheimer et al. | USA |
AK -47 | assault rifle | 1947 | Mikhail Kalashnikov | USSR |
Nuclear power plant | fission electricity | 1951 | Walter Zinn | USA |
Thermonuclear fusion bomb | nuclear fusion, Operation Ivy | 1952 | Edward Teller et al. | USA |
Silicon solar cell | sunlight to electricity | 1953 | Gerald Pearson,Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, Bell labs | USA |
Uzi sub machine gun | 1954 | Uziel Gal | Israel | |
LASER, semiconductor | light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation | 1957 | Jun-ichi Nishizawa | Japan |
Ruby LASER | 1960 | Theodore Maiman, Gordon Gould, Charles Hard Townes, Atrhur L. Schawlow | USA | |
LED | light emitting diode | 1962 | Nick Holonyak Jr. | USA |
Lava lamp | 1963 | Edward Craven Walker | USA | |
Carbon dioxide LASER | 1964 | Kumar Patel, Bell labs | USA | |
Liquid crystal display | LCD | 1964 | George Heilmeier | USA |
Portable microwave oven | countertop | 1967 | Amana | USA |
LASER guided bomb | smart bomb | 1967 | US Air Force | USA |
Light emitting diode watch | digital watch, LED display | 1972 | John M. Bergey | USA |
Compact flourescent light bulb | more efficient light | 1976 | Edward E. Hammer, GE | USA |
Neutron bomb | high radiation weapon | 1981 | Samual T. Cohen | USA |
Scram jet engine | more powerful jet | 1981 | Ray Stalker | Australia |
LASER pointer | presentation highlighter | 1982 | Theodore Harold Maiman, Gordon Gould | USA |
OLED display | organic light emitting diode | 1987 | Stephen Van Slyke, Ching W. Tang | USA |
Inventions from the INTERNET ERA Era
Invention | Description | Year | Inventor | Country |
Ultraviolet light water purification | UV water sterilization | 1992 | Ashok Gadgil | USA/India |
Antisatellite LASER | space weapon | 1997 | Department of Defense | USA |
Active denial system, microwave crowd clearing device | heat ray | 2001 | James Jordan Rosenberg, Michael Peter DeLisio, Blythe Chadwick | USA |
LASER mapping of 3 dimensional objects | digital blueprints | 2001 | Ben Kacyra | USA |
Improvised explosive device | IED remotely activated | 2001 | international | Middle East |
LASER pulsed energy projectile | PEP LASER induced plasma explosion | 2002 | E. M. Honig | USA |
Metal storm machine gun | 1 million rounds/minute | 2007 | J. Mike O'Dwyer | Australia |
Massive ordinance penetrator | MOP bunker busting bomb | 2007 | Department of Defense | USA |
Anti-drone LASER | heat generating | 2014 | China | China |