Inventions

Inventions can be the result of many processes and events. There are different reasons to explain why a particular invention appears. As you already know, inventions are often the work of a single inventor, like Thomas Edison. He was a special man who was always thinking of new ideas and trying to put them into practice.

However, other inventions are produced by teams of people working on a problem. For example, the first computers were too big and heavy, and they occupied too much space. Th e development of smaller, more efficient computers was done by a team of scientists.

So why do inventions happen? Usually it is because of a need – in response to a necessity. There is a famous English saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention”. For example, anaesthetic was invented because people suffered too much during operations. Robots were invented because industry needed to produce things faster, and fertilizers were invented because of the need to cultivate more food for a growing population.

Not everyone is good at inventing, although we can all try! The best inventors have always been creative thinkers. They have oft en had good imaginations like Leonardo da Vinci.

Inventions need materials. An idea is useless without them. A pneumatic bicycle tyre, for example, needs rubber. Without rubber, it cannot exist.

So if we want to be inventors we need imagination and materials, but these things are still not enough. We also have to think about how to promote our invention, and how to fi nd people with money who will be interested in helping us.

Also, if we want to be famous, it is also very important to patent (officially register) our invention so we can prove that the invention was ours.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that inventions are not always the result of one original idea. They are oft en the result of a historical process. The bicycle, for example, is a combination of many inventions – the wheel, tyres, chains, brakes, spokes etc. So a series of discoveries or inventions can result in an invention that is very significant.