THE UK’S GIFTS TO THE WORLD
It is 30 years since the birth of the world wide web. Marion McMullen looks at other British inventions that have changed our lives
1 OXFORD University graduate Sir Tim Berners Lee, left, invented the world wide web 30 years ago after becoming frustrated at having to log on to a different computer every time he wanted to access information not on his main computer. A number of names were considered, including Information Mesh and Mine of Information.
2 SCOTTISH electrical engineer and television pioneer John Logie Baird began working on his invention when he retired from a power company due to ill health. He gave a display of his television in London in 1926 and his mechanically scanned system was adopted by the BBC in 1929. He provided an improved system five years later and also helped to pioneer colour TV.
3 SCOTTISH-BORN scientist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell gave the world both the telephone and the metal detector. The first phone call in 1876 was to his assistant Thomas Watson and he said: “Mr Watson come here. I want to see you.”
4 BUILDING work and structures around the world owe a debt of gratitude to Joseph Aspdin. The northerner was the son of a bricklayer and patented Portland cement in 1824. His son William went on to develop the cement in the 1840s. It is now one of the world’s most versatile construction materials.
5 AERONAUTICAL engineer and designer Sir Frank Whittle changed the face of air travel forever when he helped to develop the first jet engine during the Second World War. The Royal Air Force officer retired with the rank of air commodore and was knighted in 1948 for his groundbreaking work. He went on to work as a research professor at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.
6 THE hovercraft was created in 1953. Inventor Sir Christopher Cockerell, pictured above demonstrating his work, said getting support for his idea proved tricky. “The Admiralty said it was a plane and not a boat, the Royal Air Force said it was a boat and not a plane, the Army were plain not interested,” he recalled.
7 BRITISH engineer Hubert Cecil Booth is best known for inventing the first powered vacuum cleaner. He built his first machine in 1901 and demonstrated it at the Empire Music Hall in London. It was originally intended to help clean railway cars, but was quickly developed for all types of cleaning. The early machines were so big they had to be pulled by horses.
8 GLASWEGIAN Charles Macintosh’s invention has been keeping people dry for generations. He patented his groundbreaking waterproof material in 1823 and his raincoat went on the bear his name ... the mackintosh. His discovery came about as part of experiments with a by-product of tar called naphtha.
9 YORKSHIRE inventor Percy Shaw improved road safety with his “cat’s eyes” reflective road studs. It is said the mill worker’s son, who left school at 13, came up with the idea while cycling home from the pub and saw a cat’s eyes reflected in the dark. Patented in 1934, they were soon appearing on our roads.
10 THE world smells a lot sweeter thanks to Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s pioneering sewage system work. The Londoner was appointed chief engineer to overhaul the capital’s drainage problems following the “Great stink of London” in 1858, when a hot summer caused a stench so bad it even overwhelmed politicians in parliament. He went on to advise around the world on his systems.