Originally posted by pommie bastard:
Here we go,Lets play Aussie baiting as opposed to Pommy batting.
Charles Babbage (1791 - 1879) invented the Difference Engine, the first information processor and the precursor to the computer, thus launching a whole way of life.
John Logie Baird (1888 - 1946) is immortalised for his invention of Television (1926) but also worked on early developments in radar and fibre optics (1924/5).
James Dyson (1947 - fl. 2000) is another inventor in the grand British tradition. He started out his successful run with the Sea Truck amphibious vehicle (1970), the ball-barrow (1974), the Trolleyball boat trolley(1978), the Wheelboat (1983) and finally, resulting from a project begun in 1983 in the ballbarrow factory, the cyclone vacuum cleaner which bears his name (1993).
The first sewing machine was patented by Thomas Saint in 1790, long after the knitting machine, invented by William Lee in 1589; in 1810 Peter Durand patented the food canning process
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 - 1859) is best remembered for the SS. Great Britain, the first propellor driven oceangoing steamship (1845), (using the screw propellor invented by another Briton, Robert Wilson, in 1827) but he also designed and built the first transatlantic passenger steamship the SS. Great Western (1838), named in honour of the Great Western Railway (which he also built between 1835 & 1841), the Clifton suspension bridge, countless tunnels, bridges, even harbours, and the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid by the Great Eastern (launched in 1858).
Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922) patented both Telegraphy (1875) and the Telephone (1876), opening up modern telecommunicationsThe great British inventors and engineers of the period of the Industrial revolution and the years following had a lasting impact on the lives of everyone in "civilised world." Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867) invented both the electrical generator and the electric motor, thus influencing all kinds of things we now take for granted - without electricity, where WOULD we be?
In the field of transport, British engineers were unequalled : James Watt (1736 - 1819) & Richard Trevithick (1771 - 1833) both invented new steam engines and improved on older designs to improve safety - early steam engines, such as those pioneered by Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729), had a nasty habit of exploding unexpectedly - paving the way for George Stephenson (1781 - 1848), who invented the first successful passenger-carrying locomotive engine, "The Rocket" in 1829 after his earlier success with "Locomotion No. 1," and together with his son Robert designed and built the world's first railway bridge over the Menai Strait in 1846-51.
Thomas Telford (1757 - 1834) was a prominent and gifted engineer who was responsible for the building of over a thousand miles of roads, major bridges including the forerunner of the modern suspension bridge, over the Menai Straits to link the island of Anglesey to mainland Wales (1819-24), and the world's first iron arch bridge over the Spey in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1813.
John Smeaton (1724 - 1790) - hydraulic cement and the Eddystone lighthouse 1756
Humphry Davy (1778 - 1829) - miner's safety lamp 1815
Robert William Thomson (1822-1873) - pneumatic tyres 1845, spring-interior mattress 1873
Joseph Adamson - flush toilet 1853
Hubert Cecil Booth (1871-1955) - first working vacuum cleaner patented 1901
Alexander Fleming - penicillin 1928
Percy Shaw - cats-eyes 1934
Robert Watson-Watt (1892 - 1973) - perfected RADAR 1935-40
Dennis Gabon - holography 1947
Sir Christopher Cockerell (1910 - 1999) - hovercraft 1959
Eric Laithwite (1921-1997) - linear induction motor - early 1960s
Trevor Baylis (fl 2000) - clockwork radio 1995 and the clockwork torch (flashlight)

There are many, many more British inventions and discoveries which I have not recorded above. The list is almost endless. According to Japanese research figures, of all the patents granted throughout the world for new inventions in the last 50 years, 40% have been to inventors from the British Isles alone, and the trend continues.


You've got way too much time on your hands!






:lecture: :lecture: :lecture:

Originally posted by Houdini:


Remind us all again why you're living in Oz and not in the UK?

Originally posted by pommie bastard:


Missonary work armed only with a Union Jack I was sent to convert the unclean masses here to the one true faith POMISM .
This is beyond me I will return defeated but others will follow , one day Australia will become the lucky country again but not in my life time.
So flag back in my case off I go back to a place where people can grow and prosper , a green and pleasant of my birth.

God Save the Queen.

Originally posted by Houdini:


You must have been away from the UK for a looong time. When did you leave by the way? Was it 1966? I wish I was around that time - apparently it was the best year in English history, so we're led to believe everyday. Can't wait for England to win the world cup again! Nah sod it. I'm heading down under.

Originally posted by pommie bastard:


No when Maggi was was in power a complete mad women, Australia welcomes misfits and failures apply now.

Originally posted by Houdini:


Cool! I'll pack my bags now, being the failure and misfit I am I need a place to fit in. Have you got a spare room?