Top Ten Inventions that effected the early Settlers - Historum

TalesOfFan · July 15th, 2009, 10:55 AM

I am doing a report for my High School USA History class, and we have been asked to find 10 inventions from 1492-1607 C.E., that effected the early settlers and explorers lives. I have not been able to find anything of importance, do any of you have any ideas?

**Pedro** · July 15th, 2009, 11:26 AM

Any ten articles of daily use would be important and effect their lives. Maybe the word 'important' isn't so important. Look for the humbler articles that made life easier. Good luck. Sound like an interesting project.

TalesOfFan · July 15th, 2009, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedro

Any ten articles of daily use would be important and effect their lives. Maybe the word 'important' isn't so important. Look for the humbler articles that made life easier. Good luck. Sound like an interesting project.

I have actually been trying to do that, but I haven't had much luck on finding anything that was invented in that time period, most of the stuff (even the mundane) are either years before or years after the specified time zone.

ttanner · July 16th, 2009, 06:41 PM

Ben Franklin - lightning rod (1749)
John Campbell - Sextant (1757)
Christian Huygens - Pocket watch (1675)

Just a few

Wobomagonda · July 16th, 2009, 06:50 PM

1500
Wheel-lock musket invented.
The first flush toilets appeared.

1510
Leonardo DaVinci designs a horizontal water wheel.
Pocket watch invented by Peter Henlein.

1565
A graphite pencil invented by Conrad Gesner.

1569
Gerard Mercator invents Mercator map projection.

1589
Englishmen, William Lee invents a knitting machine called the stocking frame.
1590
Dutchmen, Zacharias Janssen invents the compound microscope.
1593
Galileo Galilei invents a water thermometer.

1607-1608
Hans Lippershey invents the first refracting telescope.

I found these for you, but you'll have to find some of your own as well, no one here will do your homework for you, not all of these will work, like the horizontal water wheel, but some will help.

DesertPilot · July 16th, 2009, 08:28 PM

Fire. Winters in New England would have been pretty grim without it

More seriously, 1) decent ships and 2) the mouldboard plow. Without the former to provide a lifeline back to Europe and a transport for goods, there's absolutely no way the colonists could have survived. And without the latter, agriculture in newly-cleared forest land would have been impossible.

Next on the list might be 3) decent spinning wheels and looms, since clothing could well have been the big capital expense for a subsistence farmer of that era and 4) those spiffy two-man crosscut saws. To clear land. On which to use those mouldboard plows. Decent harnesses for horses could also be up there, but I believe oxen were the most common draft animals for early settlers in North America.

And nails! Yes. Early blacksmiths spent the majority of their time making nails. Forge the frigging ingot ("Whappety whappety"). Pound out the frigging wire ("Whappety whappety"). Cut it down to length ("Whappety whappety chop"). Over and over and over and over again. Ye gods, making nails is boooring! But it was worth the effort for nails are way cool. You can use them to build houses. You can use them to build ships. You can trade them for... um... err... well... you can trade them during visits to islands in the South Pacific. Where would we all be without nails?

TalesOfFan · July 16th, 2009, 08:53 PM

Thanks a lot guys those are a big help, and I am sure it will help narrow my searches.

**Pedro** · July 16th, 2009, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DesertPilot

You can trade them for... um... err... well... you can trade them during visits to islands in the South Pacific. Where would we all be without nails?

I believe it was Magellens crew that gave us the expression 'i got nailed..'*

*(Just wanted you to know that I got it.)

**Heidi XX** · July 17th, 2009, 12:33 AM

Would Water Wells be a good effected inventions for the early settlers?

DesertPilot · July 18th, 2009, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heidi XX

Would Water Wells be a good effected inventions for the early settlers?

Having spent (or misspent, as the case may be) a good part of my youth in New England, I can assure you, finding water is not a problem in that part of the world. Wow, is it ever not a problem. Indeed, words do not exist to describe just how much of a problem it isn't.

It's rather like trying to stay warm in Alice Springs in the middle of the afternoon during the summer, which I suspect isn't much of a problem either