The Greatest Mechanical invention

I would say the bearing. A simple but ingenious mechanical invention.

The invention of the rolling bearing, in the form of an object being moved on wooden rollers, is of great antiquity and may predate the invention of the wheel.

Interesting question Graham!

Giacomo

Edited By JamieG on 10/10/2012 13:42:03

We have had quite a vareiety of suggestions in response to Graham's question. OK I might be being a little pedantic but the question to the forum was about the most 'Valuable' 'mechanical' invention.

My take is that he means value to society rather than monetary worth, also by mentioning the humble(?) tractor he infers something quite complex which would rule out the wheel or Archimedean screw.

So really its back to Graham to define what he means by those terms.

Ian P

Hi All

To me it would have to be the printing press in recent times or the wheel some time in the distant past.

Cheers

John

Hi Trev,

No shooting from here, but just one point, Newcomens cylinders were cast and hand scraped, Boilers rivetted from wrought iron plates. If we are gonig for large machines, the first ones to have any real power were wind and water mills. Early hammers for beating plates were water powered, as were rolling mills and the air blast for early smelting.

Hi Eric,

I don't see your distinction, the OP asked for the most important mechanical device, not machine or mechanism. Most would agree that a hand tool is a mechanical device, it's certainly not a digital one. Perhaps the first time a caveman made a stone hammer fills the bill, it seperated us from the animals and enabled the progress that eventually led to the agrarian revolution and the rest is history as they say.

Hi Michael,

I would agree with your hypothesis,

Best regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 10/10/2012 15:12:53

The tractor is just a devolopment of the traction engine which is just a portable steam engine which is just development (in power) of the water wheel which is just an alternative to the windmill which was probably first. However these items being largely associated with producing a food surplus and hence overpopulating the planet leading to its destruction are anytrhing but of vaue to the human race.

The wheel is of little importanvce to civilisation as many never used it eg Incas, and on early trade routes pack animals only were used.

I vote for the umberella which has inspired more good songs than tractors.

Hi Gray,

Did you not see my suggestion above (on page 1 of the thread)?

Best regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 10/10/2012 15:17:04

Before the screw thread, we used tapered pins and wedges etc to hold things together.

A rudimentory lathe can made with a couple of sharp pieces of wood or bone for the centres, metal or stone for the cutting tool, and powered by a man, that would be plenty good enough to start all kinds of balls rolling for the improvement of life.

Martin.

I would go for windmill, much older than the steam engine and when we have

consumed all the fossil fuel with our other "great inventions" we can still use it.

Toss up between inclined plane or lever

Hi Martin,

Of course we did, but the screw thread allowed a much wider range of equipment to be built including precision and delicate instruments - I haven't yet seen a micrometer based on wedges and although there have been primitive lathes since ancient times it took the screw thread to make it so versatile and accurate.

I wouldn't trust a vehicle on the motorway held together with wedges, but seriously the production of a positive, quick change interchangable fixing device allowed the industrial revolution to really take off.

But.....If we are to go back that far, as I said it would be the first hammer leading eventually to early civilisation more tools, settled lives, substantial buildings and surplus food allowing specialisation of labour ............. and the first lathes.

Best regards

Terry

Hi jason,

the screw thread is just an inclined plane around a cylinder to make a helix.  No such thing as a spiral staircase,  A spiral is flat like a clockwork spring, The staircase is helical.

Regards

T

Edited By Terryd on 10/10/2012 17:27:54

The kettle, without it Watt wouldn't have invented the steam engine, or given engineers the means to make hot tea to help ponder the next big mechanical engineering problem.

Windmills and waterwheels might have a place on the list, harnessing natural energy to do useful work, and coming well before the first practical steam engine, being that of Newcomen in 1712.

Andy

I vote for the 18V cordless hammer.( See hazard frought tools on Model engine maker website. )

Cheers Dek.

P.S. I do'nt know how to do links.!!!

Pizza gets my vote as the top invention. Oh, the wheel is very handy I grant you, lathes are based on the wheel, etc. but pizza goes a lot better with beer than the wheel.

JD

(PS can't take any credit for the above, read it somewhere else recently and had a larf, thought I'd try and give someone else one.)

It has to be the lever. And by extension, any reduction gear.

And Mick, Watt didn't invent the steam engine, he just improved Newcomen's engine.

As a runner up, the still, as in 12 year old scotch.

Ian

I'll second the grain mill - wind or water. The need to grind corn drove the development of machinery to harness wind and water power to give a rotary motion. The whole of the industrial revolution was built upon this expertise. Mind you, pizza is pretty important as well - though it must have anchovies and capers.

Rod

Gentlemen,

I would say that hand tools come first for me because without them nothing would have got to the lathe, steam engine and tractor etc

Martin P

Hi I reckon it's the geometry set, so all the clever clogs could draw out the plans for all the inventions that all the other clever clogs could make and give jobs to the tractor drivers, turners, millwrightes, kettle and pizza makers, ect. ect. which then made all the bankers rich so we could have something to moan about.

But a bycycle was better than a first class walk to work. I think my mum (God rest her soul) would have said that the washing machine and sewing machine would have been top of the list. Oh and the vacuum cleaner.

Regards Nick.

It is the Anvil, that the first Blacksmiths used to shape and mould wrought iron and steel.

Clive