How "small" ideas changed the worldKnowledge

Inventions From DIN standards to stirrups: How "small" ideas changed the worldIt did not always take the great moments of science to change the course of events. We present supposedly small ideas whose influence on the history of humankind is often misjudged. DIN standard: A new world language The fact that today - more and more often - one thing fits another has its beginning in less fortunate times: During the First World War, the procurement of materials had to be standardised. German Industrial Standard (DIN) number one, published in 1918, refers to a connecting element in mechanical engineering, the taper pin. The war ends, DIN becomes a formula for success. In 1925, the first standardised locomotive of the Reichsbahn starts rolling. In the beginning, there is also criticism, right up to the 1950s: hysteria about standards, the end of individuality, restrictions on freedom of design. It falls silent, standards become the global language of the economy. It is only because there is a standard for the dimensions, mounting and stackability of shipping containers (see last picture) that goods can be transported efficiently around the globe. More Zero: What was missing to calculate Two inventions, both coming from the Indian subcontinent, are inseparably linked: the decimal place value system. And the zero - without which the former would not work. The position of individual number symbols indicates ones, tens, hundreds. If there is no tens unit within a number - for example 206 - the gap is filled with a zero. It was this invention that made exact arithmetic easier. It is unclear exactly when the idea of writing an equivalent digit in the blank space was born. One of the oldest records is probably a manuscript from what is now Pakistan, from the 3rd or 4th century. In the 7th century, the mathematician Brahmagupta already calculated with the zero and came to the conclusion: the value of a number does not change if you add or subtract a zero. At the same time, nine digits were created in India for the ones, which look amazingly similar to ours today. Before that, large numbers had to be represented by several symbols - like the Romans. The multiplication of such constructs as XII × CLII = MDCCCXXIV is extremely complicated. coolinventions More Stirrups: A Military Revolution A world-shaking invention could hardly seem more inconspicuous: the stirrup. Two metal supports that dangle from the side of the horse's saddle and provide support for the feet while riding. Yet such stirrups have decided battles, contributed to the rise of great empires and thus changed the course of history. Although people have probably been riding horses for more than 6,000 years, their feet have had no support for a long time: Persians, Greeks and Romans had to swing themselves onto the horse with the help of their spear and then press their legs firmly against its body to avoid falling off. The warrior as acrobat. Around 100 BC, the first depictions of saddle straps for hooking the feet or loops for the big toes can be found in India. But these devices are risky because it is difficult for the rider to free himself from them if he falls. It was not until the Chinese succeeded in casting stirrups for the whole foot out of iron or bronze in the 3rd century AD. The consequences of this invention, which spread rapidly across Asia, were felt by the Eastern Romans in 560 when they were attacked by the Avars, horsemen from the Central Asian steppes: Thanks to their stirrups, the Avar attackers developed unprecedented fighting strength. The Vikings were one of the first peoples to adopt the innovation and spread it to Europe, where the stirrup caused a military revolution in the 9th century. More Double-entry bookkeeping: debit and credit "It is one of the most beautiful inventions of the human mind": this sentence comes from Goethe and refers to - double-entry bookkeeping. Every business transaction is recorded twice, debits are booked against credits, expenses are compared with income: Luca Pacioli (1445-1514), a teacher of Leonardo da Vinci, is the first to formulate this recipe for success in economic progress; in 1494, in a mathematical treatise. Paciola admonishes "that one should enter all one's transactions in due order, so that one may shortly have knowledge of both debts and credits". And if not? Some economic historians also attribute the downfall of the Hanseatic League in the 16th century to a lack of double-entry bookkeeping - the merchants of the North lost track of debits and credits and miscalculated badly. More Siphon: The Perfection of the WC The British clockmaker and mathematician Alexander Cumming (c. 1732-1814) was a master of precision. King George III commissioned him to make a device for recording atmospheric pressure, and Cumming also developed a cutting device for making microscope slides. His greatest invention, however, was simple and rather rustic: a tube bent into an s-shape. In 1775, Cumming patented the siphon. John Harrington, another Briton, invented the water closet as early as 1596. But firstly, there was hardly any functioning sewerage system at the time. And secondly, the construction entailed a disreputable problem: rising sewer gases from the sewage now found their way into the home. Cumming's solution is as simple as it is ingenious. A little water always remains in the lower bend of his pipe. The result is an odour trap that is still in good working order today. More Board Game: The Usefulness of the Useless Not only technical innovations are evidence of progress. Inventions whose usefulness is not immediately obvious also indicate that the world is changing. Thus, the first advanced civilisations were already devoted to board games. The oldest of this kind comes from the royal tombs in Mesopotamia. The rules are probably similar to backgammon, in which two opponents roll the dice to try to advance their pieces quickly and be the first to remove them from the board. Although the game is primarily for diversion, it conceals a civilising achievement: conflict without danger. For the players slip into a role, they enter a mental world with fixed rules and fight against each other without using violence. What's more, researchers see role-playing games as a prerequisite for other cultural achievements such as theatre and opera. More Coins: The gold of Croesus For more than two millennia, states maintained complex economies and engaged in long-distance trade - without uniform coinage. Long-distance traders use lumps of copper, silver or gold as currency, which is impractical: they have to weigh each piece meticulously and determine its purity. Thus transactions are above all: lengthy processes of "weighing". Around 550 BC, King Croesus solves the problem. The ruler of Lydia (in present-day Turkey) has coins minted from pure gold and silver of uniform weight. With his stamp he vouches for reliability and creates confidence in the currency. The size of the coins and symbols on them each indicate the value. Lydia becomes an attractive place for quick business. The coins give Croesus a new form of influence: financial power. And a new metaphor for the world: "I'm not Croesus after all" still means lack of pecuniary potency. More Containers: Boxes for the world In 1954, the "Warrior" is loaded in the conventional way in New York with around 5,100 tonnes of cargo for Bremerhaven. This means that workers have to heave 194,582 parts into the hold and stow the barrels, crates and sacks there individually and by hand; a life-threatening job. It takes ten days to load and unload - as long as it takes to cross the Atlantic. Malcolm McLean has a better idea: to pack the cargo into large standard boxes, containers, so that they can be transferred to trucks more easily. He converts used tankers into container ships, and in 1956 the first, the "Ideal X", sets sail. In the late 1960s, McLean works for the US military - which has to transport gigantic amounts of equipment because of the Vietnam War. On the way back, he has his ships transport goods from Japan. Thus begins modern globalisation.