A dozen of the most significant inventions from the past 60 years have been selected by the Science Museum and the Royal Academy of Engineering to honour The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The inventions, which range from the Pilot ACE computer, the World Wide Web and the Apollo space programme to the mobile phone, mark some of the milestones of engineering excellence which have had the greatest impact on people’s lives. Each invention marks a different decade of Her Majesty’s reign from the 1950s to the present day.
The project coincides with the ongoing public nominations for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, a new £1 million prize run by the Academy that recognises outstanding advances in engineering that have changed the world and benefited humanity.
Ben Russell, curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum, said: “Taking much of our inspiration from the museum’s collections, we have looked back over the last six decades and chosen stories that we believe have had the greatest global impact. These inventions have brought people and communities together and have challenged our ideas of what we perceive engineering to actually be.”
He explained that the projects were divided into two main categories: those that have stood out and had a very high public profile and those which have been more understated, but still played a major role as ‘enabling’ technologies.
Lord Broers, chair of judges for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, commented: “The last 60 years have seen a quantum leap in our engineering and technological capability. We have visited the Moon and learnt the workings of DNA, the very stuff of life. Communication is radically different to how it was in the ‘50s – instant broadband communication with people on the other side of the world was just a dream for all but the inspired engineers who went on to make it a reality.
“The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is looking for engineering achievements of this calibre - ideas that will change the world and inspire the next generation of engineers.”
The 12 inventions:
1950: Pilot ACE computer
The Automatic Computing Engine evolved from the earliest post-war project to create a general-purpose British electronic computer. It was built at the National Physical Laboratory, and embodied the original ideas of the mathematician Alan Turing.
1952-58: The Integrated Circuit
The idea of incorporating a range of tiny electronic components on a single semi-conducting wafer or ‘chip’ was first envisaged by Geoffrey Dummer at Britain’s Royal Radar Establishment in 1952. The first microchip was constructed by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce of Texas Instruments in 1958.
1961-72: The Apollo programme
In 1961 John F Kennedy proposed to put a man on the moon ‘before the decade is out’. The space programme led to a range of spin-offs, from Teflon to miniature computers. One of its greatest legacies was in providing views of the earth from space, awakening public awareness of the fragility of the planet.
1966: Optical fibres
Optical fibres have become critical to transmitting information from one place to another, by sending pulses of laser light through a glass fibre. Optical fibres speed the flow of information through systems that stretch across the globe today.
1970: Shipping container
The shipping container has quietly facilitated a revolution in how things are transported. As more than 90% of all the goods we use are transported by sea, the unregarded standard shipping container is the most important tool of global trade.
1971: CT scanner
The CT (Computerised Tomography) scanner has affected a revolution in how we see inside our bodies. Godfrey Hounsfield at EMI developed the first commercially viable scanner, the pioneer of a whole generation of machines that are today crucial aids in diagnosis and treatment.
1981: BBC Micro computer
Created primarily by Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson, the BBC Micro transformed the culture of computing. Alongside Sinclair's Spectrum, the BBC computer underpinned a surge of interest in home programming and made UK one of the most computer literate countries in the world.
1983: The mobile phone
From its early origins as a ‘brick’ in the 1970s, the mobile phone became widely used, and was appropriated as a symbol of wealth and affluence in the 1980s. In the 2000s it has become a driver for economic growth, and billions of mobile phones are now in use across the globe.
1990: World Wide Web
British engineer and computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee and Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau launched a project at CERN, near Geneva, which would become the World Wide Web – a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via global computer networks.
1990: GPS
Global Positioning System can provide information on location and time anywhere on the face of the earth where there is a line of sight to four or more of a network of 31 satellites. Originally designed as a military system, GPS can now be found in everything from cars to clocks.
2000: DNA Sequencing
New high-speed sequencing methods have made possible the sequencing of the entire human genome for the first time. Sequencing has given rise to entirely new fields, including synthetic biology which could result in new treatments for disease and highly efficient ways to make biofuels.
2004: Millau Viaduct
The Millau viaduct in southern France is the world’s longest bridge at this the altitude of 343 metres. Positioned on an important transport route between France and Spain, it was designed by the French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and the British architect Sir Norman Foster.
- Do you agree with the inventions chosen? If not, what unsung innovations do you think are worthy of accolade? Please comment below.