Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Inventions That Have Been Used For Centuries

By Carey Bourdier


While it may be true that we no longer have to wait weeks for a letter to reach another country or continent and our production lines are largely mechanized, there are still many tools used today that are quite similar to the way they were hundreds of years ago. These tools range from navigational items to those used for various types of construction projects.

If you enjoy gardening or work in construction, a wheelbarrow can certainly provide you with an easy way to transport dirt, debris, rocks or other items from place to place. While the materials used to create wheelbarrows have changed through the years, the actual design is still fairly similar to the days when the Ancient Greeks and Chinese used wheelbarrows for many different tasks.

For millions of years, man has used tools, and in the earliest of times, strong stones were used as hammers. Today, just about every house in the world possesses some type of hammer, typically a claw hammer that can be used to apply force or to remove nails. Evidence of hammers that look quite a bit like these every day hammers have been found to be as many as 10,000 years old,and that's just in the United States.

There are people whose whole life revolves around metrology, otherwise known as the science of measurement. Among the many tools used by these scientists, as well as surveyors and aerospace engineers, is the theodolite. This tool is helpful because it allows the user to measure angles in both planes, which obviously has many applications. This device is not something new, however, and the theodolites we see today are quite similar to those constructed in the late 18th century. The earliest theodolites were constructed in the early 16th century.

A large ocean-going ship relies on many high-tech devices, such as RADAR, SONAR and depth finders, but most ships do still carry navigational tools that have existed in some form for many centuries. Among these are compasses and sextants, as well as a variety of telescopes. While today's telescopes are more powerful and accurate than those from centuries ago, the basic design principles are much the same and sailors still learn how to use a variety of these old tools, which can be helpful if, for some reason, power is suddenly cut off.

While you might never have heard of an inclinometer or clinometers, they are important tools for many industries. These devices measure the angles of slope or the tilt of an object in relation to the force of gravity. These devices aren't exactly ancient, but they have been around for more than a century and are used in the aerospace industry, as well as designing ski slopes, monitoring the condition of volcanoes and even used to study range of motion in our bodies.




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