Inventions have the ability to change the way we live our lives, but sometimes they simply fail to impress and fall by the wayside, perhaps because the product falls short of performance expectations, or because it wasn’t properly thought through in the first place. Who would have thought the World Wide Web could have dramatically changed how we all behave and communicate with one another, every day.
Most engineers would agree that new product development isn’t an easy process. More often than not, it doesn’t always work first time, so a return to the drawing board is needed either to make design amendments or changes to materials, etc. I usually have another coffee, breathe and try again. This design cycle can repeated a number of times, believe me....
When developing a new product, two heads (plus!), are usually better than one. This is the reality that many inventions are not being attributed to just one, but many inventors having a hand in making changes, so they evolve over time and in turn keep in parallel with new discoveries. This can be said of the television, originally only available in black and white in the 19th century and then a colour version was created and patented a few decades later in the 20th century.
The ability for engineers and inventors to make things with tools really took off with the breakthrough during the industrial revolution which led to so many inventions being created during this time. I for one am glad that we’re not still sitting here with flint and stone because more than ever we need to look to the future to continue to create new inventions and processes that not only meet expectations but can better look after the natural world and its diverse economies.
