Today I’m continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. The aim is to write a post for every day of the month except for Sundays, with each post representing a different letter of the alphabet. This year I’m doing an A-Z of Great Britain, covering as much as I can about British music, literature, TV and film, food, wildlife and culture.
Science, Medicine and Engineering
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Edward Jenner, reported to have invented the Smallpox vaccine. [Public domain image] |
British scientists were responsible for inventing modern atomic theory (John Dalton), cell biology and the compound microscope (Robert Hooke). They pioneered many modern medical operations (blood transfusions, bone marrow transplants, stem cell transplants and hip replacements). They also invented the Smallpox vaccine (Edward Jenner) and general anaesthetic (James Young Simpson and John Snow). Penicillin, the base of many medicines, was also invented in Britain by Sir Alexander Fleming.
Household Goods and Appliances
Many of the things I can’t live without today (flushing toilets, light switches and the chocolate bar) were invented in Britain. Appliances like the bagless vacuum cleaner (James Dyson), the refrigerator (William Cullen) and electric toaster (Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton) were also invented here. Not to mention household goods like postage stamps, Christmas and Valentines’ Cards, pencils, sandwiches, gravy, baby prams, tin cans, rubber bands, Thermos flasks, the typewriter, magnifying glasses, corkscrews and lawn mowers!
Electronics and Communications
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Alexander Graham Bell, believed to have invented the telephone [public domain image]. |
British inventors are responsible for some of the most important developments in communications-the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell), radio (David E.. Hughes) and television (John Logie Baird,1926). Sir Charles Babbage and Alan Turing are also reported to have invented the first computers and programming languages, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.
Military
Cultural Inventions
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Football (known as Soccer in the US) and postage stamps were both invented in Great Britain. |
Britain invented musical instruments such as the concertina (Charles Wheatstone) and the theatre organ (Robert Hope-Jones). Cinematography (William Friese-Greene), the motion picture camera (William Kennedy Laurie Dickson), the first colour photograph (James Clerk Maxwell) and the first movie projector (Eadweard Muybridge) also originated in Britain.

I think that the flushing toilet gets my vote. When I was growing up my Nanna still had one of the outside toilets..thunder boxes we call them in Australia..and I hated having to use it.
Interesting post. Thank you for sharing.