10 Lesser Known BRITISH Inventions that Changed the WORLD

[@GirlGoneLondonofficial]

Kind of want to cover my entire house in linoleum right now to be honest.

[@richt71]

Poor hubby! #justsayin 😁

[@Poliss95]

@GirlGoneLondonofficial Nah. When it's been down a few years it curls up at the edges which break off because it goes brittle. It's also marked easily by Stilettos and other pointy things.

[@TrevorandThea]

@GirlGoneLondonofficial Our town was where the big linoleum factory was built and there’s a statue to lino in our town centre… upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Staines_High_Street_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2835.jpg It includes a poem in praise of linoleum… Release Every Pattern “Roll out the lino from Staines to the world! Release every pattern from chessboard to twirl! In every hopeful kitchen let life unfurl, bathrooms are artrooms from soapsuds to swirl! Roll out the lino from Staines to the world!”

[@jamiesimms7084]

*GirlGoneLinoleum*

[@tonys1636]

I just love the smell of new linoleum, vinyl or its old predecessor, congoleum (cheap plastic based) just smell awful. Lino is green as it is biodegradable and plant based.

[@peterrisingM365]

Just on the "Steve Jobs invented the iPod" comment - it was actually the work of his designer Sir Jonathan Ive, who is responsible for many iconic Apple products, and also just happens to be British. 😊

[@Dermacrosis]

Steve Jobs invented nothing nor did Bill Gates by the way/

[@johnhewett9483]

There is much more to tell about cat's eyes. They had a self cleaning feature that when a vehicle ran over the rubber mounting it would compress and it would be wiped to clean it. Ingenious!!

[@heraklesnothercules.]

I believe the American ones don't have this feature.

[@chrissmith2114]

The guy who developed cats eyes when a cat approached him in the dark and he saw the reflected light, if the cat had been walking away from him he may well have developed the pencil sharpener.

[@aerobarre]

To John Hewitt: A rubber eyelid, in fact.

[@stuartfaulds1580]

Also the Hovercraft invented by Chris Cockerell an English Inventor.

[@redvelvetshoes]

I knew his granddaughter.

[@trevorhart545]

Linear Induction Motor Sir Eric Braithwaite

[@davidfrost779]

@@trevorhart545 Yes the hovercraft was launched and tested in my town of the past 59 years, Dover

[@themightymash1]

With Harrison actually invented something far less well known but even more important whilst developing the Nautical Chronometer, the Bi Metal Strip which was used to automatically adjust for temperature changes to maintain accuracy in the mechanism. It's used in a huge number of things today, but from a British point of of view is most important for allowing the electric kettle to turn itself off.

[@tedthesailor172]

It was used in fire alarms too...

[@lynby6231]

Thermal switches are used in many things and bi- metallic coils are still used in thermometers.

[@chrissmith8773]

It’s a good job the cat was facing towards Percy Shaw, otherwise he would have invented the furry pencil sharpener.

[@clivenewman4810]

🤣

[@markrichardson3421]

That is fing hilarious. Thank you so much.

[@b3564]

And a lot of Children missing pencils!

[@markchisholm2657]

Genius.

[@janettesinclair6279]

Still laughing........!😂😂😂

[@willhovell9019]

Harrison, the inventor of the world's most accurate timepiece, a ships chronometer which lost just five seconds in six weeks, was a Huguenot. The Huguenot and Anglo French innovations from the Brunels, Concorde, the channel tunnel.

[@robharris8844U]

The most earth shattering British invention or discovery in 20th- 21st Century, is the element GRAPHENE which is still being adapted for hundreds of materials and uses including computer parts, motor vehicle coverings and aeroplane manufacture due its lightness, contactivity and micro strength.

[@obi-ron]

It's also used in some nuclear reactors.

[@Stand663]

I was once scrolling through KZbin, and a gentleman was talking about inventions. I was gobsmacked. Practically everything out there in the modern world was invented by the British . It’s too numerous to list. It’s incredible.

[@russelsellick316]

In many ways the British isles began the industrial revolution... it was helped by a wave of religious refugees from France who were largely artisans... their name I cannot spell..Hugenots?

[@heraklesnothercules.]

@@russelsellick316 Spot on... Hugenots. Protestant refugees from Catholic France.

[@chrissmith2114]

@@russelsellick316 Quakers were deeply involved in industrial revolution, Abraham Darby the steelmaker in ironbridge / coalbookdale was a quaker, as well as the cadbury chocolate company . Huguenots usually worked in glass, gun making, bookbinding etc. Hardly the stuff of an industrial revolution.

[@peterjackson4763]

@@chrissmith2114 I believe gun making was important in the standardization of parts.

[@Deepthought-42]

These days the British are generally good at inventing things but relatively hopeless at making money from them.

[@mandolinic]

I guess we need to take a leaf out of William Perkin's book!

[@nikossolomou9507]

Some truth in that. See my posting on Public Key Encryption above. Mind you, the Brits did develop it for protecting Secret Intelligence so couldn't publish the details. The UK didn't even admit they'd developed it 5 years earlier than RSA until the late 1990's.

[@Ayd1th]

i really doubt the british empire 'invented' anything. They were pioneers in looting and stealing though.

[@mickmcnich]

Not just these days, we have invented many things from Bronze, Iron, steel, stainless steel and steam engines and locomotives, railways, the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell Scottish Engineer) to Jet engines, computers, and the World Wide Web (HTTP created by Tim Berners-Lee). what else can one say?

[@thomasfrancis5747]

@@mickmcnich IIRC the telephone was arguably invented slightly earlier by an Italian in the States - Bell got his patents in slightly dodgy circumstances.

[@skipper409]

Harrison’s chronometer was the result of a giant set of shipwrecks involving the wonderfully named Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell

[@ZZKJ396]

Sir Alec Jeffreys, has caught more criminals, saved thousands of lives on death row, brought criminals to justice decades after the crime, with his invention of DNA finger printing... a total hero IMHO.

[@peterjackson4763]

And freed some who were wrongly convicted

[@nickallport931]

The the forerunner to today's skyscraper was invented in my home town of shrewsbury its was the first iron framed building

[@idristaylor5093]

Lino is great. It is waterproof, slip resistant, antibacterial and biodegradable. An excellent choice for bathrooms and kitchens.

[@GirlGoneLondonofficial]

#teamlino

[@marleneclough3173]

Yes better that vinyl or smooth tiles both of which are lethal when wet

[@HighWealder]

And for linocut printing

[@jamespasifull3424]

And the very first ATM customer, in 1967, was a UK comedy actor called Reg Varney, who was in the sitcom, 'The Rag Trade', & was later the star of 'On The Buses', a hugely popular sitcom set in a London bus garage!!

[@iainsan]

It's interesting that the first synthetic dye was purple, as this was a notoriously difficult colour to produce using natural sources: one reason why many ancient societies like the Romans restricted the wearing of purple to the elite class.

[@nlwilson4892]

Not so much a difficult colour but one that could only be made from plants that weren't plentiful. I think licen was the only source and you need a lot of it. The purple only for Royalty and Bishops rule persisted at least into Elizabethan England, not sure when the rule was dropped.

[@TheEulerID]

John Harrison is now very well known, in large part because the American writer Dava Sobel wrote a best-selling book about it called Longitude. it was even made into a 4 part TV drama. Dava Sobel also has an asteroid named after her and is an eclipse chaser (she's observed eight of them). The original linoleum factory was built in Staines, close to Heathrow Airport. That rather nondescript place is now called Staines on Thames, which sounds like the outcome of a chemical spillage, so maybe appropriate. Also, linoleum is now back in fashion for the rich, as there are companies that make special, bespoke versions and some interior designers favour the stuff.

[@neilmorrison7356]

Not forgetting one of his watches was a storyline in Only Fools and Horses 😂

[@maudeboggins9834]

I bought the book years ago & got my kids to read it too, my husband got the translated version. I said this book has all the hallmarks of a film. Double crossing individuals like Neville Maskelyne, money, greed, sacrifice, brilliant idea by a humble John Harrison.

[@maudeboggins9834]

@@neilmorrison7356 My kids got that as they had read the book.

[@TheEulerID]

@@maudeboggins9834 By sheer coincidence, I live in a tiny Cotswold town where another clockmaker, Larcum Kendall was both in 1719. Larcum Kendall set up his own business and was one of the experts selected by the Board of Longitude to witness the operation of Harrison's famous H4 chronometer. He was also given the job of making an accurate copy of H4, and was called K1. These were incredibly expensive pieces and cost the equivalent of about 30% of the ships they were carried in. K1 was used by Captain James Cook on a couple of his expeditions. Kendal went on to produce some much cheaper versions of the chronometer, one of which was on board HMS Bounty at the time of the mutiny. There is also a regular in one of the local pubs called John Harrison, but doesn't seem to know much about time pieces.

[@maudeboggins9834]

@@TheEulerID That is very interesting. I worked with a man decades ago called John Harrison, but he had nothing to do with clocks. As Harrison is a common enough name. But when reading the book by Dava Sobel I was totally gripped by the shenanigans of the Board of Longitude. Harrison was a humble man & that irked the so called learned men who had gone to Cambridge or Oxford & were irked to discover his clocks worked but kept sending him back to work even more & gave the huge prize money to him piecemeal. Fortunately for Mr. Harrison he lived a significantly long time even during the 1700's when people could succumb to all sorts of ailments. Maskelyne & his horrid board members had to finally concede that Harrison's clocks worked. I believe that if Maskelyne had been able to steal Harrisons findings he would have. But regarding the K1 I do believe I have heard of that but did not know of the source, I thank you for giving the name of Mr. Kendall.

[@BobMuir100]

As a proud Englishman , I enjoyed your video immensely, thank you. Kindest Bob England

[@johnzenkin1344]

The world's first ATM cash machine...Enfield London 1967.

[@572Btriode]

Cavity Magnetron ? Just about every kitchen has one.

[@wessexdruid7598]

This needs MUCH more recognition. Ping!

[@572Btriode]

@@wessexdruid7598 Randall & Boot at Birmingham university, Feb 1940. WWII and then all the kitchens, ships, small boats, aircraft and the rest.

[@stevemichael8458]

By-product of another British invention, RADAR.

[@572Btriode]

@@stevemichael8458 Or RDF as it was known back then. The RAF was quite concerned about the first use of an airborne set (H2S) as they knew the standard demolition charges used in sensitive equipment would not be sufficient to destroy the machined and solid copper mass of the magnetron anode block, first trip out indeed one aircraft went down carrying H2S and it fell into enemy hands, however, they never figured out how it worked thankfully.

[@jacquestricatel7055]

@@stevemichael8458 Radar (Telemobiloskop) - Christian Hülsmeyer 1904

[@alanbrown9178]

A fascinating inventor that you might spend hours on, is James Clerk Maxwell. A true polymath. Pioneer of electromagnetism, light, colour, friction of gases, motion, heat, governors..... and more. He was also by all accounts, a very likable person with a mischievous sense of humour. He grew up in the wilds of Galloway and when sent to school in Edinburgh, he was known as "dafty", because of his rural habits. He doesn't get a fraction of the recognition that he deserves unfortunately.

[@leftmono1016]

Einstein might not have made such a huge impact on science without JCM’s discoveries.

[@Englishsea24]

Try mastering his volumes on A Treatise On Electricity And Magnetism. It took Oliver Heaviside, another great British electrical engineering inventor 11 years to come to terms with it

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

What an interesting wee video. Thank you.

[@ethelmini]

Never mind the hypodermic noodle. Did you know that though champagne is French, it took a Brit to invent the champagne bottle?

[@Stand663]

Champagne itself is actually English sparkling wine, made by English monks. Visiting French monks took the recipe and replicated it at a village called Champagne etc and served it the French king who liked it so much, the royal house ordered more. The name champagne became associated with luxury and fine dining and French royalty. The rest is history .

[@1951GL]

Percy Shaw was telling a tale - the cats eyes arose from a chevron sign at the bend on a road from Rose Linda's pub above Halifax. Cut glass spheres were embedded in the white chevrons reflecting headlights back to the driver. He immediately thought "we want them in t' road" and set about doing it. He kept the patent for his invention and, though wealthy, spent very little. A typical Yorkshireman and interesting character.

[@davidjones332]

Percy Shaw seems to have told several different stories about his inspiration for cats eyes -another one was that he saw the moonlight reflecting off tram lines which revealed the curves in the road. There was an interesting TV documentary on him some years ago. His house was furnished with plastic floor tiles, formica tables, plastic stacking chairs and no curtains, since he had a phobia about keeping the place clean. Evidently his idea of a great night was just to order in several crates of beer and invite his friends round.

[@user-Chris.Alger11]

Is it true: He used to live in't shoebox in't middle o't road?

[@carolineskipper6976]

I've always known the name of 'cats' eyes' - it's the sort of thing my Dad told us when we were kids....but the that's how my Dad was. One of the reasons we measure longitude from Greenwich is because that was where the Marine Chronometer was developed. (it's also quite a convenient place on the globe to position the zero point). The story of the Harrison Clock is quite well known in the UK.

[@stephenbrookes7268]

The reason for Greenwich is because that is literally the centre of the universe. So there!

[@gchecosse]

6:00 You missed the factoid that Whitehead's daughter married Captain Von Trapp of the Sound of Music, she was his first wife and mother of most of the children.

[@afpwebworks]

So what were her favourite things?

[@gchecosse]

@@afpwebworks I haven't seen the film.

[@afpwebworks]

@@gchecosse But surely you have heard Julie Andrews singing "favourite things". "Raindrops on roses and (somethings) on kittens ...... "

[@carolineskipper6976]

@@afpwebworks whiskers

[@afpwebworks]

@@carolineskipper6976 YES! Whiskers. My memory was insisting the word was pedals" and i knew that was not right!.

[@jameswyse5590]

British achievements given to the world: England was the first modern democracy, the creator of the industrial revolution, mass-production, the first (manu)factories, discovered how to mass-produce iron, (Abraham Derby, at Ironbridge Gorge), then went on to mass-produce steel (and invent stainless steel) and then invent Portland cement, on which the modern world is built. Although slavery hadn’t really existed in England for centuries, England was the first country to formalise that slavery was impossible in England. In 1772, England carried out the greatest act of genuine altruism in the history of the world, with the fight against the slave trade, which cost billions in today’s money, but from which the British gained nothing. Most of the great nations of the world, including the USA, use English law, including common law, and English values, including free speech (from the 1690s), banning of torture (from the 1640s), no one above the law (1215), jury trials (1100s), innocent until proven guilty. England pioneered the introduction of mechanical machines into farming, the first understanding of electricity, reliable navigation at sea (John Harrison, who invented the first practical marine chronometer), time zones (prime meridian runs through London for a reason), discovery of anti-biotics, the first understanding and common use of vaccines, first use of statistics to discover cause of disease, plus England was the country that first used metal framed building (for skyscrapers). Railways: (Thomas Newcomen, Richard Trevithick, James Watt, and George Stephenson "Father of the Railways"), the electric motor (Michael Faraday), the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell), the steam turbine (Charles Parsons), and industrial hydraulics (Joseph Bramah and William George Armstrong). Television: John Logie Baird. Modern radar: (the cavity magnetron, invented by Sir John Randall and Harry Boot.) In 1940 Winston Churchill offered the magnetron to the Americans in exchange for their financial and industrial help for the war effort. The jet engine (Sir Frank Whittle), then the first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, and the first supersonic airliner, the Concorde. England taught America about nuclear chain reaction, and thus the atomic bomb. (Sir James Chadwick was a British physicist who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron in 1932. In 1941, he wrote the final draft of the MAUD Report, which inspired the U.S. government to begin serious atomic bomb research efforts. He was the head of the British team that worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He was knighted in Britain in 1945 for his achievements in physics.) Some of the great British names that have had a positive influence on the world: Sir Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, Charles Babbage (“father of the computer”) and Alan Turing, Professor Stephen Hawking, Alexander Fleming, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Sir Winston Churchill, Robert Baden-Powell, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), Edward Jenner (inventor of the smallpox vaccine), Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web), James Clerk Maxwell (Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, and the resulting equations, were recognised as the greatest advance in scientific knowledge since Newton’s Principia), Joseph Lister (founder of antiseptic medicine).

[@GirlGoneLondonofficial]

Excellent list, thank you for sharing!

[@Poliss95]

@jameswyse5590 Haiti was the first country in the world to abolish slavery. France abolished slavery before the UK, but they brought it back for a time. Although the slave trade was abolished in 1807, slavery was still legal in England until 1833 and up to 1843 in the Empire. The slave owners were paid millions compensation by the British government. The supposedly freed slaves in England were committed to work for another 6-12 years as unpaid apprentices. The practice wasn't abolished until 1838. The government were still paying compensation until 2015. Railways were invented in Austria. The steam locomotive in France. Trevithick combined the two. The most important man in computers was not Alan Turing, but Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers, who invented the first programable electronic computer. Baird's mechanical television system was a flop. The Marconi/EMI electronic system was the one taken up by the world.

[@waynemillard1495]

Great work.

[@ethelmini]

@@Poliss95 Britain was heavily invested in Brasil, it didn't abolish slavery until the 1880s

[@Deepthought-42]

Everyone knows that Yogi Bear invented television.🤣

[@tobesteruk]

2:51 That’s not what I heard. The account that I read was that Shaw was driving home at night from a rural location to his home in the centre of town. Having struggled with the challenge of driving along unlit country lanes, he was relieved to reach the outskirts of the town where tram-lines were installed in the roads. The reflection of his headlights from the metallic tram lines made it easier for him to see the middle of the road and this made him think about the practicality of installing reflective devices in all roads.

[@andrewsteele4952]

You have missed what is probably the most important British invention, the Jet Engine! Yes, the Germans had a jet fighter in WWII, but they were designed from drawings copied from the inventor Frank Whittle. Unfortunately he was in the RAF and unable to patent it. After the war the British gave designs to the US for FREE!

[@Deepthought-42]

@@b3564 King!

[@Deepthought-42]

And sold it to the Russians so that they could reverse engineer it!

[@reinhard8053]

Not simply a copy. They used a different system and had it running the same year. So they might have used the same principle but a different approach (which is still in use today). Nothing you can achieve by simply copying some drawings of a machine which hadn't even run at that time.

[@colincampbell3679]

@@reinhard8053 In fact the German plane was a Rocket Plane Not a Jet Plane. I was not a Jet Engine But a Rocket one which used a very dangerous form a acid fuel which had the 50/50 chance of exploding before the plane even got up in the air! More of the German pilots died from the fuel blowing up the small plane either just after take off or before landing? The flight time was so short that it really was just a very pointless system used to attack the IS bombers bombing the few remaining airstrips and factories left at the end of the war, the flight time was only about 20 to 30 minutes and although it could fly faster than the protection US fighters, if there was a British Meteor Jet Fighter there the German was doomed as that real Jet Fighter ( the 1st in the world in 1943 ) would be easy chase and shoot it down. But since there was few of the Rocket Planes made due to limits of supplies and the danger of the fuel, they were just another mad idea by Hitlers weapons people to try to stave off the end of them all. The Meteor was also used to chase the V1 doodlebug flying bombs and tip the wingtip of the V1 to make it crash in the channel. No other plane could keep up with the V1.

[@gbulmer]

​@@colincampbell3679 No. I think you are mistaken. The German's made several *JET* aeroplanes that reached service during WW2. The most famous is the twin engine ME-262, but also the Heinkel He 162, and Arado Ar 234 bomber. According to Wikipedia the ME-262 had its first jet-powered flight on 18 July 1942, but only became operational with the Luftwaffe in June 1944. Wikipedia says 1,430 built. I've read, Hitler had the ME-262 designated as a light bomber, with external bombs, reducing its devastating speed advantage. The Heinkel He 162 was a single engine jet, designed much later than the ME-262, with its first flight 6th December 1944, and introduced January 1945. Wikipedia says of 1,000 on production lines, only 120 were delivered, and most of those never flew due to shortage of fuel, pilots and parts. The rocket 'plane was the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, but as you say it had little impact. Wikipedia says it flew 1 September 1941, but the USA Air Force museum say it reached operational use July 1944. Wikipedias explanation for it's failures include _"After being introduced into service the Me 163 was credited with the destruction of between 9 and 18 Allied aircraft against 10 losses.[][] Aside from the actual combat losses incurred, numerous Me 163 pilots had been killed during testing and training flights.[][] This high loss rate was, at least partially, a result of the later models' use of rocket propellant, which was not only highly volatile but also corrosive and hazardous to humans.[] One noteworthy fatality was that of Josef Pöhs, a German fighter ace and Oberleutnant in the Luftwaffe, who was killed in 1943 through exposure to T-Stoff in combination with injuries sustained during a failed takeoff that ruptured a fuel line."_ Summary: Three different *jet* aircraft flew during WW2. The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet rocket 'plane may have been more dangerous to its own pilots than the allies. Best Wishes. ☮

[@nhanhnguyen3542]

Another wonderful content thank you

[@chippydogwoofwoof]

The way cats eyes self clean every time they are run over is genius in itself, the weight of the car pushes the rubber down into a little void which in the UK at least will usually have some rainwater in hey presto clean cats eyes.

[@UhOh-pt7sk]

Nice, I never knew this!

[@enkisdaughter4795]

Good old Percy Shaw (from Halifax)

[@reinhard8053]

I (not from the UK) knew cateyes but only from bikes and cars and sideposts. I visited some European countries but I saw these roadmarkers on the floor only in the UK. Lately we have some on the side in tunnels but not in the middle of the road. There seem to be LED type road markers, too. I saw them on the motorway coming from Dover. I even switched off the headlights (shortly) to verify that.

[@stevemichael8458]

@@reinhard8053 They aren't LED, they are cube-corner retro-reflectors. They cleverly reflect any light that hits them directly back to its source which makes them appear very bright.

[@reinhard8053]

@@stevemichael8458 Obviously not all. I drove after midnight and I was completely alone. I even switched off my lights and they still showed bright light on all lanes. But that was only until a few km north of Dover.

[@jerry2357]

There's a good display about cats eyes at the Halifax Industrial Museum. There's a good book about the marine chronometer by Dava Sobel called "Longitude". The story kicked off when a fleet under Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell was wrecked in the Scilly Isles, with much loss of life, because they didn't know their true position.

[@anthonyferris8912]

One of my great great grandfather was a clock maker and apprentice John Harrison…I have one of his clocks.

[@COMEINTOMYWORLD]

Cool video. This could be a series with also the American version. My fav lesser known British invention is the Christmas Card. It brings such joy and connects people wonderfully.

[@trevorhart545]

That is because Britain invented the postal service and the Postage Stamp, Penny Black, Tuppeny Red and the later Fourpenny Blue?

[@paddlerpaul2577]

Hi. Here's a couple more for you, the person who invented the safety match and the first passenger train were from my home town Stockton on Tees in the North East UK. Paul

[@stonkr]

Very surprised you didn't include Sir William Tuttingham, inventor of the mechanism for showing mild irritation in a queue of people. Still used to this day & commonly referred to as a 'tut'.

[@TheFatwelder]

I beleive he went into partnership with Lord Raisebrow.🙂

[@philipmorris9154]

Your Captions are Interesting' with a Good Quality Content, which in-turn a Pleasure to Listen too, Well Done!

[@davidfletcher682]

The genius of the cats eyes was making them self-cleaning.

[@Swansea32]

First person to use an installed ATM was Reg Varney from On the Busses

[@trevorhart545]

Barclays Bank, correct.

[@Swansea32]

@@trevorhart545 indeed

[@nicksmallwood8828]

Wow, you certainly packed a lot into this video Kaylin! All very interesting.

[@markmark63]

6:04 Robert Whitehead is a distant relative of mine. One interesting fact is that on one trip to meet with the Austria-Hungarian Navy board, he took along his granddaughter,. Agathe Whitehead. There she met and later married Captain Georg von Trapp. She was mother to his first 7 children, before she died of TB in 1922. The children became better known as the von Trapp family singers - made famous by the film "The Sound of Music". which was based on the true story. of widower Georg marrying his children's new Governess then escaping Nazi Austria.

[@alanbrown9178]

Kirkcaldy in Fife used to have several lino factories and the smell was quite intense, and unmistakable, as you passed through!

[@ElaineNoble-cx9ym]

Yup I'm from the lang toun

[@alexmctear5420]

I love your deep dive into all things British, you do it to the point and with subtle humour.

[@RobinPalmerTV]

Linoleum was instrumental in hip hop culture!

[@jontyc3479]

I aged 78 was bought up in houses all floor covered in what the English called Lino we never used the term linoleum. Same with Worcestershire sauce a real mouth mangler so as usual we abbreviated it to the phonetic "Wooster sauce".

[@neilmorrison7356]

You forgot the fax machine but then nearly everyone else has forgotten as well😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦄

[@andyf4292]

and they forgot about Dre

[@Poliss95]

@neilmorrison7356 Except the NHS which still uses some.

[@neilmorrison7356]

@@Poliss95 never knew that!

[@billdoodson4232]

Originally invented by a French guy I thought in the early 1800's???? Happy to be proved wrong.

[@neilmorrison7356]

@@billdoodson4232 Alaxander Bain (October 1811 - 2 January 1877) was famous for being the first to patent the electric clock, as well as installing the railway telegraph lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow. He is also credited with having worked on an experimental facsimile machine between 1843 and 1846. In 1846 he worked on a chemical mechanical fax type device and was able to reproduce graphic signs in laboratory experiments. Bain’s patent, dated May 27, 1843, was for “improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces, and in electric printing, and signal telegraphs.”

[@jamesohara4295]

Ken Dodd finished Percy's cats eyes story by saying; if the cat was facing the other way he'd have invented the Pencil Sharpener :)

[@weirdscix]

Fascinating, I knew some of them but not the majority.

[@MarkmanOTW]

One of my favourite but less publicised British 'invention/ discovery' is stainless steel, by Harry Brearley, in Sheffield in 1913. The impact this has had globally with its antiseptic and non-rusting qualities has helped transform healthcare, industry, and the home.

[@alicemilne1444]

Scientists in other countries had already also been developing non-rusting chrome-nickel alloys of steel long before then. Very often, people in one country tend to think that their own "home player" was the first, when inventions actually run in parallel.

[@MarkmanOTW]

@@alicemilne1444 Yes, that's often the case, and agreed that there are those that don't receive public recognition. (I personally prefer accuracy crediting the deserving person/people than be swayed by nationalistic fervour). However in recording an event in history there's always a need to attribute it to a date and a person, who was significant in that event. For the purposes of acknowledging this development/discovery the metallurgical industry consensus points to Brearley.

[@alicemilne1444]

@@MarkmanOTW I worked for clients operating in the international iron and steel industry in the UK, Germany, the USA, France, Spain and the Netherlands for over 30 years. There are many different grades of stainless steel based on different alloys and different microstructures. The metallurgical industry consensus on who invented stainless steel does not point to Brearley. He merely patented his particular martensitic alloy in 1913 in the UK. However, Benno Strauß and Eduard Maurer from Krupp in Germany were awarded two patents for an austenitic stainless steel in 1912. Austrian Max Mauermann is also known for inventing a stainless steel alloy in 1912. And chrome-nickel stainless steel had already been used in 1908 to build the hull for the yacht Germania in Germany. Brearley's patent was basically for developing a particular kind of stainless steel alloy that would be suitable for use in the mass production of cutlery. Giving him credit as sole inventor is just not metallurgically tenable.

[@MarkmanOTW]

@@alicemilne1444 Thanks for those insights and perspective.... always interested to learn more. 👍

[@regjauncey4843]

I'm a Brit and you a have educated me that's for sure👍🇬🇧

[@almostideal1306]

The chronometer was hugely important, knowing longitude at the time was massively useful for navigators at the time. Another invention that is from the UK and worth knowing is the Breathalyzer, which was created at Cardiff University.

[@steved8168]

Sir Trevor Baylis (R.I.P.) Inventor of the clockwork radio and clockwork torch (flashlight). No batteries, no plug socket? No worries, just wind it up and go.

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

There's a great 2000 documentary about Harrison and the competition to design the first functional marine chronometer. It's called Longitude. A tv movie on the life of Harrison came out in 1990s sometime, too, but I forget its name.

[@gchecosse]

There's a tv movie called Longitude with Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon, from 1999 or 2000 I believe. It can be found on KZbin.

[@billdoodson4232]

I have the book somewhere, it's a really good read.

[@IUsedToBeSomeoneElseX]

​@@billdoodson4232- _Longitude_ by American author Dava Sobel. Great book, great 2-part TV series based on it.

[@rayjennings3637]

The Frederick Walton invention Linoleum was manufactured in Staines, a couple of miles from my home and there is a bronze memorial in the town centre.

[@kevclaremcd]

Fascinating piece, being from Castlebar in Co. Mayo Ireland, I'd like to add that the Irish inventor Louis Brennan (1852-1932) was an engineer who was the brains behind the first ever workable guided torpedo in 1878. He also developed the Mono-rail system and had initiated plans for the first helicopter. Still, delays and doubts over its viability caused the British Government funding for that project to dry up.

[@konradyearwood5845]

The John Harrison story is well told in a drama titled Longitude.

[@alfredbearman396]

Tip. Harrison built a wooden clock it is still working today.cheers

[@kumasenlac5504]

The most accurate mechanical clock so far, was designed and built using Harrison's principles. Made by master craftsman Martin Burgess it achieved an accuracy of 1 second in 100 days.

[@ShaneH42]

Fascinating video. 👌 The maritime chronometer was strong in the British consciousness for a time because of the TV series Longitude, a docu-drama about Harrison’s invention

[@philipmason9537]

In the U.K. we just said LINO instead of Linoleum BUT we pronounce it LYNO( ask your hubby) !

[@robert3987]

I enjoy these informative videos and look forward to the next one.

[@geoffbeattie3160]

Harrison's longitude story is on KZbin drama of the same name. Great drama!!

[@Immhotep]

The map men did a vid on the marine chronometer and its brilliant.

[@YouTube]

such an informative and well made video 🫶

[@wallydug2256]

Hi from sunny Scotland, I enjoyed your video and think you should check out, what Scotland has given to the world, it think you will be amazed and might make another video.

[@robertwoolstencroft5946]

You must have seen the only fools and horses episode about the Harrison marine chronometer.

[@keegan773]

The ejector seat was another British invention.

[@andrewwmacfadyen6958]

No Germany by a couple of years.. The Martin-Baker was the first that was properly successful

[@keegan773]

@@andrewwmacfadyen6958 There’s no point in having an unsuccessful ejector seat is there.

[@jacquestricatel7055]

Ejection seat - Ulf Weiß-Vogtmann 1934 First aircraft to be equipped with an ejection seat - Heinkel He 280 - 1940

[@WilliamBennett-up6gs]

Did you find out about this on Celebrity Antique Road Show. It was on there a month or two ago. The Linoleum one i mean. 😂

[@davidfrost779]

Just goes too show that us Brits are the cleverest in the world and always have been

[@Lily-Bravo]

There was a brief resurgence of linoleum in the 1980s and we had it put down in our bathrooms. Some of our local fields were turned over to growing flax as well, and in the summer it was like patches of sky had fallen to earth with the bright blue colouring. The flowers only opened in the sunshine was well so the effects were magical. The flooring had a unique but pleasant smell, sort of oily and worthy, but the lino did not last for ever and it was hard to remove stains and in the end I replaced it.

[@ferulebezel]

I have a 1957 Steelcase Tanker desk with a real linoleum surface. I'm really bummed that I can't replace it easily.

[@UnknownUser-rb9pd]

Without John Harrison's marine chronometer the British Empire may not have existed as we know it. It gave the Royal Navy and British merchant shipping an advantage in navigation at sea that enabled them to expand the empire against competitors like Spain, France and Holland, and also to deliver goods to and from the colonies more quickly and reliably than anybody else.

[@bulwinkle]

Not forgetting the flush toilet that we gave to the World.

[@anthonyhulse1248]

Good old Thomas Crapper.

[@Poliss95]

@@anthonyhulse1248 Nothing to do with him.

[@jamespasifull3424]

I bet it was a Brit who also invented the trusty old 'bucket & chuck it'!! 🤣

[@Nick.Martin.]

Yea, but we didn’t give it to them till after we used it.

[@richstrasz6653]

Big thing you missed regarding Cats Eyes is they are self clearing. They rely on cars periodically driving over them, when this happens the reflective eye is pushed down into a recess and wiped by a fixed wiper blade - I.e. you drive over them and the eye "blinks" - that's the really cleaver bit ! :)

[@garystanley6097]

Watch Only Fools and Horses: “Time On Their Hands” episode. Great fun with a watch “Engraved Harrison” as mentioned in the episode.

[@andyf4292]

whats the favourite floor covering of the Thundercats? lino

[@lynnejamieson2063]

If I’m not mistaken cat’s eyes are different in the US than they are in the UK. The UK ones dip down when you drive over them (which actually enables the glass domes to be washed in the little puddles that gather in their casing) which prevents them from being broken, where the US ones are prone to breaking when driven over. I’m not 100% sure if that is completely correct/currently correct/urban myth to be honest but I thought it might be of interest to know that it’s at least a rumour…if not fact.

[@GirlGoneLondonofficial]

They very well might be! Will do a deep dive video into UK vs US roads and road markings maybe!

[@lynnejamieson2063]

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial I’d watch 😊

[@alanbicknell7696]

I think the British ones are now fixed and not self cleaning any more.

[@davidioanhedges]

@@alanbicknell7696 There are several designs, some are modern versions of the original Cat's eyes, self cleaning and dip down - some are fixed but these are only used on low traffic roads

[@Poliss95]

@@alanbicknell7696 Just read that there are now LED road studs which change with the traffic lights.

[@KathrynLiz1]

"Cat's eyes" were so named because the originals were a robber block in an iron 'bucket' buried in the road that contained two glass reflectors. Then driven over the rubber compressed the 'eyes' down into the bucket on to a wiper that kept them clean and shiny. They are all plastic tiles now with reflective goop on them, but same idea.

[@chrissouthgate4554]

Tins, the British got the idea from the French, Napoleon had offered a prize for a way to preserve food for his armies. The winner used glass bottles. The British development was to use tins instead, which were easier to manufacture & not so prone to breakages. Unfortunately, they used lead to make the joins, particularly bad news for Franklin's Artic expedition, when they got trapped in the ice for longer than they had allowed. Tins were originally thought of as a luxury food because they were more expensive than fresh. Until there was a scandal about what was being put in them!

[@trevorhart545]

BUT the French invented Margarine for Napoleons Army!

[@britbazza3568]

Hi Kaylin The John Harrison marine chronometer is actually on permanent display with it's full historical story and science behind it in the Clock Museum which is houses in the third floor of the British Science Museum in London England

[@bernardtaylor7043]

I could have sworn I saw it at the Greenwich Observatory, but that was years ago and there's probably more than one.

[@stephenlee5929]

@@bernardtaylor7043I believe he built 3, the third was a pocket watch.

[@charleshayes2528]

Hi, It is good to see your videos, such a range of interests, from World Football/soccer (as distinct from the American "Rugby" version😀). Just a couple of quick points. 1) I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s and we had "Lino" (rhymes with "line" and no one said "linoleum" unless they were very posh) in the kitchen and, I think, our dining room, as well as the bathroom and toilet. Sorry, I know Americans prefer to say "bathroom", but in our "council" house, we had two rooms for our bodily needs and for hygiene; which was often helpful with a family of four small boys and someone in the bath. We only had carpets in the living room and bedrooms and on the stairs. While Lino was a bright and cheerful and affordable covering, it wasn't particularly welcoming, esp. on a very cold day or night in winter, when the only heating was a coal fire in one room! So, it was very unlikely to see anyone with Lino throughout. While Lino was/is easy to clean, it had a couple of flaws, apart from being "cold", even in a moderately warm house, it could be slippery, esp. if something was spilled on it, such as cooking oil. My Mum accidentally spilt a small amount - thankfully, it was not hot - and it took ages to clear up and the floor never felt quite right afterwards. I can't quite remember back 60 years, but my parents may have had to replace it completely. 2) One of my interests is tie-dyeing and dyeing in general. I have read a biography of William Perkin and his discovery of mauve and the development of coal-tar dyes. Prior to Perkin's work, dyers were not restricted to minerals and insects, as many dyes came from plants and plant products, even such things as onion skins. Indigo - as seen on varieties of Denim Jeans - was originally a plant dye and is still used in many parts of the world to produce dark blue cloth. Admittedly, synthetic Indigo is easier to work with. One negative of the older dyes is the need to use a mordant to fix the dye to the cloth. This might be urine, for example, on Harris Tweed, hence an old joke about the House of Lords smelling of "Wee" on rainy days. But it might be metal compounds, such as those based on Tin or Chromium and these can be quite as toxic as modern synthetic dyes and often more dangerous to handle and to dispose of. Anyhow, thanks for a very interesting video.

[@paulyoung1172]

The Marine Chronometer is probably the invention launched the British Empire, it meant accurate navigation world wide

[@tedthesailor172]

My bank originally used the cheque-point. You had to sign up at the bank to use it and I was given 10 separate cheques, similar to travellers cheques. Each was worth £10 and had to be precisely located in an opening drawer. After a bit of palaver, a £10 note was dispensed and the cheque was retained. The system was obviously intended as an `emergency money' facility after hours, rather than a convenient way of accessing funds, which the card system came to be. I didn't use it very often, but it was reassuring to know that I could get cash when needed. This was when a credit card purchase necessitated putting you card on a small flatbed contraption, a purchase receipt and carbon copy laid on top of it, and then a slider was pushed across by the proprietor to impress the card details onto the receipt. Things have certainly moved on...

[@frankbrodie5168]

My mum was a Glaswegian who came down to England to live (and specifically work) in 1960. She met Percy Shaw at one point. And always told us that his story shows that there is a genius idea in everyone if they can find it.

[@nicksykes4575]

Hi Katlyn, there's a stretch of the A49 just below Chester where the cats-eyes still shine after you pass them, I thought I was seeing things when I saw them in my mirrors. I suppose the Ministry of Transport are trialling some new sort with their own power source.

[@Poliss95]

@nicksykes4575 They're LEDs powered from the mains. Some are also synchronised with traffic lights too.

[@jimdonovan243]

Whitehead bought an estate with his wealth in Worth Sussex. It was made into z model farm. Today it is a Franciscan order Abbey and school. The have his coat of arms over a fireplace which is constructed around a torpedo. Visit it some time and speak to the Abbot who is a fantastic speaker on many sociological themes.

[@jerry2357]

There's a good display about cats eyes at the Halifax Industrial Museum.

[@FalcomScott312]

Great Video & it's great the British created the most amazing inventions in the world that some people don't know about these days!

[@GirlGoneLondonofficial]

Thanks for watching!

[@christopherclarke2083]

I met Barclays's CEO who green-lighted the first ATM at a funuel. I asked him about this and described it as a British company who invented a machine to dispense cash using these American credit cards, seemed like good idea and was worth trying it out.

[@CollectiveWest1]

Great video. Linoleum is an under-rated product. It can be very long lasting, and the possible patterns are infinite, but it has become confused in popular understanding with cheaper copy products which deteriorate faster and look cheap. John Harrison's grave is in a churchyard in Hampstead, if you ever go there - the story is told in a at least one book. His invention was vital for accurate navigation, which of course was important for a country increasingly dependent on seaborne trade. Pilkington Glass still exists but unfortunately is now a subsidiary of a Japanese group.

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

Not exactly earth shattering, but what about the Toffee Wrapping Machine ? Invented in Halifax by Harry Bradwell - my wife's grandad ! (Who may have known Percy Shaw)

[@billyhills9933]

Lino has been overtaken by vinyl floor covering which has similar attributes.

[@marleneclough3173]

Sadly it is slippy when wet

[@robertwatford7425]

As always fascinating and informative!

[@rogerbarton1790]

I remember my first cash card, it was an NCR system. IIRC It was in the late 1960s and had punched holes in it like the 80 column cards used in data processing. The card was inserted in the machine, you entered your pin and £10 was issued. The card was retained and returned to the customer in the post. As far as I know the ATMs themselves were self-standing, ie they weren't connected to a computer. By the early 1970s Burroughs sold ATMs to The Midland Bank. They were huge machines, complicated and very unreliable, by this time the magnetic stripe was in use, and the card was returned to the customer.

[@nlwilson4892]

Tommy Flowers pretty much invented the computer during WW2 but the invention was owned by the British Government and Churchill sold it to IBM. Carlisle Spedding was the first to use methane to provide lighting at a coal mine in Whitehaven, also the fist to mine under the sea.

[@toddberry4118]

I love your more historical videos ,although you stick to US vs UK, they`re light but informative .

[@rodneygunn788]

Also the magnatron microwaves radar give free to the usa

[@Alan-gh8X]

I was told years ago at school that England is the most invented nation in the world, followed by Germany

[@alasdairfinlayson]

Cats eyes story. Many years ago, driving on a single track road in Scotland at night, a shadow leapt off the bank on the right, stopped broadside on the road turned it's head to look directly at me. I caught the reflection of its eyes on the left, and the curl of it's long tail on the right. It was almost the full width of the road, which in that area was little more than the width of my small car. Looking back I believe it was a panther. It was jet black. I rarely told this story as I knew the reaction I would get. What made it more believable was that about two weeks after that, a farmer about eight miles away was telling people that he was seeing a mountain lion at his farm. People were a bit sceptical, so he trapped it, alive. It lived its life out at a wildlife park not far from Kingussie in Scotland. The general theory, as neither of these species were native to the UK is that they were driven to Scotland's quieter regions and just released. To stop unqualified rich people from keeping wild animals as pets.the government made a law that people wishing to do so had to be qualified and had a license. Most of them just released them in the wild. The reflections in its eyes certainly scared the siht out of me, alone, in the pitch dark in the middle of nowhere at 11pm at night!

[@Wee_Langside]

When I was a lad in the 1950s and 60s Kirkcaldy was famous for the smell of linseed oil coming from the lino factory

[@England....]

Englishman George Cayley - The father of aviation (1773-1857) Stanley Hooker - Short take-off , vertical landing system (VTOL) for the Hawker Harrier now used on the F 35 Jets, The US brought all the RAF's harriers when they were retired in 2011. Also the English landscape garden by William Kent, Charles Bridgeman and Capability Brown much loved throughout the world. And also the suit by a labour politician who wanted a change from the Victorian Coat and tails so he cut the tails off and et voilà!