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How the nail, the spring, and other small inventions changed the world
The pump is one of seven small inventions crucial to modern innovation, according to engineer Roma Agrawal.
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Take a look at this list of items: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump. What do they have in common?
According to structural engineer Roma Agrawal, together those basic items are the building blocks of today’s modern world. She calls them the seven small inventions that changed the world in her new book, “Nuts & Bolts.”
I selected these seven objects during the first 2020 lockdown. Trapped at home, I let my mind roam free, looking around at my possessions and mentally (or sometimes physically) deconstructing them to see what lay inside. I revisited the ballpoint pen and saw a spring, a screw, and a revolving sphere. The blender I used to make my baby’s food relied on gears, which in turn couldn’t exist without the wheel. Before that, when I was breastfeeding, a breast pump allowed my husband to feed our daughter, too. The process of IVF I went through relied on a lens to see things on a cellular scale. The protective masks we wore during our short walks, and that kept medics safe, were formed of countless fibres twisted together to make fabric. The speaker on my phone through which I could hear the voices of family and friends relied on a magnet.
How were these seven small items invented and why are they so crucial to human progress? We talk to Roma Agrawal about her new book and her work as a structural engineer who helped create one of London’s most notable skyscrapers, the Shard.
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