I rushed home from work that day. I rang the bell to the door 3 times before Kathy opened it. 'What if there was no electricity? she asked, 'What would you do then? Ringing the bell like no one's business!' Grimacing I opened the door to my room and switched on the computer, TV, and fan in one click, then sat down to get in touch with the world. And just as suddenly―snap! The electricity went off. Everything came to a standstill and a thought made way―what would life be without a fan, the telephone, clothes, the Internet, printing machines, ATMs, the radio, all modes of transportation...(deep breath), I believe, not much. Of course we wouldn't really know what we were missing out on because these things would not have really been there to miss, but you get the drift of what I'm saying. Inventions made by mankind, that is what we should be thankful for, I realized. In the following article I will take you through some of the greatest inventions ever. Top 10 Inventions of All Time I'm sure you're aware of all the inventions that are mentioned in the list below, but you haven't really given a thought to how they came to be. Maybe because they have become such an integral part of your life. Language Language has to be one of the most important inventions that mankind can take credit for. It has become 'us' in all terms. We can probably imagine a day without phones and TV, but how do we imagine a day without speaking, without gesturing, without writing? We don't really get the complexity of this―no communication means you just can't convey what you want to the other. It means no books, no radio, no television, no songs... no nothing. Animals have their own sets of communicating with the others, but there really is nothing more complex than the communication technique―Language that humans have come up with. Everything that has come about is a result of language essentially. Light Bulb Technically the carbon fiber filament which allowed the bulb to burn for 40 hours and more is the actual invention that should be talked about. And hence, the light bulb was born. There would have been no light if the light bulb would not have been invented. Telephone This instrument was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. It works on the principles whereby the voice and sound signals are converted into electrical impulses and transmitted by a medium (wire) to different locations. Once there, another instrument receives the transmissions and converts it back to sound. Now that the technical workings are out of the way, think about a day without the telephone in either of its forms. Television And what closely follows as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century is television. Transmitting live pictures from one place to the other opened the scope for entertainment, knowledge, and a whole lot of other opportunities. Yes, it's termed as the idiot box, but there is no denying the advantages of the invention of television either. Printing Machine The printing press changed the way in which the world dealt with information and how the world collected, dispatched, and stored that information. It opened up limitless possibilities for the world to choose from. Where earlier there were only handwritten books which made the entire process very time-consuming, cumbersome, and limited, the invention of the printing press revolutionized the way the world dealt with information. People all over had access to knowledge and not just a select few. Antibiotics This saved us from succumbing to minor infections and injuries that used to prove fatal in earlier times. The experiments which revealed that there were certain substances―later called antibiotics―that made it possible to prevent the spread of diseases has got to be one of the greatest inventions of all time. Transportation All modes of transportation, may it be the first steam engine, automobiles, or planes, have given us the opportunity and ability to travel from one point to the other, thus making the world a smaller place. Camera Capturing time. What else would you call the workings of a camera? And how would all those memories still remain intact and fresh if they weren't captured and stored for eternity? Birth Control Allowing a person to gain control over their lives (and of others), this invention has been able to eradicate all the dangerous ways of terminating a pregnancy and allowing a couple to make a choice. The world population, the number of child deaths and the risks to an expecting mother―all these would have increased manifold if there wasn't that birth control medium. Internet This has got to be one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century. Can you imagine your life without the Internet today? I don't think so. You get every and anything on the net. Distances seem to fade and time seems to run. Internet truly is one of the best inventions of all time and I don't need to give any testimony for it. Other Inventions Some other inventions that changed the world and are worth mentioning are as follows.

• Toilets with plumbing.
• Mechanical tools
• Lasers
• Air conditioners
• Telescopes
• Computers
• Refrigerators
• Mechanical clocks
• Washing machines
• Vision glasses and lens
• Sewing machines
• Snooze button
• Post it notes
• Photocopy machines
• Banks and ATMs
• Microphones
• Batteries
• Paper
• Clothes
• Shoes

There are many more inventions that have not been mentioned in the article due to the constraints of space, yet some of the greatest inventions of all time have been given a special mention here.