Calculus.
Steam power.
Jet engine.
Margaret Thatcher.

/wait. what?

Instead, they would remember a pattern on a 25-square numbered grid, then enter the corresponding code on a keypad. Not only would this save them memorising numbers, it would give banks greater security, because each grid is different so consumers would end up tapping a new code every time.

wtf is up with this invention? okay so i don't have to memorize oh-so difficult "numbers", but i have to remember a 5x5 pattern?

i must be missing something because this seems wayyy more complicated.

I'm rather fond of their more recent creations.

Any country that can so thoroughly adopt another culture and adopt it into its own in order to create "Beer and a Curry Night" is farking all right by me.

I am working on inventing my own American response, which is a 40 Oz water and Tums "day after" breakfast. There's also a special splashback protection toilet seat in there somewhere.

I'm just posting this because I can. A little money in a paypal account and BAM! I decide to splurge on Fark. So far, all you other TF people are out of you freaking minds.

/Left his mind several years ago.

Is it British history month?

davidc
Calculus.


Calculus was a discovery not an invention.

But her invention has been rejected by the main manufacturers and joins 12,682 toothbrush designs lodged with the Patent Office.


12,682 toothbrush designs patented in the UK? Hell, I didn't know there were 12,682 individual toothbrushes in the UK ...

television, pennicillin

A contraption to facilitate the birth of a child by centrifugal force.

The mother, who is in labour, is strapped to a table that spins around at high speed, forcing out the child, who is caught in a net.

farking brilliant. Doesn't it cost thousands to file a patent like this?

davidc: Calculus.
Steam power.
Jet engine.
Margaret Thatcher.

/wait. what?

Steam power was used by the ancient Greeks. They just didn't use it for anything. They essentially made little steam engines that you put on your desk and heated with a candle to make them spin. The jet engine was ours though.

The Computer.


\Win

Subby might want to read this list of Scottish inventions (new window) and this list of English inventions (new window).

A list of the greatest British inventions.

Gotta admire a submitter that doesn't let the content of an article get in the way of their headline.

It's all been downhill since radar.

That grid security system will probably end up a bust. They will find that while half the population can use it effectively, the other half cannot make sense of it. Right lobe vs. left lobe or something.

Ishkur, you mean you'd rather be shot than give up your PIN?

physics.....calculus...steam engines...the periodic table....antibiotics.....the rule of law....electro magnets....portland cement......tinned food....internal combustion engines....jet engines....steel.....vacuum cleaners....flush toilets....spotted dick....traffic lights...cats eyes....toad in the hole.....electric generator.....electric engines....electric lighting.....radar....sonar....depth charges....shrapnel..dum dum bullets....postage stamps.....fax machines...computers...the internet.....viagra...

But nothing really important....

England gets a free pass from me for developing India Pale Ale.

jonewer: physics.....calculus...steam engines...the periodic table....antibiotics.....the rule of law....electro magnets....portland cement......tinned food....internal combustion engines....jet engines....steel.....vacuum cleaners....flush toilets....spotted dick....traffic lights...cats eyes....toad in the hole.....electric generator.....electric engines....electric lighting.....radar....sonar....depth charges....shrapnel..dum dum bullets....postage stamps.....fax machines...computers...the internet.....viagra...

But nothing really important....

My earlier post was wrong. This man speaks the truth.

jonewer:

But nothing really important....

Didn't Britain invent some of the world's second best countries as well

Let's not forget rounders as well subby

random_brit_39:
Steam power was used by the ancient Greeks. They just didn't use it for anything. They essentially made little steam engines that you put on your desk and heated with a candle to make them spin. The jet engine was ours though.
And just like the Greeks you didn't do anything with it, except put it in a shed for people to look at, while the Germans developed their own and pwned your airforce.

The list of Scottish inventions is long enough on its own.

The US navy being one of them.

/admitedly I'm biased

The baby birthing boomerang thing gets my vote:

I know more than you:
And just like the Greeks you didn't do anything with it, except put it in a shed for people to look at, while the Germans developed their own and pwned your airforce.

Undoubtedly you took that username as a joke

I like that if you click on the odd patents filed there is one for a centrifugal baby bed.

It spins the mother in labor around until her baby flies out of her girly parts.

I know more than you

And just like the Greeks you didn't do anything with it, except put it in a shed for people to look at, while the Germans developed their own and pwned your airforce.

Exsqueeze me? pwned whose airforce?

Since most Me262 kills were scored against USAAF daylight bombing raids, I think its your airforce that got pwned my dear!

I know more than you: pwned your airforce.

HAHAHAHA!

Berk.

I know more than you:

while the Germans developed their own and pwned your airforce.

Educate thine self:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_britain (new window)

What of the aeroplane? Sure, Wilbur and Orville Wright were hard at it in the early days of the 20th century here in the US, but I could've sworn there was a British inventor about the same time who claimed to invent the airplane.

the internet was invented by an englishman, everything else is scottish


/pretty much

neongoats:

No, he really does know more than you. =p

No, he doesn't :p Link (new window)

Chumpcheese: the internet was invented by an englishman, everything else is scottish

Ah, but we're mostly talking about British inventions, and last I heard, Scots, much as they may dislike it, still count as Brits. Speaking of which, the TV is a UK invention, by another Scotsman, John Logie Baird.

TV and Internet: Britain, the lazy bastards of the world salute you!

Wulfhardt: but I could've sworn there was a British inventor about the same time who claimed to invent the airplane.

Percy Pilcher built a powered flying machine in 1899, but died before he could test it. Some researchers in 2003 found his plans, built the plane and concluded that even though it had some obvious flaws, he would have been able to achieve powered flight.

mikaloyd: Battle of Britain...isnt that where the Luftwaffe was bombing the putrid rat puss out of Britain and there wasnt much you could do about it? Or as Churchill liked to call it...Britains Finest Hour...which of course it was....at least compared to that early Dunkirk debacle

Well if we must turn this into a UK vs. US pissing match, yeah, we managed to survive having the crap bombed out of us on a nightly basis, fought the bastards off and made it into a positive, the Blitz spirit is a standard to live up to.

America gets a base in fricking Hawaii bombed once and hasn't stopped whining about it since.

Historical bias? Oh yes. Goose, meet gander.

mikaloyd:

Battle of Britain...isnt that where the Luftwaffe was bombing the putrid rat puss out of Britain and there wasnt much you could do about it?

I gave you a lilnk and everything. I'm assuming you can read it.

Babbage's work and the Colossus score the computer (in any sort of incarnation) as a British invention. All the same, it's difficult to find an American who doesn't insist that it's one of their's.

The Internet was initially a bunch of bridged smaller (otherwise incompatible) networks, so it's difficult (nay, impossible) for anyone to lay any direct claim to inventing it (even Mr. Gore), although it was mostly an American affair.

The World Wide Web was "invented" by British guy Tim Berners-Lee though, no question. As long as you remember that the Web is just a seriously crappified version of Xanadu. Tim did beat Ted Nelson to the punch though, even if it was by being less ambitious. Ted was trying to do stuff in the 1960s that we still can't do effectively or efficiently now.

AaaPha: TV and Internet: Britain, the lazy bastards of the world salute you!

I'm a lazy net surfing bastard whose father served at RAF Tangmere during the Battle of Britain so I'm getting a real kick out of this thread

cat flap connected to an atomic bomb in space

It don't get much better than that.

/Nuke it from orbit.
//Only way to be sure.

Don't forget 'boiled meat'

Stirling engine.

Close second, Branston pickle.

I think we invented binge drinking. Best sport in the world.

Is Marmite ours ?