5thCLASS_1_96_jg:Layout 1 5/3/12 19:27 Page 43


In 1589, a man called Harrington built the first flushing toilet for Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was called a water-closet and it was connected to outside drains. In 1884, Thomas Crapper developed the modern toilet.


The first bathtub dates back to around 1800BC. It was found in Babylonia (modern Iraq). In Roman times people went to public baths, where they could have hot and cold baths and other beauty treatments.


The telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. Ireland’s first telephone exchange was opened in 1880. Only five telephones were connected to the exchange!


The Egyptians first measured time with water clocks and shadow clocks. Christian Huygens invented the first accurate pendulum clock in 1656.


Television was invented in 1925 by a Scotsman, John Logie Baird. At first, pictures were seen only in black and white. On 31 December 1961, Telefís Éireann began broadcasting from its studios in Dublin.


Dr Martin Cooper is thought to be the inventor of the mobile phone. It was first tried out on the public in 1977, in Chicago on a group of 2,000 people. Today, there are as many mobile phones in Ireland as there are people.


In 2001, the Apple Corporation developed and launched an invention that changed the way people could access and listen to music: the iPod, a portable media player. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, announced that it put ‘1000 songs in your pocket’.


1. Choose another household invention. Find out when and where it was invented.


2. What do you think is the best invention of the last 100 years?


3. What do you think might be invented in the next century?


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