• The telephone remains one of the top inventions in history.old phone image by MLProject from Fotolia.com
  
  People have added to the vast collection of inventions since humanity's earliest history. Key inventions, from the first simple machines to today's smart phones, have changed history and shaped civilization. While no list can name all pivotal inventions, people everywhere know the names of many inventors, while others have disappeared into history.
  
  

Ancient Times

• Prehistoric people invented the wheel, one of the great tools of all time.wheel in snow image by Vasiliy Koval from Fotolia.com
  
  Great inventions date back to prehistoric times, when people began making things to change their world. Major creations in prehistory, chronicled by the History World website, include the bow and arrow for hunting and fighting, the first needles and thread for sewing clothing, and various crafts, such as basket weaving, pottery and brick making. Around 3000 BC and later, mankind invented the wheel, early clocks, glass, the plow and papyrus--the first paper-type substance.
  
  

The Old World

• As civilizations took hold in Europe, Africa and Asia, more inventions appeared, including many that led to later advancements. Historians believe early Persians built the first windmills, which helped process grain. Around the same time, people in Greece and elsewhere began building more tools of war, including a precursor of a flamethrower weapon. The gunpowder that transformed war appeared in China around the 10th century, with artillery invented several hundred years later, also probably in Asia, History World's online resource says.
  
  

Medieval Times

• By the Middle Ages, Europeans had started to use the printing press that originated earlier in China, which led to a great increase in general knowledge and reading, according to the EMuseum at Minnesota State University Mankato. By the mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg had invented movable type and a faster and more versatile press, which greatly advanced printing, History World's website notes. Other key inventions of the Middle Ages include the microscope and telescope.
  
  

Later European Inventions

• As Europe moved into the 18th century and beyond, major inventions included early engines, navigational equipment and further advances in weaponry, History World's site points out. Other inventions from the continent during the period, according to Encyclopedia Britannica's website, include Henri Giffard's airship, early automobiles invented by various people, Alessandro Volta's battery and Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun's bicycle.
  
  

American and Modern Inventions

• In the modern era, including in the United States of America, many inventors enhanced the world. Major inventions since about 1800 in America have included Thomas Edison's light bulb, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, Henry Ford's assembly line, Samuel Colt's revolver, Charles Goodyear's vulcanized rubber, Samuel Morse's telegraph and Morse code, Eli Whitney's cotton gin and Orville and Wilber Wright's airplane, according to the American Inventors website. Others in the 20th century included Jack Kilby's calculator, Sony Corporation's camcorder and the personal computer developed by several companies, the Encyclopedia Britannica website notes.