10. The television
John Logie Baird filed his first patent in 1923 for a device that yielded an eight-line image. Years later this was followed by the sale of the first television set, a device that he baptised a "televisor."
In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) launched the world's first regular TV broadcasts. Today, the jury is still out on whether it serves an educational benefit or is a cultural curse.