Did you know these inventions were from Holland?

The Netherlands may be a small country, but it has produced a bunch of revolutionary inventions. In fact, we can no longer do without these innovations. Let's have a look at 11 important Dutch discoveries.

Internet without a cable; did you know it was a Dutch invention? The BNNVARA broadcaster says we owe it to Victor Hayes, a Dutch engineer who played an important role in the development of Wi-Fi in the 1990s. He helped develop the standards now used in wireless communications and made Wi-Fi a globally popular technology.

According to the history site Historiek, Cornelis Drebbel from The Netherlands first demonstrated his submarine in the Thames in 1620. The 7.5-meter-long submarine was made of oak and covered with leather. The craft was oar-propelled and had no portholes or windows. The vehicle didn't sink, but it didn't take on as an instrument of war at the time either.

How the crew got their oxygen in that early wooden submarine is still a mystery. According to Historiek, saltpeter may have been burned in the boat, thereby releasing oxygen. Remarkably, the English King James I also took a ride in the submarine, making him the first monarch to travel underwater.

Maus Gatsonides, a Dutch rally driver, invented the speed camera in the 1950s to measure the speed of racing cars. According to the magazine Panorama, he used the speed camera as a training tool to improve his own driving performance. At a later point, the speed camera became a tool to catch drivers breaking speed limits and fine the offenders. Thank you Gatsonides!

According to Historiek, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was the first trading company in the world that issued shares. It was founded in 1602 and allowed investors to become part of the company by buying a piece of it.

The VOC shares were traded on the stock exchange and were highly sought after by investors. As trade in VOC shares increased rapidly, Amsterdam became the most important place for global stock trading for a while. The trading of VOC stocks contributed to the global spread of the stock market during the rise of capitalism.

You know it, that card with large and small letters that hangs at every ophthalmologist's office. The so-called Snellen Chart was developed in 1862 by the Dutchman Herman Snellen and became very popular in a short time.

Picture: CDC / Unsplash

The Dutch car manufacturer Spyker developed the Spyker 60HP car in 1903. According to the experts at Autoblog, it was the first car with four-wheel drive. Nowadays, four-wheel drive is a common system in cars and other vehicles. It helps navigate them through difficult weather and off-road situations.

The microscope was invented in 1595 by Zacharias Jansen, probably with the help of his father Hans. It was a compound microscope with two lenses and is sometimes referred to as the 'Jansen microscope'.

Although Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is often referred to as the inventor of the microscope, he mostly made improvements to the device that Jansen had already invented.

In 1672, Jan van der Heyden and his brother Nicolaas created the first fire hose in their workshop in Amsterdam. According to the local government's website, their invention brought about a huge change, as people would previously just throw buckets of water at burning buildings. Fires would never be extinguished the same way again.

The Dutch electronics company Philips has long been at the forefront of new light and sound inventions. In 1963, it introduced the cassette tape for the first time. It would become a popular way to record and play music. It also became a standard format for portable music players.

Everyone thought that the cassette tape would replace the gramophone record, but that turned out differently than expected. It was, in fact, another Dutch invention that would strike a heavy blow at the vinyl LP...

Picture: Steve Harvey / Unsplash

In the 1980s, Philips invented the compact disc (CD) in collaboration with Sony. It was meant to be a replacement for vinyl records and cassettes and had the advantage of being small and durable. While the CD became a huge hit and ruled the world for a long time, it has now largely been replaced by digital music streaming, while music collectors continue to buy vinyl records.

Photo: Phil Hearing / Unsplash

Here's another tool for wireless communication that a Dutchman came up with. Engineer Jaap Haartsen was working at the Ericsson facility in The Netherlands. He developed Bluetooth for the Swedish multinational in the 19990s, the NOS channel reports, as a way to allow mobile devices to communicate with each other without using cables.