1563
1692
1708
1709
1712
1733
1758
1761
1765
1769
1772
1775
1777
1779
1786
1787
1789
1792
1793
17931803
1801
180322
1807
181115
1821
1825
Rev. William Lee, born at Woodborough near Nottingham, invents the Stocking Frame,
a mechanical device for knitting stockings.
Languedoc Canal connects the Mediterranean with the Bay of Biscay. 240 miles long, with 100 locks, 3 major aqueducts, 1 tunnel, and a summit reservoir.
The largest canal project between Roman times and the nineteenth century.
Jethro Tull's mechanical (seed) sower permits large-scale planting in rows, for easier cultivation between the rows.
Abraham Darby uses coke to smelt iron ore, replacing wood and charcoal as fuel.
Thomas Newcomen builds first commercially successful steam engine. Able to keep deep coal mines clear of water. First significant power source other
than wind and water.
John Kay's flying shuttle.
First threshing machine.
James Brindley's Bridgewater Canal opens. Barges carry coal from Worsley to Manchester.
James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny, automating weaving the warp (in the weaving of cloth).
Arkwright's "water" (powered) frame automates the weft.
Bridgewater Canal extended to the Mersey, thus connecting with Liverpool. Its success kicks off extensive canal construction ("canal mania").
Watt's first efficient steam engine, much more efficient than the Newcomen.
Grand Trunk Canal establishes a cross-England route connecting the Mersey to the Trent and connecting the industrial Midlands to the ports of Bristol,
Liverpool, and Hull.
First steam powered mills. Crompton's "mule" combines Hargreaves' and Arkwright's machines, fully automating the weaving process.
Arkwright puts a Watt engine in the Albion cotton mill, Blackfriars Bridge, London.
Cartwright builds a power loom.
Thames-Severn Canal links the Thames to the Bristol Channel.
William Murdock (James Watt's assistant) lights his home with coal gas.
Eli Whitney develops his cotton gin (a device to clean raw cotton).
Thomas Telford builds his two great iron aqueducts, over the Dee and the Cierog valleys.
Robert Trevithick demonstrates a steam locomotive.
Caledonian Ship Canal cuts clear across Scotland via the Great Glen.
Robert Fulton's Clermont first successful steamboat.
Luddite riots: laborers attack factories and break up the machines they fear will replace them.
Faraday demonstrates electro-magnetic rotation, the principle of the electric motor.
Marc Brunel invents a tunnelling shield, making subaqueous tunnelling possible.
182642
1827
1830
1831
Brunel builds the first subaqueous tunnel, under the Thames.
Berkeley Ship Canal connects Sharpness (on the Severn) to Gloucester.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway begins first regular commercial rail service.
Faraday discovers electro-magnetic current, making possible generators and electric engines.
1834
Charles
Babbage develops
Fox Talbot produces photographs.
1837
Morse
develops
Great Western--first ocean-going steamship.
1838
1839
1843
his
analytic
the
engine--the
telegraph
forerunner
of
and
Morse
Great Britain--first large, iron, screw-propelled steamship.
1846
Pneumatic
First telegraph cable laid under the Channel.
tire
Petrol
(gasoline)
Natural Science Honours School established at Oxford.
1851
Singer
invents
Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge.
1856
1857
refining
first
machine.
Pasteur experiments with fermentation.
Charles
Darwin, The
Edwin
Drake
strikes
Etienne Lenoir demonstrates the first successful gasoline engine.
1873
sewing
W.H. Perkin produces aniline dyes, permitting brightly colored cottons.
1859
1867
practical
used.
Regius Chair of Technology founded at Edinburgh.
First
Cathode rays discovered.
1863
first
Bessemer invents steel converter.
1858
1860
patented
Monier develops reinforced concrete.
1850
1855
Code.
Fox Talbot introduces photographic paper.
Commercial use of Morse's telegraph (Baltimore to Washington).
1854
computer.
Daguerre perfects the Daguerrotype.
1844
1849
the
Trans-Atlantic
Cable
Origin
oil
completed
of
in
Species.
Pennsylvania.
Science degrees at University of London.
Siemens-Martin open hearth process (along with the Bessemer converter) makes steel available in bulk. Steel begins to replace iron in building: steel
framing and reinforced concrete make possible "curtain-wall" architecture--i.e., the skyscraper.
Alfred Nobel produces dynamite, the first high explosive which can be safely handled.
Christopher
Sholes
invents
James Clerk Maxwell states the laws of electro-magnetic radiation
the
Remington
typewriter.
1876
1877
1878
1879
1883
1884
1885
1888
1889
1892
1895
1896
1897
1899
1900
1901
1903
1908
Bell invents the telephone.
Edison invents the phonograph.
Microphone invented.
Edison invents the incandescent lamp.
First
skyscraper
(ten
stories)
in
The Brooklyn Bridge opens. This large suspension bridge, built by the Roeblings (father and son), is a triumph of engineering.
Chicago.
Maxim invents the machine gun, making possible mass slaughter and beginning the mechanization of warfare.
Benz develops first automobile to run on internal- combustion engine.
Hertz produces radio waves.
Eiffel Tower.
Rudolf Diesel invents his namesake.
Lumière
Roentgen discovers X-rays.
brothers
Marconi patents wireless telegraph.
Joseph Thomson discovers particles smaller than atoms.
Aspirin invented.
First Zeppelin built.
Marconi transmits first trans-Atlantic radio message (from Cape Cod).
Wright brothers make first powered flight.
Henry Ford mass-produces the Model T.
develop
Cinematograph.