EVENTS AND INVENTIONS IN 19TH C. ENGLAND
1837
Telegraph messages: The electric telegraph, introduced by Sir William Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone, used a
cable to send messages and was installed on the railways to signal the arrival of trains.
1838
Great Western: A huge steamship, The Great Western, completed its first voyage across the Atlantic in record
time, just 15 days.
1839
First photograph: William Henry Fox Talbot printed his first photograph using developing paper which could
react to light. Photography and family portraits soon became important to the wealthier Victorians.
Propeller power: Experiments were carried out using propellers to power steamships. The ships became very
important as oversea travel increased.
1840
Better printing machines were invented making it cheaper and quicker to print books and posters. This led to more
books being available and the arrival of advertising posters to sell goods.
Postal service starts: A national postal service was set up. For the first time people could post a letter to anywhere
in the country if they bought a stamp for one penny. The stamps were called Penny Blacks.
1841
Railways boom: The Great Western Railway from Bristol to London was completed offering a journey time of four hours.
1842
Libraries begin: Books were only available to people who could afford to buy them until Charles Mudie had the
idea of letting people borrow books, with his Circulating Library. By 1850 public libraries were set up.
People pay tax: Workers were made to pay Income Tax. This meant that part of their wages were used to pay the
people who worked for the Government, organizing the running of the country.
1843
Anesthetic used: An understanding of strong pain killers called anesthetics developed in the 1840s. Ether was used by
Crawford Long and later James Young used chloroform to reduce pain during surgery.
1844
Morse code was developed and became more widely used to send fast messages over long distances.
1845
Potato famine: The potato crop failed in Ireland causing famine and hunger among the country's poor. Many Irish people
left for America to try to find a better life.
1846
Rubber tires: A man called Robert Thomson discovered that rubber tires filled with air (pneumatic tires) gave a
far more comfortable ride for passengers than solid tires, but they were too expensive at this time.
Sewing machine invented
1847
The ten hours act: New rules were brought into force to stop employers from making children work more than 10 hours a
day in their factories. Many children got injured through working when they were tired.
1848
Cleaner houses: A new Public Health Act stated that every house should have good levels of cleanliness, starting
a demand for toilets (invented by Thomas Crapper) and a greater interest in keeping clean.
The beginnings of a new political idea called Communism started this year. The main thought behind these new
ideas was that everyone should have equal shares in a country's wealth.
More railways: The London to Glasgow railway opened. At the beginning of Victoria's reign there were 500
miles of railway tracks in Britain; by 1850 there was 6,000 miles of track. People could now afford to travel.
1849
Concrete developed: Up to now most buildings would have been made of brick or stone. Concrete was cheap to make and
opened up new possibilities for building.
1850
Sewing machines: Isaac Singer produced a sewing machine which could be used in the home.
1851
City living: By 1851 half of the population of Britain lived in cities. In 1801 over one million people lived in
London but by 1901 it had reached over six-and-a-half million. Cities became smelly, dirty places.
Page 1 of 4
An underwater telegraph cable was successfully laid under the English Channel. This allowed the British people
to communicate instantly with Europeans, rather than waiting for letters to arrive.
1852
Flushing toilets: The first men's flushing toilet opened in London. Before the 1850s most people had used an earth closet,
which was a toilet outside the house with just soil in it and no water.
1854
Steel invented by Bessemer.
1855
Cheaper newspapers: More people bought newspapers when they became cheaper with the ending of the Stamp
Tax. This tax had been paid to the Government every time anyone bought a newspaper to find out what was happening.
British Empire continued to take control of new lands, but it allowed Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania to
start making some of their own laws.
New door lock: Burglaries were common and the invention of a cheap door lock by American Linus Yale Jr was
greatly welcomed.
Steam ships got increasingly faster and more efficient. By 1855 the journey from Britain to America across the
Atlantic Ocean could be completed in just nine days.
Study of mind: An interest in how the mind works was growing at this time as shown by the printing of new book
called: Principles of Psychology, by H Spencer.
1856
Henry Bessemer invented the blast furnace, which meant that steel could be made in big amounts.
1857
The National Portrait Gallery was opened in central London. Its paintings were for everyone to see.
Men were allowed to divorce their wives under certain circumstances thanks to a new law called the Matrimonial
Causes Act. Women were not allowed to ask for a divorce until 1923.
1858
Britain took control of India and made it part of its Empire.
1859
Charles Darwin revealed his theories of how man evolved. He said that the world was much older than the Bible
suggested. He upset many, especially when in 1871 his theories linked mankind to apes.
Etienne Lenoir demonstrated the first successful gasoline engine, which would lead to big changes in transport,
and the arrival of cars.
In 1859 the first women were admitted to Royal Academy Schools.
1862
The International Exhibition held in London introduced the Victorians to goods from all over the world. It showed
metalwork, cloth and pots from countries such as Japan, India, Egypt, and China.
1863
Dentist drill invented.
The London underground railway opened. The Metropolitan line between Paddington and Farringdon Street was
the first line to run trains, powered by steam.
1864
Julia Margaret Cameron took unusual photographs of people, and proved that photographs can be a work of art as well as
just a picture.
1865
Suffragettes started: Women began to fight to have more of a say in matters such as the running of the country. They
formed a group, which came to be known as the Suffragettes.
1866
Cable success: The laying of a telegraph cable under the Atlantic Ocean to send messages between Britain and America
was successfully completed.
1867
Dynamite invented: Alfred Nobel produced dynamite, the first high explosive which could be safely handled.
Let's vote: A new law called the Second Reform Act allowed nearly one million extra people to vote for the
people they wanted in government. Only men could vote, and they had to be working and fairly wealthy.
1868
Antiseptic arrives: Deaths in hospitals, after surgery, fell from 45 per cent to just 15 per cent when surgeon
Joseph Lister started using disinfectants after surgery. It was also to keep wounds clean.
Page 2 of 4
Workers unite: Workers learned there was power in numbers. They formed Trade Unions in which workers
fought for better wages. By 1900 the country's Trade Unions had over two million members.
1869
University accepts women: Cambridge University set up the first college for women. In the past only men had the chance
to go to university.
1870
Cables to India: Telegraph links from Britain to India were laid with overland and undersea cables. This made it
possible to have instant communications with the British rulers in India.
Department stores: The first big department stores, selling a wide choice of goods, began to open this year. It was
now possible to make large glass windows in which the goods could be displayed.
School for all: An Education Act was passed which made it law for schools to be available to all children up to
the age of 11 for a penny a week. Many couldn't afford the payment.
Women's rights: A law was passed which gave married women the right to earn and keep money for their own
use. Until now everything belonged to their husbands. The law was called the Married Women's Property Act.
1872
Secret vote: Voting for the new government had never been secret before which meant that people could be bullied or
bribed into voting for one party or the other. This was less likely with a secret ballot.
1873
Typewriter invented
1874
From 1874, every birth, death and marriage had to be recorded by law.
1876
Carpet sweeper invented
The telephone was invented by a Scottish scientist called Alexander Graham Bell. It quickly became very popular
and, by 1877, it was possible for people to buy telephones for their homes.
1877
American Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, and made a recording of the nursery rhyme "Mary had a little lamb."
This was the first method of recording music.
1878
Electric street lighting began in London, replacing the old gas lamps, which had to be hand-lit every evening.
1879
Light bulb invented: Swan and Edison each produced an electric light bulb for domestic use. Before this homes used
gaslight and candles.
1880
School compulsory: A law was passed which meant all children must attend school.
1883
The first electric railway was opened.
Volcano darkens moon. The moon went dark after the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in Java, due to the thick dust
and smoke created.
1884
Independent women: New laws improved the rights of women and they were no longer seen as 'belonging' to
their husbands in the eyes of the law.
Industrial Revolution: For the first time the name Industrial Revolution was given to the period of history from
1760 to 1840. It was used by a man called Arnold Toynbee and has stuck ever since.
Machine gun invented
1885
Bicycles arrive: The launch of the safety bicycle meant that many people could now get about independently,
without having to use a horse.
First cars: Karl Benz developed an engine for the first cars, bringing about massive changes in transport. The
speed limit for cars was four miles per hour. It was increased to 20 miles per hour in 1896.
1888
Box camera: Photography became even more popular with invention of the Kodak box camera. This made it
much easier for the owner of the camera to take pictures and have them made into photographs.
Radio waves: Hertz discovered radio waves which meant that messages could eventually be sent through the air.
Tires with air: Dunlop developed an earlier invention of rubber tires filled with air (the pneumatic tire).
Page 3 of 4
1889
Eiffel Tower
1890
The first comic book to ever be published in Britain was printed. It was called Comic Cuts.
The first electric underground train to travel on a public railway ran in London on December 18.
1891
Primary education was made free for all. Many parents struggled to pay the penny a week for their children's
schooling and many farmers needed their children to work on the land.
The first hydro-electric power station, making electricity from fast flowing water, was put into action this year.
1892
First automatic telephone switch board in use.
1893
Cars on sale: Karl Benz and Henry Ford started building cars.
New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote for the election of a new
government.
1895
The first public screening of a film took place in Paris, thanks to the Lumiere brothers developing
cinematography.
HG Wells wrote one of the earliest science fiction novels, 'The Time Machine', which explored what might
happen if we could build a machine which could transport us through time.
Sigmund Freud started to become very well known for his study of the mind and how it works. He published a
book called 'Studies in Hysteria', which changed our views on how the human mind works.
X-ray discovered: W K Roentgen accidentally discovered x-ray.
1896
The public got its first view of moving pictures in London.
Helium discovered
Guglielmo Marconi launched the wireless. It was now possible to talk without wires.
1898
The first disc recordings were made.
Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium and polonium, which could be used to fight illness, such as cancer.
Zeppelins invented
1899
A pain killer called aspirin became widely available this year.
The legal school leaving age was set at 12 to try to improve everyone's level of education.
1900
A frozen mammoth was discovered in Siberia, adding more detail to our understanding of Darwin's theories on the
evolution of life.
A new major theory about how the world works was put forward by Max Planck. It was called the Quantum Theory.
1901
The first transatlantic wireless transmission between England and America was successfully carried out by Marconi.
http://www.headlinehistory.co.uk/online/London%20and%20South%20East/Victorian/timeline.htm
Page 4 of 4