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It was built to a design created by Thomas Newcomen, who created the first steam engine to pump water by devising a method to generate power from atmospheric pressure. -
John Kay was an English inventor, known for being the father of the flying shuttle, a production tool he developed in 1733 that allowed cotton to weave at greater scale and speed than by hand. -
Edward Cartwright was an English cleric and inventor who created the first mechanical loom. -
The Watt steam engine, also known as the Boulton and Watt steam engine, was the first practical steam engine, becoming one of the driving forces of the Industrial Revolution. -
Jenny was a hilator, invented in 1764 by James Hargreavez in Stanhill, near the Blackburn of Lancashire (England). -
Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. -
Water frame developed by Richard Arkwright in 1775. Installed in water powered factories, the machine could spin large quantities of cotton yarn. -
Robert Fulton's steamboat was important because it made transportation and trade by the river more feasible. Before the steamboat, most trade/travel was done by wind-powered sailboats, whose speed depended on weather conditions and river currents. -
The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who opposed the use of certain types of cost-saving / wage stealing machinery, and often destroyed the machines in clandestine raids. -
A transcontinental railway is an adjacent rail network that crosses a mass of continental land, with terminals in different oceans or continental borders. -
Light bulbs with a carbon filament were first demonstrated by Thomas Edison in October 1879. These carbon filament bulbs, the first electric light bulbs, became available commercially that same year. -
In architectural history, one structure stands as the leader of a new era—the Home Insurance Building. Completed in 1885 on LaSalle Street between Adams and Monroe, it holds the distinction of being among the world's first skyscrapers. -
The first motion picture ever shot was Roundhay Garden Scene, shot in 1888. Louis Le Prince dazzles the eye with a remarkable display of 4 people walking in a garden, creating this 2.11-second cinematic masterpiece. -
Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi (pictured at right) became known across the world as the most successful inventor in applying radio waves to human communication in the 1890s. In 1895 he sent a wireless Morse Code message to a source more than a kilometer away. -
The Wright Flyer was the first motor flying machine built by the Wright Brothers. -
The 20th century saw a revolution in plastic production: the advent of entirely synthetic plastics. Belgian chemist and clever marketeer Leo Baekeland pioneered the first fully synthetic plastic in 1907. -
The Model T was introduced to the world in 1908. Henry Ford wanted the Model T to be affordable, simple to operate, and durable. The vehicle was one of the first mass production vehicles, allowing Ford to achieve his aim of manufacturing the universal car. -
The First World War, also known as the First Great War, was a worldwide but European-centered military conflict, which began on 28 July 1914 and ended on 11 November 1918, when Germany accepted the conditions of the armistice.