-
First Steam Engine Invented
Thomas Savery was an English military engineer and inventor who in 1698, patented the first crude steam engine, based on Denis Papin's Digester or pressure cooker of 1679. -
Lightning
Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm. -
Bioelectricity
Luigi Aloisio Galvani studied bioelectricity, a field that still today studies the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system. -
First Electric Motor
The conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy by electromagnetic means was demonstrated by the British scientist Michael Faraday in 1821. -
First Internal Combustion Engine
Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially. -
Heat Engines
French physicist Sadi Carnot established the thermodynamic theory of idealized heat engines. This scientifically established the need for compression to increase the difference between the upper and lower working temperatures. -
Telegraph
While a professor of arts and design at New York University in 1835, Samuel Morse proved that signals could be transmitted by wire. -
Ruby Laser
Theodore Maiman invented the ruby laser considered to be the first successful optical or light laser. -
Battery
Alessandro Volta, inventor of the electric battery.Volta’s discovery of the decomposition of water by an electrical current laid the foundation of electrochemistry. -
Geothermal Energy
The Geothermal Energy Association is formed. The association includes U.S. companies that develop geothermal resources worldwide for electrical power generation and direct-heat uses.
