Environmental science timeline

Electricity was discovered

1751

Ben Franklin discovered electricity with a kite and a key

James Watt improved the Steam engine

1764

New York Stock Exchange was founded

1792

Cotton gin was patented

1793

Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin in 1793. From 1793 until the Civil War the slave population increased to about 4,000,000.

First commercial telegraphy system was patented

1837

In 1837, British inventors William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the first commercial telegraphy system, even as Samuel Morse and other inventors worked on their own versions in the United States.

Transcontinental railroad opened for traffic

1869

North America's first transcontinental railroad was a 1,911-mile continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected

First car was invented

1886

Carl Benz applied for a patent for his “vehicle powered by a gas engine.”