Industrial Revolution

  • Jethro Tull Creates a Seed Drill

    he perfected a horse-drawn seed drill that sowed the seeds in rows. This was a notable advancement over scattering the seeds by hand.
  • Thomas Newcomen Invents Atmospheric Steam Engine

    In the engine the intensity of pressure was not limited by the pressure of the steam. Instead, atmospheric pressure pushed the piston down after the condensation of steam had created a vacuum in the cylinder.
  • James Watt Creates a Better Engine

    While repairing a model Newcomen steam engine in 1764, James was impressed by its waste of steam. After wrestling with the problem of improving it, he decided to separate condenser, his first and greatest invention. He realized that the loss of latent heat was the worst defect of the Newcomen engine and the condensation must be effected in a chamber distinct from the cylinder but connected to it.
  • John Kay Invents Flying Shuttle

    The shuttle was thrown, or passed, through the warp threads by hand. Kay mounted his shuttle on wheels in a track and used paddles to shoot the shuttle from side to side when the weaver jerked a cord.
  • Richard Arkwright Edits Cotton Gin

    a machine for carding cotton had been introduced into England and James Hargreaves had invented the spinning jenny. With the help of John Kay who had been working on a mechanical spinning machine, Arkwright made improvements that made a stronger yarn and required less physical labor. It was patented in 1775.
  • Samuel Crompton Invents

    He made a machine that simultaneously drew out and gave the final twisting to the cotton fibers fed into it, reproducing mechanically the actions of hand spinning.
  • Henry Cort Invents Pudding Process

    Cort worked out a process of pudding, whereby molten pig iron was stirred in a reverberatory furnace. As the iron was decarbonized by air, it became thicker, and balls of "puddled" iron could be removed as a pasty mass from the more liquid impurities still in the furnace.
  • Eli Whitney Creates Cotton Gin

    The cotton gin was a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber.
  • George Stephenson Creates Railroad Locomotive

    He built the "Blucher", an engine that drew eight loaded wagons carrying 30 tons of coal at 4 mph. Not satisfied, he sought to improve his locomotive’s power and introduced the “steam blast,” by which exhaust steam was redirected up the chimney, pulling air after it and increasing the draft.
  • Elias Howe Creates Sewing Machine

    It was suggested to him that the man who invented a machine that could sew would earn a fortune. The next five years he spent all his spare time in the development of a sewing machine, and he was granted a patent for it. The machine attracted little attention in the US at first, then when a fortune was not noticeable , he sold the patent rights in England for £250 ($1,250).
  • Cyrus Fields Invents Telegraph Cable

    he was first to lay a telegraphic cable across the Atlantic Ocean. In August 1858 he arranged for Queen Victoria to send the first transatlantic message to President James Buchanan.
  • John Wesley Creates Plastic

    He discovered the process for making celluloid, the first practical artificial plastic.