Industrial Revolution Inventors

  • John Wesley

    Traveling Anglican minister who founded Methodism: Christian religion but believed that they should love and care for everyone and do everything to the glory of God.
  • John Roebuck

    British physician, chemist, and inventor that subsidized experiments of James Watt and is known for the industrial-scale manufacture of sulfuric acid, which is a highly corrosive strong mineral acid that has a large number of domestic uses.
  • Richard Arkwright

    English inventor, leading entrepreneur who invented a machine for carding (process that disentangles, cleans and intertwines fibers to produce a web that can be processed) and is credited with water powered cotton mills.
  • Nicolas LeBlanc

    French Chemist and surgeon who discovered how to manufacture soda ash from common salt (used as a water softener when laundering)
  • Adam Smith

    Scottish economist, philosopher, and author, plus a moral philosopher who published "The Wealth of Nations" and supported free market system -no interference from government, just supply and demand operating business.
  • James Watt

    Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, chemist who improved on Newcomen Steam Engine with his Watt Steam Engine which was crucial to changes during Industrial Revolution.
  • Edmund Cartwright

    English inventor that invented the power loom, designed to weave cloth and tapestry.
  • Jeremy Bentham

    English philosopher, jurist, social reformer, founder of modern utilitarianism (ethical theory which states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility - "greatest happiest principle").
  • Eli Whitney

    American inventor who created the cotton gin which produced more cotton in 1 hour than what multiple workers could produce in a day.
  • Alessandro Volta

    Italian physicist, chemistry, inventor, of electrical battery - first source of continuous current - and discoverer of methane.
  • Robert Fulton

    Initially an artist, he built the first successful submarine for the Navy, then a commercially successful steamboat.
  • Elias Howe

    American inventor awarded the first United States patent for creating the sewing machine.