Second Industrial Revolution - Technologies/Innovations

Bessemer Process for Steelmaking

Nov 11, 1856

Henry Bessemer receives a patent for his Bessemer Process for Steelmaking.

First Successful Machine Gun Created

Nov 4, 1862

The first successful machine gun had been created, the Gatling Gun, by Richard Gatling. Patented originally in 1861, the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Railroad Refrigerator Car

Nov 26, 1867

J.B. Sutherland receives the first patent for a railroad refrigerator car; Joel Tiffany receives a patent the next year.

American Typewriter Patented

Jun 23, 1868

Christopher Latham Stoles receives a patent for the first American typewriter. The first typewriter dates back to 1714 in Britain, by Englishman Henry Mill.

Transcontinental Railroad

May 10, 1869

Union Pacific & Central Pacific Railroads cross at Promontory Point, Utah.

First Telephone Patented

Mar 7, 1876

Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his new invention that could send human voices over wires and transmit currents of sound.

First Microphone Created

Mar 4, 1877

Emile Berliner invents the microphone based on "loose contact" between two metal electrodes.

First Phonograph Created

Aug 12, 1877

Thomas Edison releases the first phonograph.

First American Motion Picture

Jun 15, 1878

Eadweard Muybridge is the first American credited with creating the motion picture, "Horse in Motion" in 1878.

First Incandescent Lamp Patented

Jan 27, 1880

Thomas Edison received a patent for the incandescent lamp that set the precedent for the universal domestic use of light.

World's First Skyscraper Built

Mar 1, 1884

The Home Insurance Building in Chicago is issued a patent.

First Camera (Kodak)

Sep 4, 1888

George Eastman invented the Kodak Camera and introduced rolled photographic film.