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steam engine
Thomas Savery (1650-1715)
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. -
flying shuttle
In 1733, John Kay invented the flying shuttle, an improvement to looms that enabled weavers to weave faster. The original shuttle contained a bobbin on to which the weft (weaving term for the crossways yarn) yarn was wound. It was normally pushed from one side of the warp (weaving term for the the series of yarns that extended lengthways in a loom) to the other side by hand. Large looms needed two weavers to throw the shuttle. The flying shuttle was thrown by a leaver that could be operated by o -
sewing machine
The first possible patent connected to mechanical sewing was a 1755 British patent issued to German, Charles Weisenthal. Weisenthal was issued a patent for a needle that was designed for a machine, however, the patent did not describe the rest of the machine if one existed. -
spinning ginny
In 1764, a British carpenter and weaver named James Hargreaves invented an improved spinning jenny, a hand-powered multiple spinning machine that was the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel by making it possible to spin more than one ball of yarn or thread.{p] Spinner machines like the spinning wheel and the spinning jenny made the threads and yarns used by weavers in their looms. As weaving looms became faster, inventors had to find ways for spinners to keep up. -
power loom
Rev Edmund Cartwright's invention of the power loom, this used water as power instead of steam power. It sped up weaving process. Weavers were able to use all the thread that spinners could produce. His modifications to the loom he patented in 1785 was described in his own words.[1] It was to be forty years before his ideas were modified into a reliable automatic loom. Cartwright was not the first man to design an automatic loom, this had been done in 1678 by M. de Gennes in Paris, and again by -
cotton gin
The cotton gin is a machine designed to remove cotton from its seeds. The process uses a small screen and pulling hooks to force the cotton through the screen. It was invented by Eli Whitney on March 14, 1794, one of the many inventions that occurred during the American Industrial Revolution. However, earlier versions of the cotton gin had existed since the first century. It was improved over time from a single roller design to a double roller machine. -
assemble lines
Probably the first linear and continuous assembly process of post-Renaissance times were the Portsmouth Block Mills built between 1801 and 1803. Marc Isambard Brunel (father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel), with the help of Henry Maudslay and others, designed 22 types of machine tools to make the parts for the blocks used by the Royal Navy. This factory was so successful it remained in use until the 1960s, with the workshop still visible at HM Dockyard in Portsmouth, and still containing some of the -
incandescent light bulb
1809 - Humphry Davy, an English chemist, invented the first electric light. Davy connected two wires to a battery and attached a charcoal strip betwween the other ends of the wires. The charged carbon glowed making the first arc lamp -
internal combustion engine
The Inventor of the Internal Combustion Engine
Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir was the creator and inventor of the internal combustion engine. A Belgian engineer, Lenoir was born in Mussy-La-Ville, a part of Belgium in 1822. By the time he was 28, he had moved to France -
electrometer
British electrician, William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet in 1825. The first electromagnet was a horseshoe-shaped piece of iron that was wrapped with a loosely wound coil of several turns. When a current was passed through the coil; the electromagnet became magnetized and when the current was stopped the coil was de-magnetized. Sturgeon displayed its power by lifting nine pounds with a seven-ounce piece of iron wrapped with wires through which the current of a single cell battery was sent -
revolver
Samuel Colt invented the first revolver, a gun named after its inventor "Colt", and after its revolving cylinder "revolver". In 1836, Samuel Colt was granted a U.S. patent for the Colt revolver, which was equipped with a revolving cylinder containing five or six bullets and an innovative cocking device. -
telegraph
Samuel F. B. Morse invented the first telegraph in 1837. Before Morse many inventors tried and worked on the same but the first practical instrument that could send telegraph using electricity successfully was designed by him. Samuel Morse was a professor of art and design at New York University in 1835. He became interested in telegraphic device in 1832 and started working on it. For the samehe took technical assistance from Leonard Gale, a chemistry professor and monetary support from Alfred V -
steel
Englishmen, Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) invented the first process for mass-producing steel inexpensively, essential to the development of skyscrapers. An American, William Kelly, had held a patent for "a system of air blowing the carbon out of pig iron" a method of steel production known as the pneumatic process of steelmaking. Air is blown through molten pig iron to oxidize and remove unwanted impurities. -
dynamite
Swedish industrialist, engineer, and inventor, Alfred Nobel built bridges and buildings in Stockholm. His construction work inspired Nobel to research new methods of blasting rock. In 1860, the inventor first started experimenting with nitroglycerine. -
telephone
In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won -
airplane
The history of the airplane shows it was invented by Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867-1912) Wright. They got the patent 9 months prior to their flight in December 1903. -
phonograph
Edison invented the first phonograph in 1877. He got the patent for it at the same time. The name phonograph was originally given by Edison; the word was derived from Greek words meaning sound or voice. Edison did not work on developing a phonograph but it was invented while he was working on a telegraph machine. Edison had started working on the telegraph machine when he was a teenager. The first phonograph which Edison designed was a small model which used tin foil covered metal cylinder as a -
thermostat
The first electric room thermostat was invented in 1883 by Warren S. Johnson.[1][2] Early technologies included mercury thermometers with electrodes inserted directly through the glass, so that when a certain (fixed) temperature was reached the contacts would be closed by the mercury. These were accurate to within a degree of temperature. -
automobile
The first production of automobiles was by Karl Benz in 1888 in Germany and, under license from Benz, in France by Emile Roger. There were numerous others, including tricycle builders Rudolf Egg, Edward Butler, and Léon Bollée.[5]:p.20-23 Bollée, using a 650 cc (40 cu in) engine of his own design, enabled his driver, Jamin, to average 45 kilometres per hour (28.0 mph) in the 1897 Paris-Tourville rally.[5]:p.23 By 1900, mass production of automobiles had begun in France and the United States. The -
refrigerator
An improved refrigerator design was patented by African American inventor John Standard of Newark, New Jersey on June 14 1891 (U.S. patent #455,891). John Standard was also received U.S. patent #413,689 on October 29 1889 for an improved oil stove. -
radio
Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, proved the feasibility of radio communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. By 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received the letter "S", telegraphed from England to Newfoundland. This was the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message in 1902.