Technology Timeline

By Olivia.stanchina
  • Galileo Galilei designs a basic thermometer.

    Galileo Galilei designs a basic thermometer.

    Thermometer

  • Isaac Newton formulates his three laws of motion.

    Motion

  • English farmer Jethro Tull begins the mechanization of agriculture by inventing the horse-drawn seed drill.

    Tractors
  • Thomas Newcomen builds the first practical (but stationary) steam engine.

    Thomas Newcomen builds the first practical (but stationary) steam engine.

    Steam Engines

  • Wolfgang von Kempelen develops a mechanical speaking machine: the world's first speech synthesizer.

    Speech Synthesizers

  • Italian Alessandro Volta makes the first battery.

    Electricity Batteries
  • Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier develop the papermaking machine.

    Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier develop the papermaking machine.

    Paper

  • Humphry Davy develops the electric arc lamp.

    Xenon Lamps

  • Robert Stirling invents the efficient Stirling engine.

    Stirling Engines

  • Joseph Niepce makes the first modern photograph.

    Photography Digital Cameras

  • Thomas Midgley, Jr. invents coolant chemicals for air conditioners and refrigerators.

    Air Conditioners and Refrigerators

  • Charles Wheatstone and William Cooke, in England, and Samuel Morse, in the United States, develop the electric telegraph

    Telephones

  • Louis Daguerre invents a practical method of taking pin-sharp photographs called Daguerreotypes.

    Digital Cameras Photography
  • Fire extinguishers are invented.

    Fire extinguishers are invented.

    Fire Extinguishers
  • Christopher Latham Sholes invents the modern typewriter and QWERTY keyboard.

    Christopher Latham Sholes invents the modern typewriter and QWERTY keyboard.

    Typewriters

  • Edward Very invents the flare gun for sending distress flares at sea.

    Flares

  • Josephine Cochran invents the dishwasher.

    Dishwashers

  • Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web.

    Internet World Wide Web

  • Physicist Sir Oliver Lodge sends the first ever message by radio wave in Oxford, England.

    Radio
  • The first electric vacuum cleaner is developed.

    The first electric vacuum cleaner is developed.

    Vaccum

  • Igor Sikorsky builds the first truly practical helicopter.

    Helicopters

  • Percy Spencer accidentally discovers how to cook with microwaves, inadvertently inventing the microwave oven.

    Microwave and Ovens

  • Martin Cooper develops the first handheld cellphone (mobile phone).

    Cellphones

  • First grocery-store purchase of an item coded with a barcode.

    Barcodes
  • Apple introduces a touchscreen cellphone called the iPhone.

    Apple introduces a touchscreen cellphone called the iPhone.

    Touchscreen Iphones
  • Apple releases its touchscreen tablet computer, the iPad.

    Apple releases its touchscreen tablet computer, the iPad.

    Touchscreen computers known as Ipads

  • Supercomputers (the world's fastest computers) are now 30 times less powerful than human brains.

    Supercomputers

  • Quantum computing shows signs of becoming a practical technology

    Quantum Computers