Central Events in Technology

Murray, C.A. (2003) Human accomplishment the pursuit of excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. HarperCollins Publishers.

Year	Country	Event
400 BCE	China, Egypt	First known use of the abacus.
270 BCE	Greece	Sostrates builds the first known lighthouse, the Pharos of Alexandria.
245 BCE	Levant	First known glass blowing.
200 BCE	Asia Minor	First known use of parchment.
1	China	Chinese engineers invent the sternpost rudder, enabling efficient steering of large vessels.
100	China	First known use of paper for writing (earlier versions had been used for packing and other purposes).
250	China	First gunpowder (date uncertain).
300	China	First known use of stirrups.
984	China	Chinese engineers invent locks for canals.
1045	China	Bi Sheng invents movable type, reinvented by Gutenberg in Germany, 1440.
1502	Germany	Peter Henlein invents the mainspring in a pocket watch (and invents the pocket watch itself).
1556	Germany	Georgius Agricola's De re Metallica is for centuries the best text on mining.
1589	England	William Lee invents the stocking frame, the basis for all subsequent knitting and lace-making machines.
1603	England	Hugh Platt discovers coke, essential to steel production.
1622	England	William Oughtred invents the slide rule by repositioning Gunters scales.
1642	France	Blaise Pascal invents a calculating machine, the Pascaline, that can handle up to nine-digit numbers.
1656	Netherlands	Christiaan Huygens invents the pendulum escapement and thereby invents the pendulum clock.
1679	France	Denis Papin invents the pressure cooker.
1690	France	Denis Papin invents the atmospheric engine, pioneering many design principles of the steam engine.
1693	Germany	Gottfried von Leibniz invents an improved calculator for multiplication and division.
1698	England	Thomas Savery invents the Miner’s Friend, a practical atmospheric steam engine without a piston.
1699	England	Jethro Tull invents the modern seed drill.
1709	England	Abraham Darby successfully uses coke in iron smelting.
1712	England	Thomas Newcomen uses steam to push a piston.
1731	England	John Hadley invents the reflecting octant, precursor of the modern sextant, which follows in 1757.
1733	England	John Kay invents flying shuttle, an important step toward automatic weaving.
1740	England	Benjamin Huntsman develops the crucible method for making homogeneous steel (Sheffield steel), with high tensile strength.
1742	USA	Benjamin Franklin invents the Franklin stove, a major improvement in heating efficiency.
1750	USA	Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod.
1764	England	James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny, which does the work of 30 spinning wheels.
1764	Scotland	James Watt invents the condenser, employing latent heat to improve the efficiency of the steam engine, the first of several improvements that create the modern steam engine.
1765	England	John Harrison completes 40 years of refinement of an accurate ship’s chronometer, enabling the determination of longitude and revolutionizing navigational techniques.
1769	England	Richard Arkwright invents the water frame, a waterwheel-driven device that powers multiple spinning machines and a foundation of the modern factory system.
1770	England	Richard Arkwright, Samuel Need, and Jedediah Strutt open a water-driven mill at Cromford, the start of the factory system.
1776	England	John Wilkinson invents the first precision boring machine, essential for the manufacture of cylinders for steam engines.
1779	England	Abraham Darby III and John Wilkinson build an all-iron bridge at Coalbrookdale.
1781	Scotland	James Watt invents a governor for a steam engine and uses a sun-and-planet gear to use a steam engine to drive a wheel.
1782	Scotland, England	James Watt and Jonathan Hornblower invent a double-acting steam engine in which steam is admitted alternatively on both sides of the piston.
1783	France	L. S. Lenormand, Jean Blanchard, and Andre Gernerin invent the first parachute capable of carrying a human.
1783	France	The Montgolfier brothers conduct the first manned flight of a hot air balloon.
1785	France	Claude Berthollet invents chemical bleach (chlorine and potash).
1785	USA	Oliver Evans invents an elevator to move grain, automating the process and requiring only two workers.
1787	USA	John Fitch invents a working steamboat.
1793	USA	Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, revolutionizing the economics of cotton production.
1795	France	Nicolas Appert discovers that food can be preserved by heating, leading to the invention of canned food.
1796	Bohemia	Aloys Senefelder invents lithography.
1800	Italy	Alessandro Volta invents the voltaic cell, the first battery.
1804	England	Richard Trevithick uses a steam locomotive on rails to pull iron from an ironworks to the Glamorgan canal.
1805	France	Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents punch cards to create patterns with the Jacquard loom, the first nonalphabetic means of storing information.
1807	USA	Robert Fulton builds the first commercially successful steamboat.
1814	England	George Stephenson invents a practical steam locomotive.
1815	Scotland	John McAdam invents the modern paved road.
1820	USA, Scotland	Cyrus McCormick, Obed Hussey, and Patrick Bell invent independent versions of the mechanical reaper in the course of the decade.
1822	France	Joseph Niepce creates the first permanent photograph.
1824	England	Joseph Aspdin invents Portland cement.
1825	England	Stephenson begins the first rail service using a steam locomotive.
1831	England	Michael Faraday invents the electric generator.
1831	USA	Joseph Henry invents a practical electric motor.
1833	England	Charles Babbage designs an “analytic engine,” programmed by punch cards, that is the conceptual origin of the computer.
1835	USA	Samuel Colt invents the Colt revolver.
1836	England	John Daniell invents the Daniell cell, the first modern battery.
1830	USA England	William Cooke, Charles Wheatstone, and Samuel Morse independently invent the telegraph in the course of the decade.
1839	England	William Grove invents the fuel cell, producing electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen.
1839	France	Louis Daguerre invents the camera and plates that make photography practical.
1839	Scotland	Kirkpatrick Macmillan invents the first true bicycle.
1839	USA	Charles Goodyear invents vulcanization, revolutionizing the utility of rubber.
1841	England	William Fox-Talbot invents a photographic negative that permits unlimited paper positives.
1842	England	John Lawes invents the first chemical fertilizer.
1843	England	Isambard Brunel builds a propeller-driven, iron, transatlantic liner.
1843	England	John Lawes founds the Rothamsted Experimental Station for improving agricultural production, introducing rigorous experimental procedures and field trials.
1844	USA	Samuel Morse creates the first functioning telegraph line, from Washington to Baltimore.
1845	Germany	Christian Schonbein invents nitrocellulose, or gun cotton.
1846	USA	Elias Howe invents a two-thread, lock-stitch sewing machine.
1847	Italy	Ascanio Sobrero prepares nitroglycerine.
1851	USA	Isaac Singer invents an improved sewing machine with treadle and lock stitch.
1852	France	Henri Gifford conducts the first successful flight of a powered airship (a steam powered dirigible).
1852	France	Jean Foucault invents a gyroscope that can be used as a substitute for a magnetic compass.
1852	USA	Elisha Otis invents the safety elevator.
1853	England	Abraham Gesner and James Young invent kerosene.
1853	England	George Cayley invents a glider that accomplishes the first unpowered, manned flight in a heavier-than-air vehicle.
1854	France, Germany	Robert Bunsen and Henri St.Claire Deville develop an electrolytic process for obtaining metallic aluminum from sodium aluminum chloride.
1856	England, USA	Henry Bessemer and William Kelly invent the Bessemer process for manufacturing steel.
1856	England	William Perkin invents a synthetic dye (mauve), founding the synthetic organic chemical industry.
1859	France	Gaston Plante invents the rechargeable storage battery.
1859	USA	Edwin Drake drills the first successful oil well, in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
1859	USA	George Pullman invents the sleeping car.
1860	France	Jean Lenoir invents a practical internal combustion engine.
1861	France	Eugene Mieyer and Pierre Michaux invent the chain-driven bicycle.
1865	England	Alexander Parkes creates laboratory samples of celluloid.
1865	USA	Linus Yale invents the pin-tumbler cylinder lock.
1866	Sweden	Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
1866	USA	Cyrus Field lays the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable.
1867	France	Georges Leclanche invents the forerunner of an easily manufactured dry cell battery.
1867	USA	Carlos Glidden and Christopher Sholes invent the first commercially practical typewriter.
1868	USA	George Westinghouse invents an automatic air brake for railroad cars.
1869	Belgium	Zenobe Gramme and Ernst Siemens develop and manufacture a DC dynamo.
1869	France	Ferdinand de Lesseps supervises the design and construction of the Suez Canal.
1869	USA	John Hyatt invents a commercially successful plastic (celluloid).
1876	Germany	Nikolaus Otto invents the four-stroke cycle basic to modern combustion engines.
1876	USA	Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray independently invent the telephone.
1877	USA	Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.
1878	USA, England	Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan independently invent the carbon filament incandescent bulb.
1880	USA	Herman Hollerith invents the first workable electromechanical calculator, used to automate tabulation of the 1890 U.S. Census.
1883	France	Louis de Chardonnet invents the first synthetic fabric, rayon.
1883	USA	Nikola Tesla invents a motor using alternating current.
1884	England	Charles Parsons invents a successful steam turbine.
1884	USA	Lewis Waterman invents the free-flowing fountain pen.
1884	USA	Ottmar Mergenthaler invents the linotype machine.
1885	Germany	Carl Benz invents the first true automobile.
1885	USA	William Stanley invents a transformer for shifting voltage and amperage.
1886	France, USA	Charles Hall and Paul Heroult invent an inexpensive method for extracting aluminum.
1887	Scotland	John Dunlop invents the pneumatic rubber tire.
1888	USA	George Eastman invents the Kodak camera.
1889	England	Frederick Abel and James Dewar invent cordite, leading to smokeless gunpowder.
1889	USA	Thomas Edison invents the motion picture camera.
1891	USA	Edward Acheson invents carborundum, the first industrial abrasive.
1892	Germany	Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel engine.
1900	Germany	Ferdinand Zeppelin begins the first airline, using rigid airships.
1901	Italy	Guglielmo Marconi broadcasts radio waves from England to Newfoundland.
1903	USA	The Wright brothers’ airplane achieves the first successful powered flight by a heavier-than-air machine.
1904	USA	John Fleming invents the rectifier, the first radio tube.
1906	USA	Lee De Forest invents the amplifier vacuum tube.
1908	Germany	Fritz Haber invents a process, later perfected by Carl Bosch, for mass production of nitrates, which in turn permits mass production of fertilizers (and explosives).
1908	USA	Henry Ford invents the assembly line.
1909	USA, Scotland	Leo Baekeland and James Swinburne independently invent a thermosetting plastic.
1911	Switzerland	Jacques Brandenberge invents cellophane.
1911	USA, Germany	Elmer Sperry and Hermann Anschutz-Kampfer independently invent the gyrocompass.
1911	USA	Charles Kettering invents an electric starter for cars.
1912	Germany	Friedrich Bergius invents a process to produce gasoline from coal hydrogenation.
1914	USA	The Panama Canal is completed.
1917	USA	Clarence Birdseye and Charles Seabrook invent a technique for quick-freezing foods, founding the frozen food industry.
1918	USA	Edwin Armstrong invents the superheterodyne receiver, making home radio receivers possible.
1921	USA	Thomas Midgley, Jr., invents tetraethyl lead, an anti-knock compound for gasoline.
1923	USA	Vladimir Zworykin invents the iconoscope, the precursor of the television tube.
1926	USA	Robert Goddard invents the liquid-fuel rocket.
1926	USA	Samuel Warner introduces a motion picture system that integrates sound into the film.
1927	USA	Charles Lindbergh pilots the first nonstop flight from the United States to continental Europe.
1929	Germany	Fritz Pfleumer invents magnetic recording of sound.
1929	USA	Edwin Armstrong invents frequency modulation (FM), a method of transmitting radio waves without static; perfected in 1933.
1930	England	Frank Whittle invents the jet engine.
1930	USA	Thomas Midgley, Jr., discovers freon, the refrigerant.
1930	USA	Vannevar Bush invents a machine capable of solving differential equations.
1931	USA	Wallace Carothers invents nylon
1932	USA	Edwin Land invents a synthetic substance that will polarize light, leading to the first synthetic light-polarizing film.
1935	Scotland	Robert Watson-Watt invents a way to display radio wave information on a cathode ray tube, enabling the development of radar.
1936	USA, Germany	Igor Sikorsky and Heinrich Foch independently invent a successful helicopter.
1938	USA	Roy Plunkett invents Teflon.
1938	USA	The Biro brothers invent the first workable ballpoint pen.
1939	Germany	Hans Ohain designs the first successful jet plane.
1939	Switzerland	Paul Muller discovers the insecticidal properties of DDT.
1940	USA	George Stibitz invents the Complex Number Calculator, the first machine to service more than one terminal and to be used via a remote location.
1943	France	Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan invent the aqualung.
1943	USA	Martin Whitaker and Eugene Wigner lead the construction of the first operational nuclear reactor.
1945	England	Arthur Clarke conceptualizes the use of satellites for global communication.
1946	USA	ENIAC, the first entirely electronic computer, developed by John Eckert, John Mauchly, Arthur Burks, and John von Neumann, becomes fully operational.
1946	USA	Arthur Burks, John von Neumann, and Herman Goldstine’s “Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument” provides the conceptual foundation for computer development in the coming decades.
1947	USA	Charles Yeager pilots the first supersonic flight.
1947	USA	Edwin Land, Howard Rogers, and William McCune invent the Polaroid camera.
1948	USA	John Bardeen, Walter Houser, and William Shockley invent the transistor.
1948	USA	Peter Goldmark invents the long-playing record.
1950	England	Alan Turing creates the Turing test, establishing a criterion for judging artificial intelligence.