Major inventions 17^th century

1608

German-Dutch spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey invents the first refracting telescope.

1620

Dutch builder Cornelis Drebbel invents the earliest human-powered submarine.

1624

English mathematician William Oughtred invents the slide rule.

1625

French physician Jean-Baptiste Denys invents a method for blood transfusion.

1629

Italian engineer and architect Giovanni Branca invents a steam turbine.

1636

English astronomer and mathematician W. Gascoigne invents the micrometer.

1642

French mathematician Blaise Pascal invents the adding machine.

1643

Italian mathematician and physicist Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer.

1650

Scientist and inventor Otto von Guericke invents an air pump.

1656

Dutch mathematician and scientist Christian Huygens invents a pendulum clock.

1660

Cuckoo clocks were made in Furtwangen, Germany, in the Black Forest region.

1663

Mathematician and astronomer James Gregory invents the first reflecting telescope.

1668

Mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton invents a reflecting telescope.

1670

The first reference to a candy cane is made.

French Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon invents Champagne.

1671

German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invents the calculating machine.

1674

Dutch Microbiologist Anton Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to see and describe bacteria with a microscope.

1675

Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Christian Huygens patents the pocket watch.

1676

English architect and natural philosopher Robert Hooke invents the universal joint.

1679

French physicist, mathematician, and inventor Denis Papin ​invents the pressure cooker.

1698

English inventor and engineer Thomas Savery invents a steam pump.

MAJOR INVENTIONS   18^TH CENTURY

1. The Cotton Gin
   Invented by Eli Whitney around 1790 this machine revolutionized the cotton industry of the South.
2. The Farmers Almanac
   Benjamin Banneker first published the Farmers Almanac in 1792. Banneker was also the first black American inventor.
3. The Franklin stove
   This invention by Ben Franklin was the first heater that could still heat a room long after the fire was extinguished.
4. Power loom
   Developed by Edmund Cartwright in 1785 this machine revolutionized the weaving industry by automating the weaving process.
5. Watt’s Steam Engine
   Watt did not invent the steam engine but he improved its operation by making an engine that cooled the used steam in a condenser separate from the main cylinder.
6. Optical Telegraph
   The optical telegraph was used for long-distance communication. This particular invention was the first dependable means of long-distance communication.
7. Jefferson’s Moldboard Plow
   Thomas Jefferson improved the plow by designing a better moldboard that lasted longer. This is but one of many of his inventions.
8. The Lightning Rod
   Benjamin Franklin invented this device to help prevent damage to buildings by lightning strikes.
9. The First Submarine
   David Bushnell invented the first submarine. Called the turtle, this craft was first used during the American Revolution.

MAJOR INVENTIONS OF THE 19^TH CENTURY

op 10 Greatest Inventions of the 19th Century

• THE STEAM ENGINE. …
• THE LOCOMOTIVE. …
• THE TELEPHONE. …
• THE TELEGRAPH. …
• THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE. …
• THE RIFLE. …
• IRONCLAD SHIPS. …
• ELECTRICITY/LIGHT BULB.

 

The Most Important Inventions of the 19th Century

Innovations that Changed the World

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By 

Mary Bellis

Updated July 26, 2019

Civil War was a historic event of such magnitude that it forever changed the way Americans thought about their history and divided the cultural understanding of the nation into two distinct periods: everything that came before the war, and everything that happened afterward. The Second Industrial Revolution (1865 to 1900) was another such watershed era that redefined not only the American way of life but life around the world. Inventions that relied on newly harnessed means of putting electricity, steel, and petroleum to use spurred the growth of railways and steamships, and transformed everything from farming to manufacturing. The 19th century was the age of machine tools—tools that made tools and machines that made parts for other machines, including interchangeable parts. The 19th century brought us the assembly line, speeding up the factory production of goods. It also gave birth to the notion of a professional scientist. In fact, the word “scientist” was first used in 1833 by William Whewell. Inventions including the telegraph, typewriter, and the telephone led to faster and wider means of communication. The following list (by no means exhaustive) chronicles some of the most important innovations that took shape in the 19th Century.

01

of 10

1800–1809

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The first 10 years the 19th century may not have been the most fertile for new technology but the impending Second Industrial Revolution would follow soon enough. Here are some of that decade’s most important innovations:

• 1800—French silk weaver J.M. Jacquard invents the Jacquard loom.
• ​1800—Count Alessandro Volta invents the battery.
• 1804—Friedrich Winzer (Frederick Albert Winsor) patented coal-gas.
• 1804—English mining engineer Richard Trevithick develops a steam-powered locomotive but is unable to produce a viable prototype.
• 1809—Humphry Davy invents the arc lamp, the first electric light.
• 1810—German Frederick Koenig invents an improved printing press.

02

of 10

1810-1819

 

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• 1810—Peter Durand invents the tin can.
• 1814—The first successful steam locomotive, designed by George Stephenson, makes its debut.
• 1814—Joseph von Fraunhofer invents the spectroscope for use in the chemical analysis of glowing objects.
• 1814—Using a camera obscura, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first photograph. The process takes eight hours.
• 1815—Humphry Davy invents the miner’s lamp.
• 1816—René Laënnec invents the stethoscope.
• 1819—Samuel Fahnestock patents the soda fountain.

03

of 10

1820—1829

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• 1823—Charles Mackintosh invents his eponymous raincoat (a.k.a. “the Mac”) in Scotland.
• 1824—Professor Michael Faraday invents the toy balloons.
• 1824—Joseph Aspdin takes out an English patent for Portland cement.
• 1825—William Sturgeon invents the electromagnet.
• 1827—John Walker invents modern-day matches.
• 1827—Charles Wheatstone invents the microphone.
• 1829—W.A. Burt invents the typographer, the precursor to the typewriter.
• 1829—Louis Braille develops his eponymous method of raised printing to be read by the blind.​​​​

04

of 10

1830—1839

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• 1830—Frenchman Barthelemy Thimonnier invents a rudimentary sewing machine.
• 1831—Cyrus H. McCormick invents the first commercially viable reaper.
• 1831—Michael Faraday invents the electric dynamo. 
• 1834—Henry Blair, the second African American to receive a U.S. patent, invents the corn planter.
• 1834—Jacob Perkins invents and ether ice machine, a precursor to the modern refrigerator.
• 1835—Solymon Merrick patents the wrench.
• 1835—Charles Babbage invents a mechanical calculator. 
• 1836—Francis Pettit Smith and John Ericcson team up to invent the propellor.
• 1836—Samuel Colt invents the first revolver.
• 1837—Samuel Morse invents the telegraph. (Morse code arrives the following year.)
• 1837—English schoolmaster, Rowland Hill invents the postage stamp.
• 1839—Thaddeus Fairbanks invents platform scales.
• 1839—Charles Goodyear invents vulcanized rubber.
• 1839—Louis Daguerre invents the daguerreotype.

05

of 10

1840—1849

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• 1840—Englishmen John Herschel invents the blueprint.
• 1841—Samuel Slocum patents the stapler.
• 1844—Englishman John Mercer invents a process to increase the tensile strength and affinity for dyes in cotton thread.
• 1845—Elias Howe invents the modern sewing machine.
• 1845—Robert William Thomson patents pneumatic tires made of vulcanized rubber.
• 1845—Massachusetts dentist Dr. William Morton is the first to use anesthesia for a tooth extraction.
• 1847—Hungarian Ignaz Semmelweis invents antiseptics.
• 1848—Waldo Hanchett patents the dentist’s chair.
• 1849—Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.

06

of 10

1850—1859

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• 1851—Isaac Singer invents his eponymous sewing machine, and four years later, patents a sewing machine motor.
• 1852—Jean Bernard Léon Foucault invents the gyroscope, crucial to the development of navigation systems, automatic pilots, and stabilizers.
• 1854—John Tyndall demonstrates the principles of fiber optics.
• 1856—Health science pioneer Louis Pasteur develops the process of pasteurization.
• 1857—George Pullman invents his eponymous sleeping car for trains.
• 1858—Hamilton Smith patents a rotary washing machine.
• 1858—Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir invents a double-acting, electric spark-ignition internal combustion automobile engine fueled by coal gas, which he patents two years later. 

07

of 10

1860—1869

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• 1861—Elisha Graves Otis patents elevator safety brakes, creating a safer elevator.
• 1861—Linus Yale invents his eponymous cylinder lock.
• 1862—Richard Gatling patents his machine gun.
• 1862—Alexander Parkes creates the first man-made plastic.
• 1866—J. Osterhoudt patents a tin can with a key opener.
• 1866—Englishmen Robert Whitehead invents the torpedo. 
• 1867—Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.
• 1867—Christopher Scholes invents the prototype for the modern typewriter.
• 1868—George Westinghouse invents air brakes.
• 1868—Robert Mushet invents tungsten steel.
• 1868—J.P. Knight invents the traffic light.

08

of 10

1870—1879

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• 1872—A.M. Ward creates the first mail-order catalog.
• 1873—Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.
• 1876—Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
• 1876—Nicolaus August Otto invents the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine.
• 1876—Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.
• 1878—Thomas Edison invents the cylinder phonograph (known then as the tin foil phonograph).
• 1878—Eadweard Muybridge invents moving pictures. 
• 1878—Sir Joseph Wilson Swan invents the prototype for a practical electric lightbulb. 
• 1879—Thomas Edison invents the first commercially viable incandescent electric light bulb.

09

of 10

1880—1889

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• 1880—The British Perforated Paper Company debuts toilet paper.
• 1880—English inventor John Milne creates the modern seismograph.
• 1881—David Houston patents camera film in roll format.
• 1884—Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen.
• 1884—L. A. Thompson built and opened the first roller coaster in the United States at a site on Coney Island, New York.
• 1884—James Ritty invents a functional mechanical cash register.
• 1884—Charles Parson patents the steam turbine.
• 1885—Karl Benz invents the first practical automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine. 
• 1885—Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engine motorcycle. 
• 1886—John Pemberton introduces Coca-Cola.
• 1886—Gottlieb Daimler designs and builds the world’s first four-wheeled automobile.
• 1887—Heinrich Hertz invents radar.
• 1887—Emile Berliner invents the gramophone. 
• 1887—F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses.
• 1888—Nikola Tesla invents the alternating current motor and transformer.

10

of 10

1890—1899

 

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• 1891—Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator.
• 1892—Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel-fueled internal combustion engine, which he patents six years later.
• 1892—Sir James Dewar invents the Dewar vacuum flask.
• 1893—W.L. Judson invents the zipper.
• 1895—Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière invent a portable motion-picture camera that doubles as a film-processing unit and projector. The invention is called the Cinematographe and using it, the Lumières project the motion picture for an audience.
• 1899—J.S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner.