Timeline of invention

Significant inventions not assigned

• the arch - bridges built in Chinese Song dynasty
• the pulley
• the screw
• the stirrup

Note: Dates for inventions are often controversial. Inventions are often invented by several inventors around the same time, or may be invented in an impractical form many years before another inventor improves the invention into a practical form. Where there is ambiguity, the date of the first practical, fielded, version of the invention should be used here.

7th millennium BC

• Pottery
• fabric
• the wedge

4th millennium BC: picto-linguistic writing

early 3rd millennium BC

• Bronze
• Sumerian picto-graphic writing
• tents
• cultivation[?] of grains
• domestication of animals
• pictograms
• sledges[?] - Scandinavia
• the wheel and wheeled vehicles
• levers
• pure samples of carbon, copper, iron , gold, mercury , lead, silver, sulphur tin and zinc in use
• the plow

35th century BC

• irrigation -Ancient Egypt
• surveying[?]

32nd century BC: Egyptian hieroglyphics

31st century BC

• Chinese ideograms
• Drainage and Sewage system in India
• Dams, canals, stone sculptures using inclined plane and lever in Sumeria
• Pyramids in Ancient Egypt. See also Egyptology

23rd century BC

• clay maps in Babylon

22nd century BC

• Babylonian calendar modifications to account for the precession of the stars
• True astrolonomical observation - Mesopotamia
• Spherical geometry in Babylon

21st century BC: Cretan writing

19th century BC

• Babylonian cuneiform
• Code of Hammurabi - invention of codified municipal[?] law

18th century BC: Linear A - Hagia Triada[?]

16th century BC: Phonetic spelling developed by Phoenicians

15th century BC: Linear B - mainland[?] Greece or Knossus

10th century BC: Rustproof Iron[?] - India

7th century BC: Coinage, Discovery of irrational numbers

460s BC : First atomic theory - Democritus

410s BC: heliocentric solar system with spherical Sun ,Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn - Philolaus

400s BC:Catapults in Syracuse

225s BC[?]: measurement of Circumference of the Earth - Eratosthenes

• Archimedes
  • Specific gravity
  • concept of limit
  • Archimedean solids
  • false attribution of hydraulic screw pump[?] as archimedes screw
  • parabolic mirror
• Compass - a south pointing spoonlike lodestone in Han dynasty.

150s BC: Astrolabe - Hipparchus

1st century

• differential gear[?] (the antikythera mechanism

• 105: paper: Ts'ai Lun

3rd century

4th century

5th century

6th century

7th century

• 700 - Windmills in Persia

8th century

9th century

10th century

• Gunpowder (in China: some ref says 8th century?)

11th century

• 1045 - movable type printing by Bi Sheng in China (before Gutenberg)
• 1050 - Crossbow in France

12th century

13th century

• 1249: Gunpowder formula: Roger Bacon

14th century

• 1346: Cannon in wide use

15th century

• 15th century: Rifle
• 1450: Moveable type: Johann Gutenberg
• 1480: Nautical astrolabe: Martin Behaim
• 1480: Parachute: Leonardo da Vinci

16th century

• 1593: Thermometer: Galileo Galilei
• 1595: Microscope: Zacharias Janssen[?]

17th century

• 1608: Refracting telescope: Hans Lippershey
• 1609: Telescope: Galileo Galilei
• 1611: Telescope: Johannes Kepler
• 1620: Slide rule: William Oughtred[?]
• 1642: Adding machine: Blaise Pascal
• 1643: Barometer: Evangelista Torricelli
• 1645: Vacuum pump: Otto von Guericke
• 1657: Pendulum clock: Christiaan Huygens

18th century

• 1705: Engine - steam piston[?]: Thomas Newcomen
• 1709: Piano: Bartolomeo Cristofori
• 1710: Thermometer: René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
• 1714: Mercury thermometer[?]: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
• 1730: Mariner's quadrant[?]: Thomas Godfrey[?]
• 1731: Sextant: John Hadley[?]
• 1733: Flying shuttle[?]: John Kay[?]
• 1742: Franklin stove[?]: Benjamin Franklin
• 1750: Flatboat[?]: Jacob Yoder[?]
• 1752: Lightning rod: Benjamin Franklin
• 1762: Iron smelting process[?]: Jared Eliot[?]
• 1767: Spinning Jenny[?]: James Hargreaves
• 1769: Steam engine: James Watt
• 1775: Submarine The Turtle[?]: David Bushnell[?]
• 1777: Card making machine[?]: Oliver Evans[?]
• 1777: Circular saw: Samuel Miller[?]
• 1779: Spinning Mule[?]: Samuel Crompton[?]
• 1785: Power loom[?]: Edmund Cartwright[?]
• 1785: Automatic flour mill[?]: Oliver Evans[?]
• 1783: Multitubular boiler engine[?]: John Stevens
• 1783: Bifocals: Benjamin Franklin
• 1783: Hot air balloon: Montgolfier brothers
• 1784: Shrapnel shell[?]: Henry Shrapnel
• 1785: Parachute: Jean Pierre Blanchard[?]
• 1787: Non-condensing high pressure Engine: Oliver Evans[?]
• 1791: Steamboat: John Fitch[?]
• 1790: Cut and head nail machine[?]: Jacob Perkins[?]
• 1793: Cotton Gin[?]: Eli Whitney
• 1793: Moldboard plow[?]: Thomas Jefferson
• 1793: Optical telegraph: Claude Chappe
• 1797: Cast iron plow[?]: Charles Newbold[?]
• 1798: Vaccination: Edward Jenner
• 1799: Seeding machine[?]: Eliakim Spooner[?]

19th century

1800s

• 1800: Electric battery: Alessandro Volta
• 1802: Screw propeller steamboat Phoenix[?]: John Stevens
• 1805: Torpedo: Robert Fulton
• 1805: Refrigerator: Oliver Evans[?]
• 1807: Steamboat Clermont: Robert Fulton
• 1808: Band saw[?]: William Newberry[?]

1810s

• 1811: Gun- Breechloader[?]: Thornton[?] (?)
• 1816: Miner's safety lamp[?]Davy lamp:Humphry Davy
• 1816: Hand printing press[?]: George Clymer
• 1816: Metronome: Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (reputed)
• 1817: Kaleidoscope: David Brewster
• 1819: Breech loading flintlock[?]: John Hall[?]
• 1819: Stethoscope: Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec

1820s

• 1822: Artificial teeth[?]: C.M. Graham[?]
• 1823: Electromagnet: William Sturgeon[?]
• 1827: Insulated wire[?]: Joseph Henry
• 1827: Friction match[?]: John Walker[?]
• 1826: Photography: Joseph Nicephore Niepce
• 1826: internal combustion engine: Samuel Morey

1830s

• 1830: Locomotive in U.S., Tom Thumb: Peter Cooper[?]
• 1831: Multiple coil magnet[?]: Joseph Henry
• 1831: Magnetic acoustic telegraph: Joseph Henry
• 1831: Reaper[?]: Cyrus McCormick
• 1834: Electric motor: Thomas Davenport
• 1835: Photogenic Drawing[?]: William Henry Fox Talbot
• 1835: Revolver: Samuel Colt
• 1835: Morse code: Samuel Morse
• 1836: Improved screw propeller: John Ericsson
• 1837: Photography: Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
• 1837: Steel plow[?]: John Deere
• 1838: Electric telegraph: Charles Wheatstone
• 1839: Vulcanization of rubber: Charles Goodyear[?]

1840s

• 1840: Ship w/subwater machinery[?] Princeton: John Ericsson
• 1840: artificial fertilizer: Justus von Liebig
• 1842: Anaesthesia: Crawford Long[?]
• 1843: Typewriter: Charles Thurber[?]
• 1844: Telegraph: Samuel Morse
• 1845: Portland cement: William Aspdin[?]
• 1845: Double tube tire[?]: Robert Thomson[?]
• 1846: Sewing machine: Elias Howe[?]
• 1846: Rotary printing press[?]: Richard M. Hoe[?]
• 1849: Safety pin[?]: Walter Hunt[?]
• 1849: Hydraulic turbine[?]: James B. Francis[?]

1850s

• 1852: Airship: Henri Giffard[?]
• 1852: Passenger elevator: Elisha Otis[?]
• 1852: Gyroscope: Léon Foucault
• 1853: Glider: Sir George Cayley
• 1855: Bunsen burner: Robert Bunsen
• 1856: Steel process[?]: Henry Bessemer
• 1858: Undersea telegraph cable: Fredrick Newton Gisborne[?]
• 1858: Shoe sole sewing machine[?]: Lyman R. Blake[?]
• 1858: Mason jar[?]: John Mason[?]
• 1859: Oil drill[?]: Edwin L. Drake[?]
• 1860: Linoleum[?]: Fredrick Walton[?]

1860s

• 1860: Repeating rifle[?]: Oliver F. Winchester[?], Christopher Spencer[?]
• 1861: Ironclad USS Monitor: John Ericsson
• 1861: Furnace for steel[?]: Wilhelm von Siemens[?]
• 1862: Revolving machine gun[?]: Richard J. Gatling[?]
• 1863: Player piano: Henri Fourneaux[?]
• 1864: Sleeping car: George Pullman
• 1865: Compression ice machine[?]: Thaddeus Lowe[?]
• 1866: Dynamite: Alfred Nobel
• 1867: Practical Typewriter: Christopher L. Sholes[?]
• 1868: Typewriter: Carlos Glidden[?], James Densmore[?] and Samuel Soule[?]
• 1868: Air brake: George Westinghouse
• 1868: Lawn mower[?]: Hills[?] Budding[?] Ferrabee[?] (???)
• 1868: Oleomargarine: Mege Mouries[?]
• 1869: Vacuum cleaner: I.W. McGaffers[?]

1870s

• 1870: Magic Lantern movie projector[?]: Henry R. Heyl[?]
• 1870: Stock ticker[?]: Thomas Alva Edison
• 1871: Cable car on rails: Andrew S. Hallidie[?]
• 1871: Compressed air rock drill[?]: Simon Ingersoll[?]
• 1872: Celluloid: John W. Hyatt[?]
• 1872: Adding machine: Edmund D. Barbour[?]
• 1874: Electric street car: Stephen Dudle Field[?]
• 1874: Barbed wire: Joseph Glidden[?], Jacob Haish[?]
• 1875: Dynamo: William A. Anthony[?]
• 1875: Gun- (magazine): B. Hotchkiss[?]
• 1875: Automobile, experimental[?]: Siegfried Marcus[?]
• 1876: Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell
• 1876: Telephone: Elisha Gray[?]
• 1876: Carpet sweeper[?]: Melville Bissell[?]
• 1876: Gasoline carburettor: Daimler[?]
• 1877: Induction motor: Nikola Tesla
• 1877: Phonograph: Thomas Alva Edison
• 1877: Electric welding[?]: Elihu Thomson[?]
• 1878: Cathode ray tube: William Crookes
• 1878: Transparent film[?]: Eastman Goodwin[?]
• 1879: Incandescent Light bulb: Thomas Alva Edison
• 1879: Automobile engine[?]: Karl Benz
• 1879: Cash register: James Ritty[?]
• 1879: Automobile (Patent): George B. Seldon[?] ... note did NOT invent auto

1880s

• 1880: Photophone: Alexander Graham Bell
• 1880: Roll Film[?]: George Eastman
• 1880: Safety Razor[?]: Kampfe Brothers[?]
• 1880: Seismograph: John Milne[?]
• 1881: Electric welding machine[?]: Elihu Thomson[?]
• 1882: Electric fan[?]: Schuyler Skatts Wheeler[?]
• 1882: Electric flat iron[?]: Henry W. Seely[?]
• 1883: Auto engine - compression ignition[?]: Gottlieb Daimler
• 1884: Linotype machine: Ottmar Mergenthaler[?]
• 1884: Fountain pen: Lewis Waterman[?] NB: Did not invent fountain pen, nor even "first practical fountain pen". Started manufacture in 1883, too.
• 1884: Punched card accounting[?]: Herman Hollerith
• 1884: Trolley car[?], (electric): Frank Sprague[?], Karel Van de Poele[?]
• 1885: Automobile, differential gear[?]: Karl Benz
• 1885: Motor cycle: Gottlieb Daimler
• 1885: Alternating current transformer: William Stanley[?]
• 1886: Gasoline engine[?]: Gottlieb Daimler
• 1887: Monotype machine[?]: Tolbert Lanston[?]
• 1887: Record disk: Emile Berliner
• 1887: Automobile, (gasoline): Gottlieb Daimler
• 1888: Polyphase AC Electric power system: Nikola Tesla (30 related patents.)
• 1888: Kodak hand camera[?]: George Eastman
• 1888: Ballpoint pen: John Loud[?]
• 1888: Pneumatic tube tire[?]: John Boyd Dunlop[?]
• 1888: Harvester-thresher[?]: Matteson[?] (?)
• 1888: Kinematograph: Augustin Le Prince[?]
• 1889: Automobile, (steam): Sylvester Roper[?]

1890s

• 1890: Pneumatic Hammer[?]: Charles B. King[?]
• 1891: Automobile Storage Battery[?]: William Morrison[?]
• 1891: Submarine: John Holland
• 1891: Zipper[?]: Whitcomb Judson[?]
• 1891: Carborundum: Edward G. Acheson[?]
• 1892: Color photography[?]: Frederic E. Ives[?]
• 1892: Automobile, (electric): William Morrison[?]
• 1892: Automobile, (gasoline): Duryea Brothers[?]
• 1892: Automatic telephone exchange (electromechanical): Almon Strowger - First in commercial service.
• 1893: Photographic gun[?]: E.J. Marcy[?]
• 1893: Half tone engraving[?]: Frederick Ives[?]
• 1895: Phatoptiken projector[?]: Woodville Latham[?]
• 1895: Phantascope[?]: C. Francis Jenkins[?]
• 1895: Disposable blades[?]: King C. Gillette
• 1895: Diesel engine: Rudolf Diesel
• 1895: Radio signals[?]: Guglielmo Marconi
• 1896: Vitascope[?]: Thomas Armat[?]
• 1896: Steam turbine: Charles Curtis
• 1896: Electric stove[?]: William S. Hadaway[?]
• 1897: Automobile, magneto[?]: Robert Bosch
• 1899: Automobile self starter: Clyde J. Coleman[?]
• 1899: Magnetic tape recorder: Valdemar Poulsen[?]
• 1899: Gas turbine: Charles Curtis

20th century

1900s

• 1900: Rigid dirigible airship: Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
• 1901: Improved wireless transmitter[?]: Reginald Fessenden
• 1901: Mercury vapor lamp[?]: Peter C. Hewitt[?]
• 1901: paperclip: Johan Vaaler
• 1902: Radio magnetic detector[?]: Guglielmo Marconi
• 1902: Radio telephone[?]: Poulsen[?] Reginald Fessenden
• 1902: Rayon cellulose ester: Arthur D. Little[?]
• 1903: Electrocardiograph (EKG): Willem Einthoven[?]
• 1903: Powered Airplane: Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright
• 1903: Bottle machine[?]: Michael Owens[?]
• 1904: Thermionic valve: John Ambrose Fleming
• 1904: Separable Attachment Plug: Harvey Hubbell[?]
• 1905: Radio tube diode[?]: John Ambrose Fleming
• 1906: Triode amplifier: Lee DeForest
• 1907: Radio amplifier[?]: Lee DeForest
• 1907: Radio tube triode: Lee DeForest
• 1907: Vacuum cleaner, (electric): James Spangler[?]
• 1907: Washer[?], (electric): Alva Fisher[?] (Hurley Corporation[?])
• 1909: Monoplane: Henry W. Walden[?]
• 1909: Bakelite: Leo Baekeland
• 1909: Gun silencer[?]: Hiram Maxim[?]

1910s

• 1911: Gyrocompass: Elmer A. Sperry[?]
• 1911: Automobile self starter (perfected): Charles F. Kettering[?]
• 1911: Air conditioner: Willis Haviland Carrier[?]
• 1911: Cellophane: Jacques Brandenburger[?]
• 1911: Hydroplane[?]: Glenn Curtiss[?]
• 1912: Regenerative radio circuit[?]: Edwin H. Armstrong
• 1913: Improved X-Ray: William D. Coolidge[?]
• 1913: Double acting wrench[?]: Robert Owen[?]
• 1913: Cracking process for Gasoline[?]: William M. Burten[?]
• 1913: Gyroscope stabilizer[?]: Elmer A. Sperry[?]
• 1913: Geiger counter: Hans Geiger
• 1913: Radio receiver, cascade tuning: Ernst Alexanderson[?]
• 1913: Radio receiver, heterodyne: Reginald Fessenden
• 1914: Radio transmitter triode mod.: Ernst Alexanderson[?]
• 1914: Liquid fuel rocket[?]: Robert Goddard
• 1914: Tank, military: Ernest Dunlop Swinton[?]
• 1915: Filament Tungsten[?]: Irving Langmuir
• 1915: Searchlight arc[?]: Elmer A. Sperry[?]
• 1915: Radio tube oscillator[?]: Lee DeForest
• 1916: Browning Gun: John Browning
• 1916: Thompson submachine gun[?]: John T. Thompson[?]
• 1916: Incandescent gas lamp[?]: Irving Langmuir
• 1917: Sonar echolocation: Paul Langevin[?]
• 1918: Super heterodyne[?]: Edwin H. Armstrong
• 1918: Radio crystal oscillator[?]: A.M. Nicolson[?]
• 1918: Toaster: Charles Strite[?]
• 1919: the Theremin: Leon Theremin

1920s

• 1922: RADAR: Robert Watson-Watt Taylor Young Breit Tuve[?]
• 1922: Technicolor: Herbert T. Kalmus[?]
• 1923: Arc tube[?]: Alexanderson[?]
• 1923: Sound film: Lee DeForest
• 1923: Television Electronic: Philo Farnsworth
• 1923: Wind tunnel: Max Munk[?]
• 1923: Autogyro: Juan de la Cierva
• 1925: Theodor Svedberg develops the ultra-centrifuge[?], thereby revolutionizing the determination of molecular weights
• 1925: Television Iconoscope: Vladimir Zworykin
• 1925: Television Nipkow System: C. Francis Jenkins[?]
• 1925: Telephoto: C. Francis Jenkins[?]
• 1926: Television Mechanical Scanner: John Logie Baird
• 1927: Mechanical cotton picker[?]: John Rust[?]
• 1928: sliced bread: Otto Frederick Rohwedder
• 1928: Radio beacon[?]: Donovan (?)
• 1928: Electric dry shaver[?]: Jacob Schick[?]
• 1929: Electroencephelograph (EEG): Hans Berger[?]
• 1929: Antibiotics

1930s

• 1930: Neoprene: Wallace Carothers
• 1930: Nylon: Wallace Carothers
• 1931: the Radio telescope: Karl Jansky Grote Reber[?]
• 1932: Polaroid glass[?]: Edwin H. Land
• 1935: microwave radar: Robert Watson-Watt
• 1935: Spectrophotometer[?]: Arthur C. Hardy[?]
• 1935: Casein fiber: Earl Whittier Stephen[?]
• 1935: Hammond Organ: Laurens Hammond[?]
• 1937: Jet engine: Frank Whittle Hans von Ohain
• 1938: Fiberglass: Games Slayter[?] John H. Thomas[?]
• 1939: FM radio: Edwin H. Armstrong
• 1939: Helicopter: Igor Sikorsky

1940s

• 1942: Bazooka Rocket Gun: L. A. Skinner[?] C. N. Hickman[?]
• 1944: Electron spectrometer: Deutsch Elliot Evans[?]
• 1944: the digital computer
• 1945: Nuclear weapons (but note: chain reaction theory: 1933)
• 1947: Transistor: William Shockley, Walter Brattain[?], John Bardeen
• 1948: Long Playing Record: Peter Goldmark[?]
• 1948: Polaroid camera[?]: Edwin Land
• 1949: Atomic clocks

1950s

• 1952: fusion bomb: Edward Teller
• 1953: maser: Charles Townes[?]
• 1954: first nuclear power reactor
• 1954: geodesic dome: Buckminster Fuller
• 1955: Velcro: George de Mestral[?]
• 1958: the Integrated circuit: Jack Kilby, Robert Noyce

1960s

• 1960: lasers: Theodore Maiman[?]
• 1962: Communications satellites: Arthur C. Clarke
• 1960s: Packet switching: Donald Davies[?] and Paul Baran[?]
• 1969: the ARPANET, predecessor of the Internet

1970s

• 1970: Fiber optics
• 1971: E-mail: Ray Tomlinson[?]
• 1971: the Microprocessor
• 1971: the Pocket calculator
• 1973: Ethernet: Bob Metcalfe[?] and D. R. Boggs[?]
• 1977: the personal computer (dated from Commodore PET)
• 1979: the Walkman: Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka[?], Kozo Ohsone[?]
• 1979: the cellular telephone (first commercially fielded version, NTT)

1980s

• 1983: the Internet Protocol, which created the Internet as we know it
• 1985: polymerase chain reaction: Kary Mullis
• 1985: DNA fingerprinting: Alec Jeffreys
• 1989: the World Wide Web: Tim Berners-Lee

1990s

• 1991: the GPL, enabling the free software movement: Richard Stallman
• 1993: Global Positioning System
• 1996: cloning of mammals: Ian Wilmut[?] and others

21st century

• put significant 21st century inventions here

See also

• Invention
• List of inventors
• List of timelines

Other Technology Timelines

• Timeline of agriculture and food technology
• Timeline of clothing and textiles technology
• Timeline of communication technology
• Timeline of lighting technology
• Timeline of low temperature technology
• Timeline of materials technology
• Timeline of microscope technology
• Timeline of motor and engine technology
• Timeline of photography technology
• Timeline of rocket and missile technology
• Timeline of temperature and pressure measurement technology
• Timeline of time measurement technology
• Timeline of transportation technology
• Timeline of underwater technology

External links

• MIT invention archive index -- ordered by inventor (http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/archive)
• MIT invention archive index -- ordered by invention (http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/iarchive)