Industrial Revolution Timeline
1563- Rev. William Lee, born at Woodborough near Nottingham, invents the Stocking Frame, a mechanical device for knitting stockings.1692Languedoc Canal connects the Mediterranean with the Bay of Biscay. 240 miles long, with 100 locks, 3 major aqueducts, 1 tunnel, and a summit reservoir. The largest canal project between Roman times and the nineteenth century.
1708- Jethro Tull's mechanical (seed) sower permits large-scale planting in rows, for easier cultivation between the rows.
1709- Abraham Darby uses coke to smelt iron ore, replacing wood and charcoal as fuel.
1712- Thomas Newcomen builds first commercially successful steam engine. Able to keep deep coal mines clear of water. First significant power source other than wind and water.
1733- John Kay's flying shuttle.
1758- First threshing machine.
1761- James Brindley's Bridgewater Canal opens. Barges carry coal from Worsley to Manchester.
1765- James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny, automating weaving the warp (in the weaving of cloth).
1769- Arkwright's "water" (powered) frame automates the weft.
1772- Bridgewater Canal extended to the Mersey, thus connecting with Liverpool. Its success kicks off extensive canal construction ("canal mania").
1775- Watt's first efficient steam engine, much more efficient than the Newcomen.
1777- Grand Trunk Canal establishes a cross-England route connecting the Mersey to the Trent and connecting the industrial Midlands to the ports of Bristol, Liverpool, and Hull.
1779- First steam powered mills. Crompton's "mule" combines Hargreaves' and Arkwright's machines, fully automating the weaving process.
1786- Arkwright puts a Watt engine in the Albion cotton mill, Blackfriars Bridge, London.
1787- Cartwright builds a power loom.
1789- Thames-Severn Canal links the Thames to the Bristol Channel.
1792- William Murdock (James Watt's assistant) lights his home with coal gas.
1793- Eli Whitney develops his cotton gin (a device to clean raw cotton).
1803- Thomas Telford builds his two great iron aqueducts, over the Dee and the Cierog valleys.
1801- Robert Trevithick demonstrates a steam locomotive.
1807- Robert Fulton's Clermont first successful steamboat.
1811 through 1815- Luddite riots: laborers attack factories and break up the machines they fear will replace them.
1821- Faraday demonstrates electro-magnetic rotation, the principle of the electric motor.
1825- Marc Brunel invents a tunnelling shield, making subaqueous tunnelling possible.
1826 through 1842- Brunel builds the first subaqueous tunnel, under the Thames.
1827- Berkeley Ship Canal connects Sharpness (on the Severn) to Gloucester.
1830- The Liverpool and Manchester Railway begins first regular commercial rail service.
1831- Faraday discovers electro-magnetic current, making possible generators and electric engines.
1834- Charles Babbage develops his analytic engine--the forerunner of the computer.
Fox Talbot produces photographs.
1837- Morse develops the telegraph and Morse Code.
Great Western--first ocean-going steamship.
1838- Daguerre perfects the Daguerrotype.
1839- Fox Talbot introduces photographic paper.
1843- Great Britain--first large, iron, screw-propelled steamship.
1844- Commercial use of Morse's telegraph (Baltimore to Washington).
1846- Pneumatic tire patented
First telegraph cable laid under the Channel.
1849- Monier develops reinforced concrete.
1850- Petrol (gasoline) refining first used.
Natural Science Honours School established at Oxford.
1851- Singer invents first practical sewing machine.
Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge.
1853- Elisha Otis invents the elevator safety brake making skyscrapers possible
1854- Bessemer invents steel converter.
1855- Regius Chair of Technology founded at Edinburgh.
1856- W.H. Perkin produces aniline dyes, permitting brightly colored cottons.
1857- Pasteur experiments with fermentation.
1858- First Trans-Atlantic Cable completed
Cathode rays discovered.
1859- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species.
Edwin Drake strikes oil in Pennsylvania.
Etienne Lenoir demonstrates the first successful gasoline engine.
1860- Science degrees at University of London.
1863- Siemens-Martin open hearth process (along with the Bessemer converter) makes steel available in bulk. Steel begins to replace iron in building: steel framing and reinforced concrete make possible "curtain-wall" architecture--i.e., the skyscraper.
1867- Alfred Nobel produces dynamite, the first high explosive which can be safely handled.
1873- Christopher Sholes invents the Remington typewriter.
James Clerk Maxwell states the laws of electro-magnetic radiation
1876- Bell invents the telephone.
1877- Edison invents the phonograph.
1878- Microphone invented.
1879- Edison invents the incandescent lamp.
1883- First skyscraper (ten stories) in Chicago.
The Brooklyn Bridge opens. This large suspension bridge, built by the Roeblings (father and son), is a triumph of engineering.
1884- Maxim invents the machine gun, making possible mass slaughter and beginning the mechanization of warfare.
1885- Benz develops first automobile to run on internal- combustion engine.
1888- Hertz produces radio waves.
1889- Eiffel Tower.
1892- Rudolf Diesel invents his namesake.
1895- Lumière brothers develop Cinematograph.
Roentgen discovers X-rays.
1896- Marconi patents wireless telegraph.
1897- Joseph Thomson discovers particles smaller than atoms.
1900- First Zeppelin built.
1901- Marconi transmits first trans-Atlantic radio message (from Cape Cod).
1903- Wright brothers make first powered flight.
1908- Henry Ford mass-produces the Model T.