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Jan 1, 1466
Gallet founded by Humbertus Gallet
Gallet is a historical Swiss manufacturer of high-end timepieces for professional use. Gallet is the world’s oldest watch and clock making house with history dating back to Humbertus Gallet, a clock maker who became a citizen of Geneva in 1466.
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Oct 12, 1492
Discovery of America
In the early modern period, the voyages of Columbus initiated European exploration and colonization of the American continents.
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Jan 1, 1510
First portable Watch
The Nuremberg eggs are the first "clock-watches" (Taschenuhr), small ornamental spring-driven clocks made by German clockmaker Peter Henlein in the German city of Nuremberg at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
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Jan 1, 1550
Wagonways developed in Germany
Wagonways (or 'tramways') are thought to have developed in Germany in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, utilising primitive wooden rails.
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Jan 1, 1551
Early Description of a Steam Turbine
Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf describes a steam turbine-like device for rotating a spit.
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Jan 23, 1571
Royal Stock Exchange founded
The Royal Exchange in London was founded in the 16th century by the merchant Thomas Gresham to act as a centre of commerce for the City of London.
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Frankfurt Stock Exchange founded
The origins of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange go back to the 9th century and a free letter by Emperor Louis the German to hold free trade fairs. In 1585 a bourse was established to set up fixed currency exchange rates. During the following centuries Frankfurt developed into one of the world's first stock exchanges.
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First Patent for a Steam Powered Pump
Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont receives a patent for a steam-powered device for pumping water out of mines.
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Napier's bones
Napier's bones is a manually-operated calculating device created by John Napier of Merchiston for calculation of products and quotients of numbers. -
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Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) was a series of wars principally fought in Central Europe, involving most of the countries of Europe. It was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, and one of the longest continuous wars in modern history. -
Pascaline
Blaise Pascal invented the mechanical calculator in 1642. He was spurred to it by seeing the burden of arithmetical labor involved in his father's official work as supervisor of taxes at Rouen; first called the Arithmetic Machine, Pascal's Calculator and later Pascaline, this calculating machine could add and subtract two numbers directly and multiply and divide by repetition.
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Edward Somerset publishes a new sort of steam pump
Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquis of Worcester, publishes a selection of his inventions. One is a new sort of steam pump, essentially two devices like de Caus', but attached to a single boiler. A key invention is the addition of cooling around the containers to force the steam to condense.
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power#Development_phases) -
Thomas Savery introduces a Steam Pump
Thomas Savery introduces a steam pump he calls the Miner's Friend. He demonstrated it to the Royal Society on 14 June 1699.
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Stepped Reckoner
The Step Reckoner (or Stepped Reckoner) was a digital mechanical calculator invented by German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz around 1672 and completed in 1694. The name comes from the translation of the German term for its operating mechanism; staffelwalze meaning 'stepped drum'. It was the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. -
Balance wheel invented
The balance wheel was invented by Jean de Hautefeuille & Christiaan Huygens. This increased watches' accuracy enormously, reducing error from perhaps several hours per day to perhaps 10 minutes per day, resulting in the addition of the minute hand to the face from around 1680 in Britain and 1700 in France.
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Stockbrokers thrown out of Royal Exchange
Stockbrokers were not allowed in the Royal Exchange due to their rude manners. They had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity, notably Jonathan's Coffee-House. At that coffee house, a broker named John Casting started listing the prices of a few commodities, exchange rates and certain key provisions such as salt, coal and paper in 1698.
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Newcomen installs his first commercial engine.
Thomas Newcomen installs his first commercial atmospheric engine.
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power#Development_phases) -
Paris Bourse founded
The Paris Bourse (or "Bourse de Paris" in French), the historical Paris stock exchange, is founded.
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Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a war that took place between 1754 and 1763 with the main conflict being in the seven-year period 1756–1763. It involved most of the great powers of the time and affected Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines. -
Vacheron Constantin founded
Vacheron Constantin, a Swiss manufacture of prestige watches, was founded in 1755 by Jean-Marc Vacheron, an independent watchmaker in Geneva, Switzerland.
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James Watt invents the separate condenser
James Watt invents the separate condenser, the key being to relocate the water jet, (which condenses the steam and creates the vacuum in the Newcomen engine)
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power#Development_phases) -
First Steam Powered Automobile
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first working self-propelled mechanical vehicle—arguably the world's first automobile.
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600 Newcomen engines in the UK.
1775 are about 600 Newcomen engines erected in the UK. -
First "Automatic" watch
Abraham-Louis Perrelet has invented a self-winding mechanism in the 1770s for pocket watches. The Geneva Society of Arts reported in 1776 that 15 minutes walking was necessary to wind the watch sufficiently for eight days.
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Boulton & Watt founded
The firm of Boulton & Watt manufactured stationary steam engines. It was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.
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First commercial Boulton and Watt engine built.
First commercial Boulton and Watt engine built. At this stage and until 1795 B&W only provided designs and plans, the most complicated engine parts, and support with on-site erection.
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power#Development_phases) -
The Girandoni Air Rifle
The Girandoni Air Rifle was an airgun designed by Tyrolian inventor Bartholomäus Girandoni circa 1779. The weapon was also known as the Windbüchse. The Girandoni air rifle was in service with the Austrian army from 1780 to around 1815. The advantages of a high rate of fire, no smoke from propellants, and low muzzle.
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Jonathan Hornblower patents a two-cylinder "compound" engine
Jonathan Hornblower patents a two-cylinder "compound" engine. His's design is more efficient than Watt's single-acting designs, but similar enough to his double-acting system that Boulton and Watt are able to have the patent overturned by the courts in 1799.
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power#Development_phases) -
Watts first "double acting" Steam Engine
Watt builds his first "double acting" engine, which admits steam so as to alternately act on one side of the piston then on the other, and the introduction of his parallel motion linkage allows the transmission of the power of the piston motion to be transmitted to the beam on both strokes.
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First Manned Flight
Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier succeeded in launching the first manned ascent, carrying Étienne into the sky.
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The first Idea of a Difference Engine
J. H. Müller, an engineer in the Hessian army who built an improved adding machine 1784, conceived of the idea of a difference machine. This was described in a book published in 1786, but Müller was unable to obtain funding to progress with the idea.
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First Optical Telegraph
In the summer of 1790, the Chappe brothers set about devising a system of communication that would allow the central government to receive intelligence and to transmit orders in the shortest possible time. On 2 March 1791 at 11am, they sent the message “si vous réussissez, vous serez bientôt couverts de gloire” between Brulon and Parce.
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New York Stock Exchange founded
The origin of the NYSE can be traced to May 17, 1792, when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. On March 8, 1817, the organization drafted a constitution and renamed itself the "New York Stock & Exchange Board". Anthony Stockholm was elected the Exchange's first president.
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the Bramah Press
Bramah was granted a patent for his hydraulic press in 1795. The hydraulic press depends on Pascal's principle, that pressure throughout a closed system is constant. The press had two cylinders and pistons of different cross-sectional areas. If a force was exerted on the smaller piston, this would be translated into a larger force on the larger piston.
Along with William George Armstrong, he can be considered one of the two fathers of hydraulic engineering.
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1600 Newcomen & 450 Watt engines in the UK.
1800 are 1600 Newcomen engines erected in the UK. (Many have Watt condensers added after the patent expires.)
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Puffing Devil Locomotive
Richard Trevithick built a full-size steam road locomotive in 1801 on a site near the present day Fore Street at Camborne.
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First high-pressure Steam Engine in the U.S.A.
Oliver Evans builds his first high-pressure steam engine in the U.S.A.
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Jacquard loom controlled by punched cards
The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard, first demonstrated in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom was controlled by a "chain of cards", a number of punched cards, laced together into a continuous sequence -
London Stock Exchange founded
In 1773, Jonathan, together with 150 other brokers, formed a club and opened a new and more formal "Stock Exchange" in Sweeting's Alley.
The Subscription room created in 1801 was the first regulated exchange in London, but the transformation was not welcomed by all parties.
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Percussion Lock Gun Invented
Alexander John Forsyth was a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman who invented the percussion ignition. The percussion lock was the successor of the flintlock mechanism in firearm technology.
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First Wristwatch
Abraham-Louis Breguet designed the first wristwatch, together with his friend John Arnold, for Caroline Bonaparte, Queen of Naples, in 1810.
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First working Hang Glider
One of Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger's inventions was what appears to be a hang glider. He tried to demonstrate the glider on the evening of May 30, 1811 in the presence of the king. In 1986 it was proven that Berblinger's glider was capable of sustained flight.
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The Salamanca Locomotive
Salamanca was the first commercially successful steam locomotive, built in 1812 by Matthew Murray of Holbeck, for the edge railed Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds.
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Stirling engine invented
Stirling's air engine was invented and patented by Robert Stirling. A Stirling engine is a heat engine operating by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas, the working fluid, at different temperature levels such that there is a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work.
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine) -
The Arithmometer
Thomas de Colmar patents the Arithmometer. It was the first digital mechanical calculator strong enough and reliable enough to be used daily in an office environment. This calculator could add and subtract two numbers directly and could perform long multiplications and divisions effectively by using a movable accumulator for the result.
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The Difference engine was proposed
J. H. Müller, conceived of the idea of a difference machine. This was described in a book published in 1786.
On June 14, 1822, Charles Babbage proposed the use of such a machine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society, entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". This machine used the decimal number system and was powered by cranking a handle.
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Robert Stephenson & Co founded
Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823. It was the first company set up specifically to build railway engines.
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Paris Bourse moved to Palais Brongniart
In the early 19th century, the Paris Bourse's activities found a stable location at the Palais Brongniart, or Palais de la Bourse, built to the designs of architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart from 1808 to 1813 and completed by Éloi Labarre from 1813 to 1826.
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Gallet & Cie name registered
The Gallet & Cie (Gallet & Company) name was officially registered by Julien Gallet (1806–1849) in 1826, who moved the family business from Geneva to La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Prior to this date, operations commenced under the name of each of the Gallet family patriarchs.
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La cour du domaine du Gras
The first Photography (called a Heliography) was made. It was created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827 at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes and shows parts of the buildings. Niépce captured the scene with a camera obscura.
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The First Electric Motor
In 1827, Hungarian physicist Ányos Jedlik started experimenting with electromagnetic coils. After Jedlik solved the technical problems of the continuous rotation with the invention of commutator, he called his early devices as "electromagnetic self-rotors". Although they were used only for instructional purposes, in 1828 Jedlik demonstrated the first device to contain the three main components of practical DC motors: the stator, rotor and commutator.
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The Rocket Locomotive
Stephenson's Rocket was an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement, built in 1829 at the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson and Company in Newcastle Upon Tyne.
It was built for, and won, the Rainhill Trials held by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1829.
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Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway(L&MR) was the world's first twin-track inter-urban passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and ticketed.
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The electric telegraph was invented
The first electric telegraph was invented by Pavel Schilling.
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The Colt Paterson
Colt Paterson is a revolver. It was the first commercial repeating firearm employing a revolving cylinder with multiple chambers aligned with a single, stationary barrel.
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The Analytical Engine is invented
The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage.
It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's Difference engine. It incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-compatible.
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The daguerreotype process
The daguerreotype process (also called daguerreotypy), introduced in 1839, was the first publicly announced photographic process and the first to come into widespread use.
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1498 Miles of Railroad in the U.K.
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The First "Computer Program"
Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine, she describes an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers.
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The Morse Telegraph
Morse made the first public demonstration of his telegraph by sending a message from the Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the B&O Railroad "outer depot" (now the B&O Railroad Museum) in Baltimore.
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Electric Telegraph Company founded
The Electric Telegraph Company was the world's first public telegraph company, founded in the United Kingdom in 1846 by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and John Lewis Ricardo.
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Difference Engine (No. 2) is produced
Babbage produced an improved "Difference Engine No. 2" design, between 1847 and 1849. Babbage was able to take advantage of ideas developed for the analytical engine to make the new difference engine calculate more quickly while using fewer parts. Inspired by Babbage's difference engine plans, Per Georg Scheutz built several difference engines from 1855 onwards, one of which was sold to the British government in 1859.
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Corliss Steam Engine
George Henry Corliss develops and markets the Corliss-type steam engine, a four-valve counterflow engine with separate steam admission and exhaust valves.
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Waltham Watch Company founded
The Waltham Watch Company (founded as Warren Manufacturing Company) produced about 40 million high quality watches, clocks and other precision instruments between 1850 and 1957.
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Singer Corporation founded
Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of sewing machines, first established as I.M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865.
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The Hydraulic accumulator
William Armstrong developed the hydraulic accumulator, a cast-iron cylinder fitted with a plunger supporting a very heavy weight. The plunger would slowly be raised, drawing in water, until the downward force of the weight was sufficient to force the water below it into pipes at great pressure. The accumulator was a very significant, if unspectacular, invention, which found many applications in the following years.
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First Steampowered Airship
Baptiste Henri Jacques Giffard invented the Giffard dirigible, an airship powered with a steam engine. On 24 September 1852 Giffard made the first powered and controlled flight travelling 27 km from Paris to Trappes.
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Bessemer process invented
The Bessemer process revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £40 per long ton to £6–7 per long ton, along with greatly increasing the scale and speed of production of this vital raw material. The process also decreased the labor requirements for steel-making.
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The First Telephone
Meucci studied the principles of electromagnetic voice transmission for many years and was able to realize his dream of transmitting his voice through wires in 1856. He installed a telephone-like device within his house in order to communicate with his wife who was ill at the time.
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The Water-Tube Boiler
Stephen Wilcox patents the water tube boiler, which uses water inside clusters of tubing to generate steam, typically with higher pressures and more efficiently than the typical "firetube" boilers of that time.
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Smith & Wesson Model 1
The Smith & Wesson Model 1 was the first commercially successful revolver to use rimfire cartridges instead of loose powder, musket ball, and percussion caps. It is a single-action, tip-up revolver holding seven .22 Short black powder cartridges.
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10433 Miles of Railroad in the U.K.
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Pfaff founded
Pfaff is a manufacturer of sewing machines and was founded in Kaiserslautern Germany in 1862 by instrument maker Georg-Michael Pfaff.
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The Steam Engine Indicator
The steam engine indicator is exhibited at the London Exhibition. Developed for Charles Porter by Charles Richard, the steam engine indicator traces on paper the pressure in the cylinder throughout the cycle, which can be used to spot various problems and to optimize efficiency
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Singer Corporation renamed to Singer Manufacturing Company
Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865.
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First Solar Powered Steam Engine
Auguste Mouchout invents the first device to convert solar energy into mechanical steam power, using a cauldron filled with water enclosed in glass, which would be put in the sun to boil the water.
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Working Transatlantic Telegraphy
The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable was completed on 27 July 1866. The lasting connections were achieved by the ship SS Great Eastern, captained by Sir James Anderson.
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Babcock, Wilcox & Company founded
The company was founded in 1867 by Stephen Wilcox and George Babcock as Babcock, Wilcox & Company to manufacture and market Wilcox’s patented water tube boiler.
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First Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad (a 1,907-mile (3,069 km) contiguous railroad line) built in the United States between Omaha and Sacramento, completed in 1869.
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad) -
The Gramme Machine
The Gramme machine was the first generator to produce power on a commercial scale for industry. During a demonstration at an industrial exposition in Vienna in 1873, Gramme accidentally discovered that this device, if supplied with a constant-voltage power supply, will act as an electric motor.
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Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz AG founded
The Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz AG was the first company building the Otto engine.
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Otto Engine invented
Otto and Langen succeeded in creating the first internal combustion engine that compressed the fuel mixture prior to combustion for far higher efficiency than any engine created to this time.
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Bell patents the Telephone
Bell was the first to obtain a patent, in 1876, for an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically", after experimenting with many primitive sound transmitters and receivers.
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Bell Telephone Company founded
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard.
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London Hydraulic Power Company
The London Hydraulic Power Company was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1883 to install a hydraulic power network of high-pressure cast iron water mains under London. It was the successor to the Steam Wharf and Warehouse Company, founded in 1871 by Edward B Ellington. The network covered an area mostly north of the Thames from Hyde Park in the west to Docklands in the east.
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The modern Steam Turbine
The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Sir Charles Parsons, whose first model was connected to a dynamo that generated 7.5 kW (10 hp) of electricity.
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The first global time standard
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the first global time standard.
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The Hollerith Punched Card
The American Herman Hollerith invented data storage on punched cards that could then be read by a machine. To process these punched cards he invented the tabulator, and the key punch machine. His machines used mechanical relays (and solenoids) to increment mechanical counters. Hollerith's method was used in the 1890 United States Census and the completed results were "... finished months ahead of schedule and far under budget".
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The First Succesful Gliding Flights
Otto Lilienthal was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful gliding flights. At the beginning, in 1891, Lilienthal succeeded with jumps and flights covering a distance of about 25 metres (82 ft).
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Diesel Engine invented
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition and burn the fuel that has been injected into the combustion chamber.
At Augsburg, on August 10, 1893, Rudolf Diesel's prime model, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time.
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The Tabulating Machine Company was founded
In 1896 Hollerith started his own business when he founded the Tabulating Machine Company. Many major census bureaus around the world leased his equipment and purchased his cards, as did major insurance companies.
In 1911 the Tabulating Machine Company merged with 3 other companies to create the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, which was later renamed to IBM.
[Wikipedia](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith#Electrical_tabulation_of_data) -
Stanley Brothers Steam Cars
Stanley Brothers begin selling lightweight steam cars, over 200 being made.
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The First Zeppelin
The first Zeppelin flight took place on 2 July 1900 over Lake Constance (the Bodensee).
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Stanley Motor Carriage Company founded
The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steam-engine vehicles; it operated from 1902 to 1924 (first vehicle produced 1897).
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Fisk Generating Station
Commonwealth Edison Fisk Generating Station opens in Chicago, using 32 Babcock and Wilcox boilers driving several GE Curtis turbines, at 5000 and 9000 kilowatts each, the largest turbine-generators in the world at that time.
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The First Motorized Flight
The Wright brothers were inventors, and aviation pioneers who were credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight.
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