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Jethro Tull invents the seed drill
sourceHenry Jethro William Tull perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and later a horse-drawn hoe. Tull's methods were adopted by many large landowners, and they helped form the basis of modern agriculture. -
Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano.
sourceThe pianoforte, more commonly called the piano, became, by the last quarter of the eighteenth century, a leading instrument of Western art music, for both professionals and amateurs. The modern piano is a highly versatile instrument capable of playing almost anything an orchestra can play. It can sustain pitches in a lyrical fashion, creating all musical styles and moods, with enough volume to be heard through almost any musical ensemble. -
Englishmen, John Shore invents the tuning fork.
sourceThe tuning fork was invented by John Shore, the renowned musician, instrument maker and trumpeter to the English Royal Court and favorite of George Frideric Handel. Before this innovation musicians requiring a standard musical pitch G had to rely on wooden pitch pipes, which were rather unreliable being much affected by changes in temperature and humidity. The tuning fork, in contrast, holds its pitch G across a wide range of environmental conditions and in addition produce a very pure tone. -
Thomas Newcomen patents the atmospheric steam engine.
sourceOne of the most significant industrial challenges of the 1700's was the removal of water from mines. Steam was used to pump the water from the mines. Now, this might seem to have very little to do with modern steam-powered electrical power plants. However, one of the fundamental principles used in the development of steam-based power is the principle that condensation of water vapor can create a vacuum. -
Edmond Halley invents the diving bell.
sourceThe diving bell is used to increase the supply of air available to persons working underwater. The device was invented in the 16th century, and had been used in several explorations of wrecks to recover sunken treasure by the end of the 17th century. -
French C. Hopffer patents the fire extinguisher.
sourceA fire extinguisher, flame extinguisher, or simply an extinguisher, is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which has reached the ceiling, endangers the user, or otherwise requires the expertise of a fire department. Typically, a fire extinguisher consists of a hand-held cylindrical pressure vessel containing an agent which can be discharged to extinguish a fire -
Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the first mercury thermometer.
sourceThermometers measure temperature, by using materials that change in some way when they are heated or cooled. In a mercury or alcohol thermometer the liquid expands as it is heated and contracts when it is cooled, so the length of the liquid column is longer or shorter depending on the temperature. Modern thermometers are calibrated in standard temperature units such as Fahrenheit (used in the United States) or Celsius (used in Canada) and Kelvin (used mostly by scientists). -
John Kay invents the flying shuttle.
sourceIn 1733, John Kay invented the flying shuttle, an improvement to looms that enabled weavers to weave faster. The original shuttle contained a bobbin on to which the weft (weaving term for the crossways yarn) yarn was wound. It was normally pushed from one side of the warp to the other side by hand. Large looms needed two weavers to throw the shuttle. The flying shuttle was thrown by a leaver that could be operated by one weaver. -
E.G. von Kleist invents the leyden jar, the first electrical capacitor.
sourceIn 1746, Musschenbroek, working with collaborators, was attempting to electrify water when he got the shock of his life. Musschenbroek, the son of a scientific instrument maker, was a medical doctor, mathematician, and natural philosopher who spoke at least seven languages and had attended lectures by Isaac Newton and Newton's experimental assistant, John Theophilus Desaguliers, himself famous for his discoveries regarding the properties of electricity. -
Benjamin Franklin invents the lightening rod.
sourceBenjamin Franklin wanted his experiment to be practical, so he developed the lightning rod. A tall rod is attached to the outside wall of the house. One end of the rod points up into the sky; the other end is connected to a cable, which stretches down the side of the house to the ground. The end of the cable is then buried at least ten feet underground. The rod attracts the lightning and sends the charge into the ground, which helps to decrease the amount of fires. -
John Campbell invents the sextant.
sourceA sextant is an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects. Its primary use is to determine the angle between a celestial object and the horizon which is known as the object's altitude. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight and it is an essential part of celestial navigation. -
Dolland invents a chromatic lens.
sourceIn the late 1750s, Bass mentioned Hall's lenses to John Dollond, who understood their potential and was able to reproduce their design. Dollond applied for and was granted a patent on the technology in 1758, which led to bitter fights with other opticians over the right to make and sell achromatic doublets. -
Englishmen, John Harrison invents the navigational clock or marine chronometer for measuring longitude.
sourceIt is an extraordinary fact that the first machines capable of accurately determining a ship's longitude, a measurement the great Sir Isaac Newton considered to be a mechanical impossibility, were invented and built by an obscure Yorkshire carpenter named John Harrison (1693 1776). Amazingly, the latter was entirely self-educated and had never served a days apprenticeship to any clockmaker. -
James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny.
sourceSeveral inventions in textile machinery occurred in a relatively short time period during the industrial revolution: the flying shuttle, spinning jenny, spinning frame, and cotton gin. These inventions facilitated the handling of large quantities of harvested cotton. In 1764, a British carpenter and weaver named James Hargreaves invented an improved spinning jenny, a hand-powered multiple spinning machine that was the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel. -
Joseph Priestley invents carbonated water - soda water.
sourceIn 1767, Joseph Priestley invented carbonated water when he first discovered a method of infusing water with carbon dioxide when he suspended a bowl of water above a beer vat at a local brewery in Leeds, England. The air blanketing the fermenting beer—called 'fixed air'—was known to kill mice suspended in it. Priestley found water thus treated had a pleasant taste, and he offered it to friends as a cool, refreshing drink. -
Richard Arkwright patents the spinning frame.
sourceIn 1768, Richard Arkwright invented the spinning frame that could produce stronger threads for yarns. The first models were powered by waterwheels so the device came to be first known as the water frame. It was the first powered, automatic, and continuous textile machine and enabled the move away from small home manufacturing towards factory production. Arkwright built his first textile mill in Cromford, England in 1774. Richard Arkwright was successful. -
James Watt invents an improved steam engine.
sourceIn his own experiments he used, at first, apothecaries' trials and hollow canes for steam reservoirs and pipes, and later a Papin's digester and a common syringe. The latter combination made a non condensing engine, in which he used steam at a pressure of 15 pounds per square inch. The valve was worked by hand, and James Watt saw that an automatic valve gear was needed to make a working machine. This experiment, however, led to no practical result. Watt finally got hold of the Newcomen model. -
Georges Louis Lesage patents the electric telegraph.
sourceIn 1774 he realised an early electric telegraph. The telegraph had a separate wire for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet and its range was only between two rooms of his home. -
Alexander Cummings invents the flush toilet.
sourceArchaeologists also have discovered ruins indicating that the ancient Chinese may have engineered a kind of flush toilet by 206 B.C.
But it was Harington’s modern flush toilet model that gradually became commonplace around England and Europe over the 18th and 19th centuries, and in 1775, London watchmaker Alexander Cummings filed the first flush toilet patent. -
Jacques Perrier invents a steamship.
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David Bushnell invents a submarine.
sourceYale graduate DAVID BUSHNELL (‘75) built the first submarine to actually make an attack on an enemy warship. Dubbed the "Turtle" because it resembled a sea-turtle floating vertically in the water, it was operated by Sergeant Ezra Lee.
