-
Period: to
Industrial revolution begins
The Industrial revolution was a time for thinking, innvoation, and change in America. Duiring this time period, a number of inventions paved the way for modern technology and science. -
Bifocals
Bifocals, the combination of both concave and convex lenses for both types of vision correction. They were developed around 1760 by Benjamin Franklin. He got his idea from the invention of the magnefying glass. He also felt compelled because he was overcome with vision problems like many other americans. -
Period: to
First Industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the major technological and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century resulting from the replacement of an economy based on manual and agricultural labor to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture. The cause of it to begin was the British Agricultural Revolution which made food production less laborous. This forced much of the population to go find work in the cities at the new factories since they couldn't find employment on farms. -
Carbonated Water
Joseph Priestley invented the first glass of carbonated water in 1776. He was also a co-finder of oxygen as an element and necessary compnonent in combustion. It was because of the finding of oxygen that led to carbonated water. -
Steam Engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the thermal energy that exists in steam, converting it to mechanical work. The steam engine that helped spark the Industrial Revolution was created by James Watt in 1769. He created a separate condensing chamber with a valve between the operating chamber and the condensing chamber. These early engines worked by the vacuum of condensing steam, whereas later types used the power of expanding steam. -
Rubber invented
Joseph Priestly finds a vegetable gum that has the ability to rub pencil marks from paper. This substance was the predecessor of the pencil eraser, Hymen Lipman was the first to pattent a pencil-ended eraser. But it was Priestly that dubbed the substance "rubber". -
Flush Toilet
Alexander Cumming patented a flushing device in 1775. This later became the flush toilet. It is interesting to note that the first flushing toilet in history dates all the way back to ancient greek times. The island of Crete was the first place to have actual toilets that disposed of waste. -
gas turbine
John Barber Recieved the first patent for a turbine engine. It was meant to be the power source of a "horseless carriage". It was chain driven and used a combustion engine. -
first soft-framed parachute
Jean Pierre Blanchard invents the first soft-framed parachute. All parachutes before this were made of hard leather and wood frames. This parachute was made from silk and was easilly transportable. -
Smallpox vaccine
English physisian Edward Jenner succesfully vaccinated a small boy, after hearing that milkmaids who cought a lesser strain of smallpox dubbed "cowpox" were immune to the deadly disease. The doctor exposed the boy to cowpox, and several days after recovering from it, the doctor then exposed the boy to smallpox. The boy showed no signs later on of having contracted smallpox. -
First Battery
It was in 1748 when Banjamin Franklin first coined the term "battery". in 1800 Alessandro Volta created the first "wet cell battery" using copper and zinc plates with peices of cardboard soaked in brine fit in between them. This produced a steady stream of electricity. -
Tin Can
English inventor Peter Durand patented the tin can in 1810. He didn't actually produce any food cans himself, but sold his patent to two other Englishmen, John Hall and Bryan Donkin , who set up a commercial canning factory, and by 1813 were producing their first canned goods for the British Army. -
Electromagnet
William Sturgeon creates the first electromagnet this year. His magnet consisted of a horshoe-shaped peice of iron wrapped in a metal coil, when a current was passed through the coil the meta became magnetised. His first demonstration of this powerfull new peice of technology consisted of lifting a nine pound weight with only a seven ounce electromagnet. -
First matches
An english chemist by the name of John Walker developed the first "strike anywhere" match. He found that by mixing two different chemicals on a small peice of wood he could create a flame by rubbing the end across any surface. He nicknamed them "congreves," this was a reference to the Congreve's rocket. -
First long-distance message by telegraph
Joseph Henry, using Sturgeon's electromagnet, sent a message through a wire over a mile long and struck a bell in a bell tower. This was the first long distance message sent through a telegraph line. -
Colt Revolver
Samuel Colt developes the first cap-and-ball pistol with a "revolving chamber". These pistols are one of the most iconic images of "the old west" and were a goldmine for the gun production corporation Smith and Wesson. The gun gained much of it's popularity when the texas government purhased Colt revolvers for their texas rangers, and the colt revolver and rifle found trhemselves in the hands of the U.S. military when the war with mexico hit its peak later on. -
combine harvester
The first combine harvester was developed by Hiram and John pitts in 1837. This was the first harvester that threshed and cleaned the grain. This thresher was based off the combine thresher that was invented by Robert McCormick, father of Cyrus McCormick. -
Period: to
End of the Industrial Revolution
The First Industrial Revolution ended sometime during the 1840's when the tecnological and economic progress gained momentum and it merged into the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850. Historians agree that the Industrial Revolution was one of the most important events in all history. -
Camera
The first patent for a camera went to Alexander Wolcott. He based his model for the camera off of the first practical camera invented by Louis Daguerre. It was Alexander's camera that was used to display the first advertisement that had an actual photograph on it in Philladelphia several years later. -
Patent of the sewing machine
Elias Howe was the first creditted inventor of the sewing machine, which could supposedly sew faster than five of the fastest seemstreses. The machine was quite unpopular however, due to it's tendancy to break down, and it's price of three hundred dollars. The first official patent of a sewing machine went to Goeroge Fisher, he took Elias's idea and developed an improved version.
