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The timeline of historic inventions is a chronological list of particularly important or significant technological inventions and the people who created the inventions.
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 more practical form. Where there is ambiguity, the date of the first known working version of the invention is used here.
The dates listed here refer to the earliest known evidence of an invention. Dates are often approximate and may change as more research is completed. Older examples of any given technology may arise in the future. The locations listed are for the site where the earliest solid evidence has been found, but in most cases there is little certainty how close that may be to where the invention took place.
36–9 ka: Weaving – Indirect evidence supports earlier end in Georgia[24] and/or Moravia.[25] The earliest actual piece of woven cloth was found in Çatalhöyük, Turkey[26][27]
With the Greco-Roman trispastos ("three-pulley-crane"), the simplest ancient crane, a single man tripled the weight he could lift than with his muscular strength alone.[67]
5th century BC: Cast iron in Ancient China: Confirmed by archaeological evidence, the earliest cast iron is developed in China by the early 5th century BC during the Zhou Dynasty (1122–256 BC), the oldest specimens found in a tomb of Luhe County in Jiangsu province.[71][72][73]
3rd–2nd century BC: Blast furnace in Ancient China: The earliest discovered blast furnaces in China date to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, although most sites are from the later Han Dynasty.[71][86]
2nd century BC: Paper in Han DynastyChina: Although it is recorded that the Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220) court eunuch Cai Lun (born c. 50–121 AD) invented the pulp papermaking process and established the use of new raw materials used in making paper, ancient padding and wrapping paper artifacts dating to the 2nd century BC have been found in China, the oldest example of pulp papermaking being a map from Fangmatan, Gansu.[88]
1st century BC
1st century BC: Glass blowing discovered on the Lebanese coast.
4th century: Field mill in Ancient China, first mentioned in the Yezhongji, or 'Record of Affairs at the Capital Ye of the Later Zhao Dynasty' written by Lu Hui in the 4th century, describing a field mill built by two engineers, Xie Fei and Wei Mengbian.[115]
4th century: Fishing reel in Ancient China: In literary records, the earliest evidence of the fishing reel comes from a 4th-century AD[116] work entitled Lives of Famous Immortals'.[117]
347 AD: Oil Wells and Borehole drilling in China. Such wells could reach depths of up to 240 m (790 ft).[118]
4th century: Stirrups in Ancient China: The first dependable representation of a rider with paired stirrups was found in China in a Jin dynasty tomb of about AD 322.[119][120][121] The stirrup appeared to be in widespread use across China by AD 477.[122]
7th century: Porcelain in Tang DynastyChina: True porcelain is manufactured in northern China from roughly the beginning of the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century, while true porcelain was not manufactured in southern China until about 300 years later, during the early 10th century.[139]
9th century: Numerical zero in Ancient India: The concept of zero as a number, and not merely a symbol for separation is attributed to India.[147] In India, practical calculations are carried out using zero, which is treated like any other number by the 9th century, even in case of division.[147][148]
10th century
10th century: Fire lance in Song DynastyChina, developed in the 10th century with a tube of first bamboo and later on metal that shot a weak gunpowder blast of flame and shrapnel, its earliest depiction is a painting found at Dunhuang.[149] Fire lance is the earliest firearm in the world and one of the earliest gunpowder weapons.[150][151]
10th century: Fireworks in Song DynastyChina: Fireworks first appear in China during the Song Dynasty (960–1279), in the early age of gunpowder. Fireworks could be purchased from market vendors; these were made of sticks of bamboo packed with gunpowder.[152]
1119: Mariner's compass (wet compass) in Song DynastyChina: The earliest recorded use of magnetized needle for navigational purposes at sea is found in Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119 (written from 1111 to 1117).[157][161][162][163][164][165][166] The typical Chinese navigational compass was in the form of a magnetic needle floating in a bowl of water.[167] The familiar mariner's dry compass which uses a pivoting needle suspended above a compass-card in a glass box is invented in medieval Europe no later than 1300.[168]
1277: Land mine in Song DynastyChina: Textual evidence suggests that the first use of a land mine in history is by a Song Dynasty brigadier general known as Lou Qianxia, who uses an 'enormous bomb' (huo pao) to kill Mongol soldiers invading Guangxi in 1277.[172]
13th century: Explosive bomb in Jin dynasty Manchuria: Explosive bombs are used in 1221 by the Jin dynasty against a Song Dynasty city.[174] The first accounts of bombs made of cast iron shells packed with explosive gunpowder are documented in the 13th century in China and are called "thunder-crash bombs",[175] coined during a Jin dynasty naval battle in 1231.[176]
13th century: Hand cannon in Yuan Dynasty China: The earliest hand cannon dates to the 13th century based on archaeological evidence from a Heilongjiang excavation. There is also written evidence in the Yuanshi (1370) on Li Tang, an ethnic Jurchen commander under the Yuan Dynasty who in 1288 suppresses the rebellion of the Christian prince Nayan with his "gun-soldiers" or chongzu, this being the earliest known event where this phrase is used.[177]
14th century: Naval mine in Ming DynastyChina: Mentioned in the Huolongjing military manuscript written by Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and Liu Bowen (1311–1375), describing naval mines used at sea or on rivers and lakes, made of wrought iron and enclosed in an ox bladder. A later model is documented in Song Yingxing's encyclopedia written in 1637.[179]
15th century
The oldest known parachute is depicted in this anonymous Italian manuscript dated to the 1470s.[180]
1712: Thomas Newcomen builds the first commercial steam engine to pump water out of mines.[195] Newcomen's engine, unlike Thomas Savery's, uses a piston.
1802: Arc lamp invented by Humphry Davy (exact date unclear; not practical as a light source until the invention of efficient electric generators).[197]
1804: Morphine is discovered as the first active alkaloid extracted from the opium poppy plant in December 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner.[198]
1812: William Reid Clanny pioneered the invention of the safety lamp which he improved in later years. Safety lamps based on Clanny's improved design were used until the adoption of electric lamps.
1822: The pattern-tracing lathe (actually more like a shaper) is completed by Thomas Blanchard for the U.S. Ordnance Dept. The lathe can copy symmetrical shapes and is used for making gun stocks, and later, ax handles. The lathe's patent is in force for 42 years, the record for any U.S. patent.[202][203]
1829: The first true centerfire cartridge, one of the most widely used cartridges for firearms, is developed by Clement Pottet. However, it would not be perfected until 1855.
1855: The Bessemer process for making steel is patented by Sir Henry Bessemer, with improvements made by others over the following years.
1856: Using the principle of vapour compression, James Harrison produces the world's first practical ice making machine and refrigerator in Geelong, Australia.[208]
1865: Gregor Mendel publishes 'Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden' ("Experiments on Plant Hybridization"), effectively founding the science of genetics, though the importance of his work would not be appreciated until later on.
1876: A patent for the telephone is granted to Alexander Graham Bell. However, other inventors before Bell had worked on the development of the telephone and the invention had several pioneers.[209]
1879: Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison both patent a functional Incandescent light bulb. Some two dozen inventors had experimented with electric Incandescent lighting over the first three-quarters of the 19th century but never came up with a piratical design.[212] Swan's, which he had been working on his since the 1860s, had a low resistance so was only suited for small installations. Edison designed a high resistance bulb as part of a large scale commercial electric lighting utility.[213][214][215]
1888: Heinrich Hertz publishes a conclusive proof of James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory in experiments that also demonstrate the existence of radio waves. The effects of electromagnetic waves had been observed by many people before this but no usable theory explaining them existed until Maxwell.
1903: First manually controlled, fixed wing, motorized aircraft flies at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina by Orville and Wilbur Wright. First modern fixed wing aircraft. Gustave Weisskopf (Whitehead), a German-American immigrant, is credited with motorized aircraft flight in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1901. Flights are witnessed by citizens and other associates and recorded in the Bridgeport Herald, a local newspaper, but were not mentioned in a 1904 article in Scientific American.[218]
1915: The tank is invented by Ernest Swinton,[219] although the British Royal Commission on Awards recognised a South Australian named Lance de Mole who had submitted a proposal to the British War Office, for a 'chain-rail vehicle which could be easily steered and carry heavy loads over rough ground and trenches' complete with extensive drawings in 1912.[220] Additionally, an Austrian by the name of Günther Burstyn designed a tank in 1911 and a Captain Levavasseur of the French army proposed a design in 1903.
1926: The Yagi-Uda Antenna or simply Yagi Antenna is invented by Shintaro Uda of Tohoku Imperial University, Japan, assisted by his colleague Hidetsugu Yagi. The Yagi Antenna was widely used by the US, British, and Germans during World War II. After the war they saw extensive development as home television antennas.
1928: Frank Whittle formally submitted his ideas for a turbo-jet engine. In October 1929, he developed his ideas further.[222] On 16 January 1930 in England, Whittle submitted his first patent (granted in 1932).[223]
December 1947: The transistor, used in almost all modern electronic products is invented in December 1947 by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain under the supervision of William Shockley. Subsequent transistors became steadily smaller, faster, more reliable, and cheaper to manufacture, leading to a revolution in computers, controls, and communication.
1948: Basic oxygen steelmaking is developed by Robert Durrer. The vast majority of steel manufactured in the world is produced using the basic oxygen furnace; in 2000, it accounted for 60% of global steel output.[225]
1954: Invention of Solar Battery by Bell Telephone scientists, Calvin Souther Fuller, Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson capturing the sun's power. First practical means of collecting energy from the sun and turning it into a current of electricity.
1980: Flash memory (both NOR and NAND types) is invented in Japan by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while working for Toshiba. It is formally introduced to the public in 1984.
1982: A CD-ROM contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 Yellow Book standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data.[230]
1984: The first commercially available cell phone, the DynaTAC 8000X, is invented by Motorola.
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