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Industrial Invention Timeline

Industrial Inventions don't really start taking place until the industrial revolution in the 17th century. Before that we are mostly talking about tools that were either hand made, powered by water or wind, or by our own sweat. If by "industrial tools" or "machines" we mean a machine capable of making other machines, the first industrial invention is probably the steam engine by Thomas Savery in 1698. It is, however, worth looking at some of the inventions that led to the development of the steam engine to fully understand how it came to be. For the sake of completeness, we will start with the Stone Age and the invention of fire.

Prehistoric
2.5 Million - 4500 BC - Fire: the Stone age represents the beginning of inventions. The invention of tools begins in what is often referred to as the Paleolithic or Stone Age when the first tools were made using stone, and other natural materials like wood and clay, around 2.5 million years ago and lasted until the introduction of metals almost 5,000 years ago. The Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age were all named according to the material that was used to make things. Arguably, the most relevant invention during this time period has to be fire around 500,000 BC and the ability generate heat for protection, light, cooking and comfort.

5000 BC - 1200 BC - The Wheel: the Bronze Age used bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, to make everything from tools to jewelery, and was replaced by the use of iron around 1200 BC. During this period, tools were invented mostly for protection, the gathering of food and other basic needs. Some of the most significant inventions begin with the development of hieroglyphic writing by the Eygptians. Tools used for the cultivation of plants and domestication of animals included the plow, the hoe and spade, while other inventions were designed to improve our building techniques. The first wheel appears in Mesopotamia around 3500 to 3000 BC. Considered the most important tool of this period, the wheel when attached to a cart soon became the predominant mode of transportation. With the invention of the spoked wheel around 2000 BC, it became an invaluable mechanical means for controlling the flow and direction of power or force.

1200 BC - 1 AD - Greece: the Iron Age not only represents a time of great inventions, but great societies from the Greeks to the Romans. As a result of east and western influences Greek society represents a landmark in human thought and invention. The Iron Age begins with the invention of an alphabet by the Phoenicians which they used to record speech. A major milestone in the development of language, and writing as a means of communication, this signified the beginning of a recorded history. In 750 BC, Homer writes the Iliad and the Odyssey sparking the rise of western civilization. For the next 400 years, the Greeks develop the first great systems of thought from mathematics to science and philosophy. Major thinkers of this period—Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—develop the basic categories of analysis of Western philosophy proving that it is a special attribute of human beings to reason. Mathematics is applied to space resulting in the branch of mathematics called geometry. From the axiom - a straight line is the shortest distance between two points - a number of theorems about the properties of points, lines, angles, curves, and planes are logically deduced. One such example is the Pythagorean theorem which states that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. The Greek mathematician Archytas invents the first pulley around 400 BC. Rome rises from a village in 753 BC to a city ruled by Kings by 509 BC. It slowly develops into a republic until the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The waterwheel is used as a source of energy for milling and other industries for the next 1000 years.

1st Millennium -
1 - 1000 AD - Rome: the 1st millennium was dominated by perhaps the greatest civilization ever to exist to date. At its peak, the Roman Empire was the epitome of advanced civilization, not only in terms of government, law and commerce, but in terms of scientific and engineering achievement. Starting with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC and the coronation of Octavius as Augustus in 27 BC, the Roman Empire dominated the entire Mediterranean world for the next 500 years when it was finally challenged by Germanic barbarians, economic decline, and its own internal self-destruction. The greatest contributions of Roman civilization involved any technologies that could enhance trade and commerce, and improve the quality of life for its citizens. With remarkable engineering skills, they excelled in the construction of buildings, roads, bridges, sewers, canals, and hundreds of miles of aqueducts for the supply of fresh water. Known for constructing the Pantheon and the Colosseum, the invention of the road, however, is probably their greatest industrial achievement. Other notable achievements of the first millennium include paper made in China around 105 AD using mulberry bark, Ptolemy's claim that the earth, not the sun, is the center of the universe, the first map to use conic projection to determine latitude and longitude, and the first windmill built in Persia around 600 AD.

2nd Millennium
1000- 1500 - Printing: the 2nd millennium begins with bang when the Chinese experiment with gunpowder and invented the first cannon in 1128. The first modern gun soon followed in 1250. The first use of a cannon was recorded in Metz around 1324, and by the English against the Scots in 1327. In 1310, the first mechanical clock is built using adjustable weights. While the invention of the wheelbarrow by Zhuge Liang in 300 AD was pulled rather than pushed, the first appearance of a wheelbarrow with the wheel at the front and the handles at the rear appears in Europe occurred in the 13th century. The Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed with movable type, is made by German printer Johannes Gutenberg in 1456. Movable type printing makes it possible to publish many copies of a single work at one time. In many ways, this new printing technology is responsible for the Renaissance, a new period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation. The dawn of a new modern, the Renaissance marks the transitional period between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Modern Age.

1500 - 1600 - Copernicus: the most significant event of the 2nd millennium takes place in 1543 when Copernicus challenges the Polemic view of the universe with the claim that the Sun, not the Earth is the center of the universe. This Copernican Revolution, as the German philosopher Kant calls it, ignites the search for mathematical and scientific knowledge. In 1590, the first microscope is built by Zacharias Janssen when he discovers that a second lens can be used to magnify the enlarged image from a magnifying glass.

1600 - 1700 - Science: Galileo discovers that all objects fall toward the earth with the same acceleration, regardless of their weight, size, or shape when gravity is the only force acting on them. The first telescope is invented by Hans Lipperhey in 1608. Galileo discovers the four moons orbiting Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, and the phases of Venus using a telescope. In 1621, William Oughtred invents the slide rule, a mechanical device for multiplication and division. 1642 - Pascal invents a mechanical calculator or adding machine. In 1647 he claims that fluids transmit pressure equally in all directions. Known as Pascal’s law, it is a major contribution to the development of hydraulics and fluid mechanics. 1662 - Boyle's Law of Gases. Otto von Guericke demonstrates the first air pump in 1654. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz publishes his discovery of calculus in 1684. In 1698, Thomas Savery builds the Miner's Friend, the first practical steam engine, which serves as a water pump. It uses two copper vessels alternately filled with steam from a boiler.

1700 - 1800 - Steam Engine: In 1712 Thomas Newcomen invents the first recognized steam engine and uses it to pump water out of a salt mine. Jethro Tull invents the first seed drill capable of dropping seeds in rows in 1701. In 1714 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit makes the first thermometer to use mercury instead of alcohol. Using this thermometer, he devises the temperature scale that comes to be known by his name. In 1745, Pieter van Musschenbroek invents the Leyden jar, one of the first devices for storing an electrical charge called an electric capacitor. Benjamin Franklin theorizes uses a Leyden jar when he demonstrates that lightning is a form of electricity. In 1780, James Watt and Matthew Boulton begin manufacturing a steam engine for industrial use. Their engine powers the machines used to manufacture goods in factories. The application of their steam engine brings about the Industrial Revolution. The threshing machine by Andrew Meikle in 1784 for separating grain from straw and chaff, and the power loom for weaving by Edmund Cartwright in 1785 also pave the way for the industrial revolution. In 1788, James Watt invents the first governor, a true feedback (self-correcting) control mechanism to regulate the speed of a steam engine. It embodies the feedback principle of a servomechanism, linking output to input, which is the basic concept of automation.

1800 - 1900 - Thermodynamics: The desire to make a more efficient engine brings about two very important laws of thermodynamics: the First Law of Thermodynamics is proposed in 1842 stating that while energy can be converted from one form to another, it cannot be created or destroyed. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is proposed in 1850 stating that heat cannot by itself pass from a colder body to a hotter body. Together these laws fostered a renewed interest in engine technology. Before the Savery engine, horses were the main source of power. In the years to follow, the Newcomen and Watts Engines eventually replaced the horse and were credited with a certain amount of "horse power" depending upon how many horses it had replaced. Inefficient and only capable of converting less than 2% of the input fuel into useful work, the need for a new science of thermodynamics was born. By the end of the century, the first automobile engines start to appear. In 1801 Alessandro Volta invents the electric battery, a device capable of converting chemical energy into electrical energy. Modern Atomic Theory: In 1803 John Dalton draws up a table of the relative atomic weights of all known elements and develops the atomic theory upon which modern physical science is founded. In the 1820s Charles Babbage introduces his Difference Engine - a different sort of engine - a computing machine. Joseph N. Niépce takes the first surviving permanent photograph in 1826. Barthélemy Thimonnier builds the first practical sewing machine 1829. In the 1820s Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, proving that a current flowing in a coil of wire can induce electromagnetically a current in a nearby coil. His discovery led to two important inventions: the electric motor which converted electrical energy into mechanical energy, and the electric generator which converted mechanical energy into electrical energy. In 1837 Samuel Morse and Sir Charles Wheatstone introduce the first electric telegraph. Charles Goodyear accidentally makes vulcanized rubber in 1839 when he drops a piece of sulfur-treated rubber onto a hot stove. Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone in 1876. Thomas Edison invents the phonograph in 1877. In the same year, Nikolaus A. Otto patents the first four-stroke internal combustion engine. Two years later, Karl Benz invents the first two stroke automobile engine. Thomas Edison designs the first incandescent electric lightbulb in 1879. The first pneumatic tire is invented by John Dunlop in 1888.

1900 - 2000 - The Computer and Space: Wilbur and Orville Wright start the space age by inventing the first airplane in 1903. Albert Einstein formulates his famous equation E = mc2, suggesting that a very small amount of mass is equivalent to a vast amount of energy. The plastics industry begins in 1909 with the invention of Bakelite by Leo Hendrik Baekeland. The process cooling industry comes of age as Willis Haviland Carrier makes the first air conditioner in 1911. Henry Ford uses standardized interchangeable parts and assembly-line techniques to make automobiles. In 1916 Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity, which suggests that the universe is curved and adds the dimension of time to the dimensions of height, width, and breadth. In 1936 British mathematician Alan Turing proposes the Turing Machine which can process equations without any human input. Wernher von Braun develops the V-2 Rocket for the German Military in 1943. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) becomes the first general-purpose electronic computer in 1946. In 1948 John von Neumann helps to create a new computer called the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer). UNIVAC, becomes the first electronic computer to be sold for commerical applications in 1951. Modern computers come of age with the invention of the Integrated Circuit by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and the semicondutor by Robert Noyce in 1959. Sputnik, the first artificial satellite is launched in 1957. Theodore Maiman develops the first working laser in 1960. Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon in 1969. The first operational packet switching networt, ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) or the Internet is built in 1969. Email is proposed by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. In the same year, the first microprocessor is released by Intel (4004), Texas Instruments (TMS 1000), and Garrett AiRearch (MP944). The first personal computers are available by 1977: the Apple II, the TRS-80 by Tandy Radio Shack, the Commodore PET, and the ATARI 400. The first cell phone is invented in 1979. In 1981 International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) introduces the IBM PC which becomes an industry standard. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web. The first Global Positioning System is built in 1995. The first fuel cell powered by gas is invented in 1997.

2000 - 2005 - The Internet: With the introduction of the microcomputer in the late 20th century and the rise of the Internet from 1989 onward, there is still great potential for innovation in computerization. From punch cards, to vacuum tubes, transistors, to the chip, computing is indisputably the predominant force in the industrial world. Today, the modern computer has inserted itself into every major industrial process, refining and controlling it to the extent that entire systems of manual operations have become completely automated. Advancements in robotics, fuel cell technology and nanotechnology only promise to solidify the place of computers in the industrial process as the ultimate machine-making machine.

Nanotechnology: often used to refer to any science or technological projects that relate to or focus on properties or matter having at least one dimension between 1 and 100 nanometers. First suggested in 1959, nanotechnology was proposed by the Nobel Prize physicist Richard Feynman, who suggested using a set of robot arms to construct a replica of themselves, but one-tenth the original size, then using that new set of arms to manufacture an even smaller set, and so on, until the molecular scale is reached.

Robotics: The demand for industrial and service robots is forecast to be worth more than $66 billion by 2025. According to a United Nations annual World Robotics report, 4.1 million robots will be doing jobs in homes by the end of 2007. It also projected that there will be almost 2.5 million entertainment and leisure robots in homes by then, compared to about 137,000 currently. The manufacturing industry, of course, routinely uses robots, many of which are built by car manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota. And seemingly every week reports a new way that a robot is taking up a human task: nursing robots; dancing-/singing-dog robots; soccer-playing robots; and even day care robots. The commercial world in September even saw the release of a Hobbit-sized "house sitter" robot that can recognize 10,000 words and 10 different faces.

The Fuel Cell: The hydrogen fuel cell operates similar to a battery. It has two electrodes, an anode and a cathode, separated by a membrane. Oxygen passes over one electrode and hydrogen over the other. The hydrogen reacts to a catalyst on the electrode anode that converts the hydrogen gas into negatively charged electrons (e-) and positively charged ions (H+). The electrons flow out of the cell to be used as electrical energy. The hydrogen ions move through the electrolyte membrane to the cathode electrode where they combine with oxygen and the electrons to produce water. Unlike batteries, fuel cells never run out.

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