-
3500 BCE
Ancient Science 3500 BCE - 300 BCE
-
3500 BCE
Mesopotamians - Cuneiform Tablet
Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the Ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia. In cuneiform, a carefully cut writing implement known as a stylus is pressed into soft clay to produce wedge-like imprints that represent word-signs. -
1550 BCE
Ancient Egypt - Edwin Smith's Papyrus
Named after Edwin Smith a pioneer who studied Egyptian science discovered an ancient Egyptian medical treatise intended as a textbook on surgery beginning with clinical cases of head injuries and down thebody. It reveals the ancient Egyptians knowledge of the relation of the pulse to the heart and the workings of the stomach, bowels, and larger blood vessels. -
495 BCE
Theano of Crotone - Writing Treaties
Theano, the wife of the Greek mathematician and philosopher pythagoras, ran the pythagorean school in southern Italy following her husbands death. She is credited with having written treaties on mathematics, physics, medicine, and child psychology -
384 BCE
Aristotle - Scientific Theory
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist who covered most of the sciences and many of the arts, including biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, philosophy of the mind, philosophy of science, physics, poetics, political theory, psychology and zoology. His fundamental principle is everything that is in motion is moved by something else. -
300 BCE
The Mayans - Writing System
Mayan hieroglyphic writing, system of writing used by the Maya people of Mesoamerica. The Mayan system of writing contains more than 800 characters, including some that are hieroglyphic and other phonetic signs representing syllables. The hieroglyphic signs are pictorial which means they are recognizable pictures of real objects representing animals, people, and objects of daily life. -
299 BCE
Sources
-
1543
Scientific Revolution - 1543 - 1687
-
Thomas Bartholin - Lymphatic System Discovery
Thomas Bartholin was a Danish anatomist and mathematician who was first to describe fully the entire human lymphatic system. Thomas mainly studied the lymphatic vessels and William Harvey's theory of blood circulation and he discovered that these vessels are everywhere in the body. -
Christiaan Huygens - Pendulum
Christiaan Huygens was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist and horologist invented the pendulum clock. He was inspired by investigations of pendulums by Galileo Galilei who started the discovery but didn't live long enough to finish it. -
Maria Sibylla Merian - Book of Specimen
Maria Sibylla Merian was a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator known for her illustrations of insects and plants. Her works on insect development and the transformation of insects through metamorphosis contributed to the advance of entomology. -
Anthony Van Leeuhenhoek - Microscopes
Dutch Microbiologist Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek made a break in history after discovering microorganisms. Leeuwenhoek is also known for finding bacteria, microscopic nematodes, sperm cells, and much more. Approximately ten or fewer of the 500 microscopes Leeuwenhoek created are still standing today. His invention of these simple yet powerful microscopes could detect any organism placed under its lens. -
Ole Christensen Roemer - Speed of light
Ole Christensen Roemer, a Danish astronomer, was the first to measure the speed of light. Upon his discovery, Roemer could predict the eclipse's length on November 9, 1676. Due to his overestimation of the Earth's orbit and other factors, Roemer's prediction needed to be revised. Notably, seventeen minutes would have been a more accurate estimation. -
Sources
http://scihi.org/thomas-bartholin-lymphatic-system/#:~:text=Bartholin%20was%20first%20to%20describe%20fully%20the%20entire,first%20to%20describe%20it%20scientifically.%20%5B%202%20%5D
https://www.thoughtco.com/christiaan-huygens-biography-4163997
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-Sibylla-Merian
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonie-van-Leeuwenhoek
https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/ole-roemer-speed-of-light -
Industrial Revolution - 1700 - 1884
-
Abraham Darby - Coke Blast Furnace
Abraham Darby was a British ironmaster who successfully smelted iron ore with coke. In 1709 he produced marketable iron in a coke - ironed furnace and demonstrated the superiority of coke in cost and efficiency by building much larger furnaces than were possible with charcoal as a fuel, the latter being too weak to support a heavy charge of iron. -
Thomas Newcomen - Steam Engine
Thomas Newcomen was a British engineer and inventor of the atmospheric steam engine. In Newcomen’s engine the intensity of pressure was not limited by the pressure of the steam. Instead, atmospheric pressure pushed the piston down after the condensation of steam had created a vacuum in the cylinder. For a number of years, Newcomen’s engine was used in the draining of mines and in raising water to power waterwheels. -
Eleanor Coade - Coade Stone
Eleanor Coade was a highly successful Georgian craftswoman and businesswoman. The artificial stone that Eleanor Coade invented and produced, and which bore her name, was one of the most widely used materials of the 18th century. A ceramic material – whose recipe remained a closely guarded secret – Coade stone was exceptionally resistant to weathering and erosion. Its versatility made it immensely popular for a great variety of sculptures, monuments, statues etc. -
British and American Inventors - Electric Telegraph
While scientists and inventors across the world began experimenting with batteries and the principles of electromagnetism to develop some kind of communication system, the credit for inventing the telegraph generally falls to two sets of researchers: William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in England, and Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail in the United States. -
Hiram Maxim - Maxim Gun
Hiram Maxim was a prolific inventor best known for the Maxim machine gun. in 1884 he produced the first satisfactory fully automatic machine gun, employing the recoil of the barrel for ejecting the spent cartridges and reloading the chamber. To improve its efficiency, he developed his own smokeless powder, cordite. Within a few years every army was equipped with Maxim guns or adaptations. -
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham-Darby
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Newcomen
https://www.english heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/women-in-history/eleanor-coade/
https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hiram-Maxim -
2nd Scientific Revolution - 1889 - 1950
-
Guglielmo Marconi - Wireless Telegraph
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian physicist and inventor of a successful wireless telegraph, or radio. His journey began with experiments on electromagnetic wave techniques, inspired by the mathematical work of James Clerk Maxwell and the pioneering experiments of Heinrich Hertz and Sir Oliver Lodge. . He successfully transmitted wireless signals over a distance of approximately 2 kilometers (about 1.5 miles). -
Jesse Wilford Reno - Escalator
Jesse Reno is one of several individuals credited with the beginnings of the modern escalator. Reno's design was displayed as a ride at Coney Island's Iron Pier in 1896, transporting its passengers to a height of seven feet. During the two weeks that it was showcased, about seventy-five thousand people are believed to have ridden it. -
Alexander Fleming - Penicillin
Alexander Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist best known for his discovery of penicillin. Fleming, working with two young researchers, failed to stabilize and purify penicillin. However, he did point out that penicillin had clinical potential, both as a topical antiseptic and as an injectable antibiotic, if it could be isolated and purified. -
Tommy Flowers - Computer
Tommy Flowers is one of history's most significant electrical engineers. His work on the first programmable computer, Colossus, has sealed his place in history. Colossus went into operation in 1944 at Britain’s wartime code-breaking headquarters at Bletchley Park. -
-
Info and Space Ages - 1950 - 1990
-
Jonas Edward Salk - Polio Vaccine
Jonas Salk played a pivotal role in achieving this success by being the first to devise and implement a safe and effective vaccine against polio. Salk experimented on volunteers, his wife, his children, and himself. All volunteers developed anti-polio antibodies with no adverse reactions. Following his experiment, Salk administered his polio vaccine to 1 million children, ages 6 to 9, nationwide. A turning point in history, Salk's vaccine was announced as safe and effective. -
Sergei Korolev - Sputnik 1
Sergei Korolev was a Soviet designer of guided missiles, rockets, and spacecraft. Korolev was well-known for leading the Soviet Union to space with his design of the R-7 ICBM. Aboard the R-7 ICBM was Sputnik 1, which was the first human-made satellite to enter Earth's orbit. -
Katherine Johnson - Orbital Calculations
Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecrafts during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. With her talent, Johnson calculated orbital equations inserted into the computer on the spacecraft. Her calculations successfully led to a significant turning point in the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States -
Douglas Engelbart - Computer Mouse
Douglas Engelbart was an American inventor whose work beginning in the 1950s led to his patent for the computer mouse. Engelbart's inventions made computers more manageable, and his techniques inspired others to refine his process, which is still utilized today. -
Tim Berners - Lee - WWW
Tim Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist, generally credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web. Berner-Lee started with a simple hypertext (Enrique) program created for himself. In this program, he was able to store information that was connected via links or otherwise known as hypertext. After further observation, he recognized a way that allowed computers to communicate with one another. Berners-Lee created a global hypertext that served the internet well. -