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Steam Engine (patented
Thomas Savery was an English military engineer and inventor who in 1698, patented the first crude steam engine, based on Denis Papin's Digester or pressure cooker of 1679. -
Flying shuttle
The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving. It allowed a single weaver to weave much wider fabrics, and it could be mechanized, allowing for automatic machine looms. It was patented by John Kay in 1733 -
Water Frame
In 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. -
Spinning jenny
In 1765, James Hargreaves invented the ‘Spinning Jenny’. Within twenty years the number of threads one machine could spin rose from six to eighty. -
Cotton Gin was invented
Eli Whitney was the inventor of the cotton gin and a pioneer in the mass production of cotton. Eli Whitney had designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber -
Slave trade
The Industrial Revolution in England could have happened without the creation of the slave trade, because the main changes in energy, the use of metallurgy, and the mechanizing of the production of products in factories were independent of the Atlantic slave trade system. Some may argue that the revolution would have occurred more slowly without slaves, but it would have happened nonetheless. -
Telephone
In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won. -
Diesel Engine
In 1898, Rudolf Diesel was granted patent #608,845 for an "internal combustion engine" the Diesel engine. -
First Airplane
The inventors of the first airplane were Orville and Wilbur Wright. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the first successful experiment in which a machine (aka airplane) carrying a man rose by its own power, flew naturally and at even speed, and descended without damage. -
Child Labour ended
Child labor ended by the law passed by FDR (Fair Labor Standard Act) on June 25, 1938. It prohibited children employment in jobs under the age of 18 if working at dangerous jobs but 16 for all.
