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Period: to
industrial revolution
inventions of the century -
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. -
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
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". -
turbine engine
gas turbineJohn 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 parachute
first soft-framed parachute1 Mar 1793Jean 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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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.
