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Jan 1, 1400
Caravel
The caravel (also spelled carvel) is a light sailing ship that that was developed by the Portuguese in the late 1400's, and was used for the next 300 years. -
Jan 1, 1400
Screwdriver
The earliest known screwdriver dates from the 15th-century -
Jan 1, 1450
Anemometer
The anemometer is a device that measures the speed of the wind (or other airflow, like in a wind tunnel). -
Jan 1, 1492
Globe
Martin Behaim (1459-1537) was a German mapmaker, navigator, and merchant who made the earliest globe, called the "Nürnberg Terrestrial Globe". -
Jan 1, 1564
Pencil
The "lead" pencil (which contains no lead) was invented in 1564 when a huge graphite (black carbon) mine was discovered in England -
Thermometer
The Thermometer was invented by Galileo Galilei in 1593. -
Compound Microscope
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch lens-maker who invented the first compound microscope in 1595 (a compound microscope is one which has more than one lens). His microscope consisted of two tudes that slid within one another, and had a lens at each end. -
Telescope
The telescope is a device that lets us view distant objects. Early telescopes used glass lenses and/or mirrors to detect visible light. Some modern telescopes gather images from different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. -
Barometer
barometer is a device that measures air (barometric) pressure. It measures the weight of the column of air that extends from the instrument to the top of the atmosphere. -
Cassegrain Telescope
A Cassegrain telescope is a wide-angle reflecting telescope with a concave mirror that receives light and focuses an image. -
Piano
The modern piano (the pianoforte) was developed from the harpsichord around 1720, by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy. -
Carbonated Water
People have been drinking naturally-carbonated water (water with carbon dioxide bubbles) since pre-historic times. The English chemist Joseph Priestley experimented with putting gases in liquids in 1767, producing the first artificially-produced carbonated water. -
Hot Air Balloon
A hot-air balloon is a balloon that is filled with hot air; it rises because hot air is less dense (lighter) than the rest of the air. -
Guillotine
Many, many people were being executed during the French Revolution, and Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1821) suggested that decapitation would be a more humane method for execution. -
Battery
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (Feb. 18, 1745- March 5, 1827) was an Italian physicist (at the University of Pavia) who invented the chemical battery (also called the voltaic pile) in 1800. -
Light Bulb
The first electric light was made in 1800 by Humphry Davy, an English scientist. -
Parachute
A parachute is a device for slowing down one's descent while falling to the ground. -
Dishwasher
The first dishwasher was patented in 1850 by Joel Houghton; his machine was a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on dishes - unfortunately, it wasn't very effective at washing dishes. -
Car
The first automobile developed with a combustion engine was invented by Henry Ford. Henry Ford later founded the Ford Motor Company, which was known for its achievements in bringing America its first affordable car, the Model-T. The first automobile was created much earlier, in 1866 by Richard Dudgeon of New York City. This first car was made with a steam engine
