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Jethro Tull
Inventor of the seed drill. It was a device used in agriculture that sows seeds for crops by positioning them in the soil and burying them to a specific depth. This ensures that seeds will be distributed evenly. -
Abraham Darby
Abraham Darby developed the coke burning blast furnace that made it possible to produce commercial grade iron cost-effectively. His work helped launch the Industrial Revolution and contributed to the development of the iron and steel industries. -
Thomas Newcomen
Newcomen invented the world's first successful atmospheric steam engine. The engine pumped water using a vacuum created by condensed steam. It became an important method of draining water from deep mines and was therefore a vital component in the Industrial Revolution in Britain. -
John Kay
Kay invented the wheel shuttle. This meant that one person could operate a shuttle across a very wide loom, which greatly increased the rate of cloth production. The legacy of the Flying Shuttle is inestimable, it completely changed the weaving of textiles. -
Richard Arkwright
In 1769 Arkwright patented the spinning frame, a machine which produced twisted threads, using wooden and metal cylinders rather than human fingers. -
Samuel Crompton
The spinning mule was invented by Samuel Crompton in 1779. It revolutionised textile production by vastly increasing the amount of cotton that could be spun at any one time. -
Henry Court
Henry Cort discovered the puddling process for making wrought iron. The puddling process converted pig iron into wrought iron by subjecting it to heat and stirring it in a furnace, without using charcoal. It was the first method that allowed quality wrought iron to be produced on a large scale. -
Eli Whitney
Inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. -
Alessandro Volta
In 1800, as the result of a professional disagreement over the galvanic response advocated by Galvani, Volta invented the voltaic pile, an early electric battery, which produced a steady electric current. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity was zinc and copper. -
George Stephenson
In 1814, Stephenson constructed his first locomotive, 'Blucher', for hauling coal at Killingworth Colliery near Newcastle. In 1815, he invented a safety lamp for use in coalmines, nicknamed the 'Geordie'. -
Karl Marx
Father of modern socialism, communism, and conflict theory. In 1848, Marx and fellow German thinker Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto,” which introduced their concept of socialism as a natural result of the conflicts inherent in the capitalist system. -
Cyrus Field
In 1854, Cyrus West Field conceived the idea of the telegraph cable and secured a charter to lay a well-insulated line across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Obtaining the aid of British and American naval ships, he made four unsuccessful attempts, beginning in 1857.
