Inventors and inventions

John Wesley

1855 BCE

John Wesley invented celluloids in 1855. Celluliods were the first type of artifical plastic. Celluloids are a type of material produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, sometimes mixed with other dyes.

Cyrus Field

1855 BCE

Cyrus Field invented the first transatlantic cable in 1855.
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. This device helped America and England have contact with each other.

Karl Marx

1848 BCE

Karl Marx was a German-born philosopher, economist, political theorist, historian, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He created Communist Manifesto which is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848.

Elias Howe

1845 BCE

Elias Howe invented the sewing machine. A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies.

Robert Fulton

1807 BCE

In 1807 Robert Fulten made the world's first steam boat. The steam boat consists of a hull, boilers to generate steam, engines to drive the paddle wheels or propellers, and a cabin to shelter freight and passengers. Steamboats were steered by manipulating rudders and, on sidewheel boats, by varying the speed and direction of the paddle wheels.

Eli Whitney

1793 BCE

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.

Henry Cort

1784 BCE

Henry Cort introduced a new type of iron. Its called wrought iron. Wrought iron is a soft, ductile, fibrous variety that is produced from a semifused mass of relatively pure iron globules partially surrounded by slag.

Robert Owen

1779 BCE

In 1779 Robert Owen invented the spinning mule. The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres. They were used extensively from the late 18th to the early 20th century in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer.

James Watt

1765 BCE

James Watt invented the Watt steam engine. The Watt steam engine design became synonymous with steam engines, and it was many years before significantly new designs began to replace the basic Watt design. The first steam engines, introduced by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, were of the "atmospheric" design.

Thomas Newcomen

1712 BCE

Thomas Newcomen invented the steam engine in 1712. A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed, by a connecting rod and crank, into rotational force for work.

Jethro Tull

1701 BCE

Jethro invented the seed drill. A seed drill is a device used in agriculture that sows seeds. The purpose of the seed drill is to make all of the seeds evenly distributed.

John Roebuck

1746

In 1746 John Roebuck invented the leaden condensing chambers. These chambers were tall tapered cylinders that were externally cooled by water flowing down the outside surface of the chamber. Sulfur dioxide for the process was provided by burning elemental sulfur or by the roasting of sulfur-containing metal ores in a stream of air in a furnace.