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Jethro Tull
Horse drawn seed drill. This invention made it easier to plant seeds in fields. This allows more crops to be planted in less time. -
Thomas Newcomen
Steam engine. 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. The term "steam engine" is generally applied only to reciprocating engines as just described, not to the steam turbine. -
John Kay
Flying shuttle. The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It allowed a single weaver to weave much wider fabrics, and it could be mechanized, allowing for automatic machine looms. The flying shuttle greatly sped up the previous hand process and halved the labour force. Where a broad-cloth loom previously required a weaver on each side, it could now be worked by a single operator. -
John Roebuck
Lead chamber process. It is the method of producing sulfuric acid by oxidizing sulfur dioxide with moist air, using gaseous nitrogen oxides as catalysts, the reaction taking place primarily in a series of large, boxlike chambers of sheet lead. -
Samuel Crompton
Spinning mule. 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. The carriage carried up to 1,320 spindles and could be 150 feet (46 m) long, and would move forward and back a distance of 5 feet (1.5 m) four times a minute. -
Eli Whitney
The Cotton Gin, a machine for separating cotton from its seeds. A machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. -
Jeremy Bentham
Panopticon. The basic principle for the design, which Bentham first completed in 1785, was to monitor the maximum number of prisoners with the fewest possible guards and other security costs. The layout consists of a central tower for the guards, surrounded by a ring-shaped building of prison cells. -
David Ricardo
Comparative Advantage Theory. Comparative advantage is an economy's ability to produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than its trading partners. Comparative advantage is used to explain why companies, countries, or individuals can benefit from trade. -
Karl Marx
Communism. a political theory, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. -
John Wesley
Celluloid, a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Celluloid is useful for producing cheaper jewellery, jewellery boxes, hair accessories and many items that would earlier have been manufactured from ivory, horn or other expensive animal products. -
Adam Smith
GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It is often cited in newspapers, on the television news, and in reports by governments, central banks, and the business community. It has become widely used as a reference point for the health of national and global economies. -
James Watt
Photocopier. A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply.