Inventors/Inventions/Contributions

  • Thomas Newcomen

    Thomas Newcomen
    In 1712 Newcomen invented the world's first successful atmospheric steam engine.
  • John Kay

    John Kay
    John Kay was an English inventor whose most important creation was the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution.
  • John Wesley

    John Wesley
    The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day.
  • John Roebuck

    John Roebuck
    Inventor and industrialist who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution and who is known for developing the industrial-scale manufacture of sulphuric acid.
  • Richard Arkwright

    Richard Arkwright
    Richard Arkwright was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. Devised a simple but remarkable spinning machine.
  • James Hargreaves

    James Hargreaves
    English inventor of the spinning jenny, the first practical application of multiple spinning by a machine.
  • Henry Cort

    Henry Cort
    British discoverer of the puddling process for converting pig iron into wrought iron.
  • Nicolas LeBlanc

    Nicolas LeBlanc
    French surgeon and chemist who in 1790 developed the process for making soda ash (sodium carbonate) from common salt (sodium chloride).
  • Eli Whitney

    Eli Whitney
    Eli Whitney was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy.
  • David Ricardo

    David Ricardo
    a classical economist best known for his theory on wages and profit, the labor theory of value, the theory of comparative advantage, and the theory of rents.
  • George Stephenson

    George Stephenson
    English engineer and principal inventor of the railroad locomotive. Father of Railways
  • Cyrus Field

    Cyrus Field
    He conceived the idea of the telegraph cable and secured a charter to lay a well-insulated line across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.