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Samuel Johnson Publishes the First English Language Dictionary
The dictionary helps increased the literacy rate throughout the English speaking countries of the world. -
John Campbell Invents the Sextant
This sighting device was used to calculate the elevation of a celestial body over the horizon and thereby determine one's line of position. By knowing this sailors could then calculate exact latitude and longitude at sea. -
John Harrison Invents Navigational Clock or Marine Chronometer
This clock becomes crucial to seaferrers as it gives navigators the ability to read longitude with a simple device. -
Richard Arkwright Imporves on the Spinning Jenny With his "Water Frame"
Although the Spinning Jenny could spin multiple threads at once, this new machine span much faster using water power and allowed the textile industry to boom. -
James Hargreaves Developed "Spinning Jenny"
This shows the beginning of the industrial revolution move to use technology to ease a task and allowed people to spin multiple threads at the same time. -
Joseph Priestly Invents Carbonated Water (Soda Water)
Priestly's work in chemistry inspired many other scientists to make strives in this field around the globe and also showed the carbonation process of fluids. -
George Louis Lesarge's Telegraph
Enabled the first use long distance communications to organize people around the world. This was initially used in underwater telegraph cables which organized the navies of world powers. -
Alexander Cummings Receives Patents For First Flushing Toilet
This invention greatly improved on the sanitation of urban areas and marked the steps towards a modern society. -
James Watt Creates Improved and More Practical Steam Engine
Previously, steam travel was very costly reserved mainly to water travel and aristocratic use, but with this improved stam engine, steam travel emerged as prominet travel source. -
Samuel Crompton creates "Crompton's Mule"
This innovation mixed the best parts of the Jenny and the Water Frame further moving along the textile industry. -
Edmund Cartwright Invents the Power Loom
Although having a few issues upon its first release, this spinning machine was much easier to use and span faster than the machines before it. Later it would be used predominantly world-wide. -
Eli Whitney Develops the First Cotton Gin
This gin separated cotton seeds from the actual cotton fibres which normally took too long. This created the cotton business essentially as cotton became easier to produce. -
Edward Jenner Develops First Smallpox Vaccine
With smallpox being one of the deadliest killers in Europe and the Americas, this vaccine most likely saved millions of lives around the world. -
Robert Fulton Develops First River Paddle Steamship
This was the first paddle steamship in the world and introduced the world to water travel using steam power. Although this was very cost ineffective, it would later be improved. -
Humphrey Davy Creates the First Electric Light
Reduced the dependence on candles and gas powered lighting in homes. Later improved by Edison, this started the idea of different forms of energy. -
George Stephenson Develops First Locamotive Firm to Use Steam Powered T ransportation
This innovation/landmark even exemplifies the importance of steam power in transportation during this time. -
Alessandra Volta Makes First Electrical Battery
This new technology shows the complete shift to electrical power in practical uses and the battery became a staple in society throughout history. -
Joseph Dart's first elevator
This innovation paved the way for the creation of much taller builidings as it became easier to transport people up numerous floors. It is still used in modern day society. -
Richard Gatling Machine Gun
This event marked the beginning of more modern warfare as fully automatic weapons dominated the battlefield. Ammo cartriges made weapons easier to load, more accurate, and overall much more deadly. -
Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray Design Devices that Transmit Sound
This improved on the idea of the telegraph that could only transmitt short messages through a morde code but this allowed for more detailed messages to be sent. Also it was a more practical device that allowed the average people to communicate with one another. -
First Phone Call is Made Between Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson
More of a landmark than an innovation, this call showed the great strides made over this age. It marked the beginning of the use of the telephone and modern communication. -
Thomas Edison Begins Experimenting with Electrical Light and Develops the Light Bulb
Before this century, Electrical Power was way too expensive for everyday use but after Edison's innovations, electrical power was used practically as a major source of power -
Electiric Power is Now Used to Power Homes and Street Lamps
Not depending on fire for light, allowed people to work at night without the fear of catching their paper or straw houses on fire. It revolutionized world. -
Nikola Tesla Patents For Induction Motor and an Alternating Current System
Not only did Tesla discover the rotating magnetic field concept (a key idea to physics) his A-C induction motor ran very efficiently and is still used in industrial and household devices today.
