Timeline: Technology Moves History

1492

Flying machine

Leonardo daVinci designs a flying machine.

1598

Princess Phone

1620

First horse drawn bus service.

1663

First turnpike roads open.

They are privately owned and maintained roads that travellers have to pay to use.

1761

First canal opens -- The Bridgwater Canal

1769

First self-propelled road vehicle

First self-propelled rad vehicle invented by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot.

1783

First hot air balloons and first practical steam paddle boat.

1801

First steam powered locomotive

Designed for roads by Richard Trevithick

1807

First passenger tram

First passenger tram with open carriages but smoother ride than bumpy road horse bus.

1814

Invention of first practical steam powered railroad locomotive

George Stephenson - inventor

1815

Steamships begin to cross the English Channel

1822

Difference Engine

1825

First passenger railway opens

1829

Horse drawn omnibuses introduced in London

1831

Michael Faraday -- builds first electric moto

1859

Moses Farmer lights his house in Salem Massachusetts.

Moses Farmer lights his house in Salem,
Massachusetts, by electric lamps that contain a
glowing platinum wire. The current is supplied by
batteries.

1866

Generators first constructed.

Generators with electromagnets in the field are
first constructed.

1876

Liquid Telephone

1876

Bell patents the telephone

Alexander Graham Bell patents the
telephone, which transmits speech over
electric wires.

1877

Phonograph

1878

Wall Set

1881

First electric tram (in Germany)

1882

Edison establishes a generating station

Edison establishes a central
generating station at Pearl Street in lower
Manhattan, serving 85 customers in a one-square mile
area. Edward Weston begins manufacturing
electric meters. The first water-powered plant for
generating electricity is built in Appleton, Wisconsin.

1885

Steam powered tram introduced - noisy and dirty

1885

Karl Benz builds the world's first practical automobile to be powered by an internal combustion engine.

1886

First electric fan

Schuyler Wheeler makes the first electric fan, using
an electric motor to turn a propeller placed on the
end of a shaft.

1888

alternating current generator

Nikola Tesla, a Serbian electrical engineer
who had immigrated to the United States
and was working with Edison, introduces the
alternating current generator, allowing
electricity to be distributed longer distances
than the two miles possible with direct
current generators. Everyone but Edison
agrees AC is superior to DC. Even Edison’s
own company – Edison Electric Company,
now called General Electric – eventually
switches to AC. All electric motors today run
on principles set out by Tesla.

1889

First successful motion picture device

Edison invents one of the first successful
motion-picture devices.

1889

Pneumatic rubber tires invented

1893

Daguerreotype Camera

1899

The Zeppelin invented

Ferdinand vonZeppelin invents the first successful airship.

1900

Brownie Camera

1903

the Wright Brothers invent and fly the first engined airplane

1904

Second power station at Niagra Falls

General Electric completes a second power station
at Niagara Falls.

1910

first electric powered washing machine

Alva Fisher develops an electrically-powered
washing machine.

1913

German Leica

1914

talking pictures

Edison connects the phonograph and
George Eastman’s camera to make
talking pictures.

1919

Dial Telephone

1919

Planes begin to carrying passengers between London and Paris

1920

working television created

Working television models are created.

1933

Exakta SLR

1935

Rural Electrification Administrations

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs
legislation establishing the Rural Electrification
Administration and making federal funds
available for rural electric service.

1943