#p <nat>Scottish<o>inventor<n>John Wilkinson<b>1728<d>1808 Jul 14<info>John Wilkinson was an ironmaster who invented the modern-type cupola, a blast furnace, used for remelting pig iron, that made possible the establishment of foundries far from the production site. His invention of a machine for boring the barrels of cannons with great accuracy was instrumental in the development of James Watt's steam engines. One of Watt's earliest successful engines was designed to blast air into Wilkinson's furnaces. Wilkinson's introduction of steam power revolutionised the iron industry.<ref>Grolier
#p <nat>English<o>inventor<n>Josiah Wedgewood<b>1730 Jul 12<d>1795 Jan 3<c>Staffordshire<info>Josiah Wedgwood was the most important figure in British ceramic history. In 1754 he became the partner of Thomas Whieldon, a leading Staffordshire potter. He set up his own works in Burslem in 1759. At first he worked to improve the cream-colored earthenware body (called creamware) that, in varying quality, had been in use by Staffordshire potters for about 10 to 15 years. After 1765, Wedgwood was permitted to name his creamware "Queen's ware," after furnishing tableware to Queen Charlotte, the consort of George III. On the strength of his successes, in 1766 Wedgwood built a new factory specifically to make ornamental wares in the neoclassic revival style. The aesthetic value of Wedgwood's pottery as part of the classical revival somewhat overshadows his important contributions to engineering and science. He was, for example, the inventor of the pyrometer, which measures high temperatures, and was the first industrialist to install, in 1782, a steam engine in his factory. In 1783 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. His eldest daughter married the son of Erasmus Darwin and became the mother of Charles Darwin.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1733<n>achromatic lens<c>Essex<info>The achromatic lens, which uses compound layers of different materials to cancel or minimise dispersive effects, was invented by Chester Moor Hall.
#e <t>inv<t>phys<d>1746<n>Leyden Jar<c>Leiden<info>The earliest form of capacitor was the Leyden jar. It is named for the University of Leyden (Leiden). The earliest Leyden jar was a glass vial, partially filled with water and stoppered with a cork that was pierced with a wire or nail that dipped into the water. Later ones were essentially a glass jar with inside and outside layers of metal foil. Modern capacitors are less cumbersome, but work by the same principle.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1774<n>cannon-boring machine<au>John Wilkinson<info>John Wilkinson invented a machine for boring the barrels of cannons with great accuracy. It was instrumental in the development of James Watt's newly invented steam engines, whose cylinders required a degree of precision that could be achieved only with Wilkinson's device. In spite of bad Anglo-French relations at the time, he smuggled the invention across the English Channel. The French used it to make cannon which they shipped to the English colonies in America.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1823<n>waterproof fabric<c>Scotland<info>Charles Macintosh devised a practical method of waterproofing fabric with rubber.
#e <t>inv<d>1825<n>limelight<c>Great Britain<info>Thomas Drummond invented a lamp in which a burning jet of hydrogen and oxygen is directed toward a small ball of lime. The flame becomes incandescent. This innovation, which was developed for lighthouses but also found use on the stage, became known as limelight.
#e <t>inv<d>1828<n>Nicol prism<c>Edinburgh<info>William Nicol used two pieces of Iceland spar crystal to separate a beam of light into diverging beams of different polarity.
#e <t>invention<t>food<d>1828<n>chocolate powder<c>Netherlands<info>The Dutch made chocolate powder by squeezing most of the fat from finely ground cacao beans. The cocoa butter from pressing was soon being added to a powder-sugar mixture, and a new product, eating chocolate, was born.
#e <t>inv<d>1845<n>pneumatic tire<c>Scotland<info>The pneumatic tire was invented by Robert Thomson for horse-drawn carriages.
#e <t>inv<d>1848<c>France<n>aneroid barometer
#e <t>inv<d>1849<n>electrolysis of water<c>Belgium<info>The production of hydrogen and oxygen gasses by electrolysis of water was discovered by Floris Nollet.
#e <t>inv<d>1871<n>arc light<c>Belgium<info>The carbon arc light, which produces light with an electric arc between two carbon electrodes, was invented by Zénobe Gramme.
#e <t>invention<t>food<d>1876<n>milk chocolate<c>Switzerland<info>A Swiss firm added condensed milk to chocolate, producing the world's first milk chocolate.
#e <t>invention<d>1884<n>fountain pen<c>U.S.<info>The fountain pen, incorporating its own ink reservoir, was invented by Lewis E. Waterman. The basic elements of modern fountain pens still resemble those Waterman assembled: a nib or writing point; an ink reservoir and a device for filling it; and an external housing, or shell. Nibs may be made of stainless steel, gold, nickel, or ferrous alloys. Usually a pellet of a wear-resistant metal such as a ruthenium alloy is welded to the tip to increase the life of the point.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>invention<d>1888<n>ball-point pen<c>U.S.<info>The first patent for a ball-point writing tip was issued in 1888 to an American, John H. Loud. It was designed for writing on rough surfaces. His concept, coupled with advances in ball grinding and measuring technology, allowed Lazlo Biro, a Hungarian, to make a ball-point pen that wrote easily on paper. The Biro appeared in England in 1944; American ball-points gained rapid popularity in the early 1950s.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1890<n>Hollerith machine<c>U.S.<info>Herman Hollerith develops an electrically driven census machine that reads punch cards. Six years later, he founded the company that eventually became IBM.
#e <t>invention<d>1893<n>zipper<c>U.S.<info>The first zipper, called the Hookless Fastener, was invented by Whitcomb L. Judson. It consisted of two thin metal chains that could be locked together with a metal slider. It was used on boots and shoes. In 1910 he developed the C-Curity Fastener, for trousers and skirts. B. F. Goodrich bought Judson's company in 1923 and used the zipper for its rubber galoshes.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1898<n>dirigible torpedo<au>Tesla<info>Tesla designed a remote-control torpedo. Previous steerable torpedoes had used cables. Tesla said, "War will cease to be possible when all the world knows that tomorrow the most feeble of the nations can supply itself immediately with a weapon which will render its coast secure and its ports impregnable to the assaults of the united armadas of the world."<ref>Sci Am 1998 Nov pg. 14
#e <t>inv<d>1898<n>magnetic recording<c>Denmark<info>Valdemar Poulsen invented a device that recorded a human voice magnetically on steel wires or ribbons. The invention was intended to be used as a telephone answering machine
#e <t>electronics<d>1899 Mar<n>cross-Channel radio<c>English Channel<au>Marconi<info>The first wireless telegraph message across the English Channel was sent by Marconi in March 1899.
// 20th century
#e <t>electronics<d>1901 Dec 12<n>transatlantic radio<c>Cornwall<mov>1901 Dec 12<c>Saint John's<au>Marconi<info>Marconi made the first transatlantic radio communication on December 12, 1901, from Cornwall, England, to Saint John's, Newfoundland, where Marconi had set up receiving equipment.
#e <t>electronics<d>1904<e>1905<n>vacuum tube<c>London<info>The first diode was developed by Sir J. Ambrose Fleming in 1905, but the basic principle of a current passing in only one direction through such a device was first observed by Thomas Edison in 1883.
#e <t>design<d>1908<n>Model T introduced<au>Henry Ford<info>By 1912 there were 7,000 Ford dealers across the U.S. The Model T line closed in 1927, by which time 15 million had been made. The Model A was introduced in 1927.
#e <t>inv<t>phys<d>1908<n>Geiger counter<c>Germany<info>Also known as a Geiger-Muller counter, the device takes its name from the German physicists Hans Geiger and Wilhelm Muller. It is an instrument used to detect and measure the intensity of radiation, such as beta particles and cosmic rays, by making an audible tick when detecting a particle.
#e <t>electronics<d>1918<n>superheterodyne circuit<c>New York<info>developed by Edwin Armstrong.
#e <t>inv<d>1927<n>scotch tape
#e <t>electronics<d>1927 Sep 7<n>electronic image transmission<c>San Francisco<info>Philo Farnsworth conceived of the idea of electronic picture transmission in 1921, at age 15, and made the first working experimental model in 1927.
#e <t>inv<d>1929<n>van de Graaff generator<c>U.S.
#e <t>electronics<d>1933<n>FM broadcasting<c>New York<info>Frequency modulation was developed by Edwin Armstrong between 1925 and 1933.
#e <t>inv<t>phys<n>cyclotron<d>1934<info>The cyclotron was invented by Ernest O. Lawrence and M. S. Livingston. Lawrence conceived of it in 1929.
#e <t>invention<d>1938<n>xerography<c><info>Xerography (meaning "dry printing") was invented by Chester F. Carlson. The rights were later obtained by the Xerox Corporation, which took its name from the process.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>electronics<d>1939<n>pulse-code modulation<info>Pulse-code modulation converts analog information into a digital signal.
#e <t>electronics<d>1940<n>cavity magnetron<c>Great Britain<info>The cavity magnetron, used in radar, is a device for generating high-power microwave pulses, invented by Sir John T. Randal and Henry A. Boot<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1941<n>aerosol can<c>U.S.<info>Invented by Lyle Goodhue and William Sullivan.
#e <t>inv<d>1942<n>bubble wrap
#e <t>discovery<d>1945<n>microwave cooking<c>U.S.<info>Microwave cooking was discovered by Raytheon technician Percy Spencer when a microwave signal melted a candy bar in his pocket.
#e <t>electronics<n>transistor<d>1947 Dec<c>U.S.<info>The transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Schockley.
#e <t>inv<d>1947<n>radiocarbon dating<c>U.S.<info>Radiocarbon dating was invented by U.S. chemist Willard Libby.
#e <t>invention<d>1948<n>velcro<c>Switzerland<info>Velcro, a woven, plastic hooks-and-loops fastener, was invented by a Swiss engineer, who was inspired during a microscopic examination of the seed-burrs left on his socks by field plants.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1952<n>Mylar recording tape
#e <t>test explosion<d>1952 Nov<n>thermonuclear bomb<c>U.S.<info>The U.S. detonates a thermonuclear device.
#e <t>test explosion<d>1953 Aug 12<n>Soviet hydrogen bomb<c>Russia
#e <t>electronics<d>1953<n>NTSC<c>U.S.<info>After World War II, television developed rapidly throughout the world, most of Europe choosing a 625-line system that was incompatible with the U.S. 525-line standard. The U.S. standard, however, is used in most of the Western Hemisphere and the Far East. Over the objections of much of the television industry, the FCC in 1950 approved a color television system developed by CBS that was incompatible with the millions of black-and-white sets then in use. This 441-line system never came into widespread use, and a second NTS Committee was convened to develop a compatible color system. The 525-line NTSC color system, compatible with its black-and-white system, gained FCC approval in 1953, but it was ten years before the public responded and bought color sets in any significant numbers. In Europe, two different 625-line color systems were introduced.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>inv<d>1956<n>hydrogen bomb<c>Bikini Atoll<info>The U.S. explodes a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.
#e <t>electronics<n>integrated cicuit<d>1959<c>U.S.<info>by Noyce & Moore
#e <t>electronics<d>1960<n>touch tone dialing<c>U.S.<info>AT&T introduces touch tone dialing.
#e <t>design<d>1963<n>compact audiocassette<c>Netherlands<info>The compact audiocassette was introduced by Philips.
#e <t>invention<d>1964<n>marker pen<c>Japan<info>The soft-tip pen is a Japanese product introduced in 1964. It has led to a proliferation of pens, or markers, that use new tip materials and a wide range of brilliantly colored inks.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>use<d>1978<n>laser videodiscs<c>Netherlands<info>The Philips Company developed LaserVision, an optical disc in which video and audio signals are encoded in the form of microscopic pits beneath the surface of a reflective disc measuring approximately 30.5 cm in diameter. Laser videodiscs first appeared on the market in 1978.
#e <t>electronics<d>1979<n>cellular phones<c>Sweden<info>Ericsson introduces its first cellular phone.
