English inventions and discoveries

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:24 PM

Agriculture

1627: Publication of first experiments in Water desalination and filtration by Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626).
1701: Seed drill improved by Jethro Tull (1674–1741).
18th century: of the horse-drawn hoe and scarifier by Jethro Tull^[2]^[3]^[4]
1780s: Selective breeding and artificial selection pioneered by Robert Bakewell (1725–1795).
1842: Superphosphate or chemical fertilizer developed by John Bennet Lawes (1814–1900).
1850s: Steam-driven ploughing engine invented by John Fowler (1826–1864).
1901: First commercially successful light farm-tractor invented by Dan Albone (1860–1906).
1930s onwards: Developments in dairy farming systems pioneered by Rex Paterson (1902–1978).

Jethro Tull, improved the seed drill in 1701

Ceramics

1748: Fine porcelain developed by Thomas Frye (c. 1710-1762), of Bow porcelain factory, London. Cf. Frye's rivals at Chelsea porcelain factory.
1770s: Jasperware developed by Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795).
1789-1793: Bone china created by Josiah Spode (1733-1797).
1813: Ironstone china invented by Charles James Mason (1791-1856).

Clock making

Anglo-Saxon times: a unique type of candle clock invented by King Alfred the Great of Wessex. It utilized six candles which were made from 72 pennyweights of wax and were 12 inches tall and of equal thickness. Each candle had one inch markings which represented a block of time and burned away every four hours. The candles were placed in wooden cases with horn panels.

c. 1657: Anchor escapement probably invented by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).
c. 1657: Balance spring added to balance wheel by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).
c. 1722: Grasshopper escapement invented by John Harrison (1693–1776); Harrison created the H1, H2, H3 & H4 watches (to solve the longitude measurement problem).
c. 1726: Gridiron pendulum invented by John Harrison (1693–1776).
c. 1755: Lever escapement, the greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watches, invented by Thomas Mudge (1715–1794).
1761: First true Marine chronometer perfected by John Harrison (1693–1776).
1923: Self-winding watch invented by John Harwood (1893–1964).
1955: First accurate atomic clock invented by Louis Essen (1908–1997).
1976: Coaxial escapement mechanism invented by George Daniels (1926–2011).

Anchor escapement, c. 1657

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:27 PM

Clothing manufacturing

1589: The stocking frame, a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry, invented by William Lee (1563–1614).
1733: The flying shuttle, a key development in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution, invented by John Kay of Walmersley (1704-c. 1779).

1759: The Derby Rib machine (for stocking manufacture) invented by Jedediah Strutt (1726–1797).
1764: The spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves (c. 1720-1778).
1767: Spinning frame invented by John Kay of Warrington.
1769: The water frame, a water-powered spinning frame, developed by Richard Arkwright (1732–1792).
1775–1779: Spinning mule invented by Samuel Crompton (1753–1827).
1784: Power loom invented by Edmund Cartwright (1743–1823).
1790: Sewing machine invented by Thomas Saint.
1808: The bobbinet, a development on the warp-loom, invented by John Heathcoat (1783–1861).
1856: Mauveine, the first synthetic organic dye, discovered by William Henry Perkin (1838–1907).
1941: Polyester invented by John Rex Whinfield (1901–1966).

The spinning jenny, invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves

Communications

Pre-1565: The pencil invented in Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumbria, using Grey Knotts graphite.
1588: Modern shorthand invented by Timothy Bright (1551?-1615).
1661: The postmark (called the "Bishop Mark") introduced by English Postmaster General Henry Bishop (1611-1691/2).
1667: Tin can telephone, a device that conveyed sounds over an extended wire by mechanical vibrations, invented by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).
1714: Patent for an apparatus regarded as the first typewriter granted to Henry Mill (c. 1683-1771).
18th century: The Valentine's card first popularised.
1822: The mechanical pencil patented by Sampson Mordan (1790–1843) and John Isaac Hawkins (1772–1855).
1831: Electromagnetic induction & Faraday's law of induction. Began as a series of experiments by Michael Faraday (1791–1867); later became some of the first experiments in the discovery of radio waves and the development of radio.
1837: The first commercially successful electric telegraph developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875) and Sir William Fothergill Cooke (1806–1879).
1837: Pitman Shorthand invented by Isaac Pitman (1813–1897).

1840: Uniform Penny Post and postage stamp invented by Sir Rowland Hill (1795–1879).
1843: The Christmas card introduced commercially by Sir Henry Cole (1808–1882).
1873: Discovery of the photoconductivity of the element selenium by Willoughby Smith (1828–1891). Smith's work led to the invention of photoelectric cells (solar panels), including those used in the earliest television systems.
1879: The first radio transmission, using a spark-gap transmitter (achieving a range of approximately 500 metres), made by David E. Hughes (1831–1900).
1897: The world's first radio station was located at the Needles Battery on the western tip of the Isle of Wight; it was set up by Marconi.
1899: The world's first colour motion picture film produced by Edward Raymond Turner (1873–1903).
1902: Proposition by Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) of the existence of the Kennelly–Heaviside layer, a layer of ionised gas that reflects radio waves around the Earth's curvature.
1912: Development of radio communication pioneered by William Eccles (1875–1966).
1914: The world's first automatic totalisator invented by English-born George Julius (1873–1946).
2 December 1922: Mechanical scanning device (a precursor to modern television) demonstrated in Sorbonne, France by Englishman Edwin Belin.
1930: The Plessey company in England began manufacturing the Baird Televisor receiver: the first television receiver sold to the public.
1931: Stereophonic sound or, more commonly, stereo invented at EMI in Hayes, Middlesex by Alan Blumlein (1903–1942).
1933: The 405-line television system (the first fully electronic television system used in regular broadcasting) developed at EMI in Hayes, Middlesex by Alan Blumlein (1903–1942), under the supervision of Sir Isaac Shoenberg.
1936: The world's first regular public broadcasts of high-definition television began from Alexandra Palace, North London by the BBC Television Service.
1930s: Radar pioneered at Bawdsey Manor by Scotsman Robert Watson-Watt (1892–1973) and Englishman Henry Tizard (1885–1939).
1945: The concept of geostationary satellites for the use of telecommunications relays popularised by Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008).
1964 onwards: Use of fibre optics in telecommunications pioneered by Englishman George Hockham (1938–2013) and Chinese-born Charles K. Kao.
Late 1960s: Development of the long-lasting materials that made liquid crystal displays possible. Team headed by Sir Brynmor Jones; developed by Scotsman George Gray and Englishman Ken Harrison in conjunction with the Royal Radar Establishment and the University of Hull, who ultimately discovered the crystals used in LCDs.
1970: The MTV-1, the first near pocket-sized handheld television, developed by Sir Clive Sinclair (born 1940).
1973: First transmissions of the Teletext information service made by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
1992: Clockwork radio invented by Trevor Baylis (born 1937).
3 December 1992: The world's first text/SMS message ("Merry Christmas") sent over the Vodafone GSM network by Neil Papworth (born 1969).
2016: Holographic TV BBC.

Postage stamp, invented by Sir Rowland Hill, 1840

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:29 PM

Computing

1822: The Difference Engine, an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions, proposed by Charles Babbage (1791–1871).
1837: The Analytical Engine, a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, designed by Charles Babbage (1791–1871).
1842: The person regarded as the first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), only legitimate child of the poet Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Milbanke, Baroness Wentworth.
1842: First programming language, the Analytical Engine order code, produced by Charles Babbage (1791–1871) and Ada Lovelace (1815–1852).
1854: Boolean algebra, the basis for digital logic, conceived by George Boole (1815–1864).
1912: Argo system, the world's first electrically powered mechanical analogue computer, invented by Arthur Pollen (1866–1937).
1918: The flip-flop circuit, which became the basis of electronic memory (Random-access memory) in computers, invented by William Eccles (1875–1966) and F. W. Jordan (1882-?).
1936–1937: The Universal Turing machine invented by Alan Turing (1912–1954). The UTM is considered to be the origin of the stored programme computer used in 1946 for the "Electronic Computing Instrument" that now bears John von Neumann's name: the Von Neumann architecture.
1939: The Bombe, a device used by the British to decipher German secret messages during World War II, invented by Alan Turing (1912–1954).
1943–1944: The Colossus computer - the world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer - invented by Tommy Flowers (1905–1988).
1946–1950: ACE and Pilot ACE invented by Alan Turing (1912–1954).^[43]
1946–1947: The Williams tube, a cathode ray tube used to store electronically (500 to 1,000 bits of) binary data, developed by Frederic Calland Williams (1911–1977) and Tom Kilburn (1921–2001).
1948: The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine - the world's first modern, stored-programme computer - built by Frederic Calland Williams (1911–1977) and Tom Kilburn (1921–2001) at the Victoria University of Manchester.
1949: The Manchester Mark 1 computer developed by Frederic Calland Williams (1911–1977) and Tom Kilburn (1921–2001); historically significant because of its pioneering inclusion of index registers.
1949: EDSAC - the first complete, fully functional computer inspired by the von Neumann architecture, the basis of every modern computer – constructed by Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010).
Late 1940s/early 1950s: The integrated circuit, commonly called the microchip, conceptualised and built by Geoffrey Dummer (1909–2002).
February 1951: The Ferranti Mark 1 (a.k.a. the Manchester Electronic Computer), the world's first successful commercially available general-purpose electronic computer, invented by Frederic Calland Williams (1911–1977) and Tom Kilburn (1921–2001).
1951: The first known recordings of computer generated music played on the Ferranti Mark 1 computer using a programme designed by Christopher Strachey (1916–1975).
1951: LEO made history by running the first business application (payroll system) on an electronic computer for J. Lyons and Co. Under the advice of Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010), LEO was designed by John Pinkerton (1919–1997) and David Caminer (1915–2008).
1951: Concept of microprogramming developed by Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010) from the realisation that the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of a computer could be controlled by a miniature, highly specialised computer programme in high-speed ROM.
1952: Autocode developed by Alick Glennie (1925–2003) for the Manchester Mark 1 computer; Autocode is regarded as the first computer compiler.
1952: The first graphical computer game, OXO or Noughts and Crosses, programmed on the EDSAC at Cambridge University as part of a Ph.D. thesis by A.S. Douglas (1921–2010).
1952: First trackball built by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon Taylor (1908–1996); invented 1947 by Ralph Benjamin.
1956 onwards: Metrovick 950, the first commercial transistor computer, built by the Metropolitan-Vickers Company of Manchester.
1958: EDSAC 2, the first computer to have a microprogrammed (Microcode) control unit and a bit slice hardware architecture, developed by a team headed by Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010).
1961: The Sumlock ANITA calculator, the world's first all-electronic desktop calculator, designed and built by the Bell Punch Company of Uxbridge.
1962: The Atlas Computer - arguably the world's first supercomputer, and fastest computer in the world until the American CDC 6600 - developed by a team headed by Tom Kilburn (1921–2001). Introduced modern architectural concepts: spooling, interrupts, pipelining, interleaved memory, virtual memory, and paging.
Late 1960s: Denotational semantics originated in the work of Christopher Strachey (1916–1975), a pioneer in programming language design.
1970: Packet switching co-invented by Welsh engineer Donald Davies (1924–2000) and Polish-born Paul Baran; it was Davies who coined the term packet switching at the National Physical Laboratory in London.
1972: The Sinclair Executive, the world's first small electronic pocket calculator, produced by Sir Clive Sinclair (born 1940).
1979: The first laptop computer, the GRiD Compass, designed by Bill Moggridge (1943–2012).
1979: Digital audio player (MP3 Player) invented by Kane Kramer (born 1956). His first investor was Sir Paul McCartney.
1980–1982: Home computers the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum produced by Sir Clive Sinclair (born 1940).
1981: The Osborne 1 - the first commercially successful portable computer, precursor to the laptop computer – developed by English-American Adam Osborne (1939–2003).
1984: The world's first pocket computer, the (Psion Organiser), launched by London-based Psion PLC.
1984: Elite, the world's first computer game with 3D graphics, developed by David Braben (born 1964) and Ian Bell (born 1962)

1985: ARM architecture introduced by Cambridge computer manufacturer Acorn Computers; the ARM CPU design is the microprocessor architecture of 98% of mobile phones and every smartphone.
1989: World Wide Web invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (born 1955).
1989: HTTP application protocol and HTML markup language developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (born 1955).
1989: Launch of the first PC-compatible palmtop computer, the (Atari Portfolio), designed by Ian Cullimore.
1989: First touchpad pointing device developed for London-based Psion PLC's Psion MC 200/400/600/WORD Series.
1990: The world's first web browser invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (born 1955). Initially called WorldWideWeb, it ran on the NeXTSTEP platform, and was renamed Nexus in order to avoid confusion with the World Wide Web.
1991 onwards: The Linux kernel developed by English-born Andrew Morton (born 1959) and Alan Cox (born 1968).
2002: Wolfram's 2-state 3-symbol Turing machine proposed by London-born Stephen Wolfram (born 1959).
2012: Launch of the Raspberry Pi, a modern single-board computer for education, designed and built by Cambridgeshire-based charity Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, invented the World Wide Web in 1989

"Father of the computer", Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:31 PM

Criminology

1836: Marsh test (used for detecting arsenic poisoning) invented by James Marsh (1794–1846).
1888–1895: Fingerprint classification method developed by Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911); a breakthrough in forensic science.
1910: First use of wireless telegraphy in the arrest of a criminal, Dr Crippen.
1984: DNA fingerprints are discovered by Alec Jeffreys (born 1950).
1987: Process of DNA profiling developed by Alec Jeffreys (born 1950).
1991: Iris recognition algorithm invented by Swede John Daugman working at the University of Cambridge.
1995: World's first national flop DNA database developed: National DNA Database.

Sir Alec Jeffreys: criminology development - DNA profiling, 1987 (below, left).

Cryptography

1605: Bacon's cipher devised by Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626).
1854: The Playfair cipher, the first literal digraph substitution cipher, invented by Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875).
1941: Codebreaker Bill Tutte (1917–2002) developed the Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher, which Hitler used to communicate with his generals in World War II.
1973: Clifford Cocks (born 1950) first developed what came to be known as the RSA cipher at GCHQ, approximately three years before it was rediscovered by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman at MIT.

Sir Francis Galton, developed fingerprint classification method, 1888

Engineering

1600: The first electrical measuring instrument, the electroscope, invented by William Gilbert (1544–1603).
1676–1678: First working universal joint devised by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).
1698: First working steam pump invented by Thomas Savery (c. 1650–1715).
1709: First coke-consuming blast furnace developed by Abraham Darby I (1678–1717).

1712: Atmospheric steam engine invented by Thomas Newcomen (1664–1729).
1739: Screw-cutting lathe invented by Henry Hindley (1701–1771).
1770s: Continuous track first conceived by Anglo-Irish Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817).
1780: Modified version of the Newcomen engine (the Pickard engine) developed by James Pickard (dates unknown).
1781: The Iron Bridge, the first metal bridge, cast and built by Abraham Darby III (1750–1789).
1791: The first true gas turbine invented by John Barber (1734–1801).
1796–97: The first iron-framed building (and therefore forerunner of the skyscraper) - Ditherington Flax Mill in Shrewsbury, Shropshire - built by Charles Bage (1751–1822).
1800: First industrially practical screw-cutting lathe developed by Henry Maudslay (1771–1831).
1806: The Fourdrinier machine, a papermaking machine, invented by Henry Fourdrinier (1766–1854).
1823: First internal combustion engine to be applied industrially patented by Samuel Brown (?-1849).
1826: Continuous track (under the name "universal railway") patented by Sir George Cayley (1773–1857).
1830: First (toroidal, closed-core) electric transformer invented by Michael Faraday (1791–1867).
1831: First Electrical generator (or dynamo), the Faraday disk, invented by Michael Faraday.
1834–1878: Water and sewerage systems for over thirty cities across Europe designed by William Lindley (1808–1900).
1840s: The linear motor, a multi-phase alternating current (AC) electric motor, proposed by Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875); 1940s: developed by Eric Laithwaite (1921–1997).

1841: Widely accepted standard for screw threads devised by Joseph Whitworth (1803–1887).
1842: The adjustable spanner invented by Edwin Beard Budding (1796–1846).
1845: Hydraulic crane developed by William Armstrong (1810–1900); in 1863, Armstrong also built the first house in the world powered by hydroelectricity, at Cragside, Northumberland.
1846: The first fireproof warehousing complex - Albert Dock, Liverpool - designed by Jesse Hartley (1780–1860).
1848: The Francis turbine developed by James B. Francis (1815–1892), born near Witney, Oxfordshire.
1868: First commercial steel alloy produced by Robert Forester Mushet (1811–1891).
1869–1875: Crookes tube, the first cathode ray tube, invented by William Crookes (1832–1919).
1871: First enclosed wind tunnel invented, designed and operated by Francis Herbert Wenham (1824–1908).
1872: The Carey Foster bridge, a type of bridge circuit, invented by Carey Foster (1835–1919).
1880–1883: The Wimshurst machine, an Electrostatic generator for producing high voltages, developed by James Wimshurst (1832–1903).
1884: Steam turbine invented by Charles Algernon Parsons (1854–1913).
1885: Compression ignition engine (a.k.a. the diesel engine) invented by Herbert Akroyd Stuart (1864–1927).
1886: Prototype hot bulb engine or heavy oil engine built by Herbert Akroyd Stuart (1864–1927).
1889: Two-stroke engine invented by Joseph Day (1855–1946).
1890: Opening of the Forth Bridge - monumental cantilever railway bridge, and icon of Scotland - designed and engineered by English civil engineers Benjamin Baker (1840–1907) and John Fowler (1817–1898).
1902: Disc brakes patented by Frederick W. Lanchester (1868–1946).
1904: Vacuum tube (or valve) invented by John Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945).
1907: First reported observation of electroluminescence from a diode by H. J. Round (1881–1966); Round's discovery led to the creation of the light-emitting diode.
1917 onwards: Radio guidance systems pioneered by Archibald Low (1888–1956).
1935: Arnold Frederic Wilkins (1907–1985) contributed to the development of radar.
1940: Cavity magnetron improved by John Randall (1905–1984) and Harry Boot (1917–1983); consequently a critical component in microwave ovens and some radar.
Late-1940s/early 1950s: The microchip invented by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer (1909–2002).
1963: High strength carbon fibre invented at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1963. January 1969: Carr Reinforcements (Stockport, England) wove the first carbon fibre fabric in the world.
2007: The RepRap Project, the first self-replicating 3D Printer, developed at the University of Bath.

The Newcomen steam engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712

The Iron Bridge, built by Abraham Darby III, 1781

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:32 PM

Food and drink

Apple Pie (1381)
Bangers and mash (1919)
Black pudding (antiquity)
Balti curry (1971)
Brown Sauce/HP Sauce (1895)
Brewed Ginger beer (Mid 18th century) in Yorkshire
Bubble and squeak (1806)
Cheddar cheese invented in the late twelfth century in Cheddar village, Somerset, noted in the King of England's account, the so-called 'great roll of the pipe.'
Cheddar cheese in modern form (1850s), by Joseph Harding (1805–1876)
Chocolate bar (1847)
Cornish pasty (c. 13th century)
Cottage pie (1791)
Cumberland sausage (c. 16th century)
Eccles cake (1793)
English mustard (c. 1390), in The Forme of Cury
Fish and chips (1860)
Full English breakfast (before 1861)
Gravy (c. 1390), in The Forme of Cury
Ginger beer (Mid 18th century).
Golden syrup (1883) by chemist Charles Eastwick.
Haggis (c. 1430): normally assumed of Scottish origin, but the first known written recipe for 'hagese', made with offal and herbs, is in the verse cookbook Liber Cure Cocorum in Lancashire, North-West England
Ice cream in modern form (1718), England
Jellied eels (18th century)
Kendal mint cake (before 1880)
Licorice sweet (1760): George Dunhill added sugar to licorice plant.
Lancashire hotpot (19th century)
Lincolnshire sausage (19th century)
Marmite (1902).
Mince pies ( Tudor times)
Pancake (1430): modern recipe in a medieval English culinary manuscript
Parkin (before 1728)
Pasty (13th century)
Piccalilli (18th century)
Plum cake, a type of fruitcake (c. 1700)
Pork pie (18th century)
Sausage roll (19th century)
Sandwich (1770): invented by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792)
Scotch egg (1738): invented by London department store Fortnum & Mason
Scouse (1706)
Shepherd's pie (before 1791)
Carbonated water (1767): invented by Joseph Priestley (1733–1804); major and defining component of soft drinks
Sparkling wine (1662): invented by Christopher Merrett (1614/5-1695)
Spotted Dick (1849)
Steak and kidney pie
Steak and kidney pudding (before 1861)
Sunday roast (18th century?)
Toad in the hole (1861)
Worcestershire sauce (1837)
Yorkshire Pudding (1737)

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792), inventor of the sandwich

Household appliances

13th century: Magnifying glass defined by Roger Bacon (c.?1214-c.?1292).
Before 1596: Modern flushing toilet invented by John Harington (1560–1612). The term 'John', used particularly in the US, is generally accepted as a direct reference to its inventor.
1733: Perambulator developed by William Kent (c. 1685-1748).
1780: First mass-produced toothbrush produced by William Addis (1734–1808).
1795: First corkscrew patent granted to the Reverend Samuel Henshall (1764?–1807).
1810: Tin can for food preservation patented by merchant Peter Durand (dates not known).
1818: Modern fire extinguisher invented by George William Manby (1765–1854).
1828: Thermosiphon, which forms the basis of most modern central heating systems, invented by Thomas Fowler (1777–1843).
1830: Lawn mower invented by Edwin Beard Budding (1796–1846).
1836: The Daniell cell - a type of electrochemical cell; an element of an electric battery – invented by John Frederic Daniell (1790–1845).
1840: Postage stamp invented by Sir Rowland Hill (1795–1879).
1845: Rubber band patented by inventor Stephen Perry (dates not known).
1878: Incandescent light bulb invented by Joseph Wilson Swan (1828–1914).
1884: Light switch invented by John Henry Holmes (dates not known) in Shieldfield.
1899: Little Nipper Mouse trap invented by James Henry Atkinson (1849–1942).
Late-19th century: Commercially produced electric toaster developed by R. E. B. Crompton (1845–1940).
Late-19th century: Modern pay toilet invented by John Nevil Maskelyne (1839–1917); Maskelyne invented a lock for London toilets, which required a penny to operate, hence the euphemism "spend a penny".
1901: First powered vacuum cleaner invented by Hubert Cecil Booth (1871–1955).^[75]^[76]^[77]
Before 1902: First practical Teasmade designed by clockmaker Albert E. Richardson (dates not known) of Ashton-under-Lyne.
Before 1920: Folding carton invented by Charles Henry Foyle (died 1948).
1924: First modern dishwasher invented by William Howard Livens (1889–1964)
1955: First fully automatic electric kettle produced by manufacturer Russell Hobbs of Failsworth, Greater Manchester.
1963: Lava lamp invented by accountant Edward Craven Walker.
1965: Collapsible baby buggy produced by Owen Finlay Maclaren (1907–1978).
1983: "Bagless" vacuum cleaner invented by James Dyson (born 1947).

John Harington, invented the modern flushing toilet, 1596

Industrial processes

1740: English crucible steel developed by Benjamin Huntsman (1704–1776).
1743: Sheffield plate, a layered combination of silver and copper, invented by Thomas Boulsover (1705–1788).
1746: The lead chamber process, for producing sulfuric acid in large quantities, invented by John Roebuck (1718–1794).
c. 1760-c. 1840: Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution - Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859); Abraham Darby I (1678–1717); Abraham Darby II (1711–1763); Abraham Darby III (1750–1789); Robert Forester Mushet (1811–1891).
1769: The water frame, a water-powered spinning frame, invented by Richard Arkwright (1732–1792).
c. 1770: Coade stone, a high quality stoneware, created by Eleanor Coade (1733–1821).
1784–1789: Power loom developed by Edmund Cartwright (1743–1823).
1795: Hydraulic press invented by Joseph Bramah (1748–1814).
1820: The Rubber Masticator, a machine for recycling rubber, invented by Thomas Hancock (1786–1865).
1824: Portland cement patented by Joseph Aspdin (1778–1855).
1840: Electroplating process patented by George Elkington (1801–1865).
1843: Vulcanisation of rubber, a process for making natural rubber more durable, patented by Thomas Hancock (1786–1865).
1850: The Parkes process, for removing silver from lead during the production of bullion, invented by Alexander Parkes (1813–1890).
1850–1855: Steel production Bessemer process developed by Henry Bessemer (1813–1898).
1862: First man-made plastic - Nitrocellulose, branded Parkesine - invented by Alexander Parkes (1813–1890).
1912: Stainless steel invented by Harry Brearley (1871–1948).
1933: First industrially practical polythene discovered by accident in 1933 by Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson in Northwich.
1952: The float glass process, for the manufacture of high-quality flat glass, invented by Alastair Pilkington (1920–1995).
1950s: The Wilson Yarn Clearer developed by inventor Peter Wilson (dates not known).

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:34 PM

Medicine

Anglo-Saxon times: The earliest pharmacopoeia in English (Cotton Vitellius, MS C. iii).
1628: First correct description of circulation of the blood in De Motu Cordis by William Harvey (1578–1657).
18th century: Invention of surgical forceps attributed to Stephen Hales (1677–1761).
c. 1711: First blood pressure measurement and first cardiac catheterisation by Stephen Hales (1677–1761).
1763: Aspirin's active ingredient discovered by Edward Stone (1702–1768).
1770s: Isolation of fibrin, a key protein in the blood coagulation process; investigation of the structure of the lymphatic system; and description of red blood cells by surgeon William Hewson (1739–1774), so-called "father of haematology".
1775: First demonstration that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen by Percivall Pott (1714–1788), also a founding father of orthopedy.
1794: Colour blindness first described in a paper titled "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours" by John Dalton (1766–1844).
1798: Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, invented by Edward Jenner (1749–1823); in so doing, Jenner is said to have "saved more lives [. . .] than were lost in all the wars of mankind since the beginning of recorded history."
1800: Anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide (entonox/"laughing gas") discovered by Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1817: First description of (what would come to be called) Parkinson's disease in "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" by James Parkinson (1755–1824).
1818 or 1829: First successful blood transfusion performed by James Blundell (1791–1878).
1819: First accurate description of hay fever by John Bostock (1773–1846).
1847: Ophthalmoscope conceived by Charles Babbage (1791–1871).
1850s: Location of the source of cholera by pioneer of anaesthesia and "father of epidemiology" John Snow (1813–1858).
1850s: General anaesthetic pioneered by Englishman John Snow (1813–1858) and Scotsman James Young Simpson.
1850s onwards: Treatment of epilepsy pioneered by Edward Henry Sieveking (1816–1904).
1858: First publication of Gray's Anatomy, widely regarded as the first complete human-anatomy textbook, by Henry Gray (1827–1861).

1860 onwards: Modern nursing pioneered by Florence Nightingale (1820–1910).
1867: Antisepsis in surgery invented by Joseph Lister (1827–1912).
1867: Clinical thermometer devised by Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836–1925).
1887: First practical ECG machine invented by Augustus Waller of St Mary's Hospital in London.
1898: The mosquito identified as the carrier of malaria by Sir Ronald Ross (1857–1932).
1901: Amino acid Tryptophan discovered by Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861–1947).
1902: First typhoid vaccine developed by Almroth Wright (1861–1947).
1912: Vitamins discovered by Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861–1947).
1915: Acetylcholine (ACh) identified by Sir Henry Hallett Dale (1875–1968) for its action on heart tissue.
1937 onwards: Protein crystallography developed by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910–1994); Hodgkin solved the structures of cholesterol (1937), penicillin (1946), and vitamin B12 (1956), for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964; in 1969, she succeeded in solving the structure of insulin, on which she worked for over thirty years.
1937: Discovery of the Citric acid cycle ("Krebs Cycle") by German-born (naturalised) British physician and biochemist Hans Adolf Krebs (1900–1981) at the University of Sheffield.
1940s: Groundbreaking research on the use of penicillin in the treatment of venereal disease carried out in London by Jack Suchet (1908–2001) with Scottish scientist Sir Alexander Fleming.
1941: Crucial first steps in the mass production of penicillin made by Norman Heatley (1911–2004).
1949: Diagnostic ultrasound first used to assess the thickness of bowel tissue by English-born physicist John J. Wild (1914–2009), so-called "father of medical ultrasound".
1949–1950: Artificial intraocular lens transplant surgery for cataract patients developed by Harold Ridley (1906–2001).
Late 1950s: Peak Flow Meter invented by Martin Wright (1912–2001), also the creator of the Syringe Driver.
1960 onwards: The hip replacement operation (in which a stainless steel stem and 22mm head fit into a polymer socket and both parts are fixed into position by PMMA cement) pioneered by John Charnley (1911–1982).
1960s: First use of sodium cromoglycate for asthma prophylaxis associated with Roger Altounyan (1922–1987).
1967 onwards: Computed Tomography and first commercial CT scanner invented by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield (1919–2004) in Hayes, Middlesex, at EMI Central Research Laboratories.
1969–1978: Development of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) by Patrick Christopher Steptoe (1913–1988) and Robert Geoffrey Edwards (1925–2013).
Late 1970s: Echo-planar imaging (EPI) technique, a contribution to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), developed by Sir Peter Mansfield (born 1933).
1980: Potential of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in treating a wide range of genetic diseases, among other breakthroughs, discovered by John Raymond Hobbs (1929–2008).
1981: Discovery of how to culture embryonic stem cells credited to England-born biologist Martin Evans (born 1941).
1993: Viagra (a.k.a. Sildenafil - compound UK-92,480) synthesised by a group of pharmaceutical chemists working at Pfizer's Sandwich, Kent research facility in England. The press identified Peter Dunn and Albert Wood as the inventors of the drug; only Andrew Bell, David Brown and Nicholas Terrett are listed on the original composition of matter patent.
2009: First baby genetically selected to be free of a breast cancer born at University College Hospital.

Edward Jenner, invented the smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, in 1798

Florence Nightingale, pioneered modern nursing, from 1860 onwards

Military

1718: The Puckle Gun or Defence Gun, a multi-shot gun mounted on a tripod, invented by James Puckle (1667–1724).
1784: Shrapnel shell, an anti-personnel artillery munition, developed by Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842).
1804: The Congreve rocket, a weapon, invented by Sir William Congreve (1772–1828).
1830s: The safety fuse invented by William Bickford (1774–1834).
1854: The Whitworth rifle, often called the "sharpshooter" because of its accuracy and considered one of the earliest examples of a sniper rifle, invented by Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803–1887).
1854–1857: The Armstrong Gun, a uniquely designed field and heavy gun, developed by Sir William Armstrong (1810–1900).
1866: First effective self-propelled naval torpedo invented by Robert Whitehead (1823–1905).
1875: The side by side boxlock action, commonly used in double barreled shotguns, invented by William Anson and John Deeley for the Westley Richards company of Birmingham.
1884: The Maxim gun, the first self-powered machine gun invented by Sir Hiram Maxim (1840–1916); American-born, Maxim moved from the United States to England in 1881, becoming a (naturalised) British subject. The Maxim gun was financed by Albert Vickers of Vickers Limited and produced in Hatton Garden, London. It has been called "the weapon most associated with British imperial conquest".^[109]
1891: Cordite, first of the "smokeless powders" which came into general use towards the end of the 19th century, invented by Englishman Frederick Abel (1827–1902) and Scot James Dewar.
1901: Bullpup firearm configuration first used in the Thorneycroft carbine rifle, developed by an English gunsmith as patent No. 14,622 of July 18, 1901.
1906: The Dreadnought battleship, the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century, credited to First Sea Lord Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher (1841–1920).

1914: First operational fighter aircraft, the Vickers F.B.5 (a.k.a. th "Gunbus"), developed from a design by Archibald Low (1888–1956).
1916: The tank developed and first used in combat by the British during World War I as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare. Key co-inventors include Major Walter Gordon Wilson (1874–1957) and Sir William Tritton (1875–1946).
1916: The first effective depth charge, an anti-submarine warfare weapon, developed from a design by Herbert Taylor at the RN Torpedo and Mine School, HMS Vernon.
1916: The Livens Projector, a weapon, created by William Howard Livens (1889–1964).
1917: Dazzle camouflage created by Norman Wilkinson (1878–1971).
1917: ASDIC active sonar, the first practical underwater active sound-detection apparatus, developed by Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle and English physicist Albert Beaumont Wood (1890–1964).
1940s: High-explosive squash head, a type of ammunition, invented by Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney (1888–1968).
1941: The Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife invented by William Ewart Fairbairn (1885–1960) and Eric A. Sykes (1883–1945).
1941–1942: The Bailey Bridge - a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge – invented by Donald Bailey (1901–1985). Field Marshal Montgomery emphasised the importance of the Bailey bridge in Britain winning the war.
1943: The bouncing bomb invented by Barnes Wallis (1887–1979).
1943: H2S radar (airborne radar to aid bomb targeting) invented by Alan Blumlein (1903–1942). Blumlein died in a plane crash during a secret trial of the H2S system.
1950: The steam catapult, a device used to launch aircraft from aircraft carriers, developed by Commander Colin C. Mitchell RNR.
1960s: Chobham armour, a type of vehicle armour, developed by a team headed by Gilbert Harvey of the FVRDE at the tank research centre on Chobham Common, Surrey.
1960: Harrier Jump Jet developed by Hawker Aircraft of Kingston upon Thames following an approach by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1957.
Late 1970s: Stun grenades developed by the British Army's SAS.

[/SIZE]

Sir Hiram Maxim, invented the machine gun in 1884

[SIZE=4]
HMS Dreadnought, 1906

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:36 PM

Mining

1712: The Newcomen Engine invented by Thomas Newcomen (1664–1729); from c. 1705 Newcomen was first to use a Beam engine to pump water from mines.
1815: The Davy lamp, a safety lamp, invented by Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1815: The Geordie lamp, a safety lamp, invented by George Stephenson (1781–1848).

Musical instruments
1695: Northumbrian smallpipes (a.k.a. Northumbrian pipes) associated with Northumberland and Tyne and Wear.
1711: The Tuning fork invented by John Shore (c. 1662-1752).
1798: The harp lute invented by Edward Light (c. 1747-c. 1832); Light patented the instrument in 1816.
Early 19th century: The Irish flute is not an instrument indigenous to Ireland; a key figure in its development was English inventor and flautist Charles Nicholson (1795–1837).
1829: The concertina invented by Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875).
Early 20th century: The theatre organ developed by Robert Hope-Jones (1859–1914).
1968: The logical bassoon, an electronically controlled version of the bassoon, developed by Giles Brindley (born 1926).

Photography

Before 1800: Method of copying images chemically to permanent media devised by Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805).
1838: The Stereoscope, a device for displaying three-dimensional images, invented by Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875).
1840: Calotype or Talbotype invented by William Fox Talbot (1800–1877).
1850s: The Collodion process, an early photographic process, invented by Frederick Scott Archer (1813–1857).
1850s: The Ambrotype invented by Frederick Scott Archer (1813–1857) and Peter Wickens Fry (1795–1860).
1861: The Collodion-albumen process, an early dry plate process, invented by Joseph Sidebotham (father of Joseph Watson Sidebotham).
1871: The dry plate process, the first economically successful and durable photographic medium, invented by Richard Leach Maddox (1816–1902).
1878: The Horse in Motion or Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, a precursor to the development of motion pictures, created by Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904).
1879: The Zoopraxiscope, which may be considered the first movie projector, created by Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904).
1880s: Method of intensifying plates with mercuric iodide devised by B. J. Edwards (1838–1914); Edwards pioneered also the construction and design of instantaneous shutters.
1887: Celluloid motion pictures created by William Friese-Greene (1855–1921).
1906: Kinemacolor, the first successful colour motion picture process, invented by George Albert Smith (1864–1959).

Thomas Wedgwood, copied images chemically to permanent media by 1800

Publishing firsts

1475: First book printed in the English language, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, by William Caxton (c. 1422–c. 1491); eighteen copies survive.
1534: Cambridge University Press granted letters patent by Henry VIII; continuous operation since makes it the world's oldest publisher and printer.
1535: First complete printed translation of the Bible into English produced by Myles Coverdale (1488–1569).
1665: Philosophical Transactions, the first journal exclusively devoted to science, established by the Royal Society of London; it is also the world's longest-running scientific journal.
British Raj period: the first definite map of India drawn by English cartographers.
Mid-19th century: First noted journal club by English surgeon Sir James Paget (1814–1899); recalling in his memoirs time spent at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, Paget describes "a kind of club [. . .] a small room over a baker's shop near the Hospital-gate where we could sit and read the journals."
19th century: the first publication that sought to register all botanical names for seed plants at the rank of species and genera founded by Benjamin Daydon Jackson called the index kewensis

Myles Coverdale, produced first complete printed English Bible, 1535

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:39 PM

Physics

1600: Recognition that the earth was a giant magnet, by William Gilbert (1544–1603) in his six-book work De Magnete; De Magnete was known all over Europe, and was almost certainly an influence on Galileo.
1660: Hooke's Law (equation describing elasticity) proposed by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).
1666–1675: Theories on optics proposed by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726/7); Newton published Opticks in 1704.
1687: Law of universal gravitation formulated in the Principia by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726/7).
1687: Newton's laws of motion formulated in the Principia.
1800: Infrared radiation discovered by Sir William Herschel (1738–1822).
1802: Theory on physiological basis of colour vision proposed by Thomas Young (1773–1829).
1803–1807: Evidence for a wave theory of light discovered by Thomas Young (1773–1829).
1823: Electromagnet invented by William Sturgeon (1783–1850).^[125]
1831: Discovery that electric current could be generated by altering magnetic fields (the principle underlying modern power generation) by Michael Faraday (1791–1867).
1845: Proposition that light and electromagnetism are related by Michael Faraday (1791–1867).
1845–1847: Demonstration that electric circuits obey the law of the conservation of energy and that electricity is a form of energy (First Law of Thermodynamics) by James Joule (1818–1889); the unit of energy the Joule is named after him.
1871 and 1885: Discovery of the phenomenon Rayleigh scattering (which can be used to explain why the sky is blue), and prediction of the existence of surface waves by John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842–1919).
1897 and 1912: Discovery of the electron and isotopes, and invention of the mass spectrometer by J. J. Thomson (1856–1940).
1911: Discovery of the Rutherford model of the Atom by Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937).
1912: Bragg's law and the field of X-ray crystallography, an important tool for elucidating the crystal structure of substances, discovered by William Henry Bragg (1862–1942) and William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971).
1917: Discovery of the Proton by Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937).
1928: Existence of antimatter predicted by Paul Dirac (1902–1984); Dirac made major contributions to the development of quantum mechanics.
1932: Splitting the atom, a fully artificial nuclear reaction and nuclear transmutation, first achieved by English physicist John Cockcroft (1897–1967) and Ireland's Ernest Walton.
1932: Discovery of the Neutron by James Chadwick (1891–1974).
1935: Possibility of Radar first proven in the "Daventry experiment" by Englishman Arnold Frederic Wilkins (1907–1985) and Scot Robert Watson-Watt.
1947: Holography invented in Rugby, England by Hungarian-British Dennis Gabor (1900-1979; fled from Nazi Germany in 1933). The medium was improved by Nicholas J. Phillips (1933–2009), who made it possible to record multi-colour reflection holograms.
1947: Discovery of the pion (pi-meson) by Cecil Frank Powell (1903–1969).
1964: The Higgs boson, an elementary particle implied by the Higgs field, proposed by Peter Higgs (born 1929) and others to explain why fundamental particles (which are theoretically weightless) might have acquired mass after their formation in the Big Bang.
1974: Hawking radiation predicted by Stephen Hawking (born 1942).

Sir Isaac Newton, a giant of the scientific revolution

Michael Faraday, made key discoveries relating to electricity, 1820s-1840s

Sir James Chadwick, awarded 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron in 1932

Chemistry

Anglo-Saxon times: The smiths used a process similar to cementation^{[disambiguation needed]}, this was discovered after examining the Staffordshire hoard
1665: Correct theory of combustion first outlined in Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1635–1703); Hooke observed that something (known now as oxygen) is taken from the air and that in its absence combustion quickly ceases, however much heat is applied.
1766: Hydrogen discovered by Henry Cavendish (1731–1810); Cavendish described it as a colourless, odourless gas that burns and can form an explosive mixture with air.
1775: Oxygen discovered by Joseph Priestley (1733–1804); Priestley called it "dephlogisticated air".
1791: William Gregor (25 December 1761 – 11 June 1817) discovered the elemental metal titanium.
1801: Charles Hatchett FRS (2 January 1765 – 10 March 1847[1]) discovered the element niobium.
1803: William Hyde Wollaston PRS (6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) discovered the chemical element rhodium.
1803: William Hyde Wollaston PRS (6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) discovered the chemical element palladium.
1803: Smithson Tennant FRS (30 November 1761 – 22 February 1815) discovered the element iridium.
1803: Smithson Tennant FRS (30 November 1761 – 22 February 1815) discovered the element osmium.
1803: Modern atomic theory developed by John Dalton (1766–1844).^[52]^[125] See also Dalton's law and Law of multiple proportions; Dalton is considered the father of modern chemistry.
1807: Sodium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).

1807: Potassium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1808: Calcium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1808: Strontium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1808: Barium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1808: Magnesium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1808: Boron isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1810: Elemental nature of Chlorine discovered by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1813: Elemental nature of Iodine discovered by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).
1825: Benzene, the first known aromatic hydrocarbon, isolated and identified by Michael Faraday (1791–1867).
1861: Thallium discovered by William Crookes (1832–1919).
1865: Periodic Table devised by John Newlands (1837–1898); his Law of Octaves was a precursor to the Periodic Law.
1868: Helium discovered in the sun (via spectroscopy) by Norman Lockyer (1836–1920); not until ten years later was it found on earth.
1868: Synthesis of coumarin (one of the first synthetic perfumes), and cinnamic acid via the Perkin reaction by William Henry Perkin (1838–1907).
1893: The Weston cell developed by England-born chemist Edward Weston (1850–1936).
1894: Argon discovered by English physicist John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842–1919) and Scot William Ramsay.
1898: Morris Travers was an English chemist who with scot Sir William Ramsay discovered xenon, neon and krypton.
1901: Silicone discovered and named by Frederick Kipping (1863–1949); according to the nomenclature of modern chemistry, silicone is no longer the correct term, but it remains in common usage.
1913: Concept of atomic number introduced by Henry Moseley (1887–1915) in order to fix the inadequacies of Mendeleev's periodic table, which had been based on atomic weight. Isaac Asimov wrote, "In view of what he [Moseley] might still have accomplished … his death might well have been the most costly single death of the War to mankind generally."
1913: Existence of isotopes first proposed by Frederick Soddy (1877–1956).
1940s / 1950s: Partition chromatography developed by Richard Laurence Millington Synge (1914–1994) and Archer J.P. Martin (1910–2002).
1952: Structure of ferrocene discovered by Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921–1996) and others.
1959: First practical hydrogen–oxygen fuel cell developed by Francis Thomas Bacon (1904–1992).
1962: First noble gas compound, xenon hexafluoroplatinate, prepared by Neil Bartlett (1932–2008).
1985: Buckminsterfullerene discovered by Sir Harry Kroto (born 1939).

John Dalton, developed modern atomic theory, 1803

Humphry Davy: isolated various substances using electrolysis; identified them as elements; identified elemental nature of chlorine and iodine, 1807-1813

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:41 PM

Biology

1665: Cell biology originated by Robert Hooke (1635–1703), who discovered the first cells in the course of describing the microscopic compartments within cork.
Early 19th century: the first recognition of what fossils were by Mary Anning.
1839: The identification and discovery of 150 mosses, lichens, liverworts, flowering plants and algae on the Kerguelen Islands by botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. He later said of his gatherings "many of my best little lichens were gathered by hammering out the turfs or sitting on them till they thawed."
1855: The discovery of the first coal ball by Joseph Dalton Hooker who later on with partner William Binney made the first scientific description of coal balls.
1859: Theories of evolution by natural selection and sexual selection set out in On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1809–1882).
1883: The practice of Eugenics developed by Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), applying his half-cousin Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to humans.
1953: Double-helix structure of DNA determined by Englishman Francis Crick (1906–2004) and American James Watson. Crick was a pioneer in the field of molecular biology.
1958: the first cloning of an animal, a frog using intact nuclei from the somatic cells of a Xenopus tadpole by Sir John Gurdon.
1950 onward: the pioneering of the use of Xenopus eggs to translate microinjected messenger RNA molecules by Sir John Gurdon and fellow researchers, a technique which has been widely used to identify the proteins encoded and to study their function.
1960 onwards: Pioneering observation-based research into the behaviour of chimpanzees (our closest relatives in the animal kingdom) conducted by Jane Goodall (born 1934).
1977: DNA sequencing by chain termination developed by Frederick Sanger (1918–2013). Sanger won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry twice.
1977: Discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing by Richard J. Roberts (born 1943).
1996: Dolly the Sheep born as a result of Nuclear transfer, a form of cloning put into practice by Ian Wilmut (born 1944) and Keith Campbell (1954–2012).
2016: Scientists at the British bio-tech company Oxitec,in an attempt to stop the spread of dengue fever genetically engineer a 'sudden death' mosquito which after mating successfully with a wild female, any offspring produced will not survive to adulthood and the lethal gene is passed on from the female to any male they mate with and the cycle continues.3,019,000 mosquitos were released on the Grand Cayman Islands and after three months 80% of the population of mosquitos in the target area had vanished.

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution published in 1859

1630–1632: The slide rule invented by William Oughtred (1574–1660), developing on work by Edmund Gunter (1581–1626) and Edmund Wingate (1596–1656).
1631: The "x" symbol for multiplication and the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for the sine and cosine functions devised by William Oughtred (1574–1660) in Clavis Mathematicae (The Key to Mathematics).
1631: The symbols for "is less than" and "is greater than", along with other innovations, devised in the posthumously published algebra text Artis Analyticae Praxis by Thomas Harriot (c. 1560-1621).
1687: Calculus developed by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726/7), as set out in his Principia Mathematica.
1763 onwards: Key contributions made to the development of statistics by: Thomas Bayes (c. 1701-1761) (Bayes' theorem); Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) (statistical graphics); Francis Galton (1822–1911) (standard deviation, correlation, regression, questionnaires); Karl Pearson (1857–1936) (correlation coefficient, chi-square); William Gosset (1876–1937) (Student's t-distribution); Ronald Fisher (1890–1962) (Analysis of variance); Frank Yates (1902–1994).
1854: Boolean algebra, the basis for digital logic, proposed by George Boole (1815–1864).
1876: Connection between energy, matter and the curvature of space proposed in s:On the Space-Theory of Matter by William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879), forty years before Einstein's general theory of relativity.
c. 1880: The Venn diagram devised by John Venn (1834–1923).
1884: Reformulation of Maxwell's equations into the four we know now by Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925).
1901: Discipline of modern mathematical statistics developed by Karl Pearson (1857–1936).

Astronomy

1609: First drawing of the Moon through a telescope by Thomas Harriot (c. 1560 – 1621); Harriot achieved this on 26 July 1609: over four months before Galileo.
1610: Sunspots discovered by Thomas Harriot (c. 1560-1621).
1668: Newtonian telescope invented by Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727).
1705: Periodicity of Halley's Comet determined by Edmond Halley (1656–1742).
1712–1717: The Planetarium created by French-born Briton John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683–1784).
1758: Achromatic doublet lens patented by John Dollond (1706–1761).
1781: Discovery of the planet Uranus by Sir William Herschel (1738–1822); Herschel also discovered the moons Titania (1787), Oberon (1787), Enceladus (1789), and Mimas (1789).
1783: Existence of black holes first proposed by John Michell (1724–1793); Michell was first to suggest that double stars might be attracted to each other (1767), and he invented the torsion balance (before 1783).
1843: Existence and position of Neptune predicted, using only mathematics, by John Couch Adams (1819–1892).
1845: Nature of spiral galaxies discovered by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800–1867).
1846: Discovery of Triton by William Lassell (1799–1880);^[169] Lassell also discovered the moons Hyperion (1848), Ariel (1851), and Umbriel (1851).
1924: The Eddington limit - the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object - discovered by Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944)
1930s-1950s: Important contributions to the development of radio astronomy made by Bernard Lovell (1913–2012).
1946–1954: Pioneering theories of Nucleosynthesis (the formation of chemical elements in stars and supernova) proposed by Sir Fred Hoyle (1915–2001); in 1949, Hoyle coined the term "Big Bang".
1966 onwards: Important contributions to cosmology and (from 1973)quantum gravity made by Stephen Hawking (born 1942), especially in the context of black holes.
1967: Pulsars discovered by English radio astronomer Antony Hewish (born 1924) and one of his graduate students, Northern Irish Jocelyn Bell.
Late 1960s / early 1970s: Aperture synthesis, used for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources in the field of radio astronomy, developed by Martin Ryle (1918–1984) and Antony Hewish (born 1924).

Edmond Halley, determined the periodicity of Halley's Comet in 1705

**~~Root~~** · 12-23-2016, 10:42 PM

Geology and meteorology

1802: Nomenclature system for clouds developed by meteorology pioneer Luke Howard (1772–1864).
1815: First geological map of Great Britain created by William Smith (1769–1839); Smith is responsible, as well, for the observation that fossils can be used to work out the relative ages of rocks and strata (Principle of Faunal Succession).
1820: The dew-point hygrometer, an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the atmosphere, invented by John Frederic Daniell (1790–1845).
1820s: Scientific study of dinosaurs initiated by Gideon Mantell (1790–1852).
1861: First weather map created by Francis Galton (1822–1911).
1880: The Seismograph, for detecting and measuring the strength of earthquakes, invented by John Milne (1850–1913).
1911 onwards: Geochronology pioneered by Arthur Holmes (1890–1965).
1938–1964: The Callendar effect, a theory linking rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature (Global warming), proposed by Guy Stewart Callendar (1898–1964).

Philosophy of science
c. 1240s: An early framework for the scientific method, based in Aristotelian commentaries, proposed by English statesman, scientist and Christian theologian Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175-1253).
1267: Early form of the scientific method articulated in Opus Majus by Roger Bacon (c. 1214?-c. 1292?).
1620: Baconian method, a forerunner of the scientific method, proposed in the Novum Organum by Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626).
1892: Scope and method of science proposed in The Grammar of Science by Karl Pearson (1857–1936); the book was a pivotal influence on the young Albert Einstein and contained several ideas that were later to become part of his theories.

Karl Pearson's Grammar of Science (1892) influenced the young Einstein

Scientific instruments

1630–1632: The slide rule invented by William Oughtred (1574–1660), developing on work by Edmund Gunter (1581–1626) and Edmund Wingate (1596–1656).
1630s: The micrometer invented by William Gascoigne (1612–1644).
1665: Compound microscope with 30x magnification developed by Robert Hooke (1635–1703); Hooke published Micrographia in 1665.
1668: The marine barometer invented by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).
1677: The Coggeshall slide rule, a.k.a. the carpenter's slide rule, invented by Henry Coggeshall (1623–1691).
1763: Triple achromatic lens invented by Peter Dollond (1731–1820).
1784: The Atwood machine, for demonstrating the law of uniformly accelerated motion, invented by George Atwood (1745–1807).
c. 1805: First bench micrometer - the "Lord Chancellor", capable of measuring to one ten-thousandth of an inch – invented by Henry Maudslay (1771–1831), a founding father of machine tool technology.
1833: Wheatstone bridge invented by Samuel Hunter Christie (1784–1865); improved and popularised in 1843 by Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875).
1972: The Sinclair Executive, the world's first small electronic pocket calculator, invented by Sir Clive Sinclair (born 1940).