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the invention of the Newcomen steam engine
Thomas Newcomen invented the first steam engine, known as the atmospheric engine. It was used predominantly to pump water from coal mines, allowing the miners to dig further. -
the invention of the Watt steam engine
Scottish engineer James Watt invented the first practical steam engine in 1763. Watt’s engine was similar to Newcomen’s, but it was nearly twice as efficient as it required less fuel. This more fuel-efficient design translated into huge monetary savings for the industry and Newcomens’ original atmospheric steam engines were later converted to Watts’ new design. -
the invention of the Spinning Jenny
an engine for spinning wool or cotton invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves, who had it patented in 1770. -
The invention of The locomotive
when Cornishman Richard Trevithick’s ‘Pen-y-Darren’ locomotive carried ten tons of iron, five wagons and seventy men the 9.75 miles from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal in four hours and five minutes. The journey had an average speed of c. 2.4 mph. -
the invention of the Gas Street Lighting
The dimness of nighttime lighting, traditionally provided by burning oil or tallow candles, was finally lifted by the invention of gas lighting. Around 1792-4, the Scotsman William Murdock (1754-1839) discovered that coal dust gave off a gas that could be ignited. Murdock successfully used gas lights in his foundry in Birmingham. The idea to use coal gas for street lighting was pioneered by the German inventor Frederick Albert Winsor (1763-1830) -
the invention of The typewriter
In 1829 William Burt, an American inventor, patented the first typewriter which he called a typographer It was dreadfully ineffective (proving slower to use than writing something out by hand), but Burt is nonetheless regarded as the ‘father of the typewriter’. The working model of the ‘typographer’, which Burt had left with the U.S. The first modern typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes. -
the invention of the Telegraph
1837 Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone successfully demonstrated the first electrical telegraph, installed between Euston and Camden Town in London. The next year they installed the system along thirteen miles of the Great Western Railway (from Paddington to West Drayton). It was the first commercial telegraph in the world. In America, the first telegraph service opened in 1844 when telegraph wires connected Baltimore and Washington D.C. -
the invention of the The Electromagnet
The Canadian engineer William Sturgeon (1783-1850) was inspired by the work of the French scientist André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836) and the Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851) to create the first electromagnet in 1825. The device was a horseshoe piece of iron within a coil of wire that could carry electricity and so magnetize or demagnetize the iron. The magnetic force created could then be used to lift an object, but when Sturgeon invented the commutator, -
the invention of the first escalator
Charles Seeberger. He created the name escalator from scala, the Latin word for steps, and elevator, a word for something that had already been invented. Seeberger partnered with the Otis Elevator Co. to produce the first commercial escalator in 1899 at the Otis factory in Yonkers, New York. -
the invention of the first plane
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, ushered humanity into the age of flight with their pioneering aircraft, the Wright Flyer. Constructed in 1903, this biplane featured a wingspan of 12.3 meters and was powered by a 12-horsepower engine. On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright made history by piloting the Flyer for 12 seconds over a distance of 36.5 meters, marking the first controlled,