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10 Key Historical Energy Events

  • The First Crude Steam Engine

    The First Crude Steam Engine
    The first crude steam powered machine was built by Thomas Savery, of England, in 1698. Savery built his machine to help pump water out of coal mines.
  • The First Electric light

    The First Electric light
    In 1802, Humphry Davy invented the first electric light,while it produced light, it didn’t produce it for long and was much too bright for practical use.
  • The First Oil Well in the U.S.

    The First Oil Well in the U.S.
    George Bissell and Edwin L. Drake made the first successful use of a drilling rig on a well drilled especially to produce oil, at a site on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania.
  • First Battery Invented

    First Battery Invented
    The first battery invented consisted of pairs of copper and zinc discs pilled on top of each other,separated by a layer of cloth or cardboard soaked in brine.
  • The First Automobile

    The First Automobile
    The first automobile was a one-cylinder two-stroke unit.
  • The First Production of the Model T Ford

    The First Production of the Model T Ford
    On October 1, 1908, the first production Model T Ford is completed at the company’s Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford would build some 15 million Model T cars.
  • The Hoover damn First Opened

    The Hoover damn First Opened
    Built between 1931 and 1936 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the dam is named for President Herbert Hoover; from 1933 to 1947 it was known as Boulder Dam. A key unit on the Colorado, the dam is a major supplier of hydroelectric power and provides for flood control, river regulation, and improved navigation.
  • Nuclear Fission First Discovered

    Nuclear Fission First Discovered
    Nuclear fission of heavy elements was discovered on December 17, 1938 by German Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann, and explained theoretically in January 1939 by Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch.
  • First Silicon Solar Cell

    First Silicon Solar Cell
    On April 25, 1954, Bell Labs announces the invention of the first practical silicon solar cell.
  • The First Lava Lamp

    The First Lava Lamp
    (Personally cause I love Lava Lamps) The mesmerizing light fixture, has risen and sunk and shifted its shape in the cultural consciousness for decades. The lamp was invented by Edward Craven Walker, a British accountant whose other claim to fame was making underwater nudist films. (1963)