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5250 BCE
The sailboat
It is believed that the first saiolboat was invented between 6000-7000 years ago. The first presented model of a ship is on a disc from what was known as Mesopotamia (dating between 5500-5000 BC). -
4000 BCE
Sanitation systems
The fist sanitation systems created were the first clay sewage pipes in Mesopotamia. -
3500 BCE
The Nail
It is believed that the nail was created in ancient Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. They were most likely made out of copper or bronze. -
2400 BCE
Abacus
It is believed that it was first used by the Babylonian Empire around 2400 BC -
Period: 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE
Alphabetization
It is believed that the first alphabet was created during the MIddle Bronza Age, between 1500-1200 BC. -
Period: 750 BCE to 710 BCE
Optical lenses
It was created in ancient Assyria between 750 and 710 BC. -
260 BCE
Lever
Archimedes was the first to describe the use of the lever, though it is thought that it was being used since prehistoric times. -
250 BCE
Archimedes' screw
Named after its inventor, Archimedes, is a device used to raise water. It was originally invented to remove water from the hold (compartment below the deck) of bif boats. -
Period: 200 BCE to 100 BCE
The Compass
It is believed that the compass was invented in China, during the Han dynasty, between de 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. However, in 1936 Tuomas Vohlonen invented and patented the first successful portable liquid-filled compass for individual use. -
105
Paper
The invention of paper happened when Cai Lun, a chinese dignitary began producing sheets of paper from old rags, tree bark and fishing nets. -
142
Gunpowder
The earliest reference to gunpowder is from around 142 AD in the Eastern Han dynasty in China. -
600
Paper money
The paper money was first used during the Tang Dynasty in China by merchants. -
Period: 1270 to 1300
The Mechanical Clock
The first mechanical clocks are thought ot have been built in some regions around Northern Italy and Southern Germany in the Renaissance period. -
1436
The printing press
Device that allows the mass production of uniform printed matter. It was inventend originally in China, but perfected by Johannes Gutenberg -
1582
The Gregorian calendar
It was instituted by the Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Is the calendar used by the Catholic church -
The steam engine
In 1712, Thomas Savery created the first steam engine that used steam power for mechanical work. It was called "The Newcomen Engine" -
The sextant
The first sextant was created by John Bird in 1759. It consisits in two mirros used to calculate the latitudinal position of a vessel. -
Cotton gin
Was invented by Eli Whitney in 1794. It is a machine that separets sticky seeds from the fibers in cotton. -
Vaccination
Dr Edward Jenner created the first succesful vaccine. -
The moldboard plow
Charles Newbold was the inventor of the first practical plow, which he received patent for in June 1797. -
Photography
It was invented in 1822 when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the very first photography. He used a camera obscura to capture images exposed onto bitumen-coated pewter plates. -
Cement
The invention of cement is atributed to an english man called Joseph Aspdin, who took out a patent for the material in the first quarter of the 19th century. -
Period: to
The Telegraph
In the 1830s, Cooke and Wheatstone developed the first telegraphic system, which consisted in five magnetic needles that could be pointed around a panel of letters and numbers using electric current. In 1837, Morse, Gail and Vail created the first electric telegraph. -
Refrigeration
It was first designed by Oliver Evans in 1805, but it wasn't until 1934 that the first refrigerating machine was created by Jacob Perkins -
The Combine Harvester
John Hascall and Hiram Moore created the first working combine, tested in the late 1830s and being patented in 1836. -
Anesthesia
In 1846, the first demosntration of ether anesthesia was made in Boston by Doctor William Morton -
Scientific plant breeding
Plant breeding started thousands of years ago, after the end of the last Ice Age. However, scientifically, Gregor Mendel was the first one to study it in the mid 1800s using pea plants. -
Telephone
Antonio Meucci built the fist telephone in 1854 to communicate rooms of his house -
Industrial Steelmaking
Henry Bessemer developed a new method of steel manufacturing, revolutionizing the steel industry. -
Oil refining
The world's first oil refinary was invented in Romania, using the abundant oil available in the country. -
Oil drilling
George Bissell and Edwin L. Drake used successfully the drilling rig for the first time to produce oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. -
Internal combustion engine
Étienne Lenoir drove for the first time his "hippomobile", powered by Lenoir's own gas engine. -
Pasteurization
Louis Pasteur discovered the pasteurization process after finding out that wine which was treated with head killed many of the bacteria that could be found in it. -
Automobile
The first automobile was a three-wheeled Motor Car known as the "Motorwagen", invented by Karl Benz -
Electric light bulb
In 1879 Thomas Edison invented, with his team, the first electric light bulb using carbonized filament of uncoated cotton -
Steam turbine
The steam turbine was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. -
Radio
The first radio was created by the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi -
Rocketry
The exploration of space by rockets was first proposed by a Russian teacher called Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. -
The assembly line
It was in 1901 that Ransom Olds created and patented the assemly line. The Ford Motor Company was the first to implement the moving assembly line in 1913. -
Air-conditioning
Willis Haviland invented the first modern air-conditionning system in 1902 -
Airplane
The first succesful powered airplane, the 1903 Wirght Flyer, was invented by Wilbur and Orville Wright. -
Nitrogen fixation
Discovered by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch. Is the synthesis of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen. -
Television
In 1927 Philo Fansworth accomplished to transmit the first moving image, which was the beginning of the TV. -
Penicillin
Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin in St. Mary's Hospital, London, in 1928. -
Nuclear fission
Reaction in which atoms split apart, realeasing energy. It was discovered by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch -
Period: to
The Green Revolution
It refers to the renovation of some practices in the field of agriculture. It startes in Mexico in the 1940s and ended with its international exportation during the 1960s. -
Semiconductor transistor
Walter Brattain, John Bardeen and William Shockley discovered the semiconductor transistor on the 23rd of December, 1947. -
The pill
The first pill invented was what we know nowadays as the birth control pill by John Rock and Gregory Pincus in 1953, although its use was not approved until 1960. -
The Internet
The Internet is said to have been invented when Vinton Cerf developed a way to communicate all the mini-networks in the world. He called it "Transmission Control Protocol" (Then he changed it to "Internet Protocol"). -
The personal computer (PC)
A tiny business called MITS developed the first personal computer, which was called the Altair.