History of materials
111 inventions by year: what each evolved from and what it led to.
| Year | Invention | What it is | Evolved from | Led to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 400000 BC | Leather | Hide treated by tanning. | ||
| 40000 BC | Chalk | Soft limestone for writing. | ||
| 30000 BC | Abrasive | A hard material for grinding (corundum, carborundum). | ||
| 18000 BC | Pottery | Objects made of fired clay. | Saucepan | |
| 9000 BC | Copper | One of the first metals mastered by humans. | ||
| 6000 BC | Kiln | A furnace for firing pottery, bricks and lime. | ||
| 5000 BC | Smelting | Extracting metal from ore by heating it with a reducing agent. | ||
| 4500 BC | Gold | A precious metal for jewellery and coins. | ||
| 4000 BC | Potter’s wheel | A spinning disc for shaping vessels; one of the first uses of rotation. | ||
| 3500 BC | Glass | An amorphous material made from molten silica. | ||
| 3300 BC | Bronze | An alloy of copper and tin that gave its name to an age. | ||
| 3300 BC | Tin | A metal added to copper to make bronze. | ||
| 3300 BC | Alloy | A mixture of metals with new properties. | ||
| 3200 BC | Casting | Making an object by pouring molten material into a mould. | ||
| 3000 BC | Silver | A precious metal, the best conductor. | ||
| 3000 BC | Solder | A low-melting alloy for joining parts. | ||
| 3000 BC | Bitumen | A viscous mixture of hydrocarbons. | ||
| 3000 BC | Sintering | Compacting a powder by heating it below its melting point. | ||
| 1600 BC | Natural rubber | The sap of the rubber tree; balls among the Mesoamericans. | ||
| 1500 BC | Bellows | A device for blowing air into a forge. | ||
| 1500 BC | Anvil | A massive support for forging. | ||
| 1500 BC | Mercury | A liquid metal; thermometers and barometers. | ||
| 1500 BC | Blacksmith’s tongs | Hinged tongs for holding red-hot metal. | ||
| 1500 BC | Forge | A hearth for heating metal before forging. | ||
| 1200 BC | Iron | The metal of the Iron Age; the basis of steel. | ||
| 1200 BC | Bloomery | A furnace for producing iron from ore without melting it. | Blast furnace | |
| 700 BC | Wire drawing | Pulling metal through a die. | ||
| 600 BC | Permanent magnet | A material with stable magnetization. | Lodestone | |
| 600 BC | Lodestone | A naturally magnetic mineral. | Permanent magnet | |
| 500 BC | Brass | An alloy of copper and zinc. | ||
| 500 BC | Cast iron | An iron alloy with a high carbon content. | ||
| 500 BC | Cork | The bark of the cork oak. | ||
| 50 BC | Glassblowing | Blowing objects from molten glass with a blowpipe. | ||
| 300 | Damascus steel | Patterned steel famous for the strength of its blades. | ||
| 600 | Porcelain | Fine ceramics made from kaolin (China; Meissen in 1708). | ||
| 600 | Kaolin | A white clay for porcelain. | ||
| 1150 | Blast furnace | A shaft furnace for smelting pig iron. | Bloomery | |
| 1565 | Graphite | A form of carbon; pencil leads, a moderator, a battery anode. | Graphene | |
| 1590 | Rolling mill | Rolls that squeeze metal into sheet and sections. | ||
| 1709 | Coke | Baked coal; Darby used it to smelt iron. | ||
| 1735 | Cobalt Georg Brandt | A metal in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries. | ||
| 1746 | Zinc | A metal for brass, batteries and galvanizing. | ||
| 1748 | Platinum Julius Caesar Scaliger, Antonio de Ulloa | A precious metal — a catalyst. | ||
| 1751 | Nickel Axel Fredrik Cronstedt | A metal for alloys and batteries. | ||
| 1783 | Tungsten Juan José Elhuyar, Fausto Elhuyar | The most refractory metal; lamp filaments. | ||
| 1784 | Wrought iron | Low-carbon iron (Cort). | ||
| 1784 | Puddling Henry Cort, Samuel Baldwin Rogers | Converting pig iron into wrought iron in a reverberatory furnace. | ||
| 1789 | Uranium Эжен Пелиго, Martin Heinrich Klaproth | A heavy metal — nuclear fuel. | ||
| 1794 | Rare-earth metals | A group of elements for magnets, phosphors and catalysts. | ||
| 1797 | Extrusion | Pushing material through a die (Bramah). | ||
| 1797 | Chromium Louis Nicolas Vauquelin | A metal that makes steel resistant to corrosion. | ||
| 1817 | Lithium Johan August Arfwedson | The lightest metal — the basis of lithium batteries. | ||
| 1821 | Bauxite | The ore of aluminium. | ||
| 1824 | Silicon Jöns Jacob Berzelius | A chemical element, the main material of microelectronics. | ||
| 1826 | Powder metallurgy | Sintering metal powders (Sobolevsky). | ||
| 1834 | Sandpaper | An abrasive on a paper backing. | ||
| 1837 | Galvanization | Coating steel with zinc against corrosion. | ||
| 1839 | Vulcanized rubber Charles Goodyear | Natural rubber strengthened with sulfur (Charles Goodyear). | ||
| 1839 | Steam hammer | A hammer with a steam cylinder (Nasmyth). | Trip hammer, Hammer | Forging press |
| 1843 | Gutta-percha | A natural polymer — the insulation of the first undersea cables. | ||
| 1855 | Inner tube | The rubber bladder of a ball or tyre (Goodyear). | ||
| 1856 | Steel | An alloy of iron and carbon; mass production came with the Bessemer process. | ||
| 1856 | Bessemer converter Henry Bessemer | Blowing air through pig iron to make steel. | Open-hearth furnace | |
| 1860 | Caesium | An alkali metal; the transition frequency of the caesium-133 atom defines the second in atomic clocks. | ||
| 1861 | Forging press | A hydraulic press for forging. | Steam hammer | |
| 1865 | Open-hearth furnace | The Siemens–Martin regenerative furnace. | Bessemer converter | |
| 1870 | Steel works | A full cycle: blast furnace — steel — rolling. | ||
| 1874 | Semiconductor | A material whose conductivity can be controlled; the basis of the transistor. | ||
| 1881 | Welding | Joining metals permanently by melting them; Benardos’s arc welding. | ||
| 1886 | Aluminium Hans Christian Ørsted, Humphry Davy | A light metal; cheap production came with the Hall–Héroult process. | ||
| 1886 | Germanium Clemens Winkler | The semiconductor of the first transistors. | ||
| 1888 | Liquid crystals | Substances that rotate the polarization of light in an electric field. | ||
| 1898 | High-speed steel | Steel for cutting tools (Taylor, White). | ||
| 1903 | Gas welding | An oxy-acetylene flame. | ||
| 1903 | Ferrocerium (lighter flint) Carl Auer von Welsbach | An alloy that sparks when struck (Auer von Welsbach). | ||
| 1905 | Nichrome | A nickel–chromium alloy with high resistance and resistance to oxidation. | ||
| 1907 | Electric arc furnace Carl Wilhelm Siemens | Melting steel with an electric arc (Héroult). | ||
| 1909 | Duralumin Alfred Wilm | A strong aluminium alloy for aviation (Wilm). | ||
| 1910 | Titanium William Gregor, Martin Heinrich Klaproth | A strong, light metal for aviation and medicine. | ||
| 1913 | Stainless steel Harry Brearley | Steel with chromium that does not rust (Brearley). | ||
| 1916 | Czochralski method | Growing a single crystal from a melt. | ||
| 1926 | Cemented carbide | Tungsten carbide with cobalt (Widia). | ||
| 1926 | Gallium arsenide | The semiconductor of laser diodes and microwave circuits. | ||
| 1936 | Fibreglass | A composite of glass fibre and resin. | ||
| 1945 | Radar-absorbing material | A coating that absorbs radio waves. | ||
| 1946 | Steel cord | Steel cord in a tyre’s belt. | ||
| 1950 | Semiconductor doping | Adding impurities to create p- and n-regions. | ||
| 1950 | Continuous casting | Casting billets in a continuous stream. | ||
| 1957 | Plasma cutting | Cutting metal with a plasma arc. | ||
| 1958 | Carbon fibre | A super-strong, light fibre made of carbon. | ||
| 1959 | Float glass | Sheet glass made on molten tin (Pilkington). | ||
| 1962 | Chemically strengthened glass | Glass strengthened by ion exchange (Corning). | ||
| 1965 | Laser cutting | Cutting materials with a laser. | ||
| 1969 | Gallium nitride | The semiconductor of blue LEDs and power electronics. | ||
| 1970 | Waterjet cutting | Cutting with a jet of water and abrasive. | ||
| 1981 | Quantum dots Alexey Ekimov, Louis E. Brus | Nanocrystals that glow in a set colour (Ekimov). | ||
| 1982 | Neodymium magnet | The strongest permanent magnet (Sagawa). | ||
| 2004 | Graphene Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov | Single-layer carbon (Geim, Novoselov). | Graphite | |
| 2007 | Cover glass | Chemically strengthened glass on top of the screen. | ||
| Wood | The oldest structural material: it made handles, boats, wheels, looms and buildings. | |||
| Stone | Rock as a material for tools, millstones, walls and monuments. | |||
| Clay | A plastic rock that hardens when fired. | |||
| Bone | Animal bone and horn — the material of needles, harpoons, flutes and ornaments. | |||
| Plant fibre | Fibres of bast, grass and leaves, twisted into threads and ropes and woven into baskets. | |||
| Silica (sand) | Silicon dioxide — the raw material of glass. | |||
| Flint | A hard rock with a sharp fracture; the main material of stone tools. | |||
| Reed | The hollow stem of water plants for baskets, boats, pipes and writing pens. | |||
| Sinew | Strong fibres of animal tendons: bowstrings, bindings, torsion springs. | |||
| Tallow | Rendered animal fat — the fuel of the first lamps and candles. | |||
| Diamond | A super-hard form of carbon; synthetic since 1954. | |||
| Beeswax | Wax from honeycomb for candles, lost-wax casting and waterproofing. |