17th-century inventions
63 inventions and discoveries: year, what it is, what it evolved from and what it led to.
| Year | Invention | What it is | Evolved from | Led to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1602 | Pendulum | A weight on a suspension with a constant period of swing (Galileo). | ||
| 1602 | Resonance | A sharp rise in oscillations when frequencies match. | ||
| 1605 | Newspaper | A periodical printed publication. | Blog | |
| 1608 | Telescope Hans Lippershay, Juan Roget | An optical instrument for observing distant objects (Lipperhey, Galileo). | Glasses | Binoculars |
| 1609 | Kepler’s laws | The laws of planetary motion. | Heliocentric system | Universal gravitation |
| 1610 | Flintlock | Igniting the powder with a spark from a flint. | Wheellock | Percussion cap |
| 1611 | Total internal reflection | Light does not leave a medium at a large angle of incidence. | ||
| 1614 | Logarithm John Napier | A function that reduces multiplication to addition (Napier). | ||
| 1615 | Triangulation | Surveying with a network of triangles (Snellius). | ||
| 1620 | Submarine | A vessel that can dive; the first was Drebbel’s. | Nuclear submarine | |
| 1620 | Scientific method | Observation, hypothesis, experiment (Bacon, Galileo). | ||
| 1622 | Slide rule | An analogue instrument for multiplying with logarithms. | ||
| 1631 | Vernier caliper | An instrument for measuring dimensions precisely with a vernier scale (Vernier). | Ruler | Micrometer |
| 1637 | Cartesian coordinates | Numbers as points on a plane (Descartes). | ||
| 1642 | Mechanical calculator | The Pascaline — a machine for adding and subtracting. | Leibniz’s stepped reckoner, Babbage’s Difference Engine | |
| 1643 | Barometer Evangelista Torricelli | Torricelli’s instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure. | Altimeter | |
| 1647 | Pressure | Force per unit area; Torricelli measured atmospheric pressure. | ||
| 1650 | Vacuum pump | Otto von Guericke’s pump for evacuating air. | Piston pump | Boyle’s air pump |
| 1650 | Fire pump | A hand-operated piston pump for fighting fires. | Fire truck | |
| 1650 | Bayonet | A blade fixed to a barrel. | ||
| 1650 | Necktie | A neck band. | ||
| 1653 | Hydraulics (Pascal’s law) | Pressure in a liquid is transmitted equally in all directions. | ||
| 1653 | Letter box | A box for letters. | ||
| 1654 | Vacuum | A rarefied space; Guericke’s experiments with the Magdeburg hemispheres. | ||
| 1654 | Weather station | A set of weather instruments (the Medici network). | ||
| 1654 | Probability theory | Pascal and Fermat; later Kolmogorov. | Dice | |
| 1655 | Wheelchair | A chair on wheels; the self-propelled one — Farffler. | Crutches | |
| 1656 | Pendulum clock Christiaan Huygens | Huygens’s clock, in which a pendulum sets the pace. | Mechanical clock | Quartz clock |
| 1657 | Anchor escapement | An escapement with an anchor that made clocks more accurate. | ||
| 1659 | Centrifugal effect | The tendency of a rotating body to move away from the axis. | ||
| 1659 | Boyle’s air pump | Boyle and Hooke’s pump for experiments with vacuum. | Vacuum pump | |
| 1659 | Magic lantern | A projector of images from glass slides (Huygens). | Film projector | |
| 1660 | Elasticity | The ability of a body to regain its shape; Hooke’s law. | ||
| 1661 | Manometer | An instrument that measures the pressure of a gas or liquid: a U-shaped tube of liquid or a Bourdon tube with a needle. | Blood pressure monitor | |
| 1661 | Spirit level | An instrument with a bubble for checking the horizontal (Thévenot). | ||
| 1662 | Statistics | Analysing data (Graunt). | ||
| 1662 | Boyle’s law | The pressure of a gas is inversely proportional to its volume. | ||
| 1663 | Electrostatic machine | A generator of static electricity (Guericke, Wimshurst). | Van de Graaff generator | |
| 1666 | Prism | A glass body that splits light into a spectrum (Newton). | ||
| 1666 | Dispersion of light | Refraction depending on colour. | ||
| 1666 | Corpuscular and wave optics | The nature of light: Newton, Huygens, Young. | Reflecting telescope | |
| 1668 | Reflecting telescope James Gregory | A telescope with a mirror instead of an objective lens (Newton). | Corpuscular and wave optics | |
| 1676 | Hooke’s law | Deformation is proportional to force. | ||
| 1676 | Speed of light Ole Rømer | The finite speed of light (Rømer). | ||
| 1678 | Wave theory | Light and sound as waves (Huygens). | ||
| 1679 | Safety valve | Releases excess pressure (Papin). | ||
| 1679 | Pressure cooker | Papin’s steam digester for cooking under pressure. | Newcomen engine | |
| 1684 | Calculus Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz | Differential and integral calculus (Newton, Leibniz). | ||
| 1687 | Universal gravitation Robert Hooke | Newton’s law of gravitation. | Kepler’s laws | |
| 1687 | Newton’s laws Isaac Newton | The basic laws of mechanics. | ||
| 1687 | Reaction force Isaac Newton | Throwing mass one way pushes a body the other way (Newton’s third law). | ||
| 1687 | Orbital motion | A body moving around another under gravity. | ||
| 1689 | Centrifugal pump | A pump in which liquid is accelerated by a spinning wheel. | ||
| 1689 | Impeller | The rotating bladed wheel of a pump or compressor. | ||
| 1690 | Piston | A part that moves in a cylinder under the pressure of gas or steam. | ||
| 1690 | Howitzer | A gun for high-angle fire. | Mortar (weapon) | |
| 1694 | Leibniz’s stepped reckoner | The first calculator that multiplied, using a stepped drum. | Mechanical calculator | Arithmometer |
| 1700 | Piano Bartolomeo Cristofori | A keyboard instrument with a hammer action (Cristofori). | Harpsichord | |
| 1700 | Clarinet Johann Christoph Denner | A woodwind instrument with a reed (Denner). | Saxophone | |
| 1700 | Cast-iron pan | A frying pan made of cast iron. | Non-stick pan | |
| 1700 | Piano hammer | A wooden hammer with a felt head: when a key is pressed it strikes the string and springs straight back. | ||
| 1700 | Barrel organ | A mechanical organ with a pinned cylinder. | Player piano | |
| 1700 | Wood-fired oven | A dome-shaped oven. |