19th-century inventions
502 inventions and discoveries: year, what it is, what it evolved from and what it led to.
How the inventions are connected
- Drais’s running machine → Michaux velocipede → Penny-farthing → Rover safety bicycle → Bicycle → Motorcycle
- Paddle steamer → Screw steamship → Ocean liner
- Electromagnetism → Electromagnetic induction → Electromagnetic waves
- Electrical telegraph → Phonograph → Gramophone
- Car → Truck → Ambulance
- Electrical telegraph → Telephone → Hearing aid
| Year | Invention | What it is | Evolved from | Led to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1801 | Wave interference | Waves adding up to reinforce or cancel each other (Young). | ||
| 1801 | Ultraviolet | Radiation shorter than violet (Ritter). | ||
| 1802 | Electric arc | A discharge in a gas between electrodes (Petrov, Davy). | ||
| 1802 | Arc lamp | Light from an electric arc between carbons (Petrov, Davy, c. 1802); the “Yablochkov candle” (1876) made it street lighting. | ||
| 1804 | Steam locomotive | A locomotive with a steam engine; the first was Trevithick’s. | Diesel locomotive | |
| 1804 | Leaf spring | A stack of springy steel leaves; suspension of carriages and trucks. | Suspension | |
| 1804 | Jacquard loom Joseph Marie Jacquard | A loom in which a complex pattern is set by a chain of punched cards. | Bouchon’s loom, Automaton | Babbage’s Analytical Engine |
| 1804 | Water filter | Purifying water by filtering it through sand and charcoal. | ||
| 1804 | Water treatment plant | Purifying drinking water (Paisley filters). | ||
| 1806 | Endoscope | Viewing internal organs; the flexible fibre-optic one dates from 1957. | ||
| 1807 | Gas lamp | Street lighting with coal gas. | Incandescent light bulb, Street light | |
| 1807 | Street light | Lighting streets (gas, arc, LED). | Gas lamp | |
| 1807 | Paddle wheel | A wheel with blades that pushes a ship. | ||
| 1808 | Atomic theory | Matter is made of atoms (Dalton). | Electron, Atomic nucleus | |
| 1810 | Tin can | A tinplate can for storing food (Durand). | Aluminium can | |
| 1812 | Cartridge Jean Samuel Pauly | Bullet, charge and primer in one case (Pauly, 1812; widespread from the mid-19th century). | ||
| 1814 | Spectroscope Joseph von Fraunhofer | An instrument for splitting light into a spectrum (Fraunhofer, 1814); spectral analysis — Kirchhoff and Bunsen (1859). | ||
| 1814 | Planimeter | An instrument for measuring areas. | ||
| 1815 | Davy lamp Humphry Davy | A safety miner’s lamp with a gauze. | Carbide lamp | |
| 1817 | Handlebar | A lever for steering the front wheel. | ||
| 1818 | Milling machine | A machine in which a rotating cutter removes material. | CNC machine | |
| 1820 | Copper wire | A conductor made of copper. | ||
| 1820 | Electromagnetism | An electric current creates a magnetic field (Ørsted’s experiment), and a field acts on a current. | Magnetism | Electromagnetic induction |
| 1820 | Galvanometer | An instrument that detects current by the deflection of a needle. | Multimeter, Ammeter, Voltmeter, Electrocardiograph | |
| 1820 | Tailor’s tape | A soft measuring tape for tailors. | ||
| 1820 | Percussion cap | A small cap with a shock-sensitive compound. | Flintlock | |
| 1821 | Natural gas | A gaseous fossil fuel, mostly methane. | ||
| 1821 | Thermocouple | A junction of different metals that produces a voltage when heated (Seebeck). | ||
| 1824 | Silicon Jöns Jacob Berzelius | A chemical element, the main material of microelectronics. | ||
| 1824 | Concrete | Artificial stone made of cement, sand and gravel. | Roman concrete | |
| 1824 | Electromagnet William Sturgeon | A core with a winding that is magnetized by current (Sturgeon). | ||
| 1824 | Thermodynamics | The science of turning heat into work; the Carnot cycle. | Watt steam engine | |
| 1825 | Tunnelling shield | Brunel’s shield for driving tunnels. | Tunnel boring machine | |
| 1826 | Match | Phosphorus matches, then safety matches. | Fire making | |
| 1827 | Electrical resistance | A conductor opposes current; Ohm’s law relates current and voltage. | ||
| 1827 | Water turbine | A turbine driven by flowing water (Fourneyron, Francis, Kaplan). | Water wheel | |
| 1827 | Differential | A gear that lets the wheels on one axle turn at different speeds. | ||
| 1829 | Fire-tube boiler | A boiler in which hot gases run through tubes in the water. | ||
| 1830 | Bogie | A pivoting frame with wheelsets. | ||
| 1830 | Mine hoist | A cage on a rope. | ||
| 1831 | Electromagnetic induction Michael Faraday | A changing magnetic field induces a current in a conductor (Faraday). | Electromagnetism | Electromagnetic waves, Maxwell’s equations |
| 1831 | Inductor Michael Faraday | A wire wound into a coil; stores energy in a magnetic field. | ||
| 1831 | IV drip | Intravenous infusion of solutions (Latta). | ||
| 1834 | Electric motor | A machine that turns electrical energy into rotation. Moritz von Jacobi built a practical motor. | ||
| 1834 | Wire rope | A rope of steel wires (Albert). | Rope | |
| 1834 | Vapour-compression cycle | A refrigerant evaporates, absorbing heat, and condenses under pressure (Perkins). | ||
| 1834 | Zoetrope William George Horner | A spinning drum with pictures that creates the illusion of motion. | Cinema | |
| 1835 | Relay | A switch operated by an electromagnet (Henry). | Programmable logic controller | |
| 1835 | Catalysis Jöns Jacob Berzelius | Speeding up a chemical reaction with a catalyst. | ||
| 1836 | Propeller | A bladed screw that drives a ship or an aircraft. | Archimedes’ screw | |
| 1836 | Acetylene | A flammable gas made from calcium carbide. | ||
| 1837 | Electrical telegraph | Sending messages as electrical signals over wires (Schilling, Cooke and Wheatstone, Morse). | Optical telegraph | Telephone, Phonograph |
| 1837 | Babbage’s Analytical Engine Charles Babbage | A design for a general-purpose mechanical computer programmed with punched cards. | Jacquard loom, Babbage’s Difference Engine | Harvard Mark I |
| 1837 | Diving suit | A suit with a copper helmet (Siebe). | Diving bell | Aqualung, Spacesuit |
| 1837 | Steel plough | Deere’s plough with a polished steel share. | Plough | |
| 1838 | Cellulose Anselme Payen | The polymer of plant fibres; the basis of paper. | ||
| 1838 | Stereoscope | A device for a 3D image from two pictures (Wheatstone). | VR headset | |
| 1839 | Vulcanized rubber Charles Goodyear | Natural rubber strengthened with sulfur (Charles Goodyear). | ||
| 1839 | Camera | A device that captures an image through a lens onto a light-sensitive medium. | Camera obscura | Smartphone camera, Photolithography, Digital camera |
| 1839 | Photovoltaic effect Antoine César Becquerel | A current arising in a material under light. | ||
| 1839 | Fuel cell | Produces current directly from the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen (Grove). | ||
| 1840 | Truss | A lattice structure of triangles (Howe, Pratt). | ||
| 1841 | Potentiometer Johann Christian Poggendorff | A variable resistor with a sliding contact. | ||
| 1841 | Railway semaphore | A signal that allows or forbids movement. | Optical telegraph | Traffic light |
| 1841 | Joule heating | A current passing through a resistance releases heat. | ||
| 1842 | Doppler effect Christian Dopplerr | A change in wave frequency when the source moves. | ||
| 1842 | Mineral fertilizer | Lawes’s superphosphate; nitrogen fertilizers. | Crop rotation | |
| 1843 | Tablet (medicine) | A pressed dosage form (Brockedon). | ||
| 1843 | Rotary printing press | Printing from a rotating cylinder (Hoe). | Gutenberg printing press | |
| 1843 | Fax | Transmitting images over wires (Bain; telefax in the 1960s). | ||
| 1844 | Wood pulp | The raw material for cheap paper (Keller). | ||
| 1846 | Kerosene | A middle fraction of crude oil — fuel for lamps and jet engines. | ||
| 1846 | Sewing machine Thomas Saint | A lockstitch machine (Howe, Singer). | Cinématographe, Overlocker | |
| 1847 | Conservation of energy | Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it changes from one form to another. | ||
| 1848 | Micrometer William Gascoigne, Christiaan Huygens | A measuring tool built on a precise screw (Palmer). | Vernier caliper | |
| 1848 | Oil well | A well for extracting oil; drilling at Absheron and by Drake. | ||
| 1850 | Compressor | A machine that compresses gas. | ||
| 1850 | Resistor | A component with a set resistance. | ||
| 1850 | Water tower | An elevated tank that provides pressure in the network. | ||
| 1851 | Ice machine | A machine for making ice (Gorrie). | Refrigerator | |
| 1851 | Arithmometer Charles Xavier Thomas | A mass-produced mechanical calculator (Thomas, Odhner). | Leibniz’s stepped reckoner | Electronic calculator |
| 1852 | Gyroscope Léon Foucault | A fast-spinning rotor that keeps the orientation of its axis (Foucault). | ||
| 1852 | Elevator | A lift with a car; Otis’s safety brake made it safe. | ||
| 1853 | Syringe | An instrument for injections (Wood, Pravaz). | ||
| 1853 | Pneumatic tube | Delivering capsules through pipes by air pressure. | Hyperloop (concept) | |
| 1853 | Reinforced concrete Joseph Monier | Concrete with steel reinforcement (Coignet, 1853; Monier’s patent, 1867). | ||
| 1855 | Inner tube | The rubber bladder of a ball or tyre (Goodyear). | ||
| 1855 | Bunsen burner Robert Bunsen, Peter Desaga | A laboratory gas burner. | ||
| 1856 | Steel | An alloy of iron and carbon; mass production came with the Bessemer process. | ||
| 1856 | Heat pump | Moves heat from cold to warm at the cost of work. | ||
| 1856 | Bessemer converter Henry Bessemer | Blowing air through pig iron to make steel. | Open-hearth furnace | |
| 1856 | Synthetic dye William Henry Perkin | Perkin’s aniline mauveine. | Indigo | Sulfonamides |
| 1859 | Lead–acid battery | The first rechargeable battery (Gaston Planté). | Voltaic pile | Lithium-ion battery |
| 1859 | Crude oil | A natural mixture of hydrocarbons; industrial extraction since the 1850s. | ||
| 1859 | Drilling rig | A machine for drilling wells. | ||
| 1859 | Ironclad | An armoured steam warship (Gloire). | Aircraft carrier | |
| 1859 | Spray bottle | A hand sprayer. | ||
| 1860 | Pedal | A foot rest at the end of a crank. | ||
| 1860 | Petrol | A light fraction of crude oil — fuel for combustion engines. | ||
| 1861 | Germ theory of disease Germ theory's key 19th century figures, Louis Pasteur | Diseases are caused by microorganisms (Pasteur, Koch). | ||
| 1861 | Rock drill | Pneumatic drilling of rock (Sommeiller). | Jackhammer | |
| 1863 | Michaux velocipede | A bicycle with pedals on the front wheel (the “boneshaker”). | Drais’s running machine | Cycle rickshaw, Tricycle, Penny-farthing, Bicycle |
| 1864 | Centrifuge | Separating mixtures by spinning. | ||
| 1866 | Electric generator | A machine that turns rotation into electric current. | ||
| 1866 | Torpedo | A self-propelled underwater projectile (Whitehead). | ||
| 1866 | Cable car | Cabins on a suspended cable. | ||
| 1867 | Clinical thermometer | Allbutt’s thermometer for measuring body temperature. | Digital thermometer | |
| 1868 | Keyboard | A set of keys for entering characters. | ||
| 1868 | Typewriter Christopher Latham Sholes, Frank Haven Hall | Mechanical printing of letters with keys (Sholes and Glidden). | Command line | |
| 1868 | Helium Pierre Janssen, Norman Lockyer | An inert light gas. | ||
| 1868 | Wristwatch | A watch worn on a bracelet. | Pocket watch | Smartwatch |
| 1869 | Ball bearing | A bearing in which sliding friction is replaced by rolling balls. Jules Suriray’s 1869 patent was for the bicycle. | ||
| 1869 | Air brake George Westinghouse | Westinghouse’s brake worked by compressed air. | Anti-lock braking system (ABS) | |
| 1870 | Spoke | A tensioned rod that connects a wheel’s rim to its hub. | ||
| 1870 | Bicycle wheel | A light spoked wheel with a hub on bearings and a tyre. | Spoked wheel | |
| 1870 | Celluloid | An early nitrocellulose plastic; the basis of cinema film. | ||
| 1870 | Mineral wool | A fibrous insulator. | ||
| 1870 | Asphalt | A bitumen mixture for roads. | Macadam road | |
| 1870 | Penny-farthing Eugène Meyer | A bicycle with a huge front wheel and pedals on it. | Michaux velocipede | Rover safety bicycle |
| 1872 | Track circuit William Robinson | An electric circuit through the rails that detects a train (Robinson). | ||
| 1872 | Injection moulding | Shaping plastic by injecting it into a mould. | ||
| 1872 | Tide-predicting machine | A mechanical analogue computer of tides (Kelvin). | Differential analyser | |
| 1874 | Semiconductor | A material whose conductivity can be controlled; the basis of the transistor. | ||
| 1874 | Rectifier | Converts alternating current into direct current. | ||
| 1874 | Tennis racket | A racket with strings. | ||
| 1876 | Internal combustion engine Rudolf Diesel, Nicolaus Otto | An engine in which fuel burns inside the cylinder (Otto’s four-stroke cycle). | Watt steam engine | |
| 1876 | Microphone | Turns sound vibrations into an electrical signal. | ||
| 1876 | Telephone Johann Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray | Transmitting the voice over wires. | Electrical telegraph | Mobile phone, Video call, Hearing aid, VoIP |
| 1876 | Crankshaft | A shaft with cranks that turns the stroke of the pistons into rotation. | ||
| 1877 | Cryogenics | Producing low temperatures; liquefying gases (Cailletet, Pictet). | ||
| 1877 | Phonograph Thomas Edison | Recording and playing sound on a cylinder (Edison). | Electrical telegraph | Gramophone |
| 1878 | Pipeline | Pipes for transporting oil and gas (Shukhov, the Nobels). | ||
| 1878 | Refrigerator car | A cooled railway car for perishable goods. | ||
| 1879 | Incandescent light bulb Thomas Edison, Joseph Swan | Light from a filament heated by current. Lodygin, Swan and Edison worked on it. | Oil lamp, Gas lamp | LED lamp |
| 1879 | Autoclave Charles Chamberland | Sterilizing with steam under pressure (Chamberland). | ||
| 1879 | Electric locomotive Robert Davidson | A locomotive with electric motors powered from overhead lines (Siemens). | ||
| 1879 | Cash register James Ritty | A machine for recording sales (Ritty). | Self-checkout | |
| 1879 | Hall sensor | Measures a magnetic field using the Hall effect; the compass in a smartphone. | ||
| 1880 | Roller chain | A chain of links with rollers; Hans Renold patented the modern design. | ||
| 1880 | Piezoelectric effect Пьер Кюри, Jacques Curie | A crystal under pressure produces a voltage and vice versa (the Curie brothers). | ||
| 1880 | Pantograph | A linkage that collects current from the overhead wire. | ||
| 1880 | Shutter | A mechanism that lets in light for a set time. | ||
| 1880 | Ultrasound | Sound above the threshold of hearing. | ||
| 1880 | Sprocket | A toothed wheel that engages a chain or a track. | ||
| 1880 | Clutch Carl Benz | A unit that connects and disconnects the engine and the transmission. | ||
| 1881 | Electric car | A car driven by an electric motor powered by an on-board battery. Trouvé’s three-wheeled electric vehicle (1881) is older than Benz’s… | Self-driving car | |
| 1881 | Interferometer | An instrument based on the interference of light (Michelson). | Theory of relativity | |
| 1882 | Electric fan | A fan with an electric motor. | ||
| 1882 | Electrical grid | A system for transmitting and distributing electricity. | Smart grid | |
| 1882 | Power station | A plant that produces electricity; Edison’s Pearl Street. | ||
| 1882 | Combined heat and power plant | A station that produces both electricity and heat. | ||
| 1882 | Thermal power station | A station where turbines are turned by steam from burning fuel. | ||
| 1882 | Culture medium (agar) | Agar for growing bacteria (Hesse, Koch). | ||
| 1883 | Thermostat Warren Seymour Johnson | Keeps a set temperature (bimetal, electronics). | ||
| 1883 | Vending machine | A machine that dispenses goods for a coin; Heron had a prototype. | Heron’s aeolipile | Parking meter |
| 1884 | Turbine | A bladed machine turned by a flow of steam, gas or water. | Heron’s aeolipile, Water wheel | |
| 1884 | Steam turbine | Parsons’s turbine, driven by steam. | Watt steam engine | De Laval nozzle |
| 1884 | Machine gun | Maxim’s automatic weapon. | ||
| 1884 | Fountain pen | A pen with an ink reservoir (Waterman). | Ballpoint pen | |
| 1884 | Nipkow disk | A spinning disc with holes for scanning an image. | ||
| 1885 | Bicycle Karl Drais, Kirkpatrick Macmillan | A two-wheeled machine with a pedal-driven chain to the rear wheel; the modern layout is Starley’s “safety bicycle”. | Drais’s running machine, Rover safety bicycle, Michaux velocipede | Motorcycle, Electric bicycle, Wright Flyer, Moped |
| 1885 | Transformer Michael Faraday | Converts the voltage of alternating current (Yablochkov, Gaulard–Gibbs, ZBD). | ||
| 1885 | Photographic film | A flexible film with a light-sensitive emulsion (Eastman). | ||
| 1885 | Carburettor | Mixes fuel with air before it enters the cylinders. | Fuel injection | |
| 1885 | Motorcycle | A two-wheeled machine with an internal combustion engine. | Bicycle | Sidecar motorcycle |
| 1885 | Bicycle drivetrain | Pedals, cranks, sprockets and chain: they transfer the force of the legs to the rear wheel. | ||
| 1886 | Aluminium Hans Christian Ørsted, Humphry Davy | A light metal; cheap production came with the Hall–Héroult process. | ||
| 1886 | Car Ferdinand Verbiest | A self-propelled vehicle that needs no rails; Benz’s car is considered the first practical one. | Steam carriage, Carriage | Bus, Truck, Armoured car |
| 1886 | Dry cell | A battery with a paste electrolyte (Gassner). | Voltaic pile | Alkaline battery |
| 1886 | Hall–Héroult process | Producing aluminium by electrolysis of molten alumina. | ||
| 1886 | Germanium Clemens Winkler | The semiconductor of the first transistors. | ||
| 1886 | Alternating current | A current that periodically reverses direction; the Tesla–Westinghouse system. | ||
| 1887 | Petri dish Julius Richard Petri | A flat dish for growing microbes. | ||
| 1887 | Wind turbine | A windmill that drives an electric generator. | Windmill | |
| 1887 | Gramophone | Sound recording on a flat disc (Berliner). | Phonograph | Vinyl record |
| 1888 | Electromagnetic waves Heinrich Hertz | Propagating oscillations of the electromagnetic field; proved experimentally by Hertz. | Electromagnetic induction | |
| 1888 | Antenna | Emits and receives radio waves. | ||
| 1888 | Dish antenna | A parabolic reflector that focuses radio waves. | ||
| 1888 | De Laval nozzle | A converging–diverging nozzle that accelerates gas to supersonic speed. | Steam turbine | |
| 1888 | Pneumatic tyre | An inflatable rubber tyre; John Dunlop created the practical design for the bicycle. | ||
| 1888 | Electrolyser | A unit for electrolysis of water. | ||
| 1888 | Induction motor Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky | A motor with a rotating magnetic field (Tesla, Dolivo-Dobrovolsky). | ||
| 1888 | Speedometer | A speed indicator (eddy-current type). | ||
| 1889 | Electricity meter | A device for metering electricity. | Smart meter | |
| 1889 | Water heater | Heats water for the home. | ||
| 1890 | Heating element | A high-resistance conductor that turns current into heat. | ||
| 1890 | Hollerith tabulator | An electromechanical machine for processing census data from punched cards. | Mainframe, Database | |
| 1890 | Hub motor | An electric motor built into a wheel hub. | ||
| 1890 | Matryoshka Vasily Zvyozdochkin | A wooden nesting doll (Zvyozdochkin, Malyutin). | ||
| 1891 | Wing | A surface that generates lift. | ||
| 1891 | Power line | Wires on towers for transmitting power over distance. | ||
| 1891 | Solar water heater | A collector for heating water (Kemp). | ||
| 1892 | Dewar flask | A vacuum vessel for liquefied gases. | Vacuum flask | |
| 1892 | Ironing board | A folding board for ironing. | ||
| 1894 | Transmission (gearbox) | A set of gears that changes the ratio between engine and wheel speed. | ||
| 1894 | Steering wheel | A wheel for steering a car. | ||
| 1895 | Radio | Transmitting signals with electromagnetic waves (Popov, Marconi). | Mobile phone | |
| 1895 | Film projector | Projects film frames onto a screen. | Magic lantern | Digital projector |
| 1895 | X-rays Wilhelm Röntgen | Penetrating radiation (Röntgen). | ||
| 1895 | Player piano | A piano that plays from a perforated roll. | Barrel organ | |
| 1895 | Cinématographe | The Lumières’ camera-projector. | Sewing machine | |
| 1895 | Electric bicycle | A bicycle with an assisting electric motor. | Bicycle | |
| 1895 | Bus | A motor vehicle for carrying passengers. | Car | |
| 1895 | Electric drill | An electric tool for drilling (Wilhelm Fein, 1895). | Bow drill | |
| 1896 | Radioactivity | The spontaneous decay of nuclei (Becquerel, the Curies). | Nuclear fission | |
| 1896 | Truck | A motor vehicle for carrying goods (Daimler). | Car | Ambulance, Amphibious vehicle |
| 1896 | X-ray machine | Images of internal organs. | CT scanner | |
| 1896 | Blood pressure monitor | Measuring blood pressure (Riva-Rocci; Korotkov’s method). | Manometer | Digital blood pressure monitor |
| 1897 | Diesel engine Rudolf Diesel | A combustion engine with compression ignition. | ||
| 1897 | Cathode-ray tube | A picture tube in which an electron beam draws the image (Braun). | Electron | |
| 1897 | Electron Joseph John Thomson | An elementary negatively charged particle (Thomson). | Atomic theory, Cathode-ray tube | |
| 1897 | Surgical mask | A surgeon’s mask (Mikulicz). | Respirator | |
| 1897 | Recoil mechanism | A hydro-pneumatic recoil brake (the French 75 mm gun). | ||
| 1897 | Brake pad Bertha Benz | A brake’s friction lining. | ||
| 1900 | Thermal insulation | Materials that reduce heat loss. | ||
| 1900 | Suspension | Springs and shock absorbers between the wheels and the body. | Leaf spring | |
| 1900 | Kick scooter | Two wheels, a deck and handlebars; moves when you push off with a foot. | Electric scooter | |
| 1900 | Activated carbon | Porous carbon that absorbs impurities. | ||
| 1900 | Surfboard | A board for riding waves. | Snowboard | |
| 1900 | Turnstile | A rotating entry mechanism. |