The First Industrial Revolution: Textiles and Steam: 1712-1830
· 1712: The Newcomen steam engine.
· 1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle.
· 1764: James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny.
· 1769: Richard Arkwright patents the water frame.
· James Watt patents a series of improvements on the Newcomen engine making it more efficient.
· 1779: Samuel Crompton perfects the spinning mule.
· 1785: Edmund Cartwright patents a power loom.
· 1793: Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin.
· 1807: Robert Fulton begins steamboat service on the Hudson River.
· 1830: George Stephenson begins rail service between Liverpool and London.
The Spread of the Industrial Revolution: 1830-1875
· 1840: Samuel Cunard begins transatlantic steamship service.
· 1856: Henry Bessemer develops the Bessemer converter.
· 1859: The first commercial oil well is drilled in Pennsylvania.
· 1866: The Siemens brothers improve steelmaking by developing the open hearth furnace.
The Second Industrial Revolution: Electricity and Chemicals: 1875-1905
· 1836: Samuel F. B. Morse invents the telegraph.
· 1866: Cyrus Field lays the first successful transatlantic cable.
· 1876: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
· 1879: Thomas Edison invents the indandescent light bulb.
· 1892: Rudolf Diesel patents the diesel engine.
· 1899: Guglielmo Marconi invents the wireless.
· 1903: The Wright Brothers make the first successful airplane flight.