Fossil Fuel Technologies

1690: Denis Papin experiments with an atmospheric steam engine.
1698: Thomas Savery develops a simple steam engine.
1709: Abraham Darby extracts coke from bituminous coal.
1712: Thomas Newcome develops the first practical atmospheric steam engine.
1769: James Watt develops an improved condenser for the steam engine.
1770s: First factories are powered by waterwheels.
1782: Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier develop the hot air balloon.
1794: Eli Whitney Patents the Cotton Gin.
1800: Alessandro Volta develops the electric battery.
1820: Hans Oersted discovers electromagnetism.
1825: Stockton-Darlington railway opens.
1830s: Mechanical grain reapers are introduced by Cyrus McCormick and Obed Hussey.
1830s: Steamships make regular crossing of the Atlantic.
1832: Benoit Fourneyron develops the water turbine.
1833: John Lane develops the steel plow.
1837: W. Cooke and C. Wheatstone develop the first electric telegraph.
1838: John Ericsson develops the screw propeller.
1859: Crude oil is discovered in Pennsylvania.
1860: J.J.E. Lenoir develops the first internal combustion engine.
1866: Alfred E. Nobel invents dynamite.
1869: Suez Canal is completed.
1869: US Transcontinental railway is completed.
1870s: Phosphate fertilizer industry begins.
1874: George Eastman invents photographic film.
1876: N.A. Otto develops the four-stroke internal combustion engine.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
1877: Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
1879: Thomas Edison develops the carbon filament lightbulb.
1883: H.S. Maxim invents the machine gun.
1883: Carl Gustav de Laval develops the impulse steam turbine.
1885: Karl Benz build the first practical car.
1887: Heinrich Hertz generates an electromagnetic wave.
1888: Nikola Tesla invents the induction electrical motor.
1892: Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel engine.
1899: Guglielmo Marconi sends the first radio signal across the English Channel.
1901: Willis H. Carrier invents the first industrial air conditioning.
1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first powered flight.
1908: Henry Ford produces the first Model T.
1913: Ford Motor Company introduces the moving production line.
1922: Japan launches the aircraft carrier Hosho.
1923: Vladimir Zworykin invents the electronic camera tube.
1923: Electrolux produces the first electronic refrigerators.
1935: General Electric Corp. introduces fluorescent lights.
1940: Igor Sikorsky invents the helicopter.
1942: Enrico Fermi makes the first controlled atomic chain reaction.
1942: The V-1 Rocket is developed by Werner von Braun.
1944: DDT is marketed.
1947: Bardeen, Brattan and Shockley invent the transistor.
1949: Introduction of the first commercial passenger jet, the DeHaviland Comet.
1950s: Commercial computers.
1950s: Stereo recordings.
1950s: Videotape.
1951: Hydrogen bomb detonated.
1951: First transmission of color TV pictures.
1953: Raytheon Corporation produces the microwave oven.
1954: The nuclear powered submarine Nautilus is launched.
1957: Sputnik is launched.
1958: Texas Instruments develops the first integrated circuit.
1961: First manned space flight.
1962: First transatlantic television transmission by satellite.
1969: Apollo 11 lands on the moon.
1969: Edward Hoff and Intel Corp. develop the microprocessor.
1971: Intel and Texas Instruments introduce the silicon chip.
1976: Voyager spacecraft land on Mars.
1982: Sony and Philips Corporations introduce the CD player.

Resources

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

The Era of Fossil Fuel Energy Sources

1700 to the Present