The Industrial Revolution

1700-1900

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 patenets 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.

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