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Fire control Early humans used fire for warmth and cooking, hundreds of thousands of years ago world-inventions-timeline
Wheel Mesopotamia, about 3500 BCE world-inventions-timeline
Writing Sumer's cuneiform and Egypt's hieroglyphs, about 3200 BCE world-inventions-timeline
Plow Early farmers in Mesopotamia and Egypt world-inventions-timeline
Bronze Metal alloy of copper and tin, about 3300 BCE world-inventions-timeline
Paper China, improved by Cai Lun about 105 CE world-inventions-timeline
Papyrus Egyptian writing material from a river plant world-inventions-timeline
Alphabet Developed by Phoenician traders, about 1050 BCE world-inventions-timeline
Coins Lydia (in modern Turkey), about 600 BCE world-inventions-timeline
Aqueduct Romans perfected water-carrying bridges world-inventions-timeline
Concrete Romans widely used it in building world-inventions-timeline
Compass China, used for navigation by about 1100 CE world-inventions-timeline
Gunpowder China, about 900 CE world-inventions-timeline
Woodblock printing China, by the 600s-700s CE world-inventions-timeline
Movable type Bi Sheng in China (about 1040); Gutenberg in Europe (about 1450) world-inventions-timeline
Eyeglasses Italy, late 1200s world-inventions-timeline
Mechanical clock Europe, 1200s-1300s world-inventions-timeline
Printing press Johannes Gutenberg, about 1450 world-inventions-timeline
Telescope Dutch lens makers, about 1608; Galileo improved it world-inventions-timeline
Microscope Dutch makers around 1590s; Leeuwenhoek used one to see microbes world-inventions-timeline
Thermometer Galileo and others in the early 1600s; Fahrenheit's mercury version in 1714 world-inventions-timeline
Barometer Evangelista Torricelli, 1643 world-inventions-timeline
Steam engine Newcomen 1712; Watt improved it in the 1770s world-inventions-timeline
Lightning rod Benjamin Franklin, 1752 world-inventions-timeline
Hot air balloon Montgolfier brothers, 1783 world-inventions-timeline
Vaccine Edward Jenner, smallpox vaccine, 1796 world-inventions-timeline
Battery Alessandro Volta, 1800 world-inventions-timeline
Cotton gin Eli Whitney, 1793 world-inventions-timeline
Steamboat Robert Fulton, 1807 world-inventions-timeline
Locomotive George Stephenson built practical steam locomotives in the 1810s-1820s world-inventions-timeline
Photography Daguerreotype process announced in 1839 world-inventions-timeline
Telegraph Samuel Morse, 1830s-1840s world-inventions-timeline
Sewing machine Elias Howe, 1846, improved by Isaac Singer world-inventions-timeline
Safety elevator Elisha Otis, 1850s world-inventions-timeline
Pasteurization Louis Pasteur, 1860s world-inventions-timeline
Dynamite Alfred Nobel, 1867 world-inventions-timeline
Typewriter Christopher Sholes, 1868 world-inventions-timeline
Telephone Alexander Graham Bell, 1876 world-inventions-timeline
Phonograph Thomas Edison, 1877 world-inventions-timeline
Light bulb Thomas Edison and others, 1879 world-inventions-timeline
Automobile Karl Benz, 1885-86 world-inventions-timeline
Pneumatic tire John Boyd Dunlop, 1888 world-inventions-timeline
Motion pictures Lumiere brothers, 1895 world-inventions-timeline
Radio Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraph, 1890s world-inventions-timeline
X-rays Wilhelm Rontgen, 1895 world-inventions-timeline
Airplane Wright brothers, 1903 world-inventions-timeline
Model T Henry Ford, 1908 world-inventions-timeline
Zipper Gideon Sundback improved it in 1913 world-inventions-timeline
Television Philo Farnsworth demonstrated all-electronic TV in 1927 world-inventions-timeline
Penicillin Alexander Fleming, 1928 world-inventions-timeline
Jet engine Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain, 1930s world-inventions-timeline
Helicopter Igor Sikorsky's practical helicopter, 1939-1940 world-inventions-timeline
Computer (ENIAC) First large general-purpose electronic computer, 1945 world-inventions-timeline
Transistor Bell Labs, 1947 world-inventions-timeline
Microwave oven Percy Spencer, 1945-47 world-inventions-timeline
Polio vaccine Jonas Salk, 1955 world-inventions-timeline
Satellite Sputnik 1, 1957 world-inventions-timeline
Integrated circuit Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce, late 1950s world-inventions-timeline
Laser Theodore Maiman built the first working laser in 1960 world-inventions-timeline
Moon landing Apollo 11, 1969 world-inventions-timeline
ARPANET Early network that led to the Internet, 1969 world-inventions-timeline
Email Ray Tomlinson sent the first network email in 1971 world-inventions-timeline
Personal computer Altair 8800 (1975); Apple II (1977) world-inventions-timeline
Cell phone Martin Cooper made the first handheld mobile phone call in 1973 world-inventions-timeline
Compact disc Introduced in 1982 world-inventions-timeline
World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee, 1989-1991 world-inventions-timeline
Web browser Mosaic in 1993 helped the Web take off world-inventions-timeline
GPS US satellite navigation system fully operational in the 1990s world-inventions-timeline
Smartphone Early models in the 1990s; iPhone in 2007 world-inventions-timeline
3D printing Chuck Hull invented stereolithography in 1984 world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of the safety pin Walter Hunt, 1849 world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of the Braille system Louis Braille, 1820s world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of the stethoscope Rene Laennec, 1816 world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of the bifocal lens Benjamin Franklin, around 1784 world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of the crayon Binney & Smith began making Crayola crayons in 1903 world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of basketball James Naismith, 1891 world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of the traffic light signal Garrett Morgan patented an improved signal in 1923 world-inventions-timeline
Inventor of the Super Soaker Lonnie Johnson, 1980s world-inventions-timeline