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

Free flashcards from Peabody at peabody.kids/flashcards/world-inventions-timeline