By Tim Lambert
The British invented a huge number of things. This is a look at just some of them. There are far too many to include them all!
1698 Thomas Savery made the first steam engine
1701 Jethro Tull invented the seed drill
1733 John Kay invented the flying shuttle
1761 James Harrison invented the marine chronometer
1767 John Spilsbury made the first jigsaw puzzle
1769 James Watt patented a more efficient steam engine. Edward Beran patented Venetian blinds.
1784 Henry Cort invented the puddling process a much better way of making wrought iron
1785 Edmund Cartwright invented a loom that could be powered by a steam engine
1786 Andrew Meikle invented the threshing machine
1792 William Murdoch invented gaslight
1804 Richard Trevithick invented the first steam locomotive on rails. It hauled iron.
1807 Alexander Forsyth patented the percussion cap
1810 Peter Durand invented the tin can
1819 George William Manby invented the modern fire extinguisher
1820 John Macadam invented a new road surface, called macadam after him
1823 Charles Mackintosh patented a waterproof material.
1824 Joseph Aspdin patented portland cement
1825 The first passenger railway in the world opened in Britain
1826 James Sharp invented the gas oven. John Walker invented the friction match.
1830 Edward Beard Budding invented the lawnmower
1831 Michael Faraday invented the dynamo
1839 James Nasmyth invented the steam hammer
1840 Rowland Hill invented the first adhesive postage stamp
1845 Henry Jones patented self-raising flour. Stephen Perry patented the rubber band.
1847 Joseph Fry invented the chocolate bar
1852 John Ramsbottom invented the piston ring
1856 William Henry Perkin invented the first artificial dye. Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer Converter, which allowed the mass production of steel.
1862 Alexander Parkes invented the first plastic, Parkesine
1863 The world’s first underground railway opened in London
1865 Joseph Lister invented antiseptic surgery
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
1878 Joseph Swan invented the electric light bulb
1884 Charles Parsons invented the steam turbine
1885 John Kemp Starley invented the safety bicycle
1888 John Boyd Dunlop invented the first practical pneumatic tyre
1892 James Dewar invented the vacuum flask
1901 Hubert Booth invented the powered vacuum cleaner
1902 Edgar Hooley invented tarmac
1913 Arthur Wynne invented the crossword puzzle. Harry Brearley invented stainless steel.
1916 William Tritton and Walter Wilson invented the tank
1925 John Logie Baird invented television
1930 Frank Whittle invented the jet engine
1934 Percy Shaw invented cat’s eyes for roads
1935 Robert Watson-Watt invented radar
1943 Tommy Flowers designed Colossus, the first programmable, electronic, digital computer
1955 Christopher Cockerell patented the hovercraft. Louis Essen invented the first practical atomic clock.
1959 Alistair Pilkington introduces the float glass process
1967 The world’s first ATM was installed in London. It was invented by John Shepherd-Barron.
1971 Godfrey Hounsfield introduced the CAT scanner
1984 Alec Jeffreys invented DNA fingerprinting
1991 Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web
