British inventions and inventors
Britain has a vast number of inventions, all made possible through some great man and woman, our British inventors. These inventions and inventors have moved the world into progress that seemed unbelievable before. The cultural progress, and the world would like very different without this great inventions and their inventors. This are just some of this great inventions.
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1592 The writer Sir John Harrington, developed in the middle ages the first flushing toilet. It would be almost 200 years later when Scottish inventor Alexander Cumming further developed the more modern flushing toilet.
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1668 Sir Isaac Newton invented the reflecting telescope, the first of its kind, so that we can properly observe, analyze and get mesmerized by the stars, the cosmos. Allowing humans to see beyond the stars into the universe.
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1780 The English entrepreneur William Addis is credited with the first mass-produced toothbrush. Today we know his company as wisdom toothbrushes, manufacturing over 70 million toothbrushes a year, in the UK.
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1820 British inventors gave start to recycling, Thomas Hancock who founded the British rubber industry, also invented the rubber masticator, a machine that shredded rubber scraps and which allowed rubber to be recycled.
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1821 Michael Faraday, the English scientist discovered electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis and presented the first demonstration of an electric current being generated in a circular motor.
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1823 Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh invented the waterproof fabric adding a layer of liquid rubber (naphtha, a by-product of tar) a new material that would be resistant to water while also remaining flexible and wearable.
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1825 George Stephenson invented the first steam engine, and the first public railway system, after a series of inventors that contributed to the development of this amazing invention for which we have railways todays
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1826 John Walker from Stockton-on-Tees invented the friction matches, discovered when he lit a match that had been dipped in a lighting mixture by using friction.
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1830 John Loudon McAdam a Scottish civil engineer, who invented the process of macadamisation in road building. A hard stone layer covered in a softer, absorbent surface, as we know it today.
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1835 Henry Fox Talbot, English scientist, inventor of photography. His work on developing images through mechanical and chemical processes led to the further progress which will eventually become photography.
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1847 Joseph Fry transformed a delicious chocolate drink into a more delicious dessert, a chocolate bar. His factory in Gloucestershire produced the oldest chocolate bar, Fry’s Chocolate Cream, still in commerce today.
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1876 The Scottish Alexander Graham Bell scientist and engineer developed the world's first working telephone influenced by the research he conducted on on hearing and speech as both his mother and wife were deaf
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1884 Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the Greenwich Prime Meridian becomes the Prime meridian for the whole world. The first national standard time framework. The time has now a universal guidance.
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1913 Harry Brearley, an English metallurgist, invented stainless steel. In today's world stainless steel has came to improve so many items in the kitchen, bathroom. His invention brought affordable cutlery to the masses
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1926 The Scottish inventor and electrical engineer John Logie Baird gave the world's first demonstration of a working television at his laboratory in London. Furthermore he went on inventing also the first colour television
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1928 Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish physician, discovered in his London laboratory a magnificent discovery the world’s first antibiotic, penicillin. The "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease".
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1955 Peter Hobbs gave the British people and the world an easier way to make tea, the automatic electric kettle. Along Bill Russell he launched the Russell Hobbs company that to this day provides such high quality appliances.
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1991 English computer scientist Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP for which we have free websites today.