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Timeline of inventions

Prehistory

  1. 3.3 million years ago
  2. 1 million years ago
  3. 62,000 years ago
    Defence & FortificationII

    Bow & Arrow

    Stored energy released at a distance

  4. 50,000 years ago
  5. 18,000 years ago
    Materials & ChemistryII

    Pottery

    Clay turned to stone by fire

  6. 12,400 years ago
    Food & PreservationII

    Bread

    Ground grain, water and heat

  7. 10,000 years ago
  8. c. 8,400 BCE
  9. c. 7,500 BCE
    Building & CitiesII

    Bricks

    Standard blocks of earth

  10. c. 6,700 BCE
    Textiles & Everyday LifeII

    Weaving

    Threads crossed into cloth

  11. c. 6,050 BCE
  12. c. 6,000 BCE
    Agriculture & LivestockII

    Irrigation

    Leading water to the crops

  13. c. 5,500 BCE
    Food & PreservationII

    Cheese

    Milk that keeps for months

  14. c. 5,000 BCE
    Agriculture & LivestockII

    Plough

    Opening the soil for seed

  15. c. 4,500 BCE
    Materials & ChemistryII

    Charcoal

    Wood cooked slowly under earth

  16. c. 4,200 BCE
    Textiles & Everyday LifeII

    Dyeing

    Colour fixed in the fibre

  17. c. 4,000 BCE
  18. c. 3,500 BCE
  19. c. 3,500 BCE
    Food & PreservationII

    Beer

    Grain sugars fermented into alcohol

  20. c. 3,500 BCE
  21. c. 3,300 BCE
    Materials & ChemistryIII

    Bronze

    Copper and tin, harder together

  22. c. 3,300 BCE
    Writing & CommunicationII

    Writing

    Knowledge that outlives memory

  23. c. 3,200 BCE
    Ships & NavigationII

    Sail

    Catching the wind to move a boat

Antiquity

  1. c. 3,000 BCE
  2. c. 2,800 BCE
    Medicine & HygieneII

    Soap

    Fat and ash against germs

  3. c. 2,500 BCE
    Materials & ChemistryIII

    Glass

    Melted sand you can see through

  4. c. 2,050 BCE
  5. c. 1,500 BCE
    Materials & ChemistryII

    Leather Tanning

    Raw hide, oak bark and months in pits

  6. c. 1,500 BCE
    Time & MeasurementII

    Sundial

    Telling time with a shadow

  7. c. 1,200 BCE
    Materials & ChemistryIII

    Iron Smelting

    Wider adoption around 1200 BCE; ore, charcoal and a bloomery

  8. c. 1,000 BCE
    Materials & ChemistryIII

    Steel

    Iron with just enough carbon

  9. c. 700 BCE
    Agriculture & LivestockII

    Crop Rotation

    Keeping fields fertile year after year

  10. c. 700 BCE
    Textiles & Everyday LifeII

    Lock & Key

    A bolt that only its key frees

  11. c. 690 BCE
    Building & CitiesIII

    Aqueduct

    Water carried by gravity alone

  12. c. 515 BCE
  13. c. 300 BCE
    MechanicsIII

    Gears

    Teeth that trade speed for force

  14. c. 300 BCE
    Energy & Prime MoversIII

    Water Wheel

    A river turned into work

  15. c. 270 BCE
    MechanicsIII

    Piston Pump

    Water raised by valve and piston

  16. c. 200 BCE
  17. c. 150 BCE
    Writing & CommunicationIII

    Paper

    A cheap surface for memory

  18. c. 300
    Materials & ChemistryIII

    Distillation

    Separating liquids by boiling and condensing

  19. c. 480
    Agriculture & LivestockIII

    Horse Collar

    The horse pulls with its shoulders

Middle Ages

  1. c. 850
    Defence & FortificationIII

    Gunpowder

    The explosive behind guns and mining

  2. c. 900
    Energy & Prime MoversIII

    Windmill

    Wind turned into flour

  3. c. 1000
  4. c. 1088
  5. c. 1286
    Optics & ImagingIII

    Eyeglasses

    Lenses that extend a working life

  6. c. 1300
  7. c. 1440
    Writing & CommunicationIII

    Printing Press

    Movable type, copied by the thousand

Renaissance

  1. c. 1460
  2. c. 1590
    Optics & ImagingIV

    Microscope

    A world too small to see

  3. 1608
    Optics & ImagingIV

    Telescope

    Bringing the distant close

  4. c. 1654

Industrial age

  1. 1712
  2. 1783
  3. 1796
    Medicine & HygieneIV

    Vaccination

    Teaching the body in advance

  4. 1800
    Electricity & ElectronicsIV

    Battery

    Chemistry that pushes a current

  5. 1804
  6. 1810
  7. 1817
    Land TransportIV

    Bicycle

    Two wheels driven by the legs

  8. 1824
  9. c. 1827
  10. 1827
    Energy & Prime MoversIV

    Water Turbine

    Falling water turned into electricity

  11. 1830
  12. 1831
  13. 1834
  14. 1834
  15. 1837
  16. 1839
  17. 1846
    Medicine & HygieneIV

    Anaesthesia

    Surgery without pain or awareness

  18. 1847
  19. c. 1848
  20. 1859

Electric age

  1. 1876
  2. 1876
    Writing & CommunicationV

    Telephone

    A voice carried down a wire

  3. 1879
  4. 1884
    Energy & Prime MoversV

    Steam Turbine

    Steam spinning the world's generators

  5. 1885
    Electricity & ElectronicsV

    Transformer

    Raising and lowering the voltage

  6. 1886
    Materials & ChemistryV

    Aluminium

    Alumina turned into metal by electricity

  7. 1887
    Energy & Prime MoversV

    Wind Turbine

    Wind turned into electricity

  8. c. 1895
    Writing & CommunicationV

    Radio

    Messages without wires

  9. 1895
  10. 1903
    AeronauticsV

    Aeroplane

    Lift, thrust and control

  11. 1928
    Medicine & HygieneV

    Penicillin

    An antibiotic made by a mould

Modern age

  1. 1947
    Electricity & ElectronicsV

    Transistor

    A switch without moving parts

  2. 1948
    Electricity & ElectronicsV

    Computer

    A machine with its program in memory

  3. 1954
    Electricity & ElectronicsV

    Solar cell

    Sunlight turned into current

  4. 1968

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