Inventions Category
Radar
Radar stands for ‘Radio Detection and Ranging’ and there were two Scottish physicists who had key roles…
Big Ben
‘Big Ben’ is the nickname given to the hour bell in the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses…
Wave energy
Britain is surrounded by the natural resource of the sea, making the possibility of producing electricity from…
The flushing toilet
Sir John Harington invented the flushing toilet for his own manor house in Somerset and his godmother,…
The mackintosh (mac)
A ‘mac’ is a generic name for a waterproof coat, shortened from ‘mackintosh’. In the early 19th…
Concorde ♥
The concept of a supersonic aeroplane was first discussed in Britain in the late 1950s. By 2003,…
Tarmac
There were three people involved in the invention of tarmac (or tarmacadam), not counting John McAdam from…
Pitman shorthand
Sir Isaac Pitman of Wiltshire, England, invented the Pitman shorthand system in 1837 when he was 24.…
The Bessemer Process
Sir Henry Bessemer, FRS, (1813-98), born in Hertfordshire and mainly self-educated, gave his name to the Bessemer…
Alan Turing
Publicly recognised as a war hero long after his death, Alan Turing, OBE,FRS, was born in London…
Railways
It is said that the railways were the supreme achievement of the Victorian era in Britain. The…
Red buses
Red buses are a feature of the London street scene and an integral part of the public…