Inventions Category
Jethro Tull’s seed drill
Jethro Tull (1674-1741) was born into a wealthy farming family in Berkshire. He began a career in…
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59) certainly had a penchant for ‘big’ and ‘first’ achievements, epitomised in the iconic…
Float glass
Plate glass was initially manufactured in the UK in the thirteenth century by a method which produced…
Logarithms
One of the biggest leaps in mathematics was the invention of logarithms by Edinburgh-born John Napier (1550-1617).…
999 emergency telephone service
The world’s first free emergency telephone service went into operation in 1937 in London. Other numbers such…
Touchscreens
The Royal Radar Establishment in Worcestershire, set up in 1953, was responsible for many innovations in computer…
George and Robert Stephenson
This father-and-son partnership were the pioneers of the railways. George Stephenson (1781-1848) never went to school but…
Ultrasound scanning
Ian Donald, CBE (1910-87) was born in Cornwall and, although he was always interested in machines and…
James Watt and the steam engine
Devon-born Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729) was among the early inventors of small steam engines and his beam engine,…
The pedal bicycle
James Starley (1830-81) from West Sussex was the pioneer of the modern pedal bicycle, along with his…
Boolean algebra
Boolean algebra, or logic, is named after George Boole (1815-64), a gifted mathematician and philosopher. Born in…
The typewriter
The first patent for a typewriter was granted in 1714 to Henry Mill (1683-1771) from southern England.…