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List of English inventions and discoveries

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{{use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}

{{Culture of England}}

English inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques invented, innovated or discovered, partially or entirely, in England by a person from England. Often, things discovered for the first time are also called inventions and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two. Nonetheless, science and technology in England continued to develop rapidly in absolute terms. Furthermore, according to a Japanese research firm, over 40% of the world's inventions and discoveries were made in the UK, followed by France with 24% of the world's inventions and discoveries made in France and followed by the US with 20%.{{Cite web |last=Deary |first=Terry |title=Great British Inventions |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Great-British-Inventions/ |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=Historic UK |language=en-GB}}

The following is a list of inventions, innovations or discoveries known or generally recognised to be English.

{{Dynamic list}}

Agriculture

File:Jethro Tull (agriculturist).jpg, improved the seed drill in 1701]]

|url = http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0006239.html

|title = Tiscali encyclopaedia: Seed drill

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060709145302/http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0006239.html

|archive-date = 2006-07-09

}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/tull_jethro.shtml|title=Jethro Tull (1674–1741)|publisher=BBC|access-date=2011-11-09}}{{cite book|title=The Cambridge economic history of modern Britain|first=Roderick|last=Floud|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-521-52736-1|page=128}}

  • 1780s: Selective breeding and artificial selection pioneered by Robert Bakewell (1725–1795).{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bakewell_robert.shtml|title=Robert Bakewell (1725–1795) |work=BBC }}
  • 1842: Superphosphate or chemical fertilizer developed by John Bennet Lawes (1814–1900).{{cite web|url=http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Lawes-Si |title=superphosphate-John Bennet Lawes |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002122816/http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Lawes-Si |archive-date=2012-10-02 }}
  • 1850s: Steam-driven ploughing engine invented by John Fowler (1826–1864).{{cite web

|url = http://www.steamploughclub.org.uk/history.htm

|title = steamploughclub:Steam-driven ploughing engine-John Fowler

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100612025329/http://www.steamploughclub.org.uk/history.htm

|archive-date = 2010-06-12

}}

  • 1901: First commercially successful light farm-tractor invented by Dan Albone (1860–1906).{{Cite web|url=https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10307483&wwwflag=2&imagepos=1|title=Image of dan albone, english inventor, 1902. by Science & Society Picture Library|website=www.scienceandsociety.co.uk}}
  • 1930s onwards: Developments in dairy farming systems pioneered by Rex Paterson (1902–1978).{{Citation |title=Paterson, Rex (1955). Fertilizer Distribution – Problems of Corrosion Prevention on the Farm. The International Fertilizer Society (Proceeding 32).}}

Ceramics

  • 1748: Fine porcelain developed by Thomas Frye (c. 1710–1762), of Bow porcelain factory, London.Frye's epitaph, describing him as "the inventor and first manufacturer of porcelain in England" published in Supplement to The Gentleman's Magazine for the Year 1764, p. 638. Cf. Frye's rivals at Chelsea porcelain factory.
  • 1770s: Jasperware developed by Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795).{{cite magazine|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wedgwood_josiah.shtml |title=Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795) |magazine=BBC History |access-date=28 June 2016 }}
  • 1789–1793: Bone china created by Josiah Spode (1733–1797).{{cite journal |last=Ozgundogdu |first=Feyza Cakir |date=May 2005 |title=Bone China from Turkey |journal=Ceramics Technical |volume=20 |pages=29–32 }}
  • 1813: Ironstone china invented by Charles James Mason (1791–1856).{{cite journal|title=Mason's Ironstone Retains Its Decorative Tradition|journal=International Tableware|year=1991|volume=21|issue=3}}

Clock making

File:Anchor escapement.png, c. 1657]]

  • Anglo-Saxon times: type of candle clock invented by Alfred the Great (849–899).{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://kids.britannica.com/clockworks/t_candle.html |title=Candle clock |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=6 January 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126001057/http://kids.britannica.com/clockworks/t_candle.html |archive-date=26 November 2015 }}
  • c. 1657: Anchor escapement probably invented by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).{{cite web|url=http://www.abbeyclock.com/anchor.html |title=The Origin and Evolution of the Anchor Clock Escapement |publisher=Abbey Clock |access-date=14 January 2016 }}
  • c. 1657: Balance spring added to balance wheel by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).A. R. Hall, "Horology and criticism: Robert Hooke", Studia Copernicana, XVI, Ossolineum, 1978, 261–81{{cite book|title=A Biographical Dictionary of People in Engineering: From the Earliest Records to 2000|first=Carl|last=Hall|year=2008|publisher=Purdue University Press|isbn=978-1-55753-459-0}}
  • c. 1722: Grasshopper escapement invented by John Harrison (1693–1776); Harrison created the H1, H2, H3 & H4 watches (to solve the longitude measurement problem).{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1864737.stm |title=Longitude clock comes alive

|date=2002-03-11 | work=BBC News | access-date=2010-01-03}}

  • c. 1726: Gridiron pendulum invented by John Harrison (1693–1776).
  • c. 1755: Lever escapement, the greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watches, invented by Thomas Mudge (1715–1794).
  • 1761: First true Marine chronometer perfected by John Harrison (1693–1776).
  • 1923: Self-winding watch invented by John Harwood (1893–1964).{{cite web|url=http://www.atquid.com/viewArticle.php?article_id=59&title=The_Harwood_Automatic_Wristwatch |title=The Harwood Pioneer Automatic Wristwatch |access-date=2012-05-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622180532/http://www.atquid.com/viewArticle.php?article_id=59&title=The_Harwood_Automatic_Wristwatch |archive-date=June 22, 2015 }}
  • 1955: First accurate atomic clock invented by Louis Essen (1908–1997).

{{Cite journal |author1=L. Essen |author2=J.V.L. Parry |year=1955 |title=An Atomic Standard of Frequency and Time Interval: A Caesium Resonator |journal=Nature |volume=176 |issue=4476 |pages=280–282 |doi=10.1038/176280a0 |bibcode=1955Natur.176..280E |s2cid=4191481 }}

Clothing manufacturing

File:La revolucion industrial.jpg, invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves]]

  • 1759: The Derby Rib machine (for stocking manufacture) invented by Jedediah Strutt (1726–1797).{{cite web|url=http://www.knittingtogether.org.uk/doc.asp?doc=14056&cat=665 |title=Jedediah Strutt (1726–1797) – Inventor of the Derby Rib Machine |publisher=Knitting Together |access-date=10 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923121040/http://www.knittingtogether.org.uk/doc.asp?doc=14056&cat=665 |archive-date=23 September 2006 }}
  • 1764: The spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves (c. 1720–1778).
  • 1767: Spinning frame invented by John Kay of Warrington.
  • 1769: The water frame, a water-powered spinning frame, developed by Richard Arkwright (1732–1792).
  • 1775–1779: Spinning mule invented by Samuel Crompton (1753–1827).
  • 1784: Power loom invented by Edmund Cartwright (1743–1823).
  • 1790: Sewing machine invented by Thomas Saint.{{cite book|title=Did Thomas Crapper Really Invent the Toilet?: The Inventions That Changed Our Homes and Our Lives|author=Catherine O'Reilly|year=2008|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|isbn=978-1-60239-347-9|url=https://archive.org/details/didthomascrapper00orei}}
  • 1808: The bobbinet, a development on the warp-loom, invented by John Heathcoat (1783–1861).
  • 1856: Mauveine, the first synthetic organic dye, discovered by William Henry Perkin (1838–1907).
  • 1941: Polyester invented by John Rex Whinfield (1901–1966).

Communications

  • Pre-1565: The pencil invented in Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumbria, using Grey Knotts graphite.
  • 1588: Modern shorthand invented by Timothy Bright (1551?–1615).
  • 1661: The postmark (called the "Bishop Mark") introduced by English Postmaster General Henry Bishop (1611–1691/2).{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A1082558 |title=History of the Postal Service |publisher=BBC |date=2003-07-24 |access-date=2009-02-22}}
  • 1667: Tin can telephone, a device that conveyed sounds over an extended wire by mechanical vibrations, invented by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).{{Cite web|url=http://www.roberthooke.org.uk/micro2.htm|title=Micrographia – Extracts From The Preface|access-date=15 July 2010|archive-date=21 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721015647/http://www.roberthooke.org.uk/micro2.htm|url-status=dead}}
  • 1714: Patent for an apparatus regarded as the first typewriter granted to Henry Mill (c. 1683–1771).{{cite book|title=Type and typography|author1=Phil Baines|author2=Andrew Haslam|year=2005|publisher=Laurence King|isbn=978-1-85669-437-7}}
  • 18th century: The Valentine's card first popularised.{{cite web|url=http://www.emotionscards.com/museum/vals.html|title=The History of Valentine's Day Cards ~ Valentine History ~ The Valentine Gallery Page One – Emotions Greeting Cards Museum|website=Emotionscards.com|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1822: The mechanical pencil patented by Sampson Mordan (1790–1843) and John Isaac Hawkins (1772–1855).{{cite book|title=Pen, ink, & evidence: a study of writing and writing materials for the penman, collector, and document detective|author=Joe Nickell|author-link=Joe Nickell|year=2000|publisher=Oak Knoll Press|isbn=978-1-58456-017-3}}
  • 1831: Electromagnetic induction & Faraday's law of induction. Began as a series of experiments by Michael Faraday (1791–1867); later became some of the first experiments in the discovery of radio waves and the development of radio.{{cite web|url=http://www.theiet.org/about/libarc/archives/biographies/faraday.cfm |title=Archives Biographies: Michael Faraday", The Institution of Engineering and Technology |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929004417/http://www.theiet.org/about/libarc/archives/biographies/faraday.cfm |archive-date=2011-09-29 }}
  • 1837: The first commercially successful electric telegraph developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875) and Sir William Fothergill Cooke (1806–1879).{{Cite web|url=http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/johntawell.php.html|title=Telegraphy Collection|website=www.cntr.salford.ac.uk}}
  • 1837: Pitman Shorthand invented by Isaac Pitman (1813–1897).

File:Penny Black VR.jpg, invented by Sir Rowland Hill, 1840]]

|url = http://windupradio.com/trevor.htm

|title = About TREVOR BAYLIS the inventor of the windup technology

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110924092817/http://windupradio.com/trevor.htm

|archive-date = 2011-09-24

}}

  • 3 December 1992: The world's first text/SMS message ("Merry Christmas") sent over the Vodafone GSM network by Neil Papworth (born 1969).
  • 2016: Holographic TV device created by the BBC.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/408fb9a1-0891-463e-93f2-0310718d60b6 |title=BBC experiments with 'Holographic' TV |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=22 September 2016 |access-date=6 January 2017}}

Computing

File:Tim Berners-Lee-Knight-crop.jpg, invented the World Wide Web in 1989]]

File:CharlesBabbage.jpg", Charles Babbage (1791–1871)]]

File:FGalton.jpg, developed fingerprint classification method, 1888]]

Criminology

Cryptography

Engineering

  • 1327-1356: The first astronomical clock in Europe (before the famous prague astronomical clock, designed and engineered by Jan Sindel, a medieval Czech polymath and priest) came from medieval England, where it was designed and engineered by the medieval English polymath and abbot, Richard of Wallingford, whose contributions to mechanical engineering are very relevant till this very day. Richard of Wallingford also engineered astronomical calculating devices and machinery such as the albion and the rectangulus. The rectangulus was an astronomical instrument made by Richard of Wallingford around 1326. Dissatisfied with the limitations of existing astrolabes, Richard developed the rectangulus as an instrument for spherical trigonometry and to measure the angles between planets and other astronomical bodies.[1][2] The Albion is an astronomical instrument invented by Richard of Wallingford at the beginning of the 14th century.[5] It has various functional uses such as that of the equatorium for planetary and conjunction computations. It can calculate when eclipses will occur. The Albion is made up of 18 different scales which makes it extremely complex in comparison to the equatorium. His expertise in astronomy, mathematics, mechanical engineering, horology while also being a prominent catholic theologian is genuinely incredible and innovative.
  • 1600: The first electrical measuring instrument, the electroscope, invented by William Gilbert (1544–1603).
  • 1676–1678: First working universal joint devised by Robert Hooke (1635–1703).
  • 1698: First working steam pump invented by Thomas Savery (c. 1650–1715).{{cite book|title=A to Z of STS scientists|author=Elizabeth H. Oakes|publisher=Facts on File Inc|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8160-4606-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/tozofstsscientis0000oake}}
  • 1709: First coke-consuming blast furnace developed by Abraham Darby I (1678–1717).

File:Newcomen atmospheric engine animation.gif, invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712]]

File:The Iron Bridge (6922612520).jpg, built by Abraham Darby III, 1781]]

Household appliances

File:Sir John Harington (1561-1612).png, invented the modern flushing toilet, 1596]]

  • 13th century: Magnifying glass defined by Roger Bacon (c.?1214-c.?1292).
  • Before 1596: Modern flushing toilet invented by John Harington (1560–1612).{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1120126.stm|title=Toilet museum flush with lottery cash|date=16 January 2001|access-date=2010-12-06|work=BBC News}} The term 'John', used particularly in the US, is generally accepted as a direct reference to its inventor.{{Citation | author=Kinghorn, Jonathan | title=A Privvie in Perfection: Sir John Harrington's Water Closet | journal=Bath History | volume=1 | year=1986 | pages=173–188 | postscript=. }} {{ISBN|0-86299-294-X}}.
  • 1733: Perambulator developed by William Kent (c. 1685–1748).{{cite book|title=The book of firsts|first=Patrick|last=Robertson|year=1974|publisher=Crown Publishers|isbn=978-0-517-51577-8|url=https://archive.org/details/bookoffirsts00robe}}
  • 1780: First mass-produced toothbrush produced by William Addis (1734–1808).{{cite web|publisher=The Library of Congress|date=2007-04-04|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/tooth.html|title=Who invented the toothbrush and when was it invented?|access-date=2008-04-12}}{{cite web|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/dstartinventions/a/dentistry_2.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713172145/http://inventors.about.com/od/dstartinventions/a/dentistry_2.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 July 2012|title=Who Invented the Toothbrush?|website=Inventors.about.com|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1795: First corkscrew patent granted to the Reverend Samuel Henshall (1764/5–1807).
  • 1810: Tin can for food preservation patented by merchant Peter Durand (dates not known).
  • 1818: Modern fire extinguisher invented by George William Manby (1765–1854).
  • 1828: Thermosiphon, which forms the basis of most modern central heating systems, invented by Thomas Fowler (1777–1843).
  • 1830: Lawn mower invented by Edwin Beard Budding (1796–1846).{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/nonflash_georgianregency4.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216212228/http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/nonflash_georgianregency4.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=2010-02-16|title=History of British Gardening Series – Georgian and Regency era| access-date = 2018-11-09 }}
  • 1836: The Daniell cell – a type of electrochemical cell; an element of an electric battery – invented by John Frederic Daniell (1790–1845).{{cite web| author=James B. Calvert| title=The Electromagnetic Telegraph| url=http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/tel/morse/morse.htm| access-date=2010-07-30 }}
  • 1840: Postage stamp invented by Sir Rowland Hill (1795–1879).
  • 1845: Rubber band patented by inventor Stephen Perry (dates not known).{{Cite book |title=The Hancocks of Marlborough: Rubber, Art and the Industrial Revolution – A Family of Inventive Genius |year= 2009 |page= 89 |author3=MacLeod, Christine |issue=9 |first1= John |volume=63 |last1= Loadman |journal=Physics Today |first2= Francis |last2= James |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=K7Qb_og24WYC&q=%22Messers+Perry+and+Co%22&pg=PA89 |isbn= 978-0-19-957355-4 |doi=10.1063/1.3490505 |bibcode=2010PhT....63i..58L |doi-access= free }}
  • 1878: Incandescent light bulb invented by Joseph Wilson Swan (1828–1914).{{cite book|title=1000 Lights: 1878–1959|editor=Charlotte Fiell|editor2=Peter Fiell|isbn=978-3-8228-1606-6|publisher=Taschen GmbH|year=2005}}{{cite book|title=Gene cartels: biotech patents in the age of free trade|url=https://archive.org/details/genecartels00palo|url-access=limited|author=Luigi Palombi|page=[https://archive.org/details/genecartels00palo/page/n167 152]|year=2009|publisher=Edward Elgar Pub|isbn=978-1-84720-836-1}}
  • 1884: Light switch invented by John Henry Holmes (dates not known) in Shieldfield.
  • 1899: Little Nipper Mouse trap invented by James Henry Atkinson (1849–1942).
  • Late-19th century: Commercially produced electric toaster developed by R. E. B. Crompton (1845–1940).
  • Late-19th century: Modern pay toilet invented by John Nevil Maskelyne (1839–1917); Maskelyne invented a lock for London toilets, which required a penny to operate, hence the euphemism "spend a penny".
  • 1901: First powered vacuum cleaner invented by Hubert Cecil Booth (1871–1955).{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1515776.stm|title=Sucking up to the vacuum cleaner|date=2001-08-30|work=BBC News|access-date=2010-12-06}}{{cite web|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2006/4/2006_4_4.shtml|title=The Vacuum Cleaner|author=Curt Wohleber|date=Spring 2006|access-date=2010-12-08|work=Invention & Technology Magazine|publisher=American Heritage Publishing|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313170420/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2006/4/2006_4_4.shtml|archive-date=2010-03-13}}{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of modern everyday inventions|first1=David|last1=Cole|first2=Eve|last2=Browning|first3=Fred|last3=E. H. Schroeder|year=2003|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-31345-5}}
  • Before 1902: First practical Teasmade designed by clockmaker Albert E. Richardson (dates not known) of Ashton-under-Lyne.
  • Before 1920: Folding carton invented by Charles Henry Foyle (died 1948).
  • 1924: First modern dishwasher invented by William Howard Livens (1889–1964){{cite web|url=http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=FR&NR=579765&KC=&FT=E|title=Espacenet – Bibliographic data|website=V3.espacenet.com|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1955: First fully automatic electric kettle produced by manufacturer Russell Hobbs of Failsworth, Greater Manchester.
  • 1963: Lava lamp invented by accountant Edward Craven Walker.
  • 1965: Collapsible baby buggy produced by Owen Finlay Maclaren (1907–1978).
  • 1983: "Bagless" vacuum cleaner invented by James Dyson (born 1947).{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1802155.stm|title=James Dyson: Business whirlwind|date=5 February 2002|access-date=2010-12-06|work=BBC News}}

Industrial processes

File:IKBrunelChains.jpg, a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution]]

Medicine

File:Eduard Jenner.jpg, invented the smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, in 1798]]

  • Anglo-Saxon times: The earliest pharmacopoeia in English (Cotton Vitellius, MS C. iii).{{cite journal|pmc=1044312 |title=The Old English illustrated pharmacopoeia: British Library Cotton Vitellius CIII |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=433–434 |journal=Medical History|doi=10.1017/S0025727300066989|year=2000 |last1=Robinson |first1=P. }}
  • 1628: First correct description of circulation of the blood in De Motu Cordis by William Harvey (1578–1657).{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/harvey_william.shtml|publisher=BBC|title=William Harvey (1578–1657)|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • 18th century: Invention of surgical forceps attributed to Stephen Hales (1677–1761).Scientific American inventions and discoveries By Rodney P. Carlisle
  • c. 1711: First blood pressure measurement and first cardiac catheterisation by Stephen Hales (1677–1761).{{cite journal |author=West JB |title=Stephen Hales: neglected respiratory physiologist |journal=Journal of Applied Physiology |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=635–9 |date=September 1984 |pmid=6386767 |doi=10.1152/jappl.1984.57.3.635}}
  • 1763: Aspirin's active ingredient discovered by Edward Stone (1702–1768).
  • 1770s: Isolation of fibrin, a key protein in the blood coagulation process; investigation of the structure of the lymphatic system; and description of red blood cells by surgeon William Hewson (1739–1774), so-called "father of haematology".
  • 1775: First demonstration that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen by Percivall Pott (1714–1788), also a founding father of orthopedy.{{cite journal |author=Androutsos G |title=The outstanding British surgeon Percivall Pott (1714–1789) and the first description of an occupational cancer |journal=Journal of the Balkan Union of Oncology |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=533–9 |year=2006 |pmid=17309190}}
  • 1778: The first Inhaler created by John Mudge (1721–1793){{cite web |url=https://www.everydayhealth.com/lung-respiratory/asthma/look-history-asthma-inhalers/ |title=A Look at the History of Asthma Inhalers |date=26 July 2022 }}
  • 1794: Colour blindness first described in a paper titled "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours" by John Dalton (1766–1844).{{cite journal | last1 = Dalton | first1 = J | year = 1798 | title = Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours: with observations | journal = Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester | volume = 5 | pages = 28–45 }}
  • 1798: Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, invented by Edward Jenner (1749–1823); in so doing, Jenner is said to have "saved more lives [. . .] than were lost in all the wars of mankind since the beginning of recorded history."{{Cite book|title=Edward Jenner, the Cheltenham years, 1795–1823|last=Saunders|first=Paul|year=1982|publisher=University Press of New England|isbn=978-0-87451-215-1|url=https://archive.org/details/edwardjennerchel0000saun}}{{cite book |title=Conqueror of smallpox: Dr. Edward Jenner|url=https://archive.org/details/conquerorofsmall00levi|url-access=registration|last=Levine|first=Israel E.|year=1960|publisher=Messner|isbn=978-0-671-63888-7}}
  • 1800: Anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide (entonox/"laughing gas") discovered by Humphry Davy (1778–1829).Morris Fishbein, M.D., ed (1976). "Anesthesia". The New Illustrated Medical and Health Encyclopedia. 1 (Home Library Edition ed.). New York, N.Y. 10016: H. S. Stuttman Co. pp. 89
  • 1817: First description of (what would come to be called) Parkinson's disease in "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" by James Parkinson (1755–1824).{{cite web|url=http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/about_parkinsons/what_is_parkinsons/dr_james_parkinson.aspx|title=Dr James Parkinson|publisher=Parkinson's Disease Society of the United Kingdom|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • 1818 or 1829: First successful blood transfusion performed by James Blundell (1791–1878).{{cite web|url=http://www.bjhm.co.uk/cgi-bin/go.pl/library/abstract.html?uid=24500|title=James Blundell, pioneer of blood transfusion|publisher=British Journal of Hospital Medicine|author=Professor Harold Ellis|date=August 2007|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • 1819: First accurate description of hay fever by John Bostock (1773–1846).{{cite web|title=The History of Allergy |publisher=Auckland Allergy Clinic |date=December 2001 |url=http://www.allergyclinic.co.nz/guides/39.html |access-date=2008-11-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014035353/http://www.allergyclinic.co.nz/guides/39.html |archive-date=2008-10-14 }}
  • 1847: Ophthalmoscope conceived by Charles Babbage (1791–1871).
  • 1850s: Location of the source of cholera by pioneer of anaesthesia and "father of epidemiology" John Snow (1813–1858).
  • 1850s: General anaesthetic pioneered by Englishman John Snow (1813–1858) and Scotsman James Young Simpson.{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/snow_john.shtml|publisher=BBC|title=John Snow (1813–1858)|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • 1850s onwards: Treatment of epilepsy pioneered by Edward Henry Sieveking (1816–1904).
  • 1858: First publication of Gray's Anatomy, widely regarded as the first complete human-anatomy textbook, by Henry Gray (1827–1861).

File:Florence Nightingale.jpg, pioneered modern nursing, from 1860 onwards]]

  • 1860 onwards: Modern nursing pioneered by Florence Nightingale (1820–1910).
  • 1867: Antisepsis in surgery invented by Joseph Lister (1827–1912).
  • 1867: Clinical thermometer devised by Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836–1925)."1866." The People's Chronology. Ed. Jason M. Everett. Thomson Gale, 2006. eNotes.com. 2006. 13 May 2007 <{{cite web |url=http://history.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1866/medicine |title=1866 | Medicine: The People's Chronology |access-date=2007-05-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20071012053215/http://history.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1866/medicine |archive-date=2007-10-12 }}>
  • 1887: First practical ECG machine invented by Augustus Waller of St Mary's Hospital in London.{{cite journal | author = Waller AD | title = A demonstration on man of electromotive changes accompanying the heart's beat | journal = J Physiol | volume = 8 | issue = 5 | pages = 229–34 | year = 1887 | pmid = 16991463 | pmc = 1485094 | doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1887.sp000257}}
  • 1898: The mosquito identified as the carrier of malaria by Sir Ronald Ross (1857–1932).
  • 1901: Amino acid Tryptophan discovered by Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861–1947).
  • 1902: First typhoid vaccine developed by Almroth Wright (1861–1947).{{cite web|url=http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/news/p71909/|title=The life and work of Sir Almroth Wright honoured in Centenary lecture|publisher=Imperial College London|date=19 September 2007|access-date=2010-12-06|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329115711/http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/news/p71909/|archive-date=29 March 2012}}
  • 1912: Vitamins discovered by Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861–1947).
  • 1915: Acetylcholine (ACh) identified by Sir Henry Hallett Dale (1875–1968) for its action on heart tissue.
  • 1937 onwards: Protein crystallography developed by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910–1994); Hodgkin solved the structures of cholesterol (1937), penicillin (1946), and vitamin B12 (1956), for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964; in 1969, she succeeded in solving the structure of insulin, on which she worked for over thirty years.{{cite journal|author=Crowfoot Hodgkin D|author-link=Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin|date = 1935|title=X-ray Single Crystal Photographs of Insulin|journal=Nature|volume=135|pages=591–592|doi=10.1038/135591a0|issue=3415|bibcode = 1935Natur.135..591C |s2cid=4121225|doi-access=free}}
  • 1937: Discovery of the Citric acid cycle ("Krebs Cycle") by German-born (naturalised) British physician and biochemist Hans Adolf Krebs (1900–1981) at the University of Sheffield.
  • 1940s: Groundbreaking research on the use of penicillin in the treatment of venereal disease carried out in London by Jack Suchet (1908–2001) with Scottish scientist Sir Alexander Fleming.
  • 1941: Crucial first steps in the mass production of penicillin made by Norman Heatley (1911–2004).
  • 1949: Diagnostic ultrasound first used to assess the thickness of bowel tissue by English-born physicist John J. Wild (1914–2009), so-called "father of medical ultrasound".{{cite journal |doi=10.1136/bmj.b4428 |title=John Wild |year=2009 |last1=Watts |first1=G. |journal=BMJ |volume=339 |pages=b4428|s2cid=220114494 }}
  • 1949–1950: Artificial intraocular lens transplant surgery for cataract patients developed by Harold Ridley (1906–2001).{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-harold-ridley-729214.html|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=2010-12-06|title=Sir Harold Ridley|location=London|date=2001-06-13}}{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
  • Late 1950s: Peak Flow Meter invented by Martin Wright (1912–2001), also the creator of the Syringe Driver.
  • 1960 onwards: The hip replacement operation (in which a stainless steel stem and 22mm head fit into a polymer socket and both parts are fixed into position by PMMA cement) pioneered by John Charnley (1911–1982).
  • 1960s: First use of sodium cromoglycate for asthma prophylaxis associated with Roger Altounyan (1922–1987).{{cite journal |author=Orr, T. S. C. |title=Roger Altounyan: the man and his work |journal=Respiratory Medicine |volume=83 |issue=Supplement |pages=3–6 |date=May 1989 |pmid= 2514447|doi=10.1016/s0954-6111(89)80243-4}}
  • 1967 onwards: Computed Tomography and first commercial CT scanner invented by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield (1919–2004) in Hayes, Middlesex, at EMI Central Research Laboratories.
  • 1969–1978: Development of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) by Patrick Christopher Steptoe (1913–1988) and Robert Geoffrey Edwards (1925–2013).{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7505635.stm|title=30th birthday for first IVF baby|work=BBC News|date=14 July 2008|access-date=2010-12-06|first=Fergus|last=Walsh}}
  • Late 1970s: Echo-planar imaging (EPI) technique, a contribution to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), developed by Sir Peter Mansfield (1933–2017).{{cite journal |author1=Mansfield P. |author2=Grannell, P. |date=1975 |title=Diffraction and microscopy in solids and liquids by NMR |journal=Physical Review B |volume=12 |number=9 |pages=3618–3634 |doi= 10.1103/physrevb.12.3618 |bibcode=1975PhRvB..12.3618M}}
  • 1980: Potential of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in treating a wide range of genetic diseases, among other breakthroughs, discovered by John Raymond Hobbs (1929–2008).{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/05/medicalresearch.health|title=John Hobbs|newspaper=The Guardian|date=5 September 2008|access-date=2010-12-06|location=London|first1=Pamela|last1=Riches|first2=Colin|last2=Steward}}
  • 1981: Discovery of how to culture embryonic stem cells credited to England-born biologist Martin Evans (born 1941).
  • 1993: Viagra (a.k.a. Sildenafil – compound UK-92,480) synthesised by a group of pharmaceutical chemists working at Pfizer's Sandwich, Kent research facility in England. The press identified Peter Dunn and Albert Wood as the inventors of the drug; only Andrew Bell, David Brown and Nicholas Terrett are listed on the original composition of matter patent.{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US5250534?oq=5%2C250%2C534 |title=Pyrazolopyrimidinone antianginal agents US 5250534 A |date=1993 |work=Patents |access-date=4 January 2016}}
  • 2009: First baby genetically selected to be free of a breast cancer born at University College Hospital.{{cite news |title=Breast cancer gene-free baby born |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7819651.stm |newspaper=BBC News |date=9 January 2009 |access-date=4 January 2016}}
  • 2014: The "Mom incubator", an Inflatable incubator for reducing mortality rates in premature babies, invented by James Roberts.{{cite news |title=Inflatable incubator aims to help save premature babies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/25/inflatable-incubator-premature-babies |newspaper=The Guardian |date=25 December 2014 |access-date=4 January 2016}}

Military

File:The Invention of the Machine Gun; Hiram Maxim Q81725.jpg, invented the machine gun in 1884]]

  • 1718: The Puckle Gun or Defence Gun, a multi-shot gun mounted on a tripod, invented by James Puckle (1667–1724).
  • 1784: Shrapnel shell, an anti-personnel artillery munition, developed by Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842).
  • 1804: The Congreve rocket, a weapon, invented by Sir William Congreve (1772–1828).
  • 1830s: The safety fuse invented by William Bickford (1774–1834).
  • 1854: The Whitworth rifle, often called the "sharpshooter" because of its accuracy and considered one of the earliest examples of a sniper rifle, invented by Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803–1887).{{cite book | last = Atkinson | first = Norman | author-link = Norman Atkinson | title = Sir Joseph Whitworth: "the World's Best Mechanician" | publisher = Sutton Publishing Limited | year = 1996 | location = Gloucester|isbn = 0-7509-1211-1}}Kilburn, Terence (1987) Joseph Whitworth: Toolmaker, two editions, 1987 and 2002{{cite book | last = Lea | first = F. C. | title = Sir Joseph Whitworth: a Pioneer of Mechanical Engineering | publisher = Longmans, Green | year = 1946 | location = London}}
  • 1854–1857: The Armstrong Gun, a uniquely designed field and heavy gun, developed by Sir William Armstrong (1810–1900).
  • 1866: First effective self-propelled naval torpedo invented by Robert Whitehead (1823–1905).
  • 1875: The side by side boxlock action, commonly used in double barreled shotguns, invented by William Anson and John Deeley for the Westley Richards company of Birmingham.
  • 1884: The Maxim gun, the first self-powered machine gun invented by Sir Hiram Maxim (1840–1916); American-born, Maxim moved from the United States to England in 1881, becoming a (naturalised) British subject. The Maxim gun was financed by Albert Vickers of Vickers Limited and produced in Hatton Garden, London. It has been called "the weapon most associated with British imperial conquest".{{Citation |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |title=A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume One; 1900–1933 |publisher=William Morrow and Company |place=New York |page=11 |year=1997 |edition=1st US |isbn=0-688-10064-3}}
  • 1891: Cordite, first of the "smokeless powders" which came into general use towards the end of the 19th century, invented by Englishman Frederick Abel (1827–1902) and Scot James Dewar.
  • 1901: Bullpup firearm configuration first used in the Thorneycroft carbine rifle, developed by an English gunsmith as patent No. 14,622 of July 18, 1901.
  • 1906: The Dreadnought battleship, the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century, credited to First Sea Lord Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher (1841–1920).

File:The Royal Navy Before the First World War Q38712.jpg, 1906]]

  • 1914: First operational fighter aircraft, the Vickers F.B.5 (a.k.a. th "Gunbus"), developed from a design by Archibald Low (1888–1956).
  • 1916: The tank developed and first used in combat by the British during World War I as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25109879|title=World War One: The tank's secret Lincoln origins|work=BBC News|date=24 February 2014|access-date=1 April 2015}} Key co-inventors include Major Walter Gordon Wilson (1874–1957) and Sir William Tritton (1875–1946).
  • 1916: The first effective depth charge, an anti-submarine warfare weapon, developed from a design by Herbert Taylor at the RN Torpedo and Mine School, HMS Vernon.
  • 1916: The Livens Projector, a weapon, created by William Howard Livens (1889–1964).War Office (1940) Operations. Part V. Use of Gas in the Field. Military Training Pamphlet No. 23.
  • 1917: Dazzle camouflage created by Norman Wilkinson (1878–1971).
  • 1917: ASDIC active sonar, the first practical underwater active sound-detection apparatus, developed by Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle and English physicist Albert Beaumont Wood (1890–1964).
  • 1940s: High-explosive squash head, a type of ammunition, invented by Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney (1888–1968).
  • 1941: The Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife invented by William Ewart Fairbairn (1885–1960) and Eric A. Sykes (1883–1945).
  • 1941–1942: The Bailey bridge – a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge – invented by Donald Bailey (1901–1985). Field Marshal Montgomery emphasised the importance of the Bailey bridge in Britain winning the war.{{cite web|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.a.paterson/equipotheritems.htm |title=Other Equipment Used By The 7th Armoured Division |publisher=Btinternet.com |access-date=2011-09-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100813232737/http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.a.paterson/equipotheritems.htm |archive-date=August 13, 2010 }}{{cite book |editor1=Lance Day |editor2=Ian McNeil |title = Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415060424 |url-access=registration | publisher = Routledge | year=1996 | isbn = 0-415-19399-0 }}
  • 1943: The bouncing bomb invented by Barnes Wallis (1887–1979).
  • 1943: H2S radar (airborne radar to aid bomb targeting) invented by Alan Blumlein (1903–1942). Blumlein died in a plane crash during a secret trial of the H2S system.
  • 1950: The steam catapult, a device used to launch aircraft from aircraft carriers, developed by Commander Colin C. Mitchell RNR.
  • 1960s: Chobham armour, a type of vehicle armour, developed by a team headed by Gilbert Harvey{{cite book |title=The Armored Fist — New Face of War |last=Flaherty |first=Thomas H. |year=1991 |publisher=Time Life Education |isbn=0809486083 |page=[https://archive.org/details/armoredfist00time/page/82 82] |url=https://archive.org/details/armoredfist00time/page/82 }} of the FVRDE at the tank research centre on Chobham Common, Surrey.
  • 1960: Harrier jump jet developed by Hawker Aircraft of Kingston upon Thames following an approach by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1957.
  • Late 1970s: Stun grenades developed by the British Army's SAS.{{cite web|url=http://www.eliteukforces.info/special-air-service/weapons/stun-grenade.php |title=SAS – Weapons – Flash Bang | Stun Grenade |publisher=Eliteukforces.info |access-date=2013-05-29}}

Mining

Musical instruments

Photography

File:Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805).jpg, copied images chemically to permanent media by 1800]]

Publishing firsts

File:Myles Coverdale.jpg, produced first complete printed English Bible, 1535]]

  • 1475: First book printed in the English language, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, by William Caxton (c. 1422–c. 1491); eighteen copies survive.
  • 1534: Cambridge University Press granted letters patent by Henry VIII; continuous operation since makes it the world's oldest publisher and printer.{{cite web|url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/2000/oldest-printing-and-publishing-house |title=Oldest printing and publishing house |publisher=Guinnessworldrecords.com |date=2002-01-22 |access-date=2012-03-28}}{{cite book |title = Cambridge University Press, 1583–1984 |first= Michael |last = Black |pages= 328–9 |year = 1984 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn = 978-0-521-66497-4}}
  • 1535: First complete printed translation of the Bible into English produced by Myles Coverdale (1488–1569).{{cite web|last1=Anon|title=Early Printed Bibles – in English – 1535–1610|url=http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/prbooks/earprintbib/earlyprintbib15351610/earlyprintedbibleseng1535.html|website=British Library – Help for Researchers – Coverdale Bible|publisher=The British Library Board|access-date=4 March 2015}}
  • 1665: Philosophical Transactions, the first journal exclusively devoted to science, established by the Royal Society of London; it is also the world's longest-running scientific journal.{{Cite journal | last1 = Oldenburg | first1 = Henry| author-link = Henry Oldenburg| doi = 10.1098/rstl.1665.0001 | title = Epistle Dedicatory | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society| volume = 1 | pages = 0 | year = 1665 | s2cid = 186211404}}
  • British Raj period: the first definite map of India drawn by English cartographers.
  • Mid-19th century: First noted journal club by English surgeon Sir James Paget (1814–1899); recalling in his memoirs time spent at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, Paget describes "a kind of club [. . .] a small room over a baker's shop near the Hospital-gate where we could sit and read the journals."{{cite journal|last=Esisi|first= Martina|title=Journal clubs – BMJ Careers|journal= BMJ|date= 13 October 2007|volume= 335|issue= 7623|pages= s138–s139|doi= 10.1136/bmj.39337.722917.7D|s2cid= 220092045|access-date=9 January 2010|url=http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=2631#ref2}}
  • 1893: Benjamin Daydon Jackson prepares the first volume of Index Kewensis, first publication aiming to register all botanical names for seed plants at the rank of species and genera.

Science

=Physics=

File:Sir Isaac Newton by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg, a giant of the scientific revolution]]

File:Michael Faraday. Photograph. Wellcome V0017866.jpg, made key discoveries relating to electricity, 1820s–1840s]]

File:James Chadwick.jpg, awarded 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron in 1932]]

=Chemistry=

File:John Dalton by Thomas Phillips, 1835.jpg, developed modern atomic theory, 1803]]

  • Anglo-Saxon times: Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths used a process similar to cementation; as evidenced by the Staffordshire hoard.{{cite web|url=http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/secrets-of-the-staffordshire-hoard-skills-of-the-saxon-smiths-revealed.htm |title=Secrets of the Staffordshire Hoard: Skills of the Saxon smiths revealed |date=21 November 2014 |publisher=Current Archaeology |access-date=6 January 2017}}
  • 1665: Correct theory of combustion first outlined in Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1635–1703); Hooke observed that something (known now as oxygen) is taken from the air and that in its absence combustion quickly ceases, however much heat is applied.
  • 1766: Hydrogen discovered by Henry Cavendish (1731–1810); Cavendish described it as a colourless, odourless gas that burns and can form an explosive mixture with air.{{cite web|url=http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0000614.html |title=Cavendish, Henry encyclopaedia/hutchinson}}
  • 1775: Oxygen discovered by Joseph Priestley (1733–1804); Priestley called it "dephlogisticated air".{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/8/oxygen|title=Oxygen – Element information, properties and uses – Periodic Table|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1791: William Gregor (25 December 1761 – 11 June 1817) discovered the elemental metal titanium.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/22/titanium|title=Titanium – Element information, properties and uses – Periodic Table|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1801: Charles Hatchett FRS (2 January 1765 – 10 March 1847[1]) discovered the element niobium.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/41/niobium|title=Niobium – Element information, properties and uses – Periodic Table|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1803: William Hyde Wollaston PRS (6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) discovered the chemical element rhodium.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/45/rhodium|title=Rhodium – Element information, properties and uses – Periodic Table|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1803: William Hyde Wollaston PRS (6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) discovered the chemical element palladium.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/46/palladium|title=Palladium – Element information, properties and uses – Periodic Table|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1803: Smithson Tennant FRS (30 November 1761 – 22 February 1815) discovered the element iridium.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/77/iridium|title=Iridium – Element information, properties and uses – Periodic Table|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1803: Smithson Tennant FRS (30 November 1761 – 22 February 1815) discovered the element osmium.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/76/osmium|title=Osmium – Element information, properties and uses – Periodic Table|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1803: Modern atomic theory developed by John Dalton (1766–1844). See also Dalton's law and Law of multiple proportions; Dalton is considered the father of modern chemistry.{{Cite web|url=http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/marsh-james|title=John Dalton, encyclopaedia/hutchinson|access-date=16 July 2010|archive-date=27 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527110241/http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/marsh-james|url-status=dead}}
  • 1807: Sodium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gpwEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA57 |title=Davy, Humphry (1808).|author1=Davy, Sir Humphry|year=1840}}

File:Sir Humphry Davy, Bt by Thomas Phillips.jpg: isolated various substances using electrolysis; identified them as elements; identified elemental nature of chlorine and iodine, 1807–1813]]

|url = http://www.bpc.edu/mathscience/chemistry/history_of_the_periodic_table.html

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20121214111138/http://www.bpc.edu/mathscience/chemistry/history_of_the_periodic_table.html

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 2012-12-14

|title = History of the Development of the Periodic Table of Elements

}}

  • 1868: Helium discovered in the sun (via spectroscopy) by Norman Lockyer (1836–1920); not until ten years later was it found on Earth.
  • 1868: Synthesis of coumarin (one of the first synthetic perfumes), and cinnamic acid via the Perkin reaction by William Henry Perkin (1838–1907).
  • 1893: The Weston cell developed by England-born chemist Edward Weston (1850–1936).[http://www.westonaero.com/about_us/history.stm History of Weston Aerospace], Weston – the Man (1850–1936)
  • 1894: Argon discovered by English physicist John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842–1919) and Scot William Ramsay.
  • 1898: Morris Travers was an English chemist who with scot Sir William Ramsay discovered xenon, neon and krypton.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table|title=Periodic Table – Royal Society of Chemistry|website=Rsc.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1901: Silicone discovered and named by Frederic Kipping (1863–1949); according to the nomenclature of modern chemistry, silicone is no longer the correct term, but it remains in common usage.
  • 1913: Concept of atomic number introduced by Henry Moseley (1887–1915) in order to fix the inadequacies of Mendeleev's periodic table, which had been based on atomic weight.{{Cite web|url=http://www.chemcool.com/biography/moseley.htm|title=chemcool.com|website=www.chemcool.com}} Isaac Asimov wrote, "In view of what he [Moseley] might still have accomplished … his death might well have been the most costly single death of the War to mankind generally."{{cite book | author = Asimov, Isaac | title = Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology | year = 1972 | publisher = Doubleday and Company | location = New York | page = [https://archive.org/details/asimovsbiographi00asim/page/921 921] | isbn = 0-385-17771-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/asimovsbiographi00asim/page/921 }}
  • 1913: Existence of isotopes first proposed by Frederick Soddy (1877–1956).
  • 1940s / 1950s: Partition chromatography developed by Richard Laurence Millington Synge (1914–1994) and Archer J.P. Martin (1910–2002).{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1952/press.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1952|publisher=The Nobel Foundation|access-date=2010-12-08}}
  • 1950: VX (nerve agent) invented by Ranajit Ghosh at Porton Down, VX (nerve agent) is the world's most deadly chemical compounds. It only takes 10 milligrams to become a fatal dose.
  • 1952: Structure of ferrocene discovered by Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921–1996) and others.{{Cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1973/wilkinson-autobio.html|title=Geoffrey Wilkinson – Autobiography from the Nobel foundation}}
  • 1959: First practical hydrogen–oxygen fuel cell developed by Francis Thomas Bacon (1904–1992).{{cite web|url=http://www.todaysengineer.org/2005/Mar/history.asp|title=Francis Thomas Bacon and the Fuel Cell|author=Matthew Eisler|publisher=IEEE-USA|access-date=6 December 2010|archive-date=27 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927165728/http://www.todaysengineer.org/2005/Mar/history.asp|url-status=dead}}
  • 1962: First noble gas compound, xenon hexafluoroplatinate, prepared by Neil Bartlett (1932–2008).
  • 1985: Buckminsterfullerene discovered by Sir Harry Kroto (1939–2016).{{Cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/kroto-autobio.html|title=Harold Kroto – Autobiography from the Nobel foundation}}

=Biology=

File:Charles Darwin photograph by Elliott and Fry, circa 1875.jpg's theory of evolution published in 1859]]

  • 1665: Cell biology originated by Robert Hooke (1635–1703), who discovered the first cells in the course of describing the microscopic compartments within cork.{{cite book|title=Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the 19th Century|author=Windelspecht, Michael|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-313-31969-3}}
  • Early 19th century: the first recognition of what fossils were by Mary Anning.
  • 1839: The identification and discovery of 150 mosses, lichens, liverworts, flowering plants and algae on the Kerguelen Islands by botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. He later said of his gatherings "many of my best little lichens were gathered by hammering out the turfs or sitting on them till they thawed."
  • 1855: The discovery of the first coal ball by Joseph Dalton Hooker who later on with partner William Binney made the first scientific description of coal balls.
  • 1859: Theories of evolution by natural selection and sexual selection set out in On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1809–1882).
  • 1883: The practice of Eugenics developed by Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), applying his half-cousin Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to humans.{{cite book|title=DNA: The Secret of Life|author1=Watson, James D.|author2=Berry, Andrew |year=2009 |publisher=Knopf |url=https://www.amazon.com/DNA-The-Secret-Life-ebook/dp/B001PSEQAG}}
  • 1953: Double-helix structure of DNA determined by Englishman Francis Crick (1906–2004){{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1962/crick/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962|website=NobelPrize.org}} and American James Watson. Crick was a pioneer in the field of molecular biology.
  • 1958: the first cloning of an animal, a frog using intact nuclei from the somatic cells of a Xenopus tadpole by Sir John Gurdon.
  • 1950 onward: the pioneering of the use of Xenopus eggs to translate microinjected messenger RNA molecules by Sir John Gurdon and fellow researchers, a technique which has been widely used to identify the proteins encoded and to study their function.
  • 1960 onwards: Pioneering observation-based research into the behaviour of chimpanzees (our closest relatives in the animal kingdom) conducted by Jane Goodall (born 1934).
  • 1977: DNA sequencing by chain termination developed by Frederick Sanger (1918–2013).{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1958/sanger/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1958|website=NobelPrize.org}} Sanger won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry twice.
  • 1977: Discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing by Richard J. Roberts (born 1943).{{Cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1993/roberts-autobio.html|title=Richard J. Roberts Biography from the Nobel foundation}}
  • 1996: Dolly the Sheep born as a result of Nuclear transfer, a form of cloning put into practice by Ian Wilmut (born 1944) and Keith Campbell (1954–2012).
  • 2016: Scientists at the British bio-tech company Oxitec, in an attempt to stop the spread of dengue fever genetically engineer a 'sudden death' mosquito which after mating successfully with a wild female, any offspring produced will not survive to adulthood and the lethal gene is passed on from the female to any male they mate with and the cycle continues. 3,019,000 mosquitos were released on the Grand Cayman Islands and after three months 80% of the population of mosquitos in the target area had vanished.

=Mathematics and statistics=

File:Photo of George Boole standing.png, whose Boolean algebra (1854) laid the foundations of the Information Age]]

=Astronomy=

File:Halleold.jpg, determined the periodicity of Halley's Comet in 1705]]

  • 1609: First drawing of the Moon through a telescope by Thomas Harriot (c. 1560 – 1621); Harriot achieved this on 26 July 1609: over four months before Galileo.{{cite web |url= http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/68-news2009/1641-celebrating-thomas-harriot-the-worlds-first-telescopic-astronomer-ras-pn-0947 |title=Celebrating Thomas Harriot, the world's first telescopic astronomer (RAS PN 09/47) |work=ras.org.uk |date=2011 |access-date=4 March 2011}}{{Cite web|url=http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/harriot.html|title=The Galileo Project | Science | Thomas Harriot|website=galileo.rice.edu}}
  • 1610: Sunspots discovered by Thomas Harriot (c. 1560–1621).{{cite web | title=Great Moments in the History of Solar Physics 1| work =Great Moments in the History of Solar Physics | url=http://web.hao.ucar.edu/public/education/sp/great_moments.html| access-date = 2006-03-19 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060301083022/http://web.hao.ucar.edu/public/education/sp/great_moments.html |archive-date = 1 March 2006}}
  • 1668: Newtonian telescope invented by Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727).{{cite web|url=http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0002437.html|title=Newton, Isaac encyclopaedia hutchinson}}
  • 1705: Periodicity of Halley's Comet determined by Edmond Halley (1656–1742).{{Cite web|url=http://midlandsdivingchamber.co.uk/index.php?id=history&page=4|title=Edmond Halley, Hyperbaric Chambers – A history of hyperbaric chambers and dive medicine, Midlands Recompression & Hyperbaric facilities – The Midlands Diving Chamber|website=midlandsdivingchamber.co.uk}}
  • 1712–1717: The Planetarium created by French-born Briton John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683–1784).{{cite web|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/desaguliers_j/desaguliers_j.html |title=John Theophilus Desaguliers}} web
  • 1758: Achromatic doublet lens patented by John Dollond (1706–1761).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2LZZginzib4C&pg=PA140|title=Stargazer: the life and times of the telescope|isbn=978-1-74175-383-7|author1=Watson, Fred|date=2007-10-01|publisher=Allen & Unwin }}
  • 1781: Discovery of the planet Uranus by Sir William Herschel (1738–1822);{{cite journal |author=Mr. Herschel and Watson |title=Account of a Comet. By Mr. Herschel, F. R. S.; Communicated by Dr. Watson, Jun. of Bath, F. R. S. |journal=Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. |volume=71 |pages=492–501 |year=1781 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1781.0056 |bibcode=1781RSPT...71..492H|s2cid=186208953 }} Herschel also discovered the moons Titania (1787), Oberon (1787), Enceladus (1789), and Mimas (1789).{{Cite web|url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/append7.html|title=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers}}
  • 1783: Existence of black holes first proposed by John Michell (1724–1793); Michell was first to suggest that double stars might be attracted to each other (1767), and he invented the torsion balance (before 1783).{{cite web|url=http://www.astronomyedinburgh.org/publications/journals/39/blackholes.html|title=Black Holes – Part 1 – History|first=Alan|last=Ellis|access-date=2011-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006004950/http://www.astronomyedinburgh.org/publications/journals/39/blackholes.html|archive-date=2017-10-06|url-status=dead}}
  • 1843: Existence and position of Neptune predicted, using only mathematics, by John Couch Adams (1819–1892).{{cite web|url=http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0009726.html|title=Adams, John Quincy encyclopaedia hutchinson}} web
  • 1845: Nature of spiral galaxies discovered by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800–1867).{{cite web|url=http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations//groundup/lesson/scopes/rosse/index.php|title=Spiral galaxies – William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse}}
  • 1846: Discovery of Triton by William Lassell (1799–1880);{{cite journal|arxiv=0908.1553|title=WASP-17b: an ultra-low density planet in a probable retrograde orbit|author1=Anderson|author2=Hellier|author3=Gillon|author4=Triaud|author5=Smalley|author6=Hebb|author7=Collier Cameron|author8=Maxted|author9=Queloz|year=2009|doi=10.1088/0004-637X/709/1/159|volume=709|issue=1|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|pages=159–167|bibcode=2010ApJ...709..159A|s2cid=53628741}} web Lassell also discovered the moons Hyperion (1848), Ariel (1851), and Umbriel (1851).{{cite web|url=http://www.mikeoates.org/lassell/lassell_by_a_chapman.htm|title=William Lassell (1799–1880) and the discovery of Triton, 1846|website=Mikeoates.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1924: The Eddington limit – the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object – discovered by Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944).{{cite conference|bibcode=2008AIPC..990..250V|title=Continuum driven winds from super-Eddington stars. A tale of two limits |conference=First Stars III |volume=990 |pages=250–253 | doi=10.1063/1.2905555|arxiv = 0708.4207 |series=AIP Conference Proceedings |year=2008 |last1=Van Marle |first1=A. J. |last2=Owocki |first2=S. P. |last3=Shaviv |first3=N. J. |s2cid=118364586 }}
  • 1930s–1950s: Important contributions to the development of radio astronomy made by Bernard Lovell (1913–2012).{{cite web|url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Lovell.html|title=Lovell, Bernard }} web
  • 1946–1954: Pioneering theories of Nucleosynthesis (the formation of chemical elements in stars and supernova) proposed by Sir Fred Hoyle (1915–2001); in 1949, Hoyle coined the term "Big Bang".{{Cite web|url=https://www.beliefnet.com/news/science-religion/2001/09/was-life-begun-by-chance-not-a-chance.aspx|title=Was Life Begun By Chance? brNot a Chance|website=www.beliefnet.com}}
  • 1966 onwards: Important contributions to cosmology and (from 1973)quantum gravity made by Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), especially in the context of black holes.
  • 1967: Pulsars discovered by English radio astronomer Antony Hewish (1924–2021) and one of his graduate students, Northern Irish Jocelyn Bell.{{cite book |vauthors=Sigman DS, Kuwabara MD, Chen CH, Bruice TW |title=Nuclease activity of 1,10-phenanthroline-copper in study of protein-DNA interactions |chapter=[20] Nuclease activity of 1,10-phenanthroline-copper in study of protein—DNA interactions |series=Methods in Enzymology |volume=208 |pages=414–33 |year=1991 |pmid=1779842 |doi=10.1016/0076-6879(91)08022-a|isbn=9780121821098 }}
  • Late 1960s / early 1970s: Aperture synthesis, used for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources in the field of radio astronomy, developed by Martin Ryle (1918–1984) and Antony Hewish (1924–2021).{{Cite web|url=http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/antony_hewish.html|title=Antony Hewish|website=www.nobel-winners.com}}

=Geology and meteorology=

  • 1802: Nomenclature system for clouds developed by meteorology pioneer Luke Howard (1772–1864).{{cite web|url=http://www.rmets.org/weather/observing/luke-howard.php|title=Luke Howard and Cloud Names|publisher=Royal Meteorological Society|access-date=2010-12-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105203929/http://www.rmets.org/weather/observing/luke-howard.php|archive-date=2010-11-05|url-status=dead}}
  • 1815: First geological map of Great Britain created by William Smith (1769–1839); Smith is responsible, as well, for the observation that fossils can be used to work out the relative ages of rocks and strata (Principle of Faunal Succession).
  • 1820: The dew-point hygrometer, an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the atmosphere, invented by John Frederic Daniell (1790–1845).
  • 1820s: Scientific study of dinosaurs initiated by Gideon Mantell (1790–1852).
  • 1861: First weather map created by Francis Galton (1822–1911).{{cite web|url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Galton.html|title=Francis Galton (1822–1911) – from Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography|first=Weisstein, Eric|last=W.|website=scienceworld.wolfram.com|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1880: The Seismograph, for detecting and measuring the strength of earthquakes, invented by John Milne (1850–1913).
  • 1911 onwards: Geochronology pioneered by Arthur Holmes (1890–1965).{{cite web|url=http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/geol/holmes.htm|title=Principles of Geology|website=mysite.du.edu|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1938–1964: The Callendar effect, a theory linking rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature (Global warming), proposed by Guy Stewart Callendar (1898–1964).

File:Karl Pearson.jpg's Grammar of Science (1892) influenced the young Einstein]]

=Philosophy of science=

  • c. 1240s: An early framework for the scientific method, based in Aristotelian commentaries, proposed by English statesman, scientist and Christian theologian Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253).{{Cite book|title=A. C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, 1100–1700, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), pp. 52–60.}}
  • 1267: Early form of the scientific method articulated in Opus Majus by Roger Bacon (c. 1214?-c. 1292?).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ru_E__W7euUC&q=roger-bacon+scientific-method&pg=PA39 |title=Introduction to Forensic Engineering|isbn=978-0-8493-8102-7|author1=Noon, Randall|year=1992|publisher=CRC Press }}
  • 1620: Baconian method, a forerunner of the scientific method, proposed in the Novum Organum by Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626).{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48191/Baconian-method|title=Baconian method|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • 1892: Scope and method of science proposed in The Grammar of Science by Karl Pearson (1857–1936); the book was a pivotal influence on the young Albert Einstein and contained several ideas that were later to become part of his theories.Herbert, Christopher (2001). "Karl Pearson and the Human Form Divine," in Victorian Relativity: Radical Thought and Scientific Discovery, Chicago University Press, pp. 145–179.

File:Henry Maudslay.jpg, a founding father of machine tool technology]]

=Scientific instruments=

Sport

File:Grace London County.jpg (1848–1915); 1598 saw the earliest definite reference to cricket]]

  • Before 1299: Bowls or lawn bowls can be traced to 13th-century England.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A311482|title=h2g2 – Southampton Old Bowling Green, Southampton, England – Edited Entry|website=BBC|date=14 June 2000 |access-date=6 January 2018}} The world's oldest surviving bowling green is Southampton Old Bowling Green, first used in 1299.
  • Late 15th century: Rounders developed from an older English game known as stoolball.{{cite web|url=http://www.nra-rounders.co.uk/dyncat.cfm?catid=17177|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071112065508/http://www.nra-rounders.co.uk/dyncat.cfm?catid=17177|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 November 2007|title=National Rounders Association:- Home|date=12 November 2007|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • Early 16th century: Modern boxing developed from bare-knuckle boxing or prizefighting, a resurfacing of Ancient Greek boxing in England. The first recorded boxing match took place on 6 January 1681 in England, arranged by Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (1653–1688).
  • 1519: World's oldest sporting competition still running, the Kiplingcotes Derby horse-race, established; it has run annually since without a break.{{cite web|url=http://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/8721/the-worlds-oldest-horse-race/|title=Historical articles and illustrations » Blog Archive » The world's oldest horse race|website=Lookandlearn.com|date=25 May 2011|access-date=6 January 2018}}{{cite news|url=http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/memories/3145617.After_300_years_the_captain_is_bringing_the_Silver_Arrow_home/ |title=After 300 years, the captain is bringing the Silver Arrow home |newspaper=Northern Echo |access-date=14 January 2016 }}
  • 1530s: Origin of real tennis played with rackets, popularised by Henry VIII.[http://www.historyoftennis.net/history_of_tennis.html The History of Tennis] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723143635/http://www.historyoftennis.net/history_of_tennis.html |date=2011-07-23 }}
  • 1598: The earliest definite reference to cricket; the sport may arguably be traced further back to 1301 with written evidence of a game known as creag played by Prince Edward, son of Edward I (Longshanks).
  • Aunt Sally, early 17th century.
  • After 1660: Thoroughbred horseracing developed in 17th- and 18th-century England; royal support from Charles II, a keen racegoer and owner, made horse-racing popular with the public.
  • 1673: Oldest non-equine competition in England, the Scorton Arrow archery tournament, established in Scorton, Yorkshire.{{cite news |title = Ancient archery event tests skills for 300th time |url = http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/ancient-archery-event-tests-skills-for-300th-time-1-2501458 |newspaper = Yorkshire Post |access-date = 2017-10-28 |archive-date = 29 October 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171029121007/http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/ancient-archery-event-tests-skills-for-300th-time-1-2501458 |url-status = dead }}
  • 1715: Oldest rowing race in the world, Doggett's Coat and Badge established; the race on the River Thames has been held every year since 1715.
  • 1744: Earliest description of baseball in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book by John Newbery (1713–1767); the first recorded game of "Bass-Ball" took place in 1749 in Surrey.{{cite news |author=BBC News |title=Why isn't baseball more popular in the UK? |work=BBC News |date=26 July 2013 | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23425907 |access-date=2016-01-11}} William Bray (1736–1832) recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday, 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; the game is considered to have been taken across the Atlantic by English emigrants.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/baseball/2800199/Major-League-Baseball-told-their-sport-was-invented-in-Surrey-not-America.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Stephen | last=Adams | title=Major League Baseball told their sport was invented in Surrey, not America | date=2008-09-11}}
  • Early 19th century: Modern field hockey developed in English public schools; the first club was established in 1849 in Blackheath, London.
  • 1820s: Ice hockey, a variant of field hockey, invented by British soldiers based in Canada. British soldiers and emigrants to Canada and the United States played their stick-and-ball games on the winter ice and snow; in 1825, John Franklin (1786–1847) wrote during one of his Arctic expeditions: "The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport" on Great Bear Lake.{{cite web |author=The National Archives |title=Copy Letters: 07/09/1825 | url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/5594148c-48f2-4f64-a352-210ec32f375a |access-date=2016-01-11}}

File:Webb-Ellis-at-Rugby,.jpg at Rugby School, 1823-4]]

  • 1823 or 1824: Invention of Rugby football credited to William Webb Ellis (1806–1872).
  • 1850: The format of the modern Olympic Games inspired by William Penny Brookes (1809–1895); see also the Cotswold Olimpick Games.
  • c. 1850: A bowling machine for cricket named the Catapulta (a predecessor of the pitching machine) invented by Nicholas "Felix" Wanostrocht (1804–1876).{{cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/13019.html|title=Nicholas Felix|website=Cricinfo|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1857: Sheffield F.C. formed by former public school pupils, making it the world's first and oldest Association football club, as acknowledged by The Football Association and FIFA.Encyclopedia of British Football by Richard Cox et al., Routledge, 2002 page 5
  • 1867: Coconut shy in Kingston, Surrey.
  • 1859–1865: Lawn tennis invented by Harry Gem (1819–1881) and Augurio Perera, a Spanish-born merchant and sportsman based in England.
  • 1874–1875: Snooker invented by the British Army in India.{{cite web|url=http://www.snookerclub.com/snooker.shtml|title=Snooker|first=Phill|last=Hayes|website=Snookerclub.com|access-date=6 January 2018|archive-date=8 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008001351/http://www.snookerclub.com/snooker.shtml|url-status=dead}}
  • 1874: Formal codification of the rules of modern Polo established by the Hurlingham Polo Association; polo had been introduced to England in 1834 by the 10th Hussars at Aldershot, Hants, and in 1862 the first polo club, Calcutta Polo Club, was established by two British soldiers, Captain Robert Stewart and (later Major General) Joe Sherer.{{cite web|url=http://www.calcuttapolo.com/corner.html|title=150 years Celebration-Unlocking a Power Brand|publisher=Calcutta Polo Club|access-date=29 December 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110233712/http://www.calcuttapolo.com/corner.html|archive-date=10 January 2011}}
  • 1880 onwards: Modern rock climbing developed by Walter Parry Haskett Smith (1859–1946), so-called "father of rock climbing".
  • 1880s: Table tennis or ping-pong originated in Victorian England as an indoor version of tennis; it was developed and played by the upper class as an after-dinner parlour game.{{cite book|last=Hodges|first=Larry|title=Table Tennis: Steps to Success|year=1993|publisher=Human Kinetics|isbn=0-87322-403-5|url=https://archive.org/details/tabletennissteps00hodg |page=2}}{{cite web |url=http://tabletennis.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/history_of_tt.htm |title=A Brief History of Table Tennis/Ping-Pong |first=Greg |last=Letts |work=About.com |publisher=The New York Times Company |access-date=29 August 2010 |archive-date=10 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510220345/http://tabletennis.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/history_of_tt.htm |url-status=dead }}
  • 1888: Tiddlywinks patent application by London bank clerk{{cite book|title=Census Returns of England and Wales|date=1891|publisher=The National Archives of the UK, Public Record Office|location=Kew, Surrey, England|page=Class: RG12; Piece: 1102; Folio: 18; Page: 14|url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=6598&h=25030273&ssrc=pt&tid=64702480&pid=30161237741&usePUB=true|access-date=28 March 2018}} Joseph Assheton Fincher (1863–1900);Joseph Assheton Fincher birth registration, General Register Office, England.Joseph Assheton Fincher death registration, General Register Office, England. Tiddlywinks originated as an adult parlour game in Victorian England.{{cite web|url=http://www.etwa.org/|title=The English Tiddlywinks Association|website=Etwa.org|access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1893–1897: Netball developed from early versions of women's basketball at Madame Österberg's College in England.{{cite web|author=International Federation of Netball Associations |title=History of Netball |url=http://www.netball.org/Netball.aspx?id=18 |access-date=2008-10-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110306141537/http://www.netball.org/Netball.aspx?id=18 |archive-date=2011-03-06 }}
  • 1895: Rugby league created with the establishment of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU) as a breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU).
  • 1896: The dartboard-layout used in the game and professional competitive sport of Darts was devised by Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin (c. 1852–1903); Gamlin died before he could patent his idea.{{cite web|author=Darts Info World|title=History of Darts|url=http://dartsinfoworld.com/history-of-darts|access-date=2016-01-11}}
  • 1899: Mixed martial art (MMA) Bartistu invented by Edward William Barton-Wright (1860–1951).
  • 1948: The first Paralympic games competition, originally the Stoke Mandeville Games, created in England by German-born (from 1945 naturalised) British neurologist Ludwig Guttmann (1899–1980).{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paralympic-games|title=Canada at the Paralympic Games|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=September 8, 2019}}
  • 1954: Sir Roger Bannister (1929–2018) ran the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954.
  • 1979: First modern bungee jumps made from the {{convert|250|ft|m|adj=on}} Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol by members of the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club.Aerial Extreme Sports (2008). [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0123122/historybungee.htm History of Bungee] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728105941/http://library.thinkquest.org/C0123122/historybungee.htm |date=July 28, 2011 }}. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.

Transport

=Aviation=

File:1843 engraving of the Aerial Steam Carriage.jpg, performed the world's first powered flight in 1848]]

  • 1799: Concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control set forth by Sir George Cayley (1773–1857);{{cite web | title = Aviation History | url = http://www.aviation-history.com/early/cayley.htm |access-date=26 July 2009 }}{{cite encyclopedia | title = Sir George Cayley (British Inventor and Scientist) | url = http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100795/Sir-George-Cayley-6th-Baronet | encyclopedia = Britannica | access-date =26 July 2009 }} Cayley is one of the most important people in the history of Aeronautics and flight: he is sometimes called the "father of aviation".{{cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/12/61611|title=The Englishman Who Wanted to Fly|date=2003-12-16|author=Noah Shachtman|work=Wired Magazine|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • 1804: First glider to carry a human being aloft designed by Sir George Cayley (1773–1857). Cayley discovered and identified the four aerodynamic forces of flight: weight, lift, drag, and thrust; Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries, along with cambered wings which Cayley also discovered.
  • 1837: Pioneering contribution to parachute design made by Robert Cocking (1776–1837); aged 61, Cocking was the first person to be killed in a parachuting accident.
  • 1844: Hale rockets, an improved version of the Congreve rocket design that introduced thrust vectoring, invented by William Hale (1797–1870).
  • 1848: World's first powered flight (of 30 feet) achieved in Chard, Somerset with the Aerial Steam Carriage by John Stringfellow (1799–1883),{{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/strng.html|title=FLYING MACHINES – John Stringfellow|website=Flyingmachines.org|access-date=6 January 2018}} 55 years before the Wright brothers;{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zrpb67qFXUIC&q=1857+Temple+flight&pg=PT63|title=First to Fly: North Carolina and the Beginnings of Aviation|first=Thomas C.|last=Parramore|date=1 March 2003|publisher=UNC Press Books|access-date=6 January 2018|via=Google Books|isbn=9780807854709}} Stringfellow and William Samuel Henson (1812–1888) patented their invention in 1842.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1591057.stm|title=High hopes for replica plane|date=10 October 2001|work=BBC News|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • Late-19th century: The term "air port" first used – to describe the port city Southampton, where some early flying boats landed.{{cite web|url=http://www.discoversouthampton.co.uk/visit/history |title=Southampton History |publisher=Southampton City Council |access-date=2016-01-11}}

File:Comet BOAC 1960.jpg, the first commercial jet airliner, produced in 1949]]

  • 1929: Turbojet engine single-handedly invented by Sir Frank Whittle (1907–1996).{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/whittle_frank.shtml|title=Frank Whittle (1907–1996)|publisher=BBC|access-date=2010-12-06}}
  • 1949: First commercial jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet,{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/2/newsid_2480000/2480339.stm|title=1952: Comet inaugurates the jet age|work=BBC News|access-date=2010-12-06|date=1952-05-02}} designed, developed and manufactured by de Havilland.
  • 1954: First aircraft capable of supercruise, the English Electric Lightning, designed, developed and manufactured by English Electric.
  • 1959: Aerospace engineer John Hodge (1929–2021) migrated to become part of NASA's Space Task Group, which was responsible for America's crewed space programme, Project Mercury.
  • 1960: VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft (most famously the Harrier) invented by Gordon Lewis (1924–2010), Ralph Hooper (1926–2022), Stanley Hooker (1907–1984) and Sydney Camm (1893–1966);{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6841130/Campaign-to-honour-Hawker-Hurricane-designer-Sir-Sydney-Camm.html|title=Campaign to honour Hawker Hurricane designer Sir Sydney Camm|date=26 Dec 2009|author=Gordon Rayner|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2010-12-06|location=London}} the project developed on ideas by Frenchman Michel Wibault.
  • 1965: Concorde The world's first supersonic commercial aircraft (A joint development between British Airways, Air France) invented by Sir James Hamilton (1923–2012); the project was manufactured by BAC, Sud Aviation. It took Concorde three hours, fifteen minutes to fly from London Heathrow to New York JFK.

=Railways=

==Locomotives==

File:Coupler UK Rocket.JPG, 1829]]

  • 1802: First full-scale railway steam locomotive built by Richard Trevithick (1771–1833).{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8024000/8024766.stm|title=Trevithick the railway pioneer|date=29 April 2009|publisher=BBC|access-date=2010-12-07}} This built on the endeavours of two other Englishmen, engineer Thomas Savery (c.1650–1715), son of Devon, and the first practical steam engine built in 1712 by Londoner Thomas Newcomen (c.1664–1729). James Watt did not invent the steam engine. Rather Watt, prompted by English backer and manufacturer Matthew Boulton, effected improvements sufficient to make the invention commercially viable.
  • 1812: First commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca, designed and built by Matthew Murray (1765–1826) of Holbeck.
  • 1813: First practical steam locomotive to rely simply on the adhesion of iron wheels on iron rails, Puffing Billy, built by William Hedley (1779–1843).
  • 1814: First successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive, the Blücher, built by George Stephenson (1781–1848).
  • 1824: First steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail-line, the Locomotion No. 1, built by Robert Stephenson (1803–1859), son of George Stephenson.
  • 1829: Stephenson's Rocket built by George Stephenson (1781–1848) and his son Robert Stephenson (1803–1859); the Rocket was not the first steam locomotive, but it was the first to bring together several innovations to produce the most advanced locomotive of its day.
  • 1829: The Sans Pareil, a less advanced competitor of Stephenson's Rocket, built by Timothy Hackworth (1786–1850).
  • 1829: The Stourbridge Lion, first steam locomotive to be operated in the United States, built by Foster, Rastrick and Company of Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands; the manufacturing company was headed by James Foster (1786–1853) and John Urpeth Rastrick (1780–1856).
  • 1835: Der Adler the first steam locomotive in Germany. Built by George & Robert Stephenson in Newcastle.
  • 1923: The Flying Scotsman built to a design by Sir Nigel Gresley (1876–1941);[http://www.gresley.org.uk/biog_has.htm biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727094831/http://www.gresley.org.uk/biog_has.htm |date=2013-07-27 }} accessed 15 November 2014 the Flying Scotsman was in 1934 the first steam locomotive to be authenticated at reaching {{convert|100|mph|sigfig=4}} in passenger service.{{cite web|title=British Railway Heritage – 4472 The Flying Scotsman |url=http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/industrial/flying%20scotsman.htm |publisher=theheritagetrail.co.uk |access-date=6 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621104329/http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/industrial/flying%20scotsman.htm |archive-date=21 June 2015 }}

==Other railway developments==

File:GWR broad gauge Metropolitan Class.jpg, opened 1863]]

=Roads=

File:HansomCab.gif, invented by Joseph Hansom in 1834]]

  • 1804: The seat belt invented by Sir George Cayley (1773–1857).{{cite news | url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/Clunk-click--an-invention.5583475.jp?articlepage=1|title=Clunk, click – an invention that's saved lives for 50 years|author=Manby, Frederic|date=24 August 2009|access-date=2010-12-04|newspaper=Yorkshire Post}}
  • 1808: Tension-spoke wire wheels invented by Sir George Cayley (1773–1857).
  • 1829: First practical steam fire engine invented by John Braithwaite the younger (1797–1880).
  • 1834: The Hansom cab, a type of horse-drawn carriage, invented by Joseph Hansom (1803–1882).
  • 1868: First traffic lights (manually operated and gas-lit) installed outside London's Houses of Parliament; invented by John Peake Knight (1828–1886).
  • c. 1870: "Ariel", a penny-farthing bicycle, developed by James Starley (1831–1881).
  • 1876: The legal collection of 70,000 seeds from the rubber-bearing tree Hevea brasiliensis which led to the discovery of the perfect growing climate and locations for rubber trees by Sir Henry Alexander Wickham. Most commercial rubber plants are descended from the seeds he took to Kew Gardens
  • 1884:Thomas Parker claimed to have invented the first electric car.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5212278/Worlds-first-electric-electric-car-built-by-Victorian-inventor-in-1884.html|title=World's first electric car built by Victorian inventor in 1884|date=24 April 2009|access-date=6 January 2018|website=The Telegraph}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
  • 1885: First commercially successful safety bicycle, "the Rover", developed by John Kemp Starley (1855–1901).
  • 1901: Tarmac patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley (1860–1942).
  • c. 1902: The invention of the Bowden cable popularly attributed to Sir Frank Bowden (1848–1921), founder and owner of the Raleigh Bicycle Company.
  • 1910: Opening of the oldest existing driving school and first formal driving tuition provider, the British School of Motoring, in Peckham, London.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/road-safety/7937429/100-years-of-the-driving-lesson.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=100 Years Of The Driving Lesson | first=David | last=Williams | date=2010-08-19}}
  • 1922: Horstmann suspension, a coil spring suspension system commonly used on western tanks, invented by Sidney Horstmann (1881–1962).
  • 1926: First automated traffic lights in England deployed in Piccadilly Circus in 1926;{{cite web|title=Traffic Controls|url=http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Collections-Research/Research/Your-Research/X20L/Themes/1/1240/|work=Exploring 20th Century London|publisher=The Museum of London|access-date=24 June 2013}} outside of London, Wolverhampton was in 1927 the first British town to introduce automated traffic lights.{{cite web|url=http://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/transport_streets/motor/management/control.htm |title=Traffic Control and Traffic Signals |publisher=Wolverhampton City Council |access-date=1 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920084143/http://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/transport_streets/motor/management/control.htm |archive-date=20 September 2008 }}
  • 1934: The Cat's eye, a safety device used in road marking, invented by Percy Shaw (1890–1976).{{cite web|url=http://www.halifaxtoday.co.uk/mk4custompages/CustomPage.aspx?PageID=39556 |title=The day Percy saw the light! |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040312081747/http://www.halifaxtoday.co.uk/mk4custompages/CustomPage.aspx?PageID=39556 |archive-date=2004-03-12 }}
  • 1934: The Belisha beacon introduced by Leslie Hore-Belisha (1893–1957).
  • 1962: First modern Formula One car, the Lotus 25, designed by Colin Chapman (1928–1982) for Team Lotus; the design incorporated the first fully stressed monocoque chassis to appear in automobile racing.
  • 1971: the world's first Bus Rapid Transit system, the Runcorn Busway, first conceived by Arthur Ling.{{cite journal| last = Lesley| first = Lewis| date = 1983| title = Runcorn – A Rapid Transit New Town? | jstor = 23286723| journal = Built Environment| volume = 9| issue = 3/4| page = 234}}{{cite web |url=http://www.rudi.net/books/3346 |title=Runcorn New Town – 7.3 Transport |website=rudi.net |access-date=24 July 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018012240/http://www.rudi.net/books/3346 |archive-date=18 October 2014}}{{cite web| last = Crabtree| first = Gordon| date = 6 August 1971| title = Runcorn Busway creates worldwide interest| publisher=Commercial Motor | url=http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/6th-august-1971/32/runcorn-busway-creates-worldwide-interest| access-date=25 July 2020}}
  • 1985: The Sinclair C5, a one-person battery electric vehicle, invented by Sir Clive Sinclair (1940–2021).
  • 1997: World Land Speed Record, 1,228 km/h (763 mph), achieved by ThrustSSC, a jet-propelled car designed and built in England. Project director: Richard Noble (born 1946); designed by Ron Ayers (born 1932), Glynne Bowsher and Jeremy Bliss; piloted by Andy Green (born 1962).

=Sea=

File:SRN4 Hovercraft in Dover 1.jpg, invented by Sir Christopher Cockerell in 1955]]

  • 1578: The first submersible (a small, submarine-like vehicle) of whose construction there exists reliable information designed by Englishman William Bourne (c. 1535–1582) in his book Inventions or Devises; Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel put Bourne's concept into action in 1620.
  • 1691: A diving bell capable of allowing its occupier to remain submerged for extended periods of time, and fitted with a window for the purpose of underwater exploration, designed by Edmund Halley (1656–1742),{{cite journal |last1=Edmonds |first1=Carl |last2=Lowry |first2=C |last3=Pennefather |first3=John |title=History of diving |journal=South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal |volume=5 |issue=2 |year=1975 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5894 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101014013941/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5894 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=14 October 2010 |access-date=2012-11-26}} best known for computing the orbit of Halley's Comet.
  • c. 1730: The octant invented by English mathematician John Hadley (1682–1744); American optician Thomas Godfrey developed the instrument independently at approximately the same time.
  • 1743: The "Whirling Speculum", a device used to locate the horizon in foggy or misty conditions, invented by John Serson (died 1744); Serson's Speculum can be seen as a precursor to the gyroscope.
  • 1757: First sextant made by John Bird (1709–1776),Turner, Gerard, Antique Scientific Instruments, Blandford Press Ltd. 1980 {{ISBN|0-7137-1068-3}} adapting the principle of Hadley's octant.
  • 1785: The lifeboat invented and patented by Lionel Lukin (1742–1834); William Wouldhave (1751–1821) made a rival claim, but he did not succeed with the practical application of his invention until 1789.
  • 1799: The Transit, a type of sailing vessel with a remarkable turn of speed, patented by Richard Hall Gower (1768–1833).
  • 1835: The screw propeller invented and patented by Francis Pettit Smith (1808–1874).
  • 1843: Launch of the SS Great Britain – the first steam-powered, screw propeller-driven passenger liner with an iron hull; designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), it was at the time the largest ship afloat.
  • 1876: Plimsoll Line devised by Samuel Plimsoll (1824–1898).
  • 1878: First commercially successful closed-circuit scuba designed and built by Henry Fleuss (1851–1932), a pioneer in the field of diving equipment.
  • 1878–1879: Two early Victorian submarines, Resurgam I and Resurgam II, designed and built by George Garrett (1852–1902).
  • 1894: The first steam turbine powered steamship, Turbinia (easily the fastest ship in the world at the time), designed by Anglo-Irish engineer Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (1854–1931), and built in Newcastle upon Tyne.
  • 1899–1901: Developments on the hydrofoil by shipbuilder John Isaac Thornycroft (1843–1928), from the concept of Italian Enrico Forlanini.
  • 1912: World's first patent for an underwater echo ranging device (sonar) filed a month after the sinking of the Titanic by Lewis Fry Richardson (1881–1953).
  • 1915: Research into solving the practical problems of submarine-detection by sonar led by Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937).{{cite web|title=Traffic Controls|url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-scientist-ernest-rutherford-revealed-8078891 |work=Manchester scientist Ernest Rutherford revealed as top secret mastermind behind sonar technology |date=9 November 2014 | publisher=Manchester Evening News |access-date=8 November 2016}}
  • 1955: The hovercraft invented by Sir Christopher Cockerell (1910–1999).

Miscellaneous

File:Robert-baden-powell-on-my-honor.jpg, invented the scout movement in 1907]]

  • 1286: First recorded use of the Halifax Gibbet, an early guillotine.
  • Early 17th century: The closely cut "English" lawn created in the Jacobean epoch of gardening, as the garden and the lawn became places created first as walkways and social areas. The English lawn became a symbol of status of the aristocracy and gentry; it showed that the owner could afford to keep land that was not being used for a building or for food production.
  • 1668: Earliest concept of a metric system proposed by John Wilkins (1614–1672) in An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language.
  • 1706: World's first life insurance company, the Amicable Society, founded by William Talbot (1658–1730) and Sir Thomas Allen, 2nd Baronet (c. 1648–1730).
  • 1719: Oldest music-based festival, the Three Choirs Festival, established.
  • 1725: The modern kilt, associated since the 19th century with Scottish culture, arguably invented by English Quaker Thomas Rawlinson (dates not known).{{cite web|url=http://skilt.co.uk/tag/who-designed-the-kilt/|title=Who designed the kilt? – Modern kilts for men for sale|website=skilt.co.uk|date=25 January 2011 |access-date=6 January 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1982040/Kilts-invented-by-English-in-Lord-Dacres-book.html |title=Kilts invented by English in Lord Dacre's book |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=14 January 2016 }}{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/kilt-was-invented-by-an-englishman-claims-jeremy-paxman-to-scots-anger-9466796.html |title=Kilt was invented by an Englishman, claims Jeremy Paxman, to Scots anger |newspaper=Independent |access-date=14 January 2016 }}
  • c. 1760: The jigsaw puzzle invented and commercialised by cartographer John Spilsbury (1739–1769).{{cite web|last1=McAdam|first1=Daniel|title=History of Jigsaw Puzzles|url=http://www.jigsaw-puzzle.org/jigsaw-puzzle-history.html|publisher=American Jigsaw Puzzle Society|access-date=13 October 2014|archive-date=11 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140211155914/http://www.jigsaw-puzzle.org/jigsaw-puzzle-history.html|url-status=dead}}
  • 1762: The Sandwich invented by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792){{cite web |title=Sandwich Inventor: John Montgue, Earl of Sandwich |date=23 May 2023 |url=https://www.history.com/news/sandwich-inventor-john-montagu-earl-of-sandwich}}
  • 1767: The carbonated soft drink invented by Joseph Priestley (1733–1804).
  • 1768–1770: The modern circus invented by Philip Astley (1742–1814) in Astley's Amphitheatre on Westminster Bridge Road in Lambeth.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/2929565.stm |title=The circus comes to the Circus |date=8 April 2003 |publisher=BBC |access-date=14 January 2016 }}Schechter, Joel (2001) [https://books.google.com/books?id=srrIxji0PvQC&dq=british+sergeant+major+philip+astley&pg=PA11 The pickle clowns: new American circus comedy] p.11. Southern Illinois University Press
  • c. 1770–1780: The lorgnette (a pair of spectacles with a handle, used to hold them in place) invented by George Adams the elder (c. 1709–1773) and subsequently illustrated in a work by his son George Adams the younger, An Essay on Vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye (1789).{{cite web|url=http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/museyeum/online_exhibitions/spectacles/lorgnettes.cfm |title=Lorgnettes and folding eyeglasses |publisher=The College of Optometrists, London |access-date=14 January 2016 }}
  • 1772: Oldest arts festival established in Norwich 1772.{{Cite web|url=http://www.norwich.gov.uk/internet_docs/docs/Unitary_Council/AnnexB.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621211721/http://www.norwich.gov.uk/internet_docs/docs/Unitary_Council/AnnexB.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Key Facts about Norwich|archive-date=21 June 2007}}
  • 1787: First glee club founded in Harrow School.{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbYPAAAAYAAJ&q=history+of+%22glee+clubs%22&pg=PA324 |last=Bacon |first=Richard Mackenzie |author-link=Richard Mackenzie Bacon |title=The Catch and Glee Clubs |journal=The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review |volume=II |issue=VII |pages=328ff |location=London |year=1820 }}
  • 1797: The top hat arguably invented by English haberdasher John Hetherington (dates not known).

File:An Essay on the Principle of Population.jpg's Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798]]

  • 1798: Consequences of population growth identified by Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) in An Essay on the Principle of Population.
  • 1798: Oldest police force in continuous operation, the Marine Police Force, formed by English seafarer John Harriott (1745–1817) and Scot Patrick Colquhoun; it merged with the nascentMetropolitan Police Service in 1839.
  • 18th century – 19th century: The history of comics developed with innovations by William Hogarth (1697–1764), James Gillray (1756/57–1815), George Cruikshank (1792–1878) and others. The Glasgow Looking Glass (1826), arguably the first comic strip. William Heath was its principal strip illustrator.{{cite web|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/caricatures/bio_hogarth.htm|title=William Hogarth Caricature Biography|website=Sil.si.edu|access-date=6 January 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/inside-the-pages-of-the-oldest-comic-in-the-world-56225|title=Inside the pages of the oldest comic in the world|first=Laurence|last=Grove|website=Theconversation.com|date=15 March 2016 |access-date=6 January 2018}}
  • 1811: The graphic telescope, a drawing aid with the power of a telescope, invented by water-colour painter Cornelius Varley (1781–1873).
  • 1821: World's first modern nature reserve established by naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton (1782–1965); Waterton was described by David Attenborough as "one of the first people anywhere to recognise not only that the natural world was of great importance but that it needed protection as humanity made more and more demands on it".{{cite web |author=Wakefield Express |url=http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/local/more-wakefield-news/sir-david-attenborough-will-open-city-centre-s-new-museum-1-5439242 |title=Sir David Attenborough will open city centre's new museum |date=2013-02-23 |access-date=2014-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130226001558/http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/local/more-wakefield-news/sir-david-attenborough-will-open-city-centre-s-new-museum-1-5439242 |archive-date=2013-02-26 |url-status=dead }}
  • 1824: Rubber balloon invented by Michael Faraday (1791–1867) during experiments with gases.
  • 1824: First animal welfare society, the RSPCA, founded by a group of reformers including William Wilberforce.
  • 1826: First effective friction match invented by John Walker (1781–1859).
  • 1829: Metropolitan Police Force founded by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel; by 1857 all cities in the UK were obliged to form their own police forces.
  • 1837 Egg-free custard by Alfred Bird
  • 1840: Stamp collecting initiated by zoologist John Edward Gray (1800–1875); on 1 May 1840, the day the Penny Black first went on sale, Gray bought several with the intent to save them.Gray, John Edward, A Hand Catalogue of Postage Stamps for the use of the Collector, 1862, Robert Hardwicke, page viii [https://archive.org/details/ahandcataloguep00graygoog Free download here.]
  • 1844: The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers founded in Lancashire. The Rochdale Principles are the foundation for the [https://ica.coop/en/whats-co-op/co-operative-identity-values-principles co-operative principles] on which co-ops around the world operate to this day.
  • 1844: YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) founded in London by Sir George Williams (1821–1905), with the aim of putting Christian values into practice.
  • 1846: The Christmas cracker invented by London confectioner Thomas J. Smith by wrapping a bon-bon in a twist of coloured paper, adding a love note, a paper hat and a banger mechanism. This new idea took off and the bon-bon was eventually replaced by a small toy or novelty.
  • 1849: Bowler hat designed by London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler.
  • 1851: Prime meridian established at Greenwich by Sir George Biddell Airy (1801–1892), Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881; Airy's line, the fourth Greenwich Meridian, became the definitive, internationally recognised line in 1884.

File:Nullmeridian.jpg, established at Greenwich, 1851]]

See also

References

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{{England topics|state=uncollapsed}}

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English inventions

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Inventions and discoveries

Category:Lists of inventions or discoveries