English inventions and discoveries
Encyclopedia
English inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques invented or discovered partially or entirely by a person born in England
. In some cases, their Englishness is determined by the fact that they were born in England, of non-English people working in the country. Often, things discovered
for the first time are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries generally believed to be English:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In some cases, their Englishness is determined by the fact that they were born in England, of non-English people working in the country. Often, things discovered
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
for the first time are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries generally believed to be English:
Agriculture
- Improved seed drillSeed drillA seed drill is a sowing device that precisely positions seeds in the soil and then covers them. Before the introduction of the seed drill, the common practice was to plant seeds by hand. Besides being wasteful, planting was very imprecise and led to a poor distribution of seeds, leading to low...
- Jethro TullJethro Tull (agriculturist)Jethro Tull was an English agricultural pioneer who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and later a horse-drawn hoe... - Steam-driven ploughing engine - John FowlerJohn Fowler (agricultural engineer)John Fowler was an English agricultural engineer who was a pioneer in the use of steam engines for ploughing and digging drainage channels...
- Pioneer of selective breedingSelective breedingSelective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is sometimes done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties,...
and artificial selectionArtificial selectionArtificial selection describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. The term was utilized by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive...
- Robert Bakewell - Superphosphate or chemical fertilizer - John Bennet LawesJohn Bennet LawesSir John Bennet Lawes, 1st Baronet FRS was an English entrepreneur and agricultural scientist. He founded an experimental farm at Rothamsted, where he developed a superphosphate that would mark the beginnings of the chemical fertilizer industry.John Bennet Lawes was born at Rothamsted in...
- Pioneer of the development in dairy farmingDairy farmingDairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
systems - Rex PatersonRex PatersonRex Munro Paterson OBE was an English agricultural pioneer whose extensive business and meticulous record keeping enabled him to carry out research and development in dairy farming systems on a scale that would have been beyond most research institutions.-Biography:The son of a clergyman, he was... - The first commercially successful light farm tractorTractorA tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
- Dan AlboneDan AlboneDaniel Albone was an English inventor, manufacturer and cyclist. He invented the world's first successful light farm tractor, and the Ivel Safety bicycle.-Childhood:... - Water desalination process - Sir Francis BaconFrancis BaconFrancis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
Clock making
- Anchor escapementAnchor escapementIn horology, the recoil or anchor escapement is a type of escapement used in pendulum clocks. An escapement is the mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum and allows the clock's wheels to advance a fixed amount with each swing, moving the hands forward...
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - First accurate atomic clockAtomic clockAn atomic clock is a clock that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element...
- Louis EssenLouis EssenLouis Essen FRS O.B.E. was an English physicist whose most notable achievements were in the precise measurement of time and the determination of the speed of light... - Balance springBalance springA balance spring, or hairspring, is a part used in mechanical timepieces. The balance spring, attached to the balance wheel, controls the speed at which the wheels of the timepiece turn, and thus the rate of movement of the hands...
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Balance wheelBalance wheelThe balance wheel is the timekeeping device used in mechanical watches and some clocks, analogous to the pendulum in a pendulum clock. It is a weighted wheel that rotates back and forth, being returned toward its center position by a spiral spring, the balance spring or hairspring...
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Co-axial escapementCo-axial escapementCo-axial escapement is a type of modern watch escapement mechanism invented by English watchmaker George Daniels.-Overview:Invented around 1974 and patented 1980 by English watchmaker George Daniels, the Co-axial escapement is a modification of the lever escapement with some features of the detent...
- George Daniels - Grasshopper escapementGrasshopper escapementThe grasshopper escapement is an unusual, low-friction escapement for pendulum clocks invented by British clockmaker John Harrison around 1722. An escapement, part of every mechanical clock, is the mechanism that causes the clock's gears to move forward by a fixed distance at regular intervals and...
, H1, H2, H3 and H4 watches (a watch built to solve the longitudeLongitudeLongitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....
measurement problem) - John HarrisonJohn HarrisonJohn Harrison was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age... - Gridiron pendulumGridiron pendulumThe gridiron pendulum was an improved clock pendulum invented by British clockmaker John Harrison around 1726. It didn't change its effective length with temperature, so its period of swing stayed constant with changes in ambient temperature...
- John HarrisonJohn HarrisonJohn Harrison was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age... - Lever escapementLever escapementThe lever escapement is a key component of the typical movement found in most mechanical wristwatches, pocket watches and many small mechanical non-pendulum clocks....
The greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watchPocket watchA pocket watch is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatches became popular after World War I during which a transitional design,...
es - Thomas MudgeThomas Mudge (horologist)Thomas Mudge was an English horologist who invented the lever escapement, the greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watches.-Early life:... - Marine chronometerMarine chronometerA marine chronometer is a clock that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation...
- John HarrisonJohn HarrisonJohn Harrison was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age...
Clothing manufacturing
- Derby Rib (stocking manufacture) - Jedediah StruttJedediah StruttJedediah Strutt or Jedidiah Strutt – as he spelt it – was a hosier and cotton spinner from Belper, England.Strutt and his brother-in-law William Woollat developed an attachment to the stocking frame that allowed the production of ribbed stockings...
- Flying shuttleFlying shuttleThe flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. It was patented by John Kay in 1733. Only one weaver was needed to control its lever-driven motion. Before the shuttle, a single weaver could not weave a fabric wider than arms length. Beyond...
- John KayJohn Kay (flying shuttle)John Kay was the inventor of the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution. He is often confused with his namesake: fellow Lancastrian textile machinery inventor, the unrelated John Kay who built the first "spinning frame".-Life in England:John Kay was born... - MauveineMauveineMauveine, also known as aniline purple and Perkin's mauve, was the first synthetic organic chemical dye.Its chemical name is3-amino-2,±9-dimethyl-5-phenyl-7-phenazinium acetate...
, the first synthetic organic dye - William Henry Perkin - Power loomPower loomA power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...
- Edmund CartwrightEdmund CartwrightEdward Cartwright was an English clergyman and inventor of the power loom.- Life and work :... - Spinning frameSpinning frameThe spinning frame is an Industrial Revolution invention for spinning thread or yarn from fibers such as wool or cotton in a mechanized way. It was developed in 18th century Britain by Richard Arkwright and John Kay.-Historical context:...
- John KayJohn Kay (spinning frame)John Kay was a clockmaker from Warrington, Lancashire, England known for the scandal associated with the invention of the spinning frame in 1767: an important stage in the development of textile manufacturing in the Industrial Revolution... - Spinning jennySpinning jennyThe spinning jenny is a multi-spool spinning frame. It was invented c. 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology...
- James HargreavesJames HargreavesJames Hargreaves was a weaver, carpenter and an inventor in Lancashire, England. He is credited with inventing the spinning Jenny in 1764.... - Spinning muleSpinning muleThe spinning mule was a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer...
- Samuel CromptonSamuel CromptonSamuel Crompton was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry.- Early life :Samuel Crompton was born at 10 Firwood Fold, Bolton, Lancashire to George and Betty Crompton . Samuel had two younger sisters... - PolyesterPolyesterPolyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
- John Rex Whinfield - Sewing machineSewing machineA sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, cards and other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies...
- Thomas Saint in 1790 - Water frameWater frameThe water frame is the name given to the spinning frame, when water power is used to drive it. Both are credited to Richard Arkwright who patented the technology in 1768. It was based on an invention by Thomas Highs and the patent was later overturned...
- Richard ArkwrightRichard ArkwrightSir Richard Arkwright , was an Englishman who, although the patents were eventually overturned, is often credited for inventing the spinning frame — later renamed the water frame following the transition to water power. He also patented a carding engine that could convert raw cotton into yarn... - Stocking frameStocking frameA stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589...
- William LeeWilliam Lee (inventor)William Lee was an English inventor who devised the first stocking frame knitting machine in 1589, the only one in use for centuries. Its principle of operation remains in use.... - Warp-loomLoomA loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
and BobbinetBobbinetBobbinet or genuine tulle is a specific type of tulle netting which has been made in the United Kingdom since the invention of the bobbinet machine in 1806 by John Heathcoat. John Heathcoat coined the term "bobbin net", or bobbinet as it is spelled today, to distinguish his machine-made tulle from...
- John HeathcoatJohn HeathcoatJohn Heathcoat was an English inventor.Heathcoat was born at Duffield near Derby. During his apprenticeship to a frame-smith near Loughborough, he made an improvement in the construction of the warp-loom, so as to produce mitts of a lace-like appearance by means of it...
Communications
- Uniform Penny Post, and postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
- Sir Rowland HillRowland Hill (postal reformer)Sir Rowland Hill KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters... - Christmas cardChristmas cardA Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...
- Sir Henry ColeHenry ColeSir Henry Cole was an English civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain... - Valentines cardValentine's DaySaint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
- Modern card 18th century England - PencilPencilA pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use....
- CumbriaCumbriaCumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... - Mechanical pencilMechanical pencilA mechanical pencil or a propelling pencil is a pencil with a replaceable and mechanically extendable solid pigment core called a lead . It is designed such that the lead can be extended as its point is worn away...
- Sampson MordanSampson MordanSampson Mordan was a British silversmith and a co-inventor of the first patented mechanical pencil. During his youth, he was an apprentice of the inventor and locksmith Joseph Bramah, who patented the first elastic ink reservoir for a fountain pen.In 1822, Mordan and his co-inventor John Isaac...
and John Isaac HawkinsJohn Isaac HawkinsJohn Isaac Hawkins was an inventor who practiced civil engineering.He was known as the co-inventor of the ever-pointed pencil, an early mechanical pencil, and of the upright piano.-Life:...
in 1822. - Clockwork radioClockwork radioA windup radio or clockwork radio is a radio that is powered by human muscle power rather than batteries or the electrical grid. In the most common arrangement, an internal electrical generator is run by a mainspring, which is wound by a hand crank on the case. Turning the crank winds the spring...
- Trevor BaylisTrevor BaylisTrevor Graham Baylis OBE is an English inventor. He is best known for inventing the wind-up radio. Rather than using batteries or external electrical source, the radio is powered by the user winding a crank for several seconds. This stores energy in a spring which then drives an electrical... - The first RadioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
transmission using a Spark Transmitter, achieving a range of approximately 500 metres. - David E. HughesDavid E. HughesDavid Edward Hughes , was a British scientist and musician. Hughes was co-inventor of the microphone, a harpist and a professor of music.-Biography:... - Electromagnetic inductionElectromagnetic inductionElectromagnetic induction is the production of an electric current across a conductor moving through a magnetic field. It underlies the operation of generators, transformers, induction motors, electric motors, synchronous motors, and solenoids....
& Faraday's law of inductionFaraday's law of inductionFaraday's law of induction dates from the 1830s, and is a basic law of electromagnetism relating to the operating principles of transformers, inductors, and many types of electrical motors and generators...
Began as a series of experiments by Faraday that later became some of the first ever experiments in the discovery of radio wavesRadio wavesRadio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies from 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, and corresponding wavelengths from 1 millimeter to 100 kilometers. Like all other electromagnetic waves,...
and the development of radioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
- Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.... - Pioneer in the development of radio communication - William EcclesWilliam EcclesWilliam Henry Eccles was a British physicist and a pioneer in the development of radio communication.He was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England. Following graduation from the Royal College of Science, London, in 1898, he became an assistant to Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian radio...
- Tin can telephoneTin can telephoneA tin can telephone is a type of voice-transmitting device made up of two tin cans, paper cups or similarly shaped items attached to either end of a taut string or wire.- How it works :...
a device that conveyed sounds over an extended wire by mechanical vibrations - Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
1667 - The world's first radio station on the Isle of WightIsle of WightThe Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
- On December 2, 1922, in SorbonneSorbonneThe Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Edwin Belin, an EnglishmanEnglishmanEnglishman may refer to:*English people*Grey Partridge*Jason Englishman, Canadian rock music singer and guitarist*Jenny-Bea Englishman, real name of the Canadien singer Esthero*Erald Briscoe, reggae musician who records under the name Englishman...
demonstrated a mechanical scanning device that was an early precursor to modern televisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound... - The first pocket sized handheld televisionHandheld televisionA Handheld television is a portable device that usually uses a TFT LCD or Organic light-emitting diode color display. Many of these devices resemble handheld transistor radios.-Hardware:...
, the MTV-1MTV-1The MTV-1 was the first model of a near-pocket sized television. It was developed by Clive Sinclair and was released in 1978.The MTV-1 used a minuscule 2" CRT; making it the smallest CRT built onto a commercially marketed product....
- Sir Clive SinclairClive SinclairSir Clive Marles Sinclair is a British entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s.... - Pioneering work on the development of the long-lasting materials that made today's liquid crystal displays possible - Team headed by Sir Brynmor Jones and Developed by Scotsman George GrayGeorge William GrayGeorge William Gray CBE, FRS is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Hull who was instrumental in developing the long-lasting materials which made liquid crystal displays possible...
and Englishman Ken Harrison In conjunction with the Royal Radar EstablishmentRoyal Radar EstablishmentThe name Royal Radar Establishment was given to the existing Radar Research Establishment following a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Both names were abbreviated to RRE. The establishment had been formed, under its first name, in 1953 by merging the Telecommunications Research Establishment ...
and the University of HullUniversity of HullThe University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire... - 405-line television system was the first fully electronic television system used in regular broadcastingBroadcastingBroadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
- Alan BlumleinAlan BlumleinAlan Dower Blumlein was a British electronics engineer, notable for his many inventions in telecommunications, sound recording, stereo, television and radar... - The world's first public broadcasts of high-definition televisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
were made from Alexandra PalaceAlexandra PalaceAlexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...
, North LondonNorth LondonNorth London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
in 1936 - BBC Television Service - The first commercially successful electric telegraph - Sir Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
and Sir William Fothergill CookeWilliam Fothergill CookeSir William Fothergill Cooke was, with Charles Wheatstone, the co-inventor of the Cooke-Wheatstone electrical telegraph, which was patented in May 1837...
in 1837 - Pioneer of stereoSTEREOSTEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
- Alan BlumleinAlan BlumleinAlan Dower Blumlein was a British electronics engineer, notable for his many inventions in telecommunications, sound recording, stereo, television and radar... - ShorthandShorthandShorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...
- Timothy BrightTimothy BrightTimothy Bright, M.D. was an English physician and clergyman, the inventor of modern shorthand.-Early life:Bright was born in or about 1551, probably in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. He matriculated as a sizar at Trinity College, Cambridge, 'impubes, æt. 11,' on 21 May 1561, and graduated B.A. in...
(1550/1-1615). Invented first modern shorthand - Pitman ShorthandPitman ShorthandPitman shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Englishman Sir Isaac Pitman , who first presented it in 1837. Like most systems of shorthand, it is a phonetic system; the symbols do not represent letters, but rather sounds, and words are, for the most part, written...
- Isaac PitmanIsaac PitmanSir Isaac Pitman , knighted in 1894, developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in Stenographic Soundhand in 1837. Pitman was a qualified teacher and taught at a private school he founded in Wotton-under-Edge... - Discovered the photoconductivityPhotoconductivityPhotoconductivity is an optical and electrical phenomenon in which a material becomes more electrically conductive due to the absorption of electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared light, or gamma radiation....
of the element seleniumSeleniumSelenium is a chemical element with atomic number 34, chemical symbol Se, and an atomic mass of 78.96. It is a nonmetal, whose properties are intermediate between those of adjacent chalcogen elements sulfur and tellurium...
. This discovery led to the invention of photoelectric cells (solar panels), including those used in the earliest television systems - Willoughby SmithWilloughby SmithWilloughby Smith was an English electrical engineer who discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium...
in 1873 - Proposed the existence of the Kennelly–Heaviside layer, a layer of ionised gas that reflects radio wavesRadio wavesRadio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies from 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, and corresponding wavelengths from 1 millimeter to 100 kilometers. Like all other electromagnetic waves,...
around the Earth's curvature - Oliver HeavisideOliver HeavisideOliver Heaviside was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, invented mathematical techniques to the solution of differential equations , reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and... - The first SMSSMSSMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
message was sent over the VodafoneVodafoneVodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
GSM network in 1992 - Neil Papworth - TypewriterTypewriterA typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
- First patent for a device similar to a typewriter granted to Henry MillHenry MillHenry Mill was an English inventor who patented the first typewriter in 1714. He worked as a waterworks engineer for the New River Company, and submitted two patents during his lifetime. One was for a coach spring, while the other was for a "Machine for Transcribing Letters"...
in 1714. - the world's first automatic totalisator - George JuliusGeorge JuliusSir George Alfred Julius was the founder of Julius Poole & Gibson Pty Ltd and Automatic Totalisators Ltd, and invented the world's first automatic totalisator.-Early years:...
- pioneer in the use of fiber optics in telecommunications - Charles K. KaoCharles K. KaoThe Honorable Sir Charles Kuen Kao, GBM, KBE, FRS, FREng is a pioneer in the development and use of fiber optics in telecommunications...
and George HockhamGeorge HockhamGeorge Alfred Hockham is an engineer who has worked for over 40 years in theoretical analysis and design techniques applied to the solution of electromagnetic problems covering many different antenna types for radar, electronic warfare and communication systems... - The originator of the concept of geostationary satellites for the use of telecommunications relays - Arthur C Clarke
- TeletextTeletextTeletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
Information Service - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
)
Computing
- Analytical engineAnalytical engineThe Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical calculator...
- Sir Charles BabbageCharles BabbageCharles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer... - ACEACE (computer)The Automatic Computing Engine was an early electronic stored-program computer design produced by Alan Turing at the invitation of John R. Womersley, superintendent of the Mathematics Division of the National Physical Laboratory . The use of the word Engine was in homage to Charles Babbage and his...
and Pilot ACEPilot ACEThe Pilot ACE was one of the first computers built in the United Kingdom, at the National Physical Laboratory in the early 1950s.It was a preliminary version of the full ACE, which had been designed by Alan Turing. After Turing left NPL , James H...
- Alan TuringAlan TuringAlan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a... - ARM architectureARM architectureARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
The ARM CPU design is the microprocessor architecture of 98% of mobile phones and every smartphone. - BombeBombeThe bombe was an electromechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted signals during World War II...
- Alan Turing - Colossus computerColossus computerNot to be confused with the fictional computer of the same name in the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project.Colossus was the world's first electronic, digital, programmable computer. Colossus and its successors were used by British codebreakers to help read encrypted German messages during World War II...
Colossus computers were the first electronic digital programmable computers. They used vacuum tubes and binary representation of numbers - Tommy FlowersTommy FlowersThomas "Tommy" Harold Flowers, MBE was an English engineer. During World War II, Flowers designed Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer, to help solve encrypted German messages.-Early life:... - Difference engineDifference engineA difference engine is an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. Both logarithmic and trigonometric functions can be approximated by polynomials, so a difference engine can compute many useful sets of numbers.-History:...
- Sir Charles Babbage - First programmerProgrammerA programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
- Ada LovelaceAda LovelaceAugusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine... - First Programming Language Analytical EngineAnalytical engineThe Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical calculator...
ordercode - Charles BabbageCharles BabbageCharles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
and Ada LovelaceAda LovelaceAugusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine... - Boolean algebra, the basis for digital logic - George BooleGeorge BooleGeorge Boole was an English mathematician and philosopher.As the inventor of Boolean logic—the basis of modern digital computer logic—Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science. Boole said,...
- World Wide WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
- Sir Tim Berners-LeeTim Berners-LeeSir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web... - Developed HTTP and HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
- Tim Berners-LeeTim Berners-LeeSir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web... - Argo system the world's first electrically powered mechanical analogue computer (also called at the Argo Clock) - Arthur PollenArthur PollenArthur Joseph Hungerford Pollen was a writer on naval affairs in the early 1900s who recognised the need for a computer-based fire-control system...
- Sumlock ANITA calculatorSumlock ANITA calculatorThe ANITA Mark VII and ANITA Mark VIII calculators were launched simultaneously in late 1961 as the world's first all-electronic desktop calculators. Designed and built by the Bell Punch Co...
the world's first all-electronic desktop calculatorCalculatorAn electronic calculator is a small, portable, usually inexpensive electronic device used to perform the basic operations of arithmetic. Modern calculators are more portable than most computers, though most PDAs are comparable in size to handheld calculators.The first solid-state electronic...
- Bell PunchBell PunchThe Bell Punch Company was a British company manufacturing a variety of business machines, most notably several generations of public transport ticket machines and the worlds first desktop electronic calculator, the Sumlock ANITA.-History:...
Co - Sinclair ExecutiveSinclair ExecutiveThe Sinclair Executive was Clive Sinclair's first venture into the pocket calculator market. The Executive was the world's first "slimline" pocket calculator. It was variously described as "a piece of personal jewelry" and "at once a conversation piece, a rich man's plaything and a functional...
, the world's first small electronic pocket calculator - Sir Clive SinclairClive SinclairSir Clive Marles Sinclair is a British entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s.... - Osborne 1Osborne 1The Osborne 1 was the first commercially successful portable microcomputer, released on April 3, 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. It weighed 10.7 kg , cost USD$ 1795, and ran the then-popular CP/M 2.2 operating system...
The first commercially successful portable computer, the precursor to the Laptop computer - Adam OsborneAdam OsborneAdam Osborne was an American author, book and software publisher, and computer designer who founded several companies in the United States and elsewhere.- Computers :... - Designed what was the first laptop computer, the GRiD CompassGRiD CompassThe Grid Compass was one of the first laptop computers when the initial model was introduced in April 1982 ....
in 1979 - Bill MoggridgeBill MoggridgeWilliam Moggridge, an industrial and interaction designer, is co-founder of the Silicon Valley-based design firm IDEO and the current director of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. He designed what was the first laptop computer, the GRiD Compass... - Heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernelLinux kernelThe Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
- Andrew MortonAndrew Morton (computer programmer)Andrew Keith Paul Morton is an Australian software engineer, best known as one of the lead developers of the Linux kernel...
& Alan CoxAlan CoxAlan Cox is a British computer programmer who formerly maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel, an association that dates back to 1991... - Sinclair ZX80Sinclair ZX80The Sinclair ZX80 is a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Science of Cambridge Ltd. . It is notable for being the first computer available in the United Kingdom for less than a hundred pounds...
, ZX81 and ZX SpectrumZX SpectrumThe ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
- Sir Clive SinclairClive SinclairSir Clive Marles Sinclair is a British entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s.... - Flip-flopFlip-flop (electronics)In electronics, a flip-flop or latch is a circuit that has two stable states and can be used to store state information. The circuit can be made to change state by signals applied to one or more control inputs and will have one or two outputs. It is the basic storage element in sequential logic...
circuit, which became the basis of electronic memory (Random-access memoryRandom-access memoryRandom access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
) in computers - William EcclesWilliam EcclesWilliam Henry Eccles was a British physicist and a pioneer in the development of radio communication.He was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England. Following graduation from the Royal College of Science, London, in 1898, he became an assistant to Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian radio...
and F. W. JordanF. W. JordanFrank Wilfred Jordan was a British physicist who together with William Henry Eccles invented the so-called "flip-flop" circuit in 1918. This circuit became the basis of electronic memory in computers.... - Universal Turing machineUniversal Turing machineIn computer science, a universal Turing machine is a Turing machine that can simulate an arbitrary Turing machine on arbitrary input. The universal machine essentially achieves this by reading both the description of the machine to be simulated as well as the input thereof from its own tape. Alan...
- The UTM model is considered to be the origin of the "stored program computer" used by John von NeumannJohn von NeumannJohn von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...
in 1946 for his "Electronic Computing Instrument" that now bears von Neumann's name: the von Neumann architectureVon Neumann architectureThe term Von Neumann architecture, aka the Von Neumann model, derives from a computer architecture proposal by the mathematician and early computer scientist John von Neumann and others, dated June 30, 1945, entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC...
, also UTM is considered the first operating systemOperating systemAn operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
- Alan TuringAlan TuringAlan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a... - The development of packet switchingPacket switchingPacket switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data – regardless of content, type, or structure – into suitably sized blocks, called packets. Packet switching features delivery of variable-bit-rate data streams over a shared network...
co-invented by British engineer Donald DaviesDonald DaviesDonald Watts Davies, CBE FRS was a Welsh computer scientist who was one of the inventors of packet switching computer networking, and originator of the term.-Career history:...
and American Paul BaranPaul BaranPaul Baran was a Polish American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks.He invented packet switching techniques, and went on to start several companies and develop other technologies that are an essential part of the Internet and other modern digital...
- National Physical Laboratory, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... - The first person to conceptualise the Integrated CircuitIntegrated circuitAn integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
- Geoffrey W.A. Dummer - The first modern computer Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine - (SSEM), nicknamed Baby. Was the world's first stored-program computerStored-program computerA stored-program computer is one which stores program instructions in electronic memory. Often the definition is extended with the requirement that the treatment of programs and data in memory be interchangeable or uniform....
. Developed by Frederic Calland WilliamsFrederic Calland WilliamsSir Frederic Calland Williams CBE, FRS , known as 'Freddie Williams', was an English engineer....
& Tom KilburnTom KilburnTom Kilburn CBE, FRS was an English engineer. With Freddie Williams he worked on the Williams Tube and the world's first stored-program computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine , while working at the University of Manchester.-Computer engineering:Kilburn was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and... - Williams tubeWilliams tubeThe Williams tube or the Williams-Kilburn tube , developed in about 1946 or 1947, was a cathode ray tube used to electronically store binary data....
- a cathode ray tubeCathode ray tubeThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
used to electronically store binary data (Can store roughly 500 to 1,000 bits of data) - Freddie WilliamsFrederic Calland WilliamsSir Frederic Calland Williams CBE, FRS , known as 'Freddie Williams', was an English engineer....
& Tom KilburnTom KilburnTom Kilburn CBE, FRS was an English engineer. With Freddie Williams he worked on the Williams Tube and the world's first stored-program computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine , while working at the University of Manchester.-Computer engineering:Kilburn was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and... - Manchester Mark 1Manchester Mark 1The Manchester Mark 1 was one of the earliest stored-program computers, developed at the Victoria University of Manchester from the Small-Scale Experimental Machine or "Baby" . It was also called the Manchester Automatic Digital Machine, or MADM...
Historically significant computer because of its pioneering inclusion of index registers - Freddie WilliamsFrederic Calland WilliamsSir Frederic Calland Williams CBE, FRS , known as 'Freddie Williams', was an English engineer....
and Tom KilburnTom KilburnTom Kilburn CBE, FRS was an English engineer. With Freddie Williams he worked on the Williams Tube and the world's first stored-program computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine , while working at the University of Manchester.-Computer engineering:Kilburn was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and... - AutocodeAutocodeAutocode is the name of a family of "simplified coding systems", later called programming languages, devised in the 1950s and 1960s for a series of digital computers at the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge...
regarded as the first ever computer compilerCompilerA compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
in 1952 for the Manchester Mark 1Manchester Mark 1The Manchester Mark 1 was one of the earliest stored-program computers, developed at the Victoria University of Manchester from the Small-Scale Experimental Machine or "Baby" . It was also called the Manchester Automatic Digital Machine, or MADM...
computer - Alick GlennieAlick GlennieAlick Edwards Glennie was a British computer scientist, most famous for having developed Autocode, which many people regard as the first ever computer compiler. Glennie worked with Alan Turing on several projects, including the Manchester Mark 1... - Developed the concept of microprogramming from the realisation that the Central Processing UnitCentral processing unitThe central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
(CPU) of a computer could be controlled by a miniature, highly specialised computer program in high-speed ROMRead-only memoryRead-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
- Maurice Wilkes in 1951 - Ferranti Mark 1 - Also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer was the first computer to use the principles of early CPU design (Central processing unit) - Freddie WilliamsFrederic Calland WilliamsSir Frederic Calland Williams CBE, FRS , known as 'Freddie Williams', was an English engineer....
and Tom KilburnTom KilburnTom Kilburn CBE, FRS was an English engineer. With Freddie Williams he worked on the Williams Tube and the world's first stored-program computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine , while working at the University of Manchester.-Computer engineering:Kilburn was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and...
- Also the world's first successful commercially available general-purpose electronic computer. - The oldest known recordings of computer generated music were played by the Ferranti Mark 1 computer - Christopher StracheyChristopher StracheyChristopher Strachey was a British computer scientist. He was one of the founders of denotational semantics, and a pioneer in programming language design...
- EDSACEDSACElectronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England...
was the first complete, fully functional computer to use the von Neumann architectureVon Neumann architectureThe term Von Neumann architecture, aka the Von Neumann model, derives from a computer architecture proposal by the mathematician and early computer scientist John von Neumann and others, dated June 30, 1945, entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC...
, the basis of every modern computer - Maurice Wilkes - EDSAC 2EDSAC 2EDSAC 2 was an early computer, the successor to the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator. It was the first computer to have a microprogrammed control unit and a bit slice hardware architecture....
the successor to the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator or EDSACEDSACElectronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England...
. It was the first computer to have a microprogrammed (MicrocodeMicrocodeMicrocode is a layer of hardware-level instructions and/or data structures involved in the implementation of higher level machine code instructions in many computers and other processors; it resides in special high-speed memory and translates machine instructions into sequences of detailed...
)control unitControl unitA control unit in general is a central part of the machinery that controls its operation, provided that a piece of machinery is complex and organized enough to contain any such unit. One domain in which the term is specifically used is the area of computer design...
and a bit slice hardware architecture - Team headed by Maurice Wilkes - The first graphical computer game OXOOXOOXO was a computer game written for the EDSAC computer in 1952, an implementation of the game known as Noughts and Crosses in the UK, or tic-tac-toe in the United States. It was written by Alexander S. Douglas as an illustration for his Ph.D. thesis on human-computer interaction for the University...
on the EDSACEDSACElectronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England...
at Cambridge University - A.S. DouglasA.S. DouglasProfessor Alexander "Sandy" Shafto Douglas CBE was a British professor of computer science, credited with creating the first graphical Computer game OXO a tic-tac-toe computer game in 1952 on the EDSAC computer at University of Cambridge.Douglas died in sleep on April 29, 2010, from... - The world's first computer game with 3D graphics - Elite Developed by David BrabenDavid BrabenDavid John Braben is a British computer programmer, best known for co-writing Elite, a hugely popular and influential space trading computer game, in the early 1980s.-Life and work:...
and Ian Bell in 1984 - Metrovick 950Metrovick 950The Metrovick 950 was a transistorized computer, built from 1956 onwards by British company Metropolitan-Vickers, to the extent of six or seven machines, which were "used commercially within the company" or "mainly for internal use"...
was the first commercial transistor computerTransistor computerA transistor computer is a computer which uses discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The "first generation" of electronic computers used vacuum tubes, which generated large amounts of heat, were bulky, and were unreliable. A "second generation" of computers, through the late 1950s and...
built in 1959 - Metropolitan-VickersMetropolitan-VickersMetropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam...
company - LEO Made history by running the first business application (payroll system) on an electronic computer in 1951 for J. Lyons and Co - Maurice Wilkes
- Atlas Computer, it was arguably the world's first supercomputerSupercomputerA supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
and was the fastest computer in the world until the release of the American CDC 6600CDC 6600The CDC 6600 was a mainframe computer from Control Data Corporation, first delivered in 1964. It is generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, outperforming its fastest predecessor, IBM 7030 Stretch, by about three times...
Also This machine introduced many modern architectural concepts: spoolingSpoolingIn computer science, spool refers to the process of placing data in a temporary working area for another program to process. The most common use is in writing files on a magnetic tape or disk and entering them in the work queue for another process. Spooling is useful because devices access data at...
, interrupts, pipelining, interleaved memoryInterleaved memoryInterleaved memory is a technique for compensating the relatively slow speed of DRAM. The CPU can access alternative sections immediately without waiting for memory to be cached. Multiple memory banks take turns supplying data....
, virtual memoryVirtual memoryIn computing, virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels. This technique virtualizes a computer architecture's various forms of computer data storage , allowing a program to be designed as though there is only one kind of memory, "virtual" memory, which...
and pagingPagingIn computer operating systems, paging is one of the memory-management schemes by which a computer can store and retrieve data from secondary storage for use in main memory. In the paging memory-management scheme, the operating system retrieves data from secondary storage in same-size blocks called...
- Team headed by Tom KilburnTom KilburnTom Kilburn CBE, FRS was an English engineer. With Freddie Williams he worked on the Williams Tube and the world's first stored-program computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine , while working at the University of Manchester.-Computer engineering:Kilburn was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and... - The world's first web browserWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
called WorldWideWebWorldWideWebWorldWideWeb, later renamed to Nexus to avoid confusion between the software and the World Wide Web, was the first web browser and editor. When it was written, WorldWideWeb was the only way to view the Web....
that ran on the NeXTSTEPNEXTSTEPNeXTSTEP was the object-oriented, multitasking operating system developed by NeXT Computer to run on its range of proprietary workstation computers, such as the NeXTcube...
platform. It was later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion with the World Wide WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
- Sir Tim Berners-LeeTim Berners-LeeSir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web... - Digital audio player (MP3 Player) - Kane KramerKane KramerKane Kramer is a British inventor and business man. He is credited with the initial invention of the digital audio player, in 1979.-Invention of the DAP:...
- TouchpadTouchpadA touchpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on screen. Touch pads are a common feature of laptop computers, and they are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk...
Pointing device - First developed for Psion PLC's Psion MC 200/400/600/WORD Series in 1989 - Co-Inventor of the world's first trackballTrackballA trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor...
device - developed by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon TaylorKenyon TaylorKenyon Taylor was a British electrical engineer and inventor. Taylor was part of the original Ferranti Canada, working on the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR system in the late forties and early fifties assisting in developing the world's first trackball. In the seventies, he developed the flip-disc... - The world's first handheld computer (Psion OrganiserPsion OrganiserThe Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computer developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6x6 keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically.Early Psions are very robust...
) - Psion PLC - The first rugged computerRugged computerA rugged computer is a computer specifically designed to reliably operate in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions...
- Husky (computer)Husky (computer)The DVW Husky was a rugged handheld British microcomputer issued in 1981 by DVW Electronics. It was designed to be used in harsh conditions, such as wet and cold weather, by users such as the military... - First PC-compatible palmtop computer (Atari PortfolioAtari PortfolioThe Atari Portfolio is the first PC-compatible palmtop computer, and was released by Atari Corporation in 1989. The Portfolio was licenced from Distributed Information Processing based in Guildford, Surrey, UK...
) - Ian CullimoreIan CullimoreIan Cullimore is an English-born mathematician and computer scientist who has been influential in the pocket PC arena.-Biography:Cullimore has a degree in Mathematics from King's College London, and a PhD in Cognitive and Computer Science from the University of Sussex.He was the original founder ... - Denotational semanticsDenotational semanticsIn computer science, denotational semantics is an approach to formalizing the meanings of programming languages by constructing mathematical objects which describe the meanings of expressions from the languages...
- Christopher StracheyChristopher StracheyChristopher Strachey was a British computer scientist. He was one of the founders of denotational semantics, and a pioneer in programming language design...
pioneer in programming language design - Wolfram's 2-state 3-symbol Turing machineWolfram's 2-state 3-symbol Turing machineIn his book A New Kind of Science, Stephen Wolfram described a universal 2-state 5-color Turing machine, and conjectured that a particular 2-state 3-color Turing machine might be universal as well....
- Stephen WolframStephen WolframStephen Wolfram is a British scientist and the chief designer of the Mathematica software application and the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine.- Biography :...
Criminology
- DNA fingerprinting - Sir Alec Jeffreys
- The world's first national DNA databaseDNA databaseA DNA database or DNA databank is a database of DNA data. A DNA database can be used in the analysis of genetic diseases, genetic fingerprinting for criminology, or genetic genealogy. DNA databases may be public or private. These databases do not normally hold DNA except for a short time...
developed in 1995 - Devised a method for classifying fingerprintFingerprintA fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s that proved useful in forensic science - Francis GaltonFrancis GaltonSir Francis Galton /ˈfrɑːnsɪs ˈgɔːltn̩/ FRS , cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton, half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician... - Iris recognitionIris recognitionIris recognition is an automated method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of the irides of an individual's eyes, whose complex random patterns are unique and can be seen from some distance....
- John DaugmanJohn DaugmanJohn Daugman is a physicist and Professor of Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. He is best known for his pioneering work in biometric identification, in particular the development of the Gabor wavelet based iris recognition algorithm that is ... - Chemist who developed the Marsh testMarsh testThe Marsh test is a highly sensitive method in the detection of arsenic, especially useful in the field of forensic toxicology when arsenic was used as a poison...
for detecting arsenicArsenicArsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
poisoning - James Marsh
Cryptography
- Playfair cipherPlayfair cipherThe Playfair cipher or Playfair square is a manual symmetric encryption technique and was the first literal digraph substitution cipher. The scheme was invented in 1854 by Charles Wheatstone, but bears the name of Lord Playfair who promoted the use of the cipher.The technique encrypts pairs of...
- Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher... - Bacon's cipherBacon's cipherBacon's cipher or the Baconian cipher is a method of steganography devised by Francis Bacon. A message is concealed in the presentation of text, rather than its content.-Cipher details:...
- Sir Francis BaconFrancis BaconFrancis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England... - RSA cipher - Clifford CocksClifford CocksClifford Christopher Cocks, CB, is a British mathematician and cryptographer at GCHQ.He invented the widely-used encryption algorithm now commonly known as RSA, about three years before it was independently developed by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman at MIT...
developed the RSA algorithm at GCHQ, approximately three years before it was independently developed by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman at MIT. The British government were not interested in using Cocks' algorithm, so it was classified until 1998, when it was revealed that he had developed RSA before Rivest et al.
Engineering
- Adjustable spannerAdjustable spannerAn adjustable spanner or adjustable wrench is a spanner with a "jaw" of adjustable width, allowing it to be used with different sizes of fastener head rather than just one faster, as with a conventional fixed spanner...
- Edwin Beard BuddingEdwin Beard BuddingEdwin Beard Budding , an engineer from Stroud, England, was the English inventor of the lawnmower and adjustable spanner.-Lawnmower:... - Cavity magnetronCavity magnetronThe cavity magnetron is a high-powered vacuum tube that generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field. The 'resonant' cavity magnetron variant of the earlier magnetron tube was invented by John Randall and Harry Boot in 1940 at the University of...
- John RandallJohn Randall (physicist)Sir John Turton Randall, FRS, FRSE, was a British physicist and biophysicist, credited with radical improvement of the cavity magnetron, an essential component of centimetric wavelength radar, which was one of the keys to the Allied victory in the Second World War. It is also the key component of...
and Harry BootHarry BootHenry Albert Howard "Harry" Boot was an English physicist who with Sir John Randall and James Sayers developed the cavity magnetron, which was one of the keys to the Allied victory in the Second World War.-Biography:...
critical component for MicrowaveMicrowaveMicrowaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
generation in Microwave ovens and high powered Radios (RadarRadarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
) - Carey Foster bridgeCarey Foster bridgeIn electronics, the Carey Foster bridge is a bridge circuit used to measure low resistances, or to measure small differences between two large resistances. It was invented by Carey Foster as a variant on the Wheatstone bridge...
- Carey FosterCarey FosterGeorge Carey Foster was a chemist and physicist, born at Sabden in Lancashire,He was Professor of Physics at University College London.-Early life:... - Electric transformerTransformerA transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...
- Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.... - First coke-consuming blast furnaceBlast furnaceA blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
- Abraham Darby IAbraham Darby IAbraham Darby I was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal... - First working universal jointUniversal jointA universal joint, universal coupling, U joint, Cardan joint, Hardy-Spicer joint, or Hooke's joint is a joint or coupling in a rigid rod that allows the rod to 'bend' in any direction, and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion...
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Produced the first commercial steel alloyAlloyAn alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
in 1868 - Robert Forester MushetRobert Forester MushetRobert Forester Mushet was a British metallurgist and businessman, born April 8, 1811, in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. He was the youngest son of Scottish parents, Agnes Wilson and David Mushet; an ironmaster, formerly of the Clyde, Alfreton and Whitecliff... - Crookes tubeCrookes tubeA Crookes tube is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, invented by English physicist William Crookes and others around 1869-1875, in which cathode rays, that is electrons, were discovered....
the first cathode ray tubeCathode ray tubeThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
s - William CrookesWilliam CrookesSir William Crookes, OM, FRS was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, London, and worked on spectroscopy... - First compression ignition engine aka the Diesel EngineDiesel engineA diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
- Herbert Akroyd StuartHerbert Akroyd StuartHerbert Akroyd-Stuart was an English inventor who is noted for his invention of the hot bulb engine, or heavy oil engine.-Life:... - First working steam pumpSteam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
- Thomas SaveryThomas SaveryThomas Savery was an English inventor, born at Shilstone, a manor house near Modbury, Devon, England.-Career:Savery became a military engineer, rising to the rank of Captain by 1702, and spent his free time performing experiments in mechanics...
in 1698 - Atmospheric steam engineNewcomen steam engineThe atmospheric engine invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, today referred to as a Newcomen steam engine , was the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomen engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines,...
- Thomas NewcomenThomas NewcomenThomas Newcomen was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England, near a part of the country noted for its tin mines. Flooding was a major problem, limiting the depth at which the mineral could be mined...
in 1712 - Modified version of the Newcomen steam engine (Pickard engine) - James PickardJames PickardJames Pickard was an English inventor. He modified the Newcomen engine in a manner that it could deliver a rotary motion. His solution, which he patented in 1780, involved the combined use of a crank and a flywheel....
- Steam turbineSteam turbineA steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
- Charles Algernon ParsonsCharles Algernon ParsonsSir Charles Algernon Parsons OM KCB FRS was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the steam turbine. He worked as an engineer on dynamo and turbine design, and power generation, with great influence on the naval and electrical engineering fields... - Pendulum governor - Frederick LanchesterFrederick LanchesterFrederick William Lanchester, Hon FRAeS was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering, aerodynamics and co-invented the field of operations research....
- High strength carbon fiberCarbon fiberCarbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...
- Royal Aircraft EstablishmentRoyal Aircraft EstablishmentThe Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...
in 1963 - Also on January 14, 1969 Carr Reinforcements (StockportStockportStockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) wove the first carbon fiberCarbon fiberCarbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...
fabric in the world - Contributed to the development of RadarRadarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
- Scotsman Robert Watson-WattRobert Watson-WattSir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar". Development of radar, initially nameless, was first started elsewhere but greatly expanded on 1 September 1936 when Watson-Watt became...
and Englishman Arnold Frederic WilkinsArnold Frederic WilkinsArnold Frederic Wilkins O.B.E., was a pioneer in developing the use of radar.-Early life:... - Disc brakeDisc brakeThe disc brake or disk brake is a device for slowing or stopping the rotation of a wheel while it is in motion.A brake disc is usually made of cast iron, but may in some cases be made of composites such as reinforced carbon–carbon or ceramic matrix composites. This is connected to the wheel and/or...
s - Frederick W. Lanchester - Internal combustion engineInternal combustion engineThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
- Samuel BrownSamuel Brown (engineer)This article is about the English engineer and inventor. See Samuel Brown for other persons of the same name.Samuel Brown was an English engineer and inventor credited with developing one of the earliest examples of an internal combustion engine, during the early 19th century.Brown, a cooper by... - Fourdrinier machineFourdrinier machineThis article contains a glossary section at the end.Most modern papermaking machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machine. It has been used in some variation since its inception...
- Henry FourdrinierHenry FourdrinierHenry Fourdrinier was a British inventor.He was born in 1766, the son of a paper maker and stationer. With his brother, Sealy, he invented and improved the Fourdrinier machine, a papermaking machine that could make continuous paper... - Microchip - Geoffrey W.A. Dummer
- light-emitting diodeLight-emitting diodeA light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
(did not invent the first visible light, only theorised)- H. J. RoundH. J. RoundCaptain Henry Joseph Round was one of the early pioneers of radio and received 117 patents. He was the first to report observation of electroluminescence from a diode, leading to the discovery of the light-emitting diode... - Francis turbineFrancis turbineThe Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts....
- James B. FrancisJames B. FrancisJames Bicheno Francis was a British-American engineer, who invented the Francis turbine.-Early years:James Francis was born in South Leigh, near Witney, Oxfordshire in England, United Kingdom... - Gas turbineGas turbineA gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....
- John Barber (engineer)John Barber (engineer)John Barber was an English coalmaster and inventor. He was born in Nottinghamshire, but moved to Warwickshire in the 1760s to manage collieries in the Nuneaton area. For a time he lived in Camp Hill House, between Hartshill and Nuneaton, and later lived in Attleborough... - Two-stroke engine - Joseph DayJoseph DayJoseph Day trained as an engineer at the School of Practical Engineering at Crystal Palace in London, began work at Stothert & Pitt in Bath, and in 1889 designed the two-stroke engine as it is widely-known today , the Valve-less Two-Stroke Engine...
- Pioneer of radio guidance systems - Archibald LowArchibald LowArchibald Montgomery Low was an English consulting engineer, research physicist and inventor, and author of more than 40 books....
- Screw-cutting latheScrew-cutting latheA screw-cutting lathe is a machine capable of cutting very accurate screw threads via single-point screw-cutting, which is the process of guiding the linear motion of the tool bit in a precisely known ratio to the rotating motion of the workpiece...
- Henry HindleyHenry HindleyHenry Hindley was an 18th century clockmaker and maker of scientific instruments. He was the inventor of a screw-cutting lathe. He built a clock for York Minster, England, where he apparently lived for much of his life, in 1752....
- The first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe - Henry MaudslayHenry MaudslayHenry Maudslay was a British machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology.-Early life:...
- The first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe - Henry Maudslay
- The first electrical measuring instrumentMeasuring instrumentIn the physical sciences, quality assurance, and engineering, measurement is the activity of obtaining and comparing physical quantities of real-world objects and events. Established standard objects and events are used as units, and the process of measurement gives a number relating the item...
, the electroscopeElectroscopeAn electroscope is an early scientific instrument that is used to detect the presence and magnitude of electric charge on a body. It was the first electrical measuring instrument. The first electroscope, a pivoted needle called the versorium, was invented by British physician William Gilbert...
- William Gilbert - Rectilinear Slide ruleSlide ruleThe slide rule, also known colloquially as a slipstick, is a mechanical analog computer. The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for functions such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry, but is not normally used for addition or subtraction.Slide rules come in a...
- William OughtredWilliam OughtredWilliam Oughtred was an English mathematician.After John Napier invented logarithms, and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales upon which slide rules are based, it was Oughtred who first used two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division; and he is... - Devised a standard for screw threads leading to its widespread acceptance - Joseph WhitworthJoseph WhitworthSir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for screw threads...
- The Wimshurst machineWimshurst machineThe Wimshurst influence machine is an electrostatic generator, a machine for generating high voltages developed between 1880 and 1883 by British inventor James Wimshurst ....
is an Electrostatic generatorElectrostatic generatorAn electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is a mechanical device that produces static electricity, or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current...
for producing high voltages - James WimshurstJames WimshurstJames Wimshurst was an English inventor, engineer and shipwright. Though Wimshurst did not patent his machines and the various improvements that he made to them, his refinements to the electrostatic generator led to its becoming widely known as the Wimshurst machine.-Biography:Wimshurst was born... - Hot bulb engineHot bulb engineThe hot bulb engine, or hotbulb or heavy oil engine is a type of internal combustion engine. It is an engine in which fuel is ignited by being brought into contact with a red-hot metal surface inside a bulb....
or heavy oil engine - Herbert Akroyd StuartHerbert Akroyd StuartHerbert Akroyd-Stuart was an English inventor who is noted for his invention of the hot bulb engine, or heavy oil engine.-Life:... - Hydraulic crane - William George Armstrong
- Vacuum diode also known as a vacuum tubeVacuum tubeIn electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
- John Ambrose FlemingJohn Ambrose FlemingSir John Ambrose Fleming was an English electrical engineer and physicist. He is known for inventing the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube, the diode, then called the kenotron in 1904. He is also famous for the left hand rule... - Linear motorLinear motorA linear motor is an electric motor that has had its stator and rotor "unrolled" so that instead of producing a torque it produces a linear force along its length...
is a multi-phase alternating current (AC) electric motor - Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
then improved by Eric LaithwaiteEric LaithwaiteEric Roberts Laithwaite was a British electrical engineer, known as the "Father of Maglev" for his development of the linear induction motor and maglev rail system.- Biography :... - Designed waterWaterWater is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
and sewerageSanitary sewerA sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
systems for over 30 cities across Europe - William LindleyWilliam LindleyWilliam Lindley , was a famous English engineer who together with his sons designed water and sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe.-Life:... - The Iron BridgeThe Iron BridgeThe Iron Bridge crosses the River Severn at the Ironbridge Gorge, by the village of Ironbridge, in Shropshire, England. It was the first arch bridge in the world to be made out of cast iron, a material which was previously far too expensive to use for large structures...
(1791), the first metal bridge of any kind - Abraham Darby IIIAbraham Darby IIIAbraham Darby III was an English ironmaster and Quaker. He was the third Abraham Darby in three generations of an English Quaker family that played a role in the Industrial Revolution.... - The world's first house powered with hydroelectricityHydroelectricityHydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
- CragsideCragsideCragside is a country house in the civil parish of Cartington in Northumberland, England. It was the first house in the world to be lit using hydroelectric power...
, NorthumberlandNorthumberlandNorthumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region... - Wind tunnelWind tunnelA wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
- Francis Herbert WenhamFrancis Herbert WenhamFrancis Herbert Wenham was a British marine engineer who studied the problem of manned flight and wrote a perceptive and influential academic paper which he presented to the first meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society in London in 1866.Wenham's report, "Aerial Locomotion," was published in the...
Food
- Bangers and mashBangers and mashBangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional English dish made of mashed potatoes and sausages, the latter of which may be one of a variety of flavoured sausage made of pork or beef or a Cumberland sausage....
- Black Pudding
- Brown Sauce (HP Sauce)HP SauceHP Sauce is a popular brown sauce originally produced by HP Foods in the UK, now produced by H.J. Heinz in the Netherlands.It is the best-known brand of brown sauce in the United Kingdom and Canada as well as the best selling, with 71% of the UK market....
- Bubble and SqueakBubble and squeakBubble and squeak is a traditional English dish made with the shallow-fried leftover vegetables from a roast dinner. The main ingredients are potato and cabbage, but carrots, peas, brussels sprouts, and other vegetables can be added...
- Cheddar cheeseCheddar cheeseCheddar cheese is a relatively hard, yellow to off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting cheese, produced in several countries around the world. It has its origins in the English village of Cheddar in Somerset....
- modern cheddar cheese manufacture Joseph HardingJoseph HardingJoseph Harding was responsible for the introduction of modern cheese making techniques and has been described as the "father of Cheddar cheese"... - Cornish pasty
- Cottage pieCottage pieCottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...
- Cumberland sausageCumberland sausageCumberland sausage is a form of sausage that originated in the ancient county of Cumberland, England, now part of Cumbria. They are traditionally very long , and sold rolled in a flat, circular coil but within western Cumbria they are more often served in long curved lengths...
- Eccles cakeEccles cakeAn Eccles cake is a small, round cake filled with currants and made from flaky pastry with butter and can sometimes be topped with demerara sugar.-Name and origin:Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles...
- English mustard
- Fish and ChipsFish and chipsFish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
- Full English breakfast
- GravyGravyGravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...
- HaggisHaggisHaggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' , minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach.Haggis is a kind...
- Normally assumed to be of ScottishScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
origin, but the first known written recipe for a dish of the name (as 'hagese'), made with offal and herbs, is in the verse cookbook Liber Cure CocorumLiber Cure CocorumLiber Cure Cocorum is a cookery book in verse dating from around the year 1430 in the North West of the County of Lancashire in North-West England....
dating from around 1430 in LancashireLancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, North-West England. - Ice creamIce creamIce cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
- Modern Ice cream 1718 England - Jellied eelsJellied eelsJellied eels is a traditional English dish that originated in the 18th century, primarily in London's East End. The dish consists of chopped eels boiled in a spiced stock that is allowed to cool and set, forming a jelly...
- Kendal mint cakeKendal mint cakeKendal Mint Cake is a glucose-based confectionery flavoured with peppermint. It originates from Kendal in Cumbria, England. Kendal Mint Cake is said to be popular among climbers and mountaineers, especially those from the United Kingdom, as a source of energy....
- Lancashire hotpotLancashire HotpotLancashire hotpot is a dish made traditionally from lamb or mutton and onion, topped with sliced potatoes, left to bake in the oven all day in a heavy pot and on a low heat. Originating in the days of heavy industrialisation in Lancashire in the North West of England, it requires a minimum of...
- Lincolnshire sausageLincolnshire sausageLincolnshire sausages are a distinctive variety of pork sausage developed in and associated with the English county of Lincolnshire.A widely available variety at most UK butchers and supermarkets, the sausage is commonly dominated by the herb sage, rather than the more peppery flavour balance found...
- PancakePancakeA pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side...
- Modern pancake, English culinary manuscript 1430 - ParkinParkin (cake)Parkin or Perkin is a soft cake traditionally made of oatmeal and molasses, which originated in northern England. Often associated with Yorkshire, particularly the Leeds area, its precise origins are unclear, and it is very widespread and popular in other areas, such as Lancashire. Parkin is...
- PastyPastyA pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...
- PiccalilliPiccalilliPiccalilli is a British relish of chopped pickled vegetables and spices; regional recipes vary considerably. A more finely chopped variety "sandwich piccalilli" is also available from major British supermarkets.-Etymology:...
- Pork piePork pieA pork pie is a traditional British meat pie. It consists of roughly chopped pork and pork jelly sealed in a hot water crust pastry . It is normally eaten cold as a snack or as part of a meal.-Types:...
- SandwichSandwichA sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...
- John Montagu, 4th Earl of SandwichJohn Montagu, 4th Earl of SandwichJohn Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, PC, FRS was a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather, Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich, as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten... - Scotch eggScotch eggA Scotch egg consists of a hard-boiled egg wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs or rolled oats, and deep-fried...
- Invented by the famous London department store, Fortnum & MasonFortnum & MasonFortnum & Mason, often shortened to just "Fortnum's" is a department store, situated in central London, with two other branches in Japan. Its headquarters is located at 181 Piccadilly, where it was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason...
, in 1738. - ScouseScouse (food)Scouse is a type of lamb or beef stew. The word comes from lobscouse or lapskaus, Norwegian for "stew" and refers to a meat based stew commonly eaten by sailors throughout Northern Europe, which became popular in seaports such as Liverpool.-Origin of the term:In the 18th and 19th centuries...
- Shepherd's pieShepherd's pieCottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...
- Carbonated waterCarbonated waterCarbonated water is water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, a process that causes the water to become effervescent....
, major and defining component of soft drinks - Joseph PriestleyJoseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works... - Spotted DickSpotted dickSpotted dick is a British steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit commonly served with custard. Spotted refers to the dried fruit and dick may be a contraction or corruption of the word pudding or possibly a corruption of the word dough or dog, as "spotted dog" is another name for the same...
- Steak and kidney pieSteak and kidney pieSteak and kidney pie is a savoury pie that is filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney , fried onion, and brown gravy...
- Sunday roastSunday roastThe Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays , consisting of roasted meat, roast potato or mashed potato, with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy....
- Toad in the holeToad in the holeToad in the hole is a traditional English dish consisting of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and onion gravy....
- Worcestershire sauceWorcestershire sauceWorcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...
- Yorkshire PuddingYorkshire puddingYorkshire Pudding is a dish that originated in Yorkshire, England. It is made from batter and usually served with roast meat and gravy.-History:...
Household appliances
- BallbarrowBallbarrowThe Ballbarrow was a type of wheelbarrow designed by James Dyson and released in 1974 in the UK. It featured a moulded plastic hopper on a steel frame and a spherical plastic wheel. This benefited all-terrain use as the ball did not dig into the ground like a conventional wheel and steering was...
- James DysonJames DysonSir James Dyson is a British industrial designer and founder of the Dyson company.He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation. His net worth in 2011 was said to be £1.45 billion.-Early life:Dyson was born in... - PerambulatorBaby transportBaby transport consists of devices for transporting and carrying infants. A "child carrier" or "baby carrier" is a device used to carry an infant or small child on the body of an adult...
- William KentWilliam KentWilliam Kent , born in Bridlington, Yorkshire, was an eminent English architect, landscape architect and furniture designer of the early 18th century.He was baptised as William Cant.-Education:...
designed a baby carriage in 1733 - Collapsible baby buggy - Owen MaclarenOwen MaclarenOwen Finlay Maclaren MBE was the inventor of the lightweight baby buggy with a collapsible support assembly.-Early life:He was born in Essex to Andrew Maclaren and Eva . His father died in 1914...
- Domestic dishwasherDishwasherA dishwasher is a mechanical device for cleaning dishes and eating utensils. Dishwashers can be found in restaurants and private homes.Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies largely on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, typically between ...
- key modifications by William Howard LivensWilliam Howard LivensWilliam Howard Livens DSO MC was an engineer, a soldier in the British Army and an inventor particularly known for the design of chemical warfare and flame warfare weapons. Resourceful and clever, Livens’ successful creations were characterised by being very practical and easy to produce in large... - "Bagless" vacuum cleanerVacuum cleanerA vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
- James Dyson - "Puffing Billy" - First powered vacuum cleanerVacuum cleanerA vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
- Hubert Cecil BoothHubert Cecil BoothHubert Cecil Booth was a British engineer who invented the first powered vacuum cleaner.He also designed Ferris wheels, suspension bridges and factories. Later he became Chairman and Managing Director of the British Vacuum Cleaner and Engineering Co.-Early life:Booth was born in Gloucester, England... - Fire extinguisherFire extinguisherA fire extinguisher or extinguisher, flame entinguisher is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations...
- George William ManbyGeorge William ManbyCaptain George William Manby FRS , was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the first modern form of fire extinguisher.-Life:Manby went to school at Downham Market... - Folding cartonFolding cartonThe folding carton created the packaging industry as it is known today, beginning in the late 19th century. Basically, a folding carton is made of paperboard, and is cut, folded, laminated and printed for transport to manufacturers. The cartons are shipped flat to a manufacturer, which has its own...
- Charles Henry FoyleCharles Henry FoyleCharles Henry Foyle was the inventor of the folding carton and founder of Boxfoldia in Birmingham, England, in 1920; a company that was finally sold in 2003.... - Lawn mowerLawn mowerA lawn mower is a machine that uses a revolving blade or blades to cut a lawn at an even length.Lawn mowers employing a blade that rotates about a vertical axis are known as rotary mowers, while those employing a blade assembly that rotates about a horizontal axis are known as cylinder or reel...
- Edwin Beard BuddingEdwin Beard BuddingEdwin Beard Budding , an engineer from Stroud, England, was the English inventor of the lawnmower and adjustable spanner.-Lawnmower:... - Rubber bandRubber bandA rubber band is a short length of rubber and latex formed in the shape of a loop and is commonly used to hold multiple objects together...
- Stephen PerryStephen PerryStephen Perry was a 19th century British inventor and businessman. His corporation was the Messers Perry and Co, Rubber Manufacturers of London, which made early products from vulcanized rubber. On March 17, 1845, Perry received a patent for the rubber band.- See also :*Other people surnamed Perry... - Daniell cellDaniell cellThe Daniell cell was invented in 1836 by John Frederic Daniell, a British chemist and meteorologist, and consisted of a copper pot filled with a copper sulfate solution, in which was immersed an unglazed earthenware container filled with sulfuric acid and a zinc electrode...
- John Frederic DaniellJohn Frederic DaniellJohn Frederic Daniell was an English chemist and physicist.Daniell was born in London, and in 1831 became the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded King's College London. His name is best known for his invention of the Daniell cell , an electric battery much better than voltaic cells... - First incandescent light bulb - Joseph Wilson Swan in 1878.
- Tin canTin canA tin can, tin , steel can, or a can, is a sealed container for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal. Many cans require opening by cutting the "end" open; others have removable covers. Cans hold diverse contents: foods, beverages, oil, chemicals, etc."Tin" cans are made...
- Peter DurandPeter DurandPeter Durand was a British merchant who is widely credited with receiving the first patent for the idea of preserving food using tin cans. The patent was granted on August 25, 1810 by King George III of England.... - Light switchLight switchA light switch is a switch, most commonly used to operate electric lights, permanently connected equipment, or electrical outlets. In torches the switch is often near the bulb, but may be in the tail, or even the entire head itself may constitute the switch .-Wall-mounted switches:Switches for...
- Invented by John Holmes in 1884 - CorkscrewCorkscrewA corkscrew is a kitchen tool for drawing stopping corks from wine bottles. Generally, a corkscrew consists of a pointed metallic helix attached to a handle. The user grips the handle and screws the metal point into the cork, until the helix is firmly embedded, then a vertical pull on the...
- Reverend Samuell Henshall - Mouse trapMouse TrapMouse Trap is a 1981 arcade game released by Exidy, similar to Pac-Man. It was ported to three home systems by Coleco; Coleco's ColecoVision, Mattel's Intellivision, and the Atari 2600.-Comparison to Pac-Man:...
- James Henry Atkinson - Postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
- Rowland Hill - Modern flushing toilet - John Harington
- The pay toiletPay toiletA pay toilet is a public toilet that requires money payment of any individual to use. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a mall, department store, railway station, restaurant, etc. The reason for charging money for using toilets usually is for the maintenance of the...
- John Nevil MaskelyneJohn Nevil MaskelyneJohn Nevil Maskelyne was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with many other Victorian-era devices. His door lock for London toilets required the insertion of a penny coin to operate it, hence the euphemism to "spend a penny".-Biography:Maskelyne was born in Cheltenham,...
, Maskelyne invented a lock for London toilets, which required a penny to operate, hence the euphemismEuphemismA euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
"spend a penny". - Electric toasterToasterThe toaster is typically a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast multiple types of bread products. A typical modern two-slice toaster draws anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes...
- Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton - TeasmadeTeasmadeA teasmade is a machine for making tea automatically. It was once common in the United Kingdom and some of its former colonies. Teasmades generally include an analogue alarm clock and are designed to be used at the bedside, to ensure tea is ready first thing in the morning...
- Albert E. RichardsonAlbert E. RichardsonAlbert E. Richardson was a clockmaker from Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, who designed the first practical Teasmade.He designed the first practical Teasmade based on an alarm clock, a spirit lamp and a tipping kettle... - Magnifying glassMagnifying glassA magnifying glass is a convex lens that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle ....
- Roger BaconRoger BaconRoger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods... - ThermosiphonThermosiphonThermosiphon refers to a method of passive heat exchange based on natural convection which circulates liquid without the necessity of a mechanical pump...
, which forms the basis of most modern central heating systems - Thomas Fowler - Automatic electric kettleKettleA kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a small kitchen appliance used for boiling water. Kettles can be heated either by placing on a stove, or by their own electric heating element.- Stovetop kettles :...
- Russell HobbsRussell HobbsRussell Hobbs is a manufacturer of household appliances based in Failsworth, Greater Manchester, England.-Formation:After working with REME in World War II and leaving in 1947 as a Major, Bill Russell , from High Wycombe, joined Morphy Richards and helped to design the pop-up toaster, the electric...
Industrial processes
- English crucible steelCrucible steelCrucible steel describes a number of different techniques for making steel in a crucible. Its manufacture is essentially a refining process which is dependent on preexisting furnace products...
- Benjamin HuntsmanBenjamin HuntsmanBenjamin Huntsman was an English inventor and manufacturer of cast or crucible steel.-Biography:Huntsman was born the third son of a Quaker farmer in Epworth, Lincolnshire. His parents were Germans who had emigrated only a few years before his birth.Huntsman started business as a clock, lock and... - Steel production Bessemer processBessemer processThe Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly...
- Henry BessemerHenry BessemerSir Henry Bessemer was an English engineer, inventor, and businessman. Bessemer's name is chiefly known in connection with the Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel.-Anthony Bessemer:... - Hydraulic pressHydraulic pressA hydraulic is a machine using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. It uses the hydraulic equivalenta mechanical lever, and was also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England. He invented and was issued a patent on this press in 1795...
- Joseph BramahJoseph BramahJoseph Bramah , born Stainborough Lane Farm, Wentworth, Yorkshire, England, was an inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having invented the hydraulic press... - ParkesineParkesineParkesine is the trademark for the first man-made plastic. It was patented by Alexander Parkes in 1856. In 1866 Parkes formed the Parkesine Company to mass produce the material. The company, however, failed due to poor product quality as Parkes tried to reduce costs...
, the first man-made plastic - Alexander ParkesAlexander ParkesAlexander Parkes was a metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England. He created Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.-Biography:... - Portland cementPortland cementPortland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world because it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and most non-specialty grout...
- Joseph AspdinJoseph AspdinJoseph Aspdin was a British cement manufacturer who obtained the patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824.... - Sheffield plateSheffield plateSheffield plate is a layered combination of silver and copper that was used for many years to produce a wide range of household articles. These included buttons, caddy spoons, serving utensils, candlesticks and other lighting devices, tea and coffee services, serving dishes and trays, tankards and...
- Thomas BoulsoverThomas BoulsoverThomas Boulsover , Sheffield cutler and the inventor of Sheffield Plate, was born in what is now the Ecclesfield district of the city and died at his home at Whiteley Wood Hall, on the River Porter.... - Water frameWater frameThe water frame is the name given to the spinning frame, when water power is used to drive it. Both are credited to Richard Arkwright who patented the technology in 1768. It was based on an invention by Thomas Highs and the patent was later overturned...
- Richard ArkwrightRichard ArkwrightSir Richard Arkwright , was an Englishman who, although the patents were eventually overturned, is often credited for inventing the spinning frame — later renamed the water frame following the transition to water power. He also patented a carding engine that could convert raw cotton into yarn... - Stainless steelStainless steelIn metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
- Harry BrearleyHarry BrearleyHarry Brearley is usually credited with the invention of "rustless steel" in the anglophone world.-Life:... - Rubber Masticator - Thomas HancockThomas Hancock (inventor)Thomas Hancock , elder brother of inventor Walter Hancock, was an English inventor who founded the British rubber industry...
- Power Loom - Edmund CartwrightEdmund CartwrightEdward Cartwright was an English clergyman and inventor of the power loom.- Life and work :...
- Parkes processParkes processThe Parkes process is a pyrometallurgical industrial process for removing silver from lead, during the production of bullion. It is an example of liquid-liquid extraction....
- Alexander ParkesAlexander ParkesAlexander Parkes was a metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England. He created Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.-Biography:... - Lead chamber processLead chamber processThe lead chamber process was an industrial method used to produce sulfuric acid in large quantities. It has been largely supplanted by the contact process....
- John RoebuckJohn RoebuckThis article is about the English inventor. For the 19th century British politician, see John Arthur Roebuck.John Roebuck FRS was an English inventor who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution and who is known for developing the industrial-scale manufacture of sulfuric acid.-Life... - Development of the world's first commercially successful manufacture of high quality flat glass using the float glassFloat glassFloat glass is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten metal, typically tin, although lead and various low melting point alloys were used in the past. This method gives the sheet uniform thickness and very flat surfaces. Modern windows are made from float glass...
process - Alastair PilkingtonAlastair PilkingtonLionel Alexander Bethune Pilkington, and his associate Kenneth Bickerstaff, both of Great Britain, developed the world's first commercially successful manufacture of high quality flat glass using their float glass process... - Pioneers of the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
- Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
- Abraham Darby IAbraham Darby IAbraham Darby I was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal...
- Abraham Darby IIAbraham Darby IIAbraham Darby II was the second Abraham Darby in three generations of an English Quaker family that played a role in the period leading up to the Industrial Revolution....
- Abraham Darby IIIAbraham Darby IIIAbraham Darby III was an English ironmaster and Quaker. He was the third Abraham Darby in three generations of an English Quaker family that played a role in the Industrial Revolution....
- Robert Forester MushetRobert Forester MushetRobert Forester Mushet was a British metallurgist and businessman, born April 8, 1811, in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. He was the youngest son of Scottish parents, Agnes Wilson and David Mushet; an ironmaster, formerly of the Clyde, Alfreton and Whitecliff... - The first commercial electroplatingElectroplatingElectroplating is a plating process in which metal ions in a solution are moved by an electric field to coat an electrode. The process uses electrical current to reduce cations of a desired material from a solution and coat a conductive object with a thin layer of the material, such as a metal...
process - George ElkingtonGeorge ElkingtonGeorge Richards Elkington was a manufacturer from Birmingham, England. He patented the first commercial electroplating process.Elkington was born in Birmingham, the son of a spectacle manufacturer... - The Wilson Yarn Clearer - Peter WilsonPeter Wilson (Inventor)Peter Wilson was an inventor and polymath. He was born in Sunderland on 22nd May 1926 and moved to Nottingham at a young age. During the late 1930s he was employed by John Player & Sons before joining the RAF in 1944...
Medicine
- First correct description of circulation of the bloodBloodBlood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
- William HarveyWilliam HarveyWilliam Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart... - Smallpox vaccineSmallpox vaccineThe smallpox vaccine was the first successful vaccine to be developed. The process of vaccination was discovered by Edward Jenner in 1796, who acted upon his observation that milkmaids who caught the cowpox virus did not catch smallpox...
- Edward JennerEdward JennerEdward Anthony Jenner was an English scientist who studied his natural surroundings in Berkeley, Gloucestershire...
with his discovery is said to have "saved more lives (...) than were lost in all the wars of mankind since the beginning of recorded history." - Surgical forceps - Stephen HalesStephen HalesStephen Hales, FRS was an English physiologist, chemist and inventor.Hales studied the role of air and water in the maintenance of both plant and animal life. He gave accurate accounts of the movements of water in plants, and demonstrated that plants absorb air...
- Antisepsis in surgeryAntisepticAntiseptics are antimicrobial substances that are applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction...
- Joseph ListerJoseph Lister, 1st Baron ListerJoseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister OM, FRS, PC , known as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., between 1883 and 1897, was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary... - Artificial intraocular lensIntraocular lensAn intraocular lens is an implanted lens in the eye, usually replacing the existing crystalline lens because it has been clouded over by a cataract, or as a form of refractive surgery to change the eye's optical power. It usually consists of a small plastic lens with plastic side struts, called...
transplant surgery for cataractCataractA cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light...
patients - Harold RidleyHarold Ridley (ophthalmologist)Sir Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley was an English ophthalmologist who pioneered artificial intraocular lens transplant surgery for cataract patients.-Early years:... - Clinical thermometer - Thomas Clifford Allbutt.
- isolation of fibrinogenFibrinogenFibrinogen is a soluble plasma glycoprotein, synthesised by the liver, that is converted by thrombin into fibrin during blood coagulation. This is achieved through processes in the coagulation cascade that activate the zymogen prothrombin to the serine protease thrombin, which is responsible for...
("coagulable lymph"), investigation of the structure of the lymphatic system and description of red blood cells by the surgeon William Hewson (surgeon) - Colour blindness first described by John DaltonJohn DaltonJohn Dalton FRS was an English chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory, and his research into colour blindness .-Early life:John Dalton was born into a Quaker family at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland,...
in Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours - Credited with discovering how to cultureCultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
embryonic stem cells in 1981 - Martin EvansMartin EvansSir Martin John Evans FRS is a British scientist who, with Matthew Kaufman, was the first to culture mice embryonic stem cells and cultivate them in a laboratory in 1981... - Carried out ground breaking research on the use of penicillinPenicillinPenicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
in the treatment of venereal disease with the Scottish scientist Sir Alexander Fleming in London - Jack SuchetJack SuchetJack Suchet was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, who carried out research on the use of penicillin in the treatment of venereal disease with Sir Alexander Fleming in London... - First blood pressure measurement and first cardiac catheterisation-Stephen HalesStephen HalesStephen Hales, FRS was an English physiologist, chemist and inventor.Hales studied the role of air and water in the maintenance of both plant and animal life. He gave accurate accounts of the movements of water in plants, and demonstrated that plants absorb air...
- Pioneer of anaesthesia and father of epidemiologyEpidemiologyEpidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
for locating the source of choleraCholeraCholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
- John Snow (physician)John Snow (physician)John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered to be one of the fathers of epidemiology, because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, England, in 1854.-Early life and education:Snow was born 15 March... - pioneered the use of sodium cromoglycate as a remedy for asthmaAsthmaAsthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
- Roger AltounyanRoger AltounyanRoger Edward Collingwood Altounyan was an Armenian physician and pharmacologist who pioneered the use of sodium cromoglycate as a remedy for asthma... - The first scientist to demonstrate that a cancerCancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
may be caused by an environmental carcinogenCarcinogenA carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
and one of the founders of orthopedy - Percivall PottPercivall PottSir Percivall Pott London, England) was an English surgeon, one of the founders of orthopedy, and the first scientist to demonstrate that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen.-Life:... - Performed the first successful blood transfusionBlood transfusionBlood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...
- James BlundellJames Blundell (physician)James Blundell English obstetrician who performed the first successful transfusion of blood to a patient for treatment of a haemorrhage.-Early years:... - Discovered the active ingredient of AspirinAspirinAspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication. It was discovered by Arthur Eichengrun, a chemist with the German company Bayer...
- Edward Stone - Discovery of Protein crystallography - Dorothy Crowfoot HodgkinDorothy Crowfoot HodgkinDorothy Mary Hodgkin OM, FRS , née Crowfoot, was a British chemist, credited with the development of protein crystallography....
- The world’s first successful stem cellStem cellThis article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
transplant and the first British Bone Marrow Transplant using bone marrow from a matching sibling - John Raymond HobbsJohn Raymond HobbsJohn Raymond Hobbs MRCS, FRCP, FRCPath, FRCPaed was a professor who was at the forefront of the techniques of Clinical Immunology, Protein Biochemistry and Bone Marrow Transplantation, specifically in Child Health.-Early life:... - First typhoid vaccine - Almroth WrightAlmroth WrightSir Almroth Edward Wright, KBE, CB was a British bacteriologist and immunologist.He is notable for developing a system of anti-typhoid fever inoculation, recognizing early on that antibiotics would create resistant bacteria and being a strong advocate for preventive medicine.-Biography:Wright was...
- Pioneer of the treatment of epilepsyEpilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
- Edward Henry SievekingEdward Henry SievekingEdward Henry Sieveking was an English physician born in Bishopsgate, London. He studied medicine at the University of Berlin under eminent physiologist Johannes Peter Muller, and also at University College London and the University of Edinburgh, where he received his doctorate in 1841.For much of... - discovery of Nitrous oxideNitrous oxideNitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
(entonox\"laughing gas") and its anaesthetic properties - Humphrey Davy - Ophthalmoscope - conceived by Charles BabbageCharles BabbageCharles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
in 1847 - Computed TomographyComputed tomographyX-ray computed tomography or Computer tomography , is a medical imaging method employing tomography created by computer processing...
(CT scanner) - Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield - Gray's AnatomyGray's AnatomyGray's Anatomy is an English-language human anatomy textbook originally written by Henry Gray. The book is widely regarded as an extremely influential work on the subject, and has continued to be revised and republished from its initial publication in 1858 to the present day...
widely regarded as the first complete human anatomy textbook - Henry GrayHenry GrayHenry Gray was an English anatomist and surgeon most notable for publishing the book Gray's Anatomy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 25.-Biography:... - Discovered Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's diseaseParkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
- James ParkinsonJames ParkinsonJames Parkinson was an English apothecary surgeon, geologist, paleontologist, and political activist. He is most famous for his 1817 work, An Essay on the Shaking Palsy in which he was the first to describe "paralysis agitans", a condition that would later be renamed Parkinson's disease by... - General anaestheticGeneral anaestheticA general anaesthetic is a drug that brings about a reversible loss of consciousness. These drugs are generally administered by an anaesthesia provider to induce or maintain general anaesthesia to facilitate surgery...
- Pionered by Scotsman James Young SimpsonJames Young SimpsonSir James Young Simpson was a Scottish doctor and an important figure in the history of medicine. Simpson discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical use....
and Englishman John SnowJohn Snow (physician)John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered to be one of the fathers of epidemiology, because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, England, in 1854.-Early life and education:Snow was born 15 March... - Contributed to the development of magnetic resonance imagingMagnetic resonance imagingMagnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...
(MRI) - Sir Peter Mansfield - The development of in vitro fertilization - Patrick Christopher Steptoe and Robert Geoffrey Edwards
- First baby genetically selected to be free of a breast cancerBreast cancerBreast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
- University College LondonUniversity College LondonUniversity College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London... - Viagra - Peter Dunn, Albert Wood, Dr Nicholas Terrett
- Pioneer of modern nursingNursingNursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....
- Florence NightingaleFlorence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night... - AcetylcholineAcetylcholineThe chemical compound acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter in both the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system in many organisms including humans...
- Henry Hallett DaleHenry Hallett DaleSir Henry Hallett Dale, OM, GBE, PRS was an English pharmacologist and physiologist. For his study of acetylcholine as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses he shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Otto Loewi.-Biography:Henry Hallett Dale was born in Islington,... - EKG (underlying principles) - various
- Vitamins and TryptophanTryptophanTryptophan is one of the 20 standard amino acids, as well as an essential amino acid in the human diet. It is encoded in the standard genetic code as the codon UGG...
- Frederick Gowland Hopkins - diagnostic ultrasound - John J. WildJohn J. WildJohn Julian Cuttance Wild was an English-born American physician who was part of the first group to use ultrasound for body imaging, most notably for diagnosing cancer. Modern ultrasonic diagnostic medical scans are descendants of the equipment Wild and his colleagues developed in the 1950s...
(although his research was conducted in US) - Identifying the mosquitoMosquitoMosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
as the carrier of malariaMalariaMalaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
: Sir Ronald RossRonald RossSir Ronald Ross KCB FRS was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. He was the first Indian-born person to win a Nobel Prize...
(1857–1932) (born India, educated in England; mother English and father Scottish) - Earliest pharmacopoeia in English
- The hip replacementHip replacementHip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi replacement. Such joint replacement orthopaedic surgery generally is conducted to relieve arthritis pain or fix severe...
operation, in which a stainless steelStainless steelIn metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
stem and 22mm head fit into a polymerPolymerA polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units. These subunits are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds...
socket and both parts are fixed into position by PMMA cement - pioneered by John CharnleyJohn CharnleySir John Charnley was a British orthopaedic surgeon. He pioneered the hip replacement operation, which is now one of the most common operations both in the UK and elsewhere in the world... - Description of Hay FeverHay FeverHay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
- John Bostock (physician)John Bostock (physician)John Bostock MD FRS was a physician, scientist and geologist from Liverpool. He spent some time at New College at Hackney where he attended Priestley's lectures on chemistry and natural philosophy, before graduating in Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practising medicine in Liverpool,...
in 1819
Military
- The tankTankA tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
- Developed and first used in combat by the British during World War I as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare. - Fighter aircraftFighter aircraftA fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
- The Vickers F.B.5Vickers F.B.5The Vickers F.B.5 was a British two-seat pusher military biplane of the First World War...
Gunbus of 1914 was the first of its kind. - Congreve rocketCongreve rocketThe Congreve Rocket was a British military weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.The rocket was developed by the British Royal Arsenal following the experiences of the Second, Third and Fourth Mysore Wars. The wars fought between the British East India Company and the...
- William CongreveWilliam Congreve (inventor)Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet was an English inventor and rocket artillery pioneer distinguished for his development and deployment of Congreve rockets.-Biography:... - High explosive squash headHigh explosive squash headHigh explosive squash head is a type of explosive ammunition that is effective against buildings and is also used against tank armour. It was fielded chiefly by the British Army as the main explosive round of its main battle tanks during the Cold War...
- Sir Charles Dennistoun BurneyCharles Dennistoun BurneySir Charles Dennistoun Burney, 2nd Baronet was an English aeronautical engineer, private inventor and Conservative Party politician.... - Shrapnel shell - Henry ShrapnelHenry ShrapnelHenry Shrapnel was a British Army officer and inventor, most famously, of the "shrapnel shell".Henry Shrapnel was born in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England....
- Harrier Jump JetHarrier Jump JetThe Harrier, informally referred to as the Jump Jet, is a family of British-designed military jet aircraft capable of vertical/short takeoff and landing operations...
- BullpupBullpupBullpups are firearm configurations in which the action is located behind the trigger group and alongside the shooter's face, so there is no wasted space for the buttstock as in conventional designs. This permits a shorter firearm length for the same barrel length for improved maneuverability, and...
firearm configuration - Thorneycroft carbineThorneycroft carbineThe Thorneycroft carbine was one of the earliest bullpup rifles, developed by an English gunsmith in 1901 as patent #14,622 of July 18, 1901. This bolt-action rifle featured a bullpup action in which the retracted bolt slid back through the stock nearly to the shooter's shoulder, maximising the... - Puckle GunPuckle gunThe Puckle gun was invented in 1718 by James Puckle an English inventor, lawyer and writer.-Design and patent:...
- James PuckleJames PuckleJames Puckle was an English inventor, lawyer and writer from London chiefly remembered for his invention of the Defence Gun, better known as the Puckle gun, a multi-shot gun mounted on a stand capable of firing up to nine rounds per minute... - The side by side Boxlock actionBoxlock actionThe boxlock action is a hammerless action of a type commonly used in double barreled shotguns, dating back to 1875. The boxlock action was developed by Anson and Deeley, based on the earlier Westly-Richards action. The boxlock action uses concealed, self cocking hammers in a break-open action...
, AKA The double barreled shotgun - Anson and Deeley - DreadnoughtDreadnoughtThe dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
Battleship - Bailey BridgeBailey bridgeThe Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed by the British during World War II for military use and saw extensive use by both British and the American military engineering units....
- Donald BaileyDonald BaileySir Donald Coleman Bailey, OBE was an English civil engineer who invented the Bailey bridge. Field Marshal Montgomery is recorded as saying that without the Bailey bridge, we should not have won the war. - Background :... - Chobham armourChobham armourChobham armour is the name informally given to a composite armour developed in the 1960s at the British tank research centre on Chobham Common, Surrey, England...
- Livens ProjectorLivens ProjectorThe Livens Projector was a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with flammable or toxic chemicals. In the First World War, the Livens Projector became the standard means of delivering gas attacks and it remained in the arsenal of the British Army until the early years of...
- William Howard LivensWilliam Howard LivensWilliam Howard Livens DSO MC was an engineer, a soldier in the British Army and an inventor particularly known for the design of chemical warfare and flame warfare weapons. Resourceful and clever, Livens’ successful creations were characterised by being very practical and easy to produce in large... - H2S radarH2S radarH2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was developed in Britain in World War II for the Royal Air Force and was used in various RAF bomber aircraft from 1943 to the 1990s. It was designed to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing...
(airborne radar to aid the bomb targeting) - Alan BlumleinAlan BlumleinAlan Dower Blumlein was a British electronics engineer, notable for his many inventions in telecommunications, sound recording, stereo, television and radar... - Bouncing bombBouncing bombA bouncing bomb is a bomb designed specifically to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner, in order to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-determined...
- Barnes WallisBarnes WallisSir Barnes Neville Wallis, CBE FRS, RDI, FRAeS , was an English scientist, engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the RAF in Operation Chastise to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II... - Safety fuseFuse (explosives)In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
- William Bickford - Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting KnifeFairbairn-Sykes fighting knifeThe Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife is a double-edged fighting knife resembling a dagger or poignard with a foil grip developed by William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes in Shanghai based on concepts which the two men initiated before World War II while serving on the Shanghai Municipal...
- William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric A. SykesEric A. SykesEric Anthony Sykes , born Eric Anthony Schwabe in Barton on Irwell, Manchester, England. He is most famous for his work with William E. Fairbairn in the development of the eponymous Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife and modern British Close Quarters Battle martial arts during World War II... - Armstrong GunArmstrong GunThe term Armstrong Gun was primarily used to describe the unique design of the rifled breech-loading field and heavy guns designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England from 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich...
- Sir William Armstrong - Depth chargeDepth chargeA depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
- Stun grenades - Invented by the SASSpecial Air ServiceSpecial Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
in the 60s. - Smokeless propellant to replace gunpowder with the use of CorditeCorditeCordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance...
- Frederick Abel - TorpedoTorpedoThe modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
- Robert WhiteheadRobert WhiteheadRobert Whitehead was an English engineer. He developed the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo. His company, located in the Austrian naval centre in Fiume, was the world leader in torpedo development and production up to the First World War.- Early life:He was born the son of a... - The Whitworth rifleWhitworth rifleThe Whitworth Rifle was a single-shot muzzle-loaded rifle used in the last half of the 19th century.-History:The Whitworth rifle was designed by Sir Joseph Whitworth, a prominent British engineer and entrepreneur. Whitworth had experimented with cannons using twisted hexagonal barrels instead of...
, considered the first sniper rifleSniper rifleIn military and law enforcement terminology, a sniper rifle is a precision-rifle used to ensure more accurate placement of bullets at longer ranges than other small arms. A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a military...
. During the American Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
the Whitworth rifle had been known to kill at ranges of about 800 yards - Sir Joseph WhitworthJoseph WhitworthSir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for screw threads... - The world's first practical underwater active sound detection apparatus, the ASDIC Active SonarSonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
- Developed by Canadian physicist Robert William BoyleRobert William BoyleRobert William Boyle was a Newfoundlander physicist and one the of most important early pioneers in the development of sonar....
and English physicist Albert Beaumont WoodAlbert Beaumont WoodAlbert Beaumont Wood OBE DSc was a British physicist, known for his pioneering work in the field of underwater acoustics and sonar.... - The first self-powered machine gun Maxim gunMaxim gunThe Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun, invented by the American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884. It has been called "the weapon most associated with [British] imperial conquest".-Functionality:...
- Sir Hiram Maxim, Although the Inventor is American, the Maxim gunMaxim gunThe Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun, invented by the American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884. It has been called "the weapon most associated with [British] imperial conquest".-Functionality:...
was financed by Albert Vickers of Vickers LimitedVickers LimitedVickers Limited was a famous British engineering conglomerate that merged into Vickers-Armstrongs in 1927.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...
company and produced in Hatton GardenHatton GardenHatton Garden is a street and area near Holborn in London, England. It is most famous for being London’s jewellery quarter and centre of the UK diamond trade, but the area is also now home to a diverse range of media and creative businesses....
LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... - Steam catapult-Commander Colin C. Mitchell RNVR
Mining
- Davy lampDavy lampThe Davy lamp is a safety lamp with a wick and oil vessel burning originally a heavy vegetable oil, devised in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It was created for use in coal mines, allowing deep seams to be mined despite the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.Sir...
- Humphry DavyHumphry DavySir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine... - Geordie lampGeordie lampThe Geordie lamp was invented by George Stephenson in 1815 as a solution to explosions due to firedamp in coal mines.Although controversy arose between Stephenson's design and the Davy lamp, , Stephenson's original design worked on significantly different principles...
- George StephensonGeorge StephensonGeorge Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives... - Beam engineBeam engineA beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...
- Used for pumping water from mines
Musical instruments
- ConcertinaConcertinaA concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it...
- Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher... - Theatre organTheatre organA theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra. New designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself....
- Robert Hope-JonesRobert Hope-JonesRobert Hope-Jones , is considered to be the inventor of the theatre organ in the early 20th century... - Logical bassoonBassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, an electronically controlled version of the bassoonBassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
- Giles BrindleyGiles BrindleySir Giles Skey Brindley, GBE , is a British physiologist, musicologist and composer.He made important contributions to the treatment of erectile dysfunction, and is perhaps best known for an unusual scientific presentation at the 1983 Las Vegas meeting of the American Urological Association, where... - Northumbrian smallpipesNorthumbrian smallpipesThe Northumbrian smallpipes are bellows-blown bagpipes from the North East of England.In a survey of the bagpipes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, the organologist Anthony Baines wrote: It is perhaps the most civilized of the bagpipes, making no attempt to go farther than the...
- Tuning forkTuning forkA tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork with the prongs formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal . It resonates at a specific constant pitch when set vibrating by striking it against a surface or with an object, and emits a pure musical tone after waiting a...
- John ShoreJohn ShoreJohn Shore was an English trumpeter. He invented the tuning fork in 1750. Shore was Sergeant Trumpeter to the court, who had parts specifically written for him by both George Frideric Handel and Henry Purcell.-References:...
Photography
- AmbrotypeAmbrotyperight|thumb|Many ambrotypes were made by unknown photographers, such as this American example of a small girl holding a flower, circa 1860. Because of their fragility ambrotypes were held in folding cases much like those used for [[daguerreotype]]s...
- Frederick Scott ArcherFrederick Scott ArcherFrederick Scott Archer invented the photographic collodion process which preceded the modern gelatin emulsion. He was born in Bishop's Stortford in the UK and is remembered mainly for this single achievement which greatly increased the accessibility of photography for the general public.tyler was... - CalotypeCalotypeCalotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. The term calotype comes from the Greek for 'beautiful', and for 'impression'....
- William Fox TalbotWilliam Fox TalbotWilliam Henry Fox Talbot was a British inventor and a pioneer of photography. He was the inventor of calotype process, the precursor to most photographic processes of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was also a noted photographer who made major contributions to the development of photography as an... - Collodion processCollodion processThe collodion process is an early photographic process. It was introduced in the 1850s and by the end of that decade it had almost entirely replaced the first practical photographic process, the daguerreotype. During the 1880s the collodion process, in turn, was largely replaced by gelatin dry...
- Frederick Scott Archer - Collodion-albumen processCollodion-albumen processThe Collodion-Albumen process is one of the early dry plate processes, invented by Joseph Sidebotham in 1861.The process lacked economical success because the plate was much less sensitive and tended to have harder contrasts than wet plates...
- Joseph Sidebotham in 1861 - Stereoscope - Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
- Thomas WedgwoodThomas Wedgwood (1771-1805)Thomas Wedgwood , son of Josiah Wedgwood, the potter, was an early experimenter with Humphry Davy in photography.-Life:...
- pioneer of photography, devised the method to copy visible images chemically to permanent media. - Dry plateDry plateDry plate, also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate. It was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871, and by 1879 it was so well introduced that the first dry plate factory had been established...
process also known as gelatine process, is the first economically successful durable photographic medium - Richard Leach MaddoxRichard Leach MaddoxRichard Leach Maddox was an English photographer and physician who invented lightweight gelatin negative plates for photography in 1871.-Early life:Richard Leach Maddox was born at Bath, England, on August 4, 1816.... - KinemacolorKinemacolorKinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...
was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914 - George Albert SmithGeorge Albert SmithGeorge Albert Smith, Sr. was the eighth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .-Early life:... - cinematographyCinematographyCinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
- William Friese-GreeneWilliam Friese-GreeneWilliam Friese-Greene was a British portrait photographer and prolific inventor. He is principally known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures and is credited by some as the inventor of cinematography.-Career:William Edward Green was born on 7 September 1855, in Bristol... - Motion picture camera, the KinetoscopeKinetoscopeThe Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...
- William Kennedy Laurie Dickson - The first movie projectorMovie projectorA movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
, the ZoopraxiscopeZoopraxiscopeThe zoopraxiscope is an early device for displaying motion pictures. Created by photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge in 1879, it may be considered the first movie projector. The zoopraxiscope projected images from rotating glass disks in rapid succession to give the impression of motion. The...
- Eadweard MuybridgeEadweard MuybridgeEadweard J. Muybridge was an English photographer who spent much of his life in the United States. He is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion which used multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible... - The first experimental film called "The Horse in Motion" in 1872 - Eadweard MuybridgeEadweard MuybridgeEadweard J. Muybridge was an English photographer who spent much of his life in the United States. He is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion which used multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible...
Publishing firsts
- Oldest publisher and printer in the world (having been operating continuously since 1584): Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
- first book printed in English: "The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye" by Englishman William CaxtonWilliam CaxtonWilliam Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England...
in 1475
Science
- Modern atomic theoryAtomic theoryIn chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to the obsolete notion that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity...
- Considered the father of modern chemistry, John DaltonJohn DaltonJohn Dalton FRS was an English chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory, and his research into colour blindness .-Early life:John Dalton was born into a Quaker family at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland,...
's experiments with gases led to the development of what is called the modern atomic theory. - Equals signEquals signThe equality sign, equals sign, or "=" is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. It was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. The equals sign is placed between the things stated to have the same value, as in an equation...
Robert RecordeRobert RecordeRobert Recorde was a Welsh physician and mathematician. He introduced the "equals" sign in 1557.-Biography:A member of a respectable family of Tenby, Wales, he entered the University of Oxford about 1525, and was elected a fellow of All Souls College in 1531...
, Welshman - Cell biologyCell biologyCell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...
- Credit for the discovery of the first cells is given to Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
who described the microscopic compartments of cork cells in 1665 - Compound microscopeMicroscopeA microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy...
with 30x magnification - Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Universal jointUniversal jointA universal joint, universal coupling, U joint, Cardan joint, Hardy-Spicer joint, or Hooke's joint is a joint or coupling in a rigid rod that allows the rod to 'bend' in any direction, and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion...
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Coggeshall slide ruleCoggeshall slide ruleIn measurement, the Coggeshall slide rule, also called a carpenter's slide rule, was a slide rule designed by Henry Coggeshall in 1677 to facilitate measuring the dimensions, superficies, and solidity of timber. With his original design and later improvements, Coggeshall's slide rule brought the...
- Henry Coggeshall - The Iris diaphragm - Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
- Correct theory of combustionCombustionCombustion or burning is the sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat and conversion of chemical species. The release of heat can result in the production of light in the form of either glowing or a flame...
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Partition chromatographyChromatographyChromatography is the collective term for a set of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures....
- Richard Laurence Millington Synge and Archer J.P. Martin - Arnold Frederic WilkinsArnold Frederic WilkinsArnold Frederic Wilkins O.B.E., was a pioneer in developing the use of radar.-Early life:...
- pioneer in the development of RadarRadarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio... - Atwood machineAtwood machineThe Atwood machine was invented in 1784 by Rev. George Atwood as a laboratory experiment to verify the mechanical laws of motion with constant acceleration...
used for illustrating the law of uniformly accelerated motion - George AtwoodGeorge AtwoodGeorge Atwood was an English mathematician who invented a machine for illustrating the effects of Newton's first law of motion... - Marine BarometerBarometerA barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Hooke's LawHooke's lawIn mechanics, and physics, Hooke's law of elasticity is an approximation that states that the extension of a spring is in direct proportion with the load applied to it. Many materials obey this law as long as the load does not exceed the material's elastic limit. Materials for which Hooke's law...
(equation describing elasticity) - Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but... - Electrical generatorElectrical generatorIn electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
(dynamo) - Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.... - Faraday cageFaraday cageA Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material or by a mesh of such material. Such an enclosure blocks out external static and non-static electric fields...
- Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.... - Magneto-optical effect - Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
- CalculusCalculusCalculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
- Sir Isaac Newton - Infrared radiation - discovery commonly attributed to William HerschelWilliam HerschelSir Frederick William Herschel, KH, FRS, German: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was a German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in Hanover, Wilhelm first followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, but emigrated to Britain at age 19...
. - HolographyHolographyHolography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
- First developed by Dennis GaborDennis GaborDennis Gabor CBE, FRS was a Hungarian-British electrical engineer and inventor, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics....
in Rugby, England. Improved by Nicholas J. PhillipsNicholas J. PhillipsNicholas John Phillips was an English physicist, notable for the development of photochemical processing techniques for the color hologram...
who made it possible to record multi-colour reflection holograms - Discovery of the pionPionIn particle physics, a pion is any of three subatomic particles: , , and . Pions are the lightest mesons and they play an important role in explaining the low-energy properties of the strong nuclear force....
(pi-mesonMesonIn particle physics, mesons are subatomic particles composed of one quark and one antiquark, bound together by the strong interaction. Because mesons are composed of sub-particles, they have a physical size, with a radius roughly one femtometer: 10−15 m, which is about the size of a proton...
) - Cecil Frank PowellCecil Frank PowellCecil Frank Powell, FRS was a British physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion , a heavy subatomic particle.Powell was born in Tonbridge, Kent, England, the son of a local... - Wheatstone bridgeWheatstone bridgeA Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. Its operation is similar to the original potentiometer. It was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and...
- Samuel Hunter ChristieSamuel Hunter ChristieSamuel Hunter Christie was a British scientist and mathematician.He studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was second wrangler. He was particularly interested in magnetism, studying the earth's magnetic field and designing improvements to the magnetic compass... - Triple achromatic lensAchromatic lensAn achromatic lens or achromat is a lens that is designed to limit the effects of chromatic and spherical aberration. Achromatic lenses are corrected to bring two wavelengths into focus in the same plane....
- Peter DollondPeter DollondPeter Dollond was an English maker of optical instruments, the son of John Dollond. He is known for his successful optics business, and for the invention of the apochromat.-Biography:... - Newtonian telescopeNewtonian telescopeThe Newtonian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope invented by the British scientist Sir Isaac Newton , using a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. Newton’s first reflecting telescope was completed in 1668 and is the earliest known functional reflecting telescope...
- Sir Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."... - Hawking radiationHawking radiationHawking radiation is a thermal radiation with a black body spectrum predicted to be emitted by black holes due to quantum effects. It is named after the physicist Stephen Hawking, who provided a theoretical argument for its existence in 1974, and sometimes also after the physicist Jacob Bekenstein...
- Stephen HawkingStephen HawkingStephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity... - Demonstrated that electric circuits obey the law of the conservation of energy and that electricityElectricityElectricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
is a form of energy First Law of ThermodynamicsFirst law of thermodynamicsThe first law of thermodynamics is an expression of the principle of conservation of work.The law states that energy can be transformed, i.e. changed from one form to another, but cannot be created nor destroyed...
. Also the unit of energy, the JouleJouleThe joule ; symbol J) is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre , or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second...
is named after him - James Prescott JouleJames Prescott JouleJames Prescott Joule FRS was an English physicist and brewer, born in Salford, Lancashire. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work . This led to the theory of conservation of energy, which led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. The... - MicrometerMicrometerA micrometer , sometimes known as a micrometer screw gauge, is a device incorporating a calibrated screw used widely for precise measurement of small distances in mechanical engineering and machining as well as most mechanical trades, along with other metrological instruments such as dial, vernier,...
- Sir William GascoigneWilliam GascoigneSir William Gascoigne Kt. was Chief Justice of England during the reign of King Henry IV. Sir William Gascoigne was born in Gawthorpe W-Riding, Yorks. In 1369, William married Elizabeth de Mowbray...
- the first bench micrometer that was capable of measuring to one ten thousandth of an inch - Henry MaudslayHenry MaudslayHenry Maudslay was a British machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology.-Early life:...
- the first bench micrometer that was capable of measuring to one ten thousandth of an inch - Henry Maudslay
- Sinclair ExecutiveSinclair ExecutiveThe Sinclair Executive was Clive Sinclair's first venture into the pocket calculator market. The Executive was the world's first "slimline" pocket calculator. It was variously described as "a piece of personal jewelry" and "at once a conversation piece, a rich man's plaything and a functional...
, the world's first small electronic pocket calculator - Sir Clive SinclairClive SinclairSir Clive Marles Sinclair is a British entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s.... - Discovered the element argonArgonArgon is a chemical element represented by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table . Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide...
- John Strutt, 3rd Baron RayleighJohn Strutt, 3rd Baron RayleighJohn William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, OM was an English physicist who, with William Ramsay, discovered the element argon, an achievement for which he earned the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904...
with Scotsman William RamsayWilliam RamsaySir William Ramsay was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" .-Early years:Ramsay was born in Glasgow on 2... - Standard deviationStandard deviationStandard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
- Francis GaltonFrancis GaltonSir Francis Galton /ˈfrɑːnsɪs ˈgɔːltn̩/ FRS , cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton, half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician... - Slide ruleSlide ruleThe slide rule, also known colloquially as a slipstick, is a mechanical analog computer. The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for functions such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry, but is not normally used for addition or subtraction.Slide rules come in a...
- William OughtredWilliam OughtredWilliam Oughtred was an English mathematician.After John Napier invented logarithms, and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales upon which slide rules are based, it was Oughtred who first used two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division; and he is... - Synthesis of coumarinCoumarinCoumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean , vanilla grass , sweet woodruff , mullein , sweet grass , cassia cinnamon and sweet clover...
, one of the first synthetic perfumePerfumePerfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
s, and cinnamic acidCinnamic acidCinnamic acid is a white crystalline organic acid, which is slightly soluble in water.It is obtained from oil of cinnamon, or from balsams such as storax. It is also found in shea butter and is the best indication of its environmental history and post-extraction conditions...
via the Perkin reactionPerkin reactionThe Perkin reaction is an organic reaction developed by William Henry Perkin that can be used to make cinnamic acids i.e. α-β-unsaturated aromatic acid by the aldol condensation of aromatic aldehydes and acid anhydrides in the presence of an alkali salt of the acid.Several reviews have been written....
- William Henry Perkin - The Law of Gravity - Sir Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
- Newton's laws of motionNewton's laws of motionNewton's laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its motion due to those forces...
- Sir Isaac Newton - Geological Timescale - Arthur HolmesArthur HolmesArthur Holmes was a British geologist. As a child he lived in Low Fell, Gateshead and attended the Gateshead Higher Grade School .-Age of the earth:...
- ElectromagnetElectromagnetAn electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by the flow of electric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current is turned off...
- William SturgeonWilliam SturgeonWilliam Sturgeon was an English physicist and inventor who made the first electromagnets, and invented the first practical English electric motor.-Early Life :...
in 1823. - HeliumHeliumHelium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
- Norman Lockyer - Weather mapWeather mapA weather map displays various meteorological features across a particular area at a particular point in time. Such maps have been in use since the mid-19th century and are used for research and weather forecasting purposes. Maps using isotherms show temperature gradients, which can help locate...
- Sir Francis Galton - Introduced the symbol for "is less than" and "is greater than" - Thomas HarriotThomas HarriotThomas Harriot was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. Some sources give his surname as Harriott or Hariot or Heriot. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to Great Britain and Ireland...
1630 - Introduced the "×" symbol for multiplicationMultiplicationMultiplication is the mathematical operation of scaling one number by another. It is one of the four basic operations in elementary arithmetic ....
as well as the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for the sineSineIn mathematics, the sine function is a function of an angle. In a right triangle, sine gives the ratio of the length of the side opposite to an angle to the length of the hypotenuse.Sine is usually listed first amongst the trigonometric functions....
and cosine functions - William OughtredWilliam OughtredWilliam Oughtred was an English mathematician.After John Napier invented logarithms, and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales upon which slide rules are based, it was Oughtred who first used two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division; and he is... - Dew Point Hygrometer - John Frederic DaniellJohn Frederic DaniellJohn Frederic Daniell was an English chemist and physicist.Daniell was born in London, and in 1831 became the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded King's College London. His name is best known for his invention of the Daniell cell , an electric battery much better than voltaic cells...
- Periodic TablePeriodic tableThe periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...
- John Alexander Reina NewlandsJohn Alexander Reina NewlandsJohn Alexander Reina Newlands was an English chemist who invented the Periodic Table.Newlands was born in London and was the son of a scottish Presbyterian minister and his Italian wife.... - Splitting the atom - John CockcroftJohn CockcroftSir John Douglas Cockcroft OM KCB CBE FRS was a British physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atomic nucleus with Ernest Walton, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power....
and Irish physicist Ernest WaltonErnest WaltonErnest Thomas Sinton Walton was an Irish physicist and Nobel laureate for his work with John Cockcroft with "atom-smashing" experiments done at Cambridge University in the early 1930s, and so became the first person in history to artificially split the atom, thus ushering the nuclear age... - Seismograph - John MilneJohn MilneFor other uses, see John Milne .John Milne was the British geologist and mining engineer who worked on a horizontal seismograph.-Biography:...
- Discovery of oxygenOxygenOxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
gas (O2) - Joseph PriestleyJoseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works... - Discovery of the AtomAtomThe atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
(nuclear model of) - Ernest RutherfordErnest RutherfordErnest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics... - Discovery of the ProtonProtonThe proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....
- Ernest RutherfordErnest RutherfordErnest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics... - Discovery of the ElectronElectronThe electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
, isotopes and the inventor of the Mass spectrometer - J. J. ThomsonJ. J. ThomsonSir Joseph John "J. J." Thomson, OM, FRS was a British physicist and Nobel laureate. He is credited for the discovery of the electron and of isotopes, and the invention of the mass spectrometer... - Discovery of the NeutronNeutronThe neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
- James ChadwickJames ChadwickSir James Chadwick CH FRS was an English Nobel laureate in physics awarded for his discovery of the neutron.... - Discovery of HydrogenHydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
- Henry CavendishHenry CavendishHenry Cavendish FRS was a British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what he called "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water on combustion, in a 1766 paper "On Factitious Airs". Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish's experiment and... - Nuclear transferNuclear transferNuclear Transfer is a form of cloning. The steps involve removing the DNA from an oocyte , and injecting the nucleus which contains the DNA to be cloned. In rare instances, the newly constructed cell will divide normally, replicating the new DNA while remaining in a pluripotent state...
- Is a form of cloning first put into practice by Ian WilmutIan WilmutSir Ian Wilmut, OBE FRS FMedSci FRSE is an English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic...
and Keith CampbellKeith Campbell (biologist)Keith H. S. Campbell is an English biologist who was a member of the team that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly, from fully differentiated adult mammary cells....
to clone Dolly the SheepDolly the SheepDolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in Scotland... - Theory of Evolution - Charles DarwinCharles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
Astronomy
- Discovery of the planet UranusUranusUranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
and the moons TitaniaTitania (moon)Titania is the largest of the moons of Uranus and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System at a diameter of 1578 km. Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Titania is named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream...
, OberonOberon (moon)Oberon , also designated ', is the outermost major moon of the planet Uranus. It is the second largest and second most massive of the Uranian moons, and the ninth most massive moon in the Solar System. Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Oberon is named after the mythical king of the fairies...
, EnceladusEnceladus (moon)Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
, MimasMimas (moon)Mimas is a moon of Saturn which was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. It is named after Mimas, a son of Gaia in Greek mythology, and is also designated Saturn I....
by Sir William HerschelWilliam HerschelSir Frederick William Herschel, KH, FRS, German: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was a German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in Hanover, Wilhelm first followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, but emigrated to Britain at age 19... - Discovery of TritonTriton (moon)Triton is the largest moon of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846, by English astronomer William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. At 2,700 km in diameter, it is...
and the moons HyperionHyperion (moon)Hyperion , also known as Saturn VII, is a moon of Saturn discovered by William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond and William Lassell in 1848. It is distinguished by its irregular shape, its chaotic rotation, and its unexplained sponge-like appearance...
, ArielAriel (moon)Ariel is the brightest and fourth-largest of the 27 known moons of Uranus. Ariel orbits and rotates in the equatorial plane of Uranus, which is almost perpendicular to the orbit of Uranus, and so has an extreme seasonal cycle....
and UmbrielUmbriel (moon)Umbriel is a moon of Uranus discovered on October 24, 1851, by William Lassell. It was discovered at the same time as Ariel and named after a character in Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock. Umbriel consists mainly of ice with a substantial fraction of rock, and may be differentiated into a...
- William LassellWilliam LassellWilliam Lassell FRS was an English merchant and astronomer.Born in Bolton and educated in Rochdale after the death of his father, he was apprenticed from 1814 to 1821 to a merchant in Liverpool. He then made his fortune as a beer brewer, which enabled him to indulge his interest in astronomy... - PlanetariumPlanetariumA planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
- John Theophilus DesaguliersJohn Theophilus DesaguliersJohn Theophilus Desaguliers was a natural philosopher born in France. He was a member of the Royal Society of London beginning 29 July 1714. He was presented with the Royal Society's highest honour, the Copley Medal, in 1734, 1736 and 1741, with the 1741 award being for his discovery of the... - Predicts the existence and location of NeptuneNeptuneNeptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
from irregularities in the orbit of Uranus - John Couch AdamsJohn Couch AdamsJohn Couch Adams was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall, and died in Cambridge. The Cornish name Couch is pronounced "cooch".... - Important contributions to the development of radio astronomyRadio astronomyRadio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of...
- Bernard LovellBernard LovellSir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.-Early Life:... - Newtonian telescopeNewtonian telescopeThe Newtonian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope invented by the British scientist Sir Isaac Newton , using a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. Newton’s first reflecting telescope was completed in 1668 and is the earliest known functional reflecting telescope...
- Sir Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."... - Achromatic doublet lens - John DollondJohn DollondJohn Dollond was an English optician, known for his successful optics business and his patenting and commercialization of achromatic doublets.-Biography:...
- Coining the phrase 'Big BangBig BangThe Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
' - Fred HoyleFred HoyleSir Fred Hoyle FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally... - First theorised existence of black holes, binary stars; invented torsion balance - John MichellJohn MichellJohn Michell was an English natural philosopher and geologist whose work spanned a wide range of subjects from astronomy to geology, optics, and gravitation. He was both a theorist and an experimenter....
- Stephen HawkingStephen HawkingStephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
- World-renowned theoretical physicist made many important contributions to the fields of cosmologyCosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
and quantum gravityQuantum gravityQuantum gravity is the field of theoretical physics which attempts to develop scientific models that unify quantum mechanics with general relativity...
, especially in the context of black holes - Spiral galaxies - William Parsons, 3rd Earl of RosseWilliam Parsons, 3rd Earl of RosseWilliam Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, Knight of the Order of St Patrick was an Irish astronomer who had several telescopes built. His 72-inch telescope "Leviathan", built 1845, was the world's largest telescope until the early 20th century.-Life:He was born in Yorkshire, England, in the city of...
- Discovery of Halley's Comet - Edmond HalleyEdmond HalleyEdmond Halley FRS was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist who is best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, following in the footsteps of John Flamsteed.-Biography and career:Halley...
- Discovery of pulsars - Antony HewishAntony HewishAntony Hewish FRS is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his work on the development of radio aperture synthesis and its role in the discovery of pulsars...
- Discovery of Sunspots and was the first person to make a drawing of the MoonMoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
through a telescopeTelescopeA telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
- Thomas HarriotThomas HarriotThomas Harriot was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. Some sources give his surname as Harriott or Hariot or Heriot. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to Great Britain and Ireland... - The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosityLuminosityLuminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...
of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object - Arthur Stanley EddingtonArthur Stanley EddingtonSir Arthur Stanley Eddington, OM, FRS was a British astrophysicist of the early 20th century. He was also a philosopher of science and a popularizer of science... - Aperture synthesisAperture synthesisAperture synthesis or synthesis imaging is a type of interferometry that mixes signals from a collection of telescopes to produce images having the same angular resolution as an instrument the size of the entire collection...
, used for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources in the field of Radio astronomyRadio astronomyRadio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of...
- Martin RyleMartin RyleSir Martin Ryle was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources...
and Antony HewishAntony HewishAntony Hewish FRS is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his work on the development of radio aperture synthesis and its role in the discovery of pulsars...
Chemistry
- Dalton's lawDalton's lawIn chemistry and physics, Dalton's law states that the total pressure exerted by a gaseous mixture is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of each individual component in a gas mixture...
and Law of multiple proportionsLaw of multiple proportionsIn chemistry, the law of multiple proportions is one of the basic laws of stoichiometry, alongside the law of definite proportions. It is sometimes called Dalton's Law after its discoverer, the English chemist John Dalton.The statement of the law is:...
- John DaltonJohn DaltonJohn Dalton FRS was an English chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory, and his research into colour blindness .-Early life:John Dalton was born into a Quaker family at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland,... - The structure of DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
and pioneering the field of molecular biologyMolecular biologyMolecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
- co-developed by Francis CrickFrancis CrickFrancis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
and the American James WatsonJames D. WatsonJames Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick... - DNA sequencingDNA sequencingDNA sequencing includes several methods and technologies that are used for determining the order of the nucleotide bases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine—in a molecule of DNA....
by chain termination - Frederick SangerFrederick SangerFrederick Sanger, OM, CH, CBE, FRS is an English biochemist and a two-time Nobel laureate in chemistry, the only person to have been so. In 1958 he was awarded a Nobel prize in chemistry "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin"... - Discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
and the mechanism of gene-splicing - Richard J. RobertsRichard J. RobertsSir Richard "Rich" John Roberts is a British biochemist and molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Phillip Allen Sharp for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.When he was 4, his family moved to Bath. In... - Discovey of BuckminsterfullereneBuckminsterfullereneBuckminsterfullerene is a spherical fullerene molecule with the formula . It was first intentionally prepared in 1985 by Harold Kroto, James Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley at Rice University...
- Sir Harry Kroto - Discovery of thalliumThalliumThallium is a chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81. This soft gray poor metal resembles tin but discolors when exposed to air. The two chemists William Crookes and Claude-Auguste Lamy discovered thallium independently in 1861 by the newly developed method of flame spectroscopy...
- William CrookesWilliam CrookesSir William Crookes, OM, FRS was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, London, and worked on spectroscopy... - Discovered the structure of ferroceneFerroceneFerrocene is an organometallic compound with the formula Fe2. It is the prototypical metallocene, a type of organometallic chemical compound consisting of two cyclopentadienyl rings bound on opposite sides of a central metal atom. Such organometallic compounds are also known as sandwich compounds...
- Geoffrey WilkinsonGeoffrey WilkinsonSir Geoffrey Wilkinson FRS was a Nobel laureate English chemist who pioneered inorganic chemistry and homogeneous transition metal catalysis.-Biography:...
& others - Discovers hydrogenHydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
as a colorless, odourless gas that burns and can form an explosive mixture with air - Henry CavendishHenry CavendishHenry Cavendish FRS was a British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what he called "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water on combustion, in a 1766 paper "On Factitious Airs". Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish's experiment and... - Proposes the law of octaves, a precursor to the Periodic Law - John NewlandsJohn Alexander Reina NewlandsJohn Alexander Reina Newlands was an English chemist who invented the Periodic Table.Newlands was born in London and was the son of a scottish Presbyterian minister and his Italian wife....
- Bragg's lawBragg's lawIn physics, Bragg's law gives the angles for coherent and incoherent scattering from a crystal lattice. When X-rays are incident on an atom, they make the electronic cloud move as does any electromagnetic wave...
and establish the field of X-ray crystallographyX-ray crystallographyX-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and causes the beam of light to spread into many specific directions. From the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a...
, an important tool for elucidating the crystal structure of substances - William Henry BraggWilliam Henry BraggSir William Henry Bragg OM, KBE, PRS was a British physicist, chemist, mathematician and active sportsman who uniquely shared a Nobel Prize with his son William Lawrence Bragg - the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics...
and William Lawrence BraggWilliam Lawrence BraggSir William Lawrence Bragg CH OBE MC FRS was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer of the Bragg law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structure. He was joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. He was knighted... - Introduces concept of atomic numberAtomic numberIn chemistry and physics, the atomic number is the number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom and therefore identical to the charge number of the nucleus. It is conventionally represented by the symbol Z. The atomic number uniquely identifies a chemical element...
to fix inadequacies of Mendeleev's periodic table, which had been based on atomic weight - Henry MoseleyHenry MoseleyHenry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley was an English physicist. Moseley's outstanding contribution to the science of physics was the justification from physical laws of the previous empirical and chemical concept of the atomic number. This stemmed from his development of Moseley's law in X-ray spectra... - First isolation of sodiumSodiumSodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals; its only stable isotope is 23Na. It is an abundant element that exists in numerous minerals, most commonly as sodium chloride...
- Humphry DavyHumphry DavySir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine... - First isolation of potassiumPotassiumPotassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are...
- Humphry DavyHumphry DavySir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine... - First isolation of boronBoronBoron is the chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a metalloid. Because boron is not produced by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element in both the solar system and the Earth's crust. However, boron is concentrated on Earth by the...
- Humphry DavyHumphry DavySir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine... - First isolation of benzeneBenzeneBenzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6....
, the first known aromatic hydrocarbonAromatic hydrocarbonAn aromatic hydrocarbon or arene is a hydrocarbon with alternating double and single bonds between carbon atoms. The term 'aromatic' was assigned before the physical mechanism determining aromaticity was discovered, and was derived from the fact that many of the compounds have a sweet scent...
- Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.... - Publishes Opus Maius, which among other things, proposes an early form of the scientific methodScientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
, and contains results of his experiments with gunpowderGunpowderGunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
- Roger BaconRoger BaconRoger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods... - Publishes several Aristotelian commentaries, an early framework for the scientific methodScientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
- Robert GrossetesteRobert GrossetesteRobert Grosseteste or Grossetete was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of humble parents at Stradbroke in Suffolk. A.C... - Baconian methodBaconian methodThe Baconian method is the investigative method developed by Sir Francis Bacon. The method was put forward in Bacon's book Novum Organum , or 'New Method', and was supposed to replace the methods put forward in Aristotle's Organon...
, an early forerunner of the scientific methodScientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
- Sir Francis Bacon - The first discovery of aluminiumAluminiumAluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
- Sir Humphry DavyHumphry DavySir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine... - Pioneer in early Solar Power - Weston cellWeston cellThe Weston cell, invented by Edward Weston in 1893, is a wet-chemical cell that produces a highly stable voltage suitable as a laboratory standard for calibration of voltmeters...
- Edward Weston (chemist)Edward Weston (chemist)Edward Weston was an English-born American chemist noted for his achievements in electroplating and his development of the electrochemical cell, named the Weston cell, for the voltage standard... - Proposes the concept of isotopes, elements with the same chemical properties may have differing atomic weights - Frederick SoddyFrederick SoddyFrederick Soddy was an English radiochemist who explained, with Ernest Rutherford, that radioactivity is due to the transmutation of elements, now known to involve nuclear reactions. He also proved the existence of isotopes of certain radioactive elements...
- The synthesising of xenon hexafluoroplatinateXenon hexafluoroplatinateXenon hexafluoroplatinate is the name of the product of the reaction of platinum hexafluoride and xenon, in an experiment that proved the chemical reactivity of the noble gases...
the first time to show that noble gases can form chemical compounds - Neil Bartlett - Callendar effect the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature (Global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
) - Guy Stewart Callendar - Pioneer of the fuel cellFuel cellA fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Hydrogen is the most common fuel, but hydrocarbons such as natural gas and alcohols like methanol are sometimes used...
- Francis Thomas BaconFrancis Thomas BaconFrancis Thomas Bacon OBE FREng F.R.S. was an English engineer who developed the first practical hydrogen–oxygen fuel cell.- Life and works :... - Pioneer of meteorologyMeteorologyMeteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
by developing a nomenclature system for clouds in 1802 - Luke HowardLuke HowardLuke Howard FRS was a British manufacturing chemist and an amateur meteorologist with broad interests in science... - Rayleigh scatteringRayleigh scatteringRayleigh scattering, named after the British physicist Lord Rayleigh, is the elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light. The particles may be individual atoms or molecules. It can occur when light travels through...
explains why the sky is blue, and predicted the existence of the surface waves - John Strutt, 3rd Baron RayleighJohn Strutt, 3rd Baron RayleighJohn William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, OM was an English physicist who, with William Ramsay, discovered the element argon, an achievement for which he earned the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904...
Sport
- Football - The rules as we know them today were established in 1848 at Cambridge University, Sheffield F.C.Sheffield F.C.Sheffield Football Club is an English football club from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The club is most noted for the fact that they are the world's oldest club now playing Association football, founded in 1857...
is acknowledged by The Football AssociationThe Football AssociationThe Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
and FIFAFIFAThe Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
as the world's first and oldest football club. - RugbyRugby footballRugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
- William Webb EllisWilliam Webb EllisRev. William Webb Ellis was an Anglican clergyman who is famous for allegedly being the inventor of Rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School.... - CricketCricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
- the world's second-most popular sport can be traced back to the 13th century - TennisTennisTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
- widely known to have originated in England. - BadmintonBadmintonBadminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
- Modern rules of the game was launched in 1873 at the Badminton HouseBadminton HouseBadminton House is a large country house in Gloucestershire, England, and has been the principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort since the late 17th century, when the family moved from Raglan Castle, which had been ruined in the English Civil War...
after being imported from IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
by British soldiers. - BoxingBoxingBoxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
- England played a key role in the evolution of modern boxing. Boxing was first accepted as an Olympic sport in Ancient Greece in 688 BC - Ice HockeyIce hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
- a variant of Field HockeyField hockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
invented by British soldiers based in Canada. - DartsDartsDarts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
- a traditional pub game, the numbering layout was devised by Brian Gamlin - Table-Tennis - was invented on the dinner tables of Britain as an indoor version of tennis
- SnookerSnookerSnooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...
- Invented by the British Army in India - Ping pong - The game has its origins in England, in the 1880s
- BowlsBowlsBowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...
- has been traced to 13th century England - Field hockeyField hockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
- the modern game grew from English public schools in the early 19th century - NetballNetballNetball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
- the sport emerged from early versions of women's basketball, at Madame ÖsterbergMartina Bergman-ÖsterbergMartina Sofia Helena Bergman-Österberg was a Swedish physical education instructor and women's suffrage advocate. After studying Swedish gymnastics in Stockholm she moved to London, where she founded the first physical education instructor's college in England, in which she admitted women only...
's College in England during the late 1890s. - RoundersRoundersRounders is a game played between two teams of either gender. The game originated in England where it was played in Tudor times. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by...
- the game originates in England most likely from an older game known as stool ball - The OxfordOxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and CambridgeCambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
Boat RaceThe Boat RaceThe event generally known as "The Boat Race" is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights each spring on the River Thames in London. It takes place generally on the last Saturday of March or the first...
, the first race was in 1829 on the River Thames in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... - ThoroughbredThoroughbredThe Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
Horseracing - Was first developed in 17th and 18th century England - PoloPoloPolo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
- its roots began in Persia as a training game for cavalry units, the formal codification of the rules of modern Polo as a sport were established in 19th century England - The format of Modern Olympics - William Penny BrookesWilliam Penny BrookesDr. William Penny Brookes was an English surgeon, magistrate, botanist, and educationalist especially known for his promotion of physical education and personal betterment...
- Modern Rock ClimbingRock ClimbingRock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
- Walter Parry Haskett SmithWalter Parry Haskett SmithWalter Parry Haskett Smith is often called the Father of Rock Climbing. Born in Kent, England, the son of a wealthy landowner, he attended Eton where he excelled at athletics, before enrolling in Trinity College, Oxford.-Background:...
(1859–1946) is considered the Father of Rock Climbing. - The first Paralympic gamesParalympic GamesThe Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event where athletes with a physical disability compete; this includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their...
competition were held in England in 1948 - Ludwig GuttmannLudwig GuttmannSir Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann CBE, FRS was a German neurologist who founded the Paralympic Games while living in England, and is considered one of the founding fathers of organized physical activities for people with a disability.... - oldest rowing competition in existence and oldest rowing race in the world: Doggett's Coat and BadgeDoggett's Coat and BadgeDoggett's Coat and Badge is the prize and name for the oldest rowing race in the world. Up to six apprentice Watermen of the River Thames in England compete for this prestigious honour, which has been held every year since 1715. The 4 miles 5 furlongs race is held on the Thames between London...
annual race on the Thames since 1715 - oldest sporting competition in the world: The Antient Silver Arrow Archery competition known as the Scorton ArrowScorton ArrowThe Antient Scorton Silver Arrow is an archery tournament that was incepted on Sunday 14 May 1673 in the village of Scorton in Yorkshire, England. Twenty-two archers competed in the first event for the prize of a silver arrow. This was won by Henry Calverley of Eryholme on Tees, who had provided...
as it was originally held in Scorton, YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. It was first shot for in 1673. - oldest cricket festival (and probably oldest sporting festival) in the world: Canterbury Cricket Week founded in 1842
- Lonsdale beltLonsdale beltThe Lonsdale Belt was a boxing prize introduced by Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, to be awarded to British boxing champions. It is still awarded to British champions today.-National Sporting Club:...
: oldest boxing belt in the world - oldest running race in the world - the Crick Run started in 1836 at rugby schoolRugby SchoolRugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
Aviation
- AeronauticsAeronauticsAeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere...
and flight - George CayleyGeorge CayleySir George Cayley, 6th Baronet was a prolific English engineer and one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of flight... - Jet engineJet engineA jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
- Sir Frank Whittle - Steam Powered Flight with the Aerial Steam CarriageAerial Steam CarriageThe Aerial Steam Carriage, also named Ariel, was a flying machine patented in 1842 that was supposed to carry passengers into the air. It was, in practice, incapable of flight since it had insufficient power from its heavy steam engine to fly. A more successful model was built in 1848 which was...
- John StringfellowJohn StringfellowJohn Stringfellow was born in Sheffield, England and is known for his work on the Aerial Steam Carriage with William Samuel Henson....
- The world's first powered flight took place at Chard in Somerset 55 years before the Wright brothers attempt at Kitty Hawk - VTOLVTOLA vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...
(Vertical Take-Off and Landing) fighter-bomber aircraft - Hawker P.1127Hawker P.1127The Hawker P.1127 and the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1 were the experimental and development aircraft that led to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first vertical and/or short take-off and landing jet fighter-bomber...
, Designed by Sydney Camm - The first commercial jet airlinerJet airlinerA jet airliner is an airliner that is powered by jet engines. This term is sometimes contracted to jetliner or jet.In contrast to today's relatively fuel-efficient, turbofan-powered air travel, first generation jet airliner travel was noisy and fuel inefficient...
(de Havilland CometDe Havilland CometThe de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design...
) - Pioneer of parachuteParachuteA parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
design - Robert CockingRobert CockingRobert Cocking was the developer of an early unsuccessful parachute design and the first person to be killed in a parachuting accident.-Parachute design:... - Pioneer of gliderGlider aircraftGlider aircraft are heavier-than-air craft that are supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against their lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Mostly these types of aircraft are intended for routine operation without engines, though engine failure can...
development & first well-documented human flight. He discovered and identified the four aerodynamic forces of flight - weightWeightIn science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity. Its magnitude , often denoted by an italic letter W, is the product of the mass m of the object and the magnitude of the local gravitational acceleration g; thus:...
, liftLift (soaring)Gliding flight is heavier-than-air flight without the use of thrust. It is employed by gliding animals and by aircraft such as gliders. The most common human application of gliding flight is in sport and recreation using aircraft designed for this purpose...
, dragDrag (physics)In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
, and thrustThrustThrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's second and third laws. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system....
. Modern airplane design is based on those discoveries including cambered wingsCamber (aerodynamics)Camber, in aeronautics and aeronautical engineering, is the asymmetry between the top and the bottom surfaces of an aerofoil. An aerofoil that is not cambered is called a symmetric aerofoil...
. He is sometimes called the "Father of aviationAviationAviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
" - George CayleyGeorge CayleySir George Cayley, 6th Baronet was a prolific English engineer and one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of flight... - The first aircraft capable of supercruiseSupercruiseSupercruise is sustained supersonic flight of an aircraft with a useful cargo, passenger, or weapons load performed efficiently and without the use of afterburners ....
- English Electric LightningEnglish Electric LightningThe English Electric Lightning is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft of the Cold War era, noted for its great speed and unpainted natural metal exterior finish. It is the only all-British Mach 2 fighter aircraft. The aircraft was renowned for its capabilities as an interceptor; Royal Air Force ... - Hale rocketRocketA rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
s, improved version of the Congreve rocketCongreve rocketThe Congreve Rocket was a British military weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.The rocket was developed by the British Royal Arsenal following the experiences of the Second, Third and Fourth Mysore Wars. The wars fought between the British East India Company and the...
design that introduced Thrust vectoringThrust vectoringThrust vectoring, also thrust vector control or TVC, is the ability of an aircraft, rocket or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine or motor in order to control the attitude or angular velocity of the vehicle....
- William HaleWilliam Hale (British inventor)William Hale , was a British inventor and rocket pioneer.- Biography :Hale was born in Colchester, England in 1797. He was self-taught although his grandfather, the educator William Cole, is believed to have tutored him... - The term airportAirportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
- first used to describe the port city SouthamptonSouthamptonSouthampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
where boat planes landed in the nineteenth century - NASA exploration John Hodge (engineer)John Hodge (engineer)John Dennis Hodge is a British-born aerospace engineer. He worked for the CF-105 Avro Arrow jet interceptor project in Canada. When it was cancelled in 1959, he became a member of NASA's Space Task Group, which later became the Johnson Space Center. During his NASA career, he worked as a flight...
Railways
- The first full scale railway steam locomotiveSteam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
was built in 1804 - Richard TrevithickRichard TrevithickRichard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall. His most significant success was the high pressure steam engine and he also built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive... - Great Western RailwayGreat Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
- Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges... - Stockton and Darlington RailwayStockton and Darlington RailwayThe Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
the world's first operational steam passenger railway - First inter-city steam-powered railway - Liverpool and Manchester RailwayLiverpool and Manchester RailwayThe Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world's first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. The line opened on 15 September 1830 and ran between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester in North...
Locomotives
- BlücherBlücher (locomotive)Blücher was an early railway locomotive built in 1814 by George Stephenson for Killingworth Colliery. It was the first of a series of locomotives that he designed in the period 1814-16 which established his reputation as an engine designer and laid the foundations for his subsequent pivotal role in...
- George StephensonGeorge StephensonGeorge Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives... - Puffing BillyPuffing Billy (locomotive)Puffing Billy is an early railway steam locomotive, constructed in 1813-1814 by engineer William Hedley, enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne, in the United Kingdom. It is the world's oldest...
-William HedleyWilliam HedleyWilliam Hedley was one of the leading industrial engineers of the early 19th century, and was very instrumental in several major innovations in early railway development... - Locomotion No 1Locomotion No 1Locomotion No. 1 is an early British steam locomotive. Built by George and Robert Stephenson's company Robert Stephenson and Company in 1825, it hauled the first train on the Stockton and Darlington Railway on 27 September 1825....
- Robert StephensonRobert StephensonRobert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of... - Sans PareilSans PareilSans Pareil is a steam locomotive built by Timothy Hackworth which took part in the 1829 Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, held to select a builder of locomotives...
- Timothy HackworthTimothy HackworthTimothy Hackworth was a steam locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and was the first locomotive superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.- Youth and early work :... - Stourbridge LionStourbridge LionThe Stourbridge Lion was a railroad steam locomotive. It was not only the first locomotive to be operated in the United States, it was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside of England, where it was manufactured in 1828....
- Foster, Rastrick and CompanyFoster, Rastrick and CompanyFoster, Rastrick and Company was one of the pioneering steam locomotive manufacturing companies of England. It was based in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands.... - Stephenson's RocketStephenson's RocketStephenson's Rocket was an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement, built in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829.- Design innovations :...
- GeorgeGeorge StephensonGeorge Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
and Robert StephensonRobert StephensonRobert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of... - Salamanca - Matthew MurrayMatthew MurrayMatthew Murray was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca in 1812...
- Flying Scotsman- Sir Nigel Gresley
Other railway developments
- Displacement lubricatorDisplacement lubricatorA Mechanical lubricator, or automatic lubricator, is a device fitted to a steam engine to supply lubricating oil to the cylinders and, sometimes, the bearings and axle box mountings as well. There are various types of mechanical lubricator....
, Ramsbottom safety valveSafety valveA safety valve is a valve mechanism for the automatic release of a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system when the pressure or temperature exceeds preset limits....
, the water trough, the split piston ringPiston ringA piston ring is a split ring that fits into a groove on the outer diameter of a piston in a reciprocating engine such as an internal combustion engine or steam engine.The three main functions of piston rings in reciprocating engines are:...
- John RamsbottomJohn Ramsbottom (engineer)John Ramsbottom was an English mechanical engineer who created many inventions for railways, including the piston ring, the Ramsbottom safety valve, the displacement lubricator, and the water trough.- Biography :... - Maglev (transport) rail system - Eric LaithwaiteEric LaithwaiteEric Roberts Laithwaite was a British electrical engineer, known as the "Father of Maglev" for his development of the linear induction motor and maglev rail system.- Biography :...
- World's oldest underground railway and the oldest rapid transit system. It was also the first underground railway to operate electric trains - London undergroundLondon UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
- Advanced Passenger TrainAdvanced Passenger TrainThe Advanced Passenger Train was an experimental tilting High Speed Train developed by British Rail during the 1970s and early 1980s....
(APT) was an experimental High Speed Train that introduced tiltingTilting trainA tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest due to...
- British RailBritish RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
Roads
- Bowden cableBowden cableA Bowden cable is a type of flexible cable used to transmit mechanical force or energy by the movement of an inner cable relative to a hollow outer cable housing...
- Frank Bowden - Cat's eyeCat's eye (road)The cat's eye is a retroreflective safety device used in road marking and was the first of a range of raised pavement markers. It originated in the UK in 1933 and is today used all over the world....
- Percy ShawPercy ShawPercy Shaw, OBE was an English inventor and businessman. He patented the reflective road stud or "cat's eye" in 1934, and set up a company to manufacture his invention in 1935.-Biography:... - Hansom cabHansom cabThe hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn cart designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low...
- Joseph HansomJoseph HansomJoseph Aloysius Hansom was a prolific English architect working principally in the Gothic Revival style, who invented the Hansom cab and was one of the founders of the eminent architectural journal, The Builder, in 1843.... - Seat beltSeat beltA seat belt or seatbelt, sometimes called a safety belt, is a safety harness designed to secure the occupant of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result from a collision or a sudden stop...
- George CayleyGeorge CayleySir George Cayley, 6th Baronet was a prolific English engineer and one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of flight... - Sinclair C5Sinclair C5The Sinclair Research C5 is a battery electric vehicle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair and launched by Sinclair Research in the United Kingdom on 10 January 1985. The vehicle is a battery-assisted tricycle steered by a handlebar beneath the driver's knees. Powered operation is possible making it...
- Sir Clive SinclairClive SinclairSir Clive Marles Sinclair is a British entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s.... - Inventor of tarmacTarmacTarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
- E. Purnell HooleyE. Purnell HooleyEdgar Purnell Hooley was the founder of Tarmac plc, one of the United Kingdom's largest building materials businesses.-Career:Born in Swansea, Hooley was articled as a civil engineer to the firm of James Craik in Bristol.... - Tension-spoke Wire wheelsWire wheelsThe rims of wire wheels are connected to their hubs by wire spokes. Although these wires are generally stiffer than a typical wire rope, they function mechanically the same as tensioned flexible wires, keeping the rim true while supporting applied loads.Wire wheels are used on most bicycles and...
- George CayleyGeorge CayleySir George Cayley, 6th Baronet was a prolific English engineer and one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of flight... - Belisha beaconBelisha beaconA Belisha beacon is an amber-coloured globe lamp atop a tall black and white pole, marking pedestrian crossings of roads in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in other countries historically influenced by Britain...
- Leslie Hore-Belisha - ThrustSSCThrustSSCThrustSSC, also spelt Thrust SSC by secondary sources, is a British jet-propelled car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers and Jeremy Bliss....
jetJet engineA jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
-propelled car holds the World Land Speed Record, it achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph). The car was designed and built in England - ThrustSSC Project director Richard NobleRichard NobleRichard Noble, OBE was the holder of the land speed record between 1983 and 1997, and was the project director of ThrustSSC, the vehicle which holds the current land speed record, set at Black Rock Desert, Nevada in 1997....
, Designed by Ron AyersRon AyersRon Ayers is an engineer who was responsible for the aerodynamics of the land speed record-holding vehicle, ThrustSSC.Born in London, England in 1932, Ayers obtained a BSc in aeronautical engineering from the University of London and an MSc in aerodynamics from Cranfield University before starting...
, Glynne Bowsher, Jeremy Bliss and piloted by Andy GreenAndy GreenWing Commander Andy D. Green OBE BA RAF is a British Royal Air Force pilot and World Land Speed Record holder.-RAF career:... - Lotus 25Lotus 25The Lotus 25 was a racing car designed by Colin Chapman for the 1962 Formula One season. It was a revolutionary design, the first fully stressed monocoque chassis to appear in F1...
Considered the first modern F1 race car designed for the 1962 Formula OneFormula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
season. It was a revolutionary design the first fully stressed monocoqueMonocoqueMonocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
chassis to appear in Formula OneFormula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
- Colin ChapmanColin ChapmanAnthony Colin Bruce Chapman CBE was an influential British designer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars....
, Team LotusTeam LotusTeam Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport series including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar and sports car racing... - Horstmann suspensionHorstmann suspensionHorstmann suspension is a type of tracked suspension devised by the British engineer Sidney Horstmann in 1922.The system uses coil springs and has the advantages of a relatively long travel and, consisting of a self-contained bogie that is bolted to the hull, causing little or no encroachment on...
, tracked armoured fighting vehicle suspension - Sidney Horstmann - Steam fire engine - John Braithwaite
- Safety bicycleSafety bicycleA safety bicycle is a type of bicycle that became very popular beginning in the late 1880s as an alternative to the penny-farthing or ordinary and is now the most common type of bicycle. Early bicycles of this style were known as safety bicycles because they were noted for, and marketed as, being...
- John Kemp StarleyJohn Kemp StarleyJohn Kemp Starley was an English inventor and industrialist who is widely considered the inventor of the modern bicycle, and also originator of the name Rover....
& Dan AlboneDan AlboneDaniel Albone was an English inventor, manufacturer and cyclist. He invented the world's first successful light farm tractor, and the Ivel Safety bicycle.-Childhood:... - Penny-farthingPenny-farthingPenny-farthing, high wheel, high wheeler, and ordinary are all terms used to describe a type of bicycle with a large front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel that was popular after the boneshaker, until the development of the safety bicycle, in the 1880s...
- James StarleyJames StarleyJames Starley was an English inventor and father of the bicycle industry. He was one of the most innovative and successful builders of bicycles and tricycles. His inventions include the differential gear and the perfection of chain-driven bicycles.-Early life:Starley was born in 1831 at Albourne,... - First traffic lightTraffic lightTraffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...
s installed (gas lamp) - Outside Houses of Parliament, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. December 10, 1868 - First automatic traffic lightTraffic lightTraffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...
s installed - WolverhamptonWolverhamptonWolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. 1927 - The oldest existing driving school and first formal driving tuition is the British School of Motoring, founded in 1910 in PeckhamPeckhamPeckham is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Southwark. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Sea
- Plimsol line - Samuel PlimsollSamuel PlimsollSamuel Plimsoll was a British politician and social reformer, now best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line .-Early life:Plimsoll was born in Bristol and soon moved to Whiteley Wood...
- HovercraftHovercraftA hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.Hovercraft are used throughout...
- Christopher CockerellChristopher CockerellSir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE FRS was an English engineer, inventor of the hovercraft.-Life:Cockerell was born in Cambridge, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockerell, was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, having previously been the secretary of William Morris. Christopher Cockerell was... - LifeboatLifeboat (rescue)A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
- Lionel LukinLionel LukinLionel Lukin Lionel Lukin Lionel Lukin (18 May 1742 (Great Dunmow, Essex, England) - 16 February 1834 (Hythe, Kent, England) is considered by some to have been the inventor of the lifeboat (although see William Wouldhave for the competing claim).... - ResurgamResurgamResurgam is the name given to two early Victorian submarines designed and built by Reverend George Garrett as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed around ship hulls to defend against attack by torpedo vessels....
- George Garrett - Transit (ship)Transit (ship)Transit was the name given to three sailing vessels designed and built to the order of Captain Richard Hall Gower.All three had fine lines at bow and stern, uniform frames mid-ships with concave and convex sweeps and a deep keel. Their length to beam ratio was unusually high, giving them a...
- Richard Hall GowerRichard Hall GowerCaptain Richard Hall Gower was an English mariner, empirical philosopher, nautical inventor, entrepreneur, and humanitarian.-Mariner:... - SubmarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
- Designed by Englishman William BourneWilliam Bourne (mathematician)William Bourne was an English mathematician, innkeeper and former Royal Navy gunner who invented the first navigable submarine and wrote important navigational manuals...
and built by Dutchman Cornelius DrebbelCornelius DrebbelCornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel was the Dutch builder of the first navigable submarine in 1620. Drebbel was an innovator who contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, optics and chemistry....
in 1620 - SS Great BritainSS Great BritainSS Great Britain was an advanced passenger steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service between Bristol and New York. While other ships had previously been built of iron or equipped with a screw propeller, Great Britain was the first...
, the world's first steam-powered, screw propeller-driven passenger liner with an iron hull. Designed by Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
and launched in 1843 it was at the time the largest ship afloat. - TurbiniaTurbiniaTurbinia was the first steam turbine-powered steamship. Built as an experimental vessel in 1894, and easily the fastest ship in the world at that time, Turbinia was demonstrated dramatically at the Spithead Navy Review in 1897 and set the standard for the next generation of steamships, the...
, the first steam turbineSteam turbineA steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
powered steamship, designed by the engineer Sir Charles Algernon ParsonsCharles Algernon ParsonsSir Charles Algernon Parsons OM KCB FRS was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the steam turbine. He worked as an engineer on dynamo and turbine design, and power generation, with great influence on the naval and electrical engineering fields...
and built in Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne... - Diving Equipment/Scuba Gear - Henry FleussHenry FleussHenry Albert Fleuss was a pioneering diving engineer, and Master Diver for Siebe, Gorman & Co. of London.Fleuss was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1851....
- Diving bellDiving bellA diving bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers to depth in the ocean. The most common types are the wet bell and the closed bell....
- Edmund Halley - SextantSextantA sextant is an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects. Its primary use is to determine the angle between a celestial object and the horizon which is known as the altitude. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight...
- John BirdJohn Bird (astronomer)John Bird , the great mathematical instrument maker, was born at Bishop Auckland. He worked in London for Jeremiah Sisson, and by 1745 he had his own business in the Strand. Bird was commissioned to make a brass quadrant 8 feet across for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where it is still... - Octant (instrument)Octant (instrument)The octant, also called reflecting quadrant, is a measuring instrument used primarily in navigation. It is a type of reflecting instrument.-Etymology:...
- Independently developed by Englishman John HadleyJohn HadleyJohn Hadley was an English mathematician, inventor of the octant, a precursor to the sextant, around 1730.He was born in Bloomsbury, London, to Katherine FitzJames and George Hadley....
and the American Thomas GodfreyThomas Godfrey (inventor)Thomas Godfrey was an optician and inventor in the American colonies, who around 1730 invented the octant. At approximately the same time an Englishman, John Hadley, also invented the octant independently.... - Whirling speculum, This device can be seen as a precursor to the gyroscopeGyroscopeA gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
- John SersonJohn SersonJohn Serson was an English sea captain best known for his invention of a 'whirling speculum'. This was an early form of artificial horizon designed for marine navigation, consisting of a mirror, attached to a spinning top, that attempted to remain in a horizontal plane despite the movement of... - Screw propeller - Francis Pettit SmithFrancis Pettit SmithSir Francis Pettit Smith was an English inventor and, along with Frédéric Sauvage and John Ericsson, one of a number of people with a claim to having been the inventor of the screw propeller...
- The world's first patent for an underwater echo ranging device (SonarSonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
) - Lewis Richardson - hydrophoneHydrophoneA hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change...
Before the invention of SonarSonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
convoy escort ships used them to detect U-boats, greatly lessening the effectiveness of the submarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
- Research headed by Ernest RutherfordErnest RutherfordErnest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics... - HydrofoilHydrofoilA hydrofoil is a foil which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to airfoils.Hydrofoils can be artificial, such as the rudder or keel on a boat, the diving planes on a submarine, a surfboard fin, or occur naturally, as with fish fins, the flippers of aquatic mammals, the...
- John Isaac ThornycroftJohn Isaac ThornycroftSir John Isaac Thornycroft was a British shipbuilder, the founder of the Thornycroft shipbuilding company and member of the Thornycroft family.-Biography:He was born in 1843 to Mary Francis and Thomas Thornycroft....
Miscellaneous
- Oldest police force in continuous operation: Marine Police ForceMarine Police ForceThe Marine Police Force, sometimes known as the Thames River Police and said to be England's first Police force, was formed by magistrate Patrick Colquhoun and a Master Mariner, John Harriott, in 1798 to tackle theft and looting from ships anchored in the Pool of London and the lower reaches of the...
founded in 1798 and now part of the Metropolitan Police ServiceMetropolitan Police ServiceThe Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police... - Oldest life insurance company in the world: Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance OfficeAmicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance OfficeAmicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office is considered the first life insurance company in the world. Anzovin, p. 121 The first life insurance company known of record was founded in 1706 by the Bishop of Oxford and the financier Thomas Allen in London, England...
founded 1706 - First Glee ClubGlee clubA glee club is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs—glees—by trios or quartets. In the late 19th Century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition...
, founded in Harrow SchoolHarrow SchoolHarrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
in 1787. - Oldest arts festivalArts festivalAn arts festival is a festival that focuses on the visual arts in all its forms, but which may also focus on or include other arts.Arts festivals in the visual arts are exhibitions and are not to be confused with the commercial art fair. Artists participate in the most important of such festival...
- NorwichNorwichNorwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
1772 - Oldest music festival - The Three Choirs FestivalThree Choirs FestivalThe Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
- Oldest literary festival - The Cheltenham Literature FestivalCheltenham Literature FestivalThe Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature in the Spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for the Jazz, Music and Science Festivals that run every year....
- BaykoBaykoBayko was an English building model construction toy invented by Charles Plimpton, an early plastics engineer and entrepreneur in Liverpool. First marketed in Britain it was soon exported throughout the British Commonwealth and became a world wide brand between 1934 and 1967...
- Charles PlimptonCharles PlimptonCharles Bird Plimpton was an English inventor and businessman. He invented Bayko in 1933, a plastic building model construction toy, and one of the earliest plastic toys to be marketed... - LinoleumLinoleumLinoleum is a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil , pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the materials.The finest linoleum floors,...
- Frederick WaltonFrederick WaltonFrederick Edward Walton , was an English manufacturer and inventor who invented Linoleum in Staines and Lincrusta .... - MeccanoMeccanoMeccano is a model construction system comprising re-usable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, with nuts and bolts to connect the pieces. It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices....
- Frank HornbyFrank HornbyFrank Hornby was an English inventor, businessman and politician. He was a visionary in toy development and manufacture and produced three of the most popular lines of toys in the twentieth century: Meccano, Hornby Model Railways and Dinky Toys... - Crossword puzzleCrossword PuzzleFor the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
- Arthur WynneArthur WynneArthur Wynne was the British-born inventor of the crossword puzzle.-Early life:Arthur Wynne was born on June 22, 1871 in Liverpool, England... - Gas maskGas maskA gas mask is a mask put on over the face to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft tissues of the face. Some gas masks are also respirators, though the word...
- (disputed) John TyndallJohn TyndallJohn Tyndall FRS was a prominent Irish 19th century physicist. His initial scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he studied thermal radiation, and produced a number of discoveries about processes in the atmosphere...
and others - Graphic telescopeGraphic telescopeThe graphic telescope is a type of camera lucida that has the power of a telescope. It was invented by Cornelius Varley in 1811.-External links:*...
- Cornelius VarleyCornelius VarleyCornelius Varley was an English water-colour painter.-Biography:Varley was born at Hackney, London, on the 21 November 1781. He was a younger brother of John Varley, a watercolour painter and astrologer, and a close friend of William Blake, he was born in Hackney, London... - Steel-ribbed UmbrellaUmbrellaAn umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain...
- Samuel Fox - PlasticPlasticA plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
- Alexander ParkesAlexander ParkesAlexander Parkes was a metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England. He created Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.-Biography:... - PlasticinePlasticinePlasticine, a brand of modelling clay, is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. The name is a registered trademark of Flair Leisure Products plc...
- William HarbuttWilliam HarbuttWilliam Harbutt was a painter and the inventor of Plasticine.Born in North Shields, England, Harbutt studied at the National Art Training School in London, and eventually became an associate of the Royal College of Art... - CarbonatedCarbonationCarbonation is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in water. The process usually involves carbon dioxide under high pressure. When the pressure is reduced, the carbon dioxide is released from the solution as small bubbles, which cause the solution to "fizz." This effect is seen in carbonated...
soft drinkSoft drinkA soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...
- Joseph PriestleyJoseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works... - Friction MatchMatchA match is a tool for starting a fire under controlled conditions. A typical modern match is made of a small wooden stick or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by frictional heat generated by striking the match against a suitable surface...
- John WalkerJohn Walker (inventor)John Walker was an English chemist who invented the friction match.-Life and work:Walker was born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1781. He went to the local grammar school and was afterwards apprenticed to Watson Alcock, the principal surgeon of the town serving him as an assistant-surgeon... - Invented the rubber balloonBalloonA balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
- Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.... - Earliest concept of a Metric systemMetric systemThe metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
- John WilkinsJohn WilkinsJohn Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.... - Edmondson railway ticketEdmondson railway ticketThe Edmondson railway ticket was a system for validating the payment of railway fares, and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s. It is named after its inventor, Thomas Edmondson, a trained cabinet maker, who became a station master on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in...
- Thomas EdmondsonThomas EdmondsonThomas Edmondson is the inventor of theEdmondson railway ticket.... - The world's first Nature ReserveNature reserveA nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
- Charles WatertonCharles WatertonCharles Waterton was an English naturalist and explorer.-Heritage and Life:"Squire" Waterton was born at Walton Hall, Wakefield, Yorkshire to Thomas Waterton and Anne Bedingfield. He was of a Roman Catholic landed gentry family descended from Reiner de Waterton...
*Public Park - Joseph PaxtonJoseph PaxtonSir Joseph Paxton was an English gardener and architect, best known for designing The Crystal Palace.-Early life:... - Scouts - Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-PowellRobert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-PowellRobert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....
- SpirographSpirographSpirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The term has also been used to describe a variety of software applications that display similar curves, and applied to the class of curves that can be produced...
- Denys FisherDenys FisherDenys Fisher was an English engineer who invented the spirograph toy.... - The Young Men's Christian Association YMCAYMCAThe Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
was founded in London - George Williams (YMCA)George Williams (YMCA)Sir George Williams , was the founder of the YMCA.Williams was born on a farm in Dulverton, Somerset, England. As a young man, he described himself as a "careless, thoughtless, godless, swearing young fellow" but eventually became a devout Christian.He went to London and worked in a draper's shop... - The Salvation ArmyThe Salvation ArmyThe Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
, known for being one of the largest distributors of humanitarian aid - Methodist minister William BoothWilliam BoothWilliam Booth was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General... - Prime meridianPrime MeridianThe Prime Meridian is the meridian at which the longitude is defined to be 0°.The Prime Meridian and its opposite the 180th meridian , which the International Date Line generally follows, form a great circle that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.An international...
- George Biddell AiryGeorge Biddell AirySir George Biddell Airy PRS KCB was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881... - Produced the first complete printed translation of the BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
into English - Myles CoverdaleMyles CoverdaleMyles Coverdale was a 16th-century Bible translator who produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English.-Life:... - Founder of the Bank of ScotlandBank of ScotlandThe Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a history dating to the 17th century, it is the second oldest surviving bank in what is now the United Kingdom, and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to...
- John HollandJohn Holland (banker)John Holland was a founder of the Bank of Scotland, in 1695.... - Venn diagramVenn diagramVenn diagrams or set diagrams are diagrams that show all possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets . Venn diagrams were conceived around 1880 by John Venn...
- John VennJohn VennDonald A. Venn FRS , was a British logician and philosopher. He is famous for introducing the Venn diagram, which is used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.... - vulcanisation of rubberRubberNatural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
- Thomas HancockThomas Hancock (inventor)Thomas Hancock , elder brother of inventor Walter Hancock, was an English inventor who founded the British rubber industry... - SiliconeSiliconeSilicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
- Frederick KippingFrederick KippingProfessor Frederick Stanley Kipping FRS was an English chemist.He was born in Manchester, England, the son of James Kipping, a Bank of England official, and educated at Manchester Grammar School before enrolling in 1879 at Owens College for an external degree from the University of London... - Stamp collectingStamp collectingStamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with the number of collectors in the United States alone estimated to be over 20 million.- Collecting :...
- John Edward GrayJohn Edward GrayJohn Edward Gray, FRS was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray ....
bought penny blacks on first day of issue in order to keep them - lorgnetteLorgnetteA lorgnette is a pair of spectacles with a handle, used to hold them in place, rather than fitting over the ears. It is derived from the French lorgner, to take a sidelong look at, and Middle French, from lorgne, squinting. They were invented by an Englishman named George Adams. The lorgnette was...
- George Adams (optician)George Adams (optician)George Adams Sr was an English optical designer and scientific writer who was also well known as a maker of mathematical instruments and globes. Among his works are a Treatise on the Construction and Use of Globes and an "Essay on the Microscope" .-Biography:His son, George Adams Jr... - ComicsComicsComics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
- William HogarthWilliam HogarthWilliam Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
, George CruikshankGeorge CruikshankGeorge Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.-Early life:Cruikshank was born in London...
and James GillrayJames GillrayJames Gillray , was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810.- Early life :He was born in Chelsea...
and others
See also
- Irish inventions and discoveriesIrish inventions and discoveriesIrish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques which owe their existence either partially or entirely to an Irish person. Often, things which are discovered for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two...
- Science in Medieval Western Europe
- Scottish inventions and discoveriesScottish inventions and discoveriesScottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented or discovered by a person born in or descended from Scotland. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland , by non-Scots...
- Welsh inventions and discoveriesWelsh inventions and discoveriesThis is a list of people of Welsh origin who are recognised as innovators and inventors who have made notable contributions to technical or theoretical world advancements....