English inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques invented, innovated or discovered, partially or entirely, in
England by a person from England. Often, things
discovered for the first time are also called inventions and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two. Nonetheless, science and technology in England continued to develop rapidly in absolute terms. Furthermore, according to a Japanese research firm, over 40% of the world's inventions and discoveries were made in the UK, followed by France with 24% of the world's inventions and discoveries made in France and followed by the US with 20%.[1]
The following is a list of inventions, innovations or discoveries known or generally recognised to be English.
1949:
EDSAC – the first complete, fully functional computer inspired by the
von Neumann architecture, the basis of every modern computer – constructed by
Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010).
Late 1940s/early 1950s: The
integrated circuit, commonly called the microchip, conceptualised and built by
Geoffrey Dummer (1909–2002).
February 1951: The
Ferranti Mark 1 (a.k.a. the Manchester Electronic Computer), the world's first successful commercially available general-purpose
electronic computer, invented by
Frederic Calland Williams (1911–1977) and
Tom Kilburn (1921–2001).
1951:
LEO made history by running the first business application (payroll system) on an electronic computer for
J. Lyons and Co. Under the advice of
Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010), LEO was designed by
John Pinkerton (1919–1997) and
David Caminer (1915–2008).
1951: Concept of
microprogramming developed by
Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010) from the realisation that the
Central Processing Unit (CPU) of a computer could be controlled by a miniature, highly specialised computer programme in high-speed
ROM.
1952: The first graphical computer game, OXO or Noughts and Crosses, programmed on the
EDSAC at
Cambridge University as part of a
Ph.D. thesis by
A.S. Douglas (1921–2010).
1981: The
Osborne 1 – the first commercially successful portable computer, precursor to the
laptop computer – developed by English-American
Adam Osborne (1939–2003).
1990: The world's first
web server invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Initially called WWWDaemon, it ran on the NeXTSTEP platform and was publicly released in 1991; later it evolved and was known as
CERN httpd.
1991 onwards:
Linux kernel development and maintenance were greatly helped by English-born
Andrew Morton (born 1959) and
Alan Cox (born 1968).
1973:
Clifford Cocks (born 1950) first developed what came to be known as the
RSA cipher at
GCHQ, approximately three years before it was rediscovered by
Rivest,
Shamir, and
Adleman at
MIT.[53]
Before 1596: Modern
flushing toilet invented by
John Harington (1560–1612).[61] The term 'John', used particularly in the US, is generally accepted as a direct reference to its inventor.[62]
Late-19th century: Commercially produced electric
toaster developed by R. E. B. Crompton (1845–1940).
Late-19th century: Modern
pay toilet invented by
John Nevil Maskelyne (1839–1917); Maskelyne invented a lock for London toilets, which required a penny to operate, hence the
euphemism "spend a penny".
1794:
Colour blindness first described in a paper titled "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours" by
John Dalton (1766–1844).[82]
1798:
Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, invented by
Edward Jenner (1749–1823); in so doing, Jenner is said to have "saved more lives [. . .] than were lost in all the wars of mankind since the beginning of recorded history."[83][84]
1941: Crucial first steps in the mass production of
penicillin made by
Norman Heatley (1911–2004).
1949:
Diagnostic ultrasound first used to assess the thickness of bowel tissue by English-born physicist
John J. Wild (1914–2009), so-called "father of medical ultrasound".[94]
1993:
Viagra (a.k.a. Sildenafil – compound UK-92,480) synthesised by a group of pharmaceutical chemists working at Pfizer's
Sandwich, Kent research facility in England. The press identified Peter Dunn and Albert Wood as the inventors of the drug; only Andrew Bell, David Brown and Nicholas Terrett are listed on the original composition of matter patent.[100]
1884: The
Maxim gun, the first self-powered
machine gun invented by Sir
Hiram Maxim (1840–1916); American-born, Maxim moved from the United States to England in 1881, becoming a (
naturalised)
British subject. The Maxim gun was financed by Albert Vickers of
Vickers Limited and produced in
Hatton Garden,
London. It has been called "the weapon most associated with British imperial conquest".[106]
1901:
Bullpup firearm configuration first used in the
Thorneycroft carbine rifle, developed by an English gunsmith as patent No. 14,622 of July 18, 1901.
1916: The
tank developed and first used in combat by the British during
World War I as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare.[107] Key co-inventors include Major
Walter Gordon Wilson (1874–1957) and Sir
William Tritton (1875–1946).
1943:
H2S radar (airborne radar to aid bomb targeting) invented by
Alan Blumlein (1903–1942). Blumlein died in a plane crash during a secret trial of the H2S system.
1950: The
steam catapult, a device used to launch aircraft from aircraft carriers, developed by Commander Colin C. Mitchell
RNR.
1798: The
harp lute invented by
Edward Light (c. 1747-c. 1832); Light patented the instrument in 1816.[114]
Early 19th century: The
Irish flute is not an instrument indigenous to Ireland; a key figure in its development was English inventor and flautist
Charles Nicholson (1775–1810).
1880s: Method of intensifying
plates with
mercuric iodide devised by
B. J. Edwards (1838–1914); Edwards pioneered also the construction and design of instantaneous
shutters.
1535: First complete printed translation of the
Bible into English produced by
Myles Coverdale (1488–1569).[120]
1665: Philosophical Transactions, the first journal exclusively devoted to science, established by the
Royal Society of London; it is also the world's longest-running scientific journal.[121]
British Raj period: the first definite map of
India drawn by English
cartographers.
Mid-19th century: First noted
journal club by English surgeon
Sir James Paget (1814–1899); recalling in his memoirs time spent at
St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, Paget describes "a kind of club [. . .] a small room over a baker's shop near the Hospital-gate where we could sit and read the
journals."[122]
1600: Recognition that the earth was a giant magnet, by
William Gilbert (1544–1603) in his six-book work De Magnete; De Magnete was known all over Europe, and was almost certainly an influence on
Galileo.
1924:
Edward Victor Appleton awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1947 for proving the existence of the
ionosphere during experiments carried out in 1924.
1932:
Splitting the atom, a fully artificial nuclear reaction and nuclear transmutation, first achieved by English physicist
John Cockcroft (1897–1967) and Ireland's
Ernest Walton.
1947:
Holography invented in Rugby, England by Hungarian-British
Dennis Gabor (1900–1979; fled from
Nazi Germany in 1933). The medium was improved by
Nicholas J. Phillips (1933–2009), who made it possible to record multi-colour reflection holograms.
1665: Correct theory of
combustion first outlined in Micrographia by
Robert Hooke (1635–1703); Hooke observed that something (known now as
oxygen) is taken from the air and that in its absence combustion quickly ceases, however much heat is applied.
1766:
Hydrogen discovered by
Henry Cavendish (1731–1810); Cavendish described it as a colourless, odourless gas that burns and can form an explosive mixture with air.[127]
1901:
Silicone discovered and named by
Frederic Kipping (1863–1949); according to the
nomenclature of modern chemistry, silicone is no longer the correct term, but it remains in common usage.
1913: Concept of
atomic number introduced by
Henry Moseley (1887–1915) in order to fix the inadequacies of
Mendeleev's periodic table, which had been based on atomic weight.[142]Isaac Asimov wrote, "In view of what he [Moseley] might still have accomplished … his death might well have been the most costly single death of the War to mankind generally."[143]
1665:
Cell biology originated by
Robert Hooke (1635–1703), who discovered the first
cells in the course of describing the microscopic compartments within cork.[123]
Early 19th century: the first recognition of what fossils were by
Mary Anning.
1855: The discovery of the first
coal ball by
Joseph Dalton Hooker who later on with partner William Binney made the first scientific description of coal balls.
1958: the first cloning of an animal, a frog using intact
nuclei from the somatic cells of a Xenopus tadpole by Sir
John Gurdon.
1950 onward: the pioneering of the use of Xenopus eggs to translate microinjected messenger RNA molecules by Sir
John Gurdon and fellow researchers, a technique which has been widely used to identify the proteins encoded and to study their function.
1960 onwards: Pioneering observation-based research into the behaviour of
chimpanzees (our closest relatives in the animal kingdom) conducted by
Jane Goodall (born 1934).
2016: Scientists at the British
bio-tech company
Oxitec, in an attempt to stop the spread of
dengue fever genetically engineer a 'sudden death'
mosquito which after mating successfully with a wild female, any offspring produced will not survive to adulthood and the lethal gene is passed on from the female to any male they mate with and the cycle continues. 3,019,000 mosquitos were released on the
Grand Cayman Islands and after three months 80% of the population of mosquitos in the target area had vanished.
1631: The "x" symbol for
multiplication and the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for the
sine and
cosine functions devised by
William Oughtred (1574–1660) in Clavis Mathematicae (The Key to Mathematics).
1631: The symbols for "is less than" and "is greater than", along with other innovations, devised in the posthumously published
algebra text Artis Analyticae Praxis by
Thomas Harriot (c. 1560–1621).
1609: First drawing of the
Moon through a telescope by
Thomas Harriot (c. 1560 – 1621); Harriot achieved this on 26 July 1609: over four months before
Galileo.[155][156]
1946–1954: Pioneering theories of
Nucleosynthesis (the formation of chemical elements in stars and supernova) proposed by Sir
Fred Hoyle (1915–2001); in 1949, Hoyle coined the term "
Big Bang".[171]
1820: The dew-point
hygrometer, an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the atmosphere, invented by
John Frederic Daniell (1790–1845).
1892: Scope and method of science proposed in The Grammar of Science by
Karl Pearson (1857–1936); the book was a pivotal influence on the young
Albert Einstein and contained several ideas that were later to become part of his theories.[180]
1784: The
Atwood machine, for demonstrating the law of uniformly accelerated motion, invented by
George Atwood (1745–1807).
c. 1805: First bench micrometer – the "Lord Chancellor", capable of measuring to one ten-thousandth of an inch – invented by
Henry Maudslay (1771–1831), a founding father of
machine tool technology.[182]
Before 1299:
Bowls or lawn bowls can be traced to 13th-century England.[183] The world's oldest surviving bowling green is
Southampton Old Bowling Green, first used in 1299.
Late 15th century:
Rounders developed from an older English game known as
stoolball.[184]
1519: World's oldest sporting competition still running, the
Kiplingcotes Derby horse-race, established; it has run annually since without a break.[185][186]
1598: The earliest definite reference to
cricket; the sport may arguably be traced further back to 1301 with written evidence of a game known as creag played by
Prince Edward, son of
Edward I (Longshanks).
After 1660:
Thoroughbred horseracing developed in 17th- and 18th-century England; royal support from
Charles II, a keen racegoer and owner, made horse-racing popular with the public.
1744: Earliest description of
baseball in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book by John Newbery (1713–1767); the first recorded game of "Bass-Ball" took place in 1749 in Surrey.[189]William Bray (1736–1832) recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday, 1755 in
Guildford,
Surrey; the game is considered to have been taken across the Atlantic by English emigrants.[190]
Early 19th century: Modern
field hockey developed in English public schools; the first club was established in 1849 in
Blackheath, London.
1820s:
Ice hockey, a variant of
field hockey, invented by British soldiers based in Canada. British soldiers and emigrants to Canada and the United States played their stick-and-ball games on the winter ice and snow; in 1825,
John Franklin (1786–1847) wrote during one of his
Arctic expeditions: "The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport" on
Great Bear Lake.[191]
1874: Formal codification of the rules of modern
Polo established by the
Hurlingham Polo Association; polo had been introduced to England in 1834 by the 10th
Hussars at
Aldershot, Hants, and in 1862 the first polo club,
Calcutta Polo Club, was established by two British soldiers, Captain Robert Stewart and (later Major General) Joe Sherer.[195]
1888:
Tiddlywinks patent application by London bank clerk[198] Joseph Assheton Fincher (1863–1900);[199][200] Tiddlywinks originated as an adult parlour game in
Victorian England.[201]
1896: The dartboard-layout used in the game and professional competitive sport of
Darts was devised by
Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin (c. 1852–1903); Gamlin died before he could patent his idea.[203]
1799: Concept of the modern aeroplane as a
fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control set forth by Sir
George Cayley (1773–1857);[206][207] Cayley is one of the most important people in the history of
Aeronautics and flight: he is sometimes called the "father of
aviation".[208]
1804: First
glider to carry a human being aloft designed by Sir
George Cayley (1773–1857). Cayley discovered and identified the four aerodynamic forces of flight:
weight,
lift,
drag, and
thrust; Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries, along with
cambered wings which Cayley also discovered.[208]
1837: Pioneering contribution to
parachute design made by
Robert Cocking (1776–1837); aged 61, Cocking was the first person to be killed in a parachuting accident.
1802: First full-scale railway
steam locomotive built by
Richard Trevithick (1771–1833).[216] This built on the endeavours of two other Englishmen, engineer Thomas Savery (c.1650–1715), son of Devon, and the first practical steam engine built in 1712 by Londoner
Thomas Newcomen (c.1664–1729).
James Watt did not invent the steam engine. Rather Watt, prompted by English backer and manufacturer Matthew Boulton, effected improvements sufficient to make the invention commercially viable.
1812: First commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca, designed and built by
Matthew Murray (1765–1826) of
Holbeck.
1813: First practical steam locomotive to rely simply on the adhesion of iron wheels on iron rails, Puffing Billy, built by
William Hedley (1779–1843).
1829:
Stephenson's Rocket built by
George Stephenson (1781–1848) and his son
Robert Stephenson (1803–1859); the Rocket was not the first steam locomotive, but it was the first to bring together several innovations to produce the most advanced locomotive of its day.
1835: Der Adler the first steam locomotive in Germany. Built by George & Robert Stephenson in Newcastle.
1923: The Flying Scotsman built to a design by
Sir Nigel Gresley (1876–1941);[217] the Flying Scotsman was in 1934 the first steam locomotive to be authenticated at reaching 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h) in passenger service.[218]
1863: Opening of the world's oldest underground railway, the
London Underground, a.k.a. the Tube; the Tube is the oldest
rapid transit system, and it was the first underground railway to operate
electric trains.
Late 1940s:
Maglev, the use of magnetic levitation to move vehicles without touching the ground, invented by
Eric Laithwaite (1921–1997).
1876: The legal collection of 70,000 seeds from the rubber-bearing tree
Hevea brasiliensis which led to the discovery of the perfect growing climate and locations for rubber trees by
Sir Henry Alexander Wickham. Most commercial rubber plants are descended from the seeds he took to
Kew Gardens
1884:Thomas Parker claimed to have invented the first
electric car.[221]
1926: First automated traffic lights in England deployed in
Piccadilly Circus in 1926;[223] outside of London,
Wolverhampton was in 1927 the first British town to introduce automated traffic lights.[224]
1997: World
Land Speed Record, 1,228 km/h (763 mph), achieved by
ThrustSSC, a
jet-propelled car designed and built in England. Project director:
Richard Noble (born 1946); designed by
Ron Ayers (born 1932), Glynne Bowsher and Jeremy Bliss; piloted by
Andy Green (born 1962).
Sea
1578: The first
submersible (a small,
submarine-like vehicle) of whose construction there exists reliable information designed by Englishman
William Bourne (c. 1535–1582) in his book Inventions or Devises; Dutchman
Cornelius Drebbel put Bourne's concept into action in 1620.
1691: A
diving bell capable of allowing its occupier to remain submerged for extended periods of time, and fitted with a window for the purpose of underwater exploration, designed by
Edmund Halley (1656–1742),[229] best known for computing the orbit of
Halley's Comet.
c. 1730: The
octant invented by English mathematician
John Hadley (1682–1744); American optician
Thomas Godfrey developed the instrument independently at approximately the same time.
1743: The "Whirling Speculum", a device used to locate the
horizon in foggy or misty conditions, invented by
John Serson (died 1744); Serson's Speculum can be seen as a precursor to the
gyroscope.
1785: The
lifeboat invented and patented by
Lionel Lukin (1742–1834);
William Wouldhave (1751–1821) made a rival claim, but he did not succeed with the practical application of his invention until 1789.
1799: The
Transit, a type of sailing vessel with a remarkable turn of speed, patented by
Richard Hall Gower (1768–1833).
1843: Launch of the
SS Great Britain – the first steam-powered, screw propeller-driven passenger liner with an iron hull; designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), it was at the time the largest ship afloat.
1912: World's first patent for an underwater echo ranging device (
sonar) filed a month after the sinking of the Titanic by
Lewis Fry Richardson (1881–1953).
Early 17th century: The closely cut
"English" lawn created in the
Jacobean epoch of
gardening, as the garden and the lawn became places created first as walkways and social areas. The English lawn became a symbol of status of the
aristocracy and
gentry; it showed that the owner could afford to keep land that was not being used for a building or for food production.
c. 1770–1780: The
lorgnette (a pair of
spectacles with a handle, used to hold them in place) invented by
George Adams the elder (c. 1709–1773) and subsequently illustrated in a work by his son
George Adams the younger, An Essay on Vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye (1789).[239]
18th century – 19th century: The
history of comics developed with innovations by
William Hogarth (1697–1764),
James Gillray (1756/57–1815),
George Cruikshank (1792–1878) and others. The Glasgow Looking Glass (1826), arguably the first comic strip. William Heath was its principal strip illustrator.[242][243]
1821: World's first modern
nature reserve established by
naturalist and
explorerCharles Waterton (1782–1965); Waterton was described by
David Attenborough as "one of the first people anywhere to recognise not only that the natural world was of great importance but that it needed protection as humanity made more and more demands on it".[244]
1824: Rubber
balloon invented by
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) during experiments with gases.
1844:
YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) founded in London by Sir
George Williams (1821–1905), with the aim of putting
Christian values into practice.
1846: The
Christmas cracker invented by London confectioner
Thomas J. Smith by wrapping a bon-bon in a twist of coloured paper, adding a love note, a paper hat and a banger mechanism. This new idea took off and the bon-bon was eventually replaced by a small toy or novelty.
1849:
Bowler hat designed by London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler.
1866: The introduction, planting, cultivation and manufacturing of
Ceylon tea in the British Crown colony of Ceylon, now
Sri Lanka.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said of the planting efforts "the tea fields of Ceylon were as true a monument to courage as the lions of Waterloo" and called it "one of the greatest commercial victories which pluck and ingenuity ever won."[247]
1868: Erection of first mounted dinosaur skeleton, Hadrosaurus Foulkii and introduction of the universal standard for all future dinosaur displays by English artist
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins in concert with Dr Joseph Leidy and Edward Drinker Cope. Displayed at
The Academy of Natural Sciences
1870s: One precursor (among others) of the modern
gas mask constructed by physicist
John Tyndall (1820–1893).
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