An Illustrated Timeline of

Spengler
An Illustrated Timeline of
and IN V ENT IO NS and

I N V E NTO R S

An Illustrated Timeline of inventions

Who invented what, and when did they
do it? From the ancient Egyptians to
Thomas Edison, from the telephone to the
space shuttle, this book-length timeline
is packed with inventions and inventors.
Pick a point and start exploring!

and
inventors
Reinforced Library Binding

by Kremena T. Spengler
illustrated by Rick Morgan
An Ill u strated Time line of
and

by Kremena T. Spengler
illustrated by Rick Morgan
Special thanks to our adviser, Terry Flaherty, PhD, Professor of English,
Minnesota State University, Mankato, for his expertise.

Editor: Jill Kalz

Designer: Tracy Davies
Art Director: Nathan Gassman
Production Specialist: Sarah Bennett
The illustrations in this book were created with pencil and digital color.

Photo Credits: Shutterstock: Andrea Danti, Diana Rich Since earliest times, humans have tried to
Picture Window Books understand and change their surroundings.
151 Good Counsel Drive
P.O. Box 669 They have designed all sorts of tools to better
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complex computers.
Copyright © 2012 by Picture Window Books, a Capstone imprint.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without
written permission from the publisher. The publisher takes no
responsibility for the use of any of the materials or methods described Millions of inventions exist. This book gives
in this book, nor for the products thereof.
you a taste of some of the most interesting
All books published by Picture Window Books
are manufactured with paper containing at least ones. Written as a timeline, it lists facts in the
10 percent post-consumer waste.
order in which they happened. Read the book
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spengler, Kremena. from start to finish, or dip in and out! Discover
An illustrated timeline of inventions and inventors / by Kremena T.
Spengler ; illustrated by Rick Morgan. at a glance who invented what. And see how
p. cm. — (Visual timelines in history)
Includes index. one invention often led to another.
ISBN 978-1-4048-6662-1 (library binding)
ISBN 978-1-4048-7017-8 (paperback)
1. Inventions—History—Chronology—Juvenile literature. 2.
Inventors—Biography—Juvenile literature. I. Morgan, Rick, 1954– ill.
II. Title.
T48.S68 2012
602’.02—dc22
2011010463

Printed in the United States of America in North Mankato, Minnesota.

032011 006110CGF11
3
 In the ca. 25,000 BC
Beginning People use needles
and thread to
make clothes.
ca. 10,000 BC
The first clay pots are made.

ca. 1 million BC
Early humans learn to
control fire. They use it to
keep warm, cook food, and
protect themselves against ca. 5500 BC
wild animals. Mesopotamians invent the plow. It
helps farmers plant crops more easily.

ca. 6500 BC
The invention of
ca. 70,000 BC weaving improves
clothes making.

Stone Age humans ca. 8700 BC

learn to sharpen
stones to make People in Mesopotamia
weapons. make the first metal
objects from copper.

ca. 15,000 BC ca. 3500 BC

People invent the lunar calendar. Mesopotamians invent the
They begin to record time based on wheel. Countless future
the cycles, or phases, of the moon. inventions will rely on it.

4 5
 ancient ca. 2000 BC ca. 1000 BC ca. 200 BC
CI V ILI Z AT IONS The Minoans on the island of Crete
create channels to deliver water over
large distances. These channels are
Mesopotamians invent the first
calculator, called an abacus.
People in
China and
called aqueducts. Persia build
windmills to
make use of
ca. 2500 BC wind power.

The ancient Egyptians

develop glass.

ca. 230 BC
Greek inventor Archimedes creates
the compound pulley. A pulley

ca. 2000 BC
makes it easier to lift heavy objects.

The first phonetic

alphabet is developed
in Egypt. Each symbol
stands for a sound ca. 400 BC
in the Egyptian The Chinese make the
language. ca. 1500 BC earliest compass.

Egyptians invent the sundial.

A sundial uses the light of the
sun to tell time.

6 7
 T he pa per ca. 806
ca. 1608

Trail
The Chinese begin using paper money.
Dutch eyeglass maker
Hans Lippershey
invents the telescope.
ca. 1300 It helps people
discover objects in
AD 105 The Chinese the sky not seen
with the naked eye.
invent the
The Chinese musket, an
invent paper. early rifle.

ca. 1202 ca. 1450

Italian Johannes Gutenberg
mathematician of Germany invents
Leonardo Pisano, the printing press.
known as Fibonacci, With its movable
brings Arabic type, the press
numerals to Europe.
These numbers
makes large
ca. 1590
ca. 800 replace Roman
numbers of books
easier and cheaper
numerals. Dutch craftsmen Hans and
The Chinese invent gunpowder. than before.
Zacharias Janssen invent
an early microscope.

8 9
 Heating
1776 1793 1799
American David Bushnell builds

things up
American Eli Whitney creates the Italian physicist
the Turtle, an early submarine. cotton gin. It separates the seeds Alessandro Volta
from the cotton fiber, saving invents the battery.
time and energy. It’s the first device
to make its own
1714 electricity.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit,
a German physicist, invents
the mercury thermometer.
It provides a standard way
to measure temperature.
1783
French scientist Louis-Sebastien Lenormand
invents the first working parachute.

1742
American inventor Benjamin Franklin
creates the Franklin Stove. It heats
buildings in a safer, more efficient

1765 1791
way than traditional fireplaces.

Scottish engineer James The French

Watt improves the Academy of Sciences
steam engine, making designs the metric
it much more useful. system. The simple
Steam engines later 1783 decimal system of
measurement will 1796
power factories, train
locomotives, On June 4, French brothers be used around
English doctor Edward Jenner creates
and steamboats. Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier the world.
the first vaccine. It’s a shot to prevent
fly the first hot air balloon. a serious illness called smallpox.

10 11
 Building 1816 1818

Steam
French physician George Manby,
Rene Laennec an Englishman,
invents the invents the fire
stethoscope. With extinguisher.
it, doctors can
1804 hear people’s
hearts and
English engineer lungs better.
Richard Trevithick
builds the first
1826
steam locomotive. Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce
produces the first photograph.

1804
George Cayley, an
1807
American Robert Fulton 1821 1826
English chemist John Walker
Englishman, flies the improves the steamboat. invents the friction match.
first model glider. He Called the Clermont, English physicist Michael Faraday The match makes fire
is later thought to be his version opens the invents the electric motor. possible with one strike.
the first person to way for commercial
truly understand the steamboat travel.
basics of flight.

ca. 1810 1824

English merchant Peter Durand develops the Frenchman Louis Braille develops
idea of canning, or sealing food in airtight Braille. The system of raised dots
containers. Canning keeps food from spoiling. helps blind people read and write.

12 13
 SAVING 1834 1838
American Samuel Morse makes

TIME
English mathematician Charles Babbage
improvements to the telegraph.
begins designing the Analytical Engine. The
His version, along with his
ideas behind the math machine will one day
communication code (Morse
lead to the invention of the computer.
code), becomes the world
1830 telegraph standard.

Barthelemy
Thimonnier of 1852
France invents Frenchman Henri Giffard builds
the first usable the world’s first steerable passenger
sewing machine. airship. It’s called a dirigible.

1830 1843
American Nancy Johnson invents
English engineer
Edwin Beard Budding a hand-cranked ice-cream maker.
Its basic parts are still used to
1859
invents the first
manual lawn mower. make ice cream today. Belgian engineer
Etienne Lenoir
creates the
1831 first internal
combustion engine.
American Cyrus McCormick Gas-powered
invents the horse-drawn reaper. engines like his
The machine speeds up grain 1852 will soon replace
collection. Before now, grains steam engines.
American mechanic Elisha Otis
were cut and bundled by hand.
invents the passenger elevator.

14 15
 sights a nd 1867 1873
1879
sounds
English physician Joseph Lister uses The first practical
carbolic acid on wounds. The acid typewriter is made.
kills germs and reduces infections Thomas Alva
Designed by American
during surgery. Edison invents
inventor Christopher
an incandescent
Sholes, it has the same
1864 letter layout as today’s
electric light bulb.
computer keyboards.
Louis Pasteur, a French
chemist, develops a process
now called pasteurization. 1874
It uses heat to kill bacteria American farmer Joseph Glidden invents
in foods and liquids. barbed wire. It protects ranchers’
property in an effective, cheap way.

1861
James Clerk Maxwell, a
British physicist, creates
the first color photograph.

1865
American scientist
Thaddeus Lowe
invents the ice-making
machine. Food can now
1866 1876 1877
be stored for much
longer periods of time American Alexander American Thomas Alva Edison invents
Alfred Nobel, a Swedish
without spoiling. Graham Bell invents the phonograph. It’s the first device to
chemist, creates dynamite.
the telephone. record and replay sound.

16 17
 things seen
1896
1891
een
American inventor George Washington Carver

a n d u ns Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American,

invents the Tesla coil. This
device will be key
starts developing uses for peanuts. He will
invent more than 300,
including
to the invention soaps, dyes,
of modern radio. and paints.

1884
American architect
1895
William Le Baron Auguste and Louis Lumiere, French
Jenney invents a way 1886 brothers, create the first practical
to build skyscrapers. American Josephine Cochrane invents a movie camera/projector.
dishwasher similar to those used today.

1888 1893
American John J. Loud American engineer George Ferris
invents the ballpoint pen. invents the Ferris wheel.

1886
German engineer Karl Benz builds
1895
the first useful, gasoline-powered German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen
car. It has three wheels. discovers X-ray photography. X-rays
give doctors an easy way to see
inside a body.

18 19
 IN THE SK Y, 1913 1922

ON THE ROAD
Herbert Kalmus and his team at
American automaker Henry Ford starts
the Technicolor Motion Picture
the first moving assembly line. Cars
Corporation invent color movies.
can now be made more quickly and for
less money.

1903
1902 Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the
American inventor first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,
Willis Carrier
designs the first
on December 17. The Age of Flight begins.
air conditioner.

1908
American engineer Alva Fisher
invents the washing machine.
1922
Swedish scientists
Baltzar von Platen
and Carl Munters
invent the
refrigerator.

1908 1913
Swedish-born inventor
1903 The Ford Motor Company rolls out
the first Model T on October 1. The
Gideon Sundback
invents the zipper.
American inventor Mary Anderson car opens the way for affordable
invents the windshield wiper. personal transportation.
20 21
 lifesav er s 1927
American inventor
1928
Scottish biologist
1939
Russian-American inventor
Igor Sikorsky creates the first
Philo Farnsworth Sir Alexander
Fleming practical helicopter. All future
invents the first
discovers helicopters will be modeled on it.
all-electronic,
black-and-white TV. penicillin. It is
the first drug
widely used to
1923 kill bacteria.
American inventor
Garrett Morgan designs 1935
the traffic signal. Robert Watson-Watt, a Scottish
physicist, invents radar.

1923 1938
American Lee De Forest American engineer
brings sound to movies. Alfred J. Gross invents
the walkie-talkie.

1930
1926
Ruth Graves Wakefield, an
German inventor Edmund Germer American innkeeper, bakes
invents the fluorescent light bulb. the first chocolate-chip cookies.
It’s cooler and cheaper to use than
incandescent lights.

22 23
 IN LIVING 1946 1947
American scientists
1956
Thomas Chang, a Canadian

COLOR
American Marion
John Bardeen, William researcher, invents artificial blood.
Donovan creates
the disposable Shockley, and Walter
diaper. The Brattain invent the
“Boater” appears transistor. It’s the key
1940 in stores in 1949. to future computer
technology.
Peter Goldmark, a
Hungarian-American,
1952
invents the first color TV. 1945 Jonas Salk, an American doctor, develops
The first sets aren’t available American engineer a vaccine against a crippling illness
to the public until 1951. Percy Spencer invents called polio. It will be approved for public
the microwave oven. use in 1955.

1958
Danish carpenter
1950 Ole Kirk Christensen
invents LEGO blocks.
American Frank
McNamara creates the
first credit card. Called
1945 Diners Club, it’s accepted
at only 14 restaurants in
A group of scientists from
the U.S. Manhattan Project
1949 New York City to start.

builds the world’s first British engineer R.E. Bishop and his
atomic bomb. team develop the first jet airliner. The
de Havilland Comet takes off on July 27.

24 25
 GETTING 1965

ICA L
American chemist
1970
TECHN Stephanie Kwolek
invents Kevlar. The
strong material
is used to make
Amos Joel,
an American
1977
U.S. computer
company Apple makes
engineer,
1960 bulletproof vests.
invents the
the first popular,
mass-produced
first cell phone personal computer:
American researcher
technology. the Apple II.
Theodore Maiman
invents a laser. The 1968
device directs energy German-American inventor Ralph H. Baer
develops the first video game box. Called
with pinpoint accuracy. the “Brown Box,” it hooks up to a TV.

1962 1973
On July 10, AT&T Herbert Boyer
launches Telstar 1, and Stanley
a communications Cohen, American 1975
satellite. It sends scientists, discover American engineer
the first TV signal how to clone Steve Sasson
through space. DNA in bacteria. invents the
1969 The discovery is
the start of genetic
digital camera.
The Advanced Research Project Agency It saves photos
engineering. electronically,
(ARPA) develops the first, early form of
the Internet in the United States. rather than on film.

26 27
 CD, MM O, W W W, 1982 2010
1989
DVD , AND BE YOND On August 17, the first music
compact disc (CD) is produced
in Germany.
Sir Timothy
On April 3,
U.S. computer
company Apple
Berners-Lee,
releases the
a British computer
iPad. This tablet
scientist, creates
allows users to
the world’s first
surf the web,
web site and starts
1979 the World Wide
play games,
On July 1, Sony
introduces the 1981 Web (WWW).
and view digital
books and
Walkman. It’s a
personal portable
On April 12, NASA launches the space shuttle magazines.
audiocassette Columbia. It’s the world’s first reusable spacecraft.
player.

1987 1989
The first massively multiplayer online Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute
(MMO) game with graphics debuts. “Air
Warrior” was developed by American
in Germany design MP3 technology.
Songs and other audio can now be
1995
designers Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. stored as very small digital files.
A group of 10
companies creates
a light, durable disk
called a DVD. The
1979 disk is used to store
high-quality digital
George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion,
video and sound.
American scientists, develop the first
antiviral drugs. These drugs will help
2007
fight malaria, AIDS, and other diseases. American scientists create a bionic
eye that helps blind people see shapes.
It’s called the Argus II.
28 29
 Build Your Own Timeline Glossary
ca.—the abbreviation for the word circa, which incandescent—glowing with a hot, bright light
Think about objects in your home that you and means “about” or “around”
locomotive—an engine that moves on its own power
your family use every day—for example, a washing clone—to copy
Mesopotamia—an area of southwestern Asia
machine, a microwave, or a lawn mower. Pick one communication—the sharing of information between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that
and make your own timeline for it. includes much of present-day Iraq
DNA—the bits of material that give living things
their special features; the letters stand for phonetic—having to do with speech sounds
Start with the date the object was invented and end Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid
practical—having to do with real life
with present day. Keep in mind that an object may engineer—a person who uses science to design
satellite—an object that orbits a planet or other
have many parts that were invented at different and make things, such as machines or bridges
space object
times. A timeline for a car, for example, may start genetic engineering—the study of how inherited
with the invention of the wheel. Search online for traits can be changed
dates, using search terms such as “_____ history”
or “history of _____.” Ask your librarian to help you
find more information. To Learn More
More Books to Read Internet Sites
Murphy, Glenn. Inventions. New York: Simon & Schuster FactHound offers a safe, fun way to find Internet
???
?
Books for Young Readers, 2009. sites related to this book. All of the sites on
FactHound have been researched by our staff.
Oxlade, Chris. The Top Ten Inventions That Changed the
World. Top Ten. New York : PowerKids Press, 2010. Here’s all you do:

Sechrist, Darren. Inventions and Inventors. Graphic Visit www.facthound.com

America. New York: Crabtree Pub., 2008. Type in this code: 9781404866621
TODAY Solway, Andrew. Inventions and Investigations. Sci-Hi:

? Physical Science. Chicago: Raintree, 2010.

stu f f !
Check out projects, games and lots more at
www.capstonekids.com

30 31
 INDEX
clothes making, 4, 5, 14 glass, 6 money, 8 Taylor, John, 28
Cochrane, Josephine, 18 Glidden, Joseph, 17 Montgolfier Brothers, 10 Technicolor Motion Picture
Cohen, Stanley, 27 gliders, 12 Morgan, Garrett, 22 Corporation, 21
compact discs (CDs), 28 Goldmark, Peter, 24 Morse, Samuel, 15 telegraphs, 15
compasses, 7 Gross, Alfred J., 23 motors, electric, 13 telephones, 17, 27
abacuses, 7 computers, 3, 14, 17, 25, 26, gunpowder, 8 movies, 19, 21, 22 telescopes, 9
Advanced Research Project 27, 29 guns, 9 MP3, 28 Tesla, Nikola, 18
Agency (ARPA), 26 cotton gins, 11 Gutenberg, Johannes, 9 Munters, Carl, 21 Tesla coils, 18
air conditioners, 20 credit cards, 25 helicopters, 23 NASA, 28 thermometers, 10
airplanes, 20, 25 De Forest, Lee, 22 Hitchings, George, 28 Niepce, Joseph Nicephore, 13 Thimonnier, Barthelemy, 14
alphabets, 6 diapers, 24 hot air balloons, 10 Nobel, Alfred, 16 traffic signals, 22
Analytical Engine, 14 dirigibles, 15 ice-cream makers, 14 numbers, 8 transistors, 25
Anderson, Mary, 20 dishwashers, 18 ice-making machines, 16 Otis, Elisha, 15 Trevithick, Richard, 12
Apple, 27, 29 DNA, 27 Internet, 26, 29 paper, 8 TVs, 22, 24, 26
aqueducts, 6 Donovan, Marion, 24 iPads, 29 parachutes, 11 typewriters, 17
Archimedes, 7 drugs, antiviral, 28 Janssen Brothers, 9 Pasteur, Louis, 16 U.S. Manhattan Project, 24
assembly lines, 21 Durand, Peter, 12 Jenner, Edward, 11 pasteurization, 16 vaccines, 11, 25
atomic bombs, 24 DVDs, 29 Jenney, William Le Baron, 18 peanut products, 19 video games, 26, 28
AT&T, 26 dynamite, 16 Joel, Amos, 27 penicillin, 23 Volta, Alessandro, 11
Babbage, Charles, 14 Edison, Thomas Alva, 17 Johnson, Nancy, 14 phonographs, 17 von Platen, Baltzar, 21
Baer, Ralph H., 26 elevators, 15 Kalmus, Herbert, 21 photographs, 13, 16, 19, 27 Wakefield, Ruth Graves,
ballpoint pens, 18 Elion, Gertrude, 28 Kevlar, 26 Pisano, Leonardo. See Fibonacci 23
barbed wire, 17 engines, internal Kwolek, Stephanie, 26 plows, 5 Walker, John, 13
Bardeen, John, 25 combustion, 15 Laennec, Rene, 12 printing press, 9 walkie-talkies, 23
batteries, 11 engines, steam, 10, 15 lasers, 26 pulleys, 7 Walkman, 28
Bell, Alexander Graham, 17 eyes, bionic, 29 lawn mowers, 14 radar, 23 washing machines, 20
Benz, Karl, 18 Fahrenheit, Daniel Gabriel, 10 LEGO blocks, 25 radios, 18 Watson-Watt, Robert, 23
Berners-Lee, Sir Timothy, 29 Faraday, Michael, 13 Lenoir, Etienne, 15 reapers, 14 Watt, James, 10
Bishop, R. E., 25 farming, 5, 14, 17 Lenormand, Louis-Sebastien, 11 refrigerators, 21 weaving, 5
blood, artificial, 25 Farnsworth, Philo, 22 light bulbs, 17, 22 Roentgen, Wilhem, 19 web sites, 29
Boyer, Herbert, 27 Ferris, George, 19 Lippershey, Hans, 9 Salk, Jonas, 25 wheel, invention of the, 5
Braille, 13 Ferris wheels, 19 Lister, Joseph, 16 Sasson, Steve, 27 Whitney, Eli, 11
Braille, Louis, 13 Fibonacci, 8 locomotives, 10, 12 satellites, 26 windmills, 7
Brattain, Walter, 25 fire, 4, 13 Loud, John J., 18 sewing machines, 14 windshield wipers, 20
Budding, Edwin Beard, 14 fire extinguishers, 13 Lowe, Thaddeus, 16 Shockley, William, 25 World Wide Web (WWW),
Bushnell, David, 10 Fisher, Alva, 20 Lumiere Brothers, 19 Sholes, Christopher, 17 29
calendars, 4 Fleming, Sir Alexander, 23 Maiman, Theodore, 26 Sikorsky, Igor, 23 Wright Brothers, 20
cameras, 19, 27 Flinn, Kelton, 28 Manby, George, 13 skyscrapers, 18 X-rays, 19
canning, 12 Ford, Henry, 21 massively multiplayer online Sony, 28 zippers, 21
carbolic acid, 16 Ford Motor Company, 20 (MMO), 28 spacecraft, 28
Carrier, Willis, 20 Franklin, Benjamin, 10 matches, 13 Spencer, Percy, 24
cars, 18, 20, 21 Franklin stove, 10 Maxwell, James Clerk, 16 steamboats, 10, 12
Carver, George Washington, 19 Fraunhofer Institute, 28 McCormick, Cyrus, 14 stethoscopes, 12
Cayley, George, 12 French Academy of Sciences, 11 McNamara, Frank, 25 Stone Age, 4
Chang, Thomas, 25 Fulton, Robert, 12 metal, 5 stone weapons, 3, 4
chocolate-chip cookies, 23 genetics, 27 metric system, 11 submarines, 10
Christensen, Ole Kirk, 25 Germer, Edmund, 22 microscopes, 9 Sundback, Gideon, 21
clay pots, 5 Giffard, Henri, 15 microwave ovens, 24 sundials, 6

Look for all the books in the series:

An Illustrated Timeline of Inventions and Inventors An Illustrated Timeline of Transportation
An Illustrated Timeline of Space Exploration An Illustrated Timeline of U.S. States

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