Engineers during World War Two test a model of a Halifax bomber in a wind tunnel, an invention that dates back to 1871.
The following is a list and timeline of innovations as well as inventions and discoveries that involved British people or the United Kingdom including predecessor states in the history of the formation of the United Kingdom. This list covers, but is not limited to, innovation and invention in the mechanical, electronic, and industrial fields, as well as medicine, military devices and theory, artistic and scientific discovery and innovation, and ideas in religion and ethics, and disgrace.
Factors that historians note spurred innovation and discovery include the 17th century Scientific Revolution and the 18th/19th century Industrial Revolution.[1][2] Another possible influence is the British patent system which had medieval origins and was codified with the Patent Act of 1852.[3]
The Watt steam engine was conceived in 1765. James Watt transformed the steam engine from a reciprocating motion that was used for pumping to a rotating motion suited to industrial applications. Watt and others significantly improved the efficiency of the steam engine.
1701
An improved seed drill is designed by Jethro Tull.[12] It is used to spread seeds around a field with a rotating handle which makes seed planting a lot easier.
The earliest known reference to baseball is made in a publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of "base-ball" and a woodcut that shows a field set-up somewhat similar to the modern game—though in a triangular rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead of ground-level bases.[16]
1753
Invention of hollow-pipe drainage is credited to Sir Hugh Dalrymple who died in 1753.[17]
The Watt steam engine, conceived in 1765, goes into production. It is the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric.
Sir Humphry Davy creates the first incandescent light by passing a current from a battery, at the time the world's most powerful, through a thin strip of platinum.
SS Great Britain, the world's first steam-powered, screw propeller-driven passenger liner with an iron hull is launched. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was at the time the largest ship afloat.
A design for a chemical telegraph is patented by Alexander Bain. Bain's telegraph is installed on the wires of the Electric Telegraph Company on one line. Later, in 1850, it was used in America by Henry O'Reilly.[41]
1847
Boolean algebra, the basis for digital logic, is introduced by George Boole in his book The Mathematical Analysis of Logic.[42]
The first safety bicycle is designed by the English engineer Harry John Lawson (also called Henry). Unlike the penny-farthing, the rider's feet were within reach of the ground, making it safer to stop.
The first commercially successful safety bicycle, called the Rover, is designed by John Kemp Starley. The following year Dan Albone produces a derivative of this called the Ivel Safety cycle.
1886
Walter Parry Haskett Smith, often called the Father of Rock Climbing in Britain, completes his first ascent of the Napes Needle, solo and without any protective equipment.
The first wireless signal across the Atlantic is sent from Cornwall in England and received in Newfoundland in Canada (a distance of 2,100 miles) by Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi.[54]
Frank Barnwell establishes the fundamentals of aircraft design at the University of Glasgow,[58] having made the first powered flight in Scotland the previous year.
1916
The first use in battle of the military tank (although the tank was also developed independently elsewhere).
1918
The Royal Air Force becomes the first independent air force in the world[59]
The introduction of HMS Argus the first example of the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a full-length flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land.
1922
In Sorbonne, France, Englishman Edwin Belin demonstrates a mechanical scanning device, an early precursor to modern television.
The concept of microprogramming is developed by Maurice Wilkes from the realisation that the CPU of a computer could be controlled by a miniature, highly specialised computer program in high-speed ROM.
LEO is the first business application (a payroll system) on an electronic computer.
The first accurate atomic clock, a caesium standard based on a certain transition of the caesium-133 atom, is built by Louis Essen at the National Physical Laboratory. This clock enabled further development of general relativity, and started a basis for an enhanced SI unit system.[67]
Clifford Cocks develops the algorithm for the RSA cipher while working at the Government Communications Headquarters, approximately three years before it was independently developed by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman at MIT. The British government declassified the 1973 invention in 1997.[75]
Steptoe and Edwards successfully carried out a pioneering conception which resulted in the birth of the world's first baby to be conceived by IVF, Louise Brown on 25 July 1978, in Oldham General Hospital, Greater Manchester, UK.[77][78][79]
1979
The tree shelter is invented by Graham Tuley to protect tree seedlings.[80]
Sir Tim Berners-Lee writes a proposal for what will become the World Wide Web. The following year, he specified HTML, the hypertext language, and HTTP, the protocol.[81]
Beagle 2, a British landing spacecraft that forms part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission lands on the surface of Mars but fails to communicate. It is located twelve years later in a series of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that suggest two of Beagle's four solar panels failed to deploy, blocking the spacecraft's communications antenna.
The design for a machine to lay rail track, the "Trac Rail Transposer", is patented and goes on to be used by Network Rail in the United Kingdom and the New York City Subway in the United States.[88][89][90]
2012
Raspberry Pi, a single-board computer, is launched and quickly becomes popular for education in programming and computer science.[91]
2014
The European Space Agency's Philae lander leaves the Rosetta spacecraft and makes the first ever landing on a comet. The Philae lander was built with significant British expertise and technology, alongside that of several other countries.[92][93]
2016
SABRE or Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine is an example of a Rocket-Jet hybrid hypersonic air-breathing rocket engine.
2020
Became the first country in the world to deploy an approved COVID-19 vaccine
Ferranti Mark 1 – Also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer was the first computer to use the principles of early CPU design – Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn – Also the world's first successful commercially available general-purpose electronic computer.
The world's first oil refinery and a process of extracting paraffin from coal laying the foundations for the modern oil industry – James Young (1811–1883)[125]
The pay toilet – John Nevil Maskelyne, Maskelyne invented a lock for London toilets, which required a penny to operate, hence the euphemism "spend a penny".
Smallpox vaccine – Edward Jenner 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."[154][155]
Isolation of fibrinogen ("coagulable lymph"), investigation of the structure of the lymphatic system and description of red blood cells by the surgeon William Hewson
Ambulight PDT: light-emitting sticking plaster used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) for treating non-melanoma skin cancer. Developed by Ambicare Dundee's Ninewells Hospital and St Andrews University. (2010)[176]
Primary creator of the artificial kidney (Professor Kenneth Lowe – later Queen's physician in Scotland)[177]
Turret ship – Although designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century, HMS Trusty was the first warship to be outfitted with one.
Atomic theory – Considered the father of modern chemistry, John Dalton's experiments with gases led to the development of what is called the modern atomic theory.[11][197]
Cell biology – Credit for the discovery of the first cells is given to Robert Hooke who described the microscopic compartments of cork cells in 1665[197]
Stephen Hawking – World-renowned theoretical physicist made many important contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes
Publishes Opus Maius, which among other things, proposes an early form of the Scientific Method, and contains results of his experiments with Gunpowder – Roger Bacon[238]
Thoroughbred Horseracing – Was first developed in 17th and 18th century England
Polo – 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
Aeronautics and flight. As a pioneer of glider development & first well-documented human flight he discovered and identified the four aerodynamic forces of flight – weight, lift, drag, and thrust. Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries including cambered wings. He is sometimes called the "Father of aviation" – George Cayley[248]
Steam-powered flight with the Aerial Steam Carriage – John Stringfellow – The world's first powered flight took place at Chard in Somerset 55 years before the Wright brothers attempt at Kitty Hawk[249]
World's first underground railway and the first rapid transit system. It was also the first underground railway to operate electric trains – London Underground
Lotus 25: considered the first modern F1 race car, designed for the 1962 Formula One season; a revolutionary design, the first fully stressed monocoque chassis to appear in Formula One – Colin Chapman, Team Lotus
Hydrophone – Before the invention of Sonar convoy escort ships used them to detect U-boats, greatly lessening the effectiveness of the submarine – Research headed by Ernest Rutherford
Transplant rejection: Professor Thomas Gibson (1940s) the first medical doctor to understand the relationship between donor graft tissue and host tissue rejection and tissue transplantation by his work on aviation burns victims during World War II.[266]
Metaflex fabric innovations thereof – University of St. Andrews (2010) application of the first manufacturing fabrics that manipulate light in bending it around a subject. Before this such light manipulating atoms were fixed on flat hard surfaces. The team at St Andrews are the first to develop the concept to fabric.[279]
^Jacob, Margaret C. (1997). Scientific culture and the making of the industrial west. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 9–11. ISBN978-0195082203. ASIN0195082192.
^ abcMurray (2009-10-13). Human accomplishment : the pursuit of excellence in the arts and sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (1st ed.). HarperCollins e-books. p. 164. ISBN9780061745676.
^Willcox, William Bradford; Arnstein, Walter L. (1966). The Age of Aristocracy, 1688 to 1830. Volume III of A History of England, edited by Lacey Baldwin Smith (Sixth Edition, 1992 ed.). Lexington, Massachusetts. p. 133. ISBN0-669-24459-7.
^O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (1998). "Charles Babbage". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland. Archived from the original on 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2006-06-14.
^Huth, Edward J.; Murray, T. J., eds. (2006). Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages. American College of Physic. p. 130.
^"1978: First 'test tube baby' born". BBC. 25 July 1978. Retrieved 13 June 2009. The birth of the world's first "test tube baby" has been announced in Manchester (England). Louise Brown was born shortly before midnight in Oldham and District General Hospital
^Moreton, Cole (14 January 2007). "World's first test-tube baby Louise Brown has a child of her own". The Independent. London. Retrieved 5 May 2010. The 28-year-old, whose pioneering conception by in-vitro fertilisation made her famous around the world.. The fertility specialists Patrick Steptoe and Bob Edwards became the first to successfully carry out IVF by extracting an egg, impregnating it with sperm and planting the resulting embryo back into the mother
^Schulman, Joseph D. (2010) Robert G. Edwards – A Personal Viewpoint, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, ISBN1456320750.
^ abcdefghHall, Carl (2008). A Biographical Dictionary of People in Engineering: From the Earliest Records to 2000. Purdue University Press. ISBN978-1-55753-459-0.
^Military communications: from ancient times to the 21st century By Christopher H. Sterling
^Joe Nickell (2000). Pen, ink, & evidence: a study of writing and writing materials for the penman, collector, and document detective. Oak Knoll Press. ISBN978-1-58456-017-3.
^Curt Wohleber (Spring 2006). "The Vacuum Cleaner". Invention & Technology Magazine. American Heritage Publishing. Archived from the original on 2010-03-13. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
^Cole, David; Browning, Eve; E. H. Schroeder, Fred (2003). Encyclopedia of modern everyday inventions. Greenwood Press. ISBN978-0-313-31345-5.
^Cunningham, Glenn (1953). "Oregon's First Salmon Canner, "Captain" John West". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 54 (3): 240–248. JSTOR20612107.
^The Picture History of Great Inventors By Gillian Clements
^The kaleidoscope, its history, theory and construction with its application By Sir David Brewster
^US RE 8560, Passmore, Everett G., "Improvement in Lawn-Mowers", published 23 February 1869, issued 28 January 1879; see pg 1, col 2. For a copy, see Google Patents copy. This source indicates the patent number as "6,080". According to "British patent numbers 1617–1852 (old series)", the patent number was assigned sometime after 1852 and took the form of "6080/1830".
^Wonders of the nineteenth century: a panoramic review of the inventions and discoveries of the past hundred years John Wesley Hanson W. B. Conkey, 1900
^Pen Portraits: Alexandria Virginia 1739–1900 By T. Michael Miller
^The lancet London: a journal of British and foreign medicine, surgery, obstetrics, physiology, chemistry, pharmacology, public health and news Elsevier, 1870
^Thompson, William Phillips (1920). Handbook of patent law of all countries. London: Stevens. pp. 42
^Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration Routledge, New York, 1991. p. 5 (Introduction)
^Delaney, Tim. The march of unreason: science, democracy, and the new fundamentalism Oxford University Press, New York, 2005. p. 18
^Androutsos, G (2006). "The outstanding British surgeon Percivall Pott (1714–1789) and the first description of an occupational cancer". J BUON. 11 (4): 533–9. PMID17309190.
^Morris Fishbein, M.D., ed (1976). "Anesthesia". The New Illustrated Medical and Health Encyclopedia. 1 (Home Library Edition ed.). New York, N.Y. 10016: H. S. Stuttman Co. pp. 89
^"Dr James Parkinson". Parkinson's Disease Society of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
^Crofton and Douglas's respiratory diseases, Volume 1 By Anthony Seaton, Douglas Seaton, Andrew Gordon Leitch, Sir John Crofton
^Murray (2009-10-13). Human accomplishment : the pursuit of excellence in the arts and sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (1st ed.). HarperCollins e-books. p. 169. ISBN9780061745676.
^McKernan, Luke (2018). Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897-1925. University of Exeter Press. ISBN978-0859892964.
^Encyclopaedic visions: scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture By Natasha J. Yeo
^The Early history of surgery William John Bishop – 1995
^ abcWindelspecht, Michael (2003). Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the 19th Century. Greenwood Press. ISBN978-0-313-31969-3.
^Murray (2009-10-13). Human accomplishment : the pursuit of excellence in the arts and sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (1st ed.). HarperCollins e-books. p. 176. ISBN9780061745676.
^ abMurray (2009-10-13). Human accomplishment : the pursuit of excellence in the arts and sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (1st ed.). HarperCollins e-books. p. 172. ISBN9780061745676.
^ abMurray (2009-10-13). Human accomplishment : the pursuit of excellence in the arts and sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (1st ed.). HarperCollins e-books. p. 173. ISBN9780061745676.
^Murray (2009-10-13). Human accomplishment : the pursuit of excellence in the arts and sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (1st ed.). HarperCollins e-books. p. 174. ISBN9780061745676.
^Quinn, Terry (2012). From artefacts to atoms : the BIPM and the search for ultimate measurement standards. Oxford University Press. p. xxvii. ISBN978-0-19-530786-3. OCLC705716998. he [Wilkins] proposed essentially what became ... the French decimal metric system
