This chapter gathers the inventions covered across the book into one rough timeline. Many inventions were gradual and have no single birthday, so dates here are approximate and many are marked "about" or noted as a "first practical version". Use the search box to jump to any item and read the full story behind it.
When Invention Where / who
about 1,000,000 years ago Controlled use of fire Early humans in Africa about 40,000 BCE Sewing needle Upper Paleolithic Eurasia about 20,000 to 8,000 BCE Pottery East Asia, then widespread about 10,000 BCE Farming and domesticated crops Fertile Crescent and elsewhere about 9,000 BCE Bricks (sun-dried) Ancient Near East about 6,000 BCE Smelted copper Anatolia and the Balkans about 3,500 BCE The wheel Mesopotamia and Central Europe about 3,500 BCE Bronze Mesopotamia and the Near East about 3,400 to 3,100 BCE Writing Sumer (cuneiform) and Egypt about 3,000 BCE Papyrus Ancient Egypt about 3,000 BCE Plough Mesopotamia and the Near East about 3,000 BCE Sail (for boats) Egypt and Mesopotamia about 2,600 BCE Ink Egypt and China about 2,000 BCE The arch (true voussoir arch) Mesopotamia, later mastered by Rome about 1,800 to 1,200 BCE Iron smelting Anatolia (Hittites) and the Near East about 1,500 BCE Glass vessels Egypt and Mesopotamia about 1,200 BCE Alphabet Phoenicia (Levant) about 700 to 600 BCE Coins Lydia (Asia Minor) and China about 600 BCE Crucible steel (early) India (wootz) and Sri Lanka about 500 BCE Concrete (early forms) Mediterranean, perfected by Rome about 300 BCE Positional number systems develop Babylon, later India about 200 BCE Paper Han China about 100 CE Paper (refined process) China (commonly dated to Cai Lun) about 100 CE Roman concrete in large domes Roman Empire about 200 to 400 CE The number zero as a symbol India
When Invention Where / who
about 600 to 900 CE Decimal place-value with zero India, spread by Arab scholars about 700 to 900 CE Gunpowder Tang China about 850 CE Windmill (early vertical type) Persia (Greater Iran) about 1000 CE Magnetic compass (for navigation) China about 1040 CE Movable type (ceramic) Song China (Bi Sheng) about 1100 to 1300 Mechanical clock Medieval Europe and China about 1280 Eyeglasses (spectacles) Northern Italy about 1300 Cannon and firearms China and Europe about 1440 to 1450 Printing press with movable metal type Mainz, Germany (Johannes Gutenberg) about 1500 Pocket watch Nuremberg, Germany about 1590 to 1610 Microscope Netherlands about 1608 to 1610 Telescope Netherlands, improved by Galileo about 1640s Barometer Italy (Evangelista Torricelli) about 1650 Air pump (vacuum pump) Germany (Otto von Guericke) about 1657 Pendulum clock Netherlands (Christiaan Huygens) about 1698 to 1712 Steam engine (first practical) England (Savery, then Newcomen)
When Invention Where / who
about 1709 Coke-fired iron smelting England (Abraham Darby) about 1733 to 1769 Mechanized spinning and weaving England (flying shuttle, spinning jenny, water frame) about 1769 Improved steam engine (separate condenser) Scotland (James Watt) about 1783 Hot-air balloon France (Montgolfier brothers) about 1796 Vaccination (smallpox) England (Edward Jenner) about 1800 Electric battery (voltaic pile) Italy (Alessandro Volta) about 1804 Steam locomotive England (Richard Trevithick) about 1816 to 1817 Bicycle (running machine, then refined) Germany (Karl Drais), later Europe about 1821 to 1831 Electric motor and generator (induction) England (Michael Faraday) about 1824 to 1843 Portland cement England (Joseph Aspdin and others) about 1826 to 1839 Photography France (Niepce, Daguerre) and England (Talbot) about 1837 to 1844 Electric telegraph Britain (Cooke and Wheatstone) and USA (Morse) about 1839 Vulcanized rubber USA (Charles Goodyear) about 1855 to 1856 Mass-produced steel (Bessemer process) England (Henry Bessemer) about 1859 Practical rechargeable battery (lead-acid) France (Gaston Plante) about 1860s Internal combustion engine (early practical) Belgium and France (Lenoir, then Otto) about 1862 to 1869 Early plastics (Parkesine, celluloid) England (Parkes) and USA (Hyatt) about 1876 Telephone USA (Alexander Graham Bell) about 1877 Phonograph (sound recording) USA (Thomas Edison) about 1879 Practical incandescent light bulb USA (Edison) and Britain (Swan) about 1885 to 1886 Petrol automobile Germany (Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler) about 1888 Pneumatic tyre (practical) Scotland (John Boyd Dunlop) about 1895 Radio (wireless telegraphy) Italy (Guglielmo Marconi) and others about 1895 X-rays Germany (Wilhelm Rontgen) about 1895 to 1896 Cinema (motion pictures) France (Lumiere brothers) and others
When Invention Where / who
about 1903 Powered, controlled airplane USA (Wright brothers) about 1907 Bakelite (first fully synthetic plastic) USA (Leo Baekeland) about 1908 Mass-produced car (Model T) USA (Henry Ford) about 1925 to 1927 Television (working demonstrations) Scotland (John Logie Baird) and USA (Farnsworth) about 1928 Penicillin discovered Scotland (Alexander Fleming) about 1935 to 1938 Nylon USA (Wallace Carothers at DuPont) about 1936 to 1945 Programmable electronic computer Germany (Zuse), Britain (Colossus), USA (ENIAC) about 1938 to 1945 Practical antibiotics (penicillin at scale) UK and USA wartime effort about 1947 Transistor USA (Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley at Bell Labs) about 1957 First artificial satellite (Sputnik) Soviet Union about 1958 to 1959 Integrated circuit (microchip) USA (Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce) about 1960 Combined oral contraceptive pill (approved) USA about 1960 Laser USA (Theodore Maiman) about 1969 ARPANET (forerunner of the internet) USA about 1971 Microprocessor USA (Intel 4004) about 1973 First handheld mobile phone call USA (Motorola) about 1974 to 1983 TCP/IP and the internet USA (Cerf and Kahn, then deployment) about 1989 to 1991 World Wide Web CERN, Switzerland (Tim Berners-Lee) about 2007 Smartphone (modern touchscreen form) USA (commonly dated to the iPhone)
Dates above are starting points, not final words. Where an item shows a range, treat it as the span over which the invention took shape rather than a single event.
For where these dates come from and where to read more, see 👉 Sources and further reading .