List of English inventions and discoveries

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%.

The following is a list of inventions, innovations or discoveries known or generally recognised to be English.

Agriculture

Jethro Tull, improved the seed drill in 1701

Ceramics

Clock making

Clothing manufacturing

The spinning jenny, invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves

Communications

Postage stamp, invented by Sir Rowland Hill, 1840

Computing

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, invented the World Wide Web in 1989
Sir Francis Galton, developed fingerprint classification method, 1888

Criminology

Cryptography

Engineering

The Newcomen steam engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712

Household appliances

John Harington, invented the modern flushing toilet, 1596

Industrial processes

Medicine

Edward Jenner, invented the smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, in 1798
Florence Nightingale, pioneered modern nursing, from 1860 onwards

Military

Sir Hiram Maxim, invented the machine gun in 1884

Mining

Musical instruments

Photography

Thomas Wedgwood, copied images chemically to permanent media by 1800

Publishing firsts

Myles Coverdale, produced first complete printed English Bible, 1535

Science

Physics

Michael Faraday, made key discoveries relating to electricity, 1820s–1840s
Sir James Chadwick, awarded 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron in 1932

Chemistry

John Dalton, developed modern atomic theory, 1803
Humphry Davy: isolated various substances using electrolysis; identified them as elements; identified elemental nature of chlorine and iodine, 1807–1813

Biology

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution published in 1859

Mathematics and statistics

George Boole, whose Boolean algebra (1854) laid the foundations of the Information Age

Astronomy

Edmond Halley, determined the periodicity of Halley's Comet in 1705

Geology and meteorology

Karl Pearson's Grammar of Science (1892) influenced the young Einstein

Philosophy of science

Henry Maudslay, a founding father of machine tool technology

Scientific instruments

Sport

W. G. Grace (1848–1915); 1598 saw the earliest definite reference to cricket

Transport

Aviation

The Aerial Steam Carriage, performed the world's first powered flight in 1848
The de Havilland Comet, the first commercial jet airliner, produced in 1949

Railways

Locomotives

Other railway developments

The London Underground, opened 1863

Roads

The Hansom cab, invented by Joseph Hansom in 1834

Sea

Hovercraft, invented by Sir Christopher Cockerell in 1955

Miscellaneous

Lord Baden-Powell, invented the scout movement in 1907
Prime meridian, established at Greenwich, 1851

See also


This page was last updated at 2022-06-17 05:58 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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