Key |
Yr. |
Name |
Name |
Invention, Discovery, Event |
| Build | 1801 | Finley | James | Suspension bridge Pittsburg |
| Build | 1820 | Thompson | Ithiel | Invents bridge strengthening with long horizontal beam lattice truss |
| Build | 1824 | Aspdin | Joseph | Brit patents Portland cement, high calcination temp |
| Build | 1832 | Paxton | Joseph | Ridge and furrow approach to strengthen roofs |
| Build | 1841 | Stephenson | Joseph | Steam hammer introduced to drive piles |
| Build | 1841 | Roebling | John | First wire rope for suspension bridges |
| Build | 1841 | Eads | James | Diving bell, Miss salvage, 1956 1stMiss RR bridge StL |
| Build | 1845 | Roebling | John | Suspension aqueduct for PA canal |
| Build | 1851 | Paxton | F-Joseph | Glass curtain walls hung from girders, exhibition hall to today's mall |
| Build | 1852 | Otis | Elisha | Elevator safety brake, makes skyscrapers possible |
| Build | 1853 | Carpentier | Pierre | Corrugated steel plate |
| Build | 1867 | Monier | Joseph | Fr Ersaille gardener invents reinforced concrete |
| Build | 1875 | Sherwin | Williams | 1st ready made paint |
| Build | 1879 | Jenney | le Baron | Chicago Leitner Building, 1st skyscraper |
| Build | 1882 | Tunnels | St. gothard completed, Channel stopped by politics | |
| Build | 1883 | Jenney | le Baron | Home Insurance, 1st tall steel frame skeleton to support brick face, large windows |
| Build | 1888 | Von Kannel | Theodore | Revolving door |
| Build | 1889 | Sullivan | Louis | Auditorium bldg 1st forced air ventilation with Adler |
| Build | 1889 | Skyscraper | F-Sum | Jenney, Sullivan |
| Build | 1892 | Hennebique | Francois | Rectangular steel fram improve reinforced concrete |
| Build | 1918 | Polk | Willis | Paxton curtain-wall in large Halladie SF, van der Rohe in '50's in NY |
| Build | 1931 | Ammann | Othmar | George Washington bridge, over double length |
| Build | 1931 | Raskow | Jacob | Empire State building completed |
| Build | 1933 | West | Water | Grand Coulee start , largest ever, 550 ft x 4173 ft |
| Build | 1936 | Hoover | Herbert | Boulder Hoover dam completed, creating Lake Mead, hydro, irrigation |
| Build | 1939 | Einstein | Albert | Letter to FDR Aug 2 launches Manhattan project |
| Build | 1942 | Spedding | Frank | Two tons pure Ur for A Bombs, Fermi Stagg Field pile Italian Navigator |
| Build | 1943 | Manhattan | F-Sum | Szilard, Einstein, Fermi, Wigner, CGO, Stagg, Los Alamos |
| Build | 1945 | Oppenheimer | Robert | A Bomb Almagorda, Hiroshima, Nagasaki |
| Build | 1947 | AEC | US | Brookhaven peacetime nuclear reactor |
| Build | 1948 | Telkes | Raymond | Solar home heating, women engineer, architect |
| Build | 1951 | Zinn | Walter | Arco Idaho breeder reactor, making more plutonium and uranium fuel |
| Build | 1952 | Pilkington | Alistair | Float glass for continuous glass sheet, floats and stretched on liquid tin |
| Build | 1958 | Rohe | Ludwig Mies | Seagrams NY prototype office tower |
| Build | 1964 | Ammann | Othmar | Verrazano Bridge opens, last Moses mega project |
| Build | 1964 | Egypt | USSR | Aswan dam completed, silt worry |
| Build | 1972 | NY NJ Port | Authority | World Trade completed, 1368 ft |
| Build | 1973 | Sears | Tower | Sears Tower 1450 ft, now exceeded by Taiwan, KL |
| Build | 1977 | Paris | France | Pompidou Center, pipes and infrastructure on outside |
| Build | 1979 | NY | NY | MOMA Museum Tower tallest cast-in-place concrete |
| Build | 1983 | Auburn | Canada | Largest thin arch dam 685x4150 ft |
| Food | 1795 | Appert | P-Nicolas | Fr won food preserving prize from Napoleon with canning, heat to boil, airtight glass jar seal |
| Food | 1810 | Durqand | Peter | Brit practicality substitutes tin can for breakable glass |
| Food | 1819 | Wood | Jethro | Patent on improved cast iron plow with moldboard designed by T Jefferson |
| Food | 1825 | Faraday | Michael | Benzene hexachloride, 1st 20th century insecticide |
| Food | 1831 | McCormick | Cyrus | 1st reper demonstration |
| Food | 1833 | Hussey | Lane | Reaper patent, plow improved for midwest soil |
| Food | 1836 | Moore | Hiram | With John Hascall patent combined harvester thresher |
| Food | 1837 | Deere | John | Saw blade steel plows for IL soil |
| Food | 1837 | Dieudonne | Joseph | Fr ag chem discovers nitrogen fixation, need for crop rotation to replenish soil |
| Food | 1845 | Cooper | Peter | From Tom Thumb locomotive to gelatin desert invention |
| Food | 1846 | Nitrogen | F-Sum | Guano to Haber-Bosch |
| Food | 1848 | Pasteur | Louis | Pasteurization, cleanliness |
| Food | 1854 | Borden | Gail | Heat and vacuum pan process for condensed milk, takes off in Civil War |
| Food | 1863 | Pasteur | F-Louis | Discovers microorganisms sour wine and turn it to vinegar, kills them with heat: pasteurization |
| Food | 1868 | Mege-Mouries | H | Blended margarine butter substitute |
| Food | 1870 | Lyman | William | Patent canopener with wheel on lever chisel basis |
| Food | 1871 | Burbank | Luther | Burbank potato, berries, plums, other food to come |
| Food | 1873 | Hatch | Fred | Modern grain airtight silo McHenry IL |
| Food | 1874 | Gliddon | Joseph | Double strand barbed wire patent, encloses west |
| Food | 1878 | Baldwin | Anna | Suction milking machine, not used until 1913 |
| Food | 1879 | Remsen | Ira | Coal tar study results in saccharin sweetner |
| Food | 1881 | Swift | Gustav | Refrig rail cars for transporting meat from slaughterhouse to market |
| Food | 1886 | Pemberton | John | Coca Cola secret formula rather than patent |
| Food | 1892 | Froelich | John | 1st tractor with engine |
| Food | 1892 | Dewar | James | Dewer thermos double walled flask, vacuum between |
| Food | 1895 | Post | Charles | Health food postum, grape nuts 1897 misnomer |
| Food | 1896 | Carver | George W | Sweet potatoes, peanuts to regenerate land, 10's new uses |
| Food | 1901 | Hart | Parr | Successful gas tractor |
| Food | 1906 | Arsonval | Jacques | Freeze drying in Paris |
| Food | 1915 | Corning | Glass | Pyrex |
| Food | 1917 | Birdseye | Clarence | Freezing to preserve foods |
| Food | 1937 | Ossius | Fred | Miracle Mixer becomes Waring Blendr, named for brother in law Fred |
| Food | 1938 | Nestle | Instant coffee, 8 yr development | |
| Food | 1945 | Spencer | Percy | Microwave from radar to oven |
| Food | 1950 | Cyclamate | Artificial sweetener | |
| Food | 1955 | Felden | R.J. | Diquat herbicide |
| Food | 1963 | Fraze | Ermal | Pop top cans |
| Food | 1964 | Intl Rice | Research | Green revolution launched with new strains burgeoning productivity |
| Food | 1965 | Searle | Labs | Aspartame Nutrasweet sweetener |
| Food | 1975 | McDonalds | BigMac | Polystyrene clamshell packaging for fastfood |
| Food | 2000 | US | NatScience | Genetic food Ok now, but caution urged |
| Gas | 1815 | Davy | P-Humphrey | Coal mine safety lamp |
| HA | 1830 | Budding | Edwin | Reel lawn mower |
| HA | 1831 | Perkin | Jacob | Airconditioning patent on cold air from tunnel system |
| HA | 1842 | Woodward | Thomas | Safety pin |
| HA | 1848 | Yale | Linus | Lock on pins in rotating cylinder patent |
| HA | 1849 | Hunt | Walter | Invents safety pin in 3 hr, patents, assigns for debt |
| HA | 1857 | Carre | Ferdinand | Refrigerator on expansion of ammonia gas Fr. |
| HA | 1866 | Osterhouldt | J | Metal can for food, opened with can opener key that rolls on top |
| HA | 1876 | von Linde | Karl | Practical refrigerator with methyl ether coolant with ammonia |
| HA | 1882 | Everitt | Percival | Vending machine, goods for coins |
| HA | 1882 | Seely | Henry | Electric iron |
| HA | 1886 | Crapper | Thomas | UK toilet high tank, chain, curved drainpipe |
| HA | 1893 | Harvey | James | Vacuum cleanter |
| HA | 1901 | Gilette | King | Safety razor |
| HA | 1901 | Booth | Hubert | Vacuum cleaner after seeing dust blowing machine |
| HA | 1902 | Carrier | Willis | Air conditioner |
| HA | 1916 | Fisher | John | Electric washing machine |
| HA | 1918 | Kelvinator successful refrigerator | ||
| HA | 1949 | Trombe | Felix | Experimental solar oven, paraboloid mirror |
| HA | 1953 | P&G | Colgate | Detergent sales pass soap |
| HA | 1959 | Urry | Lew | Alkaline dry cell battery from Everready |
| Metal | 1725 | Darby | Abraham | Coal rather than wood/charcoal for hotter fires, cast iron, better machines, building |
| Metal | 1774 | Wilkinson | John | Precision boring mill patent, improves steam engines |
| Metal | 1803 | Brunel | Isambard | Develops installs machine tool set for ship's blocks Portsmouth.Maudsley makes tools, productivity up 10x |
| Metal | 1803 | Maudsley | Henry | Brit lathe and machine tool father, after Vaucanson 1775 lathe |
| Metal | 1818 | Whitney | Eli | Milling machine, steam horizontal tablepasses at right angle under rotating cutter, no patent |
| Metal | 1835 | Colt | Samuel | Patents revolver |
| Metal | 1845 | Fairbairn | William | Rivet machine for steam boilers |
| Metal | 1852 | Kelly | William | Develops but doesn't patent Bessemer process with four Chinese steel experts |
| Metal | 1856 | Bessemer | Henry | Steel inexpensivewith air blast to molten iron coke for hotter fire, carbon out |
| Metal | 1856 | Siemens | Friedrich | Regenetrive furnace, forerunner open hearth |
| Metal | 1861 | Brown | Joseph | Universal milling machine for spiral and gear cutting |
| Metal | 1868 | Siemens | William | Bessemer superseded with open hearth process |
| Metal | 1885 | Courts | California | Hydraulic mining banned due to environment |
| Metal | 1886 | Hall | Charles | Aluminum from alumina and electricity economically, also Hieroult FR |
| Metal | 1887 | Grant | George | Hob for cutting gears |
| Metal | 1890 | Pain | Albert | Lub thru joints canals |
| Metal | 1891 | Hyatt | John | From celluloid to Hyatt roller bearings, still used |
| Metal | 1892 | Moissan | Henri | Electrical arc furnace for metallurgy |
| Metal | 1898 | Taylor | Winslow | Tempering steel for high speed metal cutting |
| Metal | 1904 | Guillet | Leon | Stainless steel, fails to notice non-corrosion |