Inventions timeline
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for a Parachute
Some think that a form of a primitive parachute was mentioned by Chinese texts 21 centuries ago. In 9th century Abbas Ibn Firnas and Ali Ben Isa... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for a Giant Crossbow
Leonardo’s project for a giant crossbow is found in a number of sheets in the Codex Atlanticus and Fol 149r shows the most well-defined and... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for a Scythed Chariot
The scythed chariot is potentially one of the most lethal battlefield weapons and has ancient origins, though Leonardo noted their propensity to... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for a Tank
Leonardo probably drew this model of a war machine for a presentation to Ludovico il Moro, “The Moor”, Duke of Milan, around 1485. The drawing in... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Armored Vessel
This armoured assault vessel is probably one of the projects that Leonardo presented to Ludovico il Moro, “the Moor”, Duke of Milan, in order to... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for a Flying Machine
Leonardo studied mechanical wings for a long time and this is a reconstruction of one of the many projects for a flying machine documented in... Read more
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Leonardo Sketches the Design for a Double-Decker Bridge
Leonardo’s idea for a double-deck bridge is surprisingly modern. It recalls the function of bridges in some modern metropolis where the two-way... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for an Adding Machine
On February 13, 1967 an amazing discovery was made by American scientists working in the National Library of Spain, Madrid. They had chanced upon 2... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for the "Aerial Screw"
The first studies on helicopters were well in advance of the first airplanes. Leonardo da Vinci is credited with having first thought of a machine... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for a Machine Gun
In Leonardo's notebooks there is an array of war machines which includes a tank to be propelled by two men powering crank shafts. Although the... Read more
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Leonardo da Vinci Sketches the Design for the Golden Horn Bridge
In 1502 Leonardo da Vinci produced a drawing of a single span 720-foot (240 m) bridge over the Horn as part of a civil engineering project for... Read more
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Mary Kies Receives the First Patent by a Woman in US
Mary Dixon Kies (March 21, 1752 – 1837) was an early 19th-century American who was the first recipient of a patent granted to a woman by the United... Read more
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Nicolaus Otto is Born
Nikolaus August Otto (14 June 1832, Holzhausen an der Haide, Nassau - 26 January 1891, Cologne) was the German inventor of the first... Read more
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Four-Stroke Engine is Patented
The four-stroke or Otto cycle was patented by Felice Malteucci and Eugene Barsanti in 1854 and is used commonly today in the internal combustion... Read more
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Joseph Gayetty Invents Modern Commercial Toilet Paper
Gayetty's paper, first introduced in 1857, was available as late as the 1920's. Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packages of flat sheets,... Read more
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Lenoir Patents First Internal Combustion Two-Stroke Engine
By 1859, Lenoir's experimentation with electricity led him to develop the first internal combustion engine, a single-cylinder two-stroke engine... Read more
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Alfred Nobel Obtains a Patent for Dynamite in England
Dynamite is an explosive material based on the explosive potential of nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth (kieselgur: United States... Read more
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Otto Builds his First Functioning Four-Stroke Engine
Though Otto had great success with his atmospheric engines, the really reliable and effective engine was not yet found. Otto was looking already... Read more
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Flight of 1900 Wright Glider
The 1900 glider was the Wrights’ first piloted aircraft. First flight-tested at Kitty Hawk in the fall of that year, it incorporated the... Read more
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Flight of 1901 Wright Glider
The 1901 Wright Glider was the second of the brothers' experimental gliders. They tested it over the Kill Devil Hills, four miles south of Kitty... Read more
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Flight of 1902 Wright Glider
The 1902 Wright Glider was the third free-flight glider built by the brothers. This was their first glider to incorporate yaw control by use of a... Read more
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Wright Brothers First Flight
On December 17, 1903, two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, named Wilbur and Orville Wright, were successful in flying an airplane they built. Their... Read more
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Wrights build Flyer II
The Flyer II was the second powered aircraft built by Wilbur and Orville Wright, in 1904. The design of the Flyer II was very similar to the... Read more
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Lizzie Magie is Granted US Patent for The Landlord's Game (Monopoly)
Elizabeth "Lizzie" J. Phillips nee Magie (1866–1948) was the games inventor of The Landlord's Game, the precursor to Monopoly. Magie first made... Read more
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First Flight with Flyer III
The Wright Flyer III was the third powered aircraft built by the Wright Brothers. Orville Wright made the first flight with it on June 23, 1905.... Read more