1. Match texts with pictures.
Tell the class about the most interesting robot.
2. The 50 greatest British inventions
We're a
nation of inventors, from the worldwide web to the electric vacuum cleaner -
here's a rundown of our most influential innovations
THERMOS FLASK
Invented:
1892
Inventor:
Sir James Dewar
This
humble invention was the brainchild of Sir James Dewar, an eminent professor of
chemistry at Cambridge and leading light of the Royal Institution. Dewar didn’t
invent it to keep tea hot on picnics (that was a happy by-product), but to help
his experiments on cooling gases, like air and oxygen, to such low temperatures
that they would liquefy.
LAWNMOWER
Invented:
1827
Inventor:
Edwin Beard Budding
What
could be more quintessentially British than a perfectly mown lawn in summer?
Until Budding developed his first 19in mower in 1827 this was the preserve of
the very rich. As the lawnmower’s popularity spread and made lawns more
affordable, sports that were played on grass, such as cricket, rugby and
football, were given an important boost.
FLOAT GLASS
Invented:
1959
Inventor:
Alastair Pilkington
When we
think of inventions, it’s machines and gadgets that usually come to mind. But
what about the processes needed to create the materials our modern world is
made of? Almost all the glass we use today is made using Pilkington’s “float”
process, which made it far easier and cheaper to make high-quality glass.
LIGHT BULB
Invented:
1880
Inventor:
Joseph Swan
Cheap
and reliable electric lighting was a holy grail for 19th-century inventors. But
didn’t Thomas Edison get there first? No! He was beaten by to it by Britain’s
very own Joseph Swan. Swan got his patent - and started manufacturing and
selling his bulbs - in 1880. The first bulbs lasted little more than 12 hours
but, unlike gas lamps, there was no flame or dirty smoke and they soon caught
on.
CHOCOLATE BAR
Invented:
1847
Inventor:
JS Fry & Sons
The
first chocolate bar was created by JS Fry & Sons of Bristol in 1847. It was
sold to the public as chocolate delicieux a manger – delicious to eat –
because, until this point, chocolate had been exclusively consumed as a drink.
Fry’s mixed cocoa powder with sugar and cocoa butter, making a product which
stays solid at room temperature but melts in the mouth…
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
Invented:
1837
Inventors:
Charles Wheatstone and William Cooke
The electric
telegraph was a world-shrinking technology like no other. The first fully
operational telegraph ran from 1839 between Paddington and West Drayton railway
stations, but at first it was slow to catch on. That is, until New Year’s Day
1845 when the telegraph system helped catch murderer John Tawell. It was a
sensation and telegraph cables were soon everywhere.
PNEUMATIC TYRE
Invented:
1887
Inventor:
John Boyd Dunlop
In 1845,
railway engineer Robert William Thomson patented the world’s first pneumatic tyres
but there was no real market for them. Forty years later, Dunlop came up with
pneumatic tyres to stop his son getting headaches from riding his bumpy
tricycle. This time around, the invention handily coincided with the new
bicycle craze.
MODERN FIRE EXTINGUISHER
Invented:
1818
Inventor:
George William Manby
The
first modern extinguisher, the Extincteur, was invented after Manby saw firemen
struggling to put out a blaze on the top floors of a house fire in Edinburgh.
His solution was a portable copper cask containing three to four gallons of
potassium carbonate, which dispersed by compressed air via a stopcock.
CATSEYE
Invented:
1933
Inventor:
Percy Shaw
Percy
Shaw was a Yorkshire road contractor who devised the Catseye in 1933. He liked
to claim that inspiration struck when he was driving home from the pub on a
foggy night and saw the reflection of his headlights in the eyes of a cat,
sitting by the road. Shaw’s Catseye was voted the greatest invention of the
20th century.
CARBON FIBRE
Invented:
1963
Inventors:
Royal Aircraft Establishment Engineers
This
marvelous material is one of many inventions developed by the military that are
incredibly useful. Today carbon fibre has thousands of applications in boats,
cars, motorbikes, sports equipment, and even in the fuselages of jumbo jets.
STEAM ENGINE (nominated by Michael Mosley)
Invented:
1801
Inventor:
Richard Trevithick
Trevithick’s
invention would become the father of the steam train and the father of portable
steam power. On Christmas Eve 1801 he tested a steam car, known as the Puffing
Devil, which successfully climbed the Camborne Hill in Cornwall. Trevithick
became the first person to power a piston using high-pressure steam – and in
doing so he transformed the world.
WORLDWIDE WEB
Invented:
1989
Inventor:
Tim Berners-Lee
Not to
be confused with the internet, which is a system of linked computer networks,
the worldwide web was invented by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee
(left). He created the first server in late 1990 and, on 6 August 1991, the web
went live, with the first page explaining how to search and how to set up a
site. Berners-Lee gave his invention to the world for free.
SODA WATER
Invented:
1772
Inventor:
Joseph Priestley
18th
century clergyman and scientist Priestley invented carbonated water when he
suspended a bowl of water above a beer vat at a brewery near his home in Leeds.
In 1772 he published a description of how to make carbonated water and just a
few years later Johann Schweppe set up Schweppes and began manufacturing fizzy
drinks using Priestley’s method.
HYPODERMIC SYRINGE
Invented:
1853
Inventor:
Alexander Wood
While
the syringe itself has been known since ancient times, Wood’s innovation was to
design a syringe that would allow drugs to be administered intravenously
without the patients skin having to be cut first. It is said he found
inspiration in the sting of a honeybee. The hypodermic syringe was a
breakthrough in anesthetics.
REFLECTING TELESCOPE
Invented:
1668
Inventor:
Isaac Newton
As a
fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, Sir Isaac Newton took the idea of a
reflecting telescope and turned it into reality. This huge leap forward in
telescope technology made astronomical observation much more accurate.
TELEPHONE
Patented:
1876
Inventor:
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander
Graham Bell (right) patented his telephone model just hours before a rival
inventor. The telephone came about thanks to a discovery that a thin metal
sheet vibrating in an electromagnetic field produces an electrical waveform
that corresponds to the vibration. The invention was first publically
demonstrated in 1876 at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
COLLAPSIBLE BABY BUGGY
Invented:
1965
Inventor:
Owen Maclaren
Maclaren,
the man who during WW2 helped design the Spitfire’s folding undercarriage,
solved the pram problem after seeing his daughter struggle with an unwieldy
pushchair. Today, a modern version of his light-weight, foldable buggy is sold
in more than 50 countries.
STEAM TURBINE
Invented:
1884
Inventor:
Charles Parsons
After
the invention of the electrical motor – which transforms rotation into
electrical power – the next step was to find a device to drive it. Piston
engines vibrated too violently, so the steam turbine was the answer. Three
quarters of the world’s power stations still use steam – and whether
steam-powered or not, every station uses the theory behind Parsons’ innovation.
MARINE CHRONOMETER
Invented:
1761
Inventor:
John Harrison
Accurate
navigation at sea has always been critically important but, until the invention
of the marine chronometer, it was extremely difficult, if not impossible. In
1714 the British government announced a £20,000 prize – worth almost £3m today
– for anyone who could solve the problem. John Harrison devoted his life to the
task and finally got his reward in 1773.
TELEVISION
Invented:
1925
Inventor:
John Logie Baird
It’s
hard to credit just one person with the invention of television, but it’s
indisputable that John Logie Baird was the first to transmit moving pictures in
October 1925. But his mechanical system ultimately failed – with a rival being
developed at the same time able to produce a visibly superior picture. Baird,
it was said at the time, was “doomed to be the man who sows the seed but does
not reap the harvest”.
SYNTHETIC DYE
Invented:
1856
Inventor:
William Perkin
William
Perkin was studying Chemistry when he discovered how to make synthetic dye –
mauveine. He was using alcohol to clean
up some chemical residue when he suddenly saw an intense purple colour appear.
At that time, purple dye was one of the priciest. Perkin worked out how to
produce his new colour, patented it and set up a company to produce it.
HIP REPLACEMENT
Invented:
1962
Inventor:
John Charnley
British
surgeon John Charnley designed the first hip joint and, in 1962, performed the
first successful hip-replacement operation. His design used a femoral stem and
ball made of steel and a hip socket made of Teflon, glued together using
acrylic bone cement. Many improvements have been made since but Charnley set
the standard and today 80,000 hip replacements are performed in Britain each
year.
PASSENGER RAILWAY (recommended by Dan Snow)
Invented:
1825
Inventor:
George Stephenson
While
working as a miner, George Stephenson established an aptitude as a mechanic and
was allowed to build machines at his colliery. At the time, carts pulled by
horses were used to take coal to the ship yards. Stephenson used steam engines
to replace horse power and this lead to a series of world firsts – including
the passenger railway.
MILITARY TANK
Invented:
1914
Inventor:
Ernest Swinton
The idea
of the “tank” was first thought up by Britain’s official war correspondent, Ernest
Swinton, who suggested the crawler tractors used to pull artillery on the
Western Front could be used as offensive weapons with the capability to climb a
five-foot obstacle, span a five-foot trench, resist small arms fire and travel
at 4mph.
TOOTHBRUSH
Invented:
c. 1770
Inventor:
William Addis
William
Addis was a rag trader who was sent to prison in 1770. While there, he decided
that the way people were brushing their teeth (rubbing soot and salt over them
with a rag), could be improved. He saved a small animal bone from a meal, made
a hole and tied some bristles through it. After his release, Addis set up a
business to mass-produce toothbrushes. His company, Wisdom Toothbrushes, still
exists.
LINOLEUM
Invented:
1860
Inventor:
Frederick Walton
When he
noticed that a rubbery, flexible skin of solidified linseed oil had formed on a
can of oil-based paint, it gave Frederick Walton an idea. He realized linseed
oil could be made into a waterproof material and that if he applied the varnish
to a backing, he could sell it as a ready-made floor - cue linoleum.
AUTOMATIC KETTLE
Invented:
1955
Inventor:
Peter Hobbs
The
automatic kettle – one that switches itself off when the water reaches boiling
point – was the brainchild of Peter Hobbs, one of the two founders of appliance
company Russell Hobbs. At its heart was a simple piece of technology: the
bimetallic strip which bent as the water boiled, breaking a circuit and
switching off the kettle.
MODERN TORPEDO
Invented:
1866
Inventor:
Robert Whitehead
It was
British engineer Richard Whitehead who first designed a torpedo launched from a
ship in an underwater tube, powered by compressed air and with an internal
mechanism that adjusted itself to stay at a constant depth. The first ship to
be sunk by his invention was the Turkish steamer Intibah in 1878, after being
hit by a torpedo launched from a Russian warship.
GLIDER
Invented:
1804
Inventor:
George Cayley
One of
the greatest inventors in the field of aviation was Yorkshireman George Cayley.
He was the first man to move away from the idea that a man-made flying machine
must have wings that flapped like a bird’s, and the first-ever sustained manned
glider flight was made in a craft of his design at Brompton Dale in 1853.
JET ENGINE
Invented:
1937
Inventor:
Frank Whittle
24-year-old
RAF fighter pilot Frank Whittle first patented a new kind of aircraft - the
turbojet - in 1930, but his new design was so radical that the military
wouldn’t fund it, nor would any manufacturers, until in 1937 he found a few
private backers and in 1941 a 17-minute test flight took place at RAF Cranwell
in Lincolnshire.
WIND-UP RADIO
Invented:
1991
Inventor:
Trevor Baylis
In 1991,
Trevor Baylis saw a television programme about Aids in Africa that said one way
to stop its spread was for people to hear educational information on the radio.
So Baylis desined one that needed no batteries, running off an internal
generator powered by a mainspring wound by a hand crank. He was able to
demonstrate it to Nelson Mandela and since then it’s been distributed all over
Africa.
SAFETY BICYCLE
Invented:
1885
Inventor:
John Kemp Starley
The
bicycle as we know it today was originally developed as the “safety bicycle”,
because other bikes at the time – including the penny-farthing – were extremely
dangerous. The key to the new bicycle was the chain drive, which meant you
could still go fast even though both wheels were the same size. For most people
it was arguably the most liberating invention of all time.
CEMENT
Invented:
1824
Inventor:
Joseph Aspdin
In 1824,
Leeds bricklayer Joseph Aspdin invented and patented a method of making what he
called Portland Cement – the type that’s most widely used today. The process
involved burning limestone, mixing it with clay and burning it again; the burning
produced a much stronger cement than just mixing limestone and clay. Aspdin
called it “Portland” as he claimed the set mortar resembled the best limestone
quarried from Portland in Dorset.
TENSION-SPOKED WHEEL
Invented:
1808
Inventor:
George Cayley
George
Caley wanted wheeled landing gear for the glider’s he’d already invented but
wheels with solid or wooden spokes were too heavy. His innovation was to shift
the balance of forces in the wheel from compression to tension – an
extraordinary breakthrough that really took off much later when tension-spoked
wheels using wire spokes were adopted for bicycle wheels.
SEED DRILL
Invented:
1701
Inventor:
Jethro Tull
Pulled
by a horse, Oxfordshire farmer Jethro Tull’s seed drill dug a straight groove
into the soil at the right depth and dropped into it seeds that were regularly
spaced. It made planting crops more efficient by avoiding wastage and helped
both population and life expectancy into a steady upward climb for the first
time in history.
STAINLESS STEEL
Invented:
1913
Inventor:
Harry Brearley
In 1912
steelworker and researcher Harry Brearley was tasked by a small-arms
manufacturer to find a material that could prolong the life of their gun
barrels. He found corrosion-resistant steel instead. The story goes that he
threw out some experimental steel and a few weeks later found it in the yard
still shiny as new. Stainless steel is now used in everything from surgical
instruments and turbine blades to cutlery and architectural cladding.
SPINNING FRAME
Invented:
1768
Inventor:
Richard Arkwright
Richard
Arkwright’s spinning frame – more than James Hargreaves’s better-known spinning
jenny – was the cornerstone invention of the industrial revolution in textiles.
By spinning thread that had a tighter weave and was therefore considerably
stronger, it transformed northern England and lay behind Britain being named
the “workshop of the world”.
BESSEMER PROCESS
Invented:
1856
Inventor:
Henry Bessemer
Sheffield
steelmaker Henry Bessemer didn’t invent steel production but his method for
simplifying it and greatly reducing the costs ranks as one of the most
important breakthroughs of the industrial era. He developed a process of
extracting carbon from pig iron effectively, to create a hotter and purer
product that was easier to convert to steel – saving manufacturers both time
and fuel.
ELECTRIC MOTOR
Invented:
1821
Inventer:
Michael Faraday
Michael
Faraday was working at the Royal Institution when he demonstrated
electromagnetic rotation for the first time. A free-hanging wire was dipped
into a pool of mercury that had a fixed magnet in it. When an electric current
was passed through the wire, it rotated around the magnet – the electricity
produced a magnetic field around the wire, which interacted with the magnet in
the mercury. This was the world’s first electric motor.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Invented:
1835
Inventor:
William Henry Fox Talbot
It’s
hard to say who was the inventor of photography – the first fixed image was
made by Joseph Niépce in 1826 but took eight hours to expose. In 1835, Fox
Talbot (right) made another breakthrough by using silver iodide on paper and
found a way to produce a translucent negative that could be used to make any
number of positives by contact printing – a system used until the advent of
digital cameras.
HYDRAULIC PRESS
Invented:
1795
Inventor:
Joseph Bramah
Locksmith
Joseph Bramah made famously unpickable locks and was also a keen inventor. Of
all his developments, the one that has had the most impact was the hydraulic
press – two piston cylinders with different cross-sectional areas, connected
with a tube and filled with fluid so moving one piston causes the other to
move, too. Today it’s still one of the most useful and widespread machine
tools.
SEWAGE SYSTEM (recommended by Dick and Dom)
Invented:
1865
Inventor:
Joseph Bazalgette
The
creator of the London sewers, Joseph Bazalgette, may be remembered as more of
an engineer than an inventor, but developing the largest sewage system the
world had ever seen in London changed life in the city completely. The previous
system – an open sewer – tipped waste into the Thames but this new invention
pumped it eastwards out to sea. Bazalgette estimated the population increase of
the next 100 years so the system is still in use today.
ELECTRONIC PROGRAMMABLE COMPUTER
Invented:
1943
Inventor:
Tommy Flowers
Built
and designed by brilliant Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers, the Colossus
arrived at Bletchley Park to crack the German Lorenz cipher, which was even
more complex than Enigma. Constructed using 1,500 vacuum tubes, the Colossus
was the first truly electronic, digital and programmable computer. Sadly for
Flowers, the technology was reserved for military intelligence and remained top
secret – with every Colossus machine dismantled after the war.
HOVERCRAFT
Invented:
1953
Inventor:
Christopher Cockerell
Cockerell
wanted to work out how to make the boats go faster, and was captivated by the
idea of lifting them out of the water altogether. His breakthrough came when he
blasted air down a narrow channel around the outside of the craft that trapped
high-pressure air underneath and stopped it escaping, forming a “momentum
curtain. Producing four times the lift for the same amount of power, the first
hovercraft crossed the channel on 1 June 1959.
TIN CAN
Invented:
1810
Inventor:
Peter Durand
It was
Frenchman Nicholas Appert who first preserved food by packing it into glass
jars and cooking it for hours to sterilise it but British merchant Peter Durand
adopted the same method with the tin can. Initially a hammer and chisel were
required to open the cans as the tin opener wasn’t patented until 1855!
STERI-SPRAY (recommended by Deborah Meaden)
Invented:
2008
Inventor:
Ian Helmore
Plumber
Ian Helmore sterilized water tanks to prevent lagionella breeding in them.
Bacteria can live in the last two inches of pipework so he decided that putting
a UV lamp into a tap or showerhead would deal with the problem. It’s now out
there in NHS hospitals, hopefully saving lives.
WATERPROOF MATERIAL
Invented:
1823
Inventor:
Charles Macintosh
Charles
Macintosh, an amateur chemist, was experimenting with coal-tar napthan, a
chemical waste product, and realized that it could make a solution from rubber.
He coated a thin fabric with the sticky solution and sandwiched it between two
layers of fabric to make waterproof material. His family started selling the
coats as the “Macintosh”.
ATM
Invented:
1967
Inventor:
John Shepherd-Barron
John
Shepherd-Barron first hit on the idea of a cash dispenser in the bath and
secured a meeting with Barclays who signed up, installing the first ATM outside
their Enfield branch in 1967. It gave out a maximum of £10 after customers
inserted special cheques that the machine could recognise alongside a
four-digit PIN number that’s still in use today.
ELECTRIC VACUUM CLEANER
Invented:
1901
Inventor:
Hubert Cecil Booth
Hubert
Cecil Booth was watching a railway carriage being cleaned by a machine that
blew the dust away when he had the idea for a machine that sucked the dust up
instead. To test his theory, he placed a handkerchief on a chair and sucked
through it, finding that dust collected on either side. He set up a cleaning
service using hoses from vans on the street going through the windows of
buildings.
DISC BRAKES
Invented:
1902
Inventor:
Frederick William Lanchester
Disc
brakes employ brake pads that squeeze each side of the rotor turning a wheel.
They were quicker to cool down and to dry out than the drum brakes used in most
cars at the time. Sadly, they didn’t catch on until the 1950s, after
Lanchester’s death - but nowadays almost all cars use his invention.
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