General Knowledge Tutorial on GK Discovery and Invention
the following table enlists the major discoveries/inventions and their discoverers/inventors −
| discovery/invention | discoverer/inventor | time/period | image |
|---|---|---|---|
| magnifying glass | roger bacon (great britain) | 13th century |  |
| printing press | johannes gutenberg (german) | 1440 (about) |  |
| watch (portable clocks) | peter henlein (germany) | 1509 (about) |  |
| optical microscope (& also the compound microscope) | zacharias janssen (dutch) | end of 16th century |  |
| telescope | galileo (italian) (however, in 1608, three inventors namely hans lippershey, zacharias janssen, & jacob metius invented that galileo improved) | 1609 |  |
| barometer | evangelista torricelli (italian) | 1643 |  |
| piano | bartolomeo cristofori di francesco (italian) | in the very beginning of 18th century |  |
| steam boat | denis papin (french) | 1704 |  |
| steam engine | thomas newcomen (british) | 1712 |  |
| watt steam engine | james watt (scottish) | 1776 |  |
| mercury thermometer | daniel gabriel fahrenheit(polish-german) | 1714 |  |
| achromatic lens | john dollond (british) | 1758 |  |
| submarine | david bushnell (american) | 1775 |  |
| bifocal lens | benjamin franklin | 1770s |  |
| power loom | edmund cartwright (british) | 1784 |  |
| gas turbine | john barber (british) | 1791 |  |
| electric battery | alessandro volta (italian) | 1800 |  |
| (railway) steam locomotive | richard trevithick (british) | 1804 |  |
| stethoscope | rené laennec | 1819 |  |
| hygrometer (crude hygrometer was invented by leonardo da vinci in 1480) | johann heinrich lambert (french) | 1755 |  |
| electric motor | michael faraday (british) | 1821 |  |
| typewriter | william austin burt (american) | 1829 |  |
| sewing machine | barthélemy thimonnier (french) | 1829 |  |
| dynamo | michael faraday (british) | 1831 |  |
| telegraph | samuel morse (american) | 1832-33 |  |
| revolver (however, the first flintlock revolver patented by elisha collier in 1814) | samuel colt (american) | 1835 |  |
| pedal driven bicycle | kirkpatrick macmillan (scottish) | 1839 |  |
| pneumatic tire | robert william thomson (scottish) | 1845 |  |
| francis turbine | james bicheno francis (british american) & uriah a. boyden (american) | 1848 |  |
| refrigerator (in 1805, an american inventor oliver evans experimented a closed vapor-compression refrigeration cycle for the production of ice) | alexander twining & james harrison (however, in 1859, ferdinand carré of france developed the first gas absorption refrigeration system) | 1850 |  |
| elevator/lift (for the building) | elisha otis (american) | 1852 |  |
| machine gun | richard jordan gatling (american) | 1861 |  |
| dynamite | alfred bernhard nobel (swedish) | 1867 |  |
| air brake | george westinghouse (american) | 1872 |  |
| telephone | alexander graham bell (scottish) | 1875 |  |
| phonograph/ gramophone | 1877 |  |
|
| film/movie camera (however, movie camera was invented by francis ronalds in 1845) | louis le thomas alva edison (american)prince (french) | 1888 |  |
| electric lamp/bulb (by using "a carbon filament”) | thomas alva edison (american) | 1879 |  |
| the first steam-powered automobile | nicolas-joseph cugnot (french) | 1768 | n/a |
| the first car powered by an internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen | françois isaac de rivaz (french) | 1807 | n/a |
| the first petrol or gasoline-powered automobile | karl benz german | 1886 |  |
| inflatable tire | john boyd dunlop (scottish) | 1887 |  |
| x-ray | wilhelm conrad röntgen (german) | 1895 |  |
| radio telegraph | guglielmo marconi (italian) | 1890s |  |
| nuclear reactor (namely chicago pile-1) | enrico fermi (italian) | 1942 |  |
| the first general-purpose electronic digital computer | john presper eckert, jr. & john william mauchly (americans) | 1945 |  |
| transistor | william shockley, john bardeen & walter brattain (americans) | 1947 |  |
| fiber optics | narinder singh kapany (indians) | 1960 |  |
| arpanet, (the precursor to the internet) | leonard kleinrock (american) | 1969 | n/a |
| radio | guglielmo marconi (italian) | n/a | n/a |