This is a chronological list of inventions.
Note: Dates for inventions are often controversial. Inventions are often invented by several inventors around the same time, or may be invented in an impractical form many years before another inventor improves the invention into a practical form. Where there is ambiguity, the date of the first practical, fielded version of the invention is used here.
- 2.4 MYA: Stone tools in Africa
- 2 MYA: Language (controversial - this is the earliest likely)
- 1 MYA: Controlled fire in Africa
- 400 KYA: Pigments in Zambia
- 60 KYA: Ships probably used by settlers of New Guinea
- 50 KYA: Bow and arrow in Tunisia
- 43 KYA: Mining
- 30 KYA: Sewing
- 26 KYA: Ceramics in Moravia
- 12 KYA: Pottery by Jomon in Japan
- 8700 BC: Metalworking (copper pendant in Iraq)
- 8500 BC: Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent
- Animal husbandry in the Middle East
- 6200 BC: Map in Çatalhöyük
- Cloth woven from flax fiber
- Wine in Jiahu,China
- Irrigation in the Fertile Crescent
- Ploughs in Mesopotamia
- 3800s BC: Engineered roadway in England
- 3500 BC: Plywood in Egypt
- 3500 BC: Writing in Sumer
- 3500 BC: Carts in Sumer
- Bronze by the Maikops
- Silk in China
- Cement in Egypt
- River boats in Egypt
- Alphabet in Egypt
- Glass in Egypt
- Rubber in Mesoamerica
- Spoked wheel chariot in the Middle East
- Water clock in Egypt
- Bells in China
- Arch in Greece
- Odometer : Rome: Archimedes?
- 600s BC: Coinage in Lydia
- 400s BC: Catapult in Syracuse
- 300s BC: Compass in China.
- 300s BC: Screw: Archytas
- 200s BC: Crossbow in China
- 200s BC: Compound pulley: Archimedes
- 150s BC: Astrolabe: Hipparchus
- 100s BC: Parchment in Pergamon
- 1st century BC: Glassblowing in Syria
- 87 BC: Clockwork (the Antikythera mechanism): Posidonius?
- 1st century: Aeolipile: Hero of Alexandria
- 1st century: Stern mounted rudder in China
- 105: Paper: Cai Lun
- 132: Rudimentary Seismometer: Zhang Heng
- 200s: Wheelbarrow: Zhuge Liang
- 200s: Horseshoes in Germany
- 300s: Stirrup in China
- 600: Mouldboard plough in Eastern Europe
- 600s: Windmill in Persia
- 673: Greek fire: Kallinikos
- 800s: Gunpowder in China
- 852: Parachute: Armen Firman
- 900: Horse collar in Europe
- Woodblock printing in China
- Porcelain in China
- Spinning wheel in China or India
- Arquebus and Rifle in Europe
- 1450s: Alphabetic, movable type printing press: Johann Gutenberg
- 1451: Concave lens for eyeglasses: Nicholas of Cusa
- 1510: Pocket watch: Peter Henlein
- 1581: Pendulum: Galileo Galilei
- 1589: Stocking frame: William Lee
- 1593: Thermometer: Galileo Galilei
- Musket in Europe
- 1608: Telescope: Hans Lippershey
- 1609: Microscope: Galileo Galilei
- 1620: Slide rule: William Oughtred
- 1623: Automatic calculator: Wilhelm Schickard
- 1642: Adding machine: Blaise Pascal
- 1643: Barometer: Evangelista Torricelli
- 1645: Vacuum pump: Otto von Guericke
- 1657: Pendulum clock: Christiaan Huygens
- 1698: Steam engine: Thomas Savery
- 1701: Seed drill: Jethro Tull
- 1705: Steam piston engine: Thomas Newcomen
- 1709: Piano: Bartolomeo Cristofori
- 1710: Thermometer: René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
- 1711: Tuning fork: John Shore
- 1714: Mercury thermometer: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
- 1730: Mariner's quadrant: Thomas Godfrey
- 1731: Sextant: John Hadley
- 1733: Flying shuttle: John Kay (Flying Shuttle)
- 1742: Franklin stove: Benjamin Franklin
- 1750: Flatboat: Jacob Yoder
- 1752: Lightning rod: Benjamin Franklin
- 1762: Iron smelting process: Jared Eliot
- 1767: Spinning jenny: James Hargreaves
- 1767: Carbonated water: Joseph Priestley
- 1769: Steam engine: James Watt
- 1769: Water Frame: Richard Arkwright
- 1775: Submarine Turtle: David Bushnell
- 1777: Card teeth making machine: Oliver Evans
- 1777: Circular saw: Samuel Miller
- 1779: Spinning mule: Samuel Crompton
- 1785: Power loom: Edmund Cartwright
- 1785: Automatic flour mill: Oliver Evans
- 1783: Multitubular boiler engine: John Stevens
- 1783: Hot air balloon: Montgolfier brothers
- 1784: Bifocals: Benjamin Franklin
- 1784: Shrapnel shell: Henry Shrapnel
- 1785: Parachute: Jean Pierre Blanchard
- 1787: Non-condensing high pressure Engine: Oliver Evans
- 1790: Cut and head nail machine: Jacob Perkins
- 1791: Steamboat: John Fitch
- 1791: Artificial Teeth: Nicholas Dubois De Chemant
- 1793: Cotton gin: Eli Whitney
- 1793: Optical telegraph: Claude Chappe
- 1797: Cast iron plow: Charles Newbold
- 1798: Vaccination: Edward Jenner
- 1798: Lithography: Alois Senefelder
- 1799: Seeding machine: Eliakim Spooner
- 1800: Electric battery: Alessandro Volta
- 1801: Jacquard loom: Joseph Marie Jacquard
- 1802: Screw propeller steamboat Phoenix: John Stevens
- 1802: gas stove: Zachäus Andreas Winzler
- 1805: Submarine Nautilus: Robert Fulton
- 1805: Refrigerator: Oliver Evans
- 1807: Steamboat Clermont: Robert Fulton
- 1808: Band saw: William Newberry
- 1811: Gun- Breechloader: Thornton (?)
- 1812: Metronome: Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel
- 1814: Steam Locomotive (Blucher): George Stephenson
- 1816: Miner's safety lamp: Humphry Davy
- 1816: Hand printing press: George Clymer
- 1816: Metronome: Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (reputed)
- 1816: Stirling engine: Robert Stirling
- 1817: Kaleidoscope: David Brewster
- 1819: Breech loading flintlock: John Hall
- 1819: Stethoscope: Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec
- 1821: Electric motor: Michael Faraday
- 1823: Electromagnet: William Sturgeon
- 1826: Photography: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
- 1826: internal combustion engine: Samuel Morey
- 1827: Insulated wire: Joseph Henry
- 1827: Screw propeller: Josef Ressel
- 1827: Friction match: John Walker
- 1830: Lawn mower: Edwin Beard Budding
- 1831: Multiple coil magnet: Joseph Henry
- 1831: Magnetic acoustic telegraph: Joseph Henry
- 1831: Reaper: Cyrus McCormick
- 1831: Electrical generator: Michael Faraday
- 1835: Photogenic Drawing: William Henry Fox Talbot
- 1835: Revolver: Samuel Colt
- 1835: Morse code: Samuel Morse
- 1835: Electromechanical Relay: Joseph Henry
- 1836: Improved screw propeller: John Ericsson
- 1836: Sewing machine: Josef Madersberger
- 1837: Photography: Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
- 1837: Steel plow: John Deere
- 1837: Standard diving dress: Augustus Siebe
- 1838: Electric telegraph: Charles Wheatstone
- 1839: Vulcanization of rubber: Charles Goodyear
- 1840: Frigate with submarine machinery SS Princeton: John Ericsson
- 1840: artificial fertilizer: Justus von Liebig
- 1842: Anaesthesia: Crawford Long
- 1843: Typewriter: Charles Thurber
- 1843: Fax machine: Alexander Bain
- 1844: Telegraph: Samuel Morse
- 1845: Portland cement: William Aspdin
- 1845: Double tube tire: Robert Thomson (inventor)
- 1846: Sewing machine: Elias Howe
- 1846: Rotary printing press: Richard M. Hoe
- 1849: Safety pin: Walter Hunt
- 1849: Francis turbine: James B. Francis
- 1852: Airship: Henri Giffard
- 1852: Passenger elevator: Elisha Otis
- 1852: Gyroscope: Léon Foucault
- 1853: Glider: Sir George Cayley
- 1855: Bunsen burner: Robert Bunsen
- 1855: Bessemer process: Henry Bessemer
- 1856: First celluloids: Alexander Parkes
- 1858: Undersea telegraph cable: Fredrick Newton Gisborne
- 1858: Shoe sole sewing machine: Lyman R. Blake
- 1858: Mason jar: John L. Mason
- 1859: Oil drill: Edwin L. Drake
- 1860: Linoleum: Fredrick Walton
- 1860: Repeating rifle: Oliver F. Winchester, Christopher Spencer
- 1860: Self-propelled torpedo: Ivan Lupis-Vukić
- 1861: Ironclad USS Monitor: John Ericsson
- 1861: Furnace for steel: Wilhelm von Siemens
- 1862: Revolving machine gun: Richard J. Gatling
- 1862: Mechanical submarine: Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol
- 1863: Player piano: Henri Fourneaux
- 1864: first true typewriter: Peter Mitterhofer
- 1865: Compression ice machine: Thaddeus Lowe
- 1866: Dynamite: Alfred Nobel
- 1867: Practical Typewriter: Christopher L. Sholes
- 1868: Typewriter: Carlos Glidden, James Densmore and Samuel Soule
- 1868: Air brake (rail): George Westinghouse
- 1868: Oleomargarine: Mege Mouries
- 1869: Vacuum cleaner: I.W. McGaffers
- 1870: Magic Lantern projector: Henry R. Heyl
- 1870: Stock ticker: Thomas Alva Edison
- 1870: Mobile Gasoline Engine, Automobile: Siegfried Marcus
- 1871: Cable car (railway): Andrew S. Hallidie
- 1871: Compressed air rock drill: Simon Ingersoll
- 1872: Celluloid (later development): John W. Hyatt
- 1872: Adding machine: Edmund D. Barbour
- 1873: Barbed wire: Joseph F. Glidden
- 1873: Railway knuckle coupler: Eli H. Janney
- 1873: Modern direct current electric motor: Zénobe Gramme
- 1874: Electric street car: Stephen Dudle Field
- 1875: Dynamo: William A. Anthony
- 1875: Gun- (magazine): Benjamin B. Hotchkiss
- 1876: Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell
- 1876: Telephone: Elisha Gray
- 1876: Carpet sweeper: Melville Bissell
- 1876: Gasoline carburettor: Daimler
- 1877: Stapler: Henry R. Heyl
- 1877: Induction motor: Nikola Tesla
- 1877: Phonograph: Thomas Alva Edison
- 1877: Electric welding: Elihu Thomson
- 1877: Twine Knotter: John Appleby
- 1878: Cathode ray tube: William Crookes
- 1878: Transparent film: Eastman Goodwin
- 1878: Rebreather: Henry Fleuss
- 1878: Incandescent Light bulb: Joseph Swan
- 1879: Pelton turbine: Lester Pelton
- 1879: Automobile engine: Karl Benz
- 1879: Cash register: James Ritty
- 1879: Automobile (Patent): George B. Seldon ... note did NOT invent auto
- 1880: Photophone: Alexander Graham Bell
- 1880: Roll film: George Eastman
- 1880: Safety razor: Kampfe Brothers
- 1880: Seismograph: John Milne
- 1881: Electric welding machine: Elihu Thomson
- 1882: Electric fan: Schuyler Skatts Wheeler
- 1882: Electric flat iron: Henry W. Seely
- 1883: Auto engine - compression ignition: Gottlieb Daimler
- 1883: two-phase (alternating current) induction motor: Nikola Tesla
- 1884: Linotype machine: Ottmar Mergenthaler
- 1884: Fountain pen: Lewis Waterman NB: Did not invent fountain pen, nor even "first practical fountain pen". Started manufacture in 1883, too.
- 1884: Punched card accounting: Herman Hollerith
- 1884: Trolley car, (electric): Frank Sprague, Karel Van de Poele
- 1885: Automobile, differential gear: Karl Benz
- 1885: Maxim gun: Hiram Stevens Maxim
- 1885: Motor cycle: Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach
- 1885: Alternating current transformer: William Stanley
- 1886: Dishwasher: Josephine Cochrane
- 1886: Gasoline engine: Gottlieb Daimler
- 1886: Improved phonograph cylinder: Tainter & Bell
- 1887: Monotype machine: Tolbert Lanston
- 1887: Gramophone record: Emile Berliner
- 1887: Automobile, (gasoline): Gottlieb Daimler
- 1888: Polyphase AC Electric power system: Nikola Tesla (30 related patents.)
- 1888: Kodak hand camera: George Eastman
- 1888: Ballpoint pen: John Loud
- 1888: Pneumatic tube tire: John Boyd Dunlop
- 1888: Harvester-thresher: Matteson (?)
- 1888: Kinematograph: Augustin Le Prince
- 1889: Automobile, (steam): Sylvester Roper
- 1890: Pneumatic Hammer: Charles B. King
- 1891: Automobile Storage Battery: William Morrison
- 1891: Zipper: Whitcomb Judson
- 1891: Carborundum: Edward G. Acheson
- 1892: Color photography: Frederic E. Ives
- 1892: Automatic telephone exchange (electromechanical): Almon Strowger - First in commercial service.
- 1893: Photographic gun: E.J. Marcy
- 1893: Half tone engraving: Frederick Ives
- 1893: Wireless communication: Nikola Tesla
- 1895: Phatoptiken projector: Woodville Latham
- 1895: Phantascope: C. Francis Jenkins
- 1895: Disposable blades: King C. Gillette
- 1895: Diesel engine: Rudolf Diesel
- 1895: Radio signals: Guglielmo Marconi
- 1896: Vitascope: Thomas Armat
- 1896: Steam turbine: Charles Curtis
- 1896: Electric stove: William S. Hadaway
- 1897: Automobile, magneto: Robert Bosch
- 1898: Remote control: Nikola Tesla
- 1899: Automobile self starter: Clyde J. Coleman
- 1899: Magnetic tape recorder: Valdemar Poulsen
- 1899: Gas turbine: Charles Curtis
- 1900: Rigid dirigible airship: Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
- 1901: Improved wireless transmitter: Reginald Fessenden
- 1901: Mercury vapor lamp: Peter C. Hewitt
- 1901: paperclip: Johan Vaaler
- 1902: Radio magnetic detector: Guglielmo Marconi
- 1902: Radio telephone: Poulsen Reginald Fessenden
- 1902: Rayon cellulose ester: Arthur D. Little
- 1903: Electrocardiograph (EKG): Willem Einthoven
- 1903: Powered Airplane: Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright
- 1903: Bottle machine: Michael Owens
- 1904: Thermionic valve: John Ambrose Fleming
- 1904: Separable Attachment Plug: Harvey Hubbell
- 1905: Radio tube diode: John Ambrose Fleming
- 1906: Triode amplifier: Lee DeForest
- 1907: Radio amplifier: Lee DeForest
- 1907: Radio tube triode: Lee DeForest
- 1907: Vacuum cleaner, (electric): James Spangler
- 1907: Washing machine, (electric): Alva Fisher (Hurley Corporation)
- 1909: Monoplane: Henry W. Walden
- 1909: Bakelite: Leo Baekeland
- 1909: Gun silencer: Hiram Percy Maxim
- 1910: Thermojet engine: Henri Coandă
- 1911: Gyrocompass: Elmer A. Sperry
- 1911: Automobile self starter (perfected): Charles F. Kettering
- 1911: Air conditioner: Willis Haviland Carrier
- 1911: Cellophane: Jacques Brandenburger
- 1911: Hydroplane: Glenn Curtiss
- 1912: Regenerative radio circuit: Edwin H. Armstrong
- 1912: revolutionary water turbine (Kaplan turbine), Viktor Kaplan
- 1913: Crossword puzzle: Arthur Wynne
- 1913: Improved X-Ray: William D. Coolidge
- 1913: Double acting wrench: Robert Owen
- 1913: Cracking process for Gasoline: William M. Burten
- 1913: Gyroscope stabilizer: Elmer A. Sperry
- 1913: Geiger counter: Hans Geiger
- 1913: Radio receiver, cascade tuning: Ernst Alexanderson
- 1913: Radio receiver, heterodyne: Reginald Fessenden
- 1914: Radio transmitter triode mod.: Ernst Alexanderson
- 1914: Liquid fuel rocket: Robert Goddard
- 1914: Tank, military: Ernest Dunlop Swinton
- 1915: Tungsten Filament: Irving Langmuir
- 1915: Searchlight arc: Elmer A. Sperry
- 1915: Radio tube oscillator: Lee DeForest
- 1916: Browning Gun: John Browning
- 1916: Thompson submachine gun: John T. Thompson
- 1916: Incandescent gas lamp: Irving Langmuir
- 1917: Sonar echolocation: Paul Langevin
- 1918: Super heterodyne: Edwin H. Armstrong
- 1918: Interrupter gear: Anton Fokker
- 1918: Radio crystal oscillator: A.M. Nicolson
- 1918: Pop-up toaster: Charles Strite
- 1919: the Theremin: Leon Theremin
- 1919: First licensed radio station, KDKA AM, in Pennsylvania, USA
- mechanical potato peeler: Herman Lay
- 1922: Radar: Robert Watson-Watt, A. H. Taylor, L. C. Young, Gregory Breit, Merle Antony Tuve
- 1922: Technicolor: Herbert T. Kalmus
- 1922: Water skiing: Ralph Samuelson
- 1923: Arc tube: Ernst Alexanderson
- 1923: Sound film: Lee DeForest
- 1923: Television Electronic: Philo Farnsworth
- 1923: Wind tunnel: Max Munk
- 1923: Autogyro: Juan de la Cierva
- 1923: Xenon flash lamp: Harold Edgerton
- 1925: ultra-centrifuge: Theodor Svedberg - used to determine molecular weights
- 1925: Television Iconoscope: Vladimir Zworykin
- 1925: Television Nipkow System: C. Francis Jenkins
- 1925: Telephoto: C. Francis Jenkins
- 1926: Television Mechanical Scanner: John Logie Baird
- 1926: Aerosol spray: Rotheim
- 1927: Mechanical cotton picker: John Rust
- 1928: sliced bread: Otto Frederick Rohwedder
- 1928: Electric dry shaver: Jacob Schick
- 1928: Antibiotics: Alexander Fleming
- 1929: Electroencephelograph (EEG): Hans Berger
- 1930: Neoprene: Wallace Carothers
- 1930: Nylon: Wallace Carothers
- 1931: the Radio telescope: Karl Jansky Grote Reber
- 1932: Polaroid glass: Edwin H. Land
- 1935: microwave radar: Robert Watson-Watt
- 1935: Trampoline: George Nissen and Larry Griswold
- 1935: Spectrophotometer: Arthur C. Hardy
- 1935: Casein fiber: Earl Whittier Stephen
- 1935: Hammond Organ: Laurens Hammond
- 1936: Pinsetter (bowling): Gottfried Schmidt
- 1937: Jet engine: Frank Whittle Hans von Ohain
- 1938: Fiberglass: Russell Games Slayter John H. Thomas
- 1938: Computer: Konrad Zuse
- 1939: FM radio: Edwin H. Armstrong
- 1939: Helicopter: Igor Sikorsky
- 1939: View-master: William Gruber
- 1942: Bazooka Rocket Gun: Leslie A. Skinner C. N. Hickman
- 1942: Undersea oil pipeline: Hartley, Anglo-Iranian, Siemens in Operation Pluto
- 1942: frequency hopping: Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil
- 1943: Aqua-Lung: Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan
- 1943: electronic programmable digital computer: Tommy Flowers [1]
- 1944: Electron spectrometer: Deutsch Elliot Evans
- 1945: Nuclear weapons (but note: chain reaction theory: 1933)
- 1946: microwave oven: Percy Spencer
- 1947: Transistor: William Shockley, Walter Brattain, John Bardeen
- 1947: Polaroid camera: Edwin Land
- 1948: Long Playing Record: Peter Goldmark
- 1949: Atomic clocks
- 1951: Liquid Paper: Bette Nesmith Graham
- 1952: fusion bomb: Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam
- 1952: hovercraft: Christopher Cockerell
- 1953: maser: Charles Townes
- 1953: medical ultrasonography
- 1954: transistor radio (dated from the from Regency TR1) (USA)
- 1954: first nuclear power reactor
- 1954: geodesic dome: Buckminster Fuller
- 1955: Velcro: George de Mestral
- 1957: Jet Boat: William Hamilton
- 1957: EEG topography: Walter Grey Walter
- 1957: Bubble Wrap - Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes of Sealed Air
- 1958: the Integrated circuit: Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor
- 1959: snowmobile: Joseph-Armand Bombardier
- 1960s: Packet switching: Donald Davies and Paul Baran, video games
- 1960: lasers: Theodore Maiman, at Hughes Aircraft
- 1962: Communications satellites: Arthur C. Clarke
- 1962: Light-emitting diode: Nick_Holonyak
- 1963: Computer mouse: Douglas Engelbart
- 1965: 8-track tapes: William Powell Lear
- 1969: the ARPANET, predecessor of the Internet
- 1970: Fiber optics
- 1971: E-mail: Ray Tomlinson
- 1971: the Microprocessor
- 1971: the Pocket calculator
- 1972: Computed Tomography: Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield
- 1973: Ethernet: Bob Metcalfe and David Boggs
- 1974: Scramjet: NASA and United States Navy -- first operational prototype flown in 2002
- 1974: Rubik's Cube: Ernő Rubik
- 1976: Gore-Tex fabric: W. L. Gore
- 1977: the personal computer (dated from Commodore PET)
- 1977: Atari 2600, the first commercial video game console
- 1978: Philips releases the laserdisc player
- 1978: Spring loaded camming device: Ray Jardine
- 1979: the Walkman: Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka, Kozo Ohsone
- 1979: the cellular telephone (first commercially fielded version, NTT)
- 197x: Leaf blower (exact year unknown)
- 1970s: Tomahawk Cruise Missile (first computerized cruise missile)
- 1981: the Xerox Star is the first computer to feature a WIMP graphical user interface
- 1982: Sony and Philips release compact discs
- 1983: the Internet Protocol, which created the Internet as we know it
- 1983: Domain Name System: Paul Mockapetris
- 1985: polymerase chain reaction: Kary Mullis
- 1985: DNA fingerprinting: Alec Jeffreys
- 1985: Tetris: Alexey Pajitnov
- 1986: breadmaker
- 1989: the GNU GPL, enabling the free software movement: Richard Stallman
- 1989: the World Wide Web: Tim Berners-Lee
- 1991: genetically modified, herbicide tolerant soybeans developed
- 1993: Global Positioning System
- 1995: wiki software: Ward Cunningham
- 1995: DVD standard devloped
- 1996: cloning of mammals: Ian Wilmut and others
- 1997: Self-heating can
- 1998: Portable digital audio player (MP3 player)
- 1998: Personal video recorder
- 1999: IEEE 802.11b
- 1999: Bluetooth
- 2001: Digital satellite radio
- 2001: Artificial heart.