Curated category
19th-century inventions
- Roberts LoomThe Roberts loom arrived in 1830, and within a few years it had helped push the number of power looms across Britain from around 55,500 to 100,000.
- Incandescent light bulbThe incandescent light bulb is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a filament until it glows. For well over a century, that simple…
- Steam turbineThe steam turbine quietly powers the modern world. In 2022, about 42% of all electricity generated in the United States came from machines built on the same…
- PhotographyOn a busy Paris boulevard in 1838, a man stopped to have his boots polished. He held still for several minutes. That stillness made him the earliest…
- AccordionThe accordion takes its name from a 19th-century German word, Akkordeon, rooted in Akkord, meaning a musical chord or a concord of sounds.
- Clothes dryerThe clothes dryer is a machine most people use without a second thought, tossing in a wet load and walking away. Yet behind that rotating drum lies a…
- Bessemer processThe Bessemer process changed the price of steel from forty pounds per long ton to six or seven pounds - in a single generation.
- BicycleBy the early 21st century, more than 1 billion bicycles existed in the world. The bicycle was invented in Europe in the 19th century, and its basic shape has…
- FilmA locomotive races toward the audience at high speed, and according to legend, people panic and bolt from the theater. That moment captures something about…
- CarThere are over 1.6 billion cars in use worldwide as of 2025, and the count is still climbing fast. A car is a motor vehicle with wheels that runs primarily…
- Internal combustion engineInside an internal combustion engine, a fuel burns with an oxidizer inside a chamber that sits directly in the path of the working fluid.