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Trace the inventions that changed the world

Hardly anything was invented by one person in one moment. See 136 inventions on one line, from the first pottery to the web, then follow any of them through every step, every person, and the inventions it built on.

Choose an invention Download the inventions (CSV)

136 inventions · 382 dated steps · 10 kinds of problem

Every invention stands on others.

Each dot is one invention, at its earliest known step, in the lane for the kind of problem it solved. Lines join each one to the inventions it built on. Select a dot to light up its chain and read its story below.

136 inventions by kind and by date The oldest is Boomerang (c. 40,340–37,330 BC); the newest is World Wide Web (1989). 41,000 BC 3000 BC AD 1 1000 1500 1800 1900 2000 Boomerang, c. 40,340–37,330 BC Pottery, c. 19,000–17,000 BC Maize (corn) domestication, c. 8000–6000 BC Bronze metallurgy, c. 4500 BC Ironworking and iron smelting, c. 4000–3000 BC Plough, c. 4000 BC Lost-wax casting, c. 3700 BC Silk and sericulture, c. 3630 BC Wheel and axle, c. 3600–3300 BC Cuneiform writing, c. 3400–3100 BC Egyptian hieroglyphs, c. 3300–3100 BC Papyrus writing material, c. 3100–2900 BC Alphabet, c. 1840 BC Vulcanized rubber, c. 1650 BC Nixtamalization, c. 1500–1200 BC Sundial, c. 1500 BC Water clock, c. 1417–1379 BC Seed drill, c. 1400 BC Qanat, c. 1000 BC Coinage, c. 650–600 BC Blast furnace and cast iron, c. 500–300 BC Camera obscura, 4th century BC Helicopter, c. 400 BC Abacus and counting board, c. 300 BC Maya script, c. 300–200 BC Zero (placeholder and number), c. 300 BC Water wheel, 3rd century BC Antikythera mechanism, c. 205–87 BC Magnetic compass, c. 200–100 BC Paper, c. 200–100 BC Stirrup, 2nd century BC Astrolabe, 2nd century BC Glass and glassblowing, 1st century BC Sternpost rudder, c. AD 1–100 Steam engine, c. AD 10–70 Porcelain, c. AD 25–220 Woodblock printing, c. AD 100–220 Seismoscope, AD 132 Horse collar, c. AD 220–280 Artemisinin (malaria drug), c. AD 340 Cotton gin, 5th century Friction and safety matches, AD 577 Quipu (knotted-cord records), c. 600–1000 Mechanical clock (escapement), AD 725 Gunpowder, c. AD 800–900 Windmill, c. 800–1000 Hindu–Arabic numerals, c. AD 825 Sextant and octant, AD 994 Paper money, 1023–1024 Movable type, c. 1039–1048 Rocket, c. 1200–1299 Rain gauge, 1247 Eyeglasses, c. 1290 Chinampa (raised-field farming), c. 1325–1521 Inca rope suspension bridge, c. 1400–1532 Printing press with metal movable type, c. 1436–1440 Hangul (Korean alphabet), 1443 Parachute, c. 1470–1485 Airplane, c. 1485–1505 Variolation (smallpox inoculation), c. 1500–1600 Microscope, c. 1590–1620 Thermometer, c. 1594 Flush toilet, 1596 Telescope, 1608 Mechanical calculator, 1623 Barometer, c. 1640 Hot-air balloon, 1709 Jacquard loom (punched-card control), 1725 Marine chronometer, 1735 Lightning rod, 1749 Mechanical refrigeration, 1755 Bifocal spectacles, c. 1760–1785 Spinning jenny, c. 1764 Automobile, 1769 Smallpox vaccine, 1774 Electric battery (voltaic pile), 1780–1791 Steamboat, 1783 Sewing machine, 1790 Optical (semaphore) telegraph, 1792 Moving assembly line, 1803 General anaesthesia, 1804 Steam locomotive and railway, 1804 Internal combustion engine, 1807 Canning, 1810 Electrical telegraph, 1816 Stethoscope, 1816 Bicycle, 1817 Braille, c. 1821 Cherokee syllabary, 1821 Photography, c. 1826–1827 Electric generator (dynamo), 1831 Transformer, 1831 Analytical Engine, 1837 Solar cell, 1839 Incandescent light bulb, 1840 Optical fiber communication, c. 1840–1842 Antiseptic surgery, 1847 Bessemer steel process, c. 1847–1857 Zipper, 1851 Safety elevator, 1852–1854 Telephone, c. 1854–1871 Phonograph and sound recording, 1857 Bakelite (synthetic plastic), 1862 Marshall Islands stick chart, 1862 Pasteurization, 1864 Traffic light, 1868 Television, 1884 AC induction motor, 1885 Hall–Héroult aluminium process, 1886 Radio, 1886–1888 Punched-card tabulating machine, 1889 Three-phase AC power system, 1891 X-ray imaging, 1895 Air conditioning, 1902 Windshield wiper, 1903 Haber–Bosch ammonia process, 1909 Insulin therapy, 1921 Transistor, 1925 Penicillin, 1928 Jet engine, 1930 Programmable digital computer, 1936 Nuclear reactor, 1942 Microwave oven, 1945 Artificial cardiac pacemaker, 1950 Polio vaccines, 1950 Barcode, 1952 Compiler, 1952 Integrated circuit (microchip), 1952 Internet, 1960–1965 CT scanner, 1963–1964 Kevlar fiber, 1965 Oral rehydration therapy, 1968 Microprocessor, 1971 Global Positioning System (GPS), 1973 Mobile (cellular) phone, 1973 World Wide Web, 1989

Showing below: Global Positioning System (GPS), first known 1973 · Computing Read about it

The line stretches: its first stretch covers 38,000 years and its last covers 100, because inventions come faster and faster. Swipe the line sideways to see the rest.

Computing · System

Global Positioning System (GPS)

First known 1973 · United States Department of Defense

The problem

Ships, planes and soldiers needed to know their exact position anywhere, in any weather.

Why it mattered

Timing signals from satellites let a receiver compute its location; it now underpins navigation, mapping and network timing.

Built on Rocket, Programmable digital computer

Every step 3

3 people named: Bradford Parkinson, Roger L. Easton, Ivan A. Getting.

  1. 1973 Concept or design

    The GPS program is started.

    Bradford Parkinson, Roger L. Easton, Ivan A. Getting · United States Wikipedia: Global Positioning System (opens in a new tab)

  2. 1978 Prototype or demonstration

    The first satellite is launched.

    United States Wikipedia: Global Positioning System (opens in a new tab)

  3. 1995 Widespread adoption

    GPS reaches full operational capability.

    Worldwide Wikipedia: Global Positioning System (opens in a new tab)

Inventions in pictures · 41 of 136

See where they fall across history.

The 41 inventions with a picture, oldest first, on the same stretched line as the chart above. The date under each name is the invention's earliest known step; the date on its picture is when the picture was made, often much later. Choose one to read about it.

Before 3000 BC

Cuneiform writing c. 3400–3100 BC A sales contract on a clay tablet from Shuruppak, about 2600 BC.Picture from c. 2600 BC Papyrus writing material c. 3100–2900 BC The Book of the Dead of Hunefer, painted and written on papyrus about 1275 BC.Picture from c. 1275 BC

3000 BC to AD 1

Vulcanized rubber c. 1650 BC A worker at a tire-vulcanizing mold at Firestone, Akron, 1941.Picture from 1941 Water clock c. 1417–1379 BC Al-Jazari’s elephant water clock, from a 1315 copy of his book of ingenious devices.Picture from 1315 Camera obscura 4th century BC Camera obscuras, from Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie, 1763.Picture from 1763 Helicopter c. 400 BC A modern model of Leonardo da Vinci’s aerial screw, built from his drawing; he is not known to have built one.Picture from modern Maya script c. 300–200 BC Pages of the Dresden Codex, a Maya book of the 1200s or later, folded from bark paper.Picture from 1200s or later Zero (placeholder and number) c. 300 BC Numerals from the Bakhshali manuscript, including the dot for zero, as Augustus Hoernle drew them in 1887; not a photograph of the leaves.Picture from 1887 Paper c. 200–100 BC Papermaking in China, from the Tiangong Kaiwu of 1637, centuries after paper was invented.Picture from 1637 Astrolabe 2nd century BC A brass astrolabe made in Yemen in 1291 by the Rasulid prince al-Ashraf ‘Umar.Picture from 1291

AD 1 to 999

Steam engine c. AD 10–70 A Newcomen atmospheric engine, drawn after an engraving of 1717.Picture from after 1717 Woodblock printing c. AD 100–220 The frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra, printed from woodblocks in 868: the oldest dated printed book.Picture from 868 Cotton gin 5th century The drawing for Eli Whitney’s cotton gin patent of 14 March 1794, probably a copy restored after the 1836 Patent Office fire.Picture from 1794 Quipu (knotted-cord records) c. 600–1000 An Inca accountant holding a quipu, drawn by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala about 1615.Picture from c. 1615 Mechanical clock (escapement) AD 725 Su Song’s astronomical clock tower, finished in the 1090s, from a later printed edition of his book.Picture from later edition Gunpowder c. AD 800–900 The gunpowder formula in the Wujing Zongyao, a military manual of 1044, from a later printed edition.Picture from later edition

1000 to 1499

Movable type c. 1039–1048 Two pages of Jikji, printed with metal movable type in Korea in 1377.Picture from 1377 Rocket c. 1200–1299 Robert Goddard’s liquid-fuel rocket of 1926.Picture from 1926 Printing press with metal movable type c. 1436–1440 A Gutenberg Bible, printed in Mainz in 1454–55, open at the start of the Gospel of Luke: two columns of metal type, with the large initials added by hand.Picture from 1454–55 Hangul (Korean alphabet) 1443 A page of the Hunminjeongeum Haerye, the 1446 book that explained the new Korean alphabet (a reprint).Picture from reprint Airplane c. 1485–1505 The first powered flight, at Kitty Hawk on 17 December 1903: Orville Wright flying, Wilbur Wright running alongside.Picture from 1903

1500 to 1799

Hot-air balloon 1709 The Montgolfier brothers’ balloon rising at Versailles on 19 September 1783, in a print of the time.Picture from 1783 Jacquard loom (punched-card control) 1725 A Jacquard mechanism: punched cards choose which threads lift.Picture from 1892 Lightning rod 1749 Currier & Ives’s 1876 print of Benjamin Franklin’s 1752 kite experiment: a romantic picture made more than a century later.Picture from 1876 Spinning jenny c. 1764 A spinning jenny, in an engraving from 1884 after one of 1835.Picture from 1884 Smallpox vaccine 1774 Gaston Mélingue’s 1879 painting imagining Edward Jenner’s first vaccination in 1796; a picture made 83 years later, not a record.Picture from 1879 Optical (semaphore) telegraph 1792 A Chappe semaphore tower, in a 19th-century painting.Picture from 1800s

1800s

General anaesthesia 1804 An early operation under ether at Massachusetts General Hospital, 1847. The Library of Congress catalogs it as a re-enactment.Picture from 1847 Electrical telegraph 1816 A Morse telegraph register of the 1840s, which marked incoming dots and dashes on a paper strip.Picture from 1840s Stethoscope 1816 René Laennec’s own drawings of his wooden stethoscope, from his 1819 book.Picture from 1819 Cherokee syllabary 1821 Sequoyah’s Cherokee syllabary, in a modern rendering of the chart.Picture from modern Analytical Engine 1837 Part of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 1, as assembled in 1833, in an 1853 woodcut. The Analytical Engine itself was never built.Picture from 1853 Incandescent light bulb 1840 The drawing in Thomas Edison’s electric lamp patent, 27 January 1880.Picture from 1880 Telephone c. 1854–1871 Figure 7 of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patent, granted on 7 March 1876: sound spoken into the cone at left travels along the wire as an electric current and comes out of the cone at right.Picture from 1876 Phonograph and sound recording 1857 Thomas Edison with his tinfoil phonograph, about 1878.Picture from c. 1878 Traffic light 1868 The drawing in Garrett Morgan’s traffic signal patent, 1923.Picture from 1923 Punched-card tabulating machine 1889 Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machines counting the 1890 U.S. census, in Scientific American, 30 August 1890.Picture from 1890 X-ray imaging 1895 An X-ray of a hand made by Wilhelm Röntgen at a public lecture on 23 January 1896.Picture from 1896

1900s

Programmable digital computer 1936 Glen Beck and Betty Snyder (later Holberton) programming ENIAC, about 1947.Picture from c. 1947 Polio vaccines 1950 A child receiving oral polio vaccine in Bangladesh.Picture from modern Oral rehydration therapy 1968 A cholera patient drinking oral rehydration solution, 1992.Picture from 1992

Each dot marks an invention's earliest known step; pictures that fall close together stack.

Who invented it?

Usually, more than one person.

86 of the 136 inventions name two or more people in their story, and for 27 no one person is known at all. A famous name is often the person who made an idea practical, sold it, or patented it first, standing on the work of others.

For study

Ideas for family and classroom study.

Younger learners · 20 minutes

Follow a chain

Start at Paper. Follow Led to to woodblock printing, then movable type, then the printing press. Draw the four on a strip of paper, oldest first, and write one sentence about what each one needed from the one before.

Ages 11–14 · 40 minutes

Who gets the credit?

Choose the telephone or the airplane. List every person and step. If you could give one person the credit, who would it be, and what would that leave out? Is there a fairer way to say who invented it?

Ages 15–18 · one or two sessions

Check a date

Pick a step marked Disputed, such as the Bakhshali manuscript's zero. Read its source, then find two more. Why do they disagree, and what kind of evidence would settle it?

Make it your own

Build your own version.

Both lists are free in full: the 136 inventions with the problem each solved, why it mattered, where it began, who contributed and what it built on, and every dated step with its people, place and source. Join them on InventionID to make your own timeline.

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Sources and limits

Each step names its source: mostly Wikipedia articles, and also patents, Founders Online, the American Chemical Society, NobelPrize.org, the Smithsonian and the Science Museum Group. Each was checked for its year and its people's names in the text it cites. Wikidata supplied only identifiers, since its inventor and date fields are often wrong. The descriptions were written for these lists. Coverage is thinner for Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, and dates for knowledge kept outside writing (quipu, stick charts) are when outsiders recorded it.

Pictures are public domain or CC0, or carry no known restrictions (Library of Congress). Each picture's caption says what it shows, its credit and a link to its source.

What each record contains

Explore the dataset and its sources. These fields are in the complete download.

FieldHow to read it
Invention The invention, discovery or technique; one record each, however many people shared it.
Category One of ten: Writing and numbers, Communication, Computing, Medicine, Agriculture and food, Transport, Materials and manufacturing, Energy and power, Instruments and measurement, or Everyday life.
Kind Invention, Discovery, Technique, Process, System, Writing system, Number system, Domestication or Artifact: a discovery such as penicillin is found, not built.
FirstYear Year of the earliest step in its milestones (negative = BC); for the oldest, an estimate.
FirstDate That first date as people write it, such as c. 1440 or 3400–3100 BC.
Contributors Everyone named in its milestones, separated by semicolons; blank when no one person is known.
Place Where its steps happened, separated by semicolons.
Region The wider region, in words.
ModernCountries Today's countries where it began, separated by semicolons.
ProblemSolved What people needed before it existed.
Significance What changed because of it, written for this list.
BuiltOn Earlier inventions in this list it depended on.
LedTo Later inventions in this list that built on it.
Milestones How many dated steps it has in inventionmilestones.
WikidataID Its Wikidata item, for joining with other data; Wikidata's own dates and inventors were not used.

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