15,000 years ago Needles of bone, threads of horse hair
Needles of bone or ivory are now fine enough to take a thread as thin as horse hair

8000 BC Spinning twists fibres into thread
The spindle develops naturally in the process of twisting fibres into thread by hand

7000 BC Implements from beaten copper
Neolithic communities in eastern Anatolia make implements of hammered copper - the first tentative step out of the Stone Age

4400 BC First evidence of loom
The first evidence of a loom comes from this period in Egypt, but some simple method of holding the warp must be as old as weaving

4000 BC Plough pulled by humans
A simple hand-held plough is in use in Egypt and Mesopotamia, at least 1000 years before a heavier version is pulled by oxen

3000 BC Leverage applied
The lever is in use in both Mesopotamia and Egypt

3000 BC Solid wooden wheels for carts
Wheels are in use on carts, particularly where wood is easily available and the ground rough - as in the forests of Europe

3000 BC Potters find use for wheel
Potters in Mesopotamia turn their pots on wheels

2850 BC Worms in Chinese textile industry
The Chinese discover that the cocoon of a certain worm can be unwound, spun as thread and then woven - thus creating silk

2800 BC Bronze Age dawns
Objects are cast in bronze, at Ur in Mesopotamia - introducing what is later called the Bronze Age

2500 BC Cotton garments in India
Yarns of spun cotton survive at Mohenjo-daro, one of the two great cities of the Indus civilization

1500 BC Iron Age begins in Turkey
The Hittites, in Anatolia, are the first people to work iron - introducing what is later called the Iron Age

1400 BC Water clock in Egypt
The clepsydra, or water clock, is developed in Egypt

1000 BC Technology of steel
Iron reheated with carbon is found to be much harder, being transformed into steel

850 BC Pottery glazes in Mesopotamia
The technique of glazing pottery is discovered in Mesopotamia, though used at this stage only for decorative arts arts purposes

800 BC Sundial in Egypt
The earliest surviving sundial is in use in Egypt

513 BC Chinese cast iron
The Chinese become the first people to cast iron, after developing a furnace which can reach a very high temperature

350 BC Pulley in Greece
The earliest description of a pulley appears in a Greek text

250 BC Archimedes screw raises water
To help the king of Syracuse extract water from the hold of a ship (so the story goes), Archimedes invents the screw now known by his name

200 BC Builders get cement
Cement is in use for construction in Asia Minor, possibly developed first in Pergamum

170 BC Parchment in Pergamum
Parchment is invented by Eumenes II, king of Pergamum, according to traditional accounts

50 BC Phoenicians blow glass
The Phoenicians discover that a blob of molten glass can be puffed out to form a hollow vessel

75 Hero invents theodolite
The dioptra, developed by Hero of Alexandria for surveying land, is an early form of theodolite

105 Eunuch invents paper
The eunuch Ts'ai Lun either invents paper or presents a report on the new substance to the Chinese emperor

250 Very old Roman socks
Roman socks, surviving in dry Egyptian tombs, are the earliest known examples of knitting

644 Windmills in use in Persia
A document makes the first known reference to windmills, in use in Persia

751 Paper moves west
Skilled Chinese paper-makers are captured by the Arabs - beginning the slow westward transmission of the technology of paper

1050 Principle of compass discovered
The earliest surviving reference to the principle of the compass occurs in a Chinese manuscript

1064 Clock powered by water wheel
Su Sung, a Buddhist monk, develops in China the principle of the escapement in his tower clock worked by a water wheel

1200 Sternpost rudder
The Chinese develop a feature of great significance in the history of seafaring - a sternpost rudder which is an integral part of the ship

1268 Lens and spectacles invented
The first mention of a lens occurs in a manuscript by Roger Bacon, to be soon followed by the invention of spectacles

1364 Mechanical clock in Padua
A great clock is completed in Padua, regulated mechanically by foliot and escapement

1386 New clock in Salisbury Cathedral
A clock, designed only to strike the hours, is installed in Salisbury cathedral and is still working today

1397 Germany develops harpsichord
The keyboard of the organ is adapted in Germany to strings, thus providing the harpsichord - first mentioned in a manuscript of this year

1450 Spring mechanism in domestic clocks
The oldest surviving spring mechanism (enabling clocks to become small and portable) is put to work

1500 Watches worn on ribbon
The first watches, made in Nuremberg, are spherical clocks about three inches in diameter, worn usually on a ribbon round the neck

1550 Easy fire with tinderbox
The tinderbox provides a new way of making fire - with just flint, steel and tinder

1589 Lee knitting machine 1589
An English clergyman, William Lee, develops the world's first industrial machinery, to knit stockings

1590 Dutch spectacle maker invents microscope
Zacharias Janssen, a spectacle maker in the Dutch town of Middelburg, creates the first microscope

1608 Dutch spectacle maker discovers telescope
A lucky accident reveals the principle of the telescope to a spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey. In the Dutch town of Middelburg

1609 Galileo profits from Dutch telescope
Galileo improves on the Dutch telescope (and doubles his salary by presenting one to his employer)

1643 Birth of barometer
Evangelista Torricelli, observing variations in a column of mercury, discovers the principle of the barometer

1650 Von Guericke devises air pump
A German burgomaster, Otto von Guericke, devises an air pump capable of creating a vacuum

1656 Pendulum clock works
Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens constructs the first pendulum clock, on Christmas Day in the Hague

1675 Pocket watch breakthrough
Christiaan Huygens, inventor of the pendulum clock, now develops the hairspring - of great future importance in watches

1680 Tompion uses hair spring
The English clockmaker Thomas Tompion is the first to make successful use of the hairspring in pocket watches

1685 Pressure cooker
Denis Papin, a French scientist working in England, demonstrates a pressure cooker fitted with a safety valve

1698 Piano invented in Florence
A maker of harpsichords in Florence, Bartolomeo Cristofori, develops the piano ('soft') and forte ('loud') feature which leads to the piano

1709 Coke to smelt pig iron
Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale discovers the use of coke in the smelting of pig iron

1714 Fahrenheit takes temperature
Fahrenheit perfects the mercury thermometer and decides on a 180-degree interval between the freezing and boiling points of water

1714 Prize offered for chronometer
The British government offers a massive £20,000 prize for a chronometer capable of keeping accurate time at sea

1731 Hadley and the sextant
English maker of telescopes John Hadley designs the instrument which evolves into the standard sextant used at sea

1733 Kay's shuttle flies
John Kay, working in the Lancashire woollen industry, patents the flying shuttle to speed up weaving

1742 Celsius goes centigrade
Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius proposes 100 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water

1744 Benjamin Franklin designs a stove
Franklin publishes his design for an improved stove in Account of the New Invented Pennsylvania Fire Place

1746 Millennium clock in Paris
Monsieur Passemont constructs in Paris a millennium clock which can record the date in any year up to AD 9999

1761 Harrison's chronometer is accurate
John Harrison's fourth chronometer is only five seconds out at the end of a test journey from England to Jamaica

1764 Watt condenses steam
James Watt ponders on the inefficiency of contemporary steam engines and invents the condenser

1764 Hargreaves invents jenny
Lancashire spinner James Hargreaves conceives the idea of the spinning jenny, with multiple spindles worked from a single wheel

1766 Le Roy designs a practical chronometer
Pierre le Roy's chronometer, as accurate as Harrison's and cheaper to construct, is set to become the standard model

1769 Cugnot's steam wagon
French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot successfully tests a steam wagon, probably the first working mechanical vehicle

1771 Water frame boosts spinning
English entrepreneur Richard Arkwright adds water power to spinning by means of the water frame

1779 Crompton breeds mule from jenny
Samuel Crompton perfects the mule, a machine for spinning that combines the merits of Hargreave's jenny and Arkwright's water frame

1782 First ascent of a balloon
French paper manufacturer Joseph Montgolfier sends a hot-air balloon 3000 feet (1000m) into the air, in front of a crowd in Annonay

1783 Hydrogen rivals hot air
Ten days after the first human ascent in a hot-air balloon the feat is repeated, again in Paris, in a version lifted by hydrogen

1783 Sheep, cock and duck aloft
Louis XVI watches through his telescope the first balloon flight with living passengers – a sheep, a cock and a duck

1783 First human flight
A hot-air balloon rises from a Paris garden, carrying the first human aeronauts – Pilàtre de Rozier and the marquis d'Arlandes

1784 Franklin needs bifocals
Benjamin Franklin, irritated at needing two pairs of spectacles, commissions from a lens-grinder the first bifocals

1784 Cort puddles iron
English ironmaster Henry Cort patents a process for puddling iron which produces a pure and malleable metal

1787 Watt busy with the governor
Scottish engineer James Watt devises the governor, the first example of industrial automation

1791 Telegraph and semaphore
French inventor Claude Chappe develops a hilltop signalling system, for which he coins the words telegraph and semaphore

1793 Gin speeds cotton production
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, enormously speeding up the process of separating cotton fibres from the seeds

1807 Percussion cap
A Scottish clergyman, Alexander Forsyth, invents the percussion cap to help in his pursuit of wildfowl

1814 Times printed on steam press
The Times, England's oldest daily newspaper, becomes the first to print on a steam press

1815 Davy lamp for miners
English chemist Humphry Davy invents a safety lamp that shields the naked flame and prevents explosions in mines

1816 French physician devises stethoscope
René Laënnec, reluctant to press his ear to the chest of a young female patient, finds a solution in the stethoscope

1822 Fresnel develops lens
French physicist Augustin Jean Fresnel develops a more efficient form of lens for use in lighthouses

1835 Fox Talbot exposes negative
Fox Talbot exposes the first photographic negatives, among them a view looking out through an oriel window in Lacock Abbey

1838 Morse's electric telegraph
US inventor Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration, in Philadelphia, of his electric telegraph

1841 Fox Talbot patents calotype
Fox Talbot patents the 'calotype', introducing the negative-positive process that becomes standard in photography

1844 World's first telegraph line
Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail complete the first telegraph line, between New York and Baltimore

1846 Paris gunsmith invents bullet
The self-contained metal cartridge, with a percussion cap in its base, is patented by a Paris gunsmith named Houiller

1851 Collodion process in photography
English photographer Frederick Scott Archer publishes the details of his collodion process, a marked improvement on the earlier calotype negative

1851 Helmholtz invents ophthalmoscope
German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz invents the ophthalmoscope, making it possible for a doctor to examine the inside of a patient's eye

1853 Hypodermic syringe
The hypodermic syringe with a plunger is simultaneously developed in France and in Scotland

1854 Otis makes elevator safe
US inventor Elisha Otis dramatically demonstrates his new safety elevator, cutting the rope suspending his platform in New York's Crystal Palace

1857 First safety elevator
The Haughwout Store, a five-storey building in New York, instals the first Otis safety elevator

1858 First Atlantic cable
US entrepreneur Cyrus W. Field succeeds in laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic, but it fails after only a month

1860 Bunsen Burner
German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and technician Peter Desdega perfect the non-luminous gas burner for use in the laboratory

1867 Barbed wire patented in USA
The invention of barbed wire is patented in the USA by Lucien Smith, designed to fence in cattle but also a protection for the wheat fields of the midwest plains

1867 Nobel invents dynamite
Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patents dynamite, making the volatile explosive nitroglycerine safer by combining it with kieselguhr

1871 Meucci files telephone patent
Italian US immigrant Antonio Meucci files a patent in New York for the invention of the telephone

1875 Crookes invents radiometer
William Crookes invents the radiometer, in which light causes four vanes to rotate in a bulb containing gas at low pressure

1876 'Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.'
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first practical use of his telephone, summoning his assistant from another room with the words 'Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.'

1876 Edison opens Menlo Park
The US inventor Thomas Edison opens an experimental laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, calling it his 'invention factory'

1876 Bell goes public with telephone
Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates his new invention, the telephone, at the US Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia

1877 Edison's phonograph
The human voice is recorded for the first time when Thomas Edison recites 'Mary had a little lamb' into his newly patented phonograph

1878 Swan demonstrates light bulb
English physicist Joseph Swan demonstrates a practical electric light bulb, using an incandescent carbon filament in a vacuum

1879 Swan patents bromide paper
English physicist Joseph Swan receives a patent for bromide paper, which becomes the standard material for printing photographs

1879 Edison's first practical electric light
Thomas Edison develops a long-lasting carbon filament light bulb (traditionally 40 hours) and is able to light his Menlo Park laboratory with 30 bulbs

1881 Savoy Theatre lit by electricity
London's new Savoy Theatre is the first public building in the world to be lit throughout by electricity

1884 Cigarettes mass-produced
US entrepreneur James 'Buck' Duke wins exclusive rights in a machine that can manufacture 100,000 cigarettes a day

1887 First contact lenses
A German physiologist, Adolf Fick, grinds a pair of lenses to fit snugly in contact with a patient's eyeballs

1891 Lilienthal makes first guided flight in glider
German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal achieves the first of many guided flights in a glider, from a hill near Potsdam

1893 Hornby patents Meccano
Frank Hornby patents in Liverpool his Meccano construction system for children

1893 AC prevails thanks to Westinghouse
George Westinghouse demonstrates the advantages of AC (Alternating Current) when he provides 100,000 lights for the Chicago World's Fair

1895 Marconi transmits radio signal
21-year-old Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in transmitting a radio signal more than a mile at his home near Bologna

1896 Lilienthal dies in air crash
Otto Lilienthal dies when a wing fractures on his glider and he crashes from a height of 17 metres

1896 Marconi patents radio
22-year-old Guglielmo Marconi takes out a patent in Britain for the invention of radio

1899 Wireless across English Channel
Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in transmitting a wireless telegraph message across the English Channel

1899 Radio sensation from ships at sea
Marconi equips two ships to send radio reports to New York on the progress of the yachts racing for the America's Cup

1900 Successful flight by Zeppelin
Ferdinand Zeppelin's first dirigible makes its test flight from a floating hangar on the Lake of Constance

1900 Wright brothers build glider
Wilbur and Orville Wright test a biplane glider at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina

1903 Wright brothers achieve powered flight
Orville Wright travels 40 yards in the first successful powered flight, at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina

1904 Gillette's razor
US inventor King C. Gillette receives a patent for a disposable safety razor

1905 First diesel-powered vessel
The first boat to be powered by a combustion engine, the 125-ton vessel Venoga, is launched on Lake Geneva

1907 Radio receiver patented
US inventor Lee De Forest patents the Audion, a sensitive vacuum-tube radio receiver

1907 Patent for silk-screen process
Samuel Simon, working in Manchester, takes out a patent for the use of silk to support a stencil

1908 Cellophane
Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger patents cellophane, a flexible transparent film made from cellulose

1911 Lewis machine gun
US inventor Isaac Newton Lewis patents a lighter version of the machine gun

1912 First flying boat
US aeroplane designer Glenn Curtis demonstrates the potential of the first successful flying boat, The Flying Fish

1912 Selandia goes to sea on diesel
The first sea-going diesel-powered ship, the Selandia, is constructed and launched in Denmark

1915 Pyrex launched in USA
The Corning Glass Company launches Pyrex, a new range of heat-resistant kitchen ware made from borosilicate glass

1915 Edison's telescribe
Thomas Edison invents a machine to record telephone conversations, calling it the telescribe

1915 Churchill supports the tank
Winston Churchill is a firm supporter of a new invention, the tank, encouraging its initial development while still at the Admiralty

1915  April 1 Machine gun in French fighter plane
The French aviator Roland Garros fires a machine gun through the propeller in his fighter plane, using metal plates to deflect any bullets that hit the propeller

1915 June Advantage for German fighter planes
Dutch aircraft designer Anton Fokker, working for the Germans, vastly improves the Roland Garros technique for firing machine guns through the propellers of fighter planes

1916 Nissen Hut
Captain Peter Nissen, a Canadian mining engineer, designs the Nissen Hut for the Allied armies

1916 September 15 First use of tanks
Eleven British tanks go into pioneering but ineffective action at the battle of the Somme

1917 November 20 Tanks impress at Cambrai
Suitable ground is selected by the British at the battle of Cambrai for the first serious deployment of their new tanks

1924 Wankel conceives the rotary engine
German scientist Felix Wankel builds a model of a rotary engine, thirty years before the first prototype is manufactured

1928 Fibreoptic imaging
British inventor John Logie Baird secures a patent for fibreoptic imaging

1930 Whittle patents jet
British inventor Frank Whittle takes out a patent for a jet engine

1930 Scotch tape
US inventor Richard Drew develops Scotch Brand Cellulose Tape, the world's first transparent tape

1938 Nylon is introduced
The Du Pont Corporation begins manufacture of a new synthetic silk yarn, subsequently known as nylon

1942  April Wallis designs rotating bombs
British engineer Barnes Wallis designs a bouncing and rotating bomb for use against German dams

1946 ENIAC
ENIAC is the world's first general-purpose electronic calculator

1947 Land demonstrates Polaroid camera
US scientist Edwin Land demonstrates a new device, the Polaroid camera, to the Optical Society of America

1956 First synthesizer
The first true synthesizer is put on the market by RCA Victor

1959 Hovercraft crosses Channel
The first prototype of the Hovercraft, designed by British engineer Christopher Cockerell, crosses the English Channel

1969 First microchip
An engineer in the newly formed Intel Corporation designs the first programmable microchip

1969 ARPANET established
The ARPANET, linking computers in four US cities, is the first step towards the internet

1981 The first PC
The IBM PC 5150, the first Personal Computer, is launched with a chip by Intel and software by Microsoft

1983 Digital synthesizer
The first all-digital synthesizer, the DX7, is put on the market by Yamaha

1983 MIDI becomes electronic standard
The US system MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) becomes the industry standard for electronic communication in music

1983 Compact disc
Philips and Sony jointly introduce a new device, the compact disc

1983 Apple adds mouse
A new version of the Apple adds the mouse to personal computers

2014 November 12 Spacecraft lands on comet
The uncrewed Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object.