Suvarna Garge (Editor)

List of British innovations and discoveries

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List of British innovations and discoveries

The following is a list and timeline of innovations as well as inventions and discoveries that involved British people or the United Kingdom including predecessor states in the history of the formation of the United Kingdom. This list covers innovation and invention in the mechanical, electronic, and industrial fields, as well as medicine, military devices and theory, artistic and scientific discovery and innovation, and ideas in religion and ethics.

Contents

The scientific revolution in 17th century Europe stimulated innovation and discovery in Britain. Experimentation was considered central to innovation by groups such as the Royal Society, which was founded in 1660. The English patent system evolved from its medieval origins into a system that recognised intellectual property; this encouraged invention and spurred on the Industrial Revolution from the late 18th century. During the 19th century, innovation in Britain led to revolutionary changes in manufacturing, the development of factory systems, and growth of transportation by railway and steam ship that spread around the world. In the 20th century, Britain's rate of innovation, measured by patents registered, slowed in comparison to other leading economies. Nonetheless, science and technology in Britain continued to develop rapidly in absolute terms.

17th century

1605
  • Bacon's cipher, a method of steganography (hiding a secret message), is devised by Sir Francis Bacon.
    • 1614
  • John Napier publishes his work Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio introducing the concept of logarithms which simplifies mathematical calculations.
    • 1620
  • The first navigable submarine is designed by William Bourne and built by Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel.
    • 1625
  • Early experiments in water desalination are conducted by Sir Francis Bacon.
    • 1657
  • Anchor escapement for clock making is invented by Robert Hooke.
    • 1667
  • A tin can telephone is devised by Robert Hooke.
    • 1698
  • The first commercial steam-powered device, a water pump, is developed by Thomas Savery.

    • 18th century

    1701
  • An improved seed drill is designed by Jethro Tull. It is used to spread seeds around a field with a rotating handle which makes seed planting a lot easier.
    • 1712
  • The first practical steam engine is designed by Thomas Newcomen.
    • 1730
  • The Rotherham plough, the first plough to be widely built in factories and commercially successful, is patented by Joseph Foljambe.
    • 1737
  • Andrew Rodger invents the winnowing machine.
    • 1740
  • The first electrostatic motors are developed by Andrew Gordon in the 1740s.
    • 1744
  • The earliest known reference to baseball is made in a publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of "base-ball" and a woodcut that shows a field set-up somewhat similar to the modern game—though in a triangular rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead of ground-level bases.
    • 1753
  • Invention of hollow-pipe drainage is credited to Sir Hugh Dalrymple who died in 1753.
    • 1765
  • James Small advances the design of the plough using mathematical methods to improve on the Scotch plough of James Anderson of Hermiston.
    • 1767
  • Adam Ferguson (1767), often known as ‘The Father of Modern Sociology’, publishes his work An Essay on the History of Civil Society.
    • 1776
  • Scottish economist Adam Smith, often known as 'The father of modern economics', publishes his seminal text The Wealth of Nations.
  • The Watt steam engine, conceived in 1765, goes into production. It is the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric.
    • 1781
  • The Iron Bridge, the first arch bridge made of cast iron, is built by Abraham Darby III.
    • 1783
  • A pioneer of selective breeding and artificial selection, Robert Bakewell, forms the Dishley Society to promote and advance the interests of livestock breeders.
    • 1786
  • The threshing machine is invented by Andrew Meikle.
    • 1798
  • Edward Jenner invents the first vaccine.

    • 19th century

    1802
  • Sir Humphry Davy creates the first incandescent light by passing a current from a battery, at the time the world's most powerful, through a thin strip of platinum.
    • 1804
  • The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey is made by Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive.
    • 1807
  • Alexander John Forsyth invents percussion ignition, the foundation of modern firearms.
    • 1814
  • Robert Salmon patents the first haymaking machine.
    • 1822
  • Charles Babbage proposes the idea for a Difference engine, an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions, in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables".
    • 1823
  • An improved system of soil drainage is developed by James Smith.
    • 1825
  • William Sturgeon invents the electromagnet.
    • 1828
  • A mechanical reaping machine is invented by Patrick Bell.
    • 1831
  • Electromagnetic induction, the operating principle of transformers and nearly all modern electric generators, is discovered by Michael Faraday.
    • 1835
  • Scotsman James Bowman Lindsay invents the incandescent light bulb.
    • 1836
  • The Marsh test for detecting arsenic poisoning is developed by James Marsh.
    • 1837
  • Charles Babbage describes an Analytical Engine, the first mechanical, general-purpose programmable computer.
  • The Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, first commercially successful electric telegraph, is designed by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke.
    • 1839
  • A pedal bicycle is invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan.
    • 1840
  • Sir Rowland Hill reforms the postal system with Uniform Penny Post and introduces the first postage stamp, the Penny Black, on 1 May.
    • 1841
  • Alexander Bain patents his design produced the prior year for an electric clock.
    • 1842
  • Superphosphate, the first chemical fertiliser, is patented by John Bennet Lawes.
    • 1843
  • SS Great Britain, the world's first steam-powered, screw propeller-driven passenger liner with an iron hull is launched. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was at the time the largest ship afloat.
  • Alexander Bain (inventor) patents a design for a facsimile machine.
    • 1846
  • A design for a chemical telegraph is patented by Alexander Bain. Bain's telegraph is installed on the wires of the Electric Telegraph Company on one line. Later, in 1850, it was used in America by Henry O'Reilly.
    • 1847
  • Boolean algebra, the basis for digital logic, is introduced by George Boole in his book The Mathematical Analysis of Logic.
    • 1851
  • Improvements to the facsimile machine are demonstrated by Frederick Bakewell at the 1851 World's Fair in London.
    • 1852
  • A steam-driven ploughing engine is invented by John Fowler.
    • 1853
  • English physician Alexander Wood develops a medical hypodermic syringe with a needle fine enough to pierce the skin.
    • 1854
  • The Playfair cipher, the first literal digraph substitution cipher, is invented by Charles Wheatstone and later promoted for use by Lord Playfair.
    • 1868
  • Mushet steel, the first commercial steel alloy, is invented by Robert Forester Mushet.
  • Thomas Humber develops a bicycle design with the pedals driving the rear wheel.
  • The first manually operated gas-lamp traffic lights are installed outside the Houses of Parliament on 10 December.
    • 1869
  • A bicycle design is developed by Thomas McCall.
    • 1873
  • Discovery of the photoconductivity of the element selenium by Willoughby Smith. This led to the invention of photoelectric cells (solar panels), including those used in the earliest television systems.
    • 1876
  • Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone in the U.S.
  • The first safety bicycle is designed by the English engineer Harry John Lawson (also called Henry). Unlike the penny-farthing, the rider's feet were within reach of the ground, making it safer to stop.
    • 1878
  • Demonstration of an incandescent light bulb by Joseph Wilson Swan.
    • 1883
  • The Fresno scraper, which became a model for modern earth movers, is invented in California by Scottish emigrant James Porteous.
    • 1884
  • The light switch is invented by John Holmes.
    • 1885
  • The first commercially successful safety bicycle, called the Rover, is designed by John Kemp Starley. The following year Dan Albone produces a derivative of this called the Ivel Safety cycle.
    • 1886
  • Walter Parry Haskett Smith, often called the Father of Rock Climbing in Britain, completes his first ascent of the Napes Needle, solo and without any protective equipment.
    • 1892
  • Sir Francis Galton devises a method for classifying fingerprints that proved useful in forensic science.
    • 1897
  • The world's first wireless station is established on the Isle of Wight.

    • 20th century

    1901
  • The first wireless signal across the Atlantic is sent from Cornwall in England and received in Newfoundland in Canada (a distance of 2,100 miles) by Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi.
    • 1901
  • The first commercially successful light farm tractor is patented by Dan Albone.
    • 1907
  • Henry Joseph Round discovers electroluminescence, the principle behind LEDs.
    • 1908
  • American Samuel Franklin Cody makes the first official flight of a piloted heavier than air machine in Britain.
    • 1910
  • The first formal driving school, the British School of Motoring, is founded in London.
  • Frank Barnwell establishes the fundamentals of aircraft design at the University of Glasgow, having made the first powered flight in Scotland the previous year.
    • 1918
  • The Royal Air Force becomes the first independent air force in the world
    • 1922
  • In Sorbonne, France, Englishman Edwin Belin demonstrates a mechanical scanning device, an early precursor to modern television.
    • 1926
  • John Logie Baird makes the first public demonstration of a mechanical television on 26 January (the first successful transmissions were in early 1923 and February 1924). Later, in July 1928, he demonstrated the first colour television.
    • 1926
  • The first traffic lights in Britain were deployed in Piccadilly Circus (over a decade after their first use in America).
    • 1930
  • The jet engine is patented by Sir Frank Whittle.
    • 1932
  • The Anglepoise lamp is patented by George Carwardine, a design consultant specialising in vehicle suspension systems.
    • 1933
  • The Cat's eye road marking is invented by Percy Shaw and patented the following year.
    • 1936
  • English economist John Maynard Keynes publishes his work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money which challenged the established classical economics and led to the Keynesian Revolution in the way economists thought.
  • The world's first public broadcasts of high-definition television are made from Alexandra Palace, North London, by the BBC Television Service. It is the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting.
    • 1937
  • First available in the London area, the 999 telephone number is introduced as the world's first emergency telephone service.
    • 1939
  • The initial design of the Bombe, an electromechanical device to assist with the deciphering of messages encrypted by the Enigma machine, is produced by Alan Turing at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS).
    • 1943
  • Colossus computer begines working, the world's first electronic digital programmable computer.
    • 1949
  • The Manchester Mark 1 computer, significant because of its pioneering inclusion of index registers, ran its first programme error free. Its chief designers are Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn.
    • 1951
  • The concept of microprogramming is developed by Maurice Wilkes from the realisation that the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of a computer could be controlled by a miniature, highly specialised computer program in high-speed ROM.
  • LEO is the first business application (a payroll system) on an electronic computer.
    • 1952
  • Autocode, regarded as the first compiled programming language, is developed for the Manchester Mark 1 by Alick Glennie.
    • 1953
  • Englishman Francis Crick and American James Watson of Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, analyise X-ray crystallography data taken by Rosalind Franklin of King's College, to decipher the double helical structure of DNA. They share the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work.
    • 1955
  • The first accurate atomic clock, a caesium standard based on a certain transition of the caesium-133 atom, is built by Louis Essen at the National Physical Laboratory. This clock enabled further development of general relativity, and started a basis for an enhanced SI unit system.
    • 1959
  • Metrovick 950, the first commercial transistor computer, is built by the Metropolitan-Vickers company.
    • 1963
  • High strength carbon fibre is invented by engineers at the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
  • The Lava lamp is invented by British accountant Edward Craven Walker.
    • 1964
  • The first theory of the Higgs boson is put forward by Peter Higgs, a particle-physics theorist at the University of Edinburgh, and five other physicists. The particle is discovered in 2012 at CERN's Large Hadron Collider and its existence is confirmed in 2013.
    • 1965
  • A pioneer of the development of dairy farming systems, Rex Paterson, set out his principles for labour management.
    • 1966
  • The cash machine and personal identification number system are patented by James Goodfellow.
    • 1969
  • The first carbon fibre fabric in the world is weaved in Stockport, England.
    • 1970
  • One of the first handheld televisions, the MTV-1, is developed by Sir Clive Sinclair.
    • 1973
  • Clifford Cocks develops the algorithm for the RSA cipher while working at the Government Communications Headquarters, approximately three years before it was independently developed by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman at MIT. The British government declassified the 1973 invention in 1997.
    • 1977
  • Steptoe and Edwards successfully carried out a pioneering conception which resulted in the birth of the world's first baby to be conceived by IVF, Louise Brown on 25 July 1978, in Oldham General Hospital, Greater Manchester, UK.
    • 1979
  • The tree shelter is invented by Graham Tuley to protect tree seedlings.
  • One of the first laptop computers, the GRiD Compass, is designed by Bill Moggridge.
    • 1984
  • DNA profiling is discovered by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester.
  • One of the world's first computer games to use 3D graphics, Elite, is developed by David Braben and Ian Bell.
    • 1989
  • Sir Tim Berners-Lee writes a proposal for what will become the World Wide Web. The following year, he specified HTML, the hypertext language, and HTTP, the protocol.
  • The Touchpad pointing device is first developed for Psion computers.
    • 1991
  • A patent for an iris recognition algorithm is filed by John Daugman while working at the University of Cambridge which became the basis of all publicly deployed iris recognition systems.
  • The source code for the world's first web browser, called WorldWideWeb (later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion with the World Wide Web), is released into the public domain by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
    • 1992
  • The first SMS message in the world is sent over the UK's GSM network.
    • 1995
  • The world's first national DNA database is developed.
    • 1996
  • Animal cloning, a female domestic sheep became the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, by scientists at the Roslin institute.
    • 1997
  • Scottish scientists at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, produce the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
  • The ThrustSSC jet-propelled car, designed and built in England, sets the land speed record.

    • 21st century

    2003
  • Beagle 2, a British landing spacecraft that forms part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission lands on the surface of Mars but fails to communicate. It is located twelve years later in a series of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that suggest two of Beagle's four solar panels failed to deploy, blocking the spacecraft's communications antenna.
    • 2004
  • Graphene is isolated from graphite at the University of Manchester by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.
    • 2005
  • The design for a machine to lay rail track, the "Trac Rail Transposer", is patented and goes on to be used by Network Rail in the United Kingdom and the New York Subway in the United States.
    • 2012
  • Raspberry Pi, a single-board computer, is launched and quickly becomes popular for education in programming and computer science.
    • 2014
  • The European Space Agency's Philae lander leaves the Rosetta spacecraft and makes the first ever landing on a comet. The Philae lander was built with significant British expertise and technology, alongside that of several other countries.

    • Ceramics

  • Bone china - Josiah Spode
  • Ironstone china - Charles James Mason
  • Jasperware - Josiah Wedgwood

    • Clock making

  • Anchor escapement - Robert Hooke
  • Balance wheel - Robert Hooke
  • Coaxial escapement - George Daniels
  • Grasshopper escapement, H1, H2, H3 and H4 watches (a watch built to solve the longitude measurement problem) - John Harrison
  • Gridiron pendulum - John Harrison
  • Lever escapement The greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watches - Thomas Mudge
  • Longcase clock or grandfather clock - William Clement
  • Marine chronometer - John Harrison
  • Self-winding watch - John Harwood

    • Clothing manufacturing

  • Derby Rib (stocking manufacture) - Jedediah Strutt
  • Flying shuttle - John Kay
  • Mauveine, the first synthetic organic dye - William Henry Perkin
  • Power loom - Edmund Cartwright
  • Spinning frame - John Kay
  • Spinning jenny - James Hargreaves
  • Spinning mule - Samuel Crompton
  • Sewing machine - Thomas Saint in 1790
  • Water frame - Richard Arkwright
  • Stocking frame - William Lee
  • Warp-loom and Bobbinet - John Heathcoat

    • Communications

  • Christmas card - Sir Henry Cole
  • Valentines card - Modern card 18th century England
  • Pencil - Cumbria, England
  • Mechanical pencil - Sampson Mordan and John Isaac Hawkins in 1822.
  • Clockwork radio - Trevor Baylis
  • Radio, the first transmission using a Spark Transmitter, achieving a range of approximately 500 metres. - David E. Hughes
  • Electromagnetic induction & Faraday's law of induction Began as a series of experiments by Faraday that later became some of the first ever experiments in the discovery of radio waves and the development of radio - Michael Faraday
  • Pioneer in the development of radio communication - William Eccles
  • Pioneering work on the development of the long-lasting materials that made today's liquid crystal displays possible - Team headed by Sir Brynmor Jones and Developed by Scotsman George Gray and Englishman Ken Harrison In conjunction with the Royal Radar Establishment and the University of Hull
  • Pioneer of stereo - Alan Blumlein
  • Shorthand - Timothy Bright (1550/1-1615). Invented first modern shorthand
  • Pitman Shorthand - Isaac Pitman
  • Proposed the existence of the Kennelly–Heaviside layer, a layer of ionised gas that reflects radio waves around the Earth's curvature - Oliver Heaviside
  • Typewriter - First patent for a device similar to a typewriter granted to Henry Mill in 1714.
  • the world's first automatic totalisator - George Julius
  • pioneer in the use of fiber optics in telecommunications - Charles K. Kao and George Hockham
  • The originator of the concept of geostationary satellites for the use of telecommunications relays - Arthur C Clarke
  • Teletext Information Service - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
  • Print stereotyping - William Ged (1690–1749)
  • Roller printing - Thomas Bell (patented 1783)
  • The adhesive postage stamp and the postmark - James Chalmers (1782–1853)
  • Universal Standard Time: Sir Sandford Fleming (1827–1915)
  • Light signalling between ships: Admiral Philip H. Colomb (1831–1899)
  • The teleprinter - Frederick G. Creed (1871–1957)
  • Radar - Robert Watson-Watt (1892–1973)
  • The underlying principles of Radio - James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879)

    • Computing

  • ACE and Pilot ACE - Alan Turing
  • ARM architecture The ARM CPU design is the microprocessor architecture of 98% of mobile phones and every smartphone.
  • First programmer - Ada Lovelace
  • First Programming Language Analytical Engine ordercode - Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace
  • Argo system the world's first electrically powered mechanical analogue computer (also called at the Argo Clock) - Arthur Pollen
  • Sumlock ANITA calculator the world's first all-electronic desktop calculator - Bell Punch Co
  • The world's first 'slimline' pocket calculator, the Sinclair Executive amongst other electrical/electronic innovations - Sir Clive Sinclair
  • Osborne 1 The first commercially successful portable computer, the precursor to the Laptop computer - Adam Osborne
  • Heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel - Andrew Morton & Alan Cox
  • Flip-flop circuit, which became the basis of electronic memory (Random-access memory) in computers - William Eccles and F. W. Jordan
  • Universal Turing machine - The UTM model is considered to be the origin of the "stored program computer" used by John von Neumann in 1946 for his "Electronic Computing Instrument" that now bears von Neumann's name: the von Neumann architecture, also UTM is considered the first operating system - Alan Turing
  • The development of packet switching co-invented by British engineer Donald Davies and American Paul Baran - National Physical Laboratory, London England
  • The first person to conceptualise the Integrated Circuit - Geoffrey W.A. Dummer
  • The first modern computer Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine - (SSEM), nicknamed Baby. Was the world's first stored-program computer. Developed by Frederic Calland Williams & Tom Kilburn
  • Williams tube - a cathode ray tube used to electronically store binary data (Can store roughly 500 to 1,000 bits of data) - Freddie Williams & Tom Kilburn
  • Ferranti Mark 1 - Also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer was the first computer to use the principles of early CPU design (Central processing unit) - Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn - Also the world's first successful commercially available general-purpose electronic computer.
  • The oldest known recordings of computer generated music were played by the Ferranti Mark 1 computer - Christopher Strachey
  • EDSAC was the first complete, fully functional computer to use the von Neumann architecture, the basis of every modern computer - Maurice Wilkes
  • EDSAC 2 the successor to the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator or EDSAC. It was the first computer to have a microprogrammed (Microcode)control unit and a bit slice hardware architecture - Team headed by Maurice Wilkes
  • The first graphical computer game OXO on the EDSAC at Cambridge University - A.S. Douglas
  • Atlas Computer, it was arguably the world's first supercomputer and was the fastest computer in the world until the release of the American CDC 6600 Also This machine introduced many modern architectural concepts: spooling, interrupts, pipelining, interleaved memory, virtual memory and paging - Team headed by Tom Kilburn
  • Digital audio player (MP3 Player) - Kane Kramer
  • Co-Inventor of the world's first trackball device - developed by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon Taylor
  • The world's first handheld computer (Psion Organiser) - Psion PLC
  • The first rugged computer - Husky (computer)
  • First PC-compatible palmtop computer (Atari Portfolio) - Ian Cullimore
  • Denotational semantics - Christopher Strachey pioneer in programming language design
  • Wolfram's 2-state 3-symbol Turing machine - Stephen Wolfram

    • Engineering

  • Adjustable spanner - Edwin Beard Budding
  • Backhoe loader - Joseph Cyril Bamford
  • Cavity magnetron - John Randall and Harry Boot critical component for Microwave generation in Microwave ovens and high powered Radios (Radar)
  • Carey Foster bridge - Carey Foster
  • Electric transformer - Michael Faraday
  • First coke-consuming blast furnace - Abraham Darby I
  • First working universal joint - Robert Hooke
  • Crookes tube the first cathode ray tubes - William Crookes
  • First compression ignition engine aka the Diesel Engine - Herbert Akroyd Stuart
  • Hydrogen Fuel Cell - William Robert Grove
  • Modified version of the Newcomen steam engine (Pickard engine) - James Pickard
  • Compound steam turbine - Charles Algernon Parsons
  • Francis turbine - James B. Francis
  • Gas turbine - John Barber (engineer)
  • Microturbines - Chris and Paul Bladon of Bladon Jets
  • The world's first oil refinery and a process of extracting paraffin from coal laying the foundations for the modern oil industry - James Young (1811–1883)
  • Pendulum governor - Frederick Lanchester
  • Contributed to the development of Radar - Scotsman Robert Watson-Watt and Englishman Arnold Frederic Wilkins
  • Internal combustion engine - Samuel Brown
  • Fourdrinier machine - Henry Fourdrinier
  • Microchip - Geoffrey W.A. Dummer
  • light-emitting diode (did not invent the first visible light, only theorised)- H. J. Round
  • Hydraulic accumulator
  • Two-stroke engine - Joseph Day
  • Pioneer of radio guidance systems - Archibald Low
  • Screw-cutting lathe - Henry Hindley
  • The first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe - Henry Maudslay
  • The first electrical measuring instrument, the electroscope - William Gilbert
  • Rectilinear Slide rule - William Oughtred
  • Devised a standard for screw threads leading to its widespread acceptance - Joseph Whitworth
  • The Wimshurst machine is an Electrostatic generator for producing high voltages - James Wimshurst
  • Hot bulb engine or heavy oil engine - Herbert Akroyd Stuart
  • Hydraulic crane - William George Armstrong
  • Vacuum diode also known as a vacuum tube - John Ambrose Fleming
  • Linear motor is a multi-phase alternating current (AC) electric motor - Charles Wheatstone then improved by Eric Laithwaite
  • Lynch Motor - Cedric Lynch
  • Designed water and sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe - William Lindley
  • Concrete Canvas - Will Crawford and Peter Brewin
  • The world's first house powered with hydroelectricity - Cragside, Northumberland
  • Stirling engine - Robert Stirling
  • Supercharger - Dugald Clerk
  • Wind tunnel - Francis Herbert Wenham

    • Household appliances

  • Perambulator - William Kent designed a baby carriage in 1733
  • Collapsible baby buggy - Owen Maclaren
  • Domestic dishwasher - key modifications by William Howard Livens
  • "Bagless" vacuum cleaner - James Dyson
  • "Puffing Billy" - First powered vacuum cleaner - Hubert Cecil Booth
  • Fire extinguisher - George William Manby
  • Folding carton - Charles Henry Foyle
  • Lawn mower - Edwin Beard Budding
  • Rubber band - Stephen Perry
  • Daniell cell - John Frederic Daniell
  • Tin can - Peter Durand
  • Corkscrew - Reverend Samuell Henshall
  • Mouse trap - James Henry Atkinson
  • Modern flushing toilet - John Harington
  • The pay toilet - John Nevil Maskelyne, Maskelyne invented a lock for London toilets, which required a penny to operate, hence the euphemism "spend a penny".
  • Electric toaster - Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton
  • Teasmade - Albert E. Richardson
  • Magnifying glass - Roger Bacon
  • Thermosiphon, which forms the basis of most modern central heating systems - Thomas Fowler
  • Automatic electric kettle - Russell Hobbs
  • Thermos Flask - James Dewar
  • Toothbrush - William Edward Addis
  • Sunglasses - James Ayscough
  • The Refrigerator - William Cullen (1748)
  • The Flush toilet: Alexander Cummings (1775)
  • The first distiller to triple distill Irish whiskey:John Jameson (Whisky distiller)
  • The first automated can-filing machine John West (1809–1888)
  • The waterproof Mackintosh - Charles Macintosh (1766–1843)
  • The kaleidoscope: Sir David Brewster (1781–1868)
  • Keiller's marmalade Janet Keiller (1797) - The first recipe of rind suspended marmalade or Dundee marmalade produced in Dundee.
  • The modern lawnmower - Edwin Beard Budding (1830)
  • The Lucifer friction match: Sir Isaac Holden (1807–1897)
  • The self filling pen - Robert Thomson (1822–1873)
  • Cotton-reel thread - J & J Clark of Paisley
  • Lime Cordial - Peter Burnett in 1867
  • Bovril beef extract - John Lawson Johnston in 1874
  • Wellington Boots
  • Can Opener - Robert Yeates 1855

    • Ideas, Religion and Ethics

  • Malthusianism and the groundwork for the study of population dynamics - Thomas Robert Malthus with his work An Essay on the Principle of Population.
  • Classical Liberalism - John Locke known as the "Father of Classical Liberalism".
  • Utilitarianism by Jeremy Bentham
  • Anglicanism by Henry VIII of England
  • Methodism by John Wesley and Charles Wesley
  • Quakers by George Fox
  • Agnosticism by Thomas Henry Huxley

    • Industrial processes

  • English crucible steel - Benjamin Huntsman
  • Steel production Bessemer process - Henry Bessemer
  • Hydraulic press - Joseph Bramah
  • Parkesine, the first man-made plastic - Alexander Parkes
  • Portland cement - Joseph Aspdin
  • Sheffield plate - Thomas Boulsover
  • Water frame - Richard Arkwright
  • Stainless steel - Harry Brearley
  • Rubber Masticator - Thomas Hancock
  • Power Loom - Edmund Cartwright
  • Parkes process - Alexander Parkes
  • Lead chamber process - John Roebuck
  • Development of the world's first commercially successful manufacture of high quality flat glass using the float glass process - Alastair Pilkington
  • The first commercial electroplating process - George Elkington
  • The Wilson Yarn Clearer - Peter Wilson
  • Float Glass - Alastair Pilkington - Modern Glass manufacturing process
  • Contact Process
  • Froth Flotation - William Haynes and A H Higgins.
  • Extrusion - Joseph Bramah

    • Medicine

  • First correct description of circulation of the blood - William Harvey
  • Smallpox vaccine - Edward Jenner with his discovery is said to have "saved more lives (...) than were lost in all the wars of mankind since the beginning of recorded history."
  • Surgical forceps - Stephen Hales
  • Antisepsis in surgery - Joseph Lister
  • Artificial intraocular lens transplant surgery for cataract patients - Harold Ridley
  • Clinical thermometer - Thomas Clifford Allbutt.
  • isolation of fibrinogen ("coagulable lymph"), investigation of the structure of the lymphatic system and description of red blood cells by the surgeon William Hewson (surgeon)
  • Credited with discovering how to culture embryonic stem cells in 1981 - Martin Evans
  • First blood pressure measurement and first cardiac catheterisation-Stephen Hales
  • Pioneer of anaesthesia and father of epidemiology for locating the source of cholera - John Snow (physician)
  • pioneered the use of sodium cromoglycate as a remedy for asthma - Roger Altounyan
  • The first scientist to demonstrate that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen and one of the founders of orthopedy - Percivall Pott
  • Performed the first successful blood transfusion - James Blundell
  • Discovered the active ingredient of Aspirin - Edward Stone
  • Discovery of Protein crystallography - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
  • The world's first successful stem cell transplant - John Raymond Hobbs
  • First typhoid vaccine - Almroth Wright
  • Pioneer of the treatment of epilepsy - Edward Henry Sieveking
  • discovery of Nitrous oxide (entonox/"laughing gas") and its anaesthetic properties - Humphry Davy
  • Computed Tomography (CT scanner) - Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield
  • Gray's Anatomy widely regarded as the first complete human anatomy textbook - Henry Gray
  • Discovered Parkinson's disease - James Parkinson
  • General anaesthetic - Pioneered by Scotsman James Young Simpson and Englishman John Snow
  • Contributed to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - Sir Peter Mansfield
  • Statistical parametric mapping - Karl J. Friston
  • The development of in vitro fertilization - Patrick Christopher Steptoe and Robert Geoffrey Edwards
  • First baby genetically selected to be free of a breast cancer - University College London
  • Viagra - Peter Dunn, Albert Wood, Dr Nicholas Terrett
  • Acetylcholine - Henry Hallett Dale
  • EKG (underlying principles) - various
  • Vitamins and Tryptophan - Frederick Gowland Hopkins
  • Earliest pharmacopoeia in English
  • The hip replacement operation, in which a stainless steel stem and 22mm head fit into a polymer socket and both parts are fixed into position by PMMA cement - pioneered by John Charnley
  • In vitro fertilisation - Developed by Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards with a first successful birth in 1978 as a result of natural cycle IVF where no stimulation was made.
  • Description of Hay fever - John Bostock (physician) in 1819
  • Pioneering the use of surgical anaesthesia with Chloroform: Sir James Young Simpson (1811–1870)
  • Discovery of hypnotism (November 1841) - James Braid (1795–1860)
  • Identifying the mosquito as the carrier of malaria: Sir Ronald Ross (1857–1932)
  • Identifying the cause of brucellosis: Sir David Bruce (1855–1931)
  • Discovering the vaccine for typhoid fever: Sir William B. Leishman (1865–1926)
  • Discovering insulin - John J R Macleod (1876–1935) with others
  • Ambulight PDT: light-emitting sticking plaster used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) for treating non-melanoma skin cancer. Developed by Ambicare Dundee's Ninewells Hospital and St Andrews University. (2010)
  • Primary creator of the artificial kidney (Professor Kenneth Lowe - Later Queen's physician in Scotland)
  • Developing the first beta-blocker drugs: Sir James W. Black in 1964
  • Glasgow Coma Scale: Graham Teasdale and Bryan J. Jennett (1974)
  • EKG [Electrocardiography]: Alexander Muirhead (1911)
  • Pioneering the use of surgical anaesthesia with Chloroform: Sir James Young Simpson (1811–1870)
  • Discovery of hypnotism (November 1841) - James Braid (1795–1860)
  • Identifying the cause of brucellosis: Sir David Bruce (1855–1931)
  • Discovering the vaccine for typhoid fever: Sir William B. Leishman (1865–1926)
  • Discovering insulin - John J R Macleod (1876–1935) with others
  • Penicillin: Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955)
  • Discovering an effective tuberculosis treatment: Sir John Crofton in the 1950s
  • Primary creator of the artificial kidney (Professor Kenneth Lowe - Later Queen's physician in Scotland)
  • Developing the first beta-blocker drugs: Sir James W. Black in 1964
  • EKG [Electrocardiography]: Alexander Muirhead (1911)

    • Military

  • Percussion ignition
  • Turret ship - Although designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century, the HMS Trusty was the first warship to be outfitted with one.
  • Battle Tank/The tank - Developed and first used in combat by the British during World War I as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare. Attributed to Ernest Dunlop Swinton
  • Fighter aircraft - The Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus of 1914 was the first of its kind.
  • Congreve rocket - William Congreve
  • Harrier Jump Jet - VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft)
  • Aircraft Carrier - HMS Argus (I49)
  • Dreadnought Battleship - HMS Dreadnought (1906)
  • Bailey Bridge - Donald Bailey
  • Chobham armour
  • Livens Projector - William Howard Livens
  • H2S radar (airborne radar to aid the bomb targeting) - Alan Blumlein
  • Bouncing bomb - Barnes Wallis
  • Safety fuse - William Bickford
  • Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife - William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes
  • Armstrong Gun - Sir William Armstrong
  • High explosive squash head - Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney
  • Shrapnel shell - Henry Shrapnel
  • Bullpup firearm configuration - Thorneycroft carbine
  • Puckle Gun - James Puckle
  • The side by side Boxlock action, AKA The double barreled shotgun - Anson and Deeley
  • Stun grenades - Invented by the SAS in the 1960s.
  • Smokeless propellant to replace gunpowder with the use of Cordite - Frederick Abel
  • Rubber bullet and Plastic bullet - Developed by the Ministry of Defence during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
  • Depth charge
  • Torpedo - Robert Whitehead
  • The Whitworth rifle, considered the first sniper rifle. During the American Civil War the Whitworth rifle had been known to kill at ranges of about 800 yards - Sir Joseph Whitworth
  • The world's first practical underwater active sound detection apparatus, the ASDIC Active Sonar - Developed by Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle and English physicist Albert Beaumont Wood
  • The first self-powered machine gun Maxim gun - Sir Hiram Maxim, Although the Inventor is American, the Maxim gun was financed by Albert Vickers of Vickers Limited company and produced in Hatton Garden London
  • Steam catapult-Commander Colin C. Mitchell RNVR
  • Special forces - SAS Founded by Sir David Stirling.

    • Mining

  • Tunnel boring machine - James Henry Greathead and Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  • Davy lamp - Humphry Davy
  • Geordie lamp - George Stephenson
  • Beam engine - Used for pumping water from mines

    • Musical instruments

  • Concertina - Charles Wheatstone
  • Theatre organ - Robert Hope-Jones
  • English horn - A version of the Oboe
  • Logical bassoon, an electronically controlled version of the bassoon - Giles Brindley
  • Northumbrian smallpipes
  • Tuning fork - John Shore
  • The piano footpedal - John Broadwood (1732–1812)

    • Photography

  • Ambrotype - Frederick Scott Archer
  • Calotype - William Fox Talbot
  • Collodion process - Frederick Scott Archer
  • Collodion-albumen process - Joseph Sidebotham in 1861
  • Stereoscope - Charles Wheatstone
  • Thomas Wedgwood - pioneer of photography, devised the method to copy visible images chemically to permanent media.
  • Dry plate process also known as gelatine process, is the first economically successful durable photographic medium - Richard Leach Maddox
  • Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914 - George Albert Smith
  • Cinematography - William Friese-Greene
  • Motion picture camera, the Kinetoscope - William Kennedy Laurie Dickson
  • The first movie projector, the Zoopraxiscope - Eadweard Muybridge
  • The first experimental film called "The Horse in Motion" in 1872 - Eadweard Muybridge

    • Publishing firsts

  • Oldest publisher and printer in the world (having been operating continuously since 1584): Cambridge University Press
  • first book printed in English: "The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye" by Englishman William Caxton in 1475
  • The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1768–81)
  • The first English textbook on surgery(1597)
  • The first modern pharmacopaedia, William Cullen (1776) The book became 'Europe's principal text on the classification and treatment of disease'
  • The first postcards and picture postcards in the UK

    • Science

  • Modern atomic theory - Considered the father of modern chemistry, John Dalton's experiments with gases led to the development of what is called the modern atomic theory.
  • Equals sign Robert Recorde, Welshman
  • Cell biology - Credit for the discovery of the first cells is given to Robert Hooke who described the microscopic compartments of cork cells in 1665
  • Compound microscope with 30x magnification - Robert Hooke
  • Universal joint - Robert Hooke
  • Coggeshall slide rule - Henry Coggeshall
  • The Iris diaphragm - Robert Hooke
  • Correct theory of combustion - Robert Hooke
  • Partition chromatography - Richard Laurence Millington Synge and Archer J.P. Martin
  • Arnold Frederic Wilkins - pioneer in the development of Radar
  • Atwood machine used for illustrating the law of uniformly accelerated motion - George Atwood
  • Marine Barometer - Robert Hooke
  • Hooke's Law (equation describing elasticity) - Robert Hooke
  • Electrical generator (dynamo) - Michael Faraday
  • Faraday cage - Michael Faraday
  • Magneto-optical effect - Michael Faraday
  • Calculus - Sir Isaac Newton
  • Infrared radiation - discovery commonly attributed to William Herschel.
  • Holography - First developed by Dennis Gabor in Rugby, England. Improved by Nicholas J. Phillips who made it possible to record multi-colour reflection holograms
  • Discovery of the pion (pi-meson) - Cecil Frank Powell
  • Wheatstone bridge - Samuel Hunter Christie
  • Triple achromatic lens - Peter Dollond
  • Newtonian telescope - Sir Isaac Newton
  • Hawking radiation - Stephen Hawking
  • Demonstrated that electric circuits obey the law of the conservation of energy and that electricity is a form of energy First Law of Thermodynamics. Also the unit of energy, the Joule is named after him - James Prescott Joule
  • Micrometer - William Gascoigne
  • the first bench micrometer that was capable of measuring to one ten thousandth of an inch - Henry Maudslay
  • Sinclair Executive, the world's first small electronic pocket calculator - Sir Clive Sinclair
  • Discovered the element argon - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh with Scotsman William Ramsay
  • Standard deviation - Francis Galton
  • Slide rule - William Oughtred
  • Synthesis of coumarin, one of the first synthetic perfumes, and cinnamic acid via the Perkin reaction- William Henry Perkin
  • The Law of Gravity - Sir Isaac Newton
  • Newton's laws of motion - Sir Isaac Newton
  • Pre-empting elements of General Relativity theory - William Kingdon Clifford
  • Geological Timescale - Arthur Holmes
  • Electromagnet - William Sturgeon in 1823.
  • Helium - Norman Lockyer
  • Weather map - Sir Francis Galton
  • Introduced the symbol for "is less than" and "is greater than" - Thomas Harriot 1630
  • Introduced the "×" symbol for multiplication as well as the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for the sine and cosine functions - William Oughtred
  • Dew Point Hygrometer - John Frederic Daniell
  • Periodic Table - John Alexander Reina Newlands
  • Splitting the atom - John Cockcroft and Irish physicist Ernest Walton
  • First full-scale commercial Nuclear Reactor at Calder Hall, opened in 1956.
  • Seismograph - John Milne
  • Discovery of oxygen gas (O2) - Joseph Priestley
  • Discovery of the Atom(nuclear model of) - Ernest Rutherford
  • Discovery of the Proton - Ernest Rutherford
  • Discovery of the Electron, isotopes and the inventor of the Mass spectrometer - J. J. Thomson
  • Discovery of the Neutron - James Chadwick
  • Nuclear transfer - Is a form of cloning first put into practice by Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell to clone Dolly the Sheep
  • Theory of Evolution - Charles Darwin

    • Astronomy

  • Discovery of the "White Spot" on Saturn - Will Hay
  • Discovery of Proxima Centauri, the closest known star to the Sun, by Robert Innes (1861–1933)
  • Discovery of the planet Uranus and the moons Titania, Oberon, Enceladus, Mimas by Sir William Herschel (German born astronom, later in life British)
  • Discovery of Triton and the moons Hyperion, Ariel and Umbriel - William Lassell
  • Planetarium - John Theophilus Desaguliers
  • Predicts the existence and location of Neptune from irregularities in the orbit of Uranus - John Couch Adams
  • Important contributions to the development of radio astronomy - Bernard Lovell
  • Newtonian telescope - Sir Isaac Newton
  • Achromatic doublet lens - John Dollond
  • Coining the phrase 'Big Bang' - Fred Hoyle
  • First theorised existence of black holes, binary stars; invented torsion balance - John Michell
  • Stephen Hawking - World-renowned theoretical physicist made many important contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes
  • Spiral galaxies - William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse
  • Discovery of Halley's Comet - Edmond Halley
  • Discovery of pulsars - Antony Hewish
  • Discovery of Sunspots and was the first person to make a drawing of the Moon through a telescope - Thomas Harriot
  • The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object - Arthur Stanley Eddington
  • Aperture synthesis, used for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources in the field of Radio astronomy - Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish

    • Chemistry

  • Dalton's law and Law of multiple proportions - John Dalton
  • The structure of DNA and pioneering the field of molecular biology - co-developed by Francis Crick and the American James Watson
  • DNA sequencing by chain termination - Frederick Sanger
  • Discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing - Richard J. Roberts
  • Discovey of Buckminsterfullerene - Sir Harry Kroto
  • Discovery of thallium - William Crookes
  • Discovered the structure of ferrocene - Geoffrey Wilkinson & others
  • Discovers hydrogen as a colorless, odourless gas that burns and can form an explosive mixture with air - Henry Cavendish
  • Proposes the law of octaves, a precursor to the Periodic Law - John Newlands
  • Bragg's law and establish the field of X-ray crystallography, an important tool for elucidating the crystal structure of substances - William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg
  • Introduces concept of atomic number to fix inadequacies of Mendeleev's periodic table, which had been based on atomic weight - Henry Moseley
  • First isolation of sodium - Humphry Davy
  • First isolation of potassium - Humphry Davy
  • First isolation of boron - Humphry Davy
  • First isolation of benzene, the first known aromatic hydrocarbon - Michael Faraday
  • Publishes Opus Maius, which among other things, proposes an early form of the scientific method, and contains results of his experiments with gunpowder - Roger Bacon
  • Publishes several Aristotelian commentaries, an early framework for the scientific method - Robert Grosseteste
  • Baconian method, an early forerunner of the scientific method - Sir Francis Bacon
  • The first discovery of aluminium - Sir Humphry Davy
  • Pioneer in early Solar Power - Weston cell - Edward Weston (chemist)
  • Proposes the concept of isotopes, elements with the same chemical properties may have differing atomic weights - Frederick Soddy
  • The synthesising of xenon hexafluoroplatinate the first time to show that noble gases can form chemical compounds - Neil Bartlett
  • Callendar effect the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature (Global warming) - Guy Stewart Callendar
  • Pioneer of the fuel cell - Francis Thomas Bacon
  • Pioneer of meteorology by developing a nomenclature system for clouds in 1802 - Luke Howard
  • Rayleigh scattering explains why the sky is blue, and predicted the existence of the surface waves - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh

    • Sport

  • Football - The rules as we know them today were established in 1848 at Cambridge University, Sheffield F.C. is acknowledged by The Football Association and FIFA as the world's first and oldest football club.
  • Rugby - William Webb Ellis
  • Cricket - the world's second-most popular sport can be traced back to the 13th century
  • Tennis - widely known to have originated in England.
  • Boxing - England played a key role in the evolution of modern boxing. Boxing was first accepted as an Olympic sport in Ancient Greece in 688 BC
  • Golf - Modern game invented in Scotland
  • Billiards
  • Badminton
  • Darts - a traditional pub game, the numbering layout was devised by Brian Gamlin
  • Table-Tennis - was invented on the dinner tables of Britain as an indoor version of tennis
  • Snooker - Invented by the British Army in India
  • Ping pong - The game has its origins in England, in the 1880s
  • Bowls - has been traced to 13th century England
  • Field hockey - the modern game grew from English public schools in the early 19th century
  • Netball - the sport emerged from early versions of women's basketball, at Madame Österberg's College in England during the late 1890s.
  • Rounders - the game originates in England most likely from an older game known as stool ball
  • The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, the first race was in 1829 on the River Thames in London
  • Thoroughbred Horseracing - Was first developed in 17th and 18th century England
  • Polo - its roots began in Persia as a training game for cavalry units, the formal codification of the rules of modern Polo as a sport were established in 19th century England
  • The format of Modern Olympics - William Penny Brookes
  • The first Paralympic games competition were held in England in 1948 - Ludwig Guttmann
  • Hawk-Eye ball tracking system.

    • Aviation

  • Aeronautics and flight. As a pioneer of glider development & first well-documented human flight he discovered and identified the four aerodynamic forces of flight - weight, lift, drag, and thrust. Modern airplane design is based on those discoveries including cambered wings. He is sometimes called the "Father of aviation" - George Cayley
  • Steam Powered Flight with the Aerial Steam Carriage - John Stringfellow- The world's first powered flight took place at Chard in Somerset 55 years before the Wright brothers attempt at Kitty Hawk
  • VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) fighter-bomber aircraft - Hawker P.1127, Designed by Sydney Camm
  • The first commercial jet airliner (de Havilland Comet)
  • The first Supersonic Airliner - Concorde. Developed by the British Aircraft Corporation in partnership with Aérospatiale 1969
  • The first aircraft capable of supercruise - English Electric Lightning
  • Ailerons - Matthew Piers Watt Boulton
  • Head-up display (HUD) - The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) designed the first equipment and it was built by Cintel with the system first integrated into the Blackburn Buccaneer.
  • Pioneer of parachute design - Robert Cocking
  • The first human-powered aircraft to make an officially authenticated take-off and flight (SUMPAC) - The University of Southampton
  • Hale rockets, improved version of the Congreve rocket design that introduced Thrust vectoring - William Hale
  • SABRE engine- The first hypersonic jet/rocket capable of working in air and space to allow the possibility of HOTOL.
  • Air Force - Royal Air Force

    • Railways

  • Great Western Railway - Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  • Stockton and Darlington Railway the world's first operational steam passenger railway
  • First inter-city steam-powered railway - Liverpool and Manchester Railway

    • Locomotives

  • Blücher - George Stephenson
  • Puffing Billy -William Hedley
  • Locomotion No 1 - Robert Stephenson
  • Sans Pareil - Timothy Hackworth
  • Stourbridge Lion - Foster, Rastrick and Company
  • Stephenson's Rocket - George and Robert Stephenson
  • Salamanca - Matthew Murray
  • Flying Scotsman- Sir Nigel Gresley

    • Other railway developments

  • Displacement lubricator, Ramsbottom safety valve, the water trough, the split piston ring - John Ramsbottom
  • Maglev (transport) rail system - Eric Laithwaite
  • World's first underground railway and the first rapid transit system. It was also the first underground railway to operate electric trains - London underground
  • Advanced Passenger Train (APT) was an experimental High Speed Train that introduced tilting - British Rail

    • Roads

  • Bowden cable - Frank Bowden
  • Hansom cab - Joseph Hansom
  • Seat belt - George Cayley
  • Sinclair C5 - Sir Clive Sinclair
  • Tarmac - E. Purnell Hooley
  • Tension-spoke Wire wheels - George Cayley
  • Pneumatic Tyre - Robert William Thomson is deemed to be inventor, despite John Boyd Dunlop being initially credited.
  • Disc brakes - Frederick W. Lanchester
  • Belisha beacon - Leslie Hore-Belisha
  • Lotus 25 Considered the first modern F1 race car designed for the 1962 Formula One season. It was a revolutionary design the first fully stressed monocoque chassis to appear in Formula One - Colin Chapman, Team Lotus
  • Horstmann suspension, tracked armoured fighting vehicle suspension - Sidney Horstmann
  • Steam fire engine - John Braithwaite
  • Penny-farthing - James Starley
  • Dynasphere - John Archibald Purves
  • Caterpillar Track - Richard Lovell Edgeworth
  • Mini-roundabout - Frank Blackmore
  • Quadbike - Standard Motor Company patented the 'Jungle Airborne Buggy' (JAB) in 1944

    • Sea

  • Plimsoll Line - Samuel Plimsoll
  • Hovercraft - Christopher Cockerell
  • Lifeboat - Lionel Lukin
  • Resurgam - George Garrett
  • Transit (ship) - Richard Hall Gower
  • Turbinia, the first steam turbine powered steamship, designed by the engineer Sir Charles Algernon Parsons and built in Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Diving Equipment/Scuba Gear - Henry Fleuss
  • Diving bell - Edmund Halley
  • Sextant - John Bird
  • Octant (instrument) - Independently developed by Englishman John Hadley and the American Thomas Godfrey
  • Whirling speculum, This device can be seen as a precursor to the gyroscope - John Serson
  • Screw propeller - Francis Pettit Smith
  • The world's first patent for an underwater echo ranging device (Sonar) - Lewis Richardson
  • hydrophone Before the invention of Sonar convoy escort ships used them to detect U-boats, greatly lessening the effectiveness of the submarine - Research headed by Ernest Rutherford
  • Hydrofoil - John Isaac Thornycroft
  • HMS Warrior The world's first Iron armoured and iron hulled warship.

    • Scientific innovations

  • The theory of electromagnetism - James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879)
  • The Gregorian telescope - James Gregory (1638–1675)
  • The concept of latent heat - Joseph Black (1728–1799)
  • The pyroscope, atmometer and aethrioscope scientific instruments: Sir John Leslie (1766–1832)
  • Identifying the nucleus in living cells - Robert Brown (1773–1858)
  • Hypnotism - James Braid (1795–1860)
  • Transplant rejection: Professor Thomas Gibson (1940s) the first medical doctor to understand the relationship between donor graft tissue and host tissue rejection and tissue transplantation by his work on aviation burns victims during World War II.
  • Colloid chemistry - Thomas Graham (1805–1869)
  • The kelvin SI unit of temperature - William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907)
  • Devising the diagramatic system of representing chemical bonds - Alexander Crum Brown (1838–1922)
  • Criminal fingerprinting - Henry Faulds (1843–1930)
  • The noble gases: Sir William Ramsay (1852–1916)
  • The Cloud chamber - Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959)
  • Pioneering work on nutrition and poverty - John Boyd Orr (1880–1971)
  • The ultrasound scanner - Ian Donald (1910–1987)
  • Ferrocene synthetic substances - Peter Ludwig Pauson in 1955
  • The MRI body scanner - John Mallard and James Huchinson from (1974–1980)
  • The first cloned mammal (Dolly the Sheep): Was conducted in The Roslin Institute research centre in 1996
  • Seismometer innovations thereof - James David Forbes
  • Metaflex fabric innovations thereof - University of St. Andrews (2010) application of the first manufacturing fabrics that manipulate light in bending it around a subject. Before this such light manipulating atoms were fixed on flat hard surfaces. The team at St Andrews are the first to develop the concept to fabric.
  • Macaulayite: Dr Jeff Wilson of the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen.

    • Miscellaneous

  • Oldest police force in continuous operation: Marine Police Force founded in 1798 and now part of the Metropolitan Police Service
  • Oldest life insurance company in the world: Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office founded 1706
  • First Glee Club, founded in Harrow School in 1787.
  • Oldest arts festival - Norwich 1772
  • Oldest music festival - The Three Choirs Festival
  • Oldest literary festival - The Cheltenham Literature Festival
  • Bayko - Charles Plimpton
  • Linoleum - Frederick Walton
  • Chocolate bar - J. S. Fry & Sons
  • Meccano - Frank Hornby
  • Crossword puzzle - Arthur Wynne
  • Gas mask - (disputed) John Tyndall and others
  • Graphic telescope - Cornelius Varley
  • Steel-ribbed Umbrella - Samuel Fox
  • Plastic - Alexander Parkes
  • Plasticine - William Harbutt
  • Carbonated soft drink - Joseph Priestley
  • Friction Match - John Walker
  • Invented the rubber balloon - Michael Faraday
  • Earliest known concept of a Metric system - John Wilkins
  • Edmondson railway ticket - Thomas Edmondson
  • The world's first Nature Reserve - Charles Waterton *Public Park - Joseph Paxton
  • Scouts - Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
  • Spirograph - Denys Fisher
  • The Young Men's Christian Association YMCA was founded in London - George Williams
  • The Salvation Army, known for being one of the largest distributors of humanitarian aid - Methodist minister William Booth
  • Prime meridian - George Biddell Airy
  • Produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English - Myles Coverdale
  • Founder of the Bank of Scotland - John Holland
  • Venn diagram - John Venn
  • Vulcanisation of rubber - Thomas Hancock
  • Silicone - Frederick Kipping
  • Pykrete - Geoffrey Pyke
  • Vantablack - The world's blackest known substance
  • Stamp collecting - John Edward Gray bought penny blacks on first day of issue in order to keep them
  • lorgnette - George Adams (optician)
  • Boys' Brigade
  • Bank of England devised by William Paterson
  • Bank of France devised by John Law
  • Colour photography: the first known permanent colour photograph was taken by James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879)
  • Barnardos
  • Boy Scouts
  • Girl Guides
  • RSPCA
  • RSPB
  • RNLI

    • References

    List of British innovations and discoveries Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA