Timeline of materials technology explained

Major innovations in materials technology

BC

• 28,000 BC – People wear beads, bracelets, and pendants^[1]
• 14,500 BC – First pottery, made by the Jōmon people of Japan.
• 6th millennium BC – Copper metallurgy is invented and copper is used for ornamentation (see Pločnik article)
• 2nd millennium BC – Bronze is used for weapons and armor
• 16th century BC – The Hittites develop crude iron metallurgy
• 13th century BC – Invention of steel when iron and charcoal are combined properly
• 10th century BC – Glass production begins in ancient Near East
• 1st millennium BC – Pewter beginning to be used in China and Egypt
• 1000 BC – The Phoenicians introduce dyes made from the purple murex.
• 3rd century BC – Wootz steel, the first crucible steel, is invented in ancient India
• 50s BC – Glassblowing techniques flourish in Phoenicia
• 20s BC – Roman architect Vitruvius describes low-water-content method for mixing concrete

1st millennium

• 3rd century – Cast iron widely used in Han dynasty China
• 300 – Greek alchemist Zomius, summarizing the work of Egyptian alchemists, describes arsenic and lead acetate
• 4th century – Iron pillar of Delhi is the oldest surviving example of corrosion-resistant steel
• 8th century – Porcelain is invented in Tang dynasty China
• 8th century – Tin-glazing of ceramics invented by Muslim chemists and potters in Basra, Iraq^[2]
• 9th century – Stonepaste ceramics invented in Iraq
• 900 – First systematic classification of chemical substances appears in the works attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Latin: Geber) and in those of the Persian alchemist and physician Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (865–925, Latin: Rhazes)^[3]
• 900 – Synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances described in the works attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Latin: Geber)^[4]
• 900 – Abū Bakr al-Rāzī describes the preparation of plaster of Paris and metallic antimony
• 9th century – Lustreware appears in Mesopotamia^[5]

2nd millennium

• 1000 – Gunpowder is developed in China
• 1340 – In Liège, Belgium, the first blast furnaces for the production of iron are developed
• 1448 – Johann Gutenberg develops type metal alloy
• 1450s – Cristallo, a clear soda-based glass, is invented by Angelo Barovier
• 1540 – Vannoccio Biringuccio publishes first systematic book on metallurgy
• 1556 – Georg Agricola's influential book on metallurgy
• 1590 – Glass lenses are developed in the Netherlands and used for the first time in microscopes and telescopes
• 1664 – In the pipes supplying water to the gardens at Versailles, cast iron is used

18th century

• 1717 – Abraham Darby makes iron with coke, a derivative of coal
• 1738 – Metallic zinc processed by distillation from calamine and charcoal patented by William Champion
• 1740 – Crucible steel technique developed by Benjamin Huntsman
• 1774 –
  • Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen
  • Johann Gottlieb Gahn discovers manganese
  • Karl Wilhelm Scheele discovers chlorine
• 1779 – Hydraulic cement (stucco) patented by Bryan Higgins for use as an exterior plaster
• 1799 – Acid battery made from copper/zinc by Alessandro Volta

19th century

• 1821 – Thermocouple invented by Thomas Johann Seebeck
• 1824 – Portland cement patent issued to Joseph Aspdin
• 1825 – Metallic aluminum produced by Hans Christian Ørsted
• 1839 – Vulcanized rubber invented by Charles Goodyear
• 1839 – Silver-based photographic processes invented by Louis Daguerre and William Fox Talbot
• 1855 – Bessemer process for mass production of steel patented by Henry Bessemer
• 1861 – Color photography demonstrated by James Clerk Maxwell
• 1883 – First solar cells using selenium waffles made by Charles Fritts
• 1893 – Thermite Welding developed and soon used to weld rails

20th century

• 1902 – Synthetic rubies created by the Verneuil process developed by Auguste Verneuil
• 1908 – Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger
• 1909 – Bakelite hard thermosetting plastic presented by Leo Baekeland
• 1911 – Superconductivity discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
• 1912 – Stainless steel invented by Harry Brearley
• 1916 – Method for growing single crystals of metals invented by Jan Czochralski
• 1919 – The merchant ship Fullagar has the first all welded hull.
• 1924 – Pyrex invented by scientists at Corning Incorporated, a glass with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion
• 1931 – synthetic rubber called neoprene developed by Julius Nieuwland (see also: E.K. Bolton, Wallace Carothers)
• 1931 – Nylon developed by Wallace Carothers
• 1935 – Langmuir–Blodgett film coating of glass was developed by Katharine Burr Blodgett, creating "invisible glass" which is >99% transmissive
• 1938 – The process for making poly-tetrafluoroethylene, better known as Teflon discovered by Roy Plunkett
• 1939 – Dislocations in metals confirmed by Robert W. Cahn
• 1947 – First germanium point-contact transistor invented
• 1947 – First commercial application of a piezoelectric ceramic: barium titanate used as a phonograph pickup
• 1951 – Individual atoms seen for the first time using the field ion microscope
• 1953 – Metallic catalysts which greatly improve the strength of polyethylene polymers discovered by Karl Ziegler
• 1954 – Silicon solar cells with 6% efficiency made at Bell Laboratories
• 1954 – Argon oxygen decarburization (AOD) refining invented by scientists at the Union Carbide Corporation
• 1959 – Float glass process patented by the Pilkington Brothers
• 1962 – SQUID superconducting quantum interference device invented
• 1966 – Stephanie Kwolek invented a fibre that would later become known as Kevlar
• 1968 – Liquid crystal display developed by RCA
• 1970 – Silica optical fibers grown by Corning Incorporated
• 1980 – Duplex stainless steels developed which resist oxidation in chlorides
• 1984 – Fold-forming system developed by Charles Lewton-Brain to produce complex three dimensional forms rapidly from sheet metal
• 1985 – The first fullerene molecule discovered by scientists at Rice University (see also: Timeline of carbon nanotubes)
• 1986 – The first high temperature superconductor is discovered by Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller

See also

• Timeline of scientific discoveries
• Timeline of historic inventions
• List of inventions named after people
• Materials science
• Roman metallurgy

Notes and References

1. Book: Volume Library 1. The Southwestern Company. 2009.
2. Mason . Robert B. . New Looks at Old Pots: Results of Recent Multidisciplinary Studies of Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic World . Muqarnas: Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture . 1995 . XII . 1–10 . Brill Academic Publishers . 90-04-10314-7 . 10.2307/1523219. 1523219 .
3. Karpenko. Vladimír. Norris. John A.. 2002. Vitriol in the History of Chemistry. Chemické listy. 96. 12. 997–1005.
4. Book: Kraus, Paul. Paul Kraus (Arabist). 1942–1943. Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque. Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. Cairo. 468740510. 9783487091150. Vol. II, pp. 41–42.
5. Book: Ten thousand years of pottery . Emmanuel Cooper . University of Pennsylvania Press . 4th . 2000 . 0-8122-3554-1.