Explosives
Gunpowder—Inventor and date unknown.
Guncotton—Schönbein, Germany, 1845.
Nitroglycerine—Sobrero, 1847.
Explosive gelatine—A. Nobel, France, 1863.
Dynamite—A. Nobel, France, 1866.
Smokeless powder—Vielle, France, 1866.
Firearms and Ordnance
Spirally grooved rifle barrel—Koster, England, 1620.
Breech-loading shot-gun—Thornton and Hall, United States, 1811.
The revolver; a device "for combining a number of long barrels so as to rotate upon a spindle by the act of cocking the hammer"—Samuel Colt, United States, 1836.
Breech gun-lock, interrupted thread—Chambers, United States, 1849.
Magazine gun—Walter Hunt, United States, 1849.
Breech-loading rifle—Maynard, United States, 1851.
Iron-clad floating batteries first used in Crimean War—1855.
Breech-loading ordnance—Wright and Gould, United States, 1858.
Revolving turret for floating batteries—Theodore Timby, United States, 1862.
First iron-clad floating battery propelled by steam: the Monitor—John Ericsson, United States, 1862.
Gatling gun—Dr. R. J. Gatling, United States, 1862.
Automatic shell-ejector for revolver—W. C. Dodge, United States, 1865.
Torpedo—Whitehead, United States, 1866.
Disappearing gun-carriage—Moncrief, England, 1868.
Rebounding gun-lock—L. Hailer, United States, 1870.
Magazine rifle—Lee, United States, 1879.
Hammerless gun—Greener, United States, 1880.
Gun silencer, to be attached to barrel of gun; gun can be fired without noise—Maxim, 1909.
Gas Used for Light and Power
Gas first used for illuminating purposes—William Murdoch, England, 1792.
First street gas-lighting in England—F. A. Winsor, 1814.
Gas-meter—S. Clegg, England, 1815.
Water-gas, prepared by passing steam over white-hot anthracite coal—First produced in England in 1823.
Illuminating water-gas—Lowe, United States, 1875.
Gas-engine, 4-cycle, beginning of modern gas-engine—Otto and Langen, Germany, 1877.
Incandescent gas-mantle—Carl A. von Welsbach, Austria, 1887.
Iron and Steel
Blast-furnace, beginning of iron industry—Belgium, 1340.
Use of coke in blast-furnace—Abram Darby, England, about 1720.
Puddling iron—Henry Cort, England, 1783-84.
Process of making malleable-iron castings—Lucas, England, 1804.
Hot-air blast for iron furnaces—J. B. Neilson, Scotland, 1828.
The galvanizing of iron—Henry Craufurd, England, 1837.
Process of making steel, blowing air through molten pig-iron to burn out carbon, then adding spiegel iron; first production of cheap steel—Sir Henry Bessemer, England, 1855.
Regenerative furnace, a gas-furnace in which gas and air are heated before being introduced into the furnace, giving an extremely high temperature—William Siemens, England, 1856.
Open-hearth process of making steel—Siemens-Martin, England, 1856.
Nickel steel, much stronger than ordinary steel, used for armorplate—Schneider, United States, 1889.
Mining
Miners' safety-lamp—Sir Humphry Davy, England, 1815.
Compressed-air rock-drill—C. Burleigh, United States, 1866.
Diamond rock-drill, a tube of cast-steel with a number of black diamonds set at one end. The machine cuts a circular groove, leaving a core inside the tube. This core is brought to the surface with a rod, and the powdered rock is washed out by water forced down the tube and flowing up the sides of the hole. The drill does not have to stop for cleaning out—Herman, United States, 1854.