Timeline of materials technology

Major innovations in materials technology

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B.C.E.

• 29,000–25,000 B.C.E. – First pottery appears
• 3rd millennium B.C.E. – Copper metallurgy is invented and copper is used for ornamentation
• 2nd millennium B.C.E. – Bronze is used for weapons and armor
• 16th century B.C.E. – The Hittites develop crude iron metallurgy
• 13th century B.C.E. – Invention of steel when iron and charcoal are combined properly
• 10th century B.C.E. – Glass production begins in ancient Near East
• 1st millennium B.C.E. – Pewter beginning to be used in China and Egypt
• 3rd century B.C.E. – Wootz steel, the first crucible steel, is invented in ancient India
• 50s B.C.E. – Glassblowing techniques flourish in Phoenicia
• 20s B.C.E. – Roman architect Vitruvius describes low-water-content method for mixing concrete

1st millennium

• 3rd century – Cast iron widely used in Han Dynasty China
• 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 Arabic chemists and potters in Basra, Iraq
• 9th century – Stonepaste ceramics invented in Iraq
• 9th century – Lustreware appears in Mesopotamia

2nd millennium

• 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

18th century

• 1738 – Metallic zinc processed by distillation from calamine and charcoal patented by William Champion
• 1740 – Crucible steel technique developed by Benjamin Huntsman
• 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

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