Saturday, July 2, 2016

Chronology of Innovations in the 1800's

By Paisley Kirkpatrick
1816 Both cameras and knitting machines became available
1818 Blood transfusions started. They were poorly understood and rarely attempted. Only two Civil War soldiers received transfusions, and one died. Generally not in use until the twentieth century.
1819 Stethoscope became in use. The first was a simple wooden tube. This was improved with the introduction of a flexible tube in 1839.
1820 Elastic
1821 Electric motor
1822 Gaslight introduced in Boston, multicolor printing and a calculating machine were introduced.
1827 Friction matches. These had to be drawn swiftly through sandpaper to ignite. They worked poorly and were replaced by phosphorous matches in 1836. These were often referred to as “loco-focos,” after a popular brand name.
1830 Food canning and chain stitching sewing machine.
1833 First steam whistle for locomotives and water turbine available
1834 Refrigeration
1836 Revolver
1837 The telegraph was demonstrated by Morse. “What hath God wrought?” — first message sent by telegraph between Washington and Baltimore in 1844. Hundreds of miles of telegraph lines had been established by 1846, reaching from Boston to Washington; by 1847 they had reached Pittsburgh. Florida was the only state east of the Mississippi not serviced by telegraph in 1848.
1839 Envelopes were manufactured in New York. Previously letters were simply folded over and mailed.
1840 The postage stamp was introduced
1842 The player piano came to be
1843 a typewriting machine became available
1846 A lock-stitch sewing machine was introduced
1847 Chloroform was used in surgery
Information found in The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McClutcheon

6 comments:

  1. Paisley, I didn't realize several of those things were available in the early 1800s. Thanks for the information.

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    1. Thanks for stopping today. I was surprised, too. I love learning the origins of products and things.

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  2. This list is a keeper, Thanks, Paisley!

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    1. Thank you, Cheri. It's always fun to learn about how things began. :)

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  3. I happen to have all of the Every Day Life In The...set. Very helpful information especially for a southeastern writer like me. Inventions and industrial changes rocketed in the following decades. Zoom!
    This was a terrific article, Paisley!

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  4. Isn't it amazing that these object were invented so long ago. The blood tranfusions...good try, but they knew nothing of blood types...so, there were deaths.
    This is quite interesting, and thanks.

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