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Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Chronology of Innovations in the 1800s

By Paisley Kirkpatrick
In 1816 both cameras and knitting machines became available
In 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
In 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.
In 1839 Envelopes were manufactured in New York. Previously letters were simply folded over and mailed.
In 1840 the postage stamp was introduced
In 1842 the player piano came to be
In 1843 a typewriting machine became available
In 1846 a lock-stitch sewing machine was introduced
In 1847 chloroform was used in surgery
Information found in The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McClutcheon

11 comments:

  1. Paisley, I love this kind of information. It's amazing, some of the things that were invented a lot earlier than I thought they were. I really enjoyed this!

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    1. Thank you, Cheryl. I like them as well. Glad you enjoyed them

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  2. I, too appreciate your post of 19th Century innovations. I printed it out for future reference. Thanks, Paisley.

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    1. I'm so pleased that the list can help you Cheri. I was quite surprised at the dates some of these things happened. Thank you for stopping by.

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  3. I knew the camera was in use by the Civil War but didn't realize it was even earlier. Also surprised elastic was available earlier than I realized. Embarrassing as I have the book you referenced and don't go over it as often as I should. Thank you.

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    1. Thank you, Caroline. I always like to find out when things are invented and how.

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  4. One thing to remember, even though things were invented or produced at a certain time, some of the new innovations took more time before they were available for use on the western frontier.

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    1. You are right, Cheri. Luckily my first series was set closed to San Francisco where they had a lot of the modern equipment coming into the harbor, but it did take a long time to get to the interior.

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  5. Isn't it amazing how many modern conveniences date back to the 19th century and earlier. Thanks for sharing this chronology, Paisley.

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    1. Thanks, Lyn. It's fun to see when they are invented but even better when you find out how.

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