Timeline of materials technology

Major innovations in materials technology

BC

*28,000 BC – People wear beads, bracelets, and pendants
*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 Arabic chemists and potters in Basra, Iraq
*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)
*900 – Synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances described in the works attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Latin: Geber)
*900 – Abū Bakr al-Rāzī describes the preparation of plaster of Paris and metallic antimony
*9th century – Lustreware appears in Mesopotamia

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Materials Technology
Materials Technology
Materials science