English inventions

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English inventions are objects, processes or techniques which owe their existence either partially or entirely to a person born in England; in some cases, their Englishness is determined by the fact that they were brought into existence in England , by non-English people working in the country. Often, things which are discovered for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.

The following is a list of inventions or discoveries often held to be in some way English:

Agriculture

• Seed drill - Jethro Tull

Communications

• Clockwork radio - Trevor Baylis

Computing

• Analytical engine - Sir Charles Babbage
• ACE and Pilot ACE - Alan Turing
• Bombe - Alan Turing
• Colossus computer - Tommy Flowers
• Difference engine - Sir Charles Babbage
• World Wide Web - Sir Tim Berners-Lee
• ZX Spectrum - Sir Clive Sinclair

Clock making

• Anchor escapement - Robert Hooke
• Balance spring - Robert Hooke (disputed - possibly invented by Christiaan Huygens of the Netherlands)
• Grasshopper escapement - John Harrison
• Gridiron pendulum - John Harrison

Clothing manufacturing

• Derby Rib (stocking manufacture) - Jedediah Strutt
• Flying shuttle - John Kay
• Mauveine, the first synthetic organic dye - William Perkin
• Power loom - Edmund Cartwright
• Spinning frame - John Kay
• Spinning jenny - James Hargreaves
• Spinning mule - Samuel Crompton

Cryptography

• Playfair cipher - Charles Wheatstone

Engineering

• Adjustable spanner - Edwin Beard Budding
• First coke-consuming blast furnace - Abraham Darby I
• First working universal joint - Robert Hooke
• Newcomen steam engine - Thomas Newcomen
• *Modified version of the Newcomen steam engine (Pickard engine) - James Pickard
• Pendulum Governor - Frederick Lanchester
• The first screw-cutting lathe - Henry Maudslay

Food

• Bird's Custard - Alfred Bird
• Sandwich - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich

Household appliances

• Ballbarrow - James Dyson
• Cat flap - Sir Isaac Newton (attributed)
• Collapsible baby buggy - Owen Maclaren
• Dyson DC01 - James Dyson
• Fire extinguisher - George William Manby
• Lawn mower - Edwin Beard Budding
• Rubber band - Stephen Perry
• Light Bulb - Joseph Wilson Swan

Industrial processes

• Bessemer process - Henry Bessemer
• Hydraulic press - Joseph Bramah
• Parkesine, the first man-made plastic - Alexander Parkes
• Portland cement - Joseph Aspdin
• Sheffield plate - Thomas Boulsover
• Water frame - Richard Arkwright

Medical

• Artificial intraocular lens transplant surgery for cataract patients - Harold Ridley

Military

• Congreve rocket - William Congreve
• High explosive squash head - Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney
• Puckle Gun - James Puckle
• Shrapnel shell - Henry Shrapnel

Mining

• Davy lamp - Humphry Davy
• Geordie lamp - George Stephenson

Musical instruments

• Concertina - Charles Wheatstone

Photography

• Ambrotype - Frederick Scott Archer
• Calotype - William Fox Talbot
• Collodion process - Frederick Scott Archer
• Stereoscope - Charles Wheatstone

Science

• Compound microscope with 30x magnification - Robert Hooke
• Electrical generator (dynamo) - Michael Faraday
• Galvanometer - William Sturgeon
• Marsh test for Arsenic - James Marsh
• Newtonian telescope - Sir Isaac Newton
• Micrometer - Sir William Gascoigne
• *the first bench micrometer that was capable of measuring to one ten thousandth of an inch - Henry Maudslay
• Sinclair Executive, the world's first small electronic pocket calculator - Sir Clive Sinclair
• Slide rule - William Oughtred
• Synthesis of coumarin, one of the first synthetic perfumes, and cinnamic acid via the Perkin reaction- William Perkin

Transport

Railways

Locomotives

• Blucher - George Stephenson
• Puffing Billy -William Hedley
• Locomotion No 1 - Robert Stephenson
• Sans Pareil - Timothy Hackworth
• Stephenson's Rocket - George and Robert Stephenson

Other railway developments

• Displacement lubricator, Ramsbottom safety valve, the water trough, the split piston ring - John Ramsbottom

Roads

• Bowden cable - Frank Bowden
• Cat's eye - Percy Shaw
• Caterpillar track - Sir George Cayley
• Hansom cab - Joseph Hansom
• Seat belt - George Cayley
• Sinclair C5 - Sir Clive Sinclair
• Tarmac - E. Purnell Hooley

Sea

• Hovercraft - Christopher Cockerell
• Lifeboat - Lionel Lukin
• Resurgam - George Garrett
• Turbinia, the first steam turbine powered steamship, designed by the Irish engineer Sir Charles Algernon Parsons and built in Newcastle upon Tyne

Air

• Jet engine - Sir Frank Whittle

Miscellaneous

• Daylight saving time - William Willett
• Meccano - Frank Hornby

See also

• Scottish inventions