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Timeline of materials technology
Timeline
of
materials
technology
3rd millennium BC
-
Copper
metallurgy
is invented and
copper
is used for ornamentation
2nd millennium BC
-
Bronze
is used for weapons and
armor
1st millennium BC
- Pewter beginning to be used in
China
and
Egypt
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 Greece and Syria
50s BC
- Glassblowing techniques flourish in
Phoenicia
20s BC
- Roman architect
Vitruvius
describes low-water-content method for mixing concrete.
700s
-
Porcelain
is invented in
China
1450s
- Crystallo, a clear soda-based glass is invented by Angelo Barovier
1590
-
Glass
lenses are developed in Netherlands and used for the first time in microscopes and telescopes.
1738
- William Champion patents a process for the production of metallic zinc by distillation from calamine and charcoal.
1779
- Bry Higgins issued a patent for hydraulic cement (stucco) for use as an exterior plaster.
1799
-
Alessandro Volta
makes a Copper / Zinc acid battery
1821
-
Thomas Johann Seebeck
invents the thermocouple
1824
- Patent issued to Joseph Aspin for
portland cement
.
1825
-
Hans Christian Orsted
produces metallic aluminum
1839
-
Charles Goodyear
invents
vulcanized rubber
1839
- Jacques Daguerre and
William Fox Talbot
invent silver-based photographic processes
1855
-
Bessemer process
for mass production of steel patented.
1861
-
James Clerk Maxwell
demonstrates color photography
1883
- Charles Fritts makes the first solar cells using selenium wafers
1902
- August Verneuil develops a process for making synthetic
rubies
.
1909
-
Leo Baekeland
presents the
Bakelite
hard thermosetting
plastic
1911
-
Superconductivity
discovered.
1916
-
Jan Czochralski
invents a method for growing single crystals of metals.
1924
-
Corning
scientists invent
Pyrex
, a glass with a very low thermal expansion coefficient.
1931
- Julius Nieuwland develops the synthetic
rubber
called
neoprene
1931
-
Wallace Carothers
develops
nylon
1938
-
Roy Plunkett
discovers the process for making poly-tetrafluoroethylene, better known as
teflon
1947
- First germanium
Transistor
invented.
1947
- First commercial application of a
piezoelectric
ceramic: barium titanate used as a phonoigraph needle.
1951
- Individual atoms seen for the first time using the
Field ion microscope
1953
- Karl Ziegler discovers metallic
catalysts
which greatly improve the strength of
polyethylene
polymers
1954
- 6% efficiency silicon solar cells made at
Bell Laboratories
1959
- Pilkington Brothers patent the float glass process.
1962
-
SQUID
superconducting quantum interference device invented.
1968
-
Liquid crystal display
developed by
RCA
1970
- Silica optical fibers grown by
Corning