A giant of a man

[intaglio]

5. Brief interlude? Try 400 plus years

Excluding the "nobs"
1589 - William Lee's knitting machine.
1597 - Hartington's flush toilets.
If you allow clerics then Oughtred's slide rule of 1630.
1660's onward - Robert Hooke, the compound microscope, the universal joint, the iris diaphragm and the laws of elasticity.
1675 - John Ogilby, the modern road map.
1698 - Thomas Savery's steam engine.
1700'ish - unknown farmer in Norfolk invents crop rotation.
1701 - Jethro Tull; the seed drill and manuring.
1700 to 1790 Abraham Derby I, II and III the coking process, the blast furnace, cast and wrought iron, structural iron
1712 - Newcomen and Savery's improved steam engine
1729 - Stephen Gray discovers electrical insulation
1730 onward - another cleric Stephen Hales discovers desalination
1733 - John Kay the flying shuttle
1740 - Benjamin Huntsman and the crucible process for steel
1747 - Lind discovers how to prevent scurvy (which later lets the Americans nickname the Brits, "Limeys&quot
1761 - Brindley's canal and lock systems
1762 - John Harrison as you noted
1764 - Bayes, another cleric and his theorem
1764 - James Hargreave and the Spinning Jenny
1765 onwards - James Watt, enough said
1780'ish - Henry Cort, the puddling furnace and the rolling mill
1780's onward - if you excuse a digression into science William Herschel and his daughter, Caroline -well OK they were German refugees but they flowered in the UK err where was I?
1790's onwards - Trevithick high pressure steam engines, railroads, gun boring etc.
1794 - William Vaughan of Carmarthen the ball bearing
1810 - Maudslay invents machine tools (lathes, milling machines etc)
1810 - Humphrey Davy discovers Chlorine is an element (Technically he is a noble but his early life and later lamp qualifies him
1811 - Sarah Guppy, safe piling for suspension bridges (but does Telford say thank you? Nah)
1815 - William Smith essential geology
1816 - Francis Ronalds the (electrical) telegraph, later improved by Wheatstone
1816 to 19 and onwards - McAdam modern roads
1824 - Joseph Aspdin invents Portland cement
1825 - George Stephenson and son construct the world first successful railway
1826 - Thomas Telford improvements to canals, roads, bridges,
1831 - Budding and the cylinder lawn mower
1831 - William Bickford's safety fuse
1837 - Wheatstone's telegraph, many other inventions, also he may have had a hand in the concertina (sorry couldn't resist it)
To be honest I'm getting a bit tired so I will leave it with 3 others personal heroes.

Firstly, Henry Bessmer without whom we would not have had modern steel production and there are many other inventions to his name. Next, Alan Blumlein died 1942 holder of many patents (stereophony and high power pulse radar) and last of my efforts the recently deceased Jim Marshall.

On edit Faraday, how the hell could I forget Faraday!!!