Homo habilis (approximately 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago) learnt how to make stone

tools.

Homo erectus used and made fire at least 400,000 years ago.

Working the animal skin to serve as vest.

Tools of wood, bone and horn.

The bow and arrow (evolved at the end of this period).

The use of pigments for paintings and body decoration.

Navigation: we don’t know when we started to sail, maybe it happened in India. We know that during the ancient empires there were rowing boats with a sail that was good when the wind was in the same direction as the desired route

Bronze: it was an alloy of copper and lead, it was harder and more resilient than copper. It was a good enough material to make swords so the societies that had the knowledge of its metallurgy became more powerful than their rivals.

“Iron”: it was steel! (iron with 2% carbon), its metallurgy required higher temperatures, but the resulting metal was better than bronze for swords and lance heads.

The wheel: People think of the wheel as primitive technology, but it is so ingenious that it wasn`t invented until 3500 B.C.

Bronze: it was an alloy of copper and lead, it was harder and more resilient than copper. It was a good enough material to make swords so the societies that had the knowledge of its metallurgy became more powerful than their rivals.

Architecture: it was the Romans that mastered construction techniques: the ceramic brick, mortar, the Roman arch, the paved road...

Paper: invented in China in the 2nd Century BC, it was better than previously used papyrus because it is made of processed cellulose, while papyrus was simply the dried paste of the milled papyrus, a plant rich in cellulose. It wasn’t known in Europe until the Middle Ages.

Steel metallurgy: there was a series of inventions during the Middle Ages in Europe hat improved the quality of steel and reduced its cost. Steel tools became common in agriculture, crafts, warfare, transport, etc.

The compass: invented in China in ancient history, it became an important invention when European navigators started to use it at the end of the Middle Ages.

In 1590 Dutchman Zacharias Janssen invents the

compound microscope (a microscope with more than

one lense).

In 1593 Galileo Galilei invents the thermometer. It was

a glass bulb with water inside, the water moved up and down as the temperature changed.

In 1636 W. Gascoigne invents the micrometer.

In 1642 Frenchmen Blaise Pascal invents an adding machine.

In 1643 Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer.

In 1650 Otto von Guericke invents the air pump.

In 1709 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the alcohol

thermometer.

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen builds a steam pump to

pump water out of mines, it is a step in a series of

inventions that will later lead to the invention of the

steam engine.

In 1733 Stephen Hales takes measurements of blood

pressure.

There was a series of inventions for steam engines during the 17th and 18th centuries, but it was in 1781 when James Watt improved the design that it transformed transport and industry by powering machines in factories,

trains and ships.

In 1800 Alessandro Volta invented the Volt Pile (the battery). He also discovered the first practical method of generating electricity. Constructed of alternating discs of zinc and copper with cardboard soaked in brine between the metals, the “Volt Pile” produced electrical current. Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile was the first "wet cell battery" that produced a reliable and steady electrical current.

The electric motor: in 1821 Michael Faraday invented the electric motor.

The internal combustion engine: Étienne Lenoir built the first petrol engine and after a series of improvements in 1885 Karl Benz built the first car with a petrol engine.

In 1858, Hamilton Smith patented the washing machine with a rotary drum. It was hand powered.

The light bulb: in 1879 Thomas Edison invented the

incandescent light bulb.

The telephone: in 1844 the idea of an electric voice-transmission device is born, but it wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that there were commercially successful telephones.

The radio: research on a “wireless telegraph” was intense at the end of the 19th century and in 1895 Guglielmo Marconi made the first successful experiment. We normally consider the radio a post-Industrial Revolution invention.

Aeroplane: in 1903 the Wright brothers make the first flight. Aeroplanes use Newton’s third law, also called “law of action and reaction”: “when we apply a force on a body, we suffer another force of equal magnitude and opposite direction”. Engines push air back, so they suffer a force forward. Wings push the air down, so

they suffer a force up. The tail controls the direction of the aeroplane, it has a horizontal stabiliser and a vertical stabiliser.

Plastics: during the first half of the 20th century there was scientific research about polimers. In the 1960’s plastics became a common material.

The television: is a result of many different discoveries in physics during the late 19th century and electronic advances during the early 20th century, but it didn’t become popular until the second half of the 20th century.

The transistor: in 1947 the invention of the transistor transformed electronic circuits. Transistors are much smaller, cheaper and robust than the vacuum tubes used

previously. Now it is also the base for all computer processors.

The radar was invented as a military tool during World War II. It has a radio emitter and receiver, when emitted waves hit an object they bounce back and the receiver detects them. The time between emission and reception tells us the distance to the object. The power of the returning waves tells us the size of the object.

The microwave oven was invented accidentally observing how radar antennas heated food that was in front of them.

The internet: in the 1950s research into computer comunication started, in the 1990s it became common in society.

Technologies that improve efficiency: for example more efficient engines, boilers, home insulation...

Technologies that use a more sustainable source of energy: renewable energies such as the sun, the wind, the water dams...

Through better design, we can reduce the need for material and substitute some non-sustainable materials for other more sustainable materials.

This reduces waste and the need to extract materials from nature.

Recycling technologies take the materials from waste and makes them useful for new products. The most successful recycling technologies recover metals, glass,

cardboard, wood...

This also reduces waste and the need to extract materials from nature.