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Also raised the necessity for new furnaces, crucibles, fuels, and
molds.
Weapons, agricultural instruments and art objects.
18th Century
1709 Darby produced cast iron in a furnace charged with iron
ore and coal (coke). Cast iron used in construction for
structures in compression, but also for making cannons as
bronze was expensive.
1712 Steam engines invented - used to pump water out of
mines.
Started to see farming implements being produced from cast
iron.
Iron started to be used as a structural material.
1735 Charles Marie de La Condamine, a French nobleman,
returned from Peru with a material called Caoutchouch. The
Peruvians smoked the raw sap until it had the appearance and
consistency of leather. They used it to make bottles that were
not fragile, waterproof boots and hollow balls that flattened
when pressed and regained their former shape when released.
Use of rubber to make a ball was first noted in 1496.
1740 Crucible process for steel making
1754 Artificial hydraulic limes by calcining impure limestone.
1770 Coautchouch called Indian rubber as it came from the
West Indies and was excellently adapted to the purpose of
wiping from paper unwanted marks of a bleak lead pencil
(Joseph Priestley- co-discover of oxygen)
1786 Monge, Vandermonde and Berthollet established that the
difference between iron and steel was due to carbon.
Originally, it had been thought that steel was purer than iron
19th century
1820's Joseph Aspdin patents Portland Cement.
1821 Charles Mackintosh discovers that after separating out
ammonia in the process of converting coal tar to pitch you are
left with naphtha, a sharp-smelling waste product. Mackintosh
immersed rubber in naphtha and produced liquid rubber. He
brushed this on cloth to produce waterproof raincoats, called
"Macks".
1831 Electromagnetic induction -- electric power generation
becomes possible.
1839 Goodyear made rubber useful - accidently spilled raw
latex mixed with sulfur on a hot stove. He found that the
product charred instead of melting. He called the process
vulcanization ( Vulcan -Greek good of volcanoes).
Rubber was used for waterproofing clothing, shoes, roofs,
leather fire hoses, for adsorption in vehicles and electrical
isolation of cables.
1843
Nickel plating.
20th Century
1904
Titanium refining
1957
Philips 66 Marlex, a high density polyethylene was developed used for Hula Hoops, Frisbees, Pink Flamingoes.
Urethane foams used in automobiles.
Silicon transitors developed.
1958 Lycra introduced (stretches up to 5 times its original
length and returns to original length).
1959 Integrated circuit developed with multiple silicon
transistor circuits on a single silicon wafer.
1960 High impact styrene furniture produced. Glass-ceramic
patented. Amorphous metals produced. Synthetic diamonds.
1962 Nickel-based superalloys with oxide dispersion
strengthening announced. Gallium arsenide laser diode
developed.
1963 Float process for making plate glass patented. Nomex
flame-resistant aramid fiber and paper introduced. Polyimides
introduced.
1964 Surlyn ionomer introduced (used in food packaging,
sporting goods and automobiles)
1965 Cobalt-rare earth magnets developed. Glass-reinforced
styrene acrylonitrile copolymers used in automobiles.
Nitinol, the first shape memory alloy (made of nickel and
titanium). Easily bent at room temperature, but reverts to
original shape when heated.
1966 Fiber optics developed. Kaptom polyimide film, which
is resistant to moisture and extreme temperature, is developed.
1967
Sialon developed.
1973
1996