| Year |
Innovation |
| c.3500 BC |
The wheel is invented. The first wheeled transportation vehicles
appear. |
| c.3500 BC |
First riverboats (oared ships) are invented. |
| c.2000 BC |
Horses are domesticated and used for transportation. |
| AD 181-234 |
The wheelbarrow is invented. |
| 770 |
Iron horseshoes are invented in Europe, thus improving horse transportation. |
| 1492 |
Leonardo da Vinci begins to theorize about the possibilities of flying machines. He publishes over 100 of these drawings and flying theories. |
| 1620 |
Cornelius Drebbel invents the first simple submarine, an oared boat capable of travelling underwater. |
| 1662 |
Blaise Pascal invents the first public bus, a horse-drawn carriage system with regular routes, schedule, and fare system. |
| 1698 |
Thomas Savery invents the first crude steam engine, a mechanism that pumped hot water out from the coal mines through a closed water-filled vessel in which the steam was introduced and pressurized. This pressure pumped the steam upward out of the vessel.. |
| 1712 |
English blacksmith Thomas Newcomen invents the atmospheric steam
engine (where the atmosphere did much of the work), an improvement
over Thomas Savery's design. |
| 1765 |
James Watt invents and patents the steam engine. |
| 1769 |
Nicolas Joseph Cugnot invents the first self-propelled road vehicle. |
| 1783 |
Marquis Claude Francois de Jouffroy d'Abbans demonstrates the first steamboat, a steam-operated paddleboat. |
| 1783 |
The Montgolfier brothers invent the hot air balloon. |
| 1790 |
Modern bicycles are invented. |
| 1801 |
Richard Trevithick invents the first steam-powered locomotive designed
for road use. |
| 1807 |
Isaac de Rivas invents a hydrogen gas powered engine--the first
internal combustion engine, which proved to be unsuccessful. |
| 1807 |
Robert Fulton invents the first passenger steamboat, the Clermont.
|
| 1814 |
George Stephenson invents the first practical steam-powered railroad locomotive, the Rocket. |
