1800-1819 | 1820-1839 | 1840-1859 | 1860-1879 | 1880-1899
1880-1899

1880: First photos in newspapers, using halftones.
1880: Edison invents the electric light.
1880: France's Leblanc theorizes transmitting a picture in segments.
1880: First parcel post.
1880: Business offices begin to look modern.
1882: In England, the first Wirephotos.
1883: Edison stumbles onto "Edison effect"; basis of broadcast tubes.
1884: In Germany, Nipkow scanning disc, early version of television.
1884: People can now make long distance phone calls.
1884: Electric tabulator is introduced.
1884: Waterman's fountain pen blots out earlier versions.
1885: Dictating machines are bought for offices.
1885: Eastman makes coated photo printing paper.
1885: U.S. Post Office offers special delivery.
1885: Trains are delivering newspapers daily.
1886: Graphophone's wax cylinder and sapphire stylus improve sound.
1886: Mergenthaler constructs a linotype machine for setting type.
1887: Celluloid film; it will replace glass plate photography.
1887: Montgomery Ward mails out a 540-page catalog.
1887: Berliner gets music from a flat disc stamped out by machine.
1887: Comptometer multi-function adding machine is manufactured.
1888: "Kodak" box camera makes picture taking simple.
1888: Heinrich Hertz proves the existence of radio waves.
1888: The coin-operated public telephone.
1888: Edison's phonograph is manufactured for sale to the public.
1889: Herman Hollerith counts the population with punch cards.
1889: Strowger, Kansas City undertaker, invents automatic telephone exchange.
1890: A.B. Dick markets the mimeograph.
1890: Typewriters are in common use in offices.
1890: In England, Friese-Greene builds the kinematograph camera and projector.
1890: In France, Branly's coherer conducts radio waves.
1891: Large press prints and folds 90,000 4-page papers an hour.
1891: Telephoto lens is attached to the camera.
1891: Edison's assistant, Dickson, builds the Kinetograph motion picture camera.
1892: Edison and Dickson invent the peep-show Kinetoscope.
1892: 4-color rotary press.
1892: Portable typewriters.
1892: Automatic telephone switchboard comes into service.
1893: Dickson builds a motion picture studio in New Jersey.
1893: Addressograph joins the office machinery.
1894: Marconi invents wireless telegraphy.
1894: Box making machines give impetus to packaging industry.
1894: Berliner's flat phonograph disc competes with the cylinder.
1895: France's Lumiere brothers build a portable movie camera.
1895: Paris audience sees movies projected.
1895: In England, Friese-Greene invents phototypesetting.
1895: Dial telephones go into Milwaukee's city hall.
1896: Underwood model permits typists to see what they are typing.
1896: The monotype sets type by machine in single characters.
1896: Electric power is used to run a paper mill.
1896: In Britain, the motion picture projector is manufactured.
1896: X-ray photography.
1896: Rural free delivery (RFD) inaugurated.
1897: In England, postmen deliver mail to every home.
1897: In Germany, Braun improves Crookes' tube with fluorescence.
1897: General Electric creates a publicity department.
1898: Photographs taken by artificial light.
1898: New York State passes a law against misleading advertising.
1899: The loudspeaker.
1899: Sound is recorded magnetically by Poulsen of Denmark.
1899: American Marconi Company incorporated; forerunner of RCA.

1800-1819 | 1820-1839 | 1840-1859 | 1860-1879 | 1880-1899