istoryworld
Events relating to technology
George Stephenson's railway between Liverpool and Manchester opens, with passengers pulled by eight locomotives based on Rocket
The Göta canal is completed, enabling ships to cross Scandinavia from the North Sea to the Baltic
The paddle steamer Alburkah becomes the first ocean-going iron ship, completing the journey from England to the Niger
27-year-old Isambard Kingdom Brunel wins his first major appointment, as chief engineer to the Great Western railway
30-year-old Robert Stephenson is appointed chief engineer to the London and Birmingham railway
The first long-distance US railway, in South Carolina, carries its first passengers
Fox Talbot exposes the first photographic negatives, among them a view looking out through an oriel window in Lacock Abbey
Work begins on the suspension bridge over the river Avon, at Clifton, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
The first trains run between London and Birmingham on the railway designed by Robert Stephenson
An Irish packet steamer, the Sirius, becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, completing the journey to New York in 19 days
US inventor Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration, in Philadelphia, of his electric telegraph
Rowland Hill introduces in Britain the world's first postage stamps - the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue
Fox Talbot patents the 'calotype', introducing the negative-positive process that becomes standard in photography
The Brunel engineers, father and son, finish an 18-year project tunnelling under the Thames between Wapping and Rotherhithe
Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches the Great Britain, the first iron steamship designed for the transatlantic passenger trade
Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail complete the first telegraph line, between New York and Baltimore
The self-contained metal cartridge, with a percussion cap in its base, is patented by a Paris gunsmith named Houiller
British engineer Robert Stephenson completes a box-girder railway bridge over the Menai Strait, between Anglesey and mainland Wales
English photographer Frederick Scott Archer publishes the details of his collodion process, a marked improvement on the earlier calotype negative
German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz invents the ophthalmoscope, making it possible for a doctor to examine the inside of a patient's eye
US entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt conveys passengers across the American continent through Nicaragua by steamship and horse and carriage
The hypodermic syringe with a plunger is simultaneously developed in France and in Scotland
US inventor Elisha Otis dramatically demonstrates his new safety elevator, cutting the rope suspending his platform in New York's Crystal Palace
Ferdinand de Lesseps is granted the concession to construct a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea
The Panama Railroad company completes a line between the Atlantic and the Pacific, providing America's first transcontinental link
