_Back

Background

Cast and Crew

Locations and Photographs

DVD Details

Links

1701  Jethro Tull invents the mechanical seed drill and
          launches the Agricultural Revolution.

1702  Death of William III (William and Mary).
          Accession of Queen Anne.

1704  Isaac Newton (England) publishes Opticks, his collection 
          of papers relating to light, color, and optics.

1710  Abraham Darby pioneers the use of coke for the mass
          production of Iron.
          Edmund Halley (England) establishes that the positions 
          of the stars in the night sky are changing over time. 
          He also devises a theory about the orbits of comets, including
          his namesake, Halley's Comet.

1714  Death of Queen Ann Accession of King George I

1715  Becker develops and uses first diving suit

1720  Le Blon develops colour printing.
          Fahrenheit Temperature scale developed. 

1721  Thomas Lombe and his brother John build a silk mill 
          in Derby with technology stolen from Italy.

1726  Jedidiah Strutt born.

1728  James Bradley confirms that the speed of light is finite 
          and determines it to be 183,000 miles per second.

1727  Death of George I Accession of King George II

1729  Stephen Gray's discovery of the conduction of electricity.

1732  Richard Arkwright born.

1739  Dick Turpin executed.

1742  Celsius temperature scale developed.

1747  Henry Cavendish starts measuring the conductivity 
          of different materials

1751 Benjamin Huntsman produces steel in bulk.

1753  Benjamin Franklin invented the lightening rod, he
          demonstrates lightning is electricity.

1756  Start of the "Seven Years War" with France. 
          Timber from the Blackstone Valley America transported 
          to England for shipbuilding.

1759  Harrison develops first practical chronometer for 
          measuring longitude accurately.

1765  The Lunar Society is formed and meets at SOHO House
          in Birmingham.

1767  Survey of the Mason-Dixon line completed.

1769  Richard Arkwright patents a water-operated spinning 
          frame, a key invention of the Industrial Revolution.
          James Watt patents his steam engine.

1770  Cugnot builds first successful steam carriage

1771  Arkwright's first water powered spinning-mill opens 
          at Cromford.

1774  British Parliament makes emigration of cotton workers illegal.
          The element Oxygen discovered by Joseph Priestley and 
          independently by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. 

1775  British Parliament proclaims that Massachusetts is in revolt, 
          and the first shots are fired at Lexington: the American
          revolution is under way.

1776  John Slater born.
          First submarine built and used by Bushnell.
          Abigail Adams write to her husband John asking that he 
          and the other men who were at work on the Declaration 
          of Independence "remember the ladies." Nevertheless, the
          Declaration reads, "all men are created equal."

1778  Milford Mill started
          Bramah invents the valve-and-siphon flushing system, 
          "the basis of all future toilet plumbing".

1781  Jedidiah Strutt re-marries to Ann Cantrell (of Belper).

1782  William Alcock Slater dies.

1787  First automated assembly line, Delaware; USA.

1789  Samuel Slater emigrates to the USA.
          George Washington inaugurated as  first U.S. President.
          French revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille.

1792  Richard Arkwright dies.

1793  France declares war on Great Britain (Napoleon).

1794  Robert Street patents first practical internal combustion engine
          Patent No 1983.
          Edward Stone proposes the bark of the willow--salicylic 
          acid--as a medicine: the source of aspirin.

1797  Jedidiah Strutt dies.
          Garnerin makes 1000m parachute decent.

1805  In partnership with his brother John, Samuel Slater builds 
          a cotton mill in the Blackstone Valley USA. 
          Humphry Davy suggests using Nitrous Oxide as an anesthetic.
          Jacquard uses punch cards on his power loom.

1807  John Dalton's theory of atoms was published by Thomas
          Thomson in the 3rd edition of his System of Chemistry 

1811  The Luddite movement begins. and attacks mill machinery 
          in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

1816  Niepce used paper treated with light sensitive chemicals to 
          print a photograph in a camera obsecura.

1817  The Pentrich Rebellion.

1820  Death of George III. Accession of King George IV.
          Florence Nightingale born,

1821  First electric motor developed by Faraday.

1830  Death of George IV. Accession King William IV 

1823-1832  Babbage develops first (mechanical) computer.
          Ada Lovelace writes first computer program.

1835  Samuel Slater dies in the USA.

1837  Death of William IV. Accession of Queen Victoria.
          Morse develops electrical telegraph and Morse code.

1843  John Slater dies in the USA.

1845  President Samuel Jackson dies.