Timeline of materials technology

=BC=

* 29,000–25,000 BC - First ceramic appears
*3rd millennium BC - Copper metallurgy is invented and copper is used for ornamentation
*2nd millennium BC - Bronze is used for weapons and armour
*1st millennium BC - Pewter beginning to be used in China and Egypt
*16th century BC - The Hittites develop crude iron metallurgy
*13th century BC - Invention of steel when iron and charcoal are combined properly
*10th century BC - Glass production begins in ancient Near East
*3rd century BC - Wootz steel, the first crucible steel, is invented in ancient India
*50s BC - Glassblowing techniques flourish in Phoenicia
*20s BC - Roman architect Vitruvius describes low-water-content method for mixing concrete

1st millennium

*200s - Steel making widely used in Han Dynasty China
*4th century - Iron pillar of Delhi is the oldest surviving example of corrosion-resistant steel
*700s - Porcelain is invented in Tang Dynasty China
*8th century - Geber (Jabir) invents artificial pearls and describes the purification of greasy or discoloured pearls, and the first recipes for the dying and artificial colouring of gemstones and pearlscite web |url=http://www.history-science-technology.com/Articles/articles%2092.htm |title= The Colouring of Gemstones, The Purifying and Making of Pearls And Other Useful Recipes |accessdate=2008-03-29|last=Hassan |first=Ahmad Y |authorlink=Ahmad Y Hassan |work=History of Science and Technology in Islam]
*8th century - Lustreware is invented by Geber in Iraq [cite web |url=http://www.history-science-technology.com/Articles/articles%2091.htm |title=Lustre Glass |accessdate=2008-03-29|last=Hassan |first=Ahmad Y |authorlink=Ahmad Y Hassan |work=History of Science and Technology in Islam] [cite web |url= http://www.history-science-technology.com/Notes/Notes%209.htm |title=Lazaward And Zaffer Cobalt Oxide In Islamic And Western Lustre Glass And Ceramics |accessdate=2008-03-29|last=Hassan |first=Ahmad Y |authorlink=Ahmad Y Hassan |work=History of Science and Technology in Islam]
*8th century - Geber describes the first recipes for the manufacture of glue from cheese
*8th century - The streets of Baghdad are the first to be paved with tar, derived from petroleum through destructive distillationDr. Kasem Ajram (1992). "Miracle of Islamic Science", Appendix B. Knowledge House Publishers. ISBN 0911119434.]
*700s - Tin-glazing of ceramics invented by Arabic chemists and potters in Basra, Iraq [cite journal | last=Mason | first=Robert B. | title=New Looks at Old Pots: Results of Recent Multidisciplinary Studies of Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic World | journal=Muqarnas: Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture | date=1995 | volume=XII | publisher=Brill Academic Publishers | id=ISBN 9004103147 | pages=1]
*9th century - Stonepaste ceramics invented in Iraq [cite journal | last=Mason | first=Robert B. | title=New Looks at Old Pots: Results of Recent Multidisciplinary Studies of Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic World | journal=Muqarnas: Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture | date=1995 | volume=XII | publisher=Brill Academic Publishers | id=ISBN 9004103147 | pages=5]
*10th century - Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) states he and his Muslim predecessors (Calid, Geber and al-Kindi) invented the following derivative and artificial materials: lead(II) oxide (PbO), red lead (Pb3O4), tin(II) oxide ("Isfidaj"), copper acetate ("Zaniar"), copper(II) oxide (CuO), lead sulfide, zinc oxide, bismuth oxide, antimony oxide, iron rust, iron acetate, "Daws" (a contituent of steel), cinnabar (HgS), arsenic trioxide (As2O3), alkali ("al-Qili"), sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), and "Qalimiya" (anything that separates from metals during their purification)cite web |url= http://www.history-science-technology.com/Articles/articles%2010.htm |title= Arabic Alchemy: Science of the Art |accessdate=2008-03-29 |last=Hassan |first=Ahmad Y |authorlink=Ahmad Y Hassan |work=History of Science and Technology in Islam]

2nd millennium

*11th century - Damascus steel developed in the Middle East
*1448 - Johann Gutenberg develops type metal alloy
*1450s - Cristallo, a clear soda-based glass is invented by Angelo Barovier
*1540 - Vannoccio Biringuccio publishes first systematic book on metallurgy
*1556 - Georg Agricola's influential book on metallurgy
*1590 - Glass lenses are developed in the Netherlands and used for the first time in microscopes and telescopes

18th century

*1738 - William Champion patents a process for the production of metallic zinc by distillation from calamine and charcoal
*1740 - Benjamin Huntsman developed the crucible steel technique
*1779 - Bry Higgins issued a patent for hydraulic cement (stucco) for use as an exterior plaster
*1799 - Alessandro Volta makes a copper/zinc acid battery

19th century

*1821 - Thomas Johann Seebeck invents the thermocouple
*1824 - Patent issued to Joseph Aspin for Portland cement
*1825 - Hans Christian Ørsted produces metallic aluminium
*1839 - Charles Goodyear invents vulcanized rubber
*1839 - Louis Daguerre and William Fox Talbot invent silver-based photographic processes
*1855 - Bessemer process for mass production of steel patented
*1861 - James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates color photography
*1883 - Charles Fritts makes the first solar cells using selenium waffles.

20th century

*1902 - Auguste Verneuil develops the Verneuil process for making synthetic rubies
*1909 - Leo Baekeland presents the Bakelite hard thermosetting plastic
*1911 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers Superconductivity
*1912 - Harry Brearley invents stainless steel
*1916 - Jan Czochralski invents a method for growing single crystals of metals
*1924 - Corning Incorporated scientists invent Pyrex, a glass with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion
*1931 - Julius Nieuwland develops the synthetic rubber called neoprene ("see also: E.K. Bolton, Wallace Carothers")
*1931 - Wallace Carothers develops nylon
*1938 - Roy Plunkett discovers the process for making poly-tetrafluoroethylene, better known as Teflon
* 1939 - Robert W. Cahn confirmed the existence of dislocations (line defects whose movement under stress allows metals to deform plastically), explaining the discrepancy between the very high predicted resistance to plasticity of perfect metal crystals, compared to the much smaller measured values of actual pure metal crystals.
*1947 - First germanium point-contact transistor invented
*1947 - First commercial application of a piezoelectric ceramic: barium titanate used as a phonograph needle
*1951 - Individual atoms seen for the first time using the Field ion microscope
*1953 - Karl Ziegler discovers metallic catalysts which greatly improve the strength of polyethylene polymers
*1954 - 6% efficiency silicon solar cells made at Bell Laboratories
*1954 - invention of AOD refining (Argon Oxygen Decarburization)
*1959 - Pilkington Brothers patent the float glass process
*1962 - SQUID superconducting quantum interference device invented
*1968 - Liquid crystal display developed by RCA
*1970 - Silica optical fibers grown by Corning Incorporated
*1980 - development of duplex stainless steels which resist oxidation in chlorides

References

ee also

*List of inventions
*List of inventions named after people
*Materials science