Timeline of materials technology

• 28,000 BC – People wear beads, bracelets, and pendants • 14,500 BC – First pottery, made by the Jōmon people of Japan. • 6th millennium BC – Copper metallurgy is invented and copper is used for ornamentation (see Pločnik article) • 2nd millennium BC – Bronze is used for weapons and armor • 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 • 1st millennium BC – Pewter beginning to be used in China and Egypt • 1000 BC – The Phoenicians introduce dyes made from the purple murex. • 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==

• 3rd century – Cast iron widely used in Han dynasty China • 300 – Greek alchemist Zomius, summarizing the work of Egyptian alchemists, describes arsenic and lead acetate • 9th century – Stonepaste ceramics invented in Iraq • 900 – Synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances described in the works attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Latin: Geber) • 900 – Abū Bakr al-Rāzī describes the preparation of plaster of Paris and metallic antimony ==2nd millennium==

• 1000 – Gunpowder is developed in China • 1340 – In Liège, Belgium, the first blast furnaces for the production of iron are developed • 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 • 1664 – In the pipes supplying water to the gardens at Versailles, cast iron is used 18th century • 1717 – Abraham Darby makes iron with coke, a derivative of coal • 1738 – Metallic zinc processed by distillation from calamine and charcoal patented by William Champion • 1740 – Crucible steel technique developed by Benjamin Huntsman • 1774 – • Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen • Johann Gottlieb Gahn discovers manganese • Karl Wilhelm Scheele discovers chlorine • 1779 – Hydraulic cement (stucco) patented by Bryan Higgins for use as an exterior plaster • 1799 – Acid battery made from copper/zinc by Alessandro Volta 19th century • 1821 – Thermocouple invented by Thomas Johann Seebeck • 1824 – Portland cement patent issued to Joseph Aspdin • 1825 – Metallic aluminum produced by Hans Christian Ørsted • 1839 – Vulcanized rubber invented by Charles Goodyear • 1839 – Silver-based photographic processes invented by Louis Daguerre and William Fox Talbot • 1855 – Bessemer process for mass production of steel patented by Henry Bessemer • 1861 – Color photography demonstrated by James Clerk Maxwell • 1883 – First solar cells using selenium waffles made by Charles Fritts • 1893 – Thermite Welding developed and soon used to weld rails 20th century • 1902 – Synthetic rubies created by the Verneuil process developed by Auguste Verneuil • 1908 – Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger • 1909 – Bakelite hard thermosetting plastic presented by Leo Baekeland • 1911 – Superconductivity discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes • 1912 – Stainless steel invented by Harry Brearley • 1916 – Method for growing single crystals of metals invented by Jan Czochralski • 1919 – The merchant ship Fullagar has the first all welded hull. • 1924 – Pyrex invented by scientists at Corning Incorporated, a glass with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion • 1931 – synthetic rubber called neoprene developed by Julius Nieuwland (see also: E.K. Bolton, Wallace Carothers) • 1931 – Nylon developed by Wallace Carothers • 1935 – Langmuir–Blodgett film coating of glass was developed by Katharine Burr Blodgett, creating "invisible glass" which is >99% transmissive • 1938 – The process for making poly-tetrafluoroethylene, better known as Teflon discovered by Roy Plunkett • 1939 – Dislocations in metals confirmed by Robert W. Cahn • 1947 – First germanium point-contact transistor invented • 1947 – First commercial application of a piezoelectric ceramic: barium titanate used as a phonograph pickup • 1951 – Individual atoms seen for the first time using the field ion microscope • 1953 – Metallic catalysts which greatly improve the strength of polyethylene polymers discovered by Karl Ziegler • 1954 – Silicon solar cells with 6% efficiency made at Bell Laboratories • 1954 – Argon oxygen decarburization (AOD) refining invented by scientists at the Union Carbide Corporation • 1959 – Float glass process patented by the Pilkington Brothers • 1962 – SQUID superconducting quantum interference device invented • 1966 – Stephanie Kwolek invented a fibre that would later become known as Kevlar • 1968 – Liquid crystal display developed by RCA • 1970 – Silica optical fibers grown by Corning Incorporated • 1980 – Duplex stainless steels developed which resist oxidation in chlorides • 1984 – Fold-forming system developed by Charles Lewton-Brain to produce complex three dimensional forms rapidly from sheet metal • 1985 – The first fullerene molecule discovered by scientists at Rice University (see also: Timeline of carbon nanotubes) • 1986 – The first high temperature superconductor is discovered by Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller ==See also==