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The 19th century

Industry, invention and voices for change.

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MOMENTS FROM THIS ERA

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7 illustrated stories · growing daily
A vast spoked wheel with long enclosed passenger cabins rises over visitors in nineteenth-century dress.Technology

The Original Ferris Wheel Opens at Chicago’s World’s Fair

George Ferris’s giant wheel opened on 21 June 1893 at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition. Its enclosed cabins each seated forty people, giving the familiar amusement ride a surprisingly large beginning.

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Josephine Cochrane examines china held in wire racks inside an early copper dishwashing machine.Technology

Josephine Cochrane’s 1886 dishwasher patent

On 28 December 1886, Josephine G. Cochran received a patent for an improved dishwashing machine. Its combination of water pressure and secure dish racks helped turn an irritating domestic problem into a practical commercial invention.

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Dom Pedro II takes Alexander Graham Bell’s arm as exhibition judges approach an early telephone on a wooden bench.Technology

Dom Pedro II and Bell’s telephone demonstration on 25 June 1876

At Philadelphia’s Centennial Exhibition on 25 June 1876, Brazil’s emperor helped draw tired judges to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Bell later remembered the encounter as a crucial moment in making the invention known.

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An inventor leans over a hand-cranked phonautograph with an acoustic horn and a dark recording cylinder.Technology

Scott de Martinville records Au clair de la lune on paper

On 9 April 1860, a phonautograph captured a voice on paper without playing it back. Modern researchers later recovered the sound.

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A wooden pencil sharpened at both ends lies beside a penknife and wood shavings.Technology

Hymen Lipman’s Pencil and Eraser Patent of 1858

On 30 March 1858, Hymen Lipman patented a wooden pencil containing an eraser core. Its rubber end could be sharpened, creating a precise erasing point as well as a writing point.

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An early wooden box camera stands beside a reflective metal photographic plate in a velvet-lined holder.Technology

Public disclosure of the daguerreotype process in Paris

The daguerreotype process was publicly explained in Paris on 19 August 1839. Its detailed images formed on silver-plated copper, and the disclosure helped turn a guarded experimental method into a widely practised photographic technique.

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Guests dine by warm lights beneath unfinished brick tunnel arches, with a separate workmen’s table visible alongside.Technology

The Thames Tunnel banquet of 10 November 1827

On 10 November 1827, supporters of the Thames Tunnel held a formal dinner inside its unfinished passages. The occasion combined hospitality, engineering publicity and a celebration for the workers building beneath London’s river.

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