Inventions, Inventors, Machines & Tools Posters & Art Prints
for the social studies and science classroom, home schoolers and theme decor for office and studio.

Thomas Newcomen
b. 2-24-1664; England
d. 8-5-1729

Ironmonger (someone who sells iron goods) Thomas Newcomen, considered a forefather to the Industrial Revolution, perfected a practical steam engine for pumping water out of the tin mines in southwest England (tin and copper are combined to make bronze). Inventor James Watts developed the technological improvements to Newcomen's "Engine to Raise Water by Fire" and thus made the external combustion steam engine fuel efficient.

James Hargreaves
b. c. 1720; England
d. 4-22-1778

James Hargreaves, a weaver and carpenter, is credited with inventing the Spinning Jenny in 1764, which revolutionized the textile industry. Hargreaves, seeing that several "spinster" spinning raw fiber on a spinning wheel were unable to produce enough thread for a weaver to work efficiently, "framed" several spindles together allowing them to be powered by one person, thus multiplying the output of a single spinster by the number of spindles.

Sir Richard Arkwright
b. 1-3-1733; England
d. 8-2-1792

Arkwright was generally credited with inventing the spinning frame, a vast improvement on the spinning jenny of James Hargreaves. Though his patents were eventually revoked, because it was shown he had infringed on the original work of others, he was knighted for his considerable achievements of fueling the Industrial Revolution in England.

Samuel Crompton
b. 12-3-1753; England
d. 6-26-1827

Crompton, who earned his living as a spinner, made improvements to Hargreaves' spinning jenny, calling it a spinning mule.

In this illustration of the interior of a Lancaster cotton factory with spinning mules shows a child cleaning the inside of a moving machine. The Luddites destroyed machines like these that eliminated jobs for skilled textile workers.

Metallurgy is the study and technology of exploiting the characteristics of elements that are hard, solid at room temperature, lusterous (shiny), ductile and malleable (can be bent and formed into shapes), and conduct electricity, heat and sound efficiently.

A factory for producing processing metal into casting for further processing is called a foundry.

Robert Fulton
b. 11-14-1765; Lancaster Co. PA
d. 2-24-1815

Robert Fulton was an engineer who is credited with developing the first commercially successful steam-powered boat, the Clermont, which carried passengers between New York City and Albany, New York. He also developed the first practical submarine, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1800.

Eli Whitney, Inventor of the Cotton Gin
b. 12-8-1765, Massachusetts
d. 1-8-1825

Inventions- Machine Operator

Caption- Many women worked as machine operators during WW II. This photo, circa 1942-43, was taken at Vultee Aircraft, Inc., in Vultee Field, California. The factory manufactured planes for the U.S. Army and Navy.

Powerhouse Mechanic, 1920

War Machine by Leonardo da Vinci

• Leonardo da Vinci posters

Morse's Original Transmitter

• Morse & Vail alphabet poster
• portrait of Samuel F. B. Morse