5000 BCE
First copper smelting (Belovode)
The earliest known evidence of copper smelting is found at Belovode, Serbia, pushing extractive metallurgy back to the 6th millennium BCE. Source — Wikipedia, "Belovode":
Chronological Storyline (22 Milestones)
3300 BCE
Bronze Age: tin–copper alloying
Smiths begin alloying copper with tin to make bronze — harder and easier to cast than pure copper — opening the Bronze Age. Source — Wikipedia, "Bronze Age": "Bronze … was much harder and more durable"
1500 BCE
Piece-Mold Bronze Casting
Shang artisans perfect piece-mold casting (陶范, táo fàn), enabling the mass production of intricate, seamless ritual bronze vessels. #ancient #technology
1200 BCE
Iron Age: bloomery smelting spreads
Bloomery furnaces reduce iron ore with charcoal to a spongy "bloom" of wrought iron, spreading ironworking across the Old World. Source — Britannica, "bloomery process":
500 BCE
Early Cast Iron Smelting
Chinese metallurgists master cast iron (生铁, shēng tiě) production using advanced blast furnaces, centuries before Europe. #ancient #technology
300 BCE
Wootz (crucible) steel in India
Crucible "wootz" steel, prized for its toughness and later for Damascus-blade patterning, is produced in South India and Sri Lanka. Source — Wikipedia, "Wootz steel":
100 BCE
Finery Forge Steelmaking
Han dynasty smiths develop "stir-frying steel" (炒钢, chǎo gāng), oxidizing carbon from molten cast iron to produce wrought iron and steel. #ancient #technology
200 CE
True Porcelain Perfected
Eastern Han potters fire kaolin clay at high temperatures to create true porcelain (瓷器, cí qì), a major milestone in ceramic materials. #ancient #technology
500 CE
Co-fusion Steel Process
Qiwu Huaiwen refines co-fusion (灌钢, guàn gāng), melting cast iron into wrought iron to create high-quality, uniform steel for weapons. #medieval #technology
1637 CE
Zinc Smelting Documented
Song Yingxing's Tiangong Kaiwu details zinc smelting (炼锌, liàn xīn), marking the first comprehensive record of large-scale zinc extraction. #early-modern #technology
1709 CE
Darby smelts iron with coke
Abraham Darby I succeeds in smelting iron with coke instead of scarce charcoal at Coalbrookdale, enabling cheap cast iron for the Industrial Revolution. Source — Wikipedia, "Abraham Darby I":
1856 CE
Bessemer process mass-produces steel
Henry Bessemer patents the first inexpensive process to mass-produce steel by blowing air through molten pig iron. Source — Britannica, "Bessemer process": "the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel"
1869 CE
Celluloid: first semi-synthetic plastic
Building on Alexander Parkes’s Parkesine (1862), John Wesley Hyatt commercialises celluloid — an early mouldable, semi-synthetic plastic. Source — Science Museum, "The age of plastic":
1907 CE
Bakelite: first fully synthetic plastic
Leo Baekeland invents Bakelite, a phenol–formaldehyde resin and the first truly synthetic plastic, launching the modern polymer industry. Source — American Chemical Society, "Bakelite":
1913 CE
Brearley invents stainless steel
Harry Brearley discovers that adding chromium to steel makes it corrosion-resistant, creating "rustless" (stainless) steel in Sheffield. Source — Wikipedia, "Stainless steel":
1935 CE
Carothers synthesizes nylon
Wallace Carothers and his DuPont team synthesise nylon, the first fully synthetic fibre, soon used for stockings, parachutes and ropes. Source — Wikipedia, "Nylon":
1963 CE
High-strength carbon fibre developed
Researchers at the UK’s Royal Aircraft Establishment develop high-strength carbon fibre, later mass-made by carbonising PAN precursor. Source — Wikipedia, "Carbon fibers":
1985 CE
Buckminsterfullerene (C60) discovered
Kroto, Curl and Smalley discover the soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecule C60, opening nanomaterials research (Nobel Prize, 1996). Source — Wikipedia, "Buckminsterfullerene":
1987 CE
High-Tc Superconductor Discovery
Zhao Zhongxian's team independently discover YBCO high-temperature superconductors (超导体, chāo dǎo tǐ), achieving critical temps above 90K. #contemporary #technology
1991 CE
Iijima characterizes carbon nanotubes
Sumio Iijima’s report on multi-walled carbon nanotubes catalyses a global field of ultra-strong, conductive nanomaterials. Source — Wikipedia, "Carbon nanotube":
2004 CE
Graphene isolated with adhesive tape
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov isolate single-atom-thick graphene using adhesive tape — over 100× stronger than steel (Nobel Prize, 2010). Source — Wikipedia, "Discovery of graphene":
2008 CE
Iron-Based Superconductors
Chinese research groups rapidly synthesize new iron-based superconductors (铁基超导, tiě jī chāo dǎo), pushing critical temperatures above 50K. #contemporary #technology