The following timeline tables list the discoveries and inventions in the history of electrical and electronics engineering.
History of discoveries timeline
History of associated inventions timeline
Innovations in consumer electronics
1843–1923: From electromechanics to electronics
1843: Watchmaker Alexander Bain develops the basic concept of displaying images as points with different brightness values. 1848: Frederick Collier Bakewell invents the first wirephoto machine, an early fax machine. 1861: Grade school teacher Philipp Reis presents his telephone in Frankfurt, inventing the loudspeaker as a byproduct. 1867: French poet and philosopher Charles Cros presents the construction principle of a phonograph in his 'paréophone'. 1867: James Clerk Maxwell develops a theory predicting the existence of electromagnetic waves and establishes Maxwell's equations to describe their properties. 1874: Ferdinand Braun discovers the rectifier effect in metal sulfides and metal oxides. 1877: Thomas Edison invents the first phonograph, using a tin foil cylinder to record and play back sounds. 1880: American physicist Charles Sumner Tainter discovers that audio tracks can be engraved in a flat, round disk, laying foundations for the gramophone record. 1884: Paul Nipkow obtains a patent for his Nipkow disk, an image-scanning device that constitutes the foundation for mechanical television. 1886: Heinrich Hertz proves the existence of electromagnetic waves, laying groundwork for wireless telegraphy and radio broadcasting. 1887: Emile Berliner patents the gramophone, using flat records that are easier to duplicate and store. 1888: Alexander Graham Bell significantly reduces noise by using a wax cylinder instead of tin foil for the phonograph. American Oberlin Smith describes a process to record audio using a cotton thread with fine wire clippings, making reel-to-reel audio tape recording possible. 1890: The phonograph incorporates an electric motor, leading to early jukeboxes with cylinders. Thomas Edison discovers thermionic emission, forming the basis for vacuum tubes and cathode-ray tubes. c. 1893: The selenium phototube allows conversion of brightness values into electrical signals, applied in wirephoto and television technology.
1895: Auguste Lumière's cinematograph displays moving images for the first time; brothers Emil and Max Skladanowsky present their Bioscop in Berlin. 1897: Ferdinand Braun invents the cathode-ray oscilloscope. Guglielmo Marconi transmits wireless telegraph messages over a distance of five kilometers. 1898: Danish physicist Valdemar Poulsen creates the world's first magnetic recording using a steel wire (telegraphone). Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrates the first wireless remote control of a model ship. 1899: The dog "Nipper" is used in "His Master's Voice", the trademark for gramophones. 1901: Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo develops the Telekino, an early wireless radio control system. 1902: Otto von Bronk patents a method for remote visualization of images impacting early color television (NTSC). Double-sided audio records appear with center paper labels. 1903: Guglielmo Marconi proves wireless telegraphic communication across the Atlantic using a transmitter developed by Ferdinand Braun. 1904: Double-sided records with a 30 cm diameter are produced by Odeon in Berlin. German physicist Arthur Korn develops practical methods for phototelegraphy. 1905: Sir John Ambrose Fleming invents the vacuum diode. 1906: Robert von Lieben and Lee de Forest independently invent the triode tube amplifier. Max Dieckmann and Gustav Glage use the Braun tube for playback of 20-line black-and-white images. First jukebox with records enters the market. Henry Harrison Chase Dunwoody files for a patent on a carborundum detector for crystal radios. 1907: Rosenthal incorporates a photocell into an image telegraph system. 1911: First film studios are established in Hollywood and Babelsberg. 1912: First radio receiver created using the Audion principle. 1913: High-vacuum electron tubes replace early soft tubes, significantly improving performance. Alexander Meissner patents radio-frequency feedback for electron-tube oscillators. Arthur Berry patents manufacture of printed circuits by metal etching. 1915: Carl Benedicks conducts early research on electrical properties of silicon and germanium. 1917: Lucien Lévy develops a radio receiver using resonant circuit frequency tuning. 1919: Charlie Chaplin co-founds United Artists. 1920: KDKA in Pittsburgh begins regular commercial radio broadcasting. 1922: J. McWilliams Stone invents a portable radio; George Frost installs a car radio in a Ford Model T. 1923: Manfred von Ardenne patents a multi-electrode vacuum tube used in Loewe Opta radio receivers. Dénes Mihály patents a television scanning system using selenium cells. August Karolus invents the Kerr cell for converting electrical pulses to light. Vladimir K. Zworykin files a patent for the iconoscope TV camera tube.
1924–1959: From cathode ray tube to stereo audio and TV 1924: First radio receivers exhibited at the Berlin Radio Show. 1925: Brunswick Records produces the Brunswick Panatrope record player with electronic pickup and amplification. Electrical recording techniques using microphones and tube amplifiers enter series production in the US and Germany. Leica 35mm camera introduced at Leipzig Spring Fair. John Logie Baird performs an early mechanical television demonstration with 30 lines. 1926: Fritz Pfleumer patents magnetic tape recording using paper coated with iron powder. German State Railroad tests wireless telephony services on trains between Berlin and Hamburg. John Logie Baird markets commercial mechanical television sets. 1927: Philco introduces the Transitone car radio in Philadelphia. First commercial sound films (The Jazz Singer) released using sound-on-disc synchronization. Philo Farnsworth demonstrates the first fully electronic television system. Baird demonstrates Phonovision, an early videodisc system using 78 RPM shellac records. 1928: Fritz Pfleumer's magnetic tape patent is granted. Dénes Mihály and Telefunken demonstrate early mechanical TV receivers in Berlin. WGY in New York begins experimental regular television broadcasts. Baird transmits television signals internationally from London to New York and demonstrates early color TV. 1929: Curt Stille and E. Blattner develop steel-ribbon magnetic audio recording systems (Blattnerphone). First sound film using optical sound premiered; Carl Froelich directs Germany's first sound film. Manfred von Ardenne demonstrates Europe's first fully electronic flying-spot camera tube. 1931: Alan Blumlein invents binaural sound ("Stereo") and two-channel disc recording methods. RCA Victor introduces early 33⅓ RPM commercial LP records. Manfred von Ardenne patents concepts for color television picture tubes. 1932: AEG and BASF begin industrial development of celluloid-based magnetic recording tape. 1933: Edwin Howard Armstrong demonstrates frequency modulation (FM) radio transmission. 1935: AEG and BASF present the Magnetophon K1 tape recorder at the Berlin Radio Show. 1936: Berlin Olympic Games broadcast live using electronic television cameras. Interlaced video techniques introduced to reduce image flicker. 1938: Werner Flechsig invents the shadow mask principle for color CRT television tubes. 1940: High-frequency bias technique for magnetic tape developed by Walter Weber, dramatically reducing background noise. 1948: Edwin H. Land launches the first instant camera (Polaroid Model 95). John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley at Bell Labs invent the transistor. Peter Carl Goldmark at CBS introduces the microgroove 33⅓ RPM vinyl LP record. Dennis Gabor invents holography. 1953: The NTSC color television standard is officially adopted in the United States. 1954: Ampex develops quadruplex videotape recording for broadcast television. 1956: Ampex introduces the VR-1000, the first commercially successful video tape recorder (VTR). 1958: Stereo phonograph records become commercially available.
See also Electronics History of electronic engineering List of electrical engineering journals List of electrical engineers Timeline of historic inventions Timeline of computing Computer History Museum
References
External links List of IEEE Milestones