The steam engine was invented by James Watt in the 1770s. The invention of the steam engine ushered in a new era of the Industrial Revolution. It is worth noting that Watt was merely improving on earlier designs by people like Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen.

Hiram Maxim is notable for inventing the first fully automatic machine gun, called the Maxim Gun, in 1883. His weapon was used to devastating effect by the British, and other European imperial powers, to wipeout the assemble armies of native populations during the late imperialist land grab of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Henry Bessemer was an English inventor who lived in the nineteenth century. He developed the Bessemer Process which allowed for steel to be made more effectively. His invention accelerated the growth of heavy industry during the Industrial Revolution.

The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. It allowed for the mechanization of the separation of cotton fibers from cotton seeds, which dramatically increased the productivity of America’s cotton plantations.

The vulcanization of rubber involves making rubber more durable through the addition of certain chemicals. It was invented by Charles Goodyear in the first half of the nineteenth century. It made rubber an extremely useful material and encouraged the growth of massive rubber plantations in parts of Africa and Brazil. 

Alessandro Volta was an Italian inventor who, in 1799, invented the world’s first battery.

The French inventor Honore Blanc is remembered for producing guns that made use of replaceable (or interchangeable) parts. The benefits of this invention were that it allowed guns to be produced much more efficiently.

James Watt's steam engine made the creation of products much more efficient and feasible. It helped to lead to mass production in factories, one of the main features of the Industrial Revolution.

Britain began experiencing the Industrial Revolution decades earlier than the rest of the world. This is due to the many advantages that Britain had over the rest of the world in terms of supplies of resources and technology. While Britain begins the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1700's, the rest of the world won't catch up until nearly 100 years later.

The Manhattan Project was a secret American military project that led to the creation of the first atomic bomb in 1945. It was led on the civilian side by physicist Robert Oppenheimer, and on the military side by General Leslie Groves. The Manhattan Project created the two atomic bombs that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II in 1945.