Innovations Archive
Every entry starts with a problem someone needed solved.
Browse by field. Each record sets out the problem, the innovation, how it worked, what changed, and what documentation supports the account.
The Ishango Bone
A baboon fibula marked with three organised columns of tally notches, excavated by Jean de Heinzelin at Ishango on Lake Edward.
Iron production at Meroë
Large-scale iron smelting, evidenced by slag mounds and excavated furnace bases across the Meroitic capital.
Great Zimbabwe's dry-stone architecture
Coursed dry-stone granite walls up to 11 metres high and 5 metres thick, laid without mortar, enclosing a capital of a major trading state.
The manuscript libraries of Timbuktu
Hundreds of thousands of handwritten manuscripts, including works on astronomy and medicine, held in family and institutional libraries.
Multiple-effect evaporator
A sealed series of vacuum pans in which the vapour boiled off in one pan supplies the heat for the next, at successively lower pressures.
Automatic engine lubricator
A cup that fed oil steadily to the engine's moving parts using the engine's own steam pressure, while it ran.
Process for manufacturing carbon filaments
A method of encasing the filament blank in a cardboard envelope during carbonisation so it heats evenly and holds its shape.
Automatic shoe-lasting machine
A machine that held the last, pleated the leather over it, positioned the sole and drove the nails.
Cabinet bed
A roll-top desk with storage that unfolded into a full bed, and folded back with the bedding stowed inside.
Automatic elevator door mechanism
A mechanism that opened and closed the shaft door automatically in step with the cage's position.
Railway induction telegraph
A system that sent telegraph signals between a moving train and the track-side wires by electromagnetic induction, without physical contact.
Improved ironing board
A narrow, curved, padded and reversible board mounted on collapsible supports.
High-temperature preheated furnaces of the Haya
Haya smiths built furnaces that preheated the air blast by drawing it through tuyères set inside the burning charcoal, reaching very high temperatures.
Safety hood (breathing device)
A hood with long intake tubes hanging near the floor, where smoke is thinner, plus a moist absorbent lining.
The Ball Method for chaulmoogra oil
A chemical process isolating the ethyl esters of chaulmoogra oil's fatty acids, producing an injectable, water-miscible preparation.
Three-position traffic signal
A T-shaped signal with a third, intermediate all-stop position that halted traffic in every direction before the change.
Banked blood and plasma distribution
Systematic methods for separating, preserving, testing and distributing plasma at scale, set out in Drew's doctoral thesis and applied in Blood for Britain.
Truck-mounted mechanical refrigeration
A compact, shock-resistant, removable refrigeration unit designed to be mounted on a truck body.
Foil-electret microphone
A polymer film holding a permanent electrostatic charge, removing the need for an external bias voltage.
Closed-circuit home security system
A motorised camera scanning a set of peepholes, feeding a bedroom monitor, with two-way voice, remote door release and a panic alarm.
Far-ultraviolet camera/spectrograph
An electrographic camera converting far-UV photons into electrons recorded directly on film.
Geodetic Earth modelling for satellite positioning
Programming and refinement of geodetic computations from satellite altimetry data to model the geoid.
Illusion transmitter
A pair of concave mirrors that produce a real optical image appearing to occupy space in front of the display, transmissible to a remote location.
The ISA bus and the open PC architecture
A standard internal expansion bus letting third parties build cards — graphics, sound, networking, storage — that any PC could accept.
Pressurised water gun (Super Soaker)
A hand-pumped pressurised reservoir that releases a continuous high-volume stream on the trigger.
Laserphaco Probe for cataract surgery
A probe combining a laser fibre with irrigation and aspiration channels to vaporise and flush out the clouded lens.
Voice over Internet Protocol systems
A large portfolio of patented methods for delivering reliable voice and multimedia over IP networks.
CardioPad tele-cardiology tablet
A touchscreen tablet with ECG electrodes that records a heart trace locally and transmits it over the mobile network for specialist reading.