Six sides, endless possibilities
Edison based his idea on the existing technology of the telegraph. When a functioning model of the phonograph was made, he explained excitedly to journalists how he hoped it would enable people to listen to recorded music at home.
In 1877, inventor Thomas Edison and his engineers made the first working model of the phonograph, which would form the basis for modern recording technology.
Alexander Graham Bell patented his technology despite the fact it was imperfect, and a good thing too: just two hours later another inventor tried to register the same patent! The technology was perfected and just over a decade later there were 26,000 telephones in Britain and 150,000 in America.
Although the concept of transmitting messages via electrical signals dates back to the 18th century, significant developments happened during the 19th century that made global communication possible.
In 1837, William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone developed a telegraphic communication system that quickly spread across Britain. By 1866, a transatlantic cable was laid, enabling communication between Europe and America.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented a device that would become a key feature of modern communication: the telephone. He and his assistant Roger Watson had chanced upon the technology during an experiment.
The humble postage stamp had its beginnings in the 19th century. Before the first stamp, The Penny Black, was introduced in May 1840, the cost of sending a letter varied by distance sent.
The dawn of the stamp standardized pricing and made sending letters and parcels possible for the masses. The design of the stamp was based on a painting of Queen Victoria at age 15.
In the middle of the 19th century, an astonishing building went up in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The building’s name was the Crystal Palace, and it was designed by gardener Joseph Paxton.
The first commercial Christmas card was produced in 1843. It was designed by John Callcott Horsley and produced by Henry Cole. It was an immediate hit.
It is perhaps a dying tradition now in the digital age, but for more than 100 years one of the more important Christmas traditions was the sending of cards.
Rail transport improved leaps and bounds over the course of the 19th century. The proliferation of railways allowed goods and people to be transported with unprecedented efficiency.
Developments were not limited to overground trains: the first underground railway came into being in 1863 with the opening of the Metropolitan line. The system was not known as the London Underground until 1908, however.
In 1859, he published ‘On the Origin of Species,’ in which he explained his theory of natural selection and introduced readers to the idea that species have evolved gradually, adapting to their environment.
Despite initial reservations on the part of the engineers who built it, the building was a marvel; it had the greatest area of glass ever seen in a single building. It sadly burned down in 1936, but it did become the namesake of Crystal Palace Football Club, founded in 1905.
He and his associates had produced their first high-resistance, incandescent electric light by January 1879, but there were many more iterations before the bulb that resembles modern day bulbs came into existence in 1880.
Thomas Edison, the same man behind the phonograph, is also credited with another important invention: the light bulb. Edison was convinced he could use electricity to make light and he spent years trying to do so.
Before computers came into wide circulation, an important tool for communication was the trusty typewriter. The first typewriter was patented by a group of American inventors in 1868.
The typewriter made its way into offices as early as 1874, but it did not become commonplace until at least the mid-1880s. Once they arrived, typewriters were an office fixture for the best part of a century.
The wireless communication system more commonly known as the radio was the product of decades of experimentation with radio waves.
Most commonly credited with the first commercially successful radio is Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who began to experiment with radio waves when he was 20 years old. He patented the first edition of the radio in 1896.
Although it is less popular nowadays due to the rise of alternatives such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, aspirin was the painkiller of choice for a good half-century.
The first individuals to achieve camera photography were the French artist Louis Daguerre and the British inventor William Fox Talbot. Both went public with their inventions in 1839.
While even nowadays surgery doesn't top the list of fun things to do, in pre-19th century times it was something to be avoided at all costs. Before the existence of anaesthetic, surgery was an excruciatingly painful and traumatic experience.
We owe much of our understanding of the Earth and its inhabitants to one particular Victorian: Charles Darwin (1809-1882).
Daguerre released his first and Fox Talbot’s (pictured) followed shortly after, although it quickly became evident that the processes used by both were very different from one another.
Aspirin as we know it was first developed in 1897. By 1899, the pharmaceutical company Bayer had given aspirin its name and was selling it all over the world.
Another important development in the field of medicine that can be attributed to the scientists of the 19th century is the X-ray, which was discovered by German professor Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895.
The value of the X-ray was immediately obvious to those in the field and within a year it was being used for diagnosis, in particular to diagnose bone fractures and foreign objects.
Sources: (BBC) (Postal Museum) (The Franklin Institute)
See also: The health risks of Victorian fashion
There were a number of experiments with pain relief for surgery patients during the first half of the 19th century, and in October 1846 dentist William Morton performed the first tooth extraction using ether, a substance that would form the basis of anaesthetics still used by surgeons today.
Across the world, the 19th century was a time of great change. Life looked very different at the turn of the 20th century from how it did at the turn of the 19th.
The British were pioneers in many areas as their empire expanded, but developments in science and technology were by no means limited to those forged by British inventors. For many countries around the world, the 19th century was marked by unprecedentedly quick progress in the fields of medicine, transportation, and natural history, to name a few.
Check out this gallery to find out which features of modern life have their roots in the 19th century.
The greatest inventions of the 19th century
Inventions we still use today
LIFESTYLE History
Across the world, the 19th century was a time of great change. Life looked very different at the turn of the 20th century from how it did at the turn of the 19th.
The British were pioneers in many areas as their empire expanded, but developments in science and technology were by no means limited to those forged by British inventors. For many countries around the world, the 19th century was marked by unprecedentedly quick progress in the fields of medicine, transportation, and natural history, to name a few.
Check out this gallery to find out which features of modern life have their roots in the 19th century.