Victorian Inventions KS2

The Victorian period was a period of great change and many advancements were made in science, society and politics during this time. The shift from living in the country to living in towns and cities meant that people had to find solutions to new problems and find new ways of doing things. Below are some of the most important and significant Victorian inventions:

Electricity

One of the inventions to have the biggest impact on how we live our lives today was the discovery of how to generate electricity. Michael Faraday discovered that magnetism could produce electricity, leading to the first electrical generator. Joseph Swan, an English inventor, then created the first lightbulb in 1878. Thomas Edison then worked out a way to make a lightbulb glow for more than 1200 hours.

An illustration of Edison's bulb

Flushing toilets

Another important invention was the flushing toilet. Although the first flush toilet had been invented in 1775, they were not used in Britain until around 1860. Until then, most toilets were outside and were just holes in the ground. Sometimes ash was thrown in the hole to cover the smell.

In 1865 a summer heatwave caused the ‘Great Stink’ from all the untreated human waste of an overcrowded London, which prompted proper sewers to be built. The first flushing toilets were public ones, and soon after, began to be built in people’s homes.

An advert for a Thomas Crapper toilet

Photography

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, lots of advancements had been made in photography but it wasn’t until William Fox Talbot invented light-sensitive paper in 1839 that photography in Britain became available to ordinary people. Fox Talbot also found out how to develop, fix and print a picture from a negative.

Fox Talbot's photographic workshop in Reading, 1846

The telephone

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. The very first telephone call happened on 6th March when Bell called to his assistant in another room: “Mr Watson, come here. I want you.” The first telephone exchange in London was installed in 1879. People had to call the operator who would then connect them to the party they wanted to speak to.

Alexander Graham Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago, 1892

Cars

The first petrol motorcar was invented by Karl Benz in Germany in 1885. In the 1880s and 1890s, only very rich people could afford cars in Britain.

Bicycles

Bicycles were also invented during the Victorian era. The first bike had no pedals at all and instead was described as a “walking machine”. It was invented by Karl von Drais, a German inventor.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the Penny Farthing was a popular early type of bicycle. The large front wheel meant that high speeds could be reached with little effort. The name came from the British penny and farthing coins. (The penny was much larger than the farthing.) The side view of the bike resembled a penny (the front wheel) leading a farthing (the rear wheel).

A penny farthing bicycle

The Underground

The Victorians invented the world's first underground railway in London in 1863. It ran between Farringdon and Paddington. Soon a proposal was developed for the Central London Railway (which became known as the Twopenny Tube) and the first route of what is now London's vast underground network was opened in 1900.

Postage stamps and post boxes

It was during the Victorian era that the first postage stamps were invented. Post boxes were invented a few years later. This meant that people could send and receive letters much more quickly and efficiently.

Sewing Machine

Britain's first sewing machine to be operated by hand was invented by William Morris in 1845. However, it was Isaac Merrit Singer who created a sewing machine that could be mass-produced, meaning that more and more people could use them. Singer was the most successful sewing machine manufacturer in the world and even invented an electric sewing machine in 1867.

A Singer sewing machine from 1851

Other Victorian Inventions

There were lots of other Victorian inventions including:

• The rubber tyre
• Coca cola
• Machine guns
• Escalators
• Moving pictures
• Zips
• Paper clips
• Tupperware
• Gramophones