Inventions

The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. Nikola Tesla pioneered alternating current, the AC motor, and radio. In the early 20th century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford promoted the assembly line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight.[105]

                                       Inventions
350,000 BCE – Paint was invented by Africans. Pigment and paint grinding equipment was found in a cave at Twin Rivers near Lusaka, Zambia.

31,000 BCE – Representational painting was invented. Murals of stampeding bulls, cantering horses, red bears and woolly rhinoceros are found in the Chauvet Caves in France.

22,000 BCE – Sculpture was invented by Paleolithic tribes who created the female statuette called the Venus of Willendorf, found in near Willendorf, Austria.

4000 BCE – Papyrus, the precursor to paper was invented by the Egyptians by pounding flat woven mats of reeds.

2500 BCE – Egyptian blue pigment was invented by Egyptian chemists using a mixture of limestone (calcium oxide), malachite (copper oxide) and quartz (silica) fired to about 800-900 degrees Celsius.

500 BCE – Encaustic paints are invented by Greek artists by mixing colored pigments and wax.

450 BCE – Depicting the illusion of three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional surface was invented with the chiaroscuro painting technique that employs highlights and shadows.

250 BCE – Glassblowing was invented by Syrian craftsmen in Babylonia.

105 – Paper was invented by Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese court official.

650 – Porcelain was invented by Chinese artists in the Tang Dynasty as a fired mixture of kaolin (a clay) and petuntse (a feldspar).

1306 – A more naturalistic means of representational painting was invented by Giotto di Bondone using depth, perspective and temporal realism to present a single moment in time.

1400’s – A cupola or dome which did not require a framework supporting it’s curves was invented by Filippo Brunelleschi. To transport the large stones to the construction site, Brunelleschi invented a unique boat capable of moving heavy cargo upriver and was granted exclusive rights to use his boat to move heavy loads, patent rights. [21]

1400’s – Linear perspective was invented with work by Filippo Brunelleschi, and a treatise on perspective theory by Leon Battista Alberti. Perspective is a method for depicting the illusion of three-dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. [22]

1420 – The use of a single, consistent light source in painting with figures painted to appear three-dimensional was invented by the Italian artist, Masaccio (Tommaso di Giovanni). See his 1427 painting, “Tribute Money”.

1485 – Sfumato, a painting technique in which an atmospheric or blurry effect is created with minute transitions between color areas was invented by Leonardo da Vinci. Sfumato is seen in Leonardo’s, “Virgin on the Rocks” and "Mona Lisa".

1503 – Surrealism was invented by Flemish artist, Hieronymus Bosch with his triptych, "The Garden of Earthly Delights".

1774 – Jasperware, a dense vitreous pottery that could be turned on a lathe was invented by Josiah Wedgwood.

1816 – The photograph was invented by Joseph Nicephore Niepce using paper coated with silver chloride “fixed” with nitric acid.

1816 – a resolution contrast technique of painting and drawing was invented by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres who used it to depict faces in high resolution with the rest of the image in low resolution, as for example in his drawing, “Mrs. Charles Badham.”

1861 – The color photograph was invented by physicist, James Clerk Maxwell.

1863 – Multiple subject painting was invented by Edouard Manet. His “Le dejeuner sur l'herbe” presents four disconnected figures not looking at one another, lighted from different directions. Dejeuner sur l’herbe also has a disconnected background-to-foreground perspective that eliminates the middle ground.

1865 – Chromolithograph prints were invented by Jules Cheret.

1872 – Serial photomontage, the precursor to motion pictures was invented by Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey by using multiple cameras to photograph moving objects.

1873 – Nonlinear horizon lines were invented by Edouard Manet, eliminating the horizon line in his 1874 painting “Boating.”

1882 – Multiple time depiction was invented by Edouard Manet in his “Bar at the Folies-Bergere” which depicts a bar scene from two points in space at two different moments in time.

1884 – Pointillism was invented by Georges Seurat who created entire paintings using small dots of pure unmixed color.

1886 – Trompe l’oeil was invented by William Michael Harnett an American painter.

1888 – A technique of portraying a subject from different perspectives and of distorting subject matter in painting was invented by Paul Cezanne.

1891 – A technique of unfreezing time in still images was invented by Claude Monet who painted the same subject at many different times during the day, showing how it appeared differently largely due to the change in natural light. He painted the cathedral at Rouen at 40 different times of the day and he painted the same haystack at 20 different moments in a year.

1902- A technique of indeterminate time was invented in painting by Paul Cezanne in his painting Mont Sainte-Victorie, in which the sources and direction of light are not discernible.

1902 – The teddy bear was invented by Morris and Rose Michtom based on a cartoon of a bear saved by President Theodore Roosevelt.

1903 – The 3-D (three-dimensional) movie was invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere with their one minute film, “L’Arrivee du Train.”

1904 – Fauvism was invented by Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, Andre Derain and others.

1907 – A variety of special effects for film were invented by Georges Melies in his film, “Tunneling the English Channel”, including stop-motion photography, split-screen photography, stop action animation and the combination of live action with full scale mechanical backgrounds.

1915 – The multistable image was invented by W. E. Hill, with his drawing, “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law,” an image that can present either a young woman or an older woman. [23]

1908 to 1917 – Cubism was invented by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In Cubist artworks, the subject, whether it be a figure or a still life, is broken up and reassembled, and presented from multiple views simultaneously. Cubism revolutionized western art, and influenced other art forms like music and literature.

1912 – Collage was invented by Picasso with his “Still Life with Chair Caning.” Attaching a material from the real world that was not ever used in high art into a painting violated what was previously considered the integrity of the artwork. Collage was a new process for making art, a new art form, and it expanded the definition of art.

1912 – The Construction was invented by Picasso when he created “Guitar” in 1912 by joining parts together. This additive image making process was new to western sculpture which was previously made using subtractive processes like carving stone or wood, or modeling clay which may have then been cast in metal. [24]

1917 – the Readymade was invented and exhibited by Marcel Duchamp, “The Fountain” an upturned urinal signed by the artist. The Readymade expanded the definition of art and of an artist. [25]

1917 – De Stijl a kind of art based on pure geometry was invented by Theo van Doesburg.

1926 – Science fiction movies were invented by Fritz Lang with his movie “Metropolis” which incorporates dynamic visual and special effects. [26]

1928 – Welded sculpture a new medium, a new process and a new art form was invented by Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzalez, opening up the solid form of sculpture to negative space and transparency. [27]

1928 – Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney. [28]

1929 – Film noir was invented by Josef Sternberg with his film, “Thunderbolt.”

1932 – The mobile was invented by Alexander Calder.

1936 – A device that greatly speeds up the process of making cartoons and enables them to appear more realistic was invented and patented by Walt Disney who used it to create the classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937. Refer to US Patent 2,201,689. [29]

1947-50 – Painting was reinvented by Jackson Pollock whose novel method of spontaneously dripping and splattering paint from a can onto unstretched canvas laid out on the floor brought about an expanded understanding of pure abstraction and of art. [30]

1948 – The Glass House by the architect, Philip Johnson, reduced building down to it’s most basic elements: a horizontal slab on the ground, vertical supports, a flat roof and transparent glass wrapped around it. [31]

1952 – Stain painting, in which liquid paint soaks and bleeds into the fabric of unprimed canvas was invented by Helen Frankenthaler, as seen in her painting “Mountains and Sea” of 1952. [32]

1959 – the first public “happening” was produced by Allan Kaprow at the Reuben Gallery in New York. A happening is defined by Kaprow as a choreographed event that facilitates interactions between objects including performers and visitors. Happenings were influenced by Jackson Pollock’s process of action painting, Dada and the teachings of John Cage on chance and indeterminacy. [33]
Music

Music has been expanded by invention over the course of thousands of years.

Timeline - dates may be approximations

5000 BCE - The first flutes were made in India out of wood.

3000 BCE - The first string instrument, the guqin was invented in China.

619 - The orchestra was invented in the Chinese royal courts with hundreds of musicians.

855 - Polyphonic music was invented.

910 - The musical score was invented by the musician, Hucbaldus. He also invented a staff that had an indefinite number of lines.

1025 - Musical notes were invented by Guido of Arezzo, named UT, RE, MI, FA, SO and LA. Later in the 16th century UT was changed to DO and TI was added. Lines/staves to space printed notes were added then too.

1225 - Rounds, songs sung in harmony, were invented with the song, Sumer is icumen in by John of Fornsete, an English monk.

1607 - A tonal system that gave the recitative a more flexible accompaniment was invented, revolutionizing music in the first opera masterpiece, Orfeo, by Claudio Monteverdi, a composer, musician and singer.

1696 - The metronome, a device for beating time was invented by Etienne Loulie, a musician, pedagogue and musical theorist.[34]

1698-1708 - The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori[35]

1787 - Algorithmic music was invented by Amadeus Mozart with his Musikalisches Wurfelspiel.

1829 - The accordion, a portable reed instrument was invented by Damian.

1835 - The tuba[1] proper was first patented by Prussian bandmaster Wilhelm Wieprecht and German instrument-builder Johann Gottfried Moritz.

1841 - The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax, an instrument maker.

1880 - Tango music was invented by the Argentinians, combining African, Indian and Spanish rhythms.

1919 - The first electronic music instrument, the theremin was invented by Lev Theremin. It is played by moving hands near an antenna.

1922 - Muzak, engineered music without vocals, tempo changes or brass instruments was invented by Brig. General George Owen Squier.[36]

1932 - The electric guitar, the Frying pan was invented by George Beauchamp

1953 - Rock and Roll was invented by the musician, Bill Haley with Crazy Man Crazy combining guitars, saxophones, piano, bass, and snare drums, who was imitating African American musicians such as Chuck Berry.

1957 - Computer-assisted musical composition was invented with Illiac Suite for String Quartet by scientists at the University of Illinois in Urbana.[37]

1964 - The Moog Synthesizer was invented by Robert Moog.[38]

1974 - The Chapman Stick was invented by Emmett Chapman.
Literature

Literature has been reinvented throughout history.

Timeline - dates may be approximations

1950 BC - The novel was invented with a narrative form. This was Story of Sinuhe about a prince of Egypt who flees after a court killing, is saved in the desert by a Bedouin tribe, and marries the eldest daughter of a king. Some people see Story of Sinuhe as the precursor of the story of Moses in the Bible.