annpi-ga,
Your question is phrased in an interesting way, since you asked to
focus on science in America, yet you mention one of the pre-eminent
British scientists of the 19th century (and of any century!), Charles
Darwin.
And in truth, most of the "big ideas" in science were emanating from
Europe at the time, while America was steadily asserting itself as the
realm of practical invention. We remember Darwin, and Mendel and
Maxwell and Ohm as European leaders in the fields of theoretical
Biology and Physics, while back in the USA, folks like Robert Fulton
and Thomas Edison were busy making things like steamboats and
lightbulbs.
One of my new favorite resources on the web, Wikipedia, does a nice
job of presenting the major inventions and discoveries of the 19th
century, without providing an overwhelming amount of detail. I've
presented this information below, along another useful resource from
about.com.
I trust this information fully answers your question.
However, please don't rate this answer until you have everything you
need. In particular, if you need a clearer breakout between advances
in America vs the rest of the world, just let me know.
If you would like any additional information, just post a Request for
Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further, and I'm at
your service.
All the best,
pafalafa-ga
===============
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_invention#19th_century
Timeline of invention
19th century
1800: Electric battery: Alessandro Volta
1801: Jacquard loom: Joseph Marie Jacquard
1802: Screw propeller steamboat Phoenix: John Stevens
1802: gas stove: Zachäus Andreas Winzler
1805: Submarine Nautilus: Robert Fulton
1805: Refrigerator: Oliver Evans
1807: Steamboat Clermont: Robert Fulton
1808: Band saw: William Newberry
1811: Gun- Breechloader: Thornton (?)
1812: Metronome: Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel
1813: Hand printing press: George Clymer
1814: Steam Locomotive (Blucher): George Stephenson
1816: Miner's safety lamp: Humphry Davy
1816: Metronome: Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (reputed)
1816: Stirling engine: Robert Stirling
1816: Stethoscope: Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec
1817: Kaleidoscope: David Brewster
1819: Breech loading flintlock: John Hall
1821: Electric motor: Michael Faraday
1823: Electromagnet: William Sturgeon
1826: Photography: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
1826: internal combustion engine: Samuel Morey
1827: Insulated wire: Joseph Henry
1827: Screw propeller: Josef Ressel
1827: Friction match: John Walker
1830: Lawn mower: Edwin Beard Budding
1831: Multiple coil magnet: Joseph Henry
1831: Magnetic acoustic telegraph: Joseph Henry
1831: Reaper: Cyrus McCormick
1831: Electrical generator: Michael Faraday
1835: Photogenic Drawing: William Henry Fox Talbot
1835: Revolver: Samuel Colt
1835: Morse code: Samuel Morse
1835: Electromechanical Relay: Joseph Henry
1836: Improved screw propeller: John Ericsson
1836: Sewing machine: Josef Madersberger
1837: Photography: Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
1837: Steel plow: John Deere
1837: Standard diving dress: Augustus Siebe
1838: Electric telegraph: Charles Wheatstone
1839: Vulcanization of rubber: Charles Goodyear
1840: Frigate with submarine machinery SS Princeton: John Ericsson
1840: artificial fertilizer: Justus von Liebig
1842: Anaesthesia: Crawford Long
1843: Typewriter: Charles Thurber
1843: Fax machine: Alexander Bain
1843: Ice cream maker: Nancy Johnson
1844: Telegraph: Samuel Morse
1845: Portland cement: William Aspdin
1845: Double tube tire: Robert Thomson (inventor)
1846: Sewing machine: Elias Howe
1846: Rotary printing press: Richard M. Hoe
1849: Safety pin: Walter Hunt
1849: Francis turbine: James B. Francis
1852: Airship: Henri Giffard
1852: Passenger elevator: Elisha Otis
1852: Gyroscope: Léon Foucault
1853: Glider: Sir George Cayley
1855: Bunsen burner: Robert Bunsen
1855: Bessemer process: Henry Bessemer
1856: First celluloids: Alexander Parkes
1858: Undersea telegraph cable: Fredrick Newton Gisborne
1858: Shoe sole sewing machine: Lyman R. Blake
1858: Mason jar: John L. Mason
1859: Oil drill: Edwin L. Drake
1860: Linoleum: Fredrick Walton
1860: Repeating rifle: Oliver F. Winchester, Christopher Spencer
1860: Self-propelled torpedo: Ivan Lupis-Vukic
1861: Ironclad USS Monitor: John Ericsson
1861: Regenerative furnace: Carl Wilhelm Siemens
1862: Revolving machine gun: Richard J. Gatling
1862: Mechanical submarine: Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol
1863: Player piano: Henri Fourneaux
1864: first true typewriter: Peter Mitterhofer
1865: Compression ice machine: Thaddeus Lowe
1866: Dynamite: Alfred Nobel
1867: Practical Typewriter: Christopher L. Sholes
1868: Typewriter: Carlos Glidden, James Densmore and Samuel Soule
1868: Air brake (rail): George Westinghouse
1868: Oleomargarine: Mege Mouries
1869: Vacuum cleaner: I.W. McGaffers
1870: Magic Lantern projector: Henry R. Heyl
1870: Stock ticker: Thomas Alva Edison
1870: Mobile Gasoline Engine, Automobile: Siegfried Marcus
1871: Cable car (railway): Andrew S. Hallidie
1871: Compressed air rock drill: Simon Ingersoll
1872: Celluloid (later development): John W. Hyatt
1872: Adding machine: Edmund D. Barbour
1873: Barbed wire: Joseph F. Glidden
1873: Railway knuckle coupler: Eli H. Janney
1873: Modern direct current electric motor: Zénobe Gramme
1874: Electric street car: Stephen Dudle Field
1875: Dynamo: William A. Anthony
1875: Gun- (magazine): Benjamin B. Hotchkiss
1876: Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell
1876: Telephone: Elisha Gray
1876: Carpet sweeper: Melville Bissell
1876: Gasoline carburettor: Daimler
1877: Stapler: Henry R. Heyl
1877: Induction motor: Nikola Tesla
1877: Phonograph: Thomas Alva Edison
1877: Electric welding: Elihu Thomson
1877: Twine Knotter: John Appleby
1878: Cathode ray tube: William Crookes
1878: Transparent film: Eastman Goodwin
1878: Rebreather: Henry Fleuss
1878: Incandescent Light bulb: Joseph Swan
1879: Pelton turbine: Lester Pelton
1879: Automobile engine: Karl Benz
1879: Cash register: James Ritty
1879: Automobile (Patent): George B. Seldon ... note did NOT invent auto
1880: Photophone: Alexander Graham Bell
1880: Roll film: George Eastman
1880: Safety razor: Kampfe Brothers
1880: Seismograph: John Milne
1881: Electric welding machine: Elihu Thomson
1882: Electric fan: Schuyler Skatts Wheeler
1882: Electric flat iron: Henry W. Seely
1883: Auto engine - compression ignition: Gottlieb Daimler
1883: two-phase (alternating current) induction motor: Nikola Tesla
1884: Linotype machine: Ottmar Mergenthaler
1884: Fountain pen: Lewis Waterman NB: Did not invent fountain pen,
nor even "first practical fountain pen". Started manufacture in 1883,
too.
1884: Punched card accounting: Herman Hollerith
1884: Trolley car, (electric): Frank Sprague, Karel Van de Poele
1885: Automobile, differential gear: Karl Benz
1885: Maxim gun: Hiram Stevens Maxim
1885: Motor cycle: Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach
1885: Alternating current transformer: William Stanley
1886: Dishwasher: Josephine Cochrane
1886: Gasoline engine: Gottlieb Daimler
1886: Improved phonograph cylinder: Tainter & Bell
1887: Monotype machine: Tolbert Lanston
1887: Contact lens: Adolf E. Fick, Eugene Kalt and August Muller
1887: Gramophone record: Emile Berliner
1887: Automobile, (gasoline): Gottlieb Daimler
1888: Polyphase AC Electric power system: Nikola Tesla (30 related patents.)
1888: Kodak hand camera: George Eastman
1888: Ballpoint pen: John Loud
1888: Pneumatic tube tire: John Boyd Dunlop
1888: Harvester-thresher: Matteson (?)
1888: Kinematograph: Augustin Le Prince
1889: Automobile, (steam): Sylvester Roper
1890: Pneumatic Hammer: Charles B. King
1891: Automobile Storage Battery: William Morrison
1891: Zipper: Whitcomb L. Judson
1891: Carborundum: Edward G. Acheson
1892: Color photography: Frederic E. Ives
1892: Automatic telephone exchange (electromechanical): Almon Strowger
- First in commercial service.
1893: Photographic gun: E.J. Marcy
1893: Half tone engraving: Frederick Ives
1893: Wireless communication: Nikola Tesla
1895: Phatoptiken projector: Woodville Latham
1895: Phantascope: C. Francis Jenkins
1895: Disposable blades: King C. Gillette
1895: Diesel engine: Rudolf Diesel
1895: Radio signals: Guglielmo Marconi
1895: Shredded Wheat: Henry Perky
1896: Vitascope: Thomas Armat
1896: Steam turbine: Charles Curtis
1896: Electric stove: William S. Hadaway
1897: Automobile, magneto: Robert Bosch
1898: Remote control: Nikola Tesla
1899: Automobile self starter: Clyde J. Coleman
1899: Magnetic tape recorder: Valdemar Poulsen
1899: Gas turbine: Charles Curtis
===============
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_scientific_discoveries
Timeline of scientific discoveries
1800s
1824 - Carnot: 2nd law of thermodynamics
1827 - Georg Ohm: Ohm's law (Electricity)
1838 - Matthias Schleiden: all plants are made of cells
1843 - James Prescott Joule: Law of Conservation of energy (First law
of thermodynamics), also 1847 - Helmholtz, Conservation of energy
1848 - Lord Kelvin: absolute zero of temperature
1858 - Rudolf Virchow: cells can only arise from pre-existing cells
1859 - Charles Darwin: Theory of evolution by natural selection
1865 - Gregor Mendel: Mendel's laws of inheritance, basis for genetics
1869 - Dmitri Mendeleev: Periodic table
1873 - Maxwell: Theory of electromagnetism
1877 - Boltzmann: Statistical definition of entropy
===============
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_scientific_experiments
Timeline of scientific experiments
19th Century
1801 - Thomas Young: double-slit experiment showing wave-particle duality
1820 - Hans Christian Ørsted discovers the connection of electricity and magnetism
1843 - James Prescott Joule measures the equivalence between
mechanical work and heat, resulting in the law of conservation of
energy
1845 - Christian Doppler demonstrates the Doppler shift
1851 - Léon Foucault uses Foucault pendulum to demonstrate the
rotation of the earth
1861 - Louis Pasteur disproves the theory of spontaneous generation
1863 - Gregor Mendel's pea plant experiments (Mendel's laws of inheritance)
1887 - Heinrich Hertz discovers the photoelectric effect
1887 - Michelson and Morley: Michelson-Morley experiment, showing that
the speed of light is invariant
1896 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity
1897 - Joseph John Thomson discovers the electron
===============
In addition to Wikipedia, about.com also offers a useful timeline of
inventors and inventions:
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111100a.htm
Nineteenth Century Inventions 1800 - 1850
American, W.A. Burt invents a typewriter.
American, Cyrus H. McCormick invents the first commercially successful reaper
American, Thaddeus Fairbanks invents platform scales.
American, Charles Goodyear invents rubber vulcanization.
American, Elias Howe invents a sewing machine
Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, is the first to use
anesthesia for tooth extraction.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111100b.htm
19th Century Inventions 1851 - 1899
American, C. Goodyear, Jr. invents the shoe welt stitcher
Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone
Thomas Edison invents the cylinder phonograph or tin foil phonograph
American, W.L. Judson invents the zipper.
American, H. O'Sullivan invents the rubber heel.
Many of the other inventions on these pages are also from Americans,
even though they are not always identified as such.
Again, let me know if there is anything else you need.
Cheers,
pafalafa-ga
search strategy -- Used the bookmarked Wikipedia and about.com sites,,
as well as a Google search on:
19th century science OR invention america OR american |
