Who? Charles Babbage and Sir Tim Berners-Lee

What? Babbage’s Difference Engine was the precursor of his Analytical Engine, which is often acclaimed as the first computer — though it was never built. Berners-Lee added a new dimension to computers with his invention of the world wide web a century and a half later

Why does it matter? Computers today affect everything from medicine to transport to games.

And another thing: The world wide web was developed to help scientists at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory, share data. The first public website went online on August 6, 1991

Photography, 1835
A new way of recording the world

Who? William Henry Fox Talbot

What? The oldest existing negative is an image of a latticed window taken with Fox Talbot’s camera. He brushed a sheet of writing paper with salt solution and silver nitrate, which reacted to make light-sensitive silver chloride

Why does it matter? Fox Talbot’s negatives were the first from which multiple prints could be made

And another thing: The idea occurred to Fox Talbot on holiday in Lake Como, Italy, while drawing with the assistance of a camera obscura

Telephone, 1876
The device that changed the way we talk to each other

Who? Alexander Graham Bell

What? Bell, born in Scotland, had emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, when he patented his telephone in 1876. He famously demonstrated it in 1878 by making a call to Queen Victoria’s Isle of Wight residence, Osborne House

Why does it matter? The development has changed the face of modern communications

And another thing: During the Osborne House demonstration, Bell attracted the Queen’s attention by tapping her on the arm. Courtiers were outraged, though the Queen’s reaction is not recorded

Electric Light, 1879
Simple but essential — and a metaphor for invention itself

Who? Joseph Swan

What? Though Thomas Edison, the American, is generally credited with this invention, Swan, an English chemist, developed a similar filament lamp in the same year

Why does it matter? Electric lightbulbs were safer and more efficient than the gas lamps they replaced. Even so, it took decades for the technology to catch on, as municipal authorities had invested heavily in gas lighting

And another thing: Swan and Edison merged their lighting companies in 1882 to create the Ediswan company, which marketed lightbulbs in Britain

Television, 1926
The dominant cultural force of the later 20th century

Who? John Logie Baird

What? Baird used a spinning cardboard disc containing 16 lenses arranged in a spiral to create moving pictures converted into an electrical signal. This was then transmitted by medium-wave radio to a receiver in another room. Though the quality was poor, he brought a fledgeling technology to the public’s attention

Why does it matter? The experiment created an instant demand for television and the first high-definition broadcasts by the BBC began just a decade later

And another thing: Baird’s first television pictures featured a puppet called Stooky Bill

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