The Allegheny Portage Railroad operated from 1834 to 1857. There were many changes that occured during those twenty years. Here is a list of some interesting inventions and cultural happenings of the period.
1834
Braille, a system of raised print for the blind, is developed by French teacher Louis Braille.
1835
Charles Darwin visits the Galapagos Islands.
French chemist C.S.A. Thilarier creates dry ice.
1836
By use of a microscope, yeast is found to be a living organism.
Emerson publishes his first book, Nature.
1837
Samuel Colt develops the Colt 6-shooter revolver.
Samuel Morse develops a magnetic telegraph and Morse Code.
1838
British physicist Michael Faraday discovers a phosphoresent glow produced by electric discharge in a low-pressure gas.
1839
French inventor Louis Daguerre introduces a commercially viable photographic process.
The first full fledged bicycle is made in Scotland.
1840
German-Swiss chemist Christian Schonbein discovers ozone.
1841
Scottish missionary David Livingstone is the first Westerner to explore the Kalahari Desert.
Dorothea Dix begins campaign to reform care of mentally ill and poor.
1842
Austrian physicist Christian Doppler discovers the Doppler Effect.
1843
US shop apprentice Elias Howe, Jr, invents the interlocking stitch sewing machine.
1844
Henry Wells begins an express delivery company- eventually Wells, Fargo, and Company.
Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol.
1845
American dentist Claudius Ash originated the single porcelain tooth.
1846
First sighting of planet Neptune.
Edward Lear publishes Book of Nonsense, limericks for children.
1847
Italian chemist Ascanion Sobrero first produces the explosive nitroglycerin.
Ebenezer Butterick invents process for cutting dressmaker patterns.
1848
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, creates the Kelvin temperature scale.
Hungarian composer Franz Liszt
1849
Elizabeth Blackwell, America’s first female physician graduates from Geneva College of Medicine, NY.
The safety pin is patented by Walter Hunt.
1850
Epidemiology, the study of causes, distribution, and control of disease becomes a branch of medical science.
EB Browning publishes Songs from the Portuguese.
Nathanial Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter.
1851
German surgeon Helmholtz invents the ophthalmoscope to examine the interior of the eye.
The NY Times is first published.
1852
French physicist Jean Foucault invents the gyroscope.
Otis patents the elevator.
1853
British George Cayley flies the first successful manned glider.
Swedish Lundstrom patents the safety match.
Steinway pianos begin production.
1854
Florence Nightingale founds modern nursing in Constantinople administering to sick and injured Crimean War soldiers.
Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” is published.
Thoreau’s Walden is published.
1855
The calliope was invented by Joshua C. Stoddard of Worcester, MA.
1856
The egg beater was invented by Ralph Collier of Baltimore, MD.
1857
Modern, rolled toilet paper was introduced by Joseph Gayetty of New York City.
