The Victorian era was an age of incredible progress. It was a time of an almost feverish degree of invention and discovery. In the natural world, new discoveries were being made that were literally changing mankind's view of the world and his place within it (the theories of Darwin being a rather striking example). Victorian explorers were unearthing the bones of dinosaurs and extinct mammals and birds; geologists were striving to understand earthquakes and volcanoes and the stories told by rocks; astronomers were discovering stars, planets and comets.

This is the era in which a host of inventions that we take for granted today first appeared. It was the period that brought us such marvels as the sewing machine, the typewriter, the telephone, the telegraph, and the ability to communicate across long distances without wires. It brought us anesthesia, x-rays, and a host of vaccines. In short, the next time you text someone while listening to music through your headphones, thank a Victorian!

The Victorian era also brought a host of crackpot theories, ridiculous inventions, outrageous predictions and just plain bad ideas. Proposals abounded on how to irrigate the American deserts and turn them into gardens - or to turn the Sahara into an inland sea for shipping! The patent offices of Britain and America were flooded with bizarre would-be inventions, most of which, thankfully, never made it any farther. In these pages, however, we bring them to life (briefly) one more time!

Victorian Inventions & Technological Advancements

Victorian Inventions

Electricity & Lighting

Developments in Photography & X-Rays

The Telegraph

The Telephone

Invention & Discovery Roundups Year by Year

A Scientific Miscellany

Odd Victorian Inventions

Exploring the Natural World

Astronomy

Natural Phenomena & Disasters

Weather Forecasting

More Victorian Science

World Fairs, Expos and Exhibitions

(See also The Chicago World Fair of 1893 in the Victorian America section.)

Predictions, Proposals and Bad Ideas

The First Century of the Republic - scientific and technological advances in America's first 100 years

Research Facilities & Institutions

See also...

The Victorian Transportation section for articles on technological developments in ships, trains, aerial transportation, roads and railways, etc.

The Nature section for general articles on natural history, including prehistoric plants and animals.