What is the most important invention of the 19th century?

Fifteen things that did not exist in 1800 and were ordinary by 1900. Some rebuilt cities, one just made writing faster.

1. 1
   The dynamo

   The generator that turned mechanical motion into a usable electricity supply.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The incandescent light bulb

   The first practical electric lamp, demonstrated publicly by Edison in December 1879.
   921pts
3. 3
   The telephone

   Patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, it turned distance into a dialling problem.
   921pts
4. 4
   The electric telegraph

   The first near-instant long-distance messaging, commercialised from the 1830s.
   779pts
5. 5
   Dynamite

   Alfred Nobel's 1867 stabilised nitroglycerine, which cut the tunnels and canals of the industrial age.
   703pts
6. 6
   The sewing machine

   Mass-produced clothing began with this, and so did the modern garment industry.
   643pts
7. 7
   The X-ray

   Rontgen's 1895 discovery, which let doctors see inside a living body for the first time.
   499pts
8. 8
   The steam locomotive

   Rail traction that collapsed travel times and redrew the map of trade.
   411pts
9. 9
   The AC induction motor

   Tesla's brushless motor, patented in 1888, which made alternating current useful for industry.
   411pts
10. 10
    The typewriter

    Mechanised writing that standardised documents and opened office work to women.
    411pts
11. 11
    The phonograph

    Edison's 1877 machine, the first device that could record sound and play it back.
    411pts
12. 12
    Photography

    From the 1830s onward, the first technology that recorded a scene without a painter.
    310pts
13. 13
    The bicycle

    Personal mechanical transport that gave ordinary people, and especially women, independent range.
    310pts
14. 14
    The internal combustion engine

    The compact power source that made the car, and later the aeroplane, possible.
    52pts
15. 15
    The Bessemer process

    The 1856 method that made cheap steel, and with it skyscrapers, rails and ships.
    52pts