The Victorian era saw incredible advances in all areas of life, take a look back in time at seven innovations from this time which changed England forever.
Victorian inventions | English Heritage Your browser is out of date: You are using an old version of Internet Explorer. It may not display all the features of this and other websites. To improve security and online experience, please use a different browser or update Internet Explorer . × English Heritage Basket Select Language▼ Visit Places To Visit Stonehenge Dover Castle Overseas Visitors Pass Group visits Find a place to visit What's On Family events Members' events Find an event near you Autumn Days Out Christmas Family Days out Top 10 family days out Days out for under £20 Rainy days out Family property guides Inspire Me Spotlight on places we love Historic gardens Travel Guides Dog friendly places Blue Plaques About the scheme Find a blue plaque Propose a blue plaque Support the scheme Weddings & Venue Hire Wedding venues Corporate venues Private parties Filming Locations Holiday Cottages Find a holiday cottage Cottages by the sea Late Availability About Us About Us Our places Our vision & values Our people Our priorities Our history Contact Us General enquiries Group visits Film & TV locations Jobs Search jobs Working at our historic places Our benefits Modern Slavery Statement News Twitter Facebook Press office Annual reports Support Us Support Us Donate Now Guardians Gifts in Wills Grants How your support helps Our Appeals Learning Appeal Blue Plaques Volunteer Find a volunteer opportunity Meet our volunteers Why volunteer? Volunteer focus magazine Partnership and Sponsorship Corporate Partnerships Marketing Partnerships Licensing Learn Learn 1066 and the Norman Conquest School visits Teaching resources Histories History of Stonehenge History of Hadrian's Wall Women in history LGBTQ history Find more... Conservation Caring for our collections Collections advice & guidance Gardens & landscapes Paintings conservation Clothes moth research Story of England Prehistory Romans Tudors Victorians Find more... Shop Join Search Members' Area Register Login https://www.facebook.com/englishheritage https://twitter.com/englishheritage Basket https://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishHeritageFilm https://instagram.com/englishheritage Visit Menu • Visit Places To Visit Visit • Places To Visit PLACES TO VISIT Stonehenge Dover Castle Overseas Visitors Pass Group visits Find a place to visit What's On Visit • What's On WHAT'S ON Family events Members' events Find an event near you Autumn Days Out Christmas Family Days out Visit • Family Days out FAMILY DAYS OUT Top 10 family days out Days out for under £20 Rainy days out Family property guides Inspire Me Visit • Inspire Me INSPIRE ME Spotlight on places we love Historic gardens Travel Guides Dog friendly places Blue Plaques Visit • Blue Plaques BLUE PLAQUES About the scheme Find a blue plaque Propose a blue plaque Support the scheme Weddings & Venue Hire Visit • Weddings & Venue Hire WEDDINGS & VENUE HIRE Wedding venues Corporate venues Private parties Filming Locations Holiday Cottages Visit • Holiday Cottages HOLIDAY COTTAGES Find a holiday cottage Cottages by the sea Late Availability About Us Menu • About Us About Us About Us • About Us ABOUT US Our places Our vision & values Our people Our priorities Our history Contact Us About Us • Contact Us CONTACT US General enquiries Group visits Film & TV locations Jobs About Us • Jobs JOBS Search jobs Working at our historic places Our benefits Modern Slavery Statement News About Us • News NEWS Twitter Facebook Press office Annual reports Support Us Menu • Support Us Support Us Support Us • Support Us SUPPORT US Donate Now Guardians Gifts in Wills Grants How your support helps Our Appeals Support Us • Our Appeals OUR APPEALS Learning Appeal Blue Plaques Volunteer Support Us • Volunteer VOLUNTEER Find a volunteer opportunity Meet our volunteers Why volunteer? Volunteer focus magazine Partnership and Sponsorship Support Us • Partnership and Sponsorship PARTNERSHIP AND SPONSORSHIP Corporate Partnerships Marketing Partnerships Licensing Learn Menu • Learn Learn Learn • Learn LEARN 1066 and the Norman Conquest School visits Teaching resources Histories Learn • Histories HISTORIES History of Stonehenge History of Hadrian's Wall Women in history LGBTQ history Find more... Conservation Learn • Conservation CONSERVATION Caring for our collections Collections advice & guidance Gardens & landscapes Paintings conservation Clothes moth research Story of England Learn • Story of England STORY OF ENGLAND Prehistory Romans Tudors Victorians Find more... Shop Join Members' Area Menu • Members' Area Members' Area Members' Area Login Login Reset Password Not yet registered? Register Here Not yet an EH member? Join here Ingenious! Home Ingenious! Victorian Ingenuity More Pages Ingenious Places Ingenious Objects Neolithic Ingenuity Roman Ingenuity Medieval Ingenuity Tudor and Stuart Ingenuity Victorian Ingenuity Ingenious! Quiz 7 Ingenious Victorian inventions The Victorian era saw incredible advances in all areas of life. England was transformed as towns suddenly started to grow, factories and other industries were built - and railways criss-crossed the country.But the changes were not just physical. New ideas were spreading fast, changing the political, moral and social landscape too. Take a look back in time at seven innovations which changed Victorian England. 1. Evolution There are only a few ideas which can truly be labelled as revolutionary. Evolution is one of them. Boiled down to basics, the theory of evolution explains how and why living things change and develop differently over time and in different circumstances.When Charles Darwin published his ground-breaking book ‘On the Origin of Species’ in 1859 while living at Down House in Kent, he caused a sensation. As a respected scientist (Darwin spent eight years reclassifying the entire barnacle sub-class to prove his credentials as a zoologist) his theories had to be taken seriously. But in the predominantly Christian Victorian England, his theories were highly controversial. Evolution directly contradicted the creation story in the Bible, and many were outraged.Darwin wasn't the only person to have reached conclusions along these lines, but he was the first to back up his theories with a wealth of evidence. Today, when you visit Darwin’s home in Kent, you can stand in the very study where he wrote this groundbreaking piece of literature. Visit Down House 2. Industrialisation The Industrial Revolution began long before Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1838. Nevertheless, industrial ingenuity reached new heights in Victorian England, and this had huge economic and social consequences.Factories needed vast numbers of people to work in them, and there was a huge shift as people moved from the countryside to urban areas. In 1751 around a quarter of people lived in towns and cities, but by 1851 they were home to around half of the population.Stott Park Bobbin Mill in Cumbria, is an example of developing technology in action. The mill began operating in 1835. It was first powered by water, then by steam, and finally by electricity. Although small compared to other local mills, at its peak it was producing a quarter of a million bobbins a week. As with all factories and mills, the conditions were often arduous for the people working there. Visit Stott Park 3. Kitchen gadgets Agnes Bertha Marshall was a pioneering cookery writer and entrepreneur whose specialism was ice-cream. Although this wasn’t originally a Victorian recipe, Marshall made her name by improving the techniques used for making and serving it. She even patented an ice-cream maker. Charles and Constance Thelluson, who lived at Brodsworth Hall, bought quite a few kitchen gadgets from her - including an ice cream machine.Other Victorian kitchen gadgets that you probably have at home include the cheese grater, can openers and potato peelers. Mass production also meant that things like pastry cutters, jelly and pie moulds and biscuit tins were more affordable than ever before. 4. Central heating Although the Romans were the first to introduce central heating to Britain, we can thank the Victorians for the introduction of more modern systems that we recognise today. At Audley End House, a coal fired ‘cockle stove’ was installed in the basement in 1823, just 13 years after this technology had been invented by William Strutt for heating his textile factories.A very early hot water central heating system was also installed at Audley in 1846, when Stephenson & Co were paid £400 for ‘hot water apparatus for airing mansion’. This was perhaps a Prices Apparatus – a coiled water-filled pipe which heated air that was then ducted through the house. There was though definitely a circulating hot water system by the 1870s, and some late 19th century radiators survive in the Great Hall and ground floor gallery. Visit Audley End House 5. Let there be light Queen Victoria described her summer home Osborne in glowing terms, writing: 'It is impossible to imagine a prettier spot!' But it wasn’t just beautiful - she and Prince Albert made sure it was equipped with as many mod-cons as they could install.Victoria was an early adopter of electricity, including at Osborne. Electric lighting can be seen in the Durbar Room and the Drawing Room. Originally early light bulbs from the Swan and Edison company were used, and we have a good selection in the collection at Osborne. Outside, the lighting was originally gas.It wasn’t just lightbulbs though - the bell system was powered by Leclanche cells, a type of early battery. And the royal couple installed other ingenious technologies including... 6. Improved communications Electric telegraph wires were set up linking Osborne with the mainland in 1852, using a special submarine cable. Six years later, this technology took communications even further afield. The first electronic message to cross the Atlantic was sent from Queen Victoria at Osborne to the American President James Buchanan on 16 August 1858. Today you can see a section of the original cable that was used to send it on display in the Swiss Cottage museum at Osborne.The message, transcribed into Morse code, was sent first to Ireland by telegraph. From there it was sent via the first transatlantic cable to Newfoundland in Canada, then on to the President. It took three days to be received because of a fault on the cable - but this was much faster than ten to twelve days by ship.News of the breakthrough was celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic and it was hailed as the start of a new era. By the 1870s underwater cables had been laid between Europe and America, Africa, India, Asia, and Australia, almost all by British companies, and it was widely recognised as crucial to British commercial and imperial success.Alexander Grahame Bell demonstrated the newly invented telephone to Queen Victoria at Osborne, in January 1878 - just two years after he patented the device. A telephone was installed in post-room in 1885, and by 1898 there were several wall-mounted hand-sets around the house. Visit Osborne 7. Social reform England underwent incredible social change during the Victorian period. There were intense pressures coming from a rising population, rural unemployment and migration to the towns, together with often horrendous conditions in which many people lived and worked. At the same time, there were extraordinary advances taking place in science, technology, engineering and medicine.Political and social changes were necessary - and the time was ripe for reform. Religious freedoms, electoral reform, public health and education were just some of the topics under scrutiny. New charities were formed, campaigns were spearheaded and ideas were circulated in newspapers, journals, periodicals and libraries.London loomed large in the Victorian imagination as a metropolis of vice, and so the city was the focus of much of this activity. Many of the men and women who pioneered reforms and philanthropic causes are commemorated with blue plaques in London. Find out more about them More to explore What's On Get hands-on with history and find an historical experience or event near you. Membership from £4 a month Membership gives you unlimited access to over 400 historic places for a whole year, where you can stand in the places history happened. Inspire Me Go in depth and discover our historic gardens, travel guides, historic walks, Victorian recipes and more. Your inspiration is right here. https://www.facebook.com/englishheritage https://twitter.com/englishheritage https://instagram.com/englishheritage https://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishHeritageFilm VisitStaySupport UsLearnAbout us Places to Visit What's on Family days out Group visits Holiday cottages Cottages by the sea Special offers Weddings and venue hire Join Donate Volunteer Shop School visits Histories Story of England Meet our experts Contact us Jobs Press office Visit Places to Visit What's on Family days out Group visits Stay Holiday cottages Cottages by the sea Special offers Weddings and venue hire Support Us Join Donate Volunteer Shop Learn School visits Histories Story of England Meet our experts About us Contact us Jobs Press office Registered Charity 1140351 Cookie policy Accessibility Privacy policy Freedom of Information Modern Slavery Statement Terms and Conditions Original textRate this translationYour feedback will be used to help improve Google Translate × This website uses cookies We use cookies on this website to help improve user experience, tailor advertising and personalise content. These cookies are stored on your device and are placed by us and our trusted partners. You can manage your choices below. All cookies will be enabled if you accept all. Find out more. Show all partners (8) → Strictly necessary Performance Targeting Functionality Save & Close Accept All Decline All Show details Hide details Cookie declaration About cookies Advertising Settings Strictly necessary Performance Targeting Functionality Strictly necessary cookies allow core website functionality such as user login and account management. The website cannot be used properly without strictly necessary cookies. Cookie report Name Provider / Domain Expiration Description x-ms-routing-name .www.english-heritage.org.uk 1 hour Used by Azure when determining which web server the user should be directed to. .EPiForm_BID www.english-heritage.org.uk 3 months Functionality-related. Identifies the form submission made to the site when a visitor submits data via an Optimizely form. Stores a GUID as the browser ID. Persistent (90 days from creation). ASP.NET_SessionId Microsoft Corporation www.english-heritage.org.uk Session General purpose platform session cookie, used by sites written with Miscrosoft .NET based technologies. Usually used to maintain an anonymised user session by the server. _dc_gtm_UA-65623-1 .english-heritage.org.uk 53 seconds This cookie is associated with sites using Google Tag Manager to load other scripts and code into a page. Where it is used it may be regarded as Strictly Necessary as without it, other scripts may not function correctly. The end of the name is a unique number which is also an identifier for an associated Google Analytics account. __cf_bm Cloudflare Inc. .vimeo.com 30 minutes This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website. __RequestVerificationToken Microsoft Corporation www.english-heritage.org.uk Session This is an anti-forgery cookie set by web applications built using ASP.NET MVC technologies. It is designed to stop unauthorised posting of content to a website, known as Cross-Site Request Forgery. It holds no information about the user and is destroyed on closing the browser. .EPiForm_VisitorIdentifier www.english-heritage.org.uk 3 months Functionality-related. Identifies the form submission to the site when a visitor submits data to via an Optimizely form. Stores a GUID which is the visitor identifier. Persistent (90 days from creation). .ASPXANONYMOUS Microsoft Corporation www.english-heritage.org.uk 2 months 9 days This cookie is used by sites using the .NET technology platform from Microsoft. It enables the site to maintain an anonymous user-id to track unique users within a session without them logging in or otherwise identifying themselves. _dan_uid .english-heritage.org.uk 1 year 1 month collects non identifying session info _dan_ses .english-heritage.org.uk 30 minutes collects timestamps and non identifying session info ARRAffinity Microsoft Corporation .www.english-heritage.org.uk Session This cookie is set by websites run on the Windows Azure cloud platform. It is used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. TiPMix .www.english-heritage.org.uk 1 hour This cookie is set by websites run on the Windows Azure cloud platform. It is used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. _pk_id.475.369b www.english-heritage.org.uk 1 year This period shows the length of the period at which a service can store and/or read certain data from your computer by using a cookie, a pixel, an API, cookieless tracking, or other resources. JSESSIONID Oracle Corporation .nr-data.net Session General purpose platform session cookie, used by sites written in JSP. Usually used to maintain an anonymous user session by the server. UserId webchat.botframework.com Session Non-Identifying user ID used by BotFramework _pk_ses.475.369b www.english-heritage.org.uk 30 minutes This period shows the length of the period at which a service can store and/or read certain data from your computer by using a cookie, a pixel, an API, cookieless tracking, or other resources. Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor. Cookie report Name Provider / Domain Expiration Description ckid Adara Inc. .yieldoptimizer.com 1 year Stored by Adara for 2 years - Adara (yieldoptimizer.com) sets cookies to display personalised user marketing on other websites and track transactions made by you. _ga_QK86RM1N34 .english-heritage.org.uk 1 year 1 month This cookie is used by Google Analytics to persist session state. ai_user Microsoft Corporation www.english-heritage.org.uk 1 year This cookie name is associated with the Microsoft Application Insights software, which collects statictical usage and telemetry information for apps built on the Azure cloud platform. This is a unique user identifier cookie enabling counting of the number of users accessing the application over time. _ga Google LLC .english-heritage.org.uk 1 year 1 month This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners. dph Adara Inc. .yieldoptimizer.com 1 year ckid, cktst, dph, fbh0, gcma and ph stored by Adara for 2 years - Adara (yieldoptimizer.com) sets cookies to display personalised user marketing on other websites and track transactions made by you on www.shangri-la.com. _ga_784HTPSBDE .english-heritage.org.uk 1 year 1 month This cookie is used by Google Analytics to persist session state. _gid Google LLC .english-heritage.org.uk 1 day This cookie name is associated with Google Analytics. It is used by gtag.js and analytics.js scripts and according to Google Analytics this cookie is used to distinguish users. aackid Adara In… truncated (11,066 more characters in archive)