What advancements occurred in science and technology in the 19th and 20th centuries?

Answer 1

The 19th century refers to the 1800s (1800 to 1899). During the 1800s, people experienced things like:

• Going from strictly manual farm labor to having steam engines. Instead of manual threshing, a machine could do the work.
• Every famiily had an "ice house" also called "spring house". It was a small building built over a natural spring, with food put onto rocks. The cold spring water kept the rocks cold...which kept the food cold. By the end of the 1800s, "ice boxes" had gone into the home. Men cut ice blocks, which was put into the ice box. By early 1900s, SOME families had early refrigerators...but that came after electricity.
• Water powered saw mills, to steam driven mills.
• Having few schools, only attended for 1 to 3 years for boys... to girls starting to be educated too.
• Having to wait up to 3 months for a letter from across the State... to the telegraph and communications within hours.
• The War of 1812 and The Civil War (both USA) brought advancements in military weapons... and some medical advancements in wound care and surgery.
• The Railroad significantly impacted every aspect of life, for passengers and maket items (milk, cattle...coal.. the US mail.. etc.).
• By the late 1800s, inventors were working on electricity and the telephone. While these came to cities (street lights) and businesses (phones) first, soon both would change family life too.
• Coal Mines and Coal and Coke Works fueled steel factories... and new machines.
• The discovery of oil (1880s) led to oil derricks and oil led to numerous inventons including oil lamps. Indians long knew the value of oil (found in puddles seeping from the ground), but now men could extract oil from the ground.
• Oil discovery soon led to gas discovery.
• From early wood burning cook stoves, they moved on to coal fed stoves. Later, gas stoves. Much later (1900s) electric stoves. From baking bread on stones over fire... to baking ovens.
• From horseback...and horse (or mule, or oxen) driven carts and wagons, early models of steam driven cars came to some places.

The 20th century refers to the 1900s. The 1900s continued to build on discoveries and inventions started in the 1860s through 1899. If born in 1910, you would have seen changes in science and technologies, although most rural families were behind in getting these in their homes.

• Shoes used to have buttons; you used a buttonhook to fasten them. By 1920s, no more buttonhooks.
• Radio that started late 1800s took off. By 1920, most families had at least one radio.
• Most people still walked (many miles). Very slowly, the first automobiles came to rural towns.
• Most people still went TO the post office for their mail. In the early to mid 1800s, newspapers printed a monthly (later weekly...then daily) list of who had Letters waiting for someone at the P.O. But in 1930s-40s, home delivery started to cities. Rural Routes residents still went to the PO for pick up. As trucks/autos were used more, the PO started home delivery for everyone.
• Electric refrigerators were in every home. (Stand-alone freezers in the home wasn't until 1960s.)
• Gas or electric cook stoves.
• Most people still had COAL fed furnaces. Slowly between 1940 to 1970s, people converted coal furnances to gas fed. Some went to oil fed furnaces. Bituminous coal--which burns hot--was much cheaper than oil or natural gas.
• Most families still used MANUAL ringer-roller washing machines. Almost everyone hung out their washed clothes/bedding on a clothesline to dry. By 1950s-1960s, families switched to gas fed or electric fed washers and dryers.
• By 1940s, almost every family had a telephone. But until 1960s, most were party lines, shared by 5 to 12 families. Telephone numbers had a letter code, like "BA" which stood for an area of that town (or another 2-letter code). So a telephone number might have been "BA-22"...and that was what you'd say to the operator... In the early 1900s, you still used an operator to make any long distance call. By 1960s, people were assigned an exchange, the first 3 numbers, followed by a 4-digit personal number. All telephone numbers were just 7 dgits, like 555-5555. By 1970s, you could just dial "1" first in the US... and we still used 7-digit phone numbers unless you were calling long distance-- long distance often only meant 5 to 10 miles away.
• Up until 1950s, we hung throw rungs over the clothesline and beat the dirt out of them with a wire racket. Soon, the earliest vacuum cleaners made it into homes. They were heavy monsters with NO attachments! We picked up the vac cleaner and made it clean sofa cushions. And rug cleaners (using detergent and water) soon followed--but through paid services of a Carpet Cleaner business. Now we can buy our own carpet cleaning machines.
• People hadn't heard of fire retardant clothing. By the 1960s-1970s, baby and children's pajamas/nightgowns were fire resistant.
• WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War each brought new ideas in science, warfare, medicine. WWII pushed factories into ways to manufacture faster. WWII also pushed nuclear weapons... and the bombing of Japan...
• From no autos, walking, buttonhole shoes and manual wringer washers... a person born in 1910 would have read about the first monkey in space... to the first moon walk!
• Most people still had ONLY radios until the 1940s to 1950s... they then got black and white TVs and most did not get color analogue tv sets until the mid 1960s to 1970s. Most people watched the coverage of John F. Kennedy's assassination in B&W... and the Moon walk in B&W.
• From there, people saw the Space Race... telescopes.. etc. in the exporation of space.
• A grandmother born in 1910 would maybe have graduated high school--but many dropped out after 8th to 9th grade. By the time this grandmother was 40 years old (1950s), she could take by mail classes.
• A person born in 1910 would not have seen a computer or used one until they were in their 70s to 80s.
• WWII brought about penicillian. Women with babies in even 1930 often watched their babies die from bacterial pneumonia. With penicillian, people survived bacterial illnesses. In the 1800s through 1940s, sphyllis could not be treated--people went insane when the bacteria affected the brain. Now, syphillis can be completely cured.
• From simple manual transmission cars of early 1900s through 1960s... people by the 1980s could have radio, air conditioning, Power Steering, etc.
• Items could be moved to markets within hours, not days or months.
• The 1960s to 1999 saw so many advancements--I don't know where to begin! From console steros (furniture) with radio and record player... to small portable record players and personal transitor radios... to cassette players... to boom boxes... to CD players, etc. etc.

There are hundreds of areas/fields I have not covered. Science, medicine, astronomy, radiation/warfare/medical technologies, medical policies (like rules about giving birth to a baby), surgeries, computers, etc. etc. have exploded into societies. People born even as recently as 1980 or 1990 have little knowledge about what existed in everyday life in the earlier decades of the 1900s. SO much has changed!