Thomas Edison invents a machine to record telephone conversations, calling it the telescribe

Winston Churchill is a firm supporter of a new invention, the tank, encouraging its initial development while still at the Admiralty

The French aviator Roland Garros fires a machine gun through the propeller in his fighter plane, using metal plates to deflect any bullets that hit the propeller

Dutch aircraft designer Anton Fokker, working for the Germans, vastly improves the Roland Garros technique for firing machine guns through the propellers of fighter planes

Captain Peter Nissen, a Canadian mining engineer, designs the Nissen Hut for the Allied armies

Eleven British tanks go into pioneering but ineffective action at the battle of the Somme

Suitable ground is selected by the British at the battle of Cambrai for the first serious deployment of their new tanks

German scientist Felix Wankel builds a model of a rotary engine, thirty years before the first prototype is manufactured

British inventor John Logie Baird secures a patent for fibreoptic imaging

British inventor Frank Whittle takes out a patent for a jet engine

US inventor Richard Drew develops Scotch Brand Cellulose Tape, the world's first transparent tape

The Du Pont Corporation begins manufacture of a new synthetic silk yarn, subsequently known as nylon

British engineer Barnes Wallis designs a bouncing and rotating bomb for use against German dams

ENIAC is the world's first general-purpose electronic calculator

US scientist Edwin Land demonstrates a new device, the Polaroid camera, to the Optical Society of America

The first true synthesizer is put on the market by RCA Victor

The first prototype of the Hovercraft, designed by British engineer Christopher Cockerell, crosses the English Channel

An engineer in the newly formed Intel Corporation designs the first programmable microchip

The ARPANET, linking computers in four US cities, is the first step towards the internet

The IBM PC 5150, the first Personal Computer, is launched with a chip by Intel and software by Microsoft

The first all-digital synthesizer, the DX7, is put on the market by Yamaha

The US system MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) becomes the industry standard for electronic communication in music

Philips and Sony jointly introduce a new device, the compact disc

A new version of the Apple adds the mouse to personal computers