English Inventions - Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

• Oldest police force in continuous operation: Marine Police Force founded in 1798 and now part of the Metropolitan Police Service
• Oldest life insurance company in the world: Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office founded 1706
• First Glee Club, founded in Harrow School in 1787.
• Oldest arts festival – Norwich 1772
• Oldest music festival – The Three Choirs Festival
• Oldest literary festival – The Cheltenham Literature Festival
• Bayko – Charles Plimpton
• Linoleum – Frederick Walton
• Meccano – Frank Hornby
• Crossword puzzle – Arthur Wynne
• Gas mask – (disputed) John Tyndall and others
• Graphic telescope – Cornelius Varley
• Steel-ribbed Umbrella – Samuel Fox
• Plastic – Alexander Parkes
• Plasticine – William Harbutt
• Carbonated soft drink – Joseph Priestley
• Friction Match – John Walker
• Invented the rubber balloon – Michael Faraday
• Earliest concept of a Metric system – John Wilkins
• Edmondson railway ticket – Thomas Edmondson
• The world's first Nature Reserve – Charles Waterton *Public Park – Joseph Paxton
• Scouts – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
• Spirograph – Denys Fisher
• The Young Men's Christian Association YMCA was founded in London – George Williams (YMCA)
• The Salvation Army, known for being one of the largest distributors of humanitarian aid – Methodist minister William Booth
• Prime meridian – George Biddell Airy
• Produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English – Myles Coverdale
• Venn diagram – John Venn
• vulcanisation of rubber – Thomas Hancock
• Silicone – Frederick Kipping
• Stamp collecting – John Edward Gray bought penny blacks on first day of issue in order to keep them
• lorgnette – George Adams (optician)
• Comics – William Hogarth, George Cruikshank and James Gillray and others
• The modern circus – Philip Astely, 1770 The popularity of the circus in England may be traced to that held by Philip Astley in London.