Newcastle Local Studies Library

• First railway bridge. 1727. Designed by Ralph Wood. Built at Causey Arch

• First steam-driven public railway. 1825. Stockton and Darlington Railway.

• First friction match. 1826. John Walker of Stockton on Tees.

• First railway accident fatality. 19th March 1828 on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. (Driver John Gillespie killed by boiler explosion).

• First hydraulic crane. 1840s. Lord Armstrong.

• First screw-propelled iron collier ("John Bowes"). Sir Charles Mark Palmer.

• First breech-loading gun. 1855. Lord Armstrong.

• First dog show. 28/29 June 1859. Newcastle Town Hall.

• Incandescent filament lamp. 1879. Joseph Swan.

• First public demonstration of electric lighting. 1880. Literary and Philosophical Society Library, Newcastle.

• First private residence to be lit by electricity - Joseph Swan's house at Low Fell, Gateshead.

• First quick-break light switch. 1884. John H. Holmes of Newcastle.

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• First steam turbine. 1884. Sir Charles Parsons.

• Launch of the first oil tanker ("Gluckhauf"). 1885. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co.

• First steam turbine-driven vessel 1894. ("Turbinia").

• First sound amplifier. 1903. ("Auxetophone"). Sir Charles Parsons.

• First football club to make an overseas tour. 1894. Sunderland AFC toured USA.

• First provincial showing of the cinematograph at the Palace Theatre, March 1896. Newcastle.

• First suburban electric railway in UK. 1904. North Tyneside line.

• First beauty contest in Britain. 23rd December 1905. Olympia Theatre Newcastle

• First football team to win the World Cup. 1910. West Auckland.

• Windscreen wiper invented. 1911. Gladstone Adams, a local photographer.

• First police box: Sunderland System invented 1923 by F. J. Crawley, Chief Constable of Sunderland, and later of Newcastle.

• First flavoured potato crisps (vinegar flavour). Reputedly invented by John William Hoggett of Whickham.

February 1990

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