Editing Timeline of historic inventions (section)

====1870s====
* '''1872:''' [[Polyvinyl chloride]], more commonly known as vinyl, is synthesized by German chemist [[Eugen Baumann]]
* '''1872:''' J.E.T. Woods and J. Clark invented [[stainless steel]]. [[Harry Brearley]] was the first to commercialize it.<ref>{{cite book|last1=M. Cobb|first1=Harold|title=The History of Stainless Steel|date=2010|publisher=ASM International|isbn=978-1615030118|pages=11|edition=illustrated|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E30rCBeM8nkC|access-date=23 February 2017|language=en|chapter=Chapter 2: The Early Discoveries}}</ref>
* '''1873:''' [[Frederick Ransome]] invents the [[rotary kiln]].
* '''1873:''' [[William Crookes]], a chemist, invents the [[Crookes radiometer]] as the by-product of some chemical research.
* '''1873:''' [[Zénobe Gramme]] invents the first commercial [[electrical generator]], the [[Gramme machine]].
* '''1874:''' [[Gustave Trouvé]] invents the first [[metal detector]].
* '''1875:''' [[Fyodor Pirotsky]] invents the first [[electric tram]] near [[Saint Petersburg, Russia]].
* '''1876:''' [[Nicolaus August Otto]] invents the [[four-stroke cycle]].
* '''1876:''' [[Alexander Graham Bell]] has a patent granted for the [[telephone]]. However, other inventors before Bell had worked on the development of the telephone and the invention had several pioneers.<ref name="Geisst">{{cite book|author=Charles R. Geisst|title=Encyclopedia of American Business History|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0987-9|page=425}}</ref>
* '''1877:''' [[Thomas Edison]] invents the first working [[phonograph]].<ref>{{cite web|title= The History of the Edison Cylinder Phonograph|publisher=Library of Congress|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edcyldr.html}}</ref>
* '''1878:''' [[Henry Fleuss]] is granted a patent for the first practical [[rebreather]].<ref name=rebreather_hx>{{cite journal |last=Quick |first=D. |title=A History Of Closed Circuit Oxygen Underwater Breathing Apparatus |journal=Royal Australian Navy, School of Underwater Medicine. |volume=RANSUM-1-70 |year=1970 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4960 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509072728/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4960 |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 May 2008 |access-date=25 August 2011 }}</ref>
* '''1878:''' [[Lester Allan Pelton]] invents the [[Pelton wheel]].
* '''1879:''' [[Joseph Swan]] and [[Thomas Edison]] both patent a functional [[incandescent light bulb]]. Some two dozen inventors had experimented with electric incandescent lighting over the first three-quarters of the 19th century but never came up with a practical design.<ref>Friedel, Robert, and Paul Palestine. 1986. ''Edison's electric light: biography of an invention''. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. pages 115–117</ref> Swan's, which he had been working on since the 1860s, had a low resistance so was only suited for small installations. Edison designed a high-resistance bulb as part of a large-scale commercial electric lighting utility.<ref>Kenneth E. Hendrickson III, The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History, Volume 3, Rowman & Littlefield – 2014, page 564</ref><ref>Maury Klein, The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America, Bloomsbury Publishing USA – 2010, Chapter 9 – The Cowbird, The Plugger, and the Dreamer</ref><ref>David O. Whitten, Bessie Emrick Whitten, Handbook of American Business History: Manufacturing, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990, pages 315-316</ref>