Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829)

Humphry Davy was a distinguished scientist who changed coalmining with his design for a safety lamp. As a scientist he was a pioneer of ...

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Paul Camille von Denis (1795–1872)

Paul Camille Denis was a Franco-German engineer who pioneered railway building in Germany. He designed the country’s first main-line ...

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John Dickinson (1782–1869)

The mechanisation of the laborious process of making paper by hand was developed by several inventors around 1800. In France, ...

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Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913)

In the course of the 20th century the diesel engine became the principal means of propelling seagoing ships, heavy lorries and motor ...

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Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck (1830–1916)

Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck became one of the richest men of his time and from 1901 held the title of ‘Furst’ (i.e. prince). He was ...

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Georges Dufaud (1777–1852)

Georges Dufaud, born in Beaumont-la-Ferriere (Nièvre), discovered the activity in the La Chaussade forges of Guérigny, led by his ...

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Henry Dunker (1870–1962)

Henry Dunker was a rubber manufacturer who diversified and expanded his business interests and became the richest man in Sweden. He left ...

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John Boyd Dunlop (1840–1921)

When he tried to improve his son’s tricycle in 1887, John Boyd Dunlop invented a product that is still in use on billions of vehicles and ...

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Pedro Duro Benito (1810–86)

Asturias in the north of Spain had a small-scale iron industry in the eighteenth century. However, it had no large blast furnaces to make ...

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Francis Egerton (1736–1803)

The achievements of the third Duke of Bridgewater were summarised in 1805 by Thomas Telford who called him "the model and root of the ...

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Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832–1923)

The French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel developed an international practice particularly for large wrought-iron and steel structures. He ...

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Friedrich Engelhorn (1821–1902)

The multinational chemical company BASF was founded by Friedrich Engelhorn in 1865 in what is now southern Germany. It became the largest ...

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Friedrich Engels (1820–95)

Friedrich Engels wrote one of the classic critiques of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution in England, devoted much of his life ...

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Christine Englerth (1767–1838)

Christine Englerth was a businesswoman who developed coal mines in the early nineteenth century in the Rhineland, on the border of Germany ...

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Nils Ericson (1802–70)

Nils Ericson was one of the leading engineers of canals and railways in Sweden. He was born in 1802 in the mining region of Långban in ...

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Lars Magnus Ericsson (1846–1926)

The telecommunications company Ericsson is world famous today. It was founded in 1876 by the inventor and entrepreneur Lars Magnus ...

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