Notable Inventions of the 16th Century

Dates for inventions are often controversial. Inventions are often invented by several inventors around the same time, or may be invented in an impractical form many years before another inventor improves the invention into a practical form. Where there is ambiguity, the date of the first working version of the invention is used here.

c. 1500: Ball bearing: Leonardo Da Vinci

c. 1500: Scissors: Leonardo Da Vinci

1524: Pocket watch: Peter Henlein

1540: Ether: Valerius Cordus

1551: Steam turbine: Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt

1556: Spring-powered clock: Peter Henlein and Taqi al-Din

1559: Six-cylinder pump: Taqi al-Din

1565: Pencil: Conrad Gesner

1570s: Telescope: Leonard Digges and Taqi al-Din

1576: Ironclad warship: Oda Nobunaga

1577-1580: Mechanical seconds clock: Taqi al-Din

1579: Prefabricated home: Akbar the Great

1579: Movable structure: Akbar the Great

1582: Autocannon: Fathullah Shirazi

1582: Multi-barrel gun: Fathullah Shirazi

1582: Machine gun: Fathullah Shirazi

1582: Corn-griding carriage: Fathullah Shirazi

1589: Stocking frame: William Lee

1589-1590: Seamless celestial globe: Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman

1589-1590: Seamless metal sphere: Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman

1593: Thermoscope: Galileo Galilei

Musket in Europe

Pencil in England

High-rise apartment buildings in Shibam

Tower blocks in Shibam

Vertical construction urban planning in Shibam