British inventions and discoveries
Britain since 1945
British invention did not begin with the war. In 1932, John Logie Baird, the Scottish engineer who had developed the television, sent its first broadcast from London to Glasgow. Three years later, in 1935, Britain saw its first successful radar test, showing that aircraft could be detected by radio waves; it was Sir Robert Watson-Watt who had first proposed that enemy planes could be found this way.
Science moved just as fast after the war. In 1953, researchers working at British universities worked out the structure of the DNA molecule, a breakthrough that later underpinned advances in medicine and in solving crime through forensic evidence. Engineering had its own pioneer from those same years: Sir Frank Whittle, a Royal Air Force engineer officer, developed the jet engine.
What to remember
| The first television broadcast, between London and Glasgow | 1932 John Logie Baird's broadcast marked the start of working television technology. |
|---|---|
| The first successful radar test | 1935 Radar let Britain detect enemy aircraft by radio waves, a key wartime advantage. |
| The discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule | 1953 The discovery underpinned later advances in medicine and forensic science. |
| The television | John Logie Baird A Scotsman, working in the 1920s; he made the first broadcast between London and Glasgow in 1932. |
|---|---|
| Radar | Sir Robert Watson-Watt A Scotsman, who proposed that enemy aircraft could be found by radio waves. First successful test in 1935. |
| The jet engine | Sir Frank Whittle An RAF engineer officer, working in Britain in the 1930s. |
Everything in Britain since 1945or the whole course, from the beginning