Human Tech Tree

Energy & Industry

Manufacturing & Construction

45 points from the earliest roots to the research frontier: 33 researched, 4 current research, 4 unsolved and 4 that become possible once they are solved. State of knowledge: October 2026.

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Prehistorybefore 3000 BC

  • Pottery & Ceramics~18000 BCResearchedFired clay makes food cookable and storable: the first material that humans chemically transform to obtain something new.

Antiquity3000 BC – 500 AD

  • Fired Brick~3000 BCResearchedKiln-fired clay bricks give early cities weatherproof, standard-sized building blocks that last for millennia.
  • Aqueducts & Public Water~312 BCResearchedRoman aqueducts, starting with the Aqua Appia (312 BC), bring clean water to cities along carefully surveyed gentle gradients.
  • Mortar & Roman Concrete~200 BCResearchedLime, volcanic ash and aggregate make a building material that carries domes and harbour moles.
  • Glassmaking & Glassblowing~50 BCResearchedGlassblowing (about 50 BC) makes clear glass vessels cheap; glass later becomes lenses, laboratory ware and windows.
  • Roman Arch, Vault & Dome~126 ADResearchedArches, vaults and domes of brick and concrete span large spaces; the Pantheon dome (about 126 AD) stayed the largest of its kind for 1,300 years.

Middle Ages & Renaissance500 – 1700

  • Mills as the First Machines~1000ResearchedWater mills drive hammers, saws, fulling stocks and bellows - the mechanisation of work begins.
  • Eyeglasses~1286ResearchedGround glass lenses worn in frames appear in northern Italy around 1286 and begin the craft of lens making.
  • Mechanical Clock~1300ResearchedWeight-driven clocks with an escapement (about 1300) tick time into equal hours: the first complex precision machine.
  • Blast Furnace & Cast Iron~1400ResearchedWater-driven bellows allow furnaces that make liquid iron - iron becomes available in bulk.

Industrial Age1700 – 1900

  • Crucible Steel~1740ResearchedBenjamin Huntsman's crucible process (Sheffield, about 1740) melts steel completely, giving uniform high-quality steel for tools and springs.
  • Mechanized Textile Mills1764-1785ResearchedJenny, water frame and power loom (1764-85) move spinning and weaving from cottages to water- and steam-driven mills.
  • Machine Tools1775ResearchedWilkinson's boring machine and Maudslay's lathe make metal parts with a precision impossible by hand.
  • Iron Bridge1779ResearchedThe Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale (1779) spans the Severn with a cast-iron arch and shows that iron can be a structural material.
  • Puddling & Rolling Mills1783-84ResearchedHenry Cort's puddling furnace and grooved rolls (1783-84) turn brittle pig iron into tough wrought iron bars and rails in bulk.
  • Centrifugal Governor1788ResearchedJames Watt's flyball governor (1788) holds an engine at constant speed by feedback, the first widely used automatic controller.
  • Interchangeable Parts~1800–1850ResearchedStandardised, identically made parts make repair and series assembly possible - the idea behind every factory.
  • Jacquard Loom (Punched Cards)1804ResearchedJacquard's card-controlled loom (1804) weaves any pattern automatically: the first widely used machine run by a stored program.
  • Macadam & Asphalt Roads1820ResearchedJohn McAdam's layered crushed-stone roads (1820s) and later tar and asphalt paving give all-weather road surfaces.
  • Portland Cement1824ResearchedJoseph Aspdin's patent of 1824 for a strong hydraulic cement made from burned limestone and clay produces the binder of modern concrete.
  • Bessemer Steel1856ResearchedAir blown through liquid pig iron makes steel in minutes instead of days - cheap and in bulk.
  • Concrete & Reinforced Concrete1867ResearchedSteel in concrete takes the tensile forces - bridges, high-rises and dams become possible.
  • Steel Suspension Bridge1883ResearchedThe Brooklyn Bridge (1883) hangs its deck from steel-wire cables across 486 m, then the longest span in the world.
  • Optical Glass (Schott & Abbe)1884ResearchedOtto Schott, Ernst Abbe and Carl Zeiss found the Jena glass laboratory in 1884 to melt new glass types designed for lens makers.
  • Skyscraper & Safety Elevator1885ResearchedA load-bearing metal skeleton (Chicago, 1885) plus the safety elevator makes buildings taller than masonry allows.

Machine Age1900 – 1945

  • Electric Arc Furnace1900ResearchedPaul Héroult's electric arc furnace (1900) melts scrap steel with electricity and now makes about a third of the world's steel.
  • Stainless & Alloy Steels1912-1913ResearchedHarry Brearley's chromium steel (Sheffield, 1913) and Krupp's chrome-nickel Nirosta (patented 1912) began the family of rust-resistant stainless…
  • Mass Production (Assembly Line)1913ResearchedFord's assembly line cuts Model T assembly from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes and makes cars affordable.
  • Anti-Reflection Coatings1935ResearchedA thin film a quarter-wavelength thick cancels reflections from a lens surface; Smakula's 1935 patent at Zeiss makes many-element lenses practical.

Atomic & Space Age1945 – 1990

  • Lean Production (Toyota)~1950ResearchedOhno and Toyota (from the late 1940s) replace giant batches with just-in-time flow, built-in quality and continuous improvement.
  • CNC & Numerical Control1952ResearchedMIT demonstrates a tape-controlled milling machine in 1952 - machines follow programs instead of hand wheels.
  • Computer-Aided Design1963ResearchedIvan Sutherland's Sketchpad (1963) lets an engineer draw on a screen with a light pen; CAD replaces the drawing board.
  • 3D Printing (Additive Mfg)1984ResearchedChuck Hull files for stereolithography in 1984 - objects are built layer by layer from a file.

Present2015 – Oct 2026

  • Robots & Lights-Out Factories2015–2026Current researchIn 2025 over 600,000 industrial robots were installed worldwide and 5 million now operate; China accounts for 59% of new installations.
  • 3D Printing in Production2016–2026Current researchMetal printing delivers engine parts and rocket components in series; printed houses remain a niche.
  • Green Steel2021–2027Current researchHydrogen instead of coke: Stegra in Sweden is building the first industrial-scale plant - start slips to 2027.
  • Cement with CO2 Capture2025Current researchThe Brevik cement plant in Norway has captured CO2 since 2025 - designed for about half of its emissions - and ships it for storage under the North…

Research Frontier · Todayunsolved as of Oct 2026

  • CO2-Free CementopenUnsolvedAbout 60% of cement emissions come from the limestone itself; an affordable, approved alternative at million-tonne scale is missing.
  • Molecular NanomanufacturingopenUnsolvedAssembling atoms into arbitrary structures has been shown only for single atoms in the lab, not for products.
  • Self-Replicating FactoryopenUnsolvedA factory that rebuilds itself fully from raw materials exists only in theory; partial successes like RepRap rely on bought-in parts.
  • True Circular EconomyopenUnsolvedOnly 6.9% of the materials entering the world economy are secondary (recycled) material - and the share has been falling.

If Solvedbecomes possible

  • Climate-Neutral Construction2040s?If solvedCement, steel and concrete are made without fossil emissions - cities grow without burdening the climate.
  • A World Without Waste2050s?If solvedRaw materials circulate almost without loss: new products are made mostly from old ones.
  • Atom-Precise FactoriesopenIf solvedDevices assemble products exactly from atoms and molecules: materials made to order, hardly any waste.
  • Factories on Moon and MarsopenIf solvedSelf-expanding factories use local resources and make settlements in space independent of Earth.