3.6.7 Significant British inventions and inventors

Britain has a long history of invention and innovation. Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. John Logie Baird demonstrated the first working television in 1925. Sir Frank Whittle developed the jet engine. Alan Turing, a mathematician, played a crucial role in breaking the Enigma code during World War II and is considered a pioneer of computer science.

Other notable British inventions include the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell, born in Scotland), the hovercraft (Sir Christopher Cockerell), the cash machine/ATM (John Shepherd-Barron), and the DNA structure discovery (Francis Crick and James Watson at Cambridge). Britain continues to be a world leader in science, technology, and innovation.