History Main / OneManIndustrialRevolution

* Subverted in ''MostlyHarmless'': Arthur ''thought'' he could do this since he comes from a technologically advanced place (compared to the place he ends up at), but then he realizes he didn't know how any of that stuff actually worked. The one invention he ends up bringing to them is... sandwiches.

* Subverted in ''MostlyHarmless'': Arthur ''thought'' he could do this since he comes from a technologically advanced place (compared to the place he ends up at), but then he realizes he didn't know how any of that stuff actually worked.

** Which isn't much of a surprise when you realize Dornkirk is actually [[spoiler: Issac Newton]].

* ''{{Arcanum}}'' gives us Gilbert Bates, who [[strike:shamelessly stole from the dwarves]] invented the verse's first steam engine, sparking an industrial revolution that transformed Tarant from a backwater hole into a world superpower.

* Sherkaner Underhill takes technology from WWI-ish to present day singlehandedly in Vernor Vinge's AFireUponTheDeep.

* The Meiji Emperor of Japan might arguably count in Real Life as well.

* In a {{deconstruction}} of ''Lest Darkness Fall'', a man goes back in time to the Roman Empire and brings them modern knowledge until a thousand years later the Earth is so overpopulated that the future sends someone ''else'' back in time [[TimePolice to kill him]] just as he arrives in Roman times. The last line in the story is "And darkness blessedly fell".

The GadgeteerGenius is good at what he does, be he doesn't have a particularly profound effect on TheVerse, because ReedRichardsIsUseless. This guy, however, is almost singlehandedly responsible for ending the MedievalStasis: the one person responsible for all the high technology in a setting. Any ConnecticutYankee is likely to be this. See also AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome.

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* Dr. Manhattan's ability to make rare elements from scratch is the reason the world of ''{{Watchmen}}'' has cancer-free cigarettes, efficient zeppelins, and cheap electric cars.

** In main DC continuity, the city of Metropolis was "upgraded" by Brainiac around New Year's 2000 to be centuries ahead of its time.
* In ''ElfQuest'''s "Shards" arc the half-elf, half-troll Two-Edge becomes this for the human warlord Grohmul Djun.

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* J.F. Bone's novel ''The Meddlers''. A man's starship runs out of fuel (wire made out of precious metals) and he lands on a primitive planet. He must teach the natives how to use technology so he can get enough fuel to get home.

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* ''{{GURPS}} Time Travel'' supplement ''Alternate Earths''. In the "Gernsback" parallel, NikolaTesla's inventions revolutionized the modern world.

* The Mechanist of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fame can produce tanks, jet-skis, and a huge freakin' drill, but the concept of a hot-air balloon [[AvatarTheAbridgedSeries eluuuudes him]].

* [[GadgeteerGenius Archimedes]] almost did this for the Roman empire, but then a soldier [[NiceJobBreakingItHero went and killed him]] because he was too busy [[ReluctantMadScientist working on a math problem]] to respond to the [[WatchingTroyBurn Roman sacking the city]]. It could have been something to do with all of the giant Death Machines Archimedes had built for the Carthaginians, such as a crane for crushing Roman ships. The Greeks at the time had invented a rudimentary mechanical calculator. WhatCouldHaveBeen...
* The Meiji Emperor of Japan might arguably count in RealLife as well.

* On ''StargateAtlantis'', [=McKay=] does this to/for a civilization he mistakes for a Sim game, bringing them from MedeivalStasis to SteamPunk over the course of two years.

* ''MeetTheRobinsons'' has a fairly extreme example: Cornelius Robinson has invented all the cool new stuff we see the future has, ''and'' it's managed to become widely adopted by the time he's still middle-aged!

* Lex Luthor in ''SupermanRedSon'' is responsible for technology decades ahead of its time.

* On StargateAtlantis, [=McKay=] does this to/for a civilization he mistakes for a Sim game, bringing them from MedeivalStasis to SteamPunk over the course of two years.

* The PrinceRoger series has {{Space Marine}}s crash on a planet chock full of alien barbarians. In order to make it across the planet to the spaceport, they ally with certain tribes and give them Roman Empire-era technology and tactics.
* {{Safehold}}: Nimue "Merlin" Alban brings modern technology ''back'' to the colonists, who are in a sort of involuntary {{Space Amish}}-ism.

* Mordred on the 'Astro-knights' island in {{Poptropica}}.
* Many, many {{Alternate History}} stories cast NikolaTesla as this. Off the top of my head, I think CommandAndConquer did it.

* Kevyn from SchlockMercenary might count. He invented the teraport and pretty much changed the whole interstellar ball game: it's amazing how much new tech used and taken for granted in the comic is based off the teraport.

* Dornkirk, from ''VisionOfEscaflowne''; any number of [[EmperorScientist [=EmperorScientists=]]] may have this going on as well.