History Main / OneManIndustrialRevolution

* Henry Ford wasn't the first person to utilize assembly-line mass production[note]Ransom Olds beat Henry Ford to it[/note], but he popularized the production process, changing the way many industrial goods are produced.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', during his time at [[MegaCorp MomCorp]], Professor Farnsworth conceived of the original design and operating system for all modern robots in the series, and was able to convert previously-useless [[OurDarkMatterIsMysterious dark matter]] into the fuel that all ships use (prior to [[Recap/FuturamaM3BendersGame the fifth season]]). Given how innovative his work for the 30/31st century was, he's surprisingly humble ([[GlobalWarming and, in some cases, regretful]]) about his work. He makes up for it by being [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior crotchety about everything else]].

* In ''Creator/HarryHarrison'' ''Literature/Deathworld2'' ,set many years in the future, in spite of the main character being a professional gambler with no education in engineering or history, stranded on a backwards planet, he manages to reinvent everything up through the Industrial Revolution.

* ''Literature/ReleaseThatWitch'': Played with. Most of the scientific inventions come straight out of the main character Roland's head, including concrete, steam engines, hot air ballons, smokeless gunpowder, electric lighting, and more. And even concepts already discovered in the setting, like black powder or sulfiric acid creation, are only moved to industrial scale production thanks to Roland.

** In real life, an industrial revolution - with steam engines and all their associated paraphernalia - could never be started by a single man. It's not for want of brilliance, but rather because of simple economics. The first steam engines were, frankly, pathetic and were only commissioned because it was cheaper to use them (to pump the water out of coal mines, feeding them with the low-quality coal that wasn't suitable for transportation and sale) than to pay for draft horses. So it was with all pre-efficient-steam-engine-mechanisation; if labour costs rose past a certain level, people invested in labour-saving tools. If labour costs fell below that level, as their tools wore out they simply hired more people and/or draft animals. There had been many cycles of mechanisation and de-mechanisation before the nineteenth century, but the efficient steam engine was a real game-breaker that had very specific origins - decent-quality coal being mined below the water table in large amounts for sale to towns and cities at the heart of a good-sized and well-developed (i.e. linked up by loads of navigable rivers and canals) regional market wherein it was relatively easy to get loans (from banks) and labour costs were rising.
*** Even if such a person was to, say, forcefully enact an industrial revolution it would not get far due to a lack of widespread literacy, educated technicians (who will maintain those steam engines?), an efficient and reasonably wealthy banking system and a myriad of other factors. This is assuming that the one-person-industrial-revolution knows how all of this stuff is supposed to work - the machinery, the institutions, and the economic system - in the first place, anyhow.

* Subverted in Creator/PoulAnderson's story ''The Man Who Came Early'': A 20th-century American GI teleported back to Viking-era Iceland tries to fast-forward technological progress, but fails utterly.

* In LightNovel/MaoyuuMaouYuusha, in her guise as the Crimson Scholar, Maou is proving to be this to the Southern Kingdoms. In her case its slightly more realistic as she is moving gradually first with a Green Revolution in agriculture before moving on to the Guttenburg Press. Other characters also contribute such as the seeds of Liberalism and Alternate Currency.

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

* A major theme in ''FanFic/DungeonKeeperAmi''. Justified. Ami has access to all the knowledge of the modern world, in addition to several kinds of {{magic}} and a horde of minions to impliment said Industrial Revolution. A fair ammount of innovation is her own, as well, she is highly intelligent after all. This is what founds and feeds her reputation of cunning and genius.

* Downplayed in the ''Videogame/{{Undertale}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Visiontale}}'', [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/8779618/chapters/20125687 posted on Archive of Our Own]]. A small group of monsters is responsible for the scientific innovations, hard and soft, in the Underground. They have lived for centuries, so they have had the time to develop their ideas. Even so, they still need help from others to conduct research and turn their ideas into tangible results.

* The Kappa were already technologically advanced in ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', but the goddess Kanako Yasaka feeds a dead sun god to a Hell Raven to give them access to nuclear power; and start their Industrial Revolution. When that fails, she successfully exploits Gensokyo's properties to harness cold fusion. Indeed, Kanako has a vested interest in advancing tech level: she's trying to shift her area of influence from "wind and rain" to "technology" due to GodsNeedPrayerBadly.

* In the ''VideoGame/KisekiSeries'', [[{{Magitek}} orbment]] technology was invented by [[PosthumousCharacter Professor Epstein]] and improved upon by [[TheProfessor Professor Russel]]. Made ''slightly'' more realistic in that it took two people to make the technology practical, and it wasn't until Russel invented a functioning orbment-powered airship (which improved commerce ''immensely'') did the technology suddenly start getting adopted in large amounts by society.

* Downplayed in the ''Videogame/{{Undertale}}'' fanfic [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/Visiontale Visiontale]], [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/8779618/chapters/20125687 posted on Archive of Our Own]]. A small group of monsters is responsible for the scientific innovations, hard and soft, in the Underground. They have lived for centuries, so they have had the time to develop their ideas. Even so, they still need help from others to conduct research and turn their ideas into tangible results.

* Dr. Vegapunk of ''Manga/OnePiece'' is the primary reason the OceanPunk setting has robots with FrickinLaserBeams. The technology he's created, most of which is heavily controlled by TheGovernment, is explicitly described as ''500 years'' ahead of the rest of the world.

The GadgeteerGenius is good at what he does, but 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. Anyone GivingRadioToTheRomans is likely to be this. See also AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome.

* The ''Podcast/TwilightHistories'' episode “The Winged Victory” has you introducing steam engines, flintlock riffles, gas lamps, flamethrowers, and even rudimentary airplanes to Ancient Greece. This to to prepare them for the coming Roman invasion.

* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' gives us Gilbert Bates, who invented the verse's first steam engine, sparking an industrial revolution that transformed Tarant from a backwater hole into a world superpower. [[spoiler:And by 'invented', I mean 'blatantly copied off an abandoned dwarven prototype that he had been shown'.]]
** [[spoiler:Then again, Gilbert Bates did realize the potential of the device, which the dwarves did not. Given that Gilbert Bates is based on Bill Gates, this was probably intentional. That said -- funnily enough, a talk with a dwarven king implies the dwarves might or not have realized the potential, but Bates certainly didn't stop to think of side-effects.]]

* ''Disney/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!

* In Creator/MichaelSwanwick's ''Jack Faust'', German scholar Johannes Faust kickstarts a technological revolution that skyhooks Renaissance Europe into the early 20th century in the space of a century. Justifiable in this case, as the story is written more as a fable than a realist novel (at least, if the parts where Mephistopheles tells Faust how to create new technologies is anything to go on).

* If any present-day person is a contender for this title, it must be Elon Musk. He has, at a minimum, has a hand in making electric cars practical, tried to usher in a new era of reusable spacecraft, developed a completely new mode of high-speed transportation (the "hyperloop"), and helped the use of renewable energy sources gain widespread acceptance.

* ''Manga/DrStone'' has its protagonists wake up several millenia after [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the entire human race was turned into stone]] − needless to say, all the machines and facilities have long crumbled by then. One of those protagonists, [[ImprobablyHighIQ Senku]], is a walking encyclopedia and a scientific genius. He ends up in a primitive human village and introduces certain modern mechanics, food, and systems to their civilization much earlier than they would have done it themselves, to the point the villagers first call it "sorcery". Senku and co. are opposed to Tsukasa, a super strong guy who intends to rebuild a society [[ScienceIsBad freed of the evils of technology]] and thus sees Senku as his main enemy.

* In General, many TrappedInAnotherWorld mangas have the main character become this, and depending on the story it is either the main focus of the plot (ie: ''Literature/ReleaseThatWitch'') or being completely by accident (ie: ''LightNovel/TheEminenceInShadow''). This is usually due to them being sent to a fantasy-like setting that has technology no more advance than the middle age, and said main character just creating common items from today's age.

* In General, many TrappedInAnotherWorld mangas have the main character become this, and depending story it is either the main focus of the plot (ie: ''Literature/ReleaseThatWitch'') or being completely by accident (ie: ''LightNovel/TheEminenceInShadow''). This is usually due to them being sent to a fantasy-like setting that has technology no more advance than the middle age, and said main character just creating common items from today's age.

* In General, many TrappedInAnotherWorld mangas have the main character become this, and depending story it is either the main focus of the plot (ie: ''LightNovel/ReleaseThatWitch) or being completely by accident (ie: ''LightNovel/TheEminenceInShadow''). This is usually due to them being sent to a fantasy-like setting that has technology no more advance than the middle age, and said main character just creating common items from today's age.

* In General, many TrappedInAnotherWorld mangas have the main character become this, and depending story it is either the main focus of the plot or being completely by accident. This is usually due to them being sent to a fantasy-like setting that has technology no more advance than the middle age, and said main character just creating common items from today's age.

* In General, many TrappedInAnotherWorld mangas have the main character become this. This is usually due to them being sent to a fantasy-like setting that has technology no more advance than the middle age, and said main character just creating common items from today's age.