We study the impact of scientific advancement on innovation in a newly digitized dataset of 19th century British patents. We build a network of scientific fields linked with technology classes, following the diffusion of new words from scientific innovations to patents’ technology classes. We demonstrate that newly introduced scientific concepts show up in patents in the same technology classes as previously introduced scientific concepts in the same fields. Therefore, we argue that upstream scientific discoveries can be an exogenous shock to the availability and importance of science in a certain area of technology. Then, we identify three impacts of these scientific shocks: they lead to a rise in the quantity of innovation (greater total patent output in the technology classes with more science exposure), a shift in the direction of innovation (science-exposed patents are more likely to save capital and less likely to save labor), and shift in the approach of innovators (they are more likely to specialize when their technology class is exposed to science, as measured by the textual similarity of different patents).