A GUIDE TO INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES:

ADRENALINE:
(isolation of) John Jacob Abel, U.S., 1897.
AEROSOL CAN: Erik Rotheim, Norway, 1926.
AIR BRAKE:
George Westinghouse, U.S., 1868.
AIR CONDITIONING:
Willis Carrier, U.S., 1911.
AIRSHIP:
(non-rigid) Henri Giffard, France, 1852; (rigid) Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Germany,
1900.
ALUMINUM MANUFACTURE: (by electrolytic action) Charles M. Hall, U.S., 1866.
ANATOMY, HUMAN:
(De fabrica corporis humani, an illustrated systematic study of the
human body) Andreas Vesalius, Belgium, 1543; (comparative: parts of an organism are correlated
to the functioning whole) Georges Cuvier, France, 17991805.
ANESTHETIC: (first use of anestheticetheron humans) Crawford W. Long, U.S., 1842.
ANTIBIOTICS: (first demonstration of antibiotic effect) Louis Pasteur, Jules-Franois Joubert,
France, 1887; (discovery of penicillin, first modern antibiotic) Alexander Fleming, Scotland,
1928; (penicillin's infection-fighting properties) Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, England, 1940.
ANTISEPTIC: (surgery) Joseph Lister, England, 1867.
ANTITOXIN, DIPHTHERIA: Emil von Behring, Germany, 1890.
APPLIANCES, ELECTRIC: (fan) Schuyler Wheeler, U.S., 1882; (flatiron) Henry W. Seely,
U.S., 1882; (stove) Hadaway, U.S., 1896; (washing machine) Alva Fisher, U.S., 1906.
AQUALUNG:
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Emile Gagnan, France, 1943.
ASPIRIN:
Dr. Felix Hoffman, Germany, 1899.
ASTRONOMICAL CALCULATOR: The Antikythera device, Greece, first century B.C..
Found off island of Antikythera in 1900.
ATOM:
(nuclear model of) Ernest Rutherford, England, 1911.
ATOMIC STRUCTURE: (formulated nuclear model of atom, Rutherford model) Ernest
Rutherford, England, 1911; (proposed current concept of atomic structure, the Bohr model) Niels
Bohr, Denmark, 1913.
ATOMIC THEORY: (ancient) Leucippus, Democritus, Greece, c. 500 B.C.; Lucretius, Rome
c.100 B.C.; (modern) John Dalton, England, 1808.
AUTOMOBILE:
(first with internal combustion engine, 250 rpm) Karl Benz, Germany,
1885; (first with practical high-speed internal combustion engine, 900 rpm) Gottlieb Daimler,
Germany, 1885; (first true automobile, not carriage with motor) Ren Panhard, Emile Lavassor,
France, 1891; (carburetor, spray) Charles E. Duryea, U.S., 1892.
AUTOPILOT:
(for aircraft) Elmer A. Sperry, U.S., c.1910, first successful test, 1912, in a
Curtiss flying boat.
AVOGADRO'S LAW:
(equal volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure
contain equal number of molecules) Amedeo Avogadro, Italy, 1811.
BACTERIA: Anton van Leeuwenhoek, The Netherlands, 1683.
BALLOON, HOT-AIR:
Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, France, 1783.
BARBED WIRE:
(most popular) Joseph E. Glidden, U.S., 1873.
BAR CODES (computer-scanned binary signal code):(retail trade use) Monarch Marking, U.S.
1970; (industrial use) Plessey Telecommunications, England, 1970.
BAROMETER: Evangelista Torricelli, Italy, 1643.
BICYCLE: Karl D. von Sauerbronn, Germany, 1816; (first modern model) James Starley,
England, 1884.
BIG BANG THEORY: (the universe originated with a huge explosion) George LeMaitre,
Belgium, 1927; (modified LeMaitre theory labeled Big Bang) George A. Gamow, U.S., 1948;
(cosmic microwave background radiation discovered, confirms theory) Arno A. Penzias and
Robert W. Wilson, U.S., 1965.

BLOOD, CIRCULATION OF:

William Harvey, England, 1628.
BOYLE'S LAW:
(relation between pressure and volume in gases) Robert Boyle, Ireland,
1662.
BRAILLE: Louis Braille, France, 1829.
BRIDGES: (suspension, iron chains) James Finley, Pa., 1800; (wire suspension) Marc Seguin,
Lyons, 1825; (truss) Ithiel Town, U.S., 1820.
BULLET:
(conical) Claude Mini, France, 1849.
CALCULATING MACHINE: (logarithms: made multiplying easier and thus calculators
practical) John Napier, Scotland, 1614; (slide rule) William Oughtred, England, 1632; (digital
calculator) Blaise Pascal, 1642; (multiplication machine) Gottfried Leibniz, Germany, 1671;
(important 19th-century contributors to modern machine) Frank S. Baldwin, Jay R. Monroe, Dorr
E. Felt, W. T. Ohdner, William Burroughs, all U.S.; (analytical engine design, included concepts
of programming, taping) Charles Babbage, England, 1835.
CALCULUS: Isaac Newton, England, 1669; (differential calculus) Gottfried Leibniz, Germany,
1684.
CAMERA: (hand-held) George Eastman, U.S., 1888; (Polaroid Land) Edwin Land, U.S., 1948.
CANALS OF MARS:
Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italy, 1877.
CARPET SWEEPER: Melville R. Bissell, U.S., 1876.
CAR RADIO: William Lear, Elmer Wavering, U.S., 1929, manufactured by Galvin
Manufacturing Co., Motorola.
CELLS:
(word used to describe microscopic examination of cork) Robert Hooke, England,
1665; (theory: cells are common structural and functional unit of all living organisms) Theodor
Schwann, Matthias Schleiden, 18381839.
CEMENT, Portland: Joseph Aspdin, England, 1824.
CHEWING GUM: (spruce-based) John Curtis, U.S., 1848; (chicle-based) Thomas Adams,
U.S., 1870.
CHOLERA BACTERIUM: Robert Koch, Germany, 1883.
CIRCUIT, INTEGRATED: (theoretical) G.W.A. Dummer, England, 1952; (phase-shift
oscillator) Jack S. Kilby, Texas Instruments, U.S., 1959.
CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS: (first modern, based on comparative study of forms) Andrea
Cesalpino, Italy, 1583; (classification of plants and animals by genera and species) Carolus
Linnaeus, Sweden, 17371753.
CLOCK, PENDULUM:
Christian Huygens, The Netherlands, 1656.
COCA-COLA:
John Pemberton, U.S., 1886.
COMBUSTION:
(nature of) Antoine Lavoisier, France, 1777.
COMPACT DISK: RCA, U.S., 1972.
COMPUTERS:
(first design of analytical engine) Charles Babbage, 1830s; (ENIAC,
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, first all-electronic, completed) John Presper
Eckert, Jr., John Mauchly, U.S., 1945; (dedicated at University of Pennsylvania) 1946; (UNIVAC,
Universal Automatic Computer, handled both numeric and alphabetic data) 1951; (personal
computer) Steve Wozniak, U.S., 1976.
CONCRETE:(reinforced) Joseph Monier, France, 1877.
CONDENSED MILK:
Gail Borden, U.S., 1853.
CONDITIONED REFLEX: Ivan Pavlov, Russia, c.1910.
CONSERVATION OF ELECTRIC CHARGE: (the total electric charge of the universe or
any closed system is constant) Benjamin Franklin, U.S., 17511754.
CONTAGION THEORY: (infectious diseases caused by living agent transmitted from person
to person) Girolamo Fracastoro, Italy, 1546.
CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY:
(geographer who pieced together continents into a
single landmass on maps) Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, France, 1858; (first proposed in lecture)
Frank Taylor, U.S. 1912; (first comprehensive detailed theory) Alfred Wegener, Germany, 1912.
CONTRACEPTIVE, ORAL:
Gregory Pincus, Min Chuch Chang, John Rock, Carl
Djerassi, U.S., 1951.

CONVERTER, BESSEMER:
William Kelly, U.S., 1851.
COSMETICS:
Egypt, c. 4000 B.C.
COSMIC STRING THEORY:
(first postulated) Thomas Kibble, UK, 1976.
COTTON GIN:
Eli Whitney, U.S., 1793.
CROSSBOW:
China, c. 300 B.C.
CYCLOTRON:
Ernest O. Lawrence, U.S., 1931.
DEFIBRILLATOR: Dr. William Bennett Kouwenhoven, U.S., 1932; (implantable) M. Stephen
Heilman, MD, Dr. Alois Langer, Morton Mower, MD, Michel Mirowski, MD, 1980.
DEUTERIUM:
(heavy hydrogen) Harold Urey, U.S., 1931.
DISEASE: (chemicals in treatment of) crusaded by Philippus Paracelsus, 15271541; (germ
theory) Louis Pasteur, France, 18621877.
DNA: (deoxyribonucleic acid) Friedrich Meischer, Germany, 1869; (determination of doublehelical structure) F. H. Crick, England and James D. Watson, U.S., 1953.
DYE: (aniline, start of synthetic dye industry) William H. Perkin, England, 1856.
DYNAMITE: Alfred Nobel, Sweden, 1867.
ELECTRIC COOKING UTENSIL:
(first) patented by St. George Lane-Fox, England,
1874.
ELECTRIC GENERATOR (DYNAMO): (laboratory model) Michael Faraday, England, 1832;
Joseph Henry, U.S., c.1832; (hand-driven model) Hippolyte Pixii, France, 1833; (alternatingcurrent generator) Nikola Tesla, U.S., 1892.
ELECTRIC LAMP: (arc lamp) Sir Humphrey Davy, England, 1801; (fluorescent lamp) A.E.
Becquerel, France, 1867; (incandescent lamp) Sir Joseph Swann, England, Thomas A. Edison,
U.S., contemporaneously, 1870s; (carbon arc street lamp) Charles F. Brush, U.S., 1879; (first
widely marketed incandescent lamp) Thomas A. Edison, U.S., 1879; (mercury vapor lamp) Peter
Cooper Hewitt, U.S., 1903; (neon lamp) Georges Claude, France, 1911; (tungsten filament) Irving
Langmuir, U.S., 1915.
ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY: Demonstrated by Augustus Waller, Switzerland, 1887; (first
practical device for recording activity of heart) Willem Einthoven, 1903, Netherlands.
ELECTROMAGNET:
William Sturgeon, England, 1823.
ELECTRON:
Sir Joseph J. Thompson, England, 1897.
ELECTRONIC MAIL:
Ray Tomlinson, U.S., 1972.
ELEVATOR, passenger:
(safety device permitting use by passengers) Elisha G. Otis, U.S.,
1852; (elevator utilizing safety device) 1857.
E = mc2:
(equivalence of mass and energy) Albert Einstein, Switzerland, 1907.
ENGINE, internal combustion:No single inventor. Fundamental theory established by Sadi
Carnot, France, 1824; (two-stroke) Etienne Lenoir, France, 1860; (ideal operating cycle for fourstroke) Alphonse Beau de Roche, France, 1862; (operating four-stroke) Nikolaus Otto, Germany,
1876; (diesel) Rudolf Diesel, Germany, 1892; (rotary) Felix Wankel, Germany, 1956.
EVOLUTION:
(organic) Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, France, 1809; (by natural selection)
Charles Darwin, England, 1859.
EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE:(no two electrons in an atom can occupy the same energy level)
Wolfgang Pauli, Germany, 1925.
EXPANDING UNIVERSE THEORY:
(first proposed) George LeMaitre, Belgium, 1927;
(discovered first direct evidence that the universe is expanding) Edwin P. Hubble, U.S., 1929;
(Hubble constant: a measure of the rate at which the universe is expanding) Edwin P. Hubble,
U.S., 1929.
FALLING BODIES, LAW OF:
Galileo Galilei, Italy, 1590.
FERMENTATION: (microorganisms as cause of) Louis Pasteur, France, c.1860.
FIBER OPTICS:
Narinder Kapany, England, 1955.

FIBERS, MAN-MADE:
(nitrocellulose fibers treated to change flammable nitrocellulose to
harmless cellulose, precursor of rayon) Sir Joseph Swann, England, 1883; (rayon) Count Hilaire
de Chardonnet, France, 1889; (Celanese) Henry and Camille Dreyfuss, U.S., England, 1921;
(research on polyesters and polyamides, basis for modern man-made fibers) U.S., England,
Germany, 1930s; (nylon) Wallace H. Carothers, U.S., 1935.
FROZEN FOOD: Clarence Birdseye, U.S., 1924.
GENE TRANSFER: (recombinant DNA organism) Herbert Boyer, Stanley Cohen, U.S., 1973;
(human) Steven Rosenberg, R. Michael Blaese, W. French Anderson, U.S., 1989.
GEOMETRY, elements of: Euclid, Alexandria, Egypt, c. 300 B.C.; (analytic) Ren Descartes,
France; and Pierre de Fermat, Switzerland, 1637.
GRAVITATION, law of:
Sir Isaac Newton, England, c.1665 (published 1687).
GUNPOWDER:
China, c.700.
GYROCOMPASS: Elmer A. Sperry, U.S., 1905.
GYROSCOPE:
Jean Lon Foucault, France, 1852.
HALLEY'S COMET:
Edmund Halley, England, 1705.
HEART IMPLANTED IN HUMAN, PERMANENT ARTIFICIAL: Dr. Robert Jarvik,
U.S., 1982.
HEART, TEMPORARY ARTIFICIAL: Willem Kolff, Netherlands, U.S., 1957.
HELICOPTER:
(double rotor) Heinrich Focke, Germany, 1936; (single rotor) Igor
Sikorsky, U.S., 1939.
HELIUM first observed on sun:
Sir Joseph Lockyer, England, 1868.
HEREDITY, laws of:
Gregor Mendel, Austria, 1865.
HOLOGRAPH:
Dennis Gabor, England, 1947.
HOME VIDEOTAPE SYSTEMS (VCR): (Betamax) Sony, Japan, 1975; (VHS) Matsushita,
Japan, 1975.
ICE AGE THEORY:Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American, 1840.
INDUCTION, ELECTRIC: Joseph Henry, U.S., 1828.
INSULIN:
(first isolated) Sir Frederick G. Banting and Charles H. Best, Canada, 1921;
(discovery first published) Banting and Best, 1922; (Nobel Prize awarded for purification for use
in humans) John Macleod and Banting, 1923; (first synthesized), China, 1966.
INTELLIGENCE TESTING:
Alfred Binet, Theodore Simon, France, 1905.
INTERFERON:
Alick Isaacs, England, Jean Lindemann, Switzerland, 1957.
ISOTOPES: (concept of) Frederick Soddy, England, 1912; (stable isotopes) J. J. Thompson,
England, 1913; (existence demonstrated by mass spectrography) Francis W. Aston, England,
1919.
JET PROPULSION:(engine) Sir Frank Whittle, England, Hans von Ohain, Germany, 1936;
(aircraft) Heinkel He 178, 1939.
KINETIC THEORY OF GASES: (molecules of a gas are in a state of rapid motion) Daniel
Bernoulli, Switzerland, 1738.
LASER:
(theoretical work on) Charles H. Townes, Arthur L. Schawlow, U.S., N. Basov, A.
Prokhorov, U.S.S.R., 1958; (first working model) T. H. Maiman, U.S., 1960.
LAWN MOWER: Edwin Budding, John Ferrabee, England, 18301831.
LCD (liquid crystal display): Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland, 1970.
LENS, BIFOCAL: Benjamin Franklin, U.S., c.1760.
LEYDEN JAR:(prototype electrical condenser) Canon E. G. von Kleist of Kamin, Pomerania,
1745; independently evolved by Cunaeus and P. van Musschenbroek, University of Leyden,
Holland, 1746, from where name originated.
LIGHT, NATURE OF:
(wave theory) Christian Huygens, The Netherlands, 1678;
(electromagnetic theory) James Clerk Maxwell, England, 1873.
LIGHT, speed of:
(theory that light has finite velocity) Olaus Roemer, Denmark, 1675.
LIGHTNING ROD: Benjamin Franklin, U.S., 1752.

LOCK, CYLINDER:
Linus Yale, U.S., 1851.
LOCOMOTIVE:
(steam powered) Richard Trevithick, England, 1804; (first practical, due to
multiple-fire-tube boiler) George Stephenson, England, 1829; (largest steam-powered) Union
Pacific's Big Boy, U.S., 1941.
LOOM:
(horizontal, two-beamed) Egypt, c. 4400 B.C.; (Jacquard drawloom, pattern
controlled by punch cards) Jacques de Vaucanson, France, 1745, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, 1801;
(flying shuttle) John Kay, England, 1733; (power-driven loom) Edmund Cartwright, England,
1785.
MACHINE GUN: (hand-cranked multibarrel) Richard J. Gatling, U.S., 1862; (practical single
barrel, belt-fed) Hiram S. Maxim, Anglo-American, 1884.
MAGNET, Earth is: William Gilbert, England, 1600.
MATCH:
(phosphorus) Franois Derosne, France, 1816; (friction) Charles Sauria, France,
1831; (safety) J. E. Lundstrom, Sweden, 1855.
MEASLES VACCINE:
John F. Enders, Thomas Peebles, U.S., 1953.
METRIC SYSTEM: revolutionary government of France, 17901801.
MICROPHONE:
Charles Wheatstone, England, 1827.
MICROSCOPE:
(compound) Zacharias Janssen, The Netherlands, 1590; (electron) Vladimir
Zworykin et al., U.S., Canada, Germany, 19321939.
MICROWAVE OVEN:
Percy Spencer, U.S., 1947.
MOTION, laws of: Isaac Newton, England, 1687.
MOTION pictures: Thomas A. Edison, U.S., 1893.
MOTION pictures, sound: Product of various inventions. First picture with synchronized
musical score: Don Juan, 1926; with spoken dialogue: The Jazz Singer, 1927; both Warner Bros.
MOTOR, electric: Michael Faraday, England, 1822; (alternating-current) Nikola Tesla, U.S.,
1892.
MOTORCYCLE: (motor tricycle) Edward Butler, England, 1884; (gasoline-engine
motorcycle) Gottlieb Daimler, Germany, 1885.
MOVING ASSEMBLY LINE:
Henry Ford, U.S., 1913.
NEPTUNE: (discovery of) Johann Galle, Germany, 1846.
NEPTUNIUM:
(first transuranic element, synthesis of) Edward M. McMillan, Philip H.
Abelson, U.S., 1940.
NEUTRON: James Chadwick, England, 1932.
NEUTRON-INDUCED RADIATION:
Enrico Fermi et al., Italy, 1934.
NITROGLYCERIN: Ascanio Sobrero, Italy, 1846.
NUCLEAR FISSION:
Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, Germany, 1938.
NUCLEAR REACTOR:
Enrico Fermi, Italy, et al., 1942.
OHM's law: (relationship between strength of electric current, electromotive force, and circuit
resistance) Georg S. Ohm, Germany, 1827.
OIL WELL: Edwin L. Drake, U.S., 1859.
OXYGEN: (isolation of) Joseph Priestley, England, 1774; Karl Scheele, Sweden, 1773.
OZONE:
Christian Schnbein, Germany, 1839.
PACEMAKER:
(internal) Clarence W. Lillehie, Earl Bakk, U.S., 1957.
PAPER:
China, c.100 A.D.
PARACHUTE:
Louis S. Lenormand, France, 1783.
PEN: (fountain) Lewis E. Waterman, U.S., 1884; (ball-point, for marking on rough surfaces)
John H. Loud, U.S., 1888; (ball-point, for handwriting) Lazlo Biro, Argentina, 1944.
PERIODIC LAW: (that properties of elements are functions of their atomic weights) Dmitri
Mendeleev, Russia, 1869.
PERIODIC TABLE: (arrangement of chemical elements based on periodic law) Dmitri
Mendeleev, Russia, 1869.
PHONOGRAPH: Thomas A. Edison, U.S., 1877.
PHOTOGRAPHY: (first paper negative, first photograph, on metal) Joseph Nicphore Niepce,
France, 18161827; (discovery of fixative powers of hyposulfite of soda) Sir John Herschel,

England, 1819; (first direct positive image on silver plate, the daguerreotype) Louis Daguerre,
based on work with Niepce, France, 1839; (first paper negative from which a number of positive
prints could be made) William Talbot, England, 1841. Work of these four men, taken together,
forms basis for all modern photography. (First color images) Alexandre Becquerel, Claude Niepce
de Saint-Victor, France, 18481860; (commercial color film with three emulsion layers,
Kodachrome) U.S., 1935.
PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT:
(light falling on certain materials can produce electricity)
Edmund Becquerel, France, 1839.
PIANO:
(Hammerklavier) Bartolommeo Cristofori, Italy, 1709; (pianoforte with sustaining
and damper pedals) John Broadwood, England, 1873.
PLANETARY MOTION, laws of: Johannes Kepler, Germany, 1609, 1619.
PLANT RESPIRATION AND PHOTOSYNTHESIS: Jan Ingenhousz, Holland, 1779.
PLASTICS: (first material, nitrocellulose softened by vegetable oil, camphor, precursor to
Celluloid) Alexander Parkes, England, 1855; (Celluloid, involving recognition of vital effect of
camphor) John W. Hyatt, U.S., 1869; (Bakelite, first completely synthetic plastic) Leo H.
Baekeland, U.S., 1910; (theoretical background of macromolecules and process of polymerization
on which modern plastics industry rests) Hermann Staudinger, Germany, 1922; (polypropylene
and low-pressure method for producing high-density polyethylene) Robert Banks, Paul Hogan,
U.S., 1958.
PLATE TECTONICS:
Alfred Wegener, Germany, 19121915.
PLOW, forked:
Mesopotamia, before 3000 B.C.
PLUTONIUM, synthesis of: Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, Arthur C. Wahl, Joseph W.
Kennedy, U.S., 1941.
POLIO, vaccine:
(experimentally safe dead-virus vaccine) Jonas E. Salk, U.S., 1952;
(effective large-scale field trials) 1954; (officially approved) 1955; (safe oral live-virus vaccine
developed) Albert B. Sabin, U.S., 1954; (available in the U.S.) 1960.
POSITRON: Carl D. Anderson, U.S., 1932.
PRESSURE COOKER:
(early version) Denis Papin, France, 1679.
PRINTING: (block) Japan, c.700; (movable type) Korea, c.1400, Johann Gutenberg, Germany,
c.1450; (lithography, offset) Aloys Senefelder, Germany, 1796; (rotary press) Richard Hoe, U.S.,
1844; (linotype) Ottmar Mergenthaler, U.S., 1884.
PROBABILITY THEORY: Ren Descartes, France, and Pierre de Fermat, Switzerland, 1654.
PROTON: Ernest Rutherford, England, 1919.
PROZAC: (antidepressant fluoxetine) Bryan B. Malloy, Scotland, and Klaus K. Schmiegel,
U.S., 1972; (released for use in U.S.) Eli Lilly & Company, 1987.
PSYCHOANALYSIS:
Sigmund Freud, Austria, c.1904.
PULSARS: Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell Burnel, England, 1967.
QUANTUM THEORY:
(general) Max Planck, Germany, 1900; (sub-atomic) Niels Bohr,
Denmark, 1913; (quantum mechanics) Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrdinger, Germany, 1925.
QUARKS: Jerome Friedman, Henry Kendall, Richard Taylor, U.S., 1967.
QUASARS: Marten Schmidt, U.S., 1963.
RABIES IMMUNIZATION:
Louis Pasteur, France, 1885.
RADAR:
(limited to one-mile range) Christian Hulsmeyer, Germany, 1904; (pulse
modulation, used for measuring height of ionosphere) Gregory Breit, Merle Tuve, U.S., 1925;
(first practical radarradio detection and ranging) Sir Robert Watson-Watt, Scotland, 19341935.
RADIO:
(electromagnetism, theory of) James Clerk Maxwell, England, 1873; (spark coil,
generator of electromagnetic waves) Heinrich Hertz, Germany, 1886; (first practical system of
wireless telegraphy) Guglielmo Marconi, Italy, 1895; (first long-distance telegraphic radio signal
sent across the Atlantic) Marconi, 1901; (vacuum electron tube, basis for radio telephony) Sir
John Fleming, England, 1904; (triode amplifying tube) Lee de Forest, U.S., 1906; (regenerative
circuit, allowing long-distance sound reception) Edwin H. Armstrong, U.S., 1912; (frequency
modulationFM) Edwin H. Armstrong, U.S., 1933.

RADIOACTIVITY: (X-rays) Wilhelm K. Roentgen, Germany, 1895; (radioactivity of uranium)

Henri Becquerel, France, 1896; (radioactive elements, radium and polonium in uranium ore)
Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Pierre Curie, France, 1898; (classification of alpha and beta particle
radiation) Pierre Curie, France, 1900; (gamma radiation) Paul-Ulrich Villard, France, 1900.
RADIOCARBON DATING, carbon-14 method: (discovered) Willard F. Libby, U.S., 1947;
(first demonstrated) U.S., 1950.
RADIO SIGNALS, EXTRATERRESTRIAL:
first known radio noise signals were received
by U.S. engineer, Karl Jansky, originating from the Galactic Center, 1931.
RADIO WAVES:
(cosmic sources, led to radio astronomy) Karl Jansky, U.S., 1932.
RAZOR:
(safety, successfully marketed) King Gillette, U.S., 1901; (electric) Jacob Schick,
U.S., 1928, 1931.
REAPER:
Cyrus McCormick, U.S., 1834.
REFRIGERATOR: Alexander Twining, U.S., James Harrison, Australia, 1850; (first with a
compressor device) the Domelse, Chicago, U.S., 1913.
REFRIGERATOR SHIP: (first) the Frigorifique, cooling unit designed by Charles Teller,
France, 1877.
RELATIVITY:
(special and general theories of) Albert Einstein, Switzerland, Germany,
U.S., 19051953.
REVOLVER: Samuel Colt, U.S., 1835.
RICHTER SCALE: Charles F. Richter, U.S., 1935.
RIFLE:
(muzzle-loaded) Italy, Germany, c.1475; (breech-loaded) England, France,
Germany, U.S., c.1866; (bolt-action) Paul von Mauser, Germany, 1889; (automatic) John
Browning, U.S., 1918.
ROCKET: (liquid-fueled) Robert Goddard, U.S., 1926.
ROLLER BEARING:
(wooden for cartwheel) Germany or France, c.100 B.C.
ROTATION OF EARTH: Jean Bernard Foucault, France, 1851.
ROYAL OBSERVATORY, Greenwich:
established in 1675 by Charles II of England; John
Flamsteed first Astronomer Royal.
RUBBER:
(vulcanization process) Charles Goodyear, U.S., 1839.
SACCHARIN:
Constantine Fuhlberg, Ira Remsen, U.S., 1879.
SAFETY PIN:
Walter Hunt, U.S., 1849.
SATURN, ring around:
Christian Huygens, The Netherlands, 1659.
SCOTCH TAPE: Richard Drew, U.S., 1929.
SCREW PROPELLER:
Sir Francis P. Smith, England, 1836; John Ericsson, England,
worked independently of and simultaneously with Smith, 1837.
SEAT BELT: (three point) Nils Bohlin, Sweden, 1962.
SEISMOGRAPH: (first accurate) John Milne, England, 1880.
SEWING MACHINE:
Elias Howe, U.S., 1846; (continuous stitch) Isaac Singer, U.S.,
1851.
SOLAR ENERGY: First realistic application of solar energy using parabolic solar reflector to
drive caloric engine on steam boiler, John Ericsson, U.S., 1860s.
SOLAR SYSTEM, UNIVERSE: (Sun-centered universe) Nicolaus Copernicus, Warsaw,
1543; (establishment of planetary orbits as elliptical) Johannes Kepler, Germany, 1609; (infinity
of universe) Giordano Bruno, Italian monk, 1584.
SPECTRUM: (heterogeneity of light) Sir Isaac Newton, England, 16651666.
SPECTRUM ANALYSIS: Gustav Kirchhoff, Robert Bunsen, Germany, 1859.
SPERMATOZOA: Anton van Leeuwenhoek, The Netherlands, 1683.
SPINNING: (spinning wheel) India, introduced to Europe in Middle Ages; (Saxony wheel,
continuous spinning of wool or cotton yarn) England, c.15001600; (spinning jenny) James
Hargreaves, England, 1764; (spinning frame) Sir Richard Arkwright, England, 1769; (spinning

mule, completed mechanization of spinning, permitting production of yarn to keep up with

demands of modern looms) Samuel Crompton, England, 1779.
STAR CATALOG: (first modern) Tycho Brahe, Denmark, 1572.
STEAM ENGINE: (first commercial version based on principles of French physicist Denis
Papin) Thomas Savery, England, 1639; (atmospheric steam engine) Thomas Newcomen, England,
1705; (steam engine for pumping water from collieries) Savery, Newcomen, 1725; (modern
condensing, double acting) James Watt, England, 1782; (high-pressure) Oliver Evans, U.S., 1804.
STEAMSHIP:
Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans, France, 1783; James Rumsey, U.S., 1787;
John Fitch, U.S., 1790; (high-pressure) Oliver Evans, U.S., 1804. All preceded Robert Fulton,
U.S., 1807, credited with launching first commercially successful steamship.
STETHOSCOPE: Ren Lannec, France, 1819.
SULFA DRUGS:
(parent compound, para-aminobenzenesulfanomide) Paul Gelmo, Austria,
1908; (antibacterial activity) Gerhard Domagk, Germany, 1935.
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY: (theory) John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, John Scheiffer, U.S., 1957.
SYMBOLIC LOGIC:
George Boule, 1854; (modern) Bertrand Russell, Alfred North
Whitehead, England, 19101913.
TANK, MILITARY: Sir Ernest Swinton, England, 1914.
TAPE RECORDER: (magnetic steel tape) Valdemar Poulsen, Denmark, 1899.
TEFLON:
DuPont, U.S., 1943.
TELEGRAPH:
Samuel F. B. Morse, U.S., 1837.
TELEPHONE:
Alexander Graham Bell, U.S., 1876.
TELESCOPE:
Hans Lippershey, The Netherlands, 1608; (astronomical) Galileo Galilei,
Italy, 1609; (reflecting) Isaac Newton, England, 1668.
TELEVISION:
(IconoscopeT.V. camera table) Vladimir Zworykin, U.S., 1923, and also
kinescope (cathode ray tube) 1928; (mechanical disk-scanning method) successfully demonstrated
by J.L. Baird, Scotland, C.F. Jenkins, U.S., 1926; (first all-electric television image) Philo T.
Farnsworth, U.S., 1927; (color, mechanical disk) Baird, 1928; (color, compatible with black and
white) George Valensi, France, 1938; (color, sequential rotating filter) Peter Goldmark, U.S., first
introduced, 1951; (color, compatible with black and white) commercially introduced in U.S.,
National Television Systems Committee, 1953.
THERMODYNAMICS:
(first law: energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted
from one form to another) Julius von Mayer, Germany, 1842; James Joule, England, 1843;
(second law: heat cannot of itself pass from a colder to a warmer body) Rudolph Clausius,
Germany, 1850; (third law: the entropy of ordered solids reaches zero at the absolute zero of
temperature) Walter Nernst, Germany, 1918.
THERMOMETER: (open-column) Galileo Galilei, c.1593; (clinical) Santorio Santorio, Padua,
c.1615; (mercury, also Fahrenheit scale) Gabriel D. Fahrenheit, Germany, 1714; (centigrade scale)
Anders Celsius, Sweden, 1742; (absolute-temperature, or Kelvin, scale) William Thompson, Lord
Kelvin, England, 1848.
TIRE, PNEUMATIC:
Robert W. Thompson, England, 1845; (bicycle tire) John B. Dunlop,
Northern Ireland, 1888.
TOILET, FLUSH: Product of Minoan civilization, Crete, c. 2000 B.C. Alleged invention by
Thomas Crapper is untrue.
TRACTOR: Benjamin Holt, U.S., 1900.
TRANSFORMER, ELECTRIC: William Stanley, U.S., 1885.
TRANSISTOR:
John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, William B. Shockley, U.S., 1947.
TUBERCULOSIS BACTERIUM: Robert Koch, Germany, 1882.
TYPEWRITER:
Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, U.S., 1867.
UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE:
(that position and velocity of an object cannot both be
measured exactly, at the same time) Werner Heisenberg, Germany, 1927.

URANUS:
(first planet discovered in recorded history) William Herschel, England, 1781.
VACCINATION:
Edward Jenner, England, 1796.
VACUUM CLEANER:
(manually operated) Ives W. McGaffey, U.S., 1869; (electric)
Hubert C. Booth, England, 1901; (upright) J. Murray Spangler, U.S., 1907.
VAN ALLEN (RADIATION) BELT:
(around Earth) James Van Allen, U.S., 1958.
VIDEO DISK:
Philips Co., The Netherlands, 1972.
VITAMINS: (hypothesis of disease deficiency) Sir F. G. Hopkins, Casimir Funk, England,
1912; (vitamin A) Elmer V. McCollum, M. Davis, U.S., 19121914; (vitamin B) McCollum, U.S.,
19151916; (thiamin, B1) Casimir Funk, England, 1912; (riboflavin, B2) D. T. Smith, E. G.
Hendrick, U.S., 1926; (niacin) Conrad Elvehjem, U.S., 1937; (B6) Paul Gyorgy, U.S., 1934;
(vitamin C) C. A. Hoist, T. Froelich, Norway, 1912; (vitamin D) McCollum, U.S., 1922; (folic
acid) Lucy Wills, England, 1933.
VOLTAIC PILE:
(forerunner of modern battery, first source of continuous electric current)
Alessandro Volta, Italy, 1800.
WALLPAPER:
Europe, 16th and 17th century.
WASSERMANN TEST:
(for syphilis) August von Wassermann, Germany, 1906.
WHEEL:
(cart, solid wood) Mesopotamia, c.38003600 B.C.
WINDMILL: Persia, c.600.
WORLD WIDE WEB:
(developed while working at CERN) Tim Berners-Lee, England,
1989; (development of Mosaic browser makes WWW available for general use) Marc Andreeson,
U.S., 1993.
XEROGRAPHY: Chester Carlson, U.S., 1938.
YELLOW FEVER: (transmission of) Walter Reed, U.S., 1900.
ZERO:
India, c. 600; (absolute zero temperature, cessation of all molecular energy)
William Thompson, Lord Kelvin, England, 1848.
ZIPPER:
W. L. Judson, U.S., 1891.

NOTABLE INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES FROM THE PAST 800 YEARS

Date

Invention or Discovery

Inventor or Discoverer

Nationality

1250

Magnifying glass

Roger Bacon

English

1450

Printing press

Johann Gutenberg

German

1504

Pocket watch

Peter Henlein

German

1590

Compound microscope

Zacharias Janssen

Dutch

1593

Water thermometer

Galileo

Italian

1608

Telescope

Hans Lippershey

Dutch

1625

Blood transfusion

Jean-Baptiste Denys

French

1629

Steam turbine

Giovanni Branca

Italian

1642

Adding machine

Blaise Pascal

French

1643

Barometer

Evangelista Torricelli

Italian

1650

Air pump

Otto von Guericke

German

1656

Pendulum clock

Christiaan Huygens

Dutch

1661

Methanol. - Volume, pressure,

temperature relation in gases.

Robert Boyle

Irish

1668

Reflecting telescope

Isaac Newton

English

1671

Calculating machine

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

German

1683

Bacteria

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Dutch

1687

Motion, Laws of

Isaac Newton

English

1698

Steam pump

Thomas Savery

English

1701

Seed drill

Jethro Tull

English

1710

Piano

Bartolomeo Cristofori

Italian

1712

Steam engine

Thomas Newcomen

British

1714

Mercury thermometer

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

German

1717

Diving bell

Edmund Halley

English

1725

Stereotyping

William Ged

Scottish

1745

Leyden jar (condenser)

E.G. von Kleist

German

1752

Lightning rod

Benjamin Franklin

American

1758

Achromatic lens

John Dollond

British

1759

Marine chronometer

John Harrison

British

1764

Spinning jenny

James Hargreaves

British

1769

Spinning frame

R. Arkwright

English

1769

Steam engine (with separate condenser)

James Watt

British

1775

Submarine

David Bushnell

American

1780

Steel pen

Samuel Harrison

English

1780

Bifocal lens

Benjamin Franklin

American

1783

Balloon, hot-air

Joseph Michel Montgolfier

and
Jacques E'tienne Montgolfier

French

1784

Threshing machine

Andrew Meikle

British

1785

Power loom

Edmund Cartwright

British

1786

Steamboat

John Fitch

American

1788

Flyball governor

James Watt

British

1791

Gas turbine

John Barber

British

1792

Illuminating gas

William Murdock

Scottish

1793

Cotton gin

Eli Whitney

American

1795

Hydraulic press

Joseph Bramah

English

1796

Lithography

Aloys Senefelder

German

1796

Smallpox vaccination

Edward Jenner

British

1799

Fourdrinier machine (papermaking)

Louis Robert

French

1800

Jacquard loom

Joseph Marie Jacquard

French

1800

Electric battery

Count Alessandro Volta

Italian

1801

Pattern loom

Joseph Marie Jacquard

French

1804

Screw propeller

John Stevens

American

1804

Solid-fuel rocket

William Congreve

British

1804

Steam locomotive

Richard Trevithick

British

1805

Electroplating

Luigi Gasparo Brugnatelli

Italian

1810

Food preservation (by sterilization & airexclusion)

Francois Appert

French

1810

Printing press

Frederick Koenig

German

1814

Railroad locomotive

George Stephenson

British

1815

Safety lamp

Sir Humphry Davy

British

1816

Bicycle (no pedals)

Karl D. Sauerbronn

German

1819

Stethoscope

Rene' Theophile-Hyacinthe
Laennec

French

1820

Hygrometer

J.F. Daniell

English

1820

Galvanometer

Johann Salomo Cristoph

Schweigger

German

1821

Electric motor

Michael Faraday

British

1823

Silicon

Jons Jakob Berzelius

Swedish

1823

Electromagnet

William Sturgeon

British

1824

Portland cement

Joseph Aspdin

British

1827

Friction match

John Walker

British

1829

Typewriter

W.A. Burt

American

1829

Braille printing

Louis Braille

French

1830

Platform scales

Thaddeus Fairbanks

American

1830

Sewing machine

Barthelemy Thimonnier

French

1831

Phosphorus match

Charles Sauria

French

1831

Reaper

Cyrus Hall McCormick

American

1831

Dynamo

Michael Faraday

British

1834

Electric streetcar

Thomas Davenport

American

1835

Pistol (revolver)

Samuel Colt

American

1837

Telegraph

Samuel Finley Breese Morse

Sir Charles Wheatstone

American
British

1838

Morse code

Samuel Finley Breese Morse

American

1839

Photography

Louis-Jacques-Mande'
Daguerre
Joseph Nicephore Niepce
and William Henry Fox
Talbot

French
British

1839

Vulcanized rubber

Charles Goodyear

American

1839

Steam hammer

James Nasmyth

Scottish

1839

Bicycle (with pedals)

Kirkpatrick MacMillan

British

1845

Pneumatic tire

Robert William Thompson

American

1846

Rotary printing press

Richard March Hoe

American

1846

Nitroglycerin

Ascanio Sobrero

Italian

1846

Guncotton

Christian Friedrich
Schoenbein

German

1846

Ether

Crawford Williamson Long

American

1849

Reinforced concrete

F.J. Monier

French

1849

Safety pin

Walter Hunt

American

1849

Water turbine

James Bicheno Francis

American

1850

Refrigerator

Alexander Twining
& James Harrison

American
&
Australian

1850

Mercerized cotton

John Mercer

British

1851

Breech-loading rifle

Edward Maynard

American

1851

Opthalmoscope

Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand

von Helmholtz

German

1852

Nonrigid airship

Henri Giffard

French

1852

Elevator (with brake)

Elisha Graves Otis

American

1852

Gyroscope

Jean Bernard Leon Foucault

French

1855

Hypodermic syringe

Alexander Wood

Scottish

1855

Safety matches

J.E. Lundstrom

Swedish

1856

Bessemer converter (steel)

Sir Henry Bessemer

British

1858

Harvester

Charles and William Marsh

American

1859

Spectroscope

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff and

Robert Wilhelm Bunsen

German

1860

Internal-combustion engine
(gas, two-cycle)

Sadi Carnot (theory, 1824)

Jean-Joseph-Etienne Lenoir

French

1861

Web-fed newspaper printing press

Richard March Hoe

American

1861

Electric furnace

Wilhelm Siemens

British

1861

Machine gun

Richard Jordan Gatling

American

1861

Kinematoscope

Coleman Sellers

American

1865

Heredity, Laws of

Gregor Mendel

Austrian

1865

Antiseptic surgery

Joseph Lister

English

1866

Paper (from wood pulp, sulfite process)

Benjamin Chew Tilghman

American

1866

Dynamite

Alfred Bernhard Nobel

Swedish

1868

Dry cell

Georges Leclanche'

French

1868

Typewriter

Carlos Glidden and

Christopher Latham Sholes

American

1868

Air brake

George Westinghouse

American

1870

Celluloid

John Wesley Hyatt and Isaiah

American
Hyatt

1871

Continuous current dynamo

Zenobe-Theophile Gramme

Belgian

1874

Quadruplex telegraph

Thomas Alva Edison

American

1875

Atomated Machine-oiler

Elijah McCoy, the "Real

McCoy"

Canadian

1876

Germ theory of disease

Louis Pasteur (1859)

and Robert Koch

French
German

1876

Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell

American

1877

Internal-combustion engine (four-cycle)

Nikolaus August Otto

German

1877

Talking machine (phonograph)

Thomas Alva Edison

American

1877

Microphone

Emile Berliner

American

1877

Electric welding

Elihu Thomson

American

1877

Refrigerator car

G.F. Swift

American

1878

Cream separator

Carl Gustav de Laval

Swedish

1878

Cathode ray tube

Sir William Crookes

British

1879

Cash register

James J. Ritty

American

1879

Light Bulb
(Incandescent filament)

Thomas Alva Edison

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan

American
British

1879

Automobile engine (two-cycle)

Karl Benz

German

1879

Arc lamp

Charles Francis Bush

American

1880

Linotype

Ottmar Mergenthaler

American

1884

Steam turbine

C.A. Parsons

English

1884

Rayon (nitrocellulose)

Comte Hilaire Bernigaud de

Chardonnet

French

1884

Multiple-wheel steam turbine

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons British

1884

Nipkow disk (mechanical television

scanning device)

Paul Gottlieb Nipkow

German

1884

Fountain pen

Lewis Edson Waterman

American

1885

Automobile
(w/ int.combustion engine)

Karl Benz and

Gottlieb Daimler

German

1885

Graphophone (dictating machine)

Chichester A. Bell and

Charles Sumner Tainter

American

1885

AC transformer

William Stanley

American

1887

Air-inflated rubber tire

J.B. Dunlop

Scottish

1887

Gramophone (disk records)

Emile Berliner

American

1887

Gas mantle

Baron Carl Auer von

Welsbach

Austrian

1887

Mimeograph

Albert Blake Dick

American

1887

Monotype

Tolbert Lanston

American

1887

Automated Electric Elevator

Alexander Miles

American

1888

Adding machine (recording)

William Seward Burroughs

American

1888

Kodak camera

George Eastman

American

1889

Steam turbine

C.G. de Laval

Swedish

1890

Rayon (cuprammonium)

Louis Henri Despeissis

French

1891

Glider

Otto Lilienthal

German

1891

Motion picture camera (kinetograph)

Thomas Alva Edison

William K. L. Dickson

American
British

1891

Motion picture viewer (kinetoscope)

Thomas Alva Edison

William K. L. Dickson

American
British

1891

Synthetic rubber

Sir William Augustus Tilden

British

1892

AC motor

Nikola Tesla

American

1892

Three-color camera

Frederick Eugene Ives

American

1892

Rayon (viscose)

Charles Frederick Cross

British

1892

Vacuum bottle (Dewar flask)

Sir James Dewar

British

1893

Photoelectric cell

Julius Elster Hans F. Geitel

German

1893

Diesel engine

Rudolf Diesel

German

1893

Gasoline automobile

Charles Edgar Duryea and

J. Frank Duryea

American
French

Motion picture projection

Louis Jean Lumiere and

Auguste Marie Lumiere
Charles Francis Jenkins

1894

American

1895

X-ray

Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen

German

1895

Rayon (acetate)

Charles Frederick Cross

British

1895

Wireless telegraph

Marchese Guglielmo Marconi Italian

1896

Experimental airplane

Samuel Pierpont Langley

American

1898

Sensitized photographic paper

Leo Hendrik Baekeland

American

1900

Rigid dirigible airship

Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin

German

1902

Radiotelephone

Valdemar Poulsen
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden

Danish
American

1903

Airplane

Wilbur Wright and Orville

Wright

American

1903

Windshield wipers

Mary Anderson

American

1903

Electrocardiograph

Willem Einthoven

Dutch

1905

Diode rectifier tube (radio)

Sir John Ambrose Fleming

British

1906

Gyrocompass

Hermann Anschutz-Kaempfe

German

1907

Triode amplifier tube (radio)

Lee De Forest

American

1908

Cellophane

Jacques Edwin Brandenberger Swiss

1908

Two-color motion picture camera

C. Albert Smith

British

1909

Salvarsan

Paul Ehrlich

German

1910

Plastic synthesized (Bakelite)

Leo H. Baekeland

American

1910

Hydrogenation of coal

Friedrich Bergius

German

1910

Gyroscopic compass and stabilizer

Elmer Ambrose Sperry

American

1911

Air conditioning

W.H. Carrier

American

1911

Vitamins

Casimir Funk

Polish

1911

Cellophane

Jacques Edwin Brandenberger Swiss

1911

Neon lamp

Georges Claude

French

1912

Mercury-vapor lamp

Peter Cooper Hewitt

American

1913

Ramjet engine

Rene' Lorin

French

1913

Multigrid electron tube

Irving Langmuir

American

1913

Cracked gasoline

William Meriam Burton

American

1913

Heterodyne radio receiver

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden

American

1914

Gas-Mask (Hood)

Garrett Morgan

American

1915

Automobile self-starter

Charles Franklin Kettering

American

1916

Browning gun (automatic rifle)

John Moses Browning

American

1916

Gas-filled incandescent lamp

Irving Langmuir

American

1916

X-ray tube

William David Coolidge

American

1919

Mass spectrograph

Sir Francis William Aston

Arthur Jeffrey Dempster

British
American

192226

Sound motion pictures

T.W. Case

American

1922

Insulin

Sir Frederick Grant Banting

Canadian

1923

Autogiro

Juan de la Cierva

Spanish

1923

Television iconoscope

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin

American

1923

Three-way Traffic Signal

Garrett Morgan

American

1924

Quick-frozen food

Clarence Birdseye

American

1925

Television image dissector tube

Philo Taylor Farnsworth

American

1926

Aerosol can

Erik Rotheim

Norwegian

1926

Liquid-fuel rocket

Robert Hutchings Goddard

American

1927

Paints & Stains from soybeans

George W. Carver

American

19279

Universe is Expanding

George LeMaitre
Edwin P. Hubble

Belgian
American

1928

Penicillin

Sir Alexander Fleming

British

1930

Bathysphere

(Charles) William Beebe

American

1930

Freon (low-boiling fluorine compounds)

Thomas Midgley and

coworkers

American

1930

Modern gas-turbine engine

Sir Frank Whittle

British

1930

Neoprene (synthetic rubber)

Father Julius Arthur

Nieuwland and Wallace
Hume Carothers

American

1931

Cyclotron

Ernest Orlando Lawrence

American

1931

Differential analyzer (analogue computer) Vannevar Bush

American

1932

Phase contrast microscope

Frits Zernike

Dutch

1932

Van de Graaff generator

Robert Jemison Van de Graaff American

1933

Frequency modulation (FM)

Edwin Howard Armstrong

American

1935

Buna (synthetic rubber)

German scientists

German

1935

Radiolocator (radar)

Sir Robert Watson-Watt

British

1935

Cortisone synthesized

Percy Julian, Edward Kendall Americans

Tadeus Reichstein
Swiss

1935

Electron microscope

German scientists

German

1935

Sulfanllamide

Gerhard Domagk

German

1935

Nylon

Wallace Hume Carothers

American

1936

Jet Engine Propulsion

Sir Frank Whittle

Hans von Ohain

English
German

1936

Twin-rotor helicopter

Heinrich Focke

German

1937

Snowmobile

Armand Bombardier

Canadian

1938

Ballpoint pen

Georg and Ladislao Biro

Hungarian

1939

DDT

Paul Moeller

Swiss

1939

Helicopter

Igor Sikorsky

American

1940

Betatron

Donald William Kerst

American

1941

Turbojet aircraft engine

Sir Frank Whittle

British

1942

Guided missile

Wernher von Braun

German

1942

Nuclear reactor

Enrico Fermi

American

1942

Xerography

Chester Carlson

American

1944

V-2 (rocket-propelled bomb)

German scientists

German

1945

Atomic bomb

U.S. government scientists

American

1945

Streptomycin

Selman A. Waksman

American

1946

Digital computer, electronic

John Presper Eckert, Jr., and

John W. Mauchly

American

1947

Holography

Dennis Gabon

English

1947

Chlormycetin

Mildred Rebstock

American

1947

Polaroid Land camera

Edwin Herbert Land

American

1947

Bathyscaphe

Auguste Piccard

Swiss

1947

Microwave oven

Percy L. Spencer

American

1948

Scintillation counter

Hartmut Kallmann

German

Aureomycin

Benjamin Minge Duggar and

Chandra Bose Subba Row

American

1948

Transistor

John Bardeen, Walter Houser

Brattain, and William
Shockley

American

1949

Ramjet airplane

Rene' Leduc

French

1950

Color television

Peter Carl Goldmark

American

1950

NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)

Felix Bloch & Edward Purcell American

1952

Hydrogen bomb

U.S. government scientists

American

1952

Bubble chamber (nuclear particle

detector)

Donald Arthur Glaser

American

1953

Maser

Charles Townes

American

1953

Structure of DNA described

James Watson
and Francis Crick

American
English

1954

Solar battery

Bell Telephone Laboratory

scientists

American

1954

Polio vaccine

Jonas Salk

American

1955

Synthetic diamonds

General Electric scientists

American

1955

Carbon dating

W.F. Libby

American

1955

Optical fibers

Narinder S. Kapany

Indian

1956

Hovercraft

Christopher Cockerell

English

1956

First prototype rotary engine

Felix Wankel

German

1956

Videotape

Charles Ginsberg, Ray Dolby American

1957

Sodium-cooled atomic reactor

U.S. government scientists

American

1957

Artificial earth satellite

USSR government scientists

Soviet

1958

Communications satellite

U.S. government scientists

American

1959

Integrated circuit

Jack Kilby, Robert Noyce

American

1960

Laser

Charles Hard Townes, Arthur

L. Schawlow, and Gordon
Gould

American

1960

Chlorophyll synthesized

Robert Burns Woodward

American

1960

Birth-control pill

Gregory Pincus, John Rock,

and
Min-chueh Chang

American

1962

Light-emitting diode (LED)

Nick Holonyak, Jr.

American

1964

Liquid-crystal display

George Heilmeier

American

1948

1965

Kevlar technology

Stephanie Kwolek

American

1966

Artificial heart (left ventricle)

Michael Ellis DeBakey

American

1966

Tunable dye laser

Mary Spaeth

American

1967

Human heart transplant

Christiaan Neethling Barnard

South
Africa

1969

Internet (initially "ARPAnet")

Leonard Kleinrock

American

1970

First full synthesis of a gene

Har Gobind Khorana

American

1971

Microprocessor

Ted Hoff

American

1971

Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

Raymond Damadian

American

1972

Electronic pocket calculator

J.S. Kilby and J.D. Merryman American

1972

First magnetohydrodynamic power

generator

USSR government scientists

Soviet

1973

Skylab orbiting space laboratory

U.S. government scientists

American

1974

Ethernet

Robert M. Metcalfe & D.R.

Boggs

American

1974

Recombinant DNA (genetic engineering)

U.S. scientists

American

1975

CAT (computerized axial tomography)

scanner

Godfrey N. Hounsfield

British

1975

Fiberoptics

Bell Laboratories

American

1976

Computer (personal)

Steve Wozniak

American

1976

Supercomputer

J.H. Van Tassel and Seymour

Cray

American

1977

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

Paul Lauterbur and Peter

Mansfield

American

1978

Synthesis of human insulin genes

Roberto Crea, Tadaaki Hirose,

Adam Kraszewski, and
American
Keiichi Itakura

1978

Mammal to mammal gene transplants

Paul Berg, Richard Mulligan,

and Bruce Howard

American

1979

Compact disc

Joop Sinjou
Toshi Tada Doi

Dutch
Japanese

1979

Genetic flaw repaired in mouse cells by

W. French Anderson and
recombinant DNA and micromanipulation
coworkers
techniques

American

1981

Space transportation system (space

shuttle)

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration
engineers

American

1982

Artificial heart

Robert K. Jarvik

American

1983

Scanning tunneling microscope

Gerd Binnig
Heinrich Rohrer

German
Swiss

1986

High-temperature superconductors

J. Georg Bednorz
Karl A. Moeller

German
Swiss

1992

Magnetic boat

Yoshiro Saji

Japanese

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES BY SCIENTIST - A TO Z LIST

Adding Machine, 1642. Inventor : Blaise Pascal (France) (1623-62). Earliest commercial
machine invented by William Burroughs (U.S.) in St. Louis, Missouri in 1885.
Addressograph, 1893. Inventor : J.S. Duncan (U.S.). Manufactured in Chicago, Illinois.
Airplane, 1903. Inventors: Orville Wright (1871-1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867-1912), (U.S.)
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Airship (non-rigid), 1852. Inventor: Henri Giffard (France) (1825-82). Steam-powered propeller
flew over Paris (1852).
Airship (rigid), 1900. Inventor : Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin (Germany) (1838- 1917).
Bodensee.
Antiseptic, 1867. Inventor : Dr. Joseph Lister (England).
Arc Lamp, 1879. Inventor : C.F. Brush (U.S.) (1849-1929). Cleveland, Ohio.
Argon, 1894. Discoverers : Sir William Ramsay and Baron Ray Leigh (Great Britain).
Aspirin, 1899. Inventor : Dr. Felix Hoffman, Germany.

Atom Bomb, 1945. Inventor : Julius Robert Oppenheimer (U.S) (1904-1967).

Autogiro, 1923. Inventor : Juan de la Cierva (Spain) (1896-1963). Horizontal unpowered rotor.
Automobile (steam), c. 1769. Inventor : Nicolas Cugnot (France) (1725-1804). Three-wheeled
military tractor. Oldest surviving is Italian Bordino (1854) in Turin.

Automobile (gasoline), 1855. Inventor : Karl Benz (Germany) (1844-1929). Earliest model by
Father Ferdinand Verbiest (d. 1687) c. 1665 in China. Earliest internal combustion automobile
built (1862-63) by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenior (1822-1900) (France). First run by Benz
Motorwagon, Manneheim in November or December 1885. Patented in January 29,1886. First
powered handcartwith internal combustion engine was by Siegfried Marcus (Austria) (c. 1864).
Bakelite, 1907. Inventor : Lwo H. Backcland (Belgium/U.S.) (1863-1944).
Balloon, 1783. Inventor : Jacques Montgolfier (1755-99) and Joseph Montgolfier (France) (17401810). Tethered flight, Paris (October 15); manned free flight, Paris.
Ballpoint Pen, 1888. Inventor : John J. Loud (U.S.). First practical models by Ladisloa and
George Biro (Hungary) in 1938.
Barbed Wire, 1873. Inventor : Joseph F. Glidden (U.S.); manufactured at De Kalb, Illinois.
Bicycle Tyres (pneumatic), 1888. Inventor : John Boyd Dunlop (Scotland) (1840-1921).
Principle patented but undeveloped by Orbert William Thomson (Scotland), June 10 1885. First
motor car pneumatic tyres adapted by Andre and Edouard Michelin (France), 1885 (see rubber
tyres).
Bifocal Lens, 1780. Inventor : Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) (U.S.). His earliest experiments
began c. 1760.
Bullet, 1849. Inventor : Claude Minie (France).
Bunsen Burner, 1858. Inventor : Robert Wilhelm von Bunsen (Germany) (1811-99). Michael
Faraday (1791-1867) (England) had previously designed an adjustable burner.
Burglar Alarm, 1851. Inventor : Edwin T. Holmes (U.S.). Electric installed, Boston
Massachusetts (February 21).
Cadmium, 1817. Discovered : Friedrich Stromeyer (Germany).
Cannon (iron), c. 1320. Inventor : Germany. Earliest English illustration dated 1326.
Carburettor, 1876. Inventor : Gottlieb Daimler (Germany) (1834-1900).
Carburettor spray; Charles E. Duryea (U.S.) 1892.
Carpet Sweeper, 1876. Inventor : Melville R. Bissell (U.S.). Grand Rapids, March. (Patent,
September 19).
Car Radio, 1929. Inventors : William Lear and Elmer Wavering (USA).
Cash Register, 1879. Inventor : James Ritty (U.S.). Built in Dayton, Ohio. Taken over by
National Cash Register Co. in 1884.
Cellophane, 1900. Inventor : I.E. Brandenberger (Switzerland). Machine production not before
1911.
Celluloid, 1861. Inventor : Alexander Parkes (England) (1813-90). Invented in Birmingham,
England; developed and trade marked by I.W. Hyatt (U.S.) in 1873.

Cement, 1824. Inventor : Joseph Aspdin (England).

Chain Drive, 1491-93. Inventor : Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Drawings made in Milan
(Italy) were discovered in Spain in 1967.
Chlorine, 1774. Discoverer : Karl Wilhelm Scheele (Sweden).
Chronometer, 1735. Inventor : John Harrison (England) (1693-1776). Received in 1772
Government 20,000 prize.
Cinema, 1895. Inventors: Auguste Marie Louis Nocolas Lumicre (1862-1954) and Louis Jean
Lumiere (France) (1864-1948). Development pioneers were Etienne Jules Marcy (France) (18301903) and Thomas A. Edison (U.S.) (1847-1931). First public showing, Paris (December 28,
1895)
Classification of Data for Libraries. Inventor : Melvil Dewey (U.S.) (1851-1913). Introduced
his decimal classification in 1876.
Clock (mechanical), 725. Inventors: I-Hsing and Liang Ling-Tsan (China). Earliest escapement
600 years before Europe.
Clock (pendulum), 1657. Inventor : Christian Huygens (Netherlands) (1629-92).
Dacron, 1941. Inventors: J.R. Whinfield (1901-66), J.T. Dickson (England). First available 1950,
marketed in U.S.
Dental Plate, 1817. Inventor : Anthony A. Plantson (U.S.) (1774-1837).
Dental Plate (rubber), 1855. Inventor : Charles Goodyear (U.S) (1845-1921).
Diesel Engine, 1895. Inventor : Rudolf Diesel (Germany) (1858-1913). Lower pressure oil engine
patent by Stuart Akroyd, 1890. Diesel's first commercial success, Augsberg, 1897.
Disc Brake, 1902. Inventor : Dr. F. Lanchester (England). First used on aircraft 1953 (Dunlop
Rubber Co.).
Electric Battery, 1800. Inventor : Volta (Italian)
Electric Blanket; 1946. Inventor : Simmons Co., Petersburg, Virginia, U.S. Thermostatic control.
Electric Cooking Utensil, 1874. Inventor : St. George Lane-Fox (England).

Electric Fan, 1882. Inventor : Wheeler (USA). Electric Flat Iron, 1882. Inventor : H.W. Seeley
(U.S.), New York City.
Electric Generation (Static), 1660. Inventor : Otto von Gueriche (Germany).
Electric Lamp, 1879. Inventor : Thomas Alva Edison (U.S.) (1847-1931). First practical
demonstration at Menlo Park, New Jersey.
Electric Motor (DC), 1873. Inventor : Zenobe Gramme (Belgium) (1826-1901). Exhibited in
Vienna.
Electric Motor (AC), 1888. Inventor : Nikola Tesla (U.S.) (1856-1943).
Electromagnet, 1824. Inventor : William Sturgeon (England) (b. 1783); improved by Joseph
Henry (U.S.) 1831.
Electromagnetic Induction, 1831. Inventor : Michael Faraday (Great Britain); discovered
previously, but not published, by Joseph Henry (United States).
Electronic Computer, 1942. Inventor : J.G. Brainerd, J.P. Eckert, J.W. Mauchly (U.S.). ENIAC
(Electronic Numerical Integrator and Circulator), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Elevator, 1852. Inventor : Elisha G. Otis (U.S.) (1811-61). Earliest elevator at Yonkers, N.Y.
Film (musical), 1923. Inventor : Dr. Lee de Forest (U.S.) New York demonstration (March 13).
Film (talking), 1926. Inventor : Warner Bros. (U.S.). First release Don Juan, Warner Theatre,
New York (August 5).
Fluroine, 1886. Discoverer : Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan (France).
Food Frozen, 1923. Inventor : Birdseyes (USA).
Fountain Pen, 1884. Inventor : Lewis E. Waterman (U.S.) (1837-1901). Patented by D. Hyde
(U.S.), 1830, undeveloped.
Gas Lighting, 1792. Inventor : William Murdock (Scotland), (1754-1839). Private house in
Cornwall, 1792; Factory, Birmingham, 1798; London Street, 1807.
Generator, 1860. Inventor : Piciontti (Italian). Continuous current: improved by Gramme
(Belgium). 1870.
Glass (stained), c. 1080. Inventor : Augsberg (Germany). Earliest English, c. 1170, York Minister.
Glassware, c. 1500 BC. Inventor : Egypt and Mesopotamia (Today's Iraq). Glass blowing, Syria,
c. 50 BC.
Glider, 1853. Inventor : Sir George Cayley (England) (1773-1857). Near Brompton Hall,
Yorkshire, England. Passenger possibly John Appleby.

Gramophone, 1878. Inventor : Thomas Edison (USA).

Gyro-Compass, 1911. Inventor : Elmer A. Sperry (U.S.) (1860-1930). Tested on USS Delaware
(August 28). Gyroscope devised 1882 by Foucault (France).
Helicopter, 1930. Inventor : d' Ascanio (Italy). Co-axial machine. Earliest drawing of principle,
Le Mans Museum, France, c. 1460. First serviceable machine by Igor Sikorsky (U.S.). 1939.
Helium, 1868. Discoverer : Sir William Ramsay (Great Britain).
Hovercraft, 1955. Inventor : C.S. Cockerell (England). Patented December 12. Earliest aircushion vehicle patent was in 1877 by J.I. Thornycroft (1843-1921) (England). First 'light'
Saunders Roe SRNI at. Cowes, England, (May 30, 1959).
Iron Working, c. 1000 BC. Inventor : Hallstatt, Austria. Introduced into Britain c. 550 BC.
Jet Engine, 1937. Inventor : Sir Frank Whittle (England) (b. 1906). First tested run in 1937.
Principles announced by Merconnet (France) 1909 and Maxime Guillaume (France) 1921. First
flight August 27, 1939 by Heinkel He.
Laser, 1960. Inventor : Dr. Charles H. Townes (U.S.). First demonstration by Theodore Maiman
(U.S.). (Abbreviation for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).
Lathe, c. 1500 BC. Inventor : Greeks for wood-working. Possibly developed from potter's wheel.
Earliest screw cutting lathe by Henry Maudsly (England) (1771-1831).
Launderette, 1934. Inventor : J.F. Cantrell (U.S.), Fort Worth, Texas, April 18.
Laws of Gravitation and Motion, 1687. Discovered : Isaac Newton (England).
Lightning Conductor, 1752. Inventor : Benjamin Franklin (U.S.) (1706-90), Philadelphia.
Linoleum, 1860. Inventor : Frederick Walton (England).
Locomotive, 1804. Inventor : Richard Trevithick (England) (1771-1833). Penydarren, Wales, 9
Miles (February 21).
Loom (power), 1785. Inventor : Edmund Cartwright (England) (1743-1823).
Loudspeaker, 1924. Inventor : Chester W. Rice and Edward W. Kellogg (U.S.).
Machine Gun, 1861. Inventor : Richard Gaffing (U.S.) (1818-1903).

Maps, c. 2500 BC. Inventor : Sumerians (clay tablets). Earliest world map by Eratosthenes c. 220
BC.
Margarine, 1863. Inventor : Hippolyte Mege-Mouries (France). Initially, made of beef suet,
warm milk and sheep stomach lining.
Match (Safety), 1855. Inventor : J.E. Lundstrom (Sweden). Amorphous phosphorus disc, 1845,
Anton von Schrotter.
Microphone, 1876. Inventor : Alexander Graham Bell (U.S.) (1847-1922). Name coined 1878 by
David Hughes.

Microscope, 1590. Inventor : Zacharis Janssen (Netherlands). Compound convex-concave lens.

Microscope (Electron), 1939. Inventor : Vladimir Kosme Sworykin (Russia, later U.S) (b. 1889),
et al. Demonstrated Camden, New Jersey, 1940.
Molecular Hypothesis, 1811. Inventor : Amadeo Avogadro (Italy).
Motorcycle, 1848. Inventor : Edward Butler (England). First exhibited 1885 by Daimler, earliest
factory in Munich 1893.
Motor Scooter, 1919. Inventor : Greville Bradshaw (England).
Neon Lamp, 1915. Inventor : Georges Claude (France) (1871-1960). First installation in U.S.
Cosmopolitan Theatre, July 1923.
Night Club, 1843. Inventor : Paris, France. First was Le Bai des Anglais, Paris.
Nineteenth Laws of Planetary Motion, 1609. Inventor : Johannes Kepler (Germany).
Nylon, 1937. Inventor : Dr. Wallace H. Carothers (U.S.) (1896-1937) at Du Pont Labs, Seaford
Delaware, U.S. First stockings made about 1937. Bristle production, February 25, 1938. Yarn
production, December 1939.
Oxygen, 1775. Discoverer : Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (France).
Ozone, 1839. Discoverer : Christian Schonbein (Germany).
Paper, c. 150. Invented in China. Introduced to West via Yarkand, c. 750.

Parachute, 1797. Inventor : Andre Jacques Garnerin (France) (1769-1823). First descent from
2,230 ft over Paris. Earliest jump from aircraft March 1, 1912 by Capt A. Berry (U.S.) over St.
Louis, Missouri.
Parchment, c. 1300 BC. Inventor : Egypt. Modern name from Pergamam, Asia Minor, c. 250 BC.
Parking Meter, 1935. Inventor : Corlton C. Magee (U.S.). Oklahoma City (July 16).
Phonograph, 1878. Inventor : Thomas Alva Edison (U.S.) (1847-1931). Head cranked cylinder at
Menlo Park. J. J. Patent, February 19. First described on April 30, 1877, by Charles Cross
(France) (1842-88).
Phosphorus, 1669. Discoverer : Hennig Brand (Germany).
Photography (on metal), 1826. Inventor : Joseph Nicphore Niepce (France) (1765-1833).
Sensitised pewter plate, 8 hrs exposure at Chalon-sur-Saone, France.
Photography (on paper), 1835. Inventor : W. H. Fox Talbot (England) (1807-77). Lacock Abbey,
Wiltshire, England.
Photography (on film), 1888. Inventor : John Carbutt (U.S.). Kodak by George Eastman (U.S.)
(1854-1932), August 1888.

Piano, 1709. Inventor : Cristofori (Italy).

Porcelain, c. 700. Inventor : China. Reached Baghdad, c. 800.
Potter's Wheel, c. 6500 BC. Inventor : Asia Minor. Used in Mesopotamia (Iraq), c. 3000 BC.
Pneumatic Tyre. See bicycle tyres (look alphabetically above).
Printing Press, c. 1455. Inventor : Johannes Gutenberg (Germany) (c. 1400-68). Hand printing
known in India in 868.
Printing (Rotary), 1846. Inventor : Richard Hoe (U.S.) (1812-86). Philadelphia public ledger
rotary printed, 1847.
Propeller (ship), 1827. Inventor : Francis Smith (England) (1808-74).
Proton, 1919. Discoverer : Ernest Rutherford (British-New Zealand).

Pyramid, c. 2685 BC. Inventor : Egyptians . Earliest was Zoser step pyramid, Saqqara.
Radar, 1922. Inventors : Dr. Allbert H. Taylor and Leo C. Young (U.S.). Radio reflection effect
noted. First harnessed in 1935 by Sir Robert Watson-Watt (England) (b. 1892).
Radioactivity, 1896. Inventor : Antoine Bacqucrel (France).
Radio Telegraphy (over 1 km), 1895. Inventor : Lord Ernest Rutherford (British-New Zealand)
(1871-1937). At Cambridge, England.
Radio Telegraphy (Trans-Atlantic), 1901. Inventor : Guglielmo Marconi (Italy) (18741937).
From Poldhu, Cornwall to St. Holn's, New Zealand (December 12). Earliest broadcast of speech
by Prof. Reginald Fessenden (U.S.) (1868-1932) in Brant Rock, Massachusetts, December 24,
1906.
Rayon, 1883. Inventor : Sir Joseph Swann (England) (1828-1917). Production at Courtauld's Ltd.,
Coventry, England, November 1905. Name "Rayon" adopted in 1924.
Razor (Safety), 1895. Inventor : King C. Gillette (U.S.). First throw-away blades. Earliest fixed
safety razor by Kampfe.
Razor (Electric), 1931. Inventor : Col. Jacob Schick (U.S.). First manufactured Stanford,
Connecticut; March 18.
Reaper, 1826. Inventor : Henry Ogle (U.S.). First practical machine invented by Robert
McCormick in Walnutt Grove, Virginia, in 1831.
Record (long-playing), 1948. Inventor : Dr. Petter Goldmark (U.S.). Developed in the CBS
Research Labs.

Refrigerator, 1851. Inventor : James Harrison [Australian (1816-1893) Bendigo. Australia,

Brewery.
Revolver, 1835. Inventor : Samuel Colt (U.S.) (1814-62).

Rocket Engine, 1926. Inventor : Robert H. Goddard (USA), considered as father of modern
rocket propulsion.
Rubber (waterproof), 1819. Inventor : Charles Macintosh (Scotland) (1766-1843). First
experiments in Glasgow. Rubber introduced into Europe in 1736.
Rubber (vulcanised), 1841. Inventor : Charles Goodyear (U.S.) (1800-60).
Rubber (tyres), 1857. Inventor : Thomas Hancock (England) (1786-1865). Introduced solid
rubber tyres for vehicles (1847) (see also bicycle).
Rubber (latex foam), 1928. Inventor : Dunlop Rubber Co. (England). Team led by E.A. Murphy
at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, England.
Safety Pin, 1849. Inventor : William Hunt (U.S.). First manufactured in New York City.
Sewing Machine: Fundamental principle, double-pointed needle invented by Charles Fredrick
Wiesenthal (U.S.), 1755. First patent in England by Thomas Saint, 1790. First machine put to
factory use invented by Barthelemy Thimonnier (France) (1793-1854), patented in 1830. The eye
pointed needle and double-lock stitch invented by Walter Hunt of New York 1832, but never
patented. Elias Howe (1819-67) of Spencer, Mass, developed his machine independently (not
aware of Hunt's work), patented in.,1846. Earliest practical domestic machine invented by Isaac
M. Singer (1811-75) of Pittstown, New York, 1851.
Ship (sea-going), c. 2500 BC. Inventor : Egyptian ships traversed Eastern Mediterranean sea.
Ship (steam), 1775. Inventor : J.C. Perier (France) (1742-1818). First trail on the Seine river, near
Paris, France.
Ship (turbine), 1894. Inventor : Hon. Sir Charles Parsons (England) (1854-1931). S.S. Turbinia
attained 34.5 knots on first trial.
Silicones, 1904. Inventor : Prof. F.S. Kipping (England).
Silk Manufacture, c. 50 BC. Inventor : Reeling machines devised, China. Silk mills in Italy, c.
1250, world's earliest factories of any kind.
Skyscraper, 1882. Inventor : William Le Baron Jenney (U.S.). Home Insurance Co. Building,
Chicago, Illinois, 10-storey (top 4 steel beams).
Slide Rule, 1621. Inventor : William Oughtred (England) (1575-1660). Earliest slide between
fixed stock by Robert Bissaker, 1654.
Spectacles (or eyeglasses), c. 1286. Inventor : Venice, Italy (convex). Concave lens myopia not
developed till c. 1450.
Spinning Frame, 1769. Inventor : Sir Richard Arkwright (England) (1732-92).
Spinning Jenny, 1764. Inventor : James Hargreaves (England) (d. 1778).
Spinning Mule, 1779. Inventor : Samuel Crompton (England) (c. 1753-1827).
Steam Engine, 1698. Inventor : Thomas Savery (England) (c. 1650-1715).

Steam Engine (piston), 1712. Inventor : Thomas Newcomen (England) (1663-1729).

Steam Engine (condenser), 1765. Inventor : James Watt (Scotland) (1736-1819).
Stirrups (metal), c. 550. Inventor : Ancient Avars. Possibly originated in the eastern steppes of
Asia.
Steel Production, 1885. Inventor : Henry Bessemer (The Steel Man) (England) (1813-98). At St.
Pancreas, London. Cementation of wrought iron bars by charcoal contact known to Chalybes
people of Asia Minor, c. 1440 BC.
Steel (rustless or stainless), 1913. Inventor : Harry Brearley (England). First cast at Sheffield,
England (August 20). Knapp patent, October 1912 for chromium carbon steel; failed to recognise
corrosion resistance.
Stethoscope, Inventor : Dr. William Stokes (England) (1804-78).
Streetcar (railed), 1550. Inventor : Rail mining tracks, Lieberthal in Alsace region of France.
Streetcar (electric), 1879. Inventor : Ernst Werner von Siemens (Germany) (1813-92). Earliest
permanent self-propelled public streetcar at Lichterfelde in Berlin, Germany, 1881. Demonstration
at Berlin trade exhibition over 300 yards, May 31,1879.

Submarine, 1776. Inventor : David Bushnell of Saybrook, Connecticut (U.S.).

Synthesizer, 1964. Inventor : Dr. Robert Arthur Moog (USA).
Tank (military), 1914. Inventor : Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton (England) (1868-1951). Built at
Leicester, England. Tested in September 1915.
Telegraph, 1837. Inventors : Sir William Cook (1806-79), Sir Charles Wheatstone (England)
(1802-75). Demonstrated on 25th July 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London.
Telegraph Code, 1837. Inventor: Samuel F.B. Morse (U.S.) (1791-1872). The real credit
belonged largely to his assistant, Alfred Vail (U.S.).
Telephone, 1876. Inventor : Alexander Graham Bell (U.S.) (1847-1922). First exchange at
Boston, Massachusetts, 1878.
Telescope (1st refracting), 1608. Inventor : Hans Lippershey (German-Dutch lensmaker).
Demonstrated his invention called 'kijker' (meaning 'looker' in Dutch) before Dutch parliament on
2nd October 1608.

Time Recorder, 1890. Inventor : Harlow Bundy (USA).

Tractor (1st gasoline/petrol powered engine), 1892. Inventor : John Froelich (U.S.). Completed
in Iowa (September 6 1892).
Tractor (Caterpillar), 1900. Inventor: Benjamin Holt (U.S.).
Transformer (induction coil), 1842. Inventor : William Stanley, Jr. (U.S.).
Transistor, 1948. Inventors : John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain (U.S).
Researched at Bell Telephone Laboratories. First application for a patent was by Dr Julius Edgar
Lilienfeld in Canada in October 1925.
True Nature of Combustion, 1789. Discoverer : Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (France).
Tungsten, 1783. Inventors : Juan Jos Elhuyar Lubize and Fausto de Elhuyar (both brothers)
jointly discovered Tungsten (Spain).
Typewriter, 1864. Inventor : Peter Mitterhofer (1822-1893) (Austria). First practical patent by
Christopher Soles (U.S.) (1868).
Uranium, 1841. Discoverer : Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817) (Germany).
Vaccination, 1796. Inventor : Dr. Edward Jenner (England).
Variable Wing, 1956. Inventor : Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (England). First military application in
U.S. F-111 Jet Fighter, 1964.
Vitamin A, 1913. Discoverers : Elmer V. McCollum and M. Davis (USA).
Vitamin B, 1916. Discoverer : Elmer V. McCollum (USA).
Vitamin C, 1920. Discoverers : Albert Szent-Gyrgyi and Charles Glen King (USA).
Vitamin D, 1920. Discoverer : Sir Edward Mellanby (USA). He also studied role of Vitamin D in
preventing Rickets in 1919.
Vitamin E, 1922. Discoverer : Sir Herbert McLean Evans (USA).
Vitamin K, 1929. Discoverers : Henrik Dam (Denmark) and Edward Adelbert Doisy (USA).
Washing Machine (electric), 1907 (date not exact, estimated). Inventor : Controversial and exact
inventor is unknown. However, Hurley Machine Company of Chicago (U.S) produced first model
of electric washer called "Thor" based on design by Alva J. Fisher, (1910).
Watch (self-winding), 1791. Inventor : Abraham-Louis Breguet (France). Rocker Pedometer
action.
Welder (electric welding), 1877. Inventor : Elisha Thompson (U.S.) (1853-1937).
Wheel, c. 3800-3600 BC. Inventor : Sumerian civilisation. Spokes as opposed to solid wheels
introduced c. 1900 BC.

Windmill, c. 600 AD. Inventor : Persian corn grinding, oldest known port mill, 1191, Bury St.
Edmunds, England.
Writing, c. 3400 BC. Inventor : Sumerian civilisation. Earliest evidence found at Warka in Iraq.
Xerography, 1938. Inventor : Chester Floyd Carlson (U.S). First photocopier machine marketed
in U.S. in 1950.
X-ray, 1895. Inventor : Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (Germany). University of Wurzburg
(November 8).

Zeppelin, (Rigid Airship) 1899. Inventor : Ferdinand von Zeppelin (Germany).

Zero (in number system), c. 600. Inventor : Anonymous (India). (Absolute zero temperature;
cessation of all molecular energy, 1848, William Thompson and Lord Kelvin, England).
Ziggurats, c. 2000 BC. Inventors : Sumerians. Earliest staged towers at Ur in Iraq.
Zip Fastener, 1893. Inventor : Whitcomb L. Judson (U.S.). First practical fastener or modern
zipper invented in U.S. by Gideon Sundback (Sweden) in 1913.

15 FAMOUS INDIAN SCIENTISTS AND THEIR INVENTIONS

From C. V. Raman to Salim Ali, the talents of Indian scientists and inventors have been fully
established in many different areas, including physics, medicine, mathematics, chemistry and
biology. Some of them have also contributed in a substantial way to advanced scientific research
in many different regions of the world.
This article will discuss the famous Indian scientists and inventors throughout history and their
wonderful contributions.
Prafulla Chandra Ray

Famous academician and chemist, known for being the founder of Bengal Chemicals &
Pharmaceuticals, Indias first pharmaceutical company.

Salim Ali

Naturalist who helped develop Ornithology; also known as the birdman of India.
Srinivasa Ramanujan

Mathematician known for his brilliant contributions to contributions to mathematical analysis,

number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.
C. V. Raman

Physicist who won Nobel Prize in 1930 for his Raman Effect.
Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Theoretical physicist; best known as the chief architect of the Indian atomic energy program.

Jagadish Chandra Bose

Physicist, biologist and archaeologist who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave
optics.
Satyendra Nath Bose

Mathematician and physicist; best known for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in formulating
a theory related to the gaslike qualities of electromagnetic radiation.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Known for his crucial role in the development of Indias missile and nuclear weapons programs.
Har Gobind Khorana

Biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in 1968 for demonstrating how the nucleotides in nucleic
acids control the synthesis of proteins.
S.S. Abhyankar

Mathematician; famous for his outstanding contributions to algebraic geometry.

Meghnad Saha

Astrophysicist who developed the Saha equation, which explains chemical and physical
conditions in stars.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Astrophysicist won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his research on the evolutionary stages of massive
stars.

Raj Reddy

A.M. Turing Award-winning computer scientist, best known for his work related to large scale
artificial intelligence systems.
Birbal Sahni

Paleobotanist known for his research on the fossils of the Indian subcontinent.
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

Statistician and physicist who founded the Indian Statistical Institute.

50- INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Since time immemorial, thousands of inventions by man have gone on to transform the world.
Here is a list of 50 (in alphabetical order) that may have played a bigger part than most:
Abacus- 190 AD
Use of the abacus, with its beads in a rack, was first documented in China in about 190 AD. The
Chinese version was the speediest way to do sums for centuries and, in the right hands, can still
outpace electronic calculators.
Aspirin- 1899
Little tablets of acetylsalicylic acid have probably cured more minor ills than any other medicine.
Hippocrates was the first to realise the healing power of the substance. At the turn-of-the-century,

German chemist Felix Hoffman perfected the remedy.

Barbed wire- 1873
The world's most divisive invention was conceived not to keep people in or out, but cows.
Barcode- 1973
Barcodes were conceived as a kind of visual Morse code by a Philadelphia student in 1952. Now,
black stripes have appeared on almost everything we buy.
Battery- 1800
In 1780s, Italian physicist Luigi Galvani discovered that a dead frog's leg would twitch when he
touched it with two pieces of metal. His friend, professor Alessandro Volta made the first battery
which were voltaic cells stacked in a Voltaic pile.
Bicycle- 1861
First devised as a gentleman's plaything in the 1820s, the push-powered hobby-horse quickly
evolved to become the most classless form of transport.
Bra- 1913
New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob is widely considered to be the inventor of the modern bra,
which she devised as an alternative to unsightly corsets.
Button- 1235
Ancient Greeks fastened tunics using crude buttons and loops, but it took the buttonhole to
popularise the little discs of perforated plastic that adorn our clothes today.
Camera- 1826
Though British polymath William Talbot was the inventor of one of the earliest cameras, Joseph
Nicephore Niepce produced the earliest surviving photograph on a pewter plate in 1826.
Compass- 1190
Sailors in China and Europe independently discovered lodestone - a magnetic mineral that
aligned with the North Pole - in the 12th century. By 1190, Italian navigators were using
lodestone to magnetise needles floating in bowls water.
Condom- 1640
Egyptians donned them 3,000 years ago and the 16th-century Italian gynaecologist Gabriele
Falloppio first advocated their use to prevent the spread of disease.
Fridge- 1834
Jacob Perkins was the first to describe how pipes filled with volatile chemicals whose molecules
evaporated very easily could keep food cool.
Gun- 14th century
Gunpowder led to the creation of the cannon in the 13th century. The biggest step that led to the
modern gun was Smith and Wesson's metal-cased cartridge, first fired in 1857.
Internal combustion engine- 1859
Credit for the first working internal combustion engine goes to the Belgian inventor Etienne
Lenoir, who converted a steam engine in 1859. It spawned the billions of engines that have been
built since.
Laser- 1960
Physicist Theodore Maiman built the first working laser in 1960. His device was based around a
ruby crystal that emitted light "brighter than the centre of the sun".
Light bulb- 1848
Joseph Swan in fact developed a bulb before Edison, but the pair later joined forces and today
share credit for creating the gadget we perhaps take for granted more than any other.
Locks- 2000 BC
Egyptians were the first to put things under lock and key about 4,000 years ago .
Microchip- 1958
US engineer Jack Kilby built the world's first monolithic integrated circuit, or microchip that

changed the world of computing.

Mobile phone- 1947
The first mobile phone service was introduced by Bell Laboratories in Missouri in 1947.
Paper- 105 AD
The Chinese began using bark, bamboo fibres, hemp and flax to mill the first reams almost 2,000
years ago, but it took centuries for paper to envelop the world.
PC- 1977
Steve Jobs, whose Apple II, launched in 1977, was the first consumer PC to resemble the
machines that went on to transform our lives.
Printing press- 1454
The Chinese were the world's first printers - they practised block printing as early as 500 AD but a German goldsmith called Johannes Gutenberg was the first to construct a press.
Radio- 1895
Alexander Popov, a Russian, and the Italian-Irish inventor Guglielmo Marconi, separately sent
and received the first radio waves. Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio message (three dots
for the letter 'S') in 1901.
Telephone- 1876
Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell raced to make the first working phone in the 1870s, Bell
winning in a photo-finish.
Television- 1925
Scotsman John Logie Baird first demonstrated TV to the public in 1925.
The internet- 1969
Conceived by the US Department of Defense in the 1960s, the internet, together with the World
Wide Web, invented in 1989 by Brit techie, Tim Berners-Lee, has shrunk the world like no other
invention.
The Match- 1826
The Stockholm-based chemist John Walker was the first to discover that when a stick coated in
potassium chlorate and antimony sulphide was brushed across stone, it created a flame.
The Pill- 1951
The contraceptive pill was developed by a team headed by Carl Djerassi, a chemist, in 1951, but
wasn't marketed in the UK until 1962.
Wheel- 3500 BC
The wheel surely deserves a place near the top of any "greatest inventions" list. The earliest
evidence of a wheel - a pictograph from Sumeria (modern day Iraq) - dates back to 3500 BC; the
device rolled West soon after that.
Zip- 1913
Credit for the device's invention goes to Gideon Sundback. In 1913, the Swedish engineer made
the first modern zip to fasten high boots.
Honourable mentions:
Bow and arrow- 30,000 BC, CD- 1965, Cardiac pacemaker- 1958, Credit card- 1950, Drum12,000 BC, Dynamite- 1867, Fish hook- 30,000 BC, GPS- 1978, iPod- 2001, Kettle- 1891,
Microscope- 1590, Plough- AD 100, Rubber band- 1845, Sewing machine- 1830, Spectacles1451, Syringe- 1844, Telescope- 1608, Umbrell- 2400 BC, Walkman- 1979, Weighing scales5000 BC.

25 ACCIDENTAL INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

25.

SACCHARIN

You know that pink packet of fake sugar thats always sitting on the restaurant table? Well, as
sweet as it is you may be surprised to know where it came from. In 1879 Constantin Fahlberg, a
chemist trying to find alternative uses for coal tar, came home after a long day of work only to
notice that his wifes buscuits tasted a lot sweeter. After asking her about it he realized he hadnt
washed his hands after work, and voila.
24.

SMART DUST

Although most students would be a bit upset if their homework all of a sudden exploded in their
face, Jamie Link, a graduate student at the University of California made the most of the situation
and ended up changing the world. After the silicon chip she was working on was accidently
destroyed she realized that the individual pieces could still function as sensors. Today they are
used to detect everything from deadly tumors to biological agents.
23.

POTATO CHIPS

In 1853 George Crum, a chef in New York, accidentally invented potato chips when an annoying
patron kept sending his french fried potatoes back to the kitchen because they were soggy. In an
attempt to teach the customer a lesson, Crum sliced them extra thin, fried them to a crisp and
drowned them in salt. To his surprise, however, the complaining customer actually like them and
thus potato chips were born.
22.

COCA COLA

Although these days its almost common knowledge, this list wouldnt be complete without civil
war veteran turned pharmacist John Pemberton and what he originally intended as nothing more
than a medication (this is also why the original coke actually did include cocaine on its list of
ingredients)
21.

POPSICLES

It was 1905 and soda pop had just become the most popular drink on the market. 11 year old
Frank Epperson decided he wanted to try saving some money by making his own at home. Using
a combination of powder and water he got pretty close but then absentmindedly left the
concoction out on the porch all night. Temperatures ended up dropping severely and when he
came out in the morning he found his mixture frozen with the stirring stick still in it.
20.

ICE CREAM CONES

Although ice cream had been served on dishes for years, it wasnt until the 1904 Worlds Fair that
the ice cream cone was born. An ice cream stall at the fair was doing so well that they were
quickly running out of plates while the neighboring persian waffle stall was hardly selling
anything. The two stall owners then had the idea of rolling up the waffles, plopping the ice cream
on top and voilathe ice cream cone is born.
19.

TEFLON

If you have ever cooked an omelet you can thank Roy Plunkett, a chemist who worked for
DuPont in the early 20th century for accidentally stumbling across the non reactive, no stick
chemical while experimenting with refrigerants. Dupont quickly patented it and today we know it
as teflon.
18.

VULCANIZED RUBBER

Charles Goodyear had spent ages trying to find a way to make rubber resistant to heat and cold.
After a number of failed attempts he finally stumbled across a mixture that worked. Before
turning out the lights one evening he accidentally spilled some rubber, sulfur, and lead onto a
stove resulting in a mixture that charred and hardened but could still be used.
17.

PLASTIC

In the early 1900s shellac was the material of choice when it came to insulation. But due to the
fact that it was made form Southeast Asian beetles the material was not the cheapest thing to
import. For this reason chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might be able to make some
money by producing an alternative. What he came up with however, was a moldable material that
could be heated to extremely high temperatures without being distorted aka plastic.
16.

RADIOACTIVITY

The year was 1896 and physicist Henri Becquerel was trying to get fluorescent materials to
produce x-rays by being left in the sun. His experiment however, suffered a week of cloudy,
overcast skies. After leaving all of his materials in a drawer he returned one week later only to
find that the uranium rock he had left there had managed to imprint its image on a nearby
photographic plate without any exposure to light.
15.

MAUVE

Strangely enough it was while 18 year old chemist William Perkin was busy researching a cure
for malaria that he accidentally ended up changing the fashion world forever. The year was 1856
and one of his experiments ended up going terribly wrong, creating was seemed to be nothing
more than a murky mess. As he examined it, however, William noticed an beautiful color
radiating from the petri dish. And thus the worlds first synthetic dye was born.
14.

PACEMAKER

Wilson Greatbatch was working on a contraption that would record human heart beats when he
accidentally inserted the wrong resistor. It ended up perfectly mimicking the hearts rhythm and
thus gave birth to the first implantable pacemaker.
13.

POST-IT NOTES

In 1968 Spencer Silver, a chemist working for 3M stumbled across a low-tack adhesive that he
found was just strong enough to hold paper to a surface but weak enough that it wouldnt tear
upon removal. After many failed attempts at finding a marketable application, one of Silvers
colleagues, Art Fry, realized that it would be perfect as a no-slip bookmark and the post-it note
was born.
12.

MICROWAVE

Every single guy in the world should be grateful to Percy Spencer, a navy radar specialist who
was tinkering around with microwave emitters when he felt the chocolate bar in his pocket start
melting. The year was 1945 and the world, or rather the kitchen, hasnt been the same since.
11.

SLINKY

During World War II, when navy engineer Richard James was trying to figure out a way to
employ springs aboard navy ships to keep sensitive instruments from bouncing around, he
accidentally dropped one of them. To his amusement the spring immediately righted itself and
landed upright on the floor. Since then kids everywhere have enjoyed playing around with this
pointless toy.
10.

PLAY DOH

Maybe it comes as no surprise that the smelly, gooey stuff kids have been play with for decades
was originally intended as wallpaper cleaner. In the early 20th century, however, people quit using
coal to heat their homes which meant their wallpaper stayed relatively clean. Luckily for Cleo
McVicker, the original inventor, his son discovered another use modeling clay.
9.

SUPER GLUE

While developing plastic lenses for gun sights, Harry Coover, a researcher at Kodak Laboratories,
stumbled across a synthetic adhesive made from cyanoacrylate. At the time, however, he rejected
it as being far too sticky to be of any use. Years later though, it was rediscovered and is today
sold under the trade name of super glue
8.

VELCRO

Swiss engineer George de Mestral was on a hunting trip with his dog when he noticed how burrs
would stick to its fur. Eventually he managed to replicate the effect in his laboratory but it wasnt
until NASA came along that the technology was really popularized.
7.

X Rays

Theyre not the first electromagnetic wave that was discovered by accident but in 1895 when
Wilhelm Roentgen was performing an experiment using cathode rays he realized that some
fluorescent cardboard across the room was lighting up in spite of the fact that their was a thick
block between the cathode ray and the cardboard. The only explanation was that light rays were
actually passing trhough the solid block.
6.

SAFETY GLASS

After douard Bndictus, a French chemist, accidentally knocked a flask off of his desk it fell to
the ground but rather than shattering it only cracked. Upon closer inspection he realized that it had
recently contained plastic cellulose nitrate which had coated the inside of it and kept it from
coming apart on impact.
5.

CORNFLAKES

When Will Keith Kellogg began helping his brother cook meals for patients at the Sanitarium at
which he worked, he ended up accidentally stumbling across the recipe for Corn Flakes after
leaving some bread dough sitting out for several hours. Upon finding the flaky dough he decided
to see what would happen so he baked it anyway, and the rest is history.

4.

DYNAMITE

Its not like humanity just recently discovered how to blow things up. Gunpowder and
nitroglycerin have been around for ages. The issue however, especially in the case of
nitroglycerin, was its instability. It wasnt until Alfred Nobel accidentally discovered a method of
containing the substance without hindering its power that people could really start having a blast.
3.

ANESTHESIA

Although there is no single person that can be definitively credited with discovering anesthesia, if
you have ever had an operation you can thank the likes of Crawford Long, Wiliam Morton, and
Charles Jackson, all who first noticed the anesthetic effects of various drugs such as nitrous oxide,
or laughing gas, due to the fact that they were used extensively for recreational purposes.
2.

STAINLESS STEEL

Next time you enjoy your dinner by way of a rust-free fork remember to thank 20th century arms
manufacturers for hiring Harry Brearly, an English metallurgist, to develop a non rusty gun barrel.
Shortly after testing his creation on various corrosives, one of which was lemon juice, he realized
that it would be perfect for cutlery.
1.

PENICILLIN

While studying staphylococcus, Alexander Fleming added some of the bacteria to Petri dishes
before leaving for a vacation. Although he had expected the bacteria to grow, upon returning he
was surprised to find a mold growing in the dishes instead. After a close inspection he found that
the mold released a byproduct which inhibited the growth of the staph thus giving birth to the first
antibiotic in the world.

FAMOUS INVENTIONS
Invention of the Automobile
The invention of the car can be traced back as far as 1769, when one Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot
devised the very first concept - a complex, three wheeled steam engine. The idea never really took
off, as it could not compete with horse powered transportation which were easier...
Posted on December 20, 2011 with 7 comments

Invention of the Steam Engine

The invention of the engine has played a major role in the environment we live in today surrounded by transport and industries all reliant on an engine of some description. The engine we
see today is a progression of the steam engine, using the same principles, but...

Invention of the Airplane

The discovery of the airplane brought along development in the transport system. The transport
system improved following the invention of airplane. Now the time taken to travel long distances
has reduced due to the invention of airplane. The speed of an airplane is so...

Invention of the Wheel

We cannot imagine our lives without any kind of movement. Similarly, as we move from one
place to another, either the inanimate objects are forced to move or they have some inbuilt
machine. Wheels are the most ancient discovery for humankind. The wheels on a kid's car,...

Invention of the Camera

It is next to impossible to capture a photo without a camera. A camera is a device, which enables
the recording of still and moving photographs within seconds. Without camera, it was never
possible to capture good memories. Camera was first designed by Joseph N....

Invention of the Radio

Radio was a great achievement in the terms of communication between people. Radio was not a
direct or immediate invention. One can call radio as one of the effects of the telephone and
telegraph inventions. The inventors of telephone and telegraph had already introduced...

Invention of the Barcode

Perhaps one of the most under rated inventions belongs to the barcode. Barcodes aren't given
much thought by the majority of consumers, but these codes were fairly recently implemented, in
a working fashion, in 1970. A small food store owner decided one day that...

Invention of the Internet

The Internet is something which many of us now take for granted, but the invention of the
Internet, is still recent. The Internet is essentially a network connecting thousands of smaller
networks into a single global network. The Internet model and the Transmission...

Invention of the Printing Press

The invention of the printing press took place in approximately 1450 AD, by a German inventor
by the name of Johannes Gutenburg. During this time, there were many cultural changes in
Europe which sparked the requirement of a quick, inexpensive method of producing large...

Invention of the Computer

Personal computers are now commonplace in most homes throughout the world, and are relied on
heavily by both individuals and businesses. The invention of the computer is relatively new,
emerging into our lives relatively late in the 20th century. The technology to build...

Invention of the Light Bulb

The very first electric light was invented as early as 1800 by English inventor, Humphry Davy.
Through various experimentations with electricity, he invented a basic electric battery, soon
followed by electric light once he realised that carbon glowed, producing light...

Invention of the Telephone

One of the most important and revolutionary inventions which impacts greatly upon modern day
communication is the invention of the telephone. The idea behind the telephone is simple, a
system which converts sound into a series of electrical impulses of differing...

10

THE PLOW
Compared to some of the gleaming, electronic inventions that fill our lives today, the plow doesn't
seem very exciting. It's a simple cutting tool used to carve a furrow into the soil, churning it up to
expose nutrients and prepare it for planting. Yet the plow is probably the one invention that made
all others possible.
No one knows who invented the plow, or exactly when it came to be. It probably developed
independently in a number of regions, and there is evidence of its use in prehistoric eras. Prior to
the plow, humans were subsistence farmers or hunter/gatherers. Their lives were devoted solely to
finding enough food to survive from one season to the next. Growing food added some stability to
life, but doing it by hand was labor intensive and took a long time. The plow changed all that.
Plows made the work easier and faster. Improvements in the plow's design made farming so
efficient that people could harvest far more food than they needed to survive. They could trade the
surplus for goods or services. And if you could get food by trading, then you could devote your
day-to-day existence to something other than growing food, such as producing the goods and
services that were suddenly in demand.
The ability to trade and store materials drove the invention of written language, number systems,
fortifications and militaries. As populations gathered to engage in these activities, cities grew. It's
not a stretch to say that the plow is responsible for the creation of human civilization.
THE WHEEL is another invention so ancient that we have no way of knowing who first
developed it. The oldest wheel and axle mechanism we've found was near Ljubljana, Slovenia,
and dates to roughly 3100 B.C.
The wheel made the transportation of goods much faster and more efficient, especially when
affixed to horse-drawn chariots and carts. However, if it had been used only for transportation, the
wheel wouldn't have been as much of a world-changer as it was. In fact, a lack of quality roads
limited its usefulness in this regard for thousands of years.
A wheel can be used for a lot of things other than sticking them on a cart to carry grain, though.
Tens of thousands of other inventions require wheels to function, from water wheels that power
mills to gears and cogs that allowed even ancient cultures to create complex machines. Cranks
and pulleys need wheels to work. A huge amount of modern technology still depends on the
wheel, like centrifuges used in chemistry and medical research, electric motors and combustion
engines, jet engines, power plants and countless others.
THE PRINTING PRESS: Like many of the inventions on this list, the man we believe invented
the printing press (Johann Gutenberg in the 1430s) actually improved on pre-existing technologies
and made them useful and efficient enough to become popular. The world already had paper and

block printing -- the Chinese had them as early as the 11th century -- but the complexity of their
language limited popularity. Marco Polo brought the idea to Europe in 1295.
Gutenberg combined the idea of block printing with a screw press (used for olive oil and wine
production). He also developed metal printing blocks that were far more durable and easier to
make than the hand-carved wooden letters in use previously. Finally, his advances in ink and
paper production helped revolutionize the whole process of mass printing.
The printing press allowed enormous quantities of information to be recorded and spread
throughout the world. Books had previously been items only the extremely rich could afford, but
mass production brought the price down tremendously. The printing press is probably responsible
for many other inventions, but in a more subtle way than the wheel. The diffusion of knowledge it
created gave billions of humans the education they needed to create their own inventions in the
centuries since.
REFRIGERATORS cool things down by taking advantage of the way substances absorb and
unload heat as their pressure points and phases of matter change (usually from gas to liquid and
back). It's difficult to pinpoint a single inventor of the refrigerator, because the concept was
widely known and gradually improved over the course of about 200 years. Some credit Oliver
Evans' 1805 unproduced design of a vapor-compression unit, while others point to Carl von
Linde's 1876 design as the actual precursor of the modern refrigerator in your kitchen. Dozens of
inventors, including Albert Einstein, would refine or improve refrigerator designs over the
decades.
In the early 20th century, harvested natural ice was still common, but large industries such as
breweries were beginning to use ice-making machines. Harvested ice for industrial use was rare
by World War I. However, it wasn't until the development of safer refrigerant chemicals in the
1920s that home refrigerators became the norm.
The ability to keep food cold for prolonged periods (and even during shipping, once refrigerated
trucks were developed) drastically changed the food production industry and the eating habits of
people around the world. Now, we have easy access to fresh meats and dairy products even in the
hottest summer months, and we're no longer tied to the expense of harvesting and shipping natural
ice -- which never could have kept pace with the world's growing population in any case.
COMMUNICATION METHODS : Maybe it's cheating to lump the telegraph, telephone, radio
and television into one 'invention,' but the development of communication technology has been a
continuum of increased utility and flexibility since Samuel Morse invented the electric telegraph
in 1836 (building on the prior work of others, of course). The telephone simply refined the idea by
allowing actual voice communications to be sent over copper wires, instead of just beeps that
spelled out the plain text in Morse code. These communication methods were point-to-point, and
required an extensive infrastructure of wires to function.
Transmitting signals wirelessly using electromagnetic waves was a concept worked on by many
inventors around the world, but Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla popularized it in the early
20th century. Eventually, sound could be transmitted wirelessly, while engineers gradually
perfected the transmission of images. Radio and television were new landmarks in
communications because they allowed a single broadcaster to send messages to thousands or even
millions of recipients as long as they were equipped with receivers.
These developments in communications technology effectively shrank the world. In the span of
about 120 years, we went from a world where it might take weeks to hear news from across the
country to one where we can watch events occurring on the other side of the globe as they happen.
The advent of mass communications put more information within our grasp and altered how we
interact with each other.
STEAM ENGINE: Prior to the invention of the steam engine, most products were made by hand.
Water wheels and draft animals provided the only 'industrial' power available, which clearly had

its limits. The Industrial Revolution, which is perhaps the greatest change over the shortest period
of time in the history of civilization, was carried forward by the steam engine.
The concept of using steam to power machines had been around for thousands of years, but
Thomas Newcomen's creation in 1712 was the first to harness that power for useful work
(pumping water out of mines, for the most part). In 1769, James Watt modified a Newcomen
engine by adding a separate condenser, which vastly increased the steam engine's power and made
it a far more practical way to do work. He also developed a way for the engine to produce rotary
motion, which may be just as important as the efficiency gains. Thus, Watt is often considered the
inventor of the steam engine.
Newcomen's and Watt's engines actually used the vacuum of condensing steam to drive the
pistons, not the pressure of steam expansion. This made the engines bulky. It was the highpressure steam engine developed by Richard Trevithick and others that allowed for steam engines
small enough to power a train. Not only did steam engines power factories that made the rapid
production of goods possible, they powered the trains and steamships that carried those goods
across the globe.
While the steam engine has been eclipsed by electric and internal combustion engines in the areas
of transport and factory power, they're still incredibly important. Most power plants in the world
actually generate electricity using steam turbines, whether the steam is heated by burning coal,
natural gas or a nuclear reactor.
AUTOMOBILES: If the steam engine mobilized industry, the automobile mobilized people.
While ideas for personal vehicles had been around for years, Karl Benz's 1885 Motorwagen,
powered by an internal combustion engine of his own design, is widely considered the first
automobile. Henry Ford's improvements in the production process -- and effective marketing -brought the price and the desire for owning an auto into the reach of most Americans. Europe
soon followed.
The automobile's effect on commerce, society and culture is hard to overestimate. Most of us can
jump in our car and go wherever we want whenever we want, effectively expanding the size of
any community to the distance we're willing to drive to shop or visit friends. Our cities are largely
designed and built around automobile access, with paved roads and parking lots taking up huge
amounts of space and a big chunk of our governments' budgets. The auto industry has fueled
enormous economic growth worldwide, but it's also generated a lot of pollution.