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Inventions
| INVENTION |
YEAR |
INVENTOR |
COUNTRY |
| aerosol can |
1926 |
Erik Rotheim |
Norway |
| air conditioning |
1902 |
Willis Haviland Carrier |
US |
| airbag, automotive |
1952 |
John Hetrick |
US |
| airplane, engine-powered |
1903 |
Wilbur & Orville Wright |
US |
| airship |
1852 |
Henri Giffard |
France |
| alphabet |
c. 1700–1500 BC |
Semitic-speaking peoples |
eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea |
| American Sign Language |
1817 |
Thomas H. Gallaudet |
US |
| animation, motion-picture |
1906 |
J. Stuart Blackton |
US |
| answering machine, telephone |
1898 |
Valdemar Poulsen |
Denmark |
| aspartame |
1965 |
James Schlatter |
US |
| aspirin |
1897 |
Felix Hoffmann (Bayer) |
Germany |
| assembly line |
1913 |
Henry Ford |
US |
| astrolabe |
c. 2nd century |
— |
— |
| AstroTurf |
1965 |
James M. Faria, Robert T. Wright |
US |
| audiotape |
1928 |
Fritz Pfleumer |
Germany |
| automated teller machine (ATM) |
1968 |
Don Wetzel |
US |
| automobile |
1889 |
Gottlieb Daimler |
Germany |
| baby food, prepared |
1927 |
Dorothy Gerber |
US |
| bag, flat-bottomed paper |
1870 |
Margaret Knight |
US |
| Bakelite |
1907 |
Leo Hendrik Baekeland |
US |
| ball bearing |
1794 |
Philip Vaughan |
England |
| balloon, hot-air |
1783 |
Joseph & Étienne Montgolfier |
France |
| bandage, adhesive |
1921 |
Earle Dickson |
US |
| bar code |
1952 |
Joseph Woodland |
US |
| barbed wire |
1874 |
Joseph Glidden |
US |
| barometer |
1643 |
Evangelista Torricelli |
Italy |
| battery, electric storage |
1800 |
Alessandro Volta |
Italy |
| beer |
before 6000 BC |
Sumerians, Babylonians |
Mesopotamia |
| bicycle |
1818 |
Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun |
Germany |
| bifocal lens |
1784 |
Benjamin Franklin |
US |
| bikini |
1946 |
Louis Réard |
France |
| blood bank |
late 1930s |
Charles Richard Drew |
US |
| blow-dryer |
1920 |
Racine Universal Motor Co., Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Co. |
US |
| bomb, atomic |
1945 |
J. Robert Oppenheimer, et al. |
US |
| bomb, thermonuclear (hydrogen) |
1952 |
Edward Teller, et al. |
US |
| boomerang |
c. 15,000 years ago |
Aboriginal peoples |
Australia |
| Braille system |
1824 |
Louis Braille |
France |
| brassiere (bra) |
1913 |
Mary Phelps Jacob |
US |
| bread, sliced (bread-slicing machine) |
1928 |
Otto Frederick Rohwedder |
US |
| button |
c. 700 BC |
Greeks, Etruscans |
Greece, Italy |
| buttonhole |
13th century |
— |
Europe |
| calculator, electronic hand-held |
1967 |
Jack S. Kilby |
US |
| calculus |
1680s |
Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (invented separately) |
England and Germany (respectively) |
| calendar, modern (Gregorian) |
1582 |
Pope Gregory XIII |
Italy |
| camcorder |
1982 |
Sony Corp. |
Japan |
| camera, motion picture |
1891 |
Thomas Alva Edison, William K.L. Dickson |
US |
| camera, portable photographic |
1888 |
George Eastman |
US |
| can, metal beverage |
1933 |
American Can Co. |
US |
| can opener |
1858 |
Ezra J. Warner |
US |
| candle |
c. 3000 BC |
— |
Egypt, Crete |
| canning, food |
1809 |
Nicolas Appert |
France |
| carbon-14 dating |
1946 |
Willard F. Libby |
US |
| cardboard, corrugated |
1871 |
Albert Jones |
US |
| cards, playing |
c. 10th century |
— |
China |
| cash register |
1879 |
James Ritty |
US |
| cat litter |
1947 |
Edward Lowe |
US |
| catalog, mail-order |
1872 |
Aaron Montgomery Ward |
US |
| cellophane |
1911 |
Jacques E. Brandenberger |
Switzerland |
| celluloid |
1869 |
John Wesley Hyatt |
US |
| cement, portland |
1824 |
Joseph Aspdin |
England |
| cereal flakes, breakfast |
1894 |
John Harvey Kellogg |
US |
| chewing gum (modern) |
c. 1870 |
Thomas Adams |
US |
| chocolate |
c. 3rd–10th century |
Maya, Aztecs |
Central America, Mexico |
| chronometer |
1762 |
John Harrison |
England |
| clock, pendulum |
1656 |
Christiaan Huygens |
The Netherlands |
| clock, quartz |
1927 |
Warren A. Marrison |
Canada/US |
| cloning, animal |
1970 |
John B. Gurdon |
UK |
| coffee, drip |
1908 |
Melitta Bentz |
Germany |
| coffee, decaffeinated |
1905 |
Ludwig Roselius |
Germany |
| coins |
c. 650 BC |
Lydians |
Turkey |
| compact disc (CD) |
1980 |
Philips Electronics, Sony Corp. |
The Netherlands, Japan |
| compass, magnetic |
c. 12th century |
— |
China, Europe |
| computed tomography (CT scan, CAT scan) |
1972 |
Godfrey Hounsfield, Allan Cormack |
UK, US |
| computer, electronic digital |
1939 |
John V. Atanasoff, Clifford E. Berry |
US |
| computer, laptop |
1983 |
Radio Shack Corp. |
US |
| computer, personal |
1974 |
MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems) |
US |
| concrete, reinforced |
1867 |
Joseph Monier |
France |
| condom, latex |
c. 1930 |
— |
— |
| contact lenses |
1887 |
Adolf Fick |
Germany |
| contraceptives, oral |
early 1950s |
Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Min Chueh Chang |
US |
| corn, hybrid |
1917 |
Donald F. Jones |
US |
| correction fluid, white |
1951 |
Bette Nesmith |
US |
| cotton gin |
1793 |
Eli Whitney |
US |
| coupon, grocery |
1894 |
Asa Candler |
US |
| crayons, children’s wax |
1903 |
Edwin Binney, C. Harold Smith |
US |
| cream separator (dairy processing) |
1878 |
Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval |
Sweden |
| credit card |
1950 |
Frank McNamara, Ralph Schneider (Diners’ Club) |
US |
| crossword puzzles |
1913 |
Arthur Wynne |
US |
| DDT |
1874 |
Othmar Zeidler |
Germany |
| defibrillator |
1952 |
Paul M. Zoll |
US |
| dentures |
c. 700 BC |
Etruscans |
Italy |
| detector, metal |
late 1920s |
Gerhard Fisher |
Germany/US |
| detector, home smoke |
1969 |
Randolph Smith, Kenneth House |
US |
| diamond, artificial |
1955 |
General Electric Co. |
US |
| diapers, disposable |
1950 |
Marion Donovan |
US |
| digital videodisc (DVD) |
1995 |
consortium of international electronics companies |
Japan, US, The Netherlands |
| dishwasher |
1886 |
Josephine Cochrane |
US |
| DNA fingerprinting |
1984 |
Alec Jeffreys |
UK |
| doughnut, ring-shaped |
1847 |
Hanson Crockett Gregory |
US |
| door, revolving |
1888 |
Theophilus von Kannel |
US |
| drinking fountain |
c. 1905–1912 |
Luther Haws, Halsey W. Taylor (invented separately) |
US |
| dry cleaning |
1855 |
Jean Baptiste Jolly |
France |
| dynamite |
1867 |
Alfred Nobel |
Sweden |
| elastic, fabric |
c. 1830 |
Thomas Hancock |
UK |
| electric chair |
1888 |
Harold P. Brown, Arthur E. Kennelly |
US |
| electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG) |
1903 |
Willem Einthoven |
The Netherlands |
| electroencephalogram (EEG) |
1929 |
Hans Berger |
Germany |
| electronic mail (e-mail) |
1971 |
Ray Tomlinson |
US |
| elevator, passenger |
1852 |
Elisha Graves Otis |
US |
| encyclopedia |
c. 4th century BC or 77 AD |
Speusippus (compliation of Plato’s teachings) or Pliny the Elder (comprehensive work) |
Greece or Rome |
| engine, internal-combustion |
1859 |
Étienne Lenoir |
France |
| engine, jet |
1930 |
Sir Frank Whittle |
UK |
| engine, liquid-fueled rocket |
1926 |
Robert H. Goddard |
US |
| engine, steam |
1698 |
Thomas Savery |
England |
| escalator |
1891 |
Jesse W. Reno |
US |
| eyeglasses |
1280s |
Salvino degli Armati or Alessandro di Spina |
Italy |
| facsimile (fax) |
1842 |
Alexander Bain |
Scotland |
| fiber optics |
1955 |
Narinder S. Kapany |
India |
| fiberglass |
1938 |
Owens Corning (corp.) |
US |
| film, photographic |
1884 |
George Eastman |
US |
| flashlight, battery-operated portable |
1899 |
Conrad Hubert |
Russia/US |
| flask, vacuum (Thermos) |
1892 |
Sir James Dewar |
Scotland |
| food processor |
1971 |
Pierre Verdon |
France |
| foods, freeze-dried |
1946 |
Earl W. Flosdorf |
US |
| foods, frozen |
c. 1924 |
Clarence Birdseye |
US |
| Fresnel lens |
1820 |
Augustin-Jean Fresnel |
France |
| fuel cell |
1839 |
William R. Grove |
UK |
| genetic engineering |
1973 |
Stanley N. Cohen, Herbert W. Boyer |
US |
| Geiger counter |
1908 |
Hans Geiger |
Germany |
| glass |
c. 2500 BC |
Egyptians or Phoenicians |
Egypt or Lebanon |
| glass, safety |
1909 |
Édouard Bénédictus |
France |
| greeting card, Christmas |
1843 |
John Callcott Horsley |
England |
| guillotine |
1792 |
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin |
France |
| guitar, electric |
1941 |
Les Paul |
US |
| gunpowder |
c. 10th century |
— |
China or Arabia |
| hanger, wire coat |
1903 |
Albert J. Parkhouse |
US |
| helicopter |
1939 |
Igor Sikorsky |
Russia/US |
| holography |
1948 |
Dennis Gabor |
Hungary |
| hypodermic syringe |
1853 |
Charles Gabriel Pravaz |
France |
| in vitro fertilization (IVF), human |
1978 |
Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards |
UK |
| ink |
c. 2500 BC |
— |
Egypt, China |
| insulin, extraction and preparation of |
1921 |
Sir Frederick Grant Banting, Charles H. Best |
Canada |
| integrated circuit |
1958 |
Jack S. Kilby |
US |
| Internet |
1969 |
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at the Dept. of Defense |
US |
| iron, electric |
1882 |
Henry W. Seely |
US |
| irradiation, food |
1905 |
— |
US/UK |
| jeans |
1873 |
Levi Strauss, Jacob Davis |
US |
| JELL-O (gelatin dessert) |
1897 |
Pearle B. Wait |
US |
| jukebox |
1889 |
Louis Glass |
US |
| Kevlar |
1965 |
Stephanie Kwolek |
US |
| Kool-Aid (fruit drink mix) |
1927 |
Edwin E. Perkins |
US |
| laser |
1958 |
Gordon Gould and Charles Hard Townes, Arthur L. Schawlow (invented separately) |
US |
| laundromat |
1934 |
J.F. Cantrell |
US |
| lawn mower, gasoline-powered |
c. 1940 |
Leonard Goodall |
US |
| Lego |
late 1940s |
Ole Kirk Christiansen |
Denmark |
| light bulb, incandescent |
1879 |
Thomas Alva Edison |
US |
| light bulb, fluorescent |
1934 |
Arthur Compton |
US |
| light-emitting diode (LED) |
1962 |
Nick Holonyak, Jr. |
US |
| linoleum |
1860 |
Frederick Walton |
UK |
| lipstick, tube |
1915 |
Maurice Levy |
US |
| liquid crystal display (LCD) |
1963 |
George Heilmeier |
US |
| lock and key |
c. 2000 BC |
Assyrians |
Mesopotamia |
| locomotive |
1829 |
George Stephenson |
England |
| longbow |
c. 1000 |
— |
Wales |
| loudspeaker |
1924 |
Chester W. Rice, Edward W. Kellogg |
US |
| magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) |
early 1970s |
Raymond Damadian, Paul Lauterbur |
US |
| margarine |
1869 |
Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès |
France |
| matches, friction |
1827 |
John Walker |
England |
| metric system of measurement |
1795 |
French Academy of Sciences |
France |
| microphone |
1878 |
David E. Hughes |
UK/US |
| microscope, compound optical |
c. 1600 |
Hans & Zacharias Jansen |
The Netherlands |
| microscope, electron |
1933 |
Ernst Ruska |
Germany |
| microwave oven |
1945 |
Percy L. Spencer |
US |
| miniature golf |
c. 1930 |
Garnet Carter |
US |
| mirror, glass |
c. 1200 |
Venetians |
Italy |
| missile, guided |
1942 |
Wernher von Braun |
Germany |
| mobile home |
1919 |
Glenn H. Curtiss |
US |
| money, paper |
late 900s |
— |
China |
| Monopoly (board game) |
1934 |
Charles B. Darrow |
US |
| Morse code |
1838 |
Samuel F.B. Morse |
US |
| motor, electric |
1834 |
Thomas Davenport |
US |
| motor, outboard |
1907 |
Ole Evinrude |
Norway/US |
| motorcycle |
1885 |
Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach |
Germany |
| mouse, computer |
1963–64 |
Douglas Engelbart |
US |
| Muzak |
1922 |
George Owen Squier |
US |
| nail, construction |
c. 3300 BC |
Sumerians |
Mesopotamia |
| necktie |
17th century |
— |
Croatia |
| neon lighting |
1910 |
Georges Claude |
France |
| nuclear reactor |
1942 |
Enrico Fermi |
US |
| nylon |
1937 |
Wallace H. Carothers |
US |
| oil lamp |
1784 |
Aimé Argand |
Switzerland |
| oil well |
1859 |
Edwin Laurentine Drake |
US |
| pacemaker, cardiac |
1952 |
Paul M. Zoll |
US |
| paper |
c. 105 |
Ts’ai Lun |
China |
| paper clip |
1899 |
Johan Vaaler |
Norway |
| paper towel |
1931 |
Arthur Scott |
US |
| parachute, modern |
1797 |
André-Jacques Garnerin |
France |
| parking meter |
1932 |
Carl C. Magee |
US |
| particle accelerator |
1929 |
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton |
Ireland/UK |
| pasteurization |
1864 |
Louis Pasteur |
France |
| pen, ballpoint |
1938 |
Lazlo Biro |
Hungary |
| pencil |
1565 |
Conrad Gesner |
Switzerland |
| periodic table |
1871 |
Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev |
Russia |
| personal watercraft, motorized |
1968 |
Bombardier, Inc. |
Canada |
| petroleum jelly |
1870s |
Robert Chesebrough |
US |
| phonograph |
1877 |
Thomas Alva Edison |
US |
| photocopying (xerography) |
1937 |
Chester F. Carlson |
US |
| photography |
1837 |
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre |
France |
| photography, instant |
1947 |
Edwin Herbert Land |
US |
| Play-Doh |
1956 |
Noah W. & Joseph S. McVicker |
US |
| plow, steel |
1836 |
John Deere |
US |
| pocket watch |
c. 1500 |
Peter Henlein |
Germany |
| polyethylene |
1935 |
Eric Fawcett, Reginald Gibson |
UK |
| polygraph (lie detector) |
1921 |
John A. Larson |
US |
| polyvinyl chloride (PVC) |
1872 |
Eugen Baumann |
Germany |
| Post-it Notes |
mid-1970s |
Arthur Fry (3M) |
US |
| potato chips |
1853 |
George Crum |
US |
| printing press, movable type |
c. 1450 |
Johannes Gutenberg |
Germany |
| Prozac |
1972 |
Ray W. Fuller, Bryan B. Molloy, David T. Wong |
US |
| radar |
c. 1904 |
Christian Hülsmeyer |
Germany |
| radio |
1896 |
Guglielmo Marconi |
Italy |
| radio, car |
early 1920s |
William P. Lear |
US |
| rayon |
1884 |
Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bernigaud, count of Chardonnet |
France |
| razor, electric |
1928 |
Jacob Schick |
US |
| razor, safety |
c. 1900 |
King Camp Gillette |
US |
| reaper, mechanical |
1831 |
Cyrus Hall McCormick |
US |
| record, long-playing (LP) |
1948 |
Peter Carl Goldmark |
US |
| refrigerator |
1842 |
John Gorrie |
US |
| remote control, television |
1950 |
Robert Adler |
US |
| respirator |
c. 1955 |
Forrest M. Bird |
US |
| revolver |
1835–36 |
Samuel Colt |
US |
| Richter scale |
1935 |
Charles Francis Richter, Beno Gutenberg |
US |
| rifle, assault |
1944 |
Hugo Schmeisser |
Germany |
| roller coaster |
1884 |
LeMarcus A. Thompson |
US |
| rubber, vulcanized |
1839 |
Charles Goodyear |
US |
| rubber band |
1845 |
Stephen Perry |
UK |
| saccharin |
1879 |
Ira Remsen, Constantin Fahlberg |
US, Germany |
| saddle |
c. 200 BC |
— |
China |
| safety pin |
1849 |
Walter Hunt |
US |
| satellite, successful artificial earth |
1957 |
Sergey Korolyov, et al. |
USSR |
| satellite, communications |
1960 |
John Robinson Pierce |
US |
| saxophone |
1846 |
Antoine-Joseph Sax |
Belgium |
| Scotch tape |
1930 |
Richard Drew (3M) |
US |
| scuba gear |
1943 |
Jacques Cousteau, Émile Gagnan |
France |
| seat belt, automotive shoulder |
1959 |
Nils Bohlin (Volvo) |
Sweden |
| sewing machine |
1841 |
Barthélemy Thimonnier |
France |
| shoelaces |
1790 |
— |
England |
| silicone |
1904 |
Frederic Stanley Kipping |
UK |
| skateboard |
1958 |
Bill & Mark Richards |
US |
| skates, ice |
1000 BC |
— |
Scandinavia |
| skates, roller |
1760s |
Joseph Merlin |
Belgium |
| ski, snow |
c. 2000–3000 BC |
— |
Sweden, Finland, Norway |
| skyscraper, steel-frame |
1884 |
William Le Baron Jenney |
US |
| slot machine |
1890s |
Charles Fey |
US |
| snowmobile |
1922 |
Joseph-Armand Bombardier |
Canada |
| soap |
600 BC |
Phoenicians |
Lebanon |
| soft drinks, carbonated |
1772 |
Joseph Priestley |
UK |
| sonar |
1915 |
Paul Langevin |
France |
| stamps, postage |
1840 |
Sir Rowland Hill |
UK |
| stapler |
1866 |
George W. McGill |
US |
| steamboat, successful |
1807 |
Robert Fulton |
US |
| steel, mass-production |
1856 |
Henry Bessemer |
UK |
| steel, stainless |
1914 |
Harry Brearley |
UK |
| stereo, personal |
1979 |
Sony Corp. |
Japan |
| stereophonic sound recording |
1931 |
Alan Dower Blumlein |
UK |
| stethoscope |
1819 |
René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec |
France |
| stock ticker |
1867 |
Edward A. Calahan |
US |
| stove, electric |
1896 |
William Hadaway |
US |
| stove, gas |
1826 |
James Sharp |
UK |
| straw, drinking |
1888 |
Marvin Stone |
US |
| submarine |
1620 |
Cornelis Drebbel |
The Netherlands |
| sunglasses |
1752 |
James Ayscough |
UK |
| sunscreen |
1944 |
Benjamin Green |
US |
| supermarket |
1930 |
Michael Cullen |
US |
| synthesizer, music |
1955 |
Harry Olson, Herbert Belar |
US |
| synthetic skin |
1981 |
Ioannis V. Yannas, John F. Burke |
US |
| tampon, cotton |
1931 |
Earle Cleveland Haas |
US |
| tank, military |
1915 |
Admiralty Landships Committee |
UK |
| tea bag |
early 1900s |
Thomas Sullivan |
US |
| teddy bear |
1902 |
Morris Michtom |
US |
| Teflon |
1938 |
Roy Plunkett |
US |
| telegraph |
1832–35 |
Samuel F.B. Morse |
US |
| telephone, wired-line |
1876 |
Alexander Graham Bell |
Scotland/US |
| telephone, mobile |
1946 |
Bell Laboratories |
US |
| telescope, optical |
1608 |
Hans Lippershey |
The Netherlands |
| television |
1923, 1927 |
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Philo Taylor Farnsworth |
Russia/US, US |
| thermometer |
1592 |
Galileo |
Italy |
| thermostat |
1830 |
Andrew Ure |
UK |
| threshing machine |
1778 |
Andrew Meikle |
Scotland |
| tire, pneumatic |
1888 |
John Boyd Dunlop |
UK |
| tissue, disposable facial |
1924 |
Kimberly-Clark Co. |
US |
| tissue, toilet |
1857 |
Joseph Gayetty |
US |
| toaster, electric |
1893 |
Crompton Co. |
UK |
| toilet, flush |
c. 1591 |
Sir John Harington |
England |
| toothbrush |
1498 |
…
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