Inventors and Inventions

1620

The earliest human-powered submarine invented.

1624

William Oughtred invents a slide ruler.

1625

Frenchmen, Jean-Baptiste Denys invents a method for blood transfusion.

1629

Giovanni Branca invents a steam turbine.

1636

W. Gascoigne invents the micrometer.

1642

Frenchmen, Blaise Pascal invents an adding machine.

1643

Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer.

1650

Otto von Guericke invents a air pump.

1656

Christian Huygens invents a pendulum clock.

1660

Cuckoo clocks made in Furtwangen, Germany, in the Black Forest region.

1663

James Gregory invents the first reflecting telescope.

1668

Isaac Newton invents a reflecting telescope.

1670

The first reference to a candy cane is made.

Dom Prignon invents Champagne.

1671

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invents a calculating machine.

1675

Christian Huygens patents the pocket watch.

1676

Robert Hooke invents the universal joint.

1679

Denis Papin invents the pressure cooker.

1698

Englishmen, Thomas Savery invents a steam pump.

1701

Jethro Tull invents the seed drill.

1709

Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano.

1711

Englishmen, John Shore invents the tuning fork.

1712

Thomas Newcomen patents the atmospheric steam engine.

1717

Edmond Halley invents the diving bell.

1722

French C. Hopffer patents the fire extinguisher.

1724

Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the first mercury thermometer.

1733

John Kay invents the flying shuttle.

1745

E.G. von Kleist invents the leyden jar, the first electrical capacitor.

1752

Benjamin Franklin invents the lightening rod.

1755

Samuel Johnson publishes the first English language dictionary on April 15th after nine years of writing. In the preface Samuel Johnson wrote, "I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven."

1757

John Campbell invents the sextant.

1758

Dolland invents a chromatic lens.

1761

Englishmen, John Harrison invents the navigational clock or marine chronometer for measuring longitude.

1764

James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny.

1767

Joseph Priestley invents carbonated water - soda water.

1768

Richard Arkwright patents the spinning frame.

1769

James Watt invents an improved steam engine.

1774

Georges Louis Lesage patents the electric telegraph.

1775

Alexander Cummings invents the flush toilet.

Jacques Perrier invents a steamship.

1776

David Bushnell invents a submarine.

1779

Samuel Crompton invents the spinning mule.

1780

Benjamin Franklin invents bi-focal eyeglasses.

Gervinus invents the circular saw.

1783

Louis Sebastien demonstrates the first parachute.

Benjamin Hanks patents the self-winding clock.

Joseph Michel Montgolfier and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier invent the hot-air balloon.

Englishmen, Henry Cort invents the steel roller for steel production.

1784

Andrew Meikle invents the threshing machine.

Joseph Bramah invents the safety lock.

1785

Edmund Cartwright invents the power loom.

Claude Berthollet invents chemical bleaching.

Charles Augustus Coulomb invents the torsion balance.

Blanchard invents a working parachute.

1786

John Fitch invents a steamboat.

1789

The guillotine is invented.

1790

The United States issued its first patent to William Pollard of Philadelphia for a machine that roves and spins cotton.

1791

John Barber invents the gas turbine.

Early bicycles invented in Scotland.

1792

William Murdoch invents gas lighting.

The first ambulance.

1794

Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin.

Welshmen, Philip Vaughan invents ball bearings.

1795

Francois Appert invents the preserving jar for food.

1796

Edward Jenner creates a smallpox vaccination.

1797

Wittemore patents a carding machine.

A British inventor, Henry Maudslay invents the first metal or precision lathe.

1798

The first soft drink invented.

Aloys Senefelder invents lithography.

1799

Alessandro Volta invents the battery.

Louis Robert invents the Fourdrinier Machine for sheet paper making.

1800

Frenchmen, J.M. Jacquard invents the Jacquard Loom.

Count Alessandro Volta invents the battery

1804

Freidrich Winzer (Winsor) was the first person to patent gas lighting.

Richard Trevithick, an English mining engineer, developed the first steam-powered locomotive. Unfortunately, the machine was too heavy and broke the very rails it was traveling on.

1809

Humphry Davy invents the first electric light - the first arc lamp.

1810

German, Frederick Koenig invents an improved printing press.

Peter Durand invents the tin can.

1814

George Stephenson designs the first steam locomotive.

The first plastic surgery is performed in England.

German, Joseph von Fraunhofer invents the spectrocope for the chemical analysis of glowing objects.

Joseph Nicphore Nipce was the first person to take a photograph. He took the picture by setting up a machine called the camera obscura in the window of his home in France. It took eight hours for the camera to take the picture.

1815

Humphry Davy invents the miner's lamp.

1819

Samuel Fahnestock patents a "soda fountain".

Ren Lannec invents the stethoscope.

1823

Mackintosh (raincoat) invented by Charles Mackintosh of Scotland.

1824

Professor Michael Faraday invents the first toy balloon.

Englishmen, Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement, the modern building material.

1825

William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet.

1827

John Walker invents the modern matches.

Charles Wheatstone invents the microphone.

1829

American, W.A. Burt invents a typewriter.

Frenchmen, Louis Braille invents braille printing.

William Austin Burt patents a typographer, a predecessor to the typewriter.

1830

Frenchmen, B. Thimonnier invents a sewing machine.

1831

American, Cyrus H. McCormick invents the first commercially successful reaper.

Michael Faraday invents a electric dynamo.

1832

Englishmen, Louis Braille invents the stereoscope.

1834

Henry Blair patents a corn planter, he is the second black person to receive a U.S. patent.

Jacob Perkins invents an early refrigerator (really an ether ice machine).

1835

Englishmen, Henry F. Talbot invents Calotype photography.

Solymon Merrick patents the wrench.

Englishmen, Francis Pettit Smith invents the propeller.

Charles Babbage invents a mechanical calculator.

1836

Francis Pettit Smith and John Ericcson co-invent the propellor.

Samuel Colt invented the first revolver.

1837

Samuel Morse invents the telegraph.

English schoolmaster, Rowland Hill invents the postage stamp.

1838

Samual Morse invents Morse Code.

I839

American, Thaddeus Fairbanks invents platform scales.

American, Charles Goodyear invents rubber vulcanization.

Frenchmen, Louis Daguerre and J.N. Niepce co-invent Daguerreotype photography.

Kirkpatrick Macmillan invents a bicycle.

Welshmen, Sir William Robert Grove conceives of the first hydrogen fuel cell.

1840

Englishmen, John Herschel invents the blueprint.

1841

Samuel Slocum patents the stapler.

1842

Joseph Dart builds the first grain elevator.

1843

Alexander Bain of Scotland, invents the facsimile.

1844

Englishmen, John Mercer invents mercerized cotton.

1845

American, Elias Howe invents a sewing machine.

Robert William Thomson patents the first vulcanised rubber pneumatic tire.

1846

Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, is the first to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.

1847

Hungarian, Ignaz Semmelweis invents antisceptics.

1848

Waldo Hanchett patents the dental chair.

1849

Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.

1850

Joel Houghton was granted the first dishwasher patent in 1850. The machine was made of wood and required you to hand-turn a wheel that caused water to splash on the dishes. Houghton's machine barely worked. The first practical dishwasher was invented by a woman named Josephine Cochran in 1886. Dishwashers, however, did not begin appearing in homes until the 1950s.

1851

Isaac Singer invents a sewing machine.

1852

Jean Bernard Lon Foucault invents a gyroscope.

Henri Giffard builds an airship powered by the first aircraft engine - unsuccessful design.

1853

George Cayley invents a manned glider.

1854

John Tyndall demonstrates the principles of fiber optics.

1855

Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine motor.

Georges Audemars invents rayon.

1856

Louis Pasteur invents pasteurisation.

1857

George Pullman invents the Pullman Sleeping Car for train travel.

1858

Hamilton Smith patents the rotary washing machine.

Jean Lenoir invents an internal combustion engine.

1861

Elisha Otis patents elevator safety brakes, creating a safer elevator.

Pierre Michaux invents a bicycle.

Linus Yale invents the Yale lock or cylinder lock.

1862

Dr. Richard Gatling patents the machine gun.

Alexander Parkes invents the first man-made plastic.

1866

Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.

J. Osterhoudt patents the tin can with a key opener.

Englishmen Robert Whitehead invents a torpedo.

1867

Christopher Scholes invents the first practical and modern typewriter.

1868

George Westinghouse invents air brakes.

Robert Mushet invents tungsten steel.

J P Knight invents traffic lights.

1872

J.S. Risdon patents the metal windmill.

A.M. Ward issues the first mail-order catalog.

1873

Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.

1874

American, C. Goodyear, Jr. invents the shoe welt stitcher.

1876

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

Nicolaus August Otto invents the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine.

Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.

1877

Thomas Edison invents the cylinder phonograph or tin foil phonograph.

Eadweard Muybridge invents the first moving pictures.

1878

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electic light bulb.

1880

The British Perforated Paper Company invents a form of toilet paper.

Englishmen, John Milne invents the modern seismograph.

1881

Alexander Graham Bell invents the first crude metal detector.

David Houston patents the roll film for cameras.

Edward Leveaux patents the automatic player piano.

1884

George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.

Frenchmen, H. de Chardonnet invents rayon.

Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen.

James Ritty invents the first working, mechanical cash register.

Charles Parson patents the steam turbine.

1885

Harim Maxim invents the machine gun.

Karl Benz invents the first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine.

Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engined motorcycle.

1886

Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher.

Gottlieb Daimler builds the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle.

John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.

1887

German, Heinrich Hertz invents radar.

Rowell Hodge patents barbed wire.

Emile Berliner invents the gramophone.

F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses.

1888

Marvin Stone patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws.

John Boyd Dunlop patents a commercially successful pneumatic tire.

Nikola Tesla invents the AC motor and transformer.

1889

Joshua Pusey invents the matchbook.

Sir James Dewar and Sir Frederick Abel co-invent Cordite - a type of smokeless gunpowder.

1891

Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator.

1892

Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel-fueled internal combustion engine.

Sir James Dewar invents the Dewar flask or vacuum flask.

1893

American, W.L. Judson invents the zipper.

Edward Goodrich Acheson invents carborundum.

1896

American, H. O'Sullivan invents the rubber heel.

1898

Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster.

Rudolf Diesel receives patent #608,845 for an "internal combustion engine" the Diesel engine.

1899

I.R. Johnson patents the bicycle frame.

J.S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner.

1900

The zeppelin invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Charles Seeberger redesigned Jesse Reno's escalator and invented the modern escalator.

1901

King Camp Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor.

The first radio receiver, successfully received a radio transmission.

Hubert Booth invents a compact and modern vacuum cleaner.

1902

Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner.

French physicist George Claude invents neon light.

The lie detector or polygraph machine is invented by James Mackenzie.

The birth of the Teddy Bear.

George Claude invented neon light.

1903

Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons.

Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens.

The Wright brothers invent the first gas motored and manned airplane.

Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.

William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.

1904

Teabags invented by Thomas Suillivan.

Benjamin Holt invents a tractor.

John A Fleming invents a vacuum diode or Fleming valve.

1905

Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity and made famous the equation, E = mc2.

Mary Anderson receives a patent for windshield wipers.

1906

William Kellogg invents Cornflakes.

Lewis Nixon invents the first sonar like device.

Lee Deforest invents electronic amplifying tube (triode).

1907

Leo Baekeland invents the first synthetic plastic called Bakelite.

Color photography invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere.

The very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu.

1908

The gyrocompass invented by Elmer A. Sperry.

Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger.

Model T first sold.

J W Geiger and W Mller invent the geiger counter.

Fritz Haber invents the Haber process for making artificial nitrates.

1909

Instant coffee invented by G. Washington.

1910

Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.

Georges Claude displayed the first neon lamp to the public on December 11, 1910, in Paris.

1911

Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system.

1912

Motorized movie cameras invented, replaced hand-cranked cameras.

The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole.

Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy in 1912.

1913

The crossword puzzle invented by Arthur Wynne.

The Merck Chemical Company patented, what is now know as, ecstasy.

Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra.

Gideon Sundback invented the modern zipper.

1914

Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask.

1915

Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invented Pyrex in New York City.

1916

Radios tuners invented that received different stations.

Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly.

1917

Gideon Sundback patented the modern zipper (not the first zipper).

1918

The superheterodyne radio circuit invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong. Today, every radio or television set uses this invention.

Charles Jung invented fortune cookies.

1919

The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite.

Short-wave radio invented.

The flip-flop circuit invented.

The arc welder invented.

1920

The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson.

The Band-Aid (pronounced 'ban-'dade) invented by Earle Dickson.

1921

Artificial life begins -- the first robot built.

John Larson invented the lie detector.

1922

Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting.

The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released.

1923

Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal.

The television or iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin.

John Harwood invented the self-windingwatch in 1923.

Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food.

1924

The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg.

Notebooks with spiral bindings invented.

1925

The mechanical television a precursor to the modern television, invented by John Logie Baird.

1926

Robert H. Goddard invents liquid-fueled rockets.

1927

Eduard Haas III invents PEZ candy.

JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system.

Technicolor invented.

Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can.

Warren Marrison developed the first quartz clock.

Philip Drinker invents the iron lung.

1928

Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.

Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer.

Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver.

1929

American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio.

Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad.

1930

Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer, Richard G. Drew.

The frozen food process patented by Clarence Birdseye.

Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents neoprene.

The "differential analyzer", or analog computer invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston.

Frank Whittle and Dr Hans von Ohain both invent a jet engine.

1931

Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography.

Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope.

1932

Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land.

The zoom lens and the light meter invented.

Carl C. Magee invents the first parking meter.

Karl Jansky invents the radio telescope.

1933

Frequency modulation (FM radio) invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong.

Stereo records invented.

Richard M. Hollingshead builds a prototype drive-in movie theater in his driveway.

1934

Englishmen, Percy Shaw invents cat eyes or roads reflectors.

Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly.

Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording.

1935

Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents nylon (polymer 6.6.)

The first canned beer made.

Robert Watson-Watt patented radar.

1936

Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine.

Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver.

1937

Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier.

The first jet engine is built.

1938

The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro.

Strobe lighting invented.

Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers or Teflon.

Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented.

The first working turboprop engine.

1939

Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter.

The electron microscope invented.

1940

Dr William Reich invents the orgone accumulator.

Peter Goldmark invents modern color television system.

Karl Pabst invents the jeep.

1941

Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first computer controlled by software.

Aerosol spray cans invented by American inventors, Lyle David Goodloe and W.N. Sullivan.

Enrico Fermi invents the neutronic reactor.

1942

John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic digital computer.

Max Mueller designs a turboprop engine.

1943

Synthetic rubber invented.

Richard James invents the slinky.

James Wright invent silly putty.

Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD.

Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invent the aqualung.

1944

The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff.

Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.

1945

Vannevar Bush proposes hypertext.

The atomic bomb invented.

1946

The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer.

1947

British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed the theory of holography.

Mobile phones first invented. Although cell phones were not sold commercially until 1983, AT&T came up with the idea way back.

Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor.

Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal.

1948

The Frisbee invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni.

Velcro invented by George de Mestral.

Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox.

1949

Cake mix invented.

1950

The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider.

1951

Super glue invented.

Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis.

Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR).

1952

Mr. Potato Head patented.

The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver.

The first diet soft drink sold.

Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb.

1953

Radial tires invented.

The first musical synthesizer invented by RCA.

David Warren invented the black box - flight recorder.

Transistor radio invented by Texas Instruments.

1954

Oral contraceptives invented.

The first nonstick pan produced.

The solar cell invented by Chaplin, Fuller and Pearson.

Ray Kroc started McDonalds.

1955

Tetracycline invented.

Optic fiber invented.

1956

The first computer hard disk used.

The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell.

Bette Nesmith Graham invented "Mistake Out," later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter.

1957

Fortran (computer language) invented.

1958

The modem invented.

Gordon Gould invents the laser.

The Hula Hoop invented by Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin.

The integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.

1959

The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch.

Barbie Doll invented.

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce both invent the microchip.

1960

The halogen lamp invented.

1961

Valium invented.

The nondairy creamer invented.

1962

The audio cassette invented.

The fiber-tip pen invented by Yukio Horie.

Spacewar, the first computer video game invented.

Dow Corp invents silicone breast implants.

1963

The first videodisc invented.

1964

Acrylic paint invented.

Permanent-press fabric invented.

BASIC (an early computer language) is invented by John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz.

1965

Astroturf invented.

Soft contact lenses invented.

NutraSweet invented.

The compact disk invented by James Russell.

Kevlar invented by Stephanie Louise Kwolek.

1966

Electronic Fuel injection for cars invented.

1967

The first handheld calculator invented.

1968

The computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart.

The first computer with integrated circuits made.

Robert Dennard invented RAM (random access memory).

1969

The Arpanet (first internet) invented.

The artificial heart invented.

The ATM invented.

The bar-code scanner is invented.

1970

The daisy-wheel printer invented.

The floppy disk invented by Alan Shugart.

1971

The dot-matrix printer invented.

The food processor invented.

The liquid-crystal display (LCD) invented by James Fergason.

The microprocessor invented by Faggin, Hoff and Mazor.

VCR or videocassette recorder invented.

1972

The word processor invented.

Pong (first video game) invented by Nolan Bushnell.

Hacky Sack invented by John Stalberger and Mike Marshall.

1973

Gene splicing invented.

The Ethernet (local computer network) invented by Robert Metcalfe and Xerox.

Bic invents the disposable lighter.

1974

The post-it note invented by Arthur Fry.

Giorgio Fischer, a gynecologist from Rome, Italy, invents liposuction.

1975

The laser printer invented.

The push-through tab on a drink can invented.

1976

The ink-jet printer invented.

1977

Magnetic resonance imaging invented by Raymond V. Damadian.