1. Who was hit on the head by a falling apple and so discovered Gravity?

2. Who proposed his theory of Relativity?

3. Whose theory placed the sun at the centre of the solar system?
4. Who first developed the theory of Evolution by natural selection?
5. Who turned a telescope on the stars, saw sunspots, and spent his final years under house arrest?
6. Robert Oppenheimer is best remembered for his work on what?
7. Which metaphysician developed the theory of calculus at the same time as did Newton?
8. Who developed the modern system of classifying plants and animals?
9. Who discovered X-rays?
10. Who proposed the periodic table of chemical elements?
ANSWERS
1. Issac Newton
2. Albert Einstein
3. Copernicus
4. Charles Darwin
5. Galileo
6. The Atomic Bomb
7. Leibniz
8. Linnaeus
9. Roentgen
10. Mendelev
A SCIENCE HISTORY QUIZ
by Donald E. Simanek
This quiz has answers below, but please don't look at them too soon. I've used these questions in history of science seminars at
Lock Haven University to give students practice in library research.
1. Who first described Newton's rings?
2. Who first successfully explained Newton's rings?
3. Who first gave a correct physical explanation of why the sky is blue?
4. Who invented the Wheatstone bridge?
5. Who first patented the telegraph?
6. Who invented Morse code?
7. Who first experimentally verified Coulomb's law of electric attraction?
8. Who first performed Faraday's ice pail experiment demonstrating electrostatic shielding?
9. Who invented the decimal point notation in mathematics?
10. Who invented the drip coffee pot?
11. Who first made carbonated water?
12. What chemist was the first to discover and describe color blindness?
13. Who first formulated L'Hospital's rule for evaluating indeterminate algebraic forms?
14. Who first made a 'Galilean' (non-inverting) type telescope consisting of a positive objective lens and a negative eyelens at opposite
ends of a tube?
15. Who invented the microscope?
16. Who fist made the 'Keplerian' (astronomical, inverting) type telescope consisting of a positive objective lens and a positive eyelens
at opposite ends of a tube?
17. Who first made a `Newtonian' reflecting telescope with a concave objective mirror?
18. Who first proposed and performed the experiment of dropping two balls of different weight from a high tower to test Aristotle's
assertion that they'd fall at different speeds?
19. Who first performed the experiment of flying a kite to `draw down the 'electric fluid' of lightning?
20. Who does lie buried in Grant's tomb? Where is Grant's tomb? How many bricks are in Grant's tomb?

Are you beginning to think that much of what you were taught in school, and expected to regurgitate on exams, is wrong? If so, you are
getting the picture. If you want to find out more examples of how many of the things `everybody knows' are actually wrong, this short
bibliography should provide a good start:

1. Boller, Paul F., Jr & John George. They Never Said It, A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes & Misleading Attributions. Oxford
University Press, 1989.
2. Burnam, Tom. The Dictionary of Misinformation. Ballantine paperback, 1975.
3. Burnam, Tom. More Misinformation. Ballantine paperback, 1980.
4. Dickson, Paul, & Joseph C. Goulden. Myth-Informed, Legends, Credos, and Wrongheaded "Facts" We All Believe. Perigee
Books, 1993.
5. Evans, Bergen. The Natural History of Nonsense. Knopf, 1946, 1960.
6. Evans, Bergen. The Spoor of Spooks and other Nonsense. Knopf, 1954.
7. Montagu, Ashley and Edward Darling. The Prevalence of Nonsense. Harper and Row, 1967.
8. Montagu, Ashley and Edward Darling. The Ignorance of Certainty. Harper and Row, 1970.
9. Morgan, Chris and David Langford. Facts and Fallacies, a Book of Definitive Mistakes and Misguided predictions. St.
Martin's Press, 1981.
10. Rosten, Leo. The Power of Positive Nonsense. McGraw-Hill, 1977.
11. Stefanson, Vilhjalmur. Adventures in Error, 1936. Gale Research Co. reprint, 1970.
12. Tabori, Paul. The Natural Science of Stupidity. Chilton, 1959.
13. Tabori, Paul. The Art of Folly. Chilton, 1961.
14. Tuleja, Tad. Fabulous Fallacies. Harmony Books, 1982.
15. Varasdi, J. Allen. Myth Information. Ballantine Books, 1989.
A SCIENCE HISTORY QUIZ (Answers)

This quiz appeared in The Vector, Vol 2 #1 (Jan 1978). The answers didn't. These answers should not be considered the final word, for
one can always dig deeper. Some of the library digging was done by students in my History of Science Seminars.
1. Who first described Newton's rings?

Newton's rings are the colored rings one sees in thin oil or soap films, and when two pieces of glass are placed in contact, with a slight
gap of varying thickness between them. Since they are easily observed, we have no idea who first saw them. I've found no clear
evidence of these being described in print before Newton did so.

2. Who first successfully explained Newton's rings?

Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1618-1663) is credited as the discoverer of diffraction. He held the view that colors are a `modification' of
light. Hooke and Newton were both familiar with Grimaldi's work. Grimaldi's one book was published posthumously in
1665. [1] Newton's experiments with prisms supported the view that white light contains all colors, the prism merely separates
(disperses) them spatially. Newton gave a series of lectures on optics at Cambridge around 1670, and later published them under the
title Optiks: or, a Treatise on the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Newton's particle theory of light was
complicated and unsuccessful in many ways, especially his explanation of interference colors such as Newton's rings. Thomas Young
(1773-1829) explained them using the wave theory of light. Young was not noted for giving clear, understandable explanations, but his
wave theory did work, and became the accepted model of light.

3. Who first gave a correct physical explanation of why the sky appears blue?

John Tyndall (1820-1893) proposed that the blueness of the sky is due to light scattering by atmospheric particles. He showed in the
laboratory that scattered light from small particles appears bluish. This is called the "Tyndall effect". John William Strutt [Lord
Rayleigh] (1842-1919) was somewhat more successful in arguing for that explanation, and is usually the one credited with the law that
light scattering depends on the inverse fourth power of the wavelength. So it is now called "Rayleigh scattering." Both Tyndall and
Rayleigh thought that dust particles were doing the atmospheric scattering. But it is primarily the gas molecules in the atmosphere that
are responsible for the apparent sky color. Dewar wrongly thought the blue sky was due to oxygen in the atmosphere, because liquid
oxygen appears bluish in color.

So the sky appears blue because we are seeing only the predominantly short wavelength (violet and blue) end of the spectrum of
scattered sunlight. The setting sun appears reddish because in our line of sight the violet and blue spectral colors are scattered and do
not reach our eyes. Though looking directly at the sun can cause serious eye damage, sunlight appears yellow, again because the violet
and blue part of its spectrum is reduced by scattering out of the line of sight. Clouds appear white because their vapor droplets are large
enough to scatter all colors of the spectrum of sunlight. If there were no atmosphere the sun would appear white.

Then why do white painted houses appear white? They receive light from both sun and sky, and scatter it all. However, if a white
surface, such as a clean winter snowbank is in a place shaded from the sun, but not from the blue sky light, the snow appears bluish.
And in photographs it may seem "too" blue because the film (or the digital camera sensor) is also sensitive to ultraviolet light,
rendering it as blue.

For a more complete explanation see John Baez's website Blue Sky.

[2]

4. Who invented the Wheatstone bridge?

The Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit for the precise comparison of resistances. Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) never
claimed to have invented it, but he did more than anyone else to invent uses for it. The first description of the bridge was by Samuel
Hunter Christie (1784-1865) in 1833. Christie also showed that conductivity of wires varies directly with their diameter and inversely
to their length, a law often credited to Ohm. [3] Wheatstone did invent the telegraph (patented in 1837), and the concertina (a small
musical instrument like the accordion).

5. Who first patented a telegraph?

The first known suggestion for using electrical currents to transmit messages was made in an anonymous letter to a Scottish magazine
in 1753. [4] Sir Francis Ronalds set up a telegraph demonstration in his garden in London in 1816. It sent a message by turning a wheel
with letters around its rim (a somewhat slow method!). [5]

William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone (physicist) took out the first patent, in England, in 1837. Their device used five
magnetic needles arranged to point at different letters, and it required five wires. By 1838 they had reduced it to two needles by use of
a code. Wheatstone acknowledged his debt to American Joseph Henry (1897-1878), with whom he had helpful discussions about the
idea. Wheatstone was not so gracious in acknowledging Cooke's contributions. [6]

Joseph Henry developed a system of electric telegraphy a decade before Morse. [7]He could have patented the idea, had he cared about
such trivial things as fame and wealth. [8] Samuel Morse (1791-1872) got the idea from Henry, but he wasn't gracious enough to admit
it—even at the court trial in which a number of others challenged Morse's priority. At this trial Morse clearly demonstrated that he
didn't understand electricity well enough to have invented the telegraph all by himself. Yet Morse won the court battle anyway! Morse
fought many patent suits over his inventions, and won them. Morse had also gotten some of his ideas for the telegraph from second-
hand accounts of the work of Faraday. Leonard Gale looked at Morse's inept early models, "took pity on him", and gave help and
advice. [9] Gale knew physics and had read (and understood) Joseph Henry's papers on the subject of electricity. Morse's first private
demonstrations were in 1837, his first commercial installation in 1844. [10] The successful telegraph owes more to Gale and Henry
than to Morse. [11] When Morse attempted to secure patent protection in England, he learned to his dismay that Wheatstone had
invented the telegraph, and it was already in use by the Post Office. In continental Europe he found that Steinhill had invented the
telegraph, and it was in use in railroad stations.

6. Who invented Morse code?

No, not Morse. The code was the invention of Morse's assistant Alfred Vail. Vail perfected the final form of the code and simplified
the whole process by introducing the telegraph key. Vail is responsible for the efficiency of the code, using the principle that the most
frequently sent letters should have the shortest code. He also invented a printing telegraph which Morse patented in his own name, as
he was entitled to do under the terms of Vail's contract with Morse. Though Morse wasn't very impressive as a scientist or inventor, he
was a good artist (painter and sculptor).

7. Who first experimentally verified Coulomb's law of electric attraction?

See question 8.

8. Who first performed Faraday's ice pail experiment demonstrating electrostatic shielding?

Henry Cavendish in both cases. Cavendish's early work, on the experimental determination of the gravitational constant, was reported
to the Royal Society. But his later work was recorded in notebooks and not published until after his death. He spent 60 years in
exclusive preoccupation with research, caring nothing about fame, credit, or money. That attitude is really "doing science for its own
sake.''

Cavendish made many important discoveries in electrostatics, but since the world didn't hear of them, others got the credit. Thus we
see in textbooks `Faraday's ice pail experiment,' and `Coulomb's law,' but Cavendish did them first.

9. Who invented the decimal point?

The decimal point goes along with place-value notation. According to Edward deBono's very comprehensive book Eureka, [12] place-
value notation goes back at least to the Sumerians in Babylonia in the 18th century BCE, who wrote numbers in base 60 with
cuneiform script. They had no zero symbol, however, merely leaving a space where a zero should be. This source claims that Indian
mathematicians picked up the Babylonian place-value idea and adapted it to decimal notation. Quoting deBono:
Indian mathematicians simplified the Babylonian number notation and changed from base 60 to base 10, thus creating the modern
decimal system. Very little evidence exists of the chronology of Indian number symbols but it seems that, like the Babylonians, the
Indians for a long time saw no need to write a symbol for zero. The earliest example of Indian use of the decimal system with a zero
dates from AD 595.

The earliest definite reference to the Hindu numerals beyond the borders of India is in a note written by a Mesopotamian bishop,
Severus Sebokht, about AD 650, which speaks of `nine signs', not mentioning the zero. By the end of the 8th century, some Indian
astronomical tables had been translated at Baghdad and these signs became known to Arabian scholars of the time. In 824, the scholar
al-Khwarizmi wrote a small book on numerals, and 300 years later it was translated into Latin by Adelard of Bath. Some historians
believe that these number symbols came to Europe even before they arrived in Baghdad, but the oldest European manuscript containing
them dates from AD 976 in Spain.
From the same source:
Far away from the mainstream of Western history, the Mayan culture of Central America, which died out at the end of the 9th century,
developed a place-value system of notation with a symbol for zero. Mayan numbers were written vertically and are read from bottom
upwards. The Mayans worked in base 20... It is conjectured that the Mayans first used their zero symbols at about the same time as the
Babylonians used theirs on the other side of the earth, but the oldest Mayan numerical inscription dates from no earlier than the end of
the 3rd century AD.
But there's still the question of the decimal point. Francesco Pellos (or Pelizzati) of Nice used a decimal point to indicate division of a
number by a power of 10, in his 1492 book on commercial arithmetic. The 16th century German mathematician Bartholomäus Pitiscus
(or Petiscus) (1561-1613) uses a decimal point in his book on trigonometry. [13]

10. Who invented the drip coffee pot?

Physicist Benjamin Thompson [Count Rumford] (1754-1814). He tried to find out why boiled coffee tasted so bad, and concluded that
volatile oils were the source of the flavor, and were being evaporated by boiling the coffee. So he designed the drip coffee pot to
preserve the flavor.

11. Who first made carbonated water?

Chemist Joseph Priestly (1733-1804). Priestly discovered carbon dioxide (fixed air) as one of the components of air. He used it to make
carbonated water. Think of this next time you have a soda pop.

12. What chemist was the first to discover and describe color blindness?

The English chemist John Dalton (1766-1844). He noticed that his description of the colors of chemical reactions did not agree with
other people's descriptions. So he investigated, and discovered that he had color blindness. He shunned honors and awards because of
his Quaker beliefs that one should not seek personal glory. Late in life he was to receive a doctor's degree from Oxford, and colleagues
chose the occasion to present him to King William IV. Dalton would not wear court dress, and Oxford's academic robes were scarlet
(not an appropriate color for a Quaker!). Quakers shunned ostentatious clothing and bright colors. But Dalton, being color-blind, said
that the robes looked gray to him. So he wore the academic robe, received his degree and was presented to the king. [14] I'm suspicious
about the authenticity of this colorful story. Sometimes such tales are invented after the fact, often by overzealous biographers.

13. Who first formulated L'Hospital's rule for evaluating indeterminate forms?

John Bernoulli (1667-1748). Guillaume François Antoine de l'Hospital (1661-1704) hired Bernoulli to tutor him in mathematics, and
their written contract gave l'Hospital the right to use what he learned in any way he wished. Bernoulli had sent l'Hospital this rule of
calculus, and l'Hospital published it under his own name, with only an unspecific acknowledgment of help from ``the young professor
at Groningen.'' This shows that immortality can sometimes be bought. Do not feel too much sympathy for John Bernoulli, however.
When his own book was published, it was alleged that much of it was plagiarized from the work of John's son, Jacob Bernoulli. After
l'Hospital's death John claimed that l'Hospital had plagiarized much of his work, but since he often accused others of plagiarism, he
was not believed. The Bernoulli clan of mathematicians was a contentious lot, often publicly squabbling, competing for mathematics
prizes and honors, and accusing each other of stealing ideas. [15]

14. Who invented the 'Galilean' telescope consisting of a positive objective lens and a negative eyelens at opposite ends of a tube?

In 1590 the Dutch optician Zacharias Janssen of Middleburg placed a concave and convex lens at either end of a tube. He used it to
magnify small, nearby objects—as a microscope. [16] With a change of separation of the lenses it could have been used as a Galilean
telescope.

Later, Johannes Lippershey (or Lippersheim) (?-1619), also of Middleburg, applied for a patent for such a telescope in 1608.
Lippershey was a spectacle maker. His assistant pointed out that two lenses could be used to make distant objects seem
nearer. [17] Lippershey made up tubes with lenses, and attempted to sell them to the Dutch Government, which tried to keep the
invention secret. [18]

Giambattista della Porta (1534?-1615) claimed to be the inventor of the telescope, and was working on a book documenting that claim
when he died.

Rumors of the Dutch 'perspective glasses' reached Galileo in 1609, [19] who then constructed such a telescope and used it to make
revolutionary discoveries in astronomy. It is now known as the 'Galilean' telescope, but Germans still call it the 'Dutch' telescope.
Galileo tells the story this way: [20]
Ten months ago, nearly, a rumour came to our ears that an optical instrument had been elaborated by a Dutchman, by the aid of which
visible objects, even though far distant from the eye of the observer, were distinctly seen as if near at hand; and some stories of this
marvelous effect were bandied about, to which some gave credence and which others denied. The same was confirmed to me a few
days after by a letter sent from Paris by the noble Frenchman Jacob Badovere, which at length was the reason that I applied myself
entirely to seeking out the theory and discovering the means by which I might arrive at the invention of a similar instrument, an end
which I attained a little later, from considerations of the theory of refraction; and I first prepared a tube of lead, in the ends of which I
fitted two glass lenses, both plane on one side, one being spherically convex, the other concave, on the other side. [21]
Chances are someone put two lenses together in this way even earlier. The credit for the invention of a telescope should go to the one
who not only put the lenses together, but put them in a tube for convenient use. There's some evidence that Arab seamen used
telescopes much earlier than those described above. This is plausible, because the first use of lenses as optical aids originated in Arabia.
I haven't tracked down the references yet.

15. Who invented the microscope?

The invention of the microscope is credited to Zacharias Jonnides and his father. [22]This had a diverging eyelens, and was essentially
a telescope, but Zacharias used it to look at nearby objects.

16. Who fist made the `Keplerian' (astronomical, inverting) type telescope consisting of a positive objective lens and a positive eyelens
at opposite ends of a tube?

The microscope with a converging eyelens is attributed to Franciscus Fontana of Naples. Kepler suggested a convex eyelens for the
telescope. [23] But, as indicated above, Janssen may have done it earlier, dismissing it as useless because it gave an inverted image.
Image inversion is not a problem for an astronomer. I don't know who first used it this way. In any case, it is now known at the
`Keplerian' telescope.

17. Who invented the 'Newtonian' reflecting telescope with a concave objective mirror?

Newton designed his telescope after those of Niccolò Zucchi (1586-1670) and James Gregory, which used a concave mirror and a
smaller flat one. [24] Gregory, a Scottish mathematician, proposed the reflecting telescope in 1663, in his Optica Promota, but
apparently didn't make one because of the difficulty of grinding good mirrors. [25]

18. Who first proposed the experiment of dropping two balls of different weight from a high tower to test Aristotle's assertion that
they'd fall at different speeds?

The Byzantine scholar John Philoponus (or John the Grammarian) (6th century CE) described such an experiment:
For if you let fall from the same height two weights of which one is many times as heavy as the other, you will see that the ratio of
times required for the motion does not depend on the ratio of the weights but that the difference in time is a very small one. And so, if
the difference in weights is not considerable, that is, if one is, let us say, double the other, there will be no difference, or else an
imperceptible difference, in time, though the difference in weight is by no means negligible, with one body weighing twice as much as
the other. [26]
One of Tartaglia's pupils, Giovanni Benedetti, in 1533, proposed the experiment of dropping two balls, one heavy and one light, from a
tower to test Aristotle's assertion that the heavier ball would fall a given distance in shorter time. Flemish engineer Simon Stevin did
the experiment and published the results in 1586. There was very little difference in how fast the balls fell. Stevin includes an
experimental detail of considerable importance, determining the simultaneity of landing by the sound as they hit a board:
My experience against Aristotle is the following. Let us take (as the very learned Mr Jan Cornets de Groot, most industrious
investigator of the secrets of nature and myself have done) two spheres of lead, the one ten times larger and heavier than the other, and
drop them together from a height of 30 feet onto a board or something on which they will give a perceptible sound. Then it will be
found that the lighter will not be ten times longer on its way than the heavier but that they will fall together onto the board so
simultaneously that their two sounds seem to be one and the same rap. [27]
Galileo described the experiment in his Dialogues of two New Sciences, and refers several times in other writings to having done such
an experiment from a high tower, but never names a particular tower. Here's Galileo's account:
But I, Simplicio, who have made the test can assure you that a cannon ball weighing one or two hundred pounds or even more, will not
reach the ground by as much as a span ahead of a musket ball weighing only half a pound, provided both are dropped from a height of
200 cubits...the larger outstrips the smaller by two finger-breadths, that is, when the larger has reached the ground, the other is short of
it by two finger-breadths.
The well-known and often-repeated story that Galileo did this experiment from the Leaning Tower of Pisa can be traced back to just
one uncorroborated source: Vincenzo Vivani, Galileo's last pupil and biographer. Vivani's account describes this as a public
demonstration, with the entire university specially assembled by Galileo to observe it. Galileo would have been in his twenties and a
professor at Pisa then. No university record confirms this event, nor does anyone who might have been there, other than Vivani,
mention it. [28]

F. S. Taylor says "As Professor Lane Cooper has pointed out in an entertaining pamphlet, [29] the versions of the story differ widely.
Sometimes they are one pound and 100 pounds, sometimes they are one pound and ten pounds; one ingenious author makes Galileo
enclose different materials in equal-sized boxes, presumably to make their air-resistance the same.'' This shows how colorful fables are
embellished and amplified by authors indifferent to historical accuracy.

19. Who first performed the experiment of flying a kite to 'draw down the electric fluid' of lightning?

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) studied the so-called `electric fluid,' He investigated charged objects and how sparks jumped between
them. Based on these small-scale experiments, Franklin suggested that lightning was just a huge electric spark, like those produced
from charged Leyden jars. Franklin proposed an experiment with an elevated rod or wire to `draw down the electric fire' from a cloud.
His manuscript showed the experimenter standing in the protection of an enclosure, like a soldier's sentry-box. Before Franklin got
around to doing this experiment, others did.

Thomas Francois D'alibard (1703-99) did so successfully in Paris on May 16, 1752, using a 50 foot long vertical rod. A week later M.
Delor repeated the experiment in Paris. John Canton (1717-82) in England did that July in England. The next two to try it were killed
by the experiment. Physicist Georg Wilhelm Richmann (1711-53) did the experiment in St. Petersburg according to Franklin's
instructions, standing inside a room. A glowing ball of charge came down the string, jumped to his forehead and killed him instantly.
This is the first well-documented example of ball lightning. Within a few days of that tragedy, Russian chemist Mikhail V. Lomonosov
(1711-65) successuflly performed the experiment.

Apparently unaware of these experiments, Franklin did the experiment during a thunderstorm in 1752 (probably in June, on the
outskirts of Philadelphia). The demonstration was not public (perhaps to avoid ridicule in case it failed). Franklin did not stand in the
open, as so many romanticized paintings depict, but sensibly stood under a shed roof so that he held a dry, non-conducting portion of
the string. Still, he was lucky to survive. [30]

20. Who lies buried in Grant's tomb? Where is Grant's Tomb? How many bricks are in Grant's Tomb?

Ulysses S. Grant and his wife are entombed there. However, since the tomb is above ground, no one is buried there. The tomb is in
New York City, in a park overlooking the Hudson River, just north of Riverside Church. It has no bricks, being of solid Granite.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS ON INVENTION:

1. Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Doubleday, 1972.
2. Brush, Steven. History of Physical Science from Newton to Einstein, lecture notes for HIST 402 given at the University of
Maryland, College Park, c. 1977 by Stephen G. Brush.
3. deBono, Edward. Eureka! An Illustrated History of Inventions From the Wheel to the Computer. Thames and Hudson, Ltd,
1974. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.
4. Clarke, Donald, ed. The How it Works Encyclopedia of Great Inventors and Discoveries. Marshall Cavendish, 1978.
5. Cooper, Lane. Aristotle, Galileo, and the Tower of Pisa, (pamphlet) Ithaca, 1935.
6. Feldman, Anthony and Peter Ford. Scientists and Inventions. Facts On File and Aldus Books, 1979.
7. Hornsby, Jeremy. The Story of Inventions. Crescent Books, 1977. Larsen, Egon. A History of Invention. London, J. M. Dent
and Sons, Ltd., 1969.
8. Moore, Patrick. Watchers of the Stars, Putnam's, 1974.
9. Stein, Ralph. The Great Inventions. Ridge Press/Playboy Press, 1976.
10. Taylor, F. Sherwood. British Inventions. Longmans, Green & Co., 1950.
11. Taylor, F. Sherwood. Galileo and the Freedom of Thought. London, Watts & Co, 1938.
12. Wilson, Colin. Starseekers, Doubleday, 1980.
13. Wilson, Mitchell. American Science and Invention, Bonanza Books, 1964.
14. The Smithsonian Book of Invention. Smithsonian Exposition Books, 1978.
ENDNOTES
1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. V. [<]
2. Asimov. [<]
3. Dictionary of Scientific Biography, v. III. [<]
4. Hornsby, p. 111. [<]
5. Hornsby, p. 111. [<]
6. deBono, p. 53. [<]
7. Smithsonian Book of Invention, p. 40. [<]

8.Joseph Henry has to be ranked as one of the truly great scientific minds of America, though his name may be practically unknown to
most persons. His skills did not include self-promotion. His specialty was physics, particularly electromagnetic phenomena. He was the
first director of the Smithsonian Institution. Wilson's book gives a good account of his scientific work. [<]

9. Wilson, p. 118. [<]

10. deBono. [<]

11. Morse had difficulty obtaining funding for his work. In late 1842 he tried to get Congress to appropriate money for an experimental
telegraph system. I find it amusing that when this bill came before the House of Representatives (in 1842), Cave Johnson of Tennessee
said that if the Congress wished to promote electromagnetism it ought also to encourage Mesmerism, and he proposed an amendment
that half the money go to Dr. Fisk, a Mesmerist. Another amendment was proposed to give money to the Millerites, a religious group
which was predicting the Second Coming of Christ in 1844. These amendments were proposed as jokes, but the chair ruled them in
order, and suggested that a scientific analysis would be necessary to find out to what extent Mesmerism was analogous to telegraphy.
The bill finally passed, stripped of the amendments, appropriating $30,000 to Morse [Stein, p. 97]. Congress had, even then, a well-
deserved reputation for doing idiotic things. [<]

12. DeBono, Edward, ed. Eureka. Thames and Hudson, Ltd, 1974. [<]

13. Smith. [<]

14. Asimov. [<]

15. Brush, Steven. History of Physical Science from Newton to Einstein, lecture notes for HIST 402 given at the University of
Maryland, College Park, c. 1977 by Stephen G. Brush. Also see: Berkey, Dennis D. Calculus, Saunders, 1988. The Bernoullis include:
Bernoulli, Christoph (1782-1863) Son of Daniel (II)
Bernoulli, Daniel (I) (1700-1782) Son of Jean (I)
Bernoulli, Daniel (II) (1751-1834) Son of Jean (II)
Bernoulli, Jacques (I) (1654-1705) [Jacobus, James, or Jacob]
Bernoulli, Jacques (II) (1759-1789) Son of Jean (II)
Bernoulli, Jean (I) (1667-1748) [Johann, or John] Brother of Jacques (I)
Bernoulli, Jean (II) (1710-1790) Son of Jean (I)
Bernoulli, Jean (III) (1744-1807) Son of Jean (II)
Bernoulli, Jean Gustave (1822-1863) Son of Christoph
Bernoulli, Nicolas (I) (1687-1759) Nephew of Jacques (I)
Bernoulli, Nicolas (II) (1695-1726) Son of Jean (I)
[<]
16. Williams, Henry Smith. The Great Astronomers. Newton Pub. Co., 1932. [<]

17. Asimov, .Biographical Encyclopedia. Tauber, p. 130, tells a similar tale about Janssen, whose son accidentally discovered the
combination of lenses. Tauber says Janssen presented the telescope to Count Maurice of Nassau in 1609, who ordered it to be kept
secret (he found it a great aid in his wars). Someone is very mixed up here. Edward Rosen, in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography,
tells that Janssen was an optician and counterfeiter of Spanish coins. Janssen's son fraudulently claimed his father's priority for the
disputed invention of the telescope. This source gives a good bibliography, but most of these references are not in English. [<]
18. Mason, A History of the Sciences, p. 159, says he 'patented the invention in 1608.' But Cajori says that "on October 2, 1608, he
applied for a patent. He was told to modify his construction and make an instrument enabling the observer to see through it with both
eyes. This he accomplished the same year. He did not receive the patent, but the government of the United Netherlands paid him 900
gulden for the instrument and an equal sum for two other binocular telescopes, completed in 1609.'' Cajori references Dr. H.
Servus, Die Geschichte des Fernohrs, Berlin, 1886, p. 39. I have not been able to consult this reference. The interesting thing about this
is that Lippershey not only invented a telescope, but a binocular telescope, a fact not mentioned in many accounts. [<]
19. Mason, A History of the Sciences, p. 159.
20. Williams, Henry Smith. The Great Astronomers. Newton Pub. Co., 1932. [<]
21. Opening passage of Sidereus Nuncius, Galileo Galilei; Venice, 1610. (Opera; Florence, 1929, Vol. 3.i., p. 60.) [Taylor, Galileo and
the Freedom of Thought, p. 61.][<]
22. Cajori, p. 45. [<]
23. Cajori, p. 45. [<]
24. Bettex, Albert. The Discovery of Nature, Simon and Schuster, 1965, p. 113. [<]
25. Brittanica Macropaedia. [<]
26. Quoted I. B. Cohen, Birth of New Physics, Doubleday, 1960, p. 17. If this translation is faithful, John the Grammarian should have
pruned some redundancy from his prose. [<]
27. Ibid, p. 18. [<]
28. See Ronan, Colin, Galileo, Putnam's, 1974, p. 81. [<]
29. Cooper, Lane. Aristotle, Galileo, and the Tower of Pisa, (pamphlet) Ithaca, 1935.[<]
30. Most of this information is from Seeger, Raymond John, Benjamin Franklin, New World Physicist, Pergamon Press, 1973. [<]

List of all Famous Inventions and their Inventor

S.N. Invention Inventor Country Year
1 Adding Machine Pascal France 1642
2 Aeroplane Wright brothers USA 1903
3 Balloon Jacques and Joseph Montgolfier France 1783
4 Ball –Point pen C. Biro Hungary 1938
5 Barometer E. Torricelli Italy 1644
6 Bicycle K. Macmillan Scotland 1839
7 Bicycle Tyre J.B. Dunlop Scotland 1888
8 Calculating Machine Pascal France 1642
9 Centrigrade Scale A.Celsius France 1742
10 Cinematograph Thomas Alva Edison USA 1891
11 Computer Charles Babbage Britain 1834
12 Cine Camera Friese-Greene Britain 1889
13 Cinema A.L. and J.L. Lumiere France 1895
14 Clock (Machanical) Hsing and Ling –Tsan China 1725
15 Clock (Pendulum) C. Hugyens Netherlands 1657
16 Diesel engine Rudolf diesel Germany 1892
17 Dynamite Alfred Nobel Sweden 1867
18 Dynamo Michael Faraday England 1831
19 Electric Iron H.W. Seeley USA 1882
20 Electric lamp Thomas Alva Edison USA 1879
21 Electromagnet W. sturgeon England 1824
22 Evolution (theory) Charles Darwin England 1858
23 Film (with sound) Dr. Lee de forest USA 1923
24 Fountain Pen LE. Waterman USA 1884
25 Gas Lighting William Murdoch Scotland 1794
26 Gramophone T.A . Edison USA 1878
27 Jet Engine Sir Frank whittle England 1937
28 Lift E.G. Otis USA 1852
29 Locomotive Richard Trevithick England 1804
30 Machine Gun Richard Gatling USA 1861
31 Match (Safety) J.E. Lurdstrom Sweden 1855
32 Microphone David Hughes USA 1878
33 Microscope Z. Jansen Netherlands 1590
34 Motor Car (Petrol) Karl –Benz Germany 1885
35 Motorcycle Edward Butler England 1884
36 Neon -Lump G. Claude France 1915
37 Nylon Dr W.H. Carothers USA 1937
38 Photography (Paper) W.H. Fox Tablot England 1835
39 Printing Press J. Gutenberg Germany 1455
40 Rader Dr A.H. Taylor and L.C. young USA 1922
41 Radium Marie and Pierre Curie France 1898
42 Radio G. Marconi England 1901
43 Rayon American viscose Co. USA 1910
44 Razor (Safety) K.G. Gillette USA 1895
45 Razor (electric) Col. J. Schick USA 1931
46 Refrigerator J . Harrison and A. Catlin Britain 1834
47 Revolver Samuel Colt USA 1835
48 Rubber (Vulcanized) Charles Good year USA 1841
49 Rubber (Waterproof) Charles Macintosh Scotland 1819
50 Safety Lamp Sir Humphrey England 1816
51 Safety pin William Hurst USA 1849
52 Sewing Machine B. Thimmonnier France 1830
53 Scooter G. Bradshaw England 1919
54 Ship ( Steam) J.C. Perier France 1775
55 Ship ( turbine) Sir Charles parsons Britain 1894
56 Shorthand (Modem) Sir Issac Pitman Britain 1837
57 Spinning jenny James Hargreaves England 1764
58 Steam engine (Piston) Thomas Newcome Britain 1712
59 Steam engine ( Condenser) James Watt Scotland 1765
60 Steel production Henry Bessemer England 1855
61 Stainless steel Harry Brearley England 1913
62 Tank Sir Ernest Swington England 1914
63 Telegraph code Samuel F.B. Morse USA 1837
64 Telephone Alexander Graham Bell USA 1876
65 Telescope Hans Lippershey Netherlands 1608
66 Television John logie bared Scotland 1926
67 Terylene J. Whinfield and H. Dickson England 1941
68 Thermoscope Galileo Galilei Italy 1593
69 Tractor J. Froelich USA 1892
70 Transistor Bardeen, Shockley USA & UK 1949
71 Typewriter C. Sholes USA 1868
72 Valve of radio Sir J.A. ‘fleming Britain 1904
73 Watch A.L. Breguet France 1791
74 X-ray Wilhelm Roentgen Germany 1895
75 Zip fastener W.L. Judson USA 1891
A[edit]

 Vitaly Abalakov (1906–1986), Russia – camming devices, Abalakov thread (or V-thread) gearless ice climbing anchor
 Ernst Karl Abbe (1840–1905), Germany – Condenser (microscope), apochromatic lens, refractometer
 Hovannes Adamian (1879–1932), USSR/Russia – tricolor principle of the color television
 Samuel W. Alderson (1914–2005), U.S. – Crash test dummy
 Alexandre Alexeieff (1901–1982), Russia/France – Pinscreen animation (with his wife Claire Parker)
 Rostislav Alexeyev (1916–1980), Russia/USSR – Ekranoplan
 Randi Altschul (born 1960), U.S. – Disposable cellphone
 Bruce Ames (born 1928), U.S.– Ames test (Cell biology)
 Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1863), Italy – Dipleidoscope, Amici prism
 Mary Anderson (1866–1953), United States – windshield wiper blade
 Momofuku Ando (1910–2007), Japan – Instant noodles
 Hal Anger (1920–2005), U.S. – a.o. Well counter (radioactivity measurements), gamma camera
 Anders Knutsson Ångström (1888–1981), Sweden – Pyranometer
 Ottomar Anschütz (1846–1907), Germany – single-curtain focal-plane shutter, electrotachyscope
 Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe (1872–1931), Germany – Gyrocompass
 Virginia Apgar (1909–1974), U.S. – Apgar score (for newborn babies)
 Nicolas Appert (1749–1841), France – canning (food preservation) using glass bottles, see also Peter Durand
 Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC), Greece – Archimedes' screw
 Guido of Arezzo (c. 991–c. 1033), Italy – Guidonian hand, musical notation, see also staff (music)
 Ami Argand (1750–1803), France – Argand lamp
 William George Armstrong (1810–1900), UK – hydraulic accumulator
 Neil Arnott (1788–1874), UK – waterbed
 Joseph Aspdin (1788–1855), UK – Portland cement
 John Vincent Atanasoff (1903–1995), Bulgaria/U.S. – digital computer
B[edit]

 Charles Babbage (1791–1871), UK – Analytical engine (semi-automatic)

 Tabitha Babbit (1779–1853), U.S. – Saw mill circular saw
 Victor Babeș (1854–1926), Romania – Babesia, the founder of serum therapy
 Leo Baekeland (1863–1944), Belgian–American – Velox photographic paper and Bakelite
 Ralph H. Baer (1922–2014), German born American – video game console
 Adolf von Baeyer (1835–1917), Germany – a.o. Fluorescein, synthetic Indigo dye, Phenolphthalein
 John Logie Baird (1888–1946), Scotland – an electromechanical television, electronic color television
 Abi Bakr of Isfahan (c. 1235), Persia/Iran – mechanical geared astrolabe with lunisolar calendar
 George Ballas (1925–2011), U.S. – String trimmer
 Vladimir Baranov-Rossine (1888–1944), Russia/France – Optophonic Piano
 John Barber (1734–1801), UK – gas turbine
 John Bardeen (1908–1991), U.S. – co-inventor of the transistor, with Brattain and Schockley
 Vladimir Barmin (1909–1993), Russia – first rocket launch complex (spaceport)
 Anthony R. Barringer (1925–2009), Canada/U.S. – INPUT (Induced Pulse Transient) airborne electromagnetic system
 Earl W. Bascom (1906–1995), Canada/U.S. – rodeo bucking chute (1916 and 1919), rodeo bronc saddle (1922), rodeo bareback
rigging (1924), rodeo riding chaps (1926)
 Nikolay Basov (1922–2001), Russia – co-inventor of laser and maser
 Émile Baudot (1845–1903), France – Baudot code
 Eugen Baumann (1846–1896), Germany – PVC
 Trevor Baylis (1937–2018), UK – a wind-up radio
 Maria Beasley (1847–1904), U.S. – barrel-hooping machine, improved life raft
 Francis Beaufort (1774–1857), Ireland/UK – Beaufort scale, Beaufort cipher
 Arnold O. Beckman (1900–2004), U.S. – electric pH meter
 Vladimir Bekhterev (1857–1927), Russia – Bekhterev's Mixture
 Josip Belušić (1847–?), Croatia – electric speedometer
 Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922), UK, Canada, and U.S. – telephone
 Nikolay Benardos (1842–1905), Russian Empire – arc welding (specifically carbon arc welding, the first arc welding method)
 Ruth R. Benerito (1916–2013), U.S. – a.o. Permanent press (no-iron clothing)
 Miriam Benjamin (1861–1947), Washington, D.C. – Gong and signal chair (adopted by House of Representatives and precursor to
flight attendant signal system)
 William R. Bennett Jr. (1930–2008), together with Ali Javan (1926–), U.S./Iran – Gas laser (Helium-Neon)
 Melitta Bentz (1873–1950), Germany – paper Coffee filter
 Karl Benz (1844–1929), Germany – the petrol-powered automobile
 Hans Berger (1873–1941), Germany – first human EEG and its development
 Friedrich Bergius (1884–1949), Germany – Bergius process (synthetic fuel from coal)
 Emile Berliner (1851–1929), Germany and U.S. – the disc record gramophone
 Tim Berners-Lee (born 1955), UK – with Robert Cailliau, the World Wide Web
 Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907), France – Berthelot's reagent (chemistry)
 Max Bielschowsky (1869–1940), Germany – Bielschowsky stain (histology)
 Alfred Binet (1857–1911), France – with his student Théodore Simon (1872–1961), first practical Intelligence test
 Lucio Bini (1908–1964), together with Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963), Italy – Electroconvulsive therapy
 Gerd Binnig (born 1947), with Christoph Gerber, Calvin Quate and Heinrich Rohrer, Germany/Switzerland/U.S. – Atomic force
microscope and Scanning tunneling microscope
 Clarence Birdseye (1886–1956), U.S. – Flash freezing
 László Bíró (1899–1985), Hungary – Ballpoint pen
 Thor Bjørklund (1889–1975), Norway – Cheese slicer
 J. Stuart Blackton (1875–1941), U.S. – Stop-motion film
 Otto Blathy (1860–1939), Hungary – co-inventor of the transformer, wattmeter, alternating current (AC) and turbogenerator
 John Blenkinsop (1783–1831), UK – Blenkinsop rack railway system
 Charles K. Bliss (1897–1985), Austro-Hungary/Australia – Blissymbols
 Katharine B. Blodgett (1898–1979), UK – nonreflective glass
 Alan Blumlein (1903–1942), UK – stereo
 David Boggs (born 1950), U.S. – Ethernet
 Nils Bohlin (1920–2002), Sweden – the three-point seat belt
 Charlie Booth (1903–2008), Australia – Starting blocks
 Sam Born (1891–1959), Russia/U.S. – lollipop-making machine
 Jagdish Chandra Bose (1858–1937), India – Crescograph
 Matthew Piers Watt Boulton (1820–1894), UK – aileron
 Seth Boyden (1788–1870), U.S. – nail-making machine
 Herbert Boyer (born 1936), together with Paul Berg (1926–), and Stanley Norman Cohen (1935–), U.S. – created first Genetically
modified organism
 Willard Boyle (1924–2011), together with George E. Smith (1930–), U.S. – Charge-coupled device (CCD)
 Hugh Bradner (1915–2008), U.S. – Wetsuit
 Louis Braille (1809–1852), France – Braille writing system, Braille musical notation
 Jacques E. Brandenberger (1872–1954), Switzerland – Cellophane
 Édouard Branly (1844–1940), France – Coherer
 Charles F. Brannock (1903–1992), U.S. – Brannock Device (shoe size)
 Walter Houser Brattain (1902–1987), U.S.– co-inventor of the transistor
 Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850–1918), Germany – cathode-ray tube oscilloscope
 Stanislav Brebera (1925–2012), Czech Republic – Semtex explosive
 David Brewster (1781–1868), United Kingdom – Kaleidoscope
 Rachel Fuller Brown (1898–1980), U.S. – Nystatin, the world's first antifungal antibiotic
 William C. Brown (1916–1999), U.S. – Crossed-field amplifier
 Marie Van Brittan Brown (1922–1999), U.S. – home security system
 Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn (1853–1927), Germany – Taximeter
 Nikolay Brusentsov (1925–2014), USSR, Russia – ternary computer (Setun)
 Dudley Allen Buck (1927–1959), U.S. – a.o. Cryotron, content-addressable memory
 Edwin Beard Budding (1795–1846), UK – lawnmower
 Gersh Budker (1918–1977), Russia – electron cooling, co-inventor of collider
 Robert Bunsen (1811–1899), Germany – Bunsen burner
 Henry Burden (1791–1871) Scotland and U.S. – Horseshoe machine, first usable iron railroad spike
C[edit]

 Robert Cailliau (born 1947), Belgium – with Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web
 Edward A. Calahan (1838–1912), U.S. – stock ticker tape
 Nicholas Callan (1799–1864), Ireland – a.o. Induction coil
 Tullio Campagnolo (1901–1983), Italy – Quick release skewer
 Charles Cantor (born 1942), U.S. – Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (molecular biology)
 Mario Ramberg Capecchi (born 1937), together with Sir Martin John Evans (born 1941), and Oliver Smithies (born 1925), U.S.
– Gene targeting
 Arturo Caprotti (1881–1938), Italy – Caprotti valve gear
 Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576), Italy – a.o. Cardan grille (cryptography)
 Chester Carlson (1906–1968), U.S. – Xerographic copier
 Wallace Carothers (1896–1937), U.S. – Nylon and Neoprene (together with Arnold Collins)
 Antonio Benedetto Carpano (1764–1815), Italy – Vermouth
 Giovanni Caselli (1815–1891), Italy/France – Pantelegraph
 George Cayley (1773–1857), UK – tension-spoke wheels
 Anders Celsius (1701–1744), Sweden – Celsius temperature scale
 Vint Cerf (born 1943), together with Bob Kahn (1938–), U.S. – Internet Protocol (IP)
 Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963), together with Lucio Bini (1908–1964), Italy – Electroconvulsive therapy
 Charles Chamberland (1851–1908), France – Chamberland filter
 Min Chueh Chang (1908–1991), together with Gregory Goodwin Pincus (1903–1967), U.S./China – Combined oral contraceptive
pill
 Thomas Chang (born 1933), Canada/China – Artificial cell
 Emmett Chapman (born 1936), US – Chapman Stick
 Claude Chappe (1763–1805), France – Semaphore line
 David Chaum (born 1955), U.S. – a.o. Digital signatures, ecash
 Vladimir Chelomey (1914–1984), USSR– first space station (Salyut)
 Pavel Cherenkov (1904–1990), USSR – Cherenkov detector
 Evgeniy Chertovsky (born 1902-Unknown), Russia – pressure suit
 Ward Christensen (born 1945), U.S. – Bulletin board system
 Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891–1958), Denmark – creator of Lego
 Samuel Hunter Christie (1784–1865), UK – Wheatstone bridge
 Juan de la Cierva (1895–1936), Spain – the autogyro
 Leland Clark (1918–2005), U.S. – Clark electrode (medicine)
 Georges Claude (1870–1960), France – neon lamp
 Henri Marie Coandă (1886–1972), Romania – Coandă effect
 Josephine Cochrane (1839–1913), U.S. – dishwasher
 Christopher Cockerell (1910–1999), UK – Hovercraft
 Aeneas Coffey (1780–1852), Ireland – Coffey still
 Sir Henry Cole (1808–1882), UK – Christmas card
 Samuel Colt (1814–1862), U.S. – Revolver development
 Sir William Congreve (1772–1828), UK – Congreve rocket
 George Constantinescu (1881–1965), Romania – creator of the theory of sonics, a new branch of continuum mechanics
 Albert Coons (1912–1978), U.S. – Immunofluorescence (microscopy)
 Martin Cooper (born 1928), U.S. – Mobile phone
 Harry Coover (1917–2011), U.S. – Super Glue
 Lloyd Groff Copeman (1865–1956), U.S. – Electric stove
 Cornelis Corneliszoon (1550–1607), The Netherlands – wind powered sawmill
 Alexander Coucoulas (born 1933), U.S. – Thermosonic bonding
 Wallace H. Coulter (1913–1998), U.S. – Coulter principle
 Jacques Cousteau (1910–1997), France – co-inventor of the aqualung and the Nikonos underwater camera
 John "Jack" Higson Cover Jr. (1920–2009), U.S. – Taser
 William Crookes (1832–1919), UK – Crookes radiometer, Crookes tube
 Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731), Italy – piano
 S. Scott Crump (inv. c. 1989), U.S. – a.o. Fused deposition modeling
 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725–1804), France – first steam-powered road vehicle
 William Cullen (1710–1790), UK – first artificial refrigerator
 Jan Czochralski (1885–1953), Poland / Germany – Czochralski process (crystal growth)
D[edit]

 Nils Gustaf Dalén (1869–1937), Sweden – AGA cooker, Dalén light, Agamassan, Sun valve for lighthouses and buoys
 John Frederic Daniell (1790–1845), United Kingdom – Daniell cell
 Corradino D'Ascanio (1891–1981), Italy – Vespa scooter
 Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italy – helicopter, tank, parachute
 Jacob Davis (1868–1908), U.S. – Riveted jeans
 Humphry Davy (1778–1829), UK – Davy miners lamp
 Joseph Day (1855–1946), UK – the crankcase-compression two-stroke engine
 Lee DeForest (1873–1961), U.S. – Phonofilm, triode
 Fe del Mundo (1911–2011), Philippines – non-electric incubator
 Yuri Nikolaevich Denisyuk (1927–2006), Russia – 3D holography
 Robert H. Dennard (born 1932), U.S. – Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM)
 Miksa Deri (1854–1938), Hungary – co-inventor of an improved closed-core transformer
 James Dewar (1842–1923), UK – Thermos flask
 Aleksandr Dianin (1851–1918), Russia – Bisphenol A, Dianin's compound
 William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (1860–1935), UK – motion picture camera
 Philip Diehl (1847–1913), U.S. – Ceiling fan
 Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913), Germany – Diesel engine
 William H. Dobelle (1943–2004), United States – Dobelle Eye
 Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (1780–1849), Germany – Döbereiner's lamp (chemistry)
 Toshitada Doi (born 1943), Japan, together with Joop Sinjou, Netherlands – Compact disc
 Ray Dolby (1933–2013), U.S. – Dolby noise-reduction system
 Gene Dolgoff (born 1950), U.S. – LCD projector
 Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky (1862–1919), Poland/Russia – three-phase electric power
 Marion O'Brien Donovan (1917–1998), U.S. – Waterproof diaper
 Hub van Doorne (1900–1979), Netherlands, Variomatic continuously variable transmission
 John Thompson Dorrance (1873–1930), U.S. – Condensed soup
 Amanda Minnie Douglas (1831–1916), writer and inventor (portable folding mosquito net frame)
 Charles Dow (1851–1902), U.S. – Dow Jones Industrial Average
 Mulalo Doyoyo (born 1970), South Africa/U.S. – Cenocell – cementless concrete
 Anastase Dragomir (1896–1966), Romania – Ejection seat
 Karl Drais (1785–1851), Germany – dandy horse, Draisine
 Richard Drew (1899–1980), U.S. – Masking tape
 John Boyd Dunlop (1840–1921), UK – first practical pneumatic tyre
 Cyril Duquet (1841–1922), Canada – Telephone handset
 Alexey Dushkin (1904–1977), Russia – deep column station
 James Dyson (born 1947), UK – Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, incorporating the principles of cyclonic separation.
E[edit]

 George Eastman (1854–1932), U.S. – roll film

 J. Presper Eckert (1919–1995), U.S. – ENIAC – the first general purpose programmable digital computer
 Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931), U.S. – phonograph, commercially practical incandescent light bulb, etc.
 Pehr Victor Edman (1916–1977), Sweden – Edman degradation for Protein sequencing
 Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards (1925–2013), United Kingdom – In vitro fertilisation
 Ellen Eglin (1849–c. 1890), U.S. – Clothes wringer
 Brendan Eich (born 1961), U.S. – JavaScript (programming language)
 Willem Einthoven (1860–1927), The Netherlands – the electrocardiogram
 Benjamin Eisenstadt (1906–1996), U.S. – a.o. Sugar packet
 Paul Eisler (1907–1992), Austria/U.S. – Printed circuit board (electronics)
 Giorgi Eliava (1892–1937), together with Félix d'Herelle (1873–1949), France / Georgia – Phage therapy
 Ivan Elmanov, Russia – first monorail (horse-drawn)
 Rune Elmqvist (1906–1996), Sweden – implantable pacemaker
 John Haven Emerson (1906–1997), U.S. – iron lung
 Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013), U.S. – the computer mouse
 John Ericsson (1803–1889), Sweden – the two screw-propeller
 Emil Erlenmeyer (1825–1909), Germany – Erlenmeyer flask
 Sir Martin John Evans (born 1941), together with Mario Ramberg Capecchi (born 1937), and Oliver Smithies (1925–2017), U.S.
– Knockout mouse, Gene targeting
 Ole Evinrude (1877–1934), Norway – outboard motor
F[edit]

 Charles Fabry (1867–1945), together with Alfred Perot (1863–1925), France – Fabry–Pérot interferometer (physics)
 Samuel Face (1923–2001), U.S. – concrete flatness/levelness technology; Lightning Switch
 Federico Faggin (born 1941), Italy – microprocessor
 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), The Netherlands – Fahrenheit temperature scale, Mercury-in-glass thermometer
 Michael Faraday (1791–1867), UK – electric transformer, electric motor
 Johann Maria Farina (1685–1766), Germany; Eau de Cologne
 Myra Juliet Farrell (1878–1957), Australia – stitchless button, Press stud
 Philo Farnsworth (1906–1971), U.S. – a.o. electronic television
 Muhammad al-Fazari (died 796/806), Persia – astrolabe
 John Bennett Fenn (1917–2010), U.S. – Electrospray ionization
 Henry John Horstman Fenton (1854–1929), UK – Fenton's reagent (chemistry)
 James Fergason (1934–2008), U.S. – improved liquid crystal display
 Enrico Fermi (1901–1954), Italy – nuclear reactor
 Humberto Fernández Morán (1924–1999), Venezuela – Diamond scalpel, Ultra microtome
 Michele Ferrero (1925–2015), Italy – Kinder Surprise = Kinder Eggs, Nutella
 Bran Ferren (born 1953), U.S. – Pinch-to-zoom (multi-touch), together with Daniel Hillis
 Reginald Fessenden (1866–1932), Canada – two-way radio
 Robert Feulgen (1884–1955), Germany – Feulgen stain (histology)
 Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick (1829–1901), Germany – contact lens
 Abbas Ibn Firnas (810–887), Al-Andalus – fused quartz and silica glass, metronome
 Artur Fischer (1919–2016) Germany – fasteners including fischertechnik.
 Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (1877–1947), together with Hans Schrader (1921–2012), Germany – Fischer assay (oil yield test)
 Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (1877–1947), together with Hans Tropsch (1889–1935), Germany – Fischer–Tropsch process (refinery
process)
 Gerhard Fischer (1899–1988), Germany/U.S. – hand-held metal detector
 Paul C. Fisher (1913–2006), U.S. – Space Pen
 Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), Scotland – Penicillin
 John Ambrose Fleming (1848–1945), UK – Vacuum diode
 Sandford Fleming (1827–1915), Canada – Universal Standard Time
 Nicolas Florine (1891–1972), Georgia/Russia/Belgium – first tandem rotor helicopter to fly freely
 Tommy Flowers (1905–1998), UK – Colossus an early electronic computer.
 Thomas J. Fogarty (born 1934), U.S. – Embolectomy catheter (medicine)
 Enrico Forlanini (1848–1930), Italy – Steam helicopter, hydrofoil, Forlanini airships
 Eric Fossum (born 1957), U.S. – intra-pixel charge transfer in CMOS image sensors
 Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819–1868), France – Foucault pendulum, gyroscope, eddy current
 Benoît Fourneyron (1802–1867), France – water turbine
 John Fowler (1826–1864), UK – steam-driven ploughing engine
 Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), U.S. – the pointed lightning rod conductor, bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, the glass
harmonica
 Herman Frasch (1851–1914), Germany / U.S. – Frasch process (petrochemistry), Paraffin wax purification
 Ian Hector Frazer (born 1953), together with Jian Zhou (1957–1999), U.S./China – HPV vaccine against cervical cancer
 Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827), France – Fresnel lens
 William Friese-Greene (1855–1921), UK – cinematography
 Julius Fromm (1883–1945), Germany – first seamless Condom
 Arthur Fry (born 1931), U.S. – Post-it note
 Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), U.S. – geodesic dome
 Robert Fulton (1765–1815), United States – first commercially successful steamboat, first practical submarine
 Ivan Fyodorov (c. 1510–1583), Russia/Poland–Lithuania – invented multibarreled mortar, introduced printing in Russia
 Svyatoslav Fyodorov (1927–2000), Russia – radial keratotomy
 Vladimir Fyodorov (1874–1966), Russia – Fedorov Avtomat (first self-loading battle rifle, arguably the first assault rifle)
G[edit]

 Dennis Gabor (1900–1979), Hungarian-British – holography

 Boris Borisovich Galitzine (1862–1916), Russia – electromagnetic seismograph
 Joseph G. Gall (born 1928), U.S. – In situ hybridization (cell biology)
 Alfred William Gallagher (1911–1990), New Zealand – Electric fence for farmers
 Dmitri Garbuzov (1940–2006), Russia/U.S. – continuous-wave-operating diode lasers (together with Zhores Alferov), high-power
diode lasers
 Elmer R. Gates (1859–1923), U.S. – foam fire extinguisher, electric loom mechanisms, magnetic & diamagnetic separators,
educational toy ("box & blocks")*
 Richard J. Gatling (1818–1903), U.S. – wheat drill, first successful machine gun
 Georgy Gause (1910–1986), Russia – gramicidin S, neomycin, lincomycin and other antibiotics
 E. K. Gauzen, Russia – three bolt equipment (early diving costume)
 Norman Gaylord (1923–2007), U.S. – rigid gas-permeable contact lens
 Karl-Hermann Geib (1908–1949), Germany / USSR – Girdler sulfide process
 Hans Wilhelm Geiger (1882–1945), Germany – Geiger counter
 Andrey Geim (born 1958), Russia/United Kingdom – graphene
 Nestor Genko (1839–1904), Russia – Genko's Forest Belt (the first large-scale windbreak system)
 Christoph Gerber (?–), with Calvin Quate (1923–), and with Gerd Binnig (1947–), Germany/U.S./Switzerland – Atomic force
microscope
 Friedrich Clemens Gerke (1801–1888), Germany – current international Morse code
 David Gestetner (1854–1939), Austria-Hungary / UK – a.o. Gestetner copier
 Alberto Gianni (1891–1930), Italy – Torretta butoscopica
 John Heysham Gibbon (1903–1973), U.S. – Heart-lung machine
 Gustav Giemsa (1867–1948), Germany – Giemsa stain (histology)
 Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen (1903–1992), Austria – Giesl ejector
 Henri Giffard (1825–1882), France – powered airship, injector
 Donald A. Glaser (1926–2013), U.S. – Bubble chamber
 C. W. Fuller (inv. 1953), U.S. – Gilhoolie
 Valentyn Glushko (1908–1989), Russia – hypergolic propellant, electric propulsion, Soviet rocket engines (including world's most
powerful liquid-fuel rocket engine RD-170)
 Heinrich Göbel (1818–1893), Germany – incandescent lamp
 Leonid Gobyato (1875–1915), Russia – man-portable mortar
 Robert Goddard (1882–1945), U.S. – liquid fuel rocket
 Sam Golden (1915–1997), together with Leonard Bocour (1910–1993), U.S. – Acrylic paint
 Peter Carl Goldmark (1906–1977), Hungary – vinyl record (LP), CBS color television
 Camillo Golgi (1843–1926), Italy – Golgi's method (histology)
 György Gömöri (1904–1957), Hungary / U.S. – Gömöri trichrome stain, Gömöri methenamine silver stain (histology)
 Charles Goodyear (1800–1860), U.S. – vulcanization of rubber
 Robert W. Gore (born 1937), United States – Gore-Tex
 Igor Gorynin (1926–2015), Russia – weldable titanium alloys, high strength aluminium alloys, radiation-hardened steels
 James Gosling (born 1955), U.S. – Java (programming language)
 Gordon Gould (1920–2005), U.S. – Laser, see also Theodore Maiman
 Richard Hall Gower (1768–1833), UK – ship's hull and rigging
 Boris Grabovsky (1901–1966), Russia – cathode commutator, an early electronic TV pickup tube
 Bette Nesmith Graham (1924–1980), U.S. – Correction fluid, Liquid Paper
 Hans Christian Gram (1853–1938), Denmark / Germany – Gram staining (histology)
 Zénobe Gramme (1826–1901), Belgium/France – Gramme dynamo
 Temple Grandin (born 1947), Inventor of the squeeze machine and humane abattoirs.
 Michael Grätzel (born 1944), Germany/Switzerland– a.o. Dye-sensitized solar cell
 James Henry Greathead (1844–1896), South Africa – tunnel boring machine, tunnelling shield technique
 Chester Greenwood (1858–1937), U.S. – thermal earmuffs
 Lori Greiner (born 1969), U.S. – Silver Safekeeper anti-tarnish lining (jewelry organizers) and multiple consumer products, 120
US and foreign patents
 James Gregory (1638–1675), Scotland – Gregorian telescope
 Charles Leiper Grigg (1868–1940), U.S. – 7 Up
 William Robert Grove (1811–1896), Wales – fuel cell
 Gustav Guanella (1909–1982), Switzerland – DSSS, Guanella-Balun
 Otto von Guericke (1602–1686), Germany – vacuum pump, manometer, dasymeter
 Mikhail Gurevich (1893–1976), Russia – MiG-series fighter aircraft, including world's most produced jet aircraft MiG-15 and
most produced supersonic aircraft MiG-21 (together with Artem Mikoyan)
 Goldsworthy Gurney (1793–1875), England – Gurney Stove
 Bartolomeu de Gusmão (1685–1724), Brazil – early air balloons
 Johann Gutenberg (c. 1398–1468), Germany – movable type printing press
 Samuel Guthrie (physician) (1782–1848), U.S. – discovered chloroform
H[edit]

 Fritz Haber (1868–1934), Germany – Haber process (ammonia synthesis)

 John Hadley (1682–1744), UK – Octant
 Waldemar Haffkine (1860–1930), Russia/Switzerland – first anti-cholera and anti-plague vaccines
 Gunther von Hagens (born 1945), Germany – whole body Plastination
 Charles Hall (1863–1914), U.S. – aluminum production
 Robert N. Hall (1919–2016), U.S. – a.o. Semiconductor laser
 Tracy Hall (1919–2008), U.S. – synthetic diamond
 Richard Hamming (1915–1998), U.S. – Hamming code
 John Hays Hammond Jr. (1888–1965), U.S. – radio control
 Ruth Handler (1916–2002), U.S. – Barbie doll
 James Hargreaves (1720–1778), UK – spinning jenny
 John Harington (1561–1612), UK – the flush toilet
 William Snow Harris (1791–1867), United Kingdom – much improved naval Lightning rods
 John Harrison (1693–1776), UK – marine chronometer
 Ross Granville Harrison (1870–1959), U.S. – first successful animal Tissue culture, Cell culture
 Kazuo Hashimoto (died 1995), Japan – a.o. Caller-ID, answering machine
 Victor Hasselblad (1906–1978), Sweden – invented the 6 x 6 cm single-lens reflex camera
 Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1039), Iraq – camera obscura, pinhole camera, magnifying glass
 Zheng He (1371–1433), China – Chinese treasure ship
 George H. Heilmeier (1936–2014), U.S. – liquid crystal display (LCD)
 Henry Heimlich (1920–2016), U.S. – Heimlich maneuver
 Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988), U.S. – waterbed
 Jozef Karol Hell (1713–1789), Slovakia – the water pillar
 Rudolf Hell (1901–2002), Germany – the Hellschreiber
 Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894), Germany – Helmholtz pitch notation, Helmholtz resonator, ophthalmoscope
 Zhang Heng (78–139), China – Seismometer, first hydraulic-powered armillary sphere
 Beulah Louise Henry (1887–1973), U.S. – bobbin-free sewing machine, vacuum ice cream freezer
 Charles H. Henry (born 1937), U.S. – Quantum well laser
 Joseph Henry (1797–1878), Scotland/U.S. – electromagnetic relay
 Félix d'Herelle (1873–1949), together with Giorgi Eliava (1892–1937), France / Georgia – Phage therapy
 Heron (c. 10–70), Roman Egypt – usually credited with invention of the aeolipile, although it may have been described a century
earlier
 John Herschel (1792–1871), UK – photographic fixer (hypo), actinometer
 Harry Houdini (1874-1926) U.S. – flight time illusion
 Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), Germany – radio telegraphy, electromagnetic radiation
 Ephraim Hertzano (around 1950), Roumania / Israel – Rummikub
 Lasse Hessel (born 1940), Denmark – Female condom
 George de Hevesy (1885–1966), Hungary – radioactive tracer
 Ronald Price Hickman (1932–2011), U.S. – designed the original Lotus Elan, the Lotus Elan +2 and the Lotus Europa, as well as
the Black & Decker Workmate
 Rowland Hill (1795–1879), UK – postage stamp
 Maurice Hilleman (1919–2005) – vaccines against childhood diseases
 Tanaka Hisashige (1799–1881), Japan – Myriad year clock
 Ted Hoff (born 1937), U.S. – microprocessor
 Felix Hoffmann (Bayer) (1868–1949), Germany – Aspirin
 Albert Hofmann (1906–2008), Switzerland – LSD
 Kotaro Honda (1870–1954), Japan – KS steel
 Huang Hongjia (born 1924), China – Single-mode optical fiber.
 Herman Hollerith (1860–1929), U.S. – recording data on a machine readable medium, tabulator, punched cards
 Nick Holonyak (born 1928), U.S. – LED (Light Emitting Diode)
 Norman Holter (1914–1983), U.S. – Holter monitor
 Robert Hooke (1635–1703), UK – balance wheel, iris diaphragm, acoustic telephone
 Erna Schneider Hoover (born 1926), U.S. – computerized telephone switching system
 Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992), U.S. – Compiler
 Frank Hornby (1863–1936), UK – invented Meccano
 Jimmy Hotz (born 1953), U.S. – Hotz MIDI Translator, Atari Hotz Box
 Royal Earl House (1814–1895), U.S. – first Printing telegraph
 Coenraad Johannes van Houten (1801–1887), Netherlands – cocoa powder, cacao butter, chocolate milk
 Elias Howe (1819–1867), U.S. – sewing machine
 David Edward Hughes (1831–1900), UK – printing telegraph
 Chuck Hull (born 1939), U.S. – 3D printer
 Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944), U.S. – a.o. Klaxon, electric hearing aid
 Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695), Netherlands – pendulum clock
 John Wesley Hyatt (1837–1920), U.S. – celluloid manufacturing.
I[edit]

 Gavriil Ilizarov (1921–1992), Russia – Ilizarov apparatus, external fixation, distraction osteogenesis
 Mamoru Imura (born 1948), Japan – RFIQin (automatic cooking device)
 Daisuke Inoue (born 1940), Japan – Karaoke machine
 János Irinyi (1817–1895), Hungary – noiseless match
 Ub Iwerks (1901–1971), U. S. – Multiplane camera for animation
J[edit]

 Moritz von Jacobi (1801–1874), Germany/Russia – electrotyping, electric boat

 Rudolf Jaenisch (born 1942), Germany/U.S. – first Genetically modified mouse
 Karl Guthe Jansky (1905–1950), U.S. – radio telescope
 Karl Jatho (1873–1933), Germany – aeroplane
 Ali Javan (1926–2016), together with William R. Bennett Jr. (1930–2008), Iran/U.S. – Gas laser (Helium-Neon)
 Al-Jazari (1136–1206), Iraq – crank-driven and hydropowered saqiya chain pump, crank-driven screw and screwpump, elephant
clock, weight-driven clock, weight-driven pump, reciprocating piston suction pump, geared and hydropowered water supply
system, programmable humanoid robots, robotics, hand washing automata, flush mechanism, lamination, static balancing, paper
model, sand casting, molding sand, intermittency, linkage
 Ibn Al-Jazzar (Algizar) (895–979), Tunisia – sexual dysfunction and erectile dysfunction treatment drugs
 Ányos Jedlik (1800–1898), Hungary – Jedlik dynamo
 Alec John Jeffreys (born 1950), United Kingdom – DNA profiling (forensics)
 Charles Francis Jenkins (1867–1934), U.S. – television and movie projector (Phantoscope)
 Steve Jobs (1955–2011), U.S. – Apple Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone, iPad and other devices and software operating systems
and applications.
 Amos Edward Joel Jr. (1918–2008) U.S. – electrical engineer, known for several contributions and over seventy patents related to
telecommunications switching systems
 Carl Edvard Johansson (1864–1943), Sweden – Gauge blocks
 Johan Petter Johansson (1853–1943), Sweden – Pipe wrench and adjustable spanner
 Reynold B. Johnson (1906–1998), U.S. – Hard disk drive
 Philipp von Jolly (1809–1884), Germany – Jolly balance
 Scott A. Jones (born 1960), U.S. – created one of the most successful versions of voicemail as well as ChaCha Search, a human-
assisted internet search engine
 Tom Parry Jones (1935–2013), United Kingdom – first electronic Breathalyzer
 Assen Jordanoff (1896–1967), Bulgaria – airbag
 Anatol Josepho (1894–1980), patented the first coin-operated photo booth called the "Photomaton" in 1925.
 Marjorie Joyner (1896–1994), U.S. – Permanent wave machine
 Whitcomb Judson (1836–1909), U.S. – zipper
 Percy Lavon Julian (1899–1975), U.S. – chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants
 Ma Jun (fl. 220–265), China – south-pointing chariot (see differential gear), mechanical puppet theater, chain pumps,
improved silk looms
K[edit]

 Mikhail Kalashnikov (1919–2013), Russia – AK-47 and AK-74 assault rifles (the most produced ever)
 Bob Kahn (born 1938), together with Vint Cerf (born 1943), U.S. – Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
 Dawon Kahng (1931–1992), South Korea, together with Simon Sze (born 1936), Taiwan/U.S. – Floating-gate MOSFET
 Dean Kamen (born 1951), U.S. – Invented the Segway HT scooter and the IBOT Mobility Device
 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853–1926), Netherlands – liquid helium
 Nikolay Kamov (1902–1973), Russia – armored battle autogyro, Ka-series coaxial rotor helicopters
 Pyotr Kapitsa (1894–1984), Russia – first ultrastrong magnetic field creating techniques, basic low-temperature physics inventions
 Georgii Karpechenko (1899–1941), Russia – rabbage (the first ever non-sterile hybrid obtained through the crossbreeding)
 Jamshīd al-Kāshī (c. 1380–1429), Persia/Iran – plate of conjunctions, analog planetary computer
 Eugene Kaspersky (born 1965), Russia – Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Kaspersky Internet Security, Kaspersky Mobile Security anti-
virus products
 Andrew Kay (1919–2014), U.S. – Digital voltmeter
 Adolphe Kégresse (1879–1943), France/Russia – Kégresse track (first half-track and first off-road vehicle with continuous
track), dual-clutch transmission
 Carl D. Keith (1920–2008), together with John J. Mooney (c. 1928–), U.S. – three way catalytic converter
 Mstislav Keldysh (1911–1978), Latvia/Russia – co-developer of Sputnik 1 (the first artificial satellite) together
with Korolyov and Tikhonravov
 John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943), cornflake breakfasts
 John G. Kemeny (1926–1992), together with Thomas E. Kurtz (born 1928), Hungary/U.S. – BASIC (programming language)
 Alexander Kemurdzhian (1921–2003), Russia – first space exploration rover (Lunokhod)
 Mary Kenner (1912–2006), U.S. – sanitary belt
 William Saville-Kent (1845–1908), UK/Australia – Pearl culture, see also Mikimoto Kōkichi
 Kerim Kerimov (1917–2003), Azerbaijan and Russia – co-developer of human spaceflight, space dock, space station
 Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958), U.S. – invented automobile self-starter ignition, Freon ethyl gasoline and more
 Fazlur Khan (1929–1982), Bangladesh – structural systems for high-rise skyscrapers
 Yulii Khariton (1904–1996), Russia – chief designer of the Soviet atomic bomb, co-developer of the Tsar Bomba
 Anatoly Kharlampiyev (1906–1979), Russia – Sambo (martial art)
 Al-Khazini (fl.1115–1130), Persia/Iran – hydrostatic balance
 Konstantin Khrenov (1894–1984), Russia – underwater welding
 Abu-Mahmud Khojandi (c. 940–1000), Persia/Iran – astronomical sextant
 Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (Algoritmi) (c. 780-850), Persia/Iran – modern algebra, mural instrument, horary
quadrant, Sine quadrant, shadow square
 Marcel Kiepach (1894-1915), Croatia – dynamo, maritime compass that indicates north regardless of the presence of iron or
magnetic forces
 Erhard Kietz (1909–1982), Germany & U.S. – signal improvements for video transmissions[1]
 Jack Kilby (1923–2005), U.S. – patented the first integrated circuit
 Al-Kindi (Alkindus) (801–873), Iraq/Yemen – unambiguously described the distillation of wine in the 9th
century, cryptanalysis, frequency analysis
 Petrus Jacobus Kipp (1808–1864), The Netherlands – Kipp's apparatus (chemistry)
 Steve Kirsch (born 1956), U.S. – Optical mouse
 Fritz Klatte (1880–1934), Germany – vinyl chloride, forerunner to polyvinyl chloride
 Yves Klein (1928–1962), France – International Klein Blue
 Margaret E. Knight (1838–1914), U.S. – machine that completely constructs box-bottom brown paper bags
 Tom Knight (? – ), U.S. – BioBricks (synthetic biology)
 Ivan Knunyants (1906–1990), Armenia/Russia – capron, Nylon 6, polyamide-6
 Robert Koch (1843–1910), Germany – method for culturing bacteria on solid media
 Willem Johan Kolff (1911–2009), Netherlands – artificial kidney hemodialysis machine
 Rudolf Kompfner (1909–1977), U.S. – Traveling-wave tube
 Konstantin Konstantinov (1817 or 1819–1871), Russia – device for measuring flight speed
of projectiles, ballistic rocket pendulum, launch pad, rocket-making machine
 Sergei Korolev (1907–1966), USSR – first successful intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7 Semyorka), R-7 rocket
family, Sputniks (including the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite), Vostok program (including the first human spaceflight)
 Nikolai Korotkov (1874–1920), Russian Empire – auscultatory technique for blood pressure measurement
 Semyon Korsakov (1787–1853), Russian Empire – punched card for information storage
 Mikhail Koshkin (1898–1940), Russia – T-34 medium tank, the best and most produced tank of World War II[2]
 Ognjeslav Kostović (1851–1916), Serbia/Russia – arborite (high-strength plywood, an early plastic)
 Gleb Kotelnikov (1872–1944), Russia – knapsack parachute, drogue parachute
 William Justin Kroll (1889–1973), Luxemburg/U.S. – Kroll process
 Aleksey Krylov (1863–1945), Russia – gyroscopic damping of ships
 Ivan Kulibin (1735–1818), Russia – egg-shaped clock, candle searchlight, elevator using screw mechanisms, a self-rolling
carriage featuring a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearing, an early optical telegraph
 Shen Kuo (1031–1095), China – improved gnomon, armillary sphere, clepsydra, and sighting tube
 Igor Kurchatov (1903–1960), Russia – first nuclear power plant, first nuclear reactors for submarines and surface ships
 Thomas E. Kurtz (born 1928), together with John G. Kemeny (1926–1992), U.S./Hungary – BASIC (programming language)
 Raymond Kurzweil (born 1948), Optical character recognition; flatbed scanner
 Ken Kutaragi (born 1950), Japan – PlayStation
 Stephanie Kwolek (1923–2014), U.S. – Kevlar
 John Howard Kyan (1774–1850), Ireland – The process of Kyanization used for wood preservation
L[edit]

 Dmitry Lachinov (1842–1902), Russia – mercury pump, economizer for electricity consumption, electrical
insulation tester, optical dynamometer, photometer, electrolyser
 René Laennec (1781–1826), France – stethoscope
 Georges Lakhovsky (1869–1942), Russia/U.S. – Multiple Wave Oscillator
 Hedy Lamarr (1913–2000), Austria and U.S. – Spread spectrum radio
 Edwin H. Land (1909–1991), U.S. – Polaroid polarizing filters and the Land Camera
 Samuel P. Langley (1834–1906), U.S. – bolometer
 Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin (1847–1923), Russia – incandescent lamp
 Irving Langmuir (1851–1957), U.S. – gas filled incandescent light bulb, hydrogen welding
 Norm Larsen (1923–1970), U.S. – a.o. WD-40
 Lewis Latimer (1848–1928), U.S. – improved carbon-filament light bulb
 Gustav de Laval (1845–1913), Sweden – invented the milk separator and the milking machine
 Semyon Lavochkin (1900–1960), Russia – La-series aircraft, first operational surface-to-air missile S-25 Berkut
 John Bennet Lawes (1814–1900), UK – superphosphate or chemical fertilizer
 Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901–1958), U.S. – Cyclotron
 Nikolai Lebedenko, Russia – Tsar Tank, the largest armored vehicle in history
 Sergei Lebedev (1874–1934), Russia – commercially viable synthetic rubber
 William Lee (1563–1614), UK – Stocking frame knitting machine
 Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), The Netherlands – development of the microscope
 Jerome H. Lemelson (1923–1997), U.S. – Inventions in the fields in which he patented make possible, wholly or in part,
innovations like automated warehouses, industrial robots, cordless telephones, fax machines, videocassette recorders, camcorders,
and the magnetic tape drive used in Sony's Walkman tape players.
 Jean-Joseph Etienne Lenoir (1822–1900), Belgium – internal combustion engine, motorboat
 Giacomo da Lentini (13th Century), Italy – Sonnet
 R. G. LeTourneau (1888–1969), U.S. – electric wheel, motor scraper, mobile oil drilling platform, bulldozer, cable control unit for
scrapers
 Rasmus Lerdorf (born 1968), Greenland/Canada – PHP (programming language)
 Willard Frank Libby (1908–1980), U.S. – radiocarbon dating
 Justus von Liebig (1803–1873), Germany – nitrogen-based fertilizer
 Hon Lik (born 1951), Chinese. electronic cigarette
 Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896), Germany – hang glider
 Lin Yutang (1895–1976), China/U.S. – Chinese language typewriter
 Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974), U.S. – organ perfusion pump
 Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist (1862–1931), Sweden – Kerosene stove operated by compressed air
 Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Sweden – formal Binomial nomenclature for living organisms, Horologium Florae
 Hans Lippershey (1570–1619), The Netherlands – associated with the appearance of the telescope
 Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann (1845–1921), France – Lippmann plate, Integral imaging, Lippmann electrometer
 Lisitsyn brothers, Ivan Fyodorovich and Nazar Fyodorovich, Russia – samovar (the first documented makers)
 William Howard Livens (1889–1964), UK – chemical warfare – Livens Projector
 Eduard Locher (1840–1910), Switzerland – Locher rack railway system
 Alexander Lodygin (1847–1923), Russia – electrical filament, incandescent light bulb with tungsten filament
 Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), Russia – night vision telescope, off-axis reflecting telescope, coaxial rotor, re-invented smalt
 Yury Lomonosov (1876–1952), Russia/United Kingdom – first successful mainline diesel locomotive
 Aleksandr Loran (1849 – after 1911), Russia – fire fighting foam, foam extinguisher
 Oleg Losev (1903–1942), Russia – light-emitting diode, crystadine
 Antoine Louis (1723–1792), France – Guillotine
 Archibald Low (1882–1956), Britain – Pioneer of radio guidance systems
 Ed Lowe (1920–1995), U.S. – Cat litter
 Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy (1909–2001), Russia – Buran (spacecraft), Spiral project
 Ignacy Łukasiewicz (1822–1882), Poland – Kerosene lamp
 Auguste and Louis Lumière (1862–1954 and 1864–1948, resp.), France – Cinématographe
 Cai Lun, 蔡倫 (50–121 AD), China – paper
 Giovanni Luppis or Ivan Vukić (1813–1875), Austrian Empire (ethnical Croatian, from Rijeka) – self-propelled torpedo
 Richard F. Lyon (born 1952), U.S. – Optical mouse
 Arkhip Lyulka (1908–1984), Russia – first double jet turbofan engine, other Soviet aircraft engines
M[edit]

 Charles Macintosh (1766–1843), Scotland – waterproof raincoat, life vest

 Theodore Maiman (1927–2007), U.S. – Laser, see also Gordon Gould
 Ahmed Majan (born 1963), UAE – instrumented racehorse saddle and others
 Aleksandr Makarov (?–), Russia/Germany – Orbitrap mass spectrometer
 Stepan Makarov (1849–1904), Russia – Icebreaker Yermak, the first true icebreaker able to ride over and crush pack ice
 Victor Makeev (1924–1985), Russia – first submarine-launched ballistic missile
 Nestor Makhno (1888–1934), Ukraine/Russia – tachanka
 Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov (1896–1964), Russia – Maksutov telescope
 Annie Malone (1869–1957), U.S. – Cosmetics for African American women
 Sergey Malyutin (1859–1937), Russia – designed the first matryoshka doll (together with Vasily Zvyozdochkin)
 Al-Ma'mun (786–833), Iraq – singing bird automata, terrestrial globe
 Boris Mamyrin (1919–2007), Russia – reflectron (ion mirror)
 George William Manby (1765–1854), UK – Fire extinguisher
 Joy Mangano (born 1956), U.S. – household appliances
 Charles Mantoux (1877–1947), France – Mantoux test (tuberculosis)
 Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937), Italy – radio telegraphy
 Gheorghe Marinescu (1863–1938), Romania – the first science films in the world in the neurology clinic in Bucharest (1898–1901)
 Sylvester Marsh (1803–1884), U.S. – Marsh rack railway system
 Konosuke Matsushita (1894–1989), Japan – a.o. battery-powered Bicycle lighting
 Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf (1526–1585), Syria/Egypt/Turkey – steam turbine, six-
cylinder 'Monobloc' suction pump, framed sextant
 John Landis Mason (1826–1902), U.S. – Mason jars
 Fujio Masuoka (born 1943), Japan – Flash memory
 John W. Mauchly (1907–1980), U.S. – ENIAC – the first general purpose programmable digital computer
 Henry Maudslay (1771–1831), UK – screw-cutting lathe, bench micrometer
 Hiram Maxim (1840–1916), U.S. born, UK – First self-powered machine gun
 James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) and Thomas Sutton, Scotland – color photography
 Stanley Mazor (born 1941), U.S. – microprocessor
 John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836), Scotland – improved "macadam" road surface
 Elijah McCoy (1843–1929), Canada – Displacement lubricator
 Nicholas McKay Sr. (1920–2014), U.S. – Lint roller
 James McLurkin (born 1972), U.S. – Ant robotics (robotics)
 Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (1845–1916), Russia – probiotics
 Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès (1817–1880), France – margarine
 Mordecai Meirowitz (born c. 1925), Roumania / Israel – Mastermind (board game)
 Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907), Russia – Periodic table, pycnometer, pyrocollodion
 George de Mestral (1907–1990), Switzerland – Velcro
 Robert Metcalfe (born 1946), U.S. – Ethernet
 Antonio Meucci (1808–1889), Italy/U.S. – a.o. various early telephones, a hygrometer, a milk test
 Édouard Michelin (1859–1940), France – pneumatic tire
 Anthony Michell (1870–1959), Australia – tilting pad thrust bearing, crankless engine
 Artem Mikoyan (1905–1970), Armenia/Russia – MiG-series fighter aircraft, including world's most produced jet aircraft MiG-
15 and most produced supersonic aircraft MiG-21(together with Mikhail Gurevich)
 Alexander Mikulin (1895–1985), Russia – Mikulin AM-34 and other Soviet aircraft engines, co-developer of the Tsar Tank
 Mikhail Mil (1909–1970), Russia – Mi-series helicopter aircraft, including Mil Mi-8 (the world's most-produced helicopter)
and Mil Mi-12 (the world's largest helicopter)
 David L. Mills (born 1938), U.S. – a.o. Fuzzball router, Network Time Protocol
 Marvin Minsky (1927–2016), U.S. – a.o. Confocal microscopy
 Tokushichi Mishima (1893–1975), Japan – MKM magnetic steel
 Pavel Molchanov (1893–1941), Russia – Radiosonde
 Jules Montenier (1895–1962), U.S. – Anti-perspirant deodorant
 Montgolfier brothers (1740–1810) and (1745–1799), France – hot air balloon
 John J. Montgomery (1858–1911), U.S. – heavier-than-air gliders
 Narcis Monturiol i Estarriol (1819–1885), Spain – steam powered submarine
 Robert Moog (1934–2005), U.S. – the Moog synthesizer
 John J. Mooney (born 1929), together with Carl D. Keith (1920–2008), U.S. – three way catalytic converter
 Roland Moreno (1945–2012), France – inventor of the smart card
 Samuel Morey (1762–1843), U.S. – internal combustion engine
 Garrett A. Morgan (1877–1963), U.S. – inventor of the smoke hood
 Alexander Morozov (1904–1979), Russia – T-54/55 (the most produced tank in history), co-developer of T-34
 Walter Frederick Morrison (1920–2010), U.S. – Flying disc
 William Morrison (dentist) (1860–1926), U.S. – a.o. Cotton candy machine
 Samuel Morse (1791–1872), U.S. – early Morse code, see also Morse Code controversy
 Sergei Ivanovich Mosin (1849–1902), Russia – Mosin–Nagant rifle
 Motorins, Ivan Feodorovich (1660s–1735) and his son Mikhail Ivanovich (?–1750), Russia – Tsar Bell
 Vera Mukhina (1889–1953), Russia – welded sculpture
 Kary Mullis (born 1944), U.S. – PCR
 Fe del Mundo (1911–2011), The Philippines – medical incubator made out of bamboo for use in rural communities without
electrical power
 Colin Murdoch (1929–2008), New Zealand – a.o. Tranquillizer gun, disposable hypodermic syringe
 William Murdoch (1754–1839), Scotland – Gas lighting
 Jozef Murgas (1864–1929), Slovakia – inventor of the wireless telegraph (forerunner of the radio)
 Evgeny Murzin (1914–1970), Russia – ANS synthesizer
 Banū Mūsā brothers, Muhammad (c. 800–873), Ahmad (803–873), Al-Hasan (810–873), Iraq – mechanical trick
devices, hurricane lamp, self-trimming and self-feeding lamp, gas mask, clamshell grab, fail-safe system, mechanical musical
instrument, automatic flute player, programmable machine
 Elon Musk (born 1971)
 Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692–1761), Netherlands – Leyden jar, pyrometer
 Walton Musser (1909–1998), U.S. – Harmonic drive gear
 Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), UK – motion picture
N[edit]

 Georgi Nadjakov (1896–1981), Bulgaria – wikt:photoelectret

 Alexander Nadiradze (1914–1987), Georgia/Russia – first mobile ICBM (RT-21 Temp 2S), first reliable mobile ICBM (RT-2PM
Topol)
 Nagai Nagayoshi (1844–1929), Japan – Methamphetamine
 James Naismith (1861–1939), Canadian born, U.S. – invented basketball and American football helmet
 Yoshiro Nakamatsu (born 1928), Japan – "PyonPyon" spring shoes, digital watch, CinemaScope, armchair "Cerebrex",
sauce pump, taxicab meter
 Shuji Nakamura (born 1954), Japan – Blue laser
 John Napier (1550–1617), Scotland – logarithms
 Andrey Nartov (1683–1756), Russia – first lathe with a mechanic cutting tool-supporting carriage and a set of gears, fast-
fire battery on a rotating disc, screw mechanism for changing the artillery fire angle, gauge–boring lathe for cannon-making,
early telescopic sight
 James Nasmyth (1808–1890), Scotland – steam hammer
 Giulio Natta (1903–1979), together with Karl Ziegler (1898–1973), Italy/Germany – Ziegler–Natta catalyst
 Nebuchadrezzar II (634–562 BC), Iraq (Mesopotamia) – screw, screwpump
 Erwin Neher (born 1944), together with Bert Sakmann (1942–), Germany – Patch clamp technique
 Ted Nelson (born 1937), U.S. – Hypertext, Hypermedia
 Sergey Nepobedimiy (1921–2014), Russia – first supersonic anti-tank guided missile Sturm, other Soviet rocket weaponry
 Karl Nessler (1872–1951), Germany/U.S. – a.o. Permanent wave machine, artificial eyebrows
 Bernard de Neumann (born 1943), United Kingdom – massively parallel self-configuring multi-processor
 John von Neumann (1903–1957), Hungary – Von Neumann computer architecture
 Isaac Newton (1642–1727), UK – reflecting telescope (which reduces chromatic aberration)
 Miguel Nicolelis (born 1961), Brazil – Brain-machine interfaces
 Joseph Nicephore Niépce (1765–1833), France – photography
 Nikolai Nikitin (1907–1973), Russia – prestressed concrete with wire ropes structure (Ostankino Tower), Nikitin-Travush 4000
project (precursor to X-Seed 4000)
 Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (1860–1940), Germany – Nipkow disk
 Jun-Ichi Nishizawa (born 1926), Japan – Optical communication system, SIT/SITh (Static Induction Transistor/Thyristor), Laser
diode, PIN diode
 Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), Sweden – dynamite
 Ludvig Nobel (1831–1888), Sweden/Russia – first successful oil tanker
 Emmy Noether (1882–1935), Germany, groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics; Noether's
Theorem
 Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700–1770), France – Electroscope
 Wilhelm Normann (1870–1939), Germany – Hydrogenation of fats
 Carl Richard Nyberg (1858–1939), Sweden – the blowtorch
O[edit]

 Aaron D. O'Connell (born 1981), U.S. – first Quantum machine

 Joseph John O'Connell (1861–1959), U.S. – number of inventions relating to telephony and electrical engineering
 Theophil Wilgodt Odhner (1845–1903), Sweden/Russia – the Odhner Arithmometer, a mechanical calculator
 Paul Offit (born 1951), United States, along with Fred Clark and Stanley Plotkin, invented a pentavalent Rotavirus vaccine
 Jarkko Oikarinen (born 1967), Finland – Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
 Katsuhiko Okamoto (?–), Japan – Okamoto Cubes = modifications of Rubik's Cube
 Ransom Eli Olds (1864–1950), United States – Assembly line
 Lucien Olivier (1838–1883), Belgium or France / Russia – Russian salad (Olivier salad)
 Gerard K. O'Neill (1927–1992), U.S. – Storage ring (physics)
 J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), United States – Atomic bomb
 Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851), Denmark – electromagnetism, aluminium
 Elisha Otis (1811–1861), U.S. – safety system for elevators
 William Oughtred (1575–1660), UK – slide rule
P[edit]

 Arogyaswami Paulraj (born 1944), India/U.S. – MIMO

 Antonio Pacinotti (1841–1912), Italy – Pacinotti dynamo
 Larry Page (born 1973), U.S. – with Sergey Brin invented Google web search engine
 William Painter (1838–1906), UK/U.S. – a.o. Crown cork, Bottle opener
 Alexey Pajitnov (born 1956), Russia/U.S. – Tetris
 Julio Palmaz (born 1945), Argentina – balloon-expandable, stent
 Helge Palmcrantz (1842–1880), Sweden – the multi-barrel, lever-actuated, machine gun
 Daniel David Palmer (1845–1913), Canada – chiropractic
 Luigi Palmieri (1807–1896), Italy – seismometer
 Frank Pantridge (1916–2004), Ireland – Portable defibrillator
 Georgios Papanikolaou (1883–1962), Greece / U.S. – Papanicolaou stain, Pap test = Pap smear
 Philip M. Parker (born 1960), U.S. – computer automated book authoring
 Alexander Parkes (1831–1890), UK – celluloid
 Forrest Parry (1921–2005), U.S. – Magnetic stripe card
 Charles Algernon Parsons (1854–1931), British – steam turbine
 Spede Pasanen (1930–2001), Finland – a.o. ski jumping sling, boat ski
 Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), France – Pascal's calculator
 Gustaf Erik Pasch (1788–1862), Sweden – safety match
 Dimitar Paskov (1914–1986), Bulgaria – Galantamine
 C. Kumar N. Patel (born 1938), India/U.S. – Carbon dioxide laser
 Les Paul (1915–2009), U.S. – multitrack recording
 Andreas Pavel (born 1945), Brazil – audio devices
 Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), Russia, – classical conditioning
 Floyd Paxton (1918–1975), U.S. – a.o. Bread clip
 John Pemberton (1831–1888), U.S. – Coca-Cola
 Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (1871–1922), Croatia – mechanical pencil
 William Henry Perkin (1838–1907), United Kingdom – first synthetic organic chemical dye Mauveine
 Henry Perky (1843–1906), U.S. – shredded wheat
 Alfred Perot (1863–1925), together with Charles Fabry (1867–1945), France – Fabry–Pérot interferometer (physics)
 Stephen Perry, UK (fl. 19th century) – rubber band
 Aurel Persu (1890–1977), Romania – first aerodynamic car, aluminum body with wheels included under the body, 1922
 Vladimir Petlyakov (1891–1942), Russia – heavy bomber
 Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921), Germany – Petri dish
 Peter Petroff (1919–2004), Bulgaria – digital wrist watch, heart monitor, weather instruments
 Fritz Pfleumer (1881–1945), Germany – magnetic tape
 Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), Switzerland – Bathyscaphe
 Gregory Goodwin Pincus (1903–1967), together with Min Chueh Chang (1908–1991), U.S./China – Combined oral contraceptive
pill
 Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (1810–1881), Russia – early use of ether as anaesthetic, first anaesthesia in a field operation, various
kinds of surgical operations
 Fyodor Pirotsky (1845–1898), Russia – electric tram
 Arthur Pitney (1871–1933), United States – postage meter
 Hippolyte Pixii (1808–1835), France – Pixii dynamo
 Joseph Plateau (1801–1883), Belgium – phenakistiscope (stroboscope)
 Baltzar von Platen (1898–1984), Sweden – gas absorption refrigerator
 James Leonard Plimpton (1828–1911), U.S. – roller skates
 Ivan Plotnikov (1902–1995), Russia – kirza leather
 Roy Plunkett (1910–1994), United States – Teflon
 Petrache Poenaru (1799–1875), Romania – fountain pen
 Christopher Polhem (1661–1751), Sweden – Padlock
 Nikolai Polikarpov (1892–1944), Russia – Po-series aircraft, including Polikarpov Po-2 Kukuruznik (world's most produced
biplane)
 Eugene Polley (1915–2012), United States – wireless remote control (with Robert Adler)
 Ivan Polzunov (1728–1766), Russia – first two-cylinder steam engine
 Mikhail Pomortsev (1851–1916), Russia – nephoscope
 Olivia Poole (1889–1975), U.S. – the Jolly Jumper baby harness
 Alexander Popov (1859–1906), Russia – radio pioneer, created a radio receiver that worked as a lightning detector
 Nikolay Popov (1931–2008), Russia – first fully gas turbine main battle tank (T-80)
 Josef Popper (1838–1921), Austria- discovered the transmission of power by electricity.
 Aleksandr Porokhovschikov (1892–1941), Russia – Vezdekhod (the first prototype tank, or tankette, and the
first caterpillar amphibious ATV)
 Ignazio Porro (1801–1875), Italy – Porro prism, strip camera
 Valdemar Poulsen (1869–1942), Denmark – magnetic wire recorder, arc converter
 Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), UK – soda water
 Alexander Procofieff de Seversky (1894–1974), Russia/United States of America – first gyroscopically stabilized
bombsight, ionocraft, also developed air-to-air refueling
 Alexander Prokhorov (1916–2002), Russia – co-inventor of laser and maser
 Petro Prokopovych (1775–1850), Russian Empire – early beehive frame, queen excluder and other beekeeping novelties
 Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863–1944), Russia/France – early colour photography method based on three colour channels, also
colour film slides and colour motion pictures
 Mark Publicover (born 1958), U.S. – First affordable trampoline safety net enclosure
 George Pullman (1831–1897), U.S. – Pullman sleep wagon
 Michael I. Pupin (1858–1935), Serbia – pupinization (loading coils), tunable oscillator
 Tivadar Puskas (1844–1893), Hungary – telephone exchange
Q[edit]

 Calvin Quate (born 1923), with Gerd Binnig (born 1947), and with Christoph Gerber (?–), U.S./Germany/Switzerland – Atomic
force microscope
 Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874), France/Belgium – Body mass index (BMI)
R[edit]

 Jacob Rabinow (1910–1999), U.S. – a.o. Magnetic particle clutch, various Phonograph-related patents
 John Goffe Rand (1801–1873), U.S. – Tube (container)
 Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) (865–965), Persia/Iran – distillation and extraction methods, sulfuric
acid and hydrochloric acid, soap kerosene, kerosene lamp, chemotherapy, sodium hydroxide
 Alec Reeves (1902–1971), UK – Pulse-code modulation
 Karl von Reichenbach (1788–1869), Germany – paraffin, creosote oil, phenol
 Tadeus Reichstein (1897–1996), Poland/Switzerland – Reichstein process (industrial vitamin C synthesis)
 Ira Remsen (1846–1927), U.S. – saccharin
 Ralf Reski (born 1958), Germany – Moss bioreactor 1998
 Josef Ressel (1793–1857), Czechoslovakia – ship propeller
 Ri Sung-gi (1905–1996), North Korea – Vinylon
 Charles Francis Richter (1900–1985), U.S. – Richter magnitude scale
 Adolph Rickenbacker (1886–1976), Switzerland – Electric guitar
 Hyman George Rickover (1900–1986), U.S. – Nuclear submarine
 Niklaus Riggenbach (1817–1899), Switzerland – Riggenbach rack railway system, Counter-pressure brake
 Dennis Ritchie (1941–2011), U.S. – C (programming language)
 Gilles de Roberval (1602–1675), France – Roberval balance
 John Roebuck (1718–1794) UK – lead chamber process for sulfuric acid synthesis
 Francis Rogallo (1912–2009), U.S. – Rogallo wing
 Heinrich Rohrer (1933–2013), together with Gerd Binnig (1947–), Switzerland/Germany – Scanning tunneling microscope
 Peter I the Great (Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov), Tsar and Emperor of Russia (1672–1725), Russia – decimal currency, yacht
club, sounding line with separating plummet(sounding weight probe)
 Pranoti Nagarkar-Israni, India – Rotimatic
 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845–1923), Germany – the X-ray machine
 Ida Rosenthal (1886–1973), Belarus/Russia/United States – Bra (Maidenform), the standard of cup sizes, nursing bra, full-figured
bra, the first seamed uplift bra (all with her husband William)
 Sidney Rosenthal (1907–1979), U.S. – Magic Marker
 Eugene Roshal (born 1972), Russia – FAR file manager, RAR file format, WinRAR file archiver
 Boris Rosing (1869–1933), Russia – CRT television (first television system using CRT on the receiving side)
 Guido van Rossum (born 1956), The Netherlands – Python (programming language)
 Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (1754–1785), France – Rozière balloon
 Ernő Rubik (born 1944), Hungary – Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Magic and Rubik's Clock
 Ernst Ruska (1906–1988), Germany – electron microscope
S[edit]

 Albert Bruce Sabin (1906–1993), U.S. – oral Polio vaccine

 Alexander Sablukov (1783–1857), Russia – centrifugal fan
 Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu (1385–1468), Turkey – illustrated surgical atlas
 Gilles Saint-Hilaire (born 1948), Canada – Quasiturbine, Qurbine
 Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989), Russia – invented explosively pumped flux compression generator, co-developed the Tsar
Bomb and tokamak
 Jonas Edward Salk (1914–1995), U.S. – injection Polio vaccine
 Franz San Galli (1824–1908), Poland/Russia (Italian and German descent) – radiator, central heating
 Frederick Sanger (1918–2013), U.S. – Sanger sequencing (= DNA sequencing)
 Larry Sanger (born 1968), together with Jimmy Wales, U.S. – Wikipedia
 Yoshiyuki Sankai (born c. 1957), Japan – Robotic exoskeleton for motion support (medicine)
 Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873–1932), Brazil – non-rigid airship and airplane
 Arthur William Savage (1857–1938) – radial tires, gun magazines, Savage Model 99 lever action rifle
 Thomas Savery (1650–1715), UK – steam engine
 Adolphe Sax (1814–1894), Belgium – saxophone
 Vincent Joseph Schaefer (1906–1993), U.S. – a.o. Cloud seeding by dry ice
 Bela Schick (1877–1967), Hungary – diphtheria test
 Hugo Schiff (1834–1915), Germany – Schiff test (histology)
 Pavel Schilling (1786–1837), Estonia/Russia – first electromagnetic telegraph, mine with an electric fuse
 Gilmore Schjeldahl (1912–2002), U.S. – Airsickness bag
 Hubert Schlafly (1919–2011), U.S. – Teleprompter = Autocue
 Wilhelm Schlenk (1879–1943), Germany – Schlenk flask (chemistry)
 Bernhard Schmidt (1879–1935), Estonia/Germany – Schmidt camera
 Otto Schmitt (1913–1998), U.S. – Schmitt trigger (electronics)
 Christian Schnabel (1878–1936), German – simplistic food cutleries
 Kees A. Schouhamer Immink (born 1946), Netherlands – Major contributor to development of Compact Disc
 August Schrader (1807–1894), U.S. – Schrader valve for Pneumatic tire
 David Schwarz (1852–1897), Croatia, – rigid ship, later called Zeppelin
 Raymond Scott (1908–1994), U.S. – inventor and developer of electronic music technology
 Marc Seguin (1786–1875), France – wire-cable suspension bridge
 Hanaoka Seishū (1760–1835), Japan – General anaesthetic
 Ted Selker (inv. 1987), U.S. – Pointing stick
 Sennacherib (705–681 BC), Iraq (Mesopotamia) – screw pump
 Léon Serpollet (1858–1907), France – Flash boiler, Gardner-Serpollet steam car
 Iwan Serrurier (1878–1953), Netherlands/U.S. – inventor of the Moviola for film editing
 Mark Serrurier (1904–1988), U.S. – Serrurier truss for Optical telescopes
 Gerhard Sessler (born 1931), Germany – foil electret microphone, silicon microphone
 Guy Severin (1926–2008), Russia – extra-vehicular activity supporting system
 Ed Seymour (inv. c. 1949), U.S. – Aerosol paint
 Leonty Shamshurenkov (1687–1758), Russia – first self-propelling carriage (a precursor to both bicycle and automobile), projects
of an original odometer and self-propelling sledge
 Ibn al-Shatir (1304–1375), Syria – "jewel box" device which combined a compass with a universal sundial
 Bi Sheng (Chinese: 畢昇) (c. 990–1051), China – clay movable type printing
 Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973–1025), Japan – psychological novel
 Pyotr Shilovsky (1871–1957), Russia/United Kingdom – gyrocar
 Masatoshi Shima (born 1943), Japan – microprocessor
 Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), Mughal India – early volley gun
 Joseph Shivers (1920–2014), U.S. – Spandex
 William Bradford Shockley (1910–1989), U.S. – co-inventor of transistor
 Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), UK – Shrapnel shell ammunition
 Vladimir Shukhov (1853–1939), Russia – thermal cracking (Shukhov cracking process), thin-shell structure, tensile
structure, hyperboloid structure, gridshell, oil pipeline, cylindric oil depot
 Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (born 1972), Malaysia – cell growth in outer space, crystallization of proteins and microbes in space
 Augustus Siebe (1788–1872), Germany/UK – Inventor of the standard diving dress
 Sir William Siemens (1823–1883), Germany – regenerative furnace
 Werner von Siemens (1816–1892), Germany – a.o. electric elevator, Electromote (= first trolleybus), an early Dynamo
 Al-Sijzi (c. 945–1020), Persia/Iran – heliocentric astrolabe
 Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972), Russia/U.S. – first four-engine fixed-wing aircraft (Russky Vityaz), first airliner and purpose-
designed bomber (Ilya Muromets), helicopter, Sikorsky-series helicopters
 Bernard Silver (1924–1963), together with Norman Joseph Woodland (1921–2012), U.S. – Barcode
 Kia Silverbrook (born 1958), Australia – Memjet printer, world's most prolific inventor
 Vladimir Simonov (born 1935), Russia – APS Underwater Assault Rifle, SPP-1 underwater pistol
 Charles Simonyi (born 1948), Hungary – Hungarian notation
 Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980–1037), Persia/Iran – steam distillation, essential oil, pharmacopoeia, clinical pharmacology, clinical
trial, randomized controlled trial, quarantine, cancersurgery, cancer therapy, pharmacotherapy, phytotherapy, Hindiba, Taxus
baccata L, calcium channel blocker
 Isaac Singer (1811–1875), U.S. – sewing machine
 B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), U.S. – Operant conditioning chamber
 Nikolay Slavyanov (1854–1897), Russia – shielded metal arc welding
 Alexander Smakula (1900–1983), Ukraine/Russia/U.S. – anti-reflective coating
 Michael Smith (1932–2000), U.S. – Site-directed mutagenesis (molecular biology)
 Oliver Smithies (1925–2017), together with Sir Martin John Evans (born 1941), and Mario Ramberg Capecchi (born 1937), U.S.
– Knockout mouse, Gene targeting
 Yefim Smolin, Russia – table-glass (stakan granyonyi)
 Friedrich Soennecken (1848–1919), Germany – Ring binder, Hole punch
 Su Song (1020–1101), China – first chain drive
 Marin Soljačić (born 1974), Croatia – Resonant inductive coupling
 Edwin Southern (born 1938), U.S. – Southern blot (molecular biology)
 Alfred P. Southwick (1826–1898), U.S. – Electric chair
 Igor Spassky (born 1926), Russia – Sea Launch platform
 Percy Spencer (1894–1970), U.S. – microwave oven
 Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860–1930), U.S. – gyroscope-guided automatic pilot
 Lyman Spitzer (1914–1997), U.S. – Stellarator (physics)
 Bhargav Sri Prakash (born 1977), India/U.S. – Learnification platform at FriendsLearn, Virtual
Reality System, electromagnetic collision avoidance system, OBD based in-vehicle powertrain performance measurement, rate
based driver controls for drive by wire systems
 Ladislas Starevich (1882–1965), Russia/France – puppet animation, live-action/animated film
 Gary Starkweather (born 1938), U.S. – laser printer, color management
 Boris Stechkin (1891–1969), Russia – co-developer of Sikorsky Ilya Muromets and Tsar Tank, developer of
Soviet heat and aircraft engines
 George Stephenson (1781–1848), UK – steam railway
 Simon Stevin (1548–1620), Netherlands – land yacht
 Andreas Stihl (1896–1973), Switzerland/Germany – Electric chain saw
 Reverend Dr Robert Stirling (1790–1878), Scotland – Stirling engine
 Aurel Stodola (1859–1942), Slovakia – gas turbines
 Aleksandr Stoletov (1839–1896), Russia – first solar cell based on the outer photoelectric effect
 Levi Strauss (1829–1902), U.S. – blue jeans
 John Stringfellow (1799–1883), UK – aerial steam carriage
 Bjarne Stroustrup (born 1950), Denmark – C++ (programming language)
 Almon Strowger (1839–1902), U.S. – automatic telephone exchange
 Emil Strub (1858–1909), Switzerland – Strub rack railway system
 Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) (903–986), Persia/Iran – timekeeping astrolabe, navigational astrolabe, surveying astrolabe
 Kyota Sugimoto (1882–1972), Japan – Japanese language typewriter
 Mutsuo Sugiura (1918–1986), Japan – Esophagogastroduodenoscope
 Pavel Sukhoi (1895–1975), Russia – Su-series fighter aircraft
 Simon Sunatori (born 1959), Canada – inventor of MagneScribe and Magic Spicer
 Sushruta (600 BC), Vedic India – inventor of Plastic Surgery, Cataract Surgery, Rhinoplasty
 Theodor Svedberg (1884–1971), Sweden – Analytical ultracentrifuge
 Joseph Swan (1828–1914), UK – Incandescent light bulb
 Robert Swanson (1905–1994), Canada – Invented and developed the first multi-chime air horn for use with diesel locomotives
 Remi Swierczek (born 1958), Poland – Inventor of Music Identification System and the Mico Changer (coin hopper and dispenser
used in casinos)
 Andrei Sychra (c.1773/76–1850), Lithuania/Russia, Czech descent – Russian seven-string guitar
 Vladimir Syromyatnikov (1933–2006), Russia – Androgynous Peripheral Attach System and other spacecraft docking mechanisms
 Simon Sze (born 1936), Taiwan/U.S., together with Dawon Kahng (1931–1992), South Korea – Floating-gate MOSFET
 Leó Szilárd (1898–1964), Hungary/U.S. – Co-developed the atomic bomb, patented the nuclear reactor, catalyst of the Manhattan
Project
T[edit]

 Muhammad Salih Tahtawi (fl.1659–1660), Mughal India – seamless globe and celestial globe
 Gyula Takátsy (1914–1980), Hungary – first Microtiter plate
 Esther Takeuchi (born 1953) – holds more than 150 US-patents, the largest number for any woman in the United States
 Igor Tamm (1895–1971), Russia – co-developer of tokamak
 Ching W. Tang (born 1947), Hong Kong/U.S., together with Steven Van Slyke, U.S. – OLED
 Mardi bin Ali al-Tarsusi (c. 1187), Middle East – counterweight trebuchet, mangonel
 Gustav Tauschek (1899–1945), Austria – Drum memory
 Kenyon Taylor (inv. 1961), U.S. – Flip-disc display
 Bernard Tellegen (1900–1990), Netherlands – pentode
 Edward Teller (1908–2003), Hungary – hydrogen bomb
 Eli Terry (1772–1852)
 Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), Croatia/Serbia – induction motor, high-voltage / high-frequency power experiments, the transmission
of electrical power
 Léon Theremin (1896–1993), Russia – theremin, interlace, burglar alarm, terpsitone, Rhythmicon (first drum machine), The Thing
(listening device)
 Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785–1870), France – Arithmometer
 Elihu Thomson (1853–1937), UK, U.S. – Prolific inventor, Arc lamp and many others
 William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), United Kingdom – Kelvin absolute temperature scale
 Eric Tigerstedt (1887–1925), Finland – Sound-on-film, triode vacuum tube
 Kalman Tihanyi (1897–1947), Hungary – co-inventor of cathode ray tube and iconoscope
 Mikhail Tikhonravov (1900–1974), Russia – co-developer of Sputnik 1 (the first artificial satellite) together
with Korolyov and Keldysh, designer of further Sputniks
 Gavriil Adrianovich Tikhov (1875–1960), Russia – feathering spectrograph
 Benjamin Chew Tilghman (1821–1897), U.S. – sandblasting
 Fedor Tokarev (1871–1968), Russia – TT-33 semiautomatic handgun and SVT-40 self-loading rifle
 Ray Tomlinson (inv. 1971), U.S. – First inter-computer email
 Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647), Italy – barometer
 Alfred Traeger (1895–1980), Australia – Pedal radio
 Richard Trevithick (1771–1833), UK – high-pressure steam engine, first full-scale steam locomotive
 Franc Trkman (1903–1978), Slovenia – electrical switches, accessories for opening windows
 Hans Tropsch (1889–1935), together with Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (1877–1947), Germany – Fischer–Tropsch process (refinery
process)
 Yuri Trutnev (born 1927), Russia – co-developer of the Tsar Bomb
 Roger Y. Tsien (1952–2016), together with Osamu Shimomura (1928–2018) and Martin Chalfie (born 1947), U.S. – Discovery
and development of Green fluorescent protein
 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935), Russia – spaceflight
 Mikhail Tsvet (1872–1919), Russia – chromatography (specifically adsorption chromatography, the first chromatography method)
 Alexei Tupolev (1925–2001), Russia – the Tupolev Tu-144 (first supersonic passenger jet)
 Andrei Tupolev (1888–1972), Russia – turboprop powered long-range airliner (Tupolev Tu-114), turboprop strategic bomber
(Tupolev Tu-95)
 Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1201–1274), Persia/Iran – observatory, Tusi-couple
 Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1135–1213), Persia/Iran – linear astrolabe
U[edit]

 Shintaro Uda (1869–1976), together with Hidetsugu Yagi (1886–1976), Japan – Yagi-Uda antenna
 Lewis Urry (1927–2004), Canada – long-lasting alkaline battery
 Tomislav Uzelac, Croatia – first successful MP3 player, AMP
V[edit]

 Ira Van Gieson (1866–1913), U.S. – Van Gieson's stain (histology)

 Theophilus Van Kannel (1841–1919), United States – revolving door (1888)
 Vladimir Veksler (1907–1966), Russia – synchrophasotron, co-inventor of synchrotron
 John Venn (1834–1923), UK – Venn diagram (1881)
 Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil (1856–1913), France – Verneuil process (crystal growth)
 Pierre Vernier (1580–1637), France – Vernier scale (1631)
 Lucien Vidi (1805–1866), France – Barograph
 Edgar Villchur (1917–2011), U.S. – a.o. Acoustic suspension (loudspeaker)
 Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (1895–1973), Finland – a.o. AIV fodder
 Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Italy – battery, see also Voltaic pile
 Bernard Vonnegut (1914–1997), together with Henry Chessin, and Richard E. Passarelli Jr., U.S. – a.o. Cloud seeding by silver
iodide
 Ivan Vučetić (1858–1925), Croatia – Method of fingerprint classification
W[edit]

 Paul Walden (1863–1957), Latvia/Russia/Germany – Walden inversion, Ethylammonium nitrate (the first room temperature ionic
liquid)
 Jimmy Wales (born 1966), together with Larry Sanger, U.S. – Wikipedia
 Madam C.J. Walker (1867–1919), U.S. – beauty and hair products for African American women
 Barnes Wallis (1887–1979), UK – bouncing bomb
 Ruth Graves Wakefield (1903–1977), U.S. – chocolate chip cookie
 Frederick Walton (c. 1834–1928), UK – Linoleum
 Aldred Scott Warthin (1866–1931), together with Allen Chronister Starry (1890–1973), U.S. – Warthin–Starry stain (histology)
 Robert Watson-Watt (1892–1973), Scotland – microwave radar
 James Watt (1736–1819), Scotland – improved Steam engine
 Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805), UK – first (not permanent) photograph
 Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858–1929), Austria – Gas mantle, ferrocerium
 Jonas Wenström (1855–1893), Sweden – three-phase electrical power
 George Westinghouse (1846–1914), U.S. – Air brake (rail)
 Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875), UK – a.o. concertina, stereoscope, microphone, Playfair cipher, pseudoscope, dynamo
 Richard T. Whitcomb (1921–2009), U.S. – Supercritical airfoil, Winglet
 Eli Whitney (1765–1825), U.S. – the cotton gin
 Frank Whittle (1907–1996), UK – co-inventor of the jet engine
 Otto Wichterle (1913–1989), Czechoslovakia – soft contact lens
 Margaret Wilcox (born 1838) – automobile heater
 Norman Wilkinson (1878–1971), UK – Dazzle camouflage
 Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959), UK – Cloud chamber
 Paul Winchell (1922–2005), U.S. – the artificial heart
 Sergei Winogradsky (1856–1953), Russia / USSR – Winogradsky column for culturing microorganisms
 Niklaus Wirth (born 1934), Switzerland – Pascal (programming language)
 A. Baldwin Wood (1879–1956), U.S. – high volume pump
 Norman Joseph Woodland (1921–2012), together with Bernard Silver (1924–1963), U.S. – Barcode
 Granville Woods (1856–1910), U.S. – the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph
 James Homer Wright (1869–1928), U.S. – Wright's stain (histology)
 Wright brothers, Orville (1871–1948) and Wilbur (1867–1912) – U.S. – powered airplane
 Arthur Wynne (1862–1945), UK – creator of crossword puzzle
X[edit]

 Yi Xing (683–727), China – astronomical clock

Y[edit]

 Pavel Yablochkov (1847–1894), Russia – Yablochkov candle (first commercially viable electric carbon arc lamp)
 Hidetsugu Yagi (1886–1976), together with Shintaro Uda (1896–1976), Japan – Yagi-Uda antenna
 Alexander Yakovlev (1906–1989), Russia – Yak-series aircraft, including Yakovlev Yak-40 (the first regional jet)
 Linus Yale Jr. (1821–1868), U.S. – cylinder lock
 Linus Yale Sr. (1797–1858), U.S. – pin tumbler lock
 Shunpei Yamazaki (born 1942), Japan – patents in a.o. computer science and solid-state physics, see List of prolific inventors
 Gazi Yasargil (born 1925), Turkey – Microneurosurgery
 Ryōichi Yazu (1878–1908), Japan – Yazu Arithmometer
 Gunpei Yokoi (1941–1997), Japan – Game Boy
 Arthur M. Young (1905–1995), U.S. – the Bell Helicopter
 Vladimir Yourkevitch (1885–1964), Russia/France/U.S. – ship hull design
 Tu Youyou (born 1930), China – Artemisinin
 Sergei Yudin (1891–1954), Russia – cadaveric blood transfusion and other medical operations
 Muhammad Yunus (born 1940), Bangladesh – microcredit, microfinance
 Abu Yusuf Yaqub (c. 1274), Morocco/Spain – siege cannon
 Abraham Albert Yuzpe (inv. c. 1974), U.S. – Yuzpe regimen (= form of Emergency contraception)
Z[edit]

 Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) (936–1013), Islamic Spain – catgut surgical suture, various surgical instruments and dental
devices
 Frank Zamboni (1901–1988), U.S. – Ice resurfacer
 Giuseppe Zamboni (1776–1846), Italy – Zamboni pile (early battery)
 Ludwik Łazarz Zamenhof (1859–1917), Russia/Poland – Esperanto
 Walter Zapp (1905–2003), Latvia/Estonia/Germany – Minox (subminiature camera)
 Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) (1028–1087), Islamic Spain – almanac, equatorium, universal astrolabe
 Yevgeny Zavoisky (1907–1976), Russia – EPR spectroscopy, co-developer of NMR spectroscopy
 Nikolay Zelinsky (1861–1953), Russia – the first effective filtering coal gas mask in the world
 Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917), Germany – Zeppelin
 Frits Zernike (1888–1966), The Netherlands – Phase contrast microscope
 Tang Zhongming (1897–1980), China – internal combustion engine powered by charcoal
 Jian Zhou (1957–1999), together with Ian Hector Frazer (1953–), China/U.S. – HPV vaccine against cervical cancer
 Nikolai Zhukovsky (1847–1921), Russia – an early wind tunnel, co-developer of the Tsar Tank
 Karl Ziegler (1898–1973), together with Giulio Natta (1903–1979), Germany/Italy – Ziegler–Natta catalyst
 Franz Ziehl (1857–1926), together with Friedrich Neelsen (1854–1898), Germany – Ziehl–Neelsen stain (histology)
 Konrad Zuse (1910–1995), Germany – invented the first programmable general-purpose computer (Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4)
 Vasily Zvyozdochkin (1876–1956), Russia – matryoshka doll (together with Sergey Malyutin)
 Vladimir Zworykin (1889–1982), Russia/U.S. – Iconoscope, kinescope.

Archimedes (287 BCE – c. 212 BCE) Archimedes of Syracuse was an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and
astronomer. Amongst other things he calculated pi and developed the Archimedes screw for lifting up water from mines or wells.

Cai Lun (50–121 CE), Chinese inventor of paper. Cai Lun was a Chinese political administrator credited with inventing modern paper
and inventing the paper-making process. His invention included the use of raw materials such as bark, hemp, silk and fishing net. The
sheets of fibre were suspended in water before removing for drying.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian artist, scientist and polymath. Da Vinci invented a huge range of machines and drew models
that proved workable 3-500 years later. These included prototype parachutes, tanks, flying machines and single-span bridges. More
practical inventions included an optical lens grinder and various hydraulic machines.

Galileo (1564–1642) Italian scientist. Galileo developed a powerful telescope and confirmed revolutionary theories about the nature of
the world. Also developed an improved compass.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1726) English scientist. Newton invented the reflecting telescope. This greatly improved the capacity of
telescopes and reduced optical distortion. Newton was also a great physicist and astronomer.

Thomas Savery (c. 1650–1715) English inventor. Savery patented one of the first steam engines which was pioneered for use in
pumping water from mines. This original Savery steam engine was basic, but it was used as a starting point in later developments of
the steam engine.

Thomas Newcomen (1664–1729) English inventor who created the first practical steam engine for pumping water from mines. He
worked with Savery’s initial design, but significantly improved it, using atmospheric pressure which was safer and more effective for
use in mines to remove water.

Jethro Tull (1674–1741) English agricultural entrepreneur. Tull invented the seed drill and horse-drawn hoe. The seed drill improved
the efficiency of farming and led to increased yields. It was an important invention in the agricultural revolution which increased yields
prior to the industrial revolution.

Abraham Darby (1678–1717) English Quaker, inventor and businessman. Darby developed a process for producing large quantities
of pig iron from coke. Coke smelted iron was a crucial raw material in the industrial revolution.
John Harrison (1693–1776) English carpenter and clockmaker. He invented a device for measuring longitude at sea. This was a
crucial invention to improve the safety of navigating the oceans.

Benjamin Franklin (1705–1790) American polymath who discovered electricity and invented the Franklin stove, the lightning rod
and bifocals. Franklin was also an American statesman and an influential figure in the development of modern America.

William Cullen (1710–1790) Scottish physician and chemist. He is credited with inventing the basis for the first artificial refrigerator,
although it took others to make his designs suitable for practical use.

John Wilkinson (1728–1808) English industrialist. John ‘Iron Mad’ Wilkinson developed the manufacture and use of cast iron. These
precision-made cast iron cylinders were important in steam engines.

Sir Richard Arkwright (1732–1792) English entrepreneur and ‘father of the industrial revolution.’ Arkwright was a leading pioneer
in the spinning industry. He invented the spinning frame and was successful in using this in mass-scale factory production.

James Watt (1736–1819) Scottish inventor of the steam engine, which was suitable for use in trains. His invention of a separate
condensing chamber greatly improved the efficiency of steam. It enabled the steam engine to be used for a greater range of purpose
than just pumping water.

Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Italian physicist, credited with inventing the battery. Volta invented the first electrochemical battery
cell. It used zinc, copper and an electrolyte, such as sulphuric acid and water.

Sir Humphrey Davy (1778–1829) English inventor of the Davy lamp. The lamp could be used by miners in areas where methane gas
existed because the design prevented a flame escaping the fine gauze.

Charles Babbage (1791–1871) English mathematician and inventor. Babbage created the first mechanical computer, which proved to
be the prototype for future computers. Considered to be the ‘Father of Computers,’ despite not finishing a working model.

Michael Faraday (1791–1867) English scientist who helped convert electricity into a format that could be easily used. Faraday
discovered benzene and also invented an early form of the Bunsen burner.

Samuel Morse (1791–1872) American inventor Morse used principles of Jackson’s electromagnet to develop a single telegraph wire.
He also invented Morse code, a method of communicating via telegraph.

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) British Victorian pioneer of photography. He invented the first negative, which could make
several prints. He is known for inventing the calotype process (using Silver Chloride) of taking photographs.

Louis Braille (1809–1852) French inventor. Louis Braille was blinded in a childhood accident. He developed the Braille system of
reading for the blind. He also developed a musical Braille, for reading music scores.

Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1812–1878) Scottish inventor of the pedal bicycle. Kirkpatrick’s contribution was to make a rear wheel
driven bicycle through the use of a chain, giving the basic design for the bicycle as we know it today.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) Scottish physicist and inventor. Maxwell invented the first process for producing colour
photography. Maxwell was also considered one of the greatest physicists of the millennium.

Karl Benz (1844–1929), German inventor and businessman. Benz developed the petrol-powered car. In 1879, Benz received his first
patent for a petrol-powered internal combustion engine, which made an automobile car practical. Benz also became a successful
manufacturer.

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor who filed over 1,000 patents. He developed and innovated a wide range of products
from the electric light bulb to the phonograph and motion picture camera. One of the greatest inventors of all time.

Alexander Bell (1847–1922) Scottish scientist credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Also worked on optical
telecommunications, aeronautics and hydrofoils.

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) American Physicist who invented fluorescent lighting, the Tesla coil, the induction motor, 3-phase
electricity and AC electricity.

Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913), German inventor of the Diesel engine. Diesel sought to build an engine which had much greater
efficiency. This led him to develop a diesel-powered combustion engine.

Édouard Michelin (1859–1940), French inventor of a pneumatic tire. John Dunlop invented the first practical pneumatic tyre in 1887.
Michelin improved on this initial design to develop his own version in 1889.

Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French chemist and physicist. Curie discovered Radium and helped make use of radiation and
X-rays.

The Wright Brothers (1871–1948) American inventors who successfully designed, built and flew the first powered aircraft in 1903.

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) Italian inventor of the radio. Marconi developed wireless transmitter signals using electromagnetic
waves. This developed into the radio.

Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), Scottish scientist. Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin by accident from the
mould Penicillium Notatum in 1928.
John Logie Baird (1888–1946) Scottish inventor who invented the television and the first recording device.

Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) Italian scientist who developed the nuclear reactor. Fermi made important discoveries in induced
radioactivity. He is considered the inventor of the nuclear reactor.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), United States – Atomic bomb. Oppenheimer was in charge of the Manhattan project which led
to the creation of the first atomic bomb, later dropped in Japan. He later campaigned against his own invention.

Alan Turing (1912–1954) English 20th century mathematician, pioneer of computer science. He developed the Turing machine,
capable of automating processes. It could be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm.

Robert Noyce (1927–1990) American 20th-century electrical engineer. Along with Jack Kilby, he invented the microchip or integrated
circuit. He filed for a patent in 1959. The microchip fueled the computer revolution.

James Dyson (1947– ) British entrepreneur. He developed the bag-less vacuum cleaner using Dual Cyclone action. His Dyson
company has also invented revolutionary hand dryers.

Tim Berners-Lee (1955– ) British computer scientist. Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web, which
enabled the internet to display websites viewable on internet browsers. He developed the http://protocol for the internet and made the
world wide web freely available.

1. 1. List of Inventors and their Invention Invention Inventor Image Telephone Alexander Graham Bell Light bulb Thomas
Edison Steam Engine- Robert Fulton
2. 2. Elevator- Elisha Otis Reaper- McCormick Sleeping Wagon for train- George Pullman
3. 3. Fountain Pen- Waterman Rotatory Press- Richard Hoe z Rubber shoes- Charles
4. 4. Telegraph- Morse Gun(colt 45)- Samuel Colt Automobile- Henry Ford
5. 5. Sewing Machine- Howe Aero plane- Wright Brothers Theory of Relativity- Albert Einstein
6. 6. Newton’s Telescope- Isaac Newton Jeans- Levi Strauss Basketball- James Naismith
7. 7. The plastic soda bottle- Nathaniel Wyeth Penicillin - Alexander Fleming Electricity- Benjamin Franklim
8. 8. Type writer- HENRY MILL Made by- Gaurav Yadav XI-A 14

Inventor Inventions Year Country

Johannes Gutenberg Printing Press 1440 Germany
Heinrich Rudolph Electromagnetic theory of light and electromagnetic
1880s Germany
Hertz waves. Radio and electrical frequencies (Hz)
Wilhelm Conrad
Electro Magnetic Radiations or X-Ray 1895 Germany
Röntgen
Alfred Nobel Dynamite 1867 Sweden
Eli Whitney Milling machine and cotton gin 1793 America
Mary Anderson Windshield wipers 1903 America
Wilber and Orville
Wright (Wright Airplanes 1903 America
Brothers)
Archimedes screw, a device used to raise the water
level, explained the principle behind levers,
Archimedes 3rd century B.C. Greece
Archimedes principle, accurate value of the 'pi', and
many more
Richard G. Drew Adhesive tape 1923 America
Peter Henlein Pocket watch 1504-1508 Germany
Discovered gravity and also invented the reflecting
Sir Isaac Newton 1668 England
telescope
John Napier Logarithms, Napier Bones, and decimal point 1590s Scotland
Jacques Yves
France (Emile was a
Cousteau and Emile Aqualungs 1943
French Canadian)
Gagnan
Thomas Newcomen Atmospheric steam engine 1710 England
Karl Friedrich von Bicycle, typewriter with keyboard, and wood saving
1820s Germany
Drais cooker
Alexander Graham
Telephone 1875 Scotland
Bell
Willis Carrier Air conditioner 1914 America
Jean Nollet (Also
Electroscope 1748 France
known as Abbe Nollet)
Ransome Eli Olds Assembly line 1901 America
Earle Dickson Band Aid 1920 America
James Naismith Basketball 1891 Canada
Levi Strauss Blue jeans 1873 Germany/USA
Louis Braille Braille for the blind 1829 France
Robert Wilhelm
Bunsen burner 1855 Germany
Bunsen
Alfred Mosher Butts Scrabble 1938 America
Sir Humphrey Davy Miner's safety lamp or the Davy lamp 1815 England
Charles Richter Richter magnitude scale for measuring earthquake 1935 America
Heinrich Göbel Incandescent light bulb 1890s Germany/America
Jesse Langsdorf Neck tie 1920 America
1877 and 1879
Thomas Edison Phonograph and electric light bulb America
(respectively)
Lighting rod, bifocals, Franklin stove, glass armonica,
Benjamin Franklin swim fins, urinary catheter, and also the carriage 1750s America
odometer
Rudolf Christian Karl
Diesel engine 1890s Germany
Diesel
Otto von Guericke Air pump or vacuum pump 1650 Germany
Geometric compass, better 30X magnification
Galileo Galilei telescope, 'invented' that the sun was the center of the 1590s onwards Italy
solar system and not the earth
AC motor and transformer, vacuum tube amplifier,
Nikola Tesla 1880s Austria/America
Tesla coil, X-Ray technology
Chester Carlson Xerography photocopying 1937-38 America
Jacques Edwin
Cellophane 1908 Switzerland
Brandenberger
Ruth Wakefield Chocolate chip and chocolate chip cookies 1930 America
Lens grinding machine, parachute, Strut bridge,
Leonardo da Vinci automatic bobbin winder, and also machine for testing 1500s Italy
tensile strength of wires
Abd al-Latif al
Ventilator 1162-1231 Iraq/Egypt
Baghdadi
Jagdish Chandra Bose Crescograph 1920s India
C ai Lun Paper and paper making process 105 AD China
Evgeniy Chertovsky Pressure suit 1931 Russia
Dr. John Stith
Coca Cola 1886 America
Pemberton
Zacharias Janssen Compound microscope 1595 Holland
Arthur Wynne Crossword puzzle 1913 England
Charles Richard Drew Blood bank - America
Thomas Davenport Electric streetcar 1834 America
Lala Balhumal Lahuri Seamless globe, celestial globe Late 1842 Mughal India
Shanti Swarup
Bhatnagar and K.N. Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance 1928 India
Mathur
Jesse W. Reno Escalator 1891 America
 Lewis E. Waterman Fountain pen 1884 America
Dr. Joseph-Ignace
Guillotin 1790s France
Guillotin
Elias Howe Sewing machine 1846 America
Ida Henrietta Hyde Micro electrode 1930s America
Charles Mackintosh Waterproof raincoat and life vest 1820s Scotland
Edwin Beard Budding Lawn mower 1830 England
Garrett Augustus
Traffic signal, gas mask, and several other things - African-American
Morgan
Louis Pasteur Pasteurization Late 19th century France
1. Galileo and the telescope
Galileo Galilei
While Galileo is often credited with devising the first telescopes, there was actually a Dutch man called Hans Lippershay who had been
making magnification devices using the ever improving qualities of glassmaking at the time.
Allegedly, Galileo heard about these and decided to build his own, even making some improvements in the process. He was also the
first person to use these new optics as a scientific instrument, which is where his real value was added.
2. James Watt and the steam engine
When I was in high school, my science teacher thought it was funny to ask “What was the name of the man who invented the steam
engine?” Hilarious, because “Watt” was the answer, so the question was also a statement.
Only steam engines predated Watt’s design by almost 60 years. Englishman Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine design in
1698, to remove water from coal mines. Subsequently, Thomas Newcomen improved the design to work at atmospheric pressure,
which became the standard design for about 50 years.
Watt’s real innovation was designing the engine with a separate condenser, which made the whole process significantly more efficient.
Watt steam engine
3. Eli Whitney and the cotton gin
During times of slavery in the USA, Georgia predominantly grew cotton which had shorter fibres. This didn’t work well with the
machines at the time which tried to remove seeds from the fibres (roller gins), and required a lot of manual work. So the state of
Georgia sponsored an engineering push to come up with a better design.
Whitney improved on the roller gins by replacing the solid rollers with wire teeth.
While this significantly improved the production ability for cotton, it also had the sad side effect of increasing the demand for slaves to
man the fields.
cotton gin
4. Elisha Otis and the elevator
Devices capable of lifting people into tall buildings have existed since the ancient Egyptians. And as the industrial revolution and the
growth of cities led to taller buildings being constructed, people became tired of having to climb multiple flights of stairs. So elevators
were invented, using either steam or electric engines which pulled up elevators with ropes.
However, ropes have a tendency to break. And even being in an elevator only a few storeys high, if the rope broke and you plummeted
with the carriage it would result in at least severe injury, if not death.
Otis actually invented the safety break, which would stop the elevator from crashing if it was activated by sudden falling when a rope
broke. This removed a major risk of death from buildings taller than a few storeys, and spurred on the building of the first skyscrapers.
Otis’ big brake catching him
5. Thomas Edison and the light bulb
Thomas Edison Light Bulb
It is perhaps the most famous invention of all time, and its symbol actually epitomises the concept of an idea.
And yet, Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb. Not the glass bulb, or the glowing filament inside it. He merely improved the
previous designs to the point that they became commercially practical, in 1880.
The first electric light device, called an Arc-Lamp, was developed by Humphry Davy about 78 years before that, but didn’t last long
and was far too bright. In 1850, Joseph Swan found that carbonised paper was a much better material for a filament and used them to
make light bulbs. However, he couldn’t get his design to be efficient or long-lasting.
After further experimentation, both Swan and Edison found subsequently better materials, and eventually their two companies merged
to market their new improved design together, though most people only remember Edison.
6. Guglielmo Marconi and the Radio
In the 1890s, both Marconi and Nikola Tesla were fighting to develop the radio. Tesla actually received more of the early patents for
the technology. However, the initial discovery of electromagnetic radiation was actually made a decade earlier by German scientist
Heinrich Hertz, who was able to both transmit and receive radio waves in his lab.
However, he couldn’t think of any practical applications for his discovery.
It was later Marconi who was able to take all these technologies and turn them into a commercial product.
Guglielmo Marconi radio
7. Henry Ford and the car
Ford released the Model T in 1908, and it was the first car to gain mass market appeal and success at a time when many people still
travelled by horse.
However, the car as powered by an internal combustion engine was actually created by Karl Benz in 1885, and many other engineers
subsequently improved on the design for better efficiency, comfort and performance.
What Ford achieved was improve the production process of the machine. His assembly line improved production efficiency
significantly, bringing down the cost of each unit to a price point where people could actually afford it.
Ford assembly line
8. The Wright Brothers and the airplane
Humankind has been dreaming of flight for eons. From Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketches of flying machines to the story of Icarus, people
have desired to rid themselves of the shackles of gravity.
And the Wright Brothers were not the only people of their time to try and develop a machine capable of powered flight.
George Cayley was the first person to move from designs involving flapping like birds to a “fixed wing” design. Another engineer
called Otto Lilienthal then used a lot of those designs to create actual gliders with fixed wings and testing them, producing a lot of data
which the Wright Brothers would subsequently use.
Additionally, the Wright Brothers were able to use another recent invention from the time: the internal combustion engine from
automobiles. They were around at just the right time when this became available.
Their true innovation was in their designs which allowed their plane to actually be steered and controlled. And the rest is history.
wright brothers
9. Philo Farnsworth and the TV
Philo T Farnsworth
An excellent example of an invention that was only possible thanks to numerous other inventions across industries.
Farnsworth was able to take the developments of the cathode ray tube (by Ferdinand Braun) and combine it with a way to scan images
using electrons which he apparently began thinking of in high school.
His design also outperformed the other competing TV technology at the time: mechanical TV.
10. Bill Gates and the Graphical User Interface
Early computer systems were primarily command-line driven, meaning you needed to know all of the inputs to type into a keyboard to
tell the machine what you wanted it to do.
Many people credit Microsoft Windows with introducing the world to the Graphical User Interface (GUI), where you can use a mouse
to click on-screen objects to tell it what to do, making the whole process much more user-friendly.
However, a lot of the progress in GUI development happened much earlier. A pioneer was Douglas Engelbart, who demonstrated an
Operating System with a mouse pointer in 1968. This idea was then taken up by Xerox, who released their Alto computers which were
the first with a mouse and GUI.
As legends go, Apple’s Steve Jobs saw an Alto while visiting Xerox’s PARC research centre and inspired him to make sure the Apple
Macintosh would have a GUI, the first mass-market GUI computers. This then paved the way for the more business-focussed
Microsoft Windows Operating System, which took the idea truly mainstream.

Alexander Graham Bell: Invented a dehusking machine, telephone, photophone and made other technological discoveries which
future inventors carried further.
Alfred Nobel: A detonator, Dynamite, Gelignite.
Benjamin Franklin: Lightning rod, bifocal glasses and many others.
Isaac Newton: Reflecting telescope and other discoveries.
Johannes Gutenberg: Combined and improved inventions such as movable metal type and ink used these to improve printing
technology.
Josephine Cochrane: Invented the dishwasher.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Led the team which developed the atomic bomb.
Leonardo da Vinci: Produced designs for numerous inventions.
Marion Donovan: developed the first waterproof disposable diaper.
Mary Anderson: Invented windshield wiper blades.
Margaret Knight: Invented the square-bottomed paper bag.
Thomas Edison: Worked with electricity and sound improving light bulbs and telephones as well as motion picture cameras and other
inventions.
Famous inventions
Here is a list of some inventions and their inventors but there are many more. You will find information about these on the websites we
have chosen for this entry. Some inventions have their own official websites like the ones highlighted below.
Britten V1000 motorcycle : John Britten.
Chocolate chip cookies: Ruth Graves Wakefield.
Clock: Various inventors at different stages - from sundial to atomic clocks.
Computer: Charles Babbage, Howard Aiken and others.
Flush toilet system: Sir John Harrington.
Light bulb : Joseph Swan (UK) Thomas Edison (US).
Monopoly: originally called 'The Landlord’s Game', was invented by Elizabeth Magie.
Pencil: Prehistoric with various modifications through the centuries.
Plastic: Alexander Parkes.
Sellotape : Colin Kinninmonth and George Gray.
Shoes: prehistoric with various modifications through the centuries.
Telegraph (wireless): Guglielmo Marconi.
Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell.
Television: John Logie Baird.
Thomas Edison 1847-1931

The first great invention developed by Thomas Edison was the tin foil phonograph. A prolific producer, Edison is also known for
his work with light bulbs, electricity, film and audio devices, and much more.
Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1869

In 1876, at the age of 29, Alexander Graham Bell invented his telephone. Among one of his first innovations after the telephone
was the "photophone," a device that enabled sound to be transmitted on a beam of light.
George Washington Carver 1864-1943
George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist who invented three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds of more uses for
soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes. His contributions changed the history of agriculture in the south.
Eli Whitney 1765-1825

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1794. The cotton gin is a machine that separates seeds, hulls and other unwanted materials
from cotton after it has been picked.
Johannes Gutenberg 1394-1468
Johannes Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and inventor best known for the Gutenberg press, an innovative printing machine
thatused movable type.
John Logie Baird 1888-1946

John Logie Baird is remembered as the inventor of mechanical television (an earlier version of television). Baird also patented
inventions related to radar and fiber optics.
Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790
Benjamin Franklin was known for being a iconic statesman and a founding father. But among his many other accomplishments was the
invention of the lightning rod, the iron furnace stove or 'Franklin Stove', bifocal glasses and the odometer.
Henry Ford 1863-1947

Henry Ford did not invent the automobile as many people mistakenly assume. But he did improved the "assembly line" for
automobile manufacturing, received a patent for a transmission mechanism, and popularized the gas-powered car with the Model-T.

James Naismith 1861-1939

James Naismith was a Canadian physical education instructor who invented basketball in 1891.

Herman Hollerith 1860-1929

The Hollerith tabulator and sorter box was invented by Herman Hollerith and used in the 1890 United States census. It 'read' cards by
passing them through electrical contacts. Closed circuits, which indicated hole positions, could then be selected and counted. His
Tabulating Machine Company (1896) was a predecessor to the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). Hulton
Archive/Getty Images
Herman Hollerith invented a punch-card tabulation machine system for statistical computation. Herman Hollerith's great breakthrough
was his use of electricity to read, count, and sort punched cards whose holes represented data gathered by the census-takers. His
machines were used for the 1890 census and accomplished in one year what would have taken nearly ten years of hand tabulating.
Nikola Tesla

Due to overwhelming public demand, we had to add Nikola Tesla to this list. Tesla was a genius and much of his work was
stolen by other inventors. Tesla invented fluorescent lighting, the Tesla induction motor, the Tesla coil, and developed the alternating
current (AC) electrical supply system that included a motor and transformer, and 3-phase electricity.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was best remembered as the charismatic co-founder of Apple Inc. Working with co-founder Steve Wozniak,
Jobs introduced the Apple II, a popular mass market personal computer that helped usher in a new era of personal computing. After
being forced out of the company that he founded, Jobs returned in 1997 and assembled the team of designers, programmers and
engineers responsible for the groundbreaking iPhone, iPad and many other innovations.

Tim Berners-Lee
British Physicist-Turned-Programmer Tim Berners-Lee Devised Much Of The Programming Language That Made The Internet
Accessible To The Public. Catrina Genovese/Getty Images
Tim Berners-Lee is an English engineer and computer scientist that's often credited with inventing the World Wide Web, a network
that most now people use to access the internet. He first described a proposal for such a system in 1989, but it wasn't until August of
1991 that the first web site was published and online. The World Wide Web that Berners-Lee developed was comprised of the first web
browser, server and hypertexting.

James Dyson
Sir James Dyson is a British inventor and industrial designer who revolutionized vacuum cleaning with the invention of the Dual
Cyclone, the first bagless vacuum cleaner. He later found the Dyson company to develop improved and technologically advanced
household appliances. So far, his company has debuted a bladeless fan, a hair dryer, robotic vacuum cleaner and many other products.
He also established the James Dyson Foundation to support young people to pursue careers in technology. The James Dyson award is
given to students who come up with promising new designs.
Hedy Lamarr
Public Domain

Hedy Lamarr is often recognized as an early Hollywood starlet with film credits such as Algiers and Boom Town. As an inventor,
Lamarr made significant contributions to radio and technology and systems. During World War II, she invented radio-guidance system
for torpedoes. The frequency-hopping technology has been used to develop of Wi-Fiand Bluetooth.