List of inventors
This is a list of inventors.
See also: list of scientists, List of inventions named after people, timeline of invention, inventor, and Category:Inventors.
Alphabetical list
Contents: Top - 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
- Thomas Ahearn, inventor of the electric stove in 1892
- Archimedes, (circa 287 BC-212 BC), Greece
- Manfred von Ardenne, (1907-1997), Germany
- William George Armstrong — hydraulic crane, Armstrong breech-loading gun
- Edward Asselbergs,(1927 - June, 1996)of the Canadian Department of Agriculture — instant mashed potato flakes
- Joseph Aspdin, British inventor of cement in 1824
B
- Charles Babbage, (1791-1871), England — Analytical engine
- Robert Baden Powell- scouting movement
- Leo Baekeland (1863) - (1944), Belgian–American — plastic
- Ralph Baer - German born American — computer game
- Steve Baer - (1938-) U.S. solar inventor and developer; architectural designer.
- John Logie Baird, (1888-1946), Scotland — television
- John Bardeen, (1908-1991) — co-inventor of the transistor
- Trevor Baylis, (1937- ) — clockwork radio
- Arnold O. Beckman, (1900 - 2004), pH meter
- Karl Benz, Germany — automobile
- Emile Berliner, (1851-1929) Germany and USA — gramophone
- Henry Bessemer, (1813-1898), England — Bessemer process
- Tim Berners-Lee — World Wide Web
- Bi Sheng — primitive movable printing types
- Katherine Blodgett, (1898-1979) — nonreflective glass
- Theobald Boehm, (1794-1881), Germany — inventor of the modern flute
- Joseph-Armand Bombardier — snowmobile
- Hugo Borchardt (1844-1924) German–American inventor of the Borchardt C-93 semi automatic pistol
- Ruđer Bošković, (1711-1787) — Croatia, ring-micrometer, water telescope
- Walter Houser Brattain, (born 1902), US co-inventor of the transistor
- Louis Braille, (1809-1852)
- Karl Ferdinand Braun, (1850-1918), Germany — cathode ray tube
- Wernher von Braun, (1912-1977), Germany and USA — rocket technology
- Edwin Beard Budding, (1795-1846) England — lawnmower and adjustable spanner
- Robert Bunsen, (1811-1899), Germany — Bunsen burner
C
- Cai Lun — paper
- Marvin Camras — magnetic recording
- Chester Carlson, (1906-1968) USA — electrophotography
- Wallace Carothers, (1896-1937) — Nylon
- George Washington Carver, (1860-1943), plant scientist
- Chang Heng — "Seismograph"
- Arthur C. Clarke, (born 1917),England, geosynchronous satellite
- Christopher Cockerell, (1910-1999;) (1886-1972) — Hovercraft
- Jacques Cousteau, France — aqualung
- Charles Cros, (1842-1888) — phonograph... almost
- Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804) — automobile
- William Cullen — mechanical / chemical refrigeration
D
- Gustav Dahlén, (1869-1937) — invented the AGA Lighthouse
- Gottlieb Daimler, (1834-1900), Germany — automobile
- Salvino D'Armate — eyeglasses
- Leonardo DaVinci, (1452-1519), Italy — euclidean geometry
- Joseph Day --(1855-1946) Two Stroke Internal Combustion Engine
- Lee DeForest, (1873-1961) — triode, amongst others
- Sir James Dewar, (1842-1923) — Thermos bottle
- William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, motion picture camera
- Rudolf Diesel, (1858-1913), Germany — Diesel engine
- Karl Drais, (1785-1851), Germany — bicycle (Draisine)
- Cornelius Drebbel (1572-1633)
- Richard Drew — Scotch (or cellophane) tape
E
- George Eastman, (1854-1932), USA — roll film
- Thomas Edison, (1847-1931), USA — phonograph, amongst others
- Douglas Engelbart - the computer mouse [1]
- Oliver Evans (1755-1819) - amphibious vehicle, amongst others
- John S. Eastwood (1857-1924) - reinforced concrete multiple arch dam
F
- Philo Farnsworth, (1906-1971) — vacuum tube television display
- James Fergason — liquid crystal display
- Reginald Fessenden — two-way radio
- Adolf Eugen Fick, (1829-1901) — contact lens
- John Ambrose Fleming, (1848-1945), England — vacuum diode
- Henry Ford, (1863-1947), USA — modern assembly line
- Samuel Fox — steel ribbed umbrella
- Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790), USA — lightning rod, bifocals
- William Friese-Greene, (1855-1921) — cinematography
- Buckminster Fuller, (1895-1983) — geodesic domes, others
- Robert Fulton, (1765-1815) — steamboat engine
G
- Galileo Galilei, (1564-1642), Italy — thermometer
- Hans Geiger, (1882-1945)
- Robert Goddard, (1882-1945), USA — liquid fuel rocket
- Heinrich Göbel — light bulb
- Gordon Gould — laser
- Bette Nesmith Graham — Liquid Paper
- Chester Greenwood, (1858-1937) — Ear muffs
- James Gregory, (1638-1675) — reflecting telescope
- Harry Grindell-Matthews, (1880-1941) — various products, & supposed death ray
- Sir William Grove — fuel cell
- William Gruber — View-master
- Otto von Guericke, (1602-1686) — vacuum pump
- Johann Gutenberg, (circa 1390s-1468), Germany — movable type printing press
H
- John Hadley — quadrant
- William Hamilton, jet boat in 1957
- Franjo Hanaman, Croatia, electric bulb
- James Hargreaves, (1720-1778)
- John Harrison, (1693-1776) — marine chronometer
- Robert Heinlein, (1907-1988), waterbed
- Rudolf Hell, (1901-2002)
- John Philip Holland, (1840-1914) — "true" submarine
- Erna Schneider Hoover, computerized telephone switching system
I
J
- Aleksandar Just — Croatia, electric bulb
- Karl Jatho — airplane
- Sam Jacks — ringette
- Carl Edvard Johansson
- Johan Petter Johansson
K
- William Kelly
- Mary Dixon Kies — method for weaving straw with silk for hat-making.
- Fritz Klatte — invented vinyl chloride, forerunner to polyvinyl chloride
- Margaret Knight — (1838-1914) American, machine that completely constructs box-bottom brown paper bags.
- Gleb Kotelnikov - Russian inventor of the parachute.
- Stephanie Kwolek — Kevlar
L
- Hedy Lamarr, (1913-2000) — Spread spectrum
- Edwin H. Land, (1909-1991), USA — Polaroid polarizing filters and the Land Camera
- Håkan Lans, (1942-) — Developed the Computer mouse by adding a heavy rubber ball to the underside of it.
- Irving Langmuir, (1851-1957), gas filled incandescent lamp, hydrogen welding
- Lewis Latimer — worked with Thomas Edison and patented an improved lightbulb manufacturing process.
- Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev, (1874-1934) — synthetic rubber
- Gottfried Leibniz — binary numeral system
- Jerome H. Lemelson
- Justus von Liebig, (1803-1873) — fertilizer
- Ivan Lupis-Vukić (1813-1875) — Croatia, torpedo
M
- Guglielmo Marconi, (1874-1937), Italy — radio
- Jack Marks — boxer's gumshield
- Edgar Matias — Half Keyboard
- Elijah McCoy — son of former slaves, patented many lubrication devices
- Lise Meitner — nuclear chain reaction
- Antonio Meucci, inventor of the telephone
- Narcis Monturiol i Estarriol, (1819-1885) — steam powered submarine
- Robert Moog — music synthesizer
- Montgolfier brothers, (1740-1810) and (1745-1799), France — hot-air balloon
- Samuel Morey, (1762-1843) — internal combustion engine
- Garrett A. Morgan, (1877-1963) — African-American Inventor of the gas mask, and traffic signal.
- Samuel Morse, (1791-1872), USA — telegraph
N
- Alfred Nobel, (1833-1896), Sweden — dynamite
- Thomas Newcomen, England(ca. 1664-1729) designed a steam engine
- Isaac Newton, England,(1642-1727) — reflecting telescope (which reduces chromatic aberration)
O
- Hans von Ohain — co-founder of the jet engine
- Elisha Otis — passenger elevator and concommitant safety device
- Nikolaus Otto, (1832-1891), Germany — four-stroke cycle engine
P
- Spede Pasanen, Finnish inventor
- Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, (1871-1922), Croatia, ball point pen
- Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) — adding machine
- Steve Pasjack, Canadian who invented the tuck-away beer carton handle in 1957
- Stephen Perry — rubber band
- Ashwin Kochiyil Philips — personal audio recorder
- Olivia Poole, Mother of 7, invented the Jolly Jumper baby harness with her husband, circa. 1959
Q
R
- Johann Philipp Reis, (1834-1874), Germany — telephone
- Norbert Rilleaux, (1806-1894), USA — sugar processing
- Wilhelm Röntgen (1845-1923), Germany — x-ray machine
- Otto Frederick Rohwedder, USA — automatic bread-slicing machine
- James Russell — compact disc
S
- Alberto Santos-Dumont, (1873-1932) — non-rigid airship and airplane
- Adolphe Sax, (1814-1894) — saxophone
- August Schrader, Schrader valve for Pneumatic tire
- David Schwarz, Croatia, rigid ship later called Zeppelin
- Claude E. Shannon, (1916-2001) — information theory
- William Bradford Shockley, (1910- ) — co-inventor of transistor
- Werner von Siemens, (1816-1892), Germany — dynamo (electrical generator), electrical railroad, electrical elevator
- Percy Shaw — cat's eyes
- Henry Miller Shreve, (1785-1854) — sidewheeler, snagboat, various other steamboat and steam engine improvements
- Lucien B. Smith — barbed wire
- George Stephenson, (1781-1848), England — steam locomotive, civil engineer, inventor
- Levi Strauss, (1829-1902), USA — blue jeans
- John Stringfellow — airplane
- Joseph Swan, (1828-1914), England — inventor, physicist
T
- Nikola Tesla, ( 1856-1943), Serbian-Croatia- American inventor of the induction motor, alternating current polyphase power distribution system, wireless communication, robotics, logic gates, the bladeless turbine, radio and VTOL aircraft (among others).
- Edward Teller — fusion bomb
- Ray Tomlinson — Internet-based e-mail
- Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, (1852-1936), Spanish inventor
- Alfred Traeger, (1895 - 1980), Australian inventor of the pedal radio
- Alan Turing, (1912–1954) a British mathematician, logician, and cryptographer, and is considered to be one of the fathers of modern computer science. He provided an influential formalisation of the concept of algorithm and computation: the Turing machine.
U
- Lewis Urry, (1927-2004), — long-lasting alkaline battery.
V
- Johann Vaaler, Paper clip
- Alessandro Volta, (1745-1827), Italy — battery
- Faust Vrančić (1551-1617), Croatia, parachute
- Ivan Vučetić - Croatia, fingerprinting
W
- Erik Wallenberg, — invented the Tetra Pak
- Ghulam Sediq Wardak — Afghan with 341 unpatented inventions
- Robert Watson-Watt, (1892-1973) — microwave radar
- James Watt, (1736-1819), Scotland — practical steam engine
- George Westinghouse, (1846-1914), USA — Air brake
- Eli Whitney, (1765-1825) — cotton gin
- Frank Whittle, (1907-1996) — co-inventor of the jet engine
- Otto Wichterle, (1913-1989) — invented modern contact lenses
- Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel, (1780-1826), — inventor of the metronome
- A. Baldwin Wood, (December 1879-1956), US inventor & engineer
- Granville Woods, synchronous multiplex railway telegraph and other railroad-related technology
- Wolfhart Willimczik Wolfhart Engine, air mobile etc
- Orville and Wilbur Wright Airplane
- Arthur Wynne, (1862 - 1945), crossword puzzle (1913)
X
Y
- Asen Yordanoff (1886–1967) aircraft, Douglas DC-3
- Arthur M. Young (1905–1995) was the inventor of the Bell helicopter
Z
- Ferdinand von Zeppelin, (1838-1917), Germany — rigid airship
- Konrad Zuse, (1910-1995), Germany — computers
- Vladimir Zworykin (1889-1982), Russia — television