Inventor

Oct 7, 2023 - 00:32
 0  13

Thomas Edison

inventor, a person who brings ideas or objects together in a novel way to create an invention, something that did not exist before.

Inventors defy definition; as a result, they are frequently defined by what they are not. For example, though there is a close relation between invention and science and engineering, an inventor is not necessarily a scientist or an engineer. A scientist is said to be a discoverer—that is, somebody who by acute observation and brilliant analysis is able to find and explain something that already exists in nature. An engineer, meanwhile, uses existing technology and scientific understanding to design better objects or processes. But an inventor, it is said, creates something that had never previously existed.

Such distinctions are useful to an extent, but they also ignore the fact that science, engineering, and invention often work together. In fact, a large part of inventors’ efforts throughout history have been devoted not to the creation of something new but to the improvement and development of existing devices—traditionally the domain of the engineer. Furthermore, invention and scientific discovery are frequently so closely intertwined that it is difficult to draw any clear-cut distinction between them. For instance, Thomas Edison’s “invention” of the incandescent lamp was based partially on his “discovery” that a carbon filament possessed the desired physical properties to incandesce, or emit light when heated, in a vacated bulb—and “discovery” was itself obtained not by the scientist’s vaunted methodology but by an engineer’s dogged persistence, trying many different possible filament materials until he found the one that worked.

Notable inventors throughout history are listed in the table below.

Chronology of inventors and inventions
inventor nationality invention year of invention

power and precision grips

Homo habilis stone tools c. 2 million years ago

Imhotep reading a papyrus roll, detail of a sculpture; in the Egyptian Museum, Berlin.

Imhotep Egyptian step pyramid 27th century BCE

Archimedes screw

Archimedes Greek Archimedes screw 3rd century BCE

Ctesibius of Alexandria

Ctesibius of Alexandria Greek float-type clepsydra (water clock) 3rd century BCE

Heron of Alexandria's aeolipile.

Heron of Alexandria Greek aeolipile (steam-powered turbine) 1st century CE
Cai Lun Chinese paper 2nd century CE

Johannes Gutenberg in his workshop

Johannes Gutenberg German printing press c. 1450
William Lee English knitting machine 1589

Lippershey, Hans

Hans Lippershey German-Dutch compound microscope; telescope c. 1590; 1608
Cornelis Drebbel Dutch oar-powered submarine 1620

Torricelli, detail of a portrait by an unknown artist

Evangelista Torricelli Italian mercury barometer 1643

Guericke, engraving by C. Galle, 1649, after a portrait by Anselmus von Hulle

Otto von Guericke Prussian air pump 1650

Huygens, Christiaan

Christiaan Huygens Dutch pendulum clock 1658
Giuseppe Campani Italian lens-grinding lathe 1664

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Dutch single-lens microscope c. 1670

Papin, detail of an engraving, c. 1689

Denis Papin French-English pressure cooker 1679
Daniel Quare English repeating watch mechanism for sounding the nearest hour and quarter hour 1680

Thomas Savery's steam pump

Thomas Savery English steam-driven vacuum pump 1698

Jethro Tull, detail of an oil painting by an unknown artist; in the collection of the Royal Society for Agriculture, London

Jethro Tull English mechanical seed drill 1701
Abraham Darby English used coke to smelt iron 1709

Newcomen engine.

Thomas Newcomen English atmospheric steam engine 1712

Hadley's Quadrant

John Hadley English quadrant for determining latitude 1730
Thomas Godfrey American quadrant for determining latitude 1730

air speed indicator

Henri Pitot French pitot tube 1732

John Kay, detail of a lithograph by Madeley

John Kay English flying shuttle 1733

John Harrison, detail of an oil painting by Thomas King; in the Science Museum, London

John Harrison English marine chronometer 1735
Benjamin Franklin American Franklin stove c. 1740
Benjamin Huntsman English crucible steel c. 1740

Figure 152: Sheffield plate teapot, English, late 18th century. In the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Height 16.5 cm.

Thomas Boulsover English Sheffield plate c. 1742
Jacques de Vaucanson French automated loom 1745

Arkwright, detail of an engraving by J. Jenkins after a portrait by Joseph Wright

Sir Richard Arkwright English water frame (spinning machine) 1764

James Watt

James Watt Scottish improved steam engine with separate condenser 1765

1769 Cugnot

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot French steam-driven gun carriage 1769

Bushnell's submarine torpedo boat

David Bushnell American hand-powered submarine c. 1775
Patrick Ferguson Scottish breech-loading flintlock rifle 1776

Samuel Crompton

Samuel Crompton English spinning mule 1779
Jonathan Hornblower English reciprocating compound steam engine 1781

William Murdock, bust by an unknown artist; in the Science Museum, London

William Murdock Scottish Sun-and-planet motion for steam engines c. 1781

Joseph-Michel Montgolfier

Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier

Montgolfier brothers French hot-air balloon 1782

Josiah Wedgwood.

Josiah Wedgwood English pyrometer 1782
Claude-François-Dorothée, marquis de Jouffroy d'Abbans French early paddlewheel steamboat 1783

John Fitch's steamboat

John Fitch American early steamboat 1787

threshing machine

Andrew Meikle Scottish threshing machine 1788

Edmund Cartwright, engraving by James Thomson

Edmund Cartwright English wool-combing machine 1789

Oliver Evans.

Oliver Evans American high-pressure steam engine (U.S.) 1790
William Nicholson English hydrometer 1790

Chappe, Claude

Claude Chappe French semaphore telegraph 1794

Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney American cotton gin 1794

hydraulic press

Joseph Bramah English hydraulic press 1795

Conté, Nicolas-Jacques

Nicolas-Jacques Conté French graphite pencil 1795

Senefelder, detail of a lithograph by S. Freeman, after a portrait by L. Quaglio, 1818

Alois Senefelder German lithography 1798
Henry Maudslay English metal lathe c. 1800

Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Volta Italian electric battery 1800

John Stevens, oil on panel, attributed to John Trumbull; in the collection of the Stevens Institute of Technology

John Stevens American screw-driven steamboat 1802

Richard Trevithick, detail of an oil painting by John Linnell, 1816; in the Science Museum, London.

Richard Trevithick English steam railway locomotive 1803

Jacquard loom

Joseph-Marie Jacquard French Jacquard loom 1804–05
William Congreve English military rocket 1805
Alexander John Forsyth Scottish percussion-lock musket 1805–07
Robert Fulton American commercial steamboat 1807

Heathcoat, detail of an engraving by T.L. Atkinson after a portrait by W. Beetham, mid-19th century

John Heathcoat English lace-making machine 1809

Blenkinsop locomotive

John Blenkinsop English geared steam locomotive 1812–13

McAdam, engraving by Charles Turner

John Loudon McAdam Scottish macadam road surface 1815
Robert Stirling Scottish Stirling external-combustion engine 1816

Sir Marc Isambard Brunel

Marc Isambard Brunel French-English geared steam tunneling shield 1818
René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec French stethoscope 1819
Thomas Hancock English rubber masticator 1821

Macintosh, Charles

Charles Macintosh Scottish mackintosh waterproof fabric 1823

Louis Braille, portrait bust by an unknown artist.

Louis Braille French Braille writing system 1824

automatic spinning mule cotton manufacture

Richard Roberts Welsh automatic spinning mule 1825

George Stephenson

George Stephenson English passenger train pulled by steam locomotive 1825

Nicéphore Niépce

Nicéphore Niépce French permanent photographic image 1826–27
Nikolaus von Dreyse German needle-firing rifle 1827
Benoît Fourneyron French water turbine 1827
Goldsworthy Gurney English steam carriage 1830

Tom Thumb

Peter Cooper American Tom Thumb steam locomotive 1830
Henri-Gustave Delvigne French cylindrical bullet c. 1830

Cyrus McCormick

Cyrus Hall McCormick American mechanical reaper 1831
Jeanne Villepreux-Power French glass aquarium 1832
Obed Hussey American mechanical reaper 1833

Elementary electric motor.

Thomas Davenport American electric motor 1834

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage English Analytical Engine mechanical computer c. 1835

Samuel Colt, c. 1855.

Samuel Colt American revolver 1835
Rowland Hill English postage stamp 1835–40

Daniell, John Frederic

John Frederic Daniell English Daniell cell battery 1836
Edward Davy English electromagnetic telegraph repeater c. 1836

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel English Great Western transatlantic steamer 1837

Pitman, detail of an oil painting by A.S. Cope; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Isaac Pitman English Pitman shorthand 1837

Charles Wheatstone.

Charles Wheatstone English electric needle telegraph 1837

key-type Morse telegraph transmitter

Samuel F.B. Morse American electric telegraph; Morse code 1837; 1838

John Deere

John Deere American all-steel one-piece plow 1838

Chauncey Jerome clock

Chauncey Jerome American one-day brass clock movement c. 1838
Isaac Babbitt American babbitt metal 1839

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, lithograph.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre French daguerreotype 1839

Goodyear, Charles

Charles Goodyear American vulcanized rubber 1839
Johann Georg Bodmer Swiss gear-making machine 1839–41
William Howe American Howe truss for bridges 1840

Sax, lithograph by Auguste Bry after a portrait by Charles Baugniet, 1844

Antoine-Joseph Sax Belgian-French saxophone 1842
Thomas Jackson Rodman American prismatic gunpowder c. 1845

Howe, Elias

Elias Howe American sewing machine 1846

Hoe, Richard March

Richard March Hoe American rotary printing press 1847
Claude-Étienne Minié French cylindrical Minié bullet 1849

Kelly, William

William Kelly American pneumatic steel-making process c. 1850
Frederick Scott Archer English wet collodion photography process 1851
Hugh Burgess English American soda papermaking process 1851
Isaac Merrit Singer American domestic sewing machine 1851

Elisha Otis

Elisha Graves Otis American safety elevator 1852

George Cayley, detail of an oil painting by Henry Perronet Briggs, 1840; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

George Cayley English first glider to carry a human 1853

Henry Bessemer

Henry Bessemer English Bessemer steelmaking process 1856

Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir's steam engine.

Étienne Lenoir Belgian internal-combustion engine 1858

Planté, Gaston

Gaston Planté French electric storage battery 1859
Christopher M. Spencer American Spencer breech-loading carbine 1860
Sondre Nordheim Norwegian ski bindings 1860
Robert Parker Parrott American Parrott gun (rifled cannon) 1861

Sir William Siemens, engraving after a portrait by Rudolf Lehmann

William Siemens German English open-hearth furnace 1861

De la Rue

Warren De la Rue English astronomical photography c. 1862

Richard Jordan Gatling.

Richard Jordan Gatling American Gatling gun 1862

Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur French pasteurization 1863
Linus Yale American Yale cylinder lock 1863
Siegfried Marcus German gasoline-powered automobile 1864–65
Samuel Cunliffe Lister English silk-combing machine 1865

George M. Pullman

George M. Pullman American Pullman sleeping car 1865

Allbutt, detail of a portrait by Sir William Orpen

Thomas Clifford Allbutt English modern clinical thermometer 1866

Georges Leclanché's cell

Georges Leclanché French dry-cell battery c. 1866
Alfred Ely Beach American pneumatic tube 1867
Joseph Monier French reinforced concrete c. 1867
Alfred Bernhard Nobel Swedish dynamite 1867

Christopher Latham Sholes

Christopher Latham Sholes American typewriter 1868
Louis Ducos du Hauron French trichrome process of colour photography 1869

Westinghouse

George Westinghouse American air brake 1869
John Wesley Hyatt American celluloid 1870
Margaret Knight American flat-bottomed paper bag 1871

James Starley: “penny-farthing” bicycle

James Starley English bicycle with centre-pivot steering 1871
Joseph Farwell Glidden American barbed wire 1873

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell Scottish American telephone 1876

Elisha Gray

Elisha Gray American telephone 1876
Melville Reuben Bissell American carpet sweeper 1876

Nikolaus Otto, c. 1868

Nikolaus August Otto German four-stroke internal-combustion engine 1876

Yablochkov, lithograph by Lemercier, c. 1880

Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov Russian Yablochkov candle (arc lamp) 1876
Joseph Rogers Brown American universal grinding machine 1877
Ephraim Shay American geared steam locomotive c. 1877

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison American phonograph cylinder sound recorder; incandescent lightbulb 1877; c. 1879
Maria Beasley English life raft 1880

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla Serbian American alternating-current electric motor 1880–88
Hilaire Bernigaud de Chardonnet French rayon 1884

Sir Hiram Maxim.

Hiram Maxim American British Maxim machine gun 1884

Linotype machine

Ottmar Mergenthaler German American Linotype typesetting machine 1884
Charles Algernon Parsons English multistage steam turbine 1884

Karl Benz

Karl Friedrich Benz German practical automobile with an internal-combustion engine 1885

Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Daimler German high-speed internal-combustion engine 1885
Josephine Cochrane American mechanical dishwasher 1886
Charles Sumner Tainter American graphophone cylinder sound recorder 1886

Hall, Charles Martin

Charles Martin Hall American electrolytic aluminum smelting 1886

Part of a modern potline based on the electrolytic Hall-Héroult smelting process.

Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult French electrolytic aluminum smelting 1886

Berliner, Emil

Emil Berliner German American Gramophone disc sound recorder 1887
John Boyd Dunlop Scottish pneumatic rubber tire 1887

George Eastman, 1926.

George Eastman American Kodak camera 1888

King, Franklin Hiram

Franklin Hiram King American cylindrical grain silo 1889

Herman Hollerith seated at his Census Tabulator, c. 1890.

Herman Hollerith American tabulating machine c. 1890
Ferdinand von Zeppelin German zeppelin airship 1890–1900

James Naismith

James A. Naismith Canadian American basketball 1891
William Seward Burroughs American adding machine 1892

James Dewar.

James Dewar Scottish vacuum flask c. 1892

Diesel, 1883

Rudolf Diesel German diesel engine 1892
Hayward A. Harvey American carburizing (surface hardening of steel plate) c. 1892
Edward Goodrich Acheson American Carborundum 1893

Otto Lilienthal piloting one of his gliders, c. 1895.

Otto Lilienthal German Lilienthal standard glider 1894

Auguste Lumière

Lumière brothers French Cinématographe motion-picture camera and projector 1894
King Camp Gillette American disposable razor 1895

Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi Italian wireless telegraph 1896
John Philip Holland Irish American gasoline-electric submarine 1898
Valdemar Poulsen Danish telegraphone magnetic wire recorder 1900

William Fessenden.

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden Canadian American amplitude modulation (AM) of radio waves 1900

Willis Carrier

Willis Haviland Carrier American air-conditioning 1902
Mary Anderson American windshield wiper 1903

first flight by Orville Wright, December 17, 1903

Wilbur and Orville Wright American powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight 1903

John Ambrose Fleming.

John Ambrose Fleming English vacuum diode rectifier 1904

Lee De Forest, 1907.

Lee De Forest American Audion vacuum tube amplifier 1906
Ole Evinrude Norwegian American marine outboard motor 1906–09
Melitta Bentz German coffee filters 1908

A Geiger counter is filled with gas, and a source of electricity supplies opposite electric charges to the container and a central tube. If radioactive particles enter and ionize some gas molecules, the electric current is able to bridge the gap between the container and central tube. The counter registers each brief spurt of current.

Hans Geiger German Geiger counter 1908

Leo Baekeland.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland Belgian American Bakelite c. 1909

Ehrlich, Paul

Paul Ehrlich German arsphenamine anti-syphilis drug 1910

Lewis, Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton Lewis American Lewis machine gun 1911
Elmer Ambrose Sperry American gyroscopic compass 1911
Charles F. Kettering American automobile electrical starter 1912

Henry Ford

Henry Ford American automobile assembly line 1913–14
Irving Wightman Colburn American Colburn flat-glass machine 1916
William D. Coolidge American X-ray tube 1916

Browning automatic rifle

John Moses Browning American Browning automatic rifle 1918

Zworykin, Vladimir

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin Russian American Iconoscope and Kinescope electronic television camera and receiver 1923–31

Baird, John Logie

John Logie Baird Scottish electromechanical television 1924

Clarence Birdseye

Clarence Birdseye American rapid-frozen food c. 1924

Robert Goddard

Robert Hutchings Goddard American liquid-fueled rocket engine 1926
Philo Taylor Farnsworth American Image Dissector electronic television camera 1927

schematic diagram of a Van de Graaff high-voltage electrostatic generator

Robert Jemison Van de Graaff American Van de Graaff generator for particle accelerators 1929

In a ballpoint pen, a spring is used to push out and retract the point of the pen.

László József Bíró Hungarian ballpoint pen 1931
Isaac Shoenberg Russian English high-definition electronic television system 1931–35

Armstrong, Edwin H.

Edwin H. Armstrong American frequency modulation (FM) of radio waves 1933
Ernst Ruska German electron microscope 1933
Laurens Hammond American Hammond organ (electronic keyboard) 1934

Ernesto Orlando Lawrence

Ernest Orlando Lawrence American cyclotron particle accelerator 1934

Wallace Hume Carothers

Wallace Hume Carothers American nylon 1935
Robert Alexander Watson-Watt Scottish radar early warning 1935

Frank Whittle

Frank Whittle English jet engine 1937
Katharine Blodgett American nonreflective glass 1938

Carlson, Chester

Chester F. Carlson American xerography 1938

Albert Hofmann

Albert Hofmann Swiss LSD 1938

Paul Müller

Paul Hermann Müller Swiss DDT 1939

Ohain, Hans Joachim Pabst von

Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain German jet aircraft 1939

Igor Sikorsky

Igor Sikorsky Russian American production helicopter 1939
Hedy Lamarr American spread-spectrum technology 1942
George Antheil American spread-spectrum technology 1942

Jacques Cousteau

Jacques-Yves Cousteau French Aqua-Lung 1943
John W. Mauchly American ENIAC general-purpose electronic computer 1946

Bardeen.

John Bardeen American transistor 1947

Brattain

Walter H. Brattain American transistor 1947

Shockley

William B. Shockley American transistor 1947

R. Buckminster Fuller shown with a geodesic dome constructed as the U.S. pavilion at the American Exchange Exhibit, Moscow, 1959

R. Buckminster Fuller American geodesic dome c. 1947
Edwin Herbert Land American Polaroid instant-print camera 1947
Willard Frank Libby American carbon-14 dating c. 1947

Paul, Les

Les Paul American eight-track tape recorder c. 1947
Leo Fender American electric guitar 1948

Telkes, Mária

Mária Telkes American solar-heated home 1948
Charles Stark Draper American inertial guidance systems for aircraft c. 1949

Ferranti Mark I

Tom Kilburn English Manchester Mark I stored-program digital computer 1949

Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper American compiler 1952

Virginia Apgar.

Virginia Apgar American Apgar Score System 1952
Charles Hard Townes American maser 1953

Uzi submachine gun

Uziel Gal Israeli Uzi submachine gun 1954

Wankel, Felix; Wankel engine

Felix Wankel German Wankel rotary gasoline engine 1954
Jack Kilby American integrated circuit 1958
Robert Noyce American integrated circuit 1958

first laser

Theodore H. Maiman American ruby laser 1960

DeBakey, Michael

Michael DeBakey American coronary artery bypass 1964

CDC 6600

Seymour Cray American supercomputer 1964

Computer interface pioneer Douglas EngelbartEngelbart holding a video conference on the right side of the computer screen while working on a document with a remote collaborator during a 1968 computer conference in San Francisco, California.

Douglas Engelbart American computer mouse 1964
Stephanie Kwolek American Kevlar 1965

Ritchie, Dennis M.

Kenneth L. Thompson American UNIX operating system 1969

Ritchie, Dennis M.

Dennis M. Ritchie American UNIX operating system 1969
Stephanie Kwolek American Kevlar c. 1971

Fig 2: Magnetic resonance spectrometer

Paul Lauterbur American magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 1973

Fig 2: Magnetic resonance spectrometer

Peter Mansfield English magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 1973

Vinton Gray Cerf

Vinton Cerf American Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) 1974
Robert Kahn American Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) 1974
Erno Rubik Hungarian Rubik's cube 1974
Frederick Sanger English DNA sequencing 1977

Apple II

Stephen Wozniak American Apple II personal computer 1977

Binnig, Gerd

Gerd Binnig German scanning tunneling microscope 1981
Heinrich Rohrer Swiss scanning tunneling microscope 1981
Patricia Bath American Laserphaco Probe 1981

Tim Berners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee English World Wide Web 1990–91

Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Finnish Linux open-source operating system 1991

What's Your Reaction?

like

dislike

love

funny

angry

sad

wow

admin https://www.piguhua.com