Showing 26 - 50 of 88 results
Joseph-Armand Bombardier
Snowmobile
Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented the Ski-Doo® snowmobile in 1959. It was the first mass-produced snow machine, and it launched snowmobiling as a…
Jacob Rabinow
Optical Character Reading
Jacob Rabinow invented machines that could recognize text, making it possible to automate vast amounts of routine work formerly done by hand.
A…
Thomas Blanchard
Pattern Lathe
Thomas Blanchard devised a machine that transformed gun manufacturing and made the production of many other products faster and less expensive.…
Joshua Lionel Cowen
Toy Train
Joshua Lionel Cowen invented model railroads in the early 20th century.
Born in New York City, Cowen attended the Cooper Union and Columbia College…
John Roebling
Suspension Bridge
In 1841, John Roebling invented a wire rope in order to improve upon the bulkier and weaker hemp fiber rope being used to haul canal boats along the…
Herbert M. Strong
Diamond Synthesis
Herbert Strong, along with Tracy Hall, Francis Bundy, and Robert Wentorf, synthesized diamonds as part of Project Superpressure, as announced by the…
J. Paul Hogan
High-Density Polyethylene and Polypropylene Plastics
Paul Hogan was working with Robert Banks at Phillips Petroleum in 1951 when they invented crystalline polypropylene and a breakthrough process for…
Andrew J. Moyer
Method for Production of Penicillin
Andrew J. Moyer's discoveries provided the foundation for the industrial production of penicillin. Born in Star City, Indiana, Moyer received his A.B…
Charles Jenkins
Motion Picture Projector
Charles Jenkins was an innovator of early cinema and one of the first inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic…
Donald B. Keck
Optical Fiber
Donald B. Keck worked with Robert Maurer and Peter Schultz at Corning Laboratories to create the first successful optical fiber in 1970. In the 1880s…
Iver Anderson
Lead-Free Solder
Iver Anderson invented lead-free solder, a revolutionary tin, silver and copper alternative to traditional tin and lead solder. Anderson's solder has…
Graham J. Durant
Tagamet - Cimetidine
Graham John Durant, John Emmett, and Robin Ganellin led the SmithKline Beecham Corporation's research team that discovered the H2 receptor class of…
Charles Proteus Steinmetz
Alternating Current
Without Charles Steinmetz's theories of alternating current, the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States in the early 20th…
James Fujimoto
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)
James Fujimoto, David Huang and Eric Swanson invented optical coherence tomography (OCT), a method for imaging subsurface structure in biological…
David Crosthwait
Heating and Ventilation System Design
David Crosthwait was a pioneer in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry. He devoted his career, which included groundbreaking…
Frank Whittle
Jet Engine
By 1929, Frank Whittle had conceptualized the turbojet engine. The 1930s, however, proved challenging as he sought financial support and interest…
Joseph Muhler
Stannous Fluoride Toothpaste
During the early 1940s, when dentist and biochemist Joseph Muhler was an Indiana University undergraduate, he began studying fluoride and tooth decay…
William Seward Burroughs
Calculator
William Seward Burroughs invented the first practical adding and listing machine. Born in Rochester, New York, Burroughs began his career as a bank…
Felix Hoffmann
Aspirin
Felix Hoffmann first made acetylsalicylic acid, better known today as aspirin, to ease his father's arthritis. However, aspirin's history begins long…
Thomas A. Watson
Improvements to the Telephone
Thomas Watson is best known for working as Alexander Graham Bell's assistant during the development of the telephone. It was Watson who heard the…
Mary Florence Potts
Cold-Handle Sad Iron
Mary Florence Potts invented an improved sad iron, which was lighter and offered a cooler, more ergonomic handle. Beginning in the 1870s, it was…
Robert Wentorf, Jr.
Diamond Synthesis
Robert Wentorf, along with Tracy Hall, Francis Bundy, and Herbert Strong, synthesized diamonds as part of Project Superpressure, as announced by the…
John Ericsson
Screw Propeller
John Ericsson invented the ship propeller and incorporated the landmark device into his design for the Civil War ironclad the Monitor. Born in the…
Howard Aiken
Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Mark I)
With the Mark I calculator, Howard Aiken showed that a computer could provide high-powered, speedy mathematical solutions to many problems. Aiken…
Francis P. Bundy
Diamond Synthesis
Francis Bundy, along with Tracy Hall, Robert Wentorf, and Herbert Strong, synthesized diamonds as part of Project Superpressure, as announced by the…