Showing 51 - 75 of 120 results
Arnold O. Beckman
pH Meter
Arnold O. Beckman invented a pH meter and the quartz spectrophotometer, an instrument which pioneered automatic chemical analysis. Born in Cullom,…
Charles Stark Draper
Stabilizing Gyroscope
Aeronautical engineer and university professor Charles Stark Draper developed gyroscope systems that stabilized and balanced gunsights and bombsights…
Chester F. Carlson
Xerographic Printing
Physicist Chester F. Carlson, the father of xerographic printing, was born in Seattle, Washington. As a high school student, Carlson published a…
George de Mestral
VELCRO® Fasteners
In 1955, George de Mestral patented VELCRO® hook and loop fasteners, an efficient way to fasten fabrics and other materials. The idea came to him…
James Truchard
Virtual Instrumentation - LabVIEW™
In 1986, James Truchard and Jeff Kodosky introduced LabVIEW, a graphical programming language that enables user-defined testing, measurement and…
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…
Herbert Henry Dow
Bromine Extraction
Herbert Henry Dow, founder of the Dow Chemical Company, was one of the creators of the modern American chemical industry. His inventions included…
George Edward Alcorn
X-ray Spectrometer
George Alcorn was a pioneering physicist and engineer noted for his aerospace and semiconductor inventions. His X-ray imaging spectrometer, patented…
William Edward Hanford
Polyurethane
William Edward Hanford and Donald Holmes discovered the process for making polyurethane, and so discovered the basic broad chemistry of polyurethanes…
C. Donald Bateman
Ground Proximity Warning System
C. Donald Bateman invented the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS), one of a series of innovations he developed to dramatically improve aircraft…
Gideon Sundback
Modern Zipper
Swedish-born engineer Gideon Sundback improved on Whitcomb Judson's work, making the zipper practical and commercially successful. Today, thousands…
Morton Mower
Implantable Heart Defibrillator
Morton Mower co-invented the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator, now implanted in well over 300,000 people. The ICD monitors and…
John Macdougall
Ion Implantation
John Macdougall is one of the inventors of the first commercially viable method of ion implantation, a process that changes the conductivity of areas…
Oliver Evans
High-Pressure Steam Engine
Oliver Evans, one of America's pioneering inventors, created the high-pressure steam engine and advanced the milling industry by automating flour…
Otis Boykin
Electronic Resistors
Otis Boykin's innovations in electronic resistors enabled the more precise regulation of electrical current within a circuit. Variations of his…
Joseph C. Shivers Jr.
LYCRA® Fiber (Spandex)
One of the top clothing innovations of the 20th century was invented at DuPont during the 1950s by chemist Joseph Shivers. While working as a…
Rodney D. Bagley
Ceramic Substrate in Catalytic Converters
Rodney Bagley was on the Corning team that created the ceramic substrate inside catalytic converters. His work was instrumental in allowing the…
Rory Cooper
Wheelchair Technology
Biomedical engineer Rory Cooper developed innovations in wheelchair technology that have improved manual and electric wheelchairs, and advanced the…
Bernard Silver
First Optically Scanned Bar Code
Bob Silver and Joe Woodland invented the first optically scanned barcode. They were prompted in their work in 1948 after Silver overheard a food…
Donald Fletcher Holmes
Polyurethane
Donald Fletcher Holmes and William Hanford invented the process for making the multipurpose material polyurethane. Some of the first polyurethanes…
Jan Ernst Matzeliger
Shoe-Lasting Machine
Jan Matzeliger invented the automatic shoe-lasting machine, mechanizing the complex process of joining a shoe sole to its upper, and revolutionizing…
Simon Ingersoll
Steam-Powered Rock Drill
Simon Ingersoll's practical powered drill played an important role in construction and excavation for more than a century. Percussion drills derived…
Charles Franklin Kettering
Electrical Ignition System
Charles Franklin Kettering invented the first electrical ignition system and the self-starter for automobile engines and the first practical engine-…
Clair Lake
Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Mark I)
Already a prolific inventor at IBM in May 1939, Clair Lake was chosen to be chief engineer for the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, also…
David Pall
Leukocyte Reduction Filter
David Pall received over 181 patents in the field of filtration. Among his most important inventions was a leukoreduction filter which makes blood…