Showing 76 - 100 of 120 results
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…
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…
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…
Donald Fletcher Holmes
Polyurethane
Donald Fletcher Holmes and William Hanford invented the process for making the multipurpose material polyurethane. Some of the first polyurethanes…
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…
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…
An Wang
Magnetic Core Memory
An Wang made many contributions to the advancement of computer technology, including the magnetic pulse controlling device, the principle upon which…
Arthur Nobile
Prednisone
Arthur Nobile's patent for the invention, medical use, and production of the steroids prednisone and prednisolone was one of the most significant…
Sam B. Williams
Small Fan-Jet Engine
Sam Williams, born in Seattle, Washington, became a pioneer toward the end of World War II by designing an early turboprop engine for the Navy and…
Auguste-Marie Lumiere
Cinematographe
Auguste-Marie and Louis Lumiere, inventors and experts in the realm of photography, designed a camera and projector apparatus known as the…
William P. Lear
Car Radio
Though his name is most often associated with corporate jet airplanes, William Lear earlier made his mark in car radios and by inventing the eight-…
David Wayne Cushman
Captopril
David Cushman and Miguel Ondetti synthesized captopril, an oral drug that significantly reduces hypertension in more than eighty percent of users and…
Charles G. Page
High-Voltage Induction Coil
Charles Grafton Page invented the first high-voltage induction coil in 1836. The high-voltage induction coil became an important tool of scientific…
Paul Kollsman
Altimeter
In 1928, Paul Kollsman forever changed the way pilots would fly. By introducing the first accurate barometric altimeter, an instrument used to…
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…
Henry Timken
Tapered Roller Bearings
Henry Timken invented the Timken® tapered roller bearing. He found that conventional bearings of the 19th century worked well at reducing friction,…
Roger Bacon
High-Performance Carbon Fibers
In 1958, Roger Bacon's chance discovery revolutionized industries and became a multibillion-dollar a year business. While measuring the triple point…
John Mauchly
ENIAC
John Mauchly co-invented the first practical electronic digital computer. ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was initially…