Showing 26 - 50 of 66 results
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…
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,…
John Birden
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG)
John Birden and Ken Jordan built and developed the first radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) while working at Monsanto's Mound Laboratory in…
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…
Raymond V. Damadian
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Raymond Damadian invented the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, which has revolutionized the field of diagnostic medicine. Born in Forest…
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…
Ivan Getting
Global Positioning System
The technological triumph known as GPS the Global Positioning System of satellite-based navigation was incubated in the mind of Ivan Getting. While…
William A. Goddard
Magnetic Disk Drive
William Goddard and John Lynott, together with Louis Stevens and a team of engineers, invented a unique magnetic disk storage device at the IBM Lab…
J. Franklin Hyde
Transparent Silica
J. Franklin Hyde was with Corning Glass when he discovered a way to create a pure glass called fused silica. He was also a forerunner in developing…
Cyril Keller
Bobcat® Skid-Steer Loader
Brothers Cyril and Louis Keller played a key role in launching the compact equipment industry in the late 1950s and early 1960s with their invention…
Oliver Joseph Lodge
Electric Telegraphy
Physicist Oliver Lodge made several important technological contributions, most notably his advancement of wireless telegraphy.
Lodge's invention of…
John Joseph Lynott
Magnetic Disk Drive
John Lynott and William Goddard, together with Louis Stevens and a team of engineers, invented a unique magnetic disk storage device at the IBM Lab…
Bernard Oliver
Pulse Code Modulation
Bernard Oliver, one of the most prolific and influential inventors of his generation, helped give birth to the era of digital information with his…
Jacqueline Quinn
EZVI (Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron)
An environmentally safe clean-up technology called emulsified zero-valent iron, or EZVI, was co-invented by NASA environmental engineer Jacqueline…
John Raphael Rogers
Matrix for Linotype Machine
John Rogers invented an improved version of automatic typesetting, significantly advancing typography.
His work began by focusing on the problem of…
Benjamin A. Rubin
Pronged Vaccinating Needle
Microbiologist Benjamin A. Rubin ground the eyelet of a sewing machine needle into a fork shape to create a vaccine delivery system that helped wipe…
Richard Schatz
Palmaz-Schatz Coronary Stent
Cardiologist Richard Schatz collaborated with fellow National Inventors Hall of Fame® Inductee Julio Palmaz to invent a vascular stent suitable for…
Elmer Ambrose Sperry
Gyroscopic Compass
Elmer Ambrose Sperry invented gyroscopic-guided automatic pilots for ships and airplanes that have also been applied to spacecraft. Born in Cortland…
Esther Sans Takeuchi
Lithium/Silver Vanadium Oxide (Li/SVO) Battery Technology in Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs)
Energy storage expert Esther Sans Takeuchi led efforts to invent and refine the lithium/silver vanadium oxide (Li/SVO) battery technology used to…
Hans J.P. von Ohain
Turbojet Engine
On the brink of World War II, Hans von Ohain developed a working turbojet engine in Germany, helping to catapult the aeronautical world into the next…
David Walt
Microwell Arrays
David Walt created microwell arrays that could analyze thousands of genes simultaneously, revolutionizing the field of genetic analysis. His…
Robert R. Williams
Vitamin Synthesis
Robert R. Williams developed ways to synthesize vitamins to fight malnutrition and vitamin-deficiency diseases. Born in India, the son of Baptist…
Andrew J. Viterbi
CDMA Technology
Andrew Viterbi and Irwin Jacobs are co-founders of Qualcomm and also the Linkabit Corporation. At Qualcomm, they were major contributors to code…
William J. Kroll
Titanium Production
William Kroll invented a process to produce titanium and zirconium called the Kroll process. It remains the main method for extracting these metals…
Ross Freeman
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
Ross Freeman invented the field programmable gate array (FPGA), a computer chip full of "open gates" that engineers can reprogram as much as needed…