INVENTION ! INVENTOR ! YEAR
| INVENTION | YEAR | INVENTOR | COUNTRY |
| aerosol can | 1926 | Erik Rotheim | Norway |
| air conditioning | 1902 | Willis Haviland Carrier | US |
| airbag, automotive | 1952 | John Hetrick | US |
| airplane, engine-powered | 1903 | Wilbur & Orville Wright | US |
| airship | 1852 | Henri Giffard | France |
| alphabet | c. 1700–1500 BC | Semitic-speaking peoples | eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea |
| American Sign Language | 1817 | Thomas H. Gallaudet | US |
| animation, motion-picture | 1906 | J. Stuart Blackton | US |
| answering machine, telephone | 1898 | Valdemar Poulsen | Denmark |
| aspartame | 1965 | James Schlatter | US |
| aspirin | 1897 | Felix Hoffmann (Bayer) | Germany |
| assembly line | 1913 | Henry Ford | US |
| astrolabe | c. 2nd century | — | — |
| AstroTurf | 1965 | James M. Faria, Robert T. Wright | US |
| audiotape | 1928 | Fritz Pfleumer | Germany |
| automated teller machine (ATM) | 1968 | Don Wetzel | US |
| automobile | 1889 | Gottlieb Daimler | Germany |
| baby food, prepared | 1927 | Dorothy Gerber | US |
| bag, flat-bottomed paper | 1870 | Margaret Knight | US |
| Bakelite | 1907 | Leo Hendrik Baekeland | US |
| ball bearing | 1794 | Philip Vaughan | England |
| balloon, hot-air | 1783 | Joseph & Étienne Montgolfier | France |
| bandage, adhesive | 1921 | Earle Dickson | US |
| bar code | 1952 | Joseph Woodland | US |
| barbed wire | 1874 | Joseph Glidden | US |
| barometer | 1643 | Evangelista Torricelli | Italy |
| battery, electric storage | 1800 | Alessandro Volta | Italy |
| beer | before 6000 BC | Sumerians, Babylonians | Mesopotamia |
| bicycle | 1818 | Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun | Germany |
| bifocal lens | 1784 | Benjamin Franklin | US |
| bikini | 1946 | Louis Réard | France |
| blood bank | late 1930s | Charles Richard Drew | US |
| blow-dryer | 1920 | Racine Universal Motor Co., Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Co. | US |
| bomb, atomic | 1945 | J. Robert Oppenheimer, et al. | US |
| bomb, thermonuclear (hydrogen) | 1952 | Edward Teller, et al. | US |
| boomerang | c. 15,000 years ago | Aboriginal peoples | Australia |
| Braille system | 1824 | Louis Braille | France |
| brassiere (bra) | 1913 | Mary Phelps Jacob | US |
| bread, sliced (bread-slicing machine) | 1928 | Otto Frederick Rohwedder | US |
| button | c. 700 BC | Greeks, Etruscans | Greece, Italy |
| buttonhole | 13th century | — | Europe |
| calculator, electronic hand-held | 1967 | Jack S. Kilby | US |
| calculus | 1680s | Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (invented separately) | England and Germany (respectively) |
| calendar, modern (Gregorian) | 1582 | Pope Gregory XIII | Italy |
| camcorder | 1982 | Sony Corp. | Japan |
| camera, motion picture | 1891 | Thomas Alva Edison, William K.L. Dickson | US |
| camera, portable photographic | 1888 | George Eastman | US |
| can, metal beverage | 1933 | American Can Co. | US |
| can opener | 1858 | Ezra J. Warner | US |
| candle | c. 3000 BC | — | Egypt, Crete |
| canning, food | 1809 | Nicolas Appert | France |
| carbon-14 dating | 1946 | Willard F. Libby | US |
| cardboard, corrugated | 1871 | Albert Jones | US |
| cards, playing | c. 10th century | — | China |
| cash register | 1879 | James Ritty | US |
| cat litter | 1947 | Edward Lowe | US |
| catalog, mail-order | 1872 | Aaron Montgomery Ward | US |
| cellophane | 1911 | Jacques E. Brandenberger | Switzerland |
| celluloid | 1869 | John Wesley Hyatt | US |
| cement, portland | 1824 | Joseph Aspdin | England |
| cereal flakes, breakfast | 1894 | John Harvey Kellogg | US |
| chewing gum (modern) | c. 1870 | Thomas Adams | US |
| chocolate | c. 3rd–10th century | Maya, Aztecs | Central America, Mexico |
| chronometer | 1762 | John Harrison | England |
| clock, pendulum | 1656 | Christiaan Huygens | The Netherlands |
| clock, quartz | 1927 | Warren A. Marrison | Canada/US |
| cloning, animal | 1970 | John B. Gurdon | UK |
| coffee, drip | 1908 | Melitta Bentz | Germany |
| coffee, decaffeinated | 1905 | Ludwig Roselius | Germany |
| coins | c. 650 BC | Lydians | Turkey |
| compact disc (CD) | 1980 | Philips Electronics, Sony Corp. | The Netherlands, Japan |
| compass, magnetic | c. 12th century | — | China, Europe |
| computed tomography (CT scan, CAT scan) | 1972 | Godfrey Hounsfield, Allan Cormack | UK, US |
| computer, electronic digital | 1939 | John V. Atanasoff, Clifford E. Berry | US |
| computer, laptop | 1983 | Radio Shack Corp. | US |
| computer, personal | 1974 | MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems) | US |
| concrete, reinforced | 1867 | Joseph Monier | France |
| condom, latex | c. 1930 | — | — |
| contact lenses | 1887 | Adolf Fick | Germany |
| contraceptives, oral | early 1950s | Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Min Chueh Chang | US |
| corn, hybrid | 1917 | Donald F. Jones | US |
| correction fluid, white | 1951 | Bette Nesmith | US |
| cotton gin | 1793 | Eli Whitney | US |
| coupon, grocery | 1894 | Asa Candler | US |
| crayons, children's wax | 1903 | Edwin Binney, C. Harold Smith | US |
| cream separator (dairy processing) | 1878 | Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval | Sweden |
| credit card | 1950 | Frank McNamara, Ralph Schneider (Diners' Club) | US |
| crossword puzzles | 1913 | Arthur Wynne | US |
| DDT | 1874 | Othmar Zeidler | Germany |
| defibrillator | 1952 | Paul M. Zoll | US |
| dentures | c. 700 BC | Etruscans | Italy |
| detector, metal | late 1920s | Gerhard Fisher | Germany/US |
| detector, home smoke | 1969 | Randolph Smith, Kenneth House | US |
| diamond, artificial | 1955 | General Electric Co. | US |
| diapers, disposable | 1950 | Marion Donovan | US |
| digital videodisc (DVD) | 1995 | consortium of international electronics companies | Japan, US, The Netherlands |
| dishwasher | 1886 | Josephine Cochrane | US |
| DNA fingerprinting | 1984 | Alec Jeffreys | UK |
| doughnut, ring-shaped | 1847 | Hanson Crockett Gregory | US |
| door, revolving | 1888 | Theophilus von Kannel | US |
| drinking fountain | c. 1905–1912 | Luther Haws, Halsey W. Taylor (invented separately) | US |
| dry cleaning | 1855 | Jean Baptiste Jolly | France |
| dynamite | 1867 | Alfred Nobel | Sweden |
| elastic, fabric | c. 1830 | Thomas Hancock | UK |
| electric chair | 1888 | Harold P. Brown, Arthur E. Kennelly | US |
| electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG) | 1903 | Willem Einthoven | The Netherlands |
| electroencephalogram (EEG) | 1929 | Hans Berger | Germany |
| electronic mail (e-mail) | 1971 | Ray Tomlinson | US |
| elevator, passenger | 1852 | Elisha Graves Otis | US |
| encyclopedia | c. 4th century BC or 77 AD | Speusippus (compliation of Plato's teachings) or Pliny the Elder (comprehensive work) | Greece or Rome |
| engine, internal-combustion | 1859 | Étienne Lenoir | France |
| engine, jet | 1930 | Sir Frank Whittle | UK |
| engine, liquid-fueled rocket | 1926 | Robert H. Goddard | US |
| engine, steam | 1698 | Thomas Savery | England |
| escalator | 1891 | Jesse W. Reno | US |
| eyeglasses | 1280s | Salvino degli Armati or Alessandro di Spina | Italy |
| facsimile (fax) | 1842 | Alexander Bain | Scotland |
| fiber optics | 1955 | Narinder S. Kapany | India |
| fiberglass | 1938 | Owens Corning (corp.) | US |
| film, photographic | 1884 | George Eastman | US |
| flashlight, battery-operated portable | 1899 | Conrad Hubert | Russia/US |
| flask, vacuum (Thermos) | 1892 | Sir James Dewar | Scotland |
| food processor | 1971 | Pierre Verdon | France |
| foods, freeze-dried | 1946 | Earl W. Flosdorf | US |
| foods, frozen | c. 1924 | Clarence Birdseye | US |
| Fresnel lens | 1820 | Augustin-Jean Fresnel | France |
| fuel cell | 1839 | William R. Grove | UK |
| genetic engineering | 1973 | Stanley N. Cohen, Herbert W. Boyer | US |
| Geiger counter | 1908 | Hans Geiger | Germany |
| glass | c. 2500 BC | Egyptians or Phoenicians | Egypt or Lebanon |
| glass, safety | 1909 | Édouard Bénédictus | France |
| greeting card, Christmas | 1843 | John Callcott Horsley | England |
| guillotine | 1792 | Joseph-Ignace Guillotin | France |
| guitar, electric | 1941 | Les Paul | US |
| gunpowder | c. 10th century | — | China or Arabia |
| hanger, wire coat | 1903 | Albert J. Parkhouse | US |
| helicopter | 1939 | Igor Sikorsky | Russia/US |
| holography | 1948 | Dennis Gabor | Hungary |
| hypodermic syringe | 1853 | Charles Gabriel Pravaz | France |
| in vitro fertilization (IVF), human | 1978 | Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards | UK |
| ink | c. 2500 BC | — | Egypt, China |
| insulin, extraction and preparation of | 1921 | Sir Frederick Grant Banting, Charles H. Best | Canada |
| integrated circuit | 1958 | Jack S. Kilby | US |
| Internet | 1969 | Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at the Dept. of Defense | US |
| iron, electric | 1882 | Henry W. Seely | US |
| irradiation, food | 1905 | — | US/UK |
| jeans | 1873 | Levi Strauss, Jacob Davis | US |
| JELL-O (gelatin dessert) | 1897 | Pearle B. Wait | US |
| jukebox | 1889 | Louis Glass | US |
| Kevlar | 1965 | Stephanie Kwolek | US |
| Kool-Aid (fruit drink mix) | 1927 | Edwin E. Perkins | US |
| laser | 1958 | Gordon Gould and Charles Hard Townes, Arthur L. Schawlow (invented separately) | US |
| laundromat | 1934 | J.F. Cantrell | US |
| lawn mower, gasoline-powered | c. 1940 | Leonard Goodall | US |
| Lego | late 1940s | Ole Kirk Christiansen | Denmark |
| light bulb, incandescent | 1879 | Thomas Alva Edison | US |
| light bulb, fluorescent | 1934 | Arthur Compton | US |
| light-emitting diode (LED) | 1962 | Nick Holonyak, Jr. | US |
| linoleum | 1860 | Frederick Walton | UK |
| lipstick, tube | 1915 | Maurice Levy | US |
| liquid crystal display (LCD) | 1963 | George Heilmeier | US |
| lock and key | c. 2000 BC | Assyrians | Mesopotamia |
| locomotive | 1829 | George Stephenson | England |
| longbow | c. 1000 | — | Wales |
| loudspeaker | 1924 | Chester W. Rice, Edward W. Kellogg | US |
| magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) | early 1970s | Raymond Damadian, Paul Lauterbur | US |
| margarine | 1869 | Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès | France |
| matches, friction | 1827 | John Walker | England |
| metric system of measurement | 1795 | French Academy of Sciences | France |
| microphone | 1878 | David E. Hughes | UK/US |
| microscope, compound optical | c. 1600 | Hans & Zacharias Jansen | The Netherlands |
| microscope, electron | 1933 | Ernst Ruska | Germany |
| microwave oven | 1945 | Percy L. Spencer | US |
| miniature golf | c. 1930 | Garnet Carter | US |
| mirror, glass | c. 1200 | Venetians | Italy |
| missile, guided | 1942 | Wernher von Braun | Germany |
| mobile home | 1919 | Glenn H. Curtiss | US |
| money, paper | late 900s | — | China |
| Monopoly (board game) | 1934 | Charles B. Darrow | US |
| Morse code | 1838 | Samuel F.B. Morse | US |
| motor, electric | 1834 | Thomas Davenport | US |
| motor, outboard | 1907 | Ole Evinrude | Norway/US |
| motorcycle | 1885 | Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach | Germany |
| mouse, computer | 1963–64 | Douglas Engelbart | US |
| Muzak | 1922 | George Owen Squier | US |
| nail, construction | c. 3300 BC | Sumerians | Mesopotamia |
| necktie | 17th century | — | Croatia |
| neon lighting | 1910 | Georges Claude | France |
| nuclear reactor | 1942 | Enrico Fermi | US |
| nylon | 1937 | Wallace H. Carothers | US |
| oil lamp | 1784 | Aimé Argand | Switzerland |
| oil well | 1859 | Edwin Laurentine Drake | US |
| pacemaker, cardiac | 1952 | Paul M. Zoll | US |
| paper | c. 105 | Ts'ai Lun | China |
| paper clip | 1899 | Johan Vaaler | Norway |
| paper towel | 1931 | Arthur Scott | US |
| parachute, modern | 1797 | André-Jacques Garnerin | France |
| parking meter | 1932 | Carl C. Magee | US |
| particle accelerator | 1929 | Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton | Ireland/UK |
| pasteurization | 1864 | Louis Pasteur | France |
| pen, ballpoint | 1938 | Lazlo Biro | Hungary |
| pencil | 1565 | Conrad Gesner | Switzerland |
| periodic table | 1871 | Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev | Russia |
| personal watercraft, motorized | 1968 | Bombardier, Inc. | Canada |
| petroleum jelly | 1870s | Robert Chesebrough | US |
| phonograph | 1877 | Thomas Alva Edison | US |
| photocopying (xerography) | 1937 | Chester F. Carlson | US |
| photography | 1837 | Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre | France |
| photography, instant | 1947 | Edwin Herbert Land | US |
| Play-Doh | 1956 | Noah W. & Joseph S. McVicker | US |
| plow, steel | 1836 | John Deere | US |
| pocket watch | c. 1500 | Peter Henlein | Germany |
| polyethylene | 1935 | Eric Fawcett, Reginald Gibson | UK |
| polygraph (lie detector) | 1921 | John A. Larson | US |
| polyvinyl chloride (PVC) | 1872 | Eugen Baumann | Germany |
| Post-it Notes | mid-1970s | Arthur Fry (3M) | US |
| potato chips | 1853 | George Crum | US |
| printing press, movable type | c. 1450 | Johannes Gutenberg | Germany |
| Prozac | 1972 | Ray W. Fuller, Bryan B. Molloy, David T. Wong | US |
| radar | c. 1904 | Christian Hülsmeyer | Germany |
| radio | 1896 | Guglielmo Marconi | Italy |
| radio, car | early 1920s | William P. Lear | US |
| rayon | 1884 | Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bernigaud, count of Chardonnet | France |
| razor, electric | 1928 | Jacob Schick | US |
| razor, safety | c. 1900 | King Camp Gillette | US |
| reaper, mechanical | 1831 | Cyrus Hall McCormick | US |
| record, long-playing (LP) | 1948 | Peter Carl Goldmark | US |
| refrigerator | 1842 | John Gorrie | US |
| remote control, television | 1950 | Robert Adler | US |
| respirator | c. 1955 | Forrest M. Bird | US |
| revolver | 1835–36 | Samuel Colt | US |
| Richter scale | 1935 | Charles Francis Richter, Beno Gutenberg | US |
| rifle, assault | 1944 | Hugo Schmeisser | Germany |
| roller coaster | 1884 | LeMarcus A. Thompson | US |
| rubber, vulcanized | 1839 | Charles Goodyear | US |
| rubber band | 1845 | Stephen Perry | UK |
| saccharin | 1879 | Ira Remsen, Constantin Fahlberg | US, Germany |
| saddle | c. 200 BC | — | China |
| safety pin | 1849 | Walter Hunt | US |
| satellite, successful artificial earth | 1957 | Sergey Korolyov, et al. | USSR |
| satellite, communications | 1960 | John Robinson Pierce | US |
| saxophone | 1846 | Antoine-Joseph Sax | Belgium |
| Scotch tape | 1930 | Richard Drew (3M) | US |
| scuba gear | 1943 | Jacques Cousteau, Émile Gagnan | France |
| seat belt, automotive shoulder | 1959 | Nils Bohlin (Volvo) | Sweden |
| sewing machine | 1841 | Barthélemy Thimonnier | France |
| shoelaces | 1790 | — | England |
| silicone | 1904 | Frederic Stanley Kipping | UK |
| skateboard | 1958 | Bill & Mark Richards | US |
| skates, ice | 1000 BC | — | Scandinavia |
| skates, roller | 1760s | Joseph Merlin | Belgium |
| ski, snow | c. 2000–3000 BC | — | Sweden, Finland, Norway |
| skyscraper, steel-frame | 1884 | William Le Baron Jenney | US |
| slot machine | 1890s | Charles Fey | US |
| snowmobile | 1922 | Joseph-Armand Bombardier | Canada |
| soap | 600 BC | Phoenicians | Lebanon |
| soft drinks, carbonated | 1772 | Joseph Priestley | UK |
| sonar | 1915 | Paul Langevin | France |
| stamps, postage | 1840 | Sir Rowland Hill | UK |
| stapler | 1866 | George W. McGill | US |
| steamboat, successful | 1807 | Robert Fulton | US |
| steel, mass-production | 1856 | Henry Bessemer | UK |
| steel, stainless | 1914 | Harry Brearley | UK |
| stereo, personal | 1979 | Sony Corp. | Japan |
| stereophonic sound recording | 1931 | Alan Dower Blumlein | UK |
| stethoscope | 1819 | René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec | France |
| stock ticker | 1867 | Edward A. Calahan | US |
| stove, electric | 1896 | William Hadaway | US |
| stove, gas | 1826 | James Sharp | UK |
| straw, drinking | 1888 | Marvin Stone | US |
| submarine | 1620 | Cornelis Drebbel | The Netherlands |
| sunglasses | 1752 | James Ayscough | UK |
| sunscreen | 1944 | Benjamin Green | US |
| supermarket | 1930 | Michael Cullen | US |
| synthesizer, music | 1955 | Harry Olson, Herbert Belar | US |
| synthetic skin | 1981 | Ioannis V. Yannas, John F. Burke | US |
| tampon, cotton | 1931 | Earle Cleveland Haas | US |
| tank, military | 1915 | Admiralty Landships Committee | UK |
| tea bag | early 1900s | Thomas Sullivan | US |
| teddy bear | 1902 | Morris Michtom | US |
| Teflon | 1938 | Roy Plunkett | US |
| telegraph | 1832–35 | Samuel F.B. Morse | US |
| telephone, wired-line | 1876 | Alexander Graham Bell | Scotland/US |
| telephone, mobile | 1946 | Bell Laboratories | US |
| telescope, optical | 1608 | Hans Lippershey | The Netherlands |
| television | 1923, 1927 | Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Philo Taylor Farnsworth | Russia/US, US |
| thermometer | 1592 | Galileo | Italy |
| thermostat | 1830 | Andrew Ure | UK |
| threshing machine | 1778 | Andrew Meikle | Scotland |
| tire, pneumatic | 1888 | John Boyd Dunlop | UK |
| tissue, disposable facial | 1924 | Kimberly-Clark Co. | US |
| tissue, toilet | 1857 | Joseph Gayetty | US |
| toaster, electric | 1893 | Crompton Co. | UK |
| toilet, flush | c. 1591 | Sir John Harington | England |
| toothbrush | 1498 | — | China |
| tractor | 1892 | John Froehlich | US |
| traffic lights, automatic | 1923 | Garrett A. Morgan | US |
| transistor | 1947 | John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, William B. Shockley | US |
| typewriter | 1868 | Christopher Latham Sholes | US |
| ultrasound imaging, obstetric | 1958 | Ian Donald | UK |
| vaccination | 1796 | Edward Jenner | England |
| vacuum cleaner, electric | 1901 | Herbert Cecil Booth | UK |
| Velcro | 1948 | George de Mestral | Switzerland |
| vending machine | c. 100–200 BC | — | Egypt |
| Viagra | 1997 | Pfizer Inc. | US |
| video games | 1972 | Nolan Bushnell | US |
| videocassette recorder | 1969 | Sony Corp. | Japan |
| videotape | 1950s | Charles Ginsburg | US |
| virtual reality | 1989 | Jaron Lanier | US |
| vision correction, laser | 1987 | Stephen Trokel | US |
| washing machine, electric | 1907 | Alva J. Fisher | US |
| wheel | about 3500 BC | proto-Aryan people or Sumerians | Russia/Kazakhstan or Mesopotamia |
| wheelbarrow | 1st century BC | — | China |
| wheelchair | 1590s | — | Spain |
| windmill | 644 | — | Persia |
| wine | before 4000 BC | — | Middle East |
| World Wide Web | 1989 | Tim Berners-Lee | UK |
| wristwatch, digital | 1970 | John M. Bergey | US |
| X-ray imaging | 1895 | Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen | Germany |
| Zamboni (ice resurfacing machine) | 1949 | Frank J. Zamboni | US |
| zipper | 1893 | Whitcomb L. Judson | US
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