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An invention is a new process, method, or device, including improvements made to existing ones.
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| x name | x image | x Inventor | x Date of invention | x Patents | x article |
| x Zipper |
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Gideon Sundback |
A zipper, zip, or zip fastener, is a commonly used device for temporarily joining two edges of fabric. It is used in clothing (e.g., jackets and jeans), luggage and other bags, sporting goods, camping gear (e.g. tents and sleeping bags), and other...
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| Whitcomb L. Judson | |||||
| x Snap fastener |
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A snap fastener (also called snap, popper, and press stud) is a pair of interlocking discs commonly used in place of buttons to fasten clothing. A circular lip under one disc fits into a groove on the top of the other, holding them fast until a...
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| x Button |
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In modern clothing and fashion design, a button is a small fastener, most commonly made of plastic, but also frequently of seashell, which secures two pieces of fabric together. In archaeology, a button can be a significant artifact. In the applied...
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| x Eunicycle |
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Trevor Blackwell |
A Eunicycle is a computer controlled, partially self-balancing, motorized unicycle invented by Trevor Blackwell. It uses a computer control system similar to the one used by the Segway HT that servos its wheel to balance itself by keeping the...
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| x Watt steam engine |
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James Watt | 1765 |
The Watt steam engine (alternatively known as the Boulton and Watt steam engine) was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric to drive the piston helped by a partial vacuum. Improving on the design of...
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| x HPV vaccine |
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The human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine prevents infection with certain species of human papillomavirus associated with the development of cervical cancer, genital warts, and some less common cancers. Two HPV vaccines are currently on the market:...
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| x Icy Ball |
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IcyBall was a name given to two early refrigerators, one made by Australian Sir Edward Hallstrom in 1923, and the other design patented by David Forbes Keith of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (filed 1927, granted 1929), and manufactured by American Powel...
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| x Fresno Scraper |
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The Fresno Scraper is a machine used for constructing canals and ditches in sandy soil.
It was invented in 1883 by James Porteous. Working with farmers in Fresno, California, USA he had recognised the dependence of the Central San Joaquin Valley on...
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| x Supertitle |
Surtitles, also known as supertitles, are translated or transcribed lyrics/dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera or other musical performances. The word "surtitle" comes from the French language "sur",...
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| x Artificial pacemaker |
A pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the heart's natural pacemaker) is a medical device that uses electrical impulses, delivered by electrodes contacting the heart muscles, to regulate the beating of the heart. The...
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| x Gauer Metal Products, Inc |
Gauer Metal Products Inc. is a design and manufacturing company headquartered in Kenilworth, New Jersey, United States. The business was founded in 1946 by Walter W. Gauer.
Gauer Metal Products manufactures products ranging from: insert fireplaces...
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| x Mouse |
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Douglas Engelbart |
A computer input device that senses the two-dimensional displacemnt of a controlling hand.
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| x Electrical generator |
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In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge (usually carried by electrons) to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a...
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| x Jedlik's dynamo |
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Ányos Jedlik |
In 1827, Anyos Jedlik started experimenting with electromagnetic rotating devices which he called electromagnetic self-rotors. In the prototype of the single-pole electric starter (finished between 1852 and 1854) both the stationary and the...
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| x Safety razor |
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King C. Gillette | 1904 |
A safety razor is a shaving implement with a protective device positioned between the edge of the blade and the skin. The term was first used in a patent issued in 1880, for a razor in the basic contemporary configuration with a handle attached at...
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| x Xerography | Chester Carlson |
Xerography (or electrophotography) is a dry photocopying technique invented by Chester Carlson in 1938, for which he was awarded U.S. Patent 2,297,691 on October 6, 1942. Carlson originally called his invention electrophotography. It was later...
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| x Phonograph |
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Thomas Edison |
The phonograph, record player, or gramophone (from the Greek: γράμμα, gramma, "letter" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice"), is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing (playing) sound recordings; although when first...
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| Eldridge R. Johnson | |||||
| Emile Berliner | |||||
| x Incandescent light bulb |
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Thomas Edison |
The incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe produces light by heating a filament wire to a high temperature until it glows. The hot filament is protected from oxidation in the air with a glass enclosure that is filled...
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| Hiram Stevens Maxim | |||||
| Joseph Swan | |||||
| x Penicillin |
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Alexander Fleming | Sep 28, 1928 |
Penicillin (sometimes abbreviated PCN or pen) is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V. Penicillin antibiotics are historically significant...
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| x Telephone |
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Alexander Graham Bell |
The telephone (from the Greek: τῆλε, tēle, "far" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice"), colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point...
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| Antonio Meucci | |||||
| x Bélinographe | Édouard Belin | ||||
| x Phonautograph | Leon Scott | ||||
| x Franklin stove |
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Benjamin Franklin |
The Franklin stove is a metal-lined fireplace named after its inventor, Benjamin Franklin. It was invented in 1741. It had a hollow baffle near the rear (to transfer more heat from the fire to a room's air) and relied on an "inverted siphon" to draw...
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| x Lightning rod |
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Benjamin Franklin |
A lightning rod (US, AUS) or lightning conductor (UK) is a metal rod or metallic object mounted on top of a building, electrically bonded using a wire or electrical conductor to interface with ground or "earth" through an electrode, engineered to...
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| x Bifocals |
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Benjamin Franklin |
Bifocals are eyeglasses with two distinct optical powers. Bifocals are most commonly prescribed to people with presbyopia who also require a correction for myopia, hyperopia, and/or astigmatism.
Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with the...
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| x Hills Hoist |
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Lance Hill |
A Hills Hoist is a height-adjustable rotary clothes line, manufactured in Adelaide, South Australia by Lance Hill since 1945. The Hills Hoist and similar rotary clothes hoists remain a common fixture in many backyards in Australia and New Zealand....
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| x Boyer–Moore string search algorithm | J Strother Moore |
In computer science, the Boyer–Moore string search algorithm is an efficient string searching algorithm that is the standard benchmark for practical string search literature. It was developed by Robert S. Boyer and J Strother Moore in 1977. The...
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| Robert S. Boyer | |||||
| x Suffix array | Udi Manber |
In computer science, a suffix array is an array of integers giving the starting positions of suffixes of a string in lexicographical order.
Consider the string
of length 12, that ends with a sentinel letter $, appearing only once, and less (in...
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| Eugene Myers | |||||
| x Suffix tree |
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In computer science, a suffix tree (also called PAT tree or, in an earlier form, position tree) is a data structure that presents the suffixes of a given string in a way that allows for a particularly fast implementation of many important string...
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| x Gore-Tex |
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Bill Gore |
Gore-Tex is a waterproof/breathable fabric, and a registered trademark of W. L. Gore and Associates. It was co-invented by Wilbert L. Gore, Rowena Taylor, and Gore's son, Robert W. Gore. Robert Gore was granted U.S. Patent 3,953,566 on April 27,...
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| Robert W. Gore | |||||
| Rowena Taylor | |||||
| x Abacus |
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The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or...
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| x Assembly line |
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Ford Motor Company |
An assembly line is a manufacturing process (most of the time called a progressive assembly) in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product...
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| x Analytical engine |
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Charles Babbage | 1837 |
The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical calculator. The...
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| x Aircraft |
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Wright brothers |
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the...
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| Wilbur Wright | |||||
| Orville Wright | |||||
| x MMR vaccine |
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Maurice Hilleman |
The MMR vaccine is an immunization shot against measles, mumps, and rubella (also called German measles). It was first developed by Maurice Hilleman while at Merck in the late 1960s.
The vaccine is a mixture of three live attenuated viruses,...
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| x Segway PT |
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Dean Kamen |
The Segway PT is a two-wheeled self-balancing battery-powered electric vehicle invented by Dean Kamen. It is produced by Segway Inc. of New Hampshire, USA. The name "Segway" (/ˈsɛɡwej/) is a homophone of the word "segue" (/ˈsɛɡweɪ/), while "PT"...
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| x LP album |
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Peter Carl Goldmark |
The LP (Long Play), or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph (gramophone) records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry....
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| x Magnetic core memory |
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Dr. An Wang |
Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random-access computer memory for 20 years (circa 1955-75). It uses tiny magnetic toroids (rings), the cores, through which wires are threaded to write and read information. Each core represents one...
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| x Stencil duplicator |
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Thomas Edison |
The stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo) is a low-cost printing press that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The mimeograph process should not be confused with the spirit duplicator process....
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| x Electricity distribution |
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Thomas Edison |
Electricity distribution is the final stage in the delivery of electricity to end users. A distribution system's network carries electricity from the transmission system and delivers it to consumers. Typically, the network would include medium...
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| x Ignition system |
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Gottlob Honold |
An ignition system is a system for igniting a fuel-air mixture. Ignition systems are well known in the field of internal combustion engines such as those used in petrol (gasoline) engines used to power the majority of motor vehicles, but they are...
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| x Vehicle Headlights | Gottlob Honold | ||||
| x Prestressed concrete |
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Eugène Freyssinet |
Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming concrete's natural weakness in tension. It can be used to produce beams, floors or bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete. Prestressing tendons (generally of...
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| x Maxim gun |
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Hiram Stevens Maxim |
The Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun, invented by the American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884. It has been called "the weapon most associated with [British] imperial conquest".
The mechanism of the Maxim gun...
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| x Mousetrap |
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Hiram Stevens Maxim |
A mousetrap is a specialized type of animal trap designed primarily to catch mice; however, it may also trap other small animals. Mousetraps are usually set in an indoor location where there is a suspected infestation of rodents. There are various...
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| x Monoplane |
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Louis Blériot |
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.
The main distinction between types of monoplane is where...
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| x The Bubble Project |
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The Bubble Project |
The Bubble Project, as proclaimed by its manifesto, aims to counteract corporate marketing and advertisement messages in public spaces.
The project was conceived by Ji Lee, an artist and art director who originally printed 15,000 stickers that look...
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| x Backhoe loader |
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Joseph Cyril Bamford |
A backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, digger, or colloquially shortened to backhoe, is a heavy equipment vehicle that consists of a tractor fitted with a shovel/bucket on the front and a small backhoe on the back. Due to its (relatively)...
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| x Transmission Control Protocol |
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Robert E. Kahn |
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol (IP), and therefore the entire suite is commonly...
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| Vint Cerf | |||||
| x Internet Protocol |
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Robert E. Kahn |
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams (also known as network packets) across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for routing packets across network boundaries, it...
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| x Hydraulic press |
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Joseph Bramah |
A hydraulic press is a machine (see machine press) using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. It uses the hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical lever, and was also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England...
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| x Flush toilet |
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Joseph Bramah | 1596 |
A flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location. Flushing mechanisms are found more often on western toilets (used in the sitting position), but many squat toilets also are...
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| John Harington | |||||
| Al-Jazari | |||||
| x Beer engine |
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Joseph Bramah |
A beer engine is a device for pumping beer, originally manually operated and typically used to dispense beer from a cask or container in a pub's basement or cellar. It was invented by the locksmith and hydraulic engineer Joseph Bramah in 1797....
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| x DNA computing |
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DNA computing is a form of computing which uses DNA, biochemistry and molecular biology, instead of the traditional silicon-based computer technologies. DNA computing, or, more generally, biomolecular computing, is a fast developing...
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| x Intra-aortic balloon pump |
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Adrian Kantrowitz |
The Intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) is a mechanical device that increases myocardial oxygen perfusion while at the same time increasing cardiac output. Increasing cardiac output increases coronary blood flow and therefore myocardial oxygen delivery...
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| x Left Ventricular Assist Device | Adrian Kantrowitz | ||||
| x Kalliroscope | Paul Matisse |
A Kalliroscope is an art device/technique based on rheoscopic fluids invented by artist Paul Matisse.
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| x Skinner box |
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B. F. Skinner |
An operant conditioning chamber (also known as the Skinner box) is a laboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of behavior to study animal behavior. The operant conditioning chamber was created by B. F. Skinner while he was a graduate...
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| x Detective fiction |
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Edgar Allan Poe | 1841 |
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator (often a detective), either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.
Some scholars have suggested that some ancient and religious...
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| x Kinemacolor | George Albert Smith | 1906 | Kinematograph Apparatus for the Production of Colored Pictures |
Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906, and launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of London in 1908. From...
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| Improvements in & relating to Kinematograph Apparatus for the Production of Coloured Pictures | |||||
